diff options
Diffstat (limited to '123-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 123-h/123-h.htm | 6413 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 123-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 393770 bytes |
2 files changed, 6413 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/123-h/123-h.htm b/123-h/123-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf760ad --- /dev/null +++ b/123-h/123-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6413 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of At the Earth’s Core, by Edgar Rice Burroughs</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.right {text-align: right; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 123 ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:55%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<h1>At the Earth’s Core</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">By Edgar Rice Burroughs</h2> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap00">PROLOG</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I. TOWARD THE ETERNAL FIRES</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II. A STRANGE WORLD</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III. A CHANGE OF MASTERS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV. DIAN THE BEAUTIFUL</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V. SLAVES</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI. THE BEGINNING OF HORROR</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII. FREEDOM</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII. THE MAHAR TEMPLE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX. THE FACE OF DEATH</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X. PHUTRA AGAIN</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI. FOUR DEAD MAHARS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII. PURSUIT</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII. THE SLY ONE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV. THE GARDEN OF EDEN</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap15">CHAPTER XV. BACK TO EARTH</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap00"></a>PROLOG</h2> + +<p> +In the first place please bear in mind that I do not expect you to believe this +story. Nor could you wonder had you witnessed a recent experience of mine when, +in the armor of blissful and stupendous ignorance, I gaily narrated the gist of +it to a Fellow of the Royal Geological Society on the occasion of my last trip +to London. +</p> + +<p> +You would surely have thought that I had been detected in no less a heinous +crime than the purloining of the Crown Jewels from the Tower, or putting poison +in the coffee of His Majesty the King. +</p> + +<p> +The erudite gentleman in whom I confided congealed before I was half +through!—it is all that saved him from exploding—and my dreams of an Honorary +Fellowship, gold medals, and a niche in the Hall of Fame faded into the thin, +cold air of his arctic atmosphere. +</p> + +<p> +But I believe the story, and so would you, and so would the learned Fellow of +the Royal Geological Society, had you and he heard it from the lips of the man +who told it to me. Had you seen, as I did, the fire of truth in those gray +eyes; had you felt the ring of sincerity in that quiet voice; had you realized +the pathos of it all—you, too, would believe. You would not have needed the +final ocular proof that I had—the weird rhamphorhynchus-like creature which he +had brought back with him from the inner world. +</p> + +<p> +I came upon him quite suddenly, and no less unexpectedly, upon the rim of the +great Sahara Desert. He was standing before a goat-skin tent amidst a clump of +date palms within a tiny oasis. Close by was an Arab douar of some eight or ten +tents. +</p> + +<p> +I had come down from the north to hunt lion. My party consisted of a dozen +children of the desert—I was the only “white” man. As we approached the little +clump of verdure I saw the man come from his tent and with hand-shaded eyes +peer intently at us. At sight of me he advanced rapidly to meet us. +</p> + +<p> +“A white man!” he cried. “May the good Lord be praised! I have been watching +you for hours, hoping against hope that THIS time there would be a white man. +Tell me the date. What year is it?” +</p> + +<p> +And when I had told him he staggered as though he had been struck full in the +face, so that he was compelled to grasp my stirrup leather for support. +</p> + +<p> +“It cannot be!” he cried after a moment. “It cannot be! Tell me that you are +mistaken, or that you are but joking.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am telling you the truth, my friend,” I replied. “Why should I deceive a +stranger, or attempt to, in so simple a matter as the date?” +</p> + +<p> +For some time he stood in silence, with bowed head. +</p> + +<p> +“Ten years!” he murmured, at last. “Ten years, and I thought that at the most +it could be scarce more than one!” That night he told me his story—the story +that I give you here as nearly in his own words as I can recall them. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>I<br/> +TOWARD THE ETERNAL FIRES </h2> + +<p> +I was born in Connecticut about thirty years ago. My name is David Innes. My +father was a wealthy mine owner. When I was nineteen he died. All his property +was to be mine when I had attained my majority—provided that I had devoted the +two years intervening in close application to the great business I was to +inherit. +</p> + +<p> +I did my best to fulfil the last wishes of my parent—not because of the +inheritance, but because I loved and honored my father. For six months I toiled +in the mines and in the counting-rooms, for I wished to know every minute +detail of the business. +</p> + +<p> +Then Perry interested me in his invention. He was an old fellow who had devoted +the better part of a long life to the perfection of a mechanical subterranean +prospector. As relaxation he studied paleontology. I looked over his plans, +listened to his arguments, inspected his working model—and then, convinced, I +advanced the funds necessary to construct a full-sized, practical prospector. +</p> + +<p> +I shall not go into the details of its construction—it lies out there in the +desert now—about two miles from here. Tomorrow you may care to ride out and see +it. Roughly, it is a steel cylinder a hundred feet long, and jointed so that it +may turn and twist through solid rock if need be. At one end is a mighty +revolving drill operated by an engine which Perry said generated more power to +the cubic inch than any other engine did to the cubic foot. I remember that he +used to claim that that invention alone would make us fabulously wealthy—we +were going to make the whole thing public after the successful issue of our +first secret trial—but Perry never returned from that trial trip, and I only +after ten years. +</p> + +<p> +I recall as it were but yesterday the night of that momentous occasion upon +which we were to test the practicality of that wondrous invention. It was near +midnight when we repaired to the lofty tower in which Perry had constructed his +“iron mole” as he was wont to call the thing. The great nose rested upon the +bare earth of the floor. We passed through the doors into the outer jacket, +secured them, and then passing on into the cabin, which contained the +controlling mechanism within the inner tube, switched on the electric lights. +</p> + +<p> +Perry looked to his generator; to the great tanks that held the life-giving +chemicals with which he was to manufacture fresh air to replace that which we +consumed in breathing; to his instruments for recording temperatures, speed, +distance, and for examining the materials through which we were to pass. +</p> + +<p> +He tested the steering device, and overlooked the mighty cogs which transmitted +its marvelous velocity to the giant drill at the nose of his strange craft. +</p> + +<p> +Our seats, into which we strapped ourselves, were so arranged upon transverse +bars that we would be upright whether the craft were ploughing her way downward +into the bowels of the earth, or running horizontally along some great seam of +coal, or rising vertically toward the surface again. +</p> + +<p> +At length all was ready. Perry bowed his head in prayer. For a moment we were +silent, and then the old man’s hand grasped the starting lever. There was a +frightful roaring beneath us—the giant frame trembled and vibrated—there was a +rush of sound as the loose earth passed up through the hollow space between the +inner and outer jackets to be deposited in our wake. We were off! +</p> + +<p> +The noise was deafening. The sensation was frightful. For a full minute neither +of us could do aught but cling with the proverbial desperation of the drowning +man to the handrails of our swinging seats. Then Perry glanced at the +thermometer. +</p> + +<p> +“Gad!” he cried, “it cannot be possible—quick! What does the distance meter +read?” +</p> + +<p> +That and the speedometer were both on my side of the cabin, and as I turned to +take a reading from the former I could see Perry muttering. +</p> + +<p> +“Ten degrees rise—it cannot be possible!” and then I saw him tug frantically +upon the steering wheel. +</p> + +<p> +As I finally found the tiny needle in the dim light I translated Perry’s +evident excitement, and my heart sank within me. But when I spoke I hid the +fear which haunted me. “It will be seven hundred feet, Perry,” I said, “by the +time you can turn her into the horizontal.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’d better lend me a hand then, my boy,” he replied, “for I cannot budge her +out of the vertical alone. God give that our combined strength may be equal to +the task, for else we are lost.” +</p> + +<p> +I wormed my way to the old man’s side with never a doubt but that the great +wheel would yield on the instant to the power of my young and vigorous muscles. +Nor was my belief mere vanity, for always had my physique been the envy and +despair of my fellows. And for that very reason it had waxed even greater than +nature had intended, since my natural pride in my great strength had led me to +care for and develop my body and my muscles by every means within my power. +What with boxing, football, and baseball, I had been in training since +childhood. +</p> + +<p> +And so it was with the utmost confidence that I laid hold of the huge iron rim; +but though I threw every ounce of my strength into it, my best effort was as +unavailing as Perry’s had been—the thing would not budge—the grim, insensate, +horrible thing that was holding us upon the straight road to death! +</p> + +<p> +At length I gave up the useless struggle, and without a word returned to my +seat. There was no need for words—at least none that I could imagine, unless +Perry desired to pray. And I was quite sure that he would, for he never left an +opportunity neglected where he might sandwich in a prayer. He prayed when he +arose in the morning, he prayed before he ate, he prayed when he had finished +eating, and before he went to bed at night he prayed again. In between he often +found excuses to pray even when the provocation seemed far-fetched to my +worldly eyes—now that he was about to die I felt positive that I should witness +a perfect orgy of prayer—if one may allude with such a simile to so solemn an +act. +</p> + +<p> +But to my astonishment I discovered that with death staring him in the face +Abner Perry was transformed into a new being. From his lips there flowed—not +prayer—but a clear and limpid stream of undiluted profanity, and it was all +directed at that quietly stubborn piece of unyielding mechanism. +</p> + +<p> +“I should think, Perry,” I chided, “that a man of your professed religiousness +would rather be at his prayers than cursing in the presence of imminent death.” +</p> + +<p> +“Death!” he cried. “Death is it that appalls you? That is nothing by comparison +with the loss the world must suffer. Why, David within this iron cylinder we +have demonstrated possibilities that science has scarce dreamed. We have +harnessed a new principle, and with it animated a piece of steel with the power +of ten thousand men. That two lives will be snuffed out is nothing to the world +calamity that entombs in the bowels of the earth the discoveries that I have +made and proved in the successful construction of the thing that is now +carrying us farther and farther toward the eternal central fires.” +</p> + +<p> +I am frank to admit that for myself I was much more concerned with our own +immediate future than with any problematic loss which the world might be about +to suffer. The world was at least ignorant of its bereavement, while to me it +was a real and terrible actuality. +</p> + +<p> +“What can we do?” I asked, hiding my perturbation beneath the mask of a low and +level voice. +</p> + +<p> +“We may stop here, and die of asphyxiation when our atmosphere tanks are +empty,” replied Perry, “or we may continue on with the slight hope that we may +later sufficiently deflect the prospector from the vertical to carry us along +the arc of a great circle which must eventually return us to the surface. If we +succeed in so doing before we reach the higher internal temperature we may even +yet survive. There would seem to me to be about one chance in several million +that we shall succeed—otherwise we shall die more quickly but no more surely +than as though we sat supinely waiting for the torture of a slow and horrible +death.” +</p> + +<p> +I glanced at the thermometer. It registered 110 degrees. While we were talking +the mighty iron mole had bored its way over a mile into the rock of the earth’s +crust. +</p> + +<p> +“Let us continue on, then,” I replied. “It should soon be over at this rate. +You never intimated that the speed of this thing would be so high, Perry. +Didn’t you know it?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” he answered. “I could not figure the speed exactly, for I had no +instrument for measuring the mighty power of my generator. I reasoned, however, +that we should make about five hundred yards an hour.” +</p> + +<p> +“And we are making seven miles an hour,” I concluded for him, as I sat with my +eyes upon the distance meter. “How thick is the Earth’s crust, Perry?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“There are almost as many conjectures as to that as there are geologists,” was +his answer. “One estimates it thirty miles, because the internal heat, +increasing at the rate of about one degree to each sixty to seventy feet depth, +would be sufficient to fuse the most refractory substances at that distance +beneath the surface. Another finds that the phenomena of precession and +nutation require that the earth, if not entirely solid, must at least have a +shell not less than eight hundred to a thousand miles in thickness. So there +you are. You may take your choice.” +</p> + +<p> +“And if it should prove solid?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“It will be all the same to us in the end, David,” replied Perry. “At the best +our fuel will suffice to carry us but three or four days, while our atmosphere +cannot last to exceed three. Neither, then, is sufficient to bear us in safety +through eight thousand miles of rock to the antipodes.” +</p> + +<p> +“If the crust is of sufficient thickness we shall come to a final stop between +six and seven hundred miles beneath the earth’s surface; but during the last +hundred and fifty miles of our journey we shall be corpses. Am I correct?” I +asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Quite correct, David. Are you frightened?” +</p> + +<p> +“I do not know. It all has come so suddenly that I scarce believe that either +of us realizes the real terrors of our position. I feel that I should be +reduced to panic; but yet I am not. I imagine that the shock has been so great +as to partially stun our sensibilities.” +</p> + +<p> +Again I turned to the thermometer. The mercury was rising with less rapidity. +It was now but 140 degrees, although we had penetrated to a depth of nearly +four miles. I told Perry, and he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +“We have shattered one theory at least,” was his only comment, and then he +returned to his self-assumed occupation of fluently cursing the steering wheel. +I once heard a pirate swear, but his best efforts would have seemed like those +of a tyro alongside of Perry’s masterful and scientific imprecations. +</p> + +<p> +Once more I tried my hand at the wheel, but I might as well have essayed to +swing the earth itself. At my suggestion Perry stopped the generator, and as we +came to rest I again threw all my strength into a supreme effort to move the +thing even a hair’s breadth—but the results were as barren as when we had been +traveling at top speed. +</p> + +<p> +I shook my head sadly, and motioned to the starting lever. Perry pulled it +toward him, and once again we were plunging downward toward eternity at the +rate of seven miles an hour. I sat with my eyes glued to the thermometer and +the distance meter. The mercury was rising very slowly now, though even at 145 +degrees it was almost unbearable within the narrow confines of our metal +prison. +</p> + +<p> +About noon, or twelve hours after our start upon this unfortunate journey, we +had bored to a depth of eighty-four miles, at which point the mercury +registered 153 degrees F. +</p> + +<p> +Perry was becoming more hopeful, although upon what meager food he sustained +his optimism I could not conjecture. From cursing he had turned to singing—I +felt that the strain had at last affected his mind. For several hours we had +not spoken except as he asked me for the readings of the instruments from time +to time, and I announced them. My thoughts were filled with vain regrets. I +recalled numerous acts of my past life which I should have been glad to have +had a few more years to live down. There was the affair in the Latin Commons at +Andover when Calhoun and I had put gunpowder in the stove—and nearly killed one +of the masters. And then—but what was the use, I was about to die and atone for +all these things and several more. Already the heat was sufficient to give me a +foretaste of the hereafter. A few more degrees and I felt that I should lose +consciousness. +</p> + +<p> +“What are the readings now, David?” Perry’s voice broke in upon my somber +reflections. +</p> + +<p> +“Ninety miles and 153 degrees,” I replied. +</p> + +<p> +“Gad, but we’ve knocked that thirty-mile-crust theory into a cocked hat!” he +cried gleefully. +</p> + +<p> +“Precious lot of good it will do us,” I growled back. +</p> + +<p> +“But my boy,” he continued, “doesn’t that temperature reading mean anything to +you? Why it hasn’t gone up in six miles. Think of it, son!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I’m thinking of it,” I answered; “but what difference will it make when +our air supply is exhausted whether the temperature is 153 degrees or 153,000? +We’ll be just as dead, and no one will know the difference, anyhow.” But I must +admit that for some unaccountable reason the stationary temperature did renew +my waning hope. What I hoped for I could not have explained, nor did I try. The +very fact, as Perry took pains to explain, of the blasting of several very +exact and learned scientific hypotheses made it apparent that we could not know +what lay before us within the bowels of the earth, and so we might continue to +hope for the best, at least until we were dead—when hope would no longer be +essential to our happiness. It was very good, and logical reasoning, and so I +embraced it. +</p> + +<p> +At one hundred miles the temperature had DROPPED TO 152 1/2 DEGREES! When I +announced it Perry reached over and hugged me. +</p> + +<p> +From then on until noon of the second day, it continued to drop until it became +as uncomfortably cold as it had been unbearably hot before. At the depth of two +hundred and forty miles our nostrils were assailed by almost overpowering +ammonia fumes, and the temperature had dropped to TEN BELOW ZERO! We suffered +nearly two hours of this intense and bitter cold, until at about two hundred +and forty-five miles from the surface of the earth we entered a stratum of +solid ice, when the mercury quickly rose to 32 degrees. During the next three +hours we passed through ten miles of ice, eventually emerging into another +series of ammonia-impregnated strata, where the mercury again fell to ten +degrees below zero. +</p> + +<p> +Slowly it rose once more until we were convinced that at last we were nearing +the molten interior of the earth. At four hundred miles the temperature had +reached 153 degrees. Feverishly I watched the thermometer. Slowly it rose. +Perry had ceased singing and was at last praying. +</p> + +<p> +Our hopes had received such a deathblow that the gradually increasing heat +seemed to our distorted imaginations much greater than it really was. For +another hour I saw that pitiless column of mercury rise and rise until at four +hundred and ten miles it stood at 153 degrees. Now it was that we began to hang +upon those readings in almost breathless anxiety. +</p> + +<p> +One hundred and fifty-three degrees had been the maximum temperature above the +ice stratum. Would it stop at this point again, or would it continue its +merciless climb? We knew that there was no hope, and yet with the persistence +of life itself we continued to hope against practical certainty. +</p> + +<p> +Already the air tanks were at low ebb—there was barely enough of the precious +gases to sustain us for another twelve hours. But would we be alive to know or +care? It seemed incredible. +</p> + +<p> +At four hundred and twenty miles I took another reading. +</p> + +<p> +“Perry!” I shouted. “Perry, man! She’s going down! She’s going down! She’s 152 +degrees again.” +</p> + +<p> +“Gad!” he cried. “What can it mean? Can the earth be cold at the center?” +</p> + +<p> +“I do not know, Perry,” I answered; “but thank God, if I am to die it shall not +be by fire—that is all that I have feared. I can face the thought of any death +but that.” +</p> + +<p> +Down, down went the mercury until it stood as low as it had seven miles from +the surface of the earth, and then of a sudden the realization broke upon us +that death was very near. Perry was the first to discover it. I saw him fussing +with the valves that regulate the air supply. And at the same time I +experienced difficulty in breathing. My head felt dizzy—my limbs heavy. +</p> + +<p> +I saw Perry crumple in his seat. He gave himself a shake and sat erect again. +Then he turned toward me. +</p> + +<p> +“Good-bye, David,” he said. “I guess this is the end,” and then he smiled and +closed his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“Good-bye, Perry, and good luck to you,” I answered, smiling back at him. But I +fought off that awful lethargy. I was very young—I did not want to die. +</p> + +<p> +For an hour I battled against the cruelly enveloping death that surrounded me +upon all sides. At first I found that by climbing high into the framework above +me I could find more of the precious life-giving elements, and for a while +these sustained me. It must have been an hour after Perry had succumbed that I +at last came to the realization that I could no longer carry on this unequal +struggle against the inevitable. +</p> + +<p> +With my last flickering ray of consciousness I turned mechanically toward the +distance meter. It stood at exactly five hundred miles from the earth’s +surface—and then of a sudden the huge thing that bore us came to a stop. The +rattle of hurtling rock through the hollow jacket ceased. The wild racing of +the giant drill betokened that it was running loose in AIR—and then another +truth flashed upon me. The point of the prospector was ABOVE us. Slowly it +dawned on me that since passing through the ice strata it had been above. We +had turned in the ice and sped upward toward the earth’s crust. Thank God! We +were safe! +</p> + +<p> +I put my nose to the intake pipe through which samples were to have been taken +during the passage of the prospector through the earth, and my fondest hopes +were realized—a flood of fresh air was pouring into the iron cabin. The +reaction left me in a state of collapse, and I lost consciousness. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>II<br/> +A STRANGE WORLD </h2> + +<p> +I was unconscious little more than an instant, for as I lunged forward from the +crossbeam to which I had been clinging, and fell with a crash to the floor of +the cabin, the shock brought me to myself. +</p> + +<p> +My first concern was with Perry. I was horrified at the thought that upon the +very threshold of salvation he might be dead. Tearing open his shirt I placed +my ear to his breast. I could have cried with relief—his heart was beating +quite regularly. +</p> + +<p> +At the water tank I wetted my handkerchief, slapping it smartly across his +forehead and face several times. In a moment I was rewarded by the raising of +his lids. For a time he lay wide-eyed and quite uncomprehending. Then his +scattered wits slowly foregathered, and he sat up sniffing the air with an +expression of wonderment upon his face. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, David,” he cried at last, “it’s air, as sure as I live. Why—why what does +it mean? Where in the world are we? What has happened?” +</p> + +<p> +“It means that we’re back at the surface all right, Perry,” I cried; “but +where, I don’t know. I haven’t opened her up yet. Been too busy reviving you. +Lord, man, but you had a close squeak!” +</p> + +<p> +“You say we’re back at the surface, David? How can that be? How long have I +been unconscious?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not long. We turned in the ice stratum. Don’t you recall the sudden whirling +of our seats? After that the drill was above you instead of below. We didn’t +notice it at the time; but I recall it now.” +</p> + +<p> +“You mean to say that we turned back in the ice stratum, David? That is not +possible. The prospector cannot turn unless its nose is deflected from the +outside—by some external force or resistance—the steering wheel within would +have moved in response. The steering wheel has not budged, David, since we +started. You know that.” +</p> + +<p> +I did know it; but here we were with our drill racing in pure air, and copious +volumes of it pouring into the cabin. +</p> + +<p> +“We couldn’t have turned in the ice stratum, Perry, I know as well as you,” I +replied; “but the fact remains that we did, for here we are this minute at the +surface of the earth again, and I am going out to see just where.” +</p> + +<p> +“Better wait till morning, David—it must be midnight now.” +</p> + +<p> +I glanced at the chronometer. +</p> + +<p> +“Half after twelve. We have been out seventy-two hours, so it must be midnight. +Nevertheless I am going to have a look at the blessed sky that I had given up +all hope of ever seeing again,” and so saying I lifted the bars from the inner +door, and swung it open. There was quite a quantity of loose material in the +jacket, and this I had to remove with a shovel to get at the opposite door in +the outer shell. +</p> + +<p> +In a short time I had removed enough of the earth and rock to the floor of the +cabin to expose the door beyond. Perry was directly behind me as I threw it +open. The upper half was above the surface of the ground. With an expression of +surprise I turned and looked at Perry—it was broad daylight without! +</p> + +<p> +“Something seems to have gone wrong either with our calculations or the +chronometer,” I said. Perry shook his head—there was a strange expression in +his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“Let’s have a look beyond that door, David,” he cried. +</p> + +<p> +Together we stepped out to stand in silent contemplation of a landscape at once +weird and beautiful. Before us a low and level shore stretched down to a silent +sea. As far as the eye could reach the surface of the water was dotted with +countless tiny isles—some of towering, barren, granitic rock—others resplendent +in gorgeous trappings of tropical vegetation, myriad starred with the +magnificent splendor of vivid blooms. +</p> + +<p> +Behind us rose a dark and forbidding wood of giant arborescent ferns +intermingled with the commoner types of a primeval tropical forest. Huge +creepers depended in great loops from tree to tree, dense under-brush overgrew +a tangled mass of fallen trunks and branches. Upon the outer verge we could see +the same splendid coloring of countless blossoms that glorified the islands, +but within the dense shadows all seemed dark and gloomy as the grave. +</p> + +<p> +And upon all the noonday sun poured its torrid rays out of a cloudless sky. +</p> + +<p> +“Where on earth can we be?” I asked, turning to Perry. +</p> + +<p> +For some moments the old man did not reply. He stood with bowed head, buried in +deep thought. But at last he spoke. +</p> + +<p> +“David,” he said, “I am not so sure that we are ON earth.” +</p> + +<p> +“What do you mean, Perry?” I cried. “Do you think that we are dead, and this is +heaven?” He smiled, and turning, pointing to the nose of the prospector +protruding from the ground at our backs. +</p> + +<p> +“But for that, David, I might believe that we were indeed come to the country +beyond the Styx. The prospector renders that theory untenable—it, certainly, +could never have gone to heaven. However I am willing to concede that we +actually may be in another world from that which we have always known. If we +are not ON earth, there is every reason to believe that we may be IN it.” +</p> + +<p> +“We may have quartered through the earth’s crust and come out upon some +tropical island of the West Indies,” I suggested. Again Perry shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +“Let us wait and see, David,” he replied, “and in the meantime suppose we do a +bit of exploring up and down the coast—we may find a native who can enlighten +us.” +</p> + +<p> +As we walked along the beach Perry gazed long and earnestly across the water. +Evidently he was wrestling with a mighty problem. +</p> + +<p> +“David,” he said abruptly, “do you perceive anything unusual about the +horizon?” +</p> + +<p> +As I looked I began to appreciate the reason for the strangeness of the +landscape that had haunted me from the first with an illusive suggestion of the +bizarre and unnatural—THERE WAS NO HORIZON! As far as the eye could reach out +the sea continued and upon its bosom floated tiny islands, those in the +distance reduced to mere specks; but ever beyond them was the sea, until the +impression became quite real that one was LOOKING UP at the most distant point +that the eyes could fathom—the distance was lost in the distance. That was +all—there was no clear-cut horizontal line marking the dip of the globe below +the line of vision. +</p> + +<p> +“A great light is commencing to break on me,” continued Perry, taking out his +watch. “I believe that I have partially solved the riddle. It is now two +o’clock. When we emerged from the prospector the sun was directly above us. +Where is it now?” +</p> + +<p> +I glanced up to find the great orb still motionless in the center of the +heaven. And such a sun! I had scarcely noticed it before. Fully thrice the size +of the sun I had known throughout my life, and apparently so near that the +sight of it carried the conviction that one might almost reach up and touch it. +</p> + +<p> +“My God, Perry, where are we?” I exclaimed. “This thing is beginning to get on +my nerves.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think that I may state quite positively, David,” he commenced, “that we +are—” but he got no further. From behind us in the vicinity of the prospector +there came the most thunderous, awe-inspiring roar that ever had fallen upon my +ears. With one accord we turned to discover the author of that fearsome noise. +</p> + +<p> +Had I still retained the suspicion that we were on earth the sight that met my +eyes would quite entirely have banished it. Emerging from the forest was a +colossal beast which closely resembled a bear. It was fully as large as the +largest elephant and with great forepaws armed with huge claws. Its nose, or +snout, depended nearly a foot below its lower jaw, much after the manner of a +rudimentary trunk. The giant body was covered by a coat of thick, shaggy hair. +</p> + +<p> +Roaring horribly it came toward us at a ponderous, shuffling trot. I turned to +Perry to suggest that it might be wise to seek other surroundings—the idea had +evidently occurred to Perry previously, for he was already a hundred paces +away, and with each second his prodigious bounds increased the distance. I had +never guessed what latent speed possibilities the old gentleman possessed. +</p> + +<p> +I saw that he was headed toward a little point of the forest which ran out +toward the sea not far from where we had been standing, and as the mighty +creature, the sight of which had galvanized him into such remarkable action, +was forging steadily toward me, I set off after Perry, though at a somewhat +more decorous pace. It was evident that the massive beast pursuing us was not +built for speed, so all that I considered necessary was to gain the trees +sufficiently ahead of it to enable me to climb to the safety of some great +branch before it came up. +</p> + +<p> +Notwithstanding our danger I could not help but laugh at Perry’s frantic capers +as he essayed to gain the safety of the lower branches of the trees he now had +reached. The stems were bare for a distance of some fifteen feet—at least on +those trees which Perry attempted to ascend, for the suggestion of safety +carried by the larger of the forest giants had evidently attracted him to them. +A dozen times he scrambled up the trunks like a huge cat only to fall back to +the ground once more, and with each failure he cast a horrified glance over his +shoulder at the oncoming brute, simultaneously emitting terror-stricken shrieks +that awoke the echoes of the grim forest. +</p> + +<p> +At length he spied a dangling creeper about the bigness of one’s wrist, and +when I reached the trees he was racing madly up it, hand over hand. He had +almost reached the lowest branch of the tree from which the creeper depended +when the thing parted beneath his weight and he fell sprawling at my feet. +</p> + +<p> +The misfortune now was no longer amusing, for the beast was already too close +to us for comfort. Seizing Perry by the shoulder I dragged him to his feet, and +rushing to a smaller tree—one that he could easily encircle with his arms and +legs—I boosted him as far up as I could, and then left him to his fate, for a +glance over my shoulder revealed the awful beast almost upon me. +</p> + +<p> +It was the great size of the thing alone that saved me. Its enormous bulk +rendered it too slow upon its feet to cope with the agility of my young +muscles, and so I was enabled to dodge out of its way and run completely behind +it before its slow wits could direct it in pursuit. +</p> + +<p> +The few seconds of grace that this gave me found me safely lodged in the +branches of a tree a few paces from that in which Perry had at last found a +haven. +</p> + +<p> +Did I say safely lodged? At the time I thought we were quite safe, and so did +Perry. He was praying—raising his voice in thanksgiving at our deliverance—and +had just completed a sort of paeon of gratitude that the thing couldn’t climb a +tree when without warning it reared up beneath him on its enormous tail and +hind feet, and reached those fearfully armed paws quite to the branch upon +which he crouched. +</p> + +<p> +The accompanying roar was all but drowned in Perry’s scream of fright, and he +came near tumbling headlong into the gaping jaws beneath him, so precipitate +was his impetuous haste to vacate the dangerous limb. It was with a deep sigh +of relief that I saw him gain a higher branch in safety. +</p> + +<p> +And then the brute did that which froze us both anew with horror. Grasping the +tree’s stem with his powerful paws he dragged down with all the great weight of +his huge bulk and all the irresistible force of those mighty muscles. Slowly, +but surely, the stem began to bend toward him. Inch by inch he worked his paws +upward as the tree leaned more and more from the perpendicular. Perry clung +chattering in a panic of terror. Higher and higher into the bending and swaying +tree he clambered. More and more rapidly was the tree top inclining toward the +ground. +</p> + +<p> +I saw now why the great brute was armed with such enormous paws. The use that +he was putting them to was precisely that for which nature had intended them. +The sloth-like creature was herbivorous, and to feed that mighty carcass entire +trees must be stripped of their foliage. The reason for its attacking us might +easily be accounted for on the supposition of an ugly disposition such as that +which the fierce and stupid rhinoceros of Africa possesses. But these were +later reflections. At the moment I was too frantic with apprehension on Perry’s +behalf to consider aught other than a means to save him from the death that +loomed so close. +</p> + +<p> +Realizing that I could outdistance the clumsy brute in the open, I dropped from +my leafy sanctuary intent only on distracting the thing’s attention from Perry +long enough to enable the old man to gain the safety of a larger tree. There +were many close by which not even the terrific strength of that titanic monster +could bend. +</p> + +<p> +As I touched the ground I snatched a broken limb from the tangled mass that +matted the jungle-like floor of the forest and, leaping unnoticed behind the +shaggy back, dealt the brute a terrific blow. My plan worked like magic. From +the previous slowness of the beast I had been led to look for no such marvelous +agility as he now displayed. Releasing his hold upon the tree he dropped on all +fours and at the same time swung his great, wicked tail with a force that would +have broken every bone in my body had it struck me; but, fortunately, I had +turned to flee at the very instant that I felt my blow land upon the towering +back. +</p> + +<p> +As it started in pursuit of me I made the mistake of running along the edge of +the forest rather than making for the open beach. In a moment I was knee-deep +in rotting vegetation, and the awful thing behind me was gaining rapidly as I +floundered and fell in my efforts to extricate myself. +</p> + +<p> +A fallen log gave me an instant’s advantage, for climbing upon it I leaped to +another a few paces farther on, and in this way was able to keep clear of the +mush that carpeted the surrounding ground. But the zigzag course that this +necessitated was placing such a heavy handicap upon me that my pursuer was +steadily gaining upon me. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly from behind I heard a tumult of howls, and sharp, piercing barks—much +the sound that a pack of wolves raises when in full cry. Involuntarily I +glanced backward to discover the origin of this new and menacing note with the +result that I missed my footing and went sprawling once more upon my face in +the deep muck. +</p> + +<p> +My mammoth enemy was so close by this time that I knew I must feel the weight +of one of his terrible paws before I could rise, but to my surprise the blow +did not fall upon me. The howling and snapping and barking of the new element +which had been infused into the melee now seemed centered quite close behind +me, and as I raised myself upon my hands and glanced around I saw what it was +that had distracted the DYRYTH, as I afterward learned the thing is called, +from my trail. +</p> + +<p> +It was surrounded by a pack of some hundred wolf-like creatures—wild dogs they +seemed—that rushed growling and snapping in upon it from all sides, so that +they sank their white fangs into the slow brute and were away again before it +could reach them with its huge paws or sweeping tail. +</p> + +<p> +But these were not all that my startled eyes perceived. Chattering and +gibbering through the lower branches of the trees came a company of manlike +creatures evidently urging on the dog pack. They were to all appearances +strikingly similar in aspect to the Negro of Africa. Their skins were very +black, and their features much like those of the more pronounced Negroid type +except that the head receded more rapidly above the eyes, leaving little or no +forehead. Their arms were rather longer and their legs shorter in proportion to +the torso than in man, and later I noticed that their great toes protruded at +right angles from their feet—because of their arboreal habits, I presume. +Behind them trailed long, slender tails which they used in climbing quite as +much as they did either their hands or feet. +</p> + +<p> +I had stumbled to my feet the moment that I discovered that the wolf-dogs were +holding the dyryth at bay. At sight of me several of the savage creatures left +off worrying the great brute to come slinking with bared fangs toward me, and +as I turned to run toward the trees again to seek safety among the lower +branches, I saw a number of the man-apes leaping and chattering in the foliage +of the nearest tree. +</p> + +<p> +Between them and the beasts behind me there was little choice, but at least +there was a doubt as to the reception these grotesque parodies on humanity +would accord me, while there was none as to the fate which awaited me beneath +the grinning fangs of my fierce pursuers. +</p> + +<p> +And so I raced on toward the trees intending to pass beneath that which held +the man-things and take refuge in another farther on; but the wolf-dogs were +very close behind me—so close that I had despaired of escaping them, when one +of the creatures in the tree above swung down headforemost, his tail looped +about a great limb, and grasping me beneath my armpits swung me in safety up +among his fellows. +</p> + +<p> +There they fell to examining me with the utmost excitement and curiosity. They +picked at my clothing, my hair, and my flesh. They turned me about to see if I +had a tail, and when they discovered that I was not so equipped they fell into +roars of laughter. Their teeth were very large and white and even, except for +the upper canines which were a trifle longer than the others—protruding just a +bit when the mouth was closed. +</p> + +<p> +When they had examined me for a few moments one of them discovered that my +clothing was not a part of me, with the result that garment by garment they +tore it from me amidst peals of the wildest laughter. Apelike, they essayed to +don the apparel themselves, but their ingenuity was not sufficient to the task +and so they gave it up. +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime I had been straining my eyes to catch a glimpse of Perry, but +nowhere about could I see him, although the clump of trees in which he had +first taken refuge was in full view. I was much exercised by fear that +something had befallen him, and though I called his name aloud several times +there was no response. +</p> + +<p> +Tired at last of playing with my clothing the creatures threw it to the ground, +and catching me, one on either side, by an arm, started off at a most +terrifying pace through the tree tops. Never have I experienced such a journey +before or since—even now I oftentimes awake from a deep sleep haunted by the +horrid remembrance of that awful experience. +</p> + +<p> +From tree to tree the agile creatures sprang like flying squirrels, while the +cold sweat stood upon my brow as I glimpsed the depths beneath, into which a +single misstep on the part of either of my bearers would hurl me. As they bore +me along, my mind was occupied with a thousand bewildering thoughts. What had +become of Perry? Would I ever see him again? What were the intentions of these +half-human things into whose hands I had fallen? Were they inhabitants of the +same world into which I had been born? No! It could not be. But yet where else? +I had not left that earth—of that I was sure. Still neither could I reconcile +the things which I had seen to a belief that I was still in the world of my +birth. With a sigh I gave it up. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>III<br/> +A CHANGE OF MASTERS </h2> + +<p> +We must have traveled several miles through the dark and dismal wood when we +came suddenly upon a dense village built high among the branches of the trees. +As we approached it my escort broke into wild shouting which was immediately +answered from within, and a moment later a swarm of creatures of the same +strange race as those who had captured me poured out to meet us. Again I was +the center of a wildly chattering horde. I was pulled this way and that. +Pinched, pounded, and thumped until I was black and blue, yet I do not think +that their treatment was dictated by either cruelty or malice—I was a +curiosity, a freak, a new plaything, and their childish minds required the +added evidence of all their senses to back up the testimony of their eyes. +</p> + +<p> +Presently they dragged me within the village, which consisted of several +hundred rude shelters of boughs and leaves supported upon the branches of the +trees. +</p> + +<p> +Between the huts, which sometimes formed crooked streets, were dead branches +and the trunks of small trees which connected the huts upon one tree to those +within adjoining trees; the whole network of huts and pathways forming an +almost solid flooring a good fifty feet above the ground. +</p> + +<p> +I wondered why these agile creatures required connecting bridges between the +trees, but later when I saw the motley aggregation of half-savage beasts which +they kept within their village I realized the necessity for the pathways. There +were a number of the same vicious wolf-dogs which we had left worrying the +dyryth, and many goatlike animals whose distended udders explained the reasons +for their presence. +</p> + +<p> +My guard halted before one of the huts into which I was pushed; then two of the +creatures squatted down before the entrance—to prevent my escape, doubtless. +Though where I should have escaped to I certainly had not the remotest +conception. I had no more than entered the dark shadows of the interior than +there fell upon my ears the tones of a familiar voice, in prayer. +</p> + +<p> +“Perry!” I cried. “Dear old Perry! Thank the Lord you are safe.” +</p> + +<p> +“David! Can it be possible that you escaped?” And the old man stumbled toward +me and threw his arms about me. +</p> + +<p> +He had seen me fall before the dyryth, and then he had been seized by a number +of the ape-creatures and borne through the tree tops to their village. His +captors had been as inquisitive as to his strange clothing as had mine, with +the same result. As we looked at each other we could not help but laugh. +</p> + +<p> +“With a tail, David,” remarked Perry, “you would make a very handsome ape.” +</p> + +<p> +“Maybe we can borrow a couple,” I rejoined. “They seem to be quite the thing +this season. I wonder what the creatures intend doing with us, Perry. They +don’t seem really savage. What do you suppose they can be? You were about to +tell me where we are when that great hairy frigate bore down upon us—have you +really any idea at all?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, David,” he replied, “I know precisely where we are. We have made a +magnificent discovery, my boy! We have proved that the earth is hollow. We have +passed entirely through its crust to the inner world.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perry, you are mad!” +</p> + +<p> +“Not at all, David. For two hundred and fifty miles our prospector bore us +through the crust beneath our outer world. At that point it reached the center +of gravity of the five-hundred-mile-thick crust. Up to that point we had been +descending—direction is, of course, merely relative. Then at the moment that +our seats revolved—the thing that made you believe that we had turned about and +were speeding upward—we passed the center of gravity and, though we did not +alter the direction of our progress, yet we were in reality moving +upward—toward the surface of the inner world. Does not the strange fauna and +flora which we have seen convince you that you are not in the world of your +birth? And the horizon—could it present the strange aspects which we both noted +unless we were indeed standing upon the inside surface of a sphere?” +</p> + +<p> +“But the sun, Perry!” I urged. “How in the world can the sun shine through five +hundred miles of solid crust?” +</p> + +<p> +“It is not the sun of the outer world that we see here. It is another sun—an +entirely different sun—that casts its eternal noonday effulgence upon the face +of the inner world. Look at it now, David—if you can see it from the doorway of +this hut—and you will see that it is still in the exact center of the heavens. +We have been here for many hours—yet it is still noon. +</p> + +<p> +“And withal it is very simple, David. The earth was once a nebulous mass. It +cooled, and as it cooled it shrank. At length a thin crust of solid matter +formed upon its outer surface—a sort of shell; but within it was partially +molten matter and highly expanded gases. As it continued to cool, what +happened? Centrifugal force hurled the particles of the nebulous center toward +the crust as rapidly as they approached a solid state. You have seen the same +principle practically applied in the modern cream separator. Presently there +was only a small super-heated core of gaseous matter remaining within a huge +vacant interior left by the contraction of the cooling gases. The equal +attraction of the solid crust from all directions maintained this luminous core +in the exact center of the hollow globe. What remains of it is the sun you saw +today—a relatively tiny thing at the exact center of the earth. Equally to +every part of this inner world it diffuses its perpetual noonday light and +torrid heat. +</p> + +<p> +“This inner world must have cooled sufficiently to support animal life long +ages after life appeared upon the outer crust, but that the same agencies were +at work here is evident from the similar forms of both animal and vegetable +creation which we have already seen. Take the great beast which attacked us, +for example. Unquestionably a counterpart of the Megatherium of the +post-Pliocene period of the outer crust, whose fossilized skeleton has been +found in South America.” +</p> + +<p> +“But the grotesque inhabitants of this forest?” I urged. “Surely they have no +counterpart in the earth’s history.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who can tell?” he rejoined. “They may constitute the link between ape and man, +all traces of which have been swallowed by the countless convulsions which have +racked the outer crust, or they may be merely the result of evolution along +slightly different lines—either is quite possible.” +</p> + +<p> +Further speculation was interrupted by the appearance of several of our captors +before the entrance of the hut. Two of them entered and dragged us forth. The +perilous pathways and the surrounding trees were filled with the black ape-men, +their females, and their young. There was not an ornament, a weapon, or a +garment among the lot. +</p> + +<p> +“Quite low in the scale of creation,” commented Perry. +</p> + +<p> +“Quite high enough to play the deuce with us, though,” I replied. “Now what do +you suppose they intend doing with us?” +</p> + +<p> +We were not long in learning. As on the occasion of our trip to the village we +were seized by a couple of the powerful creatures and whirled away through the +tree tops, while about us and in our wake raced a chattering, jabbering, +grinning horde of sleek, black ape-things. +</p> + +<p> +Twice my bearers missed their footing, and my heart ceased beating as we +plunged toward instant death among the tangled deadwood beneath. But on both +occasions those lithe, powerful tails reached out and found sustaining +branches, nor did either of the creatures loosen their grasp upon me. In fact, +it seemed that the incidents were of no greater moment to them than would be +the stubbing of one’s toe at a street crossing in the outer world—they but +laughed uproariously and sped on with me. +</p> + +<p> +For some time they continued through the forest—how long I could not guess for +I was learning, what was later borne very forcefully to my mind, that time +ceases to be a factor the moment means for measuring it cease to exist. Our +watches were gone, and we were living beneath a stationary sun. Already I was +puzzled to compute the period of time which had elapsed since we broke through +the crust of the inner world. It might be hours, or it might be days—who in the +world could tell where it was always noon! By the sun, no time had elapsed—but +my judgment told me that we must have been several hours in this strange world. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the forest terminated, and we came out upon a level plain. A short +distance before us rose a few low, rocky hills. Toward these our captors urged +us, and after a short time led us through a narrow pass into a tiny, circular +valley. Here they got down to work, and we were soon convinced that if we were +not to die to make a Roman holiday, we were to die for some other purpose. The +attitude of our captors altered immediately as they entered the natural arena +within the rocky hills. Their laughter ceased. Grim ferocity marked their +bestial faces—bared fangs menaced us. +</p> + +<p> +We were placed in the center of the amphitheater—the thousand creatures forming +a great ring about us. Then a wolf-dog was brought—HYAENODON Perry called +it—and turned loose with us inside the circle. The thing’s body was as large as +that of a full-grown mastiff, its legs were short and powerful, and its jaws +broad and strong. Dark, shaggy hair covered its back and sides, while its +breast and belly were quite white. As it slunk toward us it presented a most +formidable aspect with its upcurled lips baring its mighty fangs. +</p> + +<p> +Perry was on his knees, praying. I stooped and picked up a small stone. At my +movement the beast veered off a bit and commenced circling us. Evidently it had +been a target for stones before. The ape-things were dancing up and down urging +the brute on with savage cries, until at last, seeing that I did not throw, he +charged us. +</p> + +<p> +At Andover, and later at Yale, I had pitched on winning ball teams. My speed +and control must both have been above the ordinary, for I made such a record +during my senior year at college that overtures were made to me in behalf of +one of the great major-league teams; but in the tightest pitch that ever had +confronted me in the past I had never been in such need for control as now. +</p> + +<p> +As I wound up for the delivery, I held my nerves and muscles under absolute +command, though the grinning jaws were hurtling toward me at terrific speed. +And then I let go, with every ounce of my weight and muscle and science in back +of that throw. The stone caught the hyaenodon full upon the end of the nose, +and sent him bowling over upon his back. +</p> + +<p> +At the same instant a chorus of shrieks and howls arose from the circle of +spectators, so that for a moment I thought that the upsetting of their champion +was the cause; but in this I soon saw that I was mistaken. As I looked, the +ape-things broke in all directions toward the surrounding hills, and then I +distinguished the real cause of their perturbation. Behind them, streaming +through the pass which leads into the valley, came a swarm of hairy +men—gorilla-like creatures armed with spears and hatchets, and bearing long, +oval shields. Like demons they set upon the ape-things, and before them the +hyaenodon, which had now regained its senses and its feet, fled howling with +fright. Past us swept the pursued and the pursuers, nor did the hairy ones +accord us more than a passing glance until the arena had been emptied of its +former occupants. Then they returned to us, and one who seemed to have +authority among them directed that we be brought with them. +</p> + +<p> +When we had passed out of the amphitheater onto the great plain we saw a +caravan of men and women—human beings like ourselves—and for the first time +hope and relief filled my heart, until I could have cried out in the exuberance +of my happiness. It is true that they were a half-naked, wild-appearing +aggregation; but they at least were fashioned along the same lines as +ourselves—there was nothing grotesque or horrible about them as about the other +creatures in this strange, weird world. +</p> + +<p> +But as we came closer, our hearts sank once more, for we discovered that the +poor wretches were chained neck to neck in a long line, and that the +gorilla-men were their guards. With little ceremony Perry and I were chained at +the end of the line, and without further ado the interrupted march was resumed. +</p> + +<p> +Up to this time the excitement had kept us both up; but now the tiresome +monotony of the long march across the sun-baked plain brought on all the +agonies consequent to a long-denied sleep. On and on we stumbled beneath that +hateful noonday sun. If we fell we were prodded with a sharp point. Our +companions in chains did not stumble. They strode along proudly erect. +Occasionally they would exchange words with one another in a monosyllabic +language. They were a noble-appearing race with well-formed heads and perfect +physiques. The men were heavily bearded, tall and muscular; the women, smaller +and more gracefully molded, with great masses of raven hair caught into loose +knots upon their heads. The features of both sexes were well proportioned—there +was not a face among them that would have been called even plain if judged by +earthly standards. They wore no ornaments; but this I later learned was due to +the fact that their captors had stripped them of everything of value. As +garmenture the women possessed a single robe of some light-colored, spotted +hide, rather similar in appearance to a leopard’s skin. This they wore either +supported entirely about the waist by a leathern thong, so that it hung +partially below the knee on one side, or possibly looped gracefully across one +shoulder. Their feet were shod with skin sandals. The men wore loin cloths of +the hide of some shaggy beast, long ends of which depended before and behind +nearly to the ground. In some instances these ends were finished with the +strong talons of the beast from which the hides had been taken. +</p> + +<p> +Our guards, whom I already have described as gorilla-like men, were rather +lighter in build than a gorilla, but even so they were indeed mighty creatures. +Their arms and legs were proportioned more in conformity with human standards, +but their entire bodies were covered with shaggy, brown hair, and their faces +were quite as brutal as those of the few stuffed specimens of the gorilla which +I had seen in the museums at home. +</p> + +<p> +Their only redeeming feature lay in the development of the head above and back +of the ears. In this respect they were not one whit less human than we. They +were clothed in a sort of tunic of light cloth which reached to the knees. +Beneath this they wore only a loin cloth of the same material, while their feet +were shod with thick hide of some mammoth creature of this inner world. +</p> + +<p> +Their arms and necks were encircled by many ornaments of metal—silver +predominating—and on their tunics were sewn the heads of tiny reptiles in odd +and rather artistic designs. They talked among themselves as they marched along +on either side of us, but in a language which I perceived differed from that +employed by our fellow prisoners. When they addressed the latter they used what +appeared to be a third language, and which I later learned is a mongrel tongue +rather analogous to the Pidgin-English of the Chinese coolie. +</p> + +<p> +How far we marched I have no conception, nor has Perry. Both of us were asleep +much of the time for hours before a halt was called—then we dropped in our +tracks. I say “for hours,” but how may one measure time where time does not +exist! When our march commenced the sun stood at zenith. When we halted our +shadows still pointed toward nadir. Whether an instant or an eternity of +earthly time elapsed who may say. That march may have occupied nine years and +eleven months of the ten years that I spent in the inner world, or it may have +been accomplished in the fraction of a second—I cannot tell. But this I do know +that since you have told me that ten years have elapsed since I departed from +this earth I have lost all respect for time—I am commencing to doubt that such +a thing exists other than in the weak, finite mind of man. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>IV<br/> +DIAN THE BEAUTIFUL </h2> + +<p> +When our guards aroused us from sleep we were much refreshed. They gave us +food. Strips of dried meat it was, but it put new life and strength into us, so +that now we too marched with high-held heads, and took noble strides. At least +I did, for I was young and proud; but poor Perry hated walking. On earth I had +often seen him call a cab to travel a square—he was paying for it now, and his +old legs wobbled so that I put my arm about him and half carried him through +the balance of those frightful marches. +</p> + +<p> +The country began to change at last, and we wound up out of the level plain +through mighty mountains of virgin granite. The tropical verdure of the +lowlands was replaced by hardier vegetation, but even here the effects of +constant heat and light were apparent in the immensity of the trees and the +profusion of foliage and blooms. Crystal streams roared through their rocky +channels, fed by the perpetual snows which we could see far above us. Above the +snowcapped heights hung masses of heavy clouds. It was these, Perry explained, +which evidently served the double purpose of replenishing the melting snows and +protecting them from the direct rays of the sun. +</p> + +<p> +By this time we had picked up a smattering of the bastard language in which our +guards addressed us, as well as making good headway in the rather charming +tongue of our co-captives. Directly ahead of me in the chain gang was a young +woman. Three feet of chain linked us together in a forced companionship which +I, at least, soon rejoiced in. For I found her a willing teacher, and from her +I learned the language of her tribe, and much of the life and customs of the +inner world—at least that part of it with which she was familiar. +</p> + +<p> +She told me that she was called Dian the Beautiful, and that she belonged to +the tribe of Amoz, which dwells in the cliffs above the Darel Az, or shallow +sea. +</p> + +<p> +“How came you here?” I asked her. +</p> + +<p> +“I was running away from Jubal the Ugly One,” she answered, as though that was +explanation quite sufficient. +</p> + +<p> +“Who is Jubal the Ugly One?” I asked. “And why did you run away from him?” +</p> + +<p> +She looked at me in surprise. +</p> + +<p> +“Why DOES a woman run away from a man?” she answered my question with another. +</p> + +<p> +“They do not, where I come from,” I replied. “Sometimes they run after them.” +</p> + +<p> +But she could not understand. Nor could I get her to grasp the fact that I was +of another world. She was quite as positive that creation was originated solely +to produce her own kind and the world she lived in as are many of the outer +world. +</p> + +<p> +“But Jubal,” I insisted. “Tell me about him, and why you ran away to be chained +by the neck and scourged across the face of a world.” +</p> + +<p> +“Jubal the Ugly One placed his trophy before my father’s house. It was the head +of a mighty tandor. It remained there and no greater trophy was placed beside +it. So I knew that Jubal the Ugly One would come and take me as his mate. None +other so powerful wished me, or they would have slain a mightier beast and thus +have won me from Jubal. My father is not a mighty hunter. Once he was, but a +sadok tossed him, and never again had he the full use of his right arm. My +brother, Dacor the Strong One, had gone to the land of Sari to steal a mate for +himself. Thus there was none, father, brother, or lover, to save me from Jubal +the Ugly One, and I ran away and hid among the hills that skirt the land of +Amoz. And there these Sagoths found me and made me captive.” +</p> + +<p> +“What will they do with you?” I asked. “Where are they taking us?” +</p> + +<p> +Again she looked her incredulity. +</p> + +<p> +“I can almost believe that you are of another world,” she said, “for otherwise +such ignorance were inexplicable. Do you really mean that you do not know that +the Sagoths are the creatures of the Mahars—the mighty Mahars who think they +own Pellucidar and all that walks or grows upon its surface, or creeps or +burrows beneath, or swims within its lakes and oceans, or flies through its +air? Next you will be telling me that you never before heard of the Mahars!” +</p> + +<p> +I was loath to do it, and further incur her scorn; but there was no alternative +if I were to absorb knowledge, so I made a clean breast of my pitiful ignorance +as to the mighty Mahars. She was shocked. But she did her very best to +enlighten me, though much that she said was as Greek would have been to her. +She described the Mahars largely by comparisons. In this way they were like +unto thipdars, in that to the hairless lidi. +</p> + +<p> +About all I gleaned of them was that they were quite hideous, had wings, and +webbed feet; lived in cities built beneath the ground; could swim under water +for great distances, and were very, very wise. The Sagoths were their weapons +of offense and defense, and the races like herself were their hands and +feet—they were the slaves and servants who did all the manual labor. The Mahars +were the heads—the brains—of the inner world. I longed to see this wondrous +race of supermen. +</p> + +<p> +Perry learned the language with me. When we halted, as we occasionally did, +though sometimes the halts seemed ages apart, he would join in the +conversation, as would Ghak the Hairy One, he who was chained just ahead of +Dian the Beautiful. Ahead of Ghak was Hooja the Sly One. He too entered the +conversation occasionally. Most of his remarks were directed toward Dian the +Beautiful. It didn’t take half an eye to see that he had developed a bad case; +but the girl appeared totally oblivious to his thinly veiled advances. Did I +say thinly veiled? There is a race of men in New Zealand, or Australia, I have +forgotten which, who indicate their preference for the lady of their affections +by banging her over the head with a bludgeon. By comparison with this method +Hooja’s lovemaking might be called thinly veiled. At first it caused me to +blush violently although I have seen several Old Years out at Rectors, and in +other less fashionable places off Broadway, and in Vienna, and Hamburg. +</p> + +<p> +But the girl! She was magnificent. It was easy to see that she considered +herself as entirely above and apart from her present surroundings and company. +She talked with me, and with Perry, and with the taciturn Ghak because we were +respectful; but she couldn’t even see Hooja the Sly One, much less hear him, +and that made him furious. He tried to get one of the Sagoths to move the girl +up ahead of him in the slave gang, but the fellow only poked him with his spear +and told him that he had selected the girl for his own property—that he would +buy her from the Mahars as soon as they reached Phutra. Phutra, it seemed, was +the city of our destination. +</p> + +<p> +After passing over the first chain of mountains we skirted a salt sea, upon +whose bosom swam countless horrid things. Seal-like creatures there were with +long necks stretching ten and more feet above their enormous bodies and whose +snake heads were split with gaping mouths bristling with countless fangs. There +were huge tortoises too, paddling about among these other reptiles, which Perry +said were Plesiosaurs of the Lias. I didn’t question his veracity—they might +have been most anything. +</p> + +<p> +Dian told me they were tandorazes, or tandors of the sea, and that the other, +and more fearsome reptiles, which occasionally rose from the deep to do battle +with them, were azdyryths, or sea-dyryths—Perry called them Ichthyosaurs. They +resembled a whale with the head of an alligator. +</p> + +<p> +I had forgotten what little geology I had studied at school—about all that +remained was an impression of horror that the illustrations of restored +prehistoric monsters had made upon me, and a well-defined belief that any man +with a pig’s shank and a vivid imagination could “restore” most any sort of +paleolithic monster he saw fit, and take rank as a first class paleontologist. +But when I saw these sleek, shiny carcasses shimmering in the sunlight as they +emerged from the ocean, shaking their giant heads; when I saw the waters roll +from their sinuous bodies in miniature waterfalls as they glided hither and +thither, now upon the surface, now half submerged; as I saw them meet, +open-mouthed, hissing and snorting, in their titanic and interminable warring I +realized how futile is man’s poor, weak imagination by comparison with Nature’s +incredible genius. +</p> + +<p> +And Perry! He was absolutely flabbergasted. He said so himself. +</p> + +<p> +“David,” he remarked, after we had marched for a long time beside that awful +sea. “David, I used to teach geology, and I thought that I believed what I +taught; but now I see that I did not believe it—that it is impossible for man +to believe such things as these unless he sees them with his own eyes. We take +things for granted, perhaps, because we are told them over and over again, and +have no way of disproving them—like religions, for example; but we don’t +believe them, we only think we do. If you ever get back to the outer world you +will find that the geologists and paleontologists will be the first to set you +down a liar, for they know that no such creatures as they restore ever existed. +It is all right to IMAGINE them as existing in an equally imaginary epoch—but +now? poof!” +</p> + +<p> +At the next halt Hooja the Sly One managed to find enough slack chain to permit +him to worm himself back quite close to Dian. We were all standing, and as he +edged near the girl she turned her back upon him in such a truly earthly +feminine manner that I could scarce repress a smile; but it was a short-lived +smile for on the instant the Sly One’s hand fell upon the girl’s bare arm, +jerking her roughly toward him. +</p> + +<p> +I was not then familiar with the customs or social ethics which prevailed +within Pellucidar; but even so I did not need the appealing look which the girl +shot to me from her magnificent eyes to influence my subsequent act. What the +Sly One’s intention was I paused not to inquire; but instead, before he could +lay hold of her with his other hand, I placed a right to the point of his jaw +that felled him in his tracks. +</p> + +<p> +A roar of approval went up from those of the other prisoners and the Sagoths +who had witnessed the brief drama; not, as I later learned, because I had +championed the girl, but for the neat and, to them, astounding method by which +I had bested Hooja. +</p> + +<p> +And the girl? At first she looked at me with wide, wondering eyes, and then she +dropped her head, her face half averted, and a delicate flush suffused her +cheek. For a moment she stood thus in silence, and then her head went high, and +she turned her back upon me as she had upon Hooja. Some of the prisoners +laughed, and I saw the face of Ghak the Hairy One go very black as he looked at +me searchingly. And what I could see of Dian’s cheek went suddenly from red to +white. