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At the Earth's Core, by Burroughs [Pellucidar #1]
At the Earth's Core
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
PROLOGUE
IN THE FIRST PLACE PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT I do not
expect you to believe this story. Nor could you wonder
had you witnessed a recent experience of mine when,
in the armor of blissful and stupendous ignorance,
I gaily narrated the gist of it to a Fellow of the Royal
Geological Society on the occasion of my last trip to London.
You would surely have thought that I had been detected
in no less a heinous crime than the purloining of the Crown
Jewels from the Tower, or putting poison in the coffee
of His Majesty the King.
The erudite gentleman in whom I confided congealed
before I was half through!--it is all that saved him
from exploding--and my dreams of an Honorary Fellowship,
gold medals, and a niche in the Hall of Fame faded into
the thin, cold air of his arctic atmosphere.
But I believe the story, and so would you, and so would
the learned Fellow of the Royal Geological Society, had you
and he heard it from the lips of the man who told it to me.
Had you seen, as I did, the fire of truth in those gray eyes;
had you felt the ring of sincerity in that quiet voice;
had you realized the pathos of it all--you, too, would believe.
You would not have needed the final ocular proof that I
had--the weird rhamphorhynchus-like creature which he
had brought back with him from the inner world.
I came upon him quite suddenly, and no less unexpectedly,
upon the rim of the great Sahara Desert. He was standing
before a goat-skin tent amidst a clump of date palms within
a tiny oasis. Close by was an Arab douar of some eight
or ten tents.
I had come down from the north to hunt lion. My party
consisted of a dozen children of the desert--I was the only
"white" man. As we approached the little clump of verdure
I saw the man come from his tent and with hand-shaded eyes
peer intently at us. At sight of me he advanced rapidly
to meet us.
"A white man!" he cried. "May the good Lord be praised! I
have been watching you for hours, hoping against hope that
THIS time there would be a white man. Tell me the date.
What year is it?"
And when I had told him he staggered as though he had
been struck full in the face, so that he was compelled
to grasp my stirrup leather for support.
"It cannot be!" he cried after a moment. "It cannot be!
Tell me that you are mistaken, or that you are but joking."
"I am telling you the truth, my friend," I replied.
"Why should I deceive a stranger, or attempt to, in so
simple a matter as the date?"
For some time he stood in silence, with bowed head.
"Ten years!" he murmured, at last. "Ten years, and I
thought that at the most it could be scarce more than one!"
That night he told me his story--the story that I give you
here as nearly in his own words as I can recall them.
I
TOWARD THE ETERNAL FIRES
I WAS BORN IN CONNECTICUT ABOUT THIRTY YEARS ago.
My name is David Innes. My father was a wealthy mine owner.
When I was nineteen he died. All his property was to be
mine when I had attained my majority--provided that I
had devoted the two years intervening in close application
to the great business I was to inherit.
I did my best to fulfil the last wishes of my parent--
not because of the inheritance, but because I loved
and honored my father. For six months I toiled in the
mines and in the counting-rooms, for I wished to know
every minute detail of the business.
Then Perry interested me in his invention. He was an old
fellow who had devoted the better part of a long life
to the perfection of a mechanical subterranean prospector.
As relaxation he studied paleontology. I looked over
his plans, listened to his arguments, inspected his working
model--and then, convinced, I advanced the funds necessary
to construct a full-sized, practical prospector.
I shall not go into the details of its construction--it lies
out there in the desert now--about two miles from here.
Tomorrow you may care to ride out and see it. Roughly, it is
a steel cylinder a hundred feet long, and jointed so that
it may turn and twist through solid rock if need be.
At one end is a mighty revolving drill operated by an
engine which Perry said generated more power to the cubic
inch than any other engine did to the cubic foot.
I remember that he used to claim that that invention
alone would make us fabulously wealthy--we were going
to make the whole thing public after the successful issue
of our first secret trial--but Perry never returned
from that trial trip, and I only after ten years.
I recall as it were but yesterday the night of that momentous
occasion upon which we were to test the practicality
of that wondrous invention. It was near midnight when we
repaired to the lofty tower in which Perry had constructed
his "iron mole" as he was wont to call the thing.
The great nose rested upon the bare earth of the floor.
We passed through the doors into the outer jacket,
secured them, and then passing on into the cabin,
which contained the controlling mechanism within the
inner tube, switched on the electric lights.
Perry looked to his generator; to the great tanks that held
the life-giving chemicals with which he was to manufacture
fresh air to replace that which we consumed in breathing;
to his instruments for recording temperatures, speed, distance,
and for examining the materials through which we were to pass.
He tested the steering device, and overlooked the mighty
cogs which transmitted its marvelous velocity to the giant
drill at the nose of his strange craft.
Our seats, into which we strapped ourselves, were so arranged
upon transverse bars that we would be upright whether
the craft were ploughing her way downward into the bowels
of the earth, or running horizontally along some great
seam of coal, or rising vertically toward the surface again.
At length all was ready. Perry bowed his head in prayer.
For a moment we were silent, and then the old man's hand
grasped the starting lever. There was a frightful roaring
beneath us--the giant frame trembled and vibrated--there
was a rush of sound as the loose earth passed up through
the hollow space between the inner and outer jackets
to be deposited in our wake. We were off!
The noise was deafening. The sensation was frightful.
For a full minute neither of us could do aught but cling
with the proverbial desperation of the drowning man to
the handrails of our swinging seats. Then Perry glanced
at the thermometer.
"Gad!" he cried, "it cannot be possible--quick! What does
the distance meter read?"
That and the speedometer were both on my side of the cabin,
and as I turned to take a reading from the former I could
see Perry muttering.
"Ten degrees rise--it cannot be possible!" and then I
saw him tug frantically upon the steering wheel.
As I finally found the tiny needle in the dim light I
translated Perry's evident excitement, and my heart
sank within me. But when I spoke I hid the fear which
haunted me. "It will be seven hundred feet, Perry," I said,
"by the time you can turn her into the horizontal."
"You'd better lend me a hand then, my boy," he replied,
"for I cannot budge her out of the vertical alone.
God give that our combined strength may be equal to the task,
for else we are lost."
I wormed my way to the old man's side with never a doubt
but that the great wheel would yield on the instant
to the power of my young and vigorous muscles. Nor was
my belief mere vanity, for always had my physique been
the envy and despair of my fellows. And for that very
reason it had waxed even greater than nature had intended,
since my natural pride in my great strength had led me
to care for and develop my body and my muscles by every
means within my power. What with boxing, football,
and baseball, I had been in training since childhood.
And so it was with the utmost confidence that I laid hold
of the huge iron rim; but though I threw every ounce of my
strength into it, my best effort was as unavailing as Perry's
had been--the thing would not budge--the grim, insensate,
horrible thing that was holding us upon the straight
road to death!
At length I gave up the useless struggle, and without a word
returned to my seat. There was no need for words--at least
none that I could imagine, unless Perry desired to pray.
And I was quite sure that he would, for he never left an
opportunity neglected where he might sandwich in a prayer.
He prayed when he arose in the morning, he prayed
before he ate, he prayed when he had finished eating,
and before he went to bed at night he prayed again.
In between he often found excuses to pray even when the
provocation seemed far-fetched to my worldly eyes--now
that he was about to die I felt positive that I should
witness a perfect orgy of prayer--if one may allude
with such a simile to so solemn an act.
But to my astonishment I discovered that with death staring
him in the face Abner Perry was transformed into a new being.
From his lips there flowed--not prayer--but a clear and limpid
stream of undiluted profanity, and it was all directed
at that quietly stubborn piece of unyielding mechanism.
"I should think, Perry," I chided, "that a man of your
professed religiousness would rather be at his prayers
than cursing in the presence of imminent death."
"Death!" he cried. "Death is it that appalls you?
That is nothing by comparison with the loss the world
must suffer. Why, David within this iron cylinder we have
demonstrated possibilities that science has scarce dreamed.
We have harnessed a new principle, and with it animated
a piece of steel with the power of ten thousand men.
That two lives will be snuffed out is nothing to the world
calamity that entombs in the bowels of the earth the
discoveries that I have made and proved in the successful
construction of the thing that is now carrying us farther
and farther toward the eternal central fires."
I am frank to admit that for myself I was much more
concerned with our own immediate future than with any
problematic loss which the world might be about to suffer.
The world was at least ignorant of its bereavement,
while to me it was a real and terrible actuality.
"What can we do?" I asked, hiding my perturbation beneath
the mask of a low and level voice.
"We may stop here, and die of asphyxiation when our atmosphere
tanks are empty," replied Perry, "or we may continue
on with the slight hope that we may later sufficiently
deflect the prospector from the vertical to carry us along
the arc of a great circle which must eventually return us
to the surface. If we succeed in so doing before we reach
the higher internal temperature we may even yet survive.
There would seem to me to be about one chance in several
million that we shall succeed--otherwise we shall die
more quickly but no more surely than as though we sat
supinely waiting for the torture of a slow and horrible death."
I glanced at the thermometer. It registered 110 degrees.
While we were talking the mighty iron mole had bored its way
over a mile into the rock of the earth's crust.
"Let us continue on, then," I replied. "It should soon
be over at this rate. You never intimated that the speed
of this thing would be so high, Perry. Didn't you know it?"
"No," he answered. "I could not figure the speed exactly,
for I had no instrument for measuring the mighty power
of my generator. I reasoned, however, that we should make
about five hundred yards an hour."
"And we are making seven miles an hour," I concluded
for him, as I sat with my eyes upon the distance meter.
"How thick is the Earth's crust, Perry?" I asked.
"There are almost as many conjectures as to that as there
are geologists," was his answer. "One estimates it
thirty miles, because the internal heat, increasing at
the rate of about one degree to each sixty to seventy
feet depth, would be sufficient to fuse the most refractory
substances at that distance beneath the surface.
Another finds that the phenomena of precession and
nutation require that the earth, if not entirely solid,
must at least have a shell not less than eight hundred
to a thousand miles in thickness. So there you are.
You may take your choice."
"And if it should prove solid?" I asked.
"It will be all the same to us in the end, David,"
replied Perry. "At the best our fuel will suffice to carry
us but three or four days, while our atmosphere cannot
last to exceed three. Neither, then, is sufficient to bear
us in the safety through eight thousand miles of rock to
the antipodes."
"If the crust is of sufficient thickness we shall come
to a final stop between six and seven hundred miles
beneath the earth's surface; but during the last hundred
and fifty miles of our journey we shall be corpses.
Am I correct?" I asked.
"Quite correct, David. Are you frightened?"
