=== apom_ch28_pt1 === 

A Princess of Mars =

AT THE ARIZONA CAVE =

It was dark when I opened my eyes again.  Strange, stiff garments were upon my body, garments that cracked and powdered away from me as I rose to a sitting posture. =

I felt myself over from head to foot and from head to foot I was clothed, though when I fell unconscious at the little doorway I had been naked.  Before me was a small patch of moonlit sky which showed through a ragged aperture. =

As my hands passed over my body they came in contact with pockets and in one of these a small parcel of matches wrapped in oiled paper.  One of these matches I struck, and its dim flame lighted up what appeared to be a huge cave, toward the back of which I discovered a strange, still figure huddled over a tiny bench.  As I approached it I saw that it was the dead and mummified remains of a little old woman with long black hair, and the thing it leaned over was a small charcoal burner upon which rested a round copper vessel containing a small quantity of greenish powder. =

Behind her, depending from the roof upon rawhide thongs, and stretching entirely across the cave, was a row of human skeletons. From the thong which held them stretched another to the dead hand of the little old woman, as I touched the cord the skeletons swung to the motion with a noise as of the rustling of dry leaves. =

It was a most grotesque and horrid tableau and I hastened out into the fresh air, glad to escape from so gruesome a place. =

The sight that met my eyes as I stepped out upon a small ledge which ran before the entrance of the cave filled me with consternation. =

A new heaven and a new landscape met my gaze.  The silvered mountains in the distance, the almost stationary moon hanging in the sky, the cacti studded valley below me were not of Mars.  I could scarcely believe my eyes, but the truth slowly forced itself upon me I was looking upon Arizona from the same ledge from which ten years before I had gazed with longing upon Mars. = 

=== end of pt1 ===