READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
over, just now I caught a glimpse of your inner thoughts, and
I saw a colossal egotist! Speak! Identify yourself—or die!"
Tario did not release his disguise, but John Carter saw
the false Thark smile, which on a green man's face is usually
a sign of impending cruelty, or death. The Warlord's sword
pressed harder—quick, insistent.
"I have no intention, just now, of revealing my identity to
anyone," said Tario, calmly. "But one day you will meet me
again, and then you will know who is your master, John
Carter!"
The Warlord thrust almost instantaneously, but he thrust
at empty air. He looked at the balcony, astounded.
There stood the imposter Thark, laughing. Mysteriously,
he had transferred himself to this new location in the fraction
of a second.
"Before I leave you," he said, "I would know the shape of
your mind!" Then the laughter faded. He frowned, concentrating.
John Carter felt his mind gripped invisibly in a titanic fist,
and cruelly pressed. He sweated, but he did not yield.
Relentlessly, the terrible grip increased, pressing, crushing,
probing with a strong needle point of tremendous mentality.
Retaliating, he leaped over the table, his earthly muscles
carrying him thirty feet though the air. This time, when he
drove his blade home, he felt it bite into flesh. In the same
instant, the apparition of the green man disappeared entirely.
But, on the point of his sword—was blood!
Sardon Dhur was a Thern. Moreover, he was a Thern of
the Tenth Cycle, next to the exalted and holy rank of Hekkador.
But since the last Hekkador, Matai Shang, had met his
death at the hands of John Carter, there remained no one to
occupy the Eleventh Cycle, with the possible exception of
himself.
But the Warlord had overthrown the old religion. Gone
was the power of the Therns and the Holy Hekkador.
72