"I do not know. It all has come so suddenly that I scarce
believe that either of us realizes the real terrors of
our position. I feel that I should be reduced to panic;
but yet I am not. I imagine that the shock has been
so great as to partially stun our sensibilities."
Again I turned to the thermometer. The mercury was
rising with less rapidity. It was now but 140 degrees,
although we had penetrated to a depth of nearly four miles.
I told Perry, and he smiled.
"We have shattered one theory at least," was his
only comment, and then he returned to his self-assumed
occupation of fluently cursing the steering wheel.
I once heard a pirate swear, but his best efforts would
have seemed like those of a tyro alongside of Perry's
masterful and scientific imprecations.
Once more I tried my hand at the wheel, but I might
as well have essayed to swing the earth itself. At my
suggestion Perry stopped the generator, and as we came
to rest I again threw all my strength into a supreme effort
to move the thing even a hair's breadth--but the results
were as barren as when we had been traveling at top speed.
I shook my head sadly, and motioned to the starting lever.
Perry pulled it toward him, and once again we were plunging
downward toward eternity at the rate of seven miles an hour.
I sat with my eyes glued to the thermometer and the
distance meter. The mercury was rising very slowly now,
though even at 145 degrees it was almost unbearable within
the narrow confines of our metal prison.
About noon, or twelve hours after our start upon this
unfortunate journey, we had bored to a depth of eighty-four
miles, at which point the mercury registered 153 degrees F.
Perry was becoming more hopeful, although upon what meager
food he sustained his optimism I could not conjecture.
From cursing he had turned to singing--I felt that the
strain had at last affected his mind. For several hours
we had not spoken except as he asked me for the readings
of the instruments from time to time, and I announced them.
My thoughts were filled with vain regrets. I recalled
numerous acts of my past life which I should have been glad
to have had a few more years to live down. There was the
affair in the Latin Commons at Andover when Calhoun and I
had put gunpowder in the stove--and nearly killed one of
the masters. And then--but what was the use, I was about
to die and atone for all these things and several more.
Already the heat was sufficient to give me a foretaste
of the hereafter. A few more degrees and I felt that I
should lose consciousness.
"What are the readings now, David?" Perry's voice broke
in upon my somber reflections.
"Ninety miles and 153 degrees," I replied.
"Gad, but we've knocked that thirty-mile-crust theory
into a cocked hat!" he cried gleefully.
"Precious lot of good it will do us," I growled back.
"But my boy," he continued, "doesn't that temperature reading
mean anything to you? Why it hasn't gone up in six miles.
Think of it, son!"
"Yes, I'm thinking of it," I answered; "but what difference
will it make when our air supply is exhausted whether
the temperature is 153 degrees or 153,000? We'll be just
as dead, and no one will know the difference, anyhow."
But I must admit that for some unaccountable reason
the stationary temperature did renew my waning hope.
What I hoped for I could not have explained, nor did
I try. The very fact, as Perry took pains to explain,
of the blasting of several very exact and learned
scientific hypotheses made it apparent that we could not
know what lay before us within the bowels of the earth,
and so we might continue to hope for the best, at least
until we were dead--when hope would no longer be essential
to our happiness. It was very good, and logical reasoning,
and so I embraced it.
At one hundred miles the temperature had DROPPED TO 152 1/2
DEGREES! When I announced it Perry reached over and hugged me.
From then on until noon of the second day, it continued
to drop until it became as uncomfortably cold as it had
been unbearably hot before. At the depth of two hundred
and forty miles our nostrils were assailed by almost
overpowering ammonia fumes, and the temperature had dropped
to TEN BELOW ZERO! We suffered nearly two hours of this
intense and bitter cold, until at about two hundred
and forty-five miles from the surface of the earth we
entered a stratum of solid ice, when the mercury quickly
rose to 32 degrees. During the next three hours we
passed through ten miles of ice, eventually emerging
into another series of ammonia-impregnated strata,
where the mercury again fell to ten degrees below zero.
Slowly it rose once more until we were convinced that at
last we were nearing the molten interior of the earth.
At four hundred miles the temperature had reached 153 degrees.
Feverishly I watched the thermometer. Slowly it rose.
Perry had ceased singing and was at last praying.
Our hopes had received such a deathblow that the gradually
increasing heat seemed to our distorted imaginations
much greater than it really was. For another hour I
saw that pitiless column of mercury rise and rise until
at four hundred and ten miles it stood at 153 degrees.
Now it was that we began to hang upon those readings
in almost breathless anxiety.
One hundred and fifty-three degrees had been the maximum
temperature above the ice stratum. Would it stop at this
point again, or would it continue its merciless climb? We
knew that there was no hope, and yet with the persistence
of life itself we continued to hope against practical certainty.
Already the air tanks were at low ebb--there was barely
enough of the precious gases to sustain us for another
twelve hours. But would we be alive to know or care?
It seemed incredible.
At four hundred and twenty miles I took another reading.
"Perry!" I shouted. "Perry, man! She's going down! She's
going down! She's 152 degrees again."
"Gad!" he cried. "What can it mean? Can the earth
be cold at the center?"
"I do not know, Perry," I answered; "but thank God,
if I am to die it shall not be by fire--that is all that I
have feared. I can face the thought of any death but that."
Down, down went the mercury until it stood as low as it
had seven miles from the surface of the earth, and then
of a sudden the realization broke upon us that death was
very near. Perry was the first to discover it. I saw him
fussing with the valves that regulate the air supply.
And at the same time I experienced difficulty in breathing.
My head felt dizzy--my limbs heavy.
I saw Perry crumple in his seat. He gave himself a shake
and sat erect again. Then he turned toward me.
"Good-bye, David," he said. "I guess this is the end,"
and then he smiled and closed his eyes.
"Good-bye, Perry, and good luck to you," I answered,
smiling back at him. But I fought off that awful lethargy.
I was very young--I did not want to die.
For an hour I battled against the cruelly enveloping
death that surrounded me upon all sides. At first I
found that by climbing high into the framework above me
I could find more of the precious life-giving elements,
and for a while these sustained me. It must have been
an hour after Perry had succumbed that I at last came
to the realization that I could no longer carry on this
unequal struggle against the inevitable.
With my last flickering ray of consciousness I turned
mechanically toward the distance meter. It stood at exactly
five hundred miles from the earth's surface--and then
of a sudden the huge thing that bore us came to a stop.
The rattle of hurtling rock through the hollow jacket ceased.
The wild racing of the giant drill betokened that it
was running loose in AIR--and then another truth flashed
upon me. The point of the prospector was ABOVE us.
Slowly it dawned on me that since passing through the ice
strata it had been above. We had turned in the ice
and sped upward toward the earth's crust. Thank God! We
were safe!
I put my nose to the intake pipe through which samples were
to have been taken during the passage of the prospector
through the earth, and my fondest hopes were realized--a
flood of fresh air was pouring into the iron cabin.
The reaction left me in a state of collapse, and I
lost consciousness.
II
A STRANGE WORLD
I WAS UNCONSCIOUS LITTLE MORE THAN AN INSTANT,
for as I lunged forward from the crossbeam to which I
had been clinging, and fell with a crash to the floor
of the cabin, the shock brought me to myself.
My first concern was with Perry. I was horrified at the thought
that upon the very threshold of salvation he might be dead.
Tearing open his shirt I placed my ear to his breast.
I could have cried with relief--his heart was beating
quite regularly.
At the water tank I wetted my handkerchief, slapping it
smartly across his forehead and face several times.
In a moment I was rewarded by the raising of his lids.
For a time he lay wide-eyed and quite uncomprehending.
Then his scattered wits slowly foregathered, and he sat
up sniffing the air with an expression of wonderment upon
his face.
"Why, David," he cried at last, "it's air, as sure as I live.
Why--why what does it mean? Where in the world are we?
What has happened?"
"It means that we're back at the surface all right, Perry," I
cried;
"but where, I don't know. I haven't opened her up yet.
Been too busy reviving you. Lord, man, but you had a close
squeak!"
"You say we're back at the surface, David? How can
that be? How long have I been unconscious?"
"Not long. We turned in the ice stratum.
Don't you recall the sudden whirling of our seats?
After that the drill was above you instead of below.
We didn't notice it at the time; but I recall it now."
"You mean to say that we turned back in the ice stratum,
David? That is not possible. The prospector cannot turn
unless its nose is deflected from the outside--by some
external force or resistance--the steering wheel within
would have moved in response. The steering wheel has
not budged, David, since we started. You know that."
I did know it; but here we were with our drill racing in
pure air, and copious volumes of it pouring into the cabin.
"We couldn't have turned in the ice stratum, Perry, I know
as well as you," I replied; "but the fact remains
that we did, for here we are this minute at the surface
of the earth again, and I am going out to see just where."
"Better wait till morning, David--it must be midnight now."
I glanced at the chronometer.
"Half after twelve. We have been out seventy-two hours,
so it must be midnight. Nevertheless I am going to have
a look at the blessed sky that I had given up all hope
of ever seeing again," and so saying I lifted the bars
from the inner door, and swung it open. There was quite
a quantity of loose material in the jacket, and this I
had to remove with a shovel to get at the opposite door
in the outer shell.
In a short time I had removed enough of the earth and rock
to the floor of the cabin to expose the door beyond.
Perry was directly behind me as I threw it open.
The upper half was above the surface of the ground.
With an expression of surprise I turned and looked at
Perry--it was broad daylight without!
"Something seems to have gone wrong either with our
calculations or the chronometer," I said. Perry shook
his head--there was a strange expression in his eyes.
"Let's have a look beyond that door, David," he cried.
Together we stepped out to stand in silent contemplation
of a landscape at once weird and beautiful. Before us
a low and level shore stretched down to a silent sea.
As far as the eye could reach the surface of the water
was dotted with countless tiny isles--some of towering,
barren, granitic rock--others resplendent in gorgeous
trappings of tropical vegetation, myriad starred with
the magnificent splendor of vivid blooms.
Behind us rose a dark and forbidding wood of giant
arborescent ferns intermingled with the commoner types
of a primeval tropical forest. Huge creepers depended
in great loops from tree to tree, dense under-brush
overgrew a tangled mass of fallen trunks and branches.
Upon the outer verge we could see the same splendid
coloring of countless blossoms that glorified the islands,
but within the dense shadows all seemed dark and gloomy
as the grave.
And upon all the noonday sun poured its torrid rays
out of a cloudless sky.
"Where on earth can we be?" I asked, turning to Perry.
For some moments the old man did not reply. He stood
with bowed head, buried in deep thought. But at last
he spoke.
