The Gods of Mars | Page 8

broad valley was
streaming a perfect torrent of terrifying creatures in response to the
weird call of the strange figure far above us.
"Come," cried Tars Tarkas, "we must make for the cliffs. There lies our
only hope of even temporary escape; there we may find a cave or a
narrow ledge which two may defend for ever against this motley,
unarmed horde."
Together we raced across the scarlet sward, I timing my speed that I
might not outdistance my slower companion. We had, perhaps, three

hundred yards to cover between our boulder and the cliffs, and then to
search out a suitable shelter for our stand against the terrifying things
that were pursuing us.
They were rapidly overhauling us when Tars Tarkas cried to me to
hasten ahead and discover, if possible, the sanctuary we sought. The
suggestion was a good one, for thus many valuable minutes might be
saved to us, and, throwing every ounce of my earthly muscles into the
effort, I cleared the remaining distance between myself and the cliffs in
great leaps and bounds that put me at their base in a moment.
The cliffs rose perpendicular directly from the almost level sward of the
valley. There was no accumulation of fallen debris, forming a more or
less rough ascent to them, as is the case with nearly all other cliffs I
have ever seen. The scattered boulders that had fallen from above and
lay upon or partly buried in the turf, were the only indication that any
disintegration of the massive, towering pile of rocks ever had taken
place.
My first cursory inspection of the face of the cliffs filled my heart with
forebodings, since nowhere could I discern, except where the weird
herald stood still shrieking his shrill summons, the faintest indication of
even a bare foothold upon the lofty escarpment.
To my right the bottom of the cliff was lost in the dense foliage of the
forest, which terminated at its very foot, rearing its gorgeous foliage
fully a thousand feet against its stern and forbidding neighbour.
To the left the cliff ran, apparently unbroken, across the head of the
broad valley, to be lost in the outlines of what appeared to be a range of
mighty mountains that skirted and confined the valley in every
direction.
Perhaps a thousand feet from me the river broke, as it seemed, directly
from the base of the cliffs, and as there seemed not the remotest chance
for escape in that direction I turned my attention again toward the
forest.

The cliffs towered above me a good five thousand feet. The sun was
not quite upon them and they loomed a dull yellow in their own shade.
Here and there they were broken with streaks and patches of dusky red,
green, and occasional areas of white quartz.
Altogether they were very beautiful, but I fear that I did not regard
them with a particularly appreciative eye on this, my first inspection of
them.
Just then I was absorbed in them only as a medium of escape, and so,
as my gaze ran quickly, time and again, over their vast expanse in
search of some cranny or crevice, I came suddenly to loathe them as the
prisoner must loathe the cruel and impregnable walls of his dungeon.
Tars Tarkas was approaching me rapidly, and still more rapidly came
the awful horde at his heels.
It seemed the forest now or nothing, and I was just on the point of
motioning Tars Tarkas to follow me in that direction when the sun
passed the cliff's zenith, and as the bright rays touched the dull surface
it burst out into a million scintillant lights of burnished gold, of flaming
red, of soft greens, and gleaming whites--a more gorgeous and
inspiring spectacle human eye has never rested upon.
The face of the entire cliff was, as later inspection conclusively proved,
so shot with veins and patches of solid gold as to quite present the
appearance of a solid wall of that precious metal except where it was
broken by outcroppings of ruby, emerald, and diamond boulders--a
faint and alluring indication of the vast and unguessable riches which
lay deeply buried behind the magnificent surface.
But what caught my most interested attention at the moment that the
sun's rays set the cliff's face a-shimmer, was the several black spots
which now appeared quite plainly in evidence high across the gorgeous
wall close to the forest's top, and extending apparently below and
behind the branches.
Almost immediately I recognised them for what they were, the dark

openings of caves entering the solid walls--possible avenues of escape
or temporary shelter, could we but reach them.
There was but a single way, and that led through the mighty, towering
trees upon our right. That I could