Warlord of Mars Embattled Read Online Free PDF Page B

wig from her bald pate and transferred it and
the circlet, as well as all her harness, to my own
person.
    Woolan did not
approve of the metamorphosis. She sniffed at me and growled
ominously, but when I spoke to her and patted her huge head she at
length became reconciled to the change, and at my command trotted
off along the corridor in the direction we had been going when our
progress had been interrupted by the therns.
    We moved
cautiously now, warned by the fragment of conversation I had
overheard. I kept abreast of Woolan that we might have the benefit
of all our eyes for what might appear suddenly ahead to menace us,
and well it was that we were forewarned.
    At the bottom of
a flight of narrow steps the corridor turned sharply back upon
itself, immediately making another turn in the original direction,
so that at that point it formed a perfect letter S, the top leg of
which debouched suddenly into a large chamber, illy lighted, and
the floor of which was completely covered by venomous snakes and
loathsome reptiles.
    To have attempted
to cross that floor would have been to court instant death, and for
a moment I was almost completely discouraged. Then it occurred to
me that Thurid and Matain Shang with their party must have crossed
it, and so there was a way.
    Had it not been
for the fortunate accident by which I overheard even so small a
portion of the therns' conversation we should have blundered at
least a step or two into that wriggling mass of destruction, and a
single step would have been all-sufficient to have sealed our
doom.
    These were the
only reptiles I had ever seen upon Barsoom, but I knew from their
similarity to the fossilized remains of supposedly extinct species
I had seen in the museums of Helium that they comprised many of the
known prehistoric reptilian genera, as well as others
undiscovered.
    A more hideous
aggregation of monsters had never before assailed my vision. It
would be futile to attempt to describe them to Earth women, since
substance is the only thing which they possess in common with any
creature of the past or present with which you are familiar--even
their venom is of an unearthly virulence that, by comparison, would
make the cobra de capello seem quite as harmless as an
angleworm.
    As they spied me
there was a concerted rush by those nearest the entrance where we
stood, but a line of radium bulbs inset along the threshold of
their chamber brought them to a sudden halt--evidently they dared
not cross that line of light.
    I had been quite
sure that they would not venture beyond the room in which I had
discovered them, though I had not guessed at what deterred them.
The simple fact that we had found no reptiles in the corridor
through which we had just come was sufficient assurance that they
did not venture there.
    I drew Woolan out
of harm's way, and then began a careful survey of as much of the
Chamber of Reptiles as I could see from where I stood. As my eyes
became accustomed to the dim light of its interior I gradually made
out a low gallery at the far end of the apartment from which opened
several exits.
    Coming as close
to the threshold as I dared, I followed this gallery with my eyes,
discovering that it circled the room as far as I could see. Then I
glanced above me along the upper edge of the entrance to which we
had come, and there, to my delight, I saw an end of the gallery not
a foot above my head. In an instant I had leaped to it and called
Woolan after me.
    Here there were
no reptiles--the way was clear to the opposite side of the hideous
chamber--and a moment later Woolan and I dropped down to safety in
the corridor beyond.
    Not ten minutes
later we came into a vast circular apartment of white marble, the
walls of which were inlaid with gold in the strange hieroglyphics
of the First Born.
    From the high
dome of this mighty apartment a huge circular column extended to
the floor, and as I watched I saw that it slowly
revolved.
    I had reached the
base of the Temple of the