About noon
Presently a great city showed below me , but it was not Helium , as that alone of all Barsoomian metropolises consists in two immense circular walled cities about seventy-five miles apart and would have been easily distinguishable from the altitude at which I was flying . Believing that I had come too far to the north and west , I turned back in a southeasterly direction , passing during the forenoon several other large cities , but none resembling the description which Kantos Kan had given me of Helium . In addition to the twin-city formation of Helium , another distinguishing feature is the two immense towers , one of vivid scarlet rising nearly a mile into the air from the center of one of the cities , while the other , of bright yellow and of the same height , marks her sister . About noon I passed low over a great dead city of ancient Mars , and as I skimmed out across the plain beyond I came full upon several thousand green warriors engaged in a terrific battle . Scarcely had I seen them than a volley of shots was directed at me , and with the almost unfailing accuracy of their aim my little craft was instantly a ruined wreck , sinking erratically to the ground . I fell almost directly in the center of the fierce combat , among warriors who had not seen my approach so busily were they engaged in life and death struggles . The men were fighting on foot with long-swords , while an occasional shot from a sharpshooter on the outskirts of the conflict would bring down a warrior who might for an instant separate himself from the entangled mass .