A Forest Battle

: The Gods Of Mars

Tars Tarkas and I found no time for an exchange of experiences as we

stood there before the great boulder surrounded by the corpses of our

grotesque assailants, for from all directions down the broad valley was

streaming a perfect torrent of terrifying creatures in response to the

weird call of the strange figure far above us.



"Come," cried Tars Tarkas, "we must make for the cliffs. There lies

our only h pe of even temporary escape; there we may find a cave or a

narrow ledge which two may defend for ever against this motley, unarmed

horde."



Together we raced across the scarlet sward, I timing my speed that I

might not outdistance my slower companion. We had, perhaps, three

hundred yards to cover between our boulder and the cliffs, and then to

search out a suitable shelter for our stand against the terrifying

things that were pursuing us.



They were rapidly overhauling us when Tars Tarkas cried to me to hasten

ahead and discover, if possible, the sanctuary we sought. The

suggestion was a good one, for thus many valuable minutes might be

saved to us, and, throwing every ounce of my earthly muscles into the

effort, I cleared the remaining distance between myself and the cliffs

in great leaps and bounds that put me at their base in a moment.



The cliffs rose perpendicular directly from the almost level sward of

the valley. There was no accumulation of fallen debris, forming a more

or less rough ascent to them, as is the case with nearly all other

cliffs I have ever seen. The scattered boulders that had fallen from

above and lay upon or partly buried in the turf, were the only

indication that any disintegration of the massive, towering pile of

rocks ever had taken place.



My first cursory inspection of the face of the cliffs filled my heart

with forebodings, since nowhere could I discern, except where the weird

herald stood still shrieking his shrill summons, the faintest

indication of even a bare foothold upon the lofty escarpment.



To my right the bottom of the cliff was lost in the dense foliage of

the forest, which terminated at its very foot, rearing its gorgeous

foliage fully a thousand feet against its stern and forbidding

neighbour.



To the left the cliff ran, apparently unbroken, across the head of the

broad valley, to be lost in the outlines of what appeared to be a range

of mighty mountains that skirted and confined the valley in every

direction.



Perhaps a thousand feet from me the river broke, as it seemed, directly

from the base of the cliffs, and as there seemed not the remotest

chance for escape in that direction I turned my attention again toward

the forest.



The cliffs towered above me a good five thousand feet. The sun was not

quite upon them and they loomed a dull yellow in their own shade. Here

and there they were broken with streaks and patches of dusky red,

green, and occasional areas of white quartz.



Altogether they were very beautiful, but I fear that I did not regard

them with a particularly appreciative eye on this, my first inspection

of them.



Just then I was absorbed in them only as a medium of escape, and so, as

my gaze ran quickly, time and again, over their vast expanse in search

of some cranny or crevice, I came suddenly to loathe them as the

prisoner must loathe the cruel and impregnable walls of his dungeon.



Tars Tarkas was approaching me rapidly, and still more rapidly came the

awful horde at his heels.



It seemed the forest now or nothing, and I was just on the point of

motioning Tars Tarkas to follow me in that direction when the sun

passed the cliff's zenith, and as the bright rays touched the dull

surface it burst out into a million scintillant lights of burnished

gold, of flaming red, of soft greens, and gleaming whites--a more

gorgeous and inspiring spectacle human eye has never rested upon.



The face of the entire cliff was, as later inspection conclusively

proved, so shot with veins and patches of solid gold as to quite

present the appearance of a solid wall of that precious metal except

where it was broken by outcroppings of ruby, emerald, and diamond

boulders--a faint and alluring indication of the vast and unguessable

riches which lay deeply buried behind the magnificent surface.



But what caught my most interested attention at the moment that the

sun's rays set the cliff's face a-shimmer, was the several black spots

which now appeared quite plainly in evidence high across the gorgeous

wall close to the forest's top, and extending apparently below and

behind the branches.



Almost immediately I recognised them for what they were, the dark

openings of caves entering the solid walls--possible avenues of escape

or temporary shelter, could we but reach them.



