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@@ -0,0 +1,5548 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of At the Earth's Core, by Edgar Rice Burroughs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: At the Earth's Core + +Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs + +Posting Date: July 30, 2008 [EBook #545] +Release Date: June, 1996 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE EARTH'S CORE *** + + + + +Produced by Judith Boss. + + + + + + + + + +At the Earth's Core + + +By + +Edgar Rice Burroughs + + + + +CONTENTS + + PROLOGUE + I TOWARD THE ETERNAL FIRES + II A STRANGE WORLD + III A CHANGE OF MASTERS + IV DIAN THE BEAUTIFUL + V SLAVES + VI THE BEGINNING OF HORROR + VII FREEDOM + VIII THE MAHAR TEMPLE + IX THE FACE OF DEATH + X PHUTRA AGAIN + XI FOUR DEAD MAHARS + XII PURSUIT + XIII THE SLY ONE + XIV THE GARDEN OF EDEN + XV BACK TO EARTH + + + + +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 day-light 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--hyaenodon Perry called it--and turned loose with us inside the +circle. The thing's body was as large as that of a full-grown mastiff, +its legs were short and powerful, and its jaws broad and strong. Dark, +shaggy hair covered its back and sides, while its breast and belly were +quite white. As it slunk toward us it presented a most formidable +aspect with its upcurled lips baring its mighty fangs. + +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, nor 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 day-light 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 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 day-light--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, landscape. + +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 button-hook. 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 left-hand 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 nearby +ford to drink. There were several species of this beautiful animal, +the most magnificent somewhat resembling the giant eland of Africa, +except that their spiral horns form a complete curve backward over +their ears and then forward again beneath them, ending in sharp and +formidable points some two feet before the face and above the eyes. In +size they remind one of a pure bred Hereford bull, yet they are very +agile and fast. The broad yellow bands that stripe the dark roan of +their coats made me take them for zebra when I first saw them. All in +all they are handsome animals, and added the finishing touch to the +strange and lovely landscape that spread before my new home. + +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 +bat-like 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 +single-handed! 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 good-bye 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 Project Gutenberg's At the Earth's Core, by Edgar Rice Burroughs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE EARTH'S CORE *** + +***** This file should be named 545.txt or 545.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/545/ + +Produced by Judith Boss. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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