READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
Kaol.
"Rumors—false prophets!" retorted John Carter, stubbornly.
"And there you have the opposite ideology, which is
my own. I say that all the propaganda issued by the Holy
Alliance is a great black lie perpetrated by Tario the Lotharian,
who calls himself Jeddak of Jeddaks of all Barsoom and
who would, himself, be Tharos Pthan. I say that as he is a
false usurper then so must be his Issus, or else an innocent
victim of his hypnotic mentality—and the Therns and the
First Born are attracted to him because of the promise of a
return to their olden power—and eventually, the River Iss
and the shores of Korus would become the same charnal
house of hell as it was in the days when we blasted both of
those empires from the seat of power and the false black
Issus of Omean was overthrown.
As many of his listeners scowlded darkly now, the
Warlord held up his hand. "But remember!—today we fight
for neither one of these ideologies. There is a third great
cause which is a very fair compromise between the two. That
is—we should fight for the right to directly examine and
control the actions of the Holy Alliance. Let us fight for a
truce between men's minds—so that the leaders of all
Barsoom may decide this issue once and far all—at Tarnath,
now!"
There was a moment of tense silence. Then, as one man,
the commandos raised their swords with a shout of approval.
"For this we will fight, John Carter!"
"This is reason in a sea of doubt!"
"It is a warrior's way of going at it!"
"To Tarnath, then!"
"For Barsoom!"
"For Helium!"
"For the Warlord!"
When John Carter looked at Talu, the Jeddak smiled as
though to say, "What did I tell you?"
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