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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + +PELLUCIDAR + +by Edgar Rice Burroughs + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + PROLOGUE + I LOST ON PELLUCIDAR + II TRAVELING WITH TERROR + III SHOOTING THE CHUTES--AND AFTER + IV FRIENDSHIP AND TREACHERY + V SURPRISES + VI A PENDENT WORLD + VII FROM PLIGHT TO PLIGHT +VIII CAPTIVE + IX HOOJA'S CUTTHROATS APPEAR + X THE RAID ON THE CAVE-PRISON + XI ESCAPE + XII KIDNAPED! +XIII RACING FOR LIFE + XIV GORE AND DREAMS + XV CONQUEST AND PEACE + + + + + +PROLOGUE + +SEVERAL YEARS had elapsed since I had found the op- +portunity to do any big-game hunting; for at last I +had my plans almost perfected for a return to my old +stamping-grounds in northern Africa, where in other +days I had had excellent sport in pursuit of the king +of beasts. + +The date of my departure had been set; I was to +leave in two weeks. No schoolboy counting the lagging +hours that must pass before the beginning of "long +vacation" released him to the delirious joys of the sum- +mer camp could have been filled with greater im- +patience or keener anticipation. + +And then came a letter that started me for Africa +twelve days ahead of my schedule. + +Often am I in receipt of letters from strangers who +have found something in a story of mine to commend +or to condemn. My interest in this department of my +correspondence is ever fresh. I opened this particular +letter with all the zest of pleasurable anticipation with +which I had opened so many others. The post-mark +(Algiers) had aroused my interest and curiosity, es- +pecially at this time, since it was Algiers that was +presently to witness the termination of my coming sea +voyage in search of sport and adventure. + +Before the reading of that letter was completed lions +and lion-hunting had fled my thoughts, and I was in +a state of excitement bordering upon frenzy. + +It--well, read it yourself, and see if you, too, do not +find food for frantic conjecture, for tantalizing doubts, +and for a great hope. + +Here it is: + +DEAR SIR: I think that I have run across one of the +most remarkable coincidences in modern literature. But +let me start at the beginning: + +I am, by profession, a wanderer upon the face of +the earth. I have no trade--nor any other occupation. + +My father bequeathed me a competency; some remoter +ancestors lust to roam. I have combined the two +and invested them carefully and without extravagance. + +I became interested in your story, At the Earth's +Core, not so much because of the probability of the +tale as of a great and abiding wonder that people +should be paid real money for writing such impossible +trash. You will pardon my candor, but it is necessary +that you understand my mental attitude toward this +particular story--that you may credit that which fol- +lows. + +Shortly thereafter I started for the Sahara in search +of a rather rare species of antelope that is to be found +only occasionally within a limited area at a certain +season of the year. My chase led me far from the haunts +of man. + +It was a fruitless search, however, in so far as antelope +is concerned; but one night as I lay courting sleep at +the edge of a little cluster of date-palms that surround +an ancient well in the midst of the arid, shifting sands, +I suddenly became conscious of a strange sound coming +apparently from the earth beneath my head. + +It was an intermittent ticking! + +No reptile or insect with which I am familiar re- +produces any such notes. I lay for an hour--listening +intently. + +At last my curiosity got the better of me. I arose, +lighted my lamp and commenced to investigate. + +My bedding lay upon a rug stretched directly upon +the warm sand. The noise appeared to be coming from +beneath the rug. I raised it, but found nothing--yet, +at intervals, the sound continued. + +I dug into the sand with the point of my hunting- +knife. A few inches below the surface of the sand +I encountered a solid substance that had the feel of +wood beneath the sharp steel. + +Excavating about it, I unearthed a small wooden box. +From this receptacle issued the strange sound that I +had heard. + +How had it come here? + +What did it contain? + +In attempting to lift it from its burying place I dis- +covered that it seemed to be held fast by means of a +very small insulated cable running farther into the sand +beneath it. + +My first impulse was to drag the thing loose by main +strength; but fortunately I thought better of this and +fell to examining the box. I soon saw that it was covered +by a hinged lid, which was held closed by a simple +screwhook and eye. + +It took but a moment to loosen this and raise the +cover, when, to my utter astonishment, I discovered +an ordinary telegraph instrument clicking away within. + +"What in the world," thought I, "is this thing doing here?" + +That it was a French military instrument was my +first guess; but really there didn't seem much likelihood +that this was the correct explanation, when one took +into account the loneliness and remoteness of the spot. + +As I sat gazing at my remarkable find, which was tick- +ing and clicking away there in the silence of the desert +night, trying to convey some message which I was +unable to interpret, my eyes fell upon a bit of paper +lying in the bottom of the box beside the instrument. +I picked it up and examined it. Upon it were written +but two letters: + +D. I. + +They meant nothing to me then. I was baffled. + +Once, in an interval of silence upon the part of the +receiving instrument, I moved the sending-key up and +down a few times. Instantly the receiving mechanism +commenced to work frantically. + +I tried to recall something of the Morse Code, with +which I had played as a little boy--but time had +obliterated it from my memory. I became almost frantic +as I let my imagination run riot among the possibilities +for which this clicking instrument might stand. + +Some poor devil at the unknown other end might be +in dire need of succor. The very franticness of the +instrument's wild clashing betokened something of the +kind. + +And there sat I, powerless to interpret, and so power- +less to help! + +It was then that the inspiration came to me. In a flash +there leaped to my mind the closing paragraphs of the +story I had read in the club at Algiers: + +Does the answer lie somewhere upon the bosom of +the broad Sahara, at the ends of two tiny wires, hidden +beneath a lost cairn? + +The idea seemed preposterous. Experience and in- +telligence combined to assure me that there could be +no slightest grain of truth or possibility in your wild +tale--it was fiction pure and simple. + +And yet where WERE the other ends of those wires? + +What was this instrument--ticking away here in +the great Sahara--but a travesty upon the possible! + +Would I have believed in it had I not seen it with +my own eyes? + +And the initials--D. I.--upon the slip of paper! + +David's initials were these--David Innes. + +I smiled at my imaginings. I ridiculed the assumption +that there was an inner world and that these wires +led downward through the earth's crust to the surface +of Pellucidar. And yet-- + +Well, I sat there all night, listening to that tantalizing +clicking, now and then moving the sending-key just to +let the other end know that the instrument had been +discovered. In the morning, after carefully returning the +box to its hole and covering it over with sand, I called +my servants about me, snatched a hurried breakfast, +mounted my horse, and started upon a forced march +for Algiers. + +I arrived here today. In writing you this letter I feel +that I am making a fool of myself. + +There is no David Innes. + +There is no Dian the Beautiful. + +There is no world within a world. + +Pellucidar is but a realm of your imagination--noth- +ing more. + +BUT-- + +The incident of the finding of that buried telegraph +instrument upon the lonely Sahara is little short of +uncanny, in view of your story of the adventures of +David Innes. + +I have called it one of the most remarkable coinci- +dences in modern fiction. I called it literature before, +but--again pardon my candor--your story is not. + +And now--why am I writing you? + +Heaven knows, unless it is that the persistent clicking +of that unfathomable enigma out there in the vast +silences of the Sahara has so wrought upon my nerves +that reason refuses longer to function sanely. + +I cannot hear it now, yet I know that far away to the +south, all alone beneath the sands, it is still pounding +out its vain, frantic appeal. + +It is maddening + +It is your fault--I want you to release me from it. + +Cable me at once, at my expense, that there was no +basis of fact for your story, At the Earth's Core. + +Very respectfully yours, + +COGDON NESTOR, + +--and--Club, + +Algiers. + +June 1st,--. + + + +Ten minutes after reading this letter I had cabled +Mr. Nestor as follows: + + +Story true. Await me Algiers. + + +As fast as train and boat would carry me, I sped +toward my destination. For all those dragging days my +mind was a whirl of mad conjecture, of frantic hope, +of numbing fear. + +The finding of the telegraph-instrument practically +assured me that David Innes had driven Perry's iron +mole back through the earth's crust to the buried world +of Pellucidar; but what adventures had befallen him +since his return? + +Had he found Dian the Beautiful, his half-savage +mate, safe among his friends, or had Hooja the Sly One +succeeded in his nefarious schemes to abduct her? + +Did Abner Perry, the lovable old inventor and pale- +ontologist, still live? + +Had the federated tribes of Pellucidar succeeded in +overthrowing the mighty Mahars, the dominant race +of reptilian monsters, and their fierce, gorilla-like sol- +diery, the savage Sagoths? + +I must admit that I was in a state bordering upon +nervous prostration when I entered the -and-Club, +in Algiers, and inquired for Mr. Nestor. A moment later +I was ushered into his presence, to find myself clasping +hands with the sort of chap that the world holds only +too few of. + +He was a tall, smooth-faced man of about thirty, +clean-cut, straight, and strong, and weather-tanned to +the hue of a desert Arab. I liked him immensely from +the first, and I hope that after our three months together +in the desert country--three months not entirely lack- +ing in adventure--he found that a man may be a +writer of "impossible trash" and yet have some redeem- +ing qualities. + +The day following my arrival at Algiers we left for +the south, Nestor having made all arrangements in +advance, guessing, as he naturally did, that I could be +coming to Africa for but a single purpose--to hasten +at once to the buried telegraph-instrument and wrest +its secret from it. + +In addition to our native servants, we took along +an English telegraph-operator named Frank Downes. +Nothing of interest enlivened our journey by rail and +caravan till we came to the cluster of date-palms about +the ancient well upon the rim of the Sahara. + +It was the very spot at which I first had seen David +Innes. If he had ever raised a cairn above the telegraph +instrument no sign of it remained now. Had it not been +for the chance that caused Cogdon Nestor to throw +down his sleeping rug directly over the hidden instru- +ment, it might still be clicking there unheard--and +this story still unwritten. + +When we reached the spot and unearthed the little +box the instrument was quiet, nor did repeated attempts +upon the part of our telegrapher succeed in winning +a response from the other end of the line. After several +days of futile endeavor to raise Pellucidar, we had be- +gun to despair. I was as positive that the other end +of that little cable protruded through the surface of the +inner world as I am that I sit here today in my study-- +when about midnight of the fourth day I was awakened +by the sound of the instrument. + +Leaping to my feet I grasped Downes roughly by the +neck and dragged him out of his blankets. He didn't +need to be told what caused my excitement, for the +instant he was awake he, too, heard the long-hoped +for click, and with a whoop of delight pounced upon +the instrument. + +Nestor was on his feet almost as soon as I. The three +of us huddled about that little box as if our lives +depended upon the message it had for us. + +Downes interrupted the clicking with his sending- +key. The noise of the receiver stopped instantly. + +"Ask who it is, Downes," I directed. + +He did so, and while we awaited the Englishman's +translation of the reply, I doubt if either Nestor or I +breathed. + +"He says he's David Innes," said Downes. "He wants +to know who we are." + +"Tell him," said I; "and that we want to know how +he is--and all that has befallen him since I last saw +him." + +For two months I talked with David Innes almost +every day, and as Downes translated, either Nestor or +I took notes. From these, arranged in chronological +order, I have set down the following account of the +further adventures of David Innes at the earth's core, +practically in his own words. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +LOST ON PELLUCIDAR + +The Arabs, of whom I wrote you at the end of my last +letter (Innes began), and whom I thought to be enemies +intent only upon murdering me, proved to be exceed- +ingly friendly--they were searching for the very band +of marauders that had threatened my existence. The +huge rhamphorhynchus-like reptile that I had brought +back with me from the inner world--the ugly Mahar +that Hooja the Sly One had substituted for my dear +Dian at the moment of my departure--filled them +with wonder and with awe. + +Nor less so did the mighty subterranean prospector +which had carried me to Pellucidar and back again, +and which lay out in the desert about two miles from +my camp. + +With their help I managed to get the unwieldy tons +of its great bulk into a vertical position--the nose deep +in a hole we had dug in the sand and the rest of it +supported by the trunks of date-palms cut for the +purpose. + +It was a mighty engineering job with only wild Arabs +and their wilder mounts to do the work of an electric +crane--but finally it was completed, and I was ready +for departure. + +For some time I hesitated to take the Mahar back +with me. She had been docile and quiet ever since she +had discovered herself virtually a prisoner aboard the +"iron mole." It had been, of course, impossible for me +to communicate with her since she had no auditory +organs and I no knowledge of her fourth-dimension, +sixth-sense method of communication. + +Naturally I am kind-hearted, and so I found it beyond +me to leave even this hateful and repulsive thing alone +in a strange and hostile world. The result was that +when I entered the iron mole I took her with me. + +That she knew that we were about to return to +Pellucidar was evident, for immediately her manner +changed from that of habitual gloom that had pervaded +her, to an almost human expression of contentment +and delight. + +Our trip through the earth's crust was but a repetition +of my two former journeys between the inner and the +outer worlds. This time, however, I imagine that we +must have maintained a more nearly perpendicular +course, for we accomplished the journey in a few min- +utes' less time than upon the occasion of my first +journey through the five-hundred-mile crust. just a +trifle less than seventy-two hours after our departure +into the sands of the Sahara, we broke through the +surface of Pellucidar. + +Fortune once again favored me by the slightest of +margins, for when I opened the door in the prospector's +outer jacket I saw that we had missed coming up +through the bottom of an ocean by but a few hundred +yards. + +The aspect of the surrounding country was entirely +unfamiliar to me--I had no conception of precisely +where I was upon the one hundred and twenty-four +million square miles of Pellucidar's vast land surface. + +The perpetual midday sun poured down its torrid +rays from zenith, as it had done since the beginning of +Pellucidarian time--as it would continue to do to the +end of it. Before me, across the wide sea, the weird, +horizonless seascape folded gently upward to meet the +sky until it lost itself to view in the azure depths of +distance far above the level of my eyes. + +How strange it looked! How vastly different from +the flat and puny area of the circumscribed vision of +the dweller upon the outer crust! + +I was lost. Though I wandered ceaselessly throughout +a lifetime, I might never discover the whereabouts of +my former friends of this strange and savage world. +Never again might I see dear old Perry, nor Ghak the +Hairy One, nor Dacor the Strong One, nor that other +infinitely precious one--my sweet and noble mate, +Dian the Beautiful! + +But even so I was glad to tread once more the surface +of Pellucidar. Mysterious and terrible, grotesque and +savage though she is in many of her aspects, I can not +but love her. Her very savagery appealed to me, for +it is the savagery of unspoiled Nature. + +The magnificence of her tropic beauties enthralled +me. Her mighty land areas breathed unfettered free- +dom. + +Her untracked oceans, whispering of virgin wonders +unsullied by the eye of man, beckoned me out upon +their restless bosoms. + +Not for an instant did I regret the world of my +nativity. I was in Pellucidar. I was home. And I was +content. + +As I stood dreaming beside the giant thing that had +brought me safely through the earth's crust, my travel- +ing companion, the hideous Mahar, emerged from the +interior of the prospector and stood beside me. For +a long time she remained motionless. + +What thoughts were passing through the convolutions +of her reptilian brain? + +I do not know. + +She was a member of the dominant race of Pel- +lucidar. By a strange freak of evolution her kind had +first developed the power of reason in that world of +anomalies. + +To her, creatures such as I were of a lower order. +As Perry had discovered among the writings of her +kind in the buried city of Phutra, it was still an open +question among the Mahars as to whether man pos- +sessed means of intelligent communication or the power +of reason. + +Her kind believed that in the center of all-pervading +solidity there was a single, vast, spherical cavity, which +was Pellucidar. This cavity had been left there for the +sole purpose of providing a place for the creation and +propagation of the Mahar race. Everything within it +had been put there for the uses of the Mahar. + +I wondered what this particular Mahar might think +now. I found pleasure in speculating upon just what +the effect had been upon her of passing through the +earth's crust, and coming out into a world that one of +even less intelligence than the great Mahars could +easily see was a different world from her own Pel- +lucidar. + +What had she thought of the outer world's tiny sun? + +What had been the effect upon her of the moon and +myriad stars of the clear African nights? + +How had she explained them? + +With what sensations of awe must she first have +watched the sun moving slowly across the heavens to +disappear at last beneath the western horizon, leaving +in his wake that which the Mahar had never before +witnessed--the darkness of night? For upon Pellucidar +there is no night. The stationary sun hangs forever in +the center of the Pellucidarian sky--directly overhead. + +Then, too, she must have been impressed by the +wondrous mechanism of the prospector which had bored +its way from world to world and back again. And that +it had been driven by a rational being must also have +occurred to her. + +Too, she bad seen me conversing with other men +upon the earth's surface. She had seen the arrival of +the caravan of books and arms, and ammunition, and +the balance of the heterogeneous collection which I +had crammed into the cabin of the iron mole for trans- +portation to Pellucidar. + +She had seen all these evidences of a civilization +and brain-power transcending in scientific achieve- +ment anything that her race had produced; nor once +had she seen a creature of her own kind. + +There could have been but a single deduction in the +mind of the Mahar--there were other worlds than +Pellucidar, and the gilak was a rational being. + +Now the creature at my side was creeping slowly +toward the near-by sea. At my hip hung a long-barreled +six-shooter--somehow I had been unable to find the +same sensation of security in the newfangled auto- +matics that had been perfected since my first departure +from the outer world--and in my hand was a heavy +express rifle. + +I could have shot the Mahar with ease, for I knew +intuitively that she was escaping--but I did not. + +I felt that if she could return to her own kind with +the story of her adventures, the position of the human +race within Pellucidar would be advanced immensely +at a single stride, for at once man would take his proper +place in the considerations of the reptilia. + +At the edge of the sea the creature paused and +looked back at me. Then she slid sinuously into the surf. + +For several minutes I saw no more of her as she +luxuriated in the cool depths. + +Then a hundred yards from shore she rose and there +for another short while she floated upon the surface. + +Finally she spread her giant wings, flapped them +vigorously a score of times and rose above the blue +sea. A single time she circled far aloft--and then +straight as an arrow she sped away. + +I watched her until the distant haze enveloped her +and she had disappeared. I was alone. + +My first concern was to discover where within Pel- +lucidar I might be--and in what direction lay the land +of the Sarians where Ghak the Hairy One ruled. + +But how was I to guess in which direction lay Sari? + +And if I set out to search--what then? + +Could I find my way back to the prospector with its +priceless freight of books, firearms, ammunition, scien- +tific instruments, and still more books--its great library +of reference works upon every conceivable branch of ap- +plied sciences? + +And if I could not, of what value was all this vast +storehouse of potential civilization and progress to be +to the world of my adoption? + +Upon the other hand, if I remained here alone with +it, what could I accomplish single-handed? + +Nothing. + +But where there was no east, no west, no north, +no south, no stars, no moon, and only a stationary mid- +day sun, how was I to find my way back to this spot +should ever I get out of sight of it? + +I didn't know. + +For a long time I stood buried in deep thought, when +it occurred to me to try out one of the compasses I +had brought and ascertain if it remained steadily fixed +upon an unvarying pole. I reentered the prospector +and fetched a compass without. + +Moving a considerable distance from the prospector +that the needle might not be influenced by its great +bulk of iron and steel I turned the delicate instrument +about in every direction. + +Always and steadily the needle remained rigidly fixed +upon a point straight out to sea, apparently pointing +toward a large island some ten or twenty miles distant. +This then should be north. + +I drew my note-book from my pocket and made +a careful topographical sketch of the locality within +the range of my vision. Due north lay the island, far +out upon the shimmering sea. + +The spot I had chosen for my observations was the +top of a large, flat boulder which rose six or eight feet +above the turf. This spot I called Greenwich. The +boulder was the "Royal Observatory." + +I had made a start! I cannot tell you what a sense +of relief was imparted to me by the simple fact that +there was at least one spot within Pellucidar with a +familiar name and a place upon a map. + +It was with almost childish joy that I made a little +circle in my note-book and traced the word Greenwich +beside it. + +Now I felt I might start out upon my search with +some assurance of finding my way back again to the +prospector. + +I decided that at first I would travel directly south +in the hope that I might in that direction find some +familiar landmark. It was as good a direction as any. +This much at least might be said of it. + +Among the many other things I had brought from +the outer world were a number of pedometers. I +slipped three of these into my pockets with the idea +that I might arrive at a more or less accurate mean +from the registrations of them all. + +On my map I would register so many paces south, +so many east, so many west, and so on. When I was +ready to return I would then do so by any route that +I might choose. + +I also strapped a considerable quantity of ammuni- +tion across my shoulders, pocketed some matches, and +hooked an aluminum fry-pan and a small stew-kettle of +the same metal to my belt. + +I was ready--ready to go forth and explore a world! + +Ready to search a land area of 124,110,000 square +miles for my friends, my incomparable mate, and good +old Perry! + +And so, after locking the door in the outer shell +of the prospector, I set out upon my quest. Due south +I traveled, across lovely valleys thick-dotted with graz- +ing herds. + +Through dense primeval forests I forced my way +and up the slopes of mighty mountains searching for +a pass to their farther sides. + +Ibex and musk-sheep fell before my good old revolver, +so that I lacked not for food in the higher altitudes. +The forests and the plains gave plentifully of fruits +and wild birds, antelope, aurochsen, and elk. + +Occasionally, for the larger game animals and the +gigantic beasts of prey, I used my express rifle, but +for the most part the revolver filled all my needs. + +There were times, too, when faced by a mighty cave +bear, a saber-toothed tiger, or huge felis spelaea, black- +maned and terrible, even my powerful rifle seemed +pitifully inadequate--but fortune favored me so that +I passed unscathed through adventures that even the +recollection of causes the short hairs to bristle at the +nape of my neck. + +How long I wandered toward the south I do not +know, for shortly after I left the prospector something +went wrong with my watch, and I was again at the +mercy of the baffling timelessness of Pellucidar, forging +steadily ahead beneath the great, motionless sun which +hangs eternally at noon. + +I ate many times, however, so that days must have +elapsed, possibly months with no familiar landscape +rewarding my eager eyes. + +I saw no men nor signs of men. Nor is this strange, +for Pellucidar, in its land area, is immense, while the +human race there is very young and consequently far +from numerous. + +Doubtless upon that long search mine was the first +human foot to touch the soil in many places--mine +the first human eye to rest upon the gorgeous wonders +of the landscape. + +It was a staggering thought. I could not but dwell +upon it often as I made my lonely way through this +virgin world. Then, quite suddenly, one day I stepped +out of the peace of manless primality into the presence +of man--and peace was gone. + +It happened thus: + +I had been following a ravine downward out of a +chain of lofty hills and had paused at its mouth to view +the lovely little valley that lay before me. At one side +was tangled wood, while straight ahead a river wound +peacefully along parallel to the cliffs in which the hills +terminated at the valley's edge. + +Presently, as I stood enjoying the lovely scene, as +insatiate for Nature's wonders as if I had not looked +upon similar landscapes countless times, a sound of +shouting broke from the direction of the woods. That +the harsh, discordant notes rose from the throats of +men I could not doubt. + +I slipped behind a large boulder near the mouth of +the ravine and waited. I could hear the crashing of +underbrush in the forest, and I guessed that whoever +came came quickly--pursued and pursuers, doubtless. + +In a short time some hunted animal would break into +view, and a moment later a score of half-naked savages +would come leaping after with spears or club or great +stone-knives. + +I had seen the thing so many times during my life +within Pellucidar that I felt that I could anticipate to +a nicety precisely what I was about to witness. I hoped +that the hunters would prove friendly and be able to +direct me toward Sari. + +Even as I was thinking these thoughts the quarry +emerged from the forest. But it was no terrified four- +footed beast. Instead, what I saw was an old man-- +a terrified old man! + +Staggering feebly and hopelessly from what must +have been some very terrible fate, if one could judge +from the horrified expressions he continually cast behind +him toward the wood, he came stumbling on in my +direction. + +He had covered but a short distance from the forest +when I beheld the first of his pursuers--a Sagoth, one +of those grim and terrible gorilla-men who guard the +mighty Mahars in their buried cities, faring forth from +time to time upon slave-raiding or punitive expeditions +against the human race of Pellucidar, of whom the +dominant race of the inner world think as we think +of the bison or the wild sheep of our own world. + +Close behind the foremost Sagoth came others until +a full dozen raced, shouting after the terror-stricken +old man. They would be upon him shortly, that was +plain. + +One of them was rapidly overhauling him, his back- +thrown spear-arm testifying to his purpose. + +And then, quite with the suddenness of an unex- +pected blow, I realized a past familiarity with the gait +and carriage of the fugitive. + +Simultaneously there swept over me the staggering +fact that the old man was--PERRY! That he was about +to die before my very eyes with no hope that I could +reach him in time to avert the awful catastrophe-- +for to me it meant a real catastrophe! + +Perry was my best friend. + +Dian, of course, I looked upon as more than friend. +She was my mate--a part of me. + +I had entirely forgotten the rifle in my hand and +the revolvers at my belt; one does not readily syn- +chronize his thoughts with the stone age and the +twentieth century simultaneously. + +Now from past habit I still thought in the stone age, +and in my thoughts of the stone age there were no +thoughts of firearms. + +The fellow was almost upon Perry when the feel of +the gun in my hand awoke me from the lethargy of +terror that had gripped me. From behind my boulder +I threw up the heavy express rifle--a mighty engine +of destruction that might bring down a cave bear or +a mammoth at a single shot--and let drive at the +Sagoth's broad, hairy breast. + +At the sound of the shot he stopped stock-still. His +spear dropped from his hand. + +Then he lunged forward upon his face. + +The effect upon the others was little less remarkable. +Perry alone could have possibly guessed the meaning of +the loud report or explained its connection with the +sudden collapse of the Sagoth. The other gorilla-men +halted for but an instant. Then with renewed shrieks +of rage they sprang forward to finish Perry. + +At the same time I stepped from behind my boul- +der, drawing one of my revolvers that I might conserve +the more precious ammunition of the express rifle. +Quickly I fired again with the lesser weapon. + +Then it was that all eyes were directed toward me. +Another Sagoth fell to the bullet from the revolver; +but it did not stop his companions. They were out for +revenge as well as blood now, and they meant to have +both. + +As I ran forward toward Perry I fired four more +shots, dropping three of our antagonists. Then at last +the remaining seven wavered. It was too much for +them, this roaring death that leaped, invisible, upon +them from a great distance. + +As they hesitated I reached Perry's side. I have never +seen such an expression upon any man's face as that +upon Perry's when he recognized me. I have no words +wherewith to describe it. There was not time to talk +then--scarce for a greeting. I thrust the full, loaded +revolver into his hand, fired the last shot in my own, +and reloaded. There were but six Sagoths left then. + +They started toward us once more, though I could +see that they were terrified probably as much by the +noise of the guns as by their effects. They never +reached us. Half-way the three that remained turned +and fled, and we let them go. + +The last we saw of them they were disappearing into +the tangled undergrowth of the forest. And then Perry +turned and threw his arms about my neck and, burying +his old face upon my shoulder, wept like a child. + + + +CHAPTER II + +TRAVELING WITH TERROR + +We made camp there beside the peaceful river. There +Perry told me all that had befallen him since I had +departed for the outer crust. + +It seemed that Hooja had made it appear that I +had intentionally left Dian behind, and that I did not +purpose ever returning to Pellucidar. He told them +that I was of another world and that I had tired of +this and of its inhabitants. + +To Dian he had explained that I had a mate in the +world to which I was returning; that I had never +intended taking Dian the Beautiful back with me; and +that she had seen the last of me. + +Shortly afterward Dian had disappeared from the +camp, nor had Perry seen or heard aught of her since. + +He had no conception of the time that had elapsed +since I had departed, but guessed that many years had +dragged their slow way into the past. + +Hooja, too, had disappeared very soon after Dian +had left. The Sarians, under Ghak the Hairy One, and +the Amozites under Dacor the Strong One, Dian's +brother, had fallen out over my supposed defection, +for Ghak would not believe that I had thus treacher- +ously deceived and deserted them. + +The result had been that these two powerful tribes +had fallen upon one another with the new weapons +that Perry and I had taught them to make and to use. +Other tribes of the new federation took sides with the +original disputants or set up petty revolutions of their +own. + +The result was the total demolition of the work we +had so well started. + +Taking advantage of the tribal war, the Mahars had +gathered their Sagoths in force and fallen upon one +tribe after another in rapid succession, wreaking awful +havoc among them and reducing them for the most +part to as pitiable a state of terror as that from which +we had raised them. + +Alone of all the once-mighty federation the Sarians +and the Amozites with a few other tribes continued +to maintain their defiance of the Mahars; but these +tribes were still divided among themselves, nor had it +seemed at all probable to Perry when he had last been +among them that any attempt at re-amalgamation +would be made. + +"And thus, your majesty," he concluded, "has faded +back into the oblivion of the Stone Age our wondrous +dream and with it has gone the First Empire of Pel- +lucidar." + +We both had to smile at the use of my royal title, +yet I was indeed still "Emperor of Pellucidar," and +some day I meant to rebuild what the vile act of the +treacherous Hooja had torn down. + +But first I would find my empress. To me she was +worth forty empires. + +"Have you no clue as to the whereabouts of Dian?" +I asked. + +"None whatever," replied Perry. "It was in search of +her that I came to the pretty pass in which you dis- +covered me, and from which, David, you saved me. + +"I knew perfectly well that you had not intentionally +deserted either Dian or Pellucidar. I guessed that in +some way Hooja the Sly One was at the bottom of +the matter, and I determined to go to Amoz, where +I guessed that Dian might come to the protection of +her brother, and do my utmost to convince her, and +through her Dacor the Strong One, that we had all +been victims of a treacherous plot to which you were +no party. + +"I came to Amoz after a most trying and terrible +journey, only to find that Dian was not among her +brother's people and that they knew naught of her +whereabouts. + +"Dacor, I am sure, wanted to be fair and just, but +so great were his grief and anger over the disap- +pearance of his sister that he could not listen to reason, +but kept repeating time and again that only your return +to Pellucidar could prove the honesty of your intentions. + +"Then came a stranger from another tribe, sent I am +sure at the instigation of Hooja. He so turned the +Amozites against me that I was forced to flee their +country to escape assassination. + +"In attempting to return to Sari I became lost, and +then the Sagoths discovered me. For a long time I +eluded them, hiding in caves and wading in rivers to +throw them off my trail. + +"I lived on nuts and fruits and the edible roots that +chance threw in my way. + +"I traveled on and on, in what directions I could not +even guess; and at last I could elude them no longer +and the end came as I had long foreseen that it would +come, except that I had not foreseen that you would +be there to save me." + +We rested in our camp until Perry had regained +sufficient strength to travel again. We planned much, +rebuilding all our shattered air-castles; but above all we +planned most to find Dian. + +I could not believe that she was dead, yet where +she might be in this savage world, and under what +frightful conditions she might be living, I could not +guess. + +When Perry was rested we returned to the prospector, +where he fitted himself out fully like a civilized human +being--under-clothing, socks, shoes, khaki jacket and +breeches and good, substantial puttees. + +When I had come upon him he was clothed in rough +sadak sandals, a gee-string and a tunic fashioned from +the shaggy hide of a thag. Now he wore real clothing +again for the first time since the ape-folk had stripped +us of our apparel that long-gone day that had witnessed +our advent within Pellucidar. + +With a bandoleer of cartridges across his shoulder, +two six-shooters at his hips, and a rifle in his hand +he was a much rejuvenated Perry. + +Indeed he was quite a different person altogether +from the rather shaky old man who had entered the +prospector with me ten or eleven years before, for the +trial trip that had plunged us into such wondrous ad- +ventures and into such a strange and hitherto un- +dreamed-of-world. + +Now he was straight and active. His muscles, almost +atrophied from disuse in his former life, had filled out. + +He was still an old man of course, but instead of +appearing ten years older than he really was, as he +had when we left the outer world, he now appeared +about ten years younger. The wild, free life of Pel- +lucidar had worked wonders for him. + +Well, it must need have done so or killed him, for +a man of Perry's former physical condition could not +long have survived the dangers and rigors of the primi- +tive life of the inner world. + +Perry had been greatly interested in my map and +in the "royal observatory" at Greenwich. By use of the +pedometers we had retraced our way to the prospector +with ease and accuracy. + +Now that we were ready to set out again we decided +to follow a different route on the chance that it might +lead us into more familiar territory. + +I shall not weary you with a repetition of the count- +less adventures of our long search. Encounters with +wild beasts of gigantic size were of almost daily occur- +rence; but with our deadly express rifles we ran com- +paratively little risk when one recalls that previously +we had both traversed this world of frightful dangers +inadequately armed with crude, primitive weapons and +all but naked. + +We ate and slept many times--so many that we +lost count--and so I do not know how long we +roamed, though our map shows the distances and direc- +tions quite accurately. We must have covered a great +many thousand square miles of territory, and yet we +had seen nothing in the way of a familiar