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demonstrate to them that the daughter of The Warlord was not to be denied! They
would learn that Tara of Helium might not be ruled even by the forces of nature!
And so she drove her motor forward again and then with her firm, white teeth set
in grim determination she drove the steering lever far down to port with the
intention of forcing the nose of her craft straight into the teeth of the wind, and
the wind seized the frail thing and toppled it over upon its back, and twisted and
turned it and hurled it over and over; the propellor raced for an instant in an air
pocket and then the tempest seized it again and twisted it from its shaft, leaving
the girl helpless upon an unmanageable atom that rose and fell, and rolled and
tumbled--the sport of the elements she had defied. Tara of Helium's first
sensation was one of surprise--that she had failed to have her own way. Then she
commenced to feel concern--not for her own safety but for the anxiety of her
parents and the dangers that the inevitable searchers must face. She reproached
herself for the thoughtless selfishness that had jeopardized the peace and safety
of others. She realized her own grave danger, too; but she was still unterrified, as
befitted the daughter of Dejah Thoris and John Carter. She knew that her
buoyancy tanks might keep her afloat indefinitely, but she had neither food nor
water, and she was being borne toward the least-known area of Barsoom.
Perhaps it would be better to land immediately and await the coming of the
searchers, rather than to allow herself to be carried still further from Helium,
thus greatly reducing the chances of early discovery; but when she dropped
toward the ground she discovered that the violence of the wind rendered an
attempt to land tantamount to destruction and she rose again, rapidly.
Carried along a few hundred feet above the ground she was better able to
appreciate the Titanic proportions of the storm than when she had flown in the
comparative serenity of the zone above the clouds, for now she could distinctly
see the effect of the wind upon the surface of Barsoom. The air was filled with
dust and flying bits of vegetation and when the storm carried her across an
irrigated area of farm land she saw great trees and stone walls and buildings
lifted high in air and scattered broadcast over the devastated country; and then
she was carried swiftly on to other sights that forced in upon her consciousness a
rapidly growing conviction that after all Tara of Helium was a very small and
insignificant and helpless person. It was quite a shock to her self-pride while it
lasted, and toward evening she was ready to believe that it was going to last
forever. There had been no abatement in the ferocity of the tempest, nor was
there indication of any. She could only guess at the distance she had been carried
for she could not believe in the correctness of the high figures that had been piled
upon the record of her odometer. They seemed unbelievable and yet, had she
known it, they were quite true--in twelve hours she had flown and been carried
by the storm full seven thousand haads. Just before dark she was carried over
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