"David," he said, "I am not so sure that we are ON earth."
"What do you mean Perry?" I cried. "Do you think that we
are dead, and this is heaven?" He smiled, and turning,
pointing to the nose of the prospector protruding from
the ground at our backs.
"But for that, David, I might believe that we were indeed
come to the country beyond the Styx. The prospector
renders that theory untenable--it, certainly, could never
have gone to heaven. However I am willing to concede
that we actually may be in another world from that
which we have always known. If we are not ON earth,
there is every reason to believe that we may be IN it."
"We may have quartered through the earth's crust and come
out upon some tropical island of the West Indies,"
I suggested. Again Perry shook his head.
"Let us wait and see, David," he replied, "and in the
meantime suppose we do a bit of exploring up and down
the coast--we may find a native who can enlighten us."
As we walked along the beach Perry gazed long and
earnestly across the water. Evidently he was wrestling
with a mighty problem.
"David," he said abruptly, "do you perceive anything
unusual about the horizon?"
As I looked I began to appreciate the reason for the
strangeness of the landscape that had haunted me from
the first with an illusive suggestion of the bizarre
and unnatural--THERE WAS NO HORIZON! As far as the eye
could reach out the sea continued and upon its bosom
floated tiny islands, those in the distance reduced
to mere specks; but ever beyond them was the sea,
until the impression became quite real that one was
LOOKING UP at the most distant point that the eyes
could fathom--the distance was lost in the distance.
That was all--there was no clear-cut horizontal
line marking the dip of the globe below the line of vision.
"A great light is commencing to break on me," continued Perry,
taking out his watch. "I believe that I have partially
solved the riddle. It is now two o'clock. When we emerged
from the prospector the sun was directly above us.
Where is it now?"
I glanced up to find the great orb still motionless
in the center of the heaven. And such a sun! I had
scarcely noticed it before. Fully thrice the size of
the sun I had known throughout my life, and apparently
so near that the sight of it carried the conviction
that one might almost reach up and touch it.
"My God, Perry, where are we?" I exclaimed. "This thing
is beginning to get on my nerves."
"I think that I may state quite positively, David,"
he commenced, "that we are--" but he got no further.
From behind us in the vicinity of the prospector there
came the most thunderous, awe-inspiring roar that ever
had fallen upon my ears. With one accord we turned
to discover the author of that fearsome noise.
Had I still retained the suspicion that we were on earth the
sight that met my eyes would quite entirely have banished it.
Emerging from the forest was a colossal beast which closely
resembled a bear. It was fully as large as the largest
elephant and with great forepaws armed with huge claws.
Its nose, or snout, depended nearly a foot below its
lower jaw, much after the manner of a rudimentary trunk.
The giant body was covered by a coat of thick, shaggy hair.
Roaring horribly it came toward us at a ponderous,
shuffling trot. I turned to Perry to suggest that it
might be wise to seek other surroundings--the idea had
evidently occurred to Perry previously, for he was already
a hundred paces away, and with each second his prodigious
bounds increased the distance. I had never guessed
what latent speed possibilities the old gentleman possessed.
I saw that he was headed toward a little point of the
forest which ran out toward the sea not far from where we
had been standing, and as the mighty creature, the sight
of which had galvanized him into such remarkable action,
was forging steadily toward me. I set off after Perry,
though at a somewhat more decorous pace. It was evident
that the massive beast pursuing us was not built for speed,
so all that I considered necessary was to gain the trees
sufficiently ahead of it to enable me to climb to the safety
of some great branch before it came up.
Notwithstanding our danger I could not help but laugh at
Perry's frantic capers as he essayed to gain the safety
of the lower branches of the trees he now had reached.
The stems were bare for a distance of some fifteen feet--at
least on those trees which Perry attempted to ascend,
for the suggestion of safety carried by the larger of
the forest giants had evidently attracted him to them.
A dozen times he scrambled up the trunks like a huge cat
only to fall back to the ground once more, and with each
failure he cast a horrified glance over his shoulder at
the oncoming brute, simultaneously emitting terror-stricken
shrieks that awoke the echoes of the grim forest.
At length he spied a dangling creeper about the bigness
of one's wrist, and when I reached the trees he was racing
madly up it, hand over hand. He had almost reached the lowest
branch of the tree from which the creeper depended when
the thing parted beneath his weight and he fell sprawling
at my feet.
The misfortune now was no longer amusing, for the beast
was already too close to us for comfort. Seizing Perry
by the shoulder I dragged him to his feet, and rushing
to a smaller tree--one that he could easily encircle with
his arms and legs--I boosted him as far up as I could,
and then left him to his fate, for a glance over my
shoulder revealed the awful beast almost upon me.
It was the great size of the thing alone that saved me.
Its enormous bulk rendered it too slow upon its feet
to cope with the agility of my young muscles, and so I was
enabled to dodge out of its way and run completely behind
it before its slow wits could direct it in pursuit.
The few seconds of grace that this gave me found me
safely lodged in the branches of a tree a few paces
from that in which Perry had at last found a haven.
Did I say safely lodged? At the time I thought we were
quite safe, and so did Perry. He was praying--raising
his voice in thanksgiving at our deliverance--and had
just completed a sort of paeon of gratitude that the thing
couldn't climb a tree when without warning it reared up
beneath him on its enormous tail and hind feet, and reached
those fearfully armed paws quite to the branch upon
which he crouched.
The accompanying roar was all but drowned in Perry's
scream of fright, and he came near tumbling headlong
into the gaping jaws beneath him, so precipitate was
his impetuous haste to vacate the dangerous limb.
It was with a deep sigh of relief that I saw him gain
a higher branch in safety.
And then the brute did that which froze us both anew
with horror. Grasping the tree's stem with his powerful
paws he dragged down with all the great weight of his
huge bulk and all the irresistible force of those
mighty muscles. Slowly, but surely, the stem began to
bend toward him. Inch by inch he worked his paws upward
as the tree leaned more and more from the perpendicular.
Perry clung chattering in a panic of terror. Higher and
higher into the bending and swaying tree he clambered.
More and more rapidly was the tree top inclining toward
the ground.
I saw now why the great brute was armed with such
enormous paws. The use that he was putting them to was
precisely that for which nature had intended them.
The sloth-like creature was herbivorous, and to feed that mighty
carcass entire trees must be stripped of their foliage.
The reason for its attacking us might easily be accounted
for on the supposition of an ugly disposition such as that
which the fierce and stupid rhinoceros of Africa possesses.
But these were later reflections. At the moment I was too
frantic with apprehension on Perry's behalf to consider aught
other than a means to save him from the death that loomed so
close.
Realizing that I could outdistance the clumsy brute in
the open, I dropped from my leafy sanctuary intent only on
distracting the thing's attention from Perry long enough
to enable the old man to gain the safety of a larger tree.
There were many close by which not even the terrific
strength of that titanic monster could bend.
As I touched the ground I snatched a broken limb from
the tangled mass that matted the jungle-like floor of the
forest and, leaping unnoticed behind the shaggy back,
dealt the brute a terrific blow. My plan worked like magic.
From the previous slowness of the beast I had been led
to look for no such marvelous agility as he now displayed.
Releasing his hold upon the tree he dropped on all fours
and at the same time swung his great, wicked tail with a
force that would have broken every bone in my body had it
struck me; but, fortunately, I had turned to flee at the
very instant that I felt my blow land upon the towering back.
As it started in pursuit of me I made the mistake of running
along the edge of the forest rather than making for the
open beach. In a moment I was knee-deep in rotting vegetation,
and the awful thing behind me was gaining rapidly
as I floundered and fell in my efforts to extricate myself.
A fallen log gave me an instant's advantage, for climbing
upon it I leaped to another a few paces farther on,
and in this way was able to keep clear of the mush that
carpeted the surrounding ground. But the zigzag course
that this necessitated was placing such a heavy handicap
upon me that my pursuer was steadily gaining upon me.
Suddenly from behind I heard a tumult of howls, and sharp,
piercing barks--much the sound that a pack of wolves
raises when in full cry. Involuntarily I glanced
backward to discover the origin of this new and menacing
note with the result that I missed my footing and went
sprawling once more upon my face in the deep muck.
My mammoth enemy was so close by this time that I knew I
must feel the weight of one of his terrible paws before I
could rise, but to my surprise the blow did not fall upon me.
The howling and snapping and barking of the new element
which had been infused into the melee now seemed centered
quite close behind me, and as I raised myself upon my hands
and glanced around I saw what it was that had distracted
the DYRYTH, as I afterward learned the thing is called,
from my trail.
It was surrounded by a pack of some hundred wolf-like
creatures--wild dogs they seemed--that rushed growling
and snapping in upon it from all sides, so that they sank
their white fangs into the slow brute and were away again
before it could reach them with its huge paws or sweeping tail.
But these were not all that my startled eyes perceived.
Chattering and gibbering through the lower branches of
the trees came a company of manlike creatures evidently
urging on the dog pack. They were to all appearances
strikingly similar in aspect to the Negro of Africa.
Their skins were very black, and their features much
like those of the more pronounced Negroid type except
that the head receded more rapidly above the eyes,
leaving little or no forehead. Their arms were rather
longer and their legs shorter in proportion to the torso
than in man, and later I noticed that their great toes
protruded at right angles from their feet--because of their
arboreal habits, I presume. Behind them trailed long,
slender tails which they used in climbing quite as much as
they did either their hands or feet.
I had stumbled to my feet the moment that I discovered
that the wolf-dogs were holding the dyryth at bay.
At sight of me several of the savage creatures left off
worrying the great brute to come slinking with bared fangs
toward me, and as I turned to run toward the trees again
to seek safety among the lower branches, I saw a number
of the man-apes leaping and chattering in the foliage
of the nearest tree.
Between them and the beasts behind me there was little choice,
but at least there was a doubt as to the reception
these grotesque parodies on humanity would accord me,
while there was none as to the fate which awaited me
beneath the grinning fangs of my fierce pursuers.
And so I raced on toward the trees intending to pass
beneath that which held the man-things and take refuge
in another farther on; but the wolf-dogs were very close
behind me--so close that I had despaired of escaping them,
when one of the creatures in the tree above swung
down headforemost, his tail looped about a great limb,
and grasping me beneath my armpits swung me in safety up
among his fellows.
There they fell to examining me with the utmost excitement
and curiosity. They picked at my clothing, my hair,
and my flesh. They turned me about to see if I had a tail,
and when they discovered that I was not so equipped they
fell into roars of laughter. Their teeth were very large
and white and even, except for the upper canines which were
a trifle longer than the others--protruding just a bit
when the mouth was closed.
