And now to return to the tale that I had from Paxton across forty-three million miles of space.
—Edgar Rice Burroughs
CHAPTER I
SANOMA TORA
This is the story of Hadron of Hastor, Fighting Man of Mars, as narrated by him to Ulysses Paxton:
I am Tan Hadron of Hastor, my father is Had Urtur, Odwar of the 1st Umak of the Troops of Hastor. He commands the largest ship of war that Hastor has ever contributed to the navy of Helium, accommodating as it does the entire ten thousand men of the 1st Umak, together with five hundred lesser fighting ships and all the paraphernalia of war. My mother is a princess of Gathol.
As a family we are not rich except in honour, and, valuing this above all mundane possessions, I chose the profession of my father rather than a more profitable career. The bett
