Synthetic Men of MarsSYNTHETIC MEN OF MARS
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

Contents
CHAPTER
  Where Is Ras Thavas? 
  The Mission of the Warlord 
  The Invincible Warriors 
  The Secret of the Marshes 
  The Judgment of the Jeds 
  Ras Thavas, the Mind of Mars 
  The Vats of Life 
  The Red Assassin 
  Man Into Hormad 
  I Find Janai 
  War of the Seven Jeds 
  Warrior's Reward 
  John Carter Disappears 
  When the Monster Grows 
  I Find My Master 
  The Jeddak Speaks 
  Escape Us Never 
  Treason Island 
  Night Flight 
  The Mighty Jed of Goolie 
  Duel to the Death 
  Off for Phundahl 
  Captives of Amhor 
  Caged 
  Prince in a Zoo 
  The Bite of the Adder 
  Flight Into Jeopardy 
  The Great Fleet 
  Back Toward Morbus 
  The End of Two Worlds 
  Adventure's End 
[About this etext] 

SYNTHETIC MEN OF MARS
CHAPTER I
WHERE IS RAS THAVAS?
FROM PHUNDAHL at their western extremity, east to Toonol, the Great Toonolian 
Marshes stretch across the dying planet for eighteen hundred earth miles like 
some unclean, venomous, Gargantuan reptile – an oozy marshland through which 
wind narrow watercourses connecting occasional bodies of open water, little 
lakes, the largest of which covers but a few acres. This monotony of marsh and 
jungle and water is occasionally broken by rocky islands, themselves usually 
clothed in jungle verdure, the skeletal remains of an ancient mountain range.
Little is known of the Great Toonolian Marshes in other portions of Barsoom, for 
this inhospitable region is peopled by fierce beasts and terrifying reptiles, by 
remnants of savage aboriginal tribes long isolated, and is guarded at either 
extremity by the unfriendly kingdoms of Phundahl and Toonol which discourage 
intercourse with other nations and are constantly warring upon one another.
Upon an island near Toonol, Ras Thavas, The Master Mind of Mars, had labored in 
his laboratory for nearly a thousand years until Vobis Kan, Jeddak of Toonol, 
turned against him and drove him from his island home and later repulsed a force 
of Phundahlian warriors led by Gor Hajus, the Assassin of Toonol, which had 
sought to recapture the island and restore Ras Thavas to his laboratory upon his 
promise to devote his skill and learning to the amelioration of human suffering 
rather than to prostitute them to the foul purposes of greed and sin.
Following the defeat of his little army, Ras Thavas had disappeared and been all 
but forgotten as are the dead, among which he was numbered by those who had 
known him; but there were some who could never forget him. There was Valla Dia, 
Princess of Duhor, whose brain he had transferred to the head of the hideous old 
Xaxa, Jeddara of Phundahl, that Xaxa might acquire the young and beautiful body 
of Valla Dia. There was Vad Varo, her husband, one time assistant to Ras Thavas, 
who had restored her brain to her own body – Vad Varo, who had been born Ulysses 
Paxton in the United States of America and presumably died in a shell hole in 
France; and there was John Carter, Prince of Helium, Warlord of Mars, whose 
imagination had been intrigued by the tales Vad Varo had told him of the 
marvelous skill of a world's greatest scientist and surgeon.
John Carter had not forgotten Ras Thavas, and when an emergency arose in which 
the skill of this greatest of surgeons was the sole remaining hope, he 
determined to seek him out and find him if he still lived. Dejah Thoris, his 
princess, had suffered an appalling injury in a collision between two swift 
airships; and had lain unconscious for many weeks, her back broken and twisted, 
until the greatest surgeons of all Helium had at last given up all hope. Their 
skill had been only sufficient to keep her alive; it could not mend her.
But how to find Ras Thavas? That was the question. And then he recalled that Vad 
Varo had been the assistant of the great surgeon. Perhaps, if the master could 
not be found, the skill of the pupil might be adequate. Then, too, of all men 
upon Barsoom, Vad Varo would be most likely to know the whereabouts of Ras 
Thavas. And so John Carter determined to go first to Duhor.
He selected from his fleet a small swift cruiser of a new type that had attained 
a speed of four hundred miles an hour – over twice the speed of the older types 
which he had first known and flown through the thin air of Mars. He would have 
gone alone, but Carthoris and Tara and Thuvia pleaded with him not to do so. At 
last he gave in and consented to take one of the officers of his personal 
troops, a young padwar named Vor Daj. To him we are indebted for this remarkable 
tale of strange adventure upon the planet Mars; to him and Jason Gridley whose 
discovery of the Gridley Wave has made it possible for me to receive this story 
over the special Gridley radio receiving set which Jason Gridley built out here 
in Tarzana, and to Ulysses Paxton who translated it into English and sent it 
across some forty million miles of space.
I shall give you the story as nearly as possible in the words of Vor Daj as is 
compatible with clarity. Certain Martian words and idioms which are 
untranslatable, measures of time and of distance will be usually in my own 
words; and there are occasional interpolations of my own that I have not 
bothered to assume responsibility for, since their origin will be obvious to the 
reader. In addition to these, there must undoubtedly have been some editing on 
the part of Vad Varo.
So now to the strange tale as told by Vor Daj.
CHAPTER II
THE MISSION OF THE WARLORD
I AM VOR DAJ. I am a padwar in The Warlord's Guard. By the standards of 
Earthmen, for whom I understand I am writing this account of certain adventures, 
I should long since have been dead of old age; but here on Barsoom, I am still a 
very young man. John Carter has told me that it is a matter worthy of general 
public interest if an Earthman lives a hundred years. The normal life expectancy 
of a Martian is a thousand years from the time that he breaks the shell of the 
egg in which he has incubated for five years and from which he emerges just 
short of physical maturity, a wild creature that must be tamed and trained as 
are the young of the lower orders which have been domesticated by man. And so 
much of that training is martial that it sometimes seems to me that I must have 
stepped from the egg fully equipped with the harness and weapons of a warrior. 
Let this, then, serve as my introduction. It is enough that you know my name and 
that I am a fighting man whose life is dedicated to the service of John Carter 
of Mars.
Naturally I felt highly honored when The Warlord chose me to accompany him upon 
his search for Ras Thavas, even though the assignment seemed of a prosaic nature 
of offering little more than an opportunity to be with The Warlord and to serve 
him and the incomparable Dejah Thoris, his princess. How little I foresaw what 
was in store for me!
It was John Carter's intention to fly first to Duhor, which lies some ten 
thousand five hundred haads, or about four thousand earth miles, northwest of 
the Twin Cities of Helium, where he expected to find Vad Varo, from whom he 
hoped to learn the whereabouts of Ras Thavas, who, with the possible exception 
of Vad Varo, was the only person in the world whose knowledge and skill might 
rescue Dejah Thoris from the grave, upon the brink of which she had lain for 
weeks, and restore her to health.
It was 8:25 (12:13 A.M. Earth Time) when our trim, swift flier rose from the 
landing stage on the roof of The Warlord's palace. Thuria and Cluros were 
speeding across a brilliant starlit sky casting constantly changing double 
shadows across the terrain beneath us that produced an illusion of myriad living 
things in constant, restless movement or a surging liquid world, eddying and 
boiling; quite different, John Carter told me, from a similar aspect above 
Earth, whose single satellite moves at a stately, decorous pace across the vault 
of heaven.
With our directional compass set for Duhor and our motor functioning in silent 
perfection there were no navigational problems to occupy our time. Barring some 
unforeseen emergency, the ship would fly in an air line to Duhor and stop above 
the city. Our sensitive altimeter was set to maintain an altitude of 300 ads 
(approximately 3000 feet), with a safety minimum of 50 ads. In other words, the 
ship would normally maintain an altitude of 300 ads above sea level, but in 
passing over mountainous country it was assured a clearance of not less than 50 
ads (about 490 feet) by a delicate device that actuates the controls as the ship 
approaches any elevation of the land surface that is less than 50 ads beneath 
its keel. I think I may best describe this mechanism by asking you to imagine a 
self-focusing camera which may be set for any distance, beyond which it is 
always in focus. When it approaches an object within less distance than that for 
which it has been adjusted it automatically corrects the focus. It is this 
change that actuates the controls of the ship, causing it to rise until the 
fixed focus is again achieved. So sensitive is this instrument that it functions 
as accurately by starlight as by the brightest sunlight. Only in utter darkness 
would it fail to operate; but even this single limitation is overcome, on the 
rare occasions that the Martian sky is entirely overcast by clouds, through the 
medium of a small beam of light which is directed downward from the keel of the 
ship. 
Secure in our belief in the infallibility of our directional compass, we relaxed 
our vigilance and dozed throughout the night. I have no excuses to offer, nor 
did John Carter upbraid me; for, as he was prompt to admit, the fault was
as much his as mine. As a matter of fact, he took all the blame, saying that the 
responsibility was wholly his. 
It was not until well after sunrise that we discovered that something was 
radically wrong in either our position or our timing. The snow clad Artolian 
Hills which surround Duhor should have been plainly visible dead ahead, but they 
were not – just a vast expanse of dead sea bottom covered with ochre vegetation, 
and, in the distance, low hills.
We quickly took our position, only to find that we were some 4500 haads 
southeast of Duhor; or, more accurately, 150° W. Lon., from Exum, and 15° N. 
Lat. This placed us about 2600 haads southwest of Phundahl, which is situated at 
the western extremity of The Great Toonolian Marshes.
John Carter was examining the directional compass. I knew how bitterly 
disappointed he must be because of the delay. Another might have railed at fate; 
but he only said, "The needle is slightly bent – just enough to carry us off our 
course. But perhaps it's just as well – the Phundahlians are far more likely to 
know where Ras Thavas is than anyone in Duhor. I thought of Duhor first, 
naturally, because we'd be sure of friendly aid there."
"That's more than we can expect in Phundahl, from what I've heard of them."
He nodded. "Nevertheless, we'll go to Phundahl. Dar Tarus, the jeddak, is 
friendly to Vad Varo; and so may be friendly to Vad Varo's friend. Just to be on 
the safe side, though, we'll go into the city as panthans."
"They'll think we're flying high," I said, smiling: "–two panthans in a ship of 
the princely house of The Warlord of Barsoom!"
A panthan is a wandering soldier of fortune, selling his services and his sword 
to whomever will pay him; and the pay is usually low, for everyone knows that a 
panthan would rather fight than eat; so they don't pay him very much; and what 
they do pay him, he spends with prodigality, so that he is quite broke again in 
short order.
"They won't see the ship," replied John Carter. "We'll find a place to hide it 
before we get there. You will walk to the gates of Phundahl in plain harness, 
Vor Daj." He smiled. "I know how well the officers of my ships like to walk."
As we flew on toward Phundahl we removed the insignia and ornaments from our 
harnesses that we might come to the gates in the plain leather of unattached 
panthans. Even then, we knew, we might not be admitted to the city, as Martians 
are always suspicious of strangers and because spies sometimes come in the guise 
of panthans. With my assistance, John Carter stained the light skin of his body 
with the reddish copper pigment that he always carries with him against any 
emergency that requires him to hide his identity and play the role of a native 
red man of Barsoom.
Sighting Phandahl in the distance, we flew low, just skimming the ground, taking 
advantage of the hills to hide us from sentries on the city wall; and within a 
few miles of our destination The Warlord brought the flier to a landing in a 
little canyon beside a small grove of sompus trees into which we taxied. 
Removing the control levers, we buried them a short distance from the ship, 
blazing four surrounding trees in such a manner that we might easily locate the 
cache when we should return to the ship – if we ever did. Then we set out on 
foot for Phundahl.
CHAPTER III
THE INVINCIBLE WARRIORS
SHORTLY AFTER THE Virginian soldier of fortune had arrived on Mars he had been 
given the name Dotar Sojat by the green Martian Tharks into whose hands he had 
fallen; but with the lapse of years the name had been practically forgotten, as 
it had been used for only a brief period by a few members of that wild horde, 
The Warlord now decided to adopt it for this adventure, while I retained my own 
name which was quite unknown in this part of the world; and so it was that Dotar 
Sojat and Vor Daj, two wandering panthans, trudged through the low hills to the 
west of Phundahl on this still Barsoomian morning. The mosslike ochre vegetation 
gave forth no sound beneath our sandalled feet. We moved as silently as our 
hard, sharp shadows which dogged our footsteps toward the east. Gay plumed 
voiceless birds watched us from the branches of skeel and sorapus trees, as 
silent as the beautiful insects which hovered around the gorgeous blooms of the 
pimalia and gloresta which grew in profusion in every depression of the hills 
that held Barsoom's scant moisture longest. Mars is a world of vast silences 
where even voiced creatures are muted as though by the consciousness of 
impending death, for Mars is a dying world. We abhor noise; and so our voices, 
like our music, are soft and low; and we are a people of few words. John Carter 
has told me of the din of Earthly cities and of the brasses and the drums and 
the cymbals of Earthly music, of the constant, senseless chatter of millions of 
voices saying nothing. I believe that such as these would drive Martians insane.
We were still in the hills and not yet in sight of the city when our attention 
was attracted by sounds above and behind us. We turned simultaneously to look 
back, and the sight that met our eyes was so astonishing that we could scarcely 
believe the evidence of our own senses. About twenty birds were winging toward 
us. That in itself was sufficiently astonishing, since they were easily 
identifiable as malagors, a species long presumed to be extinct; but to add to 
the incredibility of the sight that met our eyes, a warrior bestrode each of the 
giant birds. It was quite evident that they must have seen us; so it was quite 
useless to attempt to hide from them. They were already dropping lower, and 
presently they were circling us. With this opportunity for closer observation I 
was impressed by a certain grotesquerie in the appearance of the warriors. There 
was something a little inhuman about them, and yet they were quite evidently 
human beings similar to ourselves. One of them carried a woman in front of him 
on the neck of the great bird that was his mount; but as they were all in 
constant motion I was unable to obtain a really good look at her; nor, by the 
same token, of the others.
Presently the twenty malagors alighted in a circle about us, and five of the 
warriors dismounted and approached us. Now it was that I saw what lent them 
their strange and unnatural appearance. They seemed the faulty efforts of a poor 
draftsman, come to life – animated caricatures of man. There was no symmetry of 
design about them. The left arm of one was scarce a foot long, while his right 
arm was so long that the hand dragged along the ground as he walked. Four-fifths 
of the face of one was above the eyes, while another had an equal proportion 
below the eyes. Eyes, noses, and mouths were usually misplaced; and were either 
too large or too small to harmonize with contiguous features. But there was one 
exception – a warrior who now dismounted and followed behind the five who were 
approaching us. He was a handsome, well formed man, whose trappings and weapons 
were of excellent quality and design – the serviceable equipment of a fighting 
man. His harness bore the insignia of a dwar, a rank comparable to that of 
captain in your Earthly military organizations. At a command from him, the five 
halted before reaching us; and he addressed us.
"You are Phundahlians?" he asked.
"We are from Helium," John Carter replied. "Our latest employment was there. We 
are panthans."
"You are my prisoners. Throw down your arms."
The faintest of smiles touched the lips of The Warlord. "Come and take them," he 
said. It was a challenge.
The other shrugged. "As you will. We outnumber you ten to one. We shall take 
you, but we may kill you in the taking. I advise you to surrender."
"And you will be wise if you let us go our way, for we have no quarrel with you; 
and if you pick one, we shall not die alone."
The dwar smiled an inscrutable smile. "As you will," he replied; and then he 
turned to the five and said, "Take them!" But as they advanced upon us, he did 
not come with them, but remained behind, quite contrary to the ethics which 
determine the behavior of Martian officers. He should have led them, engaging us 
himself and setting an example of courage to his men.
We whipped our longswords from their scabbards and met the five horrific 
creatures, standing back to back as they circled us. The blade of The Warlord 
wove a net of razor edged steel before him, while I did the best that I could to 
defend my prince and uphold the honor of my metal; and I did well, for I am 
accounted a great swordsman by John Carter himself, the greatest of all. Our 
antagonists were no match for us. They could not pierce our guards, even though 
they fought with an entire disregard of life, throwing themselves upon our 
blades and coming in again for further punishment. And that was the 
disheartening feature of the horrid encounter. Time and again I would run a 
fellow through, only to have him back away until my blade was out of his body 
and then come at me again. They seemed to suffer neither from shock nor pain and 
to know no fear.
My blade severed the arm of one of them at the shoulder; and while another 
engaged me, the fellow stooped and recovered his sword with his other hand and 
tossed his severed arm to one side. John Carter decapitated one of his 
antagonists; but the body ran around cutting and slashing in apparent 
ungovernable fury until the dwar ordered several of his other warriors to 
capture and disarm it, and all the while the head lay gibbering and grimacing in 
the dust.
This was the first of our antagonists to be rendered permanently hors de combat, 
and suggested the only way that we might be victorious.
"Behead them, Vor Daj!" The Warlord directed, and even as he spoke he lopped the 
head from another.
I tell you, it was a gruesome sight. The thing kept on fighting, and its head 
lay on the ground screaming and cursing. John Carter had to disarm it, and then 
it lunged forward and struck him with the weight of its headless torso just 
below the knees, throwing him off balance. It was fortunate that I happened to 
see what was going on, for another of the creatures would have run The Warlord 
through had I not. I was just in time, and I caught the thing with a clean cut 
that sent its head toppling to the ground. That left only two of our 
antagonists, and these the dwar called off.
They withdrew to their mounts, and I saw that the officer was issuing 
instructions; but what he was saying, I could not overhear. I thought they would 
give up then and go away, for several of them rose from the ground on their 
great malagors; but the dwar did not even remount. He just stood there watching. 
Those who had taken to the air circled just above us, out of reach of our 
swords; and a number of their fellows dismounted and approached us; but they, 
too, kept their distance. The three severed heads lay upon the ground, reviling 
us. The bodies of two of them had been disarmed and trussed up, while that of 
the third dashed hither and thither pursued by a couple of its fellows who 
sought to entangle it in nets which they cast at it whenever they could come 
near enough to it.
These side lights I caught in swift glances, for my attention was more concerned 
with the action of those who soared above us, in an effort to determine what 
their next mode of attack would be; nor did I have long to wait before my 
curiosity was satisfied. Unslinging nets which they wore wrapped about their 
waists and which I had previously thought were only articles of apparel, they 
dragged them around and over us in an attempt to entangle us. With a growing 
sense of futility we slashed at the fabric; and though we cut it in places, we 
could not escape it; and when they dexterously dropped a couple of them over us 
we were hopelessly enmeshed. Then those who had surrounded us on foot rushed in 
and bound us. We fought, but even the great strength of The Warlord was of no 
avail against the entangling meshes of the nets and the brute strength of the 
hideous creatures who so greatly outnumbered him. I thought that they would 
probably kill us now, but at a word of command from their dwar, they fell back. 
Those in the air alighted and gathered up their nets. Several heads and arms 
were collected and tied to the backs of malagors, as were the headless bodies; 
and while these things were being attended to, the officer approached and talked 
with us. He seemed to bear us no ill will for the damage we had inflicted upon 
his warriors, and was gracious enough to compliment us upon our courage and 
swordsmanship.
"However," he added, "you would have been wise to have taken my advice and 
surrendered in the first place. It is a miracle that you were not killed or at 
least badly wounded. Only your miraculous swordsmanship saved you."
"The only miracle involved," replied John Carter, "is that any of your men 
escaped with their heads. Their swordsmanship is abominable."
The dwar smiled. "I quite agree with you, but what they lack in technique they 
more than make up for in brute strength and fearlessness and the fact that they 
must be dismembered in order to be rendered harmless. As you may have noticed, 
they can't be killed."
"And now that we are your prisoners," inquired The Warlord, "what do you intend 
doing with us?"
"I shall take you to my superiors. They will decide. What are your names?"
"This is Vor Daj. I am Dotar Sojat."
"You are from Helium, and you were going to Phundahl. Why?"
"As I have told you, we are panthans. We are looking for employment."
"You have friends in Phundahl?"
"None. We have never been there. If another city had been in our path, we should 
have offered our services there. You know how it is with panthans."
The man nodded. "Perhaps you will have fighting yet."
"Would you mind telling me," I asked, "what manner of creatures your warriors 
are? I have never seen men like them."
"Nor anyone else," he said. "They are called hormads. The less you see of them, 
the better you will like them. Now that you must admit that you are my 
prisoners, I have a suggestion to make. Bound as you are, the trip to Morbus 
will be most uncomfortable; and I do not wish to subject two such courageous 
fighting men to unnecessary discomfort. Assure me that you will not try to 
escape before we reach Morbus and I will remove your bonds."
It was evident that the dwar was quite a decent fellow. We accepted his offer 
gladly, and he removed our bonds himself; then he bade us mount behind a couple 
of his warriors. It was then that I first had a close view of the woman riding 
on one of the malagors in front of a hormad. Our eyes met, and I saw terror and 
helplessness mirrored in hers. I saw, too, that she was beautiful; then the 
great birds took off with a terrific flapping of giant wings, and we were on our 
way to Morbus.
CHAPTER IV
THE SECRET OF THE MARSHES
HANGING IN A NET on one side of the malagor upon which I was mounted was one of 
the heads we had struck off in our fight with the hormads. I wondered why they 
were preserving such a grisly trophy, and attributed it to some custom or 
superstition requiring the return of a body to its homeland for final disposal.
Our course lay south of Phundahl, which the leader was evidently seeking to 
avoid; and ahead I could see the vast Toonolian Marshes stretching away in the 
distance as far as the eye could see – a labyrinth of winding waterways 
threading desolate swampland from which rose occasional islands of solid ground, 
with here and there a darker area of forest and the blue of tiny lakes.
As I watched this panorama unfolding before us, I heard a voice suddenly 
exclaim, querulously, "Turn me over. I can't see a thing but the belly of this 
bird." It seemed to come from below me; and, glancing down, I saw that it was 
the head hanging in the net beneath me that was speaking. It lay in the net, 
facing upward toward the belly of the malagor, helpless to turn or to move 
itself. It was a gruesome sight, this dead thing speaking; and I must confess 
that it made me shudder.
"I can't turn you over," I said, "because I can't reach you; and what difference 
does it make anyway? What difference does it make whether your eyes are pointed 
in one direction or another? You are dead, and the dead cannot see."
"Could I talk if I were dead, you brainless idiot? I am not dead, because I 
cannot die. The life principle is inherent in me – in every tissue of me. Unless 
it be totally destroyed, as by fire, it lives; and what lives must grow. It is 
the law of nature. Turn me over, you stupid clod! Shake the net, or pull it up 
and turn me."
Well, the manners of the thing were very bad; but it occurred to me that I 
should probably feel irritable if my head had been lopped off; so I shook the 
net until the head turned upon one side so that it might look out away from the 
belly of the malagor.
"What are you called?" it asked.
"Vor Daj." 
"I shall remember. In Morbus you may need a friend. I shall remember you."
"Thanks," I said. I wondered what good a friend without a body could do me. I 
also wondered if shaking the net for the thing would outweigh the fact that I 
had lopped its head off. Just to be polite, I asked what its name might be.
"I am Tor-dur-bar," it replied. "I am Tor-dur-bar, himself. You are very 
fortunate to have me for a friend. I am really outstanding. You will appreciate 
this when you come to Morbus and learn to know many of us hormads."
Tor-dur-bar is four-million-eight in the language of you Earthmen. It seemed a 
peculiar name, but then everything about these hormads was peculiar. The hormad 
in front of me had evidently been listening to our conversation, for he half 
turned his head; and said, disparagingly, "Pay no attention to Tor-dur-bar. He 
is an upstart. It is I who am remarkable. If you wish a powerful friend – well, 
you need look no farther. I cannot say more; I'm too modest. But if at any time 
you need a real friend, just come to Teeaytan-ov." (That is eleven-hundred-seven 
in your language.)
Tor-dur-bar scoffed disgustedly "'Upstart' indeed! I am the finished product of 
a million cultures, or more than four million cultures, to be exact. Teeaytan-ov 
is scarcely more than an experiment."
"If I should loosen my net, you would be a finished product," threatened 
Teeaytan-ov.
Tor-dur-bar commenced to scream, "Sytor! Sytor! Murder!"
The dwar, who had been flying at the head of his strange detachment, wheeled his 
malagor and flew back alongside us. "What's wrong here?" he demanded.
"Teeaytan-ov threatens to dump me into the Toonolian Marshes," cried 
Tor-dur-bar. "Take me away from him, Sytor."
"Quarreling again, eh?" demanded Sytor. "If I hear any more out of either of 
you, you both go to the incinerator when we get back to Morbus; and, 
Teeaytan-ov, see that nothing happens to Tor-dur-bar. You understand?"
Teeaytan-ov grunted, and Sytor returned to his post. We rode on in silence after 
this, and I was left to speculate upon the origin of these strange creatures 
into whose hands I had fallen. The Warlord rode ahead of me and the girl a 
little to my left. My eyes wandered often in her direction; and my sympathy went 
out to her, for I was sure she, too, was a prisoner. To what terrible fate was 
she being borne? Our situation was quite bad enough for a man; I could only 
guess how much worse it might be for a woman.
The malagors flew swiftly and smoothly, My guess would be that they flew at a 
speed of more than four hundred haads a zode (about sixty miles an hour). They 
appeared tireless; and flew on, hour after hour, without rest. After circling 
Phundahl, we had flown due east; and late in the afternoon approached a large 
island rising from the surrounding morass. One of the innumerable winding 
waterways skirted its northern boundary, widening here to form a small lake on 
the shore of which lay a small walled city which we circled once before 
descending to a landing before its main gate, which faced the lake. During our 
descent, I had noticed clusters of small huts scattered about the island outside 
the walls of the city wherever I could see, suggesting a considerable 
population; and as I could see only a small portion of the island, which was of 
considerable extent, I received the impression that it was inhabited by an 
enormous number of people. I was later to learn that even my wildest guess could 
not have equalled the truth.
After we had dismounted, we three prisoners were herded together; the arms, 
legs, heads, and bodies which had been salvaged from our battle earlier in the 
day were slung in nets so that they could be easily carried; the gates swung 
open, and we entered into the city of Morbus.
The officer in charge of the gate was a quite normal appearing human being, but 
his warriors were grotesque, ill-favored hormads. The former exchanged greetings 
with Sytor, asked him a few questions about us, and then directed the bearers to 
take their gruesome burdens to "Reclamation Laboratory No. 3," after which Sytor 
led us away up the avenue that ran south from the gate. At the first 
intersection, the bearers turned off to the left with the mutilated bodies; and 
as they were leaving us a voice called out, "Do not forget, Vor Daj, that 
Tor-dur-bar is your friend and that Teeaytan-ov is little better than an 
experiment."
I glanced around to see the grisly head of Four-million-eight leering at me from 
the bottom of a net. "I shall not forget," I said; and I knew that I never 
should forget the horror of it even though I might wonder in what way a bodiless 
head might be of service, however friendly its intentions.
Morbus differed from any Martian city I had ever visited. The buildings were 
substantial and without ornamentation, but there was a certain dignity in the 
simplicity of their lines that lent them a beauty all their own. It gave the 
impression of being a new city laid out in accordance with some well conceived 
plan, every line of which spelled efficiency. I could not but wonder what 
purpose such a city could serve here in the depths of the Great Toonolian 
Marshes. Who would, by choice, live in such a remote and depressing environment? 
How could such a city exist without markets or commerce?
My speculations were interrupted by our arrival before a small doorway in a 
blank wall. Sytor pounded on the door with the hilt of his sword, whereupon a 
small panel was opened and a face appeared.
"I am Sytor, Dwar of the 10th Utan, 1st Dar of the 3rd Jed's Guard. I bring 
prisoners to await the pleasure of The Council of the Seven Jeds."
"How many?" asked the man at the wicket.
"Three – two men and a woman."
The door swung open, and Sytor motioned us to enter. He did not accompany us. We 
found ourselves in what was evidently a guardroom, as there were about twenty 
hormad warriors there in addition to the officer who had admitted us, who, like 
the other officers we had seen, was a normal red man like ourselves. He asked us 
our names, which he entered in a book with other information such as our 
vocations and the cities from which we came; and it was during this questioning 
that I learned the name of the girl. She was Janai; and she said that she came 
from Amhor, a city about seven hundred miles north of Morbus. It is a small city 
ruled by a prince named Jal Had who has such a bad reputation that it has 
reached to far away Helium. That was about all that I knew about Amhor.
After he had finished questioning us, the officer directed one of the hormads to 
take us away; and we were led down a corridor to a large patio in which there 
were a number of red Martians. "You will stay here until you are sent for," said 
the hormad. "Do not try to escape." Then he left us.
"Escape!" said John Carter with a wry smile. "I have escaped from many places; 
and I can probably escape from this city, but escaping from the Toonolian 
Marshes is another matter. However, we shall see."
The other prisoners, for such they proved to be, approached us. There were five 
of them. "Kaor!" they greeted us. We exchanged names; and they asked us many 
questions about the outside world, as though they had been prisoners for years. 
But they had not. The fact that Morbus was so isolated seemed to impart to them 
the feeling that they had been out of the world for a long time. Two of them 
were Phundahlians, one was from Toonol, one from Ptarth, and one from Duhor.
"For what purpose do they keep prisoners?" asked John Carter.
"They use some as officers to train and command their warriors," explained 
Pandar, one of the Phundahlians. "The bodies of others are used to house the 
brains of those of the hormads intelligent enough to serve in high places. The 
bodies of others go to the culture laboratories, where their tissue is used in 
the damnable work of Ras Thavas."
"Ras Thavas!" exclaimed The Warlord. "He is here in Morbus?"
"He is that – a prisoner in his own city, the servant of the hideous creatures 
he has created," replied Gan Had of Toonol.
"I don't follow you," said John Carter.
"After Ras Thavas was driven from his great laboratories by Vobis Kan, Jeddak of 
Toonol," explained Gan Had, "he came to this island to perfect a discovery he 
had been working on for years. It was the creation of human beings from human 
tissue. He had perfected a culture in which tissue grew continuously. The growth 
from a tiny particle of living tissue filled an entire room in his laboratory, 
but it was formless. His problem was to direct this growth. He experimented with 
various reptiles which reproduce certain parts of their bodies, such as toes, 
tails, and limbs, when they are cut off; and eventually he discovered the 
principle. This he has applied to the control of the growth of human tissue in a 
highly specialized culture. The result of these discoveries and experiments are 
the hormads. Seventy-five per cent of the buildings in Morbus are devoted to the 
culture and growth of these horrid creatures which Ras Thavas turns out in 
enormous numbers.
"Practically all of them are extremely low in intelligence; but a few developed 
normal brains, and some of these banded together to take over the island and 
establish a kingdom of their own. On threat of death, they have compelled Ras 
Thavas to continue to produce these creatures in great numbers; for they have 
conceived a stupendous plan which is nothing less than to build up an army of 
millions of hormads and with them conquer the world, They will take Phundahl and 
Toonol first, and then gradually spread out over the entire surface of the 
globe."
"Amazing," said John Carter, "but I think they have reckoned without a full 
understanding of all the problems such an undertaking will involve. It is 
inconceivable, for instance, that Barsoom could feed such an army in the field; 
and this little island certainly could not feed the nucleus of such an army."
"There you are mistaken," replied Gan Had. "The food for the hormads is produced 
by means almost identical with those which produce them – a slightly different 
culture; that is all. Animal tissue grows with great rapidity in this culture, 
which can be carried along with an army in tanks, constantly providing 
sufficient food; and, because of its considerable water content, sufficient 
water."
"But can these half-humans hope to be victorious over well trained, intelligent 
troops fitted for modern warfare?" I asked.
"I think so," said Pandar. "They will do it by their overwhelming numbers, their 
utter fearlessness, and the fact that it is necessary to decapitate them before 
they can be rendered hors de combat."
"How large an army have they?" inquired John Carter.
"There are several million hormads on the island. Their huts are scattered over 
the entire area of Morbus. It is estimated that the island can accommodate a 
hundred million of them; and Ras Thavas claims that he can march them into 
battle at the rate of two million a year, lose every one of them, and still have 
his original strength undepleted by as much as a single man. This plant turns 
them out in enormous quantities. A certain percentage are so grossly malformed 
as to be utterly useless. These are sliced into hundreds of thousands of tiny 
pieces that are dumped back into the culture vats, where they grow with such 
unbelievable rapidity that within nine days each has developed into a full sized 
hormad, an amazing number of which have developed into something that can march 
and wield a weapon."
"The situation would appear serious but for one thing," said John Carter.
"And what is that?" asked Gan Had.
"Transportation. How are they going to transport such an enormous army?"
"That has been their problem, but they believe that Ras Thavas has now solved 
it. He has been experimenting for a long time with malagor tissue and a special 
culture medium. If he can produce these birds in sufficient quantities, the 
problem of transport will have been solved. For the fighting ships which they 
will need, they are relying on those they expect to capture when they take 
Phundahl and Toonol as the nucleus of a great fleet which will grow as their 
conquests take in more and larger cities."
The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a couple of hormads carrying 
a vessel which contained animal tissue for our evening meal – a most 
unappetizing looking mess.
The prisoner from Duhor, who, it seemed, had volunteered to act as cook, built a 
fire in the oven that formed a part of the twenty foot wall that closed the only 
side of the patio that was not surrounded by portions of the building; and 
presently our dinner was grilling over a hot fire.
I could not contemplate the substance of our meal without a feeling of 
revulsion, notwithstanding the fact that I was ravenously hungry; and my mind 
was alive with doubts engendered by all that I had been listening to since 
entering the compound; so that I turned to Gan Had with a question. "Is this, by 
any chance, human tissue?" I asked.
He shrugged. "It is not supposed to be; but that is a question we do not even 
ask ourselves, for we must eat to live; and this is all that they bring us."
CHAPTER V
THE JUDGEMENT OF THE JEDS
JANAI, THE GIRL from Amhor, sat apart. Her situation seemed to me pathetic in 
the extreme – a lone woman incarcerated with seven strange men in a city of 
hideous enemies. We red men of Barsoom are naturally a chivalrous race; but men 
are men, and I knew nothing of the five whom we had found here. As long as John 
Carter and I remained her fellow prisoners she would be safe; that I knew, and I 
thought that if she knew it, any burden of apprehension she might be carrying 
would be lightened.
As I approached her, with the intention of entering into conversation with her, 
the officer who had questioned us in the guardroom entered the compound with two 
other officers and several hormads. They gathered us together, and the two 
officers accompanying the officer of the guard looked us over. "Not a bad lot," 
said one.
The other shrugged. "The jeds will take the best of them, and Ras Thavas will 
grumble about the material he is getting. He always does."
"They don't want the girl, do they?" asked the officer of the guard.
"Our orders were to bring the prisoners," replied one of the others.
"I should like to keep the girl," said the officer of the guard.
"Who wouldn't?" demanded the other with a laugh. "If she had the face of an 
ulsio you might get her; but the good looking ones go to the jeds, and she is 
more than good looking."
Janai was standing next to me, and I could almost feel her shudder. Moved by a 
sudden impulse, I pressed her hand; and for an instant she clung to mine, 
instinctively groping for protection; then she dropped it and flushed.
"I wish I might help you," I said.
"You are kind. I understand, but no one can help. You are only better off in 
that you are a man. The worst they will do to you is kill you."
The hideous hormads surrounded us, and we were marched back through the 
guardroom and out into the avenue. John Carter asked an officer where we were 
being taken.
"To the Council of the Seven Jeds," he said. "There it will be determined what 
disposition is to be made of you. Some of you will go into the culture vats. 
Those of you who are fortunate will be retained to train and officer troops as I 
was. It's not much to look forward to, but it's better than death."
"What is the Council of the Seven Jeds?" asked The Warlord.
"They are the rulers of Morbus. They are the seven hormads whose brains 
developed normally and who wrested control from Ras Thavas. Each one aspired to 
rule; and as none would give up what he considered his rights, they proclaimed 
themselves all jeds, and rule conjointly."
At a little distance from our prison we came to a large building before the 
entrance to which was a guard of hormad warriors commanded by a couple of 
officers. There was a brief parley here, and then we were taken into the 
building and along a long corridor to a large chamber before the doorway to 
which we were detained for a few minutes by another detail of guardsmen. When 
the door was opened we saw a number of hormads and officers standing about and 
at the far end of the room a raised dais on which seven red men were seated on 
carved chairs. These were evidently the seven jeds, but they did not look like 
the hormads we had previously seen. On the contrary they were quite normal and 
most of them fine looking men.
We were taken to the foot of the dais; and here they looked us over, asking 
about the same questions that the officer of the guard had asked us when we were 
admitted to the prison. They discussed us at some length, as men might discuss a 
number of thoats or calots they were considering purchasing. Several of them 
seemed much interested in Janai, and finally three of them laid claim to her. 
This started an altercation which ended in a vote being taken as to which of 
them would get her, but as there was never a majority in favor of any one man, 
it was decided to hold her for a few days and then turn her over to Ras Thavas 
if the claimants could not come to some agreement among themselves. This 
decided, one of the jeds addressed us men prisoners.
"How many of you will serve us as officers of our troops if you are permitted to 
live?" he asked.
