A Princess of Mars Rethroned by Edna Rice Burroughs

ancient Barsoomians, beneath the countless intervening
ages.
    These ancient
Martians had been a highly cultivated and literary race, but during
the vicissitudes of those trying centuries of readjustment to new
conditions, not only did their advancement and production cease
entirely, but practically all their archives, records, and
literature were lost.
    Dejar Thoris
related many interesting facts and legends concerning this lost
race of noble and kindly people. He said that the city in which we
were camping was supposed to have been a center of commerce and
culture known as Korad. It had been built upon a beautiful, natural
harbor, landlocked by magnificent hills. The little valley on the
west front of the city, he explained, was all that remained of the
harbor, while the pass through the hills to the old sea bottom had
been the channel through which the shipping passed up to the city's
gates.
    The shores of the
ancient seas were dotted with just such cities, and lesser ones, in
diminishing numbers, were to be found converging toward the center
of the oceans, as the people had found it necessary to follow the
receding waters until necessity had forced upon them their ultimate
salvation, the so-called Martian canals.
    We had been so
engrossed in exploration of the building and in our conversation
that it was late in the afternoon before we realized it. We were
brought back to a realization of our present conditions by a
messenger bearing a summons from Lorqua Ptomel directing me to
appear before her forthwith. Bidding Dejar Thoris and Solan
farewell, and commanding Woolan to remain on guard, I hastened to
the audience chamber, where I found Lorqua Ptomel and Tara Tarkas
seated upon the rostrum.

    CHAPTER
XII
    A PRISONER WITH
POWER

    As I entered and
saluted, Lorqua Ptomel signaled me to advance, and, fixing her
great, hideous eyes upon me, addressed me thus:
    'You have been
with us a few days, yet during that time you have by your prowess
won a high position among us. Be that as it may, you are not one of
us; you owe us no allegiance.
    'Your position is
a peculiar one,' she continued; 'you are a prisoner and yet you
give commands which must be obeyed; you are an alien and yet you
are a Tharkian chieftain; you are a midget and yet you can kill a
mighty warrior with one blow of your fist. And now you are reported
to have been plotting to escape with another prisoner of another
race; a prisoner who, from his own admission, half believes you are
returned from the valley of Dor. Either one of these accusations,
if proved, would be sufficient grounds for your execution, but we
are a just people and you shall have a trial on our return to
Thark, if Tala Hajus so commands.
    'But,' she
continued, in her fierce guttural tones, 'if you run off with the
red boy it is I who shall have to account to Tala Hajus; it is I
who shall have to face Tara Tarkas, and either demonstrate my right
to command, or the metal from my dead carcass will go to a better
woman, for such is the custom of the Tharks.
    'I have no
quarrel with Tara Tarkas; together we rule supreme the greatest of
the lesser communities among the green women; we do not wish to
fight between ourselves; and so if you were dead, Joan Carter, I
should be glad. Under two conditions only, however, may you be
killed by us without orders from Tala Hajus; in personal combat in
self-defense, should you attack one of us, or were you apprehended
in an attempt to escape.
    'As a matter of
justice I must warn you that we only await one of these two excuses
for ridding ourselves of so great a responsibility. The safe
delivery of the red boy to Tala Hajus is of the greatest
importance. Not in a thousand years have the Tharks made such a
capture; he is the granddaughter of the greatest of the red
jeddaks, who is also our bitterest enemy. I have spoken. The red
boy told us that we were without the softer sentiments of humanity,
but we are a just and truthful race. You may go.'
    Turning, I left
the