When they had examined me for a few moments one of them
discovered that my clothing was not a part of me, with the
result that garment by garment they tore it from me amidst
peals of the wildest laughter. Apelike, they essayed
to don the apparel themselves, but their ingenuity
was not sufficient to the task and so they gave it up.
In the meantime I had been straining my eyes to catch
a glimpse of Perry, but nowhere about could I see him,
although the clump of trees in which he had first taken
refuge was in full view. I was much exercised by fear
that something had befallen him, and though I called his
name aloud several times there was no response.
Tired at last of playing with my clothing the creatures
threw it to the ground, and catching me, one on either side,
by an arm, started off at a most terrifying pace through
the tree tops. Never have I experienced such a journey
before or since--even now I oftentimes awake from a deep
sleep haunted by the horrid remembrance of that awful experience.
From tree to tree the agile creatures sprang like flying
squirrels, while the cold sweat stood upon my brow as I
glimpsed the depths beneath, into which a single misstep
on the part of either of my bearers would hurl me.
As they bore me along, my mind was occupied with a thousand
bewildering thoughts. What had become of Perry? Would
I ever see him again? What were the intentions of these
half-human things into whose hands I had fallen? Were they
inhabitants of the same world into which I had been born?
No! It could not be. But yet where else? I had not left
that earth--of that I was sure. Still neither could I
reconcile the things which I had seen to a belief that
I was still in the world of my birth. With a sigh I gave it up.
III
A CHANGE OF MASTERS
WE MUST HAVE TRAVELED SEVERAL MILES THROUGH the dark
and dismal wood when we came suddenly upon a dense
village built high among the branches of the trees.
As we approached it my escort broke into wild shouting
which was immediately answered from within, and a moment
later a swarm of creatures of the same strange race
as those who had captured me poured out to meet us.
Again I was the center of a wildly chattering horde.
I was pulled this way and that. Pinched, pounded,
and thumped until I was black and blue, yet I do not
think that their treatment was dictated by either cruelty
or malice--I was a curiosity, a freak, a new plaything,
and their childish minds required the added evidence of all
their senses to back up the testimony of their eyes.
Presently they dragged me within the village,
which consisted of several hundred rude shelters
of boughs and leaves supported upon the branches of the trees.
Between the huts, which sometimes formed crooked streets,
were dead branches and the trunks of small trees which connected
the huts upon one tree to those within adjoining trees;
the whole network of huts and pathways forming an almost
solid flooring a good fifty feet above the ground.
I wondered why these agile creatures required connecting
bridges between the trees, but later when I saw the motley
aggregation of half-savage beasts which they kept within
their village I realized the necessity for the pathways.
There were a number of the same vicious wolf-dogs
which we had left worrying the dyryth, and many goatlike
animals whose distended udders explained the reasons
for their presence.
My guard halted before one of the huts into which I was pushed;
then two of the creatures squatted down before the entrance--to
prevent my escape, doubtless. Though where I should have
escaped to I certainly had not the remotest conception.
I had no more than entered the dark shadows of the interior
than there fell upon my ears the tones of a familiar voice,
in prayer.
"Perry!" I cried. "Dear old Perry! Thank the Lord you
are safe."
"David! Can it be possible that you escaped?" And the old
man stumbled toward me and threw his arms about me.
He had seen me fall before the dyryth, and then he had been
seized by a number of the ape-creatures and borne through
the tree tops to their village. His captors had been
as inquisitive as to his strange clothing as had mine,
with the same result. As we looked at each other we
could not help but laugh.
"With a tail, David," remarked Perry, "you would make
a very handsome ape."
"Maybe we can borrow a couple," I rejoined. "They seem
to be quite the thing this season. I wonder what the
creatures intend doing with us, Perry. They don't seem
really savage. What do you suppose they can be? You
were about to tell me where we are when that great hairy
frigate bore down upon us--have you really any idea at all?"
"Yes, David," he replied, "I know precisely where we are.
We have made a magnificent discovery, my boy! We have
proved that the earth is hollow. We have passed entirely
through its crust to the inner world."
"Perry, you are mad!"
"Not at all, David. For two hundred and fifty miles our
prospector bore us through the crust beneath our outer world.
At that point it reached the center of gravity of the
five-hundred-mile-thick crust. Up to that point we had been
descending--direction is, of course, merely relative.
Then at the moment that our seats revolved--the thing
that made you believe that we had turned about and were
speeding upward--we passed the center of gravity and,
though we did not alter the direction of our progress,
yet we were in reality moving upward--toward the surface
of the inner world. Does not the strange fauna and flora
which we have seen convince you that you are not in the
world of your birth? And the horizon--could it present
the strange aspects which we both noted unless we were
indeed standing upon the inside surface of a sphere?"
"But the sun, Perry!" I urged. "How in the world can
the sun shine through five hundred miles of solid crust?"
"It is not the sun of the outer world that we see here.
It is another sun--an entirely different sun--that
casts its eternal noonday effulgence upon the face
of the inner world. Look at it now, David--if you can
see it from the doorway of this hut--and you will see
that it is still in the exact center of the heavens.
We have been here for many hours--yet it is still noon.
"And withal it is very simple, David. The earth was once
a nebulous mass. It cooled, and as it cooled it shrank.
At length a thin crust of solid matter formed upon
its outer surface--a sort of shell; but within it was
partially molten matter and highly expanded gases.
As it continued to cool, what happened? Centrifugal
force hurled the particles of the nebulous center toward
the crust as rapidly as they approached a solid state.
You have seen the same principle practically applied
in the modern cream separator. Presently there was only
a small super-heated core of gaseous matter remaining
within a huge vacant interior left by the contraction
of the cooling gases. The equal attraction of the solid
crust from all directions maintained this luminous core
in the exact center of the hollow globe. What remains
of it is the sun you saw today--a relatively tiny thing
at the exact center of the earth. Equally to every part
of this inner world it diffuses its perpetual noonday light
and torrid heat.
"This inner world must have cooled sufficiently to
support animal life long ages after life appeared upon
the outer crust, but that the same agencies were at work
here is evident from the similar forms of both animal
and vegetable creation which we have already seen.
Take the great beast which attacked us, for example.
Unquestionably a counterpart of the Megatherium of the
post-Pliocene period of the outer crust, whose fossilized
skeleton has been found in South America."
"But the grotesque inhabitants of this forest?" I urged.
"Surely they have no counterpart in the earth's history."
"Who can tell?" he rejoined. "They may constitute the
link between ape and man, all traces of which have been
swallowed by the countless convulsions which have racked
the outer crust, or they may be merely the result of evolution
along slightly different lines--either is quite possible."
Further speculation was interrupted by the appearance
of several of our captors before the entrance of the hut.
Two of them entered and dragged us forth. The perilous
pathways and the surrounding trees were filled with
the black ape-men, their females, and their young.
There was not an ornament, a weapon, or a garment among
the lot.
"Quite low in the scale of creation," commented Perry.
"Quite high enough to play the deuce with us, though,"
I replied. "Now what do you suppose they intend doing
with us?"
We were not long in learning. As on the occasion of our
trip to the village we were seized by a couple of the
powerful creatures and whirled away through the tree tops,
while about us and in our wake raced a chattering,
jabbering, grinning horde of sleek, black ape-things.
Twice my bearers missed their footing, and my heart ceased
beating as we plunged toward instant death among the tangled
deadwood beneath. But on both occasions those lithe,
powerful tails reached out and found sustaining branches,
nor did either of the creatures loosen their grasp upon me.
In fact, it seemed that the incidents were of no greater
moment to them than would be the stubbing of one's toe
at a street crossing in the outer world--they but laughed
uproariously and sped on with me.
For some time they continued through the forest--how long
I could not guess for I was learning, what was later
borne very forcefully to my mind, that time ceases to be
a factor the moment means for measuring it cease to exist.
Our watches were gone, and we were living beneath a
stationary sun. Already I was puzzled to compute the period
of time which had elapsed since we broke through the crust
of the inner world. It might be hours, or it might be
days--who in the world could tell where it was always
noon! By the sun, no time had elapsed--but my judgment
told me that we must have been several hours in this
strange world.
Presently the forest terminated, and we came out upon
a level plain. A short distance before us rose a few low,
rocky hills. Toward these our captors urged us, and after
a short time led us through a narrow pass into a tiny,
circular valley. Here they got down to work, and we
were soon convinced that if we were not to die to make
a Roman holiday, we were to die for some other purpose.
The attitude of our captors altered immediately as they
entered the natural arena within the rocky hills.
Their laughter ceased. Grim ferocity marked their bestial
faces--bared fangs menaced us.
We were placed in the center of the amphitheater--the
thousand creatures forming a great ring about us.
Then a wolf-dog was brought--hyaenadon Perry called it--and
turned loose with us inside the circle. The thing's
body was as large as that of a full-grown mastiff,
its legs were short and powerful, and its jaws broad
and strong. Dark, shaggy hair covered its back and sides,
while its breast and belly were quite white. As it slunk
toward us it presented a most formidable aspect with its
upcurled lips baring its mighty fangs.
Perry was on his knees, praying. I stooped and picked
up a small stone. At my movement the beast veered off
a bit and commenced circling us. Evidently it had been
a target for stones before. The ape-things were dancing
up and down urging the brute on with savage cries,
until at last, seeing that I did not throw, he charged us.
At Andover, and later at Yale, I had pitched on winning
ball teams. My speed and control must both have been
above the ordinary, for I made such a record during
my senior year at college that overtures were made
to me in behalf of one of the great major-league teams;
but in the tightest pitch that ever had confronted me
in the past I had never been in such need for control
as now.
As I wound up for the delivery, I held my nerves and muscles
under absolute command, though the grinning jaws were
hurtling toward me at terrific speed. And then I let go,
with every ounce of my weight and muscle and science in back
of that throw. The stone caught the hyaenodon full upon
the end of the nose, and sent him bowling over upon his back.
At the same instant a chorus of shrieks and howls arose
from the circle of spectators, so that for a moment
I thought that the upsetting of their champion was
the cause; but in this I soon saw that I was mistaken.
As I looked, the ape-things broke in all directions
toward the surrounding hills, and then I distinguished
the real cause of their perturbation. Behind them,
streaming through the pass which leads into the valley,
came a swarm of hairy men--gorilla-like creatures armed
with spears and hatchets, and bearing long, oval shields.
