When I had regained my feet I
raised her in my arms and bore her to one of the benches at the side
of the room.
Again no Martian interfered with me, and tearing a piece of silk
from my cape I endeavored to staunch the flow of blood from her
nostrils. I was soon successful as her injuries amounted to little
more than an ordinary nosebleed, and when she could speak she placed
her hand upon my arm and looking up into my eyes, said:
"Why did you do it? You who refused me even friendly recognition in
the first hour of my peril! And now you risk your life and kill one
of your companions for my sake. I cannot understand. What strange
manner of man are you, that you consort with the green men, though
your form is that of my race, while your color is little darker than
that of the white ape? Tell me, are you human, or are you more than
human?"
"It is a strange tale," I replied, "too long to attempt to tell you
now, and one which I so much doubt the credibility of myself that
I fear to hope that others will believe it. Suffice it, for the
present, that I am your friend, and, so far as our captors will
permit, your protector and your servant."
"Then you too are a prisoner? But why, then, those arms and the
regalia of a Tharkian chieftain? What is your name? Where your
country?"
"Yes, Dejah Thoris, I too am a prisoner; my name is John Carter,
and I claim Virginia, one of the United States of America, Earth,
as my home; but why I am permitted to wear arms I do not know,
nor was I aware that my regalia was that of a chieftain.
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