I would have given much to have heard the balance of that conversation
that I might have been warned of the perils that lay ahead, but fate
intervened, and just at the very instant of all other instants that I
would not have elected to do it, I sneezed.
THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN
There was nothing for it now other than to fight; nor did I have any
advantage as I sprang, sword in hand, into the corridor before the two
therns, for my untimely sneeze had warned them of my presence and they
were ready for me.
There were no words, for they would have been a waste of breath. The
very presence of the two proclaimed their treachery. That they were
following to fall upon me unawares was all too plain, and they, of
course, must have known that I understood their plan.
In an instant I was engaged with both, and though I loathe the very
name of thern, I must in all fairness admit that they are mighty
swordsmen; and these two were no exception, unless it were that they
were even more skilled and fearless than the average among their race.
While it lasted it was indeed as joyous a conflict as I ever had
experienced. Twice at least I saved my breast from the mortal thrust of
piercing steel only by the wondrous agility with which my earthly
muscles endow me under the conditions of lesser gravity and air
pressure upon Mars.
Yet even so I came near to tasting death that day in the gloomy
corridor beneath Mars’s southern pole, for Lakor played a trick upon me
that in all my experience of fighting upon two planets I never before
had witnessed the like of.
The other thern was engaging me at the time, and I was forcing him
back—touching him here and there with my point until he was bleeding
from a dozen wounds, yet not being able to penetrate his marvelous
guard to reach a vulnerable spot for the brief instant that would have
been sufficient to send him to his ancestors.
It was then that Lakor quickly unslung a belt from his harness, and as
I stepped back to parry a wicked thrust he lashed one end of it about
my left ankle so that it wound there for an instant, while he jerked
suddenly upon the other end, throwing me heavily upon my back.
Then, like leaping panthers, they were upon me; but they had reckoned
without Woola, and before ever a blade touched me, a roaring embodiment
of a thousand demons hurtled above my prostrate form and my loyal
Martian calot was upon them.
Imagine, if you can, a huge grizzly with ten legs armed with mighty

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