It seemed to me that I had but closed my eyes when I felt her
hand upon my shoulder and heard her soft voice warning me of a new
danger.
"Arise, O Prince," she whispered. "There be that behind us which
has the appearance of a great body of pursuers."
The girl stood pointing in the direction from whence we had come,
and as I arose and looked, I, too, thought that I could detect
a thin dark line on the far horizon. I awoke the others. Tars
Tarkas, whose giant stature towered high above the rest of us,
could see the farthest.
"It is a great body of mounted men," he said, "and they are travelling
at high speed."
There was no time to be lost. We sprang to our hobbled thoats,
freed them, and mounted. Then we turned our faces once more toward
the north and took our flight again at the highest speed of our
slowest beast.
For the balance of the day and all the following night we raced
across that ochre wilderness with the pursuers at our back ever
gaining upon us. Slowly but surely they were lessening the distance
between us. Just before dark they had been close enough for us to
plainly distinguish that they were green Martians, and all during
the long night we distinctly heard the clanking of their accoutrements
behind us.
As the sun rose on the second day of our flight it disclosed
the pursuing horde not a half-mile in our rear.
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