Free Warlord of Mars Embattled by Edna Rice Burroughs

for
it dropped quickly toward me, and before I could escape had grasped
my shoulder between its powerful jaws.
    Time and again
the now useless stub of its giant sting struck futilely against my
body, but the blows alone were almost as effective as the kick of a
horse; so that when I say futilely, I refer only to the natural
function of the disabled member--eventually the thing would have
hammered me to a pulp. Nor was it far from accomplishing this when
an interruption occurred that put an end forever to its
hostilities.
    From where I hung
a few feet above the road I could see along the highway a few
hundred yards to where it turned toward the east, and just as I had
about given up all hope of escaping the perilous position in which
I now was I saw a red warrior come into view from around the
bend.
    She was mounted
on a splendid thoat, one of the smaller species used by red women,
and in her hand was a wondrous long, light lance.
    Her mount was
walking sedately when I first perceived them, but the instant that
the red woman's eyes fell upon us a word to the thoat brought the
animal at full charge down upon us. The long lance of the warrior
dipped toward us, and as thoat and rider hurtled beneath, the point
passed through the body of our antagonist.
    With a convulsive
shudder the thing stiffened, the jaws relaxed, dropping me to the
ground, and then, careening once in mid air, the creature plunged
headforemost to the road, full upon Woolan, who still clung
tenaciously to its gory head.
    By the time I had
regained my feet the red woman had turned and ridden back to us.
Woolan, finding her enemy inert and lifeless, released her hold at
my command and wriggled from beneath the body that had covered her,
and together we faced the warrior looking down upon us.
    I started to
thank the stranger for her timely assistance, but she cut me off
peremptorily.
    'Who are you,'
she asked, 'who dare enter the land of Kaol and hunt in the royal
forest of the jeddak?'
    Then, as she
noted my white skin through the coating of grime and blood that
covered me, her eyes went wide and in an altered tone she
whispered: 'Can it be that you are a Holy Thern?'
    I might have
deceived the fellow for a time, as I had deceived others, but I had
cast away the yellow wig and the holy diadem in the presence of
Matain Shang, and I knew that it would not be long ere my new
acquaintance discovered that I was no thern at all.
    'I am not a
thern,' I replied, and then, flinging caution to the winds, I said:
'I am Joan Carter, Princess of Helium, whose name may not be
entirely unknown to you.'
    If her eyes had
gone wide when she thought that I was a Holy Thern, they fairly
popped now that she knew that I was Joan Carter. I grasped my
long-sword more firmly as I spoke the words which I was sure would
precipitate an attack, but to my surprise they precipitated nothing
of the kind.
    'Joan Carter,
Princess of Helium,' she repeated slowly, as though she could not
quite grasp the truth of the statement. 'Joan Carter, the mightiest
warrior of Barsoom!'
    And then she
dismounted and placed her hand upon my shoulder after the manner of
most friendly greeting upon Mars.
    'It is my duty,
and it should be my pleasure, to kill you, Joan Carter,' she said,
'but always in my heart of hearts have I admired your prowess and
believed in your sincerity the while I have questioned and
disbelieved the therns and their religion.
    'It would mean my
instant death were my heresy to be suspected in the court of Kula
Tith, but if I may serve you, Princess, you have but to command
Torkar Bar, Dwar of the Kaolian Road.'
    Truth and honesty
were writ large upon the warrior's noble countenance, so that I
could not but have trusted her, enemy though she should have been.
Her title of Captain of the Kaolian Road explained her timely
presence in the heart of the savage forest, for every highway upon
Barsoom is patrolled by doughty warriors of the noble class, nor is
there any service more honorable than