The only alternative being death, we all proclaimed our willingness to serve as 
officers. The jeds nodded. "We shall now determine which of you are best fitted 
to serve as officers of our fighting men," said one; and, speaking to an officer 
standing near us: "Fetch seven of our best warriors."
We were then led to one side of the room, where we waited. "It looks like 
fighting," said John Carter with a smile.
"I am sure that nothing would suit you better," I replied.
"Nor you," he said; then he turned to the officer with whom he had talked on the 
way from the prison. "I thought you said the seven jeds were hormads," he said.
"They are."
"They don't look like any of the hormads I have seen."
"Ras Thavas fixed them up," said the officer. "Perhaps you don't know that Ras 
Thavas is the greatest scientist and surgeon on Barsoom."
"I have heard as much."
"You have heard right. He can take your brain out and put it in the skull of 
another man. He has performed that operation hundreds of times. When the seven 
jeds heard about it they selected seven of the best looking officers and 
compelled Ras Thavas to transfer their brains into the skulls of these officers, 
You see they had been hideous creatures, and they wanted to be handsome."
"And the seven officers?" I asked.
"They went to the culture vats, or rather their brains did the original bodies 
of the seven jeds went with them. Here come the seven fighting warriors. In a 
few minutes you will know which of you are going into the vats."
We were now taken to the center of the room and lined up facing seven huge 
hormads. These were the least malformed that we had so far seen, but they were 
still most repulsive looking creatures. We were furnished with swords, and an 
officer gave us our instructions. Each of us was to engage the hormad facing 
him, and those of us who survived without a serious wound would be permitted to 
live and serve as officers in the army of Morbus.
At a command from an officer, the two lines advanced; and in an instant the 
chamber rang with the clash of steel on steel. We men of Helium believe that we 
are the best swordsmen on Barsoom, and of us all, none is so great a swordsman 
as John Carter; so I had no apprehensions as to the outcome of the contest so 
far as he and I were concerned. The creature attacking me depended upon weight 
and brute strength to overcome me, which are the tactics most generally adopted 
by all of them, since they are not endowed with any great amount of 
intelligence. He evidently hoped to cut through my guard with a single terrific 
stroke of his heavy weapon, but of course I am too old a hand at fighting to 
fall victim to any such crude method of attack. As I parried his cut and stepped 
aside, he rushed past me awkwardly; and I could have run him through easily, but 
I had learned in my first encounter with these monsters that what would 
constitute a lethal wound to a mortal man would cause a hormad no inconvenience 
whatsoever. I should have to sever one of his legs or both his arms or 
decapitate him to put him out of the fighting. That, of course, gave him a 
tremendous advantage over me; but it was not insuperable. Or at least that was 
what I thought at the beginning of our engagement, but I soon commenced to have 
a suggestion of a doubt. The fellow was a far better swordsman than any of those 
we had encountered at the time of our capture. As I learned later, these 
creatures against whom we were pitted were selected for their superior 
intelligence, which was slightly above the average of their kind, and specially 
schooled in swordsmanship by red Martian officers.
Of course, had he been a normal man I could have easily dispatched him; but to 
avoid his mad rushes and his blade and decapitate him presently appeared a much 
larger job than I had anticipated. Aside from all else, he was a most unpleasant 
antagonist, for his face was absolutely hideous. One eye was far up at the comer 
of his forehead and twice as large as its mate. His nose had grown where one of 
his ears should have been, while his ear occupied the normal position of his 
nose. His mouth was a large and crooked rent filled with great fangs. His 
countenance alone might have been quite enough to have unmanned an antagonist.
Occasionally I caught a glimpse of the other duels progressing around me. I saw 
one of the Phundahlians fall, and almost simultaneously the head of John 
Carter's antagonist rolled upon the floor where it lay cursing and screaming 
while its body lunged madly about endangering everyone in the chamber. A number 
of other hormads and officers pursued it with nooses and nets in an effort to 
catch and bind it, and while they were thus occupied the thing bumbled into my 
antagonist throwing it off balance and giving me the opening for which I had 
been waiting. I swung a terrific blow then and caught the fellow square across 
the neck, sending his head rolling upon the floor. Then there were two headless 
bodies dashing about hacking right and left with their heavy swords. I tell you, 
the other hormads and the officers had a busy few minutes before they finally 
captured and subdued the horrible things; and by the time they had the fighting 
was over, but there were two more hormads flopping about the floor, each with a 
leg gone. These had been overcome by Pandar and Gan Had. The man from Ptarth and 
the man from Duhor had been killed. Only four of us seven were left. The two 
heads upon the floor reviled us while other hormads gathered up the debris of 
battle and carried it away in nets.
Now we were taken again before the dais of the Council of the Seven Jeds; and 
once more they questioned us, but this time more carefully. When they had done 
with the questioning they whispered among themselves for a while; then one of 
them addressed us.
"You will serve as officers, obeying your superiors and all orders you may 
receive from the Council of the Seven Jeds," he said. "You cannot escape from 
Morbus. If you serve faithfully you will be permitted to live. If you are guilty 
of disobedience or treason you will be sent to the vats. That will be the end of 
you." He turned to John Carter and me. "You men from Helium will serve for the 
present with the laboratory guard. It is the duty of the laboratory guard to see 
that Ras Thavas does not escape and that no harm befalls him. We have chosen you 
for this duty for two reasons: you are both extraordinary swordsmen and, being 
from distant Helium, cannot feel any partiality either for him or for Toonol or 
for Phundahl. You can therefore act wholly in our interests as against those of 
these enemies. Ras Thavas would like to escape or regain control of Morbus. 
Phundahl would like to rescue him. Toonol would like to destroy him. Either one 
of them would be glad to get him away from us so that he could produce no more 
hormads. The man from Phundahl and the man from Toonol will be used to train our 
warriors as they emerge from the vats. The Council of the Seven Jeds has spoken; 
it is for you to obey." He nodded toward the officer who had brought us in. 
"Take them away."
I looked toward Janai. She caught my eye and smiled at me. It was a very brave 
little smile. A pathetic little smile out of a hopeless heart. Then they led us 
away.
CHAPTER VI
RAS THAVAS, MASTER MIND OF MARS
AS THEY CONDUCTED us down the corridor toward the main entrance to the building 
my mind was occupied in reviewing the incredible occurrences of the day. These 
few hours had encompassed a lifetime. I had passed through such adventures as in 
my wildest dreams I could not have imagined. I had become an officer in the 
hideous army of a city the very existence of which I had not dreamed of a few 
hours ago. I had met a strange girl from far Amhor; and, for the first time in 
my life, I had fallen in love; and almost within the hour I had lost her. Love 
is a strange thing. Why it had come to me as it had, how it had come, were quite 
beyond me to explain. I only knew that I loved Janai, that I should always love 
her. I should never see her again. I should never know if I might have won her 
love in return. I should never be able to tell her that I loved her. My whole 
life hereafter would be colored and saddened by the thought of my love, by my 
remembrance of her; yet I would not have relinquished my love for her could I 
have done so. Yes, love is a strange thing.
At the intersection of the main corridor with another, John Carter and I were 
led to the right. Pandar and Gan Had continued on toward the main entrance. We 
called goodbye to one another and were gone. It is remarkable how quickly 
friendships are formed in the midst of a common jeopardy. These men were from 
strange cities commonly enemies of Helium, yet because we had endured danger 
together I felt a definite friendly attachment toward them; and I did not doubt 
but that they were inclined similarly toward John Carter and me. I wondered if 
we should ever meet again.
They led us down this new corridor and across a great courtyard into another 
building, above the entrance to which were hieroglyphics strange to me. No two 
nations of Barsoom have the same written language, although there is a common 
scientific language understood by the savants of all nations; yet there is but 
one spoken language upon Barsoorn, which all peoples use and understand, even 
the savage green men of the dead sea bottom. But John Carter is very learned and 
reads many languages. He told me that the hieroglyphics read Laboratory 
Building.
We were taken into a medium size audience chamber where an officer told us to 
wait and that he would fetch Ras Thavas, that we might meet the man we were to 
help guard and watch. He also told us that Ras Thavas was to be treated with 
respect and consideration as long as he made no effort to escape. He had the 
freedom of the laboratory and was, in a sense, all powerful there. If he called 
on us to help him in his work, we were to do so. It was evident that the Council 
of the Seven Jeds looked with awe upon him although he was their prisoner, and 
that they had sense enough to make life as easy for him as possible. I was very 
anxious to see Ras Thavas, of whom I had heard. He was called The Master Mind of 
Mars, and although he had often turned his remarkable talents to nefarious 
schemes, he was nevertheless admired because of his great learning and skill. He 
was known to be over a thousand years old; and because of this fact alone I 
would have been curious to see him, as the span of life upon Barsoom is seldom 
so great. A thousand years is supposed to be the limit, but because of our 
warlike natures and the prevalency of assassination few attain it. He must, 
indeed, have been a withered little mummy of a man, I thought; and I wondered 
that he had the strength to carry on the enormous work in which he was engaged.
We had waited but a short time when the officer returned accompanied by an 
extremely handsome young man who looked at us with a haughty and supercilious 
air, as though we had been the dregs of humanity and he a god.
"Two more spies to watch me," he sneered.
"Two more fighting men to protect you, Ras Thavas," corrected the officer who 
had brought us here from the other building.
So this was Ras Thavas! I could not believe my eyes. This was a young man, 
unquestionably; for while it is true that we Martians show few traces of 
advancing years until almost the end of our allotted span, at which time decay 
is rapid, yet there are certain indications of youth that are obvious.
Ras Thavas continued to scrutinize us. I saw his brows contract in thought as 
his eyes held steadily on John Carter as though he were trying to recall a half 
remembered face. Yet I knew that these two men had never met. What was in the 
mind of Ras Thavas?
"How do I know," he suddenly snapped, "that they have not wormed their way into 
Morbus to assassinate me? How do I know that they are not from Toonol or 
Phundahl?"
"They are from Helium," replied the officer. I saw Ras Thavas's brow clear as 
though he had suddenly arrived at the solution of a problem. "They are two 
panthans whom we found on their way to Phundahl seeking service," concluded the 
officer.
Ras Thavas nodded. "I shall use them to assist me in the laboratory," he said.
The officer looked surprised. "Had they not better serve in the guard for a 
while?" he suggested, "That will give you time to have them watched and to 
determine if it would be safe to have them possibly alone with you in the 
laboratory."
"I know what I am doing," snapped Ras Thavas. "I don't need the assistance of 
any fifth-rate brain to decide what is best for me. But perhaps I honor you."
The officer flushed. "My orders were simply to turn these men over to you. How 
you use them is none of my concern. I merely wished to safeguard you."
"Then carry out your orders and mind your own business. I can take care of 
myself." His tone was as disagreeable as his words. I had a premonition that he 
was not going to be a very pleasant person with whom to work.
The officer shrugged, gave a command to the hormad warriors that had accompanied 
us, and marched them from the audience chamber. Ras Thavas nodded to us. "Come 
with me," he said. He led us to a small room, the walls of which were entirely 
lined with shelves packed with books and manuscripts. There was a desk littered 
with papers and books, at which he seated himself, at the same time motioning us 
to be seated at a bench nearby.
"By what names do you call yourselves?" he asked.
"I am Dotar Sojat," replied John Carter, "and this is Vor Daj."
"You know Vor Daj well and have implicit confidence in him?" demanded Ras 
Thavas. It seemed a strange question, since Ras Thavas knew neither of us.
"I have known Vor Daj for years," replied The Warlord. "I would trust to his 
loyalty and intelligence in any matter and to his skill and courage as a 
warrior."
"Very well," said Ras Thavas; "then I can trust you both."
"But how do you know you can trust me?" inquired John Carter quizzically.
Ras Thavas smiled. "The integrity of John Carter, Prince of Helium, Warlord of 
Barsoorn, is a matter of worldwide knowledge," he said.
We looked at him in surprise. "What makes you think I am John Carter?" asked The 
Warlord. "You have never seen him."
"In the audience chamber I was struck by the fact that you did not appear truly 
a red Martian. I examined you more closely and discovered that the pigment with 
which you had stained your skin had worn thin in spots. There are but two 
inhabitants of Jasoom on Mars. One of them is Vad Varo, whose Earth name was 
Paxton. I know him well, as he served as my assistant in my laboratories in 
Toonol. In fact it was he whom I trained to such a degree of skill that he was 
able to transfer my old brain to this young body. So I knew that you were not 
Vad Varo. The other Jasoomian being John Carter, the deduction was simple."
"Your suspicions were well founded and your reasoning faultless," said The 
Warlord. "I am John Carter. I should soon have told you so myself, for I was on 
my way to Phundahl in search of you when we were captured by the hormads."
"And for what reason did The Warlord of Barsoom search for Ras Thavas?" demanded 
the great surgeon.
"My princess, Dejah Thoris, was badly injured in a collision between two fliers. 
She has lain unconscious for many days. The greatest surgeons of Helium are 
powerless to aid her. I sought Ras Thavas to implore his aid in restoring her to 
health."
"And now you find me a prisoner on a remote island in the Great Toonolian 
Marshes – a fellow prisoner with you."
"But I have found you."
"And what good will it do you or your princess?" demanded The Master Mind of 
Mars.
"You would come with me and help her if you could?" asked John Carter.
"Certainly. I promised Vad Varo and Dar Tarus, Jeddak of Phundahl, that I would 
dedicate my skill and knowledge to the amelioration of suffering and the 
betterment of mankind."
"Then we shall find a way," said John Carter.
Ras Thavas shook his head. "It is easy to say, but impossible to accomplish. 
There can be no escape from Morbus."
"Still we must find a way," replied The Warlord. "I foresee that the 
difficulties of escaping from the island may not be insuperable. It is 
travelling the Great Toonolian Marshes that gives me the greatest concern."
Ras Thavas shook his head. "We can never get off the island. It is too well 
patrolled, for one thing; and there are too many spies and informers. Many of 
the officers who appear to be red Martians are, in reality, hormads whose brains 
I have been forced to transfer to the bodies of normal men. Not even I know who 
these are, as the operations were performed only in the presence of the Council 
of the Seven Jeds; and the faces of the red men were kept masked. They have 
cunning minds, some of these seven jeds. They wanted those they could trust to 
spy upon me, and if I had seen the faces of the red Martians to whom I gave 
hormad brains their plan would have been ineffective. Now I do not know which of 
the officers surrounding me are hormads and which are normal men – except two. I 
am sure of John Carter because I would have known had I performed a brain 
transfer on a man with the white skin of a Jasoomian; and I have John Carter's 
word as to you, Vor Daj. Beyond us three there is none we may trust; so be 
careful with whom you become friendly and what you say in the hearing of others. 
You will–––"
Here he was interrupted by a veritable pandemonium that suddenly broke out in 
another part of the building. It seemed a horrific medley of screams and 
bellowings and groans and grunts, as though a horde of wild beasts had suddenly 
gone berserk.
"Come," said Ras Thavas, "to the spawning of the monsters. We may be needed."
CHAPTER VII
THE VATS OF LIFE
RAS THAVAS LED us to an enormous room where we beheld such a spectacle as 
probably never had been enacted elsewhere in the entire universe. In the center 
of the room was a huge tank about four feet high from which were emerging 
hideous monstrosities almost beyond the powers of human imagination to conceive; 
and surrounding the tank were a great number of hormad warriors with their 
officers, rushing upon the terrible creatures, overpowering and binding them, or 
destroying them if they were too malformed to function successfully as fighting 
men. At least fifty per centum of them had to be thus destroyed – fearful 
caricatures of life that were neither beast nor man. One was only a great mass 
of living flesh with an eye somewhere and a single hand. Another had developed 
with its arms and legs transposed, so that when it walked it was upside down 
with its head between its legs. The features of many were grotesquely misplaced. 
Noses, ears, eyes, mouths might be scattered indiscriminately anywhere over the 
surfaces of torso or limbs. These were all destroyed; only those were preserved 
which had two arms and legs and the facial features of which were somewhere upon 
the head. The nose might be under an ear and the mouth above the eyes, but if 
they could function appearance was of no importance.
Ras Thavas viewed them with evident pride. "What do you think of them?" he asked 
The Warlord.
"Quite horrible," replied John Carter.
Ras Thavas appeared hurt. "I have made no attempt as yet to attain beauty," he 
said; "and I shall have to admit that so far even symmetry has eluded me, but 
both will come. I have created human beings. Some day I shall create the perfect 
man, and a new race of supermen will inhabit Barsoom – beautiful, intelligent, 
deathless."
"And in the meantime these creatures will have spread all over the world and 
conquered it. They will destroy your supermen. You have created a 
Frankensteinian host that will not only destroy you but the civilization of a 
world. Hasn't that possibility ever occurred to you?"
"Yes, it has; but I never intended to create these creatures in any such 
numbers. That is the idea of the seven jeds. I purposed developing only enough 
to form a small army with which to conquer Toonol, that I might regain my island 
and my old laboratory."
The din in the room had now risen to such proportions that further conversation 
was impossible. Screaming heads rolled upon the floor. Hormad warriors dragged 
away the newly created creatures that were considered fit to live and fresh 
warriors swarmed into the chamber to replace them. New hormads emerged 
constantly from the culture tank which swarmed with writhing life like an 
enormous witch's pot. And this same scene was being duplicated in forty similar 
rooms throughout the city of Morbus, while a stream of new hormads was pouring 
out of the city to be tamed and trained by officers and the more intelligent 
hormads.
I was delighted and relieved when Ras Thavas suggested that we inspect another 
phase of his work and we were permitted to leave that veritable chamber of 
horrors. He took us to another room where reconstruction work was carried on. 
Here heads were growing new bodies and headless bodies new heads. Hormads which 
had lost arms or legs were growing new ones. Sometimes these activities went 
amiss, when nothing but a single leg sprouted from the neck of a severed head. 
An identical case was among those that we saw in this room. The head was very 
angry about it, and became quite abusive, reviling Ras Thavas.
"What good shall I be," he demanded, "with only a head and one leg? They call 
you The Master Mind of Mars! Phooey! You haven't the brains of a sorak. When 
they produce their kind they give them a body and six legs, to say nothing of a 
head. Now what are you going to do about it? That's what I want to know."
"Well," said Ras Thavas, thoughtfully, "I can always redisect you and return the 
pieces to the culture vat."
"No! No!" screamed the head. "Let me live, but cut off this leg and let me try 
to grow a body."
"Very well," said Ras Thavas; "tomorrow."
"Why should a thing like that wish to live," I asked, after we had passed along.
"It is a characteristic of life, however low its form," replied Ras Thavas. 
"Even these poor sexless monstrosities, whose only pleasure in life is eating 
raw animal tissue, wish to live. They do not even dream of the existence of love 
or friendship, they have no spiritual or mental resources upon which to draw for 
satisfaction or enjoyment; yet they wish to live."
"They speak of friendship," I said. "Tor-dur-bar's head told me not to forget 
that it was my friend."
"They know the word," replied Ras Thavas, "but I am sure they cannot sense its 
finer connotations. One of the first things they are taught is to obey. Perhaps 
he meant that he would obey you, serve you. He may not even remember you now. 
Some of them have practically no memories. All their reactions are purely 
mechanical. They respond to oft repeated stimuli – the commands to march, to 
fight, to come, to go, to halt. They also do what they see the majority of their 
fellows doing. Come! We shall find Tor-dur-bar's head and see if it recalls you. 
It will be an interesting experiment."
We passed into another chamber where reconstruction work was in progress, and 
Ras Thavas spoke to an officer in charge there. The man led us to the far end of 
the room where there was a large vat in which torsos were growing new arms or 
legs or heads, and several heads growing new bodies.
We had no more than reached the tank when a head cried out, "Kaor, Vor Daj!" It 
was Four-Million-Eight himself.
"Kaor, Tor-dur-bar!" I replied. "I am glad to see you again."
"Don't forget that you have one friend in Morbus," he said. "Soon I shall have a 
new body, and then if you need me I shall be ready."
"There is a hormad of unusual intelligence," said Ras Thavas. "I shall have to 
keep an eye on him."
"You should give such a brain as mine a fine looking body," said Tor-dur-bar. "I 
should like to be as handsome as Vor Daj or his friend."
"We shall see," said Ras Thavas, and then he leaned close and whispered to the 
head, "Say no more about it now. Just trust me."
"How long will it take to grow a new body for Tor-dur-bar?" John Carter asked.
"Nine days; but it may be a body he can't use, and then it will have to be done 
over again. I have accomplished much, but I still cannot control the development 
of these bodies or any part of them. Ordinarily his head will grow a body. It 
might be a body so malformed as to be useless, or it might be just a part of a 
body or even another head. Some day I shall be able to control this. Some day I 
shall be able to create perfect humans."
"If there is an Almighty God he may resent this usurpation of his prerogatives," 
remarked The Warlord with a smile.
"The origin of life is an obscure mystery," said Ras Thavas, "and there is quite 
as much evidence to indicate that it was the result of accident as there is to 
suggest that it was planned by a supreme being. I understand that the scientists 
of your Earth believe that all life on that planet was evolved from a very low 
form of animal life called amoeba, a microscopic nucleated mass of protoplasm 
without even a rudimentary form of consciousness or mental life. An omnipotent 
creator could just as well have produced the highest conceivable form of life in 
the first place – a perfect creature – whereas no existing life on either planet 
is perfect or even approximates perfection.
"Now, on Mars, we hold to a very different theory of creation and evolution. We 
believe that as the planet cooled chemicals combined to form a spore which was 
the basis of vegetable life from which, after countless ages, the Tree of Life 
grew and flourished, perhaps in the center of the Valley Dor twenty-three 
million years ago, as some believe, perhaps elsewhere. For countless ages the 
fruit of this tree underwent the gradual changes of evolution, passing by 
degrees from true plant life to a combination of plant and animal. In the first 
stages, the fruit of the tree possessed only the power of independent muscular 
action, while the stem remained attached to the parent plant; later, a brain 
developed in the fruit, so that hanging there by their long stems they thought 
and moved as individuals. Then, with the development of perception came a 
comparison of them; judgments were reached and compared, and thus reason and the 
power to reason were born upon Barsoom.
"Ages passed. Many forms of life came and went upon the Tree of Life, but still 
all were attached to the parent plant by stems of varying lengths. At length, 
the fruit upon the tree consisted of tiny plant men, such as may now be found 
reproduced in huge size in the Valley Dor, but still hanging to the limbs and 
branches of The Tree by the stems which grew from the tops of their heads.
"The buds from which the plant men blossomed resembled large nuts about a foot 
in diameter, divided by double partition walls into four sections. In one 
section grew the plant man, in another a six legged worm, in the third the 
progenitor of the white ape, and in the fourth the primeval human of Barsoom. 
When the bud burst, the plant man remained dangling at the end of his stem; but 
the three other sections fell to the ground, where the efforts of their 
imprisoned occupants to escape sent them hopping about in all directions.
"Thus, as time went on, these imprisoned creatures were scattered far and wide 
over the surface of the planet. For ages they lived their long lives within 
their hard shells, hopping and skipping hither and thither, falling into the 
rivers, lakes, and seas which then existed upon the surface of Barsoom, to be 
still further spread across the face of the new world. Countless billions died 
before the first human broke through his prison walls into the light of day. 
Prompted by curiosity, he broke open other shells; and the peopling of Barsoom 
commenced. The Tree of Life is dead, but before it died the plant men learned to 
detach themselves from it, their bisexuality permitting them to reproduce 
themselves after the manner of true plants."
"I have seen them in the Valley Dor," said John Carter, "with a tiny plant man 
growing beneath each arm, dangling like fruit from the stems attached to the 
tops of their heads."
"Thus, casually, the present forms of life evolved," continued Ras Thavas, "and 
by studying them all from the lowest forms upward I have learned how to 
reproduce life."
"Perhaps to your sorrow," I suggested.
"Perhaps," he agreed.
CHAPTER VIII
THE RED ASSASSIN
DAYS PASSED DURING which Ras Thavas kept us almost constantly with him; but 
almost invariably there were others around, so that we had few opportunities to 
plan, as we never knew the friend from the spy. Thoughts of Janai filled me with 
sorrow, and I was ever watchful for some means whereby I might learn her fate. 
Ras Thavas warned me not to show too much interest in the girl, as it might 
result in arousing suspicions that would lead to my destruction; but he assured 
me that he would aid me in any way that he could that would not lay me open to 
suspicion, and one day he found the means.
A number of unusually intelligent hormads were to be sent before the Council of 
the Seven Jeds to be examined as to their fitness to serve in the personal body 
guards which each jed maintained, and Ras Thavas detailed me with other officers 
to accompany them. It was the first time I had been outside the laboratory 
building, as none of us was permitted to leave it other than on some official 
business such as this.
As I entered the great building, which was in effect the palace of the Seven 
Jeds, my whole mind was occupied with thoughts of Janai and the hope that I 
might catch a glimpse of her. I looked down corridors, I peered through open 
doorways, I even considered leaving the party and concealing myself in one of 
the rooms we passed and then attempting a search of the palace; but my better 
judgment came to my rescue, and I continued on with the others to the great 
chamber where the Council of the Seven Jeds sat.
The examination of the hormads was very thorough, and while listening to it 
carefully and noting every question and answer and the effect of the answers 
upon the jeds, the seeds of a plan were planted in my mind. If I could get 
Tor-dur-bar assigned to the body guard of a jed I might thus learn the fate of 
Janai. How differently it worked out and what a bizarre plan finally developed, 
you shall learn in time.
While we were still in the council chamber a number of warriors entered with a 
prisoner, a swaggering red man, a scarred, hard bitten warrior, whose sneering 
face and haughty, arrogant manner seemed a deliberate, studied affront to his 
captors and the seven jeds. He was a powerful man, and despite the efforts of 
the warriors with him he forced his way almost to the foot of the dais before 
they could restrain him.
"Who is this man?" demanded one of the jeds.
"I am Gantun Gur, the assassin of Amhor," bellowed the captive in a great voice. 
"Give me back my sword, you stinking ulsios, and let me show you what a real 
fighting man can do to these deformed monstrosities of yours and to you, too. 
They caught me in nets, which is no way for decent men to take a warrior."
"Silence!" commanded a jed, pale with anger, and smarting under the insult of 
being called an ill smelling rat.
"Silence?" screamed Gantun Gur. "By my first ancestor! There lives no man can 
make Gantun Gur keep silent. Come down here and try it, man to man, you 
snivelling worm."
"Off with him!" cried the jed. "Take him to Ras Thavas, and tell Ras Thavas to 
take out his brain and burn it. He can do what he pleases with the body."
Gantun Gur fought like a demon, knocking hormads to right and left; and they 
only subdued him at last by entangling him in their nets. Then, bellowing curses 
and insults, he was dragged away toward the laboratory.
Shortly thereafter the jeds selected the hormads they chose to retain, and we 
conducted the others out of the chamber, where they were turned over to officers 
to be assigned to such duties as they were considered equal to. Then I returned 
to the laboratory building without having had a glimpse of Janai or learning 
anything concerning her. I was terribly disappointed and despondent.
I found Ras Thavas in his small private study. John Carter and a fairly well 
formed hormad were with him. The latter was standing with his back toward me as 
I entered the room. When he heard my voice he turned and greeted me by name. It 
was Tor-dur-bar with his newly grown body. One arm was a little longer than the 
other, his torso was out of proportion to his short legs, and he had six toes on 
one foot and an extra thumb on his left hand; but, altogether, he was a pretty 
good specimen for a hormad.
"Well, here I am as good as new," he exclaimed, a broad grin splitting his 
horrid countenance. "What do you think of me?"
"I'm glad to have you as a friend," I said. "I think that new body of yours is 
very powerful. It's splendidly muscled." And indeed it was.
"I should, however, like a body and face like yours," said Tor-dur-bar. "I was 
just talking to Ras Thavas about it, and he has promised to get me one, if he 
can."
Instantly I recalled Gantun Gur, the assassin of Amhor, and the doom that had 
been pronounced upon him by the jed. "I think a good body is waiting for you in 
the laboratory," I said; then I told them the story of Gantun Gur. "Now it is up 
to Ras Thavas. The jed said he could do what he pleased with the body."
"We'll have a look at the man," said The Master Mind of Mars, and led the way 
out toward the reception room where new victims were held pending his orders.
We found Gantun Gur securely trussed up and heavily guarded. At sight of us he 
commenced to bellow and rail, insulting all three of us indiscriminately. He 
appeared to have a most evil disposition. Ras Thavas regarded him for a moment 
in silence; then he dismissed the warriors and officers who had brought him.
"We will take care of him," he said. "Report to the Council of the Seven Jeds 
that his brain will be burned and his body put to some good use."
At that, Gantun Gur broke into such a tirade that I thought he had gone mad, and 
perhaps he had. He gnashed his teeth and foamed at the mouth and called Ras 
Thavas everything he could lay his tongue to.
Ras Thavas turned to Tor-dur-bar. "Can you carry him?" he asked.
For answer, the hormad picked up the red man as easily as though he had no 
weight and flung him across one broad shoulder. Tor-dur-bar's new body was 
indeed a mountain of strength.
Ras Thavas led the way back to his private study and through a small doorway 
into a chamber that I had not seen before. Here were two tables standing about 
twenty inches apart, the top of each a beautifully polished slab of solid 
ersite. At one end of the tables was a shelf on which were two empty glass 
vessels and two similar vessels filled with a clear, colorless liquid resembling 
water. Beneath each table was a small motor. There were numerous surgical 
instruments neatly arranged, various vessels containing colored liquids, and 
paraphernalia such as one might find in a laboratory or hospital concerning the 
uses of which I knew nothing, for I am, first and last, a fighting man and 
nothing else.
Ras Thavas directed Tor-dur-bar to lay Gantun Gur on one of the tables. "Now get 
on the other one yourself," he said.
"You are really going to do it?" exclaimed Tor-dur-bar. "You are going to give 
me a beautiful new body and face?"
"I wouldn't call it particularly beautiful," said Ras Thavas, with a slight 
smile.
"Oh, it is lovely," cried Tor-dur-bar. "I shall be your slave forever if you do 
this for me."
Although Gantun Gur was securely bound, it took both John Carter and myself to 
hold him still while Ras Thavas made two incisions in his body, one in a large 
vein and one in an artery. To these incisions he attached the ends of two tubes, 
one of which was connected with an empty glass receptacle and the other to the 
similar receptacle containing the colorless liquid. The connections made, he 
pressed a button controlling the small motor beneath the table, and Gantun Gur's 
blood was pumped into the empty jar while the contents of the other jar were 
forced into the emptying veins and arteries. Of course Gantun Gur lost 
consciousness almost immediately after the motor was started and I breathed a 
sigh of relief when I had heard the last of him. When all the blood had been 
replaced by the colorless liquid, Ras Thavas removed the tubes and closed the 
openings in the body with bits of adhesive material; then he turned to 
Tor-dur-bar.
"You're quite sure you want to be a red man?" he asked.
"I can't wait," replied the hormad.
Ras Thavas repeated the operation he had just performed on Gantun Gur; then he 
sprayed both bodies with what he told us was a strong antiseptic solution and 
then himself, scrubbing his hands thoroughly. He now selected a sharp knife from 
among the instruments and removed the scalps from both bodies, following the 
hair line entirely around each head. This done, he sawed through the skull of 
each with a tiny circular saw attached to the end of a flexible, revolving 
shaft, following the line he had exposed by the removal of the scalps.
It was a long and marvelously skillful operation that followed, and at the end 
of four hours he had transferred the brain of Tor-dur-bar to the brain pan of 
him who had been Gantun Gur, deftly connected the severed nerves and ganglia, 
replaced the skull and scalp and bound the head securely with adhesive material, 
which was not only antiseptic and healing but locally anaesthetic as well.
He now reheated the blood he had drawn from Gantun Gur's body, adding a few 
drops of some clear chemical solution, and as he withdrew the liquid from the 
veins and arteries he pumped the blood back to replace it. Immediately following 
this he administered a hypodermic injection,
"In an hour," he said, "Tor-dur-bar will awaken to a new life in a new body."
It was while I was watching this marvelous operation that a mad plan occurred to 
me whereby I might eventually reach the side of Janai, or at least discover what 
fate had overtaken her. I turned to Ras Thavas. "Could you restore Gantun Gur's 
brain to his head if you wished to?" I asked.
"Certainly."
"Or could you put it in Tor-dur-bar's abandoned skull?"
"Yes."
"How soon after the removal of a brain do you have to replace it with another?"
"The liquid that I pump into the veins and arteries of a body will preserve it 
indefinitely. The blood I have withdrawn is also preserved similarly. But what 
are you driving at?"
"I want you to transfer my brain to the body that was Tor-dur-bar's," I said.
"Are you mad?" demanded John Carter.
"No. Well, perhaps a little, if love is madness. As a hormad I can be sent to 
the Council of the Seven Jeds and perhaps chosen to serve them. I know I can be 
chosen, for I know what answers to make to their questions. Once there, I can 
find the opportunity to discover what has become of Janai. Perhaps I may even 
rescue her, and when I have either succeeded or failed, Ras Thavas can return my 
brain to my own body. Will you do it, Ras Thavas?"
Ras Thavas looked questioningly at John Carter. "I have no right to interpose 
any objections," said The Warlord. "Vor Daj's brain and body are his own."
"Very well," said Ras Thavas. "Help me lift the new Tor-dur-bar from the table 
and then lie down there yourself."
CHAPTER IX
MAN INTO HORMAD
WHEN I REGAINED consciousness, the first sight that met my eyes was that of my 
own body lying on an ersite slab a few inches from me. It was rather a ghastly 
experience, looking at one's own corpse; but when I sat up and looked down at my 
new body, it was even worse. I hadn't anticipated just how horrible it would be 
to be a hormad with a hideous face and malformed body. I almost loathed to touch 
myself with my new hands. Suppose something should happen to Ras Thavas! I broke 
out in a cold sweat at the thought. John Carter and the great surgeon stood 
looking at me.
"What is the matter?" demanded the latter. "You look ill."
I told him of the fear that had suddenly assailed me. He shrugged. "It would be 
just too bad for you," he said. "There is another man in the world, probably the 
only other man in the entire universe, who could restore your brain to your body 
were anything to happen to me; but you could never get him to Morbus as long as 
the hormads rule here."
"Who is he?" I asked.
"Vad Varo, a prince of Duhor now. He was Ulysses Paxton of Jasoom, and he was my 
assistant in my laboratory at Toonol. It was he who transferred my old brain to 
this new body. But don't worry. I have lived over a thousand years. The hormads 
need me. There is no reason why I should not live another thousand years. Before 
that I shall have trained another assistant, so that he can transfer my brain to 
a new body. You see, I should live forever."
"I hope you do," I said. Just then I discovered the body of the assassin of 
Amhor lying on the floor. "What's the matter with Tor-dur-bar?" I asked. 
"Shouldn't he have regained consciousness before I did?"
"I saw to it that he didn't," said Ras Thavas. "John Carter and I decided that 
it might be well if none other than he and I knew that your brain had been 
transferred to the body of a hormad."
"You were right. Let them think that I am all hormad."
"Carry Tor-dur-bar into my study. Let him come to there, but before he does you 
must be out of sight. Go out into the laboratory and help with the emergence of 
the new hormads. Tell the officer there that I sent you."
"But won't Tor-dur-bar recognize me when he sees me later?"
"I think not. He never saw his own face often enough to become familiar with it. 
There are few mirrors in Morbus, and his new body was such. a recent acquisition 
that there is little likelihood that he will recognize it. If he does, we'll 
have to tell him."
The next several days were extremely unpleasant. I was a hormad. I had to 
consort with hormads and eat raw animal tissue. Ras Thavas armed me, and I had 
to destroy the terrible travesties on humanity that wriggled out of his 
abominable tanks so malformed that they were useless even as hormads. One day I 
met Teeaytan-ov, with whom I had flown to Morbus on the back of a malagor. He 
recognized me, or at least he thought he did.
"Kaor, Tor-dur-bar!" he greeted me. "So you have a new body. What has become of 
my friend, Vor Daj?"
"I do not know," I said. "Perhaps he went into the vats. He spoke of you often 
before I lost track of him. He was very anxious that you and I be friends."
"Why not?" asked Teeaytan-ov.
"I think it an excellent idea," I said, for I wanted all the friends I could 
get. "What are you doing now?"
"I am a member of the Third Jed's bodyguard. I live in the palace."
"That is fine," I said, "and I suppose you see everything that goes on there."
"I see a great deal. It makes me want to be a jed. I should like a new body such 
as they have."
"I wonder what became of the girl who was brought to the palace at the same time 
Vor Daj was," I ventured.
"What girl?" he asked.
"She was called Janai."
"Oh, Janai. She is still there. Two of the jeds want her, and the others won't 
let either have her. At least not so far. They are going to take a vote on it 
soon. I think every one of them wants her. She is the best looking woman they 
have captured for a long time."
"She is safe for the time being, then?" I asked.
"What do you mean, safe?" he demanded. "She will be very lucky if one of the 
jeds acquires her. She will have the best of everything and won't have to go to 
the vats of Ras Thavas. But why are you so interested in her? Perhaps you want 
her for yourself," and he burst into laughter. He would have been surprised 
indeed had he known that he had scored a bull's-eye.