Like demons they set upon the ape-things, and before
them the hyaenodon, which had now regained its senses
and its feet, fled howling with fright. Past us swept
the pursued and the pursuers, nor did the hairy ones accord
us more than a passing glance until the arena had been
emptied of its former occupants. Then they returned to us,
and one who seemed to have authority among them directed
that we be brought with them.
When we had passed out of the amphitheater onto the
great plain we saw a caravan of men and women--human
beings like ourselves--and for the first time hope
and relief filled my heart, until I could have cried
out in the exuberance of my happiness. It is true
that they were a half-naked, wild-appearing aggregation;
but they at least were fashioned along the same lines
as ourselves--there was nothing grotesque or horrible about
them as about the other creatures in this strange,
weird world.
But as we came closer, our hearts sank once more, for we
discovered that the poor wretches were chained neck to neck
in a long line, and that the gorilla-men were their guards.
With little ceremony Perry and I were chained at the end
of the line, and without further ado the interrupted
march was resumed.
Up to this time the excitement had kept us both up;
but now the tiresome monotony of the long march
across the sun-baked plain brought on all the agonies
consequent to a long-denied sleep. On and on we stumbled
beneath that hateful noonday sun. If we fell we were
prodded with a sharp point. Our companions in chains
did not stumble. They strode along proudly erect.
Occasionally they would exchange words with one another
in a monosyllabic language. They were a noble-appearing
race with well-formed heads and perfect physiques.
The men were heavily bearded, tall and muscular; the women,
smaller and more gracefully molded, with great masses
of raven hair caught into loose knots upon their heads.
The features of both sexes were well proportioned--there
was not a face among them that would have been called
even plain if judged by earthly standards. They wore
no ornaments; but this I later learned was due to the
fact that their captors had stripped them of everything
of value. As garmenture the women possessed a single
robe of some light-colored, spotted hide, rather similar
in appearance to a leopard's skin. This they wore either
supported entirely about the waist by a leathern thong,
so that it hung partially below the knee on one side,
or possibly looped gracefully across one shoulder.
Their feet were shod with skin sandals. The men wore
loin cloths of the hide of some shaggy beast, long ends
of which depended before and behind nearly to the ground.
In some instances these ends were finished with the
strong talons of the beast from which the hides had
been taken.
Our guards, whom I already have described as gorilla-like men,
were rather lighter in build than a gorilla, but even so
they were indeed mighty creatures. Their arms and legs
were proportioned more in conformity with human standards,
but their entire bodies were covered with shaggy, brown hair,
and their faces were quite as brutal as those of the few stuffed
specimens of the gorilla which I had seen in the museums at home.
Their only redeeming feature lay in the development
of the head above and back of the ears. In this
respect they were not one whit less human than we.
They were clothed in a sort of tunic of light cloth which
reached to the knees. Beneath this they wore only a loin
cloth of the same material, while their feet were shod
with thick hide of some mammoth creature of this inner world.
Their arms and necks were encircled by many ornaments of
metal--silver predominating--and on their tunics were sewn
the heads of tiny reptiles in odd and rather artistic designs.
They talked among themselves as they marched along on
either side of us, but in a language which I perceived
differed from that employed by our fellow prisoners.
When they addressed the latter they used what appeared
to be a third language, and which I later learned is
a mongrel tongue rather analogous to the Pidgin-English
of the Chinese coolie.
How far we marched I have no conception, nor has Perry.
Both of us were asleep much of the time for hours before
a halt was called--then we dropped in our tracks.
I say "for hours," but how may one measure time where time
does not exist! When our march commenced the sun stood
at zenith. When we halted our shadows still pointed
toward nadir. Whether an instant or an eternity of
earthly time elapsed who may say. That march may have
occupied nine years and eleven months of the ten years
that I spent in the inner world, or it may have been
accomplished in the fraction of a second--I cannot tell.
But this I do know that since you have told me that ten
years have elapsed since I departed from this earth
I have lost all respect for time--I am commencing to
doubt that such a thing exists other than in the weak,
finite mind of man.
IV
DIAN THE BEAUTIFUL
WHEN OUR GUARDS AROUSED US FROM SLEEP WE were much refreshed.
They gave us food. Strips of dried meat it was, but it
put new life and strength into us, so that now we too
marched with high-held heads, and took noble strides.
At least I did, for I was young and proud; but poor Perry
hated walking. On earth I had often seen him call a cab
to travel a square--he was paying for it now, and his old
legs wobbled so that I put my arm about him and half carried
him through the balance of those frightful marches.
The country began to change at last, and we wound up
out of the level plain through mighty mountains of
virgin granite. The tropical verdure of the lowlands was
replaced by hardier vegetation, but even here the effects
of constant heat and light were apparent in the immensity
of the trees and the profusion of foliage and blooms.
Crystal streams roared through their rocky channels,
fed by the perpetual snows which we could see far above us.
Above the snowcapped heights hung masses of heavy clouds.
It was these, Perry explained, which evidently served
the double purpose of replenishing the melting snows and
protecting them from the direct rays of the sun.
By this time we had picked up a smattering of the bastard
language in which our guards addressed us, as well
as making good headway in the rather charming tongue
of our co-captives. Directly ahead of me in the chain
gang was a young woman. Three feet of chain linked us
together in a forced companionship which I, at least,
soon rejoiced in. For I found her a willing teacher,
and from her I learned the language of her tribe,
and much of the life and customs of the inner world--at
least that part of it with which she was familiar.
She told me that she was called Dian the Beautiful,
and that she belonged to the tribe of Amoz, which dwells
in the cliffs above the Darel Az, or shallow sea.
"How came you here?" I asked her.
"I was running away from Jubal the Ugly One," she answered,
as though that was explanation quite sufficient.
"Who is Jubal the Ugly One?" I asked. "And why did you
run away from him?"
She looked at me in surprise.
"Why DOES a woman run away from a man?" she answered
my question with another.
"They do not, where I come from," I replied.
"Sometimes they run after them."
But she could not understand. Nor could I get her to grasp
the fact that I was of another world. She was quite as
positive that creation was originated solely to produce her
own kind and the world she lived in as are many of the outer
world.
"But Jubal," I insisted. "Tell me about him, and why you
ran away to be chained by the neck and scourged across
the face of a world."
"Jubal the Ugly One placed his trophy before my father's house.
It was the head of a mighty tandor. It remained there
and no greater trophy was placed beside it. So I knew
that Jubal the Ugly One would come and take me as his mate.
None other so powerful wished me, or they would have
slain a mightier beast and thus have won me from Jubal.
My father is not a mighty hunter. Once he was,
but a sadok tossed him, and never again had he the full
use of his right arm. My brother, Dacor the Strong One,
had gone to the land of Sari to steal a mate for himself.
Thus there was none, father, brother, or lover, to save
me from Jubal the Ugly One, and I ran away and hid among
the hills that skirt the land of Amoz. And there these
Sagoths found me and made me captive."
"What will they do with you?" I asked. "Where are they
taking us?"
Again she looked her incredulity.
"I can almost believe that you are of another world,"
she said, "for otherwise such ignorance were inexplicable.
Do you really mean that you do not know that the Sagoths
are the creatures of the Mahars--the mighty Mahars who
think they own Pellucidar and all that walks or grows
upon its surface, or creeps or burrows beneath, or swims
within its lakes and oceans, or flies through its air?
Next you will be telling me that you never before heard
of the Mahars!"
I was loath to do it, and further incur her scorn;
but there was no alternative if I were to absorb knowledge,
so I made a clean breast of my pitiful ignorance as to the
mighty Mahars. She was shocked. But she did her very best
to enlighten me, though much that she said was as Greek
would have been to her. She described the Mahars largely
by comparisons. In this way they were like unto thipdars,
in that to the hairless lidi.
About all I gleaned of them was that they were
quite hideous, had wings, and webbed feet; lived in
cities built beneath the ground; could swim under
water for great distances, and were very, very wise.
The Sagoths were their weapons of offense and defense,
and the races like herself were their hands and feet--they
were the slaves and servants who did all the manual labor.
The Mahars were the heads--the brains--of the inner world.
I longed to see this wondrous race of supermen.
Perry learned the language with me. When we halted,
as we occasionally did, though sometimes the halts seemed
ages apart, he would join in the conversation, as would
Ghak the Hairy One, he who was chained just ahead of Dian
the Beautiful. Ahead of Ghak was Hooja the Sly One.
He too entered the conversation occasionally. Most of
his remarks were directed toward Dian the Beautiful.
It didn't take half an eye to see that he had developed
a bad case; but the girl appeared totally oblivious
to his thinly veiled advances. Did I say thinly veiled?
There is a race of men in New Zealand, or Australia,
I have forgotten which, who indicate their preference
for the lady of their affections by banging her over
the head with a bludgeon. By comparison with this method
Hooja's lovemaking might be called thinly veiled.
At first it caused me to blush violently although I
have seen several Old Years out at Rectors, and in other
less fashionable places off Broadway, and in Vienna,
and Hamburg.
But the girl! She was magnificent. It was easy to see
that she considered herself as entirely above and apart from
her present surroundings and company. She talked with me,
and with Perry, and with the taciturn Ghak because we
were respectful; but she couldn't even see Hooja the
Sly One, much less hear him, and that made him furious.
He tried to get one of the Sagoths to move the girl up
ahead of him in the slave gang, but the fellow only poked
him with his spear and told him that he had selected the
girl for his own property--that he would buy her from the
Mahars as soon as they reached Phutra. Phutra, it seemed,
was the city of our destination.
After passing over the first chain of mountains we skirted
a salt sea, upon whose bosom swam countless horrid things.
Seal-like creatures there were with long necks stretching
ten and more feet above their enormous bodies and whose
snake heads were split with gaping mouths bristling
with countless fangs. There were huge tortoises too,
paddling about among these other reptiles, which Perry
said were Plesiosaurs of the Lias. I didn't question his
veracity--they might have been most anything.
Dian told me they were tandorazes, or tandors of the sea,
and that the other, and more fearsome reptiles, which
occasionally
rose from the deep to do battle with them, were azdyryths,
or sea-dyryths--Perry called them Ichthyosaurs.
They resembled a whale with the head of an alligator.
I had forgotten what little geology I had studied
at school--about all that remained was an impression
of horror that the illustrations of restored prehistoric
monsters had made upon me, and a well-defined belief
that any man with a pig's shank and a vivid imagination
could "restore" most any sort of paleolithic monster he
saw fit, and take rank as a first class paleontologist.
