It was a long climb up the face of the building, and one fraught
with much danger, but there was no other way, and so I essayed the
task. The fact that Barsoomian architecture is extremely ornate
made the feat much simpler than I had anticipated, since I found
ornamental ledges and projections which fairly formed a perfect
ladder for me all the way to the eaves of the building. Here I met
my first real obstacle. The eaves projected nearly twenty feet from
the wall to which I clung, and though I encircled the great building
I could find no opening through them.
The top floor was alight, and filled with soldiers engaged in the
pastimes of their kind; I could not, therefore, reach the roof
through the building.
There was one slight, desperate chance, and that I decided I must
take--it was for Dejah Thoris, and no man has lived who would not
risk a thousand deaths for such as she.
Clinging to the wall with my feet and one hand, I unloosened one of
the long leather straps of my trappings at the end of which dangled
a great hook by which air sailors are hung to the sides and bottoms
of their craft for various purposes of repair, and by means of which
landing parties are lowered to the ground from the battleships.
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