landmark, +when from the heights of a mountain-range we were +crossing I descried far in the distance great masses of +billowing clouds. + +Now clouds are practically unknown in the skies of +Pellucidar. The moment that my eyes rested upon +them my heart leaped. I seized Perry's arm and, point- +ing toward the horizonless distance, shouted: + +"The Mountains of the Clouds!" + +"They lie close to Phutra, and the country of our +worst enemies, the Mahars," Perry remonstrated. + +"I know it," I replied, "but they give us a starting-point +from which to prosecute our search intelligently. They +are at least a familiar landmark. + +"They tell us that we are upon the right trail and not +wandering far in the wrong direction. + +"Furthermore, close to the Mountains of the Clouds +dwells a good friend, Ja the Mezop. You did not know +him, but you know all that he did for me and all that he +will gladly do to aid me. + +"At least he can direct us upon the right direction +toward Sari." + +"The Mountains of the Clouds constitute a mighty +range," replied Perry. "They must cover an enormous +territory. How are you to find your friend in all the great +country that is visible from their rugged flanks?" + +"Easily," I answered him, "for Ja gave me minute di- +rections. I recall almost his exact words: + +"'You need merely come to the foot of the highest +peak of the Mountains of the Clouds. There you will find +a river that 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.'" + +And so we hastened onward toward the great cloud- +mass that was to be our guide for several weary marches. +At last we came close to the towering crags, Alp-like in +their grandeur. + +Rising nobly among its noble fellows, one stupendous +peak reared its giant head thousands of feet above the +others. It was he whom we sought; but at its foot no +river wound down toward any sea. + +"It must rise from the opposite side," suggested Perry, +casting a rueful glance at the forbidding heights that +barred our further progress. "We cannot endure the +arctic cold of those high flung passes, and to traverse the +endless miles about this interminable range might re- +quire a year or more. The land we seek must lie upon +the opposite side of the mountains." + +"Then we must cross them," I insisted. + +Perry shrugged. + +"We can't do it, David," he repeated, "We are dressed +for the tropics. We should freeze to death among the +snows and glaciers long before we had discovered a pass +to the opposite side." + +"We must cross them," I reiterated. "We will cross +them." + +I had a plan, and that plan we carried out. It took +some time. + +First we made a permanent camp part way up the +slopes where there was good water. Then we set out in +search of the great, shaggy cave bear of the higher +altitudes. + +He is a mighty animal--a terrible animal. He is but +little larger than his cousin of the lesser, lower hills; but +he makes up for it in the awfulness of his ferocity and +in the length and thickness of his shaggy coat. It was his +coat that we were after. + +We came upon him quite unexpectedly. I was trudg- +ing in advance along a rocky trail worn smooth by the +padded feet of countless ages of wild beasts. At a shoul- +der of the mountain around which the path ran I came +face to face with the Titan. + +I was going up for a fur coat. He was coming down +for breakfast. Each realized that here was the very thing +he sought. + +With a horrid roar the beast charged me. + +At my right the cliff rose straight upward for thou- +sands of feet. + +At my left it dropped into a dim, abysmal canon. + +In front of me was the bear. + +Behind me was Perry. + +I shouted to him in warning, and then I raised my +rifle and fired into the broad breast of the creature. +There was no time to take aim; the thing was too close +upon me. + +But that my bullet took effect was evident from the +howl of rage and pain that broke from the frothing +jowls. It didn't stop him, though. + +I fired again, and then he was upon me. Down I went +beneath his ton of maddened, clawing flesh and bone +and sinew. + +I thought my time had come. I remember feeling +sorry for poor old Perry, left all alone in this inhos- +pitable, savage world. + +And then of a sudden I realized that the bear was +gone and that I was quite unharmed. I leaped to my +feet, my rifle still clutched in my hand, and looked +about for my antagonist. + +I thought that I should find him farther down the trail, +probably finishing Perry, and so I leaped in the direction +I supposed him to be, to find Perry perched upon a pro- +jecting rock several feet above the trail. My cry of warn- +ing had given him time to reach this point of safety. + +There he squatted, his eyes wide and his mouth ajar, +the picture of abject terror and consternation. + +"Where is he?" he cried when he saw me. "Where is +he?" + +"Didn't he come this way?" I asked, + +"Nothing came this way," replied the old man. "But I +heard his roars--he must have been as large as an +elephant." + +"He was," I admitted; "but where in the world do you +suppose he disappeared to?" + +Then came a possible explanation to my mind. I re- +turned to the point at which the bear had hurled me +down and peered over the edge of the cliff into the +abyss below. + +Far, far down I saw a small brown blotch near the +bottom of the canon. It was the bear. + +My second shot must have killed him, and so his +dead body, after hurling me to the path, had toppled +over into the abyss. I shivered at the thought of how +close I, too, must have been to going over with him. + +It took us a long time to reach the carcass, and arduous +labor to remove the great pelt. But at last the thing was +accomplished, and we returned to camp dragging the +heavy trophy behind us. + +Here we devoted another considerable period to +scraping and curing it. When this was done to our +satisfaction we made heavy boots, trousers, and coats +of the shaggy skin, turning the fur in. + +From the scraps we fashioned caps that came down +around our ears, with flaps that fell about our shoulders +and breasts. We were now fairly well equipped for our +search for a pass to the opposite side of the Mountains +of the Clouds. + +Our first step now was to move our camp upward to +the very edge of the perpetual snows which cap this +lofty range. Here we built a snug, secure little hut, +which we provisioned and stored with fuel for its di- +minutive fireplace. + +With our hut as a base we sallied forth in search of a +pass across the range. + +Our every move was carefully noted upon our maps +which we now kept in duplicate. By this means we were +saved tedious and unnecessary retracing of ways already +explored. + +Systematically we worked upward in both directions +from our base, and when we had at last discovered what +seemed might prove a feasible pass we moved our be- +longings to a new hut farther up. + +It was hard work--cold, bitter, cruel work. Not a step +did we take in advance but the grim reaper strode +silently in our tracks. + +There were the great cave bears in the timber, and +gaunt, lean wolves--huge creatures twice the size of +our Canadian timber-wolves. Farther up we were as- +sailed by enormous white bears--hungry, devilish +fellows, who came roaring across the rough glacier tops +at the first glimpse of us, or stalked us stealthily by scent +when they had not yet seen us. + +It is one of the peculiarities of life within Pellucidar +that man is more often the hunted than the hunter. +Myriad are the huge-bellied carnivora of this primitive +world. Never, from birth to death, are those great bellies +sufficiently filled, so always are their mighty owners +prowling about in search of meat. + +Terribly armed for battle as they are, man presents +to them in his primal state an easy prey, slow of foot, +puny of strength, ill-equipped by nature with natural +weapons of defense. + +The bears looked upon us as easy meat. Only our +heavy rifles saved us from prompt extinction. Poor Perry +never was a raging lion at heart, and I am convinced +that the terrors of that awful period must have caused +him poignant mental anguish. + +When we were abroad pushing our trail farther and +farther toward the distant break which, we assumed, +marked a feasible way across the range, we never knew +at what second some great engine of clawed and fanged +destruction might rush upon us from behind, or lie in +wait for us beyond an ice-hummock or a jutting shoulder +of the craggy steeps. + +The roar of our rifles was constantly shattering the +world-old silence of stupendous canons upon which the +eye of man had never before gazed. And when in the +comparative safety of our hut we lay down to sleep the +great beasts roared and fought without the walls, clawed +and battered at the door, or rushed their colossal frames +headlong against the hut's sides until it rocked and +trembled to the impact. + +Yes, it was a gay life. + +Perry had got to taking stock of our ammunition each +time we returned to the hut. It became something of an +obsession with him. + +He'd count our cartridges one by one and then try to +figure how long it would be before the last was ex- +pended and we must either remain in the hut until we +starved to death or venture forth, empty, to fill the belly +of some hungry bear. + +I must admit that I, too, felt worried, for our progress +was indeed snail-like, and our ammunition could not +last forever. In discussing the problem, finally we came +to the decision to burn our bridges behind us and make +one last supreme effort to cross the divide. + +It would mean that we must go without sleep for a +long period, and with the further chance that when the +time came that sleep could no longer be denied we +might still be high in the frozen regions of perpetual +snow and ice, where sleep would mean certain death, +exposed as we would be to the attacks of wild beasts +and without shelter from the hideous cold. + +But we decided that we must take these chances and +so at last we set forth from our hut for the last time, +carrying such necessities as we felt we could least afford +to do without. The bears seemed unusually troublesome +and determined that time, and as we clambered slowly +upward beyond the highest point to which we had +previously attained, the cold became infinitely more +intense. + +Presently, with two great bears dogging our footsteps +we entered a dense fog, + +We had reached the heights that are so often cloud- +wrapped for long periods. We could see nothing a few +paces beyond our noses. + +We dared not turn back into the teeth of the bears +which we could hear grunting behind us. To meet them +in this bewildering fog would have been to court instant +death. + +Perry was almost overcome by the hopelessness of +our situation. He flopped down on his knees and began +to pray. + +It was the first time I had heard him at his old habit +since my return to Pellucidar, and I had thought that +he had given up his little idiosyncrasy; but he hadn't. +Far from it. + +I let him pray for a short time undisturbed, and then +as I was about to suggest that we had better be pushing +along one of the bears in our rear let out a roar that +made the earth fairly tremble beneath our feet. + +It brought Perry to his feet as if he had been stung by +a wasp, and sent him racing ahead through the blind- +ing fog at a gait that I knew must soon end in disaster +were it not checked. + +Crevasses in the glacier-ice were far too frequent to +permit of reckless speed even in a clear atmosphere, +and then there were hideous precipices along the +edges of which our way often led us. I shivered as I +thought of the poor old fellow's peril. + +At the top of my lungs I called to him to stop, but he +did not answer me. And then I hurried on in the di- +rection he had gone, faster by far than safety dictated. + +For a while I thought I heard him ahead of me, but +at last, though I paused often to listen and to call to +him, I heard nothing more, not even the grunting of +the bears that had been behind us. All was deathly +silence--the silence of the tomb. About me lay the thick, +impenetrable fog. + +I was alone. Perry was gone--gone forever, I had not +the slightest doubt. + +Somewhere near by lay the mouth of a treacherous +fissure, and far down at its icy bottom lay all that was +mortal of my old friend, Abner Perry. There would his +body he preserved in its icy sepulcher for countless ages, +until on some far distant day the slow-moving river of +ice had wound its snail-like way down to the warmer +level, there to disgorge its grisly evidence of grim +tragedy, and what in that far future age, might mean +baffling mystery. + + + +CHAPTER III + +SHOOTING THE CHUTES--AND AFTER + +Through the fog I felt my way along by means of my +compass. I no longer heard the bears, nor did I encoun- +ter one within the fog. + +Experience has since taught me that these great +beasts are as terror-stricken by this phenomenon as a +landsman by a fog at sea, and that no sooner does a fog +envelop them than they make the best of their way to +lower levels and a clear atmosphere. It was well for me +that this was true. + +I felt very sad and lonely as I crawled along the diffi- +cult footing. My own predicament weighed less heavily +upon me than the loss of Perry, for I loved the old +fellow. + +That I should ever win the opposite slopes of the +range I began to doubt, for though I am naturally +sanguine, I imagine that the bereavement which had +befallen me had cast such a gloom over my spirits that I +could see no slightest ray of hope for the future. + +Then, too, the blighting, gray oblivion of the cold, +damp clouds through which I wandered was distress- +ing. Hope thrives best in sunlight, and I am sure that it +does not thrive at all in a fog. + +But the instinct of self-preservation is stronger than +hope. It thrives, fortunately, upon nothing. It takes root +upon the brink of the grave, and blossoms in the jaws of +death. Now it flourished bravely upon the breast of dead +hope, and urged me onward and upward in a stern +endeavor to justify its existence. + +As I advanced the fog became denser. I could see +nothing beyond my nose. Even the snow and ice I trod +were invisible. + +I could not see below the breast of my bearskin coat. +I seemed to be floating in a sea of vapor. + +To go forward over a dangerous glacier under such +conditions was little short of madness; but I could not +have stopped going had I known positively that death +lay two paces before my nose. In the first place, it was +too cold to stop, and in the second, I should have gone +mad but for the excitement of the perils that beset each +forward step. + +For some time the ground had been rougher and +steeper, until I had been forced to scale a considerable +height that had carried me from the glacier entirely. I +was sure from my compass that I was following the right +general direction, and so I kept on. + +Once more the ground was level. From the wind that +blew about me I guessed that I must be upon some ex- +posed peak of ridge. + +And then quite suddenly I stepped out into space. +Wildly I turned and clutched at the ground that had +slipped from beneath my feet. + +Only a smooth, icy surface was there. I found nothing +to clutch or stay my fall, and a moment later so great +was my speed that nothing could have stayed me. + +As suddenly as I had pitched into space, with equal +suddenness did I emerge from the fog, out of which I +shot like a projectile from a cannon into clear daylight. +My speed was so great that I could see nothing about +me but a blurred and indistinct sheet of smooth and +frozen snow, that rushed past me with express-train +velocity. + +I must have slid downward thousands of feet before +the steep incline curved gently on to a broad, smooth, +snow-covered plateau. Across this I hurtled with slowly +diminishing velocity, until at last objects about me began +to take definite shape. + +Far ahead, miles and miles away, I saw a great valley +and mighty woods, and beyond these a broad expanse +of water. In the nearer foreground I discerned a small, +dark blob of color upon the shimmering whiteness of the +snow. + +"A bear," thought I, and thanked the instinct that had +impelled me to cling tenaciously to my rifle during the +moments of my awful tumble. + +At the rate I was going it would be but a moment +before I should be quite abreast the thing; nor was it +long before I came to a sudden stop in soft snow, upon +which the sun was shining, not twenty paces from the +object of my most immediate apprehension. + +It was standing upon its hind legs waiting for me. As +I scrambled to my feet to meet it, I dropped my gun +in the snow and doubled up with laughter. + +It was Perry. + +The expression upon his face, combined with the relief +I felt at seeing him again safe and sound, was too much +for my overwrought nerves. + +"David!" be cried. "David, my boy! God has been +good to an old man. He has answered my prayer." + +It seems that Perry in his mad flight had plunged over +the brink at about the same point as that at which I had +stepped over it a short time later. Chance had done for +us what long periods of rational labor had failed to +accomplish. + +We had crossed the divide. We were upon the side of +the Mountains of the Clouds that we had for so long +been attempting to reach. + +We looked about. Below us were green trees and +warm jungles. In the distance was a great sea. + +"The Lural Az," I said, pointing toward its blue-green +surface. + +Somehow--the gods alone can explain it--Perry, too, +had clung to his rifle during his mad descent of the icy +slope. For that there was cause for great rejoicing. + +Neither of us was worse for his experience, so after +shaking the snow from our clothing, we set off at a great +rate down toward the warmth and comfort of the forest +and the jungle. + +The going was easy by comparison with the awful +obstacles we had had to encounter upon the opposite +side of the divide. There were beasts, of course, but we +came through safely. + +Before we halted to eat or rest, we stood beside a +little mountain brook beneath the wondrous trees of the +primeval forest in an atmosphere of warmth and com- +fort. It reminded me of an early June day in the Maine +Woods. + +We fell to work with our short axes and cut enough +small trees to build a rude protection from the fiercer +beasts. Then we lay down to sleep. + +How long we slept I do not know. Perry says that +inasmuch as there is no means of measuring time within +Pellucidar, there can be no such thing as time here, and +that we may have slept an outer earthly year, or we +may have slept but a second. + +But this I know. We had stuck the ends of some of the +saplings into the ground in the building of our shelter, +first stripping the leaves and branches from them, and +when we awoke we found that many of them had thrust +forth sprouts. + +Personally, I think that we slept at least a month; but +who may say? The sun marked midday when we closed +our eyes; it was still in the same position when we +opened them; nor had it varied a hair's breadth in the +interim. + +It is most baffling, this question of elapsed time within +Pellucidar. + +Anyhow, I was famished when we awoke. I think that +it was the pangs of hunger that awoke me. Ptarmigan +and wild boar fell before my revolver within a dozen +moments of my awakening. Perry soon had a roaring fire +blazing by the brink of the little stream. + +It was a good and delicious meal we made. Though +we did not eat the entire boar, we made a very large +hole in him, while the ptarmigan was but a mouthful. + +Having satisfied our hunger, we determined to set forth +at once in search of Anoroc and my old friend, Ja the +Mezop. We each thought that by following the little +stream downward, we should come upon the large river +which Ja had told me emptied into the Lural Az op- +posite his island. + +We did so; nor were we disappointed, for at last after +a pleasant journey--and what journey would not be +pleasant after the hardships we had endured among the +peaks of the Mountains of the Clouds--we came upon a +broad flood that rushed majestically onward in the di- +rection of the great sea we had seen from the snowy +slopes of the mountains. + +For three long marches we followed the left bank of +the growing river, until at last we saw it roll its mighty +volume into the vast waters of the sea. Far out across the +rippling ocean we described three islands. The one to +the left must be Anoroc. + +At last we had come close to a solution of our problem +--the road to Sari. + +But how to reach the islands was now the foremost +question in our minds. We must build a canoe. + +Perry is a most resourceful man. He has an axiom +which carries the thought-kernel that what man has +done, man can do, and it doesn't cut any figure with +Perry whether a fellow knows how to do it or not. + +He set out to make gunpowder once, shortly after our +escape from Phutra and at the beginning of the con- +federation of the wild tribes of Pellucidar. He said that +some one, without any knowledge of the fact that such a +thing might be concocted, had once stumbled upon it by +accident, and so he couldn't see why a fellow who knew +all about powder except how to make it couldn't do as +well. + +He worked mighty hard mixing all sorts of things +together, until finally he evolved a substance that looked +like powder. He had been very proud of the stuff, and +had gone about the village of the Sarians exhibiting it to +every one who would listen to him, and explaining what +its purpose was and what terrific havoc it would work, +until finally the natives became so terrified at the stuff +that they wouldn't come within a rod of Perry and his +invention. + +Finally, I suggested that we experiment with it and +see what it would do, so Perry built a fire, after placing +the powder at a safe distance, and then touched a glow- +ing ember to a minute particle of the deadly explosive. +It extinguished the ember. + +Repeated experiments with it determined me that in +searching for a high explosive, Perry had stumbled upon +a fire-extinguisher that would have made his fortune +for him back in our own world. + +So now he set himself to work to build a scientific +canoe. I had suggested that we construct a dugout, but +Perry convinced me that we must build something +more in keeping with our positions of supermen in this +world of the Stone Age. + +"We must impress these natives with our superiority," +he explained. "You must not forget, David, that you are +emperor of Pellucidar. As such you may not with dignity +approach the shores of a foreign power in so crude a +vessel as a dugout." + +I pointed out to Perry that it wasn't much more in- +congruous for the emperor to cruise in a canoe, than it +was for the prime minister to attempt to build one with +his own hands. + +He had to smile at that; but in extenuation of his act +he assured me that it was quite customary for prime +ministers to give their personal attention to the building +of imperial navies; "and this," he said, "is the imperial +navy of his Serene Highness, David I, Emperor of the +Federated Kingdoms of Pellucidar." + +I grinned; but Perry was quite serious about it. It had +always seemed rather more or less of a joke to me that I +should be addressed as majesty and all the rest of it. +Yet my imperial power and dignity had been a very real +thing during my brief reign. + +Twenty tribes had joined the federation, and their +chiefs had sworn eternal fealty to one another and to me. +Among them were many powerful though savage na- +tions. Their chiefs we had made kings; their tribal lands +kingdoms. + +We had armed them with bows and arrows and +swords, in addition to their own more primitive weapons. +I had trained them in military discipline and in so much +of the art of war as I had gleaned from extensive read- +ing of the campaigns of Napoleon, Von Moltke, Grant, +and the ancients. + +We had marked out as best we could natural bounda- +ries dividing the various kingdoms. We had warned +tribes beyond these boundaries that they must not +trespass, and we had marched against and severely +punished those who had. + +We had met and defeated the Mahars and the +Sagoths. In short, we had demonstrated our rights to +empire, and very rapidly were we being recognized and +heralded abroad when my departure for the outer world +and Hooja's treachery had set us back. + +But now I had returned. The work that fate had +undone must be done again, and though I must need +smile at my imperial honors, I none the less felt the +weight of duty and obligation that rested upon my +shoulders. + +Slowly the imperial navy progressed toward com- +pletion. She was a wondrous craft, but I had my doubts +about her. When I voiced them to Perry, he reminded +me gently that my people for many generations had +been mine-owners, not ship-builders, and consequently I +couldn't be expected to know much about the matter. + +I was minded to inquire into his hereditary fitness to +design battleships; but inasmuch as I already knew that +his father had been a minister in a back-woods village far +from the coast, I hesitated lest I offend the dear old +fellow. + +He was immensely serious about his work, and I must +admit that in so far as appearances went he did ex- +tremely well with the meager tools and assistance at his +command. We had only two short axes and our hunting- +knives; yet with these we hewed trees, split them into +planks, surfaced and fitted them. + +The "navy" was some forty feet in length by ten feet +beam. Her sides were quite straight and fully ten feet +high--"for the purpose," explained Perry, "of adding +dignity to her appearance and rendering it less easy for +an enemy to board her." + +As a matter of fact, I knew that he had had in mind +the safety of her crew under javelin-fire--the lofty sides +made an admirable shelter. Inside she reminded me of +nothing so much as a floating trench. There was also +some slight analogy to a huge coffin. + +Her prow sloped sharply backward from the water- +line--quite like a line of battleship. Perry had designed +her more for moral effect upon an enemy, I think, than +for any real harm she might inflict, and so those parts +which were to show were the most imposing. + +Below the water-line she was practically non-existent. +She should have had considerable draft; but, as the +enemy couldn't have seen it, Perry decided to do away +with it, and so made her flat-bottomed. It was this that +caused my doubts about her. + +There was another little idiosyncrasy of design that +escaped us both until she was about ready to launch-- +there was no method of propulsion. Her sides were far +too high to permit the use of sweeps, and when Perry +suggested that we pole her, I remonstrated on the +grounds that it would be a most undignified and awk- +ward manner of sweeping down upon the foe, even if +we could find or wield poles that would reach to the +bottom of the ocean. + +Finally I suggested that we convert her into a sailing +vessel. When once the idea took hold Perry was most +enthusiastic about it, and nothing would do but a four- +masted, full-rigged ship. + +Again I tried to dissuade him, but he was simply +crazy over the psychological effect which the appearance +of this strange and mighty craft would have upon the +natives of Pellucidar. So we rigged her with thin hides +for sails and dried gut for rope. + +Neither of us knew much about sailing a full-rigged +ship; but that didn't worry me a great deal, for I was +confident that we should never be called upon to do so, +and as the day of launching approached I was positive of +it. + +We had built her upon a low bank of the river close +to where it emptied into the sea, and just above high +tide. Her keel we had laid upon several rollers cut from +small trees, the ends of the rollers in turn resting upon +parallel tracks of long saplings. Her stern was toward the +water. + +A few hours before we were ready to launch her she +made quite an imposing picture, for Perry had insisted +upon setting every shred of "canvas." I told him that I +didn't know much about it, but I was sure that at launch- +ing the hull only should have been completed, every- +thing else being completed after she had floated safely. + +At the last minute there was some delay while we +sought a name for her. I wanted her christened the +Perry in honor both of her designer and that other great +naval genius of another world, Captain Oliver Hazard +Perry, of the United States Navy. But Perry was too +modest; he wouldn't hear of it. + +We finally decided to establish a system in the naming +of the fleet. Battle-ships of the first-class should bear the +names of kingdoms of the federation; armored cruisers +the names of kings; cruisers the names of cities, and so +on down the line. Therefore, we decided to name the +first battle-ship Sari, after the first of the federated +kingdoms. + +The launching of the Sari proved easier than I con- +templated. Perry wanted me to get in and break some- +thing over the bow as she floated out upon the bosom of +the river, but I told him that I should feel safer on dry +land until I saw which side up the Sari would float. + +I could see by the expression of the old man's face +that my words had hurt him; but I noticed that he didn't +offer to get in himself, and so I felt less contrition than +I might otherwise. + +When we cut the ropes and removed the blocks that +held the Sari in place she started for the water with a +lunge. Before she hit it she was going at a reckless +speed, for we had laid our tracks quite down to the +water, greased them, and at intervals placed rollers all +ready to receive the ship as she moved forward with +stately dignity. But there was no dignity in the Sari. + +When she touched the surface of the river she must +have been going twenty or thirty miles an hour. Her +momentum carried her well out into the stream, until +she came to a sudden halt at the end of the long line +which we had had the foresight to attach to her bow and +fasten to a large tree upon the bank. + +The moment her progress was checked she promptly +capsized. Perry was overwhelmed. I didn't upbraid him, +nor remind him that I had "told him so." + +His grief was so genuine and so apparent that I didn't +have the heart to reproach him, even were I inclined to +that particular sort of meanness. + +"Come, come, old man!" I cried. "It's not as bad as it +looks. Give me a hand with this rope, and we'll drag her +up as far as we can; and then when the tide goes out +we'll try another scheme. I think we can make a go of +her yet." + +Well, we managed to get her up into shallow water. +When the tide receded she lay there on her side in the +mud, quite a pitiable object for the premier battle-ship +of a world--"the terror of the seas" was the way Perry +had occasionally described her. + +We had to work fast; but before the tide came in +again we had stripped her of her sails and masts, righted +her, and filled her about a quarter full of rock ballast. If +she didn't stick too fast in the mud I was sure that she +would float this time right side up. + +I can tell you that it was with palpitating hearts that +we sat upon the river-bank and watched that tide come +slowly in. The tides of Pellucidar don't amount to much +by comparison with our higher tides of the outer world, +but I knew that it ought to prove ample to float the Sari. + +Nor was I mistaken. Finally we had the satisfaction +of seeing the vessel rise out of the mud and float slowly +upstream with the tide. As the water rose we pulled her +in quite close to the bank and clambered aboard. + +She rested safely now upon an even keel; nor did she +leak, for she was well calked with fiber and tarry pitch. +We rigged up a single short mast and light sail, fastened +planking down over the ballast to form a deck, worked +her out into midstream with a couple of sweeps, and +dropped our primitive stone anchor to await the turn +of the tide that would bear us out to sea. + +While we waited we devoted the time to the con- +struction of an upper deck, since the one immediately +above the ballast was some seven feet from the gunwale. +The second deck was four feet above this. In it was a +large, commodious hatch, leading to the lower deck. The +sides of the ship rose three feet above the upper deck, +forming an excellent breastwork, which we loopholed at +intervals that we might lie prone and fire upon an +enemy. + +Though we were sailing out upon a peaceful mission +in search of my friend Ja, we knew that we might meet +with people of some other island who would prove +unfriendly. + +At last the tide turned. We weighed anchor. Slowly +we drifted down the great river toward the sea. + +About us swarmed the mighty denizens of the prim- +eval deep--plesiosauri and ichthyosauria with all their +horrid, slimy cousins whose names were as the names of +aunts and uncles to Perry, but which I have never been +able to recall an hour after having heard them. + +At last we were safely launched upon the journey to +which we had looked forward for so long, and the results +of which meant so much to me. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FRIENDSHIP AND TREACHERY + +The Sari proved a most erratic craft. She might have +done well enough upon a park lagoon if safely anchored, +but upon the bosom of a mighty ocean she left much +to be desired. + +Sailing with the wind she did her best; but in quarter- +ing or when close-hauled she drifted terribly, as a +nautical man might have guessed she would. We +couldn't keep within miles of our course, and our +progress was pitifully slow. + +Instead of making for the island of Anoroc, we bore far +to the right, until it became evident that we should have +to pass between the two right-hand islands and attempt +to return toward Anoroc from the opposite side. + +As we neared the islands Perry was quite overcome +by their beauty. When we were directly between two +of them he fairly went into raptures; nor could I blame +him. + +The tropical luxuriance of the foliage that dripped +almost to the water's edge and the vivid colors of the +blooms that shot the green made a most gorgeous +spectacle. + +Perry was right in the midst of a flowery panegyric on +the wonders of the peaceful beauty of the scene when a +canoe shot out from the nearest island. There were a +dozen warriors in it; it was quickly followed by a second +and third. + +Of course we couldn't know the intentions of the +strangers, but we could pretty well guess them. + +Perry wanted to man the sweeps and try to get away +from them, but I soon convinced him that any speed of +which the Sari was capable would be far too slow to +outdistance the swift, though awkward, dugouts of the +Mezops. + +I waited until they were quite close enough to hear +me, and then I hailed them. I told them that we were +friends of the Mezops, and that we were upon a visit to +Ja of Anoroc, to which they replied that they were at +war with Ja, and that if we would wait a minute they'd +board us and throw our corpses to the azdyryths. + +I warned them that they would get the worst of it if +they didn't leave us alone, but they only shouted in +derision and paddled swiftly toward us. It was evident +that they were considerably impressed by the appear- +ance and dimensions of our craft, but as these fellows +know no fear they were not at all awed. + +Seeing that they were determined to give battle, I +leaned over the rail of the Sari and brought the im- +perial battle-squadron of the Emperor of Pellucidar into +action for the first time in the history of a world. In other +and simpler words, I fired my revolver at the nearest +canoe. + +The effect was magical. A warrior rose from his knees, +threw his paddle aloft, stiffened into rigidity for an +instant, and then toppled overboard. + +The others ceased paddling, and, with wide eyes, +looked first at me and then at the battling sea-things +which fought for the corpse of their comrade. To them it +must have seemed a miracle that I should be able to +stand at thrice the range of the most powerful javelin- +thrower and with a loud noise and a smudge of smoke +slay one of their number with an invisible missile. + +But only for an instant were they paralyzed with +wonder. Then, with savage shouts, they fell once more +to their paddles and forged rapidly toward us. + +Again and again I fired. At each shot a warrior sank +to the bottom of the canoe or tumbled overboard. + +When the prow of the first craft touched the side of +the Sari it contained only dead and dying men. The +other two dugouts were approaching rapidly, so I turned +my attention toward them. + +I think that they must have been commencing to have +some doubts--those wild, naked, red warriors--for when +the first man fell in the second boat, the others stopped +paddling and commenced to jabber among themselves. + +The third boat pulled up alongside the second and its +crews joined in the conference. Taking advantage of the +lull in the battle, I called out to the survivors to return +to their shore. + +"I have no fight with you," I cried, and then I told +them who I was and added that if they would live in +peace they must sooner or later join forces with me. + +"Go back now to your people," I counseled them, "and +tell them that you have seen David I, Emperor of the +Federated Kingdoms of Pellucidar, and that single- +handed he has overcome you, just as be intends over- +coming the Mahars and the Sagoths and any other +peoples of Pellucidar who threaten the peace and wel- +fare of his empire." + +Slowly they turned the noses of their canoes toward +land. It was evident that they were impressed; yet +that they were loath to give up without further con- +testing my claim to naval supremacy was also apparent, +for some of their number seemed to be exhorting the +others to a renewal of the conflict. + +However, at last they drew slowly away, and the Sari, +which had not decreased her snail-like speed during this, +her first engagement, continued upon her slow, uneven +way. + +Presently Perry stuck his head up through the hatch +and hailed me. + +"Have the scoundrels departed?" he asked. "Have you +killed them all?" + +"Those whom I failed to kill have departed, Perry," I +replied. + +He came out on deck and, peering over the side, +descried the lone canoe floating a short distance astern +with its grim and grisly freight. Farther his eyes wan- +dered to the retreating boats. + +"David," said he at last, "this is a notable occasion. It +is a great day in the annals of Pellucidar. We have won +a glorious victory. + +"Your majesty's navy has routed a fleet of the enemy +thrice its own size, manned by ten times as many men. +Let us give thanks." + +I could scarce restrain a smile at Perry's use of the +pronoun "we," yet I was glad to share the rejoicing with +him as I shall always be glad to share everything with +the dear old fellow. + +Perry is the only male coward I have ever known +whom I could respect and love. He was not created for +fighting; but I think that if the occasion should ever arise +where it became necessary he would give his life cheer- +fully for me--yes, I KNOW it. + +It took us a long time to work around the islands and +draw in close to Anoroc. In the leisure afforded we took +turns working on our map, and by means of the compass +and a little guesswork we set down the shoreline we had +left and the three islands with fair accuracy. + +Crossed sabers marked the spot where the first great +naval engagement of a world had taken place. In a note- +book we jotted down, as had been our custom, details +that would be of historical value later. + +Opposite Anoroc we came to anchor quite close to +shore. I knew from my previous experience