But when I saw these sleek, shiny carcasses shimmering in
the sunlight as they emerged from the ocean, shaking their
giant heads; when I saw the waters roll from their sinuous
bodies in miniature waterfalls as they glided hither
and thither, now upon the surface, now half submerged;
as I saw them meet, open-mouthed, hissing and snorting,
in their titanic and interminable warring I realized
how futile is man's poor, weak imagination by comparison
with Nature's incredible genius.
And Perry! He was absolutely flabbergasted. He said
so himself.
"David," he remarked, after we had marched for a long time
beside that awful sea. "David, I used to teach geology,
and I thought that I believed what I taught; but now I
see that I did not believe it--that it is impossible
for man to believe such things as these unless he sees
them with his own eyes. We take things for granted,
perhaps, because we are told them over and over again,
and have no way of disproving them--like religions,
for example; but we don't believe them, we only think
we do. If you ever get back to the outer world you
will find that the geologists and paleontologists will
be the first to set you down a liar, for they know
that no such creatures as they restore ever existed.
It is all right to IMAGINE them as existing in an equally
imaginary epoch--but now? poof!"
At the next halt Hooja the Sly One managed to find enough
slack chain to permit him to worm himself back quite close
to Dian. We were all standing, and as he edged near the
girl she turned her back upon him in such a truly earthly
feminine manner that I could scarce repress a smile; but it
was a short-lived smile for on the instant the Sly One's
hand fell upon the girl's bare arm, jerking her roughly
toward him.
I was not then familiar with the customs or social ethics
which prevailed within Pellucidar; but even so I did
not need the appealing look which the girl shot to me
from her magnificent eyes to influence my subsequent act.
What the Sly One's intention was I paused not to inquire;
but instead, before he could lay hold of her with his
other hand, I placed a right to the point of his jaw that
felled him in his tracks.
A roar of approval went up from those of the other prisoners
and the Sagoths who had witnessed the brief drama; not, as I
later learned, because I had championed the girl, but for
the neat and, to them, astounding method by which I had bested
Hooja.
And the girl? At first she looked at me with wide, wondering
eyes,
and then she dropped her head, her face half averted,
and a delicate flush suffused her cheek. For a moment
she stood thus in silence, and then her head went high,
and she turned her back upon me as she had upon Hooja.
Some of the prisoners laughed, and I saw the face of Ghak
the Hairy One go very black as he looked at me searchingly.
And what I could see of Dian's cheek went suddenly from red
to white.
Immediately after we resumed the march, and though I realized
that in some way I had offended Dian the Beautiful I could
not prevail upon her to talk with me that I might learn
wherein I had erred--in fact I might quite as well have
been addressing a sphinx for all the attention I got.
At last my own foolish pride stepped in and prevented
my making any further attempts, and thus a companionship
that without my realizing it had come to mean a great deal
to me was cut off. Thereafter I confined my conversation
to Perry. Hooja did not renew his advances toward the girl,
nor did he again venture near me.
Again the weary and apparently interminable marching became
a perfect nightmare of horrors to me. The more firmly
fixed became the realization that the girl's friendship
had meant so much to me, the more I came to miss it;
and the more impregnable the barrier of silly pride.
But I was very young and would not ask Ghak for the
explanation which I was sure he could give, and that might
have made everything all right again.
On the march, or during halts, Dian refused consistently
to notice me--when her eyes wandered in my direction
she looked either over my head or directly through me.
At last I became desperate, and determined to swallow
my self-esteem, and again beg her to tell me how I
had offended, and how I might make reparation. I made
up my mind that I should do this at the next halt.
We were approaching another range of mountains at the time,
and when we reached them, instead of winding across
them through some high-flung pass we entered a mighty
natural tunnel--a series of labyrinthine grottoes,
dark as Erebus.
The guards had no torches or light of any description.
In fact we had seen no artificial light or sign of
fire since we had entered Pellucidar. In a land of
perpetual noon there is no need of light above ground,
yet I marveled that they had no means of lighting
their way through these dark, subterranean passages.
So we crept along at a snail's pace, with much stumbling
and falling--the guards keeping up a singsong chant ahead
of us, interspersed with certain high notes which I found
always indicated rough places and turns.
Halts were now more frequent, but I did not wish to speak
to Dian until I could see from the expression of her face
how she was receiving my apologies. At last a faint
glow ahead forewarned us of the end of the tunnel,
for which I for one was devoutly thankful. Then at a sudden
turn we emerged into the full light of the noonday sun.
But with it came a sudden realization of what meant
to me a real catastrophe--Dian was gone, and with her
a half-dozen other prisoners. The guards saw it too,
and the ferocity of their rage was terrible to behold.
Their awesome, bestial faces were contorted in the most
diabolical expressions, as they accused each other of
responsibility for the loss. Finally they fell upon us,
beating us with their spear shafts, and hatchets.
They had already killed two near the head of the line,
and were like to have finished the balance of us when
their leader finally put a stop to the brutal slaughter.
Never in all my life had I witnessed a more horrible
exhibition of bestial rage--I thanked God that Dian had not
been one of those left to endure it.
Of the twelve prisoners who had been chained ahead of me
each alternate one had been freed commencing with Dian.
Hooja was gone. Ghak remained. What could it mean? How
had it been accomplished? The commander of the guards
was investigating. Soon he discovered that the rude
locks which had held the neckbands in place had been
deftly picked.
"Hooja the Sly One," murmured Ghak, who was now next to me
in line. "He has taken the girl that you would not have,"
he continued, glancing at me.
"That I would not have!" I cried. "What do you mean?"
He looked at me closely for a moment.
"I have doubted your story that you are from another world,"
he said at last, "but yet upon no other grounds could
your ignorance of the ways of Pellucidar be explained.
Do you really mean that you do not know that you offended
the Beautiful One, and how?"
"I do not know, Ghak," I replied.
"Then shall I tell you. When a man of Pellucidar
intervenes between another man and the woman the other
man would have, the woman belongs to the victor.
Dian the Beautiful belongs to you. You should have claimed
her or released her. Had you taken her hand, it would
have indicated your desire to make her your mate, and had
you raised her hand above her head and then dropped it,
it would have meant that you did not wish her for a mate
and that you released her from all obligation to you.
By doing neither you have put upon her the greatest affront
that a man may put upon a woman. Now she is your slave.
No man will take her as mate, or may take her honorably,
until he shall have overcome you in combat, and men do not
choose slave women as their mates--at least not the men
of Pellucidar."
"I did not know, Ghak," I cried. "I did not know.
Not for all Pellucidar would I have harmed Dian the Beautiful
by word, or look, or act of mine. I do not want her as
my slave. I do not want her as my--" but here I stopped.
The vision of that sweet and innocent face floated before
me amidst the soft mists of imagination, and where I had
on the second believed that I clung only to the memory
of a gentle friendship I had lost, yet now it seemed
that it would have been disloyalty to her to have said
that I did not want Dian the Beautiful as my mate.
I had not thought of her except as a welcome friend
in a strange, cruel world. Even now I did not think
that I loved her.
I believe Ghak must have read the truth more in my
expression than in my words, for presently he laid
his hand upon my shoulder.
"Man of another world," he said, "I believe you.
Lips may lie, but when the heart speaks through the eyes
it tells only the truth. Your heart has spoken to me.
I know now that you meant no affront to Dian the Beautiful.
She is not of my tribe; but her mother is my sister.
She does not know it--her mother was stolen by Dian's
father who came with many others of the tribe of Amoz
to battle with us for our women--the most beautiful women
of Pellucidar. Then was her father king of Amoz, and her
mother was daughter of the king of Sari--to whose power I,
his son, have succeeded. Dian is the daughter of kings,
though her father is no longer king since the sadok tossed
him and Jubal the Ugly One wrested his kingship from him.
Because of her lineage the wrong you did her was greatly
magnified in the eyes of all who saw it. She will never
forgive you."
I asked Ghak if there was not some way in which I
could release the girl from the bondage and ignominy
I had unwittingly placed upon her.
"If ever you find her, yes," he answered. "Merely to
raise her hand above her head and drop it in the presence
of others is sufficient to release her; but how may you
ever find her, you who are doomed to a life of slavery
yourself in the buried city of Phutra?"
"Is there no escape?" I asked.
"Hooja the Sly One escaped and took the others with him,"
replied Ghak. "But there are no more dark places on
the way to Phutra, and once there it is not so easy--the
Mahars are very wise. Even if one escaped from Phutra
there are the thipdars--they would find you, and then--"
the Hairy One shuddered. "No, you will never escape
the Mahars."
It was a cheerful prospect. I asked Perry what he thought
about it; but he only shrugged his shoulders and continued
a longwinded prayer he had been at for some time.
He was wont to say that the only redeeming feature of our
captivity was the ample time it gave him for the improvisation
of prayers--it was becoming an obsession with him.
The Sagoths had begun to take notice of his habit
of declaiming throughout entire marches. One of them
asked him what he was saying--to whom he was talking.
The question gave me an idea, so I answered quickly
before Perry could say anything.
"Do not interrupt him," I said. "He is a very holy
man in the world from which we come. He is speaking
to spirits which you cannot see--do not interrupt him
or they will spring out of the air upon you and rend you
limb from limb--like that," and I jumped toward the great
brute with a loud "Boo!" that sent him stumbling backward.
I took a long chance, I realized, but if we could make
any capital out of Perry's harmless mania I wanted to make
it while the making was prime. It worked splendidly.
The Sagoths treated us both with marked respect during
the balance of the journey, and then passed the word along
to their masters, the Mahars.
Two marches after this episode we came to the city of Phutra.
The entrance to it was marked by two lofty towers of granite,
which guarded a flight of steps leading to the buried city.
Sagoths were on guard here as well as at a hundred or more
other towers scattered about over a large plain.
V
SLAVES
AS WE DESCENDED THE BROAD STAIRCASE WHICH led to the main
avenue of Phutra I caught my first sight of the dominant
race of the inner world. Involuntarily I shrank back
as one of the creatures approached to inspect us.
A more hideous thing it would be impossible to imagine.
The all-powerful Mahars of Pellucidar are great reptiles,
some six or eight feet in length, with long narrow heads
and great round eyes. Their beak-like mouths are lined
with sharp, white fangs, and the backs of their huge,
lizard bodies are serrated into bony ridges from their
necks to the end of their long tails. Their feet are
equipped with three webbed toes, while from the fore feet
membranous wings, which are attached to their bodies just
in front of the hind legs, protrude at an angle of 45
degrees toward the rear, ending in sharp points several
feet above their bodies.
I glanced at Perry as the thing passed me to inspect him.
The old man was gazing at the horrid creature with wide
astonished eyes. When it passed on, he turned to me.