"How do you like being a member of a jed's bodyguard?" I asked.
"It is very fine. I am treated well, have plenty to eat and a nice place to 
sleep, and I do not have to work hard. Also, I have a great deal of freedom. I 
can go wherever I please on the island of Morbus except into the private 
quarters of the jeds. You cannot leave this laboratory." He touched a medal 
hanging from a chain about his neck. "It is this," he said, "that gives me so 
much freedom. It shows that I am in the service of the Third Jed. No one dares 
interfere with me. I am a very important person, Tor-dur-bar. I feel quite sorry 
for you who are only a piece of animal tissue that can walk around and talk."
"It is nice to have such an important friend as you," I said, "especially one 
who will help me, if he can."
"Help you in what way?" he asked.
"The jeds are constantly calling for new warriors to replace those that are 
killed. I would make a good warrior for the bodyguard of a jed, and it would be 
nice if you and I could be together; so, if I am chosen to appear before them 
for examination, you can put in a good word for me when they ask who knows me."
He thought this over for a minute in his slow-witted way, but finally he said, 
"Why not? You look very strong; and sometimes, when the members of the guard get 
to quarrelling among themselves, it is well to have a strong friend. Yes, I'll 
help you, if I can. Sometimes they ask us if we know a good strong warrior who 
is intelligent, and then they send for him and examine him. Of course you are 
not very intelligent, but you might be able to pass because you are so strong. 
Just how strong are you?"
As a matter of fact, I didn't know, myself. I knew I was quite strong, because I 
lifted bodies so easily; so I said, "I really don't know."
"Could you lift me?" he asked. "I am a very heavy person."
"I can try," I said. I picked him up very easily. He didn't seem to weigh 
anything; so I thought I would see if I could toss him up over my head. I 
succeeded quite beyond my expectations, or his either. I tossed him almost to 
the ceiling of the room, and caught him as he came down. As I set him on his 
feet, he looked at me in astonishment.
"You are the strongest person in Morbus," he said. "There never was any one as 
strong as you. I shall tell the Third Jed about you."
He went away then, leaving me quite hopeful. At best, I had anticipated that Ras 
Thavas might some day include me with an assignment of hormads to be examined by 
the jeds; but as the ranks of the bodyguards were often filled by drafts on the 
villages outside the city, there was no telling how long I should have to wait 
for such an opportunity.
Ras Thavas had detailed me as the personal servant of John Carter, so we were 
not separated; and as he worked constantly with Ras Thavas, the three of us were 
often together. In the presence of others, they treated me as they would have 
treated any other hormad – like a dumb and ignorant servant, but when we were 
alone they accepted me once more as an equal. They both marvelled at my enormous 
strength, which was merely one of the accidents of the growth of Tor-dur-bar's 
new body; and I was sure that Ras Thavas would have liked to slice me up and 
return me to the vats in the hope of producing a new strain of super-powerful 
hormads.
John Carter is one of the most human persons I have ever known. He is in every 
sense of the word a great man, a statesman, a soldier, perhaps the greatest 
swordsman that ever lived, grim and terrible in combat; but with it all he is 
modest and approachable, and he has never lost his sense of humor. When we were 
alone he would joke with me about my newly acquired "pulchritude," laughing in 
his quiet way until his sides shook; and I was, indeed, a sight to inspire both 
laughter and horror. My great torso on its short legs, my right arm reaching 
below my knees, my left but slightly below my waist line, I was all out of 
proportion.
"Your face is really your greatest asset," he said, after looking at me for a 
long time. "I should like to take you back to Helium as you are and present you 
at the jeddak's next levee. You know, of course, that you were considered one of 
the handsomest men in Helium. I should say, 'Here is the noble Vor Daj, a padwar 
of The Warlord's Guard,' and how the women would cluster around you!"
My face really was something to arrest attention. Not a single feature was 
placed where it should have been, and all were out of proportion, some being too 
large and some too small. My right eye was way up on my forehead, just below the 
hair line, and was twice as large as my left eye which was about half an inch in 
front of my left ear. My mouth started at the bottom of my chin and ran upward 
at an angle of about 45° to a point slightly below my huge right eye. My nose 
was scarcely more than a bud and occupied the place that my little left eye 
should have had. One ear was close set and tiny, the other a pendulous mass that 
hung almost to my shoulder. It inclined me to believe that the symmetry of 
normal humans might not be wholly a matter of accident, as Ras Thavas believed.
Tor-dur-bar, with his new body, had wanted a name instead of a number; so John 
Carter and Ras Thavas had christened him Tun-gan, a transposition of the 
syllables of Gantun Gur's first name. When I told them of my conversation with 
Teeaytan-ov they agreed with me that I should keep the name Tor-dur-bar. Ras 
Thavas said he would tell Tun-gan that he had grafted a new hormad brain into 
his old body, and this he did at the first opportunity.
Shortly thereafter I met Tun-gan in one of the laboratory corridors. He looked 
at me searchingly for a moment, and then stopped me. "What is your name?" he 
demanded.
"Tor-dur-bar," I replied.
He shuddered visibly. "Are you really as hideous as you appear?" he asked; and 
then, without waiting for me to reply, "Keep out of my sight if you don't want 
to go to the incinerator or the vats."
When I told John Carter and Ras Thavas about it, they had a good laugh. It was 
good to have a laugh occasionally, for there was little here that was amusing. I 
was worried about Janai as well as the possibility that I might never regain my 
former body; Ras Thavas was dejected because of the failure of his plan to 
regain his former laboratory in Toonol and avenge himself on Vobis Kan, the 
jeddak; and John Carter grieved constantly, I knew, over the fate of his 
princess.
While we were talking there in Ras Thavas's private study an officer from the 
palace was announced; and without waiting to be invited, he entered the room. "I 
have come to fetch the hormad called Tor-dur-bar," he said. "Send for him 
without delay."
"This is an order from the Council of the Seven Jeds," said the officer. He was 
a sullen, arrogant fellow; doubtless one of the red captives into whose skull 
the brain of a hormad had been grafted.
Ras Thavas shrugged and pointed at me. "This is Tor-dur-bar," he said.
CHAPTER X
I FIND JANAI
SEVEN OTHER HORMADS were lined up with me before the dais on which sat the seven 
jeds. I was, perhaps, the ugliest of them all. They asked us many questions. It 
was, in a way, a crude intelligence test, for they wished hormads above the 
average in intelligence to serve in this select body of monstrous guardsmen. I 
was to learn that they were becoming a little appearance conscious, also; for 
one of the jeds looked long at me, and then waved me aside.
"We do not want such a hideous creature in the guards," he said.
I looked around at the other hormads in the chamber, and really couldn't see 
much to choose from between them and me. They were all hideous monsters. What 
difference could it make that I was a little more hideous? Of course there was 
nothing for me to do; and, much disappointed, I stepped back from the line.
Five of the seven remaining were little better than halfwits, and they were 
eliminated. The other two might have been high grade morons at the best, but 
they were accepted. The Third Jed spoke to an officer. "Where is the hormad I 
sent for?" he demanded. "Tor-dur-bar."
"I am Tor-dur-bar," I said.
"Come here," said the Third Jed, and again I stepped to the foot of the dais.
"One of my guardsmen says you are the strongest person in Morbus," continued the 
Third Jed. "Are you?"
"I don't know," I replied. "I am very strong."
"He says that you can toss a man to the ceiling and catch him again. Let me see 
you do it."
I picked up one of the rejected hormads and threw him as high as I could. I 
learned then that I didn't know my own strength. The room was quite lofty, but 
the creature hit the ceiling with a dull thud and fell back into my arms 
unconscious. The seven jeds and the others in the room looked at me with 
astonishment.
"He may not be beautiful," said the Third Jed, "but I shall take him for my 
guard."
The jed who had waved me aside objected. "Guardsmen must be intelligent," he 
said. "This creature looks as though it had no brains at all."
"We shall see," said another jed, and then they commenced to fire questions at 
me. Of course they were simple questions that the most ignorant of red men could 
have answered easily, for the questioners had only the brains and experience of 
hormads after all.
"He is very intelligent," said the Third Jed. "He answers all our questions 
easily. I insist upon having him."
"We shall draw lots for him," said the First Jed.
"We shall do nothing of the kind," stormed the Third Jed. "He belongs to me. It 
was I who sent for him. None of the rest of you had ever heard of him."
"We shall take a vote on it," said the Fourth Jed.
The Fifth Jed, who had rejected me, said nothing. He just sat there scowling. I 
had made a fool of him by proving myself so desirable that many jeds wished me.
"Come," said the Seventh Jed, "let's take a vote to see whether we award him to 
the Third Jed or draw lots for him."
"Don't waste time," said the Third Jed, "for I am going to take him anyway." He 
was a big man, larger than any of his fellows.
"You are always making trouble," growled the First Jed.
"It is the rest of you that are making trouble," retorted the Third Jed, "by 
trying to deprive me of what is rightfully mine."
"The Third Jed is right," said the Second Jed. "None of the rest of us have any 
claim on this hormad. We were willing to see him rejected until the Third Jed 
proved that he would make a desirable guardsman."
They wrangled on for a long time, but finally gave in to the Third Jed. Now I 
had a new master. He put me in charge of one of his own officers and I was taken 
away to be initiated into the duties of a guardsman in the palace of the seven 
jeds of Morbus.
The officer conducted me to a large guardroom where there were many other hormad 
warriors. Teeaytan-ov was among them, and he lost no time in claiming credit for 
having me chosen for the guards. One of the first things I was taught was that I 
was to fight and die, if necessary, in defense of the Third Jed. I was given the 
insignia of the guard to wear around my neck, and then an officer undertook to 
train me in the use of a longsword. I had to pretend to a little awkwardness 
lest he discover that I was more familiar with the weapon than he. He 
complimented me upon my aptitude, and said that he would give me daily 
instruction thereafter.
I found my fellow guardsmen a stupid, egotistical lot of morons. They were all 
jealous of one another and of the seven jeds who were only hormads after all 
with the bodies of red men. I discovered that only fear held them in leash, for 
they were just intelligent enough to resent their lot and to envy the officers 
and jeds who had power and authority. The soil was ripe for mutiny or 
revolution. It was just an undercurrent that one sensed if he had intelligence, 
for they feared spies and informers too much to voice their true feeling aloud.
I chafed now at every delay that kept me from searching for Janai. I did not 
dare make any inquiries concerning her, as that would immediately have aroused 
suspicion; nor did I dare go poking about the palace until I knew more of its 
customs and its life.
The following day I was taken with a detachment of guardsmen beyond the walls of 
the city out among the crowded villages of the common hormads. Here I saw 
thousands of monstrous creatures, stupid and sullen, with no pleasures beyond 
eating and sleeping, and just enough intelligence ordinarily to make them 
dissatisfied with their lot. There were many, of course, with less brains and no 
more imagination than beasts. These alone were contented.
I saw envy and hate in the glances that many of them cast upon us and our 
officers, and there were growling murmurs after we had passed that followed us 
like the low moaning of the wind in the wake of a flier. I came to the 
conclusion that the Seven Jeds of Morbus were going to find many obstacles in 
the way of their grandiose plan to conquer a world with these creatures, and the 
most insurmountable of all would be the creatures themselves.
At last I learned the ways of the palace and how to find my way about, and the 
first time I was off duty I commenced a systematic search for Janai. I always 
moved quickly, as though I was on some important errand; so when I met officers 
or hormads they paid no attention to me.
One day, as I came to the end of a corridor, a hormad stepped from the doorway 
and confronted me. "What are you doing here?" he demanded. "Don't you know that 
these are the quarters of the women and that no one is allowed here except those 
who guard them?"
"You are one of the guards?" I asked.
"Yes; now be on your way, and don't come back here again."
"It must be a very important post, guarding the women," I said.
He swelled perceptibly. "It is, indeed. Only the most trustworthy warriors are 
chosen."
"Are the women very beautiful?" I asked.
"Very," he said.
"I certainly envy you. I wish that I might be a guard here, too. It would make 
me happy to see these beautiful women. I have never seen one. Just to get a 
glimpse of them would be wonderful,"
"Well," he said, "perhaps it would do no harm to let you have a little glimpse. 
You seem to be a very intelligent fellow. What is your name.
"I am Tor-dur-bar," I said. "I am in the guard of the Third Jed."
"You are Tor-dur-bar, the strongest man in Morbus?" he demanded.
"Yes, I am he."
"I have heard of you. Every one is talking about you, and how you threw a hormad 
up against the ceiling of the council chamber so hard that you killed him. I 
shall be very glad to let you have a look at the women, but don't tell anybody 
that I did so."
"Of course not," I assured him.
He stepped to the door at the end of the corridor and swung it open. Beyond was 
a large chamber in which were several women and a number of the sexless hormads 
who were evidently their servants.
"You may step in," said the guard; "they will think you are another guard."
I entered the room and looked quickly about, and as I did so my heart leaped to 
my throat, for there, at the far end of the room, was Janai. Forgetful of 
everything else, I started to cross toward her. I forgot the guard. I forgot 
that I was a hideous monster. I forgot everything but that here was the woman I 
loved and here was I. The guard overtook me and laid a hand upon my shoulder.
"Hey! Where are you going?" he demanded.
Then I came to myself. "I wanted to get a closer look at them," I said. "I 
wanted to see what it was that the jeds saw in women."
"Well, you have seen enough. I don't see what they see in them, myself. Come 
now, you must get out."
As he spoke the door by which we had entered swung open again, and the Third Jed 
entered. The guard shrivelled in terror. "Quick!" he gasped. "Mingle with the 
servants. Pretend you are one of them. Perhaps he will not notice you."
I crossed quickly toward Janai and kneeled before her. "What do you want?" she 
demanded. "What are you doing here, hormad? You are not one of our servants."
"I have a message for you," I whispered. 1 touched her with my hand. I could not 
help it. I could scarcely resist the tremendous urge I felt to take her in my 
arms. She shrank from me, an expression of loathing and disgust upon her face.
"Do not touch me, hormad," she said, "or I shall call the guard."
Then I remembered the hideous monster that I was, and I drew away from her. "Do 
not call the guard until you have heard my message," I begged.
"There is no one here to send me any message I would care to hear," she said.
"There is Vor Daj," I said. "Have you forgotten him?"
I waited breathlessly to note her reaction.
"Vor Daj!" she breathed in a whisper. "He has sent you to me?"
"Yes. He told me to find you. He did not know but that you were dead. He told me 
that if I found you I was to tell you that day and night he was searching for 
some plan whereby he might take you away from Morbus."
"There can be no hope," she said, "but tell him that I have not forgotten him 
and never shall. Every day I think of him, and now every day I shall bless him 
for thinking of me and wishing to help me."
I was about to say more to her, to tell her that Vor Daj loved her, so that I 
might see whether that pleased her or not; but then I heard a loud voice demand, 
"What are you doing here?" and turning I saw that the First Jed had entered the 
room and was confronting the Third Jed accusingly.
"I have come after my slave woman," replied the latter. "What are you going to 
do about it?"
"These women have not been distributed by the Council. You have no right to any 
of them. If you need more slaves, order some additional hormads. Come on, get 
out of here!"
For answer, the Third Jed crossed the room and seized Janai by one arm, "Come 
with me, woman," he ordered, and started to drag her toward the door; then the 
First Jed whipped out his sword and blocked the way. The sword of the Third Jed 
flashed from its scabbard, and the two men engaged, which necessitated the Third 
Jed's relinquishing his hold on Janai.
The duel was a rare spectacle of poor swordsmanship, but they skipped about the 
room so much and cut and slashed so terrifically in all directions that the 
other occupants of the chamber had to keep constantly on the move to avoid 
injury. I tried always to keep between them and Janai, and presently I found 
myself near the door with the girl close beside me. The attention of the guard 
as well as all others in the room was riveted upon the two combatants, and the 
door was just behind us. Nowhere could Janai be in greater danger than here. 
Perhaps never again would I have such an opportunity to get her out of these 
quarters in which she was a prisoner. Where I could take her, I did not know; 
but to get her out of here would be something. If, in some way, I could smuggle 
her into the laboratory I was sure that John Carter and Ras Thavas would find 
some place to hide her. Bending my ugly face close to her beautiful one, I 
whispered, "Come with me," but she shrank away. "Please don't be afraid of me," 
I begged. "I am doing this for Vor Daj, because he is my friend. I want to try 
to help you."
"Very well," she said, without further hesitation.
I looked hurriedly about the room. No one was paying any attention to us. Every 
eye was centered upon the combatants. I took Janai's hand, and together we 
slipped through the doorway out into the corridor beyond.
CHAPTER XI
WAR OF THE SEVEN JEDS
NOW THAT WE were out of the room where Janai had been imprisoned I hadn't the 
slightest idea where to take her. The suspicions of the first person who saw us 
together would be aroused. I asked Janai if she knew any place where I might 
hide her safely until I could find a way to get her out of the palace. She said 
that she did not. She knew only the room in which she had been imprisoned.
I hurried her down the corridor along which I had come, but at the head of the 
ramp leading to the floor below I saw two officers ascending. There was a door 
at my left; and as we had to get out of sight immediately, I opened it and 
hurried Janai into the room beyond, which, fortunately, was vacant. It was 
evidently a storeroom, for there were sacks and boxes piled along the walls. At 
the far end of the room was a window, and in one of the side walls another door.
I waited until I heard the officers pass along the corridor; then I opened the 
door in the side wall to see what lay beyond. There was another room in one 
comer of which was a pile of sleeping silks and furs. Everything was covered 
with dust, indicating that the room had not been occupied for a considerable 
time. In a curtained alcove was a bath, and from hooks along the wall hung the 
trappings of a warrior, even to his weapons. The former occupant must have left, 
expecting to return; and my guess was that he had been an officer who had gone 
out on some expedition and been killed, for the trappings and weapons that had 
been left behind were such as a fighting man wears upon dress occasions.
"We have stumbled upon an excellent place for you to hide," I said. "Keep the 
door to this room locked; there is a bolt on this side. I shall bring you food 
when I can, and just as soon as it is possible I'll get you to a safer place."
"Perhaps Vor Daj will come to see me," she suggested. "Be sure to tell him where 
I am."
"He would come if he could; but he is in the laboratory building, and cannot get 
out. Would you like to see him very much?" I couldn't resist asking her that.
"Very much, indeed," she said.
"He will be glad to know that, and until he can come I'll do the best I can to 
help you."
"Why are you so kind to me?" she asked. "You seem very different from the other 
hormads I have seen."
"I am Vor Daj's friend," I said. "I will do anything I can for him and for you. 
You are no longer afraid of me?"
"No. I was at first, but not now."
"You need never be afraid of me. There is nothing that I would not do for you, 
even to laying down my life for you."
"I thank you, even though I do not understand," she said.
"Some day you will understand, but not yet. Now I must be going. Be brave, and 
don't give up hope."
"Goodbye, –Oh, I do not even know your name."
"I am called Tor-dur-bar," I said.
"Oh, now I remember you. Your head was cut off in the fight in which Vor Daj and 
Dotar Sojat were captured. I remember that then you promised to be Vor Daj's 
friend. Now you have a new body,"
"I wish they might have given me a new face as well," I said, simulating a smile 
with my hideous great mouth.
"It is enough that you have a good heart," she said.
"It is enough for me that you think so, Janai; and now goodbye."
As I passed through the outer room I examined the sacks and boxes piled there, 
and was overjoyed to discover that they contained food. I hastened to acquaint 
Janai with this good news; then I left her and returned to the guardroom.
My fellow guardsmen were most uninteresting companions. Like most stupid people 
they talked principally about themselves and were great braggarts. Food was also 
a very important topic of conversation with them, and they would spend hours 
telling of the great quantities of animal tissue they had eaten upon various 
occasions. When there was no officer around they aired their grievances against 
the authority of the jeds; but this they did fearfully, as there was always the 
danger of spies or informers. Promotions to easier berths and larger allowances 
of animal tissue were the rewards for informing on one's fellows.
I had been back but a short time when an officer entered the room and ordered us 
to strap on our weapons and accompany him. He marched us to a very large room in 
the quarters of the Third Jed, to whom we belonged; and there I found that all 
the armed retainers of the jed were gathered. There was much whispering and 
speculation. The officers appeared unusually serious, and the atmosphere seemed 
charged with nervous apprehension.
Presently the Third Jed entered the room accompanied by his four principal 
dwars. He had been bleeding from several wounds which had been bandaged. I knew 
where he had acquired them, and I wondered how the First Jed had fared. The 
Third Jed mounted a dais and addressed us.
"You will accompany me to the Council of the Seven Jeds," he said. "It is your 
duty to see that no harm befalls me. Obey your officers. If you are loyal, you 
will receive an extra allowance of food and many privileges. I have spoken."
We were marched to the council chamber which was jammed with the armed hormads 
of the personal bodyguards of the seven jeds. The air was tense with suppressed 
excitement. Even the stupidest hormads seemed infected by it. Six jeds sat upon 
the dais. The First Jed was swathed in bandages that were red with blood. The 
throne of the Third Jed was empty. Surrounding our jed, we shouldered our way to 
the foot of the dais; but he did not mount to the throne. Instead, he stood on 
the floor facing the six jeds; and his voice and his manner were truculent as he 
addressed them.
"You sent warriors to arrest me," he said. "They are dead. There is no one in 
Morbus with the power or authority to arrest me. There are some among you who 
would like to be jeddak and rule the rest of us. The First Jed would like to be 
jeddak. The time has come for us to determine which one is fit to be jeddak, for 
I agree with others of you that seven men cannot rule as well as one. Divided 
authority is no authority."
"You are under arrest," shouted the First Jed.
The Third Jed laughed at him. "You are giving additional proof that you are not 
fit to be jeddak, for you can only issue orders – you cannot enforce them."
The First Jed looked down at his followers, addressing his chief dwar. "Seize 
him!" he commanded. "Take the traitor dead or alive."
The warriors of the First Jed moved toward us, forcing their way slowly through 
crowds of other warriors. I chanced to be standing in the front row, facing the 
oncoming hormads. A big warrior was the first to shoulder his way through to us. 
He made a pass at me with his sword. He was very slow and clumsy, and I had no 
difficulty stepping quickly to one side and avoiding it. He had put so much into 
that blow, that, when he missed me, he lost his balance and came tumbling into 
my arms. That was wonderful! I hoisted him in to the air and threw him fully 
fifty feet from me, so that he alighted in the midst of his companions, knocking 
many of them to the floor.
"Good work, Tor-dur-bar!" shouted the Third Jed. "You shall have all the meat 
you want for that."
A second man reached me and I threw him all the way across the room. I was just 
beginning to appreciate what enormous strength I had. It seemed absolutely 
incredible that any creature could be so strong. After that there was a lull 
during which the Third Jed succeeded in making himself heard again.
"I, the Third Jed," he thundered, "now proclaim myself Jeddak of Morbus. Let the 
jeds who will swear allegiance to me rise!"
No one rose. It looked bad for the Third Jed, as the chamber was packed with the 
warriors of the other jeds. It also looked pretty bad for us. I wondered what 
the Third Jed would do. It seemed to me that his life was forfeit anyway, no 
matter what he did. He turned and spoke to the dwars clustered about him, and 
immediately orders were given for us to fall back to the doorway. Then the 
fighting began as the other jeds ordered their warriors to prevent our escape.
The Third Jed called me by name. "Clear a way to the door, Tor-dur-bar!" he 
cried. It seemed to me that he was banking rather too heavily upon my strength; 
but I enjoyed fighting, and this looked like an excellent opportunity to get my 
fill of it. I forced my way back through our own ranks to what was now the front 
rank of our attack, and here I found that fate had given me a great advantage in 
one of my deformities. My enormously long arm was my sword arm, which, backed by 
my super-human strength and a long sword, permitted me to cut a swath through 
the enemy line that opened a path as by magic, for those that I did not mow down 
turned and fled before the intensity of my attack.
There were heads and arms and legs and halves of bodies writhing and squirming 
on the floor; there were heads screaming and cursing under foot, and headless 
bodies dashing about the room colliding with friend and foe indiscriminately. If 
there ever was a shambles it was there in the great council chamber of the seven 
jeds of Morbus. The hormads were, for the most part, too stupid to know fear; 
but when they saw their officers fleeing from me, their morale was shattered; 
and we won to the door with scarcely a casualty on our side.
From there our officers led us out of the palace into the city and down the long 
avenue to the city gates. There they knew nothing of what had been going on in 
the palace, and swung the gates open at the command of the Third Jed. Of course, 
they couldn't have stopped us anyway, for we greatly outnumbered the guard at 
the gates.
I wondered where we were going as we marched out of the city of Morbus; but I 
was soon to discover, for at the first of the outer villages that we came to, 
the Third Jed demanded its surrender, and announced that he was the Jeddak of 
Morbus. He swore the officers and warriors into his service, promoted many of 
the former, promised increased rations to the latter, left a dwar to represent 
him and marched on to new conquests.
Nowhere did he meet with opposition, and in three days he had conquered all of 
the island of Morbus except the city itself. The dwars he left behind organized 
the local warriors to oppose any force that might be sent out by the six jeds 
remaining in command of the city, but during those three days no army marched 
out of Morbus to contest the right of the new jeddak to rule.
On the fifth day we marched back to a large village on the coast, near the city; 
and here Ay-mad, Jeddak of Morbus, established his capital. This is the name he 
took, the literal translation of which is One-man, or Number One Man, or First 
Man. Anyway, he was head man; and I think that of all the seven jeds he was best 
fitted to be jeddak. He had a physique and face suited to his new role, and he 
possessed one of the best brains of any of the hormads that I had knowledge of.
Of course all that had happened seemed at the time to have placed me in an 
utterly hopeless position. Janai was in the city beyond any hope of my succoring 
her. I was separated from The Warlord and from Ras Thavas. I was only a poor 
hormad without influence or position. I could do nothing, and by now I must have 
been so well known in the city that I could not possibly enter it 
surreptitiously. My hideous features must by this time have become all too well 
known to the followers of the six jeds to permit me the slightest hope of 
entering the city unrecognized.
When we finally encamped in the new capital of Ay-mad I threw myself upon the 
ground with my fellow hormads and awaited the issuance of the slimy animal 
tissue that was our principal reward for the conquests we had made. It satisfied 
most of the poor, moronic, half-witted creatures who were my comrades; but it 
did not satisfy me. I was endowed with more brains, more ability, more 
experience, more physical strength than any of them. I was by far a better man 
than the jeddak himself; and yet I was only a hideous, malformed hormad that no 
self-respecting calot would associate with. I was thus occupied with self-pity 
when an officer came calling my name aloud. I stood up.
"I am Tor-dur-bar," I said.
"Come with me," he said. "The Jeddak has sent for you."
I accompanied him to where the Jeddak and all his principal officers were 
gathered, wondering what new task Ay-mad had conceived for the testing of my 
enormous strength, for I could not believe that he wished to see me for any 
other purpose. I had acquired the typical inferiority of a true hormad.
They had fixed up a sort of a dais and throne for Ay-mad, and he sat there like 
a regular jeddak with his officers grouped around him, "Approach, Tor-dur-bar!" 
he commanded, and so I came forward and stood before the throne. "Kneel," he 
said, and I kneeled, for I was only a poor hormad. "More than to any other the 
victory that we won in the council chamber in Morbus was due to you," he said. 
"You not only have the strength of many men, but you have intelligence. Because 
of these things I appoint you a dwar, and when we enter Morbus in victory you 
may select the body of any red man there and I will command Ras Thavas to 
transfer your brain to it."
So I was a dwar. I thanked Ay-mad, and joined the other dwars clustered about 
him. They all had the bodies of red men. How many of them had hormad brains, I 
did not know. I was the only dwar with the body of a hormad. I might, as far as 
I knew, be the only one with the brains of a human being.
CHAPTER XII
WARRIOR'S REWARD
MORBUS IS A walled city. It is practically impregnable to men armed only with 
swords. For seven days Ay-mad tried to take it, but all his warriors could do 
was to beat futilely upon the great wooden gates while the defending warriors 
dropped heavy stones on their heads. At night we withdrew, and the defenders 
probably went to sleep with a sense of perfect security. On the eighth day 
Ay-mad called a conference of his dwars. "We are getting nowhere," he said. "We 
could pound on those gates for a thousand years and do nothing more important 
than make dents in them. How are we to take Morbus? If we conquer the world we 
must capture Morbus and Ras Thavas."
"You cannot conquer the world," I said, "but you can take Morbus."
"Why can't we conquer the world?" he demanded.
"It is too large, and there are too many great nations to be overcome."
"What do you know about the world?" he demanded. "You are only a hormad who has 
never been outside of Morbus."
"You will see that I am right, if you try to conquer the world; but it would be 
easy to take the city of Morbus."
"And how?" he asked.
I told him in a few words how I should do it were I in command. He looked at me 
for a long time, thinking the matter out. "It is too simple," he said; then he 
turned on the others. "Why have none of you thought of this before?" he 
demanded. "Tor-dur-bar is the only man of brains among you."
All that night a thousand hormads were engaged in building long ladders, all 
that night and the next day. We had a thousand of them, and when both moons had 
passed below the horizon on the second night a hundred thousand hormads crept 
toward the walls of Morbus with their long ladders. In a thousand places all 
around the city we raised our ladders to the top of the walls, and at a given 
signal a hundred men scaled each ladder and dropped into the city streets.
The rest was easy. We took the sleeping city with the loss of only a few 
warriors; and Ay-mad, with his dwars, entered the council chamber. The first 
thing that he did was to have all but one throne removed from the dais; then, 
seated there, he had the six jeds dragged before him. They were a sheepish, 
terrified lot.
"How do you wish to die?" he asked, "or would you rather have your brains 
returned to the skulls of hormads from whence they came?"
"That cannot be done," said the Fifth Jed, "but if it could, I would rather go 
to the vats. I do not wish to be a hormad again."
"Why can't it be done?" demanded Ay-mad. "What Ras Thavas has done so many 
times, he can do again."
"There is no Ras Thavas," said the Fifth Jed. "He has disappeared."
The effect that that statement had upon me may well be imagined. If it were 
true, I was doomed to lifetime imprisonment in the monstrous carcass of a 
hormad. There could be no escape, for Vad Varo of Duhor was as far removed from 
me as though he had been back upon his own planet of Jasoom; and he was the only 
other man in the world who could restore my brain to its rightful body if Ras 
Thavas were dead. With the new Jeddak of Morbus seeking to conquer the world, 
all men would be our enemies. I could not call upon any man to save me.
And what of Janai? I should always be repulsive to her, and so I could never 
tell her the truth. It were far better that she believe me dead than that she 
should know that my brain was forever buried behind this loathsome, inhuman 
mask. How could one with an exterior like mine speak of love? And love was not 
for hormads.
In a daze, I heard Ay-mad ask what had become of Ras Thavas and the Fifth Jed 
reply, "No one knows. He has simply disappeared. As he could not escape from the 
city without detection, we believe that some of the hormads sliced him up and 
threw him into one of his own culture vats in revenge."
Ay-mad was furious, for without Ras Thavas his dream of world conquest was 
shattered. "This is the work of my enemies," he cried. "Some of you six jeds had 
a hand in this. You have destroyed Ras Thavas or hidden him. Take them away! Put 
them in separate dungeons in the pits. The one who confesses first shall have 
his life and his liberty, The rest shall die. I give you one day to decide."
After the six jeds had been dragged away Ay-mad offered amnesty to all of their 
officers who would swear allegiance to him, an invitation which was refused by 
none, since refusal could mean nothing but death. After this formality, which 
took a matter of some hours, was completed, Ay-mad publicly acknowledged that 
the success of his operations against Morbus was due to me; and told me that he 
would grant me any favor that I might ask and that in addition to that he was 
appointing me an odwar, a military rank analogous to that of general in the 
armies of the planet Earth.
"And now," continued Ay-mad, "choose the favor that you would ask."
"That I should like to do in private," I said, "for the favor I wish to ask can 
be of no interest to any but you and me."
"Very well," he said. "I grant you a private audience immediately upon the 
conclusion of this one."
It was with some impatience that I awaited the conclusion of the session in the 
council chamber, and when at last Ay-mad arose and motioned me to follow him I 
breathed a sigh of relief. He led me into a small apartment directly behind the 
dais and seated himself behind a large desk..
"Now," he said, "what is the favor you wish to ask?"
"I am going to ask two," I replied. "I should like to be placed in full charge 
of the laboratory building."
"I see no objection to that," he interrupted. "But why such a strange request?"
"There is the body of a red man there to which I should like to have my brain 
transferred if Ras Thavas is ever found," I explained, "and if I am in full 
charge of the laboratory building I can protect the body and make sure that Ras 
Thavas performs the operation."
"Very well," he said, "your request is granted. What is the other?"
"I want you to give me the girl, Janai."
His face clouded at that. "What do you want of a girl?" he demanded. "You are 
only a hormad."
"Some day I may be a red man."
"But why the girl, Janai? What do you know of her? I didn't know you had ever 
seen her."
"I was with the party that captured her. She is the only woman I have ever seen 
that I wanted."
"I couldn't give her to you if I had a mind to," he said. "She, too, has 
disappeared. While I was fighting with the First Jed she must have escaped from 
the room – we were fighting in the apartment in which the women were being held 
– and she has not been seen since."
"Will you give her to me if she is found?"
"I want her myself."
"But you have the pick of many others. I have seen beautiful women in the 
palace; and among them there must be one who would make you a splendid wife, a 
suitable consort for a jeddak. This, of all the favors I might ask, I wish the 
most."
"She would rather die than belong to a hideous monster like you," he said.
"Well, grant me this, then: that if she is found the decision be left to her."
He laughed. "That I agree to willingly. You don't think, do you, that she would 
choose you in preference to a jeddak, a monster in preference to a man?"
"I have been told that women are unpredictable. I am willing to take the chance 
and abide by her decision, if you are."
"Then it is agreed," he said, and he was quite good natured about it, so certain 
was he of the outcome; "but you are not getting much in the way of reward for 
the services you have rendered me. I thought you would at least ask for a palace 
of your own and many servants."
"I asked for the two things I wish most," I said, "and I am content."
"Well, you may have the palace and the servants whenever you wish them, for by 
your own proposition you will never have the girl, even if she be found."
As soon as he dismissed me I hurried to the apartment where I had left Janai, 
and my heart was in my mouth for fear that I should not find her there. I had to 
be careful that no one saw me enter the storeroom that led to her hiding place, 
for I did not want Ay-mad ever to discover that I had known all along where she 
was hidden. Fortunately the corridor was empty, and I entered the storeroom 
unseen. Going to the door of Janai's room, I knocked. There was no answer.
"Janai!" I called. "It is I, Tor-dur-bar. Are you there?"
Then I heard the bolt being withdrawn, and the door swung open. There she stood! 
My heart almost stopped for very relief. And she was so beautiful! It seemed 
that each new time I saw her she had become more beautiful.
"You are back," she said. "I began to fear that you would never come. Do you 
bring word from Vor Daj?"
So she was thinking of Vor Daj! On such slight sustenance does love thrive. I 
entered the room and closed the door.
"Vor Daj sends greetings," I said. "He thinks of nothing but you and your 
welfare."
"But he cannot come to me?"
"No. He is a prisoner in the laboratory building, but he has charged me to look 
after you. Now I can do so better than before for many changes have taken place 
in Morbus since I last saw you. I am an odwar now, and my influence with the new 
jeddak is considerable."
"I have been hearing sounds of fighting," she said. "Tell me what has happened."
I told her briefly and that the Third Jed was now jeddak. "Then I am lost," she 
said, "for he is all powerful."
"Perhaps that is your salvation," I told her. "To reward me for the services I 
had rendered him, the new jeddak made me an odwar and promised to grant me any 
favor I asked."
"And what did you ask of him?"
"You."
I could almost feel the shudder that ran through her frame as she looked at my 
hideous face and deformed body. "Please!" she begged. "You said you were my 
friend, that you were the friend of Vor Daj. He would not wish you to have me, I 
am sure."
"I only asked for you that I might protect you for Vor Daj," I said.
"How does Vor Daj know that I would have him?" she demanded.
"He doesn't know. He only hopes that I may protect you from others. I have not 
said, have I, that Vor Daj wishes you for himself?" I could not resist saying 
that just to match her seeming indifference to Vor Daj. Her chin went up a 
little, and that pleased me. I know something of women and their reactions.
"What did the Third Jed say when you asked for me?" she inquired.
"He is jeddak now, and he calls himself Ay-mad," I explained, "He said that you 
would not have me; so I have come to lay the whole matter before you. It is for 
you to decide. I think that Vor Daj loves you. You must choose between him and 
Ay-mad. Ay-mad will ask you to make the choice between him and me; but the 
choice will really be between him and Vor Daj, only Ay-mad won't know that. If 
you choose me, Ay-mad will be insulted and angry; but I believe that he will 
keep his bargain. Then I shall take you to quarters near my own and protect you 
until such time as you and Vor Daj can escape from Morbus. I can also assure you 
that Vor Daj will hold you to no promise afterward. His only thought now is to 
help you."
