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

They caught me in nets, which is no way for decent men to take a warrior."
"Silence!" commanded a jed, pale with anger, and smarting under the insult of
being called an ill smelling rat.
"Silence?" screamed Gantun Gur. "By my first ancestor! There lives no man can
make Gantun Gur keep silent. Come down here and try it, man to man, you
snivelling worm."
"Off with him!" cried the jed. "Take him to Ras Thavas, and tell Ras Thavas to
take out his brain and burn it. He can do what he pleases with the body."
Gantun Gur fought like a demon, knocking hormads to right and left; and they
only subdued him at last by entangling him in their nets. Then, bellowing curses
and insults, he was dragged away toward the laboratory.
Shortly thereafter the jeds selected the hormads they chose to retain, and we
conducted the others out of the chamber, where they were turned over to officers
to be assigned to such duties as they were considered equal to. Then I returned
to the laboratory building without having had a glimpse of Janai or learning
anything concerning her. I was terribly disappointed and despondent.
I found Ras Thavas in his small private study. John Carter and a fairly well
formed hormad were with him. The latter was standing with his back toward me as
I entered the room. When he heard my voice he turned and greeted me by name. It
was Tor-dur-bar with his newly grown body. One arm was a little longer than the
other, his torso was out of proportion to his short legs, and he had six toes on
one foot and an extra thumb on his left hand; but, altogether, he was a pretty
good specimen for a hormad.
"Well, here I am as good as new," he exclaimed, a broad grin splitting his
horrid countenance. "What do you think of me?"
"I'm glad to have you as a friend," I said. "I think that new body of yours is
very powerful. It's splendidly muscled." And indeed it was.
"I should, however, like a body and face like yours," said Tor-dur-bar. "I was
just talking to Ras Thavas about it, and he has promised to get me one, if he
can."
Instantly I recalled Gantun Gur, the assassin of Amhor, and the doom that had
been pronounced upon him by the jed. "I think a good body is waiting for you in
the laboratory," I said; then I told them the story of Gantun Gur. "Now it is up
to Ras Thavas. The jed said he could do what he pleased with the body."
"We'll have a look at the man," said The Master Mind of Mars, and led the way
out toward the reception room where new victims were held pending his orders.
We found Gantun Gur securely trussed up and heavily guarded. At sight of us he
commenced to bellow and rail, insulting all three of us indiscriminately. He
appeared to have a most evil disposition. Ras Thavas regarded him for a moment
in silence; then he dismissed the warriors and officers who had brought him.
"We will take care of him," he said. "Report to the Council of the Seven Jeds
that his brain will be burned and his body put to some good use."
At that, Gantun Gur broke into such a tirade that I thought he had gone mad, and
perhaps he had. He gnashed his teeth and foamed at the mouth and called Ras
Thavas everything he could lay his tongue to.
Ras Thavas turned to Tor-dur-bar. "Can you carry him?" he asked.
For answer, the hormad picked up the red man as easily as though he had no
weight and flung him across one broad shoulder. Tor-dur-bar's new body was
indeed a mountain of strength.
Ras Thavas led the way back to his private study and through a small doorway