"06 - Master Mind of Mars, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

The Master Mind of MarsTHE MASTER MIND OF MARS
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS



Contents
A LETTER
THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD
PREFERMENT
VALLA DIA
THE COMPACT
DANGER
SUSPICIONS
ESCAPE
HANDS UP!
THE PALACE OF MU TEL
PHUNDAHL
XAXA
THE GREAT TUR
BACK TO THAVAS
JOHN CARTER

[About this etext]



MASTER MIND OF MARS
A LETTER
HELIUM, June 8th, 1925
MY DEAR MR. BURROUGHS:
It was in the Fall of nineteen seventeen at an officers' training camp that I
first became acquainted with John Carter, War Lord of Barsoom, through the pages
of your novel "A Princess of Mars." The story made a profound impression upon me
and while my better judgment assured me that it was but a highly imaginative
piece of fiction, a suggestion of the verity of it pervaded my inner
consciousness to such an extent that I found myself dreaming of Mars and John
Carter, of Dejah Thoris, of Tars Tarkas and of Woola as if they had been
entities of my own experience rather than the figments of your imagination.
It is true that in those days of strenuous preparation there was little time for
dreaming, yet there were brief moments before sleep claimed me at night and
these were my dreams. Such dreams! Always of Mars, and during my waking hours at
night my eyes always sought out the Red Planet when he was above the horizon and
clung there seeking a solution of the seemingly unfathomable riddle he has
presented to the Earthman for ages.
Perhaps the thing became an obsession. I know it clung to me all during my
training camp days, and at night, on the deck of the transport, I would he on my
back gazing up into the red eye of the god of battle Ц my god Ц and wishing
that, like John Carter, I might be drawn across the great void to the haven of
my desire.
And then came the hideous days and nights in the trenches Ц the rats, the