A Princess of Mars | Page 2

visits, in the winter of 1885, I
observed he was much occupied in writing, I presume now, upon this manuscript.
He told me at this time that if anything should happen to him he wished me to take charge
of his estate, and he gave me a key to a compartment in the safe which stood in his study,
telling me I would find his will there and some personal instructions which he had me
pledge myself to carry out with absolute fidelity.
After I had retired for the night I have seen him from my window standing in the
moonlight on the brink of the bluff overlooking the Hudson with his arms stretched out to
the heavens as though in appeal. I thought at the time that he was praying, although I
never understood that he was in the strict sense of the term a religious man.
Several months after I had returned home from my last visit, the first of March, 1886, I
think, I received a telegram from him asking me to come to him at once. I had always
been his favorite among the younger generation of Carters and so I hastened to comply
with his demand.
I arrived at the little station, about a mile from his grounds, on the morning of March 4,
1886, and when I asked the livery man to drive me out to Captain Carter's he replied that
if I was a friend of the Captain's he had some very bad news for me; the Captain had been
found dead shortly after daylight that very morning by the watchman attached to an
adjoining property.
For some reason this news did not surprise me, but I hurried out to his place as quickly as
possible, so that I could take charge of the body and of his affairs.
I found the watchman who had discovered him, together with the local police chief and
several townspeople, assembled in his little study. The watchman related the few details
connected with the finding of the body, which he said had been still warm when he came
upon it. It lay, he said, stretched full length in the snow with the arms outstretched above
the head toward the edge of the bluff, and when he showed me the spot it flashed upon
me that it was the identical one where I had seen him on those other nights, with his arms
raised in supplication to the skies.
There were no marks of violence on the body, and with the aid of a local physician the
coroner's jury quickly reached a decision of death from heart failure. Left alone in the
study, I opened the safe and withdrew the contents of the drawer in which he had told me
I would find my instructions. They were in part peculiar indeed, but I have followed them
to each last detail as faithfully as I was able.

He directed that I remove his body to Virginia without embalming, and that he be laid in
an open coffin within a tomb which he previously had had constructed and which, as I
later learned, was well ventilated. The instructions impressed upon me that I must
personally see that this was carried out just as he directed, even in secrecy if necessary.
His property was left in such a way that I was to receive the entire income for twenty-five
years, when the principal was to become mine. His further instructions related to this
manuscript which I was to retain sealed and unread, just as I found it, for eleven years;
nor was I to divulge its contents until twenty-one years after his death.
A strange feature about the tomb, where his body still lies, is that the massive door is
equipped with a single, huge gold-plated spring lock which can be opened only from the
inside.
Yours very sincerely,
Edgar Rice Burroughs.

CONTENTS
I On the Arizona Hills II The Escape of the Dead III My Advent on Mars IV A Prisoner
V I Elude My Watch Dog VI A Fight That Won Friends VII Child-Raising on Mars VIII
A Fair Captive from the Sky IX I Learn the Language X Champion and Chief XI With
Dejah Thoris XII A Prisoner with Power XIII Love-Making on Mars XIV A Duel to the
Death XV Sola Tells Me Her Story XVI We Plan Escape XVII A Costly Recapture
XVIII Chained in Warhoon XIX Battling in the Arena XX In the Atmosphere Factory
XXI An Air Scout for Zodanga XXII I Find Dejah XXIII Lost in the Sky XXIV Tars
Tarkas Finds a Friend XXV The Looting of Zodanga XXVI Through Carnage to Joy
XXVII From Joy to Death XXVIII At the Arizona Cave

CHAPTER I
ON THE ARIZONA HILLS

I