There was but a single way, and that led through the mighty, towering

trees upon our right. That I could scale them I knew full well, but

Tars Tarkas, with his mighty bulk and enormous weight, would find it a

task possibly quite beyond his prowess or his skill, for Martians are

at best but poor climbers. Upon the entire surface of that ancient

planet I never before had seen a hill or mountain that exceeded four

thousand feet in height above the dead sea bottoms, and as the ascent

was usually gradual, nearly to their summits they presented but few

opportunities for the practice of climbing. Nor would the Martians

have embraced even such opportunities as might present themselves, for

they could always find a circuitous route about the base of any

eminence, and these roads they preferred and followed in preference to

the shorter but more arduous ways.



However, there was nothing else to consider than an attempt to scale

the trees contiguous to the cliff in an effort to reach the caves above.



The Thark grasped the possibilities and the difficulties of the plan at

once, but there was no alternative, and so we set out rapidly for the

trees nearest the cliff.



Our relentless pursuers were now close to us, so close that it seemed

that it would be an utter impossibility for the Jeddak of Thark to

reach the forest in advance of them, nor was there any considerable

will in the efforts that Tars Tarkas made, for the green men of Barsoom

do not relish flight, nor ever before had I seen one fleeing from death

in whatsoever form it might have confronted him. But that Tars Tarkas

was the bravest of the brave he had proven thousands of times; yes,

tens of thousands in countless mortal combats with men and beasts. And

so I knew that there was another reason than fear of death behind his

flight, as he knew that a greater power than pride or honour spurred me

to escape these fierce destroyers. In my case it was love--love of the

divine Dejah Thoris; and the cause of the Thark's great and sudden love

of life I could not fathom, for it is oftener that they seek death than

life--these strange, cruel, loveless, unhappy people.



At length, however, we reached the shadows of the forest, while right

behind us sprang the swiftest of our pursuers--a giant plant man with

claws outreaching to fasten his bloodsucking mouths upon us.



He was, I should say, a hundred yards in advance of his closest

companion, and so I called to Tars Tarkas to ascend a great tree that

brushed the cliff's face while I dispatched the fellow, thus giving the

less agile Thark an opportunity to reach the higher branches before the

entire horde should be upon us and every vestige of escape cut off.



But I had reckoned without a just appreciation either of the cunning of

my immediate antagonist or the swiftness with which his fellows were

covering the distance which had separated them from me.



As I raised my long-sword to deal the creature its death thrust it

halted in its charge and, as my sword cut harmlessly through the empty

air, the great tail of the thing swept with the power of a grizzly's

arm across the sward and carried me bodily from my feet to the ground.

In an instant the brute was upon me, but ere it could fasten its

hideous mouths into my breast and throat I grasped a writhing tentacle

in either hand.



The plant man was well muscled, heavy, and powerful but my earthly

sinews and greater agility, in conjunction with the deathly strangle

hold I had upon him, would have given me, I think, an eventual victory

had we had time to discuss the merits of our relative prowess

uninterrupted. But as we strained and struggled about the tree into

which Tars Tarkas was clambering with infinite difficulty, I suddenly

caught a glimpse over the shoulder of my antagonist of the great swarm

of pursuers that now were fairly upon me.



Now, at last, I saw the nature of the other monsters who had come with

the plant men in response to the weird calling of the man upon the

cliff's face. They were that most dreaded of Martian creatures--great

white apes of Barsoom.



My former experiences upon Mars had familiarized me thoroughly with

them and their methods, and I may say that of all the fearsome and

terrible, weird and grotesque inhabitants of that strange world, it is

the white apes that come nearest to familiarizing me with the sensation

of fear.



I think that the cause of this feeling which these apes engender within

me is due to their remarkable resemblance in form to our Earth men,

which gives them a human appearance that is most uncanny when coupled

with their enormous size.



They stand fifteen feet in height and walk erect upon their hind feet.

