"02 - Gods of Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

there in the keeping of my Martian Princess, I doubt that I shall ever again
leave the dying world that is my life. 'I have come now because my affection for
you prompted me to see you once more before you pass over for ever into that
other life that I shall never know, and which though I have died thrice and
shall die again to-night, as you know death, I am as unable to fathom as are
you. 'Even the wise and mysterious therns of Barsoom, that ancient cult which
for countless ages has been credited with holding the secret of life and death
in their impregnable fastnesses upon the hither slopes of the Mountains of Otz,
are as ignorant as we. I have proved it, though I near lost my life in the doing
of it; but you shall read it all in the notes I have been making during the last
three months that I have been back upon Earth.' He patted a swelling portfolio
that lay on the table at his elbow. 'I know that you are interested and that you
believe, and I know that the world, too, is interested, though they will not
believe for many years; yes, for many ages, since they cannot understand. Earth
men have not yet progressed to a point where they can comprehend the things that
I have written in those notes. 'Give them what you wish of it, what you think
will not harm them, but do not feel aggrieved if they laugh at you.' That night
I walked down to the cemetery with him. At the door of his vault he turned and
pressed my hand. 'Good-bye, nephew,' he said. 'I may never see you again, for I
doubt that I can ever bring myself to leave my wife and boy while they live, and
the span of life upon Barsoom is often more than a thousand years.' He entered
the vault. The great door swung slowly to. The ponderous bolts grated into
place. The lock clicked. I have never seen Captain John Carter, of Virginia,
since. But here is the story of his return to Mars on that other occasion, as I
have gleaned it from the great mass of notes which he left for me upon the table
of his room in the hotel at Richmond. There is much which I have left out; much
which I have not dared to tell; but you will find the story of his second search
for Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, even more remarkable than was his first
manuscript which I gave to an unbelieving world a short time since and through
which we followed the fighting Virginian across dead sea bottoms under the moons
of Mars. E. R. B.
CONTENTS
Contents
I. The Plant Men
II. A Forest Battle
III.The Chamber of Mystery
IV. Thuvia V. Corridors of Peril
VI. The Black Pirates of Barsoom
VII. A Fair Goddess
VIII. The Depths of Omean
IX. Issus, Goddess of Life Eternal
X. The Prison Isle of Shador
XI. When Hell Broke Loose
XII. Doomed to Die
XIII. A Break for Liberty
XIV. The Eyes in the Dark
XV. Flight and Pursuit
XVI. Under Arrest
XVII. The Death Sentence
XVIII. Sola's Story