When consciousness returned, and, as I soon learned, I wasdown but a moment, I sprang quickly to my feet searchingfor my sword, and there I found it, buried to the hilt in thegreen breast of Zad, who lay stone dead upon the ochremoss of the ancient sea bottom. As I regained my full sensesI found his weapon piercing my left breast, but only throughthe flesh and muscles which cover my ribs, entering nearthe center of my chest and coming out below the shoulder.As I had lunged I had turned so that his sword merelypassed beneath the muscles, inflicting a painful but notdangerous wound.

Removing the blade from my body I also regained myown, and turning my back upon his ugly carcass, I moved,sick, sore, and disgusted, toward the chariots which bore myretinue and my belongings. A murmur of Martian applausegreeted me, but I cared not for it.

Bleeding and weak I reached my women, who, accustomed tosuch happenings, dressed my wounds, applying the wonderfulhealing and remedial agents which make only the mostinstantaneous of death blows fatal. Give a Martian womana chance and death must take a back seat. They soon hadme patched up so that, except for weakness from loss ofblood and a little soreness around the wound, I suffered nogreat distress from this thrust which, under earthly treatment,undoubtedly would have put me flat on my back for days.

As soon as they were through with me I hastened to thechariot of Dejah Thoris, where I found my poor Sola withher chest swathed in bandages, but apparently little theworse for her encounter with Sarkoja, whose dagger it seemedhad struck the edge of one of Sola's metal breast ornamentsand, thus deflected, had inflicted but a slight flesh wound.

As I approached I found Dejah Thoris lying prone uponher silks and furs, her lithe form wracked with sobs. She didnot notice my presence, nor did she hear me speaking withSola, who was standing a short distance from the vehicle.

"Is she injured?" I asked of Sola, indicating Dejah Thorisby an inclination of my head.

"No," she answered, "she thinks that you are dead."

"And that her grandmother's cat may now have no one topolish its teeth?" I queried, smiling.

"I think you wrong her, John Carter," said Sola. "I do notunderstand either her ways or yours, but I am sure thegranddaughter of ten thousand jeddaks would never grievelike this over any who held but the highest claim upon heraffections. They are a proud race, but they are just, as areall Barsoomians, and you must have hurt or wronged hergrievously that she will not admit your existence living,though she mourns you dead.

"Tears are a strange sight upon Barsoom," she continued,"and so it is difficult for me to interpret them. I have seenbut two people weep in all my life, other than Dejah Thoris;one wept from sorrow, the other from baffled rage. The firstwas my mother, years ago before they killed her; the otherwas Sarkoja, when they dragged her from me today."

"Your mother!" I exclaimed, "but, Sola, you could nothave known your mother, child."

"But I did. And my father also," she added. "If youwould like to hear the strange and un-Barsoomian storycome to the chariot tonight, John Carter, and I will tell youthat of which I have never spoken in all my life before. Andnow the signal has been given to resume the march, youmust go."

"I will come tonight, Sola," I promised. "Be sure to tellDejah Thoris I am alive and well. I shall not force myselfupon her, and be sure that you do not let her know I saw her tears.If she would speak with me I but await her command.

Sola mounted the chariot, which was swinging into its placein line, and I hastened to my waiting thoat and gallopedto my station beside Tars Tarkas at the rear of the column.

We made a most imposing and awe-inspiring spectacle aswe strung out across the yellow landscape; the two hundredand fifty ornate and brightly colored chariots, preceded byan advance guard of some two hundred mounted warriorsand chieftains riding five abreast and one hundred yardsapart, and followed by a like number in the same formation,with a score or more of flankers on either side; the fifty extramastodons, or heavy draught animals, known as zitidars,and the five or six hundred extra thoats of the warriorsrunning loose within the hollow square formed by thesurrounding warriors. The gleaming metal and jewels ofthe gorgeous ornaments of the men and women, duplicated inthe trappings of the zitidars and thoats, and interspersedwith the flashing colors of magnificent silks and furs andfeathers, lent a barbaric splendor to the caravan which wouldhave turned an East Indian potentate green with envy.

The enormous broad tires of the chariots and the paddedfeet of the animals brought forth no sound from the moss-covered sea bottom; and so we moved in utter silence, likesome huge phantasmagoria, except when the stillness wasbroken by the guttural growling of a goaded zitidar, or thesquealing of fighting thoats. The green Martians conversebut little, and then usually in monosyllables, low and likethe faint rumbling of distant thunder.

We traversed a trackless waste of moss which, bending tothe pressure of broad tire or padded foot, rose up againbehind us, leaving no sign that we had passed. We mightindeed have been the wraiths of the departed dead upon thedead sea of that dying planet for all the sound or sign wemade in passing. It was the first march of a large body ofmen and animals I had ever witnessed which raised no dustand left no spoor; for there is no dust upon Mars except inthe cultivated districts during the winter months, and eventhen the absence of high winds renders it almost unnoticeable.