Like the green Martians, they have an intermediary set of arms midway

between their upper and lower limbs. Their eyes are very close set,

but do not protrude as do those of the green men of Mars; their ears

are high set, but more laterally located than are the green men's,

while their snouts and teeth are much like those of our African

gorilla. Upon their heads grows an enormous shock of bristly hair.



It was into the eyes of such as these and the terrible plant men that I

gazed above the shoulder of my foe, and then, in a mighty wave of

snarling, snapping, screaming, purring rage, they swept over me--and of

all the sounds that assailed my ears as I went down beneath them, to me

the most hideous was the horrid purring of the plant men.



Instantly a score of cruel fangs and keen talons were sunk into my

flesh; cold, sucking lips fastened themselves upon my arteries. I

struggled to free myself, and even though weighed down by these immense

bodies, I succeeded in struggling to my feet, where, still grasping my

long-sword, and shortening my grip upon it until I could use it as a

dagger, I wrought such havoc among them that at one time I stood for an

instant free.



What it has taken minutes to write occurred in but a few seconds, but

during that time Tars Tarkas had seen my plight and had dropped from

the lower branches, which he had reached with such infinite labour, and

as I flung the last of my immediate antagonists from me the great Thark

leaped to my side, and again we fought, back to back, as we had done a

hundred times before.



Time and again the ferocious apes sprang in to close with us, and time

and again we beat them back with our swords. The great tails of the

plant men lashed with tremendous power about us as they charged from

various directions or sprang with the agility of greyhounds above our

heads; but every attack met a gleaming blade in sword hands that had

been reputed for twenty years the best that Mars ever had known; for

Tars Tarkas and John Carter were names that the fighting men of the

world of warriors loved best to speak.



But even the two best swords in a world of fighters can avail not for

ever against overwhelming numbers of fierce and savage brutes that know

not what defeat means until cold steel teaches their hearts no longer

to beat, and so, step by step, we were forced back. At length we stood

against the giant tree that we had chosen for our ascent, and then, as

charge after charge hurled its weight upon us, we gave back again and

again, until we had been forced half-way around the huge base of the

colossal trunk.



Tars Tarkas was in the lead, and suddenly I heard a little cry of

exultation from him.



"Here is shelter for one at least, John Carter," he said, and, glancing

down, I saw an opening in the base of the tree about three feet in

diameter.



"In with you, Tars Tarkas," I cried, but he would not go; saying that

his bulk was too great for the little aperture, while I might slip in

easily.



"We shall both die if we remain without, John Carter; here is a slight

chance for one of us. Take it and you may live to avenge me, it is

useless for me to attempt to worm my way into so small an opening with

this horde of demons besetting us on all sides."



"Then we shall die together, Tars Tarkas," I replied, "for I shall not

go first. Let me defend the opening while you get in, then my smaller

stature will permit me to slip in with you before they can prevent."



We still were fighting furiously as we talked in broken sentences,

punctured with vicious cuts and thrusts at our swarming enemy.



At length he yielded, for it seemed the only way in which either of us

might be saved from the ever-increasing numbers of our assailants, who

were still swarming upon us from all directions across the broad valley.



"It was ever your way, John Carter, to think last of your own life," he

said; "but still more your way to command the lives and actions of

others, even to the greatest of Jeddaks who rule upon Barsoom."



There was a grim smile upon his cruel, hard face, as he, the greatest

Jeddak of them all, turned to obey the dictates of a creature of

another world--of a man whose stature was less than half his own.



"If you fail, John Carter," he said, "know that the cruel and heartless

Thark, to whom you taught the meaning of friendship, will come out to

die beside you."



"As you will, my friend," I replied; "but quickly now, head first,

while I cover your retreat."



He hesitated a little at that word, for never before in his whole life

of continual strife had he turned his back upon aught than a dead or

defeated enemy.



"Haste, Tars Tarkas," I urged, "or we shall both go down to profitless

defeat; I cannot hold them for ever alone."



