A Princess of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Chapter 28 - At the Arizona Cave

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It was dark when I opened my eyes again. Strange, stiff garments were upon my body; garments that cracked and powdered away from me, as I rose to a sitting posture.

I felt myself over from head to foot and from head to foot I was clothed, though when I fell unconscious at the little doorway I had been naked. Before me was a small patch of moonlit sky, which showed through a ragged aperture.

As my hands passed over my body, they came in contact with pockets and in one of these a small parcel of matches, wrapped in oiled paper. One of these matches I struck and its dim flame lighted up what appeared to be a huge cave, toward the back of which I discovered a strange, still figure huddled over a tiny bench. As I approached it I saw that it was the dead and mummified remains of a little old woman, with long black hair and the thing it leaned over was a small charcoal burner, upon which rested a round copper vessel containing a small quantity of greenish powder.

Behind her, depending from the roof upon rawhide thongs and stretching entirely across the cave, was a row of human skeletons. From the thong which held them, stretched another, to the dead hand of the little old woman. As I touched the cord the skeletons swung to the motion with a noise, as of the rustling of dry leaves.

It was a most grotesque and horrid tableau and I hastened out into the fresh air, glad to escape from so gruesome a place.

The sight that met my eyes as I stepped out upon a small ledge, which ran before the entrance of the cave filled me with consternation.

A new heaven and a new landscape met my gaze. The silvered mountains in the distance, the almost stationary moon hanging in the sky, the cacti-studded valley below me were not of Mars. I could scarcely believe my eyes, but the truth slowly forced itself upon me—I was looking upon Arizona, from the same ledge from which ten years before, I had gazed with longing upon Mars.

Burying my head in my arms I turned, broken and sorrowful, down the trail from the cave.

Above me shone the red eye of Mars holding her awful secret, forty-eight million miles away.

Did the Martian reach the pump room? Did the vitalizing air reach the people of that distant planet in time to save them? Was my Dejah Thoris alive, or did her beautiful body lie cold in death beside the tiny golden incubator, in the sunken garden of the inner courtyard of the palace of Tardos Mors, the jeddak of Helium?

For ten years I have waited and prayed for an answer to my questions. For ten years I have waited and prayed to be taken back to the world of my lost love. I would rather lie dead beside her there than live on Earth, all those millions of terrible miles from her.

The old mine, which I found untouched, has made me fabulously wealthy, but what care I for wealth!

As I sit here tonight in my little study, overlooking the Hudson, just twenty years have elapsed since I first opened my eyes upon Mars.

I can see her shining in the sky through the little window by my desk and tonight she seems calling to me again as she has not called, before since that long dead night and I think I can see, across that awful abyss of space, a beautiful black-haired woman, standing in the garden of a palace and at her side is a little boy who puts his arm around her, as she points into the sky toward the planet Earth, while at their feet is a huge and hideous creature, with a heart of gold.

I believe that they are waiting there for me and something tells me that I shall soon know.

Ending Note:

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Well there you have it. I hope you enjoyed it.

The absence of comments, reviews or whatever, when considering the small size of this fandom and the fact that this was simply the posting of a pre-existing public domain work, I had expected.

It's been my experience that if one person in ten does so, you are lucky, even with an original work of your own. People tend to be lazy. However, so as not to appear self-righteous, allow me to say that I tend to be the same way at times, so I understand fully.

However, again, when considering the size of this particular fandom, there appeared to be enough "hits" and "visitors" to warrant the posting of the next book the series "The Gods of Mars" which will be shortly forthcoming. I will most likely continue on with the final book of the trilogy (The Dejah Thoris /John Carter story arc), "The Warlord of Mar."

Also, most likely "Thuvia, Maid of Mars" and "The Chessmen of Mars," which are the last books of the Barsoom series, that exist within the public domain.

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