52. "CUT ME IN TWO" -- Nov. 29, '42
(read novelization

P1: The plant king thrust its head through an opening in the ceiling of the underground cavern. "Here we are!" declared the king. 

P2: The Earthman was puzzled when the plant released him. "I thought you intended to kill me," Carter said. 

P3: "Great roots!" exclaimed the king impatiently. "You people who are not attached to the ground are always thinking of killing each other!" 

P4: "I intend to help you locate your princess," continued the king, "but you must do as I say. Draw your sword and cut me in two just below the arms." 

P5: The Earthman wielded his great sword at the king's bidding without question. Upon Mars nothing was unbelievable! 

P6: When part of the king's trunk bearing head and arms fell to the ground it suddenly stood up like a comical bird. 

P7: "Now leap to my back," shouted the king, "and we shall be off to search for your princess!" A second later the plant was hopping across the jagged terrain, while Carter clung to its back -- a score of bewildering questions racing through his brain. 
 

Notes:

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CHAPTER 52: "CUT ME IN TWO"
Novelization of the JCB strip by Dale R. Broadhurst

How they came to be where they were John Carter was not quite sure. Moments before he and the plant king had been in a humid jungle. After a sudden lunge through the treetops both the strange plant and the Earthman were back upon familiar territory -- at least it was familiar to the man, for it was the same spot where he had discovered the evidence of Woola's serious injury or death on the night before. 

"Here we are!" declared the king. 

The Earthman was puzzled over how he had come back to the spot where the calot was slain, but he was just as puzzled over why the plant had released him. 

"I thought you intended to kill me," Carter said. 

"Great roots!" exclaimed the king impatiently. "You people who are not attached to the ground are always thinking of killing each other! I intend to help you locate your princess." 

"I've told you nothing about any princess," replied John Carter. "From where did you obtain such an idea?" 

"Through my roots, I suppose. But we've spent the entire morning talking about your world of Jasoom and how you helped free the red princess from the green men. You explained about her turning to stone and becoming a giant atop the great mountain that stands above us right now. Certainly you recall our jokes about the chicken men and how they cross the road! Why else is it already mid day, Mr. Carter of Richmond, if we did not spend the entire morning in that endless chatter?" 

The Virginian admitted that the plant king's logic was impeccable, although it did not quite explain where the jungle treetops had disappeared to. 

"Ah yes! My jungle indeed -- why I had forgotten that I am still rooted there. Now please do as I say. Draw your sword and cut me in two just below the arms." 

Since nothing else made sense, this request was no more or less bizarre than any other thing the plant man had to say. The Jasoomian agreed to follow the king's bidding without question. 

"Upon Mars nothing is unbelievable!" is all John Carter had to say in reply. 

The Earthman wielded his great Orovarian sword at the spot the plant king indicated. Immediately the ground from which the great stem sprang closed up without leaving a trace of the king's lower body. 

"I'm dreaming; there's no other explanation!" Carter cried. "Either that or magic is true!" 

"Certainly it's true!" chuckled the plant king. "If it's not, then tell me that tale again about how you flew here from Jasoom! Oh you are a funny one, aren't you!" 

When the part of the king's trunk bearing his head and arms fell to the ground the arms suddenly turned into legs and the plant king stood up like a comical two-legged bird. 

The Earthman opened his mouth to speak but this time words failed him. 

"Now leap to my back," shouted the king, "and we shall be off to search for your princess and save her from those mean old chicken men!" 

A second later the plant was hopping across the jagged terrain, in the direction from whence Captain Carter first saw the bird-men approaching himself and Dejah Thoris that morning. 

"Dejah Thoris!" he exclaimed. The Earthman was certain he had again caught a faint fragment of her thoughts. "She must be close by!" he said aloud. 

"Yes, she is close by -- she's as near as the feathered forest. If I know that, then why don't you? There's nobody else here to tell me, now is there?" 

And so their conversation continued. The plant king's mode of travel with rather like that of a kangaroo, but with Carter clinging to its back and not tucked away in a pouch on its belly. A score of bewildering questions went racing through the Earthman's brain, but each time he put one of them into words the answers the plant king gave only made the bronzed swordsman even more bewildered. 

"Talking to you is like trying to grab a leaf floating on a pond; the harder I try to get it, the faster it floats away." The Earthman said at last. 

The plant king slowed his gait to a walk and then stopped moving entirely. He turned his big head a peered at the man for a moment. 

"If that is so," the plant replied in a most serious tone of voice, "then you must not grab at the leaf. Thank about it, Jasoomian. Why not pull the water to yourself and allow the leaf to float back upon the waves and into your hand? Oh I know a great deal about leaves. Yes, we can talk about the leaves all night -- a most interesting topic, aren't they!" 

John Carter was certain that there must be some grain of wisdom in the plant king's philosophy, but he was a fighting man and not given to deep thinking. 

"Why have we stopped so soon?" questioned the Earthman. "You spoke of a feathered forest and finding the red princess." 

"Indeed I did, and we spent the entire afternoon talking about leaves also. A most profitable conversation, if I do say so myself. But you don't expect that we'll travel in the feathered forest by night, now do you? I'm not so petal-headed as to attempt that!" 

When the plant king had stopped his hopping the sun was still high in the sky; now it was fast approaching sunset. John Carter was positive that the two of them had not exchanged more than a dozen sentences since they halted their journey. He was on the verge of questioning his odd companion about the time anomaly, but when the idea of trying to grab a leaf in the water came back to him; he thought the better of it and said nothing 
 

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