That is why they are
such terrible antagonists in combat."
I wondered why the black man took such pains to discourse thus at
length to enemies upon the genesis of life Barsoomian. It seemed
a strangely inopportune moment for a proud member of a proud race
to unbend in casual conversation with a captor. Especially in view
of the fact that the black still lay securely bound upon the deck.
It was the faintest straying of his eye beyond me for the barest
fraction of a second that explained his motive for thus dragging
out my interest in his truly absorbing story.
He lay a little forward of where I stood at the levers, and thus
he faced the stern of the vessel as he addressed me. It was at
the end of his description of the plant men that I caught his eye
fixed momentarily upon something behind me.
Nor could I be mistaken in the swift gleam of triumph that brightened
those dark orbs for an instant.
Some time before I had reduced our speed, for we had left the Valley
Dor many miles astern, and I felt comparatively safe.
I turned an apprehensive glance behind me, and the sight that I
saw froze the new-born hope of freedom that had been springing up
within me.
A great battleship, forging silent and unlighted through the dark
night, loomed close astern.
CHAPTER VIII
THE DEPTHS OF OMEAN
Now I realized why the black pirate had kept me engrossed with his
strange tale.
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