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Volume 0861
Presents
A FIGHTING MAN OF MARS II
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Illustrations by Frank Hoban
Blue Book Magazine: April ~ May ~ June ~ July ~ August ~ September ~ 1930
Seven Hoban illustrations per Blue Book pulp issue

Blue Book - June 1930Blue Book: July 1930 - A Fighting Man of Mars 4/6
Freed, the great bag leaped aloft, 
snapping us in its wake.
It shot upward with a velocity 
that was astounding.
"Heigh-oo!" cackled the old man. 
"Who cometh from the heavens 
who knows old Phor Tak?"
Pass after pass he made, 
until the whole-surface of the torpedo 
had disappeared.
My only hope was to silence the sentry . . . . 
I stepped quickly to the edge of the roof
and hurled myself at him.
Stooping beneath the vase, I sprang, 
driving my sword through the heart of Yo Seno
I hurled him backward; he fell sprawling. 
"Fool! Idiot!" he shrieked.
"Do you not know who I am?"
I kept the point of his dagger pressed beneath his left shoulder-blade as I followed him toward the anteroom.
I snatched his dagger from its sheath and raising it above him shouted my warning, "Stand back - or Haj Osis dies!"
Three times I rapped gently upon the forward hatch.
I drew my sword; as it slithered from its sheath, 
Tul Axtar heard, and faced me.
My point touched him in warning. "Who are you? he demanded. "Silence!" I hissed.
I was suddenly awakened by 
the impact of a body upon me. 
In the dim light I saw it was Tul Axtar.
"Quick, Tavia," I said. "Come!" 
"There is no ship!"
she said in a slightly frightened tone.
"Tavia," I cried, 
"promise that you will never desert me!" 
She clung to me. 
"Never this side of death!" she whispered.
The ascent was not only arduous but often dangerous;
yet we pressed onward, 
while behind us came the hunting men of U-Gor.
"Warn the fleet," I said, that the ships of Jahar are armed with disintegrating-ray rifles that can dissolve every ship as you saw the first one dissolve!"
To my surprise my knuckles struck somthing hard above me. I glanced upward.
There was nothing there. . .
"The people are coming!" cried Tul Aztar. 
"They will tear me to pieces!"
"Have pity on me, Hadron of Hastor," cried Sanoma Tora. 
"Do not go away! Come back to Helium 
and I will devote my life to your happiness."
As the hatch closed I leaped --
it was my last chance to save Tavia
Tul Aztar reached for his pistol, and I for mine.
Point blank I fired at his putrid heart.

 
ERB C.H.A.S.E.R. ENCYCLOPEDIA
A Fighting Man of Mars


Volume 0861

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