through the wood and masonry.

I then knelt down beside the fearsome-looking thing, and raising it
to its feet motioned for it to follow me. The looks of surprise
which my actions elicited from the Martians were ludicrous; they
could not understand, except in a feeble and childish way, such
attributes as gratitude and compassion. The warrior whose gun I
had struck up looked enquiringly at Tars Tarkas, but the latter
signed that I be left to my own devices, and so we returned to
the plaza with my great beast following close at heel, and Sola
grasping me tightly by the arm.

I had at least two friends on Mars; a young woman who watched over
me with motherly solicitude, and a dumb brute which, as I later came
to know, held in its poor ugly carcass more love, more loyalty, more
gratitude than could have been found in the entire five million
green Martians who rove the deserted cities and dead sea bottoms
of Mars.




CHAPTER VII

CHILD-RAISING ON MARS



After a breakfast, which was an exact replica of the meal of the
preceding day and an index of practically every meal which followed