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately after we resumed the march, and though I realized that in some way +I had offended Dian the Beautiful I could not prevail upon her to talk with me +that I might learn wherein I had erred—in fact I might quite as well have been +addressing a sphinx for all the attention I got. At last my own foolish pride +stepped in and prevented my making any further attempts, and thus a +companionship that without my realizing it had come to mean a great deal to me +was cut off. Thereafter I confined my conversation to Perry. Hooja did not +renew his advances toward the girl, nor did he again venture near me. +</p> + +<p> +Again the weary and apparently interminable marching became a perfect nightmare +of horrors to me. The more firmly fixed became the realization that the girl’s +friendship had meant so much to me, the more I came to miss it; and the more +impregnable the barrier of silly pride. But I was very young and would not ask +Ghak for the explanation which I was sure he could give, and that might have +made everything all right again. +</p> + +<p> +On the march, or during halts, Dian refused consistently to notice me—when her +eyes wandered in my direction she looked either over my head or directly +through me. At last I became desperate, and determined to swallow my +self-esteem, and again beg her to tell me how I had offended, and how I might +make reparation. I made up my mind that I should do this at the next halt. We +were approaching another range of mountains at the time, and when we reached +them, instead of winding across them through some high-flung pass we entered a +mighty natural tunnel—a series of labyrinthine grottoes, dark as Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +The guards had no torches or light of any description. In fact we had seen no +artificial light or sign of fire since we had entered Pellucidar. In a land of +perpetual noon there is no need of light above ground, yet I marveled that they +had no means of lighting their way through these dark, subterranean passages. +So we crept along at a snail’s pace, with much stumbling and falling—the guards +keeping up a singsong chant ahead of us, interspersed with certain high notes +which I found always indicated rough places and turns. +</p> + +<p> +Halts were now more frequent, but I did not wish to speak to Dian until I could +see from the expression of her face how she was receiving my apologies. At last +a faint glow ahead forewarned us of the end of the tunnel, for which I for one +was devoutly thankful. Then at a sudden turn we emerged into the full light of +the noonday sun. +</p> + +<p> +But with it came a sudden realization of what meant to me a real +catastrophe—Dian was gone, and with her a half-dozen other prisoners. The +guards saw it too, and the ferocity of their rage was terrible to behold. Their +awesome, bestial faces were contorted in the most diabolical expressions, as +they accused each other of responsibility for the loss. Finally they fell upon +us, beating us with their spear shafts, and hatchets. They had already killed +two near the head of the line, and were like to have finished the balance of us +when their leader finally put a stop to the brutal slaughter. Never in all my +life had I witnessed a more horrible exhibition of bestial rage—I thanked God +that Dian had not been one of those left to endure it. +</p> + +<p> +Of the twelve prisoners who had been chained ahead of me each alternate one had +been freed commencing with Dian. Hooja was gone. Ghak remained. What could it +mean? How had it been accomplished? The commander of the guards was +investigating. Soon he discovered that the rude locks which had held the +neckbands in place had been deftly picked. +</p> + +<p> +“Hooja the Sly One,” murmured Ghak, who was now next to me in line. “He has +taken the girl that you would not have,” he continued, glancing at me. +</p> + +<p> +“That I would not have!” I cried. “What do you mean?” +</p> + +<p> +He looked at me closely for a moment. +</p> + +<p> +“I have doubted your story that you are from another world,” he said at last, +“but yet upon no other grounds could your ignorance of the ways of Pellucidar +be explained. Do you really mean that you do not know that you offended the +Beautiful One, and how?” +</p> + +<p> +“I do not know, Ghak,” I replied. +</p> + +<p> +“Then shall I tell you. When a man of Pellucidar intervenes between another man +and the woman the other man would have, the woman belongs to the victor. Dian +the Beautiful belongs to you. You should have claimed her or released her. Had +you taken her hand, it would have indicated your desire to make her your mate, +and had you raised her hand above her head and then dropped it, it would have +meant that you did not wish her for a mate and that you released her from all +obligation to you. By doing neither you have put upon her the greatest affront +that a man may put upon a woman. Now she is your slave. No man will take her as +mate, or may take her honorably, until he shall have overcome you in combat, +and men do not choose slave women as their mates—at least not the men of +Pellucidar.” +</p> + +<p> +“I did not know, Ghak,” I cried. “I did not know. Not for all Pellucidar would +I have harmed Dian the Beautiful by word, or look, or act of mine. I do not +want her as my slave. I do not want her as my—” but here I stopped. The vision +of that sweet and innocent face floated before me amidst the soft mists of +imagination, and where I had on the second believed that I clung only to the +memory of a gentle friendship I had lost, yet now it seemed that it would have +been disloyalty to her to have said that I did not want Dian the Beautiful as +my mate. I had not thought of her except as a welcome friend in a strange, +cruel world. Even now I did not think that I loved her. +</p> + +<p> +I believe Ghak must have read the truth more in my expression than in my words, +for presently he laid his hand upon my shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +“Man of another world,” he said, “I believe you. Lips may lie, but when the +heart speaks through the eyes it tells only the truth. Your heart has spoken to +me. I know now that you meant no affront to Dian the Beautiful. She is not of +my tribe; but her mother is my sister. She does not know it—her mother was +stolen by Dian’s father who came with many others of the tribe of Amoz to +battle with us for our women—the most beautiful women of Pellucidar. Then was +her father king of Amoz, and her mother was daughter of the king of Sari—to +whose power I, his son, have succeeded. Dian is the daughter of kings, though +her father is no longer king since the sadok tossed him and Jubal the Ugly One +wrested his kingship from him. Because of her lineage the wrong you did her was +greatly magnified in the eyes of all who saw it. She will never forgive you.” +</p> + +<p> +I asked Ghak if there was not some way in which I could release the girl from +the bondage and ignominy I had unwittingly placed upon her. +</p> + +<p> +“If ever you find her, yes,” he answered. “Merely to raise her hand above her +head and drop it in the presence of others is sufficient to release her; but +how may you ever find her, you who are doomed to a life of slavery yourself in +the buried city of Phutra?” +</p> + +<p> +“Is there no escape?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Hooja the Sly One escaped and took the others with him,” replied Ghak. “But +there are no more dark places on the way to Phutra, and once there it is not so +easy—the Mahars are very wise. Even if one escaped from Phutra there are the +thipdars—they would find you, and then—” the Hairy One shuddered. “No, you will +never escape the Mahars.” +</p> + +<p> +It was a cheerful prospect. I asked Perry what he thought about it; but he only +shrugged his shoulders and continued a longwinded prayer he had been at for +some time. He was wont to say that the only redeeming feature of our captivity +was the ample time it gave him for the improvisation of prayers—it was becoming +an obsession with him. The Sagoths had begun to take notice of his habit of +declaiming throughout entire marches. One of them asked him what he was +saying—to whom he was talking. The question gave me an idea, so I answered +quickly before Perry could say anything. +</p> + +<p> +“Do not interrupt him,” I said. “He is a very holy man in the world from which +we come. He is speaking to spirits which you cannot see—do not interrupt him or +they will spring out of the air upon you and rend you limb from limb—like +that,” and I jumped toward the great brute with a loud “Boo!” that sent him +stumbling backward. +</p> + +<p> +I took a long chance, I realized, but if we could make any capital out of +Perry’s harmless mania I wanted to make it while the making was prime. It +worked splendidly. The Sagoths treated us both with marked respect during the +balance of the journey, and then passed the word along to their masters, the +Mahars. +</p> + +<p> +Two marches after this episode we came to the city of Phutra. The entrance to +it was marked by two lofty towers of granite, which guarded a flight of steps +leading to the buried city. Sagoths were on guard here as well as at a hundred +or more other towers scattered about over a large plain. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>V<br/> +SLAVES </h2> + +<p> +As we descended the broad staircase which led to the main avenue of Phutra I +caught my first sight of the dominant race of the inner world. Involuntarily I +shrank back as one of the creatures approached to inspect us. A more hideous +thing it would be impossible to imagine. The all-powerful Mahars of Pellucidar +are great reptiles, some six or eight feet in length, with long narrow heads +and great round eyes. Their beak-like mouths are lined with sharp, white fangs, +and the backs of their huge, lizard bodies are serrated into bony ridges from +their necks to the end of their long tails. Their feet are equipped with three +webbed toes, while from the fore feet membranous wings, which are attached to +their bodies just in front of the hind legs, protrude at an angle of 45 degrees +toward the rear, ending in sharp points several feet above their bodies. +</p> + +<p> +I glanced at Perry as the thing passed me to inspect him. The old man was +gazing at the horrid creature with wide astonished eyes. When it passed on, he +turned to me. +</p> + +<p> +“A rhamphorhynchus of the Middle Olitic, David,” he said, “but, gad, how +enormous! The largest remains we ever have discovered have never indicated a +size greater than that attained by an ordinary crow.” +</p> + +<p> +As we continued on through the main avenue of Phutra we saw many thousand of +the creatures coming and going upon their daily duties. They paid but little +attention to us. Phutra is laid out underground with a regularity that +indicates remarkable engineering skill. It is hewn from solid limestone strata. +The streets are broad and of a uniform height of twenty feet. At intervals +tubes pierce the roof of this underground city, and by means of lenses and +reflectors transmit the sunlight, softened and diffused, to dispel what would +otherwise be Cimmerian darkness. In like manner air is introduced. +</p> + +<p> +Perry and I were taken, with Ghak, to a large public building, where one of the +Sagoths who had formed our guard explained to a Maharan official the +circumstances surrounding our capture. The method of communication between +these two was remarkable in that no spoken words were exchanged. They employed +a species of sign language. As I was to learn later, the Mahars have no ears, +not any spoken language. Among themselves they communicate by means of what +Perry says must be a sixth sense which is cognizant of a fourth dimension. +</p> + +<p> +I never did quite grasp him, though he endeavored to explain it to me upon +numerous occasions. I suggested telepathy, but he said no, that it was not +telepathy since they could only communicate when in each others’ presence, nor +could they talk with the Sagoths or the other inhabitants of Pellucidar by the +same method they used to converse with one another. +</p> + +<p> +“What they do,” said Perry, “is to project their thoughts into the fourth +dimension, when they become appreciable to the sixth sense of their listener. +Do I make myself quite clear?” +</p> + +<p> +“You do not, Perry,” I replied. He shook his head in despair, and returned to +his work. They had set us to carrying a great accumulation of Maharan +literature from one apartment to another, and there arranging it upon shelves. +I suggested to Perry that we were in the public library of Phutra, but later, +as he commenced to discover the key to their written language, he assured me +that we were handling the ancient archives of the race. +</p> + +<p> +During this period my thoughts were continually upon Dian the Beautiful. I was, +of course, glad that she had escaped the Mahars, and the fate that had been +suggested by the Sagoth who had threatened to purchase her upon our arrival at +Phutra. I often wondered if the little party of fugitives had been overtaken by +the guards who had returned to search for them. Sometimes I was not so sure but +that I should have been more contented to know that Dian was here in Phutra, +than to think of her at the mercy of Hooja the Sly One. Ghak, Perry, and I +often talked together of possible escape, but the Sarian was so steeped in his +lifelong belief that no one could escape from the Mahars except by a miracle, +that he was not much aid to us—his attitude was of one who waits for the +miracle to come to him. +</p> + +<p> +At my suggestion Perry and I fashioned some swords of scraps of iron which we +discovered among some rubbish in the cells where we slept, for we were +permitted almost unrestrained freedom of action within the limits of the +building to which we had been assigned. So great were the number of slaves who +waited upon the inhabitants of Phutra that none of us was apt to be +overburdened with work, nor were our masters unkind to us. +</p> + +<p> +We hid our new weapons beneath the skins which formed our beds, and then Perry +conceived the idea of making bows and arrows—weapons apparently unknown within +Pellucidar. Next came shields; but these I found it easier to steal from the +walls of the outer guardroom of the building. +</p> + +<p> +We had completed these arrangements for our protection after leaving Phutra +when the Sagoths who had been sent to recapture the escaped prisoners returned +with four of them, of whom Hooja was one. Dian and two others had eluded them. +It so happened that Hooja was confined in the same building with us. He told +Ghak that he had not seen Dian or the others after releasing them within the +dark grotto. What had become of them he had not the faintest conception—they +might be wandering yet, lost within the labyrinthine tunnel, if not dead from +starvation. +</p> + +<p> +I was now still further apprehensive as to the fate of Dian, and at this time, +I imagine, came the first realization that my affection for the girl might be +prompted by more than friendship. During my waking hours she was constantly the +subject of my thoughts, and when I slept her dear face haunted my dreams. More +than ever was I determined to escape the Mahars. +</p> + +<p> +“Perry,” I confided to the old man, “if I have to search every inch of this +diminutive world I am going to find Dian the Beautiful and right the wrong I +unintentionally did her.” That was the excuse I made for Perry’s benefit. +</p> + +<p> +“Diminutive world!” he scoffed. “You don’t know what you are talking about, my +boy,” and then he showed me a map of Pellucidar which he had recently +discovered among the manuscript he was arranging. +</p> + +<p> +“Look,” he cried, pointing to it, “this is evidently water, and all this land. +Do you notice the general configuration of the two areas? Where the oceans are +upon the outer crust, is land here. These relatively small areas of ocean +follow the general lines of the continents of the outer world. +</p> + +<p> +“We know that the crust of the globe is 500 miles in thickness; then the inside +diameter of Pellucidar must be 7,000 miles, and the superficial area +165,480,000 square miles. Three-fourths of this is land. Think of it! A land +area of 124,110,000 square miles! Our own world contains but 53,000,000 square +miles of land, the balance of its surface being covered by water. Just as we +often compare nations by their relative land areas, so if we compare these two +worlds in the same way we have the strange anomaly of a larger world within a +smaller one! +</p> + +<p> +“Where within vast Pellucidar would you search for your Dian? Without stars, or +moon, or changing sun how could you find her even though you knew where she +might be found?” +</p> + +<p> +The proposition was a corker. It quite took my breath away; but I found that it +left me all the more determined to attempt it. +</p> + +<p> +“If Ghak will accompany us we may be able to do it,” I suggested. +</p> + +<p> +Perry and I sought him out and put the question straight to him. +</p> + +<p> +“Ghak,” I said, “we are determined to escape from this bondage. Will you +accompany us?” +</p> + +<p> +“They will set the thipdars upon us,” he said, “and then we shall be killed; +but—” he hesitated—“I would take the chance if I thought that I might possibly +escape and return to my own people.” +</p> + +<p> +“Could you find your way back to your own land?” asked Perry. “And could you +aid David in his search for Dian?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes.” +</p> + +<p> +“But how,” persisted Perry, “could you travel to strange country without +heavenly bodies or a compass to guide you?” +</p> + +<p> +Ghak didn’t know what Perry meant by heavenly bodies or a compass, but he +assured us that you might blindfold any man of Pellucidar and carry him to the +farthermost corner of the world, yet he would be able to come directly to his +own home again by the shortest route. He seemed surprised to think that we +found anything wonderful in it. Perry said it must be some sort of homing +instinct such as is possessed by certain breeds of earthly pigeons. I didn’t +know, of course, but it gave me an idea. +</p> + +<p> +“Then Dian could have found her way directly to her own people?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Surely,” replied Ghak, “unless some mighty beast of prey killed her.” +</p> + +<p> +I was for making the attempted escape at once, but both Perry and Ghak +counseled waiting for some propitious accident which would insure us some small +degree of success. I didn’t see what accident could befall a whole community in +a land of perpetual daylight where the inhabitants had no fixed habits of +sleep. Why, I am sure that some of the Mahars never sleep, while others may, at +long intervals, crawl into the dark recesses beneath their dwellings and curl +up in protracted slumber. Perry says that if a Mahar stays awake for three +years he will make up all his lost sleep in a long year’s snooze. That may be +all true, but I never saw but three of them asleep, and it was the sight of +these three that gave me a suggestion for our means of escape. +</p> + +<p> +I had been searching about far below the levels that we slaves were supposed to +frequent—possibly fifty feet beneath the main floor of the building—among a +network of corridors and apartments, when I came suddenly upon three Mahars +curled up upon a bed of skins. At first I thought they were dead, but later +their regular breathing convinced me of my error. Like a flash the thought came +to me of the marvelous opportunity these sleeping reptiles offered as a means +of eluding the watchfulness of our captors and the Sagoth guards. +</p> + +<p> +Hastening back to Perry where he pored over a musty pile of, to me, meaningless +hieroglyphics, I explained my plan to him. To my surprise he was horrified. +</p> + +<p> +“It would be murder, David,” he cried. +</p> + +<p> +“Murder to kill a reptilian monster?” I asked in astonishment. +</p> + +<p> +“Here they are not monsters, David,” he replied. “Here they are the dominant +race—we are the ‘monsters’—the lower orders. In Pellucidar evolution has +progressed along different lines than upon the outer earth. These terrible +convulsions of nature time and time again wiped out the existing species—but +for this fact some monster of the Saurozoic epoch might rule today upon our own +world. We see here what might well have occurred in our own history had +conditions been what they have been here. +</p> + +<p> +“Life within Pellucidar is far younger than upon the outer crust. Here man has +but reached a stage analogous to the Stone Age of our own world’s history, but +for countless millions of years these reptiles have been progressing. Possibly +it is the sixth sense which I am sure they possess that has given them an +advantage over the other and more frightfully armed of their fellows; but this +we may never know. They look upon us as we look upon the beasts of our fields, +and I learn from their written records that other races of Mahars feed upon +men—they keep them in great droves, as we keep cattle. They breed them most +carefully, and when they are quite fat, they kill and eat them.” +</p> + +<p> +I shuddered. +</p> + +<p> +“What is there horrible about it, David?” the old man asked. “They understand +us no better than we understand the lower animals of our own world. Why, I have +come across here very learned discussions of the question as to whether gilaks, +that is men, have any means of communication. One writer claims that we do not +even reason—that our every act is mechanical, or instinctive. The dominant race +of Pellucidar, David, have not yet learned that men converse among themselves, +or reason. Because we do not converse as they do it is beyond them to imagine +that we converse at all. It is thus that we reason in relation to the brutes of +our own world. They know that the Sagoths have a spoken language, but they +cannot comprehend it, or how it manifests itself, since they have no auditory +apparatus. They believe that the motions of the lips alone convey the meaning. +That the Sagoths can communicate with us is incomprehensible to them. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, David,” he concluded, “it would entail murder to carry out your plan.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well then, Perry.” I replied. “I shall become a murderer.” +</p> + +<p> +He got me to go over the plan again most carefully, and for some reason which +was not at the time clear to me insisted upon a very careful description of the +apartments and corridors I had just explored. +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder, David,” he said at length, “as you are determined to carry out your +wild scheme, if we could not accomplish something of very real and lasting +benefit for the human race of Pellucidar at the same time. Listen, I have +learned much of a most surprising nature from these archives of the Mahars. +That you may appreciate my plan I shall briefly outline the history of the +race. +</p> + +<p> +“Once the males were all-powerful, but ages ago the females, little by little, +assumed the mastery. For other ages no noticeable change took place in the race +of Mahars. It continued to progress under the intelligent and beneficent rule +of the ladies. Science took vast strides. This was especially true of the +sciences which we know as biology and eugenics. Finally a certain female +scientist announced the fact that she had discovered a method whereby eggs +might be fertilized by chemical means after they were laid—all true reptiles, +you know, are hatched from eggs. +</p> + +<p> +“What happened? Immediately the necessity for males ceased to exist—the race +was no longer dependent upon them. More ages elapsed until at the present time +we find a race consisting exclusively of females. But here is the point. The +secret of this chemical formula is kept by a single race of Mahars. It is in +the city of Phutra, and unless I am greatly in error I judge from your +description of the vaults through which you passed today that it lies hidden in +the cellar of this building. +</p> + +<p> +“For two reasons they hide it away and guard it jealously. First, because upon +it depends the very life of the race of Mahars, and second, owing to the fact +that when it was public property as at first so many were experimenting with it +that the danger of over-population became very grave. +</p> + +<p> +“David, if we can escape, and at the same time take with us this great secret +what will we not have accomplished for the human race within Pellucidar!” The +very thought of it fairly overpowered me. Why, we two would be the means of +placing the men of the inner world in their rightful place among created +things. Only the Sagoths would then stand between them and absolute supremacy, +and I was not quite sure but that the Sagoths owed all their power to the +greater intelligence of the Mahars—I could not believe that these gorilla-like +beasts were the mental superiors of the human race of Pellucidar. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, Perry,” I exclaimed, “you and I may reclaim a whole world! Together we +can lead the races of men out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of +advancement and civilization. At one step we may carry them from the Age of +Stone to the twentieth century. It’s marvelous—absolutely marvelous just to +think about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“David,” said the old man, “I believe that God sent us here for just that +purpose—it shall be my life work to teach them His word—to lead them into the +light of His mercy while we are training their hearts and hands in the ways of +culture and civilization.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are right, Perry,” I said, “and while you are teaching them to pray I’ll +be teaching them to fight, and between us we’ll make a race of men that will be +an honor to us both.” +</p> + +<p> +Ghak had entered the apartment some time before we concluded our conversation, +and now he wanted to know what we were so excited about. Perry thought we had +best not tell him too much, and so I only explained that I had a plan for +escape. When I had outlined it to him, he seemed about as horror-struck as +Perry had been; but for a different reason. The Hairy One only considered the +horrible fate that would be ours were we discovered; but at last I prevailed +upon him to accept my plan as the only feasible one, and when I had assured him +that I would take all the responsibility for it were we captured, he accorded a +reluctant assent. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>VI<br/> +THE BEGINNING OF HORROR </h2> + +<p> +Within Pellucidar one time is as good as another. There were no nights to mask +our attempted escape. All must be done in broad daylight—all but the work I had +to do in the apartment beneath the building. So we determined to put our plan +to an immediate test lest the Mahars who made it possible should awake before I +reached them; but we were doomed to disappointment, for no sooner had we +reached the main floor of the building on our way to the pits beneath, than we +encountered hurrying bands of slaves being hastened under strong Sagoth guard +out of the edifice to the avenue beyond. +</p> + +<p> +Other Sagoths were darting hither and thither in search of other slaves, and +the moment that we appeared we were pounced upon and hustled into the line of +marching humans. +</p> + +<p> +What the purpose or nature of the general exodus we did not know, but presently +through the line of captives ran the rumor that two escaped slaves had been +recaptured—a man and a woman—and that we were marching to witness their +punishment, for the man had killed a Sagoth of the detachment that had pursued +and overtaken them. +</p> + +<p> +At the intelligence my heart sprang to my throat, for I was sure that the two +were of those who escaped in the dark grotto with Hooja the Sly One, and that +Dian must be the woman. Ghak thought so too, as did Perry. +</p> + +<p> +“Is there naught that we may do to save her?” I asked Ghak. +</p> + +<p> +“Naught,” he replied. +</p> + +<p> +Along the crowded avenue we marched, the guards showing unusual cruelty toward +us, as though we, too, had been implicated in the murder of their fellow. The +occasion was to serve as an object-lesson to all other slaves of the danger and +futility of attempted escape, and the fatal consequences of taking the life of +a superior being, and so I imagine that Sagoths felt amply justified in making +the entire proceeding as uncomfortable and painful to us as possible. +</p> + +<p> +They jabbed us with their spears and struck at us with the hatchets at the +least provocation, and at no provocation at all. It was a most uncomfortable +half-hour that we spent before we were finally herded through a low entrance +into a huge building the center of which was given up to a good-sized arena. +Benches surrounded this open space upon three sides, and along the fourth were +heaped huge bowlders which rose in receding tiers toward the roof. +</p> + +<p> +At first I couldn’t make out the purpose of this mighty pile of rock, unless it +were intended as a rough and picturesque background for the scenes which were +enacted in the arena before it, but presently, after the wooden benches had +been pretty well filled by slaves and Sagoths, I discovered the purpose of the +bowlders, for then the Mahars began to file into the enclosure. +</p> + +<p> +They marched directly across the arena toward the rocks upon the opposite side, +where, spreading their bat-like wings, they rose above the high wall of the +pit, settling down upon the bowlders above. These were the reserved seats, the +boxes of the elect. +</p> + +<p> +Reptiles that they are, the rough surface of a great stone is to them as plush +as upholstery to us. Here they lolled, blinking their hideous eyes, and +doubtless conversing with one another in their sixth-sense-fourth-dimension +language. +</p> + +<p> +For the first time I beheld their queen. She differed from the others in no +feature that was appreciable to my earthly eyes, in fact all Mahars look alike +to me: but when she crossed the arena after the balance of her female subjects +had found their bowlders, she was preceded by a score of huge Sagoths, the +largest I ever had seen, and on either side of her waddled a huge thipdar, +while behind came another score of Sagoth guardsmen. +</p> + +<p> +At the barrier the Sagoths clambered up the steep side with truly apelike +agility, while behind them the haughty queen rose upon her wings with her two +frightful dragons close beside her, and settled down upon the largest bowlder +of them all in the exact center of that side of the amphitheater which is +reserved for the dominant race. Here she squatted, a most repulsive and +uninteresting queen; though doubtless quite as well assured of her beauty and +divine right to rule as the proudest monarch of the outer world. +</p> + +<p> +And then the music started—music without sound! The Mahars cannot hear, so the +drums and fifes and horns of earthly bands are unknown among them. The “band” +consists of a score or more Mahars. It filed out in the center of the arena +where the creatures upon the rocks might see it, and there it performed for +fifteen or twenty minutes. +</p> + +<p> +Their technic consisted in waving their tails and moving their heads in a +regular succession of measured movements resulting in a cadence which evidently +pleased the eye of the Mahar as the cadence of our own instrumental music +pleases our ears. Sometimes the band took measured steps in unison to one side +or the other, or backward and again forward—it all seemed very silly and +meaningless to me, but at the end of the first piece the Mahars upon the rocks +showed the first indications of enthusiasm that I had seen displayed by the +dominant race of Pellucidar. They beat their great wings up and down, and smote +their rocky perches with their mighty tails until the ground shook. Then the +band started another piece, and all was again as silent as the grave. That was +one great beauty about Mahar music—if you didn’t happen to like a piece that +was being played all you had to do was shut your eyes. +</p> + +<p> +When the band had exhausted its repertory it took wing and settled upon the +rocks above and behind the queen. Then the business of the day was on. A man +and woman were pushed into the arena by a couple of Sagoth guardsmen. I leaned +forward in my seat to scrutinize the female—hoping against hope that she might +prove to be another than Dian the Beautiful. Her back was toward me for a +while, and the sight of the great mass of raven hair piled high upon her head +filled me with alarm. +</p> + +<p> +Presently a door in one side of the arena wall was opened to admit a huge, +shaggy, bull-like creature. +</p> + +<p> +“A Bos,” whispered Perry, excitedly. “His kind roamed the outer crust with the +cave bear and the mammoth ages and ages ago. We have been carried back a +million years, David, to the childhood of a planet—is it not wondrous?” +</p> + +<p> +But I saw only the raven hair of a half-naked girl, and my heart stood still in +dumb misery at the sight of her, nor had I any eyes for the wonders of natural +history. But for Perry and Ghak I should have leaped to the floor of the arena +and shared whatever fate lay in store for this priceless treasure of the Stone +Age. +</p> + +<p> +With the advent of the Bos—they call the thing a thag within Pellucidar—two +spears were tossed into the arena at the feet of the prisoners. It seemed to me +that a bean shooter would have been as effective against the mighty monster as +these pitiful weapons. +</p> + +<p> +As the animal approached the two, bellowing and pawing the ground with the +strength of many earthly bulls, another door directly beneath us was opened, +and from it issued the most terrific roar that ever had fallen upon my outraged +ears. I could not at first see the beast from which emanated this fearsome +challenge, but the sound had the effect of bringing the two victims around with +a sudden start, and then I saw the girl’s face—she was not Dian! I could have +wept for relief. +</p> + +<p> +And now, as the two stood frozen in terror, I saw the author of that fearsome +sound creeping stealthily into view. It was a huge tiger—such as hunted the +great Bos through the jungles primeval when the world was young. In contour and +markings it was not unlike the noblest of the Bengals of our own world, but as +its dimensions were exaggerated to colossal proportions so too were its +colorings exaggerated. Its vivid yellows fairly screamed aloud; its whites were +as eider down; its blacks glossy as the finest anthracite coal, and its coat +long and shaggy as a mountain goat. That it is a beautiful animal there is no +gainsaying, but if its size and colors are magnified here within Pellucidar, so +is the ferocity of its disposition. It is not the occasional member of its +species that is a man hunter—all are man hunters; but they do not confine their +foraging to man alone, for there is no flesh or fish within Pellucidar that +they will not eat with relish in the constant efforts which they make to +furnish their huge carcasses with sufficient sustenance to maintain their +mighty thews. +</p> + +<p> +Upon one side of the doomed pair the thag bellowed and advanced, and upon the +other tarag, the frightful, crept toward them with gaping mouth and dripping +fangs. +</p> + +<p> +The man seized the spears, handing one of them to the woman. At the sound of +the roaring of the tiger the bull’s bellowing became a veritable frenzy of +rageful noise. Never in my life had I heard such an infernal din as the two +brutes made, and to think it was all lost upon the hideous reptiles for whom +the show was staged! +</p> + +<p> +The thag was charging now from one side, and the tarag from the other. The two +puny things standing between them seemed already lost, but at the very moment +that the beasts were upon them the man grasped his companion by the arm and +together they leaped to one side, while the frenzied creatures came together +like locomotives in collision. +</p> + +<p> +There ensued a battle royal which for sustained and frightful ferocity +transcends the power of imagination or description. Time and again the colossal +bull tossed the enormous tiger high into the air, but each time that the huge +cat touched the ground he returned to the encounter with apparently +undiminished strength, and seemingly increased ire. +</p> + +<p> +For a while the man and woman busied themselves only with keeping out of the +way of the two creatures, but finally I saw them separate and each creep +stealthily toward one of the combatants. The tiger was now upon the bull’s +broad back, clinging to the huge neck with powerful fangs while its long, +strong talons ripped the heavy hide into shreds and ribbons. +</p> + +<p> +For a moment the bull stood bellowing and quivering with pain and rage, its +cloven hoofs widespread, its tail lashing viciously from side to side, and +then, in a mad orgy of bucking it went careening about the arena in frenzied +attempt to unseat its rending rider. It was with difficulty that the girl +avoided the first mad rush of the wounded animal. +</p> + +<p> +All its efforts to rid itself of the tiger seemed futile, until in desperation +it threw itself upon the ground, rolling over and over. A little of this so +disconcerted the tiger, knocking its breath from it I imagine, that it lost its +hold and then, quick as a cat, the great thag was up again and had buried those +mighty horns deep in the tarag’s abdomen, pinning him to the floor of the +arena. +</p> + +<p> +The great cat clawed at the shaggy head until eyes and ears were gone, and +naught but a few strips of ragged, bloody flesh remained upon the skull. Yet +through all the agony of that fearful punishment the thag still stood +motionless pinning down his adversary, and then the man leaped in, seeing that +the blind bull would be the least formidable enemy, and ran his spear through +the tarag’s heart. +</p> + +<p> +As the animal’s fierce clawing ceased, the bull raised his gory, sightless +head, and with a horrid roar ran headlong across the arena. With great leaps +and bounds he came, straight toward the arena wall directly beneath where we +sat, and then accident carried him, in one of his mighty springs, completely +over the barrier into the midst of the slaves and Sagoths just in front of us. +Swinging his bloody horns from side to side the beast cut a wide swath before +him straight upward toward our seats. Before him slaves and gorilla-men fought +in mad stampede to escape the menace of the creature’s death agonies, for such +only could that frightful charge have been. +</p> + +<p> +Forgetful of us, our guards joined in the general rush for the exits, many of +which pierced the wall of the amphitheater behind us. Perry, Ghak, and I became +separated in the chaos which reigned for a few moments after the beast cleared +the wall of the arena, each intent upon saving his own hide. +</p> + +<p> +I ran to the right, passing several exits choked with the fear mad mob that +were battling to escape. One would have thought that an entire herd of thags +was loose behind them, rather than a single blinded, dying beast; but such is +the effect of panic upon a crowd. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>VII<br/> +FREEDOM </h2> + +<p> +Once out of the direct path of the animal, fear of it left me, but another +emotion as quickly gripped me—hope of escape that the demoralized condition of +the guards made possible for the instant. +</p> + +<p> +I thought of Perry, and but for the hope that I might better encompass his +release if myself free I should have put the thought of freedom from me at +once. As it was I hastened on toward the right searching for an exit toward +which no Sagoths were fleeing, and at last I found it—a low, narrow aperture +leading into a dark corridor. +</p> + +<p> +Without thought of the possible consequence, I darted into the shadows of the +tunnel, feeling my way along through the gloom for some distance. The noises of +the amphitheater had grown fainter and fainter until now all was as silent as +the tomb about me. Faint light filtered from above through occasional +ventilating and lighting tubes, but it was scarce sufficient to enable my human +eyes to cope with the darkness, and so I was forced to move with extreme care, +feeling my way along step by step with a hand upon the wall beside me. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the light increased and a moment later, to my delight, I came upon a +flight of steps leading upward, at the top of which the brilliant light of the +noonday sun shone through an opening in the ground. +</p> + +<p> +Cautiously I crept up the stairway to the tunnel’s end, and peering out saw the +broad plain of Phutra before me. The numerous lofty, granite towers which mark +the several entrances to the subterranean city were all in front of me—behind, +the plain stretched level and unbroken to the nearby foothills. I had come to +the surface, then, beyond the city, and my chances for escape seemed much +enhanced. +</p> + +<p> +My first impulse was to await darkness before attempting to cross the plain, so +deeply implanted are habits of thought; but of a sudden I recollected the +perpetual noonday brilliance which envelops Pellucidar, and with a smile I +stepped forth into the daylight. +</p> + +<p> +Rank grass, waist high, grows upon the plain of Phutra—the gorgeous flowering +grass of the inner world, each particular blade of which is tipped with a tiny, +five-pointed blossom—brilliant little stars of varying colors that twinkle in +the green foliage to add still another charm to the weird, yet lovely, +landscape. +</p> + +<p> +But then the only aspect which attracted me was the distant hills in which I +hoped to find sanctuary, and so I hastened on, trampling the myriad beauties +beneath my hurrying feet. Perry says that the force of gravity is less upon the +surface of the inner world than upon that of the outer. He explained it all to +me once, but I was never particularly brilliant in such matters and so most of +it has escaped me. As I recall it the difference is due in some part to the +counter-attraction of that portion of the earth’s crust directly opposite the +spot upon the face of Pellucidar at which one’s calculations are being made. Be +that as it may, it always seemed to me that I moved with greater speed and +agility within Pellucidar than upon the outer surface—there was a certain airy +lightness of step that was most pleasing, and a feeling of bodily detachment +which I can only compare with that occasionally experienced in dreams. +</p> + +<p> +And as I crossed Phutra’s flower-bespangled plain that time I seemed almost to +fly, though how much of the sensation was due to Perry’s suggestion and how +much to actuality I am sure I do not know. The more I thought of Perry the less +pleasure I took in my new-found freedom. There could be no liberty for me +within Pellucidar unless the old man shared it with me, and only the hope that +I might find some way to encompass his release kept me from turning back to +Phutra. +</p> + +<p> +Just how I was to help Perry I could scarce imagine, but I hoped that some +fortuitous circumstance might solve the problem for me. It was quite evident +however that little less than a miracle could aid me, for what could I +accomplish in this strange world, naked and unarmed? It was even doubtful that +I could retrace my steps to Phutra should I once pass beyond view of the plain, +and even were that possible, what aid could I bring to Perry no matter how far +I wandered? +</p> + +<p> +The case looked more and more hopeless the longer I viewed it, yet with a +stubborn persistency I forged ahead toward the foothills. Behind me no sign of +pursuit developed, before me I saw no living thing. It was as though I moved +through a dead and forgotten world. +</p> + +<p> +I have no idea, of course, how long it took me to reach the limit of the plain, +but at last I entered the foothills, following a pretty little canyon upward +toward the mountains. Beside me frolicked a laughing brooklet, hurrying upon +its noisy way down to the silent sea. In its quieter pools I discovered many +small fish, of four-or five-pound weight I should imagine. In appearance, +except as to size and color, they were not unlike the whale of our own seas. As +I watched them playing about I discovered, not only that they suckled their +young, but that at intervals they rose to the surface to breathe as well as to +feed upon certain grasses and a strange, scarlet lichen which grew upon the +rocks just above the water line. +</p> + +<p> +It was this last habit that gave me the opportunity I craved to capture one of +these herbivorous cetaceans—that is what Perry calls them—and make as good a +meal as one can on raw, warm-blooded fish; but I had become rather used, by +this time, to the eating of food in its natural state, though I still balked on +the eyes and entrails, much to the amusement of Ghak, to whom I always passed +these delicacies. +</p> + +<p> +Crouching beside the brook, I waited until one of the diminutive purple whales +rose to nibble at the long grasses which overhung the water, and then, like the +beast of prey that man really is, I sprang upon my victim, appeasing my hunger +while he yet wriggled to escape. +</p> + +<p> +Then I drank from the clear pool, and after washing my hands and face continued +my flight. Above the source of the brook I encountered a rugged climb to the +summit of a long ridge. Beyond was a steep declivity to the shore of a placid, +inland sea, upon the quiet surface of which lay several beautiful islands. +</p> + +<p> +The view was charming in the extreme, and as no man or beast was to be seen +that might threaten my new-found liberty, I slid over the edge of the bluff, +and half sliding, half falling, dropped into the delightful valley, the very +aspect of which seemed to offer a haven of peace and security. +</p> + +<p> +The gently sloping beach along which I walked was thickly strewn with strangely +shaped, colored shells; some empty, others still housing as varied a multitude +of mollusks as ever might have drawn out their sluggish lives along the silent +shores of the antediluvian seas of the outer crust. As I walked I could not but +compare myself with the first man of that other world, so complete the solitude +which surrounded me, so primal and untouched the virgin wonders and beauties of +adolescent nature. I felt myself a second Adam wending my lonely way through +the childhood of a world, searching for my Eve, and at the thought there rose +before my mind’s eye the exquisite outlines of a perfect face surmounted by a +loose pile of wondrous, raven hair. +</p> + +<p> +As I walked, my eyes were bent upon the beach so that it was not until I had +come quite upon it that I discovered that which shattered all my beautiful +dream of solitude and safety and peace and primal overlordship. The thing was a +hollowed log drawn upon the sands, and in the bottom of it lay a crude paddle. +</p> + +<p> +The rude shock of awakening to what doubtless might prove some new form of +danger was still upon me when I heard a rattling of loose stones from the +direction of the bluff, and turning my eyes in that direction I beheld the +author of the disturbance, a great copper-colored man, running rapidly toward +me. +</p> + +<p> +There was that in the haste with which he came which seemed quite sufficiently +menacing, so that I did not need the added evidence of brandishing spear and +scowling face to warn me that I was in no safe position, but whither to flee +was indeed a momentous question. +</p> + +<p> +The speed of the fellow seemed to preclude the possibility of escaping him upon +the open beach. There was but a single alternative—the rude skiff—and with a +celerity which equaled his, I pushed the thing into the sea and as it floated +gave a final shove and clambered in over the end. +</p> + +<p> +A cry of rage rose from the owner of the primitive craft, and an instant later +his heavy, stone-tipped spear grazed my shoulder and buried itself in the bow +of the boat beyond. Then I grasped the paddle, and with feverish haste urged +the awkward, wobbly thing out upon the surface of the sea. +</p> + +<p> +A glance over my shoulder showed me that the copper-colored one had plunged in +after me and was swimming rapidly in pursuit. His mighty strokes bade fair to +close up the distance between us in short order, for at best I could make but +slow progress with my unfamiliar craft, which nosed stubbornly in every +direction but that which I desired to follow, so that fully half my energy was +expended in turning its blunt prow back into the course. +</p> + +<p> +I had covered some hundred yards from shore when it became evident that my +pursuer must grasp the stern of the skiff within the next half-dozen strokes. +In a frenzy of despair, I bent to the grandfather of all paddles in a hopeless +effort to escape, and still the copper giant behind me gained and gained. +</p> + +<p> +His hand was reaching upward for the stern when I saw a sleek, sinuous body +shoot from the depths below. The man saw it too, and the look of terror that +overspread his face assured me that I need have no further concern as to him, +for the fear of certain death was in his look. +</p> + +<p> +And then about him coiled the great, slimy folds of a hideous monster of that +prehistoric deep—a mighty serpent of the sea, with fanged jaws, and darting +forked tongue, with bulging eyes, and bony protuberances upon head and snout +that formed short, stout horns. +</p> + +<p> +As I looked at that hopeless struggle my eyes met those of the doomed man, and +I could have sworn that in his I saw an expression of hopeless appeal. But +whether I did or not there swept through me a sudden compassion for the fellow. +He was indeed a brother-man, and that he might have killed me with pleasure had +he caught me was forgotten in the extremity of his danger. +</p> + +<p> +Unconsciously I had ceased paddling as the serpent rose to engage my pursuer, +so now the skiff still drifted close beside the two. The monster seemed to be +but playing with his victim before he closed his awful jaws upon him and +dragged him down to his dark den beneath the surface to devour him. The huge, +snakelike body coiled and uncoiled about its prey. The hideous, gaping jaws +snapped in the victim’s face. The forked tongue, lightning-like, ran in and out +upon the copper skin. +</p> + +<p> +Nobly the giant battled for his life, beating with his stone hatchet against +the bony armor that covered that frightful carcass; but for all the damage he +inflicted he might as well have struck with his open palm. +</p> + +<p> +At last I could endure no longer to sit supinely by while a fellowman was +dragged down to a horrible death by that repulsive reptile. Embedded in the +prow of the skiff lay the spear that had been cast after me by him whom I +suddenly desired to save. With a wrench I tore it loose, and standing upright +in the wobbly log drove it with all the strength of my two arms straight into +the gaping jaws of the hydrophidian. +</p> + +<p> +With a loud hiss the creature abandoned its prey to turn upon me, but the +spear, imbedded in its throat, prevented it from seizing me though it came near +to overturning the skiff in its mad efforts to reach me. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>VIII<br/> +THE MAHAR TEMPLE </h2> + +<p> +The aborigine, apparently uninjured, climbed quickly into the skiff, and +seizing the spear with me helped to hold off the infuriated creature. Blood +from the wounded reptile was now crimsoning the waters about us and soon from +the weakening struggles it became evident that I had inflicted a death wound +upon it. Presently its efforts to reach us ceased entirely, and with a few +convulsive movements it turned upon its back quite dead. +</p> + +<p> +And then there came to me a sudden realization of the predicament in which I +had placed myself. I was entirely within the power of the savage man whose +skiff I had stolen. Still clinging to the spear I looked into his face to find +him scrutinizing me intently, and there we stood for some several minutes, each +clinging tenaciously to the weapon the while we gazed in stupid wonderment at +each other. +</p> + +<p> +What was in his mind I do not know, but in my own was merely the question as to +how soon the fellow would recommence hostilities. +</p> + +<p> +Presently he spoke to me, but in a tongue which I was unable to translate. I +shook my head in an effort to indicate my ignorance of his language, at the +same time addressing him in the bastard tongue that the Sagoths use to converse +with the human slaves of the Mahars. +</p> + +<p> +To my delight he understood and answered me in the same jargon. +</p> + +<p> +“What do you want of my spear?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Only to keep you from running it through me,” I replied. +</p> + +<p> +“I would not do that,” he said, “for you have just saved my life,” and with +that he released his hold upon it and squatted down in the bottom of the skiff. +</p> + +<p> +“Who are you,” he continued, “and from what country do you come?” +</p> + +<p> +I too sat down, laying the spear between us, and tried to explain how I came to +Pellucidar, and wherefrom, but it was as impossible for him to grasp or believe +the strange tale I told him as I fear it is for you upon the outer crust to +believe in the existence of the inner world. To him it seemed quite ridiculous +to imagine that there was another world far beneath his feet peopled by beings +similar to himself, and he laughed uproariously the more he thought upon it. +But it was ever thus. That which has never come within the scope of our really +pitifully meager world-experience cannot be—our finite minds cannot grasp that +which may not exist in accordance with the conditions which obtain about us +upon the outside of the insignificant grain of dust which wends its tiny way +among the bowlders of the universe—the speck of moist dirt we so proudly call +the World. +</p> + +<p> +So I gave it up and asked him about himself. He said he was a Mezop, and that +his name was Ja. +</p> + +<p> +“Who are the Mezops?” I asked. “Where do they live?” +</p> + +<p> +He looked at me in surprise. +</p> + +<p> +“I might indeed believe that you were from another world,” he said, “for who of +Pellucidar could be so ignorant! The Mezops live upon the islands of the seas. +In so far as I ever have heard no Mezop lives elsewhere, and no others than +Mezops dwell upon islands, but of course it may be different in other +far-distant lands. I do not know. At any rate in this sea and those near by it +is true that only people of my race inhabit the islands. +</p> + +<p> +“We are fishermen, though we be great hunters as well, often going to the +mainland in search of the game that is scarce upon all but the larger islands. +And we are warriors also,” he added proudly. “Even the Sagoths of the Mahars +fear us. Once, when Pellucidar was young, the Sagoths were wont to capture us +for slaves as they do the other men of Pellucidar, it is handed down from +father to son among us that this is so; but we fought so desperately and slew +so many Sagoths, and those of us that were captured killed so many Mahars in +their own cities that at last they learned that it were better to leave us +alone, and later came the time that the Mahars became too indolent even to +catch their own fish, except for amusement, and then they needed us to supply +their wants, and so a truce was made between the races. Now they give us +certain things which we are unable to produce in return for the fish that we +catch, and the Mezops and the Mahars live in peace. +</p> + +<p> +“The great ones even come to our islands. It is there, far from the prying eyes +of their own Sagoths, that they practice their religious rites in the temples +they have builded there with our assistance. If you live among us you will +doubtless see the manner of their worship, which is strange indeed, and most +unpleasant for the poor slaves they bring to take part in it.” +</p> + +<p> +As Ja talked I had an excellent opportunity to inspect him more closely. He was +a huge fellow, standing I should say six feet six or seven inches, well +developed and of a coppery red not unlike that of our own North American +Indian, nor were his features dissimilar to theirs. He had the aquiline nose +found among many of the higher tribes, the prominent cheek bones, and black +hair and eyes, but his mouth and lips were better molded. All in all, Ja was an +impressive and handsome creature, and he talked well too, even in the miserable +makeshift language we were compelled to use. +</p> + +<p> +During our conversation Ja had taken the paddle and was propelling the skiff +with vigorous strokes toward a large island that lay some half-mile from the +mainland. The skill with which he handled his crude and awkward craft elicited +my deepest admiration, since it had been so short a time before that I had made +such pitiful work of it. +</p> + +<p> +As we touched the pretty, level beach Ja leaped out and I followed him. +Together we dragged the skiff far up into the bushes that grew beyond the sand. +</p> + +<p> +“We must hide our canoes,” explained Ja, “for the Mezops of Luana are always at +war with us and would steal them if they found them,” he nodded toward an +island farther out at sea, and at so great a distance that it seemed but a blur +hanging in the distant sky. The upward curve of the surface of Pellucidar was +constantly revealing the impossible to the surprised eyes of the outer-earthly. +To see land and water curving upward in the distance until it seemed to stand +on edge where it melted into the distant sky, and to feel that seas and +mountains hung suspended directly above one’s head required such a complete +reversal of the perceptive and reasoning faculties as almost to stupefy one. +</p> + +<p> +No sooner had we hidden the canoe than Ja plunged into the jungle, presently +emerging into a narrow but well-defined trail which wound hither and thither +much after the manner of the highways of all primitive folk, but there was one +peculiarity about this Mezop trail which I was later to find distinguished them +from all other trails that I ever have seen within or without the earth. +</p> + +<p> +It would run on, plain and clear and well defined to end suddenly in the midst +of a tangle of matted jungle, then Ja would turn directly back in his tracks +for a little distance, spring into a tree, climb through it to the other side, +drop onto a fallen log, leap over a low bush and alight once more upon a +distinct trail which he would follow back for a short distance only to turn +directly about and retrace his steps until after a mile or less this new +pathway ended as suddenly and mysteriously as the former section. Then he would +pass again across some media which would reveal no spoor, to take up the broken +thread of the trail beyond. +</p> + +<p> +As the purpose of this remarkable avenue dawned upon me I could not but admire +the native shrewdness of the ancient progenitor of the Mezops who hit upon this +novel plan to throw his enemies from his track and delay or thwart them in +their attempts to follow him to his deep-buried cities. +</p> + +<p> +To you of the outer earth it might seem a slow and tortuous method of traveling +through the jungle, but were you of Pellucidar you would realize that time is +no factor where time does not exist. So labyrinthine are the windings of these +trails, so varied the connecting links and the distances which one must retrace +one’s steps from the paths’ ends to find them that a Mezop often reaches man’s +estate before he is familiar even with those which lead from his own city to +the sea. +</p> + +<p> +In fact three-fourths of the education of the young male Mezop consists in +familiarizing himself with these jungle avenues, and the status of an adult is +largely determined by the number of trails which he can follow upon his own +island. The females never learn them, since from birth to death they never +leave the clearing in which the village of their nativity is situated except +they be taken to mate by a male from another village, or captured in war by the +enemies of their tribe. +</p> + +<p> +After proceeding through the jungle for what must have been upward of five +miles we emerged suddenly into a large clearing in the exact center of which +stood as strange an appearing village as one might well imagine. +</p> + +<p> +Large trees had been chopped down fifteen or twenty feet above the ground, and +upon the tops of them spherical habitations of woven twigs, mud covered, had +been built. Each ball-like house was surmounted by some manner of carven image, +which Ja told me indicated the identity of the owner. +</p> + +<p> +Horizontal slits, six inches high and two or three feet wide, served to admit +light and ventilation. The entrances to the house were through small apertures +in the bases of the trees and thence upward by rude ladders through the hollow +trunks to the rooms above. The houses varied in size from two to several rooms. +The largest that I entered was divided into two floors and eight apartments. +</p> + +<p> +All about the village, between it and the jungle, lay beautifully cultivated +fields in which the Mezops raised such cereals, fruits, and vegetables as they +required. Women and children were working in these gardens as we crossed toward +the village. At sight of Ja they saluted deferentially, but to me they paid not +the slightest attention. Among them and about the outer verge of the cultivated +area were many warriors. These too saluted Ja, by touching the points of their +spears to the ground directly before them. +</p> + +<p> +Ja conducted me to a large house in the center of the village—the house with +eight rooms—and taking me up into it gave me food and drink. There I met his +mate, a comely girl with a nursing baby in her arms. Ja told her of how I had +saved his life, and she was thereafter most kind and hospitable toward me, even +permitting me to hold and amuse the tiny bundle of humanity whom Ja told me +would one day rule the tribe, for Ja, it seemed, was the chief of the +community. +</p> + +<p> +We had eaten and rested, and I had slept, much to Ja’s amusement, for it seemed +that he seldom if ever did so, and then the red man proposed that I accompany +him to the temple of the Mahars which lay not far from his village. “We are not +supposed to visit it,” he said; “but the great ones cannot hear and if we keep +well out of sight they need never know that we have been there. For my part I +hate them and always have, but the other chieftains of the island think it best +that we continue to maintain the amicable relations which exist between the two +races; otherwise I should like nothing better than to lead my warriors amongst +the hideous creatures and exterminate them—Pellucidar would be a better place +to live were there none of them.” +</p> + +<p> +I wholly concurred in Ja’s belief, but it seemed that it might be a difficult +matter to exterminate the dominant race of Pellucidar. Thus conversing we +followed the intricate trail toward the temple, which we came upon in a small +clearing surrounded by enormous trees similar to those which must have +flourished upon the outer crust during the carboniferous age. +</p> + +<p> +Here was a mighty temple of hewn rock built in the shape of a rough oval with +rounded roof in which were several large openings. No doors or windows were +visible in the sides of the structure, nor was there need of any, except one +entrance for the slaves, since, as Ja explained, the Mahars flew to and from +their place of ceremonial, entering and leaving the building by means of the +apertures in the roof. +</p> + +<p> +“But,” added Ja, “there is an entrance near the base of which even the Mahars +know nothing. Come,” and he led me across the clearing and about the end to a +pile of loose rock which lay against the foot of the wall. Here he removed a +couple of large bowlders, revealing a small opening which led straight within +the building, or so it seemed, though as I entered after Ja I discovered myself +in a narrow place of extreme darkness. +</p> + +<p> +“We are within the outer wall,” said Ja. “It is hollow. Follow me closely.” +</p> + +<p> +The red man groped ahead a few paces and then began to ascend a primitive +ladder similar to that which leads from the ground to the upper stories of his +house. We ascended for some forty feet when the interior of the space between +the walls commenced to grow lighter and presently we came opposite an opening +in the inner wall which gave us an unobstructed view of the entire interior of +the temple. +</p> + +<p> +The lower floor was an enormous tank of clear water in which numerous hideous +Mahars swam lazily up and down. Artificial islands of granite rock dotted this +artificial sea, and upon several of them I saw men and women like myself. +</p> + +<p> +“What are the human beings doing here?