"I was sure that he would be like that," she said, "and you may be sure that 
when the choice is given me I shall choose you rather than Ay-mad."
"Even though by choosing him you could become a jeddara?" I asked.
"Even so," she said.
CHAPTER XIII
JOHN CARTER DISAPPEARS
AFTER LEAVING JANAI I went at once to the laboratory building to find John 
Carter and learn what he knew of the disappearance of Ras Thavas. Janai and I 
had decided that she should remain where she was for a few days so that Ay-mad's 
suspicions would not be aroused by my finding her too easily. I had determined 
to institute a search during which she should be found by someone else, though I 
would be close at hand to prevent any miscarriage of our plans.
One of the first persons I met on entering the laboratory building was Tun Gan. 
At sight of me he flew into a rage. "I thought I told you to keep out of my 
sight," he blustered. "Do you want to go to the incinerator?"
I pointed to my badge of office, which he evidently had not noticed. "You 
wouldn't send one of the jeddak's odwars to the incinerator, would you?" I 
inquired.
He was dumfounded. "You an odwar?" he demanded.
"Why not?" I asked.
"But you are only a hormad."
"Perhaps, but I am also an odwar. I could have you sent to the incinerator or 
the vats, but I don't intend to. I have your body; so we should be friends. What 
do you say?"
"All right," he agreed. What else could he do? "But I don't understand how you 
got to be an odwar with that awful looking face and your deformed body."
"Don't forget that they were your face and body once," I reminded him. "And also 
don't forget that you couldn't get anywhere with them. It takes more than a face 
or body to get places – it takes a brain that is good for something beside 
thinking of food."
"I still can't understand why you should be made an odwar when there are such 
fine looking men as I to choose from."
"Well, never mind. That isn't what I came here to discuss. I have been placed in 
full charge of the laboratory building. I have come to talk with John Carter. Do 
you know where he is?"
"No. Neither does any one else. He disappeared at the same time Ras Thavas did."
That was a new blow. John Carter gone! But on second thought the fact gave me 
renewed hope. If they were both gone and nobody knew what had become of them, it 
seemed to me quite possible that they had found the means to escape together. I 
was certain John Carter would never desert me. If he were gone of his own free 
will, he would return. He'd never leave me housed in this awful carcass.
"Has no one any idea of what became of them?" I asked.
"They may have been sliced up and thrown into one of the vats," said Tun Gan. 
"Some of the older hormads have been getting out of hand, and Ras Thavas had 
threatened them with the incinerator. They might have done it to save themselves 
or just to be revenged upon him."
"I'm going to Ras Thavas's study," I said. "Come with me."
I found the study in about the same condition I had last seen it. There was 
nothing to indicate that a struggle of any kind had taken place, not a clue that 
pointed to any solution of the mystery. I was completely baffled.
"When were they last seen?"
"About three days ago. One of the hormads said he saw them coming up from the 
pits. I don't know why they were there. No one goes there any more since they 
stopped storing bodies, and no prisoners are kept there. They use the pits 
beneath some of the other buildings for them."
"Were the pits searched?"
"Yes, but no trace of them was found."
'Wait here a minute," I said. I wanted to go into the small laboratory and have 
a look at my body. I wanted to be sure it was safe, but I didn't wish Tun Gan to 
see it. I had an idea that he would suspect something if he saw my body. He 
wasn't very brilliant, but it wouldn't have taken much intelligence to guess 
what had become of the brain of Vor Daj.
Tun Gan waited for me in the study. I knew where the key to the small laboratory 
was hidden, because Ras Thavas had shown me; and I was soon turning it in the 
lock. A moment later I stepped into the room, and then I got another shock – my 
body had disappeared!
My knees became so weak that I collapsed onto a bench, and there I sat with my 
head in my hands. My body gone! With it had gone my last hope of winning Janai. 
It was unthinkable that I could win her with this awful face and grotesque body. 
I wouldn't have wanted to win her like that. I couldn't have had any respect for 
her or for any other woman who could have chosen such an abominable creature as 
I.
Presently I gathered myself together and walked over to the table where I had 
last seen my body. Everything seemed to be in order, except that the container 
that had held my blood was missing. Could it be possible that Ras Thavas had 
transferred another brain to my body? He couldn't have done it without John 
Carter's approval, and if John Carter had approved there must have been a good 
reason for it. One occurred to me. They might have found an opportunity to 
escape from the island that had to be taken advantage of on the instant or not 
at all. In that case, it might have seemed wiser to John Carter to have another 
brain transferred to my skull and take my body along with him, rather than leave 
it here in danger of destruction, Of course he would only have done this had he 
been assured that they could return later and rescue me. But of course this was 
all idle conjecture. The truth of the matter was that there was no explanation.
As I sat there thinking about the matter, I recalled the case history that Ras 
Thavas had written and hung at the foot of the table where my body lay. I 
thought I would take a look at it and see if any further entries had been made, 
but when I walked to the foot of the table I saw that the history was not there. 
In its place hung a single sheet on which were written two numbers – "3-17." 
What did they signify? Nothing, as far as I was concerned.
I returned to the study and directed Tun Gan to accompany me while I made an 
inspection of the laboratories, for if I were to be in charge I'd have to make 
some semblance of a gesture in line with my newly acquired authority.
"How have things been going since Ras Thavas disappeared?" I asked Tun Gan.
"Not so well," he replied. "In fact things seem to go all wrong without him," 
and when I reached the first vat room I realized that that was a crass 
understatement of fact. Things couldn't well have been much worse. The floor was 
covered with the remains of hideous monstrosities that the officers had had to 
have destroyed. The parts still lived. Legs were trying to walk, hands were 
clutching at whatever came within reach, heads were lying about screaming and 
moaning. I called the officer in charge to me.
"What is the meaning of this?" I demanded. "Why hasn't something been done with 
these things?"
"Who are you to question me, hormad?" he demanded.
I touched the insignia of my rank, and his attitude changed sharply. "I am in 
charge here now," I said. "Answer my questions."
"No one but Ras Thavas knew exactly how to slice them up for the vats, he said, 
"nor which vats to put them in."
"Have them taken to the incinerator," I said. "Until Ras Thavas returns burn all 
that are useless."
"Something has gone wrong in No. 4 vat room," he said. "Perhaps you had better 
have a look in there."
When I reached No. 4 the sight that met my eyes was one of the most horrible I 
have ever looked upon. Something had evidently gone wrong with the culture 
medium, and instead of individual hormads being formed, there was a single huge 
mass of animal tissue emerging from the vat and rolling out over the floor. 
Various internal and external human parts and organs grew out of it without any 
relation to other parts, a leg here, a hand there, a head somewhere else; and 
the heads were mouthing and screaming, which only added to the horror of the 
scene.
"We tried to do something about it," said the officer, "but when we tried to 
kill the mess, the hands clutched us and the heads bit us. Even our hormads were 
afraid to go near it, and if anything is too horrible for them you can't expect 
human beings to stomach it."
I quite agreed with him. Frankly, I didn't know what to do. I couldn't get near 
the vat to drain off the culture medium and stop the growth; and with the 
hormads afraid to approach it, it would be impossible to destroy it.
"Shut the doors and windows," I said. "Eventually it will smother itself or 
starve to death," but as I was leaving the room I saw one of the heads take a 
large bite from an adjacent piece of the tissue. At least it wouldn't starve to 
death.
The scene haunted me for a long time afterward, and I couldn't rid my mind of 
speculation upon what was transpiring in that chamber of horrors, behind those 
closed doors and windows.
I spent several days trying to get things straightened out in the laboratory 
building; and succeeded, largely due to the fact that no one knew just how to 
prepare the tissue for the culture vats as they were emptied by the development 
of their horrid spawn. The result was a rapidly decreasing output of hormads, 
for which I was, of course, thankful. Soon there would be no more of them, and I 
could have wished that Ras Thavas might never return to renew his obscene labors 
had it not been for the fact that only through him might I hope to reclaim my 
own body.
During this time I did not visit Janai, lest her hiding place be discovered and 
Ay-mad suspicious that he had been tricked; but at last I determined that it 
would be safe to "find" her; and so I went to Ay-mad, told him that I had been 
unsuccessful in locating her, and that I was about to institute a thorough 
search of the palace.
"If you find her," he said, "you will find only a corpse. She could not have 
left the palace. I think you will agree with me there, for no woman could leave 
this palace without being seen by a member of the guard or one of our spies."
"But what makes you think her dead?" I asked.
"People cannot live without food or drink, and I have had you and everyone else 
who might have taken food to her watched. No food has been taken to her. Go on 
with your search, Tor-dur-bar. Your reward, if there is reward at all, will be 
the body of a dead woman."
There was something in his expression when he said this that gave me pause. That 
half smile of his – cunning and self-satisfied. What did it denote? Had he found 
Janai and had her destroyed? Immediately I began to worry. I conjured all sorts 
of horrible pictures, and it was with the greatest difficulty that I restrained 
myself from going at once to Janai's hiding place that I might learn the truth. 
But my better judgment prevailed; and, instead, I immediately organized a 
searching party. I put trustworthy officers in charge; and directed each to 
search a given part of the palace, looking in every room, closet, cubby hole. I 
accompanied one of the parties. This one was commanded by Sytor, whom I trusted, 
and included Teeaytan-ov, who often bragged loudly about his friendship for me. 
The part of the palace it was to search included the room in which Janai was 
hiding.
I did not direct the search particularly to that apartment, and I became 
extremely nervous while they searched everywhere but where she was. At last they 
came to the storeroom. I followed Sytor into it.
"She is not here," I said.
"But there is another door, over there," he replied, and walked over to it.
"Probably just another storeroom," I said, trying to appear indifferent, though 
my heart was pounding with excitement.
"It's locked," he said – "locked on the other side. This looks suspicious."
I stepped to his side and called, "Janai!" There was no reply. My heart sank. 
"Janai! Janai!" I repeated.
"She is not there," said Sytor, "but I suppose we'll have to break the door down 
to make sure."
"Yes, break it down."
He sent for tools, and when they were brought his hormads set to work upon the 
door. As the panels commenced to splinter, Janai's voice came from the interior 
of the other room. "I will open," she said. We heard the bolt being withdrawn, 
and then the door swung open. My heart leaped as I saw her there safe and well. 
"What do you want of me?" she demanded.
"I am to take you to Ay-mad, the Jeddak," said Sytor.
"I am ready," said Janai. She did not even look at me. I wondered if she had 
decided at last that it might not be so bad to be a jeddara. She had had many 
days to think the matter over, during which I had not visited her. Perhaps she 
had changed her mind. I could understand that the temptation might be great, for 
what had Vor Daj to offer her? Certainly not security, which is what a woman 
wants above all things.
Down to the private audience chamber of Ay-mad, Jeddak of Morbus, my heart 
trailed Sytor and Janai with its tail between its legs.
CHAPTER XIV
WHEN THE MONSTER GROWS
LOVE POSSESSES A morbid imagination which conjures the most appalling pictures. 
It cannot await the development of eventualities, but must anticipate the worst. 
Quite often it is clairvoyant. That was what I feared now as Sytor, Janai, and I 
stood before Ay-mad. Sytor, with his handsome face and fine body; Ay-mad in the 
trappings of a jeddak; Janai, perfect and beautiful! These I compared with my 
hideous face and monstrous, malformed body; and my heart sank. How could Janai 
choose me in preference to any normal man? And if that man were a jeddak, what 
chance would I have? I insisted on confusing myself with the real Vor Daj, and 
you must admit that it might be confusing to have one brain and two bodies.
Ay-mad's eyes devoured Janai, and my heart quailed; but if she chose me, and 
Ay-mad failed to live up to his bargain, I swore to myself that I should kill 
him. He dismissed Sytor; then he faced Janai.
"This hormad," he said, indicating me, "has been of service to me. To reward 
him, I told him that I would grant him a favor. He has asked for you. We have 
decided that we shall abide by your choice. If Ras Thavas is found, the hormad 
hopes to acquire a new body. If Ras Thavas is not found, he will remain always 
as he is. If you choose me, you will become jeddara of Morbus. Whom do you 
choose?"
I could not but feel that Ay-mad had stated the case quite fairly, but I guess 
he felt that every argument was on his side anyway; so why add embellishments? 
In weighing the matter, there didn't seem much doubt as to what Janai's answer 
must be. Ay-mad was offering her marriage and position. Vor Daj had nothing to 
offer, and there was no more reason to suspect that her heart could be inclined 
more to one than to the other she scarcely knew either.
Ay-mad became impatient. "Well," he demanded, "what is your answer?"
"I shall go with Tor-dur-bar," she said.
Ay-mad bit his lip, but he took it rather decently. "Very well," he said, "but I 
think you are making a mistake. If you change your mind, let me know." Then he 
dismissed us.
On the way back to the laboratory building I was walking on air. Janai had made 
her choice, and I should have her with me now and under my protection. She 
seemed rather happy, too.
"Shall I see Vor Daj right away?" she asked.
"I'm afraid not," I replied.
"Why?" she demanded, and she seemed suddenly depressed.
"It may take a little time," I explained. "In the mean time you will be with me 
and perfectly safe."
"But I thought that I was going to see Vor Daj. You haven't tricked me into 
this, have you, hormad?"
"If you think that, you had better go back to Ay-mad"' I snapped, prompted by 
probably the strangest complexity of emotions that any human being had ever been 
assailed with – I was jealous of myself!
Janai became contrite. "I'm sorry," she said, "but I am terribly upset. Please 
forgive me. I have been through enough to drive one mad."
I had already selected and arranged quarters for Janai in the laboratory 
building. They were next to mine and some little distance from the horror of the 
vat rooms. I had selected several of the more intelligent hormads as her 
servants and guards, and she seemed quite pleased with the arrangements. When I 
had seen her safely established, I told her that if she needed me or wished to 
see me about anything to send for me and I would come; then I left her and went 
to Ras Thavas's study.
I had accomplished all of my design that required my hideous disguise; but now I 
could not rid myself of it; and it stood in the way of my aiding Janai to escape 
from Morbus, for I could not go out into the world in my present monstrous form. 
Only in Morbus could I hope for any safety.
To occupy my mind I had been looking through Ras Thavas's papers and notes, most 
of which were utterly meaningless to me; and now I continued idly going through 
his desk, though my mind was not on anything that I saw. I was thinking of 
Janai. I was wondering what had become of John Carter and Ras Thavas and what 
fate had overtaken my poor body. The future could not have looked darker. 
Presently I came upon what was evidently the plans of a building, and as I 
examined them casually I saw that they were the plans of the laboratory 
building, for I easily recognized the two floors with which I was most familiar.
At the bottom of the sheets was a floor plan of the pits beneath the building. 
It was laid out in corridors and cells. There were three long corridors running 
the length of the pits and five transverse corridors, and they were numbered 
from 1 to 8. The cells along each corridor were also numbered, even numbers upon 
one side of each corridor and odd numbers upon the other. It was all very 
uninteresting, and I rolled the plans up to replace them in the desk. Just then 
Tun Gan was announced by the guard in the outer room. He was quite excited when 
he came in.
"What's the matter?" I asked, for I could see by his manner that there was 
something wrong.
"Come here," he said, "and I'll show you."
He led me out into the main corridor and then into a side room that overlooked a 
large courtyard that gave light and ventilation to several of the inside rooms 
of the laboratory, among them No. 4 vat room, the windows of which were directly 
across from the room in which we were. The sight that met my eyes as I looked 
out into the courtyard was absolutely appalling. The mass of living tissue had 
grown so rapidly in the forcing culture medium discovered by Ras Thavas that it 
had completely filled the room, exerting such pressure in all directions that 
finally a window had given way; and the horrid mass was billowing out into the 
courtyard.
"There!" said Tun Gan. "What are you going to do about that?"
"There is nothing I can do about it," I said. "There is nothing that anybody can 
do about it. I doubt that Ras Thavas could do anything. He has created a force 
that he probably couldn't control himself, once it got away from him."
"What will be the end of it?" asked Tun Gan.
"If it doesn't stop growing it will crowd every other living thing out of 
Morbus. It grows and grows and feeds upon itself. It might even envelop the 
whole world. What is there to stop it?"
Tun Gan shook his head. He didn't know. "Maybe Ay-mad could stop it," he 
suggested. "He is jeddak."
"Send for him," I said. "Tell him that something has happened here in the 
laboratory building that I wish him to see for himself." For once in my life I 
was anxious to shift responsibility to another's shoulders, for I was helpless 
in the face of such an emergency as had never before confronted any human being 
since the creation of the world.
Well, in due time Ay-mad came; and when he had looked out of the window and 
listened to my explanation of the phenomenon he just tossed the whole 
responsibility back into my lap.
"You wanted to have full charge of the laboratory," he said, "and I put you in 
charge. This is your problem, not mine." With that he turned away and went back 
to the palace. By this time the entire floor of the courtyard was covered with 
the wriggling, jibbering mass; and more was oozing down from the broken window 
above.
Well, I thought, it will take a long time to fill this courtyard. In the 
meantime I may think of something to do, and with that I returned to my quarters 
and sat looking despondently out of the window across the walls of Morbus at the 
dismal Toonolian Marsh that spread in all directions as far as the eye could 
see. It reminded me of the spreading mass in the courtyard beneath No. 4 vat 
room; so I closed my eyes to shut out the sight.
For some reason, the plans of the building, that I had found in Ras Thavas's 
desk, came to my mind; then I recalled the trip from Helium with The Warlord. 
That reminded me of my own body, for I could see it now, trapped in the harness 
of The Warlord's Guards. Where was it? I had last seen it on the ersite slab in 
the small laboratory of Ras Thavas. That slab was empty now, and at its foot 
hung a single sheet with the cryptic numbers 3-17 written on it. 3-17! What in 
the world could that signify?
Suddenly my mind was galvanized into action. Those numbers might have definite 
significance! I leaped to my feet and hurried to Ras Thavas's little study. Here 
I dragged out the plans of the building and spread them out, turning back the 
pages to the floor plan of the pits. I ran my finger quickly down corridor 3 to 
17. Could that be the answer? I examined the plans more carefully. In one corner 
of cell 17 was a tiny circle. There were no circles in any of the other cells. 
What did that circle mean? Did it mean anything? Did the "3-17" written on the 
sheet at the foot of the table on which my body had lain have any connection 
with a corridor and cell number? There was but one way to answer these 
questions. I rose hurriedly from the desk and went out into the corridor. 
Passing hormads and officers, I made my way to the ramp that led to the lower 
floor and the pits. I carried the map of the pits indelibly imprinted upon my 
memory. I could have found 3-17 with my eyes shut.
The corridors and the cells were plainly numbered; so that I had no difficulty 
in finding cell 17 in corridor 3. I tried the door. It was locked! How stupid of 
me. I might have known that it would be locked if it hid the thing for which I 
sought. I knew where Ras Thavas kept the keys to the various locks in the 
laboratory building; so now I retraced my steps, but this time I saw several 
officers look at me in what I imagined was a suspicious manner. Spies, I 
thought; some of Ay-mad's spies. I should have to be careful. That would mean 
further delay.
Now I moved listlessly. I pretended to inspect one of the vat rooms. I sent one 
of the officers I had long suspicioned on an errand. I went to a window and 
looked out. Eventually I made my leisurely way to the study; and here I had no 
difficulty in finding the key I sought, as Ras Thavas was meticulously 
methodical in all he did; and each key had been numbered and marked.
Now I must return to the pits without arousing suspicion. Once again I sauntered 
out through the corridors and rooms, and finally made my way to the ramp. 
Unobserved, I descended. At last I stood again before the door to 3-17. I fitted 
the key, took a last look up and down the corridor to assure myself that I was 
alone, and then pushed the door open. Like the corridors, the cell was lighted 
by means of the everlasting radium bulbs commonly used on Barsoom.
Directly before me, on a table, lay my body. I entered the cell and closed the 
door behind me. Yes, there was my body; and there the vessel containing my 
blood. We were all together again, my body, my blood, and my brains; but we were 
still as far apart as the poles. Only Ras Thavas could bring us together as an 
entity, and Ras Thavas was gone.
CHAPTER XV
I FIND MY MASTER
I STOOD FOR A long time looking at my body. I had never been a vain man, but 
when I compared it with the horrid thing that my brain now animated it seemed 
the most beautiful thing I had ever beheld. I thought of Janai in her apartments 
above, and cursed myself for a fool for ever giving up the body that she might 
have loved for one that no creature could love.
But such repining was of no avail, and I forced myself to think of other things. 
The little circle that appeared in the plans of cell 17 came to my mind, and I 
walked to the corner of the room where it had indicated that something might be 
found different from what was in the construction of the other cells in the 
pits. There was something there. It was scarcely visible, but it was there – a 
faint line marking a circle about two feet in diameter. I got down on my hands 
and knees and examined it. At one side of it was a small indentation. The thing, 
looked as though it might be a cunningly fitted trap door and the indentation a 
place to pry it open. I inserted the point of my dagger and pried. The trap rose 
easily. Presently it was high enough to permit me to get my fingers beneath it, 
and in another moment I had lifted it to one side revealing a dark void beneath. 
What lay there? What was the purpose of the opening?
There was only one way to find out. I lowered my body through the aperture which 
was but barely large enough to accommodate my gross carcass. When I was hanging 
at the full length of my long right arm my toes just touched something solid. I 
hoped it was the bottom of the pit, and let go.
I stood now on a solid flooring. The little light that came through the aperture 
above me showed me a narrow corridor leading away into utter darkness. There was 
nothing for me to do but explore, now that I had come this far. I wished that I 
might have returned the cover to its place; so that if any one should come to 
the cell they might not discover the trap door; then I commenced to wonder just 
how anyone could get out of this place if the cover were closed above them. 
Open, a man could jump for the edge of the opening and draw himself up; but 
closed, he simply couldn't get out.
There was something wrong here. There must be some other way. I commenced to 
grope about searching for it, whatever it was; and at last I found it – a pole 
resting on pegs near the top of the corridor. By resting it against the edge of 
the aperture, I climbed up and dragged the cover almost into position; then I 
descended and, with the pole, poked the cover into place.
Now I started groping my way through utter darkness along the corridor. I felt 
ahead with a toe before taking a single step, and I kept my, hands on both sides 
of the corridor lest I miss some forking or crossing corridor that might throw 
me off my track when I returned – if ever I did return. That thought gave me 
pause. What would happen to Janai if I failed to return? Perhaps I shouldn't 
continue on this new adventure. Perhaps I should go back. But no. After all, it 
was in her interests that I was thus exploring beneath the pits of Morbus. 
Perhaps here was an avenue to freedom.
On and on I went. The floor of the corridor was level and there were no forks 
nor cross corridors. It curved a little twice, but not much. I kept thinking, 
well, I must be nearly to the end of it; but on and on it went. The walls became 
damp, and the corridor stunk of mold; and then I came to a sharp declivity. For 
a moment I hesitated, but only for a moment. The floor inclined downward at an 
angle of some 15°, and by the time I reached level going again I must have been 
thirty or forty feet below the original level. The walls and ceiling dripped 
moisture. The floor was slimy with it. I walked on and on along this black, 
interminable tunnel. I thought it would never end; and when it did, as it must, 
into what new predicament would I find that it had lured me? Sometimes I thought 
of turning back, but that was only because I thought of Janai and her dependence 
upon me.
"Hormad!" I could still hear her calling me that, and I could feel the contempt 
and loathing that she could not have entirely hidden had she tried. And the way 
she spoke of Vor Daj in the same breath, and the way her voice changed! Once 
again a wave of jealousy of myself swept over me; but my sense of humor came to 
my rescue, and I laughed. That laugh resounded in the corridor, sepulchral and 
eerie. I didn't laugh again – it was too horrible.
Now the floor of the corridor was rising again. Up and up until I felt that I 
must have gained the original level; and then, suddenly, I saw light ahead, or 
rather lesser darkness; and a moment later I stepped out into the open. It was 
night. Neither moon was in the sky. Where was I? I realized that I had travelled 
miles, perhaps, through that gloomy corridor. I must be outside the walls of 
Morbus, but where?
Suddenly a figure loomed before me, and in the dim light I saw that it was a 
hormad. "Who are you?" it demanded. "What are you doing here?" and without 
waiting for an answer it came for me with a longsword.
That was language I understood, and had an answer to. I drew and engaged the 
thing. It was a better swordsman than any I had previously engaged. It knew some 
tricks that I thought only the pupils of John Carter knew. When it discovered 
that I had the solution of all its tricks, it let out a yell; and in a moment or 
two three other figures came barging out of the night. The leader was no hormad, 
but a tall red man. He had scarcely engaged me before I recognized him.
"John Carter!" I cried. "It is I, Vor Daj."
Instantly he dropped his point and stepped back. "Vor Daj!" he exclaimed. "In 
the name of my first ancestor, how did you get here?"
Ras Thavas and a second hormad came up, and I told them briefly how I had 
discovered the 17th cell and the opening into the corridor.
"And now tell me," I said, "what you are doing here."
"Let Ras Thavas tell you," said The Warlord.
"Morbus is an ancient city," said the great surgeon. "It was built in 
prehistoric times by a people who are now extinct. In my flight after our defeat 
at Toonol I discovered it. I have remodeled and rebuilt it, but largely upon the 
foundations of the old city, which was splendidly built. There is much about it 
of which I know nothing. There were plans of many of the buildings, including 
those of the laboratory building. I noticed that circle in cell 17, just as you 
did. I thought it meant something, but never had the time or inclination to 
investigate. When we decided to hide your body where it could not be found and 
destroyed if anything went wrong, I selected cell 17, with the result that we 
discovered the tunnel to this island which lies fully two miles from Morbus.
"Dur-dan and Il-dur-en carried your body down to cell 17, and we brought them 
with us. They are two of my best hormads, intelligent and loyal. Having escaped 
from Morbus, we decided to attempt to make our way to the west end of the Great 
Toonolian Marsh, recover John Carter's flier, and fly to Helium in the hope that 
I might arrive in time to save Dejah Thoris from death.
"We have been occupied in building a boat for the long journey through the 
marsh, and it is about completed. We were in a quandry as to what to do about 
you. We did not want to desert you; but as the flier will accommodate but two 
men, you would have to be left somewhere until we could return; and you were 
safer in Morbus than you would have been in the hills beyond Phundahl."
"You shouldn't have given me a thought," I said. "Our sole objective was to find 
you and get you back to Helium as quickly as possible. I knew when we set out 
that I should have to be left behind when you were located, as the flier is not 
designed for more than two. That would have been a small sacrifice to have made 
for the Princess of Helium. The Warlord would have sent for me later."
"Naturally," said The Warlord. "Nevertheless, I hated to leave you here; but 
there was no alternative. We planned to send Il-dur-en back into the city with a 
message explaining everything to you. Dur-dan is to accompany us. If we manage 
to escape from the marsh and reach the flier, he will attempt to return to 
Morbus."
"When do you expect to start?" I asked.
"The boat will be finished tomorrow, and we shall set out as soon as it is dark. 
We plan to travel by night, resting and hiding during the daylight hours, as Ras 
Thavas, who is familiar with the marsh, assures me that it would be impossible 
for any but a large force of warriors to traverse the marsh by day. Many of the 
islands are inhabited by savage aborigines or by even more savage pirates and 
outlaws. The Great Toonolian Marshes are the last dregs of the great oceans that 
once covered a considerable portion of Barsoom, and the creatures which inhabit 
them are the last dregs of humanity."
"Is there any way in which I can be of help to you?" I asked.
"No," he said. "You have already sacrificed enough."
"Then I shall go back to the city before my absence is noticed. I have 
responsibilities there almost equal to your own, sir."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Janai," I said.
"What of her? Have you found her?"
I then told them of all that had transpired of which they knew nothing, that 
Ay-mad was jeddak and sole ruler of Morbus, that I was an odwar and in charge of 
the laboratory building, and that Janai had been given into my protection.
"So you are in charge of the laboratory building," said Ras Thavas. "How does it 
there in my absence?"
"Horribly," I said. "The only compensation for your absence is the fact that the 
production of hormads will have to cease, but we are faced now with something 
that may prove infinitely worse than hormads." Then I told him of what was 
transpiring in No. 4 vat room.
He appeared deeply concerned. "That is deplorable," he said. "It is something 
that I have always feared and sedulously guarded against. By all means make 
every preparation that you can to be prepared to escape from Morbus if you are 
unable to stem the growth in No. 4 vat room. Eventually it will envelop the 
entire island if it is not checked. Theoretically, it might cover the entire 
surface of Barsoom, smothering all other forms of life. It is the original life 
principal that cannot die, but it must be controlled. Nature controlled it, but 
I have learned to my sorrow that man cannot. I interfered with the systematic 
functioning of Nature; and this, perhaps, is to be my punishment."
"But how can I stem the growth? How can I stop this horror from spreading?" I 
demanded.
He shook his head. "There is but one thing, another phenomenon of Nature, that 
can check it."
"And that?" I asked.
"Fire," he said, "but evidently it has gone too far for that."
"I am afraid so," I said.
"About all that you can do now is to save yourself and Janai from it and wait 
for us to return."
"I shall come back with a sufficient force of men and ships to reduce Morbus and 
rescue you," said The Warlord.
"Until then, sir," I said. "And may you bring me word that the Princess of 
Helium has been restored to health."
CHAPTER XVI
THE JEDDAK SPEAKS
I WAS TERRIBLY DEPRESSED as I made my way back through that dark tunnel. It 
seemed to me that there was little likelihood that John Carter and Ras Thavas 
would live to reach the western extremity of the marshes. The Warlord would be 
dead, Dejah Thoris, my beloved princess, would be doomed to death. It seemed to 
me that then there would be nothing more to live for. Janai was already 
hopelessly lost to me so long as I was doomed to inhabit this repulsive carcass.
Yes, there was something to live for – Janai. At least I could dedicate my life 
to her protection. Possibly some day I might be able to engineer her escape from 
Morbus. Now that I knew of the tunnel my hopes in that direction were a little 
brighter.
At last I came to cell 17. Once more I delayed to gaze wistfully and admiringly 
upon my poor corpse. Would my brain ever again animate it? I shrank to give 
answer to that question, as, with leaden feet, I left the cell and ascended to 
the upper floors. As I approached the study I was met by Tun Gan.
"I am glad you are back," he said with evident relief.
"Why? What is the matter? Something else gone wrong?"
"I don't know," he replied, "because I don't know where you have been or what 
you have been doing. Do you know if you were followed, or if anyone has seen 
you?"
"No one saw me," I said, "but then it would have made no difference if they had. 
I have merely been inspecting the pits." I wasn't taking any chances with the 
loyalty of any one. "But why do you ask?"
"Ay-mad's spies have been very active," he said. "I know some of them and 
suspect others. I think he has sent some new ones to watch you. They say he is 
furious because the woman chose to come with you rather than remain with him and 
become Jeddara of Morbus."
"You mean that they have been searching for me?" I asked.
"Yes; everywhere. They have even gone to the apartments of the woman."
"She is all right? They didn't take her away?"
"Not that I know of."
"But you don't know for certain?"
"No."
My heart sank. Could this have happened, too? I hurried toward Janai's 
apartments, and Tun Gan followed me. The fellow seemed almost as concerned as I. 
Perhaps he was all right. I hope so, for I needed every loyal ally that I could 
muster if Ay-mad were planning to take Janai away from me.
When the guard at the door recognized me, he stepped aside and let us enter. At 
first I did not see Janai. She was sitting with her back toward me, looking out 
of the window. I called her by name and she rose and turned. She appeared 
pleased to see me, but when her eyes passed me and alighted on Tun Gan they 
dilated with terror and she shrank back.
"What is that man doing here?" she demanded.
"He is one of my officers," I said. "What has he done? Has he offered you any 
harm while I was away?"
"Don't you know who he is?" she demanded.
"Why, he is Tun Gan. He is a good officer."
"He is Gantun Gur, the assassin of Amhor," she said. "He murdered my father."
"I realized at once the natural mistake she had made. "It is only Gantun Gur's 
body," I said. "His brain has been burned. The brain he now has is the brain of 
a friend."
"Oh," she said, relieved. "Some more of the work of Ras Thavas. Forgive me, Tun 
Gan; I did not know."
"Tell me about the man whose body is now mine," said Tun Gan.
"He was a notorious assassin of Amhor often employed by the prince, Jal Had. Jal 
Had wanted me, but my father would not give me up. He knew that I would rather 
die than be the wife of Jal Had; so Jal Had employed Gantun Gur to assassinate 
my father and abduct me. I managed to escape, and was on my way to Ptarth where 
my father had friends. Gantun Gur followed me. He had with him a strong party of 
assassins, all members of the Assassins' Guild. They overtook us and attacked 
the little party of loyal retainers that had accompanied me into exile. Night 
came on while they were still fighting, and my party was scattered. I never saw 
any of them again, and two days later I was captured by hormads. I suppose 
Gantun Gur was captured later by another party."
"You need never fear him again," I said.
"It seems strange, though, to see him just as I knew him and yet to realize that 
it is not he."
"There are many strange things in Morbus," I said. "Not all of those you see 
have the brains or the bodies which originally belonged to them."
It was strange, indeed. Here stood Tun Gan with the body of Gantun Gur and the 
brain of Tor-dur-bar, and I with the body of Tor-dur-bar and the brain of Vor 
Daj. I wondered what Janai's reaction would be if she knew the truth. If she had 
loved Vor Daj, I should have explained everything to her, for it would have been 
better then for her to know the truth; but not loving him, and there was no 
reason to believe that she might, my present form might have so revolted her 
that she could never love me even should I regain my own body. That is the way I 
reasoned, and so I determined not to tell her.
I explained to her why Tun Gan and I had come to her apartments and that she 
must be very careful of her every word and act inasmuch as she was doubtless 
surrounded by the spies and informers of Ay-mad.
She looked at me questioningly for a moment; and then she said, "You have been 
very good to me. You are the only friend I have. I wish that you would come to 
see me oftener. You do not have to make excuses or explanations for coming. Do 
you bring me any word of Vor Daj this time?"
My spirits had risen at the first part of her speech, but with the last sentence 
I felt that incomprehensible jealousy come over me. Could it be that the body of 
Tor-dur-bar was so merging with the brain of Vor Daj as to absorb the identity 
of the latter? Could I be falling in love with Janai as a hormad? And if so what 
might the outcome be? Might I not come so to hate and fear Vor Daj that I might 
destroy his body because Janai loved it better than she did the body of 
Tor-dur-bar? The idea was fantastic, but so were all of the conditions 
surrounding it.
"I bring you no word of Vor Daj," I said, "because he has disappeared. Perhaps 
if we knew what had become of Dotar Sojat and Ras Thavas, we might know what has 
become of Vor Daj."
"You mean that you do not know where Vor Daj is?" she demanded. "Tor-dur-bar, 
there is something strange about all this. I want to trust you, but you have 
been very evasive about Vor Daj since first you came to me. I feel that you are 
trying to keep me from seeing him. Why?"
"You are mistaken," I said. "You will have to trust me, Janai. When I can, I 
shall bring you and Vor Daj together again. That is all that I can say. But why 
are you so anxious to see Vor Daj?"
I thought I might surprise her into saying something that would give a hint as 
to her feelings toward Vor Daj. I didn't know whether I hoped or feared that she 
might give some indications of affection for him, so confused were all the 
reactions of my dual personality. But my ruse was of no avail. Her reply 
suggested nothing.
"He promised to help me escape," she said. That was all. Her interest in Vor Daj 
was purely selfish. However, that was better than no interest at all. Thus, I 
thought, love reasons, making a fool of a man, until it occurred to me that my, 
interest in Janai might be purely selfish, too. There was little to choose 
between the two. She wanted her liberty; I wanted her. The question was, would I 
risk everything, even my life, to gain her liberty for her, knowing that I 
should lose her? Well, I knew that I would, so perhaps my love was not entirely 
selfish. It pleased me to think that it was not.
I noticed, as we talked, that two of the hormad servants were watching us 
closely, edging nearer and nearer, obviously endeavoring to overhear what we 
were saying. That they were a couple of Ay-mad's spies, I had no doubt; but 
their technique was so crude as to render them almost harmless. I cautioned 
Janai against them in a low tone; and then, as they came within earshot, I said 
to her, "No, there is no use; I won't permit you to leave your quarters; so 
don't ask me again. You are much safer here. You see you belong to me now, and I 
have the right to kill any one who might threaten to harm you. I should do it, 
too." This was for the benefit of the spies.
I left her then and took Tun Gan with me. Back again in the study, I reached a 
decision. I must surround myself and Janai with loyal followers, but in order to 
attempt this I must take some chances. I sounded Tun Gan out. He said he owed 
everything to Vor Daj and Ras Thavas, and as they were both my friends he would 
serve me in any way that he could. He had no love for any of the jeds.
During the next two days I talked with Sytor, Pandar, Gan Had, and Teeaytan-ov, 
and became convinced that I could depend upon their loyalty. I succeeded in 
having all but Teeaytan-ov transferred to duty in the laboratory building where 
more officers were needed in an attempt to stem the spread of the horrific 
growth billowing from No. 4 vat room. Teeaytan-ov was to serve me as a spy in 
the palace. Sytor was the officer who had been in command of the hormads which 
had captured The Warlord and me. I had rather liked him, and after talking with 
him at some length I became convinced that he was a normal red man in possession 
of his own brain, for he was familiar with places and events of the outer world 
that no hormad could have had knowledge of. He was from Dusar, and anxious to 
escape Morbus and return to his own country.
