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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of At the Earth's Core, by Burroughs
+#11 in our series by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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+At the Earth's Core
+
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+
+June, 1996  [Etext #545]
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of At the Earth's Core by Burroughs
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+
+
+At the Earth's Core
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+"It cannot be!" he cried after a moment.  "It cannot be!
+Tell me that you are mistaken, or that you are but joking."
+
+"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?"
+
+For some time he stood in silence, with bowed head.
+
+"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.
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+TOWARD THE ETERNAL FIRES
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+"Gad!" he cried, "it cannot be possible--quick!  What does
+the distance meter read?"
+
+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.
+
+"Ten degrees rise--it cannot be possible!" and then I
+saw him tug frantically upon the steering wheel.
+
+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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"What can we do?" I asked, hiding my perturbation beneath
+the mask of a low and level voice.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"And if it should prove solid?" I asked.
+
+"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 the safety through eight thousand miles of rock to
+the antipodes."
+
+"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.
+
+"Quite correct, David.  Are you frightened?"
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"What are the readings now, David?" Perry's voice broke
+in upon my somber reflections.
+
+"Ninety miles and 153 degrees," I replied.
+
+"Gad, but we've knocked that thirty-mile-crust theory
+into a cocked hat!" he cried gleefully.
+
+"Precious lot of good it will do us," I growled back.
+
+"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!"
+
+"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.
+
+At one hundred miles the temperature had DROPPED TO 152 1/2
+DEGREES!  When I announced it Perry reached over and hugged me.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+At four hundred and twenty miles I took another reading.
+
+"Perry!" I shouted.  "Perry, man!  She's going down! She's
+going down!  She's 152 degrees again."
+
+"Gad!" he cried.  "What can it mean?  Can the earth
+be cold at the center?"
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+I saw Perry crumple in his seat.  He gave himself a shake
+and sat erect again.  Then he turned toward me.
+
+"Good-bye, David," he said.  "I guess this is the end,"
+and then he smiled and closed his eyes.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+
+
+II
+
+A STRANGE WORLD
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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!"
+
+"You say we're back at the surface, David?  How can
+that be?  How long have I been unconscious?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+I did know it; but here we were with our drill racing in
+pure air, and copious volumes of it pouring into the cabin.
+
+"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."
+
+"Better wait till morning, David--it must be midnight now."
+
+I glanced at the chronometer.
+
+"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.
+
+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!
+
+"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.
+
+"Let's have a look beyond that door, David," he cried.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+And upon all the noonday sun poured its torrid rays
+out of a cloudless sky.
+
+"Where on earth can we be?" I asked, turning to Perry.
+
+For some moments the old man did not reply.  He stood
+with bowed head, buried in deep thought.  But at last
+he spoke.
+
+"David," he said, "I am not so sure that we are ON earth."
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+As we walked along the beach Perry gazed long and
+earnestly across the water.  Evidently he was wrestling
+with a mighty problem.
+
+"David," he said abruptly, "do you perceive anything
+unusual about the horizon?"
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+"My God, Perry, where are we?" I exclaimed.  "This thing
+is beginning to get on my nerves."
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+III
+
+A CHANGE OF MASTERS
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Perry!" I cried.  "Dear old Perry!  Thank the Lord you
+are safe."
+
+"David!  Can it be possible that you escaped?" And the old
+man stumbled toward me and threw his arms about me.
+
+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.
+
+"With a tail, David," remarked Perry, "you would make
+a very handsome ape."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"Perry, you are mad!"
+
+"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?"
+
+"But the sun, Perry!" I urged.  "How in the world can
+the sun shine through five hundred miles of solid crust?"
+
+"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.
+
+"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 burled 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.
+
+"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."
+
+"But the grotesque inhabitants of this forest?" I urged.
+"Surely they have no counterpart in the earth's history."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"Quite low in the scale of creation," commented Perry.
+
+"Quite high enough to play the deuce with us, though,"
+I replied.  "Now what do you suppose they intend doing
+with us?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+We were placed in the center of the amphitheater--the
+thousand creatures forming a great ring about us.
+Then a wolf-dog was brought--hyaenadon 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+DIAN THE BEAUTIFUL
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"How came you here?" I asked her.
+
+"I was running away from Jubal the Ugly One," she answered,
+as though that was explanation quite sufficient.
+
+"Who is Jubal the Ugly One?" I asked.  "And why did you
+run away from him?"
+
+She looked at me in surprise.