"A rhamphorhynchus of the Middle Olitic, David," he said,
"but, gad, how enormous! The largest remains we ever
have discovered have never indicated a size greater than
that attained by an ordinary crow."
As we continued on through the main avenue of Phutra we
saw many thousand of the creatures coming and going upon
their daily duties. They paid but little attention to us.
Phutra is laid out underground with a regularity that
indicates remarkable engineering skill. It is hewn from
solid limestone strata. The streets are broad and of a
uniform height of twenty feet. At intervals tubes pierce
the roof of this underground city, and by means of lenses
and reflectors transmit the sunlight, softened and diffused,
to dispel what would otherwise be Cimmerian darkness.
In like manner air is introduced.
Perry and I were taken, with Ghak, to a large public building,
where one of the Sagoths who had formed our guard explained
to a Maharan official the circumstances surrounding our capture.
The method of communication between these two was remarkable
in that no spoken words were exchanged. They employed
a species of sign language. As I was to learn later,
the Mahars have no ears, not any spoken language.
Among themselves they communicate by means of what Perry
says must be a sixth sense which is cognizant of a fourth
dimension.
I never did quite grasp him, though he endeavored to explain
it to me upon numerous occasions. I suggested telepathy,
but he said no, that it was not telepathy since they could
only communicate when in each others' presence, nor could
they talk with the Sagoths or the other inhabitants
of Pellucidar by the same method they used to converse
with one another.
"What they do," said Perry, "is to project their thoughts
into the fourth dimension, when they become appreciable
to the sixth sense of their listener. Do I make myself
quite clear?"
"You do not, Perry," I replied. He shook his head
in despair, and returned to his work. They had set us
to carrying a great accumulation of Maharan literature
from one apartment to another, and there arranging it
upon shelves. I suggested to Perry that we were in the
public library of Phutra, but later, as he commenced
to discover the key to their written language, he assured
me that we were handling the ancient archives of the race.
During this period my thoughts were continually upon
Dian the Beautiful. I was, of course, glad that she had
escaped the Mahars, and the fate that had been suggested
by the Sagoth who had threatened to purchase her upon our
arrival at Phutra. I often wondered if the little party
of fugitives had been overtaken by the guards who had returned
to search for them. Sometimes I was not so sure but that I
should have been more contented to know that Dian was here
in Phutra, than to think of her at the mercy of Hooja
the Sly One. Ghak, Perry, and I often talked together
of possible escape, but the Sarian was so steeped in his
lifelong belief that no one could escape from the Mahars
except by a miracle, that he was not much aid to us--his
attitude was of one who waits for the miracle to come to him.
At my suggestion Perry and I fashioned some swords of scraps
of iron which we discovered among some rubbish in the cells
where we slept, for we were permitted almost unrestrained
freedom of action within the limits of the building to which
we had been assigned. So great were the number of slaves
who waited upon the inhabitants of Phutra that none of us
was apt to be overburdened with work, nor were our masters
unkind to us.
We hid our new weapons beneath the skins which formed
our beds, and then Perry conceived the idea of making bows
and arrows--weapons apparently unknown within Pellucidar.
Next came shields; but these I found it easier to steal
from the walls of the outer guardroom of the building.
We had completed these arrangements for our protection
after leaving Phutra when the Sagoths who had been sent
to recapture the escaped prisoners returned with four
of them, of whom Hooja was one. Dian and two others
had eluded them. It so happened that Hooja was confined
in the same building with us. He told Ghak that he had
not seen Dian or the others after releasing them within
the dark grotto. What had become of them he had not
the faintest conception--they might be wandering yet,
lost within the labyrinthine tunnel, if not dead
from starvation.
I was now still further apprehensive as to the fate
of Dian, and at this time, I imagine, came the first
realization that my affection for the girl might be
prompted by more than friendship. During my waking
hours she was constantly the subject of my thoughts,
and when I slept her dear face haunted my dreams.
More than ever was I determined to escape the Mahars.
"Perry, " I confided to the old man, "if I have to search
every inch of this diminutive world I am going to find
Dian the Beautiful and right the wrong I unintentionally
did her." That was the excuse I made for Perry's benefit.
"Diminutive world!" he scoffed. "You don't know what you
are talking about, my boy," and then he showed me a map
of Pellucidar which he had recently discovered among
the manuscript he was arranging.
"Look," he cried, pointing to it, "this is evidently water,
and all this land. Do you notice the general configuration
of the two areas? Where the oceans are upon the outer crust,
is land here. These relatively small areas of ocean follow
the general lines of the continents of the outer world.
"We know that the crust of the globe is 500 miles in thickness;
then the inside diameter of Pellucidar must be 7,000 miles,
and the superficial area 165,480,000 square miles.
Three-fourths of this is land. Think of it! A land area
of 124,110,000 square miles! Our own world contains
but 53,000,000 square miles of land, the balance of its
surface being covered by water. Just as we often compare
nations by their relative land areas, so if we compare
these two worlds in the same way we have the strange
anomaly of a larger world within a smaller one!
"Where within vast Pellucidar would you search for your
Dian? Without stars, or moon, or changing sun how could
you find her even though you knew where she might be found?"
The proposition was a corker. It quite took my breath away;
but I found that it left me all the more determined
to attempt it.
"If Ghak will accompany us we may be able to do it,"
I suggested.
Perry and I sought him out and put the question straight
to him.
"Ghak," I said, "we are determined to escape from
this bondage. Will you accompany us?"
"They will set the thipdars upon us," he said, "and then
we shall be killed; but--" he hesitated--"I would take
the chance if I thought that I might possibly escape
and return to my own people."
"Could you find your way back to your own land?" asked Perry.
"And could you aid David in his search for Dian?"
"Yes."
"But how," persisted Perry, "could you travel to strange
country without heavenly bodies or a compass to guide you?"
Ghak didn't know what Perry meant by heavenly bodies
or a compass, but he assured us that you might blindfold
any man of Pellucidar and carry him to the farthermost
corner of the world, yet he would be able to come directly
to his own home again by the shortest route. He seemed
surprised to think that we found anything wonderful in it.
Perry said it must be some sort of homing instinct such
as is possessed by certain breeds of earthly pigeons.
I didn't know, of course, but it gave me an idea.
"Then Dian could have found her way directly to her
own people?" I asked.
"Surely," replied Ghak, "unless some mighty beast of prey
killed her."
I was for making the attempted escape at once, but both Perry
and Ghak counseled waiting for some propitious accident
which would insure us some small degree of success.
I didn't see what accident could befall a whole community
in a land of perpetual daylight where the inhabitants had
no fixed habits of sleep. Why, I am sure that some of the
Mahars never sleep, while others may, at long intervals,
crawl into the dark recesses beneath their dwellings and
curl up in protracted slumber. Perry says that if a Mahar
stays awake for three years he will make up all his lost
sleep in a long year's snooze. That may be all true, but I
never saw but three of them asleep, and it was the sight
of these three that gave me a suggestion for our means of escape.
I had been searching about far below the levels that we
slaves were supposed to frequent--possibly fifty feet
beneath the main floor of the building--among a network
of corridors and apartments, when I came suddenly upon
three Mahars curled up upon a bed of skins. At first I
thought they were dead, but later their regular breathing
convinced me of my error. Like a flash the thought
came to me of the marvelous opportunity these sleeping
reptiles offered as a means of eluding the watchfulness
of our captors and the Sagoth guards.
Hastening back to Perry where he pored over a musty pile of,
to me, meaningless hieroglyphics, I explained my plan to him.
To my surprise he was horrified.
"It would be murder, David," he cried.
"Murder to kill a reptilian monster?" I asked in astonishment.
"Here they are not monsters, David," he replied.
"Here they are the dominant race--we are the 'monsters'--the
lower orders. In Pellucidar evolution has progressed
along different lines than upon the outer earth.
These terrible convulsions of nature time and time again
wiped out the existing species--but for this fact some
monster of the Saurozoic epoch might rule today upon
our own world. We see here what might well have occurred
in our own history had conditions been what they have been here.
"Life within Pellucidar is far younger than upon the outer crust.
Here man has but reached a stage analogous to the Stone
Age of our own world's history, but for countless millions
of years these reptiles have been progressing. Possibly it
is the sixth sense which I am sure they possess that has
given them an advantage over the other and more frightfully
armed of their fellows; but this we may never know.
They look upon us as we look upon the beasts of our fields,
and I learn from their written records that other races
of Mahars feed upon men--they keep them in great droves,
as we keep cattle. They breed them most carefully,
and when they are quite fat, they kill and eat them."
I shuddered.
"What is there horrible about it, David?" the old man asked.
"They understand us no better than we understand
the lower animals of our own world. Why, I have come
across here very learned discussions of the question
as to whether gilaks, that is men, have any means
of communication. One writer claims that we do not even
reason--that our every act is mechanical, or instinctive.
The dominant race of Pellucidar, David, have not yet
learned that men converse among themselves, or reason.
Because we do not converse as they do it is beyond them
to imagine that we converse at all. It is thus that we
reason in relation to the brutes of our own world.
They know that the Sagoths have a spoken language,
but they cannot comprehend it, or how it manifests itself,
since they have no auditory apparatus. They believe
that the motions of the lips alone convey the meaning.
That the Sagoths can communicate with us is incomprehensible
to them.
"Yes, David," he concluded, "it would entail murder
to carry out your plan."
"Very well then, Perry." I replied. "I shall become
a murderer."
He got me to go over the plan again most carefully,
and for some reason which was not at the time clear to me
insisted upon a very careful description of the apartments
and corridors I had just explored.
"I wonder, David," he said at length, "as you are determined
to carry out your wild scheme, if we could not accomplish
something of very real and lasting benefit for the human
race of Pellucidar at the same time. Listen, I have
learned much of a most surprising nature from these
archives of the Mahars. That you may not appreciate
my plan I shall briefly outline the history of the race.
"Once the males were all-powerful, but ages ago the females,
little by little, assumed the mastery. For other ages
no noticeable change took place in the race of Mahars.
It continued to progress under the intelligent and
beneficent rule of the ladies. Science took vast strides.
This was especially true of the sciences which we know
as biology and eugenics. Finally a certain female
scientist announced the fact that she had discovered
a method whereby eggs might be fertilized by chemical
means after they were laid--all true reptiles, you know,
are hatched from eggs.
"What happened? Immediately the necessity for males ceased
to exist--the race was no longer dependent upon them.
More ages elapsed until at the present time we find a race
consisting exclusively of females. But here is the point.