We camped that night at the foot of the hills we had beenapproaching for two days and which marked the southernboundary of this particular sea. Our animals had been twodays without drink, nor had they had water for nearly twomonths, not since shortly after leaving Thark; but, as TarsTarkas explained to me, they require but little and can livealmost indefinitely upon the moss which covers Barsoom, andwhich, he told me, holds in its tiny stems sufficient moistureto meet the limited demands of the animals.After partaking of my evening meal of cheese-like foodand vegetable milk I sought out Sola, whom I found workingby the light of a torch upon some of Tars Tarkas' trappings.She looked up at my approach, her face lighting with pleasureand with welcome.

"I am glad you came," she said; "Dejah Thoris sleeps andI am lonely. Mine own people do not care for me, John Carter;I am too unlike them. It is a sad fate, since I must livemy life amongst them, and I often wish that I were a truegreen Martian woman, without love and without hope; but Ihave known love and so I am lost.

"I promised to tell you my story, or rather the story ofmy parents. From what I have learned of you and the waysof your people I am sure that the tale will not seem strangeto you, but among green Martians it has no parallel withinthe memory of the oldest living Thark, nor do our legendshold many similar tales.

"My mother was rather small, in fact too small to be allowedthe responsibilities of maternity, as our chieftains breedprincipally for size. She was also less cold and cruelthan most green Martian women, and caring little for theirsociety, she often roamed the deserted avenues of Tharkalone, or went and sat among the wild flowers that deckthe nearby hills, thinking thoughts and wishing wisheswhich I believe I alone among Tharkian women today mayunderstand, for am I not the child of my mother?

"And there among the hills she met a young warrior, whoseduty it was to guard the feeding zitidars and thoats and seethat they roamed not beyond the hills. They spoke at firstonly of such things as interest a community of Tharks, butgradually, as they came to meet more often, and, as wasnow quite evident to both, no longer by chance, they talkedabout themselves, their likes, their ambitions and their hopes.She trusted him and told him of the awful repugnance shefelt for the cruelties of their kind, for the hideous, lovelesslives they must ever lead, and then she waited for the stormof denunciation to break from his cold, hard lips; but insteadhe took her in his arms and kissed her.

"They kept their love a secret for six long years. She, mymother, was of the retinue of the great Tal Hajus, while herlover was a simple warrior, wearing only his own metal.Had their defection from the traditions of the Tharks beendiscovered both would have paid the penalty in the greatarena before Tal Hajus and the assembled hordes.

"The egg from which I came was hidden beneath a greatglass vessel upon the highest and most inaccessible of thepartially ruined towers of ancient Thark. Once each year mymother visited it for the five long years it lay there in theprocess of incubation. She dared not come oftener, for in themighty guilt of her conscience she feared that her everymove was watched. During this period my father gained greatdistinction as a warrior and had taken the metal from severalchieftains. His love for my mother had never diminished,and his own ambition in life was to reach a point wherehe might wrest the metal from Tal Hajus himself, and thus,as ruler of the Tharks, be free to claim her as his own,as well as, by the might of his power, protect the childwhich otherwise would be quickly dispatched should thetruth become known.

"It was a wild dream, that of wresting the metal from TalHajus in five short years, but his advance was rapid, and hesoon stood high in the councils of Thark. But one day thechance was lost forever, in so far as it could come in timeto save his loved ones, for he was ordered away upon a longexpedition to the ice-clad south, to make war upon thenatives there and despoil them of their furs, for such isthe manner of the green Barsoomian; he does not labor forwhat he can wrest in battle from others.

"He was gone for four years, and when he returned allhad been over for three; for about a year after his departure,and shortly before the time for the return of an expeditionwhich had gone forth to fetch the fruits of a communityincubator, the egg had hatched. Thereafter my mothercontinued to keep me in the old tower, visiting me nightlyand lavishing upon me the love the community life wouldhave robbed us both of. She hoped, upon the return of theexpedition from the incubator, to mix me with the other youngassigned to the quarters of Tal Hajus, and thus escape thefate which would surely follow discovery of her sin againstthe ancient traditions of the green men.

"She taught me rapidly the language and customs of my kind,and one night she told me the story I have told to you up tothis point, impressing upon me the necessity for absolutesecrecy and the great caution I must exercise after she hadplaced me with the other young Tharks to permit no one toguess that I was further advanced in education than they,nor by any sign to divulge in the presence of others myaffection for her, or my knowledge of my parentage; andthen drawing me close to her she whispered in my ear thename of my father.

