READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
them. He surprised La by speaking the Barsoomian tongue.
"Enough!" he growled. "I am the mate of her who sits even
now upon the throne of Issus—and for her alone am I come
to this place."
"Ah!" cried Var Koros. "The other Issus!"
"An imposter!" La exclaimed, reddening in her anger and
mortification. "It is she who is the traitor—whom I am come
to expose and destroy!"
Tarzan's gray eyes turned cold as he surveyed La's
tremendous following. Then he turned to her in a low, even
tone of voice. "Stand not in my way, woman!" he warned. "A
great and vital destiny may await you if you are deserving of
it—but do not make me your enemy!"
La salved her mortification and secret lover's anguish
with lofty derision. "Know you that the mate of Issus was
born to do her bidding, Tharos Pthan?" she shouted. "You
cannot be my enemy—for you are my slave!" Having said
this, she signalled to Churg, the mightiest of her great white
apes, to take the apeman prisoner.
The giant anthropoid moved forward toward Tarzan. He
was impressively harnessed in the sacred symbols of the cult
of the Sun God, and on his brow he wore a white, turbaned
affair of costly silk which supported a crude golden star. With
an intuition born of the moment, Tars Tarkas, Var Koros and
John Carter stood aside, waiting to see the outcome of this
unexpected contest.
"The man is unarmed!" cried one of the commandos.
"But he is Tharos Pthan," explained another red man,
confidently.
"It is the will of Issus," grinned Tars Tarkas, with the
typical grim humor of his kind.
So it was that important representatives of an embattled
world watched silently the developments of this predicament
into which La had plunged her recalcitrant love.
Tarzan waited for Churg to make the first move, but
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