"09 - Synthetic Men of Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

"Very well," said Ras Thavas; "then I can trust you both."
"But how do you know you can trust me?" inquired John Carter quizzically.
Ras Thavas smiled. "The integrity of John Carter, Prince of Helium, Warlord of
Barsoorn, is a matter of worldwide knowledge," he said.
We looked at him in surprise. "What makes you think I am John Carter?" asked The
Warlord. "You have never seen him."
"In the audience chamber I was struck by the fact that you did not appear truly
a red Martian. I examined you more closely and discovered that the pigment with
which you had stained your skin had worn thin in spots. There are but two
inhabitants of Jasoom on Mars. One of them is Vad Varo, whose Earth name was
Paxton. I know him well, as he served as my assistant in my laboratories in
Toonol. In fact it was he whom I trained to such a degree of skill that he was
able to transfer my old brain to this young body. So I knew that you were not
Vad Varo. The other Jasoomian being John Carter, the deduction was simple."
"Your suspicions were well founded and your reasoning faultless," said The
Warlord. "I am John Carter. I should soon have told you so myself, for I was on
my way to Phundahl in search of you when we were captured by the hormads."
"And for what reason did The Warlord of Barsoom search for Ras Thavas?" demanded
the great surgeon.
"My princess, Dejah Thoris, was badly injured in a collision between two fliers.
She has lain unconscious for many days. The greatest surgeons of Helium are
powerless to aid her. I sought Ras Thavas to implore his aid in restoring her to
health."
"And now you find me a prisoner on a remote island in the Great Toonolian
Marshes – a fellow prisoner with you."
"But I have found you."
"And what good will it do you or your princess?" demanded The Master Mind of
Mars.
"You would come with me and help her if you could?" asked John Carter.
"Certainly. I promised Vad Varo and Dar Tarus, Jeddak of Phundahl, that I would
dedicate my skill and knowledge to the amelioration of suffering and the
betterment of mankind."
"Then we shall find a way," said John Carter.
Ras Thavas shook his head. "It is easy to say, but impossible to accomplish.
There can be no escape from Morbus."
"Still we must find a way," replied The Warlord. "I foresee that the
difficulties of escaping from the island may not be insuperable. It is
travelling the Great Toonolian Marshes that gives me the greatest concern."
Ras Thavas shook his head. "We can never get off the island. It is too well
patrolled, for one thing; and there are too many spies and informers. Many of
the officers who appear to be red Martians are, in reality, hormads whose brains
I have been forced to transfer to the bodies of normal men. Not even I know who
these are, as the operations were performed only in the presence of the Council
of the Seven Jeds; and the faces of the red men were kept masked. They have
cunning minds, some of these seven jeds. They wanted those they could trust to
spy upon me, and if I had seen the faces of the red Martians to whom I gave
hormad brains their plan would have been ineffective. Now I do not know which of
the officers surrounding me are hormads and which are normal men – except two. I
am sure of John Carter because I would have known had I performed a brain
transfer on a man with the white skin of a Jasoomian; and I have John Carter's