As he dropped to the ground to force his way into the tree, the whole

howling pack of hideous devils hurled themselves upon me. To right and

left flew my shimmering blade, now green with the sticky juice of a

plant man, now red with the crimson blood of a great white ape; but

always flying from one opponent to another, hesitating but the barest

fraction of a second to drink the lifeblood in the centre of some

savage heart.



And thus I fought as I never had fought before, against such frightful

odds that I cannot realize even now that human muscles could have

withstood that awful onslaught, that terrific weight of hurtling tons

of ferocious, battling flesh.



With the fear that we would escape them, the creatures redoubled their

efforts to pull me down, and though the ground about me was piled high

with their dead and dying comrades, they succeeded at last in

overwhelming me, and I went down beneath them for the second time that

day, and once again felt those awful sucking lips against my flesh.



But scarce had I fallen ere I felt powerful hands grip my ankles, and

in another second I was being drawn within the shelter of the tree's

interior. For a moment it was a tug of war between Tars Tarkas and a

great plant man, who clung tenaciously to my breast, but presently I

got the point of my long-sword beneath him and with a mighty thrust

pierced his vitals.



Torn and bleeding from many cruel wounds, I lay panting upon the ground

within the hollow of the tree, while Tars Tarkas defended the opening

from the furious mob without.



For an hour they howled about the tree, but after a few attempts to

reach us they confined their efforts to terrorizing shrieks and

screams, to horrid growling on the part of the great white apes, and

the fearsome and indescribable purring by the plant men.



At length, all but a score, who had apparently been left to prevent our

escape, had left us, and our adventure seemed destined to result in a

siege, the only outcome of which could be our death by starvation; for

even should we be able to slip out after dark, whither in this unknown

and hostile valley could we hope to turn our steps toward possible

escape?



As the attacks of our enemies ceased and our eyes became accustomed to

the semi-darkness of the interior of our strange retreat, I took the

opportunity to explore our shelter.



The tree was hollow to an extent of about fifty feet in diameter, and

from its flat, hard floor I judged that it had often been used to

domicile others before our occupancy. As I raised my eyes toward its

roof to note the height I saw far above me a faint glow of light.



There was an opening above. If we could but reach it we might still

hope to make the shelter of the cliff caves. My eyes had now become

quite used to the subdued light of the interior, and as I pursued my

investigation I presently came upon a rough ladder at the far side of

the cave.



Quickly I mounted it, only to find that it connected at the top with

the lower of a series of horizontal wooden bars that spanned the now

narrow and shaft-like interior of the tree's stem. These bars were set

one above another about three feet apart, and formed a perfect ladder

as far above me as I could see.



Dropping to the floor once more, I detailed my discovery to Tars

Tarkas, who suggested that I explore aloft as far as I could go in

safety while he guarded the entrance against a possible attack.



As I hastened above to explore the strange shaft I found that the

ladder of horizontal bars mounted always as far above me as my eyes

could reach, and as I ascended, the light from above grew brighter and

brighter.



For fully five hundred feet I continued to climb, until at length I

reached the opening in the stem which admitted the light. It was of

about the same diameter as the entrance at the foot of the tree, and

opened directly upon a large flat limb, the well worn surface of which

testified to its long continued use as an avenue for some creature to

and from this remarkable shaft.



I did not venture out upon the limb for fear that I might be discovered

and our retreat in this direction cut off; but instead hurried to

retrace my steps to Tars Tarkas.



I soon reached him and presently we were both ascending the long ladder

toward the opening above.



Tars Tarkas went in advance and as I reached the first of the

horizontal bars I drew the ladder up after me and, handing it to him,

he carried it a hundred feet further aloft, where he wedged it safely

between one of the bars and the side of the shaft. In like manner I

dislodged the lower bars as I passed them, so that we soon had the

interior of the tree denuded of all possible means of ascent for a

distance of a hundred feet from the base; thus precluding possible

pursuit and attack from the rear.



As we were to learn later, this precaution saved us from dire

predicament, and was eventually the means of our salvation.