Pandar was the man from Phundahl, and Gan Had the man from Toonol who had been 
my fellow prisoners; so I knew something about them. They both assured me that 
if I were truly serving Vor Daj and Dotar Sojat they would work with me 
willingly.
All of these men thought, of course, that I was only a hormad; but my rank 
assured them that I had influence and that I was an important person. I 
explained to them that I had been promised the body of a red man as soon as Ras 
Thavas was located and that then I should be one of them and anxious to leave 
Morbus.
The growth of the tissue in No. 4 vat room had now almost filled the large 
courtyard. I had had all windows and doors opening from the enclosure securely 
barricaded, so that it could not enter the building, but it threatened to soon 
top it and flow across the roofs where it would eventually find its way into the 
city avenues. The production of new hormads had practically ceased, and I had 
drained all the tanks as they were emptied so that there might be no repetition 
of what had occurred in No. 4 vat room. This had necessitated my visiting every 
building in which there were culture tanks, and there were many of them. It was 
on my return from one of these other buildings that I received a summons to 
appear before Ay-mad.
As I entered the palace Teeaytan-ov came to meet me. "Be careful," he warned., 
"Something is afoot. I don't know what it is, but one of Ay-mad's servants said 
that he was always muttering about you and the woman. Now that he has lost her 
she seems even more desirable than before. If you want to save yourself trouble, 
you had better give her back to him; for if you don't he can have you killed and 
take her anyway, and no woman is worth that."
I thanked him and went on into the audience chamber where all of Ay-mad's 
principal officers were gathered before the throne. The jeddak greeted me with a 
scowling countenance as I took my place among the other officers, the only one 
without the body of a red man. How many hormad brains there were among them, I 
had no way of knowing; but from what I had heard since coming to Morbus I 
guessed that most of them were transplanted hormad brains. They would have been 
surprised, and Ay-mad most of all, could they have known that behind my hideous 
hormad face lay the brain of a noble of Helium and a trusted aide of The Warlord 
of Barsoom.
Ay-mad pointed a finger at me. "I trusted you," he said. "I put you in charge of 
the laboratories, and what have you done? The supply of warriors has ceased."
"I am not Ras Thavas," I reminded him.
"You have permitted the catastrophe of No. 4 vat room, which threatens to 
overwhelm us."
"Again let me remind you that I am not The Master Mind of Mars," I interrupted.
He paid no attention to that, but went on. "These things threaten the collapse 
of all our plans to conquer the world and necessitate art immediate attempt to 
launch our campaign with inadequate forces. You have failed in the laboratory; 
and I now relieve you of your duties there, but I shall give you another chance 
to redeem yourself. It is now my intention to conquer Phundahl at once, thus 
acquiring a fleet of ships with which we can transport warriors to Toonol. The 
capture of Toonol will give us additional ships and permit us to move on to the 
capture of other cities. I am placing you in command of the expedition against 
Phundahl. It will not require a large force to take that city. We have five 
hundred malagors. They can make two round trips a day. That means that you can 
transport a thousand warriors a day to a point near Phundahl; or, if the birds 
can carry double, two thousand. In the same way you can place a thousand 
warriors inside the city walls to take and open the gates to the main body of 
your troops. You will first transport the vats and culture medium necessary to 
produce food for your warriors. With twenty thousand warriors you can make your 
attack; and I will continue to send you two thousand a day until the campaign is 
over, for you will lose many. You will immediately give up your quarters in the 
laboratory building and take quarters here in the palace that I shall assign to 
you and your retinue."
I saw immediately what he was trying to accomplish. He would get Janai 
transferred to the palace and then he would send me out on the campaign against 
Phundahl.
"You will move to the palace immediately and commence the transport of your 
troops forthwith. I have spoken."
CHAPTER XVII
ESCAPE US NEVER
I NOW FOUND MYSELF faced by a problem for which there seemed no solution. Had I 
been in possession of my own body I could have escaped with Janai through the 
tunnel to the island where John Carter and Ras Thavas had hidden and waited 
there for their return, but I couldn't abandon my body and chance having to go 
out into the world a hormad. I also felt that it was my duty as a red man to 
remain and attempt in some way to thwart Ay-mad's plan of world conquest. As I 
made my way to Janai's quarters to tell her what had befallen us my spirits had 
reached nadir; they could fall no lower.
As I was passing along a corridor in the laboratory building I was met by Tun 
Gan who seemed very much perturbed. "The mass from No. 4 vat room has crossed 
the roof in one place and is overflowing down the side of the building into the 
avenue," he said. "The growth seems suddenly to have accelerated; and, if it be 
not stopped, it is only a question of time before it envelops the entire city."
"And the island as well," I said, "but I can do nothing about it; Ay-mad has 
relieved me of my duties in the laboratory. The responsibility now belongs to my 
successor."
"But what can we do to save ourselves?" demanded Tun Gan. "We shall all be lost 
if the growth be not stopped. It has already seized and devoured several of the 
warriors who were sent to try to destroy it. The hands reach out and seize them, 
and the heads devour them. Eventually it will eat us all."
Yes, what could we do to save ourselves? For the moment ourselves included only 
Janai and my two selves in my thoughts, but presently I thought of others – of 
Pandar and Gan Had and Sytor, yes, even of Tun Gan, the assassin of Amhor, with 
the brain of a hormad. These men were as near to being friends as any I had in 
Morbus, and there was poor Teeaytan-ov, too. He had been my friend. I must save 
them all.
"Tun Gan," I said, "you would like to escape?"
"Of course."
"Will you swear to serve me loyally if I help you to get away from Morbus, 
forgetting that you are a hormad?"
"I am no hormad now," he said. "I am a red man, and I will serve you loyally if 
you will help me to escape from the clutches of the horror that is spewing out 
into the city."
"Very well. Go at once to Pandar and Gan Had and Sytor and Teeaytan-ov and tell 
them to come to the quarters of Janai. Caution them to secrecy. Let no one 
overhear what you say to them. And hurry, Tun Gan!"
I went at once to the quarters of Janai, who seemed glad to see me; and told her 
of Ay-mad's orders that we move to quarters in the palace. The two servants whom 
I suspected overheard, as I intended they should; and I immediately gave them 
orders to gather up their mistress's belongings, which gave me an opportunity to 
talk with Janai privately. I told her what Ay-mad's order portended and that I 
had a plan which offered some slight hope of escape.
"I will take any risk," she said, "rather than remain in Aymad's palace after 
you are sent away. You are the only person in Morbus that I can trust, my only 
friend; though why you befriend me, I do not know."
"Because Vor Daj is my friend and Vor Daj loves you," I said. I felt like a 
coward, adopting this way of avowing a love I might not have had the courage to 
tell her had I been in possession of my own identity; and now that I had done it 
I immediately wished that I hadn't. What if she scorned Vor Daj's love? He would 
not be here in person to press his suit, and certainly a hideous hormad could 
not do it for him. I held my breath as I waited for her reply.
She was silent for a moment, and then she asked. "What makes you think that Vor 
Daj loves me?"
"I think it was perfectly obvious. He could not have been so concerned over the 
fate of any woman if he had not loved her."
"You are probably mistaken. Vor Daj would have been concerned over the fate of 
any red woman who might have been a prisoner in Morbus. How could there be love 
between us? We scarcely know one another; we have spoken only a few words 
together."
I was about to argue the point when Pandar, Gan Had, and Sytor arrived, putting 
an end to the conversation and leaving me in as much doubt as to the feelings of 
Janai toward Vor Daj as I had been before. As these three had been employed in 
the laboratory building, Tun Gan had found them quickly. I sent them to my study 
to wait for me, as I did not wish to talk to them where we might be overheard by 
one of Ay-mad's spies.
A few minutes later Tun Gan returned with Teeaytan-ov, and the roster of those 
whom I hoped would aid me loyally was completed. By this time the servants had 
gathered Janai's belongings, which I ordered them to take to the palace to our 
new quarters; and in this way I got rid of them.
As soon as they had gone, I hurried to my study with Janai, Tun Gan, and 
Teeaytan-ov, where we found the other members of my party awaiting us. We were 
all together now, and I explained that I planned to escape from Morbus and asked 
each one if he were willing to accompany me. Each assured me that he did; but 
Sytor voiced a doubt, which I suppose each of them harbored, that escape would 
be possible.
"What is your plan?" he asked.
"I have discovered an underground corridor that leads to an island off the shore 
of Morbus," I said. "It was to this island that Dotar Sojat and Ras Thavas went 
when they disappeared from the city. They are on their way to Helium now, and 
you may rest assured that Dotar Sojat will return with a fleet of warships and a 
sufficient force of warriors to rescue me from Morbus."
Teeaytan-ov appeared skeptical. "Why," he asked, "should Dotar Sojat wish to 
rescue a hormad from Morbus?"
"And how," inquired Sytor, "can Dotar Sojat, a poor panthan, hope to persuade 
the jeddak of Helium to send a fleet of warships to the Toonolian Marshes for a 
hormad?"
"I admit," I replied, "that the idea appears fantastic; but that is because you 
do not know all the facts, and there are reasons why I do not wish to divulge 
them all at this time. Upon one point, however, I may set your minds at rest. 
That is the ability of Dotar Sojat to bring a fleet of warships from Helium. 
Dotar Sojat is, in reality, John Carter, Warlord of Mars."
This statement rather astounded them; but after I had explained why John Carter 
had come to Morbus, they believed me. Teeaytan-ov was still at a loss, however, 
to understand why the great Warlord should be so interested in a hormad as to 
bring a great fleet all the way from far Helium to rescue him.
I saw that I had made a mistake in speaking as I had, but it was sometimes 
difficult for me to disassociate my dual personalities. To me, I was always Vor 
Daj, a noble of the empire of Helium. To others, I was Tor-dur-bar, a hormad of 
Morbus.
"Perhaps," I said, seeking to explain, "I overemphasized my own importance when 
I said that he would return to rescue me. It is for Vor Daj that he will return; 
but for me, too, as both he and Vor Daj are my friends."
"What makes you think that he will rescue any of the rest of us?" asked Pandar 
of Phundahl.
"He will rescue anyone that Vor Daj asks him too; and that means anyone I 
suggest, for Vor Daj is my friend."
"But Vor Daj has disappeared," said Gan Had of Toonol. "No one knows what has 
become of him. It is thought that he is dead."
"You had not told me that, Tor-dur-bar," exclaimed Janai. She turned to Sytor. 
"Perhaps this is a trick the hormad is playing on us to get us in his power for 
some reason."
"But I did tell you that he had disappeared, Janai," I said.
"You did not tell me that everyone thought him dead. You say you do not know 
where he is in the same breath that you say John Carter will return for him. 
What am I to believe?"
"If you hope to live and escape you will have to believe me," I snapped. "In a 
few minutes you will see Vor Daj, and then you will understand why he could not 
come to you." I was commencing to lose my patience with them all, interposing 
suspicions at a moment when the greatest haste was necessary if we were to 
escape before the suspicions of Aymad were aroused.
"What am I to believe?" demanded Janai. "You do not know where Vor Daj is, yet 
you say that we shall see him in a few minutes."
"There was a time that I did not know where he was. When I found him it seemed 
kinder to you, who were depending on him, not to tell you the truth. Vor Daj is 
helpless to aid you. Only I can help you. Unfortunately, in order to carry out 
my plan of escape, you will have to learn what has happened to Vor Daj. Now, we 
have wasted enough time uselessly. I am going, and you are coming with me. I owe 
it to Vor Daj to help you. The others may do as they see fit."
"I will go with you," said Pandar. "We could not be worse off elsewhere than 
here."
They all decided to accompany me, Sytor reluctantly. He went and stood near 
Janai and whispered something to her.
Taking Teeaytan-ov with me, I went into the small laboratory and collected all 
the instruments necessary to the retransfer of my brain to its own body. These I 
handed over to Teeaytan-ov; then I disconnected the motor and all its 
connections, for without the motor my blood could not be pumped back into my 
veins and arteries. All of this took time, but at last we were ready to depart.
I was quite sure that we could avoid neither notice nor suspicion. The best I 
could hope for was that we might reach 3-17 before pursuit overtook us. The 
spectacle of two hormads, four red men, and Janai, together with the burdens 
Teeaytan-ov and I were carrying, attracted immediate attention; and from no less 
a figure, among others, than the new governor of the Laboratory Building.
"Where are you going?" he demanded. "What are you going to do with that 
equipment?"
"I'm going to put it in the pits where it will be safe," I said. "If Ras Thavas 
returns he will need it."
"It will be safe enough where it was," he replied. "I'm in charge here now, and 
if I want it moved I'll attend to it myself. Take it back to where you got it."
"Since when did a dwar give orders to an odwar?" I asked. "Stand aside!" Then I 
moved on again with my companions toward the ramp leading to the pits.
"Wait!" he snapped. "You're going nowhere with that equipment and the girl 
without an order from Ay-mad. You have your orders to take the girl to the 
palace, not to the pits; and I have my orders direct from Ay-mad to see that you 
obey yours." Then he raised his voice and shouted for help. I knew that we would 
soon be beset by warriors; so I directed my companions to hurry on toward the 
pits.
We fairly ran down the long winding incline with the Governor of the Laboratory 
Building at our heels keeping up a continuous bellowing for help; and behind us, 
presently, we heard the answering shouts of pursuing warriors.
CHAPTER XVIII
TREASON ISLAND
MY WHOLE PLAN now seemed to be doomed to failure, for even though we succeeded 
in reaching 3-17 I would not dare enter it and reveal the avenue for our escape. 
We had come this far, however; and there could be no turning back. There was 
only one solution to our problem: no witness must remain to carry back a report 
to Ay-mad.
We had reached the pits and were moving along the main corridor. The Governor 
was dogging our footsteps but keeping a safe distance from us. The shouts of the 
pursuing warriors evidenced the fact that they were still on our trail. I called 
to Tun Gan to come to my side where I imparted my instructions to him in a low 
tone, after which he left me and spoke briefly to Teeaytan-ov and Pandar; then 
these three turned off into a side corridor. The Governor hesitated a moment, 
but did not follow them. His interest lay in keeping track of Janai and me, and 
so he followed on behind us. At the next intersecting corridor I led the 
remainder of the party to the right, halting immediately and laying aside my 
burden.
"We will meet them here," I said. There is just one thing to remember: if we are 
to escape and live not one of those who are pursuing us must be left alive to 
lead others after us."
Sytor and Gan Had took their stand beside me. Janai remained a few paces behind 
us. The Governor stopped well out of sword's reach to await his warriors. There 
were no firearms among us, as the materials necessary to the fabrications of 
explosives either did not exist in the Toonolian Marshes or had not as yet been 
discovered there. We were armed only with longswords, shortswords, and daggers.
We did not have long to wait before the warriors were upon us. There were nine 
of them, all hormads. The Governor had the body of a red man and the brain of a 
hormad. I had known him fairly well in the palace. He was cunning and cruel, but 
lacked physical courage. He halted his warriors and the ten of them stood facing 
us.
"You had better surrender," he said, "and come back with me. You have no chance. 
There are ten of us and only three of you. If you will come quietly, I will say 
nothing to Ay-mad about this."
I saw that he was anxious to avoid a fight, but in a fight lay our only chance 
of escape. Once in the palace of Ay-mad, Janai and I would be lost. I pretended 
to be considering his proposition as I wished to gain a moment's time; and 
needed but a moment, as presently I saw Tun Gan, Pandar, and Teeaytan-ov closing 
silently up behind the Governor and his party.
"Now!" I cried, and at my word the three behind them let out a yell that caused 
the ten to turn simultaneously; then Sytor, Gan Had, and I leaped in with drawn 
swords. Numerically, the odds were all in their favor; but really they had no 
chance. The surprise attack disconcerted them, but the factors that gave the 
greatest advantage were my superhuman strength and my long sword arm. However, 
they soon realized that they were fighting for their lives; and, like cornered 
rats, they fought furiously.
I saw poor Teeaytan-ov go down with a cleft skull and Pandar wounded, but not 
until he had disposed of one antagonist; Tun Gan accounted for two. Sytor, to my 
surprise and disappointment, held back, not offering to risk himself; but we did 
not need him. One after another my longsword cleft skulls from crown to chin, 
until the only foe remaining was the Governor who had taken as little part in 
the brief affair as possible. Now, screaming, he sought to escape; but Tun Gan 
barred his way. There was a momentary clash of steel, a shriek; and then Tun Gan 
jerked his blade from the heart of the Governor of the Laboratory Building and 
wiped it in the hair of his fallen foe.
The corridor was a shambles in which horrible, blood drenched, brainless bodies 
lunged about. What followed I hate to recall; but it was necessary to destroy 
them all completely, especially their brains, before we could feel safe in 
continuing on our way.
Instructing Tun Gan to carry the articles that I had entrusted to Teeaytan-ov, I 
picked up the motor and led the way to 3-17. I noticed that Sytor walked close 
to Janai, conversing with her in low tones; but at the moment my mind was too 
preoccupied with other matters to permit this to assume any particular 
importance. So far we had been successful. What the future held for us, who 
could foresee? What means of subsistence there might be on the island, I did not 
know; nor had I more than the vaguest of plans as to how we might escape from 
the vicinity of Morbus and from the Great Toonolian Marshes in the event that 
John Carter failed to return for me. Only his death, I was sure, would prevent 
that; and I could not conceive that the great Warlord might die. To me, as to 
many others, he seemed immortal. But suppose he did return and without Ras 
Thavas? That thought filled me with horror, leaving me no alternative than 
self-destruction should it prove a true prophesy. Far better death than life in 
my present hideous and repulsive form. Better death than that Janai should be 
lost to me forever. Such were my thoughts as we reached the door to 3-17 and, 
swinging it open, I ushered my party into the chamber.
When Janai saw the body of Vor Daj lying on the cold ersite slab, she voiced an 
exclamation of horror and turned fiercely upon me. "You have lied to me, 
Tor-dur-bar," she said, in a suppressed whisper. "All the time you knew that Vor 
Daj was dead. Why have you done this cruel thing to me?"
"Vor Daj is not dead," I said. "He only awaits the return of Ras Thavas to 
restore him to life."
"But why didn't you tell me?" she asked.
"Only I knew where the body of Vor Daj was hidden. It would have profited 
neither you nor him had you known; and the fewer who knew, the safer was the 
body of Vor Daj. Not even to you, whom I knew that I could trust, would I 
divulge the secret of his hiding-place. Only now do you and these others know 
because there was no other avenue of escape from Morbus except through this room 
where Vor Daj lies. I believe that I can trust you all with this secret, but 
even so I can promise you that none of you will ever return alive to Morbus 
while the body of Vor Daj lies here and I remain alive."
Sytor had moved close to the slab where the body lay, and had been examining it 
rather minutely. I saw him nod his head and a half smile touched his lips as he 
shot a quick glance in my direction. I wondered if he suspected the truth; but 
what difference did it make if he did so long as he kept his mouth shut. I did 
not want Janai to know that the brain of Vor Daj abode in the hideous skull of 
Tor-dur-bar. Foolishly, perhaps, I thought that were she to know, she might 
never be able to forget the fact even when my brain was returned to its own 
body. She seemed emersed in thought for a few moments after I explained to her 
why I had not told her of the seeming tragedy that had overwhelmed Vor Daj; but 
presently she turned to me again and spoke kindly. "I am sorry that I doubted 
you, Tor-dur-bar," she said. "You did well in revealing to no one the 
whereabouts of Vor Daj's body. It was a wise precaution, and an act of loyalty."
CHAPTER XIX
NIGHT FLIGHT
IT WAS WITH a feeling of relief that I led my little party through the long 
tunnel to the rocky island off the shore of Morbus. How we were to escape from 
the island was a problem for the future. There was, of course, uppermost in my 
mind always the hope that John Carter would return from Helium with a rescuing 
fleet; but behind this hope lurked the spectre of fear engendered by the doubt 
as to whether he and Ras Thavas had been able to traverse the hideous wastes of 
the great Toonolian Marshes and reach his swift flyer that lay hidden beyond 
Phundahl.
There were birds and rodents on the island, and there grew there trees and 
shrubs which bore nuts and berries. All these, together with the fish that we 
were able to catch, furnished us with sufficient food so that we did not suffer 
from hunger but had an abundance. I had a shelter constructed for Janai so that 
she might enjoy some privacy; but as the weather was mild, the rest of us slept 
out.
The little island was hilly, and we made our camp upon the far side away from 
Morbus so that the hills would hide us from discovery from the city. In this 
secluded spot, I started construction of two light boats, each capable of 
carrying three of us and a supply of provisions, one being larger than the other 
for the purpose of accommodating Vor Daj's body, as I had determined to take it 
with us in the event that John Carter did not return within a reasonable time 
and it became necessary for us to attempt the perilous voyage in our frail 
craft.
During this period, I noticed that Sytor spent much of his leisure time in the 
company of Janai. He was a personable fellow and a clever conversationalist; so 
I could not wonder that she found pleasure in his company; yet I must admit that 
I suffered many pangs of jealousy. Sytor was also very friendly with Pandar, the 
Phundahlian; so that socially we seemed naturally to split into parties, with 
Pandar, Sytor and Janai in one, and Gan Had, Tun Gan and I in the other. There 
was no unpleasantness between any of us; but the division was more or less a 
natural one. Gan Had was a Toonolian; and Toonol and Phundahl were hereditary 
enemies, so that Gan Had and Pandar had little or nothing in common. Tun Gan, 
with the body of a red man and the brain of a hormad, and I, with the body of a 
hormad, possibly felt drawn to one another because we knew that the others in 
the secret recesses of their hearts considered us monsters, less human than the 
lower animals. I can tell you that a hideous body such as mine induces a feeling 
of inferiority that cannot be overcome; and Tun Gan, while he made a bold front 
with the body of the assassin of Amhor, must have felt much as I did.
After we had completed the boats, which required several weeks of unremitting 
labor, enforced idleness weighed heavily upon us, and dissension showed its ugly 
visage upon us. Sytor insisted that we start out at once, but I wished to wait a 
little longer as I knew that if John Carter lived and reached Helium, he would 
return for me. Pandar agreed with Sytor; but Gan Had demurred, as the plan was 
to try to reach Phundahl where he feared that he would be held prisoner and 
thrown into slavery. In the many arguments which ensued I had Tun Gan's backing 
and, to my great satisfaction, that of Janai also when she found that I was 
determined to wait yet a little longer.
"We should not leave," she said, "unless we can take Vor Daj's body with us, and 
this Tor-dur-bar refuses to permit until he himself is satisfied that there is 
no hope of rescue from Helium. I think, however," she said to me, "that you are 
making a mistake, and that you should bow to the superior judgment and 
experience of Sytor, who is a red man with a brain of a red man."
Sytor was present during this conversation, and I saw him shoot a quick glance 
at me; and again I wondered if he suspected that the brain of Vor Daj abode in 
my hideous head. I hoped he would not impart his suspicions to Janai.
"Sytor may have the brain of a red man," I said, "but it is functioning now only 
in the interest of Sytor. Mine, however inferior, is imbuded with but a single 
desire, which outweighs every other consideration than the welfare of you and 
Vor Daj. I shall not leave this island until the return of John Carter, unless I 
am absolutely forced to do so, until I am convinced that there remains no 
slightest hope that he will return; nor shall I permit you, Janai, to leave; the 
others may leave if they please, but I promised Vor Daj that I would protect 
Janai, and I should not be protecting her if I permitted her to undertake the 
perilous voyage through the Great Toonolian Marshes toward inhospitable Phundahl 
until there remains no alternative course to pursue."
"I am my own mistress," retorted Janai, angrily, "and I shall leave if I wish; 
no hormad may dictate to me."
"Janai is quite right," said Sytor. "You have no right to interfere."
"Nevertheless, I shall interfere," I replied, "and she shall remain here with me 
even if I have to keep her by force, which, I think you will all admit, I am 
physically able to do."
Well, things were not very pleasant after that; and Janai, Sytor and Pandar 
spent more time than ever together, and were often conversing in low tones that 
could not be overheard. I thought that they were only grumbling among themselves 
and heaping abuse upon me. Of course, it made me very blue to think that Janai 
had turned against me; and I was extremely unhappy; but I anticipated no other 
outcome from their grumblings than this and was quite confident that I should 
have my own way, which my better judgment convinced me was the safe way.
Sytor and Pandar had found a place to sleep that was quite a distance removed 
from the spot that Gan Had, Tun Gan, and I had selected, as though they would 
impress upon us that they had nothing in common with us. This suited me 
perfectly, as I had come to suspect and dislike both of them.
As I was preparing to retire one night after a day of fishing, Tun Gan came and 
squatted down beside me. "I overheard something today," he said, "which may 
interest you. I was dozing beneath a bush down by the beach this afternoon, when 
Sytor and Janai came and sat down beside the very bush behind which I had been 
dozing. They had evidently been discussing you, and I heard Janai say 'I am sure 
that he is really very loyal to Vor Daj and to me. It is only his judgment that 
is at fault; but what can one expect from the deformed brain of a hormad in such 
a deformed body?'" 
"'You are absolutely mistaken,' replied Sytor. 'He has only one idea in mind and 
that is to possess you for himself. There is something that I have known for a 
long time, but which I hesitated to tell you because I did not wish to hurt you. 
The Vor Daj that you knew will never live again. His brain was removed and 
destroyed, and Tor-dur-bar has hidden and protected his body, awaiting the 
return of Ras Thavas who will transfer Tor-dur-bar's hormad brain into the skull 
of Vor Daj. Then he will come to you with this new and beautiful body, hoping to 
win you; but it will not be Vor Daj who hopes to possess you, but the brain of a 
hormad in the body of a man.'
"'How horrible!' exclaimed Janai. 'It cannot be true. How can you know such a 
thing?'
"'Ay-mad told me,' replied Sytor. 'The body of Vor Daj was to be Tor-dur-bar's 
reward for the services that he had rendered Ay-mad; and to make assurance 
doubly sure Tor-dur-bar persuaded Ay-mad to have Vor Daj's brain destroyed.'"
"And what did Janai reply?" I. asked. "She did not believe him, did she?"
"Yes, she believed him," said Tun Gan, "for she said that it explained many 
things that hitherto she had been unable to understand, and she now knew why 
you, a hormad, had evinced such remarkable loyalty toward a red man."
I was disgusted and angry and hurt, and I wondered if such a girl as Janai 
deserved the love and devotion that I had felt for her, and then my better 
judgment came to my rescue as I realized that Sytor's statement was, on the face 
of it, a logical explanation of my attitude toward the girl, for why indeed 
should a hideous hormad defend a red man whose body he might acquire, while at 
the same time acquiring a beautiful girl, or at least a reasonable chance of 
winning her such as his present hideous form would preclude.
"You see that you'll have to watch out for that rat," said Tun Gan.
"I shall not have to for long," I said, "for tomorrow I shall make him eat his 
words; and I shall tell them the truth, which I think Sytor already suspects, 
but will surprise Janai."
I lay awake for a long time that night wondering how Janai would react to the 
truth, what she would say or think or do when I told her that behind this 
hideous face of mine lay the brain of Vor Daj; but at last I fell asleep, and 
because I had lain awake so long I slept late the next morning. It was Gan Had 
of Toonol, who awoke me. He shook me roughly, and when I opened my eyes I saw 
that he was greatly excited.
"What's the matter, Gan Had?" I demanded.
"Sytor!" he explained. "Sytor and Pandar have taken one of the boats and escaped 
with Janai."
I leaped to my feet and ran quickly to where we had hidden the boats. One of 
them was gone; but that was not entirely the worst of it, for a big hole had 
been hacked in the bottom of the other which was bound to delay pursuit for 
several days.
So this was my reward for my love, loyalty, and devotion. I was very sick at 
heart. Now I did not care much whether John Carter returned or not. Life 
hereafter would be a void empty of all but misery. I turned disconsolately away 
from the boat. Gan Had laid a hand upon my shoulder.
"Do not grieve," he said. "If she went of her own volition, she is not worth 
grieving for."
At his words, a hope, a slender hope, just enough to grasp at in desperation 
came to relieve my mental agony. If she went of her own volition! Perhaps she 
did not go of her own volition. Perhaps Sytor took her away by force. There, at 
least, was a hope; and I determined to cling to it to the bitter end. I called 
to Tun Gan, and the three of us set to work to repair the damaged boat. We 
worked furiously, but it took three full days to make the craft seaworthy again, 
for Sytor had done an excellent job of demolition.
I guessed that because Pandar was with them, they would go direct to Phundahl 
where Pandar might succeed in having them received as friends; and so I planned 
to follow them to Phundahl, no matter what the cost. I felt within me the 
strength of a hundred men, the power to demolish a whole army single-handed, and 
to raze the walls of the strongest city.
At last we were ready to depart; but before we left I had one precaution to 
take. Beneath rocks and brush and dirt, I hid the entrance to the tunnel leading 
back to the room where Vor Daj's body lay.
Sytor had appropriated the larger boat, which was far more commodious for three 
people than would have been the smaller, but it was also heavier and there were 
only two men to paddle it, while in our lighter craft there were three of us. 
Gan Had, Tun Gan and myself; so notwithstanding the fact that they had three 
days start of us, I felt that it was within the realm of possibility that we 
might overtake them before they reached Phundahl. This, however, was only a hope 
since it would be by the merest chance that we should follow the same course 
taken by them through the maze of winding waterways that lay between us and our 
destination. It was entirely possible that we might pass them without being 
aware of it. Either party might follow some fair-appearing stretch of water only 
to discover that it came to a blind end, necessitating the retracing of weary 
miles, for the wastes of the Toonolian Marshes are uncharted and were wholly 
unfamiliar to every member of both parties. Being accustomed to observing 
terrain from the air, I had obtained a fair mental picture of the area over 
which we had flown when the hormads had flown us to Morbus upon the backs of 
their malagors, and I had no doubt but that Sytor had flown over the district 
many times. However, I had little reason to believe that these facts would 
advantage either of us to any great extent, as from the surface of the water 
one's view was constantly obstructed by the vegetation which grew upon the 
surface of the marsh and by numerous islands, large and small.
My heart was indeed heavy as I set out in pursuit of Sytor; first, by my doubts 
as to the loyalty of Janai, and, second, because I was forced to abandon my own 
body and go into the world in the hideous disguise of a hormad. Why should I 
pursue Janai, who, listening to Sytor and believing him above me, had deserted 
me, may only be explained by the fact that I was in love with her, and that love 
makes a fool of a man.
We set forth after dark that we might escape detection from Morbus. Only Cluros, 
the smaller and farther moon, was in the sky, but it lighted our way 
sufficiently; and the stars gave us our direction, my prodigious strength adding 
at least two more man-power to the paddles. We had determined to push on both by 
day and by night, each obtaining what sleep he required, by turn, in the bottom 
of the boat. We had plenty of provisions, and the speed at which we could propel 
the canoe imbued us with the hope that we could escape the attack of any 
unfriendly natives who might discover us.
The first day a flock of malagors flew over us, traveling in the direction of 
Phundahl. We were concealed from them by the overhanging brush of a narrow canal 
we were traversing; but they were plainly visible to us and we could see that 
each malagor carried a hormad warrior astride his back.
"Another raiding party," commented Gan Had.
"More likely a searching party that Ay-mad has dispatched in pursuit of us," I 
said, "for he must have discovered that we have escaped from Morbus."
"But we escaped weeks ago," said Tun Gan,
"Yes," I agreed, "but I have no doubt but that during all this time he has been 
sending searching parties in all directions."
Gan Had nodded. "Probably you are right. Let us hope that they do not discover 
any of us, for if they do we shall go to the vats or the incinerator."
On the second day after we had entered a fair-sized lake, we were discovered by 
savages who dwelt upon its shores. They manned a number of canoes and sallied 
forth to intercept us. We bent to our paddles, and our little craft fairly 
skimmed the surface of the water; but the savages had taken off from a point on 
the shore slightly ahead of us, and it seemed almost a certainty that they would 
reach us before we could pass them. They were a savage lot; and as they came 
closer, I saw that they were stark naked, their bushy hair standing out in all 
directions, their faces and bodies painted to render them more hideous even than 
Nature had intended them to be. They were armed with crude spears and clubs; but 
there was nothing crude about the manner in which they handled their long 
canoes, which sped over the water at amazing speed.
"Faster!" I urged. And now with every stroke our canoe seemed to leave the 
water, as it sprang ahead like a living thing.
The savages were yelling now in exultation, as it seemed certain that they must 
overhaul us; but the energy that they put into their savage cries had been 
better expended on their paddles, for presently we passed their leading boat and 
commenced to draw away from them. Furious, they hurled spears and clubs at us 
from the leading boat; but they fell short, and it was soon obvious that we had 
escaped them and they could not overtake us. They kept on however for a few 
minutes, and then, with angry imprecations, they turned sullenly back toward 
shore. It was well for us that they did so, for Gan Had and Tun Gan had reached 
the limit of their endurance, and both sank exhausted into the bottom of the 
canoe the moment that the savages gave up the pursuit. I felt no fatigue, and 
continued to paddle onward toward the end of the lake. Here we entered a winding 
canal which we followed for about two hours without further adventure. The sun 
was about to set when we heard the flapping of great wings approaching from 
ahead of us.
"Malagors," said Tun Gan.
"The searching party returns," remarked Gan Had; "with what success, I wonder."
"They are flying very low," I said. "Come, pull ashore under those bushes. Even 
so, we shall be lucky if they do not see us."
The bushes grew at the edge of a low, flat island that rose only a few inches 
above the surface of the water. The malagors passed over us low, and circled 
back.
"They are going to alight," said Tun Gan. "The hormads do not like to fly at 
night, for the malagors do not see well after dark, and Thuria, hurtling low 
above them, frightens and confuses them."
We were all looking up at them as they passed over us, and I saw that three of 
the malagors were carrying double.
The others noticed it too, and Gan Had said that they had prisoners.
"And I think that one of them is a woman," said Tun Gan.
"Perhaps they have captured Sytor and Pandar, and Janai."
"They are alighting on this island," said Gan Had. "If we wait until it is dark, 
we can pass them safely."
"First I must know if one of the prisoners is Janai," I replied.
"It will mean death for all of us if we are discovered,"' said Tun Gan. "We have 
a chance to escape, and we cannot help Janai by being captured ourselves."
"I must know," I said. "I am going ashore to find out; if I do not return by 
shortly after dark, you two go on your way, and may good luck attend you."
"And if you find that she is there?" asked Gan Had.
"Then I shall come back to you and we shall set out immediately for Morbus. If 
Janai is taken back, I must return too."
"But you can accomplish nothing," insisted Gan Had. "You will be sacrificing our 
lives as well as yours, uselessly. You have no right to do that to us when there 
is no hope of success. If there were even the slightest hope, it would be 
different; and I, for one, would accompany you; but as there is no hope, I 
flatly refuse. I am not going to throw my life away on a fool's errand."
"If Janai is there," I said, "I shall go back, if I have to go back alone. You 
two may accompany me, or you may remain on this island. That is for you to 
decide."
They looked very glum, and neither made any reply as I crawled ashore among the 
concealing bushes. I gave no more thought to Tun Gan and Gan Had, my mind being 
wholly occupied with the problem of discovering if Janai were one of the 
prisoners the hormads were bringing back to Morbus. The low shrubs growing upon 
the island afforded excellent cover, and I wormed my way among them on my belly 
in the direction from which I heard voices. It was slow work, and it was almost 
dark before I reached a point from which I could observe the party. There were a 
dozen hormad warriors and two officers. Presently, creeping closer, I discovered 
some figures lying down, and immediately recognized the one nearest me as Sytor. 
He was bound, hand and foot; and by his presence I knew that Janai was there 
also; but I wished to make sure, and so I moved cautiously to another position 
from which I could see the other two. One of them was Janai.
I cannot describe the emotions that swept over me, as I saw the woman I loved 
lying bound upon the ground, again a prisoner of the hideous minions of Ay-mad, 
and doomed to be returned to him. She was so near to me, yet I could not let her 
know that I was there seeking a way to serve her as loyally as though she had 
not deserted me. I lay there a long time just looking at her, and then as 
darkness fell I turned and crawled cautiously away; but soon, as neither moon 
was in the heavens at the time, I arose without fear of detection and walked 
rapidly toward the spot where I had left Gan Had and Tun Gan. I was trying to 
figure how we might return to Morbus more quickly than we had come; but I knew 
that it would be difficult to better our speed, and I had to resign myself to 
the fact that it would be two days before I could reach the City, and in the 
meantime what might not have happened to Janai? I shuddered as I contemplated 
her fate; and I had to content myself with the reflection that if I could not 
rescue her, I might at least avenge her. I hated to think of forcing Tun Gan and 
Gan Had to return with me; but there was no other way. I needed the strength of 
their paddles to hasten my return. I could not even offer them the alternative 
of remaining on the island. Such were my thoughts as I came to the place where I 
had left the boat. It was gone.
