A Princess of Mars

Not until their lights were no longer discernible did I venture to

flash my little lamp upon my compass, and then I found to my

consternation that a fragment of the projectile had utterly destroyed

my only guide, as well as my speedometer. It was true I could follow

the stars in the general direction of Helium, but without knowing the

exact location of the city or the speed at which I was traveling my

chances for finding it were slim.

Helium lies a thousand miles southwest of Zodanga, and with my compass

intact I should have made the trip, barring accidents, in between four

and five hours. As it turned out, however, morning found me speeding

over a vast expanse of dead sea bottom after nearly six hours of

continuous flight at high speed. Presently a great city showed below

me, but it was not Helium, as that alone of all Barsoomian metropolises

consists in two immense circular walled cities about seventy-five miles

apart and would have been easily distinguishable from the altitude at

which I was flying.

Believing that I had come too far to the north and west, I turned back

in a southeasterly direction, passing during the forenoon several other

large cities, but none resembling the description which Kantos Kan had

given me of Helium. In addition to the twin-city formation of Helium,

another distinguishing feature is the two immense towers, one of vivid

scarlet rising nearly a mile into the air from the center of one of the

cities, while the other, of bright yellow and of the same height, marks

her sister.