READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
brightening future variable—as Kar Komak was led into his
prison cell far below in the depths of the Escarpment.
Nor could even Ranas Ghol quite discern such a detail as
that which was occurring at that moment somewhere across
the abyss of interplanetary space. Even his great, baleful third
eye could not see the bestial Cadj as he chased after La, High
Priestess of the Flaming God, down under the crumbling
foundations of Opar.
Late that night, Kar Komak awoke from exhausted sleep
to see the door of his prison cell open. An old man, one of the
red skinned race of Barsoom, was shoved unceremoniously
into the large cell with horror as he saw the jailer who was
silhouetted for a few seconds against the light from radium
bulbs in the outside corridor. Then the heavy door closed and
he was left in darkness with his new companion.
"By the gods!" he exclaimed, rising to his elbows on his
couch. "What was that monstrous thing? Surely it was not
human!"
The old man laughed in the darkness. "You are new in
Tarnath," he said. "Everyone who knows Tarnath knows
Thum. He, himself, has made certain of that!"
"But—he was half the size of a Thark—yet formed as
you or I, with two legs, two arms—"
"And there the similarity ceases," interrupted the other.
"Did you notice the abnormality of proportion?—the length of
one arm as against the other?—the lack of a face, except for
his single eye in the very center?"
"Merciful ancestors, no! I did not see his face. What is
he? Surely such a monstrosity never budded from the Tree
of Life! That creature could not be of Barsoom!"
"And have you heard of the Great Toonolian Marshes, of
Ras Thavas, the great surgeon—and what sacrilege he
committed there against the Law of Life?"
Kar Komak was momentarily aware of a prickly sensation
of the scalp. "Morbus! he exclaimed.
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