A Princess of Mars

"By kindness," I replied. "You see, Tars Tarkas, the softer sentiments

have their value, even to a warrior. In the height of battle as well

as upon the march I know that my thoats will obey my every command, and

therefore my fighting efficiency is enhanced, and I am a better warrior

for the reason that I am a kind master. Your other warriors would find

it to the advantage of themselves as well as of the community to adopt

my methods in this respect. Only a few days since you, yourself, told

me that these great brutes, by the uncertainty of their tempers, often

were the means of turning victory into defeat, since, at a crucial

moment, they might elect to unseat and rend their riders."

"Show me how you accomplish these results," was Tars Tarkas' only

rejoinder.

And so I explained as carefully as I could the entire method of

training I had adopted with my beasts, and later he had me repeat it

before Lorquas Ptomel and the assembled warriors. That moment marked

the beginning of a new existence for the poor thoats, and before I left

the community of Lorquas Ptomel I had the satisfaction of observing a

regiment of as tractable and docile mounts as one might care to see.

The effect on the precision and celerity of the military movements was

so remarkable that Lorquas Ptomel presented me with a massive anklet of

gold from his own leg, as a sign of his appreciation of my service to

the horde.

On the seventh day following the battle with the air craft we again

took up the march toward Thark, all probability of another attack being

deemed remote by Lorquas Ptomel.

During the days just preceding our departure I had seen but little of

Dejah Thoris, as I had been kept very busy by Tars Tarkas with my

lessons in the art of Martian warfare, as well as in the training of my

thoats. The few times I had visited her quarters she had been absent,

walking upon the streets with Sola, or investigating the buildings in

the near vicinity of the plaza. I had warned them against venturing

far from the plaza for fear of the great white apes, whose ferocity I

was only too well acquainted with. However, since Woola accompanied

them on all their excursions, and as Sola was well armed, there was

comparatively little cause for fear.

On the evening before our departure I saw them approaching along one of

the great avenues which lead into the plaza from the east. I advanced

to meet them, and telling Sola that I would take the responsibility for

Dejah Thoris' safekeeping, I directed her to return to her quarters on

some trivial errand. I liked and trusted Sola, but for some reason I

desired to be alone with Dejah Thoris, who represented to me all that I

had left behind upon Earth in agreeable and congenial companionship.

There seemed bonds of mutual interest between us as powerful as though

we had been born under the same roof rather than upon different

planets, hurtling through space some forty-eight million miles apart.