+
+"Why DOES a woman run away from a man?" she answered
+my question with another.
+
+"They do not, where I come from," I replied.
+"Sometimes they run after them."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"What will they do with you?" I asked.  "Where are they
+taking us?"
+
+Again she looked her incredulity.
+
+"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!"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+And Perry!  He was absolutely flabbergasted.  He said
+so himself.
+
+"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!"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+"That I would not have!" I cried.  "What do you mean?"
+
+He looked at me closely for a moment.
+
+"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?"
+
+"I do not know, Ghak," I replied.
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"Is there no escape?" I asked.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+V
+
+SLAVES
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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!
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+"If Ghak will accompany us we may be able to do it,"
+I suggested.
+
+Perry and I sought him out and put the question straight
+to him.
+
+"Ghak," I said, "we are determined to escape from
+this bondage.  Will you accompany us?"
+
+"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."
+
+"Could you find your way back to your own land?" asked Perry.
+"And could you aid David in his search for Dian?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But how," persisted Perry, "could you travel to strange
+country without heavenly bodies or a compass to guide you?"
+
+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.
+
+"Then Dian could have found her way directly to her
+own people?" I asked.
+
+"Surely," replied Ghak, "unless some mighty beast of prey
+killed her."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"It would be murder, David," he cried.
+
+"Murder to kill a reptilian monster?" I asked in astonishment.
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+I shuddered.
+
+"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.
+
+"Yes, David," he concluded, "it would entail murder
+to carry out your plan."
+
+"Very well then, Perry." I replied.  "I shall become
+a murderer."
+
+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.
+
+"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 not appreciate
+my plan I shall briefly outline the history of the race.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE BEGINNING OF HORROR
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Is there naught that we may do to save her?" I asked Ghak.
+
+"Naught," he replied.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Presently a door in one side of the arena wall was opened
+to admit a huge, shaggy, bull-like creature.
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+FREEDOM
+
+
+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.
+
+I thought of Perry, 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 envelopes Pellucidar,
+and with a smile I stepped forth into the day-light.
+
+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, land-scape.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE MAHAR TEMPLE
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+To my delight he understood and answered me in the same jargon.
+
+"What do you want of my spear?" he asked.
+
+"Only to keep you from running it through me," I replied.
+
+"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.
+
+"Who are you," he continued, "and from what country
+do you come?"
+
+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.
+
+So I gave it up and asked him about himself.  He said he
+was a Mezop, and that his name was Ja.
+
+"Who are the Mezops?" I asked.  "Where do they live?"
+
+He looked at me in surprise.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+"We are within the outer wall," said Ja.  "It is hollow.
+Follow me closely."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"What are the human beings doing here?" I asked.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"I thought the Mahars seldom, if ever, slept," I said
+to Ja.
+
+"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."
+
+"Why should they object to eating human flesh," I asked,
+"if it is true that they look upon us as lower animals?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE FACE OF DEATH
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+But he insisted that he knew what he was doing and was
+in no danger himself.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+X
+
+PHUTRA AGAIN
+
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"But how am I to find the Mountains of the Clouds?" I asked.
+"Men say that they are visible from half Pellucidar,"
+he replied.
+
+"How large is Pellucidar?" I asked, wondering what sort
+of theory these primitive men had concerning the form
+and substance of their world.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"I would say," he replied, "that either you are a fool,
+or took me for one."
+
+"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,
+where in 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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"You would return to captivity?" cried Ja.
+
+"My friends are there," I replied, "the only friends I
+have in Pellucidar, except yourself.  What else may I
+do under the circumstances?"
+
+He thought for a moment in silence.  Then he shook his
+head sorrowfully.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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."
+
+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 canon, while just beyond the ridge
+lay the city of Phutra near to which I must have come
+several times.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"And you come of your free will back to Phutra!"
+exclaimed one of the guardsmen.
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+I hadn't heard of anything of that nature, but I thought
+best not to admit it.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"What are they going to do with me?" I asked the fellow
+at my right.
+
+"You are to appear before the learned ones who will
+question you regarding this strange world from which you
+say you come."
+
+After a moment's silence he turned to me again.
+
+"Do you happen to know," he asked, "what the Mahars
+do to slaves who lie to them?"
+
+"No," I replied, "nor does it interest me, as I have
+no intention of lying to the Mahars."
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"It is your misfortune then," he remarked dryly, "that you
+may not be judged by one with but half an eye."
