Thrice she passed slowly among the tables examining their ghastly burdens. Each

time she paused longest before a certain one which bore the figure of the most

beautiful creature I had ever looked upon; then she returned the fourth time to

it and stood looking long and earnestly into the dead face. For awhile she stood

there talking with the old man, apparently asking innumerable questions, to

which he returned quick, brusque replies, then she indicated the body with a

gesture and nodded assent to the withered keeper of this ghastly exhibit.

Immediately the old fellow sounded a blast upon his whistle, summoning a number

of servants to whom he issued brief instructions, after which he led us to

another chamber, a smaller one in which were several empty tables similar to

those upon which the corpses lay in adjoining rooms. Two female slaves or

attendants were in this room and at a word from their master they removed the

trappings from the old woman, unloosed her hair and helped her to one of the

tables. Here she was thoroughly sprayed with what I presume was an antiseptic

solution of some nature, carefully dried and removed to another table, at a

distance of about twenty inches from which stood a second parallel table.

Now the door of the chamber swung open and two attendants appeared bearing the

body of the beautiful girl we had seen in the adjoining room. This they

deposited upon the table the old woman had just quitted and as she had been

sprayed so was the corpse, after which it was transferred to the table beside

that on which she lay. The little old man now made two incisions in the body of

the old woman, just as he had in the body of the red-man who had fallen to my

sword; her blood was drawn from her veins and the clear liquid pumped into them,

life left her and she lay upon the polished ersite slab that formed the table

top, as much a corpse as the poor, beautiful, dead creature at her side.

The little old man, who had removed the harness down to his waist and been

thoroughly sprayed, now selected a sharp knife from among the instruments above

the table and removed the old woman's scalp, following the hair line entirely

around her head. In a similar manner he then removed the scalp from the corpse

of the young woman, after which, by means of a tiny circular saw attached to the

end of a flexible, revolving shaft he sawed through the skull of each, following

the line exposed by the removal of the scalps. This and the balance of the

marvellous operation was so skilfully performed as to baffle description.

Suffice it to say that at the end of four hours he had transferred the brain of

each woman to the brain pan of the other, deftly connected the severed nerves

and ganglia, replaced the skulls and scalps and bound both heads securely with

his peculiar adhesive tape, which was not only antiseptic and healing but

anaesthetic, locally, as well.

He now reheated the blood that he had withdrawn from the body of the old woman,

adding a few drops of some clear chemical solution, withdrew the liquid from the

veins of the beautiful corpse, replacing it with the blood of the old woman and

simultaneously administering a hypodermic injection.

During the entire operation he had not spoken a word. Now he issued a few

instructions in his curt manner to his assistants, motioned me to follow him,

and left the room. He led me to a distant part of the building or series of

buildings that composed the whole, ushered me into a luxurious apartment, opened

the door to a Barsoomian bath and left me in the hands of trained servants.

Refreshed and rested I left the bath after an hour of relaxation to find harness

and trappings awaiting me in the adjoining chamber. Though plain, they were of

good material, but there were no weapons with them.

Naturally I had been thinking much upon the strange things I had witnessed since

my advent upon Mars, but what puzzled me most lay in the seemingly inexplicable

act of the old woman in paying my host what was evidently a considerable sum to

murder her and transfer to the inside of her skull the brain of a corpse. Was it

the outcome of some horrible religious fanaticism, or was there an explanation

that my Earthly mind could not grasp?

I had reached no decision in the matter when I was summoned to follow a slave to

another and near-by apartment where I found my host awaiting me before a table

loaded with delicious foods, to which, it is needless to say, I did ample

justice after my long fast and longer weeks of rough army fare.

During the meal my host attempted to converse with me, but, naturally, the

effort was fruitless of results. He waxed quite excited at times and upon three

distinct occasions laid his hand upon one of his swords when I failed to

comprehend what he was saying to me, an action which resulted in a growing

conviction upon my part that he was partially demented; but he evinced

sufficient self-control in each instance to avert a catastrophe for one of us.

The meal over he sat for a long time in deep meditation, then a sudden

resolution seemed to possess him. He turned suddenly upon me with a faint

suggestion of a smile and dove headlong into what was to prove an intensive

course of instruction in the Barsoomian language. It was long after dark before

he permitted me to retire for the night, conducting me himself to a large

apartment, the same in which I had found my new harness, where he pointed out a

pile of rich sleeping silks and furs, bid me a Barsoomian good night and left

me, locking the door after him upon the outside, and leaving me to guess whether

I were more guest or prisoner.

PREFERMENT

THREE weeks passed rapidly. I had mastered enough of the Barsoomian tongue to

enable me to converse with my host in a reasonably satisfactory manner, and I

was also progressing slowly in the mastery of the written language of his

nation, which is different, of course, from the written language of all other

Barsoomian nations, though the spoken language of all is identical. In these

three weeks I had teamed much of the strange place in which I was half guest and

half prisoner and of my remarkable host-jailer, Ras Thavas, the old surgeon of

Toonol, whom I had accompanied almost constantly day after day until gradually

there had unfolded before my astounded faculties an understanding of the

purposes of the institution over which he ruled and in which he laboured

practically alone; for the slaves and attendants that served him were but hewers

of wood and carriers of water. It was his brain alone and his skill that

directed the sometimes beneficent, the sometimes malevolent, but always

marvellous activities of his life's work.

Ras Thavas himself was as remarkable as the things he accomplished. He was never

intentionally cruel; he was not, I am sure, intentionally wicked. He was guilty

of the most diabolical cruelties and the basest of crimes; yet in the next

moment he might perform a deed that if duplicated upon Earth would have raised

him to the highest pinnacle of man's esteem. Though I know that I am safe in

saying that he was never prompted to a cruel or criminal act by base motives,

neither was he ever urged to a humanitarian one by high motives. He had a purely

scientific mind entirely devoid of the cloying influences of sentiment, of which

he possessed none. His was a practical mind, as evidenced by the enormous fees

he demanded for his professional services; yet I know that he would not operate

for money alone and I have seen him devote days to the study of a scientific

problem the solution of which could add nothing to his wealth, while the

quarters that he furnished his waiting clients were overflowing with wealthy

patrons waiting to pour money into his coffers.

His treatment of me was based entirely upon scientific requirements. I offered a

problem. I was either, quite evidently, not a Barsoomian at all, or I was of a

species of which he had no knowledge. It therefore best suited the purposes of

science that I be preserved and studied. I knew much about my own planet.