with the +tortuous trails of the island that I could never find my +way inland to the hidden tree-village of the Mezop +chieftain, Ja; so we remained aboard the Sari, firing our +express rifles at intervals to attract the attention of the +natives. + +After some ten shots had been fired at considerable +intervals a body of copper-colored warriors appeared +upon the shore. They watched us for a moment and then +I hailed them, asking the whereabouts of my old friend +Ja. + +They did not reply at once, but stood with their heads +together in serious and animated discussion. Continually +they turned their eyes toward our strange craft. It was +evident that they were greatly puzzled by our appear- +ance as well as unable to explain the source of the loud +noises that had attracted their attention to us. At last one +of the warriors addressed us. + +"Who are you who seek Ja?" he asked. "What would +you of our chief?" + +"We are friends," I replied. "I am David. Tell Ja that +David, whose life be once saved from a sithic, has come +again to visit him. + +"If you will send out a canoe we will come ashore. We +cannot bring our great warship closer in." + +Again they talked for a considerable time. Then two +of them entered a canoe that several dragged from its +hiding-place in the jungle and paddled swiftly toward us. + +They were magnificent specimens of manhood. Perry +had never seen a member of this red race close to be- +fore. In fact, the dead men in the canoe we had left +astern after the battle and the survivors who were +paddling rapidly toward their shore were the first he +ever had seen. He had been greatly impressed by their +physical beauty and the promise of superior intelligence +which their well-shaped skulls gave. + +The two who now paddled out received us into their +canoe with dignified courtesy. To my inquiries relative +to Ja they explained that he had not been in the village +when our signals were heard, but that runners had been +sent out after him and that doubtless he was already +upon his way to the coast. + +One of the men remembered me from the occasion of +my former visit to the island; he was extremely agree- +able the moment that he came close enough to recognize +me. He said that Ja would be delighted to welcome me, +and that all the tribe of Anoroc knew of me by repute, +and had received explicit instructions from their chief- +tain that if any of them should ever come upon me to +show me every kindness and attention. + +Upon shore we were received with equal honor. While +we stood conversing with our bronze friends a tall +warrior leaped suddenly from the jungle. + +It was Ja. As his eyes fell upon me his face lighted +with pleasure. He came quickly forward to greet me +after the manner of his tribe. + +Toward Perry he was equally hospitable. The old +man fell in love with the savage giant as completely as +had I. Ja conducted us along the maze-like trail to his +strange village, where he gave over one of the tree- +houses for our exclusive use. + +Perry was much interested in the unique habitation, +which resembled nothing so much as a huge wasp's nest +built around the bole of a tree well above the ground. + +After we had eaten and rested Ja came to see us with +a number of his head men. They listened attentively to +my story, which included a narrative of the events lead- +ing to the formation of the federated kingdoms, the +battle with the Mahars, my journey to the outer world, +and my return to Pellucidar and search for Sari and my +mate. + +Ja told me that the Mezops had heard something of +the federation and had been much interested in it. He +had even gone so far as to send a party of warriors +toward Sari to investigate the reports, and to arrange +for the entrance of Anoroc into the empire in case it ap- +peared that there was any truth in the rumors that one +of the aims of the federation was the overthrow of the +Mahars. + +The delegation had met with a party of Sagoths. As +there had been a truce between the Mahars and the +Mezops for many generations, they camped with these +warriors of the reptiles, from whom they learned that +the federation had gone to pieces. So the party returned +to Anoroc. + +When I showed Ja our map and explained its purpose +to him, he was much interested. The location of Anoroc, +the Mountains of the Clouds, the river, and the strip of +seacoast were all familiar to him. + +He quickly indicated the position of the inland sea +and close beside it, the city of Phutra, where one of the +powerful Mahar nations had its seat. He likewise showed +us where Sari should be and carried his own coast-line as +far north and south as it was known to him. + +His additions to the map convinced us that Green- +wich lay upon the verge of this same sea, and that it +might be reached by water more easily than by the +arduous crossing of the mountains or the dangerous ap- +proach through Phutra, which lay almost directly in line +between Anoroc and Greenwich to the northwest. + +If Sari lay upon the same water then the shore-line +must bend far back toward the southwest of Greenwich +--an assumption which, by the way, we found later to +be true. Also, Sari was upon a lofty plateau at the +southern end of a mighty gulf of the Great Ocean. + +The location which Ja gave to distant Amoz puzzled +us, for it placed it due north of Greenwich, apparently +in mid-ocean. As Ja had never been so far and knew +only of Amoz through hearsay, we thought that he must +be mistaken; but he was not. Amoz lies directly north +of Greenwich across the mouth of the same gulf as that +upon which Sari is. + +The sense of direction and location of these primitive +Pellucidarians is little short of uncanny, as I have had +occasion to remark in the past. You may take one of +them to the uttermost ends of his world, to places of +which he has never even heard, yet without sun or +moon or stars to guide him, without map or compass, he +will travel straight for home in the shortest direction. + +Mountains, rivers, and seas may have to be gone +around. but never once does his sense of direction fail +him--the homing instinct is supreme. + +In the same remarkable way they never forget the +location of any place to which they have ever been, and +know that of many of which they have only heard from +others who have visited them. + +In short, each Pellucidarian is a walking geography of +his own district and of much of the country contiguous +thereto. It always proved of the greatest aid to Perry and +me; nevertheless we were anxious to enlarge our map, +for we at least were not endowed with the homing +instinct. + +After several long councils it was decided that, in +order to expedite matters, Perry should return to the +prospector with a strong party of Mezops and fetch the +freight I had brought from the outer world. Ja and his +warriors were much impressed by our firearms, and were +also anxious to build boats with sails. + +As we had arms at the prospector and also books on +boat-building we thought that it might prove an ex- +cellent idea to start these naturally maritime people +upon the construction of a well built navy of staunch +sailing-vessels. I was sure that with definite plans to go +by Perry could oversee the construction of an adequate +flotilla. + +I warned him, however, not to be too ambitious, and +to forget about dreadnoughts and armored cruisers for a +while and build instead a few small sailing-boats that +could be manned by four or five men. + +I was to proceed to Sari, and while prosecuting my +search for Dian attempt at the same time the rehabili- +tation of the federation. Perry was going as far as possible +by water, with the chances that the entire trip might be +made in that manner, which proved to be the fact. + +With a couple of Mezops as companions I started for +Sari. In order to avoid crossing the principal range of +the Mountains of the Clouds we took a route that passed +a little way south of Phutra. We had eaten four times +and slept once, and were, as my companions told me, +not far from the great Mahar city, when we were sud- +denly confronted by a considerable band of Sagoths. + +They did not attack us, owing to the peace which +exists between the Mahars and the Mezops, but I could +see that they looked upon me with considerable sus- +picion. My friends told them that I was a stranger from +a remote country, and as we had previously planned +against such a contingency I pretended ignorance of +the language which the human beings of Pellucidar em- +ploy in conversing with the gorilla-like soldiery of the +Mahars. + +I noticed, and not without misgivings, that the leader +of the Sagoths eyed me with an expression that be- +tokened partial recognition. I was sure that he had seen +me before during the period of my incarceration in +Phutra and that he was trying to recall my identity. + +It worried me not a little. I was extremely thankful +when we bade them adieu and continued upon our +journey. + +Several times during the next few marches I became +acutely conscious of the sensation of being watched by +unseen eyes, but I did not speak of my suspicions to my +companions. Later I had reason to regret my reticence, +for-- + +Well, this is how it happened: + +We had killed an antelope and after eating our fill I +had lain down to sleep. The Pellucidarians, who seem +seldom if ever to require sleep, joined me in this instance, +for we had had a very trying march along the northern +foothills of the Mountains of the Clouds, and now with +their bellies filled with meat they seemed ready for +slumber. + +When I awoke it was with a start to find a couple of +huge Sagoths astride me. They pinioned my arms and +legs, and later chained my wrists behind my back. Then +they let me up. + +I saw my companions; the brave fellows lay dead +where they had slept, javelined to death without a +chance at self-defense. + +I was furious. I threatened the Sagoth leader with all +sorts of dire reprisals; but when he heard me speak the +hybrid language that is the medium of communication +between his kind and the human race of the inner world +he only grinned, as much as to say, "I thought so!" + +They had not taken my revolvers or ammunition away +from me because they did not know what they were; +but my heavy rifle I had lost. They simply left it where +it had lain beside me. + +So low in the scale of intelligence are they, that they +had not sufficient interest in this strange object even to +fetch it along with them. + +I knew from the direction of our march that they +were taking me to Phutra. Once there I did not need +much of an imagination to picture what my fate would +be. It was the arena and a wild thag or fierce tarag for +me--unless the Mahars elected to take me to the pits. + +In that case my end would be no more certain, though +infinitely more horrible and painful, for in the pits I +should be subjected to cruel vivisection. From what I +had once seen of their methods in the pits of Phutra I +knew them to be the opposite of merciful, whereas in +the arena I should be quickly despatched by some +savage beast. + +Arrived at the underground city, I was taken im- +mediately before a slimy Mahar. When the creature +had received the report of the Sagoth its cold eyes +glistened with malice and hatred as they were turned +balefully upon me. + +I knew then that my identity had been guessed. With +a show of excitement that I had never before seen +evinced by a member of the dominant race of Pellucidar, +the Mahar hustled me away, heavily guarded, through +the main avenue of the city to one of the principal +buildings. + +Here we were ushered into a great hall where +presently many Mahars gathered. + +In utter silence they conversed, for they have no oral +speech since they are without auditory nerves. Their +method of communication Perry has likened to the pro- +jection of a sixth sense into a fourth dimension, where it +becomes cognizable to the sixth sense of their audience. + +Be that as it may, however, it was evident that I was +the subject of discussion, and from the hateful looks +bestowed upon me not a particularly pleasant subject. + +How long I waited for their decision I do not know, +but it must have been a very long time. Finally one of +the Sagoths addressed me. He was acting as interpreter +for his masters. + +"The Mahars will spare your life," he said, "and re- +lease you on one condition." + +"And what is that condition?" I asked, though I could +guess its terms. + +"That you return to them that which you stole from +the pits of Phutra when you killed the four Mahars and +escaped," he replied. + +I had thought that that would be it. The great secret +upon which depended the continuance of the Mahar +race was safely hid where only Dian and I knew. + +I ventured to imagine that they would have given me +much more than my liberty to have it safely in their +keeping again; but after that--what? + +Would they keep their promises? + +I doubted it. With the secret of artificial propagation +once more in their hands their numbers would soon be +made so to overrun the world of Pellucidar that there +could be no hope for the eventual supremacy of the +human race, the cause for which I so devoutly hoped, +for which I had consecrated my life, and for which I +was not willing to give my life. + +Yes! In that moment as I stood before the heartless +tribunal I felt that my life would be a very little thing to +give could it save to the human race of Pellucidar the +chance to come into its own by insuring the eventual +extinction of the hated, powerful Mahars. + +"Come!" exclaimed the Sagoths. "The mighty Mahars +await your reply." + +"You may say to them," I answered, "that I shall not +tell them where the great secret is hid." + +When this had been translated to them there was a +great beating of reptilian wings, gaping of sharp-fanged +jaws, and hideous hissing. I thought that they were +about to fall upon me on the spot, and so I laid my hands +upon my revolvers; but at length they became more +quiet and presently transmitted some command to my +Sagoth guard, the chief of which laid a heavy hand +upon my arm and pushed me roughly before him from +the audience-chamber. + +They took me to the pits, where I lay carefully +guarded. I was sure that I was to be taken to the vivi- +section laboratory, and it required all my courage to +fortify myself against the terrors of so fearful a death. In +Pellucidar, where there is no time, death-agonies may +endure for eternities. + +Accordingly, I had to steel myself against an endless +doom, which now stared me in the face! + + + +CHAPTER V + +SURPRISES + +But at last the allotted moment arrived--the moment +for which I had been trying to prepare myself, for how +long I could not even guess. A great Sagoth came and +spoke some words of command to those who watched +over me. I was jerked roughly to my feet and with little +consideration hustled upward toward the higher levels. + +Out into the broad avenue they conducted me, where, +amid huge throngs of Mahars, Sagoths, and heavily +guarded slaves, I was led, or, rather, pushed and shoved +roughly, along in the same direction that the mob +moved. I had seen such a concourse of people once be- +fore in the buried city of Phutra; I guessed, and rightly, +that we were bound for the great arena where slaves +who are condemned to death meet their end. + +Into the vast amphitheater they took me, stationing +me at the extreme end of the arena. The queen came, +with her slimy, sickening retinue. The seats were filled. +The show was about to commence. + +Then, from a little doorway in the opposite end of the +structure, a girl was led into the arena. She was at a +considerable distance from me. I could not see her +features. + +I wondered what fate awaited this other poor victim +and myself, and why they had chosen to have us die +together. My own fate, or rather, my thought of it, was +submerged in the natural pity I felt for this lone girl, +doomed to die horribly beneath the cold, cruel eyes of +her awful captors. Of what crime could she be guilty +that she must expiate it in the dreaded arena? + +As I stood thus thinking, another door, this time at one +of the long sides of the arena, was thrown open, and into +the theater of death slunk a mighty tarag, the huge +cave tiger of the Stone Age. At my sides were my re- +volvers. My captors had not taken them from me, be- +cause they did not yet realize their nature. Doubtless +they thought them some strange manner of war-club, +and as those who are condemned to the arena are per- +mitted weapons of defense, they let me keep them. + +The girl they had armed with a javelin. A brass pin +would have been almost as effective against the ferocious +monster they had loosed upon her. + +The tarag stood for a moment looking about him--first +up at the vast audience and then about the arena. He +did not seem to see me at all, but his eyes fell presently +upon the girl. A hideous roar broke from his titanic lungs +--a roar which ended in a long-drawn scream that is +more human than the death-cry of a tortured woman-- +more human but more awesome. I could scarce restrain +a shudder. + +Slowly the beast turned and moved toward the girl. +Then it was that I came to myself and to a realization of +my duty. Quickly and as noiselessly as possible I ran +down the arena in pursuit of the grim creature. As I +ran I drew one of my pitifully futile weapons. Ah! Could +I but have had my lost express-gun in my hands at that +moment! A single well-placed shot would have crumbled +even this great monster. The best I could hope to ac- +complish was to divert the thing from the girl to myself +and then to place as many bullets as possible in it before +it reached and mauled me into insensibility and death. + +There is a certain unwritten law of the arena that +vouchsafes freedom and immunity to the victor, be he +beast or human being--both of whom, by the way, are +all the same to the Mahar. That is, they were accus- +tomed to look upon man as a lower animal before Perry +and I broke through the Pellucidarian crust, but I +imagine that they were beginning to alter their views a +trifle and to realize that in the gilak--their word for +human being--they had a highly organized, reasoning +being to contend with. + +Be that as it may, the chances were that the tarag +alone would profit by the law of the arena. A few more +of his long strides, a prodigious leap, and he would be +upon the girl. I raised a revolver and fired. The bullet +struck him in the left hind leg. It couldn't have damaged +him much; but the report of the shot brought him +around, facing me. + +I think the snarling visage of a huge, enraged, saber- +toothed tiger is one of the most terrible sights in the +world. Especially if he be snarling at you and there be +nothing between the two of you but bare sand. + +Even as he faced me a little cry from the girl carried +my eyes beyond the brute to her face. Hers was fastened +upon me with an expression of incredulity that baffles +description. There was both hope and horror in them, +too. + +"Dian!" I cried. "My Heavens, Dian!" + +I saw her lips form the name David, as with raised +javelin she rushed forward upon the tarag. She was a +tigress then--a primitive savage female defending her +loved one. Before she could reach the beast with her +puny weapon, I fired again at the point where the tarag's +neck met his left shoulder. If I could get a bullet through +there it might reach his heart. The bullet didn't reach +his heart, but it stopped him for an instant. + +It was then that a strange thing happened. I heard a +great hissing from the stands occupied by the Mahars, +and as I glanced toward them I saw three mighty +thipdars--the winged dragons that guard the queen, or, +as Perry calls them, pterodactyls--rise swiftly from their +rocks and dart lightning-like, toward the center of the +arena. They are huge, powerful reptiles. One of them, +with the advantage which his wings might give him, +would easily be a match for a cave bear or a tarag. + +These three, to my consternation, swooped down upon +the tarag as he was gathering himself for a final charge +upon me. They buried their talons in his back and lifted +him bodily from the arena as if he had been a chicken +in the clutches of a hawk. + +What could it mean? + +I was baffled for an explanation; but with the tarag +gone I lost no time in hastening to Dian's side. With a +little cry of delight she threw herself into my arms. So +lost were we in the ecstasy of reunion that neither of +us--to this day--can tell what became of the tarag. + +The first thing we were aware of was the presence of +a body of Sagoths about us. Gruffly they commanded us +to follow them. They led us from the arena and back +through the streets of Phutra to the audience chamber +in which I had been tried and sentenced. Here we +found ourselves facing the same cold, cruel tribunal. + +Again a Sagoth acted as interpreter. He explained +that our lives bad been spared because at the last +moment Tu-al-sa had returned to Phutra, and seeing me +in the arena had prevailed upon the queen to spare my +life. + +"Who is Tu-al-sa?" I asked. + +"A Mahar whose last male ancestor was--ages ago-- +the last of the male rulers among the Mahars," he +replied. + +"Why should she wish to have my life spared?" + +He shrugged his shoulders and then repeated my +question to the Mahar spokesman. When the latter had +explained in the strange sign-language that passes for +speech between the Mahars and their fighting men the +Sagoth turned again to me: + +"For a long time you had Tu-al-sa in your power," he +explained. "You might easily have killed her or aban- +doned her in a strange world--but you did neither. You +did not harm her, and you brought her back with you to +Pellucidar and set her free to return to Phutra. This is +your reward." + +Now I understood. The Mahar who had been my in- +voluntary companion upon my return to the outer world +was Tu-al-sa. This was the first time that I had learned +the lady's name. I thanked fate that I had not left her +upon the sands of the Sahara--or put a bullet in her, as +I had been tempted to do. I was surprised to discover +that gratitude was a characteristic of the dominant race +of Pellucidar. I could never think of them as aught but +cold-blooded, brainless reptiles, though Perry had de- +voted much time in explaining to me that owing to a +strange freak of evolution among all the genera of the +inner world, this species of the reptilia had advanced to +a position quite analogous to that which man holds upon +the outer crust. + +He had often told me that there was every reason to +believe from their writings, which he had learned to +read while we were incarcerated in Phutra, that they +were a just race, and that in certain branches of science +and arts they were quite well advanced, especially in +genetics and metaphysics, engineering and architecture. + +While it had always been difficult for me to look upon +these things as other than slimy, winged crocodiles-- +which, by the way, they do not at all resemble--I was +now forced to a realization of the fact that I was in the +hands of enlightened creatures--for justice and grati- +tude are certain hallmarks of rationality and culture. + +But what they purposed for us further was of most +imminent interest to me. They might save us from the +tarag and yet not free us. They looked upon us yet, to +some extent, I knew, as creatures of a lower order, and +so as we are unable to place ourselves in the position +of the brutes we enslave--thinking that they are happier +in bondage than in the free fulfilment of the purposes +for which nature intended them--the Mahars, too, might +consider our welfare better conserved in captivity than +among the dangers of the savage freedom we craved. +Naturally, I was next impelled to inquire their further +intent. + +To my question, put through the Sagoth interpreter, I +received the reply that having spared my life they con- +sidered that Tu-al-sa's debt of gratitude was canceled. +They still had against me, however, the crime of which +I had been guilty--the unforgivable crime of stealing +the great secret. They, therefore, intended holding Dian +and me prisoners until the manuscript was returned to +them. + +They would, they said, send an escort of Sagoths with +me to fetch the precious document from its hiding-place, +keeping Dian at Phutra as a hostage and releasing us +both the moment that the document was safely restored +to their queen. + +There was no doubt but that they had the upper +hand. However, there was so much more at stake than +the liberty or even the lives of Dian and myself, that I +did not deem it expedient to accept their offer without +giving the matter careful thought. + +Without the great secret this maleless race must even- +tually become extinct. For ages they had fertilized their +eggs by an artificial process, the secret of which lay +hidden in the little cave of a far-off valley where Dian +and I had spent our honeymoon. I was none too sure that +I could find the valley again, nor that I cared to. So long +as the powerful reptilian race of Pellucidar continued to +propagate, just so long would the position of man within +the inner world be jeopardized. There could not be two +dominant races. + +I said as much to Dian. + +"You used to tell me," she replied, "of the wonderful +things you could accomplish with the inventions of your +own world. Now you have returned with all that is +necessary to place this great power in the hands of the +men of Pellucidar. + +"You told me of great engines of destruction which +would cast a bursting ball of metal among our enemies, +killing hundreds of them at one time. + +"You told me of mighty fortresses of stone which a +thousand men armed with big and little engines such as +these could hold forever against a million Sagoths. + +"You told me of great canoes which moved across the +water without paddles, and which spat death from holes +in their sides. + +"All these may now belong to the men of Pellucidar. +Why should we fear the Mahars? + +"Let them breed! Let their numbers increase by thou- +sands. They will be helpless before the power of the +Emperor of Pellucidar. + +"But if you remain a prisoner in Phutra, what may we +accomplish? + +"What could the men of Pellucidar do without you to +lead them? + +"They would fight among themselves, and while they +fought the Mahars would fall upon them, and even +though the Mahar race should die out, of what value +would the emancipation of the human race be to them +without the knowledge, which you alone may wield, to +guide them toward the wonderful civilization of which +you have told me so much that I long for its comforts +and luxuries as I never before longed for anything. + +"No, David; the Mahars cannot harm us if you are at +liberty. Let them have their secret that you and I may +return to our people, and lead them to the conquest of +all Pellucidar." + +It was plain that Dian was ambitious, and that her +ambition had not dulled her reasoning faculties. She was +right. Nothing could be gained by remaining bottled up +in Phutra for the rest of our lives. + +It was true that Perry might do much with the con- +tents of the prospector, or iron mole, in which I had +brought down the implements of outer-world civiliza- +tion; but Perry was a man of peace. He could never weld +the warring factions of the disrupted federation. He +could never win new tribes to the empire. He would +fiddle around manufacturing gun-powder and trying to +improve upon it until some one blew him up with his +own invention. He wasn't practical. He never would get +anywhere without a balance-wheel--without some one +to direct his energies. + +Perry needed me and I needed him. If we were going +to do anything for Pellucidar we must be free to do it +together. + +The outcome of it all was that I agreed to the Mahars' +proposition. They promised that Dian would be well +treated and protected from every indignity during my +absence. So I set out with a hundred Sagoths in search +of the little valley which I had stumbled upon by acci- +dent, and which I might and might not find again. + +We traveled directly toward Sari. Stopping at the +camp where I had been captured I recovered my express +rifle, for which I was very thankful. I found it lying +where I had left it when I had been overpowered in my +sleep by the Sagoths who bad captured me and slain my +Mezop companions. + +On the way I added materially to my map, an occu- +pation which did not elicit from the Sagoths even a +shadow of interest. I felt that the human race of Pelluci- +dar had little to fear from these gorilla-men. They were +fighters--that was all. We might even use them later +ourselves in this same capacity. They had not sufficient +brain power to constitute a menace to the advancement +of the human race. + +As we neared the spot where I hoped to find the little +valley I became more and more confident of success. +Every landmark was familiar to me, and I was sure now +that I knew the exact location of the cave. + +It was at about this time that I sighted a number of +the half-naked warriors of the human race of Pellucidar. +They were marching across our front. At sight of us they +halted; that there would be a fight I could not doubt. +These Sagoths would never permit an opportunity for +the capture of slaves for their Mahar masters to escape +them. + +I saw that the men were armed with bows and arrows, +long lances and swords, so I guessed that they must have +been members of the federation, for only my people had +been thus equipped. Before Perry and I came the men +of Pellucidar had only the crudest weapons wherewith to +slay one another. + +The Sagoths, too, were evidently expecting battle. +With savage shouts they rushed forward toward the +human warriors. + +Then a strange thing happened. The leader of the +human beings stepped forward with upraised hands. +The Sagoths ceased their war-cries and advanced slowly +to meet him. There was a long parley during which I +could see that I was often the subject of their discourse. +The Sagoths' leader pointed in the direction in which I +had told him the valley lay. Evidently he was explaining +the nature of our expedition to the leader of the warriors. +It was all a puzzle to me. + +What human being could be upon such excellent +terms with the gorilla-men? + +I couldn't imagine. I tried to get a good look at the +fellow, but the Sagoths had left me in the rear with a +guard when they had advanced to battle, and the dis- +tance was too great for me to recognize the features of +any of the human beings. + +Finally the parley was concluded and the men con- +tinued on their way while the Sagoths returned to where +I stood with my guard. It was time for eating, so we +stopped where we were and made our meal. The Sa- +goths didn't tell me who it was they had met, and I +did not ask, though I must confess that I was quite +curious. + +They permitted me to sleep at this halt. Afterward we +took up the last leg of our journey. I found the valley +without difficulty and led my guard directly to the cave. +At its mouth the Sagoths halted and I entered alone. + +I noticed as I felt about the floor in the dim light that +there was a pile of fresh-turned rubble there. Presently +my hands came to the spot where the great secret had +been buried. There was a cavity where I had carefully +smoothed the earth over the hiding-place of the docu- +ment--the manuscript was gone! + +Frantically I searched the whole interior of the cave +several times over, but without other result than a com- +plete confirmation of my worst fears. Someone had been +here ahead of me and stolen the great secret. + +The one thing within Pellucidar which might free +Dian and me was gone, nor was it likely that I should +ever learn its whereabouts. If a Mahar had found it, +which was quite improbable, the chances were that the +dominant race would never divulge the fact that they +had recovered the precious document. If a cave man +had happened upon it he would have no conception of +its meaning or value, and as a consequence it would be +lost or destroyed in short order. + +With bowed head and broken hopes I came out of the +cave and told the Sagoth chieftain what I had dis- +covered. It didn't mean much to the fellow, who doubt- +less had but little better idea of the contents of the +document I had been sent to fetch to his masters than +would the cave man who in all probability had dis- +covered it. + +The Sagoth knew only that I had failed in my mission, +so he took advantage of the fact to make the return +journey to Phutra as disagreeable as possible. I did not +rebel, though I had with me the means to destroy them +all. I did not dare rebel because of the consequences to +Dian. I intended demanding her release on the grounds +that she was in no way guilty of the theft, and that +my failure to recover the document had not lessened the +value of the good faith I had had in offering to do so. +The Mahars might keep me in slavery if they chose, but +Dian should be returned safely to her people. + +I was full of my scheme when we entered Phutra and +I was conducted directly to the great audience-chamber. +The Mahars listened to the report of the Sagoth chief- +tain, and so difficult is it to judge their emotions from +their almost expressionless countenance, that I was at a +loss to know how terrible might be their wrath as they +learned that their great secret, upon which rested the +fate of their race, might now be irretrievably lost. + +Presently I could see that she who presided was com- +municating something to the Sagoth interpreter--doubt- +less something to be transmitted to me which might +give me a forewarning of the fate which lay in store for +me. One thing I had decided definitely: If they would +not free Dian I should turn loose upon Phutra with my +little arsenal. Alone I might even win to freedom, and if +I could learn where Dian was imprisoned it would be +worth the attempt to free her. My thoughts were inter- +rupted by the interpreter. + +"The mighty Mahars," he said, "are unable to reconcile +your statement that the document is lost with your +action in sending it to them by a special messenger. +They wish to know if you have so soon forgotten the +truth or if you are merely ignoring it." + +"I sent them no document," I cried. "Ask them what +they mean." + +"They say," he went on after conversing with the +Mahar for a moment, "that just before your return to +Phutra, Hooja the Sly One came, bringing the great +secret with him. He said that you had sent him ahead +with it, asking him to deliver it and return to Sari where +you would await him, bringing the girl with him." + +"Dian?" I gasped. "The Mahars have given over Dian +into the keeping of Hooja." + +"Surely," he replied. "What of it? She is only a gilak," +as you or I would say, "She is only a cow." + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A PENDENT WORLD + +The Mahars set me free as they had promised, but with +strict injunctions never to approach Phutra or any other +Mahar city. They also made it perfectly plain that they +considered me a dangerous creature, and that having +wiped the slate clean in so far as they were under +obligations to me, they now considered me fair prey. +Should I again fall into their hands, they intimated it +would go ill with me. + +They would not tell me in which direction Hooja had +set forth with Dian, so I departed from Phutra, filled +with bitterness against the Mahars, and rage toward the +Sly One who had once again robbed me of my greatest +treasure. + +At first I was minded to go directly back to Anoroc; +but upon second thought turned my face toward Sari, +as I felt that somewhere in that direction Hooja would +travel, his own country lying in that general direction. + +Of my journey to Sari it is only necessary to say that +it was fraught with the usual excitement and adventure, +incident to all travel across the face of savage Pellucidar. +The dangers, however, were greatly reduced through +the medium of my armament. I often wondered how it +had happened that I had ever survived the first ten +years of my life within the inner world, when, naked +and primitively armed, I had traversed great areas of +her beast-ridden surface. + +With the aid of my map, which I had kept with great +care during my march with the Sagoths in search of the +great secret, I arrived at Sari at last. As I topped the +lofty plateau in whose rocky cliffs the principal tribe of +Sarians find their cave-homes, a great hue and cry arose +from those who first discovered me. + +Like wasps from their nests the hairy warriors poured +from their caves. The bows with their poison-tipped +arrows, which I had taught them to fashion and to use, +were raised against me. Swords of hammered iron-- +another of my innovations--menaced me, as with lusty +shouts the horde charged down. + +It was a critical moment. Before I should be recog- +nized I might be dead. It was evident that all semblance +of intertribal relationship had ceased with my going, and +that my people had reverted to their former savage, +suspicious hatred of all strangers. My garb must have +puzzled them, too, for never before of course had they +seen a man clothed in khaki and puttees. + +Leaning my express rifle against my body I raised both +hands aloft. It was the peace-sign that is recognized +everywhere upon the surface of Pellucidar. The charging +warriors paused and surveyed me. I looked for my +friend Ghak, the Hairy One, king of Sari, and presently +I saw him coming from a distance. Ah, but it was good +to see his mighty, hairy form once more! A friend was +Ghak--a friend well worth the having; and it had been +some time since I had seen a friend. + +Shouldering his way through the throng of warriors, +the mighty chieftain advanced toward me. There was +an expression of puzzlement upon his fine features. He +crossed the space between the warriors and myself, halt- +ing before me. + +I did not speak. I did not even smile. I wanted to see +if Ghak, my principal lieutenant, would recognize me. +For some time he stood there looking me over carefully. +His eyes took in my large pith helmet, my khaki jacket, +and bandoleers of cartridges, the two revolvers swinging +at my hips, the large rifle resting against my body. Still +I stood with my hands above my head. He examined +my puttees and my strong tan shoes--a little the worse +for wear now. Then he glanced up once more to my +face. As his gaze rested there quite steadily for some +moments I saw recognition tinged with awe creep +across his countenance. + +Presently without a word he took one of my hands in +his and dropping to one knee raised my fingers to his +lips. Perry had taught them this trick, nor ever did the +most polished courtier of all the grand courts of Europe +perform the little act of homage with greater grace and +dignity. + +Quickly I raised Ghak to his feet, clasping both his +hands in mine. I think there must have been tears in +my eyes then--I know I felt too full for words. The king +of Sari turned toward his warriors. + +"Our emperor has come back," he announced. "Come +hither and--" + +But he got no further, for the shouts that broke from +those savage throats would have drowned the voice of +heaven itself. I had never guessed how much they +thought of me. As they clustered around, almost fighting +for the chance to kiss my hand, I saw again the vision of +empire which I had thought faded forever. + +With such as these I could conquer a world. With +such as these I WOULD conquer one! If the Sarians had +remained loyal, so too would the Amozites be loyal still, +and the Kalians, and the Suvians, and all the great +tribes who had formed the federation