Gan Had and Tun Gan had deserted me, taking with them my only means of 
transportation back to Morbus.
For a moment I was absolutely stunned by the enormity of the misfortune that had 
overtaken me, for it seemed to preclude any possibility of my being able to be 
of any assistance whatever to Janai, for after all it was she alone who 
mattered. I sat down on the edge of the canal and sunk my face in my palms in a 
seemingly futile effort to plan for the future. I conceived and discarded a 
dozen mad projects, at last deciding upon the only one which seemed to offer any 
chance of success. I determined to return to the camp of the hormads and give 
myself up. At least then I could be near Janai, and once back in Morbus with her 
some fortunate circumstance might give me the opportunity that I sought, though 
my better judgment told me that death would be my only reward.
I arose then, and started boldly back toward the camp; but as I approached it, 
and before I was discovered, another plan occurred to me. Were I to return to 
Morbus as a prisoner, bound hand and foot, Ay-mad would doubtless have me 
destroyed while I was still helpless, for he knew my great strength and feared 
it; but if I could reach Morbus undiscovered I might accomplish something more 
worthwhile; and if I could reach it before Janai was returned to Ay-mad, my 
chances of saving her from him would be increased a thousandfold; so now I moved 
more cautiously circling the camp until I came upon the malagors, some resting 
in sleep, their heads tucked beneath their giant wings, while others moved 
restlessly about. They were not tethered in any way, for the hormads knew that 
they would not take flight after dark of their own volition.
Circling still farther, I approached them from the far side of the camp; and as 
I was a hormad, I aroused no suspicion among them. Walking up to the first one I 
encountered, I took hold of its neck and led it quietly away; and when I felt 
that I was far enough away from camp for safety, I leaped to its back. I knew 
how to control the great bird, as I had watched Teeaytan-ov carefully at the 
time that I was captured and transported from the vicinity of Phundahl to 
Morbus; and I had often talked with both officers and hormad warriors about 
them, thus acquiring all the knowledge that was necessary to control and direct 
them.
At first the bird objected to taking off and endeavored to fight me, so that I 
was afraid the noise would attract attention from the camp; and presently it 
did, for I heard someone shout, "What is going on out there?" And presently, in 
the light of the farther moon, I saw three hormads approaching.
Once more I sought to urge the great bird to rise, kicking it violently with my 
heels. Now the hormads were running toward me, and the whole camp was aroused. 
The bird, excited by my buffetings and by the noise of the warriors approaching 
behind us, commenced to run away from them; and spreading its great wings, it 
flapped them vigorously for a moment; and then we rose from the ground and 
sailed off into the night.
By the stars I headed it for Morbus; and that was all I that I had to do, for 
its homing instinct kept it thereafter upon the right course.
The flight was rapid and certain, though the malagor became excited when Thuria 
leaped from below the horizon and hurtled through the sky.
Thuria, less than six thousand miles from the surface of Barsoom, and circling 
the planet in less than eight hours, presents a magnificent spectacle as it 
races through the heavens, a spectacle well calculated to instill terror in the 
hearts of lower animals whose habits are wholly diurnal. However my bird held 
its direction, though it flew very low as if it were trying to keep as far away 
as possible from the giant ball of fire that appeared to be pursuing it.
Ah, our Martian nights! A gorgeous spectacle that never ceases to enthrall the 
imagination of Barsoornians. How pale and bleak must seem the nights on earth, 
with a single satellite moving at a snail's pace through the sky at such a great 
distance from the planet that it must appear no larger than a platter. Even with 
the stress under which my mind was laboring, I still could thrill to the 
magnificent spectacle of this glorious night.
The distance that had required two days and nights of arduous efforts in coming 
from Morbus was spanned in a few hours by the swift malagor. It was with some 
difficulty that I forced the creature down upon the island from which we had set 
forth two days before, as it wished to land in its accustomed place before the 
gates of Morbus; but at last I succeeded, and it was with a sigh of relief that 
I slipped from the back of my unwilling mount.
It did not want to take off again; but I forced it to do so, as I could not 
afford to take the chance that it might be seen if it arose from the island 
after sunrise, and thus lead my enemies to my only sanctuary when their 
suspicions were aroused by the tale which I knew the returning searching party 
would have to tell.
After I had succeeded in chasing it away I went immediately to the mouth of the 
tunnel leading back to the Laboratory Building, where I removed enough debris to 
permit me to crawl through into the tunnel. Before doing so, I tore up a large 
bush and as I wormed myself backward through the aperture I drew the bush after 
me, in the hope that it would fill the hole and conceal the opening. Then I 
hurried through the long tunnel to 3-17.
It was with a feeling of great relief that I found my body still safe in its 
vault-like tomb. For a moment I stood looking down at it, and I think that with 
the exception of Janai I had never so longed to possess any other thing. My face 
and my body may have their faults, but by comparison with the grotesque 
monstrosity that my brain now directed, they were among the most beautiful 
things in the world; but there they lay, as lost to me as completely as though 
they had gone to the incinerator unless Ras Thavas should return.
Ras Thavas! John Carter! Where were they? Perhaps slain in Phundahl; perhaps 
long since killed by the Great Toonolian Marshes; perhaps the victims of some 
accident on their return journey to Helium, if they had succeeded in reaching 
John Carter's flier outside Phundahl. I had practically given up hope that they 
would return for me, because enough time had elapsed to permit John Carter to 
have made the trip to Helium and to have returned easily, long before this; yet 
hope would not die.
CHAPTER XX
THE MIGHTY JED OF GOOLIE
I REALIZED THAT my plans from now on must depend upon the conditions which 
confronted me. My hope was that I might reach the palace of Ay-mad, undetected, 
and hide myself in the throne room until Janai was brought before him. I should 
then attempt to destroy Ay-mad, and if I succeeded, which I had no doubt but 
that I should, to fight my way with Janai toward liberty. That I should fail 
seemed quite probable; but at least I should have destroyed her worst enemy, and 
might even find sufficient following among the hormads, which were always 
discontented with their rulers, to promise some success in taking over the city 
and Island of Morbus. This was my dream; but it was doomed never to be realized. 
I had been reckoning without consideration of Vat Room No. 4.
As I approached the door that opened into the corridor, I thought that I heard 
sounds beyond the heavy panels; so that it was with the utmost caution that I 
opened the doors gradually. As I did so, the sound came more plainly to my ears. 
It was indescribable – a strange surging sound, unlike any other sound in the 
world, and blending with it were strange human voices mouthing unintelligibly.
Even before I looked out, I knew then what it was; and as I stepped into the 
corridor I saw at my right and not far from the door a billowing mass of slimy, 
human tissue creeping gradually toward me. Protruding from it were unrelated 
fragments of human anatomy – a hand, an entire leg, afoot, a lung, a heart, and 
here and there a horribly mouthing head. The heads screamed at me, and a hand 
tried to reach forth and clutch me; but I was well without their reach. Had I 
arrived an hour later, and opened that door, the whole horrid mass would have 
surged in upon me and the body of Vor Daj would have been lost forever.
The corridor to the left, leading to the ramp that led to the upper floors, was 
quite deserted. I realized that the mass in Vat Room No. 4 must have found 
entrance at the far end of the pits through some unguarded opening below the 
street level. Eventually it would fill every crevice and make its way up the 
ramp to the upper stories of the Laboratory Building.
What, I wondered, would be the end? Theoretically, it would never cease to grow 
and spread unless entirely destroyed. It would spread out of the City of Morbus 
and across the Great Toonolian Marshes. It would engulf cities; or failing to 
mount their walls, it would surround and isolate them, condemning their 
inhabitants to slow starvation. It would roll across the dead sea bottoms to the 
farmlands of Mars' great canals. Eventually it would cover the entire surface of 
the planet, destroying all other life. Conceivably, it might grow and grow 
through all eternity devouring and living upon itself. It was a hideous thing to 
contemplate, but it was not without probability. Ras Thavas himself had told me 
as much.
I hastened along the corridor toward the ramp, expecting that I would probably 
find no other abroad at this time of night, as the discipline and guarding of 
the Laboratory Building was extremely lax when left to the direction of the 
hormads, as it had been after I had been demoted; but to my chagrin and 
consternation I found the upper floors alive with warriors and officers. A 
veritable panic reigned, and to such an extent that no one paid any attention to 
me. The officers were trying to maintain some form of order and discipline; but 
they were failing signally in the face of the terror that was apparent 
everywhere. From snatches of conversation which I overheard, I learned that the 
mass from Vat Room No. 4 had entered the palace and that Ay-mad and his court 
were fleeing to another part of the island outside the city walls. I learned, 
too, that the mass was spreading through the avenues of the city, and the fear 
of the hormad warriors was that they would all be cut off from escape. Ay-mad 
had issued orders that they should remain and attempt to destroy the mass and 
prevent its further spread through the city. Some of the officers were 
halfheartedly attempting to enforce the order, but for the most part they were 
as anxious to flee as the common warriors themselves.
Suddenly one warrior raised his voice above the tumult and shouted to his 
fellows. "Why should we remain here to die, while Ay-mad escapes with his 
favorites? There is still one avenue open; come, follow me!"
That was enough. Like a huge wave, the hideous monsters swept the officers to 
one side, killing some and trampling others, as they bolted for the exit which 
led to the only avenue of escape left open to them. Nothing could withstand 
them, and I was carried along in the mad rush for safety.
It was just as well, for if Ay-mad was leaving the City, Janai would not be 
brought into it.
Once in the avenue, the congestion was relieved, and we moved along in a steady 
stream toward the outer gate; but the flight did not stop here, as the terrified 
hormads spread over the Island in an attempt to get as far away from the City as 
possible; so I found myself standing almost alone in the open space before the 
City where the malagors landed and from which they took off in their flight. To 
this spot would the captors of Janai bring her; so here I would remain hoping 
that some fortunate circumstance might suggest a plan whereby I might rescue her 
from this city of horrors.
It seemed that I had never before had to wait so long for dawn, and I found 
myself almost alone on the stretch of open plain that lay between the City gates 
and the shore of the lake. A few officers and warriors remained at the gate, and 
scouts were continually entering the City and reporting back the progress of the 
mass. I thought that they had not noticed me, but presently one of the officers 
approached me.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"I was sent here by Ay-mad," I replied.
"Your face is very familiar," said the officer. "I am sure that I have seen you 
before. Something about you arouses my suspicions."
I shrugged. "It does not make much difference," I said, "what you think. I am 
Ay-mad's messenger, and I carry orders for the officer in command of the party 
that went in search of the fugitives."
"Oh," he said, "that is possible; still I feel that I know you."
"I doubt it," I replied. "Ever since I was created, I have lived in a small 
village at the end of the island."
"Perhaps so," he said. "It doesn't make any difference, anyway. What message do 
you bring to the commander of the search party?"
"I have orders for the commander of the gate, also."
"I am he," said the officer.
"Good," I replied. "My orders are to take the woman, if she has been recaptured, 
upon a malagor and fly her directly to Ay-mad, and the captain of the gate is 
made responsible to see that this is done. I feel sorry for you, if, there is 
any hitch."
"There will be no hitch," he said; "but I do not see why there should be."
"There may be, though," I assured him, "for some informer has told Ay-mad that 
the commander of the search party wishes Janai for himself. In all the confusion 
and insubordination and mutiny that has followed the abandonment of the city, 
Ay-mad is none too sure of himself or his power; so he is fearful that this 
officer may take advantage of conditions to defy him and keep the girl for 
himself when he learns what has happened here during his absence."
"Well," said the captain of the gate, "I'll see to that."
"It might be well," I suggested, "not to let the officer in command of the party 
know what you have in mind. I will hide inside the city gates so that he will 
not see me; and you can bring the girl to me and, later, a malagor, while you 
engage the officer in conversation and distract his attention. Then, when I have 
flown away, you may tell him."
"That is a good idea," he said. "You are not such a fool as you look."
"I am sure," I said, "that you will find you have made no mistake in your 
estimate of me."
"Look!" he said, "I believe they are coming now." And sure enough, far away, and 
high in the sky, a little cluster of dots were visible which grew rapidly larger 
and larger, resolving themselves finally into eleven malagors with their burdens 
of warriors and captives.
As the party came closer and prepared to land, I stepped inside the gate where I 
could not be observed or recognized by any of them. The captain of the gate 
advanced and greeted the commander of the returning search party. They spoke 
briefly for a few moments, and then I saw Janai coming toward the gate; and 
presently a warrior followed her, leading a large malagor. I scrutinized the 
fellow carefully as he approached; but I did not recognize him, and so I was 
sure that he would not know me, and then Janai entered and stood face to face 
with me.
"Tor-dur-bar!" she exclaimed.
"Quiet," I whispered. "You are in grave danger from which I think I can save you 
if you will trust me, as evidently you have not in the past."
"I have not known whom to trust," she said, "but I have trusted you more than 
any other."
The warrior had now reached the gate with the malagor. I tossed Janai to its 
back and leaped astride the great bird behind her; then we were off. I directed 
the flight of the bird toward the east end of the island, to make them think I 
was taking Janai to Ay-mad; but when we had crossed some low hills and they were 
hidden from my view, I turned back around the south side of the island and 
headed toward Phundahl.
As we started to fly from the island the great bird became almost unmanageable, 
trying to return again to its fellows. I had to fight it constantly to keep it 
headed in the direction I wished to travel. These exertions coming upon top of 
its long flight tired it rapidly so that eventually it gave up and flapped 
slowly and dismally along the route I had chosen. Then, for the first time, 
Janai and I were able to converse.
"How did you happen to be at the gate when I arrived?" she asked. "How is it 
that you are the messenger whom Ay-mad chose to bring me to him?"
"Ay-mad knows nothing about it," I replied. "It is an a little fiction of my own 
which I invented to deceive the captain of the gate and the commander of the 
party that recaptured you."
"But how did you know that I had been recaptured and that I would be returned to 
Morbus today? It is all very confusing and baffling; I cannot understand it."
"Did you not hear that a malagor was stolen from your camp last night?" I asked.
"Tor-dur-bar!" she exclaimed. "It was you? What were you doing there?"
"I had set out in search of you and was beside the island when your party 
landed."
111 see," she said. "How very clever and how very brave."
"If you had believed in me and trusted me," I said, "we might have escaped; but 
I do not believe that I would have been such a fool as to be recaptured, as was 
Sytor."
"I believed in you and trusted you more than any other," she said.
"Then why did you run away with Sytor?" I demanded.
"I did not run away with Sytor. He tried to persuade me, telling me many stories 
about you which I did not wish to believe. Finally I told him definitely that I 
would not go with him, but he and Pandar came in the night and took me by 
force."
"I am glad that you did not go away with him willingly," I said. I can tell you 
that it made me feel very good to think that she had not done so; and now I 
loved her more than ever, but little good it would do me as long as I sported 
this hideous carcass and monstrously inhuman face.
"And what of Vor Daj?" she asked presently.
"We shall have to leave his body where it is until Ras T'havas returns; there is 
no alternative."
"But if Ras Thavas never returns?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"Then Vor Daj will lie where he is through all eternity," I replied.
"How horrible," she breathed. "He was so handsome, so wonderful."
"You thought well of him?" I asked. And I was immediately ashamed of myself for 
taking this unfair advantage of her.
"I thought well of him," she said, in a matter-of-fact tone, a reply which was 
neither very exciting nor very encouraging. She might have spoken in the same 
way of a thoat or a calot.
Sometime after noon, it became apparent that the malagor had about reached the 
limit of its endurance. It began to drop closer and closer toward the marshes, 
and presently it came to the ground upon one of the largest islands that I had 
seen. It was a very attractive island, with hill and dale and forest land, and a 
little stream winding down to the lake, a most unusual sight upon Barsoom. The 
moment that the malagor alighted, it rolled over upon its side throwing us to 
the ground, and I thought that it was about to die as it lay there struggling 
and gasping.
"Poor thing!" said Janai. "It has been carrying double for three days now, and 
with insufficient food, practically none at all."
"Well, it has at least brought us away from Morbus," I said, "and if it recovers 
it is going to take us on to Helium."
"Why to Helium?" she asked.
"Because it is the only country where I am sure you will find safe asylum."
"And why should I find safety there?" she demanded.
"Because you are a friend of Vor Daj; and John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom, will 
see that any friend of Vor Daj is well received and well treated."
"And you?" she asked. I must have shuddered visibly at the thought of entering 
Helium in this horrible guise, for she said quickly, "I am sure that you will be 
received well, too, for you certainly deserve it far more than I." She thought 
for a moment in silence, and then she asked, "Do you know what became of the 
brain of Vor Daj? Sytor told me that it was destroyed."
I wanted to tell her the truth; but I could not bring myself to it, and so I 
said, "It was not destroyed. Ras Thavas knows where it is; and if I ever find 
him, it will be restored to Vor Daj."
"It does not seem possible that we two shall ever find Ras Thavas," she said, 
sadly.
It did not seem likely to me either, but I would not give up hope. John Carter 
must live! Ras Thavas must live! And some day I should find them.
But what of my body lying there beneath the Laboratory Building of Morbus? What 
if the mass from Vat Room No. 4 found its way into 3-17? The very thought made 
me feel faint; and yet it was not impossible. If the building and the corridor 
filled with the mass, the great pressure that it would exert might conceivably 
break down even the massive door of 3-17. Then those horrid heads would devour 
me; or, if the mass spread from the Island across the marshes, it would be 
impossible ever to retrieve my body even though it remained forever untouched. 
It was not a very cheerful outlook, and I found it extremely depressing; but my 
thoughts were suddenly recalled to other channels by an exclamation from Janai.
"Look!" she cried.
I turned in the direction she was pointing, to see a number of strange creatures 
coming toward us in prodigious leaps and bounds. That they were some species of 
human being was apparent, but there were variations which rendered them unlike 
any other animal on Mars. They had long, powerful legs, the knees of which were 
always flexed except immediately after the take-off of one of their prodigious 
leaps, and they had long, powerful tails; otherwise, they seemed quite human in 
conformation. As they came closer, I noted that they were entirely naked except 
for a simple harness which supported a short sword on one side and a dagger on 
the other. Besides these weapons, each of them carried a spear in his right 
hand. They quickly surrounded us, remaining at a little distance from us, 
squatting down with their knees bent as they supported themselves on their 
broad, flat feet and their tails.
"'Who are you, and what are you doing here?" demanded one of them, surprising me 
by the fact that he possessed speech.
"We were flying over your island," I replied, when our malagor became tired and 
was forced to come to ground to rest. As soon as we are able, we shall continue 
on our way."
The fellow shook his head. "You will never leave Gooli," he said. He was 
examining me closely. "What are you?" he asked.
"I am a man," I said, stretching the point a little.
He shook his head. "And what is that?" He pointed at Janai.
"A woman," I replied.
Again he shook his head.
"She is only half a woman," he said. "She has no way of rearing her young or 
keeping them warm. If she had any, they would die as soon as they were hatched."
Well, that was a subject I saw no reason for going into, and so I kept silent. 
Janai seemed slightly amused, for if she were nothing else she was extremely 
feminine.
"What do you intend to do with us?" I demanded.
"We shall take you to the Jed, and he will decide. Perhaps he will let you live 
and work; perhaps he will destroy you. You are very ugly, but you look strong; 
you should be a good worker. The woman appears useless, if she can be called a 
woman."
I was at a loss as to what to do. We were surrounded by fully fifty warriors, 
well though crudely armed. With my terrific strength, I might have destroyed 
many of them; but eventually I was sure that they would overpower and kill me.
It would be better to go with them to their Jed and await a better opportunity 
for escape. "Very well," I said, "we will go with you."
"Of course you will," he said. "What else could you do?"
"I could fight," I said.
"Ho ho, you would like to fight, would you?" he demanded. "Well, I think that if 
that is the case, the Jed will accommodate you. Come with us."
They led us back along the stream and up over a little rise of ground beyond 
which we saw a forest, at the edge of which lay a village of thatched huts.
"That," said the leader, pointing, "is Gooli, the largest city in the world. 
There, in his great palace, dwells Anatok, Jed of Gooli and all of the Island of 
Ompt."
As we approached the village, a couple of hundred people came to meet us. There 
were men, women and children; and when I examined the women I realized why the 
leader of the party that had captured us thought that Janai was not wholly 
feminine. These Goolians of the Island of Ompt are marsupials, oviparous 
marsupials. The females lay eggs which they carry in a pouch on, the lower part 
of their abdomen. In this pouch the eggs hatch, and in it the young live and 
take shelter until they are able to fend for themselves. It was quite amusing to 
see the little heads protruding from their mothers' pouches as they surveyed us 
with wondering eyes. Up to this time I had believed that there was only one 
marsupial upon Barsoom, and that a reptile; so it seemed quite remarkable to see 
these seemingly quite human people bearing their young in abdominal pouches.
The creatures that came out from the village to meet us were quite rough with 
us, pulling and hauling us this way and that as they sought to examine us more 
closely. I towered above them all and they were a little in awe of me; but they 
were manhandling Janai quite badly when I interfered, pushing several of them 
away so forcibly that they were thrown to the ground, whereupon two or three of 
them drew their swords and came for me; but the party that had captured us acted 
now as a bodyguard and defended us from attack. After this they kept the rabble 
at a distance, and presently we were ushered into the village and led to a grass 
hut much larger than the others. This, I assumed, was the magnificent palace of 
Anatok. Such it proved to be, and presently the Jed himself emerged from the 
interior with several men and women and a horde of children. The women were his 
wives and their attendants; the men were his counselors.
Anatok seemed much interested in us and asked many questions about our capture, 
and then he asked us from whence we came.
"We came from Morbus," I said, "and we are on our way to Helium."
"Morbus – Helium," he repeated. "I never heard of them. Little villages, no 
doubt, inhabited by savages. How fortunate we are to live in such a splendid 
city as Gooli. Don't you think so?" he asked.
"I think you would be very much happier in Gooli than in Morbus, and far more at 
ease here than in Helium," I replied, truthfully.
"Our countries," I continued, "have never harmed you. We are not at war; 
therefore you should let us go on our way in peace."
At that he laughed. "What simple people come from other villages!" he exclaimed. 
"You are my slaves. When you are no longer of service to me you shall be 
destroyed. Do you think that we want any strangers to go away from Ompt to lead 
enemies here to destroy our magnificent city and steal our vast riches?"
"Our people would never bother you," I said. "Our country is too far from here. 
If one of your people should come to our country, he would be treated with 
kindness. We fight only with our enemies."
"That reminds me," said the leader of the party that had captured us, "this 
fellow is indeed our enemy by his own words, for he said that he wished to fight 
us."
"What!" exclaimed Anatok. "Well, if that is so, he shall have his wish. There is 
nothing that we like better than a good fight. With what weapons would you like 
to fight?"
"I will fight with anything that my antagonist chooses," I replied.
CHAPTER XXI
DUEL TO THE DEATH
IT SOON APPEARED that a personal combat was a matter of considerable importance 
to the Goolians. The chief and his advisors held a lengthy discussion relative 
to the selection of an antagonist for me. The qualities of a number of warriors 
were discussed, and even their ancestors as far back as the fifth and sixth 
generation were appraised and compared. It might have been a momentous matter of 
state, so serious were they. The conference was often interrupted by suggestions 
and comments from other members of the tribe; but at last they selected a husky 
young buck, who, impressed by the importance now attached to him, launched into 
a long and windy speech in which he enumerated his many virtues and those of his 
ancestors while belittling me and bragging about the short work he would make of 
me. He finally concluded his harangue by selecting swords as the weapons we were 
to use; and then Anatok asked me if I had anything to say, for it seemed that 
this speech-making was a part of the ceremony preceding the duel.
"I have only a question to ask," I replied.
"And what is that?" demanded Anatok.
"What will be my reward if I defeat your warrior?" I asked.
Anatok appeared momentarily confused. "Now that is an outcome that had not 
occurred to me," he said; "but of course, after all, it is unimportant, as you 
will not win."
"But it might happen," I insisted, "and if it does, what is to be my reward? 
Will you grant freedom to my companion and myself?
Anatok laughed. "Certainly," he said. "I can safely promise you anything you ask 
for; for when the fight is over you will have lost, and you will be dead."
"Very good," I replied; "but don't forget your promise."
"Is that all you have to say?" demanded Anatok. "Aren't you going to tell us how 
good you are, and how many men you have killed, and what a wonderful fighter you 
are? Or aren't you any good?"
"That is something that only the sword may decide," I replied. "My antagonist 
has done a great deal of boasting, and he might continue to do so indefinitely 
without drawing any blood or harming me in any way. He has not even frightened 
me, for I have heard men boast before; and those who boasted the loudest usually 
have the least to boast about."
"It is evident," said Anatok, "that you know nothing about the warriors of 
Gooli. We are the bravest people in the world and our warriors are the greatest 
swordsmen. It is because of these attributes that we are the most powerful 
nation in the world, which is evidenced by the fact that we have built this 
magnificent city and protected it for generations, and that we have been able 
during all this time to safeguard our vast treasures."
I looked around at the mean little village of grass huts and wondered where 
Anatok's vast treasures might be hidden, and of what they consisted. Perhaps it 
was a vast store of rare gems and precious metals.
"I see no evidence of great wealth or of any treasure," I said. "Perhaps you are 
only boasting again."
At this, Anatok flew into a rage. "You dare doubt me, you hideous savage?" he 
cried. "What do you know of wealth or treasures? Your eyes have probably never 
rested upon anything that compares with the riches of Gooli."
"Show him the treasure before he dies," cried a warrior. "Then he will 
understand why we have to be such a brave and warlike people in order to protect 
and hold it."
"That is not a bad idea," said Anatok. "Let him learn by his own eyes that we of 
Gooli do not boast about our wealth, just as he will learn by experience that we 
do not boast about our bravery and swordsmanship. Come, fellow, you shall see 
the treasures."
He led the way into his palace, and I followed with a score of warriors pressing 
about me. The interior of the grass hut was bare, except for a litter of dead 
grass and leaves around the walls which evidently served for beds, some weapons, 
a few crude cooking utensils, and a large chest that stood in the exact center 
of the building. To this chest, Anatok conducted me; and, with a grand flourish, 
raised the lid and exhibited the contents to me as much as to say, "Now there is 
nothing more in the world for you to see; you have seen everything."
"Here," he said, "are the riches of Gooli."
The chest was about three-quarters filled with marine shells. Anatok and the 
others watched me closely to note my reaction.
"Where is the treasure?" I asked. "These are nothing but shells."
Anatok trembled with suppressed rage. "You poor, ignorant savage," he cried. "I 
might have known that you could not appreciate the true value and beauty of the 
treasure of Gooli. Come, on with the fight; the sooner you are destroyed, the 
better off the world will be. We Goolians cannot abide ignorance and stupidity; 
we, who are the most intelligent and wisest people in the world."
"Come on," I said. "The quicker we get it over the better."
It appeared that the preparation for the duel was quite a ceremonious affair. A 
procession was formed with Anatok and his counselors at the head. Then, 
following my antagonist, was a guard of honor consisting of about ten warriors. 
Behind these, I trailed; and would have been alone but for the fact that I took 
Janai with me, nor did they raise any objections to this. The rest of the tribe, 
including warriors, women and children, followed behind us. It was a remarkable 
procession in that it was all procession and no audience. We marched around the 
palace once and then down the main street and out of the village. The villagers 
formed a circle, in the center of which were I, my antagonist and his guard of 
honor. At a word from Anatok I drew my sword; so did my antagonist and the ten 
warriors with him. Then we advanced toward one another.
I turned to Anatok. "What are those other warriors doing there?" I asked.
"They are Zuki's assistants," he replied.
"Am I supposed to fight all of them?" I demanded.
"Oh, no," replied Anatok. "You will only fight Zuki, and his assistants will 
only help him if he gets in trouble."
In reality then, I was to fight eleven men.
"Fight, coward!" cried Anatok. "We want to see a good fight."
I turned again toward Zuki and his helpers. They were coming toward me very, 
very slowly; and they were making faces at me as though in an effort to frighten 
me. The whole thing struck me as so ridiculous that I could not refrain from 
laughing; yet I knew that it was serious, for the odds of eleven to one were 
heavily against me, even though the eleven might be inferior swordsmen.
My face was in itself extremely hideous, and suddenly I twisted it into a 
horrible grimace and with a wild shout leaped toward them. The reaction was 
amazing. Zuki was the first to turn and flee, colliding with his fellows, who, 
in their turn, attempted to escape my onslaught. I did not pursue them; and when 
they saw that I had not, they stopped and faced me again.
"Is this an example of the vaunted courage of the Goolis?" I asked Anatok.
"You have just witnessed a fine piece of strategy," replied Anatok; "but you are 
too ignorant to appreciate it."
Once again they came toward me, but still very slowly; and this time they voiced 
a kind of war whoop while they were making their faces.
I was just about to rush them again when a woman screamed and pointed down the 
valley. With the others, I turned to see what had attracted her attention, and 
discovered half a dozen savages such as those which had attacked our boat while 
Gan Had, Tun Gan, and I had been pursuing Sytor and Janai. At sight of them, a 
great wail rose from the villagers. The women and children and all but a handful 
of warriors ran for the woods; and I couldn't tell whether those who remained 
did so because they were paralyzed with fright and unable to run, or because of 
a sudden access of courage. Zuki, my late antagonist, was not among them. He and 
Anatok were racing nip and tuck for the woods in advance of all the others.
"Who are they?" I asked a warrior standing near me.
"The man-eaters," he replied. "After their last raid, we were chosen to be the 
sacrifice when they should come again."
"What do you mean," I asked, "'the sacrifice?"'
"Yes, it is a sacrifice," he replied. "If we do not willingly give up five 
warriors to them when they come, they will attack the village and burn it, they 
will take our treasure, they will steal our women and kill as many of our men as 
they can find. It is simpler this way; but it is hard on those who are chosen. 
However, we have no alternative but to obey, for if we did not the tribe would 
kill us with torture."
"But why give up to them?" I asked. "There are only six, and we are six; let's 
fight them. We have as good a chance to win as they."
They looked at me in surprise. "But we never fight anyone," they said, "unless 
we outnumber them ten to one. It would not be good strategy."
"Forget your strategy," I commanded, "and stand up against these men with me."
"Do you suppose we could?" asked one of another.
"It has never been done," was the reply.
"That is no reason why it can't be done now," I snapped. "If you will give me 
even a little help, we can kill them all."
"Give me a sword," said Janai, "and I will help, too."
"Let us try it," said one of the Goolians.
"Why not?" demanded another. "We are going to die anyway."
The savages had now approached and were quite near us. They were laughing and 
talking among themselves and casting contemptuous glances at the Goolians. "Come 
on," said one, "throw down your arms and come with us."
For answer, I leaped forward and clove the fellow from crown to breastbone with 
a single stroke. The five Goolians came forward slowly. They had no stomach for 
fighting; but when they saw the success of my first blow they were encouraged; 
and, in the same measure, the savages were taken aback. I did not stop with the 
one but pushed on toward the remainder of the savages. I now met with a little 
competition; but my great reach and my enormous strength gave me an advantage 
which they could not overcome, with the result that three of them were soon down 
and the other three running away as fast as they could go.
At sight of the enemy in retreat, something which they had probably seldom seen 
in their lives, the Goolians became demons of bravery and set out in pursuit of 
them. They could easily have overtaken them, for they moved in great bounds that 
carried them fully twenty feet at a time; but they let them escape over the edge 
of the plateau; and then they came bounding back, their chests stuck out and 
their expressions radiating self-satisfaction and egotism.
Evidently the encounter had been witnessed by those in hiding in the woods, for 
now the entire tribe came straggling toward us. Anatok looked a little 
shame-faced, but his first words belied his expression. "You see the value of 
our strategy," he said. "By appearing to run away in fright, we lured them on 
and then destroyed them."
"You are not fooling me or yourself either," I said. "You are a race of 
braggarts and cowards. I saved the five men that you would have given up as 
tribute without a single effort to defend them. You permitted six savages to 
route you and all your warriors. I could kill you all single-handed, and you 
know it. Now I demand that you reward me for what I have done by permitting me 
and my companion to remain here in safety until we are able to make plans for 
continuing our journey. If you refuse, you shall be the first to feel the edge 
of my sword."
"You don't have to threaten me," he said, trembling. "It was my intention to 
give you your liberty as a reward for what you have done. You are free to remain 
with us and to go and come as you please. You may remain as long as you like, if 
you will fight against our enemies when they come."
CHAPTER XXII
OFF FOR PHUNDAHL
THE NEXT DAY Janai and I went to look for our malagor to see if he had 
recovered; but we could find no trace of him; so I assumed that he had either 
flown away or been seized by the savages, who, Anatok told me, came from another 
island some distance from Gooli.
I immediately set to work building a boat, and in this the Goolians helped me a 
little although they were extremely lazy and tired easily. They were without 
doubt the most useless race of people I had ever encountered, expending 
practically all their energies in boasting and little or none in accomplishment. 
Within a few hours after the encounter with the savages, they were boasting of 
their great victory and taking all the credit to themselves, Anatok claiming 
most of it for his marvelous strategy, as he called it. There are lots of people 
in the world like the Goolians, but some of them are never found out.
I became quite intimate with Zuki in the weeks that followed while we were 
building the boat. I found him rather above average intelligence and the 
possessor of a rudimentary sense of humor which the other Goolians seemed to 
lack entirely. One day I asked him why they considered the shells such a 
valuable treasure.
"Anatok has to have the treasure," he replied, "in order to give him a feeling 
of superiority; and it was the same way with the rulers who preceded him, and, 
in fact, with all of us. It makes us feel tremendously important to have a great 
treasure; but, being a cautious people, we chose a treasure that nobody else 
would want; otherwise, warlike people would be coming constantly to steal our 
treasure from us. Sometimes I think it is a little silly, but I would not dare 
say so to Anatok or to any others. All their lives they have heard of the great 
value of the vast treasure of Gooli; and so they have come to believe in it, and 
they do not question it because they do not wish to question it."
"And they feel the same way about their vaunted courage and the strategy of 
Anatok?" I asked.
"Oh, that is different," replied Zuki. "Those things are real. We are really the 
bravest people in the world, and Anatok the greatest strategist."
Well, his sense of humor had gone the limit in questioning the treasure. It 
couldn't stand the strain of doubting the valor of the Goolis or the strategy of 
Anatok. Perhaps the Goolis were better off as they were, for their silly egotism 
gave them a certain morale that would have been wholly lacking had they admitted 
the truth.
Janai worked with me in the building of the boat, and so we were much together; 
hut I always had the feeling that I was repulsive to her. She never touched me, 
if she could avoid it; nor did she often look directly at my face, nor could I 
blame her; yet I was sure that she was becoming fond of me as one becomes fond 
of an ugly but faithful dog. It made me wish that I really were a dog, for at 
least then she would have caressed me; but I was so much uglier than even a 
calot of Mars that I should always be repulsive to her no matter how kindly she 
might feel toward me.
These thoughts made me wonder about my poor body. Was it still safely hidden in 
3-17, or had the door burst open and the horrid mass from Vat Room No. 4 
engulfed and devoured it? Would I ever see it again? Would I ever again possess 
it, and animate it with this brain of mine which existed solely for Janai 
without her ever being aware of it? It all seemed very hopeless, and now that we 
had lost our malagor the trip to Helium seemed little short of an impossibility 
of accomplishment.
At last the boat was completed, and the Goolians helped me to carry it down to 
the lake. They stocked it with provisions for me, and they gave me extra spears 
and a sword and dagger for Janai. They bragged about the building of the boat, 
telling us that it was the best boat that was ever built and that no one but 
Goolians could have built it. They bragged about the weapons they gave us and 
the provisions. Thus we left them still boasting, and set out upon our perilous 
journey toward the west through the Great Toonolian Marshes.
CHAPTER XXIII
CAPTIVES OF AMHOR
VAST EXPANSES OF the Great Marshes were uninhabitable by man, and for a week we 
passed through dismal wastes where not even the savage aborigines could live; 
but we encountered other menaces in the form of great reptiles and gigantic 
insects, some of the latter being of enormous proportions with a wing-spread 
well over thirty feet. Equipped with powerful jaws and rapier-like stingers, and 
sometimes with both, as some of them were, one of these monsters could easily 
have annihilated us; but fortunately we were never attacked. The smaller 
reptiles of the Marshes were their natural prey and we witnessed many an 
encounter in which the insects always came off victorious.
A week after we left Gooli we were paddling one day across one of the numerous 
lakes that dot the Marshes when, low above the horizon ahead of us, we saw a 
great battleship moving slowly in our direction. Instantly my heart leaped with 
joy.
"John Carter!" I cried. "He has come at last. Janai, you are saved."
"And Ras Thavas will be with him," she said, "and we can go back to Morbus and 
resurrect the body of Vor Daj."
"Once again he will live, and move, and love," I said, carried away by the 
relief and happiness which this anticipation engendered.
"But suppose it is not John Carter?" she asked.
"It must be, Janai, for what other civilized man would be cruising above this 
hideous waste?"
We stopped paddling and watched the great airship approach. It was cruising very 
low, scarcely a hundred feet above the ground and moving quite slowly. As it 
came nearer, I stood up in the canoe and waved to attract attention, even though 
I knew that they could not fail to see us for they were coming directly toward 
us.
