"11 - John Carter of Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

white apes."
Pew Mogel, becoming aware of his left eye, quickly shoved it back into place.
Tars Tarkas laughed one of his rare laughs.
"Pew Mogel," he said, "you are falling apart. As you claim to have created your
giant, so you yourself have been made.
"Unless I miss my guess, John Carter," continued Tars Tarkas, "this freak before
us who calls himself a king has, himself, crawled out of a tissue vat!"
Pew Mogel's pallid countenance turned even paler as he leaped to his feet. He
struck Tars Tarkas a vicious blow on the face.
"Silence, green man!" he shrieked.
Tars Tarkas only smiled at this insult, ignoring the pain. John Carter's face
was a frozen mask. One more blow at his defenseless friend would have sent him
at Pew Mogel's throat.
Better to bide his time, he knew, until he learned where Dejah Thoris was
hidden.
Pew Mogel sank back upon his throne. The white ape, who had risen, once more
squatted down at his master's feet.
Presently Pew Mogel smiled again.
"So sorry, he drawled, "that I lost my temper. Some times I forget that my
present appearance reveals the nature of my origin.
"You see, soon I shall have trained one of my apes in the intricate procedure of
transferring my marvelous brain into a suitable, handsome body; then no one will
guess that I am not like any other normal man on Barsoom.
John Carter smiled grimly at Pew Mogel's words.
"Then you are one of Ras Thavas' synthetic men?"
Six
PEW MOGEL
"YES, I AM A SYNTHETIC MAN, answered Pew Mogel slowly. "My brain was the
greatest achievement of all the Master Mind's creations.
"For years I was a devoted pupil of Ras Thavas in his laboratories at Morbus. I
learned all that the Master could teach me of the secrets of creating living
tissue. When I learned from him all that I thought necessary to pursue my plans,
I left Morbus. With a hundred synthetic men I escaped over the Great Toonolian
Marshes on the backs of malagors, the birds of transport.
"I brought with me all the intricate equipment that I could steal from his
laboratories. The rest, I have fashioned here in this ancient deserted city
where we finally landed."
John Carter was studying Pew Mogel intently.
I was tired of being a slave," continued Pew Mogel. I wanted to rule; and by
Issus, I have ruled; and some day I shall rule all Barsoom!"
Pew Mogel's eyes gleamed. "It was not long before red men gathered in our city,
escaped and exiled criminals. Since their faces would only lead them to capture
and execution in other civilized cities on Barsoom, I persuaded them to allow me
to transfer their brains into the bodies of the stupid white apes that overran
this city.
"I promised to later restore their brains into the bodies of other red men,
provided they would help me in my conquests."
Carter recalled the apes with the bandaged heads in the adjoining laboratory,
and the red men with their skulls sliced off in the chamber of the rats. He
began to understand a little; then he remembered Joog.