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Wait and you shall see,” replied Ja. “They are to take a leading part in the +ceremonies which will follow the advent of the queen. You may be thankful that +you are not upon the same side of the wall as they.” +</p> + +<p> +Scarcely had he spoken than we heard a great fluttering of wings above and a +moment later a long procession of the frightful reptiles of Pellucidar winged +slowly and majestically through the large central opening in the roof and +circled in stately manner about the temple. +</p> + +<p> +There were several Mahars first, and then at least twenty awe-inspiring +pterodactyls—thipdars, they are called within Pellucidar. Behind these came the +queen, flanked by other thipdars as she had been when she entered the +amphitheater at Phutra. +</p> + +<p> +Three times they wheeled about the interior of the oval chamber, to settle +finally upon the damp, cold bowlders that fringe the outer edge of the pool. In +the center of one side the largest rock was reserved for the queen, and here +she took her place surrounded by her terrible guard. +</p> + +<p> +All lay quiet for several minutes after settling to their places. One might +have imagined them in silent prayer. The poor slaves upon the diminutive +islands watched the horrid creatures with wide eyes. The men, for the most +part, stood erect and stately with folded arms, awaiting their doom; but the +women and children clung to one another, hiding behind the males. They are a +noble-looking race, these cave men of Pellucidar, and if our progenitors were +as they, the human race of the outer crust has deteriorated rather than +improved with the march of the ages. All they lack is opportunity. We have +opportunity, and little else. +</p> + +<p> +Now the queen moved. She raised her ugly head, looking about; then very slowly +she crawled to the edge of her throne and slid noiselessly into the water. Up +and down the long tank she swam, turning at the ends as you have seen captive +seals turn in their tiny tanks, turning upon their backs and diving below the +surface. +</p> + +<p> +Nearer and nearer to the island she came until at last she remained at rest +before the largest, which was directly opposite her throne. Raising her hideous +head from the water she fixed her great, round eyes upon the slaves. They were +fat and sleek, for they had been brought from a distant Mahar city where human +beings are kept in droves, and bred and fattened, as we breed and fatten beef +cattle. +</p> + +<p> +The queen fixed her gaze upon a plump young maiden. Her victim tried to turn +away, hiding her face in her hands and kneeling behind a woman; but the +reptile, with unblinking eyes, stared on with such fixity that I could have +sworn her vision penetrated the woman, and the girl’s arms to reach at last the +very center of her brain. +</p> + +<p> +Slowly the reptile’s head commenced to move to and fro, but the eyes never +ceased to bore toward the frightened girl, and then the victim responded. She +turned wide, fear-haunted eyes toward the Mahar queen, slowly she rose to her +feet, and then as though dragged by some unseen power she moved as one in a +trance straight toward the reptile, her glassy eyes fixed upon those of her +captor. To the water’s edge she came, nor did she even pause, but stepped into +the shallows beside the little island. On she moved toward the Mahar, who now +slowly retreated as though leading her victim on. The water rose to the girl’s +knees, and still she advanced, chained by that clammy eye. Now the water was at +her waist; now her armpits. Her fellows upon the island looked on in horror, +helpless to avert her doom in which they saw a forecast of their own. +</p> + +<p> +The Mahar sank now till only the long upper bill and eyes were exposed above +the surface of the water, and the girl had advanced until the end of that +repulsive beak was but an inch or two from her face, her horror-filled eyes +riveted upon those of the reptile. +</p> + +<p> +Now the water passed above the girl’s mouth and nose—her eyes and forehead all +that showed—yet still she walked on after the retreating Mahar. The queen’s +head slowly disappeared beneath the surface and after it went the eyes of her +victim—only a slow ripple widened toward the shores to mark where the two +vanished. +</p> + +<p> +For a time all was silence within the temple. The slaves were motionless in +terror. The Mahars watched the surface of the water for the reappearance of +their queen, and presently at one end of the tank her head rose slowly into +view. She was backing toward the surface, her eyes fixed before her as they had +been when she dragged the helpless girl to her doom. +</p> + +<p> +And then to my utter amazement I saw the forehead and eyes of the maiden come +slowly out of the depths, following the gaze of the reptile just as when she +had disappeared beneath the surface. On and on came the girl until she stood in +water that reached barely to her knees, and though she had been beneath the +surface sufficient time to have drowned her thrice over there was no +indication, other than her dripping hair and glistening body, that she had been +submerged at all. +</p> + +<p> +Again and again the queen led the girl into the depths and out again, until the +uncanny weirdness of the thing got on my nerves so that I could have leaped +into the tank to the child’s rescue had I not taken a firm hold of myself. +</p> + +<p> +Once they were below much longer than usual, and when they came to the surface +I was horrified to see that one of the girl’s arms was gone—gnawed completely +off at the shoulder—but the poor thing gave no indication of realizing pain, +only the horror in her set eyes seemed intensified. +</p> + +<p> +The next time they appeared the other arm was gone, and then the breasts, and +then a part of the face—it was awful. The poor creatures on the islands +awaiting their fate tried to cover their eyes with their hands to hide the +fearful sight, but now I saw that they too were under the hypnotic spell of the +reptiles, so that they could only crouch in terror with their eyes fixed upon +the terrible thing that was transpiring before them. +</p> + +<p> +Finally the queen was under much longer than ever before, and when she rose she +came alone and swam sleepily toward her bowlder. The moment she mounted it +seemed to be the signal for the other Mahars to enter the tank, and then +commenced, upon a larger scale, a repetition of the uncanny performance through +which the queen had led her victim. +</p> + +<p> +Only the women and children fell prey to the Mahars—they being the weakest and +most tender—and when they had satisfied their appetite for human flesh, some of +them devouring two and three of the slaves, there were only a score of +full-grown men left, and I thought that for some reason these were to be +spared, but such was far from the case, for as the last Mahar crawled to her +rock the queen’s thipdars darted into the air, circled the temple once and +then, hissing like steam engines, swooped down upon the remaining slaves. +</p> + +<p> +There was no hypnotism here—just the plain, brutal ferocity of the beast of +prey, tearing, rending, and gulping its meat, but at that it was less horrible +than the uncanny method of the Mahars. By the time the thipdars had disposed of +the last of the slaves the Mahars were all asleep upon their rocks, and a +moment later the great pterodactyls swung back to their posts beside the queen, +and themselves dropped into slumber. +</p> + +<p> +“I thought the Mahars seldom, if ever, slept,” I said to Ja. +</p> + +<p> +“They do many things in this temple which they do not do elsewhere,” he +replied. “The Mahars of Phutra are not supposed to eat human flesh, yet slaves +are brought here by thousands and almost always you will find Mahars on hand to +consume them. I imagine that they do not bring their Sagoths here, because they +are ashamed of the practice, which is supposed to obtain only among the least +advanced of their race; but I would wager my canoe against a broken paddle that +there is no Mahar but eats human flesh whenever she can get it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why should they object to eating human flesh,” I asked, “if it is true that +they look upon us as lower animals?” +</p> + +<p> +“It is not because they consider us their equals that they are supposed to look +with abhorrence upon those who eat our flesh,” replied Ja; “it is merely that +we are warm-blooded animals. They would not think of eating the meat of a thag, +which we consider such a delicacy, any more than I would think of eating a +snake. As a matter of fact it is difficult to explain just why this sentiment +should exist among them.” +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder if they left a single victim,” I remarked, leaning far out of the +opening in the rocky wall to inspect the temple better. Directly below me the +water lapped the very side of the wall, there being a break in the bowlders at +this point as there was at several other places about the side of the temple. +</p> + +<p> +My hands were resting upon a small piece of granite which formed a part of the +wall, and all my weight upon it proved too much for it. It slipped and I lunged +forward. There was nothing to save myself and I plunged headforemost into the +water below. +</p> + +<p> +Fortunately the tank was deep at this point, and I suffered no injury from the +fall, but as I was rising to the surface my mind filled with the horrors of my +position as I thought of the terrible doom which awaited me the moment the eyes +of the reptiles fell upon the creature that had disturbed their slumber. +</p> + +<p> +As long as I could I remained beneath the surface, swimming rapidly in the +direction of the islands that I might prolong my life to the utmost. At last I +was forced to rise for air, and as I cast a terrified glance in the direction +of the Mahars and the thipdars I was almost stunned to see that not a single +one remained upon the rocks where I had last seen them, nor as I searched the +temple with my eyes could I discern any within it. +</p> + +<p> +For a moment I was puzzled to account for the thing, until I realized that the +reptiles, being deaf, could not have been disturbed by the noise my body made +when it hit the water, and that as there is no such thing as time within +Pellucidar there was no telling how long I had been beneath the surface. It was +a difficult thing to attempt to figure out by earthly standards—this matter of +elapsed time—but when I set myself to it I began to realize that I might have +been submerged a second or a month or not at all. You have no conception of the +strange contradictions and impossibilities which arise when all methods of +measuring time, as we know them upon earth, are non-existent. +</p> + +<p> +I was about to congratulate myself upon the miracle which had saved me for the +moment, when the memory of the hypnotic powers of the Mahars filled me with +apprehension lest they be practicing their uncanny art upon me to the end that +I merely imagined that I was alone in the temple. At the thought cold sweat +broke out upon me from every pore, and as I crawled from the water onto one of +the tiny islands I was trembling like a leaf—you cannot imagine the awful +horror which even the simple thought of the repulsive Mahars of Pellucidar +induces in the human mind, and to feel that you are in their power—that they +are crawling, slimy, and abhorrent, to drag you down beneath the waters and +devour you! It is frightful. +</p> + +<p> +But they did not come, and at last I came to the conclusion that I was indeed +alone within the temple. How long I should be alone was the next question to +assail me as I swam frantically about once more in search of a means to escape. +</p> + +<p> +Several times I called to Ja, but he must have left after I tumbled into the +tank, for I received no response to my cries. Doubtless he had felt as certain +of my doom when he saw me topple from our hiding place as I had, and lest he +too should be discovered, had hastened from the temple and back to his village. +</p> + +<p> +I knew that there must be some entrance to the building beside the doorways in +the roof, for it did not seem reasonable to believe that the thousands of +slaves which were brought here to feed the Mahars the human flesh they craved +would all be carried through the air, and so I continued my search until at +last it was rewarded by the discovery of several loose granite blocks in the +masonry at one end of the temple. +</p> + +<p> +A little effort proved sufficient to dislodge enough of these stones to permit +me to crawl through into the clearing, and a moment later I had scurried across +the intervening space to the dense jungle beyond. +</p> + +<p> +Here I sank panting and trembling upon the matted grasses beneath the giant +trees, for I felt that I had escaped from the grinning fangs of death out of +the depths of my own grave. Whatever dangers lay hidden in this island jungle, +there could be none so fearsome as those which I had just escaped. I knew that +I could meet death bravely enough if it but came in the form of some familiar +beast or man—anything other than the hideous and uncanny Mahars. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>IX<br/> +THE FACE OF DEATH </h2> + +<p> +I must have fallen asleep from exhaustion. When I awoke I was very hungry, and +after busying myself searching for fruit for a while, I set off through the +jungle to find the beach. I knew that the island was not so large but that I +could easily find the sea if I did but move in a straight line, but there came +the difficulty as there was no way in which I could direct my course and hold +it, the sun, of course, being always directly above my head, and the trees so +thickly set that I could see no distant object which might serve to guide me in +a straight line. +</p> + +<p> +As it was I must have walked for a great distance since I ate four times and +slept twice before I reached the sea, but at last I did so, and my pleasure at +the sight of it was greatly enhanced by the chance discovery of a hidden canoe +among the bushes through which I had stumbled just prior to coming upon the +beach. +</p> + +<p> +I can tell you that it did not take me long to pull that awkward craft down to +the water and shove it far out from shore. My experience with Ja had taught me +that if I were to steal another canoe I must be quick about it and get far +beyond the owner’s reach as soon as possible. +</p> + +<p> +I must have come out upon the opposite side of the island from that at which Ja +and I had entered it, for the mainland was nowhere in sight. For a long time I +paddled around the shore, though well out, before I saw the mainland in the +distance. At the sight of it I lost no time in directing my course toward it, +for I had long since made up my mind to return to Phutra and give myself up +that I might be once more with Perry and Ghak the Hairy One. +</p> + +<p> +I felt that I was a fool ever to have attempted to escape alone, especially in +view of the fact that our plans were already well formulated to make a break +for freedom together. Of course I realized that the chances of the success of +our proposed venture were slim indeed, but I knew that I never could enjoy +freedom without Perry so long as the old man lived, and I had learned that the +probability that I might find him was less than slight. +</p> + +<p> +Had Perry been dead, I should gladly have pitted my strength and wit against +the savage and primordial world in which I found myself. I could have lived in +seclusion within some rocky cave until I had found the means to outfit myself +with the crude weapons of the Stone Age, and then set out in search of her +whose image had now become the constant companion of my waking hours, and the +central and beloved figure of my dreams. +</p> + +<p> +But, to the best of my knowledge, Perry still lived and it was my duty and wish +to be again with him, that we might share the dangers and vicissitudes of the +strange world we had discovered. And Ghak, too; the great, shaggy man had found +a place in the hearts of us both, for he was indeed every inch a man and king. +Uncouth, perhaps, and brutal, too, if judged too harshly by the standards of +effete twentieth-century civilization, but withal noble, dignified, chivalrous, +and loveable. +</p> + +<p> +Chance carried me to the very beach upon which I had discovered Ja’s canoe, and +a short time later I was scrambling up the steep bank to retrace my steps from +the plain of Phutra. But my troubles came when I entered the canyon beyond the +summit, for here I found that several of them centered at the point where I +crossed the divide, and which one I had traversed to reach the pass I could not +for the life of me remember. +</p> + +<p> +It was all a matter of chance and so I set off down that which seemed the +easiest going, and in this I made the same mistake that many of us do in +selecting the path along which we shall follow out the course of our lives, and +again learned that it is not always best to follow the line of least +resistance. +</p> + +<p> +By the time I had eaten eight meals and slept twice I was convinced that I was +upon the wrong trail, for between Phutra and the inland sea I had not slept at +all, and had eaten but once. To retrace my steps to the summit of the divide +and explore another canyon seemed the only solution of my problem, but a sudden +widening and levelness of the canyon just before me seemed to suggest that it +was about to open into a level country, and with the lure of discovery strong +upon me I decided to proceed but a short distance farther before I turned back. +</p> + +<p> +The next turn of the canyon brought me to its mouth, and before me I saw a +narrow plain leading down to an ocean. At my right the side of the canyon +continued to the water’s edge, the valley lying to my left, and the foot of it +running gradually into the sea, where it formed a broad level beach. +</p> + +<p> +Clumps of strange trees dotted the landscape here and there almost to the +water, and rank grass and ferns grew between. From the nature of the vegetation +I was convinced that the land between the ocean and the foothills was swampy, +though directly before me it seemed dry enough all the way to the sandy strip +along which the restless waters advanced and retreated. +</p> + +<p> +Curiosity prompted me to walk down to the beach, for the scene was very +beautiful. As I passed along beside the deep and tangled vegetation of the +swamp I thought that I saw a movement of the ferns at my left, but though I +stopped a moment to look it was not repeated, and if anything lay hid there my +eyes could not penetrate the dense foliage to discern it. +</p> + +<p> +Presently I stood upon the beach looking out over the wide and lonely sea +across whose forbidding bosom no human being had yet ventured, to discover what +strange and mysterious lands lay beyond, or what its invisible islands held of +riches, wonders, or adventure. What savage faces, what fierce and formidable +beasts were this very instant watching the lapping of the waves upon its +farther shore! How far did it extend? Perry had told me that the seas of +Pellucidar were small in comparison with those of the outer crust, but even so +this great ocean might stretch its broad expanse for thousands of miles. For +countless ages it had rolled up and down its countless miles of shore, and yet +today it remained all unknown beyond the tiny strip that was visible from its +beaches. +</p> + +<p> +The fascination of speculation was strong upon me. It was as though I had been +carried back to the birth time of our own outer world to look upon its lands +and seas ages before man had traversed either. Here was a new world, all +untouched. It called to me to explore it. I was dreaming of the excitement and +adventure which lay before us could Perry and I but escape the Mahars, when +something, a slight noise I imagine, drew my attention behind me. +</p> + +<p> +As I turned, romance, adventure, and discovery in the abstract took wing before +the terrible embodiment of all three in concrete form that I beheld advancing +upon me. +</p> + +<p> +A huge, slimy amphibian it was, with toad-like body and the mighty jaws of an +alligator. Its immense carcass must have weighed tons, and yet it moved swiftly +and silently toward me. Upon one hand was the bluff that ran from the canyon to +the sea, on the other the fearsome swamp from which the creature had sneaked +upon me, behind lay the mighty untracked sea, and before me in the center of +the narrow way that led to safety stood this huge mountain of terrible and +menacing flesh. +</p> + +<p> +A single glance at the thing was sufficient to assure me that I was facing one +of those long-extinct, prehistoric creatures whose fossilized remains are found +within the outer crust as far back as the Triassic formation, a gigantic +labyrinthodon. And there I was, unarmed, and, with the exception of a loin +cloth, as naked as I had come into the world. I could imagine how my first +ancestor felt that distant, prehistoric morn that he encountered for the first +time the terrifying progenitor of the thing that had me cornered now beside the +restless, mysterious sea. +</p> + +<p> +Unquestionably he had escaped, or I should not have been within Pellucidar or +elsewhere, and I wished at that moment that he had handed down to me with the +various attributes that I presumed I have inherited from him, the specific +application of the instinct of self-preservation which saved him from the fate +which loomed so close before me today. +</p> + +<p> +To seek escape in the swamp or in the ocean would have been similar to jumping +into a den of lions to escape one upon the outside. The sea and swamp both were +doubtless alive with these mighty, carnivorous amphibians, and if not, the +individual that menaced me would pursue me into either the sea or the swamp +with equal facility. +</p> + +<p> +There seemed nothing to do but stand supinely and await my end. I thought of +Perry—how he would wonder what had become of me. I thought of my friends of the +outer world, and of how they all would go on living their lives in total +ignorance of the strange and terrible fate that had overtaken me, or unguessing +the weird surroundings which had witnessed the last frightful agony of my +extinction. And with these thoughts came a realization of how unimportant to +the life and happiness of the world is the existence of any one of us. We may +be snuffed out without an instant’s warning, and for a brief day our friends +speak of us with subdued voices. The following morning, while the first worm is +busily engaged in testing the construction of our coffin, they are teeing up +for the first hole to suffer more acute sorrow over a sliced ball than they did +over our, to us, untimely demise. The labyrinthodon was coming more slowly now. +He seemed to realize that escape for me was impossible, and I could have sworn +that his huge, fanged jaws grinned in pleasurable appreciation of my +predicament, or was it in anticipation of the juicy morsel which would so soon +be pulp between those formidable teeth? +</p> + +<p> +He was about fifty feet from me when I heard a voice calling to me from the +direction of the bluff at my left. I looked and could have shouted in delight +at the sight that met my eyes, for there stood Ja, waving frantically to me, +and urging me to run for it to the cliff’s base. +</p> + +<p> +I had no idea that I should escape the monster that had marked me for his +breakfast, but at least I should not die alone. Human eyes would watch me end. +It was cold comfort I presume, but yet I derived some slight peace of mind from +the contemplation of it. +</p> + +<p> +To run seemed ridiculous, especially toward that steep and unscalable cliff, +and yet I did so, and as I ran I saw Ja, agile as a monkey, crawl down the +precipitous face of the rocks, clinging to small projections, and the tough +creepers that had found root-hold here and there. +</p> + +<p> +The labyrinthodon evidently thought that Ja was coming to double his portion of +human flesh, so he was in no haste to pursue me to the cliff and frighten away +this other tidbit. Instead he merely trotted along behind me. +</p> + +<p> +As I approached the foot of the cliff I saw what Ja intended doing, but I +doubted if the thing would prove successful. He had come down to within twenty +feet of the bottom, and there, clinging with one hand to a small ledge, and +with his feet resting precariously upon tiny bushes that grew from the solid +face of the rock, he lowered the point of his long spear until it hung some six +feet above the ground. +</p> + +<p> +To clamber up that slim shaft without dragging Ja down and precipitating both +to the same doom from which the copper-colored one was attempting to save me +seemed utterly impossible, and as I came near the spear I told Ja so, and that +I could not risk him to try to save myself. +</p> + +<p> +But he insisted that he knew what he was doing and was in no danger himself. +</p> + +<p> +“The danger is still yours,” he called, “for unless you move much more rapidly +than you are now, the sithic will be upon you and drag you back before ever you +are halfway up the spear—he can rear up and reach you with ease anywhere below +where I stand.” +</p> + +<p> +Well, Ja should know his own business, I thought, and so I grasped the spear +and clambered up toward the red man as rapidly as I could—being so far removed +from my simian ancestors as I am. I imagine the slow-witted sithic, as Ja +called him, suddenly realized our intentions and that he was quite likely to +lose all his meal instead of having it doubled as he had hoped. +</p> + +<p> +When he saw me clambering up that spear he let out a hiss that fairly shook the +ground, and came charging after me at a terrific rate. I had reached the top of +the spear by this time, or almost; another six inches would give me a hold on +Ja’s hand, when I felt a sudden wrench from below and glancing fearfully +downward saw the mighty jaws of the monster close on the sharp point of the +weapon. +</p> + +<p> +I made a frantic effort to reach Ja’s hand, the sithic gave a tremendous tug +that came near to jerking Ja from his frail hold on the surface of the rock, +the spear slipped from his fingers, and still clinging to it I plunged feet +foremost toward my executioner. +</p> + +<p> +At the instant that he felt the spear come away from Ja’s hand the creature +must have opened his huge jaws to catch me, for when I came down, still +clinging to the butt end of the weapon, the point yet rested in his mouth and +the result was that the sharpened end transfixed his lower jaw. +</p> + +<p> +With the pain he snapped his mouth closed. I fell upon his snout, lost my hold +upon the spear, rolled the length of his face and head, across his short neck +onto his broad back and from there to the ground. +</p> + +<p> +Scarce had I touched the earth than I was upon my feet, dashing madly for the +path by which I had entered this horrible valley. A glance over my shoulder +showed me the sithic engaged in pawing at the spear stuck through his lower +jaw, and so busily engaged did he remain in this occupation that I had gained +the safety of the cliff top before he was ready to take up the pursuit. When he +did not discover me in sight within the valley he dashed, hissing, into the +rank vegetation of the swamp and that was the last I saw of him. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>X<br/> +PHUTRA AGAIN </h2> + +<p> +I hastened to the cliff edge above Ja and helped him to a secure footing. He +would not listen to any thanks for his attempt to save me, which had come so +near miscarrying. +</p> + +<p> +“I had given you up for lost when you tumbled into the Mahar temple,” he said, +“for not even I could save you from their clutches, and you may imagine my +surprise when on seeing a canoe dragged up upon the beach of the mainland I +discovered your own footprints in the sand beside it. +</p> + +<p> +“I immediately set out in search of you, knowing as I did that you must be +entirely unarmed and defenseless against the many dangers which lurk upon the +mainland both in the form of savage beasts and reptiles, and men as well. I had +no difficulty in tracking you to this point. It is well that I arrived when I +did.” +</p> + +<p> +“But why did you do it?” I asked, puzzled at this show of friendship on the +part of a man of another world and a different race and color. +</p> + +<p> +“You saved my life,” he replied; “from that moment it became my duty to protect +and befriend you. I would have been no true Mezop had I evaded my plain duty; +but it was a pleasure in this instance for I like you. I wish that you would +come and live with me. You shall become a member of my tribe. Among us there is +the best of hunting and fishing, and you shall have, to choose a mate from, the +most beautiful girls of Pellucidar. Will you come?” +</p> + +<p> +I told him about Perry then, and Dian the Beautiful, and how my duty was to +them first. Afterward I should return and visit him—if I could ever find his +island. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, that is easy, my friend,” he said. “You need merely to come to the foot of +the highest peak of the Mountains of the Clouds. There you will find a river +which flows into the Lural Az. Directly opposite the mouth of the river you +will see three large islands far out, so far that they are barely discernible, +the one to the extreme left as you face them from the mouth of the river is +Anoroc, where I rule the tribe of Anoroc.” +</p> + +<p> +“But how am I to find the Mountains of the Clouds?” I asked. “Men say that they +are visible from half Pellucidar,” he replied. +</p> + +<p> +“How large is Pellucidar?” I asked, wondering what sort of theory these +primitive men had concerning the form and substance of their world. +</p> + +<p> +“The Mahars say it is round, like the inside of a tola shell,” he answered, +“but that is ridiculous, since, were it true, we should fall back were we to +travel far in any direction, and all the waters of Pellucidar would run to one +spot and drown us. No, Pellucidar is quite flat and extends no man knows how +far in all directions. At the edges, so my ancestors have reported and handed +down to me, is a great wall that prevents the earth and waters from escaping +over into the burning sea whereon Pellucidar floats; but I never have been so +far from Anoroc as to have seen this wall with my own eyes. However, it is +quite reasonable to believe that this is true, whereas there is no reason at +all in the foolish belief of the Mahars. According to them Pellucidarians who +live upon the opposite side walk always with their heads pointed downward!” and +Ja laughed uproariously at the very thought. +</p> + +<p> +It was plain to see that the human folk of this inner world had not advanced +far in learning, and the thought that the ugly Mahars had so outstripped them +was a very pathetic one indeed. I wondered how many ages it would take to lift +these people out of their ignorance even were it given to Perry and me to +attempt it. Possibly we would be killed for our pains as were those men of the +outer world who dared challenge the dense ignorance and superstitions of the +earth’s younger days. But it was worth the effort if the opportunity ever +presented itself. +</p> + +<p> +And then it occurred to me that here was an opportunity—that I might make a +small beginning upon Ja, who was my friend, and thus note the effect of my +teaching upon a Pellucidarian. +</p> + +<p> +“Ja,” I said, “what would you say were I to tell you that in so far as the +Mahars’ theory of the shape of Pellucidar is concerned it is correct?” +</p> + +<p> +“I would say,” he replied, “that either you are a fool, or took me for one.” +</p> + +<p> +“But, Ja,” I insisted, “if their theory is incorrect how do you account for the +fact that I was able to pass through the earth from the outer crust to +Pellucidar. If your theory is correct all is a sea of flame beneath us, wherein +no peoples could exist, and yet I come from a great world that is covered with +human beings, and beasts, and birds, and fishes in mighty oceans.” +</p> + +<p> +“You live upon the under side of Pellucidar, and walk always with your head +pointed downward?” he scoffed. “And were I to believe that, my friend, I should +indeed be mad.” +</p> + +<p> +I attempted to explain the force of gravity to him, and by the means of the +dropped fruit to illustrate how impossible it would be for a body to fall off +the earth under any circumstances. He listened so intently that I thought I had +made an impression, and started the train of thought that would lead him to a +partial understanding of the truth. But I was mistaken. +</p> + +<p> +“Your own illustration,” he said finally, “proves the falsity of your theory.” +He dropped a fruit from his hand to the ground. “See,” he said, “without +support even this tiny fruit falls until it strikes something that stops it. If +Pellucidar were not supported upon the flaming sea it too would fall as the +fruit falls—you have proven it yourself!” He had me, that time—you could see it +in his eye. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed a hopeless job and I gave it up, temporarily at least, for when I +contemplated the necessity explanation of our solar system and the universe I +realized how futile it would be to attempt to picture to Ja or any other +Pellucidarian the sun, the moon, the planets, and the countless stars. Those +born within the inner world could no more conceive of such things than can we +of the outer crust reduce to factors appreciable to our finite minds such terms +as space and eternity. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, Ja,” I laughed, “whether we be walking with our feet up or down, here we +are, and the question of greatest importance is not so much where we came from +as where we are going now. For my part I wish that you could guide me to Phutra +where I may give myself up to the Mahars once more that my friends and I may +work out the plan of escape which the Sagoths interrupted when they gathered us +together and drove us to the arena to witness the punishment of the slaves who +killed the guardsman. I wish now that I had not left the arena for by this time +my friends and I might have made good our escape, whereas this delay may mean +the wrecking of all our plans, which depended for their consummation upon the +continued sleep of the three Mahars who lay in the pit beneath the building in +which we were confined.” +</p> + +<p> +“You would return to captivity?” cried Ja. +</p> + +<p> +“My friends are there,” I replied, “the only friends I have in Pellucidar, +except yourself. What else may I do under the circumstances?” +</p> + +<p> +He thought for a moment in silence. Then he shook his head sorrowfully. +</p> + +<p> +“It is what a brave man and a good friend should do,” he said; “yet it seems +most foolish, for the Mahars will most certainly condemn you to death for +running away, and so you will be accomplishing nothing for your friends by +returning. Never in all my life have I heard of a prisoner returning to the +Mahars of his own free will. There are but few who escape them, though some do, +and these would rather die than be recaptured.” +</p> + +<p> +“I see no other way, Ja,” I said, “though I can assure you that I would rather +go to Sheol after Perry than to Phutra. However, Perry is much too pious to +make the probability at all great that I should ever be called upon to rescue +him from the former locality.” +</p> + +<p> +Ja asked me what Sheol was, and when I explained, as best I could, he said, +“You are speaking of Molop Az, the flaming sea upon which Pellucidar floats. +All the dead who are buried in the ground go there. Piece by piece they are +carried down to Molop Az by the little demons who dwell there. We know this +because when graves are opened we find that the bodies have been partially or +entirely borne off. That is why we of Anoroc place our dead in high trees where +the birds may find them and bear them bit by bit to the Dead World above the +Land of Awful Shadow. If we kill an enemy we place his body in the ground that +it may go to Molop Az.” +</p> + +<p> +As we talked we had been walking up the canyon down which I had come to the +great ocean and the sithic. Ja did his best to dissuade me from returning to +Phutra, but when he saw that I was determined to do so, he consented to guide +me to a point from which I could see the plain where lay the city. To my +surprise the distance was but short from the beach where I had again met Ja. It +was evident that I had spent much time following the windings of a tortuous +canyon, while just beyond the ridge lay the city of Phutra near to which I must +have come several times. +</p> + +<p> +As we topped the ridge and saw the granite gate towers dotting the flowered +plain at our feet Ja made a final effort to persuade me to abandon my mad +purpose and return with him to Anoroc, but I was firm in my resolve, and at +last he bid me good-bye, assured in his own mind that he was looking upon me +for the last time. +</p> + +<p> +I was sorry to part with Ja, for I had come to like him very much indeed. With +his hidden city upon the island of Anoroc as a base, and his savage warriors as +escort Perry and I could have accomplished much in the line of exploration, and +I hoped that were we successful in our effort to escape we might return to +Anoroc later. +</p> + +<p> +There was, however, one great thing to be accomplished first—at least it was +the great thing to me—the finding of Dian the Beautiful. I wanted to make +amends for the affront I had put upon her in my ignorance, and I wanted +to—well, I wanted to see her again, and to be with her. +</p> + +<p> +Down the hillside I made my way into the gorgeous field of flowers, and then +across the rolling land toward the shadowless columns that guard the ways to +buried Phutra. At a quarter-mile from the nearest entrance I was discovered by +the Sagoth guard, and in an instant four of the gorilla-men were dashing toward +me. +</p> + +<p> +Though they brandished their long spears and yelled like wild Comanches I paid +not the slightest attention to them, walking quietly toward them as though +unaware of their existence. My manner had the effect upon them that I had +hoped, and as we came quite near together they ceased their savage shouting. It +was evident that they had expected me to turn and flee at sight of them, thus +presenting that which they most enjoyed, a moving human target at which to cast +their spears. +</p> + +<p> +“What do you here?” shouted one, and then as he recognized me, “Ho! It is the +slave who claims to be from another world—he who escaped when the thag ran +amuck within the amphitheater. But why do you return, having once made good +your escape?” +</p> + +<p> +“I did not ‘escape’,” I replied. “I but ran away to avoid the thag, as did +others, and coming into a long passage I became confused and lost my way in the +foothills beyond Phutra. Only now have I found my way back.” +</p> + +<p> +“And you come of your free will back to Phutra!” exclaimed one of the +guardsmen. +</p> + +<p> +“Where else might I go?” I asked. “I am a stranger within Pellucidar and know +no other where than Phutra. Why should I not desire to be in Phutra? Am I not +well fed and well treated? Am I not happy? What better lot could man desire?” +</p> + +<p> +The Sagoths scratched their heads. This was a new one on them, and so being +stupid brutes they took me to their masters whom they felt would be better +fitted to solve the riddle of my return, for riddle they still considered it. +</p> + +<p> +I had spoken to the Sagoths as I had for the purpose of throwing them off the +scent of my purposed attempt at escape. If they thought that I was so satisfied +with my lot within Phutra that I would voluntarily return when I had once had +so excellent an opportunity to escape, they would never for an instant imagine +that I could be occupied in arranging another escape immediately upon my return +to the city. +</p> + +<p> +So they led me before a slimy Mahar who clung to a slimy rock within the large +room that was the thing’s office. With cold, reptilian eyes the creature seemed +to bore through the thin veneer of my deceit and read my inmost thoughts. It +heeded the story which the Sagoths told of my return to Phutra, watching the +gorilla-men’s lips and fingers during the recital. Then it questioned me +through one of the Sagoths. +</p> + +<p> +“You say that you returned to Phutra of your own free will, because you think +yourself better off here than elsewhere—do you not know that you may be the +next chosen to give up your life in the interests of the wonderful scientific +investigations that our learned ones are continually occupied with?” +</p> + +<p> +I hadn’t heard of anything of that nature, but I thought best not to admit it. +</p> + +<p> +“I could be in no more danger here,” I said, “than naked and unarmed in the +savage jungles or upon the lonely plains of Pellucidar. I was fortunate, I +think, to return to Phutra at all. As it was I barely escaped death within the +jaws of a huge sithic. No, I am sure that I am safer in the hands of +intelligent creatures such as rule Phutra. At least such would be the case in +my own world, where human beings like myself rule supreme. There the higher +races of man extend protection and hospitality to the stranger within their +gates, and being a stranger here I naturally assumed that a like courtesy would +be accorded me.