that was to eman- +cipate the human race of Pellucidar. + +Perry was safe with the Mezops; I was safe with the +Sarians; now if Dian were but safe with me the future +would look bright indeed. + +It did not take long to outline to Ghak all that had +befallen me since I had departed from Pellucidar, and +to get down to the business of finding Dian, which to +me at that moment was of even greater importance than +the very empire itself. + +When I told him that Hooja had stolen her, he +stamped his foot in rage. + +"It is always the Sly One!" he cried. "It was Hooja who +caused the first trouble between you and the Beautiful +One. + +"It was Hooja who betrayed our trust, and all but +caused our recapture by the Sagoths that time we +escaped from Phutra. + +"It was Hooja who tricked you and substituted a +Mahar for Dian when you started upon your return +journey to your own world. + +"It was Hooja who schemed and lied until he had +turned the kingdoms one against another and de- +stroyed the federation. + +"When we had him in our power we were foolish to +let him live. Next time--" + +Ghak did not need to finish his sentence. + +"He has become a very powerful enemy now," I re- +plied. "That he is allied in some way with the Mahars is +evidenced by the familiarity of his relations with the +Sagoths who were accompanying me in search of the +great secret, for it must have been Hooja whom I saw +conversing with them just before we reached the valley. +Doubtless they told him of our quest and he hastened on +ahead of us, discovered the cave and stole the document. +Well does he deserve his appellation of the Sly One." + +With Ghak and his head men I held a number of +consultations. The upshot of them was a decision to com- +bine our search for Dian with an attempt to rebuild the +crumbled federation. To this end twenty warriors were +despatched in pairs to ten of the leading kingdoms, with +instructions to make every effort to discover the where- +abouts of Hooja and Dian, while prosecuting their +missions to the chieftains to whom they were sent. + +Ghak was to remain at home to receive the various +delegations which we invited to come to Sari on the +business of the federation. Four hundred warriors were +started for Anoroc to fetch Perry and the contents of the +prospector, to the capitol of the empire, which was also +the principal settlements of the Sarians. + +At first it was intended that I remain at Sari, that I +might be in readiness to hasten forth at the first report +of the discovery of Dian; but I found the inaction in the +face of my deep solicitude for the welfare of my mate +so galling that scarce had the several units departed +upon their missions before I, too, chafed to be actively +engaged upon the search. + +It was after my second sleep, subsequent to the de- +parture of the warriors, as I recall that I at last went to +Ghak with the admission that I could no longer support +the intolerable longing to be personally upon the trail of +my lost love. + +Ghak tried to dissuade me, though I could tell that his +heart was with me in my wish to be away and really +doing something. It was while we were arguing upon the +subject that a stranger, with hands above his head, +entered the village. He was immediately surrounded by +warriors and conducted to Ghak's presence. + +The fellow was a typical cave man--squat muscular, +and hairy, and of a type I had not seen before. His +features, like those of all the primeval men of Pellucidar, +were regular and fine. His weapons consisted of a stone +ax and knife and a heavy knobbed bludgeon of wood. +His skin was very white. + +"Who are you?" asked Ghak. "And whence come you?" + +"I am Kolk, son of Goork, who is chief of the +Thurians," replied the stranger. "From Thuria I have +come in search of the land of Amoz, where dwells Dacor, +the Strong One, who stole my sister, Canda, the Grace- +ful One, to be his mate. + +"We of Thuria had heard of a great chieftain who has +bound together many tribes, and my father has sent me +to Dacor to learn if there be truth in these stories, and +if so to offer the services of Thuria to him whom we have +heard called emperor." + +"The stories are true," replied Ghak, "and here is the +emperor of whom you have heard. You need travel no +farther." + +Kolk was delighted. He told us much of the wonderful +resources of Thuria, the Land of Awful Shadow, and of +his long journey in search of Amoz. + +"And why," I asked, "does Goork, your father, desire +to join his kingdom to the empire?" + +"There are two reasons," replied the young man. "For- +ever have the Mahars, who dwell beyond the Lidi Plains +which lie at the farther rim of the Land of Awful +Shadow, taken heavy toll of our people, whom they +either force into lifelong slavery or fatten for their feasts. +We have heard that the great emperor makes successful +war upon the Mahars, against whom we should be glad +to fight. + +"Recently has another reason come. Upon a great +island which lies in the Sojar Az, but a short distance +from our shores, a wicked man has collected a great +band of outcast warriors of all tribes. Even are there +many Sagoths among them, sent by the Mahars to aid +the Wicked One. + +"This band makes raids upon our villages, and it is +constantly growing in size and strength, for the Mahars +give liberty to any of their male prisoners who will +promise to fight with this band against the enemies of +the Mahars. It is the purpose of the Mahars thus to raise +a force of our own kind to combat the growth and +menace of the new empire of which I have come to seek +information. All this we learned from one of our own +warriors who had pretended to sympathize with this +band and had then escaped at the first opportunity." + +"Who could this man be," I asked Ghak, "who leads +so vile a movement against his own kind?" + +"His name is Hooja," spoke up Kolk, answering my +question. + +Ghak and I looked at each other. Relief was written +upon his countenance and I know that it was beating +strongly in my heart. At last we had discovered a tan- +gible clue to the whereabouts of Hooja--and with the +clue a guide! + +But when I broached the subject to Kolk he demurred. +He had come a long way, he explained, to see his sister +and to confer with Dacor. Moreover, he had instructions +from his father which he could not ignore lightly. But +even so he would return with me and show me the way +to the island of the Thurian shore if by doing so we +might accomplish anything. + +"But we cannot," he urged. "Hooja is powerful. He +has thousands of warriors. He has only to call upon his +Mahar allies to receive a countless horde of Sagoths to +do his bidding against his human enemies. + +"Let us wait until you may gather an equal horde +from the kingdoms of your empire. Then we may march +against Hooja with some show of success. + +"But first must you lure him to the mainland, for who +among you knows how to construct the strange things +that carry Hooja and his band back and forth across the +water? + +"We are not island people. We do not go upon the +water. We know nothing of such things." + +I couldn't persuade him to do more than direct me +upon the way. I showed him my map, which now in- +cluded a great area of country extending from Anoroc +upon the east to Sari upon the west, and from the river +south of the Mountains of the Clouds north to Amoz. As +soon as I had explained it to him he drew a line with his +finger, showing a sea-coast far to the west and south of +Sari, and a great circle which he said marked the extent +of the Land of Awful Shadow in which lay Thuria. + +The shadow extended southeast of the coast out into +the sea half-way to a large island, which he said was the +seat of Hooja's traitorous government. The island itself +lay in the light of the noonday sun. Northwest of the +coast and embracing a part of Thuria lay the Lidi +Plains, upon the northwestern verge of which was situ- +ated the Mahar city which took such heavy toll of the +Thurians. + +Thus were the unhappy people now between two +fires, with Hooja upon one side and the Mahars upon +the other. I did not wonder that they sent out an appeal +for succor. + +Though Ghak and Kolk both attempted to dissuade +me, I was determined to set out at once, nor did I delay +longer than to make a copy of my map to be given to +Perry that he might add to his that which I had set down +since we parted. I left a letter for him as well, in which +among other things I advanced the theory that the Sojar +Az, or Great Sea, which Kolk mentioned as stretching +eastward from Thuria, might indeed be the same mighty +ocean as that which, swinging around the southern end +of a continent ran northward along the shore opposite +Phutra, mingling its waters with the huge gulf upon +which lay Sari, Amoz, and Greenwich. + +Against this possibility I urged him to hasten the +building of a fleet of small sailing-vessels, which we +might utilize should I find it impossible to entice Hooja's +horde to the mainland. + +I told Ghak what I had written, and suggested that as +soon as he could he should make new treaties with the +various kingdoms of the empire, collect an army and +march toward Thuria--this of course against the possi- +bility of my detention through some cause or other. + +Kolk gave me a sign to his father--a lidi, or beast of +burden, crudely scratched upon a bit of bone, and be- +neath the lidi a man and a flower; all very rudely done +perhaps, but none the less effective as I well knew from +my long years among the primitive men of Pellucidar. + +The lidi is the tribal beast of the Thurians; the man +and the flower in the combination in which they ap- +peared bore a double significance, as they constituted +not only a message to the effect that the bearer came in +peace, but were also Kolk's signature. + +And so, armed with my credentials and my small +arsenal, I set out alone upon my quest for the dearest +girl in this world or yours. + +Kolk gave me explicit directions, though with my map +I do not believe that I could have gone wrong. As a +matter of fact I did not need the map at all, since the +principal landmark of the first half of my journey, a gi- +gantic mountainpeak, was plainly visible from Sari, +though a good hundred miles away. + +At the southern base of this mountain a river rose and +ran in a westerly direction, finally turning south and +emptying into the Sojar Az some forty miles northeast of +Thuria. All that I had to do was follow this river to the +sea and then follow the coast to Thuria. + +Two hundred and forty miles of wild mountain and +primeval jungle, of untracked plain, of nameless rivers, +of deadly swamps and savage forests lay ahead of me, +yet never had I been more eager for an adventure than +now, for never had more depended upon haste and +success. + +I do not know how long a time that journey required, +and only half did I appreciate the varied wonders that +each new march unfolded before me, for my mind and +heart were filled with but a single image--that of a +perfect girl whose great, dark eyes looked bravely forth +from a frame of raven hair. + +It was not until I had passed the high peak and found +the river that my eyes first discovered the pendent +world, the tiny satellite which hangs low over the surface +of Pellucidar casting its perpetual shadow always upon +the same spot--the area that is known here as the +Land of Awful Shadow, in which dwells the tribe of +Thuria. + +From the distance and the elevation of the highlands +where I stood the Pellucidarian noonday moon showed +half in sunshine and half in shadow, while directly be- +neath it was plainly visible the round dark spot upon the +surface of Pellucidar where the sun has never shone. +From where I stood the moon appeared to hang so low +above the ground as almost to touch it; but later I was to +learn that it floats a mile above the surface--which +seems indeed quite close for a moon. + +Following the river downward I soon lost sight of the +tiny planet as I entered the mazes of a lofty forest. Nor +did I catch another glimpse of it for some time--several +marches at least. However, when the river led me to the +sea, or rather just before it reached the sea, of a sudden +the sky became overcast and the size and luxuriance of +the vegetation diminished as by magic--as if an omni- +potent hand had drawn a line upon the earth, and said: + +"Upon this side shall the trees and the shrubs, the +grasses and the flowers, riot in profusion of rich colors, +gigantic size and bewildering abundance; and upon that +side shall they be dwarfed and pale and scant." + +Instantly I looked above, for clouds are so uncommon +in the skies of Pellucidar--they are practically unknown +except above the mightiest mountain ranges--that it +had given me something of a start to discover the sun +obliterated. But I was not long in coming to a realization +of the cause of the shadow. + +Above me hung another world. I could see its moun- +tains and valleys, oceans, lakes, and rivers, its broad, +grassy plains and dense forests. But too great was the +distance and too deep the shadow of its under side for +me to distinguish any movement as of animal life. + +Instantly a great curiosity was awakened within me. +The questions which the sight of this planet, so tanta- +lizingly close, raised in my mind were numerous and +unanswerable. + +Was it inhabited? + +If so, by what manner and form of creature? + +Were its people as relatively diminutive as their little +world, or were they as disproportionately huge as the +lesser attraction of gravity upon the surface of their +globe would permit of their being? + +As I watched it, I saw that it was revolving upon an +axis that lay parallel to the surface of Pellucidar, so that +during each revolution its entire surface was once ex- +posed to the world below and once bathed in the heat of +the great sun above. The little world had that which +Pellucidar could not have--a day and night, and-- +greatest of boons to one outer-earthly born--time. + +Here I saw a chance to give time to Pellucidar, using +this mighty clock, revolving perpetually in the heavens, +to record the passage of the hours for the earth below. +Here should be located an observatory, from which +might be flashed by wireless to every corner of the em- +pire the correct time once each day. That this time +would be easily measured I had no doubt, since so plain +were the landmarks upon the under surface of the +satellite that it would be but necessary to erect a simple +instrument and mark the instant of passage of a given +landmark across the instrument. + +But then was not the time for dreaming; I must de- +vote my mind to the purpose of my journey. So I +hastened onward beneath the great shadow. As I ad- +vanced I could not but note the changing nature of the +vegetation and the paling of its hues. + +The river led me a short distance within the shadow +before it emptied into the Sojar Az. Then I continued in +a southerly direction along the coast toward the village +of Thuria, where I hoped to find Goork and deliver to +him my credentials. + +I had progressed no great distance from the mouth of +the river when I discerned, lying some distance at sea, +a great island. This I assumed to be the stronghold of +Hooja, nor did I doubt that upon it even now was Dian. + +The way was most difficult, since shortly after leaving +the river I encountered lofty cliffs split by numerous +long, narrow fiords, each of which necessitated a con- +siderable detour. As the crow flies it is about twenty +miles from the mouth of the river to Thuria, but be- +fore I had covered half of it I was fagged. There was no +familiar fruit or vegetable growing upon the rocky soil of +the cliff-tops, and I would have fared ill for food had +not a hare broken cover almost beneath my nose. + +I carried bow and arrows to conserve my ammunition- +supply, but so quick was the little animal that I had no +time to draw and fit a shaft. In fact my dinner was a +hundred yards away and going like the proverbial bat +when I dropped my six-shooter on it. It was a pretty shot +and when coupled with a good dinner made me quite +contented with myself. + +After eating I lay down and slept. When I awoke I +was scarcely so self-satisfied, for I had not more than +opened my eyes before I became aware of the presence, +barely a hundred yards from me, of a pack of some +twenty huge wolf-dogs--the things which Perry insisted +upon calling hyaenodons--and almost simultaneously I +discovered that while I slept my revolvers, rifle, bow, +arrows, and knife had been stolen from me. + +And the wolf-dog pack was preparing to rush me. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +FROM PLIGHT TO PLIGHT + +I have never been much of a runner; I hate running. +But if ever a sprinter broke into smithereens all world's +records it was I that day when I fled before those hide- +ous beasts along the narrow spit of rocky cliff between +two narrow fiords toward the Sojar Az. Just as I reached +the verge of the cliff the foremost of the brutes was upon +me. He leaped and closed his massive jaws upon my +shoulder. + +The momentum of his flying body, added to that of +my own, carried the two of us over the cliff. It was a +hideous fall. The cliff was almost perpendicular. At its +foot broke the sea against a solid wall of rock. + +We struck the cliff-face once in our descent and then +plunged into the salt sea. With the impact with the water +the hyaenodon released his hold upon my shoulder. + +As I came sputtering to the surface I looked about for +some tiny foot- or hand-hold where I might cling for a +moment of rest and recuperation. The cliff itself offered +me nothing, so I swam toward the mouth of the fiord. + +At the far end I could see that erosion from above had +washed down sufficient rubble to form a narrow ribbon +of beach. Toward this I swam with all my strength. Not +once did I look behind me, since every unnecessary +movement in swimming detracts so much from one's +endurance speed. Not until I had drawn myself safely +out upon the beach did I turn my eyes back toward the +sea for the hyaenodon. He was swimming slowly and +apparently painfully toward the beach upon where I +stood. + +I watched him for a long time, wondering, why it was +that such a doglike animal was not a better swimmer. +As he neared me I realized that he was weakening +rapidly. I had gathered a handful of stones to be +ready for his assault when he landed, but in a moment +I let them fall from my hands. It was evident that the +brute either was no swimmer or else was severely in- +jured, for by now he was making practically no head- +way. Indeed, it was with quite apparent difficulty that +he kept his nose above the surface of the sea. + +He was not more than fifty yards from shore when he +went under. I watched the spot where he had disap- +peared, and in a moment I saw his head reappear. +The look of dumb misery in his eyes struck a chord in +my breast, for I love dogs. I forgot that he was a vicious, +primordial wolf-thing--a man-eater, a scourge, and a +terror. I saw only the sad eyes that looked like the eyes +of Raja, my dead collie of the outer world. + +I did not stop to weigh and consider. In other words, +I did not stop to think, which I believe must be the +way of men who do things--in contradistinction to +those who think much and do nothing. Instead, I leaped +back into the water and swam out toward the drowning +beast. At first he showed his teeth at my approach, but +just before I reached him he went under for the second +time, so that I had to dive to get him. + +I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and though +he weighed as much as a Shetland pony, I managed to +drag him to shore and well up upon the beach. Here +I found that one of his forelegs was broken--the crash +against the cliff-face must have done it. + +By this time all the fight was out of him, so that when +I had gathered a few tiny branches from some of the +stunted trees that grew in the crevices of the cliff, and +returned to him he permitted me to set his broken +leg and bind it in splints. I had to tear part of my shirt +into bits to obtain a bandage, but at last the job was +done. Then I sat stroking the savage head and talking to +the beast in the man-dog talk with which you are +familiar, if you ever owned and loved a dog. + +When he is well, I thought, he probably will turn upon +me and attempt to devour me, and against that even- +tuality I gathered together a pile of rocks and set to +work to fashion a stone-knife. We were bottled up at the +head of the fiord as completely as if we had been behind +prison bars. Before us spread the Sojar Az, and else- +where about us rose unscalable cliffs. + +Fortunately a little rivulet trickled down the side of +the rocky wall, giving us ample supply of fresh water-- +some of which I kept constantly beside the hyaenodon +in a huge, bowl-shaped shell, of which there were count- +less numbers among the rubble of the beach. + +For food we subsisted upon shellfish and an occa- +sional bird that I succeeded in knocking over with a +rock, for long practice as a pitcher on prep-school and +varsity nines had made me an excellent shot with a +hand-thrown missile. + +It was not long before the hyaenodon's leg was suffi- +ciently mended to permit him to rise and hobble about +on three legs. I shall never forget with what intent in- +terest I watched his first attempt. Close at my hand lay +my pile of rocks. Slowly the beast came to his three good +feet. He stretched himself, lowered his head, and lapped +water from the drinking-shell at his side, turned and +looked at me, and then hobbled off toward the cliffs. + +Thrice he traversed the entire extent of our prison, +seeking, I imagine, a loop-hole for escape, but finding +none he returned in my direction. Slowly he came quite +close to me, sniffed at my shoes, my puttees, my hands, +and then limped off a few feet and lay down again. + +Now that he was able to get around, I was a little un- +certain as to the wisdom of my impulsive mercy. + +How could I sleep with that ferocious thing prowling +about the narrow confines of our prison? + +Should I close my eyes it might be to open them +again to the feel of those mighty jaws at my throat. To +say the least, I was uncomfortable. + +I have had too much experience with dumb animals +to bank very strongly on any sense of gratitude which +may be attributed to them by inexperienced sentimen- +talists. I believe that some animals love their masters, +but I doubt very much if their affection is the outcome +of gratitude--a characteristic that is so rare as to be only +occasionally traceable in the seemingly unselfish acts of +man himself. + +But finally I was forced to sleep. Tired nature would +be put off no longer. I simply fell asleep, willy nilly, as I +sat looking out to sea. I had been very uncomfortable +since my ducking in the ocean, for though I could see +the sunlight on the water half-way toward the island +and upon the island itself, no ray of it fell upon us. We +were well within the Land of Awful Shadow. A per- +petual half-warmth pervaded the atmosphere, but +clothing was slow in drying, and so from loss of sleep +and great physical discomfort, I at last gave way to +nature's demands and sank into profound slumber. + +When I awoke it was with a start, for a heavy body +was upon me. My first thought was that the hyaenodon +had at last attacked me, but as my eyes opened and +I struggled to rise, I saw that a man was astride me and +three others bending close above him. + +I am no weakling--and never have been. My experi- +ence in the hard life of the inner world has turned +my thews to steel. Even such giants as Ghak the Hairy +One have praised my strength; but to it is added +another quality which they lack--science. + +The man upon me held me down awkwardly, leaving +me many openings--one of which I was not slow in +taking advantage of, so that almost before the fellow +knew that I was awake I was upon my feet with my +arms over his shoulders and about his waist and had +hurled him heavily over my head to the hard rubble of +the beach, where he lay quite still. + +In the instant that I arose I had seen the hyaenodon +lying asleep beside a boulder a few yards away. So +nearly was he the color of the rock that he was scarcely +discernible. Evidently the newcomers had not seen +him. + +I had not more than freed myself from one of my +antagonists before the other three were upon me. They +did not work silently now, but charged me with savage +cries--a mistake upon their part. The fact that they did +not draw their weapons against me convinced me that +they desired to take me alive; but I fought as desper- +ately as if death loomed immediate and sure. + +The battle was short, for scarce had their first wild +whoop reverberated through the rocky fiord, and they +had closed upon me, than a hairy mass of demoniacal +rage hurtled among us. + +It was the hyaenodon! + +In an instant he had pulled down one of the men, and +with a single shake, terrier-like, had broken his neck. +Then he was upon another. In their efforts to vanquish +the wolf-dog the savages forgot all about me, thus giv- +ing me an instant in which to snatch a knife from the +loin-string of him who had first fallen and account for +another of them. Almost simultaneously the hyaenodon +pulled down the remaining enemy, crushing his skull +with a single bite of those fearsome jaws. + +The battle was over--unless the beast considered me +fair prey, too. I waited, ready for him with knife and +bludgeon--also filched from a dead foeman; but he paid +no attention to me, falling to work instead to devour one +of the corpses. + +The beast bad been handicapped but little by his +splinted leg; but having eaten he lay down and com- +menced to gnaw at the bandage. I was sitting some little +distance away devouring shellfish, of which, by the way, +I was becoming exceedingly tired. + +Presently, the hyaenodon arose and came toward +me. I did not move. He stopped in front of me and +deliberately raised his bandaged leg and pawed my +knee. His act was as intelligible as words--he wished +the bandage removed. + +I took the great paw in one hand and with the other +hand untied and unwound the bandage, removed the +splints and felt of the injured member. As far as I could +judge the bone was completely knit. The joint was stiff; +when I bent it a little the brute winced--but he neither +growled nor tried to pull away. Very slowly and gently +I rubbed the joint and applied pressure to it for a few +moments. + +Then I set it down upon the ground. The hyaenodon +walked around me a few times, and then lay down at +my side, his body touching mine. I laid my hand upon +his head. He did not move. Slowly, I scratched about +his ears and neck and down beneath the fierce jaws. +The only sign he gave was to raise his chin a trifle that +I might better caress him. + +That was enough! From that moment I have never +again felt suspicion of Raja, as I immediately named +him. Somehow all sense of loneliness vanished, too--I +had a dog! I had never guessed precisely what it was +that was lacking to life in Pellucidar, but now I knew it +was the total absence of domestic animals. + +Man here had not yet reached the point where he +might take the time from slaughter and escaping slaugh- +ter to make friends with any of the brute creation. I +must qualify this statement a trifle and say that this +was true of those tribes with which I was most familiar. +The Thurians do domesticate the colossal lidi, traversing +the great Lidi Plains upon the backs of these gro- +tesque and stupendous monsters, and possibly there may +also be other, far-distant peoples within the great world, +who have tamed others of the wild things of jungle, +plain or mountain. + +The Thurians practice agriculture in a crude sort of +way. It is my opinion that this is one of the earliest steps +from savagery to civilization. The taming of wild beasts +and their domestication follows. + +Perry argues that wild dogs were first domesticated +for hunting purposes; but I do not agree with him. I +believe that if their domestication were not purely the +result of an accident, as, for example, my taming of the +hyaenodon, it came about through the desire of tribes +who had previously domesticated flocks and herds to +have some strong, ferocious beast to guard their roam- +ing property. However, I lean rather more strongly to +the theory of accident. + +As I sat there upon the beach of the little fiord eating +my unpalatable shell-fish, I commenced to wonder how +it had been that the four savages had been able to reach +me, though I had been unable to escape from my natu- +ral prison. I glanced about in all directions, searching for +an explanation. At last my eyes fell upon the bow of a +small dugout protruding scarce a foot from behind a +large boulder lying half in the water at the edge of +the beach. + +At my discovery I leaped to my feet so suddenly that +it brought Raja, growling and bristling, upon all fours in +an instant. For the moment I had forgotten him. But his +savage rumbling did not cause me any uneasiness. He +glanced quickly about in all directions as if searching +for the cause of my excitement. Then, as I walked +rapidly down toward the dugout, he slunk silently after +me. + +The dugout was similar in many respects to those +which I had seen in use by the Mezops. In it were four +paddles. I was much delighted, as it promptly offered +me the escape I had been craving. + +I pushed it out into water that would float it, stepped +in and called to Raja to enter. At first he did not seem +to understand what I wished of him, but after I had +paddled out a few yards he plunged through the surf +and swam after me. When he had come alongside I +grasped the scruff of his neck, and after a considerable +struggle, in which I several times came near to over- +turning the canoe, I managed to drag him aboard, +where he shook himself vigorously and squatted down +before me. + +After emerging from the fiord, I paddled southward +along the coast, where presently the lofty cliffs gave +way to lower and more level country. It was here some- +where that I should come upon the principal village of +the Thurians. When, after a time, I saw in the distance +what I took to be huts in a clearing near the shore, I +drew quickly into land, for though I had been furnished +credentials by Kolk, I was not sufficiently familiar with +the tribal characteristics of these people to know +whether I should receive a friendly welcome or not; and +in case I should not, I wanted to be sure of having a +canoe hidden safely away so that I might undertake +the trip to the island, in any event--provided, of course, +that I escaped the Thurians should they prove bellig- +erent. + +At the point where I landed the shore was quite +low. A forest of pale, scrubby ferns ran down almost to +the beach. Here I dragged up the dugout, hiding it well +within the vegetation, and with some loose rocks built a +cairn upon the beach to mark my cache. Then I turned +my steps toward the Thurian village. + +As I proceeded I began to speculate upon the possible +actions of Raja when we should enter the presence of +other men than myself. The brute was padding softly at +my side, his sensitive nose constantly atwitch and his +fierce eyes moving restlessly from side to side--nothing +would ever take Raja unawares! + +The more I thought upon the matter the greater be- +came my perturbation. I did not want Raja to attack +any of the people upon whose friendship I so greatly +depended, nor did I want him injured or slain by them. + +I wondered if Raja would stand for a leash. His head +as he paced beside me was level with my hip. I laid +my hand upon it caressingly. As I did so he turned and +looked up into my face, his jaws parting and his red +tongue lolling as you have seen your own dog's beneath +a love pat. + +"Just been waiting all your life to be tamed and loved, +haven't you, old man?" I asked. "You're nothing but a +good pup, and the man who put the hyaeno in your +name ought to be sued for libel." + +Raja bared his mighty fangs with upcurled, snarling +lips and licked my hand. + +"You're grinning, you old fraud, you!" I cried. "If +you're not, I'll eat you. I'll bet a doughnut you're nothing +but some kid's poor old Fido, masquerading around as +a real, live man-eater." + +Raja whined. And so we walked on together toward +Thuria--I talking to the beast at my side, and he seem- +ing to enjoy my company no less than I enjoyed his. If +you don't think it's lonesome wandering all by yourself +through savage, unknown Pellucidar, why, just try it, +and you will not wonder that I was glad of the company +of this first dog--this living replica of the fierce and now +extinct hyaenodon of the outer crust that hunted in +savage packs the great elk across the snows of southern +France, in the days when the mastodon roamed at will +over the broad continent of which the British Isles were +then a part, and perchance left his footprints and his +bones in the sands of Atlantis as well. + +Thus I dreamed as we moved on toward Thuria. +My dreaming was rudely shattered by a savage growl +from Raja. I looked down at him. He had stopped in his +tracks as one turned to stone. A thin ridge of stiff hair +bristled along the entire length of his spine. His yel- +low green eyes were fastened upon the scrubby jungle +at our right. + +I fastened my fingers in the bristles at his neck and +turned my eyes in the direction that his pointed. At first +I saw nothing. Then a slight movement of the bushes +riveted my attention. I thought it must be some wild +beast, and was glad of the primitive weapons I had +taken from the bodies of the warriors who had attacked +me. + +Presently I distinguished two eyes peering at us from +the vegetation. I took a step in their direction, and as +I did so a youth arose and fled precipitately in the +direction we had been going. Raja struggled to be after +him, but I held tightly to his neck, an act which he did +not seem to relish, for he turned on me with bared +fangs. + +I determined that now was as good a time as any to +discover just how deep was Raja's affection for me. One +of us could be master, and logically I was the one. He +growled at me. I cuffed him sharply across the nose. He +looked it me for a moment in surprised bewilderment, +and then he growled again. I made another feint at him, +expecting that it would bring him at my throat; but in- +stead he winced and crouched down. + +Raja was subdued! + +I stooped and patted him. Then I took a piece of +the rope that constituted a part of my equipment and +made a leash for him. + +Thus we resumed our journey toward Thuria. The +youth who had seen us was evidently of the Thurians. +That he had lost no time in racing homeward and +spreading the word of my coming was evidenced when +we had come within sight of the clearing, and the village +--the first real village, by the way, that I had ever seen +constructed by human Pellucidarians. There was a rude +rectangle walled with logs and boulders, in which +were a hundred or more thatched huts of similar con- +struction. There was no gate. Ladders that could be re- +moved by night led over the palisade. + +Before the village were assembled a great concourse +of warriors. Inside I could see the heads of women and +children peering over the top of the wall; and also, +farther back, the long necks of lidi, topped by their tiny +heads. Lidi, by the way, is both the singular and plural +form of the noun that describes the huge beasts of bur- +den of the Thurians. They are enormous quadrupeds, +eighty or a hundred feet long, with very small heads +perched at the top of very long, slender necks. Their +heads are quite forty feet from the ground. Their gait is +slow and deliberate, but so enormous are their strides +that, as a matter of fact, they cover the ground quite +rapidly. + +Perry has told me that they are almost identical with +the fossilized remains of the diplodocus of the outer +crust's Jurassic age. I have to take his word for it--and I +guess you will, unless you know more of such matters +than I. + +As we came in sight of the warriors the men set up a +great jabbering. Their eyes were wide in astonishment +--only, I presume, because of my strange garmenture, +but as well from the fact that I came in company with a +jalok, which is the Pellucidarian name of the hyaenodon. + +Raja tugged at his leash, growling and showing his +long white fangs. He would have liked nothing better +than to be at the throats of the whole aggregation; but I +held him in with the leash, though it took all my +strength to do it. My free hand I held above my +head, palm out, in token of the peacefulness of my +mission. + +In the foreground I saw the youth who had discov- +ered us, and I could tell from the way he carried him- +self that he was quite overcome by his own importance. +The warriors about him were all fine looking fellows, +though shorter and squatter than the Sarians or the +Amozites. Their color, too, was a bit lighter, owing, no +doubt, to the fact that much of their lives is spent within +the shadow of the world that hangs forever above their +country. + +A little in advance of the others was a bearded fel- +low tricked out in many ornaments. I didn't need to +ask to know that he was the chieftain--doubtless Goork, +father of Kolk. Now to him I addressed myself. + +"I am David," I said, "Emperor of the Federated +Kingdoms of Pellucidar. Doubtless you have heard of +me?" + +He nodded his head affirmatively. + +"I come from Sari," I continued, 'where I just met +Kolk, the son of Goork. I bear a token from Kolk to his +father, which will prove that I am a friend." + +Again the warrior nodded. "I am Goork," he said. +"Where is the token?" + +"Here," I replied, and fished into the game-bag +where I had placed it. + +Goork and his people waited in silence. My hand +searched the inside of the bag. + +It was empty! + +The token had been stolen with my arms! + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +CAPTIVE + +When Goork and his people saw that I had no token +they commenced to taunt me. + +"You do not come from Kolk, but from the Sly One!" +they cried. "He has sent you from the island to spy upon +us. Go away, or we will set upon you and kill you." + +I explained that all my belongings had been stolen +from me, and that the robber must have taken the token +too; but they didn't believe me. As proof that I was +one of Hooja's people, they pointed to my weapons, +which they said were ornamented like those of the is- +land clan. Further, they said that no good man went in +company with a jalok--and that by this line of reason- +ing I certainly was a bad man. + +I saw that they were not naturally a war-like tribe, +for they preferred that I leave in peace rather than +force them to attack me, whereas the Sarians would +have killed a suspicious stranger first and inquired into +his purposes later. + +I think Raja sensed their antagonism, for he kept tug- +ging at his leash and growling ominously. They were a +bit in awe of him, and kept at a safe distance. It was +evident that they could not comprehend why it was +that this savage brute did not turn upon me and rend +me. + +I wasted a long time there trying to persuade Goork +to accept me at my own valuation, but he was too +canny. The best he would do was to give us food, which +he did, and direct me as to the safest portion of the is- +land upon which to attempt a landing, though even as +he told me I am sure that he thought my request for +information but a blind to deceive him as to my true +knowledge of the insular stronghold. + +At last I turned away from them--rather disheart- +ened, for