Across the gardens, from side to side, stood a wavering line of
black warriors, while beyond them and forcing them ever back was a
great horde of green warriors astride their mighty thoats. And as
we watched, one, fiercer and more grimly terrible than his fellows,
rode forward from the rear, and as he came he shouted some fierce
command to his terrible legion.
It was Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, and as he couched his great
forty-foot metal-shod lance we saw his warriors do likewise. Then
it was that we interpreted his command. Twenty yards now separated the
green men from the black line. Another word from the great Thark,
and with a wild and terrifying battle-cry the green warriors charged.
For a moment the black line held, but only for a moment--then the
fearsome beasts that bore equally terrible riders passed completely
through it.
After them came utan upon utan of red men. The green horde broke
to surround the temple. The red men charged for the interior, and
then we turned to continue our interrupted battle; but our foes
had vanished.
My first thought was of Dejah Thoris. Calling to Carthoris that I
had found his mother, I started on a run toward the chamber where
I had left her, with my boy close beside me. After us came those
of our little force who had survived the bloody conflict.
The moment I entered the room I saw that some one had been there
since I had left.
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