This fierce green warrior had been the first to greet me that day, now twenty years gone, which had witnessed my first advent upon Mars. He had met me with levelled spear and cruel hatred in his heart as he charged down upon me, bending low at the side of his mighty thoat as I stood beside the incubator of his horde upon the dead sea bottom beyond Korad.
And now among the inhabitants of two worlds I counted none a better friend than Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of the Tharks.
As we reached the courtyard we stood in the shadows beneath the balcony for a moment to discuss our plans.
"There be five now in the party, Tars Tarkas," I said;
"Thuvia, Xodar, Carthoris, and ourselves. We shall need five thoats to bear us."
"Carthoris!" he cried. "Your son?"
"Yes. I found him in the prison of Shador, on the Sea of Omean, in the land of the First Born."
"I know not any of these places, John Carter. Be they upon Barsoom?"
"Upon and below, my friend; but wait until we shall have made good our escape, and you shall hear the strangest narrative that ever a Barsoomian of the outer world gave ear to.
Now we must steal our thoats and be well away to the north before these fellows discover how we have tricked them."