I had hoped to be able to enlist a considerable +force of them in an attempt to rush Hooja's horde and +rescue Dian. Back along the beach toward the hidden +canoe we made our way. + +By the time we came to the cairn I was dog-tired. +Throwing myself upon the sand I soon slept, and +with Raja stretched out beside me I felt a far greater +security than I had enjoyed for a long time. + +I awoke much refreshed to find Raja's eyes glued +upon me. The moment I opened mine he rose, stretched +himself, and without a backward glance plunged into +the jungle. For several minutes I could hear him crash- +ing through the brush. Then all was silent. + +I wondered if he had left me to return to his fierce +pack. A feeling of loneliness overwhelmed me. With a +sigh I turned to the work of dragging the canoe down to +the sea. As I entered the jungle where the dugout lay a +hare darted from beneath the boat's side, and a well- +aimed cast of my javelin brought it down. I was hungry +--I had not realized it before--so I sat upon the edge +of the canoe and devoured my repast. The last remnants +gone, I again busied myself with preparations for my +expedition to the island. + +I did not know for certain that Dian was there; but +I surmised as much. Nor could I guess what obstacles +might confront me in an effort to rescue her. For a time +I loitered about after I had the canoe at the water's +edge, hoping against hope that Raja would return; but +be did not, so I shoved the awkward craft through the +surf and leaped into it. + +I was still a little downcast by the desertion of my +new-found friend, though I tried to assure myself that it +was nothing but what I might have expected. + +The savage brute had served me well in the short +time that we had been together, and had repaid his debt +of gratitude to me, since he had saved my life, or at +least my liberty, no less certainly than I had saved his +life when he was injured and drowning. + +The trip across the water to the island was unevent- +ful. I was mighty glad to be in the sunshine again when +I passed out of the shadow of the dead world about +half-way between the mainland and the island. The hot +rays of the noonday sun did a great deal toward raising +my spirits, and dispelling the mental gloom in which I +had been shrouded almost continually since entering +the Land of Awful Shadow. There is nothing more dis- +piriting to me than absence of sunshine. + +I had paddled to the southwestern point, which +Goork said he believed to be the least frequented por- +tion of the island, as he had never seen boats put off +from there. I found a shallow reef running far out into +the sea and rather precipitous cliffs running almost to +the surf. It was a nasty place to land, and I realized now +why it was not used by the natives; but at last I man- +aged, after a good wetting, to beach my canoe and +scale the cliffs. + +The country beyond them appeared more open and +park-like than I had anticipated, since from the main- +land the entire coast that is visible seems densely +clothed with tropical jungle. This jungle, as I could +see from the vantage-point of the cliff-top, formed +but a relatively narrow strip between the sea and the +more open forest and meadow of the interior. Farther +back there was a range of low but apparently very rocky +hills, and here and there all about were visible flat- +topped masses of rock--small mountains, in fact--which +reminded me of pictures I had seen of landscapes in +New Mexico. Altogether, the country was very much +broken and very beautiful. From where I stood I counted +no less than a dozen streams winding down from among +the table-buttes and emptying into a pretty river which +flowed away in a northeasterly direction toward the op- +posite end of the island. + +As I let my eyes roam over the scene I suddenly be- +came aware of figures moving upon the flat top of a +far-distant butte. Whether they were beast or human, +though, I could not make out; but at least they were +alive, so I determined to prosecute my search for Hooja's +stronghold in the general direction of this butte. + +To descend to the valley required no great effort. As +I swung along through the lush grass and the fragrant +flowers, my cudgel swinging in my hand and my javelin +looped across my shoulders with its aurochs-hide strap, I +felt equal to any emergency, ready for any danger. + +I had covered quite a little distance, and I was pass- +ing through a strip of wood which lay at the foot of one +of the flat-topped hills, when I became conscious of the +sensation of being watched. My life within Pellucidar +has rather quickened my senses of sight, hearing, and +smell, and, too, certain primitive intuitive or instinctive +qualities that seem blunted in civilized man. But, though +I was positive that eyes were upon me, I could see no +sign of any living thing within the wood other than the +many, gay-plumaged birds and little monkeys which +filled the trees with life, color, and action. + +To you it may seem that my conviction was the re- +sult of an overwrought imagination, or to the actual +reality of the prying eyes of the little monkeys or the +curious ones of the birds; but there is a difference +which I cannot explain between the sensation of casual +observation and studied espionage. A sheep might gaze +at you without transmitting a warning through your sub- +jective mind, because you are in no danger from a +sheep. But let a tiger gaze fixedly at you from ambush, +and unless your primitive instincts are completely cal- +loused you will presently commence to glance furtively +about and be filled with vague, unreasoning terror. + +Thus was it with me then. I grasped my cudgel more +firmly and unslung my javelin, carrying it in my left +hand. I peered to left and right, but I saw nothing. +Then, all quite suddenly, there fell about my neck and +shoulders, around my arms and body, a number of +pliant fiber ropes. + +In a jiffy I was trussed up as neatly as you might +wish. One of the nooses dropped to my ankles and was +jerked up with a suddenness that brought me to my +face upon the ground. Then something heavy and hairy +sprang upon my back. I fought to draw my knife, but +hairy hands grasped my wrists and, dragging them be- +hind my back, bound them securely. + +Next my feet were bound. Then I was turned over +upon my back to look up into the faces of my captors. + +And what faces! Imagine if you can a cross between +a sheep and a gorilla, and you will have some concep- +tion of the physiognomy of the creature that bent +close above me, and of those of the half-dozen others +that clustered about. There was the facial length and +great eyes of the sheep, and the bull-neck and hideous +fangs of the gorilla. The bodies and limbs were both +man and gorilla-like. + +As they bent over me they conversed in a mono- +syllabic tongue that was perfectly intelligible to me. It +was something of a simplified language that had no +need for aught but nouns and verbs, but such words as +it included were the same as those of the human beings +of Pellucidar. It was amplified by many gestures which +filled in the speech-gaps. + +I asked them what they intended doing with me; but, +like our own North American Indians when questioned +by a white man, they pretended not to understand me. +One of them swung me to his shoulder as lightly as if I +had been a shoat. He was a huge creature, as were his +fellows, standing fully seven feet upon his short legs and +weighing considerably more than a quarter of a ton. + +Two went ahead of my bearer and three behind. In +this order we cut to the right through the forest to the +foot of the hill where precipitous cliffs appeared to bar +our farther progress in this direction. But my escort +never paused. Like ants upon a wall, they scaled that +seemingly unscalable barrier, clinging, Heaven knows +how, to its ragged perpendicular face. During most of +the short journey to the summit I must admit that my +hair stood on end. Presently, however, we topped the +thing and stood upon the level mesa which crowned it. + +Immediately from all about, out of burrows and +rough, rocky lairs, poured a perfect torrent of beasts +similar to my captors. They clustered about, jabber- +ing at my guards and attempting to get their hands +upon me, whether from curiosity or a desire to do me +bodily harm I did not know, since my escort with +bared fangs and heavy blows kept them off. + +Across the mesa we went, to stop at last before a large +pile of rocks in which an opening appeared. Here my +guards set me upon my feet and called out a word +which sounded like "Gr-gr-gr!" and which I later +learned was the name of their king. + +Presently there emerged from the cavernous depths +of the lair a monstrous creature, scarred from a hundred +battles, almost hairless and with an empty socket where +one eye had been. The other eye, sheeplike in its +mildness, gave the most startling appearance to the +beast, which but for that single timid orb was the most +fearsome thing that one could imagine. + +I had encountered the black, hairless, long-tailed ape-- +things of the mainland--the creatures which Perry +thought might constitute the link between the higher +orders of apes and man--but these brute-men of Gr-gr- +gr seemed to set that theory back to zero, for there was +less similarity between the black ape-men and these +creatures than there was between the latter and man, +while both had many human attributes, some of which +were better developed in one species and some in the +other. + +The black apes were hairless and built thatched +huts in their arboreal retreats; they kept domesticated +dogs and ruminants, in which respect they were farther +advanced than the human beings of Pellucidar; but they +appeared to have only a meager language, and sported +long, apelike tails. + +On the other hand, Gr-gr-gr's people were, for the +most part, quite hairy, but they were tailless and had a +language similar to that of the human race of Pellucidar; +nor were they arboreal. Their skins, where skin showed, +were white. + +From the foregoing facts and others that I have +noted during my long life within Pellucidar, which is +now passing through an age analogous to some pre- +glacial age of the outer crust, I am constrained to the +belief that evolution is not so much a gradual transition +from one form to another as it is an accident of breeding, +either by crossing or the hazards of birth. In other +words, it is my belief that the first man was a freak of +nature--nor would one have to draw over-strongly +upon his credulity to be convinced that Gr-gr-gr and his +tribe were also freaks. + +The great man-brute seated himself upon a flat rock-- +his throne, I imagine--just before the entrance to his +lair. With elbows on knees and chin in palms he re- +garded me intently through his lone sheep-eye while +one of my captors told of my taking. + +When all had been related Gr-gr-gr questioned me. I +shall not attempt to quote these people in their own ab- +breviated tongue--you would have even greater diffi- +culty in interpreting them than did I. Instead, I shall +put the words into their mouths which will carry to you +the ideas which they intended to convey. + +"You are an enemy," was Gr-gr-gr's initial declaration. +"You belong to the tribe of Hooja." + +Ah! So they knew Hooja and he was their enemy! +Good! + +"I am an enemy of Hooja," I replied. "He has stolen +my mate and I have come here to take her away from +him and punish Hooja." + +"How could you do that alone?" + +"I do not know," I answered, "but I should have tried +had you not captured me. What do you intend to do +with me?" + +"You shall work for us." + +"You will not kill me?" I asked. + +"We do not kill except in self-defense," he replied; +"self-defense and punishment. Those who would kill us +and those who do wrong we kill. If we knew you were +one of Hooja's people we might kill you, for all Hooja's +people are bad people; but you say you are an enemy of +Hooja. You may not speak the truth, but until we learn +that you have lied we shall not kill you. You shall work." + +"If you hate Hooja," I suggested, "why not let me, +who hate him, too, go and punish him?" + +For some time Gr-gr-gr sat in thought. Then he raised +his head and addressed my guard. + +"Take him to his work," he ordered. + +His tone was final. As if to emphasize it he turned +and entered his burrow. My guard conducted me far- +ther into the mesa, where we came presently to a tiny +depression or valley, at one end of which gushed a +warm spring. + +The view that opened before me was the most sur- +prising that I have ever seen. In the hollow, which must +have covered several hundred acres, were numerous +fields of growing things, and working all about with +crude implements or with no implements at all other +than their bare hands were many of the brute-men en- +gaged in the first agriculture that I had seen within +Pellucidar. + +They put me to work cultivating in a patch of melons. + +I never was a farmer nor particularly keen for this sort +of work, and I am free to confess that time never had +dragged so heavily as it did during the hour or the year +I spent there at that work. How long it really was I do +not know, of course; but it was all too long. + +The creatures that worked about me were quite sim- +ple and friendly. One of them proved to be a son of +Gr-gr-gr. He had broken some minor tribal law, and was +working out his sentence in the fields. He told me that +his tribe had lived upon this hilltop always, and that +there were other tribes like them dwelling upon other +hilltops. They had no wars and had always lived in +peace and harmony, menaced only by the larger carniv- +ora of the island, until my kind had come under a crea- +ture called Hooja, and attacked and killed them when +they chanced to descend from their natural fortresses +to visit their fellows upon other lofty mesas. + +Now they were afraid; but some day they would go +in a body and fall upon Hooja and his people and slay +them all. I explained to him that I was Hooja's enemy, +and asked, when they were ready to go, that I be al- +lowed to go with them, or, better still, that they let +me go ahead and learn all that I could about the village +where Hooja dwelt so that they might attack it with +the best chance of success. + +Gr-gr-gr's son seemed much impressed by my sug- +gestion. He said that when he was through in the +fields he would speak to his father about the matter. + +Some time after this Gr-gr-gr came through the fields +where we were, and his son spoke to him upon the sub- +ject, but the old gentleman was evidently in anything +but a good humor, for he cuffed the youngster and, +turning upon me, informed me that he was convinced +that I had lied to him, and that I was one of Hooja's peo- +ple. + +"Wherefore," he concluded, "we shall slay you as soon +as the melons are cultivated. Hasten, therefore." + +And hasten I did. I hastened to cultivate the weeds +which grew among the melon-vines. Where there had +been one sickly weed before, I nourished two healthy +ones. When I found a particularly promising variety of +weed growing elsewhere than among my melons, +I forthwith dug it up and transplanted it among my +charges. + +My masters did not seem to realize my perfidy. They +saw me always laboring diligently in the melon-patch, +and as time enters not into the reckoning of Pellucidar- +ians--even of human beings and much less of brutes +and half brutes--I might have lived on indefinitely +through this subterfuge had not that occurred which +took me out of the melon-patch for good and all. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +HOOJA'S CUTTHROATS APPEAR + +I had built a little shelter of rocks and brush where I +might crawl in and sleep out of the perpetual light and +heat of the noonday sun. When I was tired or hungry I +retired to my humble cot. + +My masters never interposed the slightest objection. +As a matter of fact, they were very good to me, nor did +I see aught while I was among them to indicate that +they are ever else than a simple, kindly folk when left to +themselves. Their awe-inspiring size, terrific strength, +mighty fighting-fangs, and hideous appearance are but +the attributes necessary to the successful waging of their +constant battle for survival, and well do they employ +them when the need arises. The only flesh they eat is +that of herbivorous animals and birds. When they hunt +the mighty thag, the prehistoric bos of the outer crust, a +single male, with his fiber rope, will catch and kill the +greatest of the bulls. + +Well, as I was about to say, I had this little shelter at +the edge of my melon-patch. Here I was resting from +my labors on a certain occasion when I heard a great +hub-bub in the village, which lay about a quarter of a +mile away. + +Presently a male came racing toward the field, shout- +ing excitedly. As he approached I came from my shelter +to learn what all the commotion might be about, for the +monotony of my existence in the melon-patch must have +fostered that trait of my curiosity from which it had +always been my secret boast I am peculiarly free. + +The other workers also ran forward to meet the mes- +senger, who quickly unburdened himself of his informa- +tion, and as quickly turned and scampered back toward +the village. When running these beast-men often go +upon all fours. Thus they leap over obstacles that +would slow up a human being, and upon the level attain +a speed that would make a thoroughbred look to his +laurels. The result in this instance was that before I +had more than assimilated the gist of the word which +had been brought to the fields, I was alone, watching +my co-workers speeding villageward. + +I was alone! It was the first time since my capture +that no beast-man had been within sight of me. I was +alone! And all my captors were in the village at the op- +posite edge of the mesa repelling an attack of Hooja's +horde! + +It seemed from the messenger's tale that two of +Gr-gr-gr's great males had been set upon by a half-dozen +of Hooja's cutthroats while the former were peaceably +returning from the thag hunt. The two had returned to +the village unscratched, while but a single one of +Hooja's half-dozen had escaped to report the outcome +of the battle to their leader. Now Hooja was coming to +punish Gr-gr-gr's people. With his large force, armed +with the bows and arrows that Hooja had learned from +me to make, with long lances and sharp knives, I +feared that even the mighty strength of the beastmen +could avail them but little. + +At last had come the opportunity for which I waited! +I was free to make for the far end of the mesa, find my +way to the valley below, and while the two forces were +engaged in their struggle, continue my search for +Hooja's village, which I had learned from the beast-men +lay farther on down the river that I had been following +when taken prisoner. + +As I turned to make for the mesa's rim the sounds of +battle came plainly to my ears--the hoarse shouts of +men mingled with the half-beastly roars and growls of +the brute-folk. + +Did I take advantage of my opportunity? + +I did not. Instead, lured by the din of strife and by the +desire to deliver a stroke, however feeble, against hated +Hooja, I wheeled and ran directly toward the village. + +When I reached the edge of the plateau such a scene +met my astonished gaze as never before had startled it, +for the unique battle-methods of the half-brutes were +rather the most remarkable I had ever witnessed. Along +the very edge of the cliff-top stood a thin line of mighty +males--the best rope-throwers of the tribe. A few feet +behind these the rest of the males, with the exception +of about twenty, formed a second line. Still farther in +the rear all the women and young children were clus- +tered into a single group under the protection of the re- +maining twenty fighting males and all the old males. + +But it was the work of the first two lines that in- +terested me. The forces of Hooja--a great horde of +savage Sagoths and primeval cave men--were work- +ing their way up the steep cliff-face, their agility but +slightly less than that of my captors who had clambered +so nimbly aloft--even he who was burdened by my +weight. + +As the attackers came on they paused occasionally +wherever a projection gave them sufficient foothold and +launched arrows and spears at the defenders above +them. During the entire battle both sides hurled taunts +and insults at one another--the human beings naturally +excelling the brutes in the coarseness and vileness of +their vilification and invective. + +The "firing-line" of the brute-men wielded no weapon +other than their long fiber nooses. When a foeman came +within range of them a noose would settle unerringly +about him and be would be dragged, fighting and yell- +ing, to the cliff-top, unless, as occasionally occurred, he +was quick enough to draw his knife and cut the rope +above him, in which event he usually plunged down- +ward to a no less certain death than that which awaited +him above. + +Those who were hauled up within reach of the power- +ful clutches of the defenders had the nooses snatched +from them and were catapulted back through the first +line to the second, where they were seized and killed +by the simple expedient of a single powerful closing +of mighty fangs upon the backs of their necks. + +But the arrows of the invaders were taking a much +heavier toll than the nooses of the defenders and I fore- +saw that it was but a matter of time before Hooja's +forces must conquer unless the brute-men changed +their tactics, or the cave men tired of the battle. + +Gr-gr-gr was standing in the center of the first line. +All about him were boulders and large fragments of +broken rock. I approached him and without a word +toppled a large mass of rock over the edge of the +cliff. It fell directly upon the head of an archer, crush- +ing him to instant death and carrying his mangled +corpse with it to the bottom of the declivity, and on its +way brushing three more of the attackers into the here- +after. + +Gr-gr-gr turned toward me in surprise. For an in- +stant he appeared to doubt the sincerity of my motives. +I felt that perhaps my time had come when he reached +for me with one of his giant paws; but I dodged him, +and running a few paces to the right hurled down +another missile. It, too, did its allotted work of destruc- +tion. Then I picked up smaller fragments and with all +the control and accuracy for which I had earned justly +deserved fame in my collegiate days I rained down a hail +of death upon those beneath me. + +Gr-gr-gr was coming toward me again. I pointed to +the litter of rubble upon the cliff-top. + +"Hurl these down upon the enemy!" I cried to him. +"Tell your warriors to throw rocks down upon them!" + +At my words the others of the first line, who had been +interested spectators of my tactics, seized upon great +boulders or bits of rock, whichever came first to their +hands, and, without, waiting for a command from Gr- +gr-gr, deluged the terrified cave men with a perfect +avalanche of stone. In less than no time the cliff-face +was stripped of enemies and the village of Gr-gr-gr was +saved. + +Gr-gr-gr was standing beside me when the last of the +cave men disappeared in rapid flight down the valley. +He was looking at me intently. + +"Those were your people," he said. "Why did you kill +them?" + +"They were not my people," I returned. "I have told +you that before, but you would not believe me. Will you +believe me now when I tell you that I hate Hooja and his +tribe as much as you do? Will you believe me when I +tell you that I wish to be the friend of Gr-gr-gr?" + +For some time he stood there beside me, scratching +his head. Evidently it was no less difficult for him to +readjust his preconceived conclusions than it is for most +human beings; but finally the idea percolated--which it +might never have done had he been a man, or I might +qualify that statement by saying had he been some +men. Finally he spoke. + +"Gilak," he said, "you have made Gr-gr-gr ashamed. +He would have killed you. How can he reward you?" + +"Set me free," I replied quickly. + +"You are free," he said. "You may go down when you +wish, or you may stay with us. If you go you may always +return. We are your friends." + +Naturally, I elected to go. I explained all over again +to Gr-gr-gr the nature of my mission. He listened atten- +tively; after I had done he offered to send some of his +people with me to guide me to Hooja's village. I was not +slow in accepting his offer. + +First, however, we must eat. The hunters upon whom +Hooja's men had fallen had brought back the meat of a +great thag. There would be a feast to commemorate the +victory--a feast and dancing. + +I had never witnessed a tribal function of the brute- +folk, though I had often heard strange sounds coming +from the village, where I had not been allowed since +my capture. Now I took part in one of their orgies. + +It will live forever in my memory. The combination +of bestiality and humanity was oftentimes pathetic, +and again grotesque or horrible. Beneath the glaring +noonday sun, in the sweltering heat of the mesa-top, +the huge, hairy creatures leaped in a great circle. +They coiled and threw their fiber-ropes; they hurled +taunts and insults at an imaginary foe; they fell upon +the carcass of the thag and literally tore it to pieces; and +they ceased only when, gorged, they could no longer +move. + +I had to wait until the processes of digestion had re- +leased my escort from its torpor. Some had eaten until +their abdomens were so distended that I thought they +must burst, for beside the thag there had been fully a +hundred antelopes of various sizes and varied degrees +of decomposition, which they had unearthed from bur- +ial beneath the floors of their lairs to grace the banquet- +board. + +But at last we were started--six great males and +myself. Gr-gr-gr had returned my weapons to me, and +at last I was once more upon my oft-interrupted way +toward my goal. Whether I should find Dian at the end +of my journey or no I could not even surmise; but I +was none the less impatient to be off, for if only the +worst lay in store for me I wished to know even the +worst at once. + +I could scarce believe that my proud mate would still +be alive in the power of Hooja; but time upon Pellucidar +is so strange a thing that I realized that to her or to him +only a few minutes might have elapsed since his subtle +trickery had enabled him to steal her away from Phutra. +Or she might have found the means either to repel his +advances or escape him. + +As we descended the cliff we disturbed a great pack +of large hyena-like beasts--hyaena spelaeus, Perry calls +them--who were busy among the corpses of the cave +men fallen in battle. The ugly creatures were far from +the cowardly things that our own hyenas are reputed +to be; they stood their ground with bared fangs as we +approached them. But, as I was later to learn, so for- +midable are the brute-folk that there are few even of +the larger carnivora that will not make way for them +when they go abroad. So the hyenas moved a little +from our line of march, closing in again upon their feasts +when we had passed. + +We made our way steadily down the rim of the beau- +tiful river which flows the length of the island, coming +at last to a wood rather denser than any that I had be- +fore encountered in this country. Well within this forest +my escort halted. + +"There!" they said, and pointed ahead. "We are to go +no farther." + +Thus having guided me to my destination they left +me. Ahead of me, through the trees, I could see what +appeared to be the foot of a steep hill. Toward this I +made my way. The forest ran to the very base of a cliff, +in the face of which were the mouths of many caves. +They appeared untenanted; but I decided to watch for a +while before venturing farther. A large tree, densely +foliaged, offered a splendid vantage-point from which to +spy upon the cliff, so I clambered among its branches +where, securely hidden, I could watch what transpired +about the caves. + +It seemed that I had scarcely settled myself in a +comfortable position before a party of cave men +emerged from one of the smaller apertures in the cliff- +face, about fifty feet from the base. They descended +into the forest and disappeared. Soon after came sev- +eral others from the same cave, and after them, at a +short interval, a score of women and children, who came +into the wood to gather fruit. There were several war- +riors with them--a guard, I presume. + +After this came other parties, and two or three +groups who passed out of the forest and up the cliff-face +to enter the same cave. I could not understand it. All +who came out had emerged from the same cave. All +who returned reentered it. No other cave gave evidence +of habitation, and no cave but one of extraordinary +size could have accommodated all the people whom I +had seen pass in and out of its mouth. + +For a long time I sat and watched the coming and +going of great numbers of the cave-folk. Not once did +one leave the cliff by any other opening save that from +which I had seen the first party come, nor did any +re-enter the cliff through another aperture. + +What a cave it must be, I thought, that houses an en- +tire tribe! But dissatisfied of the truth of my surmise, I +climbed higher among the branches of the tree that I +might get a better view of other portions of the cliff. +High above the ground I reached a point whence I +could see the summit of the hill. Evidently it was a flat- +topped butte similar to that on which dwelt the tribe +of Gr-gr-gr. + +As I sat gazing at it a figure appeared at the very +edge. It was that of a young girl in whose hair was a +gorgeous bloom plucked from some flowering tree of +the forest. I had seen her pass beneath me but a short +while before and enter the small cave that had +swallowed all of the returning tribesmen. + +The mystery was solved. The cave was but the mouth +of a passage that led upward through the cliff to the +summit of the hill. It served merely as an avenue from +their lofty citadel to the valley below. + +No sooner had the truth flashed upon me than the +realization came that I must seek some other means of +reaching the village, for to pass unobserved through this +well-traveled thoroughfare would be impossible. At the +moment there was no one in sight below me, so I slid +quickly from my arboreal watch-tower to the ground +and moved rapidly away to the right with the intention +of circling the hill if necessary until I had found an un- +watched spot where I might have some slight chance of +scaling the heights and reaching the top unseen. + +I kept close to the edge of the forest, in the very midst +of which the hill seemed to rise. Though I carefully +scanned the cliff as I traversed its base, I saw no sign of +any other entrance than that to which my guides had +led me. + +After some little time the roar of the sea broke upon +my ears. Shortly after I came upon the broad ocean +which breaks at this point at the very foot of the great +hill where Hooja had found safe refuge for himself and +his villains. + +I was just about to clamber along the jagged rocks +which lie at the base of the cliff next to the sea, in +search of some foothold to the top, when I chanced to +see a canoe rounding the end of the island. I threw my- +self down behind a large boulder where I could watch +the dugout and its occupants without myself being seen. + +They paddled toward me for a while and then, about +a hundred yards from me, they turned straight in +toward the foot of the frowning cliffs. From where I was +it seemed that they were bent upon self-destruction, +since the roar of the breakers beating upon the perpen- +dicular rock-face appeared to offer only death to any one +who might venture within their relentless clutch. + +A mass of rock would soon hide them from my view; +but so keen was the excitement of the instant that I +could not refrain from crawling forward to a point +whence I could watch the dashing of the small craft to +pieces on the jagged rocks that loomed before her, al- +though I risked discovery from above to accomplish my +design. + +When I had reached a point where I could again +see the dugout, I was just in time to see it glide un- +harmed between two needle-pointed sentinels of granite +and float quietly upon the unruffled bosom of a tiny +cove. + +Again I crouched behind a boulder to observe what +would next transpire; nor did I have long to wait. +The dugout, which contained but two men, was drawn +close to the rocky wall. A fiber rope, one end of which +was tied to the boat, was made fast about a projection of +the cliff face. + +Then the two men commenced the ascent of the +almost perpendicular wall toward the summit several +hundred feet above. I looked on in amazement, for, +splendid climbers though the cave men of Pellucidar +are, I never before had seen so remarkable a feat per- +formed. Upwardly they moved without a pause, to dis- +appear at last over the summit. + +When I felt reasonably sure that they had gone for +a while at least I crawled from my hiding-place and +at the risk of a broken neck leaped and scrambled to the +spot where their canoe was moored. + +If they had scaled that cliff I could, and if I couldn't +I should die in the attempt. + +But when I turned to the accomplishment of the task +I found it easier than I had imagined it would be, since +I immediately discovered that shallow hand and foot- +holds had been scooped in the cliff's rocky face, forming +a crude ladder from the base to the summit. + +At last I reached the top, and very glad I was, too. +Cautiously I raised my head until my eyes were above +the cliff-crest. Before me spread a rough mesa, liberally +sprinkled with large boulders. There was no village in +sight nor any living creature. + +I drew myself to level ground and stood erect. A few +trees grew among the boulders. Very carefully I ad- +vanced from tree to tree and boulder to boulder toward +the inland end of the mesa. I stopped often to listen +and look cautiously about me in every direction. + +How I wished that I had my revolvers and rifle! I +would not have to worm my way like a scared cat +toward Hooja's village, nor did I relish doing so now; but +Dian's life might hinge upon the success of my venture, +and so I could not afford to take chances. To have met +suddenly with discovery and had a score or more of +armed warriors upon me might have been very grand +and heroic; but it would have immediately put an end +to all my earthly activities, nor have accomplished +aught in the service of Dian. + +Well, I must have traveled nearly a mile across that +mesa without seeing a sign of anyone, when all of a sud- +den, as I crept around the edge of a boulder, I ran +plump into a man, down on all fours like myself, crawl- +ing toward me. + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE RAID ON THE CAVE-PRISON + +His head was turned over his shoulder as I first saw +him--he was looking back toward the village. As I +leaped for him his eyes fell upon me. Never in my life +have I seen a more surprised mortal than this poor cave +man. Before he could utter a single scream of warning or +alarm I had my fingers on his throat and had dragged +him behind the boulder, where I proceeded to sit upon +him, while I figured out what I had best do with him. + +He struggled a little at first, but finally lay still, and +so I released the pressure of my fingers at his windpipe, +for which I imagine he was quite thankful--I know +that I should have been. + +I hated to kill him in cold blood; but what else I was +to do with him I could not see, for to turn him loose +would have been merely to have the entire village +aroused and down upon me in a moment. The fellow +lay looking up at me with the surprise still deeply writ- +ten on his countenance. At last, all of a sudden, a look +of recognition entered his eyes. + +"I have seen you before," he said. "I saw you in the +arena at the Mahars' city of Phutra when the thipdars +dragged the tarag from you and your mate. I never +understood that. Afterward they put me in the arena +with two warriors from Gombul." + +He smiled in recollection. + +"It would have been the same had there been ten +warriors from Gombul. I slew them, winning my free- +dom. Look!" + +He half turned his left shoulder toward me, exhibiting +the newly healed scar of the Mahars' branded mark. + +"Then," he continued, "as I was returning to my peo- +ple I met some of them fleeing. They told me that +one called Hooja the Sly One had come and seized our +village, putting our people into slavery. So I hurried +hither to learn the truth, and, sure enough, here I found +Hooja and his wicked men living in my village, and my +father's people but slaves among them. + +"I was discovered and captured, but Hooja did not +kill me. I am the chief's son, and through me he hoped +to win my father's warriors back to the village to help +him in a great war he says that he will soon commence. + +"Among his prisoners is Dian the Beautiful One, +whose brother, Dacor the Strong One, chief of Amoz, +once saved my life when he came to Thuria to steal a +mate. I helped him capture her, and we are good +friends. So when I learned that Dian the Beautiful One +was Hooja's prisoner, I told him that I would not aid him +if he harmed her. + +"Recently one of Hooja's warriors overheard me talk- +ing with another prisoner. We were planning to combine +all the prisoners, seize weapons, and when most of +Hooja's warriors were away, slay the rest and retake our +hilltop. Had we done so we could have held it, for there +are only two entrances--the narrow tunnel at one end +and the steep path up the cliffs at the other. + +"But when Hooja heard what we had planned he was +very angry, and ordered that I die. They bound me +hand and foot and placed me in a cave until all the +warriors should return to witness my death; but while +they were away I heard someone calling me in a +muffled voice which seemed to come from the wall of +the cave. When I replied the voice, which was +a woman's, told me that she had overheard all that +had passed between me and those who had brought me +thither, and that she was Dacor's sister and would find +a way to help me. + +"Presently a little hole appeared in the wall at the +point from which the voice had come. After a time I +saw a woman's hand digging with a bit of stone. Dacor's +sister made a hole in the wall between the cave where +I lay bound and that in which she had been confined, +and soon she was by my side and had cut my bonds. + +"We talked then, and I offered to make the attempt to +take her away and back to the land of Sari, where she +told me she would be able to learn the whereabouts of +her mate. Just now I was going to the other end of the +island to see if a boat lay there, and if the way was +clear for our escape. Most of the boats are always away +now, for a great many of Hooja's men and nearly all the +slaves are upon the Island of Trees, where Hooja is hav- +ing many boats built to carry his warriors across the +water to the mouth of a great river which he discovered +while he was returning from Phutra--a vast river that +empties into the sea there." + +The speaker pointed toward the northeast. +"It is wide and smooth and slow-running almost to the +land of Sari," he added. + +"And where is Dian the Beautiful One now?" I asked. + +I had released my prisoner as soon as I found that he +was Hooja's enemy, and now the pair of us were squat- +ting beside the boulder while he told his story. + +"She returned to the cave where she had been im- +prisoned," he replied, "and is