A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs Read Free Book Online

so I met his charge by
doubling in my tracks and leaping over him as he was almost upon me.
This maneuver gave me a considerable advantage, and I was able to
reach the city quite a bit ahead of him, and as he came tearing
after me I jumped for a window about thirty feet from the ground
in the face of one of the buildings overlooking the valley.
    Grasping the sill I pulled myself up to a sitting posture without
looking into the building, and gazed down at the baffled animal
beneath me. My exultation was short-lived, however, for scarcely
had I gained a secure seat upon the sill than a huge hand grasped
me by the neck from behind and dragged me violently into the room.
Here I was thrown upon my back, and beheld standing over me a
colossal ape-like creature, white and hairless except for an
enormous shock of bristly hair upon its head.

Chapter VI - A Fight that Won Friends
*
    The thing, which more nearly resembled our earthly men than it did
the Martians I had seen, held me pinioned to the ground with one
huge foot, while it jabbered and gesticulated at some answering
creature behind me. This other, which was evidently its mate,
soon came toward us, bearing a mighty stone cudgel with which it
evidently intended to brain me.
    The creatures were about ten or fifteen feet tall, standing erect,
and had, like the green Martians, an intermediary set of arms or
legs, midway between their upper and lower limbs. Their eyes were
close together and non-protruding; their ears were high set, but
more laterally located than those of the Martians, while their
snouts and teeth were strikingly like those of our African gorilla.
Altogether they were not unlovely when viewed in comparison with
the green Martians.
    The cudgel was swinging in the arc which ended upon my upturned
face when a bolt of myriad-legged horror hurled itself through the
doorway full upon the breast of my executioner. With a shriek of
fear the ape which held me leaped through the open window, but its
mate closed in a terrific death struggle with my preserver, which
was nothing less than my faithful watch-thing; I cannot bring myself
to call so hideous a creature a dog.
    As quickly as possible I gained my feet and backing against the wall
I witnessed such a battle as it is vouchsafed few beings to see.
The strength, agility, and blind ferocity of these two creatures
is approached by nothing known to earthly man. My beast had an
advantage in his first hold, having sunk his mighty fangs far into
the breast of his adversary; but the great arms and paws of the ape,
backed by muscles far transcending those of the Martian men I had
seen, had locked the throat of my guardian and slowly were choking
out his life, and bending back his head and neck upon his body,
where I momentarily expected the former to fall limp at the end of
a broken neck.
    In accomplishing this the ape was tearing away the entire front of
its breast, which was held in the vise-like grip of the powerful
jaws. Back and forth upon the floor they rolled, neither one
emitting a sound of fear or pain. Presently I saw the great eyes
of my beast bulging completely from their sockets and blood flowing
from its nostrils. That he was weakening perceptibly was evident,
but so also was the ape, whose struggles were growing momentarily
less.
    Suddenly I came to myself and, with that strange instinct which
seems ever to prompt me to my duty, I seized the cudgel, which had
fallen to the floor at the commencement of the battle, and swinging
it with all the power of my earthly arms I crashed it full upon the
head of the ape, crushing his skull as though it had been an
eggshell.
    Scarcely had the blow descended when I was confronted with a new
danger. The ape's mate, recovered from its first shock of terror,
had returned to the scene of the encounter by way of the interior
of the building. I glimpsed him just before he reached the doorway
and the sight of him, now roaring as he perceived his lifeless
fellow stretched upon the floor,