The ship bore no insignia to proclaim its nationality, but this is not unusual 
in Martian navies where a lone vessel is entering into potential enemy country. 
The lines of the ship too, were quite unfamiliar to me; that is, I could not 
identify the vessel. It was evidently one of the older ships of the line many of 
which were still in commission on the frontiers of Helium. I could not 
understand why John Carter had chosen such a craft in preference to one of the 
swift, new types but I knew that he must have a very good reason which it was 
not mine to question.
As the ship drew nearer it dropped still lower; so I knew that we had been 
observed; and finally it came to rest just above us. Landing tackle was lowered 
to us through a keel port, and I quickly made it fast to Janai's body so that 
she could be raised comfortably to the ship. While I was engaged in this, 
another tackle was lowered for me; and soon we were both being hoisted toward 
the vessel.
The instant that we were hoisted into the hold of the vessel, and I had a chance 
to note the sailors who surrounded us, I realized that this was no ship of 
Helium for the men wore the harness of another country.
Janai turned toward me with frightened eyes. "Neither John Carter nor Ras Thavas 
are on this ship," she whispered; "it is no ship of Helium, but one of the ships 
of Jal Had, Prince of Amhor. I should have been as well off in Morbus as I shall 
be now, if they discover my identity."
"You must not let them know," I said. "You are from Helium; remember that." She 
nodded in understanding.
The officers and sailors who surrounded us were far more interested in me than 
they were in Janai, commenting freely upon my hideousness.
We were immediately taken to the upper deck and before the officer in command. 
He looked at me in ill-disguised repugnance.
"Who are you?" he demanded. "And where do you come from?"
"I am a hormad from Morbus," I replied, "and my companion is a girl from Helium, 
a friend of John Carter, Warlord of Mars."
He looked at Janai long and earnestly for a moment. Then a nasty little smile 
touched his lips. "When did you change your nationality, Janai?" he asked. "You 
needn't attempt to deny your identity, Janai; I know you. I would know that face 
anywhere among millions, for your portrait hangs in my cabin as it hangs in the 
cabin of the commander of every ship of Amhor; and great is to be the reward of 
him who brings you back to Jal Had, the Prince."
"She is under the protection of the Warlord of Mars," I said. "No matter what 
reward Jal Had has offered you, John Carter will give you more if you return 
Janai to Helium."
"Who is this thing?" the commander demanded of Janai, nodding his head toward 
me. "Weren't you his prisoner?"
"No," she replied. "He is my friend. He has risked his life many times to save 
me, and he was trying to take me to Helium when you captured us. Please do not 
take me back to Amhor. I am sure that, if Tor-dur-bar says it is true, John 
Carter will pay you well if you bring us both to Helium."
"And be tortured to death by Jal Had when I get back to Amhor?" demanded the 
commander. "No sir! Back to Amhor you go; and I shall probably get an extra 
reward when I deliver this freak to Jal Had. It will make a valuable addition to 
his collection, and greatly amuse and entertain the citizens of Amhor. If you 
behave yourself, Janai, you will be treated well by Jal Had. Do not be such a 
little fool as you were before. After all, it will not be so bad to be the 
Princess of Amhor."
"I would as lief mate with Ay-mad of Morbus," said the girl; "and sooner than 
that, I would die."
The commander shrugged. "That is your own affair," he said. "You will have 
plenty of time to think the matter over before we reach Amhor, and I advise you 
to think it over well and change your mind." He then gave instructions that 
quarters were to be assigned to us and that we were to be carefully watched but 
not confined if we behaved ourselves.
As we were being conducted toward a companionway that led below, I saw a man 
dart suddenly across the deck and leap overboard. He had done it so quickly that 
no one could intercept him; and though the commander had witnessed it no effort 
was made to save him, and the ship continued on its way. I asked the officer 
accompanying us who the man was and why he had leaped overboard.
"He was a prisoner who evidently preferred death to slavery in Amhor," he 
explained.
We were still very low above the surface of the lake, and one of the sailors who 
had run to the rail when the man had leaped overboard called back that the 
fellow was swimming toward our abandoned canoe.
"He won't last long in the Great Toonolian Marshes," commented the officer, as 
we descended toward our quarters.
Janai was given the best cabin on the boat; for they expected that she would be 
Princess of Amhor, and they wished to treat her well and curry her favor. I was 
relieved to know that at least until we reached Amhor she would be accorded 
every courtesy and consideration.
I was taken to a small cabin which accommodated two and was already occupied by 
another man. His back was toward me as I entered, as he was gazing out of a 
porthole. The officer closed the door behind me and departed, and I was left 
alone with my new companion. As the door slammed, he turned and faced me; and 
each of us voiced an exclamation of surprise. My roommate was Tun Gan. He looked 
a little frightened, when he recognized me, as his conscience must have been 
troubling him because of his desertion of me.
"So it is you?" I said.
"Yes, and I suppose you will want to kill me now," he replied; "but do not blame 
me too much. Pandar and I discussed it. We did not wish to desert you; but we 
knew that we should all die if we returned to Morbus, while if he and I went on 
in the canoe we at least might have a chance to escape."
"I do not blame you," I said. "Perhaps under identical circumstances I should 
have done the same thing. As it turned out, it was better that you deserted me, 
for because of it I was able to reach Morbus in a few hours and rescue Janai 
when she arrived with the party that had captured her; but how do you happen to 
be aboard this ship?"
"Pandar and I were captured about a week ago; and perhaps it was just as well, 
for we were being pursued by natives when this ship dropped down, frightening 
the natives away. We should doubtless have been captured and killed, otherwise; 
and I for one was glad to come aboard, but Pandar was not. He did not wish to go 
to Amhor, and slavery. All that he lived for was to get back to Phundahl."
"And where is Pandar now?" I asked.
"He just leaped overboard; I was watching him when you came in. He swam to the 
canoe, which I presume is the one you were taken from, and he is already 
paddling along on his way to Phundahl."
"I hope he reaches it," I said.
"He will not," prophesied Tun Gan. "I do not believe that any man alive can pass 
alone through the horrors of this hellish swamp."
"You have already come a long way," I reminded him.
"Yes, but who knows what lies ahead?"
"And you are not averse to going to Amhor?" I asked.
"Why should I be?" he asked, in turn. "They think I am Gantun Gur, the assassin 
of Amhor; and they treat me with great respect."
"Amazing!" I exclaimed. "For the moment I had forgotten that you had taken the 
body of Gantun Gur. Do you think that you can live up to it and continue to 
deceive them?"
"I think that I can," he replied. "My brain is not as dull as that of most 
hormads. I have told them that I received a head injury that has made me forget 
a great deal of my past life; and so far, they have not doubted me."
"They never will doubt you," I said; "because they cannot conceive that the 
brain of another creature has been grafted into the skull of Gantun Gur."
"Then if you do not tell them, they will never know," he said, "for I certainly 
shall not tell them; so please remember to call me by my new name. What are you 
smiling at?"
"The situation is amusing. Neither one of us is himself. I have your body, and 
you have the body of another man."
"But who were you, whose brain is in my body?" he demanded. "I have often 
wondered about that."
"Continue to wonder," I replied; "for you may never know."
He looked at me keenly for a long moment. Suddenly his face brightened. "Now I 
know," he said. "How stupid of me not to have guessed before."
"You know nothing," I snapped; "and if I were you, I should not even guess."
He nodded. "Very well, Tor-dur-bar, it shall be as you wish."
To change the subject, I remarked, "I wonder what this ship from Amhor is doing 
sailing around alone over the Great Toonolian Marshes?"
"Jal Had, the Prince of Amhor, has a hobby for collecting wild beasts. They say 
that he has a great number of them, 'and this ship has been searching the Great 
Toonolian Marshes for new specimens."
"So they were not searching for Janai, then?"
"No. Was that Janai with you when you were captured? I got only a glimpse of two 
figures as our ship passed above you.
"Yes, Janai is aboard; and now I am faced with the problem of getting her off 
the ship before we reach Amhor."
"Well, perhaps you will be able to accomplish it," he said. "They ground the 
ship occasionally to hunt for new specimens, and the discipline is lax. As a 
matter of fact, they do not seem to guard us at all. That is why Pandar found it 
so easy to escape."
But no opportunity for escape was offered us, as the ship turned her nose 
directly for Amhor the moment that the commander realized that he had Janai 
aboard; nor did she once touch ground, nor again fly close to it.
Amhor lies about seven hundred and fifty earth miles directly north of the point 
at which our capture took place, which distance the ship covered in about seven 
and a half hours.
During this time I saw nothing of Janai, as she remained in her cabin.
We arrived above Amhor in the middle of the night, and we lay there floating 
above the city until morning, surrounded by patrol boats as a protection and 
guard for the precious cargo which we carried. Jal Had was asleep when we 
arrived, and no one had dared disturb him, I could tell by little things that I 
overheard that he had a sinister reputation and that everyone was very much 
afraid of him.
About the second zode a royal craft came along side and took Janai aboard, and I 
was helpless to prevent it; for they had removed me from Gantun Gur's cabin on 
our arrival above the city, and locked me in another one in the hold of the 
ship. I was filled with despondency, for I felt that now I should not only never 
regain my body, but never again see Janai. I did not care what became of me, and 
prayed only for death.
CHAPTER XXIV
CAGED
AFTER JANAI WAS taken from the ship, it was lowered to a landing stage and made 
fast; and shortly thereafter the door of my prison was opened, and I found 
myself confronted by a detachment of warriors in command of an officer. They 
carried heavy chains, and with these they manacled my hands. I did not resist, 
for I no longer cared.
I was then taken out onto the landing stage and, by elevator, to the ground. The 
warriors who had taken me from the ship were men who had not seen me before. 
They were very much interested in me, but seemed a little afraid. When we 
reached the avenue I attracted considerable attention, before I was hustled into 
a ground flier and whisked off down a broad avenue which led to the palace 
grounds.
These ground fliers are a common means of private transportation in many Martian 
cities. They have a ceiling of about one hundred feet and a maximum speed of 
sixty miles per hour. In Amhor all north and south traffic moves at ground level 
at intersections, east and west traffic passing above it. East and west traffic 
is compelled to rise above north and south traffic at each intersection because 
there is a short runway inclining upward to a height of about ten feet at each 
intersection, ending in an abrupt drop at the intersection. These inclines force 
all east and west traffic to rise above the north and south traffic 
intersections. All vehicular traffic moves in but one direction on any avenue, 
the direction of flow alternating, so that half the avenues carry traffic in one 
direction and the other half in the opposite direction. Left turns are made 
without diminishing speed by the simple expedient of rising above both lanes of 
traffic. The result is that traffic flows steadily in all directions at an 
average speed of about fifty miles an hour. Parking accommodations are frequent, 
and are found inside buildings at a level of about sixty feet above the 
pavement. North and south pedestrian traffic moves without interruption in 
either direction on both sides of North and South Streets at the ground level; 
and, similarly, on East and West Streets through underpasses at street 
intersections.
I have gone into this matter of traffic control in a Martian city in some 
detail, and perhaps tediously, because of what John Carter has told me of the 
congestion and confusion in traffic handling in earthly cities, and in the hope 
that the inventors of our sister planet will be encouraged to develop ground 
fliers similar to those commonly used in the cities of Mars.
The palace grounds, which were our destination, covered an area of about eighty 
acres. The avenues leading to it were lined with the palaces of the nobility, 
just beyond which were the better-grade shops and hotels. Amhor is a small city 
and the only one in the principality which might claim the dignity of such a 
title, the others being but small and widely scattered villages. The chief 
business of the principality is the raising of thoats and zitidars, the former 
the saddle animals and the latter the mammoth draft animals of Mars. Both are 
also raised for food, and Amhor exports preserved meats, hides, and other 
by-products to Duhor, Phundahl, and Toonol.
Amhor is the mecca of the stockmen from the country, hard-riding, profane, 
belligerent men; good spenders, always provided with plenty of money. So it is 
withal an interesting city, though one may scarcely enjoy it from the inside of 
a cage in a zoological garden, which is exactly where I landed a few minutes 
after I was driven through the rear gate of the palace grounds.
Here, upon both sides of an avenue, were cages, pits, and dens containing 
specimens of a wide variety of Martian animal life, an exhibition of the fauna 
of a planet which must have been instructive and certainly was entertaining and 
amusing to the crowds that passed along the avenue daily; for to this part of 
the palace grounds the public was freely admitted during daylight hours.
A unique feature of the zoological display of Jal Had, Prince of Amhor, was the 
inclusion of various types of Martian humans. In the cage at my left was a huge 
green man, with his ivory tusks and four arms; and at my right was a red man 
from Ptarth. There were thoats and zitidars and the great white apes of Barsoom, 
fierce, hairy monsters closely resembling man, and, perhaps, the most feared of 
all Martian beasts. Near me also were two apts, arctic monsters from far Okar. 
These great beasts are covered with white fur and have six legs, four of which 
are short and heavy and carry it over snow and ice. The other two grow forward 
from its shoulders on either side of its long, powerful neck, and terminate in 
white, hairless hands, with which it seizes and holds its prey. The head and 
mouth, John Carter has told me, are similar to those of an earthly hippopotamus, 
except that from the flat sides of the lower jawbone, two mighty horns curve 
slightly downward toward the front. Its two huge eyes extend in large oval 
patches from the center of the top of the cranium down either side of the head 
to below the roots of the horn, so that these weapons really grow out from the 
lower part of the eyes, which are composed of several thousand ocelli each. Each 
ocellus is furnished with its own lid, so that the apt can close as many of the 
facets of its eyes as it wishes. There were banths, calots, darseens, orluks, 
siths, soraks, ulsios and many other beasts, insects and men, including even a 
kaldane, one of the strange spider-men of Bantoom. But when they turned me into 
my cage, I immediately became the prize specimen of the exhibition. I must admit 
that I was by far the most hideous creature in the zoo. Perhaps in time I should 
have become proud of the distinction, for I attracted far more attention than 
even the most appalling of the horrid beasts that Jal Had had succeeded in 
collecting.
Gaping crowds stood in front of my cage, many of them poking sticks at me or 
throwing pebbles or bits of food. Presently an attendant came with a sign which 
I had an opportunity to read before he attached it near the top of my cage for 
the benefit and instruction of the audience: HORMAD FROM MORBUS, A MAN-LIKE 
MONSTER CAPTURED IN THE WILDS OF THE GREAT TOONOLIAN MARSHES.
I had been in my cage for about two hours when a detachment of the palace guard 
entered the avenue and chased all the spectators out of the zoo. A few minutes 
later there was a blare of trumpets at the far end of the avenue, and, looking, 
I saw a number of men and women approaching.
"What now?" I asked the red man in the cage next to me.
The fellow looked at me as though surprised that I had the power of speech. "Jal 
Had is coming to look at you," he said. He is going to be very proud of you, 
because there is nothing else like you in the world."
"He may learn differently in time," I said, "and to his sorrow, for there are 
millions like me and their leaders are planning to overrun and conquer all 
Barsoom."
The red man laughed at that, but he would not have laughed if he had known what 
I knew.
The royal party was approaching, Jal Had walking a few paces ahead of the 
others. He was a gross-appearing man, with a cruel mouth and shifty eyes. He 
came and stopped before my cage; and as the others approached and stopped behind 
him, I saw that Janai was one of them. She looked up at me, and I saw tears 
forming in her eyes. "Splendid," said Jal Had, after he had examined me minutely 
for several moments. "I'll wager that there is not another specimen like this 
anywhere in the world." He turned toward his companions. "What do you think of 
it?" he demanded.
"It is wonderful," they all replied, practically in unison, that is, all but 
Janai. She remained silent.
Then Jal Had fixed his gaze upon Janai. "And what do you think of it, my love?" 
he asked.
"I think a great deal of it," she replied. "Tor-dur-bar is my friend, and I 
think that it is a cruel shame to cage him up like this."
"You would like to have wild beasts roaming around the city, then?" he demanded.
"Tor-dur-bar is not a wild beast; he is a brave and loyal friend. But for him, I 
should have been long since dead; and though perhaps I had been better off, I 
shall never cease to appreciate the dangers and hardships that he endured for 
me."
"For that, he shall be rewarded, then," said Jal Had, magnanimously. "He shall 
receive the scraps from the royal table."
Now that was something. I, a noble of Helium, to be fed with the scraps from the 
table of Jal Had, Prince of Amhor. However, I consoled myself with the thought 
that scraps from his table would probably be far better fare than that 
ordinarily served to the beasts of the zoo, and I could easily swallow my pride 
along with his scraps.
Of course, I had no opportunity to converse with Janai, so I could not learn 
what had happened to her, nor what the future held for her, if she knew.
"Tell me something about yourself," demanded Jal Had. "Are you just a freak, or 
are there more like you? What were your father and mother like?"
"I had no father and mother," I replied, "and there are many more like me, 
millions of us."
"No father and mother?" he demanded. "But some sort of a creature must have laid 
the egg from which you hatched."
"I came from no egg," I replied.
"Well," said Jal Had, "you are not only the greatest freak I ever saw, but the 
greatest liar. Perhaps a good beating will teach you better manners than to lie 
to Jal Had."
"He has not lied," said Janai. "He has told you the truth."
"So you, too," he demanded of her, "you too, think I am a fool? I can have my 
women beaten, as well as my animals, if they do not behave themselves."
"You are proving definitely that you are a fool," I said, "for you have heard 
the truth from both of us, and yet do not believe it."
"Silence!" shouted an officer of the guard. "Shall I kill the presumptions 
beast, Jal Had?"
"No," replied the Prince. "He is too valuable. Perhaps later I shall have him 
beaten." I wondered who would have the temerity to enter my cage to beat me, I, 
who could tear an ordinary man limb from limb.
Jal Had turned and walked away, followed by the members of his party; and when 
they had left the avenue the public was once more admitted; and, until dark, I 
had to endure the gaze and insults of a loud-mouthed rabble. Now I realized with 
what contempt caged beasts must look upon the human beings which gape and gawk 
at them.
After the crowds were expelled from the zoo, the animals were fed, for Jal Had 
had discovered that beasts in captivity thrive better if gaping crowds are not 
watching them at their food; and so his animals were allowed to feed in peace 
and in such solitude as their cages afforded. I was not fed with the others, but 
shortly afterward a slave boy came from Jal Had's palace with a hamper filled 
with the scraps from his table.
The boy was goggle-eyed with wonderment and awe as he approached my cage and 
looked at me. There was a small door in the front of my cage near the floor 
through which the food could be passed to me; but the youth was evidently afraid 
to open it for fear that I might seize him.
"Do not be afraid," I said. "I shall not harm you. I am not a wild beast."
He came closer then and timidly opened the little door. "I am not afraid," he 
said; but I knew that he was.
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"From Duhor," he replied.
"A friend of a friend of mine lives there," I said.
"And who might that be?"
"Vad Varo," I replied.
"Ah, Vad Varo! I have seen him often. I was to have taken service in his guard 
when I finished my training. He married Valla Dia, our Princess. He is a great 
warrior. And who is your friend that is his friend?"
"John Carter, Prince of Helium, Warlord of Mars," I replied.
Then indeed did his eyes go wide. "John Carter, you know him? Who has not heard 
of him, the greatest swordsman of all Barsoom? But how could such as you be 
friend of John Carter?"
"It may seem strange to you," I admitted, "but the fact remains that John Carter 
is my best friend."
"But what do you know of John Carter?" demanded the red man in the adjoining 
cage. "I am from Helium; and there is no creature like you in the entire empire. 
I think you are a great liar. You lied to me, and you lied to Jal Had, and now 
you are lying to this young slave. What do you think you can gain by telling so 
many lies? Have you never heard that Martians pride themselves upon being 
truthful men?"
"I have not lied," I said.
"You do not even know what John Carter looks like," taunted the red man.
"He has black hair and grey eyes, and a lighter skin than yours," I replied; 
"and he came from Jasoom, and he is married to Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium. 
When he came to Barsoom, he was captured by the green men of Thark. He has 
fought in Okar, the land of the yellow men in the far north; and he has fought 
therns in the Valley Dor; the length and breadth of Barsoom, he has fought; and 
when I saw him last, we were in Morbus together."
The red man looked surprised. "By my first ancestor," he exclaimed, "but you do 
know a lot about John Carter. Perhaps you are telling the truth after all."
The young slave had looked at me with rapt attention. I could see that he was 
much impressed; and I hoped that I had won his confidence and that later I might 
win his friendship, for I wanted a friend in the palace of Jal Had, Prince of 
Amhor.
"So you have seen John Carter," he said. "You have talked with him, you have 
touched him. Ah, how wonderful!"
"Some day he may come to Amhor," I said, "and if he does, tell him that you knew 
Tor-dur-bar, and that you were kind to him; and John Carter will be your friend, 
too."
"I shall be as kind to you as I can," he said, "and if there is anything that I 
can do for you, I shall be glad to do it."
"There is something that you can do for me," I said.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Come closer, so that I may whisper it to you." He hesitated. "Do not be afraid; 
I shall not harm you."
Then he came close to the cage. "What is it?" he asked.
I kneeled and bent my lips close to his car. "I wish to know all that you can 
learn about the girl, Janai; I mean, what is happening to her in the palace of 
Jal Had, and what is going to happen to her."
"I shall tell you all that I can learn," he said; and then he took his empty 
hamper and went away.
CHAPTER XXV
PRINCE IN A ZOO
MONOTONOUS DAYS CAME and went, relieved only by conversation with the red man in 
the adjoining cage, and by visits twice a day from the young slave from Duhor, 
whose name was Orm-O.
Quite a friendship developed between the red man from Helium and I. His name was 
Ur Raj; and when he told me it, I recalled having met him several years before. 
He was from Hastor, a city on the frontier of the empire, and had been a padwar 
aboard one of the warships stationed there. I asked him if he remembered an 
officer named Vor Daj, and he said he remembered him very well.
"Do you know him?" he inquired.
"Intimately," I replied. "In fact, there is nobody in the world whom I know so 
well."
"But how do you know him?" he demanded.
"He was at Morbus with John Carter," I replied.
"He was a splendid officer," he said. "I recall having a long conversation with 
him when the grand fleet came to Hastor."
"You and he discussed an invention that you were working upon that would detect 
and locate enemy ships at a great distance, identifying them by the sound of 
their motors. You had discovered that no two motors gave forth the same 
vibrations, and you had developed an instrument that recorded these vibrations 
accurately at great distances. You also introduced him to a very beautiful young 
lady whom you hoped to take as your mate."
Ur Raj's eyes went wide in astonishment. "But how in the world could you know of 
these matters?" he demanded. "You must have been very intimate with him indeed 
if he narrated to you the gist of conversations that took place years before 
with a comparative stranger."
"He told neither me nor any other about your invention," I replied, "because he 
promised you that he would not say anything about it until you had fully 
developed it and offered it to the navy of Helium."
"But then if he did not tell you, how could you know these things?" he demanded.
"That, you may never know," I replied; "but you may rest assured that Vor Daj 
never abused your confidence."
I believe that Ur Raj was a little in awe of me after that, believing that I had 
some supernatural or occult powers. I used to catch him gazing at me intently as 
he squatted upon the floor of his cage, doubtless trying to fathom what seemed 
an inexplicable mystery to him.
The slave boy, Orm-O, became quite friendly, telling me all that he could learn 
about Janai, which was little or nothing. I gathered from him that she was in no 
immediate danger, as Jal Had's oldest wife had taken her under her protection. 
Jal Had had several wives; and this first wife he feared above all things on 
earth. She had long objected to sharing the affections of Jal Had with other 
women; and she did not intend that the number should be increased, especially by 
the acquisition of so beautiful a young woman as Janai.
"It is rumored," said Orm-O. "that she will put Janai out of the way at the 
first opportunity. She is hesitating now only because of the fear that Jal Had, 
in his rage, would destroy her if she did so; but she may find a way to 
accomplish it without bringing suspicion upon herself. In fact, she has several 
times recently received Gantun Gur, the assassin of Amhor, who recently returned 
from captivity. I can tell you that I should not like to be Janai, especially if 
Gantun Gur listens too long to Vanuma and accepts a commission from her."
This information caused me considerable concern for the welfare of Janai. Of 
course, I felt quite certain that Gantun Gur would not kill her; but that would 
not keep Vanuma from finding some other means, if she had determined to destroy 
Janai. I asked Orm-O. to warn Janai, and he said that he would if he ever had an 
opportunity.
The danger threatening Janai was constantly on my mind, and my inability to aid 
her drove me almost to distraction. If there were only something that I might 
do. But there was nothing. I seemed to be utterly helpless, and Janai's 
situation equally hopeless.
Sometimes we had dull days at the zoo; but as a rule there was a steady stream 
of people passing along the avenue between the cages, and almost always there 
was a little crowd gathered in front of my cage when the avenue was not jammed 
by those who came and stood looking at me for, hours at a stretch. There were 
always new faces; but there were those that I had learned to recognize because 
they came so often; and then one day I saw Gantun Gur in the crowd. He 
shouldered his way toward me, eliciting much grumbling and some hard words; but 
when someone recognized him and his name was passed around, the spectators gave 
way before him, for no one wished to antagonize the assassin of Amhor. What a 
reputation the original must have gained!
"Kaor, Tor-dur-bar," he said, coming close to the cage.
"Kaor, Gantun Gur," I replied. "It is good to see you again; and I wish that I 
might speak to you privately." 
"I will come back," he said, "after the visitors are expelled. You see, I am 
something of a privileged character in Amhor and around the palace. No one 
wishes to antagonize me, not even Jal Had."
I thought that the day would never end, that the visitors would never leave. The 
hours dragged interminably; but at last the guards drove the public out, and the 
carts containing food for the beasts were wheeled down the avenue. Then Orm-O 
came with his hamper of scraps; but there was no sign of Gantun Gur. I wondered 
if he had again deserted me, or if his boasted privilege was a myth. I was 
particularly anxious to see him, because I had finally evolved a plan which I 
thought might prove beneficial for Janai. I asked Orm-O for some word of her, 
but he only shook his head and said that he had not seen her around the palace 
for days.
"Perhaps Vanuma has had her destroyed," I suggested, fearfully.
"Perhaps," he said. "The last I heard was that she was not treating Janai so 
well as she had in the beginning. Some say that she whips her every night now."
I couldn't imagine Vanuma or anyone else whipping Janai, for she was not the 
type to take a whipping meekly.
It was almost dark and I had given up all hope of Gantun Gur, when I saw him 
approach my cage. "Kaor, Tor-dur-bar!" he said. "I was delayed; no less a person 
than Jal Had himself. He came to me in conversation."
"Whom does he wish killed now?" asked Ur Raj.
"He only wished to be certain that I was not planning on killing him," replied 
Gantun Gur. "Do you know that I would rather be what I am, head of the 
Assassins' Guild, than to be Prince of Amhor! My power is unlimited; everyone 
fears me, for, while I am known, all my assassins are not; and even those who 
might plot against me fear to do so lest my spies learn of it."
"You have come a long way from the Laboratory Building, Gantun Gur," I said, 
with a smile. "But tell me, does Janai still live? Is she well? Is she safe?"
"She lives and is well, but she is not safe; she never can be safe in Amhor. At 
least her life will never be safe as long as Vanuma lives. Of course, I do not 
need to tell you that, neither I nor any of my assassins will destroy Janai; but 
Vanuma may find someone else to do it, or even do it herself in desperation; so 
I have come to the conclusion that the best thing that I can do is to have 
Vanuma assassinated."
"No, no," I objected. "The moment Vanuma were out of the way, there would be 
none to protect Janai from Jal Had."
"That is right," said Gantun Gur, scratching his head. "I had not taken that 
phase of the matter into consideration. As a matter of fact, it would not be so 
bad for Janai, for then she would become Princess of Amhor; and from what I have 
seen of Jal Had's other wife, Janai would rule undisputed queen.
"But she does not wish to marry Jal Had," I said. "Vor Daj loves her. We must 
save her for him."
"Vor Daj," said Gantun Gur, "lying as one dead in the pits beneath the 
Laboratory Building of Morbus, certainly surrounded and perhaps long since 
devoured by the horror that spreads from Vat Room No. 4. No, no, Tor-dur-bar, 
while I admire your loyalty to Vor Daj, I think that it is wasted. Neither you, 
nor I, nor Janai will ever see him again."
"Nevertheless, we must do what we can to save Janai for him; for I, for one, 
have not given up hope that Vor Daj some day will be rescued."
"Well, have you a plan, then?" he asked.
"Yes," I said, "I have."
"What is it?" he demanded.
"Get word to Vanuma, even if you have to tell her yourself, that Jal Had has 
learned that she is attempting to hire assassins to destroy Janai, and that he 
has sworn that if Janai dies, no matter what the cause, he will immediately 
destroy Vanuma."
"Not a bad idea," said Gantun Gur. "I can get that word to her immediately 
through one of her female slaves."
"I shall breathe more easily when I know that you have done it," I said.
I certainly slept better that night than I had for a long time, because I felt 
that, temporarily at least, Janai was safe. It was well for my peace of mind 
that I did not know what the next morning was to bring.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE BITE OF THE ADDER
MY CELL WAS divided laterally by a partition, the front of the cell being open 
on the avenue, the rear consisting of a dark compartment in which there was a 
single, small window and a heavy door in the back wall. This was my bedroom, and 
my bed was a pile of the moss-like, ochre vegetation that covers the dead sea 
bottoms of Barsoom. A sliding door, that was raised and lowered by means of a 
rope passing over a pulley and thence outside the back of the cage, connected 
the two compartments. When I was in the front compartment, attendants could 
lower the door and enter the rear compartment for the purpose of cleaning it 
out, and vice versa, no one venturing to come into either compartment alone with 
me. I must say for Jal Had, that he had our cages kept reasonably clean; but 
that was because he realized that he could thus keep us in a more healthy 
condition and not because of any humanitarian instincts which he possessed.
The morning after Gantun Gur's visit, I was awakened by the beating of drums and 
the mournful notes of wind instruments producing music that sounded very much 
like a dirge. Further sleep was impossible; so I crawled out into the daylight 
of my front compartment where I saw Ur Raj standing with his face pressed 
against the bars of his cage, looking toward the palace.
"Why the music?" I asked. "Are they celebrating something?"
"Perhaps they are at that," he replied, with a smile, "though that music means 
that a member of the royal family is dead."
"Let us hope that it is Jal Had," I said.
"Probably no such luck," returned Ur Raj.
The attendants were coming along the avenue, feeding the animals; and when they 
reached Ur Raj's cage we asked them who was dead; but they told us that it was 
none of our business, and passed on. Of course, there was no reason why they 
should not have told us, if they had known; but it seemed to give them a feeling 
of greater importance if they treated us like wild beasts rather than like men, 
and wild beasts are not supposed to know anything of the affairs of their 
masters.
The green man in the adjoining cage had never been a very friendly neighbor. I 
think he resented the fact that I attracted more attention than he. He never 
addressed me, and had answered in monosyllables or not at all, the few times 
that I had spoken to him; but, of course, that might have been because they are 
naturally a sullen and taciturn race; but now, quite unexpectedly, he spoke to 
me.
"If Jal Had is dead," he said, "there will be confusion for several days. I have 
been here a long time, and I have learned much. I have learned that there are 
several who would like to succeed Jal Had, and if he is dead Amhor may have a 
civil war on her hands. Then would be a good time for us to try to escape."
"If I had thought that there was any chance of escaping," I said, "I would not 
have waited for Jal Had to die."
"Until something happens that disrupts the discipline of the guards and throws 
the city into turmoil," said the green man, "no plan of escape would have a 
chance of success, but when that happens I have a plan that may succeed."
"What is it?" I asked.
"Come closer to the bars, and I will whisper it to you. I do not wish any to 
overhear. One man could not accomplish the thing alone, but I believe that I can 
trust you and the red man next to you. I have watched you both carefully, and I 
believe that you have the courage and the intelligence to help me carry the plan 
to a successful conclusion." Then, in a whisper, he explained to me in detail 
the idea that he had in mind. It was not bad, and perhaps had some element of 
success. The green man asked me to explain to Ur Raj, and I did so. The red man 
listened intently and then nodded his head.
"Whether it should fail or succeed," he said, "it is at least better than 
remaining here in captivity for life."
"I quite agree with you," I said, "and if only my life were at stake, I should 
be willing to make the attempt at any time; but I must await some opportunity to 
rescue Janai with me."
"But what can be your interest in the red girl, Janai?" demanded Ur Raj. "She 
certainly wouldn't give a second glance at anyone as hideous as you."
"I promised Vor Daj that I would protect her," I said; "and so I cannot go 
without her."
"I see," said Ur Raj; "so inasmuch as no plan of escape will succeed, we might 
as well plan on taking Janai with us. It won't complicate matters in the least. 
Fortunately, they cannot keep us from dreaming dreams, Tor-dur-bar; and as that 
is about all the happiness that we have a right to expect, we might as well make 
the most of it and dream really worthwhile dreams. I shall dream that we shall 
be successful; that we destroy Jal Had, and that I become Prince of Amhor. I 
shall make you one of my dwars, Tor-dur-bar. In fact, I appoint you now." He 
laughed heartily at his little joke, and I joined in with him.
"But I was an odwar in Morbus," I said.
"Oh, very well, you shall be an odwar here, then. Consider yourself promoted."
The green man saw nothing funny in what we were saying, taking it all literally. 
They have no sense of humor as we understand it, and never smile or laugh except 
when witnessing the sufferings of others. I have seen them fairly roll on the 
ground with laughter while watching the agony of some victim upon which they 
were reeking the most fiendish tortures. Further conversation between us on this 
subject was interrupted by the arrival of Orm-O with his hamper of scraps for my 
breakfast.
"What has happened, Orm-O?" I asked him. "Why the music?"
"Do you mean that you have not heard?" he asked. "Vanuma is dead. One of her 
slaves told me that there was no doubt but that she had been poisoned; and Jal 
Had is suspected."
Vanuma dead! What would become of Janai now?
We inmates of the zoo were little affected by what went on in the palace 
following the death of Vanuma, but for a single circumstance. Until after the 
funeral, which occurred five days later, the palace grounds were closed to the 
public, and so we looked forward to a period of what I felt would be a most 
delightful interlude of peace and quiet; but I soon discovered that it was not 
as enjoyable as I had anticipated, for I found the monotony of it almost 
unendurable. Strange as it may seem, I missed the gaping rabble and learned that 
they afforded us quite as much amusement, entertainment, and distraction as we 
offered them.
During this time, I learned something from Orm-O which set my mind at rest 
insofar as Janai was concerned for at least a period of time. He told me that 
court etiquette required a period of mourning of twenty-seven days, during which 
the royal family eschewed all pleasures; but he had also told me that 
immediately following this period Jal Had planned to take Janai in marriage.
Another thing that I learned from him was that the family of Vanuma believed 
that Jal Had had caused Vanuma to be poisoned. They were powerful nobles of 
royal descent, and among them was one who aspired to be Prince of Amhor. This 
Dur Ajmad was far more popular than Jal Had, his influence with the army, 
outside of Jal Had's personal troops, being great.
Had it not been for Orm-O, we in the zoo would have known nothing of all this; 
but he kept us well informed, so that we were able to follow the happenings in 
the palace and the city quite as well as any of the ordinary citizens of Amhor. 
As the days passed, I could see that the temper of the people who visited the 
zoo had changed. They were tense and nervous, and many were the glances cast in 
the direction of the palace. More people than ever jammed the avenue between the 
cages, but I felt that they were there more to see what might happen in the 
palace grounds than to look at us. Whispering groups gathered, paying no 
attention to us; and they were evidently concerned with more important things 
than wild beasts.
Then one day near the close of the mourning period, I heard, early in the 
morning, the humming staccato of Martian firearms; and there were trumpet calls 
and shouted orders. Guards closed the gates that had just been opened to admit 
the public; and with the exception of the detail that remained to guard the 
gate, attendants and warriors alike ran in the direction of the palace.
It was all very exciting; but in the excitement I did not forget what it might 
mean to me and Janai, nor did I forget the plan that the green man and Ur Raj 
and I had discussed; and so, when one of the last of the attendants came running 
down the avenue toward the palace, I threw myself upon the floor of my cage and 
writhed in apparent agony, as I screamed to him to come to me. I didn't know 
whether or not the ruse would work, for the man must have wanted to go with the 
others and see what was happening at the palace; but I banked on the fact that 
he must realize that if anything happened to one of his charges and especially 
so valuable a one as I, Jal Had would unquestionably punish him for deserting 
his post; and Jal Had's punishments were quite often fatal.
The fellow hesitated a moment as he turned and looked in my direction. He 
started on again toward the palace but after a few steps he turned and ran to my 
cage. "What is the matter with you, beast?" he cried.
"There is a strange reptile in my sleeping den," I cried. "It has bitten me, and 
I am going to die."
"Where did it bite you?" he demanded.
"On the hand," I cried. "Come look."
He came close, and when he did so I reached between the bars quickly and seized 
him by the throat. So quickly and so tightly did I close upon his windpipe that 
he had no opportunity to make an outcry. Ur Raj and the green man were pressed 
against the bars of their cages watching me. Only we three saw the guard die.
I dragged the body upward until I could seize the keys that hung upon a ring by 
his harness. Then I let it drop to the ground. I easily reached the padlock that 
secured the door in the front of the cage, and in a few seconds I was out on the 
ground. From there I crawled quickly beneath the cages to the rear where my 
activities would be hidden from view from any who might pass along the avenue. I 
released the green man and Ur Raj, and for a moment we stood there discussing 
the advisability of carrying out in full the plan we had contemplated. It 
offered considerable risk for us, but we felt that it might create such a 
diversion that in the ensuing confusion we might have a better chance of 
escaping.
"Yes," agreed Ur Raj, "the more confusion there is, the better chance we shall 
have to reach the palace and find your Janai."
I must say that the whole plan was hare-brained and hopeless. It had perhaps one 
chance in a hundred million of succeeding.
"Very well," I said, "come on."
Back of the cages we found a number of the staves and goads used by the 
attendants to control the beasts, and armed with these we started toward the 
lower cages nearest the gate and farthest from the palace. I was also armed with 
the shortsword and dagger I had taken from the attendant I had killed, but I 
could not hope that they would be of much use to me in the event that our plans 
miscarried.
Beginning at the cage nearest the gate, we released the animals, driving them 
ahead of us along the rear of the cages in the direction of the palace.
I had been fearful that we would be unable to control them and that they would 
turn upon us and destroy us; but I soon learned that from experience they had 
become afraid of the sharp goads used by the keepers, with which we threatened 
and prodded them along. Even the two great apts and the white apes moved 
sullenly before us. At first there was little noise or confusion, only low 
growls from the carnivores and the nervous snorting of the herbivorous animals; 
but as we proceeded and the number and variety of the beasts increased, so did 
the volume of sounds until the air rang with the bellowing of the zitidars and 
the squeals of the maddened throats, and the roars and growls of banths and apts 
and the scores of other beasts moving nervously ahead of us.
A gate that is always kept closed separates the zoo from the grounds immediately 
surrounding the palace. This, the attendants in their excitement had left open 
today, and through it we drove the beasts into the palace grounds without 
interference.
By now every beast in the horrible pack, excited to a high pitch of nervous 
tension by this unaccustomed liberty and the voices of their fellows, had joined 
in the horrid diapason of ferocity so that no one within the palace grounds or, 
for that matter, for some distance beyond them, could have failed to hear, and 
now I saw the attendants who had deserted their posts running to meet us. The 
beasts saw them, too, and some of the more intelligent, such as the great white 
apes, must have remembered indignities and cruelties heaped upon them during 
their captivity, for with snarls and growls and roars of rage they sprang 
forward to meet the keepers, and fell upon them and destroyed them; and then, 
further incited by this taste of blood and revenge, they moved on toward the 
soldiers defending the gates, which were being threatened by the troops of Dur 
Ajmad.
This was precisely what we had hoped for, as it created a diversion which 
permitted Ur Raj, the green man, and me to enter a side door of the palace 
unobserved.
At last I had succeeded in entering the palace where Janai was a prisoner; but a 
plan for turning the situation to our advantage was still as remote as the 
farther moon. I was in the palace, but where in that great pile was Janai?
CHAPTER XXVII
FLIGHT INTO JEOPARDY
THE ROOMS AND corridors of that portion of the palace which we had entered were 
deserted, the inmates being either in hiding or defending the gates.
"And now that we are here," demanded Bal Tab, the green man, "what do we do 
next? Where is the red woman?"
"It is a large palace to search," said Ur Raj. "Even if we meet with no 
interference, it would take a long time; but certainly before long we shall find 
warriors barring our way."
"Someone is coming down this corridor," said Bal Tab. "I can hear him."
The corridor curved to the left just ahead of us, and presently around this 
curve came a youth whom I recognized instantly. It was Orm-O. He ran quickly 
toward me.
"From one of the upper windows, I saw you enter the palace," he said, "and I 
hurried to meet you as quickly as I could."
"Where is Janai?" I demanded.
"I will show you," he said; "but if I am found out, I shall be killed. Perhaps 
you are too late, for Jal Had has gone to visit her in her apartments, even 
though the period of mourning is not over."
"Hurry," I snapped, and Orm-O set off at a trot along the corridor, followed by 
Ur Raj, Bal Tab, and me. He led us to the bottom of a spiral ramp and told us to 
ascend to the third level where we should turn to the right and follow a 
corridor to its end. There we should find the door leading into Janai's 
apartments.
"If Jal Had is with Janai, the corridor will be guarded," he said, "and you will 
have to fight, but you will not have to contend with firearms as Jal Had, 
fearing assassination, permits no one but himself to carry firearms in the 
palace."
After thanking Orm-O, the three of us ascended the spiral ramp, and as we 
reached the third level I saw two warriors standing before a door at the end of 
a short corridor. Behind that door would be Jal Had and Janai.
The warriors saw us as soon as we saw them, and they came toward us with drawn 
swords.
"What do you want here?" demanded one of them.
"I wish to see Jal Had," I replied.
"You cannot see Jal Had," he said. "Go back to your cages where you belong."
For answer, Bal Tab felled the warrior with a blow from the metal shod goad that 
he carried, and almost simultaneously I engaged the other in a duel with swords. 
The fellow was a remarkably good swordsman, but he could not cope with one who 
had been a pupil of John Carter and who had the added advantage of an abnormally 
long reach and great strength.
I finished him quickly as I did not wish to delay much, nor did I wish to add to 
his sufferings.
Bal Tab was smiling, for it amused him to see men die. "You have a fine sword 
arm," he said, which was high praise from a green Martian.
Stepping over the body of my antagonist, I threw open the door and entered the 
room beyond, a small ante-room which was vacant. At the far end of this room was 
another door, beyond which I could hear the sound of voices raised in anger or 
excitement. Crossing quickly, I entered the second room where I found Jal Had 
holding Janai in his arms. She was struggling to escape, and striking at him. 
His face was red with anger, and I saw him raise his fist to strike her.
"Stop!" I cried, and then they both turned and saw me.
"Tor-dur-bar!" cried Janai, and there was a note of relief in her tone.
When Jal Had saw us he pushed Janai roughly from him and whipped out his radium 
pistol. I leaped for him, but before I could reach him, a metal shod goad 
whizzed by my shoulder and passed through the heart of the Prince of Amhor 
before he could level his pistol or squeeze the trigger. Bal Tab it was who had 
cast the goad, and to him I probably owed my life.
I think we were all a little surprised and shaken by the suddenness and enormity 
of the thing that had taken place, and for a moment we stood there in silence 
looking down at the body of Jal Had.
"Well," said Ur Raj, presently, "he is dead; and now what are we going to do?"
"The palace and the palace grounds are filled with his retainers," said Janai. 
"If they discover what we have done, we shall all be killed."
"We three should give them a battle they would long remember," said Bal Tab.
"If there were some place where we might hide until after dark," said Ur Raj, "I 
am sure that we can get out of the palace grounds, and we might even be able to 
leave the city."
"Do you know any place where we might hide until after dark?" I asked Janai.
"No," she said, "I know of no place where they would not search."
"What is on the level above us?" I asked.
"The royal hangar," she replied, "where Jal Had's private airships are kept."
Involuntarily I voiced an exclamation of relief. "What luck!" I exclaimed. 
"Nothing could suit our purpose better than one of Jal Had's fliers."
"But the hangars are well guarded," said Janai. "I have often seen the warriors 
marching past my door to relieve the hangar guards. There were never less than 
ten of them."
"There may not be so many today," said Ur Raj, "as Jal Had needed all his force 
to defend the palace gates."
"If there were twenty," said Bal Tab, "it would make a better fight. Let us hope 
that there are not too few."
I gave Jal Had's radium pistol to Ur Raj, and then the four of us went out into 
the corridor and ascended the ramp that led to the hangar on the roof. I sent Ur 
Raj ahead because he was smaller than either Bal Tab or I, and could reconnoiter 
with less likelihood of being discovered; also, the fact that he was a red man 
made it advantageous to use him thus, as he would less quickly arouse suspicion 
than either Bal Tab or myself. We three trailed a short distance behind him, and 
when he reached a point where he could get a view of the roof we halted and 
waited.
Presently he returned to us. "There are but two men on guard," he said. "It will 
be easy."
"We'll rush them," I suggested. "If we take them by surprise, it may not be 
necessary to kill them." Although an experienced man who has participated in 
many conflicts, I still dislike seeing men die and especially by my own hands, 
if matters can be arranged otherwise; but the chaps who guarded the royal hangar 
on the roof did not seem to care whether they lived or died for they charged us 
the moment they saw us; and though I promised not to harm them if they 
surrendered, they kept on coming until there was nothing for us to do but engage 
them.
Just before they reached us, one of them spoke quietly to the other, who turned 
and ran as fast as he could across the roof. Then his valiant companion engaged 
us; but I caught a glimpse of the second man disappearing through a trap in the 
roof. Evidently he had gone to summon aid while his fellow sacrificed his life 
to detain us. The instant that I realized this, I leaped in to close quarters 
and dispatched the warrior, though I must say that I never before killed a man 
with less relish. This simple warrior was a hero, if ever there was one; and it 
seemed a shame to take his life, but it was his or ours.
Knowing that pursuit might develop immediately, I summoned the others to follow 
me and hastened into the hangar where I quickly selected what appeared to be a 
reasonably fast flier which would accommodate all of us.
I knew that Ur Raj could pilot a ship; and so I ordered him to the controls, and 
a moment later we were gliding smoothly out of the hangar and across the roof. 
As we took off, I looked down into the palace grounds from which rose the cries 
of the beasts and the shouts of the warriors; and even as I looked I saw the 
gate fall and the men of Dur Ajmad swarm through to overwhelm the remnants of 
Jal Had's forces.
As we rose in the air, I saw a patrol boat some distance away turn and head for 
us. I immediately ordered Bal Tab and Janai below, and after giving some 
instructions to Ur Raj I followed them so that none of us might be seen by 
members of the crew of the patrol boat.
The latter approached us rapidly, and when it was in speaking distance asked us 
who we had aboard and where we were headed. Following my instructions, Ur Raj 
replied that Jal Had was below and that he had given orders not to divulge our 
destination. The commander of the patrol boat may have had his doubts as to the 
veracity of the statement, but evidently he felt that he did not care to take a 
chance of antagonizing his prince in the event that he were aboard and had given 
such instructions; so he fell off and let us continue on our way; but presently 
he started trailing us, and before we had passed beyond the limits of the city I 
saw at least a dozen fliers in pursuit. The hangar guard who had escaped had 
evidently raised the alarm. Perhaps, even, they had found the body of Jal Had. 
In any event, it was quite evident that we were being pursued; and when the 
other ships overtook the patrol and spoke, it too came after us at full speed.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE GREAT FLEET
THE FLIER WE had commandeered was of about the same speed as the larger vessels 
that were pursuing us; but the patrol boat was faster, and it was evident that 
she would eventually overhaul us.
A hasty survey of the boat revealed that there were rifles in their racks below 
deck and a small gun at bow and astern above. They all fired the ordinary 
Martian exploding projectiles which have been standard for ages. A single, 
direct hit in any vital part of the ship might easily disable it, and I knew 
that as soon as the patrol plane came within range it would commence firing.. I 
had come on deck as soon as I had realized that we were no longer deceiving the 
Amhorians, and I was standing beside Ur Raj urging him to greater speed.
"She is doing her limit now," he said; "but they are still gaining on us. 
However, I don't think we need to worry greatly. You may not have noticed it, 
but the hull of this ship is well protected, probably better armored than the 
other ships because it was used by Jal Had, personally. Only by scoring a direct 
hit on the controls or the rudder, can they put us out of commission, unless 
they are able to get very close and give us a broadside; but with our guns we 
ought to be able to prevent that."
Janai and Bal Tab had joined me on deck, and we three stood watching the 
pursuing patrol boat, which was gaining on us steadily.
"There!" said Janai. "They have opened fire."
"It fell short and would have been wide anyway," said Bal Tab.
"But they will soon correct that and get our range," I prophesied.
I told Janai and Bal Tab to go below as there was no sense in risking their 
lives on deck unnecessarily.
"When we are in rifle range, Bal Tab," I told him, "I shall send for you; and 
you may bring up two or three rifles from below."
I then went to the stern gun and trained it on the oncoming patrol boat as 
another shot fell just short of us. Then I trained our gun very carefully and 
fired.
"Fine!" cried Janai. "You scored a hit the first time." I turned to see both her 
and Bal Tab kneeling behind me. We were screened by the gun shield, but I still 
thought it too dangerous; but she would not go below nor either would Bal Tab 
except only to bring up several rifles and a larger supply of ammunition.
My shot, while a direct hit, had evidently done little or no harm for it neither 
slowed up the craft nor interfered with its firing.
Presently the patrol boat commenced to veer off slightly to the right with the 
possible intention of getting into a position from which it could pour 
broadsides into us.
We were both firing continuously now, and every now and then a shell would 
strike against the gunshield or the hull and explode.
I cautioned Ur Raj to keep on a straight course, since, if we tried to keep our 
stern and smallest target always presented to the pursuing enemy, we should have 
to alter our course and would be driven into a wide curve that would permit the 
larger vessels to overhaul us. Then we should most certainly be destroyed or 
captured.
This running fight continued until Amhor lay far behind. We were speeding above 
vast stretches where once Mars' mighty oceans rolled, now barren waste where 
only the wild, nomadic green men roved. The patrol boat had steadily gained on 
us, and the fleet of larger vessels had crept up a little, showing that they 
were a trifle faster than our flier. The patrol boat was slowly creeping up 
opposite us but still at a considerable distance. They had ceased firing, and 
now they signalled us to surrender; but for reply Bal Tab and I turned both the 
bow and stern guns upon them. They returned our fire, giving us a broadside with 
all their guns. I dragged Janai down beside me behind the gunshield; but Bal Tab 
had not been so fortunate. I saw him straighten to his full height and topple 
backward over the side of the flier.
I regretted the loss of Bal Tab, not only because it reduced our defensive force 
but because of the loss of a loyal comrade and a fine fighting man. However, he 
was gone, and mourning would do no good. He had died as he would have wished to 
die, fighting; and his body lay where he would have wished it to lie, on the 
ochre moss of a dead sea bottom.
Projectiles were now exploding continually against the armored sides of our 
craft and the gunshield which was our protection. Ur Raj had ample protection in 
the pilot's compartment, which was heavily armored.
We three seemed safe enough if we kept behind our protection; but how long the 
armored side of the flier could withstand this constant bombardment of exploding 
shells, I did not know.
Attracting Ur Raj's attention, I signalled him to rise and endeavor to get above 
the patrol boat, for if we could fire down upon her from above, we might disable 
her.
As we started to rise, Ur Raj called to me and pointed ahead. A sight met my 
eyes that fairly took my breath away. Approaching, far aloft and already almost 
above us, was a fleet of great battleships that we had not observed because of 
our preoccupation with the fight in which we had been engaged.
I was certain from the size and number of them that they were not ships of 
Amhor; but from our position below them I could not read the insignias upon 
their bows nor see the colors flying from their superstructures. However, no 
matter what nation they represented, we would be no worse off in their hands 
than in the hands of the Amhorians; so I instructed Ur Raj to continue to set 
his course for them and to try to get between them and the patrol boat, hoping 
that the latter would hold its fire rather than take a chance of hitting one of 
the great ships of the fleet whose big guns could have destroyed it in an 
instant; nor was I wrong in my conjecture, for the patrol boat ceased firing 
though it continued to pursue us.
We were now rapidly approaching the leading ship of the fleet. I could see men 
peering over the sides at us, and presently the great craft slowed down.
As we arose closer to its bow, Ur Raj suddenly cried out in exaltation, "A fleet 
from Helium!" And then I, too, saw the insignia on the ship's bow, and my heart 
leaped for I knew that Janai was saved.
Now they hailed us, demanding to know who we were. "Ur Raj of Hastor," I 
replied, "a padwar in the Navy of Helium, and two of his friends escaping from 
imprisonment in the City of Amhor."
They ordered us to come aboard, then, and Ur Raj piloted the craft across their 
rail and set it down on the broad deck of the battleship.
Officers and men looked at me in astonishment as I dropped to the deck and 
lifted Janai down. Then Ur Raj joined us.
In the meantime, the Amhorian patrol boat had evidently discovered the identity 
of their fleet, for it turned about and was speeding back toward its sister 
ships; and soon all those that had been pursuing us were headed back toward 
Amhor at full speed; for they knew that Ur Raj was from Helium, and they feared 
reprisals for having held him in captivity.
Janai, Ur Raj, and I were taken before the commanding officer where Ur Raj had 
no difficulty in convincing them of his identity. "And these other two?" 
demanded the officer, indicating Janai and me.
"I am a friend of Vor Daj," I replied, "and so is this girl, Janai. I have 
served John Carter, too, faithfully. He will be glad to know that I am alive and 
well."
"You are Tor-dur-bar?" asked the officer.
"Yes," I replied, "but how could you know that?"
"This fleet was on its way to Amhor in search of you and the girl, Janai."
"But how in the world could you have known that we were at Amhor?" I asked, 
amazed.
"It is quite simple," he replied. "The fleet was bringing John Carter and Ras 
Thavas back to Morbus. Yesterday we were sailing low over the Great Toonolian 
Marshes when we saw a red man being pursued by savages. Their canoes were about 
to overtake his when we dropped a bomb among them, dispersing them. Then we 
dropped lower, and with landing tackle brought the man aboard. He said that his 
name was Pandar, and that he was escaping from Morbus; and when John Carter 
questioned him he learned that a flier from Amhor had captured you and the girl, 
Janai. The fleet was immediately ordered to Amhor to effect your rescue."
"And you arrived none too soon," I said; "but tell me, John Carter and Ras 
Thavas both live?"
"Yes," he said; "they are aboard the Ruzaar."
I have always prided myself that I have perfect control over my emotions; but 
with this final proof that John Carter and Ras Thavas both lived, I came as 
close to breaking down as I ever had in my life. The relief from long months of 
doubt and uncertainty almost proved my undoing; but I held myself together, and 
then in a moment another doubt raised its ugly head. John Carter and Ras Thavas 
lived; but was the body of Vor Daj still in existence? And, if so, was it within 
the power of man to recover it?
CHAPTER XXIX
BACK TOWARD MORBUS
WE WERE SOON transferred to the Ruzaar, where I received a warm greeting from 
John Carter and Ras Thavas.
When I told my story, and Ur Raj had assured them that there were no more 
Heliumetic prisoners in Amhor, John Carter ordered the fleet about; and it 
headed again toward Morbus.
Ras Thavas was much concerned when I told him about the accident that had 
occurred in Vat Room No. 4 and its results.
"That is bad," he said, "very bad. We may never be able to stop it. Let us hope 
that it has not reached the body of Vor Daj."
"Oh, don't suggest such a thing," cried Janai. "Vor Daj must be saved."
"It was to rescue Vor Daj that I returned with this fleet," said John Carter, 
"and you may rest assured that it will not return without him, unless he has 
been destroyed."
In fear and trembling, I inquired of John Carter the state of Dejah Thoris's 
health.
"Thanks to Ras Thavas, she has completely recovered," he replied. "Every great 
surgeon of Helium had given her up; but Ras Thavas, the miracle worker, restored 
her to perfect health."
"Did you have any difficulty in returning to Helium from Morbus?" I asked.
"We had little else," he replied. "From Morbus to Phundahl was almost one 
continuous battle with insects, beasts, reptiles, and savage men. How we 
survived it and won through is a mystery to me; but Dur-dan and Ras Thavas gave 
a good account of themselves with sword and dagger, and we came through almost 
to the flier without the loss of one of our number. Then, just the day before we 
reached it, Dur-dan was killed in a battle with some wild savages – the last we 
were to encounter in the Marshes. The journey between Morbus and Phundahl took 
up most of the time; but then, of course, we had to spend some time in Helium 
while Dejah Thoris was undergoing treatment. I felt convinced that you would 
pull through some way. You were powerful, intelligent, and resourceful; but I am 
afraid that my confidence would have been undermined had I known of what had 
happened in Vat Room No. 4."
"It is a terrible catastrophe," I said, "perhaps a world catastrophe, and as 
horrifying a sight as any that you have ever witnessed. There is no combatting 
it, for even if you cut it to pieces it continues to grow and to spread."
That evening as I was walking on deck, I saw Janai standing alone at the rail. 
Knowing how repulsive I must be to her I never forced my, company upon her; but 
this time she stopped me.
"Tor-dur-bar," she said, "I wonder if I have ever adequately thanked you for all 
that you have done for me?"
"I want no thanks," I said. "It is enough that I have been able to serve you and 
Vor Daj."
She looked at me very closely. "What will it mean to you, Tor-dur-bar, if Vor 
Daj's body is never recovered?"
"I shall have lost a friend," I said.
"And you will come to Helium to live?"
"I do not know that I shall care to live," I said.
"Why?" she demanded.
"Because there is no place in the world for such a hideous monster as I."
"Do not say that, Tor-dur-bar," she said, kindly. "You are not hideous, because 
you have a good heart. At first, before I knew you, I thought that you were 
hideous; but now, my friend, I see only the beauty and nobility of your 
character."
That was very sweet of her, and I told her so; but it didn't alter the fact that 
I was so hideous that I knew I should constantly be frightening women and 
children should I consent to go to Helium.
"Well, I think your appearance will make little difference in Helium," she said, 
"for I am convinced that you will have many friends; but what is to become of me 
if Vor Daj is not rescued?"
"You need have no fear. John Carter will see to that."
"But John Carter is under no obligation to me," she insisted.
"Nevertheless, he will take care of you."
"And you will come to see me, Tor-dur-bar?" she asked.
"If you wish me to," I said; but I knew that Tor-dur-bar would never live to go 
to Helium.
She looked at me in silence and steadily for a moment, and then she said, "I 
know what is in your mind, Tor-dur-bar!" You will never come to Helium as you 
are; but now that Ras Thavas has returned, why can he not give your brain a new 
body, as he did for so many other less worthy hormads?"
"Perhaps," I replied; "but where shall I find a body?"
"There is Vor Daj's," she said, in a whisper.
"You mean," I said, "that you would like my brain in the body of Vor Daj?"
"Why not?" she asked. "It is your brain that has been my best and most loyal 
friend. Sytor told me that Vor Daj's brain had been destroyed. Perhaps it has. 
If that is true, I know that he lied when he said that you caused it to be 
destroyed; for I know you better now and know that you would not have so wronged 
a friend; but if by chance it has been destroyed, what could be better for me 
than that the brain of my friend animate the body of one whom I so admired?"
"But wouldn't you always say to yourself, 'this body has the brain of a hormad? 
It is not Vor Daj; it is just a thing that grew in a Vat.'"
"No," she replied. "I do not think that it would make any difference. I do not 
think that it would be difficult for me to convince myself that the brain and 
the body belonged together, just as, on the contrary, it has been difficult to 
conceive that the brain which animates the body of Tor-dur-bar originated in a 
vat of slimy, animal tissue."
"If Ras Thavas should find me a handsome body," I said, jokingly, "then Vor Daj 
would have a rival, I can assure you."
She shot me a quizzical look. "I do not think so," she said.
I wondered just what she meant by that and why she looked at me so peculiarly. 
It was not likely that she had guessed the truth, since it was inconceivable 
that any man would have permitted his brain to be transferred to the body of a 
hormad. Could she have meant that Vor Daj could have no successful rival?
It was night when we approached the Great Toonolian Marshes. The great fleet 
sailed majestically over the City of Phundahl; the lighted city gleamed through 
the darkness below us, but no patrol boat ventured aloft to question us. Our 
ships were all lighted and must have been visible for a long time before we 
passed over the city; but Phundahl, weak in ships, would challenge no strange 
fleet the size of ours. I could well imagine that the Jed of Phundahl breathed 
more easily as we vanished into the eastern night.
CHAPTER XXX
THE END OF TWO WORLDS
THE DESOLATE WASTES of the Great Toonolian Marshes over which we passed that 
night took on a strange, weird beauty and added mystery in the darkness. Their 
waters reflected the myriad stars which the thin air of Mars reveals; and the 
passing moons were reflected back from the still lagoons or touched the rocky 
islets with a soft radiance that transformed them into isles of enchantment. 
Occasionally, we saw the campfires of savages, and faintly to our ears rose the 
chanting of barbaric songs and the booming of drums muffled by distance; all 
punctuated by the scream or bellow of some savage thing.
"The last of the great oceans," said John Carter, who had joined me at the rail. 
"Its eventual passing will doubtless mark the passing of a world, and Mars will 
hurtle on through all eternity peopled by not even a memory of its past 
grandeur."
"It saddens me to think of it," I said.
"And me, too," he replied.
"But you could return to Earth," I reminded him.
He smiled. "I do not think that either of us need worry about the end of Mars; 
at least, not for another million years, perhaps."
I laughed. "Somehow, when you spoke of it, it seemed as though the end were very 
near," I said.
"Comparatively speaking, it is," he replied. "Here we have only a shallow 
marshland to remind us of the mighty oceans which once rolled across the major 
portion of Barsoom. On Earth, the waters cover three quarters of the globe, 
reaching a depth of over five miles; yet, eventually the same fate will overtake 
that planet. The mountains will wash down into the seas; the seas will 
evaporate; and some day all that will be left to mark their great oceans will be 
another Toonolian Marsh in some barren waste where the great Pacific Ocean rolls 
today."
"You make me sad," I said.
"Well, let's not worry about it, then," he laughed. "We have much more important 
matters to consider than the end of the two worlds. The fate of a friend 
transcends that of a planet. What shall you do if your body cannot be 
recovered?"
"I shall never return to Helium with this body," I replied.
"I cannot blame you. We shall have to find you another body."
"No," I said. "I have given the matter a great deal of thought, and I have come 
to a final decision. If my own body has been destroyed, I shall destroy this 
body, too, and the brain with it. There are far more desirable bodies than mine, 
of course; and yet I am so attached to it that I should not care to live in the 
body of another."
"Do not decide too hastily, Vor Daj."
"Tor-dur-bar, my Prince," I corrected.
"Why carry on the masquerade longer?" he demanded.
"Because she does not know," I said.
He nodded. "You think it might make a difference with her?" he asked.
"I am afraid that she could never forget this inhuman face and body, and that 
she might always wonder if the brain, too, were not the brain of a hormad, even 
though it reposed in the skull of Vor Daj. No one knows but you and Ras Thavas 
and I, my prince. I beg of you that you will never divulge the truth to Janai."
"As you wish," he said; "though I am quite sure that you are making a mistake. 
If she cares for you, it will make no difference to her; if she does not care 
for you, it will make no difference to you."
"No," I said. "I want to forget Tor-dur-bar, myself, and I certainly want her to 
forget him."
"That she will never do," he said, "for, from what she has told me, she 
entertains a very strong affection for Tor-dur-bar! He is Vor Daj's most 
dangerous rival."
"Don't," I begged. "The very idea is repulsive."
"It is the character that makes the man," said John Carter, "not the clay which 
is its abode."
"No, my friend," I replied, "no amount of philosophizing could make Tor-dur-bar 
a suitable mate for any red woman; least of all, Janai."
"Perhaps you are right," he agreed; "but after the great sacrifice that you have 
made for her, I feel that you deserve a better reward than death by your own 
hand."
"Well," I replied, "tomorrow will probably decide the matter for us; and already 
I see the first streak of dawn above the horizon."
He thought in silence for a few moments, and then he said, "Perhaps the least of 
the difficulties which may confront us will be reaching 3-17 and the body of Vor 
Daj. What concerns me more than that is the likelihood that the entire 
Laboratory Building may be filled with the mass from Vat Room No. 4, in which 
event it will be practically impossible to reach Ras Thavas's laboratory which 
contains the necessary paraphernalia for the delicate operation of returning 
your brain to your own body."
"I anticipated that," I replied; "and on my way out of Morbus, I took everything 
that was necessary to 3-17."
"Good!" he exclaimed. "My mind is greatly relieved. Ras Thavas and I have both 
been deeply concerned by what amounted to his practical certainty that we should 
never be able to reach his laboratory. He believes that it is going to be 
necessary to destroy Morbus before we can check the growth from Vat No. 4."
It was daylight when we approached Morbus. The ships, with the exception of the 
Ruzaar, which carried us, were dispatched to circle the island to discover how 
far the mass from Vat Room No. 4 had spread.
The Ruzaar, dropping to within a few yards of the ground, approached the little 
island where lay the tunnel leading to 3-17; and, as we approached it, a sight 
of horror met our eyes. A wriggling, writhing mass of tissue had spread across 
the water from the main island of Morbus and now completely covered the little 
island. Hideous heads looked up at us screaming defiance; hands stretched forth 
futilely to clutch us.
I searched for the mouth of the tunnel; but it was not visible, being entirely 
covered by the writhing mass. My heart sank, for I felt certain that the mass 
must have entered the tunnel and found its way to 3-17; for I was sure that it 
would enter any opening and follow the line of least resistance until it met 
some impassable barrier.
However, I clung desperately to the hope that I had covered the mouth of the 
tunnel sufficiently well to have prevented the mass from starting down it. But 
even so, how could we hope to reach the tunnel through that hideous cordon of 
horror?
John Carter stood by the rail with several members of his staff. Janai, Ras 
Thavas, and I were close beside him. He was gazing down with evident horror upon 
Ras Thavas's creation. Presently he issued instructions to the members of his 
staff, and two of them left to put them into effect. Then we waited, no one 
speaking, silenced by the horror surging beneath us, screaming, mouthing, 
gesticulating.
Janai was standing close to me, and presently she grasped my arm. It was the 
first time that she had ever voluntarily touched me. "How horrible!" she 
whispered. "It cannot be possible that Vor Daj's body still exists, for that 
horrid mass must have spread everywhere through the buildings as well as out 
beyond the walls of the City.
I shook my head. I had nothing to say. She pressed my arm tightly. "Tor-dur-bar, 
promise me that you will do nothing rash if the body of Vor Daj is lost."
"Let's not even think of it," I said.
"But we must think of it; and you must promise me."
I shook my head. "You are asking too much," I said. "There can be no happiness 
for me as long as I retain the body of a hormad." I realized then that I had 
given myself away, but she did not seem to notice it, but just stood in silence 
looking down upon the awful thing beneath us.
The Ruzaar was rising now, and it continued to do so until it had gained an 
altitude of five or six hundred feet. Then it remained stationary again, hanging 
directly over that part of the little islet where the cave mouth lay. Presently 
an incendiary bomb fell, and the mass writhed and screamed as it burst, 
spreading its flaming contents in all directions.
I shall not dwell upon the horror of it, but bomb after bomb was dropped until 
only a mass of charred and smoking flesh lay within a radius of a hundred feet 
of the cave opening. Then the Ruzaar dropped closer to the ground, and I was 
lowered by landing tackle; and following me came Ras Thavas and two hundred 
warriors, the latter armed with swords and flaming torches with which they 
immediately attacked the mass that was already creeping back to cover the ground 
that it had lost.
My heart was in my mouth as I fell to work to remove the earth and stones with 
which I had blocked the entrance to the tunnel; but as I worked, I saw no sign 
that it had been pierced, and presently it lay open before me and I could have 
shouted with joy, for the mouth of the tunnel was empty.
I cannot describe my feelings as I again traversed that long tunnel back to 
3-17. Was my body still there? Was it safe and whole? I conjured all sorts of 
terrible things that might have happened to it during my long absence. I almost 
ran through the black tunnel in my haste to learn the truth, and at last with 
trembling hands I raised the cover of the trap that led from the tunnel up into 
the chamber. A moment later, I stood in 3-17.
Lying as I had left it was the body of Vor Daj.
Ras Thavas soon joined me; and I could see that he, too, breathed a sigh of 
relief as he discovered the body and paraphernalia intact.
Without waiting for instructions from Ras Thavas, I stretched myself upon the 
ersite slab beside my own body; and presently Ras Thavas was bending over me, I 
felt a slight incision and a little pain, and then consciousness left me.
CHAPTER XXXI
ADVENTURE'S END
I OPENED MY EYES. Ras Thavas was leaning over me. Beside me lay the body of the 
hormad, Tor-dur-bar. I know that then the tears came to my eyes, tears of such 
relief and happiness and joy as I had never experienced before in my life, not 
so much because I had regained my own body but because now I might lay it at the 
feet of Janai.
"Come, my son," said Ras Thavas. "We have been here a long time. The mass is 
writhing and screaming in the corridor beyond the door. Let us hope that it has 
not succeeded in recovering the ground that it lost at the other end of the 
tunnel."
"Very well," I said, "let us return at once." I stepped from the table and stood 
again erect upon my own feet. I was just a little stiff, and Ras Thavas noticed 
it.
"That will pass in a moment," he said. "You have been dead a long time." And he 
smiled.
I stood for a moment looking down upon the uncouth body of Tor-dur-bar. "It 
served you well," said Ras Thavas.
"Yes," I assented, "and the best reward that I can offer it is eternal oblivion. 
We shall leave it here, buried forever in the pits beneath the building where it 
first felt life. I leave it, Ras Thavas, without a pang of regret."
"It had great strength, and, from what I understand, a good sword arm," 
commented the Master Mind of Mars.
"Yet I still think that I can endure life without it," I said.
"Vanity, vanity!" exclaimed Ras Thavas. "You, a warrior, would give up enormous 
strength and an incomparable sword arm for a handsome face."
I saw that he was laughing at me; but the whole world might laugh if it wished, 
just as long as I had my own body back again.
We hastened back through the tunnel, and when we finally emerged onto the islet 
again, warriors were still fighting back the insistent growth. Four times the 
detachment had been relieved since we had descended from the Ruzaar. It had been 
early morning when we arrived, and now the sun was just about to dip below the 
far horizon, yet to me it seemed but the matter of a few moments since I had 
descended from the Ruzaar.
We were quickly hoisted aboard again where we were fairly smothered with 
congratulations.
John Carter placed a hand upon my shoulder. "I could not have been more 
concerned over the fate of a son of mine than I have been over yours," he said.
That was all that he said, but it meant more to me than volumes spoken by 
another. Presently he noted my eyes wandering about the deck, and a smile 
touched his lips. "Where is she?" I asked.
"She could not stand the strain of waiting," he said, "and she has gone to her 
cabin to lie down. You had better go and tell her yourself."
"Thank you, sir," I said; and a few moments later I was knocking at the door of 
Janai's cabin.
"Who knocks?" she asked.
"Vor Daj," I replied, and then without waiting for an invitation I pushed open 
the door and entered.
She rose and came toward me, her eyes wide with questioning. "It is really you?" 
she asked.
"It is I," I assured her, and I crossed toward her. I wanted to take her in my 
arms and tell her that I loved her; but she seemed to anticipate what I had in 
mind, for she stopped me with a gesture.
"Wait," she said. "Do you realize that I scarcely know Vor Daj?"
I had not thought of that, but it was true. She knew Tor-dur-bar far better. 
"Answer me one question."
"What is it?" I asked.
"How did Teeaytan-ov die?" she demanded.
It was a strange question. What had that to do with Janai or with me? "Why, he 
died in the corridor leading to 3-17, struck down by one of the hormad warriors 
while we were escaping from the Laboratory Building," I replied.
Her white teeth flashed in a sudden smile. "Now what were you going to say to me 
when I stopped you?"
"I was going to tell you that I loved you," I replied, "and ask you if there was 
any hope that you might return my love."
"I scarcely knew Vor Daj," she said; "it was Tor-dur-bar that I learned to love; 
but now I know the truth that for some time I have guessed, and I realize the 
sacrifice that you were willing to make for me." She came and put her dear arms 
about my neck, and for the first time I felt the lips of the woman I loved on 
mine.
* * * * *
For ten days the great fleet cruised high above Morbus, dropping bombs upon the 
city and the island and the great mass that had started to spread out in all 
directions to engulf a world; nor would John Carter leave until the last vestige 
of the horror had been entirely exterminated. At last the bows of the great 
battleships were turned toward Helium; and with only a brief stop at Phundahl to 
return Pandar to his native city we cruised on toward home, and for Janai and 
me, a happiness that we had passed together through horrors to achieve.
As the great towers of the twin cities appeared in the distance, Janai and I 
were standing together in the bow of the Ruzaar. "I wish you would tell me," I 
said, "why you asked me that time how Teeaytan-ov died. You knew as well as I."
"Stupid!" she exclaimed, laughing. "Tor-dur-bar, Pandar, and I were the only 
survivors of that fight who were with the fleet when we returned to Morbus. Of 
these three, you could have seen only Tor-dur-bar before you saw me. Therefore, 
when you answered me correctly, I knew that Tor-dur-bar's brain had been 
transferred to your skull. That was all that I wanted to know, for it was the 
brain that gave the character and fineness to Tor-dur-bar that I had learned to 
love; and I do not care, Vor Daj, whose brain it was originally."
If you do not care to tell me, I shall never ask; but I suspect that was your 
own and that you had it transferred to the head of Tor-dur-bar so that you might 
better protect me from Ay-mad."
"It is my own brain," I said.
"Was, you mean," she laughed; "it is mine now."

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