awaiting me there." + +"There is no danger that Hooja will come while you +are away?" + +"Hooja is upon the Island of Trees," he replied. + +"Can you direct me to the cave so that I can find it +alone?" I asked. + +He said he could, and in the strange yet explicit fash- +ion of the Pellucidarians he explained minutely how I +might reach the cave where he had been imprisoned, +and through the hole in its wall reach Dian. + +I thought it best for but one of us to return, since two +could accomplish but little more than one and would +double the risk of discovery. In the meantime he could +make his way to the sea and guard the boat, which I +told him lay there at the foot of the cliff. + +I told him to await us at the cliff-top, and if Dian +came alone to do his best to get away with her and take +her to Sari, as I thought it quite possible that, in case of +detection and pursuit, it might be necessary for me to +hold off Hooja's people while Dian made her way alone +to where my new friend was to await her. I impressed +upon him the fact that he might have to resort to trick- +ery or even to force to get Dian to leave me; but I made +him promise that he would sacrifice everything, even his +life, in an attempt to rescue Dacor's sister. + +Then we parted--he to take up his position where he +could watch the boat and await Dian, I to crawl cau- +tiously on toward the caves. I had no difficulty in fol- +lowing the directions given me by Juag, the name by +which Dacor's friend said he was called. There was the +leaning tree, my first point he told me to look for after +rounding the boulder where we had met. After that I +crawled to the balanced rock, a huge boulder resting +upon a tiny base no larger than the palm of your hand. + +From here I had my first view of the village of caves. +A low bluff ran diagonally across one end of the mesa, +and in the face of this bluff were the mouths of many +caves. Zig-zag trails led up to them, and narrow ledges +scooped from the face of the soft rock connected those +upon the same level. + +The cave in which Juag had been confined was at the +extreme end of the cliff nearest me. By taking advan- +tage of the bluff itself, I could approach within a few +feet of the aperture without being visible from any +other cave. There were few people about at the time; +most of these were congregated at the foot of the far +end of the bluff, where they were so engrossed in ex- +cited conversation that I felt but little fear of detection. +However I exercised the greatest care in approaching +the cliff. After watching for a while until I caught an in- +stant when every head was turned away from me, I +darted, rabbitlike, into the cave. + +Like many of the man-made caves of Pellucidar, this +one consisted of three chambers, one behind another, +and all unlit except for what sunlight filtered in through +the external opening. The result was gradually increas- +ing darkness as one passed into each succeeding cham- +ber. + +In the last of the three I could just distinguish objects, +and that was all. As I was groping around the walls +for the hole that should lead into the cave where Dian +was imprisoned, I heard a man's voice quite close to me. + +The speaker had evidently but just entered, for he +spoke in a loud tone, demanding the whereabouts of +one whom he had come in search of. + +"Where are you, woman?" he cried. "Hooja has sent +for you." + +And then a woman's voice answered him: + +"And what does Hooja want of me?" + +The voice was Dian's. I groped in the direction of the +sounds, feeling for the hole. + +"He wishes you brought to the Island of Trees," +replied the man; "for he is ready to take you as his +mate." + +"I will not go," said Dian. "I will die first." + +"I am sent to bring you, and bring you I shall." + +I could hear him crossing the cave toward her. + +Frantically I clawed the wall of the cave in which I +was in an effort to find the elusive aperture that would +lead me to Dian's side. + +I heard the sound of a scuffle in the next cave. Then +my fingers sank into loose rock and earth in the side +of the cave. In an instant I realized why I had been +unable to find the opening while I had been lightly +feeling the surface of the walls--Dian had blocked up +the hole she had made lest it arouse suspicion and +lead to an early discovery of Juag's escape. + +Plunging my weight against the crumbling mass, I +sent it crashing into the adjoining cavern. With it came +I, David, Emperor of Pellucidar. I doubt if any other +potentate in a world's history ever made a more un- +dignified entrance. I landed head first on all fours, but +I came quickly and was on my feet before the man +in the dark guessed what had happened. + +He saw me, though, when I arose and, sensing that +no friend came thus precipitately, turned to meet me +even as I charged him. I had my stone knife in my +hand, and he had his. In the darkness of the cave +there was little opportunity for a display of science, +though even at that I venture to say that we fought +a very pretty duel. + +Before I came to Pellucidar I do not recall that I +ever had seen a stone knife, and I am sure that I never +fought with a knife of any description; but now I do +not have to take my hat off to any of them when it +comes to wielding that primitive yet wicked weapon. + +I could just see Dian in the darkness, but I knew +that she could not see my features or recognize me; +and I enjoyed in anticipation, even while I was fighting +for her life and mine, her dear joy when she should +discover that it was I who was her deliverer. + +My opponent was large, but he also was active and +no mean knife-man. He caught me once fairly in the +shoulder--I carry the scar yet, and shall carry it to +the grave. And then he did a foolish thing, for as I +leaped back to gain a second in which to calm the +shock of the wound he rushed after me and tried to +clinch. He rather neglected his knife for the moment +in his greater desire to get his hands on me. Seeing +the opening, I swung my left fist fairly to the point +of his jaw. + +Down he went. Before ever he could scramble up +again I was on him and had buried my knife in his +heart. Then I stood up--and there was Dian facing +me and peering at me through the dense gloom. + +"You are not Juag!" she exclaimed. "Who are you?" + +I took a step toward her, my arms outstretched. + +"It is I, Dian," I said. "It is David." + +At the sound of my voice she gave a little cry in +which tears were mingled--a pathetic little cry that +told me all without words how far hope had gone from +her--and then she ran forward and threw herself in +my arms. I covered her perfect lips and her beautiful +face with kisses, and stroked her thick black hair, and +told her again and again what she already knew--what +she had known for years--that I loved her better +than all else which two worlds had to offer. We couldn't +devote much time, though, to the happiness of love- +making, for we were in the midst of enemies who +might discover us at any moment. + +I drew her into the adjoining cave. Thence we made +our way to the mouth of the cave that had given me +entrance to the cliff. Here I reconnoitered for a mo- +ment, and seeing the coast clear, ran swiftly forth with +Dian at my side. We dodged around the cliff-end, +then paused for an instant, listening. No sound reached +our ears to indicate that any had seen us, and we +moved cautiously onward along the way by which I +had come. + +As we went Dian told me that her captors had in- +formed her how close I had come in search of her-- +even to the Land of Awful Shadow--and how one of +Hooja's men who knew me had discovered me asleep +and robbed me of all my possessions. And then how +Hooja had sent four others to find me and take me +prisoner. But these men, she said, had not yet re- +turned, or at least she had not heard of their return. + +'Nor will you ever," I responded, "for they have gone +to that place whence none ever returns." I then related +my adventure with these four. + +We had come almost to the cliff-edge where Juag +should be awaiting us when we saw two men walking +rapidly toward the same spot from another direction. +They did not see us, nor did they see Juag, whom I +now discovered hiding behind a low bush close to the +verge of the precipice which drops into the sea at this +point. As quickly as possible, without exposing our- +selves too much to the enemy, we hastened forward +that we might reach Juag as quickly as they. + +But they noticed him first and immediately charged +him, for one of them had been his guard, and they +had both been sent to search for him, his escape having +been discovered between the time he left the cave +and the time when I reached it. Evidently they had +wasted precious moments looking for him in other +portions of the mesa. + +When I saw that the two of them were rushing him, +I called out to attract their attention to the fact that +they had more than a single man to cope with. They +paused at the sound of my voice and looked about. + +When they discovered Dian and me they exchanged +a few words, and one of them continued toward Juag +while the other turned upon us. As he came nearer +I saw that he carried in his hand one of my six-shooters, +but he was holding it by the barrel, evidently mistaking +it for some sort of warclub or tomahawk. + +I could scarce refrain a grin when I thought of the +wasted possibilities of that deadly revolver in the hands +of an untutored warrior of the stone age. Had he but +reversed it and pulled the trigger he might still be +alive; maybe he is for all I know, since I did not kill +him then. When he was about twenty feet from me +I flung my javelin with a quick movement that I had +learned from Ghak. He ducked to avoid it, and instead +of receiving it in his heart, for which it was intended, +he got it on the side of the head. + +Down he went all in a heap. Then I glanced toward +Juag. He was having a most exciting time. The fellow +pitted against Juag was a veritable giant; he was hack- +ing and hewing away at the poor slave with a villainous- +looking knife that might have been designed for butch- +ering mastodons. Step by step, he was forcing Juag +back toward the edge of the cliff with a fiendish cunning +that permitted his adversary no chance to side-step +the terrible consequences of retreat in this direction. +I saw quickly that in another moment Juag must de- +liberately hurl himself to death over the precipice or +be pushed over by his foeman. + +And as I saw Juag's predicament I saw, too, in the +same instant, a way to relieve him. Leaping quickly +to the side of the fellow I had just felled, I snatched +up my fallen revolver. It was a desperate chance to +take, and I realized it in the instant that I threw the +gun up from my hip and pulled the trigger. There was +no time to aim. Juag was upon the very brink of the +chasm. His relentless foe was pushing him hard, beat- +ing at him furiously with the heavy knife. + +And then the revolver spoke--loud and sharp. The +giant threw his hands above his head, whirled about +like a huge top, and lunged forward over the precipice. + +And Juag? + +He cast a single affrighted glance in my direction-- +never before, of course, had he heard the report of a +firearm--and with a howl of dismay he, too, turned +and plunged headforemost from sight. Horror-struck, +I hastened to the brink of the abyss just in time to see +two splashes upon the surface of the little cove below. + +For an instant I stood there watching with Dian at +my side. Then, to my utter amazement, I saw Juag rise +to the surface and swim strongly toward the boat. + +The fellow had dived that incredible distance and +come up unharmed! + +I called to him to await us below, assuring him that +he need have no fear of my weapon, since it would +harm only my enemies. He shook his head and mut- +tered something which I could not hear at so great a +distance; but when I pushed him he promised to wait +for us. At the same instant Dian caught my arm and +pointed toward the village. My shot had brought a +crowd of natives on the run toward us. + +The fellow whom I had stunned with my javelin had +regained consciousness and scrambled to his feet. He +was now racing as fast as he could go back toward his +people. It looked mighty dark for Dian and me with +that ghastly descent between us and even the begin- +nings of liberty, and a horde of savage enemies ad- +vancing at a rapid run. + +There was but one hope. That was to get Dian +started for the bottom without delay. I took her in my +arms just for an instant--I felt, somehow, that it might +be for the last time. For the life of me I couldn't see +how both of us could escape. + +I asked her if she could make the descent alone-- +if she were not afraid. She smiled up at me bravely +and shrugged her shoulders. She afraid! So beautiful +is she that I am always having difficulty in remembering +that she is a primitive, half-savage cave girl of the stone +age, and often find myself mentally limiting her ca- +pacities to those of the effete and overcivilized beauties +of the outer crust. + +"And you?" she asked as she swung over the edge of +the cliff. + +"I shall follow you after I take a shot or two at our +friends," I replied. "I just want to give them a taste of +this new medicine which is going to cure Pellucidar +of all its ills. That will stop them long enough for me +to join you. Now hurry, and tell Juag to be ready to +shove off the moment I reach the boat, or the instant +that it becomes apparent that I cannot reach it. + +"You, Dian, must return to Sari if anything happens +to me, that you may devote your life to carrying out +with Perry the hopes and plans for Pellucidar that are +so dear to my heart. Promise me, dear." + +She hated to promise to desert me, nor would she; +only shaking her head and making no move to descend. +The tribesmen were nearing us. Juag was shouting up +to us from below. It was evident that he realized from +my actions that I was attempting to persuade Dian to +descend, and that grave danger threatened us from +above. + +"Dive!" he cried. "Dive!" + +I looked at Dian and then down at the abyss below +us. The cove appeared no larger than a saucer. How +Juag ever had hit it I could not guess. + +"Dive!" cried Juag. "It is the only way--there is no +time to climb down." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ESCAPE + +Dian glanced downward and shuddered. Her tribe +were hill people--they were not accustomed to swim- +ming other than in quiet rivers and placid lakelets. +It was not the steep that appalled her. It was the +ocean--vast, mysterious, terrible. + +To dive into it from this great height was beyond +her. I couldn't wonder, either. To have attempted it +myself seemed too preposterous even for thought. Only +one consideration could have prompted me to leap +headforemost from that giddy height--suicide; or at +least so I thought at the moment. + +"Quick!" I urged Dian. "You cannot dive; but I can +hold them until you reach safety." + +"And you?" she asked once more. "Can you dive +when they come too close? Otherwise you could not +escape if you waited here until I reached the bottom." + +I saw that she would not leave me unless she thought +that I could make that frightful dive as we had seen +Juag make it. I glanced once downward; then with a +mental shrug I assured her that I would dive the mo- +ment that she reached the boat. Satisfied, she began +the descent carefully, yet swiftly. I watched her for a +moment, my heart in my mouth lest some slight mis- +step or the slipping of a finger-hold should pitch her +to a frightful death upon the rocks below. + +Then I turned toward the advancing Hoojans-- +"Hoosiers," Perry dubbed them--even going so far as +to christen this island where Hooja held sway Indiana; +it is so marked now upon our maps. They were coming +on at a great rate. I raised my revolver, took deliberate +aim at the foremost warrior, and pulled the trigger. +With the bark of the gun the fellow lunged forward. +His head doubled beneath him. He rolled over and +over two or three times before he came to a stop, to +lie very quietly in the thick grass among the brilliant +wild flowers. + +Those behind him halted. One of them hurled a +javelin toward me, but it fell short--they were just +beyond javelin-range. There were two armed with bows +and arrows; these I kept my eyes on. All of them +appeared awe-struck and frightened by the sound and +effect of the firearm. They kept looking from the corpse +to me and jabbering among themselves. + +I took advantage of the lull in hostilities to throw +a quick glance over the edge toward Dian. She was +half-way down the cliff and progressing finely. Then +I turned back toward the enemy. One of the bowmen +was fitting an arrow to his bow. I raised my hand. + +"Stop!" I cried. "Whoever shoots at me or advances +toward me I shall kill as I killed him!" + +I pointed at the dead man. The fellow lowered his +bow. Again there was animated discussion. I could see +that those who were not armed with bows were urging +something upon the two who were. + +At last the majority appeared to prevail, for simul- +taneously the two archers raised their weapons. At the +same instant I fired at one of them, dropping him in +his tracks. The other, however, launched his missile, +but the report of my gun had given him such a start +that the arrow flew wild above my head. A second after +and he, too, was sprawled upon the sward with a round +hole between his eyes. It had been a rather good shot. + +I glanced over the edge again. Dian was almost at +the bottom. I could see Juag standing just beneath her +with his hands upstretched to assist her. + +A sullen roar from the warriors recalled my attention +toward them. They stood shaking their fists at me and +yelling insults. From the direction of the village I saw +a single warrior coming to join them. He was a huge +fellow, and when he strode among them I could tell +by his bearing and their deference toward him that he +was a chieftain. He listened to all they had to tell of +the happenings of the last few minutes; then with a +command and a roar he started for me with the whole +pack at his heels. All they had needed had arrived-- +namely, a brave leader. + +I had two unfired cartridges in the chambers of my +gun. I let the big warrior have one of them, thinking +that his death would stop them all. But I guess they +were worked up to such a frenzy of rage by this time +that nothing would have stopped them. At any rate, +they only yelled the louder as he fell and increased +their speed toward me. I dropped another with my +remaining cartridge. + +Then they were upon me--or almost. I thought of +my promise to Dian--the awful abyss was behind me +--a big devil with a huge bludgeon in front of me. +I grasped my six-shooter by the barrel and hurled it +squarely in his face with all my strength. + +Then, without waiting to learn the effect of my throw, +I wheeled, ran the few steps to the edge, and leaped +as far out over that frightful chasm as I could. I know +something of diving, and all that I know I put into +that dive, which I was positive would be my last. + +For a couple of hundred feet I fell in horizontal +position. The momentum I gained was terrific. I could +feel the air almost as a solid body, so swiftly I hurtled +through it. Then my position gradually changed to the +vertical, and with hands outstretched I slipped through +the air, cleaving it like a flying arrow. Just before I +struck the water a perfect shower of javelins fell all +about. My enemies bad rushed to the brink and hurled +their weapons after me. By a miracle I was untouched. + +In the final instant I saw that I had cleared the +rocks and was going to strike the water fairly. Then +I was in and plumbing the depths. I suppose I didn't +really go very far down, but it seemed to me that I +should never stop. When at last I dared curve my +hands upward and divert my progress toward the sur- +face, I thought that I should explode for air before +I ever saw the sun again except through a swirl of +water. But at last my bead popped above the waves, +and I filled my lungs with air. + +Before me was the boat, from which Juag and Dian +were clambering. I couldn't understand why they were +deserting it now, when we were about to set out for +the mainland in it; but when I reached its side I under- +stood. Two heavy javelins, missing Dian and Juag by +but a hair's breadth, had sunk deep into the bottom of +the dugout in a straight line with the grain of the +wood, and split her almost in two from stem to stern. +She was useless. + +Juag was leaning over a near-by rock, his hand out- +stretched to aid me in clambering to his side; nor did +I lose any time in availing myself of his proffered as- +sistance. An occasional javelin was still dropping +perilously close to us, so we hastened to draw as close +as possible to the cliffside, where we were compara- +tively safe from the missiles. + +Here we held a brief conference, in which it was +decided that our only hope now lay in making for the +opposite end of the island as quickly as we could, +and utilizing the boat that I had hidden there, to con- +tinue our journey to the mainland. + +Gathering up three of the least damaged javelins +that had fallen about us, we set out upon our journey, +keeping well toward the south side of the island, which +Juag said was less frequented by the Hoojans than +the central portion where the river ran. I think that +this ruse must have thrown our pursuers off our track, +since we saw nothing of them nor heard any sound +of pursuit during the greater portion of our march the +length of the island. + +But the way Juag had chosen was rough and round- +about, so that we consumed one or two more marches +in covering the distance than if we had followed the +river. This it was which proved our undoing. + +Those who sought us must have sent a party up the +river immediately after we escaped; for when we came +at last onto the river-trail not far from our destination, +there can be no doubt but that we were seen by +Hoojans who were just ahead of us on the stream. +The result was that as we were passing through a +clump of bush a score of warriors leaped out upon us, +and before we could scarce strike a blow in defense, +had disarmed and bound us. + +For a time thereafter I seemed to be entirely bereft +of hope. I could see no ray of promise in the future-- +only immediate death for Juag and me, which didn't +concern me much in the face of what lay in store for +Dian. + +Poor child! What an awful life she had led! From +the moment that I had first seen her chained in the +slave caravan of the Mahars until now, a prisoner of +a no less cruel creature, I could recall but a few brief +intervals of peace and quiet in her tempestuous ex- +istence. Before I had known her, Jubal the Ugly One +had pursued her across a savage world to make her his +mate. She had eluded him, and finally I had slain him; +but terror and privations, and exposure to fierce beasts +had haunted her footsteps during all her lonely flight +from him. And when I had returned to the outer +world the old trials had recommenced with Hooja in +Jubal's role. I could almost have wished for death to +vouchsafe her that peace which fate seemed to deny +her in this life. + +I spoke to her on the subject, suggesting that we +expire together. + +"Do not fear, David," she replied. "I shall end my +life before ever Hooja can harm me; but first I shall +see that Hooja dies." + +She drew from her breast a little leathern thong, +to the end of which was fastened a tiny pouch. + +"What have you there?" I asked. + +"Do you recall that time you stepped upon the thing +you call viper in your world?" she asked. + +I nodded. + +"The accident gave you the idea for the poisoned +arrows with which we fitted the warriors of the em- +pire," she continued. "And, too, it gave me an idea. +For a long time I have carried a viper's fang in my +bosom. It has given me strength to endure many dan- +gers, for it has always assured me immunity from the +ultimate insult. I am not ready to die yet. First let +Hooja embrace the viper's fang." + +So we did not die together, and I am glad now +that we did not. It is always a foolish thing to con- +template suicide; for no matter how dark the future +may appear today, tomorrow may hold for us that +which will alter our whole life in an instant, revealing +to us nothing but sunshine and happiness. So, for my +part, I shall always wait for tomorrow. + +In Pellucidar, where it is always today, the wait +may not be so long, and so it proved for us. As we +were passing a lofty, flat-topped hill through a park- +like wood a perfect network of fiber ropes fell suddenly +about our guard, enmeshing them. A moment later +a horde of our friends, the hairy gorilla-men, with the +mild eyes and long faces of sheep leaped among them. + +It was a very interesting fight. I was sorry that my +bonds prevented me from taking part in it, but I urged +on the brutemen with my voice, and cheered old +Gr-gr-gr, their chief, each time that his mighty jaws +crunched out the life of a Hoojan. When the battle +was over we found that a few of our captors had +escaped, but the majority of them lay dead about us. +The gorilla-men paid no further attention to them. +Gr-gr-gr turned to me. + +"Gr-gr-gr and all his people are your friends," he +said. "One saw the warriors of the Sly One and fol- +lowed them. He saw them capture you, and then he +flew to the village as fast as he could go and told me +all that he had seen. The rest you know. You did much +for Gr-gr-gr and Gr-gr-gr's people. We shall always do +much for you." + +I thanked him; and when I had told him of our +escape and our destination, he insisted on accom- +panying us to the sea with a great number of his +fierce males. Nor were we at all loath to accept his +escort. We found the canoe where I had hidden it, +and bidding Gr-gr-gr and his warriors farewell, the +three of us embarked for the mainland. + +I questioned Juag upon the feasibility of attempting +to cross to the mouth of the great river of which he +had told me, and up which he said we might paddle +almost to Sari; but he urged me not to attempt it, +since we had but a single paddle and no water or +food. I had to admit the wisdom of his advice, but the +desire to explore this great waterway was strong upon +me, arousing in me at last a determination to make +the attempt after first gaining the mainland and rectify- +ing our deficiencies. + +We landed several miles north of Thuria in a little +cove that seemed to offer protection from the heavier +seas which sometimes run, even upon these usually +pacific oceans of Pellucidar. Here I outlined to Dian +and Juag the plans I had in mind. They were to fit +the canoe with a small sail, the purposes of which +I had to explain to them both--since neither had ever +seen or heard of such a contrivance before. Then they +were to hunt for food which we could transport with +us, and prepare a receptacle for water. + +These two latter items were more in Juag's line, but +he kept muttering about the sail and the wind for +a long time. I could see that he was not even half +convinced that any such ridiculous contraption could +make a canoe move through the water. + +We hunted near the coast for a while, but were pot +rewarded with any particular luck. Finally we decided +to hide the canoe and strike inland in search of game. +At Juag's suggestion we dug a hole in the sand at the +upper edge of the beach and buried the craft, smooth- +ing the surface over nicely and throwing aside the excess +material we had excavated. Then we set out away +from the sea. Traveling in Thuria is less arduous than +under the midday sun which perpetually glares down +on the rest of Pellucidar's surface; but it has its draw- +backs, one of which is the depressing influence exerted +by the everlasting shade of the Land of Awful Shadow. + +The farther inland we went the darker it became, +until we were moving at last through an endless twi- +light. The vegetation here was sparse and of a weird, +colorless nature, though what did grow was wondrous +in shape and form. Often we saw huge lidi, or beasts +of burden, striding across the dim landscape, browsing +upon the grotesque vegetation or drinking from the +slow and sullen rivers that run down from the Lidi +Plains to empty into the sea in Thuria. + +What we sought was either a thag--a sort of gigantic +elk--or one of the larger species of antelope, the flesh +of either of which dries nicely in the sun. The bladder +of the thag would make a fine water-bottle, and its +skin, I figured, would be a good sail. We traveled a +considerable distance inland, entirely crossing the Land +of Awful Shadow and emerging at last upon that portion +of the Lidi Plains which lies in the pleasant sunlight. +Above us the pendent world revolved upon its axis, +filling me especially--and Dian to an almost equal state +--with wonder and insatiable curiosity as to what +strange forms of life existed among the hills and valleys +and along the seas and rivers, which we could plainly +see. + +Before us stretched the horizonless expanses of vast +Pellucidar, the Lidi Plains rolling up about us, while +hanging high in the heavens to the northwest of us +I thought I discerned the many towers which marked +the entrances to the distant Mahar city, whose in- +habitants preyed upon the Thurians. + +Juag suggested that we travel to the northeast, where, +he said, upon the verge of the plain we would find +a wooded country in which game should be plentiful. +Acting upon his advice, we came at last to a forest- +jungle, through which wound innumerable game-paths. +In the depths of this forbidding wood we came upon +the fresh spoor of thag. + +Shortly after, by careful stalking, we came within +javelin-range of a small herd. Selecting a great bull, +Juag and I hurled our weapons simultaneously, Dian +reserving hers for an emergency. The beast staggered +to his feet, bellowing. The rest of the herd was up and +away in an instant, only the wounded bull remaining, +with lowered head and roving eyes searching for the +foe. + +Then Juag exposed himself to the view of the bull-- +it is a part of the tactics of the hunt--while I stepped +to one side behind a bush. The moment that the savage +beast saw Juag he charged him. Juag ran straight away, +that the bull might be lured past my hiding-place. On +he came--tons of mighty bestial strength and rage. + +Dian had slipped behind me. She, too, could fight a +thag should emergency require. Ah, such a girl! A +rightful empress of a stone age by every standard which +two worlds might bring to measure her! + +Crashing down toward us came the bull thag, bel- +lowing and snorting, with the power of a hundred +outer-earthly bulls. When he was opposite me I sprang +for the heavy mane that covered his huge neck. To +tangle my fingers in it was the work of but an instant. +Then I was running along at the beast's shoulder. + +Now, the theory upon which this hunting custom is +based is one long ago discovered by experience, and +that is that a thag cannot be turned from his charge +once he has started toward the object of his wrath, +so long as he can still see the thing he charges. He +evidently believes that the man clinging to his mane +is attempting to restrain him from overtaking his prey, +and so he pays no attention to this enemy, who, of +course, does not retard the mighty charge in the least. + +Once in the gait of the plunging bull, it was but +a slight matter to vault to his back, as cavalrymen +mount their chargers upon the run. Juag was still run- +ning in plain sight ahead of the bull. His speed was +but a trifle less than that of the monster that pursued +him. These Pellucidarians are almost as fleet as deer; +because I am not is one reason that I am always chosen +for the close-in work of the thag-hunt. I could not keep +in front of a charging thag long enough to give the +killer time to do his work. I learned that the first-- +and last--time I tried it. + +Once astride the bull's neck, I drew my long stone +knife and, setting the point carefully over the brute's +spine, drove it home with both hands. At the same in- +stant I leaped clear of the stumbling animal. Now, no +vertebrate can progress far with a knife through his +spine, and the thag is no exception to the rule. + +The fellow was down instantly. As he wallowed +Juag returned, and the two of us leaped in when an +opening afforded the opportunity and snatched our +javelins from his side. Then we danced about him, +more like two savages than anything else, until we +got the opening we were looking for, when simulta- +neously, our javelins pierced his wild heart, stilling +it forever. + +The thag had covered considerable ground from the +point at which I had leaped upon him. When, after +despatching him, I looked back for Dian, I could see +nothing of her. I called aloud, but receiving no reply, +set out at a brisk trot to where I had left her. I had +no difficulty in finding the self-same bush behind which +we had hidden, but Dian was not there. Again and +again I called, to be rewarded only by silence. Where +could she be? What could have become of her in +the brief interval since I had seen her standing just +behind me? + + + +CHAPTER XII + +KIDNAPED! + +I searched about the spot carefully. At last I was re- +warded by the discovery of her javelin, a few yards +from the bush that had concealed us from the charging +thag--her javelin and the indications of a struggle +revealed by the trampled vegetation and the overlap- +ping footprints of a woman and a man. Filled with +consternation and dismay, I followed these latter to +where they suddenly disappeared a hundred yards +from where the struggle had occurred. There I saw +the huge imprints of a lidi's feet. + +The story of the tragedy was all too plain. A Thurian +had either been following us, or had accidentally espied +Dian and taken a fancy to her. While Juag and I +had been engaged with the thag, he had abducted +her. I ran swiftly back to where Juag was working +over the kill. As I approached him I saw that some- +thing was wrong in this quarter as well, for the islander +was standing upon the carcass of the thag, his javelin +poised for a throw. + +When I had come nearer I saw the cause of his +belligerent attitude. Just beyond him stood two large +jaloks, or wolf-dogs, regarding him intently--a male +and a female. Their behavior was rather peculiar, for +they did not seem preparing to charge him. Rather, +they were contemplating him in an attitude of question- +ing. + +Juag heard me coming and turned toward me with +a grin. These fellows love excitement. I could see by +his expression that he was enjoying in anticipation the +battle that seemed imminent. But he never hurled his +javelin. A shout of warning from me stopped him, for +I had seen the remnants of a rope dangling from the +neck of the male jalok. + +Juag again turned toward me, but this time in sur- +prise. I was abreast him in a moment and, passing +him, walked straight toward the two beasts. As I did +so the female crouched with bared fangs. The male, +however, leaped forward to meet me, not in deadly +charge, but with every expression of delight and joy +which the poor animal could exhibit. + +It was Raja--the jalok whose life I had saved, and +whom I then had tamed! There was no doubt that he +was glad to see me. I now think that his seeming +desertion of me had been but due to a desire to search +out his ferocious mate and bring her, too, to live with +me. + +When Juag saw me fondling the great beast he was +filled with consternation, but I did not have much +time to spare to Raja while my mind was filled with +the grief of my new loss. I was glad to see the brute, +and I lost no time in taking him to Juag and making +him understand that Juag, too, was to be Raja's friend. +With the female the matter was more difficult, but Raja +helped us out by growling savagely at her whenever +she bared her fangs against us. + +I told Juag of the disappearance of Dian, and of +my suspicions as to the explanation of the catastrophe. +He wanted to start right out after her, but I suggested +that with Raja to help me it might be as well were +he to remain and skin the thag, remove its bladder, and +then return to where we had hidden the canoe on the +beach. And so it was arranged that he was to do this +and await me there for a reasonable time. I pointed +to a great lake upon the surface of the pendent world +above us, telling him that if after this lake had ap- +peared four times I had not returned to go either by +water or land to Sari and fetch Ghak with an army. +Then, calling Raja after me, I set out after Dian and +her abductor. First I took the wolf dog to the spot +where the man had fought with Dian. A few paces +behind us followed Raja's fierce mate. I pointed to +the ground where the evidences of the struggle were +plainest and where the scent must have been strong +to Raja's nostrils. + +Then I grasped the remnant of leash that hung about +his neck and urged him forward upon the trail. He +seemed to understand. With nose to ground he set out +upon his task. Dragging me after him, he trotted straight +out upon the Lidi Plains, turning his steps in the direc- +tion of the Thurian village. I could have guessed as +much! + +Behind us trailed the female. After a while she +closed upon us, until she ran quite close to me and +at Raja's side. It was not long before she seemed as +easy in my company as did her lord and master. + +We must have covered considerable distance at a +very rapid pace, for we had re-entered the great +shadow, when we saw a huge lidi ahead of us, moving +leisurely across the level plain. Upon its back were two +human figures. If I could have known that the jaloks +would not harm Dian I might have turned them loose +upon the lidi and its master; but I could not know, +and so dared take no chances. + +However, the matter was taken out of my hands +presently when Raja raised his head and caught sight +of his quarry. With a lunge that hurled me flat and +jerked the leash from my hand, he was gone with the +speed of the wind after the giant lidi and its riders. +At his side raced his shaggy mate, only a trifle smaller +than he and no whit less savage. + +They did not give tongue until the lidi itself dis- +covered them and broke into a lumbering, awkward, +but none the less rapid gallop. Then the two hound- +beasts commenced to bay, starting with a low, plaintive +note that rose, weird and hideous, to terminate in a +series of short, sharp yelps. I feared that it might be +the hunting-call of the pack; and if this were true, there +would be slight chance for either Dian or her abductor +--or myself, either, as far as that was concerned. So +I redoubled my efforts to keep pace with the hunt; +but I might as well have attempted to distance the +bird upon the wing; as I have often reminded you, +I am no runner. In that instance it was just as well +that I am not, for my very slowness of foot played +into my hands; while had I been fleeter, I might have +lost Dian that time forever. + +The lidi, with the hounds running close on either +side, had almost disappeared in the darkness that en- +veloped the surrounding landscape, when I noted that +it was bearing toward the right. This was accounted +for by the fact that Raja ran upon his left side, and +unlike his mate, kept leaping for the great beast's shoul- +der. The man on the lidi's back was prodding at the +hyaenodon with his long spear, but still Raja kept +springing up and snapping. + +The effect of this was to turn the lidi toward the +right, and the longer I watched the procedure the more +convinced I became that Raja