A Princess of Mars

It is this ray which has enabled them to so perfect aviation that

battle ships far outweighing anything known upon Earth sail as

gracefully and lightly through the thin air of Barsoom as a toy balloon

in the heavy atmosphere of Earth.

During the early years of the discovery of this ray many strange

accidents occurred before the Martians learned to measure and control

the wonderful power they had found. In one instance, some nine hundred

years before, the first great battle ship to be built with eighth ray

reservoirs was stored with too great a quantity of the rays and she had

sailed up from Helium with five hundred officers and men, never to

return.

Her power of repulsion for the planet was so great that it had carried

her far into space, where she can be seen today, by the aid of powerful

telescopes, hurtling through the heavens ten thousand miles from Mars;

a tiny satellite that will thus encircle Barsoom to the end of time.

The fourth day after my arrival at Zodanga I made my first flight, and

as a result of it I won a promotion which included quarters in the

palace of Than Kosis.

As I rose above the city I circled several times, as I had seen Kantos

Kan do, and then throwing my engine into top speed I raced at terrific

velocity toward the south, following one of the great waterways which

enter Zodanga from that direction.

I had traversed perhaps two hundred miles in a little less than an hour

when I descried far below me a party of three green warriors racing

madly toward a small figure on foot which seemed to be trying to reach

the confines of one of the walled fields.

Dropping my machine rapidly toward them, and circling to the rear of

the warriors, I soon saw that the object of their pursuit was a red

Martian wearing the metal of the scout squadron to which I was

attached. A short distance away lay his tiny flier, surrounded by the

tools with which he had evidently been occupied in repairing some

damage when surprised by the green warriors.

They were now almost upon him; their flying mounts charging down on the

relatively puny figure at terrific speed, while the warriors leaned low

to the right, with their great metal-shod spears. Each seemed striving

to be the first to impale the poor Zodangan and in another moment his

fate would have been sealed had it not been for my timely arrival.

Driving my fleet air craft at high speed directly behind the warriors I

soon overtook them and without diminishing my speed I rammed the prow

of my little flier between the shoulders of the nearest. The impact

sufficient to have torn through inches of solid steel, hurled the

fellow's headless body into the air over the head of his thoat, where

it fell sprawling upon the moss. The mounts of the other two warriors

turned squealing in terror, and bolted in opposite directions.