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Volume 1305
Presents
A Graphic Interpretation of Edgar Rice Burroughs'
A Princess of Mars
by
James Killian Spratt.

CHAPTER 4
A Prisoner
We travelled about ten miles, 
and the ground began 
to rise very rapidly 
as we neared the edge of 
the dead sea bottom  . . .

 
. . . After a narrow gorge
we came to an open valley, 
at the far extremity of which
was a low table land, 
upon which I beheld 
an enormous city. 
We entered upon 
what appeared to be 
a ruined roadway, 
or an ancient quay . . .

 
The ancient city appeared deserted, 
but camped in a large plaza 
were some nine or ten hundred 
of the creatures, 
my captors . . .

 
 I was escorted by my captor
to the depths of a huge building,
where fifty or so males of the tribe
were gathered in council.
Seated upon a platform 
was an enormous warrior,
the chieftain . . . 
Lorquas Ptomel, 
the Jed or Chieftain.

 
Now, I still did not know
how to walk on Mars, 
so that my first leap 
sent me flying 
like some monstrous grasshopper, 
much to the amusement of the Martians.
I was roughly jerked . . .
by a towering fellow
who had laughed mightily 
at my distress, 
and as he banged me down 
hard upon my feet
I did the only thing 
a gentleman might do 
in response to such 
boorishness and brutality --

I swung my fist squarely 
to his jaw and
he went down like a felled ox. 

He lay where he had fallen.
No one moved to help him. 

 

 
Tars Tarkas motioned 
to a young female 
and instructed me 
to accompany her. 

She was one of his retinue,
just at maturity, 
my new caretaker.

 
Her name, 
as I afterward learned, 
was Sola; 
she conducted me 
to a spacious chamber
littered with silks and furs 
on the floor, 
which I took to be 
sleeping quarters . . . 
The room was 
beautifully decorated 
with mural paintings and mosaics, 
but upon all seemed to rest 
great antiquity . . . 

 
. . . that hinted that 
the builders were
nothing like the half-brutes 
who now occupied
these wondrous creations. 
Sola motioned to me 
to be seated 
upon a pile of silks
near the center of the room. 

 
Sola, turning, 
made a peculiar hissing sound,
and from an adjoining room 
came my first sight of 
a new Martian wonder . . .
CONTENTS
Intro | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 15a | 16 | 16a | 17 | 17a | 18 | 19 | 19a | 19b | 20 | 20a | 20b |
| 21 | 21a | 21b |


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