and his mate were work- +ing together with some end in view, for the she-dog +merely galloped steadily at the lidi's right about op- +posite his rump. + +I had seen jaloks hunting in packs, and I recalled +now what for the time I had not thought of--the +several that ran ahead and turned the quarry back +toward the main body. This was precisely what Raja +and his mate were doing--they were turning the lidi +back toward me, or at least Raja was. Just why the +female was keeping out of it I did not understand, +unless it was that she was not entirely clear in her +own mind as to precisely what her mate was attempt- +ing. + +At any rate, I was sufficiently convinced to stop +where I was and await developments, for I could +readily realize two things. One was that I could never +overhaul them before the damage was done if they +should pull the lidi down now. The other thing was +that if they did not pull it down for a few minutes +it would have completed its circle and returned close +to where I stood. + +And this is just what happened. The lot of them +were almost, swallowed up in the twilight for a mo- +ment. Then they reappeared again, but this time far +to the right and circling back in my general direction. +I waited until I could get some clear idea of the right +spot to gain that I might intercept the lidi; but even +as I waited I saw the beast attempt to turn still more +to the right--a move that would have carried him +far to my left in a much more circumscribed circle +than the hyaenodons had mapped out for him. Then I +saw the female leap forward and head him; and when +he would have gone too far to the left, Raja sprang, +snapping at his shoulder and held him straight. + +Straight for me the two savage beasts were driving +their quarry! It was wonderful. + +It was something else, too, as I realized while the +monstrous beast neared me. It was like standing in +the middle of the tracks in front of an approaching +express-train. But I didn't dare waver; too much de- +pended upon my meeting that hurtling mass of terrified +flesh with a well-placed javelin. So I stood there, wait- +ing to be run down and crushed by those gigantic +feet, but determined to drive home my weapon in +the broad breast before I fell. + +The lidi was only about a hundred yards from me +when Raja gave a few barks in a tone that differed +materially from his hunting-cry. Instantly both he and +his mate leaped for the long neck of the ruminant. + +Neither missed. Swinging in mid-air, they hung te- +naciously, their weight dragging down the creature's +head and so retarding its speed that before it had +reached me it was almost stopped and devoting all +its energies to attempting to scrape off its attackers +with its forefeet. + +Dian had seen and recognized me, and was trying +to extricate herself from the grasp of her captor, who, +handicapped by his strong and agile prisoner, was un- +able to wield his lance effectively upon the two jaloks. +At the same time I was running swiftly toward them. + +When the man discovered me he released his hold +upon Dian and sprang to the ground, ready with his +lance to meet me. My javelin was no match for his +longer weapon, which was used more for stabbing than +as a missile. Should I miss him at my first cast, as was +quite probable, since he was prepared for me, I would +have to face his formidable lance with nothing more +than a stone knife. The outlook was scarcely entrancing. +Evidently I was soon to be absolutely at his mercy. + +Seeing my predicament, he ran toward me to get +rid of one antagonist before he had to deal with the +other two. He could not guess, of course, that the two +jaloks were hunting with me; but he doubtless thought +that after they had finished the lidi they would make +after the human prey--the beasts are notorious killers, +often slaying wantonly. + +But as the Thurian came Raja loosened his hold +upon the lidi and dashed for him, with the female +close after. When the man saw them he yelled to me +to help him, protesting that we should both be killed +if we did not fight together. But I only laughed at +him and ran toward Dian. + +Both the fierce beasts were upon the Thurian simul- +taneously--he must have died almost before his body +tumbled to the ground. Then the female wheeled to- +ward Dian. I was standing by her side as the thing +charged her, my javelin ready to receive her. + +But again Raja was too quick for me. I imagined he +thought she was making for me, for he couldn't have +known anything of my relations toward Dian. At any +rate he leaped full upon her back and dragged her +down. There ensued forthwith as terrible a battle as +one would wish to see if battles were gaged by volume +of noise and riotousness of action. I thought that both +the beasts would be torn to shreds. + +When finally the female ceased to struggle and rolled +over on her back, her forepaws limply folded, I was +sure that she was dead. Raja stood over her, growling, +his jaws close to her throat. Then I saw that neither +of them bore a scratch. The male had simply admin- +istered a severe drubbing to his mate. It was his way +of teaching her that I was sacred. + +After a moment he moved away and let her rise, +when she set about smoothing down her rumpled coat, +while he came stalking toward Dian and me. I had +an arm about Dian now. As Raja came close I caught +him by the neck and pulled him up to me. There +I stroked him and talked to him, bidding Dian do the +same, until I think he pretty well understood that if +I was his friend, so was Dian. + +For a long time he was inclined to be shy of her, +often baring his teeth at her approach, and it was a +much longer time before the female made friends with +us. But by careful kindness, by never eating without +sharing our meat with them, and by feeding them +from our hands, we finally won the confidence of both +animals. However, that was a long time after. + +With the two beasts trotting after us, we returned +to where we had left Juag. Here I had the dickens' +own time keeping the female from Juag's throat. Of +all the venomous, wicked, cruel-hearted beasts on two +worlds, I think a female hyaenodon takes the palm. + +But eventually she tolerated Juag as she had Dian +and me, and the five of us set out toward the coast, for +Juag had just completed his labors on the thag when +we arrived. We ate some of the meat before starting, +and gave the hounds some. All that we could we car- +ried upon our backs. + +On the way to the canoe we met with no mishaps. +Dian told me that the fellow who had stolen her had +come upon her from behind while the roaring of the +thag had drowned all other noises, and that the first +she had known he had disarmed her and thrown her +to the back of his lidi, which had been lying down +close by waiting for him. By the time the thag had +ceased bellowing the fellow had got well away upon +his swift mount. By holding one palm over her mouth +he had prevented her calling for help. + +"I thought," she concluded, "that I should have to +use the viper's tooth, after all." + +We reached the beach at last and unearthed the +canoe. Then we busied ourselves stepping a mast and +rigging a small sail--Juag and I, that is--while Dian +cut the thag meat into long strips for drying when we +should be out in the sunlight once more. + +At last all was done. We were ready to embark. I +had no difficulty in getting Raja aboard the dugout; +but Ranee--as we christened her after I had ex- +plained to Dian the meaning of Raja and its feminine +equivalent--positively refused for a time to follow her +mate aboard. In fact, we had to shove off without her. +After a moment, however, she plunged into the water +and swam after us. + +I let her come alongside, and then Juag and I pulled +her in, she snapping and snarling at us as we did so; +but, strange to relate, she didn't offer to attack us after +we had ensconced her safely in the bottom alongside +Raja. + +The canoe behaved much better under sail than I +had hoped--infinitely better than the battle-ship Sari +had--and we made good progress almost due west +across the gulf, upon the opposite side of which I +hoped to find the mouth of the river of which Juag +had told me. + +The islander was much interested and impressed by +the sail and its results. He had not been able to under- +stand exactly what I hoped to accomplish with it while +we were fitting up the boat; but when he saw the +clumsy dugout move steadily through the water with- +out paddles, he was as delighted as a child. We made +splendid headway on the trip, coming into sight of +land at last. + +Juag had been terror-stricken when he had learned +that I intended crossing the ocean, and when we passed +out of sight of land be was in a blue funk. He said that +he had never heard of such a thing before in his life, +and that always he had understood that those who +ventured far from land never returned; for how could +they find their way when they could see no land to +steer for? + +I tried to explain the compass to him; and though +he never really grasped the scientific explanation of it, +yet he did learn to steer by it quite as well as I. We +passed several islands on the journey--islands which +Juag told me were entirely unknown to his own island +folk. Indeed, our eyes may have been the first ever to +rest upon them. I should have liked to stop off and +explore them, but the business of empire would brook +no unnecessary delays. + +I asked Juag how Hooja expected to reach the mouth +of the river which we were in search of if he didn't +cross the gulf, and the islander explained that Hooja +would undoubtedly follow the coast around. For some +time we sailed up the coast searching for the river, +and at last we found it. So great was it that I thought +it must be a mighty gulf until the mass of driftwood +that came out upon the first ebb tide convinced me +that it was the mouth of a river. There were the +trunks of trees uprooted by the undermining of the +river banks, giant creepers, flowers, grasses, and now +and then the body of some land animal or bird. + +I was all excitement to commence our upward jour- +ney when there occurred that which I had never before +seen within Pellucidar--a really terrific wind-storm. It +blew down the river upon us with a ferocity and sud- +denness that took our breaths away, and before we +could get a chance to make the shore it became too +late. The best that we could do was to hold the scud- +ding craft before the wind and race along in a smother +of white spume. Juag was terrified. If Dian was, she +hid it; for was she not the daughter of a once great +chief, the sister of a king, and the mate of an emperor? + +Raja and Ranee were frightened. The former crawled +close to my side and buried his nose against me. Finally +even fierce Ranee was moved to seek sympathy from +a human being. She slunk to Dian, pressing close against +her and whimpering, while Dian stroked her shaggy +neck and talked to her as I talked to Raja. + +There was nothing for us to do but try to keep the +canoe right side up and straight before the wind. For +what seemed an eternity the tempest neither increased +nor abated. I judged that we must have blown a hun- +dred miles before the wind and straight out into an +unknown sea! + +As suddenly as the wind rose it died again, and +when it died it veered to blow at right angles to its +former course in a gentle breeze. I asked Juag then +what our course was, for he had had the compass last. +It had been on a leather thong about his neck. When +he felt for it, the expression that came into his eyes +told me as plainly as words what had happened-- +the compass was lost! The compass was lost! + +And we were out of sight of land without a single +celestial body to guide us! Even the pendent world +was not visible from our position! + +Our plight seemed hopeless to me, but I dared not +let Dian and Juag guess how utterly dismayed I was; +though, as I soon discovered, there was nothing to be +gained by trying to keep the worst from Juag--he knew +it quite as well as I. He had always known, from the +legends of his people, the dangers of the open sea +beyond the sight of land. The compass, since he had +learned its uses from me, had been all that he had to +buoy his hope of eventual salvation from the watery +deep. He had seen how it had guided me across the +water to the very coast that I desired to reach, and so +he had implicit confidence in it. Now that it was gone, +his confidence had departed, also. + +There seemed but one thing to do; that was to keep +on sailing straight before the wind--since we could +travel most rapidly along that course--until we sighted +land of some description. If it chanced to be the +mainland, well and good; if an island--well, we might +live upon an island. We certainly could not live long +in this little boat, with only a few strips of dried thag +and a few quarts of water left. + +Quite suddenly a thought occurred to me. I was +surprised that it had not come before as a solution +to our problem. I turned toward Juag. + +"You Pellucidarians are endowed with a wonderful +instinct," I reminded him, "an instinct that points the +way straight to your homes, no matter in what strange +land you may find yourself. Now all we have to do +is let Dian guide us toward Amoz, and we shall come +in a short time to the same coast whence we just were +blown." + +As I spoke I looked at them with a smile of re- +newed hope; but there was no answering smile in their +eyes. It was Dian who enlightened me. + +"We could do all this upon land," she said. "But upon +the water that power is denied us. I do not know why; +but I have always heard that this is true--that only +upon the water may a Pellucidarian be lost. This is, +I think, why we all fear the great ocean so--even +those who go upon its surface in canoes. Juag has +told us that they never go beyond the sight of land." + +We had lowered the sail after the blow while we +were discussing the best course to pursue. Our little +craft had been drifting idly, rising and falling with the +great waves that were now diminishing. Sometimes we +were upon the crest--again in the hollow. As Dian +ceased speaking she let her eyes range across the +limitless expanse of billowing waters. We rose to a +great height upon the crest of a mighty wave. As we +topped it Dian gave an exclamation and pointed astern. + +"Boats!" she cried. "Boats! Many, many boats!" + +Juag and I leaped to our feet; but our little craft +had now dropped to the trough, and we could see +nothing but walls of water close upon either hand. +We waited for the next wave to lift us, and when it did +we strained our eyes in the direction that Dian had +indicated. Sure enough, scarce half a mile away were +several boats, and scattered far and wide behind us +as far as we could see were many others! We could +not make them out in the distance or in the brief +glimpse that we caught of them before we were plunged +again into the next wave canon; but they were boats. + +And in them must be human beings like ourselves. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +RACING FOR LIFE + +At last the sea subsided, and we were able to get +a better view of the armada of small boats in our +wake. There must have been two hundred of them. +Juag said that he had never seen so many boats before +in all his life. Where had they come from? Juag was +first to hazard a guess. + +"Hooja," he said, "was building many boats to carry +his warriors to the great river and up it toward Sari. +He was building them with almost all his warriors and +many slaves upon the Island of Trees. No one else in +all the history of Pellucidar has ever built so many +boats as they told me Hooja was building. These must +be Hooja's boats." + +"And they were blown out to sea by the great storm +just as we were," suggested Dian. + +"There can be no better explanation of them," I +agreed. + +"What shall we do?" asked Juag. + +"Suppose we make sure that they are really Hooja's +people," suggested Dian. "It may be that they are not, +and that if we run away from them before we learn +definitely who they are, we shall be running away from +a chance to live and find the mainland. They may be +a people of whom we have never even heard, and if so +we can ask them to help us--if they know the way +to the mainland." + +"Which they will not,' interposed Juag. + +"Well," I said, "it can't make our predicament any +more trying to wait until we find out who they are. +They are heading for us now. Evidently they have +spied our sail, and guess that we do not belong to +their fleet." + +"They probably want to ask the way to the mainland +themselves," said Juag, who was nothing if not a pes- +simist. + +"If they want to catch us, they can do it if they +can paddle faster than we can sail," I said. "If we +let them come close enough to discover their identity, +and can then sail faster than they can paddle, we can +get away from them anyway, so we might as well +wait." + +And wait we did. + +The sea calmed rapidly, so that by the time the +foremost canoe had come within five hundred yards +of us we could see them all plainly. Every one was +headed for us. The dugouts, which were of unusual +length, were manned by twenty paddlers, ten to a side. +Besides the paddlers there were twenty-five or more +warriors in each boat. + +When the leader was a hundred yards from us Dian +called our attention to the fact that several of her +crew were Sagoths. That convinced us that the flotilla +was indeed Hooja's. I told Juag to hail them and get +what information he could, while I remained in the +bottom of our canoe as much out of sight as possible. +Dian lay down at full length in the bottom; I did not +want them to see and recognize her if they were in +truth Hooja's people. + +"Who are you?" shouted Juag, standing up in the +boat and making a megaphone of his palms. + +A figure arose in the bow of the leading canoe-- +a figure that I was sure I recognized even before he +spoke. + +"I am Hooja!" cried the man, in answer to Juag. + +For some reason he did not recognize his former +prisoner and slave--possibly because he had so many +of them. + +"I come from the Island of Trees," he continued. "A +hundred of my boats were lost in the great storm and +all their crews drowned. Where is the land? What are +you, and what strange thing is that which flutters from +the little tree in the front of your canoe?" + +He referred to our sail, flapping idly in the wind. + +"We, too, are lost," replied Juag. "We know not where +the land is. We are going back to look for it now." + +So saying he commenced to scull the canoe's nose +before the wind, while I made fast the primitive sheets +that held our crude sail. We thought it time to be +going. + +There wasn't much wind at the time, and the heavy, +lumbering dugout was slow in getting under way. I +thought it never would gain any momentum. And all +the while Hooja's canoe was drawing rapidly nearer, +propelled by the strong arms of his twenty paddlers. +Of course, their dugout was much larger than ours, +and, consequently, infinitely heavier and more cum- +bersome; nevertheless, it was coming along at quite +a clip, and ours was yet but barely moving. Dian and +I remained out of sight as much as possible, for the +two craft were now well within bow-shot of one an- +other, and I knew that Hooja had archers. + +Hooja called to Juag to stop when he saw that our +craft was moving. He was much interested in the sail, +and not a little awed, as I could tell by his shouted +remarks and questions. Raising my head, I saw him +plainly. He would have made an excellent target for +one of my guns, and I had never been sorrier that +I had lost them. + +We were now picking up speed a trifle, and he was +not gaining upon us so fast as at first. In consequence, +his requests that we stop suddenly changed to com- +mands as he became aware that we were trying to +escape him. + +"Come back!" he shouted. "Come back, or I'll fire!" + +I use the word fire because it more nearly translates +into English the Pellucidarian word trag, which covers +the launching of any deadly missile. + +But Juag only seized his paddle more tightly--the +paddle that answered the purpose of rudder, and com- +menced to assist the wind by vigorous strokes. Then +Hooja gave the command to some of his archers to +fire upon us. I couldn't lie hidden in the bottom of the +boat, leaving Juag alone exposed to the deadly shafts, +so I arose and, seizing another paddle, set to work to +help him. Dian joined me, though I did my best to +persuade her to remain sheltered; but being a woman, +she must have her own way. + +The instant that Hooja saw us he recognized us. The +whoop of triumph he raised indicated how certain he +was that we were about to fall into his hands. A shower +of arrows fell about us. Then Hooja caused his men +to cease firing--he wanted us alive. None of the mis- +siles struck us, for Hooja's archers were not nearly the +marksmen that are my Sarians and Amozites. + +We had now gained sufficient headway to hold our +own on about even terms with Hooja's paddlers. We +did not seem to be gaining, though; and neither did +they. How long this nerve-racking experience lasted +I cannot guess, though we had pretty nearly finished +our meager supply of provisions when the wind picked +up a bit and we commenced to draw away. + +Not once yet had we sighted land, nor could I +understand it, since so many of the seas I had seen +before were thickly dotted with islands. Our plight was +anything but pleasant, yet I think that Hooja and his +forces were even worse off than we, for they had no +food nor water at all. + +Far out behind us in a long line that curved upward +in the distance, to be lost in the haze, strung Hooja's +two hundred boats. But one would have been enough +to have taken us could it have come alongside. We +had drawn some fifty yards ahead of Hooja--there +had been times when we were scarce ten yards in +advance-and were feeling considerably safer from +capture. Hooja's men, working in relays, were com- +mencing to show the effects of the strain under which +they had been forced to work without food or water, +and I think their weakening aided us almost as much +as the slight freshening of the wind. + +Hooja must have commenced to realize that he was +going to lose us, for he again gave orders that we be +fired upon. Volley after volley of arrows struck about +us. The distance was so great by this time that most +of the arrows fell short, while those that reached us +were sufficiently spent to allow us to ward them off +with our paddles. However, it was a most exciting +ordeal. + +Hooja stood in the bow of his boat, alternately urging +his men to greater speed and shouting epithets at me. +But we continued to draw away from him. At last +the wind rose to a fair gale, and we simply raced away +from our pursuers as if they were standing still. Juag +was so tickled that he forgot all about his hunger and +thirst. I think that he had never been entirely recon- +ciled to the heathenish invention which I called a +sail, and that down in the bottom of his heart he +believed that the paddlers would eventually overhaul +us; but now he couldn't praise it enough. + +We had a strong gale for a considerable time, and +eventually dropped Hooja's fleet so far astern that we +could no longer discern them. And then--ah, I shall +never forget that moment--Dian sprang to her feet +with a cry of "Land!" + +Sure enough, dead ahead, a long, low coast stretched +across our bow. It was still a long way off, and we +couldn't make out whether it was island or mainland; +but at least it was land. If ever shipwrecked mariners +were grateful, we were then. Raja and Ranee were +commencing to suffer for lack of food, and I could +swear that the latter often cast hungry glances upon +us, though I am equally sure that no such hideous +thoughts ever entered the head of her mate. We +watched them both most closely, however. Once while +stroking Ranee I managed to get a rope around her +neck and make her fast to the side of the boat. Then +I felt a bit safer for Dian. It was pretty close quarters +in that little dugout for three human beings and two +practically wild, man-eating dogs; but we had to make +the best of it, since I would not listen to Juag's sug- +gestion that we kill and eat Raja and Ranee. + +We made good time to within a few miles of the +shore. Then the wind died suddenly out. We were all +of us keyed up to such a pitch of anticipation that the +blow was doubly hard to bear. And it was a blow, too, +since we could not tell in what quarter the wind might +rise again; but Juag and I set to work to paddle the +remaining distance. + +Almost immediately the wind rose again from pre- +cisely the opposite direction from which it had formerly +blown, so that it was mighty hard work making progress +against it. Next it veered again so that we had to turn +and run with it parallel to the coast to keep from +being swamped in the trough of the seas. + +And while we were suffering all these disappoint- +ments Hooja's fleet appeared in the distance! + +They evidently had gone far to the left of our course, +for they were now almost behind us as we ran parallel +to the coast; but we were not much afraid of being +overtaken in the wind that was blowing. The gale kept +on increasing, but it was fitful, swooping down upon +us in great gusts and then going almost calm for an +instant. It was after one of these momentary calms +that the catastrophe occurred. Our sail hung limp and +our momentum decreased when of a sudden a par- +ticularly vicious squall caught us. Before I could cut +the sheets the mast had snapped at the thwart in which +it was stepped. + +The worst had happened; Juag and I seized paddles +and kept the canoe with the wind; but that squall was +the parting shot of the gale, which died out immediately +after, leaving us free to make for the shore, which we +lost no time in attempting. But Hooja had drawn closer +in toward shore than we, so it looked as if he might +head us off before we could land. However, we did our +best to distance him, Dian taking a paddle with us. + +We were in a fair way to succeed when there ap- +peared, pouring from among the trees beyond the beach, +a horde of yelling, painted savages, brandishing all +sorts of devilish-looking primitive weapons. So menac- +ing was their attitude that we realized at once the +folly of attempting to land among them. + +Hooja was drawing closer to us. There was no wind. +We could not hope to outpaddle him. And with our +sail gone, no wind would help us, though, as if in +derision at our plight, a steady breeze was now blowing. +But we had no intention of sitting idle while our fate +overtook us, so we bent to our paddles and, keeping +parallel with the coast, did our best to pull away from +our pursuers. + +It was a grueling experience. We were weakened +by lack of food. We were suffering the pangs of thirst. +Capture and death were close at hand. Yet I think that +we gave a good account of ourselves in our final effort +to escape. Our boat was so much smaller and lighter +than any of Hooja's that the three of us forced it ahead +almost as rapidly as his larger craft could go under their +twenty paddles. + +As we raced along the coast for one of those seem- +ingly interminable periods that may draw hours into +eternities where the labor is soul-searing and there is +no way to measure time, I saw what I took for the +opening to a bay or the mouth of a great river a short +distance ahead of us. I wished that we might make +for it; but with the menace of Hooja close behind and +the screaming natives who raced along the shore paral- +lel to us, I dared not attempt it. + +We were not far from shore in that mad flight from +death. Even as I paddled I found opportunity to glance +occasionally toward the natives. They were white, but +hideously painted. From their gestures and weapons +I took them to be a most ferocious race. I was rather +glad that we had not succeeded in landing among +them. + +Hooja's fleet had been in much more compact forma- +tion when we sighted them this time than on the +occasion following the tempest. Now they were moving +rapidly in pursuit of us, all well within the radius +of a mile. Five of them were leading, all abreast, and +were scarce two hundred yards from us. When I glanced +over my shoulder I could see that the archers had +already fitted arrows to their bows in readiness to fire +upon us the moment that they should draw within +range. + +Hope was low in my breast. I could not see the +slightest chance of escaping them, for they were over- +hauling us rapidly now, since they were able to work +their paddles in relays, while we three were rapidly +wearying beneath the constant strain that had been +put upon us. + +It was then that Juag called my attention to the rift +in the shore-line which I had thought either a bay or +the mouth of a great river. There I saw moving slowly +out into the sea that which filled my soul with wonder. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +GORE AND DREAMS + +It was a two-masted felucca with lateen sails! The +craft was long and low. In it were more than fifty men, +twenty or thirty of whom were at oars with which the +craft was being propelled from the lee of the land. +I was dumbfounded. + +Could it be that the savage, painted natives I had +seen on shore had so perfected the art of navigation +that they were masters of such advanced building and +rigging as this craft proclaimed? It seemed impossible! +And as I looked I saw another of the same type swing +into view and follow its sister through the narrow strait +out into the ocean. + +Nor were these all. One after another, following +closely upon one another's heels, came fifty of the trim, +graceful vessels. They were cutting in between Hooja's +fleet and our little dugout, + +When they came a bit closer my eyes fairly popped +from my head at what I saw, for in the eye of the leading +felucca stood a man with a sea-glass leveled upon us. +Who could they be? Was there a civilization within +Pellucidar of such wondrous advancement as this? Were +there far-distant lands of which none of my people +had ever heard, where a race had so greatly outstripped +all other races of this inner world? + +The man with the glass had lowered it and was +shouting to us. I could not make out his words, but +presently I saw that he was pointing aloft. When I +looked I saw a pennant fluttering from the peak of +the forward lateen yard--a red, white, and blue pen- +nant, with a single great white star in a field of blue. + +Then I knew. My eyes went even wider than they +had before. It was the navy! It was the navy of the +empire of Pellucidar which I had instructed Perry to +build in my absence. It was MY navy! + +I dropped my paddle and stood up and shouted and +waved my hand. Juag and Dian looked at me as if +I had gone suddenly mad. When I could stop shouting +I told them, and they shared my joy and shouted with +me. + +But still Hooja was coming nearer, nor could the +leading felucca overhaul him before he would be along- +side or at least within bow-shot. + +Hooja must have been as much mystified as we were +as to the identity of the strange fleet; but when he +saw me waving to them he evidently guessed that they +were friendly to us, so he urged his men to redouble +their efforts to reach us before the felucca cut him off. + +He shouted word back to others of his fleet--word +that was passed back until it had reached them all-- +directing them to run alongside the strangers and board +them, for with his two hundred craft and his eight or +ten thousand warriors he evidently felt equal to over- +coming the fifty vessels of the enemy, which did not +seem to carry over three thousand men all told. + +His own personal energies he bent to reaching Dian +and me first, leaving the rest of the work to his other +boats. I thought that there could be little doubt that +he would be successful in so far as we were concerned, +and I feared for the revenge that he might take upon +us should the battle go against his force, as I was sure +it would; for I knew that Perry and his Mezops must +have brought with them all the arms and ammunition +that had been contained in the prospector. But I was +not prepared for what happened next. + +As Hooja's canoe reached a point some twenty yards +from us a great puff of smoke broke from the bow of +the leading felucca, followed almost simultaneously by +a terrific explosion, and a solid shot screamed close +over the heads of the men in Hooja's craft, raising +a great splash where it clove the water just beyond +them. + +Perry had perfected gunpowder and built cannon! +It was marvelous! Dian and Juag, as much surprised +as Hooja, turned wondering eyes toward me. Again +the cannon spoke. I suppose that by comparison with +the great guns of modern naval vessels of the outer +world it was a pitifully small and inadequate thing; +but here in Pellucidar, where it was the first of its kind, +it was about as awe-inspiring as anything you might +imagine. + +With the report an iron cannonball about five inches +in diameter struck Hooja's dugout just above the water- +line, tore a great splintering hole in its side, turned +it over, and dumped its occupants into the sea. + +The four dugouts that had been abreast of Hooja +had turned to intercept the leading felucca. Even +now, in the face of what must have been a withering +catastrophe to them, they kept bravely on toward the +strange and terrible craft. + +In them were fully two hundred men, while but +fifty lined the gunwale of the felucca to repel them. +The commander of the felucca, who proved to be Ja, +let them come quite close and then turned loose upon +them a volley of shots from small-arms. + +The cave men and Sagoths in the dugouts seemed +to wither before that blast of death like dry grass +before a prairie fire. Those who were not hit dropped +their bows and javelins and, seizing upon paddles, +attempted to escape. But the felucca pursued them +relentlessly, her crew firing at will. + +At last I heard Ja shouting to the survivors in the +dugouts--they were all quite close to us now--offer- +ing them their lives if they would surrender. Perry +was standing close behind Ja, and I knew that this +merciful action was prompted, perhaps commanded, +by the old man; for no Pellucidarian would have thought +of showing leniency to a defeated foe. + +As there was no alternative save death, the survivors +surrendered and a moment later were taken aboard +the Amoz, the name that I could now see printed in +large letters upon the felucca's bow, and which no +one in that whole world could read except Perry and I. + +When the prisoners were aboard, Ja brought the +felucca alongside our dugout. Many were the willing +hands that reached down to lift us to her decks. The +bronze faces of the Mezops were broad with smiles, +and Perry was fairly beside himself with joy. + +Dian went aboard first and then Juag, as I wished +to help Raja and Ranee aboard myself, well knowing +that it would fare ill with any Mezop who touched +them. We got them aboard at last, and a great com- +motion they caused among the crew, who had never +seen a wild beast thus handled by man before. + +Perry and Dian and I were so full of questions that +we fairly burst, but we had to contain ourselves for +a while, since the battle with the rest of Hooja's fleet +had scarce commenced. From the small forward decks +of the feluccas Perry's crude cannon were belching +smoke, flame, thunder, and death. The air trembled +to the roar of them. Hooja's horde, intrepid, savage +fighters that they were, were closing in to grapple +in a last death-struggle with the Mezops who manned +our vessels. + +The handling of our fleet by the red island warriors +of Ja's clan was far from perfect. I could see that Perry +had lost no time after the completion of the boats in +setting out upon this cruise. What little the captains +and crews had learned of handling feluccas they must +have learned principally since they embarked upon +this voyage, and while experience is an excellent +teacher and had done much for them, they still had +a great deal to learn. In maneuvering for position +they were continually fouling one another, and on +two occasions shots from our batteries came near to +striking our own ships. + +No sooner, however, was I aboard the flagship than +I attempted to rectify this trouble to some extent. By +passing commands by word of mouth from one ship +to another I managed to get the fifty feluccas into +some sort of line, with the flag-ship in the lead. In +this formation we commenced slowly to circle the +position of the enemy. The dugouts came for us right +along in an attempt to board us, but by keeping on +the move in one direction and circling, we managed +to avoid getting in each other's way, and were enabled +to fire our cannon and our small arms with less danger +to our own comrades. + +When I had a moment to look about me, I took in +the felucca on which I was. I am free to confess that +I marveled at the excellent construction and stanch +yet speedy lines of the little craft. That Perry had +chosen this type of vessel seemed rather remarkable, +for though I had warned him against turreted battle- +ships, armor, and like useless show, I had fully ex- +pected that when I beheld his navy I should find +considerable attempt at grim and terrible magnifi- +cence, for it was always Perry's idea to overawe these +ignorant cave men when we had to contend with +them in battle. But I had soon learned that while +one might easily astonish them with some new engine +of war, it was an utter impossibility to frighten them +into surrender. + +I learned later that Ja had gone carefully over the +plans of various craft with Perry. The old man had +explained in detail all that the text told him of them. +The two had measured out dimensions upon the ground, +that Ja might see the sizes of different boats. Perry +had built models, and Ja had had him read carefully +and explain all that they could find relative to the +handling of sailing vessels. The result of this was +that Ja was the one who had chosen the felucca. It +was well that Perry had had so excellent a balance +wheel, for he had been wild to build a huge frigate +of the Nelsonian era--he told me so himself. + +One thing that had inclined Ja particularly to the +felucca was the fact that it included oars in its equip- +ment. He realized the limitations of his people in the +matter of sails, and while they had never used oars, +the implement was so similar to a paddle that he +was sure they quickly could master the art--and they +did. As soon as one hull was completed Ja kept it +on the water constantly, first with one crew and then +with another, until two thousand red warriors had +learned to row. Then they stepped their masts and +a crew was told off for the first ship. + +While the others were building they learned to +handle theirs. As each succeeding boat was launched +its crew took it out and practiced with it under the +tutorage of those who had graduated from the first +ship, and so on until a full complement of men had +been trained for every boat. + +Well, to get back to the battle: The Hoojans kept +on coming at us, and as fast as they came we mowed +them down. It was little else than slaughter. Time +and time again I cried to them to surrender, promising +them their lives if they would do so. At last there +were but ten boatloads left. These turned in flight. +They thought they could paddle away from us-- +it was pitiful! I passed the word from boat to boat +to cease firing--not to kill another Hoojan unless they +fired on us. Then we set out after them. There was +a nice little breeze