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mahar looked at me in silence for some time after I ceased speaking and the +Sagoth had translated my words to his master. The creature seemed deep in +thought. Presently he communicated some message to the Sagoth. The latter +turned, and motioning me to follow him, left the presence of the reptile. +Behind and on either side of me marched the balance of the guard. +</p> + +<p> +“What are they going to do with me?” I asked the fellow at my right. +</p> + +<p> +“You are to appear before the learned ones who will question you regarding this +strange world from which you say you come.” +</p> + +<p> +After a moment’s silence he turned to me again. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you happen to know,” he asked, “what the Mahars do to slaves who lie to +them?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” I replied, “nor does it interest me, as I have no intention of lying to +the Mahars.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then be careful that you don’t repeat the impossible tale you told Sol-to-to +just now—another world, indeed, where human beings rule!” he concluded in fine +scorn. +</p> + +<p> +“But it is the truth,” I insisted. “From where else then did I come? I am not +of Pellucidar. Anyone with half an eye could see that.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is your misfortune then,” he remarked dryly, “that you may not be judged by +one with but half an eye.” +</p> + +<p> +“What will they do with me,” I asked, “if they do not have a mind to believe +me?” +</p> + +<p> +“You may be sentenced to the arena, or go to the pits to be used in research +work by the learned ones,” he replied. +</p> + +<p> +“And what will they do with me there?” I persisted. +</p> + +<p> +“No one knows except the Mahars and those who go to the pits with them, but as +the latter never return, their knowledge does them but little good. It is said +that the learned ones cut up their subjects while they are yet alive, thus +learning many useful things. However I should not imagine that it would prove +very useful to him who was being cut up; but of course this is all but +conjecture. The chances are that ere long you will know much more about it than +I,” and he grinned as he spoke. The Sagoths have a well-developed sense of +humor. +</p> + +<p> +“And suppose it is the arena,” I continued; “what then?” +</p> + +<p> +“You saw the two who met the tarag and the thag the time that you escaped?” he +said. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes.” +</p> + +<p> +“Your end in the arena would be similar to what was intended for them,” he +explained, “though of course the same kinds of animals might not be employed.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is sure death in either event?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“What becomes of those who go below with the learned ones I do not know, nor +does any other,” he replied; “but those who go to the arena may come out alive +and thus regain their liberty, as did the two whom you saw.” +</p> + +<p> +“They gained their liberty? And how?” +</p> + +<p> +“It is the custom of the Mahars to liberate those who remain alive within the +arena after the beasts depart or are killed. Thus it has happened that several +mighty warriors from far distant lands, whom we have captured on our slave +raids, have battled the brutes turned in upon them and slain them, thereby +winning their freedom. In the instance which you witnessed the beasts killed +each other, but the result was the same—the man and woman were liberated, +furnished with weapons, and started on their homeward journey. Upon the left +shoulder of each a mark was burned—the mark of the Mahars—which will forever +protect these two from slaving parties.” +</p> + +<p> +“There is a slender chance for me then if I be sent to the arena, and none at +all if the learned ones drag me to the pits?” +</p> + +<p> +“You are quite right,” he replied; “but do not felicitate yourself too quickly +should you be sent to the arena, for there is scarce one in a thousand who +comes out alive.” +</p> + +<p> +To my surprise they returned me to the same building in which I had been +confined with Perry and Ghak before my escape. At the doorway I was turned over +to the guards there. +</p> + +<p> +“He will doubtless be called before the investigators shortly,” said he who had +brought me back, “so have him in readiness.” +</p> + +<p> +The guards in whose hands I now found myself, upon hearing that I had returned +of my own volition to Phutra evidently felt that it would be safe to give me +liberty within the building as had been the custom before I had escaped, and so +I was told to return to whatever duty had been mine formerly. +</p> + +<p> +My first act was to hunt up Perry, whom I found poring as usual over the great +tomes that he was supposed to be merely dusting and rearranging upon new +shelves. +</p> + +<p> +As I entered the room he glanced up and nodded pleasantly to me, only to resume +his work as though I had never been away at all. I was both astonished and hurt +at his indifference. And to think that I was risking death to return to him +purely from a sense of duty and affection! +</p> + +<p> +“Why, Perry!” I exclaimed, “haven’t you a word for me after my long absence?” +</p> + +<p> +“Long absence!” he repeated in evident astonishment. “What do you mean?” +</p> + +<p> +“Are you crazy, Perry? Do you mean to say that you have not missed me since +that time we were separated by the charging thag within the arena?” +</p> + +<p> +“‘That time’,” he repeated. “Why man, I have but just returned from the arena! +You reached here almost as soon as I. Had you been much later I should indeed +have been worried, and as it is I had intended asking you about how you escaped +the beast as soon as I had completed the translation of this most interesting +passage.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perry, you ARE mad,” I exclaimed. “Why, the Lord only knows how long I have +been away. I have been to other lands, discovered a new race of humans within +Pellucidar, seen the Mahars at their worship in their hidden temple, and barely +escaped with my life from them and from a great labyrinthodon that I met +afterward, following my long and tedious wanderings across an unknown world. I +must have been away for months, Perry, and now you barely look up from your +work when I return and insist that we have been separated but a moment. Is that +any way to treat a friend? I’m surprised at you, Perry, and if I’d thought for +a moment that you cared no more for me than this I should not have returned to +chance death at the hands of the Mahars for your sake.” +</p> + +<p> +The old man looked at me for a long time before he spoke. There was a puzzled +expression upon his wrinkled face, and a look of hurt sorrow in his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“David, my boy,” he said, “how could you for a moment doubt my love for you? +There is something strange here that I cannot understand. I know that I am not +mad, and I am equally sure that you are not; but how in the world are we to +account for the strange hallucinations that each of us seems to harbor relative +to the passage of time since last we saw each other. You are positive that +months have gone by, while to me it seems equally certain that not more than an +hour ago I sat beside you in the amphitheater. Can it be that both of us are +right and at the same time both are wrong? First tell me what time is, and then +maybe I can solve our problem. Do you catch my meaning?” +</p> + +<p> +I didn’t and said so. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” continued the old man, “we are both right. To me, bent over my book +here, there has been no lapse of time. I have done little or nothing to waste +my energies and so have required neither food nor sleep, but you, on the +contrary, have walked and fought and wasted strength and tissue which must +needs be rebuilt by nutriment and food, and so, having eaten and slept many +times since last you saw me you naturally measure the lapse of time largely by +these acts. As a matter of fact, David, I am rapidly coming to the conviction +that there is no such thing as time—surely there can be no time here within +Pellucidar, where there are no means for measuring or recording time. Why, the +Mahars themselves take no account of such a thing as time. I find here in all +their literary works but a single tense, the present. There seems to be neither +past nor future with them. Of course it is impossible for our outer-earthly +minds to grasp such a condition, but our recent experiences seem to demonstrate +its existence.” +</p> + +<p> +It was too big a subject for me, and I said so, but Perry seemed to enjoy +nothing better than speculating upon it, and after listening with interest to +my account of the adventures through which I had passed he returned once more +to the subject, which he was enlarging upon with considerable fluency when he +was interrupted by the entrance of a Sagoth. +</p> + +<p> +“Come!” commanded the intruder, beckoning to me. “The investigators would speak +with you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good-bye, Perry!” I said, clasping the old man’s hand. “There may be nothing +but the present and no such thing as time, but I feel that I am about to take a +trip into the hereafter from which I shall never return. If you and Ghak should +manage to escape I want you to promise me that you will find Dian the Beautiful +and tell her that with my last words I asked her forgiveness for the +unintentional affront I put upon her, and that my one wish was to be spared +long enough to right the wrong that I had done her.” +</p> + +<p> +Tears came to Perry’s eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“I cannot believe but that you will return, David,” he said. “It would be awful +to think of living out the balance of my life without you among these hateful +and repulsive creatures. If you are taken away I shall never escape, for I feel +that I am as well off here as I should be anywhere within this buried world. +Good-bye, my boy, good-bye!” and then his old voice faltered and broke, and as +he hid his face in his hands the Sagoth guardsman grasped me roughly by the +shoulder and hustled me from the chamber. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>XI<br/> +FOUR DEAD MAHARS </h2> + +<p> +A moment later I was standing before a dozen Mahars—the social investigators of +Phutra. They asked me many questions, through a Sagoth interpreter. I answered +them all truthfully. They seemed particularly interested in my account of the +outer earth and the strange vehicle which had brought Perry and me to +Pellucidar. I thought that I had convinced them, and after they had sat in +silence for a long time following my examination, I expected to be ordered +returned to my quarters. +</p> + +<p> +During this apparent silence they were debating through the medium of strange, +unspoken language the merits of my tale. At last the head of the tribunal +communicated the result of their conference to the officer in charge of the +Sagoth guard. +</p> + +<p> +“Come,” he said to me, “you are sentenced to the experimental pits for having +dared to insult the intelligence of the mighty ones with the ridiculous tale +you have had the temerity to unfold to them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean that they do not believe me?” I asked, totally astonished. +</p> + +<p> +“Believe you!” he laughed. “Do you mean to say that you expected any one to +believe so impossible a lie?” +</p> + +<p> +It was hopeless, and so I walked in silence beside my guard down through the +dark corridors and runways toward my awful doom. At a low level we came upon a +number of lighted chambers in which we saw many Mahars engaged in various +occupations. To one of these chambers my guard escorted me, and before leaving +they chained me to a side wall. There were other humans similarly chained. Upon +a long table lay a victim even as I was ushered into the room. Several Mahars +stood about the poor creature holding him down so that he could not move. +Another, grasping a sharp knife with her three-toed fore foot, was laying open +the victim’s chest and abdomen. No anesthetic had been administered and the +shrieks and groans of the tortured man were terrible to hear. This, indeed, was +vivisection with a vengeance. Cold sweat broke out upon me as I realized that +soon my turn would come. And to think that where there was no such thing as +time I might easily imagine that my suffering was enduring for months before +death finally released me! +</p> + +<p> +The Mahars had paid not the slightest attention to me as I had been brought +into the room. So deeply immersed were they in their work that I am sure they +did not even know that the Sagoths had entered with me. The door was close by. +Would that I could reach it! But those heavy chains precluded any such +possibility. I looked about for some means of escape from my bonds. Upon the +floor between me and the Mahars lay a tiny surgical instrument which one of +them must have dropped. It looked not unlike a button-hook, but was much +smaller, and its point was sharpened. A hundred times in my boyhood days had I +picked locks with a buttonhook. Could I but reach that little bit of polished +steel I might yet effect at least a temporary escape. +</p> + +<p> +Crawling to the limit of my chain, I found that by reaching one hand as far out +as I could my fingers still fell an inch short of the coveted instrument. It +was tantalizing! Stretch every fiber of my being as I would, I could not quite +make it. +</p> + +<p> +At last I turned about and extended one foot toward the object. My heart came +to my throat! I could just touch the thing! But suppose that in my effort to +drag it toward me I should accidentally shove it still farther away and thus +entirely out of reach! Cold sweat broke out upon me from every pore. Slowly and +cautiously I made the effort. My toes dropped upon the cold metal. Gradually I +worked it toward me until I felt that it was within reach of my hand and a +moment later I had turned about and the precious thing was in my grasp. +</p> + +<p> +Assiduously I fell to work upon the Mahar lock that held my chain. It was +pitifully simple. A child might have picked it, and a moment later I was free. +The Mahars were now evidently completing their work at the table. One already +turned away and was examining other victims, evidently with the intention of +selecting the next subject. +</p> + +<p> +Those at the table had their backs toward me. But for the creature walking +toward us I might have escaped that moment. Slowly the thing approached me, +when its attention was attracted by a huge slave chained a few yards to my +right. Here the reptile stopped and commenced to go over the poor devil +carefully, and as it did so its back turned toward me for an instant, and in +that instant I gave two mighty leaps that carried me out of the chamber into +the corridor beyond, down which I raced with all the speed I could command. +</p> + +<p> +Where I was, or whither I was going, I knew not. My only thought was to place +as much distance as possible between me and that frightful chamber of torture. +</p> + +<p> +Presently I reduced my speed to a brisk walk, and later realizing the danger of +running into some new predicament, were I not careful, I moved still more +slowly and cautiously. After a time I came to a passage that seemed in some +mysterious way familiar to me, and presently, chancing to glance within a +chamber which led from the corridor I saw three Mahars curled up in slumber +upon a bed of skins. I could have shouted aloud in joy and relief. It was the +same corridor and the same Mahars that I had intended to have lead so important +a role in our escape from Phutra. Providence had indeed been kind to me, for +the reptiles still slept. +</p> + +<p> +My one great danger now lay in returning to the upper levels in search of Perry +and Ghak, but there was nothing else to be done, and so I hastened upward. When +I came to the frequented portions of the building, I found a large burden of +skins in a corner and these I lifted to my head, carrying them in such a way +that ends and corners fell down about my shoulders completely hiding my face. +Thus disguised I found Perry and Ghak together in the chamber where we had been +wont to eat and sleep. +</p> + +<p> +Both were glad to see me, it was needless to say, though of course they had +known nothing of the fate that had been meted out to me by my judges. It was +decided that no time should now be lost before attempting to put our plan of +escape to the test, as I could not hope to remain hidden from the Sagoths long, +nor could I forever carry that bale of skins about upon my head without +arousing suspicion. However it seemed likely that it would carry me once more +safely through the crowded passages and chambers of the upper levels, and so I +set out with Perry and Ghak—the stench of the illy cured pelts fairly choking +me. +</p> + +<p> +Together we repaired to the first tier of corridors beneath the main floor of +the buildings, and here Perry and Ghak halted to await me. The buildings are +cut out of the solid limestone formation. There is nothing at all remarkable +about their architecture. The rooms are sometimes rectangular, sometimes +circular, and again oval in shape. The corridors which connect them are narrow +and not always straight. The chambers are lighted by diffused sunlight +reflected through tubes similar to those by which the avenues are lighted. The +lower the tiers of chambers, the darker. Most of the corridors are entirely +unlighted. The Mahars can see quite well in semidarkness. +</p> + +<p> +Down to the main floor we encountered many Mahars, Sagoths, and slaves; but no +attention was paid to us as we had become a part of the domestic life of the +building. There was but a single entrance leading from the place into the +avenue and this was well guarded by Sagoths—this doorway alone were we +forbidden to pass. It is true that we were not supposed to enter the deeper +corridors and apartments except on special occasions when we were instructed to +do so; but as we were considered a lower order without intelligence there was +little reason to fear that we could accomplish any harm by so doing, and so we +were not hindered as we entered the corridor which led below. +</p> + +<p> +Wrapped in a skin I carried three swords, and the two bows, and the arrows +which Perry and I had fashioned. As many slaves bore skin-wrapped burdens to +and fro my load attracted no comment. Where I left Ghak and Perry there were no +other creatures in sight, and so I withdrew one sword from the package, and +leaving the balance of the weapons with Perry, started on alone toward the +lower levels. +</p> + +<p> +Having come to the apartment in which the three Mahars slept I entered silently +on tiptoe, forgetting that the creatures were without the sense of hearing. +With a quick thrust through the heart I disposed of the first but my second +thrust was not so fortunate, so that before I could kill the next of my victims +it had hurled itself against the third, who sprang quickly up, facing me with +wide-distended jaws. But fighting is not the occupation which the race of +Mahars loves, and when the thing saw that I already had dispatched two of its +companions, and that my sword was red with their blood, it made a dash to +escape me. But I was too quick for it, and so, half hopping, half flying, it +scurried down another corridor with me close upon its heels. +</p> + +<p> +Its escape meant the utter ruin of our plan, and in all probability my instant +death. This thought lent wings to my feet; but even at my best I could do no +more than hold my own with the leaping thing before me. +</p> + +<p> +Of a sudden it turned into an apartment on the right of the corridor, and an +instant later as I rushed in I found myself facing two of the Mahars. The one +who had been there when we entered had been occupied with a number of metal +vessels, into which had been put powders and liquids as I judged from the array +of flasks standing about upon the bench where it had been working. In an +instant I realized what I had stumbled upon. It was the very room for the +finding of which Perry had given me minute directions. It was the buried +chamber in which was hidden the Great Secret of the race of Mahars. And on the +bench beside the flasks lay the skin-bound book which held the only copy of the +thing I was to have sought, after dispatching the three Mahars in their sleep. +</p> + +<p> +There was no exit from the room other than the doorway in which I now stood +facing the two frightful reptiles. Cornered, I knew that they would fight like +demons, and they were well equipped to fight if fight they must. Together they +launched themselves upon me, and though I ran one of them through the heart on +the instant, the other fastened its gleaming fangs about my sword arm above the +elbow, and then with her sharp talons commenced to rake me about the body, +evidently intent upon disemboweling me. I saw that it was useless to hope that +I might release my arm from that powerful, viselike grip which seemed to be +severing my arm from my body. The pain I suffered was intense, but it only +served to spur me to greater efforts to overcome my antagonist. +</p> + +<p> +Back and forth across the floor we struggled—the Mahar dealing me terrific, +cutting blows with her fore feet, while I attempted to protect my body with my +left hand, at the same time watching for an opportunity to transfer my blade +from my now useless sword hand to its rapidly weakening mate. At last I was +successful, and with what seemed to me my last ounce of strength I ran the +blade through the ugly body of my foe. +</p> + +<p> +Soundless, as it had fought, it died, and though weak from pain and loss of +blood, it was with an emotion of triumphant pride that I stepped across its +convulsively stiffening corpse to snatch up the most potent secret of a world. +A single glance assured me it was the very thing that Perry had described to +me. +</p> + +<p> +And as I grasped it did I think of what it meant to the human race of +Pellucidar—did there flash through my mind the thought that countless +generations of my own kind yet unborn would have reason to worship me for the +thing that I had accomplished for them? I did not. I thought of a beautiful +oval face, gazing out of limpid eyes, through a waving mass of jet-black hair. +I thought of red, red lips, God-made for kissing. And of a sudden, apropos of +nothing, standing there alone in the secret chamber of the Mahars of +Pellucidar, I realized that I loved Dian the Beautiful. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>XII<br/> +PURSUIT </h2> + +<p> +For an instant I stood there thinking of her, and then, with a sigh, I tucked +the book in the thong that supported my loin cloth, and turned to leave the +apartment. At the bottom of the corridor which leads aloft from the lower +chambers I whistled in accordance with the prearranged signal which was to +announce to Perry and Ghak that I had been successful. A moment later they +stood beside me, and to my surprise I saw that Hooja the Sly One accompanied +them. +</p> + +<p> +“He joined us,” explained Perry, “and would not be denied. The fellow is a fox. +He scents escape, and rather than be thwarted of our chance now I told him that +I would bring him to you, and let you decide whether he might accompany us.” +</p> + +<p> +I had no love for Hooja, and no confidence in him. I was sure that if he +thought it would profit him he would betray us; but I saw no way out of it now, +and the fact that I had killed four Mahars instead of only the three I had +expected to, made it possible to include the fellow in our scheme of escape. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well,” I said, “you may come with us, Hooja; but at the first intimation +of treachery I shall run my sword through you. Do you understand?” +</p> + +<p> +He said that he did. +</p> + +<p> +Some time later we had removed the skins from the four Mahars, and so succeeded +in crawling inside of them ourselves that there seemed an excellent chance for +us to pass unnoticed from Phutra. It was not an easy thing to fasten the hides +together where we had split them along the belly to remove them from their +carcasses, but by remaining out until the others had all been sewed in with my +help, and then leaving an aperture in the breast of Perry’s skin through which +he could pass his hands to sew me up, we were enabled to accomplish our design +to really much better purpose than I had hoped. We managed to keep the heads +erect by passing our swords up through the necks, and by the same means were +enabled to move them about in a life-like manner. We had our greatest +difficulty with the webbed feet, but even that problem was finally solved, so +that when we moved about we did so quite naturally. Tiny holes punctured in the +baggy throats into which our heads were thrust permitted us to see well enough +to guide our progress. +</p> + +<p> +Thus we started up toward the main floor of the building. Ghak headed the +strange procession, then came Perry, followed by Hooja, while I brought up the +rear, after admonishing Hooja that I had so arranged my sword that I could +thrust it through the head of my disguise into his vitals were he to show any +indication of faltering. +</p> + +<p> +As the noise of hurrying feet warned me that we were entering the busy +corridors of the main level, my heart came up into my mouth. It is with no +sense of shame that I admit that I was frightened—never before in my life, nor +since, did I experience any such agony of soulsearing fear and suspense as +enveloped me. If it be possible to sweat blood, I sweat it then. +</p> + +<p> +Slowly, after the manner of locomotion habitual to the Mahars, when they are +not using their wings, we crept through throngs of busy slaves, Sagoths, and +Mahars. After what seemed an eternity we reached the outer door which leads +into the main avenue of Phutra. Many Sagoths loitered near the opening. They +glanced at Ghak as he padded between them. Then Perry passed, and then Hooja. +Now it was my turn, and then in a sudden fit of freezing terror I realized that +the warm blood from my wounded arm was trickling down through the dead foot of +the Mahar skin I wore and leaving its tell-tale mark upon the pavement, for I +saw a Sagoth call a companion’s attention to it. +</p> + +<p> +The guard stepped before me and pointing to my bleeding foot spoke to me in the +sign language which these two races employ as a means of communication. Even +had I known what he was saying I could not have replied with the dead thing +that covered me. I once had seen a great Mahar freeze a presumptuous Sagoth +with a look. It seemed my only hope, and so I tried it. Stopping in my tracks I +moved my sword so that it made the dead head appear to turn inquiring eyes upon +the gorilla-man. For a long moment I stood perfectly still, eyeing the fellow +with those dead eyes. Then I lowered the head and started slowly on. For a +moment all hung in the balance, but before I touched him the guard stepped to +one side, and I passed on out into the avenue. +</p> + +<p> +On we went up the broad street, but now we were safe for the very numbers of +our enemies that surrounded us on all sides. Fortunately, there was a great +concourse of Mahars repairing to the shallow lake which lies a mile or more +from the city. They go there to indulge their amphibian proclivities in diving +for small fish, and enjoying the cool depths of the water. It is a fresh-water +lake, shallow, and free from the larger reptiles which make the use of the +great seas of Pellucidar impossible for any but their own kind. +</p> + +<p> +In the thick of the crowd we passed up the steps and out onto the plain. For +some distance Ghak remained with the stream that was traveling toward the lake, +but finally, at the bottom of a little gully he halted, and there we remained +until all had passed and we were alone. Then, still in our disguises, we set +off directly away from Phutra. +</p> + +<p> +The heat of the vertical rays of the sun was fast making our horrible prisons +unbearable, so that after passing a low divide, and entering a sheltering +forest, we finally discarded the Mahar skins that had brought us thus far in +safety. +</p> + +<p> +I shall not weary you with the details of that bitter and galling flight. How +we traveled at a dogged run until we dropped in our tracks. How we were beset +by strange and terrible beasts. How we barely escaped the cruel fangs of lions +and tigers the size of which would dwarf into pitiful insignificance the +greatest felines of the outer world. +</p> + +<p> +On and on we raced, our one thought to put as much distance between ourselves +and Phutra as possible. Ghak was leading us to his own land—the land of Sari. +No sign of pursuit had developed, and yet we were sure that somewhere behind us +relentless Sagoths were dogging our tracks. Ghak said they never failed to hunt +down their quarry until they had captured it or themselves been turned back by +a superior force. +</p> + +<p> +Our only hope, he said, lay in reaching his tribe which was quite strong enough +in their mountain fastness to beat off any number of Sagoths. +</p> + +<p> +At last, after what seemed months, and may, I now realize, have been years, we +came in sight of the dun escarpment which buttressed the foothills of Sari. At +almost the same instant, Hooja, who looked ever quite as much behind as before, +announced that he could see a body of men far behind us topping a low ridge in +our wake. It was the long-expected pursuit. +</p> + +<p> +I asked Ghak if we could make Sari in time to escape them. +</p> + +<p> +“We may,” he replied; “but you will find that the Sagoths can move with +incredible swiftness, and as they are almost tireless they are doubtless much +fresher than we. Then—” he paused, glancing at Perry. +</p> + +<p> +I knew what he meant. The old man was exhausted. For much of the period of our +flight either Ghak or I had half supported him on the march. With such a +handicap, less fleet pursuers than the Sagoths might easily overtake us before +we could scale the rugged heights which confronted us. +</p> + +<p> +“You and Hooja go on ahead,” I said. “Perry and I will make it if we are able. +We cannot travel as rapidly as you two, and there is no reason why all should +be lost because of that. It can’t be helped—we have simply to face it.” +</p> + +<p> +“I will not desert a companion,” was Ghak’s simple reply. I hadn’t known that +this great, hairy, primeval man had any such nobility of character stowed away +inside him. I had always liked him, but now to my liking was added honor and +respect. Yes, and love. +</p> + +<p> +But still I urged him to go on ahead, insisting that if he could reach his +people he might be able to bring out a sufficient force to drive off the +Sagoths and rescue Perry and myself. +</p> + +<p> +No, he wouldn’t leave us, and that was all there was to it, but he suggested +that Hooja might hurry on and warn the Sarians of the king’s danger. It didn’t +require much urging to start Hooja—the naked idea was enough to send him +leaping on ahead of us into the foothills which we now had reached. +</p> + +<p> +Perry realized that he was jeopardizing Ghak’s life and mine and the old fellow +fairly begged us to go on without him, although I knew that he was suffering a +perfect anguish of terror at the thought of falling into the hands of the +Sagoths. Ghak finally solved the problem, in part, by lifting Perry in his +powerful arms and carrying him. While the act cut down Ghak’s speed he still +could travel faster thus than when half supporting the stumbling old man. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a>XIII<br/> +THE SLY ONE </h2> + +<p> +The Sagoths were gaining on us rapidly, for once they had sighted us they had +greatly increased their speed. On and on we stumbled up the narrow canyon that +Ghak had chosen to approach the heights of Sari. On either side rose +precipitous cliffs of gorgeous, parti-colored rock, while beneath our feet a +thick mountain grass formed a soft and noiseless carpet. Since we had entered +the canyon we had had no glimpse of our pursuers, and I was commencing to hope +that they had lost our trail and that we would reach the now rapidly nearing +cliffs in time to scale them before we should be overtaken. +</p> + +<p> +Ahead we neither saw nor heard any sign which might betoken the success of +Hooja’s mission. By now he should have reached the outposts of the Sarians, and +we should at least hear the savage cries of the tribesmen as they swarmed to +arms in answer to their king’s appeal for succor. In another moment the +frowning cliffs ahead should be black with primeval warriors. But nothing of +the kind happened—as a matter of fact the Sly One had betrayed us. At the +moment that we expected to see Sarian spearmen charging to our relief at +Hooja’s back, the craven traitor was sneaking around the outskirts of the +nearest Sarian village, that he might come up from the other side when it was +too late to save us, claiming that he had become lost among the mountains. +</p> + +<p> +Hooja still harbored ill will against me because of the blow I had struck in +Dian’s protection, and his malevolent spirit was equal to sacrificing us all +that he might be revenged upon me. +</p> + +<p> +As we drew nearer the barrier cliffs and no sign of rescuing Sarians appeared +Ghak became both angry and alarmed, and presently as the sound of rapidly +approaching pursuit fell upon our ears, he called to me over his shoulder that +we were lost. +</p> + +<p> +A backward glance gave me a glimpse of the first of the Sagoths at the far end +of a considerable stretch of canyon through which we had just passed, and then +a sudden turning shut the ugly creature from my view; but the loud howl of +triumphant rage which rose behind us was evidence that the gorilla-man had +sighted us. +</p> + +<p> +Again the canyon veered sharply to the left, but to the right another branch +ran on at a lesser deviation from the general direction, so that appeared more +like the main canyon than the lefthand branch. The Sagoths were now not over +two hundred and fifty yards behind us, and I saw that it was hopeless for us to +expect to escape other than by a ruse. There was a bare chance of saving Ghak +and Perry, and as I reached the branching of the canyon I took the chance. +</p> + +<p> +Pausing there I waited until the foremost Sagoth hove into sight. Ghak and +Perry had disappeared around a bend in the left-hand canyon, and as the +Sagoth’s savage yell announced that he had seen me I turned and fled up the +right-hand branch. My ruse was successful, and the entire party of man-hunters +raced headlong after me up one canyon while Ghak bore Perry to safety up the +other. +</p> + +<p> +Running has never been my particular athletic forte, and now when my very life +depended upon fleetness of foot I cannot say that I ran any better than on the +occasions when my pitiful base running had called down upon my head the +rooter’s raucous and reproachful cries of “Ice Wagon,” and “Call a cab.” +</p> + +<p> +The Sagoths were gaining on me rapidly. There was one in particular, fleeter +than his fellows, who was perilously close. The canyon had become a rocky slit, +rising roughly at a steep angle toward what seemed a pass between two abutting +peaks. What lay beyond I could not even guess—possibly a sheer drop of hundreds +of feet into the corresponding valley upon the other side. Could it be that I +had plunged into a cul-de-sac? +</p> + +<p> +Realizing that I could not hope to outdistance the Sagoths to the top of the +canyon I had determined to risk all in an attempt to check them temporarily, +and to this end had unslung my rudely made bow and plucked an arrow from the +skin quiver which hung behind my shoulder. As I fitted the shaft with my right +hand I stopped and wheeled toward the gorilla-man. +</p> + +<p> +In the world of my birth I never had drawn a shaft, but since our escape from +Phutra I had kept the party supplied with small game by means of my arrows, and +so, through necessity, had developed a fair degree of accuracy. During our +flight from Phutra I had restrung my bow with a piece of heavy gut taken from a +huge tiger which Ghak and I had worried and finally dispatched with arrows, +spear, and sword. The hard wood of the bow was extremely tough and this, with +the strength and elasticity of my new string, gave me unwonted confidence in my +weapon. +</p> + +<p> +Never had I greater need of steady nerves than then—never were my nerves and +muscles under better control. I sighted as carefully and deliberately as though +at a straw target. The Sagoth had never before seen a bow and arrow, but of a +sudden it must have swept over his dull intellect that the thing I held toward +him was some sort of engine of destruction, for he too came to a halt, +simultaneously swinging his hatchet for a throw. It is one of the many methods +in which they employ this weapon, and the accuracy of aim which they achieve, +even under the most unfavorable circumstances, is little short of miraculous. +</p> + +<p> +My shaft was drawn back its full length—my eye had centered its sharp point +upon the left breast of my adversary; and then he launched his hatchet and I +released my arrow. At the instant that our missiles flew I leaped to one side, +but the Sagoth sprang forward to follow up his attack with a spear thrust. I +felt the swish of the hatchet as it grazed my head, and at the same instant my +shaft pierced the Sagoth’s savage heart, and with a single groan he lunged +almost at my feet—stone dead. Close behind him were two more—fifty yards +perhaps—but the distance gave me time to snatch up the dead guardsman’s shield, +for the close call his hatchet had just given me had borne in upon me the +urgent need I had for one. Those which I had purloined at Phutra we had not +been able to bring along because their size precluded our concealing them +within the skins of the Mahars which had brought us safely from the city. +</p> + +<p> +With the shield slipped well up on my left arm I let fly with another arrow, +which brought down a second Sagoth, and then as his fellow’s hatchet sped +toward me I caught it upon the shield, and fitted another shaft for him; but he +did not wait to receive it. Instead, he turned and retreated toward the main +body of gorilla-men. Evidently he had seen enough of me for the moment. +</p> + +<p> +Once more I took up my flight, nor were the Sagoths apparently overanxious to +press their pursuit so closely as before. Unmolested I reached the top of the +canyon where I found a sheer drop of two or three hundred feet to the bottom of +a rocky chasm; but on the left a narrow ledge rounded the shoulder of the +overhanging cliff. Along this I advanced, and at a sudden turning, a few yards +beyond the canyon’s end, the path widened, and at my left I saw the opening to +a large cave. Before, the ledge continued until it passed from sight about +another projecting buttress of the mountain. +</p> + +<p> +Here, I felt, I could defy an army, for but a single foeman could advance upon +me at a time, nor could he know that I was awaiting him until he came full upon +me around the corner of the turn. About me lay scattered stones crumbled from +the cliff above. They were of various sizes and shapes, but enough were of +handy dimensions for use as ammunition in lieu of my precious arrows. Gathering +a number of stones into a little pile beside the mouth of the cave I waited the +advance of the Sagoths. +</p> + +<p> +As I stood there, tense and silent, listening for the first faint sound that +should announce the approach of my enemies, a slight noise from within the +cave’s black depths attracted my attention. It might have been produced by the +moving of the great body of some huge beast rising from the rock floor of its +lair. At almost the same instant I thought that I caught the scraping of hide +sandals upon the ledge beyond the turn. For the next few seconds my attention +was considerably divided. +</p> + +<p> +And then from the inky blackness at my right I saw two flaming eyes glaring +into mine. They were on a level that was over two feet above my head. It is +true that the beast who owned them might be standing upon a ledge within the +cave, or that it might be rearing up upon its hind legs; but I had seen enough +of the monsters of Pellucidar to know that I might be facing some new and +frightful Titan whose dimensions and ferocity eclipsed those of any I had seen +before. +</p> + +<p> +Whatever it was, it was coming slowly toward the entrance of the cave, and now, +deep and forbidding, it uttered a low and ominous growl. I waited no longer to +dispute possession of the ledge with the thing which owned that voice. The +noise had not been loud—I doubt if the Sagoths heard it at all—but the +suggestion of latent possibilities behind it was such that I knew it would only +emanate from a gigantic and ferocious beast. +</p> + +<p> +As I backed along the ledge I soon was past the mouth of the cave, where I no +longer could see those fearful flaming eyes, but an instant later I caught +sight of the fiendish face of a Sagoth as it warily advanced beyond the cliff’s +turn on the far side of the cave’s mouth. As the fellow saw me he leaped along +the ledge in pursuit, and after him came as many of his companions as could +crowd upon each other’s heels. At the same time the beast emerged from the +cave, so that he and the Sagoths came face to face upon that narrow ledge. +</p> + +<p> +The thing was an enormous cave bear, rearing its colossal bulk fully eight feet +at the shoulder, while from the tip of its nose to the end of its stubby tail +it was fully twelve feet in length. As it sighted the Sagoths it emitted a most +frightful roar, and with open mouth charged full upon them. With a cry of +terror the foremost gorilla-man turned to escape, but behind him he ran full +upon his on-rushing companions. +</p> + +<p> +The horror of the following seconds is indescribable. The Sagoth nearest the +cave bear, finding his escape blocked, turned and leaped deliberately to an +awful death upon the jagged rocks three hundred feet below. Then those giant +jaws reached out and gathered in the next—there was a sickening sound of +crushing bones, and the mangled corpse was dropped over the cliff’s edge. Nor +did the mighty beast even pause in his steady advance along the ledge. +</p> + +<p> +Shrieking Sagoths were now leaping madly over the precipice to escape him, and +the last I saw he rounded the turn still pursuing the demoralized remnant of +the man hunters. For a long time I could hear the horrid roaring of the brute +intermingled with the screams and shrieks of his victims, until finally the +awful sounds dwindled and disappeared in the distance. +</p> + +<p> +Later I learned from Ghak, who had finally come to his tribesmen and returned +with a party to rescue me, that the ryth, as it is called, pursued the Sagoths +until it had exterminated the entire band. Ghak was, of course, positive that I +had fallen prey to the terrible creature, which, within Pellucidar, is truly +the king of beasts. +</p> + +<p> +Not caring to venture back into the canyon, where I might fall prey either to +the cave bear or the Sagoths I continued on along the ledge, believing that by +following around the mountain I could reach the land of Sari from another +direction. But I evidently became confused by the twisting and turning of the +canyons and gullies, for I did not come to the land of Sari then, nor for a +long time thereafter. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a>XIV<br/> +THE GARDEN OF EDEN </h2> + +<p> +With no heavenly guide, it is little wonder that I became confused and lost in +the labyrinthine maze of those mighty hills. What, in reality, I did was to +pass entirely through them and come out above the valley upon the farther side. +I know that I wandered for a long time, until tired and hungry I came upon a +small cave in the face of the limestone formation which had taken the place of +the granite farther back. +</p> + +<p> +The cave which took my fancy lay halfway up the precipitous side of a lofty +cliff. The way to it was such that I knew no extremely formidable beast could +frequent it, nor was it large enough to make a comfortable habitat for any but +the smaller mammals or reptiles. Yet it was with the utmost caution that I +crawled within its dark interior. +</p> + +<p> +Here I found a rather large chamber, lighted by a narrow cleft in the rock +above which let the sunlight filter in in sufficient quantities partially to +dispel the utter darkness which I had expected. The cave was entirely empty, +nor were there any signs of its having been recently occupied. The opening was +comparatively small, so that after considerable effort I was able to lug up a +bowlder from the valley below which entirely blocked it. +</p> + +<p> +Then I returned again to the valley for an armful of grasses and on this trip +was fortunate enough to knock over an orthopi, the diminutive horse of +Pellucidar, a little animal about the size of a fox terrier, which abounds in +all parts of the inner world. Thus, with food and bedding I returned to my +lair, where after a meal of raw meat, to which I had now become quite +accustomed, I dragged the bowlder before the entrance and curled myself upon a +bed of grasses—a naked, primeval, cave man, as savagely primitive as my +prehistoric progenitors. +</p> + +<p> +I awoke rested but hungry, and pushing the bowlder aside crawled out upon the +little rocky shelf which was my front porch. Before me spread a small but +beautiful valley, through the center of which a clear and sparkling river wound +its way down to an inland sea, the blue waters of which were just visible +between the two mountain ranges which embraced this little paradise. The sides +of the opposite hills were green with verdure, for a great forest clothed them +to the foot of the red and yellow and copper green of the towering crags which +formed their summit. The valley itself was carpeted with a luxuriant grass, +while here and there patches of wild flowers made great splashes of vivid color +against the prevailing green. +</p> + +<p> +Dotted over the face of the valley were little clusters of palmlike trees—three +or four together as a rule. Beneath these stood antelope, while others grazed +in the open, or wandered gracefully to a nearby ford to drink. There were +several species of this beautiful animal, the most magnificent somewhat +resembling the giant eland of Africa, except that their spiral horns form a +complete curve backward over their ears and then forward again beneath them, +ending in sharp and formidable points some two feet before the face and above +the eyes. In size they remind one of a pure bred Hereford bull, yet they are +very agile and fast. The broad yellow bands that stripe the dark roan of their +coats made me take them for zebra when I first saw them. All in all they are +handsome animals, and added the finishing touch to the strange and lovely +landscape that spread before my new home. +</p> + +<p> +I had determined to make the cave my headquarters, and with it as a base make a +systematic exploration of the surrounding country in search of the land of +Sari. First I devoured the remainder of the carcass of the orthopi I had killed +before my last sleep. Then I hid the Great Secret in a deep niche at the back +of my cave, rolled the bowlder before my front door, and with bow, arrows, +sword, and shield scrambled down into the peaceful valley. +</p> + +<p> +The grazing herds moved to one side as I passed through them, the little +orthopi evincing the greatest wariness and galloping to safest distances. All +the animals stopped feeding as I approached, and after moving to what they +considered a safe distance stood contemplating me with serious eyes and +up-cocked ears. Once one of the old bull antelopes of the striped species +lowered his head and bellowed angrily—even taking a few steps in my direction, +so that I thought he meant to charge; but after I had passed, he resumed +feeding as though nothing had disturbed him. +</p> + +<p> +Near the lower end of the valley I passed a number of tapirs, and across the +river saw a great sadok, the enormous double-horned progenitor of the modern +rhinoceros. At the valley’s end the cliffs upon the left ran out into the sea, +so that to pass around them as I desired to do it was necessary to scale them +in search of a ledge along which I might continue my journey. Some fifty feet +from the base I came upon a projection which formed a natural path along the +face of the cliff, and this I followed out over the sea toward the cliff’s end. +</p> + +<p> +Here the ledge inclined rapidly upward toward the top of the cliffs—the stratum +which formed it evidently having been forced up at this steep angle when the +mountains behind it were born. As I climbed carefully up the ascent my +attention suddenly was attracted aloft by the sound of strange hissing, and +what resembled the flapping of wings. +</p> + +<p> +And at the first glance there broke upon my horrified vision the most frightful +thing I had seen even within Pellucidar. It was a giant dragon such as is +pictured in the legends and fairy tales of earth folk. Its huge body must have +measured forty feet in length, while the batlike wings that supported it in +midair had a spread of fully thirty. Its gaping jaws were armed with long, +sharp teeth, and its claw equipped with horrible talons. +</p> + +<p> +The hissing noise which had first attracted my attention was issuing from its +throat, and seemed to be directed at something beyond and below me which I +could not see. The ledge upon which I stood terminated abruptly a few paces +farther on, and as I reached the end I saw the cause of the reptile’s +agitation. +</p> + +<p> +Some time in past ages an earthquake had produced a fault at this point, so +that beyond the spot where I stood the strata had slipped down a matter of +twenty feet. The result was that the continuation of my ledge lay twenty feet +below me, where it ended as abruptly as did the end upon which I stood. +</p> + +<p> +And here, evidently halted in flight by this insurmountable break in the ledge, +stood the object of the creature’s attack—a girl cowering upon the narrow +platform, her face buried in her arms, as though to shut out the sight of the +frightful death which hovered just above her. +</p> + +<p> +The dragon was circling lower, and seemed about to dart in upon its prey. There +was no time to be lost, scarce an instant in which to weigh the possible +chances that I had against the awfully armed creature; but the sight of that +frightened girl below me called out to all that was best in me, and the +instinct for protection of the other sex, which nearly must have equaled the +instinct of self-preservation in primeval man, drew me to the girl’s side like +an irresistible magnet. +</p> + +<p> +Almost thoughtless of the consequences, I leaped from the end of the ledge upon +which I stood, for the tiny shelf twenty feet below. At the same instant the +dragon darted in toward the girl, but my sudden advent upon the scene must have +startled him for he veered to one side, and then rose above us once more. +</p> + +<p> +The noise I made as I landed beside her convinced the girl that the end had +come, for she thought I was the dragon; but finally when no cruel fangs closed +upon her she raised her eyes in astonishment. As they fell upon me the +expression that came into them would be difficult to describe; but her feelings +could scarcely have been one whit more complicated than my own—for the wide +eyes that looked into mine were those of Dian the Beautiful. +</p> + +<p> +“Dian!” I cried. “Dian! Thank God that I came in time.” +</p> + +<p> +“You?” she whispered, and then she hid her face again; nor could I tell whether +she were glad or angry that I had come. +</p> + +<p> +Once more the dragon was sweeping toward us, and so rapidly that I had no time +to unsling my bow. All that I could do was to snatch up a rock, and hurl it at +the thing’s hideous face. Again my aim was true, and with a hiss of pain and +rage the reptile wheeled once more and soared away. +</p> + +<p> +Quickly I fitted an arrow now that I might be ready at the next attack, and as +I did so I looked down at the girl, so that I surprised her in a surreptitious +glance which she was stealing at me; but immediately, she again covered her +face with her hands. +</p> + +<p> +“Look at me, Dian,” I pleaded. “Are you not glad to see me?” +</p> + +<p> +She looked straight into my eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“I hate you,” she said, and then, as I was about to beg for a fair hearing she +pointed over my shoulder. “The thipdar comes,” she said, and I turned again to +meet the reptile. +</p> + +<p> +So this was a thipdar. I might have known it. The cruel bloodhound of the +Mahars. The long-extinct pterodactyl of the outer world. But this time I met it +with a weapon it never had faced before. I had selected my longest arrow, and +with all my strength had bent the bow until the very tip of the shaft rested +upon the thumb of my left hand, and then as the great creature darted toward us +I let drive straight for that tough breast. +</p> + +<p> +Hissing like the escape valve of a steam engine, the mighty creature fell +turning and twisting into the sea below, my arrow buried completely in its +carcass. I turned toward the girl. She was looking past me. It was evident that +she had seen the thipdar die. +</p> + +<p> +“Dian,” I said, “won’t you tell me that you are not sorry that I have found +you?” +</p> + +<p> +“I hate you,” was her only reply; but I imagined that there was less vehemence +in it than before—yet it might have been but my imagination. +</p> + +<p> +“Why do you hate me, Dian?” I asked, but she did not answer me. +</p> + +<p> +“What are you doing here?” I asked, “and what has happened to you since Hooja +freed you from the Sagoths?” +</p> + +<p> +At first I thought that she was going to ignore me entirely, but finally she +thought better of it. +</p> + +<p> +“I was again running away from Jubal the Ugly One,” she said. “After I escaped +from the Sagoths I made my way alone back to my own land; but on account of +Jubal I did not dare enter the villages or let any of my friends know that I +had returned for fear that Jubal might find out. By watching for a long time I +found that my brother had not yet returned, and so I continued to live in a +cave beside a valley which my race seldom frequents, awaiting the time that he +should come back and free me from Jubal. +</p> + +<p> +“But at last one of Jubal’s hunters saw me as I was creeping toward my father’s +cave to see if my brother had yet returned and he gave the alarm and Jubal set +out after me. He has been pursuing me across many lands. He cannot be far +behind me now. When he comes he will kill you and carry me back to his cave. He +is a terrible man. I have gone as far as I can go, and there is no escape,” and +she looked hopelessly up at the continuation of the ledge twenty feet above us. +</p> + +<p> +“But he shall not have me,” she suddenly cried, with great vehemence. “The sea +is there”—she pointed over the edge of the cliff—“and the sea shall have me +rather than Jubal.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I have you now Dian,” I cried; “nor shall Jubal, nor any other have you, +for you are mine,” and I seized her hand, nor did I lift it above her head and +let it fall in token of release. +</p> + +<p> +She had risen to her feet, and was looking straight into my eyes with level +gaze. +</p> + +<p> +“I do not believe you,” she said, “for if you meant it you would have done this +when the others were present to witness it—then I should truly have been your +mate; now there is no one to see you do it, for you know that without witnesses +your act does not bind you to me,” and she withdrew her hand from mine and +turned away. +</p> + +<p> +I tried to convince her that I was sincere, but she simply couldn’t forget the +humiliation that I had put upon her on that other occasion. +</p> + +<p> +“If you mean all that you say you will have ample chance to prove it,” she +said, “if Jubal does not catch and kill you. I am in your power, and the +treatment you accord me will be the best proof of your intentions toward me. I +am not your mate, and again I tell you that I hate you, and that I should be +glad if I never saw you again.” +</p> + +<p> +Dian certainly was candid. There was no gainsaying that. In fact I found candor +and directness to be quite a marked characteristic of the cave men of +Pellucidar. Finally I suggested that we make some attempt to gain my cave, +where we might escape the searching Jubal, for I am free to admit that I had no +considerable desire to meet the formidable and ferocious creature, of whose +mighty prowess Dian had told me when I first met her. He it was who, armed with +a puny knife, had met and killed a cave bear in a hand-to-hand struggle. It was +Jubal who could cast his spear entirely through the armored carcass of the +sadok at fifty paces. It was he who had crushed the skull of a charging dyryth +with a single blow of his war club. No, I was not pining to meet the Ugly +One—and it was quite certain that I should not go out and hunt for him; but the +matter was taken out of my hands very quickly, as is often the way, and I did +meet Jubal the Ugly One face to face. +</p> + +<p> +This is how it happened. I had led Dian back along the ledge the way she had +come, searching for a path that would lead us to the top of the cliff, for I +knew that we could then cross over to the edge of my own little valley, where I +felt certain we should find a means of ingress from the cliff top. As we +proceeded along the ledge I gave Dian minute directions for finding my cave +against the chance of something happening to me. I knew that she would be quite +safely hidden away from pursuit once she gained the shelter of my lair, and the +valley would afford her ample means of sustenance. +</p> + +<p> +Also, I was very much piqued by her treatment of me. My heart was sad and +heavy, and I wanted to make her feel badly by suggesting that something +terrible might happen to me—that I might, in fact, be killed. But it didn’t +work worth a cent, at least as far as I could perceive. Dian simply shrugged +those magnificent shoulders of hers, and murmured something to the effect that +one was not rid of trouble so easily as that. +</p> + +<p> +For a while I kept still. I was utterly squelched. And to think that I had +twice protected her from attack—the last time risking my life to save hers. It +was incredible that even a daughter of the Stone Age could be so ungrateful—so +heartless; but maybe her heart partook of the qualities of her epoch. +</p> + +<p> +Presently we found a rift in the cliff which had been widened and extended by +the action of the water draining through it from the plateau above. It gave us +a rather rough climb to the summit, but finally we stood upon the level mesa +which stretched back for several miles to the mountain range. Behind us lay the +broad inland sea, curving upward in the horizonless distance to merge into the +blue of the sky, so that for all the world it looked as though the sea lapped +back to arch completely over us and disappear beyond the distant mountains at +our backs—the weird and uncanny aspect of the seascapes of Pellucidar balk +description. +</p> + +<p> +At our right lay a dense forest, but to the left the country was open and clear +to the plateau’s farther verge. It was in this direction that our way led, and +we had turned to resume our journey when Dian touched my arm. I turned to her, +thinking that she was about to make peace overtures; but I was mistaken. +</p> + +<p> +“Jubal,” she said, and nodded toward the forest. +</p> + +<p> +I looked, and there, emerging from the dense wood, came a perfect whale of a +man. He must have been seven feet tall, and proportioned accordingly. He still +was too far off to distinguish his features. +</p> + +<p> +“Run,” I said to Dian. “I can engage him until you get a good start. Maybe I +can hold him until you have gotten entirely away,” and then, without a backward +glance, I advanced to meet the Ugly One. I had hoped that Dian would have a +kind word to say to me before she went, for she must have known that I was +going to my death for her sake; but she never even so much as bid me good-bye, +and it was with a heavy heart that I strode through the flower-bespangled grass +to my doom. +</p> + +<p> +When I had come close enough to Jubal to distinguish his features I understood +how it was that he had earned the sobriquet of Ugly One. Apparently some +fearful beast had ripped away one entire side of his face. The eye was gone, +the nose, and all the flesh, so that his jaws and all his teeth were exposed +and grinning through the horrible scar. +</p> + +<p> +Formerly he may have been as good to look upon as the others of his handsome +race, and it may be that the terrible result of this encounter had tended to +sour an already strong and brutal character. However this may be it is quite +certain that he was not a pretty sight, and now that his features, or what +remained of them, were distorted in rage at the sight of Dian with another +male, he was indeed most terrible to see—and much more terrible to meet. +</p> + +<p> +He had broken into a run now, and as he advanced he raised his mighty spear, +while I halted and fitting an arrow to my bow took as steady aim as I could. I +was somewhat longer than usual, for I must confess that the sight of this awful +man had wrought upon my nerves to such an extent that my knees were anything +but steady. What chance had I against this mighty warrior for whom even the +fiercest cave bear had no terrors! Could I hope to best one who slaughtered the +sadok and dyryth singlehanded! I shuddered; but, in fairness to myself, my fear +was more for Dian than for my own fate. +</p> + +<p> +And then the great brute launched his massive stone-tipped spear, and I raised +my shield to break the force of its terrific velocity. The impact hurled me to +my knees, but the shield had deflected the missile and I was unscathed. Jubal +was rushing upon me now with the only remaining weapon that he carried—a +murderous-looking knife. He was too close for a careful bowshot, but I let +drive at him as he came, without taking aim. My arrow pierced the fleshy part +of his thigh, inflicting a painful but not disabling wound. And then he was +upon me. +</p> + +<p> +My agility saved me for the instant. I ducked beneath his raised arm, and when +he wheeled to come at me again he found a sword’s point in his face. And a +moment later he felt an inch or two of it in the muscles of his knife arm, so +that thereafter he went more warily. +</p> + +<p> +It was a duel of strategy now—the great, hairy man maneuvering to get inside my +guard where he could bring those giant thews to play, while my wits were +directed to the task of keeping him at arm’s length. Thrice he rushed me, and +thrice I caught his knife blow upon my shield. Each time my sword found his +body—once penetrating to his lung. He was covered with blood by this time, and +the internal hemorrhage induced paroxysms of coughing that brought the red +stream through the hideous mouth and nose, covering his face and breast with +bloody froth. He was a most unlovely spectacle, but he was far from dead. +</p> + +<p> +As the duel continued I began to gain confidence, for, to be perfectly candid, +I had not expected to survive the first rush of that monstrous engine of +ungoverned rage and hatred. And I think that Jubal, from utter contempt of me, +began to change to a feeling of respect, and then in his primitive mind there +evidently loomed the thought that perhaps at last he had met his master, and +was facing his end. +</p> + +<p> +At any rate it is only upon this hypothesis that I can account for his next +act, which was in the nature of a last resort—a sort of forlorn hope, which +could only have been born of the belief that if he did not kill me quickly I +should kill him. It happened on the occasion of his fourth charge, when, +instead of striking at me with his knife, he dropped that weapon, and seizing +my sword blade in both his hands wrenched the weapon from my grasp as easily as +from a babe. +</p> + +<p> +Flinging it far to one side he stood motionless for just an instant glaring +into my face with such a horrid leer of malignant triumph as to almost unnerve +me—then he sprang for me with his bare hands. But it was Jubal’s day to learn +new methods of warfare. For the first time he had seen a bow and arrows, never +before that duel had he beheld a sword, and now he learned what a man who knows +may do with his bare fists. +</p> + +<p> +As he came for me, like a great bear, I ducked again beneath his outstretched +arm, and as I came up planted as clean a blow upon his jaw as ever you have +seen. Down went that great mountain of flesh sprawling upon the ground. He was +so surprised and dazed that he lay there for several seconds before he made any +attempt to rise, and I stood over him with another dose ready when he should +gain his knees. +</p> + +<p> +Up he came at last, almost roaring in his rage and mortification; but he didn’t +stay up—I let him have a left fair on the point of the jaw that sent him +tumbling over on his back. By this time I think Jubal had gone mad with hate, +for no sane man would have come back for more as many times as he did. Time +after time I bowled him over as fast as he could stagger up, until toward the +last he lay longer on the ground between blows, and each time came up weaker +than before. +</p> + +<p> +He was bleeding very profusely now from the wound in his lungs, and presently a +terrific blow over the heart sent him reeling heavily to the ground, where he +lay very still, and somehow I knew at once that Jubal the Ugly One would never +get up again. But even as I looked upon that massive body lying there so grim +and terrible in death, I could not believe that I, single-handed, had bested +this slayer of fearful beasts—this gigantic ogre of the Stone Age. +</p> + +<p> +Picking up my sword I leaned upon it, looking down on the dead body of my +foeman, and as I thought of the battle I had just fought and won a great idea +was born in my brain—the outcome of this and the suggestion that Perry had made +within the city of Phutra. If skill and science could render a comparative +pygmy the master of this mighty brute, what could not the brute’s fellows +accomplish with the same skill and science. Why all Pellucidar would be at +their feet—and I would be their king and Dian their queen. +</p> + +<p> +Dian! A little wave of doubt swept over me. It was quite within the +possibilities of Dian to look down upon me even were I king. She was quite the +most superior person I ever had met—with the most convincing way of letting you +know that she was superior. Well, I could go to the cave, and tell her that I +had killed Jubal, and then she might feel more kindly toward me, since I had +freed her of her tormentor. I hoped that she had found the cave easily—it would +be terrible had I lost her again, and I turned to gather up my shield and bow +to hurry after her, when to my astonishment I found her standing not ten paces +behind me. +</p> + +<p> +“Girl!” I cried, “what are you doing here? I thought that you had gone to the +cave, as I told you to do.” +</p> + +<p> +Up went her head, and the look that she gave me took all the majesty out of me, +and left me feeling more like the palace janitor—if palaces have janitors. +</p> + +<p> +“As you told me to do!” she cried, stamping her little foot. “I do as I please. +I am the daughter of a king, and furthermore, I hate you.” +</p> + +<p> +I was dumbfounded—this was my thanks for saving her from Jubal! I turned and +looked at the corpse. “May be that I saved you from a worse fate, old man,” I +said, but I guess it was lost on Dian, for she never seemed to notice it at +all. +</p> + +<p> +“Let us go to my cave,” I said, “I am tired and hungry.” +</p> + +<p> +She followed along a pace behind me, neither of us speaking. I was too angry, +and she evidently didn’t care to converse with the lower orders. I was mad all +the way through, as I had certainly felt that at least a word of thanks should +have rewarded me, for I knew that even by her own standards, I must have done a +very wonderful thing to have killed the redoubtable Jubal in a hand-to-hand +encounter. +</p> + +<p> +We had no difficulty in finding my lair, and then I went down into the valley +and bowled over a small antelope, which I dragged up the steep ascent to the +ledge before the door. Here we ate in silence. Occasionally I glanced at her, +thinking that the sight of her tearing at raw flesh with her hands and teeth +like some wild animal would cause a revulsion of my sentiments toward her; but +to my surprise I found that she ate quite as daintily as the most civilized +woman of my acquaintance, and finally I found myself gazing in foolish rapture +at the beauties of her strong, white teeth. Such is love. +</p> + +<p> +After our repast we went down to the river together and bathed our hands and +faces, and then after drinking our fill went back to the cave. Without a word I +crawled into the farthest corner and, curling up, was soon asleep. +</p> + +<p> +When I awoke I found Dian sitting in the doorway looking out across the valley. +As I came out she moved to one side to let me pass, but she had no word for me. +I wanted to hate her, but I couldn’t. Every time I looked at her something came +up in my throat, so that I nearly choked. I had never been in love before, but +I did not need any aid in diagnosing my case—I certainly had it and had it bad. +God, how I loved that beautiful, disdainful, tantalizing, prehistoric girl! +</p> + +<p> +After we had eaten again I asked Dian if she intended returning to her tribe +now that Jubal was dead, but she shook her head sadly, and said that she did +not dare, for there was still Jubal’s brother to be considered—his oldest +brother. +</p> + +<p> +“What has he to do with it?” I asked. “Does he too want you, or has the option +on you become a family heirloom, to be passed on down from generation to +generation?” +</p> + +<p> +She was not quite sure as to what I meant. +</p> + +<p> +“It is probable,” she said, “that they all will want revenge for the death of +Jubal—there are seven of them—seven terrible men. Someone may have to kill them +all, if I am to return to my people.” +</p> + +<p> +It began to look as though I had assumed a contract much too large for me—about +seven sizes, in fact. +</p> + +<p> +“Had Jubal any cousins?” I asked. It was just as well to know the worst at +once. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” replied Dian, “but they don’t count—they all have mates. Jubal’s +brothers have no mates because Jubal could get none for himself. He was so ugly +that women ran away from him—some have even thrown themselves from the cliffs +of Amoz into the Darel Az rather than mate with the Ugly One.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what had that to do with his brothers?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“I forget that you are not of Pellucidar,” said Dian, with a look of pity mixed +with contempt, and the contempt seemed to be laid on a little thicker than the +circumstance warranted—as though to make quite certain that I shouldn’t +overlook it. “You see,” she continued, “a younger brother may not take a mate +until all his older brothers have done so, unless the older brother waives his +prerogative, which Jubal would not do, knowing that as long as he kept them +single they would be all the keener in aiding him to secure a mate.” +</p> + +<p> +Noticing that Dian was becoming more communicative I began to entertain hopes +that she might be warming up toward me a bit, although upon what slender thread +I hung my hopes I soon discovered. +</p> + +<p> +“As you dare not return to Amoz,” I ventured, “what is to become of you since +you cannot be happy here with me, hating me as you do?” +</p> + +<p> +“I shall have to put up with you,” she replied coldly, “until you see fit to go +elsewhere and leave me in peace, then I shall get along very well alone.” +</p> + +<p> +I looked at her in utter amazement. It seemed incredible that even a +prehistoric woman could be so cold and heartless and ungrateful. Then I arose. +</p> + +<p> +“I shall leave you NOW,” I said haughtily, “I have had quite enough of your +ingratitude and your insults,” and then I turned and strode majestically down +toward the valley. I had taken a hundred steps in absolute silence, and then +Dian spoke. +</p> + +<p> +“I hate you!” she shouted, and her voice broke—in rage, I thought. +</p> + +<p> +I was absolutely miserable, but I hadn’t gone too far when I began to realize +that I couldn’t leave her alone there without protection, to hunt her own food +amid the dangers of that savage world. She might hate me, and revile me, and +heap indignity after indignity upon me, as she already had, until I should have +hated her; but the pitiful fact remained that I loved her, and I couldn’t leave +her there alone. +</p> + +<p> +The more I thought about it the madder I got, so that by the time I reached the +valley I was furious, and the result of it was that I turned right around and +went up that cliff again as fast as I had come down. I saw that Dian had left +the ledge and gone within the cave, but I bolted right in after her. She was +lying upon her face on the pile of grasses I had gathered for her bed. When she +heard me enter she sprang to her feet like a tigress. +</p> + +<p> +“I hate you!” she cried. +</p> + +<p> +Coming from the brilliant light of the noonday sun into the semidarkness of the +cave I could not see her features, and I was rather glad, for I disliked to +think of the hate that I should have read there. +</p> + +<p> +I never said a word to her at first. I just strode across the cave and grasped +her by the wrists, and when she struggled, I put my arm around her so as to +pinion her hands to her sides. She fought like a tigress, but I took my free +hand and pushed her head back—I imagine that I had suddenly turned brute, that +I had gone back a thousand million years, and was again a veritable cave man +taking my mate by force—and then I kissed that beautiful mouth again and again. +</p> + +<p> +“Dian,” I cried, shaking her roughly, “I love you. Can’t you understand that I +love you? That I love you better than all else in this world or my own? That I +am going to have you? That love like mine cannot be denied?” +</p> + +<p> +I noticed that she lay very still in my arms now, and as my eyes became +accustomed to the light I saw that she was smiling—a very contented, happy +smile. I was thunderstruck. Then I realized that, very gently, she was trying +to disengage her arms, and I loosened my grip upon them so that she could do +so. Slowly they came up and stole about my neck, and then she drew my lips down +to hers once more and held them there for a long time. At last she spoke. +</p> + +<p> +“Why didn’t you do this at first, David? I have been waiting so long.” +</p> + +<p> +“What!” I cried. “You said that you hated me!” +</p> + +<p> +“Did you expect me to run into your arms, and say that I loved you before I +knew that you loved me?” she asked. +</p> + +<p> +“But I have told you right along that I love you,” I said. “Love speaks in +acts,” she replied. “You could have made your mouth say what you wished it to +say, but just now when you came and took me in your arms your heart spoke to +mine in the language that a woman’s heart understands. What a silly man you +are, David.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you haven’t hated me at all, Dian?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“I have loved you always,” she whispered, “from the first moment that I saw +you, although I did not know it until that time you struck down Hooja the Sly +One, and then spurned me.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I didn’t spurn you, dear,” I cried. “I didn’t know your ways—I doubt if I +do now. It seems incredible that you could have reviled me so, and yet have +cared for me all the time.” +</p> + +<p> +“You might have known,” she said, “when I did not run away from you that it was +not hate which chained me to you. While you were battling with Jubal, I could +have run to the edge of the forest, and when I learned the outcome of the +combat it would have been a simple thing to have eluded you and returned to my +own people.” +</p> + +<p> +“But Jubal’s brothers—and cousins—” I reminded her, “how about them?” +</p> + +<p> +She smiled, and hid her face on my shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +“I had to tell you SOMETHING, David,” she whispered. “I must needs have SOME +excuse for remaining near you.” +</p> + +<p> +“You little sinner!” I exclaimed. “And you have caused me all this anguish for +nothing!” +</p> + +<p> +“I have suffered even more,” she answered simply, “for I thought that you did +not love me, and I was helpless. I couldn’t come to you and demand that my love +be returned, as you have just come to me. Just now when you went away hope went +with you. I was wretched, terrified, miserable, and my heart was breaking. I +wept, and I have not done that before since my mother died,” and now I saw that +there was the moisture of tears about her eyes. It was near to making me cry +myself when I thought of all that poor child had been through. Motherless and +unprotected; hunted across a savage, primeval world by that hideous brute of a +man; exposed to the attacks of the countless fearsome denizens of its +mountains, its plains, and its jungles—it was a miracle that she had survived +it all. +</p> + +<p> +To me it was a revelation of the things my early forebears must have endured +that the human race of the outer crust might survive. It made me very proud to +think that I had won the love of such a woman. Of course she couldn’t read or +write; there was nothing cultured or refined about her as you judge culture and +refinement; but she was the essence of all that is best in woman, for she was +good, and brave, and noble, and virtuous. And she was all these things in spite +of the fact that their observance entailed suffering and danger and possible +death. +</p> + +<p> +How much easier it would have been to have gone to Jubal in the first place! +She would have been his lawful mate. She would have been queen in her own +land—and it meant just as much to the cave woman to be a queen in the Stone Age +as it does to the woman of today to be a queen now; it’s all comparative glory +any way you look at it, and if there were only half-naked savages on the outer +crust today, you’d find that it would be considerable glory to be the wife of a +Dahomey chief. +</p> + +<p> +I couldn’t help but compare Dian’s action with that of a splendid young woman I +had known in New York—I mean splendid to look at and to talk to. She had been +head over heels in love with a chum of mine—a clean, manly chap—but she had +married a broken-down, disreputable old debauchee because he was a count in +some dinky little European principality that was not even accorded a +distinctive color by Rand McNally. +</p> + +<p> +Yes, I was mighty proud of Dian. +</p> + +<p> +After a time we decided to set out for Sari, as I was anxious to see Perry, and +to know that all was right with him. I had told Dian about our plan of +emancipating the human race of Pellucidar, and she was fairly wild over it. She +said that if Dacor, her brother, would only return he could easily be king of +Amoz, and that then he and Ghak could form an alliance. That would give us a +flying start, for the Sarians and the Amozites were both very powerful tribes. +Once they had been armed with swords, and bows and arrows, and trained in their +use we were confident that they could overcome any tribe that seemed +disinclined to join the great army of federated states with which we were +planning to march upon the Mahars. +</p> + +<p> +I explained the various destructive engines of war which Perry and I could +construct after a little experimentation—gunpowder, rifles, cannon, and the +like, and Dian would clap her hands, and throw her arms about my neck, and tell +me what a wonderful thing I was. She was beginning to think that I was +omnipotent although I really hadn’t done anything but talk—but that is the way +with women when they love. Perry used to say that if a fellow was one-tenth as +remarkable as his wife or mother thought him, he would have the world by the +tail with a down-hill drag. +</p> + +<p> +The first time we started for Sari I stepped into a nest of poisonous vipers +before we reached the valley. A little fellow stung me on the ankle, and Dian +made me come back to the cave. She said that I mustn’t exercise, or it might +prove fatal—if it had been a full-grown snake that struck me she said, I +wouldn’t have moved a single pace from the nest—I’d have died in my tracks, so +virulent is the poison. As it was I must have been laid up for quite a while, +though Dian’s poultices of herbs and leaves finally reduced the swelling and +drew out the poison. +</p> + +<p> +The episode proved most fortunate, however, as it gave me an idea which added a +thousand-fold to the value of my arrows as missiles of offense and defense. As +soon as I was able to be about again, I sought out some adult vipers of the +species which had stung me, and having killed them, I extracted their virus, +smearing it upon the tips of several arrows. Later I shot a hyaenodon with one +of these, and though my arrow inflicted but a superficial flesh wound the beast +crumpled in death almost immediately after he was hit. +</p> + +<p> +We now set out once more for the land of the Sarians, and it was with feelings +of sincere regret that we bade good-bye to our beautiful Garden of Eden, in the +comparative peace and harmony of which we had lived the happiest moments of our +lives. How long we had been there I did not know, for as I have told you, time +had ceased to exist for me beneath that eternal noonday sun—it may have been an +hour, or a month of earthly time; I do not know. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap15"></a>XV<br/> +BACK TO EARTH </h2> + +<p> +We crossed the river and passed through the mountains beyond, and finally we +came out upon a great level plain which stretched away as far as the eye could +reach. I cannot tell you in what direction it stretched even if you would care +to know, for all the while that I was within Pellucidar I never discovered any +but local methods of indicating direction—there is no north, no south, no east, +no west. UP is about the only direction which is well defined, and that, of +course, is DOWN to you of the outer crust. Since the sun neither rises nor sets +there is no method of indicating direction beyond visible objects such as high +mountains, forests, lakes, and seas. +</p> + +<p> +The plain which lies beyond the white cliffs which flank the Darel Az upon the +shore nearest the Mountains of the Clouds is about as near to any direction as +any Pellucidarian can come. If you happen not to have heard of the Darel Az, or +the white cliffs, or the Mountains of the Clouds you feel that there is +something lacking, and long for the good old understandable northeast and +southwest of the outer world. +</p> + +<p> +We had barely entered the great plain when we discovered two enormous animals +approaching us from a great distance. So far were they that we could not +distinguish what manner of beasts they might be, but as they came closer, I saw +that they were enormous quadrupeds, eighty or a hundred feet long, with tiny +heads perched at the top of very long necks. Their heads must have been quite +forty feet from the ground. The beasts moved very slowly—that is their action +was slow—but their strides covered such a great distance that in reality they +traveled considerably faster than a man walks. +</p> + +<p> +As they drew still nearer we discovered that upon the back of each sat a human +being. Then Dian knew what they were, though she never before had seen one. +</p> + +<p> +“They are lidis from the land of the Thorians,” she cried. “Thoria lies at the +outer verge of the Land of Awful Shadow. The Thorians alone of all the races of +Pellucidar ride the lidi, for nowhere else than beside the dark country are +they found.” +</p> + +<p> +“What is the Land of Awful Shadow?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“It is the land which lies beneath the Dead World,” replied Dian; “the Dead +World which hangs forever between the sun and Pellucidar above the Land of +Awful Shadow. It is the Dead World which makes the great shadow upon this +portion of Pellucidar.” +</p> + +<p> +I did not fully understand what she meant, nor am I sure that I do yet, for I +have never been to that part of Pellucidar from which the Dead World is +visible; but Perry says that it is the moon of Pellucidar—a tiny planet within +a planet—and that it revolves around the earth’s axis coincidently with the +earth, and thus is always above the same spot within Pellucidar. +</p> + +<p> +I remember that Perry was very much excited when I told him about this Dead +World, for he seemed to think that it explained the hitherto inexplicable +phenomena of nutation and the precession of the equinoxes. +</p> + +<p> +When the two upon the lidis had come quite close to us we saw that one was a +man and the other a woman. The former had held up his two hands, palms toward +us, in sign of peace, and I had answered him in kind, when he suddenly gave a +cry of astonishment and pleasure, and slipping from his enormous mount ran +forward toward Dian, throwing his arms about her. +</p> + +<p> +In an instant I was white with jealousy, but only for an instant; since Dian +quickly drew the man toward me, telling him that I was David, her mate. +</p> + +<p> +“And this is my brother, Dacor the Strong One, David,” she said to me. +</p> + +<p> +It appeared that the woman was Dacor’s mate. He had found none to his liking +among the Sari, nor farther on until he had come to the land of the Thoria, and +there he had found and fought for this very lovely Thorian maiden whom he was +bringing back to his own people. +</p> + +<p> +When they had heard our story and our plans they decided to accompany us to +Sari, that Dacor and Ghak might come to an agreement relative to an alliance, +as Dacor was quite as enthusiastic about the proposed annihilation of the +Mahars and Sagoths as either Dian or I. +</p> + +<p> +After a journey which was, for Pellucidar, quite uneventful, we came to the +first of the Sarian villages which consists of between one and two hundred +artificial caves cut into the face of a great cliff. Here to our immense +delight, we found both Perry and Ghak. The old man was quite overcome at sight +of me for he had long since given me up as dead. +</p> + +<p> +When I introduced Dian as my wife, he didn’t quite know what to say, but he +afterward remarked that with the pick of two worlds I could not have done +better. +</p> + +<p> +Ghak and Dacor reached a very amicable arrangement, and it was at a council of +the head men of the various tribes of the Sari that the eventual form of +government was tentatively agreed upon. Roughly, the various kingdoms were to +remain virtually independent, but there was to be one great overlord, or +emperor. It was decided that I should be the first of the dynasty of the +emperors of Pellucidar. +</p> + +<p> +We set about teaching the women how to make bows and arrows, and poison +pouches. The young men hunted the vipers which provided the virus, and it was +they who mined the iron ore, and fashioned the swords under Perry’s direction. +Rapidly the fever spread from one tribe to another until representatives from +nations so far distant that the Sarians had never even heard of them came in to +take the oath of allegiance which we required, and to learn the art of making +the new weapons and using them. +</p> + +<p> +We sent our young men out as instructors to every nation of the federation, and +the movement had reached colossal proportions before the Mahars discovered it. +The first intimation they had was when three of their great slave caravans were +annihilated in rapid succession. They could not comprehend that the lower +orders had suddenly developed a power which rendered them really formidable. +</p> + +<p> +In one of the skirmishes with slave caravans some of our Sarians took a number +of Sagoth prisoners, and among them were two who had been members of the guards +within the building where we had been confined at Phutra. They told us that the +Mahars were frantic with rage when they discovered what had taken place in the +cellars of the buildings. The Sagoths knew that something very terrible had +befallen their masters, but the Mahars had been most careful to see that no +inkling of the true nature of their vital affliction reached beyond their own +race. How long it would take for the race to become extinct it was impossible +even to guess; but that this must eventually happen seemed inevitable. +</p> + +<p> +The Mahars had offered fabulous rewards for the capture of any one of us alive, +and at the same time had threatened to inflict the direst punishment upon +whomever should harm us. The Sagoths could not understand these seemingly +paradoxical instructions, though their purpose was quite evident to me. The +Mahars wanted the Great Secret, and they knew that we alone could deliver it to +them. +</p> + +<p> +Perry’s experiments in the manufacture of gunpowder and the fashioning of +rifles had not progressed as rapidly as we had hoped—there was a whole lot +about these two arts which Perry didn’t know. We were both assured that the +solution of these problems would advance the cause of civilization within +Pellucidar thousands of years at a single stroke. Then there were various other +arts and sciences which we wished to introduce, but our combined knowledge of +them did not embrace the mechanical details which alone could render them of +commercial, or practical value. +</p> + +<p> +“David,” said Perry, immediately after his latest failure to produce gunpowder +that would even burn, “one of us must return to the outer world and bring back +the information we lack. Here we have all the labor and materials for +reproducing anything that ever has been produced above—what we lack is +knowledge. Let us go back and get that knowledge in the shape of books—then +this world will indeed be at our feet.” +</p> + +<p> +And so it was decided that I should return in the prospector, which still lay +upon the edge of the forest at the point where we had first penetrated to the +surface of the inner world. Dian would not listen to any arrangement for my +going which did not include her, and I was not sorry that she wished to +accompany me, for I wanted her to see my world, and I wanted my world to see +her. +</p> + +<p> +With a large force of men we marched to the great iron mole, which Perry soon +had hoisted into position with its nose pointed back toward the outer crust. He +went over all the machinery carefully. He replenished the air tanks, and +manufactured oil for the engine. At last everything was ready, and we were +about to set out when our pickets, a long, thin line of which had surrounded +our camp at all times, reported that a great body of what appeared to be +Sagoths and Mahars were approaching from the direction of Phutra. +</p> + +<p> +Dian and I were ready to embark, but I was anxious to witness the first clash +between two fair-sized armies of the opposing races of Pellucidar. I realized +that this was to mark the historic beginning of a mighty struggle for +possession of a world, and as the first emperor of Pellucidar I felt that it +was not alone my duty, but my right, to be in the thick of that momentous +struggle. +</p> + +<p> +As the opposing army approached we saw that there were many Mahars with the +Sagoth troops—an indication of the vast importance which the dominant race +placed upon the outcome of this campaign, for it was not customary with them to +take active part in the sorties which their creatures made for slaves—the only +form of warfare which they waged upon the lower orders. +</p> + +<p> +Ghak and Dacor were both with us, having come primarily to view the prospector. +I placed Ghak with some of his Sarians on the right of our battle line. Dacor +took the left, while I commanded the center. Behind us I stationed a sufficient +reserve under one of Ghak’s head men. The Sagoths advanced steadily with +menacing spears, and I let them come until they were within easy bowshot before +I gave the word to fire. +</p> + +<p> +At the first volley of poison-tipped arrows the front ranks of the gorilla-men +crumpled to the ground; but those behind charged over the prostrate forms of +their comrades in a wild, mad rush to be upon us with their spears. A second +volley stopped them for an instant, and then my reserve sprang through the +openings in the firing line to engage them with sword and shield. The clumsy +spears of the Sagoths were no match for the swords of the Sarian and Amozite, +who turned the spear thrusts aside with their shields and leaped to close +quarters with their lighter, handier weapons. +</p> + +<p> +Ghak took his archers along the enemy’s flank, and while the swordsmen engaged +them in front, he poured volley after volley into their unprotected left. The +Mahars did little real fighting, and were more in the way than otherwise, +though occasionally one of them would fasten its powerful jaw upon the arm or +leg of a Sarian. +</p> + +<p> +The battle did not last a great while, for when Dacor and I led our men in upon +the Sagoth’s right with naked swords they were already so demoralized that they +turned and fled before us. We pursued them for some time, taking many prisoners +and recovering nearly a hundred slaves, among whom was Hooja the Sly One. +</p> + +<p> +He told me that he had been captured while on his way to his own land; but that +his life had been spared in hope that through him the Mahars would learn the +whereabouts of their Great Secret. Ghak and I were inclined to think that the +Sly One had been guiding this expedition to the land of Sari, where he thought +that the book might be found in Perry’s possession; but we had no proof of this +and so we took him in and treated him as one of us, although none liked him. +And how he rewarded my generosity you will presently learn. +</p> + +<p> +There were a number of Mahars among our prisoners, and so fearful were our own +people of them that they would not approach them unless completely covered from +the sight of the reptiles by a piece of skin. Even Dian shared the popular +superstition regarding the evil effects of exposure to the eyes of angry +Mahars, and though I laughed at her fears I was willing enough to humor them if +it would relieve her apprehension in any degree, and so she sat apart from the +prospector, near which the Mahars had been chained, while Perry and I again +inspected every portion of the mechanism. +</p> + +<p> +At last I took my place in the driving seat, and called to one of the men +without to fetch Dian. It happened that Hooja stood quite close to the doorway +of the prospector, so that it was he who, without my knowledge, went to bring +her; but how he succeeded in accomplishing the fiendish thing he did, I cannot +guess, unless there were others in the plot to aid him. Nor can I believe that, +since all my people were loyal to me and would have made short work of Hooja +had he suggested the heartless scheme, even had he had time to acquaint another +with it. It was all done so quickly that I may only believe that it was the +result of sudden impulse, aided by a number of, to Hooja, fortuitous +circumstances occurring at precisely the right moment. +</p> + +<p> +All I know is that it was Hooja who brought Dian to the prospector, still +wrapped from head to toe in the skin of an enormous cave lion which covered her +since the Mahar prisoners had been brought into camp. He deposited his burden +in the seat beside me. I was all ready to get under way. The good-byes had been +said. Perry had grasped my hand in the last, long farewell. I closed and barred +the outer and inner doors, took my seat again at the driving mechanism, and +pulled the starting lever. +</p> + +<p> +As before on that far-gone night that had witnessed our first trial of the iron +monster, there was a frightful roaring beneath us—the giant frame trembled and +vibrated—there was a rush of sound as the loose earth passed up through the +hollow space between the inner and outer jackets to be deposited in our wake. +Once more the thing was off. +</p> + +<p> +But on the instant of departure I was nearly thrown from my seat by the sudden +lurching of the prospector. At first I did not realize what had happened, but +presently it dawned upon me that just before entering the crust the towering +body had fallen through its supporting scaffolding, and that instead of +entering the ground vertically we were plunging into it at a different angle. +Where it would bring us out upon the upper crust I could not even conjecture. +And then I turned to note the effect of this strange experience upon Dian. She +still sat shrouded in the great skin. +</p> + +<p> +“Come, come,” I cried, laughing, “come out of your shell. No Mahar eyes can +reach you here,” and I leaned over and snatched the lion skin from her. And +then I shrank back upon my seat in utter horror. +</p> + +<p> +The thing beneath the skin was not Dian—it was a hideous Mahar. Instantly I +realized the trick that Hooja had played upon me, and the purpose of it. Rid of +me, forever as he doubtless thought, Dian would be at his mercy. Frantically I +tore at the steering wheel in an effort to turn the prospector back toward +Pellucidar; but, as on that other occasion, I could not budge the thing a hair. +</p> + +<p> +It is needless to recount the horrors or the monotony of that journey. It +varied but little from the former one which had brought us from the outer to +the inner world. Because of the angle at which we had entered the ground the +trip required nearly a day longer, and brought me out here upon the sand of the +Sahara instead of in the United States as I had hoped. +</p> + +<p> +For months I have been waiting here for a white man to come. I dared not leave +the prospector for fear I should never be able to find it again—the shifting +sands of the desert would soon cover it, and then my only hope of returning to +my Dian and her Pellucidar would be gone forever. +</p> + +<p> +That I ever shall see her again seems but remotely possible, for how may I know +upon what part of Pellucidar my return journey may terminate—and how, without a +north or south or an east or a west may I hope ever to find my way across that +vast world to the tiny spot where my lost love lies grieving for me? +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +That is the story as David Innes told it to me in the goat-skin tent upon the +rim of the great Sahara Desert. The next day he took me out to see the +prospector—it was precisely as he had described it. So huge was it that it +could have been brought to this inaccessible part of the world by no means of +transportation that existed there—it could only have come in the way that David +Innes said it came—up through the crust of the earth from the inner world of +Pellucidar. +</p> + +<p> +I spent a week with him, and then, abandoning my lion hunt, returned directly +to the coast and hurried to London where I purchased a great quantity of stuff +which he wished to take back to Pellucidar with him. There were books, rifles, +revolvers, ammunition, cameras, chemicals, telephones, telegraph instruments, +wire, tools and more books—books upon every subject under the sun. He said he +wanted a library with which they could reproduce the wonders of the twentieth +century in the Stone Age and if quantity counts for anything I got it for him. +</p> + +<p> +I took the things back to Algeria myself, and accompanied them to the end of +the railroad; but from here I was recalled to America upon important business. +However, I was able to employ a very trustworthy man to take charge of the +caravan—the same guide, in fact, who had accompanied me on the previous trip +into the Sahara—and after writing a long letter to Innes in which I gave him my +American address, I saw the expedition head south. +</p> + +<p> +Among the other things which I sent to Innes was over five hundred miles of +double, insulated wire of a very fine gauge. I had it packed on a special reel +at his suggestion, as it was his idea that he could fasten one end here before +he left and by paying it out through the end of the prospector lay a telegraph +line between the outer and inner worlds. In my letter I told him to be sure to +mark the terminus of the line very plainly with a high cairn, in case I was not +able to reach him before he set out, so that I might easily find and +communicate with him should he be so fortunate as to reach Pellucidar. +</p> + +<p> +I received several letters from him after I returned to America—in fact he took +advantage of every northward-passing caravan to drop me word of some sort. His +last letter was written the day before he intended to depart. Here it is. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +MY DEAR FRIEND: +</p> + +<p> +Tomorrow I shall set out in quest of Pellucidar and Dian. That is if the Arabs +don’t get me. They have been very nasty of late. I don’t know the cause, but on +two occasions they have threatened my life. One, more friendly than the rest, +told me today that they intended attacking me tonight. It would be unfortunate +should anything of that sort happen now that I am so nearly ready to depart. +</p> + +<p> +However, maybe I will be as well off, for the nearer the hour approaches, the +slenderer my chances for success appear. +</p> + +<p> +Here is the friendly Arab who is to take this letter north for me, so good-bye, +and God bless you for your kindness to me. +</p> + +<p> +The Arab tells me to hurry, for he sees a cloud of sand to the south—he thinks +it is the party coming to murder me, and he doesn’t want to be found with me. +So good-bye again. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +Yours, <br/> +DAVID INNES. +</p> + +<p> +A year later found me at the end of the railroad once more, headed for the spot +where I had left Innes. My first disappointment was when I discovered that my +old guide had died within a few weeks of my return, nor could I find any member +of my former party who could lead me to the same spot. +</p> + +<p> +For months I searched that scorching land, interviewing countless desert sheiks +in the hope that at last I might find one who had heard of Innes and his +wonderful iron mole. Constantly my eyes scanned the blinding waste of sand for +the rocky cairn beneath which I was to find the wires leading to Pellucidar—but +always was I unsuccessful. +</p> + +<p> +And always do these awful questions harass me when I think of David Innes and +his strange adventures. +</p> + +<p> +Did the Arabs murder him, after all, just on the eve of his departure? Or, did +he again turn the nose of his iron monster toward the inner world? Did he reach +it, or lies he somewhere buried in the heart of the great crust? And if he did +come again to Pellucidar was it to break through into the bottom of one of her +great island seas, or among some savage race far, far from the land of his +heart’s desire? +</p> + +<p> +Does the answer lie somewhere upon the bosom of the broad Sahara, at the end of +two tiny wires, hidden beneath a lost cairn? I wonder. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 123 ***</div> +</body> + +</html> + diff --git a/123-h/images/cover.jpg b/123-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1547337 --- /dev/null +++ b/123-h/images/cover.jpg |