When we reached the opening at the top Tars Tarkas drew to one side

that I might pass out and investigate, as, owing to my lesser weight

and greater agility, I was better fitted for the perilous threading of

this dizzy, hanging pathway.



The limb upon which I found myself ascended at a slight angle toward

the cliff, and as I followed it I found that it terminated a few feet

above a narrow ledge which protruded from the cliff's face at the

entrance to a narrow cave.



As I approached the slightly more slender extremity of the branch it

bent beneath my weight until, as I balanced perilously upon its outer

tip, it swayed gently on a level with the ledge at a distance of a

couple of feet.



Five hundred feet below me lay the vivid scarlet carpet of the valley;

nearly five thousand feet above towered the mighty, gleaming face of

the gorgeous cliffs.



The cave that I faced was not one of those that I had seen from the

ground, and which lay much higher, possibly a thousand feet. But so

far as I might know it was as good for our purpose as another, and so I

returned to the tree for Tars Tarkas.



Together we wormed our way along the waving pathway, but when we

reached the end of the branch we found that our combined weight so

depressed the limb that the cave's mouth was now too far above us to be

reached.



We finally agreed that Tars Tarkas should return along the branch,

leaving his longest leather harness strap with me, and that when the

limb had risen to a height that would permit me to enter the cave I was

to do so, and on Tars Tarkas' return I could then lower the strap and

haul him up to the safety of the ledge.



This we did without mishap and soon found ourselves together upon the

verge of a dizzy little balcony, with a magnificent view of the valley

spreading out below us.



As far as the eye could reach gorgeous forest and crimson sward skirted

a silent sea, and about all towered the brilliant monster guardian

cliffs. Once we thought we discerned a gilded minaret gleaming in the

sun amidst the waving tops of far-distant trees, but we soon abandoned

the idea in the belief that it was but an hallucination born of our

great desire to discover the haunts of civilized men in this beautiful,

yet forbidding, spot.



Below us upon the river's bank the great white apes were devouring the

last remnants of Tars Tarkas' former companions, while great herds of

plant men grazed in ever-widening circles about the sward which they

kept as close clipped as the smoothest of lawns.



Knowing that attack from the tree was now improbable, we determined to

explore the cave, which we had every reason to believe was but a

continuation of the path we had already traversed, leading the gods

alone knew where, but quite evidently away from this valley of grim

ferocity.



As we advanced we found a well-proportioned tunnel cut from the solid

cliff. Its walls rose some twenty feet above the floor, which was

about five feet in width. The roof was arched. We had no means of

making a light, and so groped our way slowly into the ever-increasing

darkness, Tars Tarkas keeping in touch with one wall while I felt along

the other, while, to prevent our wandering into diverging branches and

becoming separated or lost in some intricate and labyrinthine maze, we

clasped hands.



How far we traversed the tunnel in this manner I do not know, but

presently we came to an obstruction which blocked our further progress.

It seemed more like a partition than a sudden ending of the cave, for

it was constructed not of the material of the cliff, but of something

which felt like very hard wood.



Silently I groped over its surface with my hands, and presently was

rewarded by the feel of the button which as commonly denotes a door on

Mars as does a door knob on Earth.



Gently pressing it, I had the satisfaction of feeling the door slowly

give before me, and in another instant we were looking into a dimly

lighted apartment, which, so far as we could see, was unoccupied.



Without more ado I swung the door wide open and, followed by the huge

Thark, stepped into the chamber. As we stood for a moment in silence

gazing about the room a slight noise behind caused me to turn quickly,

when, to my astonishment, I saw the door close with a sharp click as

though by an unseen hand.



Instantly I sprang toward it to wrench it open again, for something in

the uncanny movement of the thing and the tense and almost palpable

silence of the chamber seemed to portend a lurking evil lying hidden in

this rock-bound chamber within the bowels of the Golden Cliffs.



My fingers clawed futilely at the unyielding portal, while my eyes

sought in vain for a duplicate of the button which had given us ingress.



And then, from unseen lips, a cruel and mocking peal of laughter rang

through the desolate place.