blowing and we bowled along after +our quarry as gracefully and as lightly as swans upon +a park lagoon. As we approached them I could see not +only wonder but admiration in their eyes. I hailed the +nearest dugout. + +"Throw down your arms and come aboard us," I +cried, "and you shall not be harmed. We will feed you +and return you to the mainland. Then you shall go +free upon your promise never to bear arms against the +Emperor of Pellucidar again!" + +I think it was the promise of food that interested +them most. They could scarce believe that we would +not kill them. But when I exhibited the prisoners we +already had taken, and showed them that they were +alive and unharmed, a great Sagoth in one of the boats +asked me what guarantee I could give that I would +keep my word. + +"None other than my word," I replied. "That I do +not break." + +The Pellucidarians themselves are rather punctilious +about this same matter, so the Sagoth could understand +that I might possibly be speaking the truth. But he +could not understand why we should not kill them +unless we meant to enslave them, which I had as +much as denied already when I had promised to set +them free. Ja couldn't exactly see the wisdom of my +plan, either. He thought that we ought to follow up +the ten remaining dugouts and sink them all; but I +insisted that we must free as many as possible of our +enemies upon the mainland. + +"You see," I explained, "these men will return at +once to Hooja's Island, to the Mahar cities from which +they come, or to the countries from which they were +stolen by the Mahars. They are men of two races +and of many countries. They will spread the story of +our victory far and wide, and while they are with us, +we will let them see and hear many other wonderful +things which they may carry back to their friends and +their chiefs. It's the finest chance for free publicity, +Perry," I added to the old man, "that you or I have +seen in many a day." + +Perry agreed with me. As a matter of fact, he would +have agreed to anything that would have restrained +us from killing the poor devils who fell into our hands. +He was a great fellow to invent gunpowder and fire- +arms and cannon; but when it came to using these +things to kill people, he was as tender-hearted as a +chicken. + +The Sagoth who had spoken was talking to other +Sagoths in his boat. Evidently they were holding a +council over the question of the wisdom of surrender- +ing. + +"What will become of you if you don't surrender to +us?" I asked. "If we do not open up our batteries on +you again and kill you all, you will simply drift about +the sea helplessly until you die of thirst and starvation. +You cannot return to the islands, for you have seen +as well as we that the natives there are very numerous +and warlike. They would kill you the moment you +landed." + +The upshot of it was that the boat of which the +Sagoth speaker was in charge surrendered. The Sagoths +threw down their weapons, and we took them aboard +the ship next in line behind the Amoz. First Ja had +to impress upon the captain and crew of the ship +that the prisoners were not to be abused or killed. +After that the remaining dugouts paddled up and sur- +rendered. We distributed them among the entire fleet +lest there be too many upon any one vessel. Thus +ended the first real naval engagement that the Pel- +lucidarian seas had ever witnessed--though Perry still +insists that the action in which the Sari took part was +a battle of the first magnitude. + + The battle over and the prisoners disposed of and +fed--and do not imagine that Dian, Juag, and I, as +well as the two hounds were not fed also--I turned +my attention to the fleet. We had the feluccas close +in about the flag-ship, and with all the ceremony of +a medieval potentate on parade I received the com- +manders of the forty-nine feluccas that accompanied +the flag-ship--Dian and I together--the empress and +the emperor of Pellucidar. + +It was a great occasion. The savage, bronze warriors +entered into the spirit of it, for as I learned later +dear old Perry had left no opportunity neglected for +impressing upon them that David was emperor of +Pellucidar, and that all that they were accomplishing +and all that he was accomplishing was due to the +power, and redounded to the glory of David. The old +man must have rubbed it in pretty strong, for those +fierce warriors nearly came to blows in their efforts +to be among the first of those to kneel before me +and kiss my hand. When it came to kissing Dian's I +think they enjoyed it more; I know I should have. + +A happy thought occurred to me as I stood upon the +little deck of the Amoz with the first of Perry's primi- +tive cannon behind me. When Ja kneeled at my feet, +and first to do me homage, I drew from its scabbard +at his side the sword of hammered iron that Perry +had taught him to fashion. Striking him lightly on the +shoulder I created him king of Anoroc. Each captain of the +forty-nine other feluccas I made a duke. I left +it to Perry to enlighten them as to the value of the +honors I had bestowed upon them. + +During these ceremonies Raja and Ranee had stood +beside Dian and me. Their bellies had been well filled, +but still they had difficulty in permitting so much +edible humanity to pass unchallenged. It was a good +education for them though, and never after did they +find it difficult to associate with the human race with- +out arousing their appetites. + +After the ceremonies were over we had a chance +to talk with Perry and Ja. The former told me that +Ghak, king of Sari, had sent my letter and map to him +by a runner, and that he and Ja had at once decided +to set out on the completion of the fleet to ascertain +the correctness of my theory that the Lural Az, in +which the Anoroc Islands lay, was in reality the same +ocean as that which lapped the shores of Thuria under +the name of Sojar Az, or Great Sea. + +Their destination had been the island retreat of +Hooja, and they had sent word to Ghak of their plans +that we might work in harmony with them. The tempest +that had blown us off the coast of the continent had +blown them far to the south also. Shortly before dis- +covering us they had come into a great group of islands, +from between the largest two of which they were sail- +ing when they saw Hooja's fleet pursuing our dugout. + +I asked Perry if he had any idea as to where we +were, or in what direction lay Hooja's island or the +continent. He replied by producing his map, on which +he had carefully marked the newly discovered islands +--there described as the Unfriendly Isles--which +showed Hooja's island northwest of us about two points +West. + +He then explained that with compass, chronometer, +log and reel, they had kept a fairly accurate record +of their course from the time they had set out. Four +of the feluccas were equipped with these instruments, +and all of the captains had been instructed in their +use. + +I was very greatly surprised at the ease with which +these savages had mastered the rather intricate detail +of this unusual work, but Perry assured me that they +were a wonderfully intelligent race, and had been quick +to grasp all that he had tried to teach them. + +Another thing that surprised me was the fact that +so much had been accomplished in so short a time, +for I could not believe that I had been gone from +Anoroc for a sufficient period to permit of building +a fleet of fifty feluccas and mining iron ore for the +cannon and balls, to say nothing of manufacturing these +guns and the crude muzzle-loading rifles with which +every Mezop was armed, as well as the gunpowder +and ammunition they had in such ample quantities. + +"Time!" exclaimed Perry. "Well, how long were you +gone from Anoroc before we picked you up in the +Sojar Az?" + +That was a puzzler, and I had to admit it. I didn't +know how much time had elapsed and neither did +Perry, for time is nonexistent in Pellucidar. + +"Then, you see, David," he continued, "I had almost +unbelievable resources at my disposal. The Mezops in- +habiting the Anoroc Islands, which stretch far out to sea +beyond the three principal isles with which you are +familiar, number well into the millions, and by far the +greater part of them are friendly to Ja. Men, women, +and children turned to and worked the moment Ja ex- +plained the nature of our enterprise. + +"And not only were they anxious to do all in their +power to hasten the day when the Mahars should be +overthrown, but--and this counted for most of all--they +are simply ravenous for greater knowledge and for better +ways of doing things. + +"The contents of the prospector set their imagina- +tions to working overtime, so that they craved to own, +themselves, the knowledge which had made it possible +for other men to create and build the things which you +brought back from the outer world. + +"And then," continued the old man, "the element of +time, or, rather, lack of time, operated to my advantage. +There being no nights, there was no laying off from +work--they labored incessantly stopping only to eat and, +on rare occasions, to sleep. Once we had discovered iron +ore we had enough mined in an incredibly short time to +build a thousand cannon. I had only to show them once +how a thing should be done, and they would fall to work +by thousands to do it. + +"Why, no sooner had we fashioned the first muzzle- +loader and they had seen it work successfully, than fully +three thousand Mezops fell to work to make rifles. Of +course there was much confusion and lost motion at first, +but eventually Ja got them in hand, detailing squads of +them under competent chiefs to certain work. + +"We now have a hundred expert gun-makers. On a +little isolated isle we have a great powder-factory. Near +the iron-mine, which is on the mainland, is a smelter, and +on the eastern shore of Anoroc, a well equipped ship- +yard. All these industries are guarded by forts in which +several cannon are mounted and where warriors are +always on guard. + +"You would be surprised now, David, at the aspect of +Anoroc. I am surprised myself; it seems always to me as +I compare it with the day that I first set foot upon it +from the deck of the Sari that only a miracle could have +worked the change that has taken place." + +"It is a miracle," I said; it is nothing short of a miracle +to transplant all the wondrous possibilities of the twen- +tieth century back to the Stone Age. It is a miracle to +think that only five hundred miles of earth separate two +epochs that are really ages and ages apart. + +"It is stupendous, Perry! But still more stupendous +is the power that you and I wield in this great world. +These people look upon us as little less than supermen. +We must show them that we are all of that. + +"We must give them the best that we have, Perry." + +"Yes," he agreed; "we must. I have been thinking a +great deal lately that some kind of shrapnel shell or ex- +plosive bomb would be a most splendid innovation in +their warfare. Then there are breech-loading rifles and +those with magazines that I must hasten to study out +and learn to reproduce as soon as we get settled down +again; and--" + +"Hold on, Perry!" I cried. "I didn't mean these sorts of +things at all. I said that we must give them the best we +have. What we have given them so far has been the +worst. We have given them war and the munitions of +war. In a single day we have made their wars infinitely +more terrible and bloody than in all their past ages +they have been able to make them with their crude, +primitive weapons. + +"In a period that could scarcely have exceeded two +outer earthly hours, our fleet practically annihilated the +largest armada of native canoes that the Pellucidarians +ever before had gathered together. We butchered some +eight thousand warriors with the twentieth-century gifts +we brought. Why, they wouldn't have killed that many +warriors in the entire duration of a dozen of their wars +with their own weapons! No, Perry; we've got to give +them something better than scientific methods of killing +one another." + +The old man looked at me in amazement. There was +reproach in his eyes, too. + +"Why, David!" he said sorrowfully. "I thought that you +would be pleased with what I had done. We planned +these things together, and I am sure that it was you +who suggested practically all of it. I have done only +what I thought you wished done and I have done it the +best that I know how." + +I laid my hand on the old man's shoulder. + +"Bless your heart, Perry!" I cried. "You've accom- +plished miracles. You have done precisely what I should +have done, only you've done it better. I'm not finding +fault; but I don't wish to lose sight myself, or let you +lose sight, of the greater work which must grow out of +this preliminary and necessary carnage. First we must +place the empire upon a secure footing, and we can do +so only by putting the fear of us in the hearts of our +enemies; but after that-- + +"Ah, Perry! That is the day I look forward to! When +you and I can build sewing-machines instead of battle- +ships, harvesters of crops instead of harvesters of men, +plow-shares and telephones, schools and colleges, +printing-presses and paper! When our merchant marine +shall ply the great Pellucidarian seas, and cargoes of +silks and typewriters and books shall forge their ways +where only hideous saurians have held sway since time +began!" + +"Amen!" said Perry. + +And Dian, who was standing at my side, pressed my +hand. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +CONQUEST AND PEACE + +The fleet sailed directly for Hooja's island, coming to +anchor at its north-eastern extremity before the flat- +topped hill that had been Hooja's stronghold. I sent one +of the prisoners ashore to demand an immediate sur- +render; but as he told me afterward they wouldn't be- +lieve all that he told them, so they congregated on the +cliff-top and shot futile arrows at us. + +In reply I had five of the feluccas cannonade them. +When they scampered away at the sound of the terrific +explosions, and at sight of the smoke and the iron balls +I landed a couple of hundred red warriors and led +them to the opposite end of the hill into the tunnel that +ran to its summit. Here we met a little resistance; but a +volley from the muzzle-loaders turned back those who +disputed our right of way, and presently we gained the +mesa. Here again we met resistance, but at last the +remnant of Hooja's horde surrendered. + +Juag was with me, and I lost no time in returning to +him and his tribe the hilltop that had been their an- +cestral home for ages until they were robbed of it by +Hooja. I created a kingdom of the island, making Juag +king there. Before we sailed I went to Gr-gr-gr, chief of +the beast-men, taking Juag with me. There the three of +us arranged a code of laws that would permit the brute- +folk and the human beings of the island to live in peace +and harmony. Gr-gr-gr sent his son with me back to +Sari, capital of my empire, that he might learn the +ways of the human beings. I have hopes of turning this +race into the greatest agriculturists of Pellucidar. + When I returned to the fleet I found that one of the +islanders of Juag's tribe, who had been absent when we +arrived, had just returned from the mainland with the +news that a great army was encamped in the Land of +Awful Shadow, and that they were threatening Thuria. +I lost no time in weighing anchors and setting out for the +continent, which we reached after a short and easy +voyage. + +From the deck of the Amoz I scanned the shore +through the glasses that Perry had brought with him. +When we were close enough for the glasses to be of +value I saw that there was indeed a vast concourse of +warriors entirely encircling the walled-village of Goork, +chief of the Thurians. As we approached smaller objects +became distinguishable. It was then that I discovered +numerous flags and pennants floating above the army +of the besiegers. + +I called Perry and passed the glasses to him. + +"Ghak of Sari," I said. + +Perry looked through the lenses of a moment, and then +turned to me with a smile. + +"The red, white, and blue of the empire," he said. "It +is indeed your majesty's army." + +It soon became apparent that we had been sighted +by those on shore, for a great multitude of warriors had +congregated along the beach watching us. We came to +anchor as close in as we dared, which with our light +feluccas was within easy speaking-distance of the shore. +Ghak was there and his eyes were mighty wide, too; +for, as he told us later, though he knew this must be +Perry's fleet it was so wonderful to him that he could +not believe the testimony of his own eyes even while +he was watching it approach. + +To give the proper effect to our meeting I com- +manded that each felucca fire twenty-one guns as a +salute to His Majesty Ghak, King of Sari. Some of the +gunners, in the exuberance of their enthusiasm, fired +solid shot; but fortunately they had sufficient good judg- +ment to train their pieces on the open sea, so no harm +was done. After this we landed--an arduous task since +each felucca carried but a single light dugout. + +I learned from Ghak that the Thurian chieftain, +Goork, had been inclined to haughtiness, and had told +Ghak, the Hairy One, that he knew nothing of me and +cared less; but I imagine that the sight of the fleet and +the sound of the guns brought him to his senses, for it +was not long before he sent a deputation to me, inviting +me to visit him in his village. Here he apologized for +the treatment he had accorded me, very gladly swore +allegiance to the empire, and received in return the title +of king. + +We remained in Thuria only long enough to arrange +the treaty with Goork, among the other details of which +was his promise to furnish the imperial army with a +thousand lidi, or Thurian beasts of burden, and drivers +for them. These were to accompany Ghak's army back +to Sari by land, while the fleet sailed to the mouth of the +great river from which Dian, Juag, and I had been +blown. + +The voyage was uneventful. We found the river +easily, and sailed up it for many miles through as rich +and wonderful a plain as I have ever seen. At the head +of navigation we disembarked, leaving a sufficient guard +for the feluccas, and marched the remaining distance to +Sari. + +Ghak's army, which was composed of warriors of all +the original tribes of the federation, showing how suc- +cessful had been his efforts to rehabilitate the empire, +marched into Sari some time after we arrived. With +them were the thousand lidi from Thuria. + +At a council of the kings it was decided that we should +at once commence the great war against the Mahars, +for these haughty reptiles presented the greatest obstacle +to human progress within Pellucidar. I laid out a plan +of campaign which met with the enthusiastic indorse- +ment of the kings. Pursuant to it, I at once despatched +fifty lidi to the fleet with orders to fetch fifty cannon to +Sari. I also ordered the fleet to proceed at once to +Anoroc, where they were to take aboard all the rifles +and ammunition that had been completed since their +departure, and with a full complement of men to sail +along the coast in an attempt to find a passage to the +inland sea near which lay the Mahars' buried city of +Phutra. + +Ja was sure that a large and navigable river connected +the sea of Phutra with the Lural Az, and that, barring +accident, the fleet would be before Phutra as soon as the +land forces were. + +At last the great army started upon its march. There +were warriors from every one of the federated kingdoms. +All were armed either with bow and arrows or muzzle- +loaders, for nearly the entire Mezop contingent had been +enlisted for this march, only sufficient having been left +aboard the feluccas to man them properly. I divided the +forces into divisions, regiments, battalions, companies, +and even to platoons and sections, appointing the full +complement of officers and noncommissioned officers. On +the long march I schooled them in their duties, and as +fast as one learned I sent him among the others as a +teacher. + +Each regiment was made up of about a thousand +bowmen, and to each was temporarily attached a com- +pany of Mezop musketeers and a battery of artillery-- +the latter, our naval guns, mounted upon the broad +backs of the mighty lidi. There was also one full regi- +ment of Mezop musketeers and a regiment of primitive +spearmen. The rest of the lidi that we brought with us +were used for baggage animals and to transport our +women and children, for we had brought them with us, +as it was our intention to march from one Mahar city to +another until we had subdued every Mahar nation that +menaced the safety of any kingdom of the empire. + +Before we reached the plain of Phutra we were dis- +covered by a company of Sagoths, who at first stood to +give battle; but upon seeing the vast numbers of our +army they turned and fled toward Phutra. The result +of this was that when we came in sight of the hundred +towers which mark the entrances to the buried city we +found a great army of Sagoths and Mahars lined up to +give us battle. + +At a thousand yards we halted, and, placing our +artillery upon a slight eminence at either flank, we com- +menced to drop solid shot among them. Ja, who was +chief artillery officer, was in command of this branch of +the service, and he did some excellent work, for his +Mezop gunners had become rather proficient by this +time. The Sagoths couldn't stand much of this sort of +warfare, so they charged us, yelling like fiends. We let +them come quite close, and then the musketeers who +formed the first line opened up on them. + +The slaughter was something frightful, but still the +remnants of them kept on coming until it was a matter +of hand-to-hand fighting. Here our spearmen were of +value, as were also the crude iron swords with which +most of the imperial warriors were armed. + +We lost heavily in the encounter after the Sagoths +reached us; but they were absolutely exterminated-- +not one remained even as a prisoner. The Mahars, seeing +how the battle was going, had hastened to the safety of +their buried city. When we had overcome their gorilla- +men we followed after them. + +But here we were doomed to defeat, at least tempo- +rarily; for no sooner had the first of our troops descended +into the subterranean avenues than many of them came +stumbling and fighting their way back to the surface, +half-choked by the fumes of some deadly gas that the +reptiles had liberated upon them. We lost a number of +men here. Then I sent for Perry, who had remained +discreetly in the rear, and had him construct a little +affair that I had had in my mind against the possibility +of our meeting with a check at the entrances to the +underground city. + +Under my direction he stuffed one of his cannon full +of powder, small bullets, and pieces of stone, almost to +the muzzle. Then he plugged the muzzle tight with a +cone-shaped block of wood, hammered and jammed in +as tight as it could be. Next he inserted a long fuse. A +dozen men rolled the cannon to the top of the stairs +leading down into the city, first removing it from its +carriage. One of them then lit the fuse and the whole +thing was given a shove down the stairway, while the +detachment turned and scampered to a safe distance. + +For what seemed a very long time nothing happened. +We had commenced to think that the fuse had been +put out while the piece was rolling down the stairway, +or that the Mahars had guessed its purpose and ex- +tinguished it themselves, when the ground about the +entrance rose suddenly into the air, to be followed by a +terrific explosion and a burst of smoke and flame that +shot high in company with dirt, stone, and fragments of +cannon. + +Perry had been working on two more of these giant +bombs as soon as the first was completed. Presently we +launched these into two of the other entrances. They +were all that were required, for almost immediately after +the third explosion a stream of Mahars broke from the +exits furthest from us, rose upon their wings, and soared +northward. A hundred men on lidi were despatched in +pursuit, each lidi carrying two riflemen in addition to its +driver. Guessing that the inland sea, which lay not far +north of Phutra, was their destination, I took a couple +of regiments and followed. + +A low ridge intervenes between the Phutra plain +where the city lies, and the inland sea where the Ma- +hars were wont to disport themselves in the cool waters. +Not until we had topped this ridge did we get a view of +the sea. + +Then we beheld a scene that I shall never forget so +long as I may live. + +Along the beach were lined up the troop of lidi, while +a hundred yards from shore the surface of the water was +black with the long snouts and cold, reptilian eyes of the +Mahars. Our savage Mezop riflemen, and the shorter, +squatter, white-skinned Thurian drivers, shading their +eyes with their hands, were gazing seaward beyond the +Mahars, whose eyes were fastened upon the same spot. +My heart leaped when I discovered that which was +chaining the attention of them all. Twenty graceful +feluccas were moving smoothly across the waters of the +sea toward the reptilian horde! + +The sight must have filled the Mahars with awe and +consternation, for never had they seen the like of these +craft before. For a time they seemed unable to do aught +but gaze at the approaching fleet; but when the Mezops +opened on them with their muskets the reptiles swam +rapidly in the direction of the feluccas, evidently think- +ing that these would prove the easier to overcome. The +commander of the fleet permitted them to approach +within a hundred yards. Then he opened on them with +all the cannon that could be brought to bear, as well as +with the small arms of the sailors. + +A great many of the reptiles were killed at the first +volley. They wavered for a moment, then dived; nor did +we see them again for a long time. + +But finally they rose far out beyond the fleet, and +when the feluccas came about and pursued them they +left the water and flew away toward the north. + +Following the fall of Phutra I visited Anoroc, where I +found the people busy in the shipyards and the factories +that Perry had established. I discovered something, too, +that he had not told me of--something that seemed +infinitely more promising than the powder-factory or the +arsenal. It was a young man poring over one of the books +I had brought back from the outer world! He was sitting +in the log cabin that Perry had had built to serve as his +sleeping quarters and office. So absorbed was he that he +did not notice our entrance. Perry saw the look of as- +tonishment in my eyes and smiled. + +"I started teaching him the alphabet when we first +reached the prospector, and were taking out its con- +tents," be explained. "He was much mystified by the +books and anxious to know of what use they were. When +I explained he asked me to teach him to read, and so I +worked with him whenever I could. He is very in- +telligent and learns quickly. Before I left he had made +great progress, and as soon as he is qualified he is going +to teach others to read. It was mighty hard work getting +started, though, for everything had to be translated into +Pellucidarian. + +"It will take a long time to solve this problem, but I +think that by teaching a number of them to read and +write English we shall then be able more quickly to give +them a written language of their own." + +And this was the nucleus about which we were to +build our great system of schools and colleges--this +almost naked red warrior, sitting in Perry's little cabin +upon the island of Anoroc, picking out words letter by +letter from a work on intensive farming. Now we have-- + +But I'll get to all that before I finish. + +While we were at Anoroc I accompanied Ja in an +expedition to South Island, the southernmost of the three +largest which form the Anoroc group--Perry had given +it its name--where we made peace with the tribe there +that had for long been hostile toward Ja. They were now +glad enough to make friends with him and come into the +federation. From there we sailed with sixty-five feluccas +for distant Luana, the main island of the group where +dwell the hereditary enemies of Anoroc. + + Twenty-five of the feluccas were of a new and larger +type than those with which Ja and Perry had sailed on +the occasion when they chanced to find and rescue +Dian and me. They were longer, carried much larger +sails, and were considerably swifter. Each carried four +guns instead of two, and these were so arranged that +one or more of them could be brought into action no +matter where the enemy lay. + +The Luana group lies just beyond the range of vision +from the mainland. The largest island of it alone is +visible from Anoroc; but when we neared it we found +that it comprised many beautiful islands, and that they +were thickly populated. The Luanians had not, of course, +been ignorant of all that had been going on in the +domains of their nearest and dearest enemies. They +knew of our feluccas and our guns, for several of their +riding-parties had had a taste of both. But their principal +chief, an old man, had never seen either. So, when he +sighted us, he put out to overwhelm us, bringing with +him a fleet of about a hundred large war-canoes, +loaded to capacity with javelin-armed warriors. It was +pitiful, and I told Ja as much. It seemed a shame to +massacre these poor fellows if there was any way out of +it. + +To my surprise Ja felt much as I did. He said he had +always hated to war with other Mezops when there were +so many alien races to fight against. I suggested that +we hail the chief and request a parley; but when Ja +did so the old fool thought that we were afraid, and +with loud cries of exultation urged his warriors upon +us. + +So we opened up on them, but at my suggestion +centered our fire upon the chief's canoe. The result was +that in about thirty seconds there was nothing left of +that war dugout but a handful of splinters, while its crew +--those who were not killed--were struggling in the +water, battling with the myriad terrible creatures that +had risen to devour them. + +We saved some of them, but the majority died just as +had Hooja and the crew of his canoe that time our +second shot capsized them. + +Again we called to the remaining warriors to enter +into a parley with us; but the chief's son was there and +he would not, now that he had seen his father killed. He +was all for revenge. So we had to open up on the brave +fellows with all our guns; but it didn't last long at that, +for there chanced to be wiser heads among the Luanians +than their chief or his son had possessed. Presently, an +old warrior who commanded one of the dugouts sur- +rendered. After that they came in one by one until +all had laid their weapons upon our decks. + +Then we called together upon the flag-ship all our +captains, to give the affair greater weight and dignity, +and all the principal men of Luana. We had conquered +them, and they expected either death or slavery; but +they deserved neither, and I told them so. It is always +my habit here in Pellucidar to impress upon these savage +people that mercy is as noble a quality as physical +bravery, and that next to the men who fight shoulder +to shoulder with one, we should honor the brave men +who fight against us, and if we are victorious, award +them both the mercy and honor that are their due. + +By adhering to this policy I have won to the federa- +tion many great and noble peoples, who under the +ancient traditions of the inner world would have been +massacred or enslaved after we had conquered them; +and thus I won the Luanians. I gave them their freedom, +and returned their weapons to them after they had +sworn loyalty to me and friendship and peace with Ja, +and I made the old fellow, who had had the good sense +to surrender, king of Luana, for both the old chief and +his only son had died in the battle. + +When I sailed away from Luana she was included +among the kingdoms of the empire, whose boundaries +were thus pushed eastward several hundred miles. + +We now returned to Anoroc and thence to the main- +land, where I again took up the campaign against the +Mahars, marching from one great buried city to another +until we had passed far north of Amoz into a country +where I had never been. At each city we were vic- +torious, killing or capturing the Sagoths and driving the +Mahars further away. + +I noticed that they always fled toward the north. The +Sagoth prisoners we usually found quite ready to trans- +fer their allegiance to us, for they are little more than +brutes, and when they found that we could fill their +stomachs and give them plenty of fighting, they were +nothing loath to march with us against the next Mahar +city and battle with men of their own race. + +Thus we proceeded, swinging in a great half-circle +north and west and south again until we had come back +to the edge of the Lidi Plains north of Thuria. Here +we overcame the Mahar city that had ravaged the Land +of Awful Shadow for so many ages. When we marched +on to Thuria, Goork and his people went mad with joy +at the tidings we brought them. + +During this long march of conquest we had passed +through seven countries, peopled by primitive human +tribes who had not yet heard of the federation, and +succeeded in joining them all to the empire. It was +noticeable that each of these peoples had a Mahar city +situated near by, which had drawn upon them for slaves +and human food for so many ages that not even in +legend had the population any folk-tale which did not in +some degree reflect an inherent terror of the reptilians. + +In each of these countries I left an officer and warriors +to train them in military discipline, and prepare them +to receive the arms that I intended furnishing them as +rapidly as Perry's arsenal could turn them out, for we +felt that it would be a long, long time before we should +see the last of the Mahars. That they had flown north +but temporarily until we should be gone with our great +army and terrifying guns I was positive, and equally sure +was I that they would presently return. + +The task of ridding Pellucidar of these hideous crea- +tures is one which in all probability will never be entirely +completed, for their great cities must abound by the +hundreds and thousands of the far-distant lands that no +subject of the empire has ever laid eyes upon. + +But within the present boundaries of my domain +there are now none left that I know of, for I am sure +we should have heard indirectly of any great Mahar +city that had escaped us, although of course the imperial +army has by no means covered the vast area which I +now rule. + +After leaving Thuria we returned to Sari, where the +seat of government is located. Here, upon a vast, fertile +plateau, overlooking the great gulf that runs into the +continent from the Lural Az, we are building the great +city of Sari. Here we are erecting mills and factories. +Here we are teaching men and women the rudiments of +agriculture. Here Perry has built the first printing-press, +and a dozen young Sarians are teaching their fellows to +read and write the language of Pellucidar. + +We have just laws and only a few of them. Our people +are happy because they are always working at some- +thing which they enjoy. There is no money, nor is any +money value placed upon any commodity. Perry and I +were as one in resolving that the root of all evil should +not be introduced into Pellucidar while we lived. + +A man may exchange that which he produces for +something which he desires that another has produced; +but he cannot dispose of the thing he thus acquires. In +other words, a commodity ceases to have pecuniary +value the instant that it passes out of the hands of its +producer. All excess reverts to government; and, as this +represents the production of the people as a government, +government may dispose of it to other peoples in ex- +change for that which they produce. Thus we are es- +tablishing a trade between kingdoms, the profits from +which go to the betterment of the people--to building +factories for the manufacture of agricultural implements, +and machinery for the various trades we are gradually +teaching the people. + +Already Anoroc and Luana are vying with one +another in the excellence of the ships they build. Each +has several large ship-yards. Anoroc makes gunpowder +and mines iron ore, and by means of their ships they +carry on a very lucrative trade with Thuria, Sari, and +Amoz. The Thurians breed lidi, which, having the +strength and intelligence of an elephant, make excellent +draft animals. + +Around Sari and Amoz the men are domesticating the +great striped antelope, the meat of which is most de- +licious. I am sure that it will not be long before they +will have them broken to harness and saddle. The horses +of Pellucidar are far too diminutive for such uses, some +species of them being little larger than fox-terriers. + +Dian and I live in a great palace overlooking the gulf. +There is no glass in our windows, for we have no win- +dows, the walls rising but a few feet above the floor-line, +the rest of the space being open to the ceilings; but we +have a roof to shade us from the perpetual noon-day +sun. Perry and I decided to set a style in architecture +that would not curse future generations with the white +plague, so we have plenty of ventilation. Those of the +people who prefer, still inhabit their caves, but many +are building houses similar to ours. + +At Greenwich we have located a town and an ob- +servatory--though there is nothing to observe but the +stationary sun directly overhead. Upon the edge of the +Land of Awful Shadow is another observatory, from +which the time is flashed by wireless to every corner of +the empire twenty-four times a day. In addition to the +wireless, we have a small telephone system in Sari. +Everything is yet in the early stages of development; +but with the science of the outer-world twentieth +century to draw upon we are making rapid progress, and +with all the faults and errors of the outer world to guide +us clear of dangers, I think that it will not be long before +Pellucidar will become as nearly a Utopia as one may +expect to find this side of heaven. + +Perry is away just now, laying out a railway-line from +Sari to Amoz. There are immense anthracite coal-fields +at the head of the gulf not far from Sari, and the railway +will tap these. Some of his students are working on a +locomotive now. It will be a strange sight to see an iron +horse puffing through the primeval jungles of the stone +age, while cave bears, saber-toothed tigers, mastodons +and the countless other terrible creatures of the past look +on from their tangled lairs in wide-eyed astonishment. + +We are very happy, Dian and I, and I would not return +to the outer world for all the riches of all its princes. I +am content here. Even without my imperial powers and +honors I should be content, for have I not that greatest of +all treasures, the love of a good woman--my wondrous +empress, Dian the Beautiful? + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs + + + + + +I have made the following changes to the text: +PAGE LINE ORIGINAL CHANGED TO + 27 33 sate state + 32 11 least last + 38 3 litte little + 39 20 dispress- distress- + 50 20 slides sides + 54 16 enmy enemy + 77 2 it if + 80 24 Sidi Lidi + 96 10 be bet + 101 33 the the and the + 107 15 Hoojas' Hooja's + 117 4 come came + 119 18 remarkably remarkable + 149 25 take takes + 151 6 Juang Juag + 173 29 contined continued + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs + |