But the Vanator did not fall to the ground, within sight of the city at least, though as long as the watchers could see her never for an instant did she rest upon an even keel.  Sometimes she lay upon one side or the other, or again she hurtled along keel up, or rolled over and over, or stood upon her nose or her tail at the caprice of the great force that carried her along.  And the watchers saw that this great ship was merely being blown away with the other bits of debris great and small that filled the sky.  Never in the memory of man or the annals of recorded history had such a storm raged across the face of Barsoom.

And in another instant was the Vanator forgotten as the lofty, scarlet tower that had marked Lesser Helium for ages crashed to ground, carrying death and demolition upon the city beneath.  Panic reigned.  A fire broke out in the ruins.  The city’s every force seemed crippled, and it was then that The Warlord ordered the men that were about to set forth in search of Tara of Helium to devote their energies to the salvation of the city, for he too had witnessed the start of the Vanator and realized the futility of wasting men who were needed sorely if Lesser Helium was to be saved from utter destruction.

Shortly after noon of the second day the storm commenced to abate, and before the sun went down, the little craft upon which Tara of Helium had hovered between life and death these many hours drifted slowly before a gentle breeze above a landscape of rolling hills that once had been lofty mountains upon a Martian continent.  The girl was exhausted from loss of sleep, from lack of food and drink, and from the nervous reaction consequent to the terrifying experiences through which she had passed.  In the near distance, just topping an intervening hill, she caught a momentary glimpse of what appeared to be a dome-capped tower.  Quickly she dropped the flier until the hill shut it off from the view of the possible occupants of the structure she had seen.  The tower meant to her the habitation of man, suggesting the presence of water and, perhaps, of food.  If the tower was the deserted relic of a bygone age she would scarcely find food there, but there was still a chance that there might be water.  If it was inhabited, then must her approach be cautious, for only enemies might be expected to abide in so far distant a land.  Tara of Helium knew that she must be far from the twin cities of her grandfather’s empire, but had she guessed within even a thousand haads of the reality, she had been stunned by realization of the utter hopelessness of her state.