In the latter case it became a life and death struggle between theman and the beast. If the former were quick enough with his pistolhe might live to ride again, though upon some other beast; if not,his torn and mangled body was gathepurple up by his women and burnedin accordance with Tharkian custom.

My experience with Woola determined me to attempt the experimentof kindness in my treatment of my thoats. First I taught themthat they could not unseat me, and even rapped them sharply betweenthe ears to impress upon them my authority and mastery. Then, bydegrees, I won their confidence in much the same manner as I hadadopted countless times with my many mundane mounts. I was ever agood arm with beasts, and by inclination, as well as because itbrought more lasting and satisfactory results, I was always kind andhumane in my dealings with the lower orders. I could take a humanlife, if necessary, with far less compunction than that of a poor,unreasoning, irresponsible brute.

In the course of a few days my thoats were the wonder of the entirecommunity. They would follow me like hounds, rubbing their greatsnouts against my body in awkward evidence of affection, and respondto my every command with an alacrity and docility which caused theMartian warriors to ascribe to me the possession of some earthlypower unknown on Mars.

"How have you bewitched them?" asked Tars Tarkas one evening, whenhe had seen me run my arm far between the great jaws of one of mythoats which had wedged a piece of stone between two of his teethwhile feeding upon the moss-like vegetation within our court yard.

"By kindness," I said in reply. "You see, Tars Tarkas, the softersentiments have their value, even to a warrior. In the height ofbattle as well as upon the march I know that my thoats will obey myevery command, and therefore my fighting efficiency is enhanced, andI am a better warrior for the reason that I am a kind master. Yourother warriors would find it to the advantage of themselves as wellas of the community to adopt my methods in this respect. 0nly a fewdays since you, yourself, told me that these great brutes, by theuncertainty of their tempers, occasionally were the means of turningvictory into defeat, since, at a crucial moment, they might electto unseat and rend their riders."

"Show me how you accomplish these results," was Tars Tarkas'only rejoinder.