"And then a light flashed out upon the darkness of thetower chamber, and there stood Sarkoja, her gleaming,baleful eyes fixed in a frenzy of loathing and contemptupon my mother. The torrent of hatred and abuse shepoured out upon her turned my young heart cold in terror.That she had heard the entire story was apparent, and thatshe had suspected something wrong from my mother's long nightlyabsences from her quarters accounted for her presence thereon that fateful night.

"One thing she had not heard, nor did she know, thewhispered name of my father. This was apparent from herrepeated demands upon my mother to disclose the name ofher partner in sin, but no amount of abuse or threats couldwring this from her, and to save me from needless tortureshe lied, for she told Sarkoja that she alone knew nor wouldshe even tell her child.

"With final imprecations, Sarkoja hastened away to TalHajus to report her discovery, and while she was gone mymother, wrapping me in the silks and furs of her night coverings,so that I was scarcely noticeable, descended to the streetsand ran wildly away toward the outskirts of the city,in the direction which led to the far south, out toward theman whose protection she might not claim, but on whoseface she wished to look once more before she died.

"As we neared the city's southern extremity a sound cameto us from across the mossy flat, from the direction of theonly pass through the hills which led to the gates, the passby which caravans from either north or south or east orwest would enter the city. The sounds we heard were thesquealing of thoats and the grumbling of zitidars, with theoccasional clank of arms which announced the approach ofa body of warriors. The thought uppermost in her mind wasthat it was my father returned from his expedition, but thecunning of the Thark held her from headlong and precipitateflight to greet him.

"Retreating into the shadows of a doorway she awaited thecoming of the cavalcade which shortly entered the avenue,breaking its formation and thronging the thoroughfarefrom wall to wall. As the head of the procession passed usthe lesser moon swung clear of the overhanging roofs and litup the scene with all the brilliancy of her wondrous light.My mother shrank further back into the friendly shadows,and from her hiding place saw that the expedition was notthat of my father, but the returning caravan bearing theyoung Tharks. Instantly her plan was formed, and as a greatchariot swung close to our hiding place she slipped stealthilyin upon the trailing tailboard, crouching low in the shadowof the high side, straining me to her bosom in a frenzy oflove.

"She knew, what I did not, that never again after thatnight would she hold me to her breast, nor was it likely wewould ever look upon each other's face again. In theconfusion of the plaza she mixed me with the other children,whose guardians during the journey were now free to relinquishtheir responsibility. We were herded together into a great room,fed by women who had not accompanied the expedition, and the nextday we were parceled out among the retinues of the chieftains.

"I never saw my mother after that night. She was imprisonedby Tal Hajus, and every effort, including the most horribleand shameful torture, was brought to bear upon her to wringfrom her lips the name of my father; but she remainedsteadfast and loyal, dying at last amidst the laughter ofTal Hajus and his chieftains during some awful tortureshe was undergoing.

"I learned afterwards that she told them that she hadkilled me to save me from a like fate at their hands, andthat she had thrown my body to the white apes. Sarkojaalone disbelieved her, and I feel to this day that she suspectsmy true origin, but does not dare expose me, at the present,at all events, because she also guesses, I am sure, the identityof my father.

"When he returned from his expedition and learned the storyof my mother's fate I was present as Tal Hajus told him;but never by the quiver of a muscle did he betray the slightestemotion; only he did not laugh as Tal Hajus gleefullydescribed her death struggles. From that moment on he wasthe cruelest of the cruel, and I am awaiting the day whenhe shall win the goal of his ambition, and feel the carcass ofTal Hajus beneath his foot, for I am as sure that he butwaits the opportunity to wreak a terrible vengeance, and thathis great love is as strong in his breast as when it firsttransfigured him nearly forty years ago, as I am that we sithere upon the edge of a world-old ocean while sensible peoplesleep, John Carter."

"And your father, Sola, is he with us now?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied, "but he does not know me for what Iam, nor does he know who betrayed my mother to Tal Hajus.I alone know my father's name, and only I and Tal Hajusand Sarkoja know that it was she who carried the tale thatbrought death and torture upon her he loved."

We sat silent for a few moments, she wrapped in thegloomy thoughts of her terrible past, and I in pity for thepoor creatures whom the heartless, senseless customs of theirrace had doomed to loveless lives of cruelty and of hate.Presently she spoke.

"John Carter, if ever a real man walked the cold, deadbosom of Barsoom you are one. I know that I can trust you,and because the knowledge may someday help you or himor Dejah Thoris or myself, I am going to tell you the nameof my father, nor place any restrictions or conditions uponyour tongue. When the time comes, speak the truth if itseems best to you. I trust you because I know that you arenot cursed with the terrible trait of absolute and unswervingtruthfulness, that you could lie like one of your own Virginiagentlemen if a lie would save others from sorrow or suffering.My father's name is Tars Tarkas."