+
+"What will they do with me," I asked, "if they do not
+have a mind to believe me?"
+
+"You may be sentenced to the arena, or go to the pits
+to be used in research work by the learned ones,"
+he replied.
+
+"And what will they do with me there?" I persisted.
+
+"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.
+
+"And suppose it is the arena," I continued; "what then?"
+
+"You saw the two who met the tarag and the thag the time
+that you escaped?" he said.
+
+"Yes. "
+
+"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."
+
+"It is sure death in either event?" I asked.
+
+"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."
+
+"They gained their liberty?  And how?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"He will doubtless be called before the investigators shortly,"
+said he who had brought me back," so have him in readiness."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+"Why, Perry!" I exclaimed, "haven't you a word for me
+after my long absence?"
+
+"Long absence!" he repeated in evident astonishment.
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"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?"
+
+"'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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+I didn't and said so.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"Come!" commanded the intruder, beckoning to me.
+"The investigators would speak with you."
+
+"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."
+
+Tears came to Perry's eyes.
+
+"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.
+
+
+
+XI
+
+FOUR DEAD MAHARS
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Do you mean that they do not believe me?" I asked,
+totally astonished.
+
+"Believe you!" he laughed.  "Do you mean to say that you
+expected any one to believe so impossible a lie?"
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+XII
+
+PURSUIT
+
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+He said that he did.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+I asked Ghak if we could make Sari in time to escape them.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE SLY ONE
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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
+at 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE GARDEN OF EDEN
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 near-by 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Dian!" I cried.  "Dian!  Thank God that I came in time."
+
+"You?" she whispered, and then she hid her face again;
+nor could I tell whether she were glad or angry that I
+had come.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Look at me, Dian," I pleaded.  "Are you not glad to see me?"
+
+She looked straight into my eyes.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Dian," I said, "won't you tell me that you are not sorry
+that I have found you?"
+
+"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.
+
+"Why do you hate me, Dian?" I asked, but she did not
+answer me.
+
+"What are you doing here?" I asked, "and what has happened
+to you since Hooja freed you from the Sagoths?"
+
+At first I thought that she was going to ignore me entirely,
+but finally she thought better of it.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+
+She had risen to her feet, and was looking straight
+into my eyes with level gaze.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Jubal," she said, and nodded toward the forest.
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Girl!" I cried, "what are you doing here?  I thought
+that you had gone to the cave, as I told you to do."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"Let us go to my cave," I said, "I am tired and hungry."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+She was not quite sure as to what I meant.
+
+"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."
+
+It began to look as though I had assumed a contract much
+too large for me--about seven sizes, in fact.
+
+"Had Jubal any cousins?" I asked.  It was just as well
+to know the worst at once.
+
+"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."
+
+"But what had that to do with his brothers?" I asked.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+"I hate you!" she shouted, and her voice broke--in rage,
+I thought.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"I hate you!" she cried.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+"Why didn't you do this at first, David?  I have been
+waiting so long."
+
+"What!" I cried.  "You said that you hated me!"
+
+"Did you expect me to run into your arms, and say that I
+loved you before I knew that you loved me?" she asked.
+
+"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?"
+
+"Then you haven't hated me at all, Dian?" I asked.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"But Jubal's brothers--and cousins--" I reminded her,
+"how about them?"
+
+She smiled, and hid her face on my shoulder.
+
+"I had to tell you SOMETHING, David," she whispered.
+"I must needs have SOME excuse for remaining near you."
+
+"You little sinner!" I exclaimed.  "And you have caused
+me all this anguish for nothing!"
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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 a Dahomey chief.
+
+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.
+
+Yes, I was mighty proud of Dian.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+XV
+
+BACK TO EARTH
+
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"What is the Land of Awful Shadow?" I asked.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"And this is my brother, Dacor the Strong One, David,"
+she said to me.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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?
+
+
+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.
+
+I spent a week with him, and then, abandoned 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,
+tool 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+My Dear Friend:
+
+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.
+
+However, maybe I will be as well off, for the nearer the
+hour approaches, the slenderer my chances for success appear.
+
+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.
+
+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 goodbye again.
+
+Yours,
+
+David Innes.
+
+
+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.
+
+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 ricky cairn beneath which I was to find the wires
+leading to Pellucidar--but always was I unsuccessful.
+
+And always do these awful questions harass me when I
+think of David Innes and his strange adventures.
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+
+[End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of At the Earth's Core]
+