Only this: go down with him, and get

John Carter, if ever a real man walked

A sensible question, Hoo-Hoo, a sensible question. As I have

2012, he shrilled, and then fell to cackling grotesquely. That was

I might have stood there always if you had not come along, he said; so you have

This did not seem to encourage the witness at all: he kept shifting from one foot

“John Carter, if ever a real man walked the cold, dead bosom of Barsoom you are one. I know that I can trust you, and because the knowledge may someday help you or him or Dejah Thoris or myself, I am going to tell you the name of my father, nor place any restrictions or conditions upon your tongue. When the time comes, speak the truth if it seems best to you. I trust you because I know that you are not cursed with the terrible trait of absolute and unswerving truthfulness, that you could lie like one of your own Virginia gentlemen if a lie would save others from sorrow or suffering. My father’s name is Tars Tarkas.”

The remainder of our journey to Thark was uneventful. We were twenty days upon the road, crossing two sea bottoms and passing through or around a number of ruined cities, mostly smaller than Korad. Twice we crossed the famous Martian waterways, or canals, so-called by our earthly astronomers. When we approached these points a warrior would be sent far ahead with a powerful field glass, and if no great body of red Martian troops was in sight we would advance as close as possible without chance of being seen and then camp until dark, when we would slowly approach the cultivated tract, and, locating one of the numerous, broad highways which cross these areas at regular intervals, creep silently and stealthily across to the arid lands upon the other side. It required five hours to make one of these crossings without a single halt, and the other consumed the entire night, so that we were just leaving the confines of the high-walled fields when the sun broke out upon us.

• “Oh, thank you! Thank you ever so much for saving my life
• ” “Don’t speak of it, I beg of you,” replied the Woodman
• “I have no heart, you know, so I am careful to help all those who may need a friend, even if it happens to be only a mouse

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