The secret of this chemical formula is kept by a single
race of Mahars. It is in the city of Phutra, and unless I
am greatly in error I judge from your description of the
vaults through which you passed today that it lies hidden
in the cellar of this building.
"For two reasons they hide it away and guard it jealously.
First, because upon it depends the very life of the race
of Mahars, and second, owing to the fact that when it
was public property as at first so many were experimenting
with it that the danger of over-population became very grave.
"David, if we can escape, and at the same time take with
us this great secret what will we not have accomplished
for the human race within Pellucidar!" The very thought
of it fairly overpowered me. Why, we two would be the
means of placing the men of the inner world in their
rightful place among created things. Only the Sagoths
would then stand between them and absolute supremacy,
and I was not quite sure but that the Sagoths owed all
their power to the greater intelligence of the Mahars--I
could not believe that these gorilla-like beasts
were the mental superiors of the human race of Pellucidar.
"Why, Perry," I exclaimed, "you and I may reclaim
a whole world! Together we can lead the races of men
out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of
advancement and civilization. At one step we may carry
them from the Age of Stone to the twentieth century.
It's marvelous--absolutely marvelous just to think about it."
"David," said the old man, "I believe that God sent us
here for just that purpose--it shall be my life work
to teach them His word--to lead them into the light
of His mercy while we are training their hearts and hands
in the ways of culture and civilization."
"You are right, Perry," I said, "and while you are teaching
them to pray I'll be teaching them to fight, and between
us we'll make a race of men that will be an honor to us both."
Ghak had entered the apartment some time before we
concluded our conversation, and now he wanted to know
what we were so excited about. Perry thought we had best
not tell him too much, and so I only explained that I
had a plan for escape. When I had outlined it to him,
he seemed about as horror-struck as Perry had been;
but for a different reason. The Hairy One only considered
the horrible fate that would be ours were we discovered;
but at last I prevailed upon him to accept my plan as
the only feasible one, and when I had assured him that I
would take all the responsibility for it were we captured,
he accorded a reluctant assent.
VI
THE BEGINNING OF HORROR
WITHIN PELLUCIDAR ONE TIME IS AS GOOD AS ANOTHER.
There were no nights to mask our attempted escape.
All must be done in broad daylight--all but the work
I had to do in the apartment beneath the building.
So we determined to put our plan to an immediate test
lest the Mahars who made it possible should awake before
I reached them; but we were doomed to disappointment,
for no sooner had we reached the main floor of the building
on our way to the pits beneath, than we encountered hurrying
bands of slaves being hastened under strong Sagoth guard
out of the edifice to the avenue beyond.
Other Sagoths were darting hither and thither in search
of other slaves, and the moment that we appeared we were
pounced upon and hustled into the line of marching humans.
What the purpose or nature of the general exodus we did
not know, but presently through the line of captives ran
the rumor that two escaped slaves had been recaptured--a
man and a woman--and that we were marching to witness
their punishment, for the man had killed a Sagoth
of the detachment that had pursued and overtaken them.
At the intelligence my heart sprang to my throat,
for I was sure that the two were of those who escaped
in the dark grotto with Hooja the Sly One, and that Dian
must be the woman. Ghak thought so too, as did Perry.
"Is there naught that we may do to save her?" I asked Ghak.
"Naught," he replied.
Along the crowded avenue we marched, the guards showing
unusual cruelty toward us, as though we, too, had been
implicated in the murder of their fellow. The occasion
was to serve as an object-lesson to all other slaves of
the danger and futility of attempted escape, and the fatal
consequences of taking the life of a superior being,
and so I imagine that Sagoths felt amply justified in making
the entire proceeding as uncomfortable and painful to
us as possible.
They jabbed us with their spears and struck at us with the
hatchets at the least provocation, and at no provocation
at all. It was a most uncomfortable half-hour that we
spent before we were finally herded through a low entrance
into a huge building the center of which was given up
to a good-sized arena. Benches surrounded this open
space upon three sides, and along the fourth were heaped
huge bowlders which rose in receding tiers toward the roof.
At first I couldn't make out the purpose of this mighty
pile of rock, unless it were intended as a rough and
picturesque background for the scenes which were enacted
in the arena before it, but presently, after the wooden
benches had been pretty well filled by slaves and Sagoths,
I discovered the purpose of the bowlders, for then
the Mahars began to file into the enclosure.
They marched directly across the arena toward the rocks upon
the opposite side, where, spreading their bat-like wings,
they rose above the high wall of the pit, settling down
upon the bowlders above. These were the reserved seats,
the boxes of the elect.
Reptiles that they are, the rough surface of a great stone
is to them as plush as upholstery to us. Here they lolled,
blinking their hideous eyes, and doubtless conversing with
one another in their sixth-sense- fourth-dimension language.
For the first time I beheld their queen. She differed
from the others in no feature that was appreciable
to my earthly eyes, in fact all Mahars look alike to me:
but when she crossed the arena after the balance of her
female subjects had found their bowlders, she was preceded
by a score of huge Sagoths, the largest I ever had seen,
and on either side of her waddled a huge thipdar,
while behind came another score of Sagoth guardsmen.
At the barrier the Sagoths clambered up the steep side
with truly apelike agility, while behind them the haughty
queen rose upon her wings with her two frightful dragons
close beside her, and settled down upon the largest
bowlder of them all in the exact center of that side of
the amphitheater which is reserved for the dominant race.
Here she squatted, a most repulsive and uninteresting queen;
though doubtless quite as well assured of her beauty
and divine right to rule as the proudest monarch of the
outer world.
And then the music started--music without sound! The Mahars
cannot hear, so the drums and fifes and horns of earthly
bands are unknown among them. The "band" consists of a
score or more Mahars. It filed out in the center of the
arena where the creatures upon the rocks might see it,
and there it performed for fifteen or twenty minutes.
Their technic consisted in waving their tails and moving
their heads in a regular succession of measured movements
resulting in a cadence which evidently pleased the eye
of the Mahar as the cadence of our own instrumental music
pleases our ears. Sometimes the band took measured steps
in unison to one side or the other, or backward and again
forward--it all seemed very silly and meaningless to me,
but at the end of the first piece the Mahars upon the
rocks showed the first indications of enthusiasm that I
had seen displayed by the dominant race of Pellucidar.
They beat their great wings up and down, and smote their rocky
perches with their mighty tails until the ground shook.
Then the band started another piece, and all was again
as silent as the grave. That was one great beauty about
Mahar music--if you didn't happen to like a piece that was
being played all you had to do was shut your eyes.
When the band had exhausted its repertory it took wing
and settled upon the rocks above and behind the queen.
Then the business of the day was on. A man and woman were
pushed into the arena by a couple of Sagoth guardsmen.
I leaned forward in my seat to scrutinize the female--hoping
against hope that she might prove to be another than Dian
the Beautiful. Her back was toward me for a while,
and the sight of the great mass of raven hair piled high
upon her head filled me with alarm.
Presently a door in one side of the arena wall was opened
to admit a huge, shaggy, bull-like creature.
"A Bos," whispered Perry, excitedly. "His kind roamed
the outer crust with the cave bear and the mammoth ages
and ages ago. We have been carried back a million years,
David, to the childhood of a planet--is it not wondrous?"
But I saw only the raven hair of a half-naked girl,
and my heart stood still in dumb misery at the sight of her,
nor had I any eyes for the wonders of natural history.
But for Perry and Ghak I should have leaped to the floor
of the arena and shared whatever fate lay in store for this
priceless treasure of the Stone Age.
With the advent of the Bos--they call the thing a thag
within Pellucidar--two spears were tossed into the arena
at the feet of the prisoners. It seemed to me that a bean
shooter would have been as effective against the mighty
monster as these pitiful weapons.
As the animal approached the two, bellowing and pawing
the ground with the strength of many earthly bulls,
another door directly beneath us was opened, and from
it issued the most terrific roar that ever had fallen
upon my outraged ears. I could not at first see
the beast from which emanated this fearsome challenge,
but the sound had the effect of bringing the two victims
around with a sudden start, and then I saw the girl's
face--she was not Dian! I could have wept for relief.
And now, as the two stood frozen in terror, I saw the author
of that fearsome sound creeping stealthily into view.
It was a huge tiger--such as hunted the great Bos
through the jungles primeval when the world was young.
In contour and markings it was not unlike the noblest
of the Bengals of our own world, but as its dimensions
were exaggerated to colossal proportions so too were
its colorings exaggerated. Its vivid yellows fairly
screamed aloud; its whites were as eider down; its blacks
glossy as the finest anthracite coal, and its coat long
and shaggy as a mountain goat. That it is a beautiful
animal there is no gainsaying, but if its size and colors
are magnified here within Pellucidar, so is the ferocity
of its disposition. It is not the occasional member
of its species that is a man hunter--all are man hunters;
but they do not confine their foraging to man alone,
for there is no flesh or fish within Pellucidar that they
will not eat with relish in the constant efforts which they
make to furnish their huge carcasses with sufficient
sustenance to maintain their mighty thews.
Upon one side of the doomed pair the thag bellowed
and advanced, and upon the other tarag, the frightful,
crept toward them with gaping mouth and dripping fangs.
The man seized the spears, handing one of them to the woman.
At the sound of the roaring of the tiger the bull's
bellowing became a veritable frenzy of rageful noise.
Never in my life had I heard such an infernal din as
the two brutes made, and to think it was all lost upon
the hideous reptiles for whom the show was staged!
The thag was charging now from one side, and the tarag
from the other. The two puny things standing between them
seemed already lost, but at the very moment that the beasts
were upon them the man grasped his companion by the arm
and together they leaped to one side, while the frenzied
creatures came together like locomotives in collision.
There ensued a battle royal which for sustained and frightful
ferocity transcends the power of imagination or description.
Time and again the colossal bull tossed the enormous tiger
high into the air, but each time that the huge cat touched
the ground he returned to the encounter with apparently
undiminished strength, and seemingly increased ire.
For a while the man and woman busied themselves only with
keeping out of the way of the two creatures, but finally I
saw them separate and each creep stealthily toward one of
the combatants. The tiger was now upon the bull's broad back,
clinging to the huge neck with powerful fangs while its long,
strong talons ripped the heavy hide into shreds and ribbons.
For a moment the bull stood bellowing and quivering
with pain and rage, its cloven hoofs widespread,
its tail lashing viciously from side to side, and then,
in a mad orgy of bucking it went careening about the
arena in frenzied attempt to unseat its rending rider.
It was with difficulty that the girl avoided the first mad
rush of the wounded animal.
All its efforts to rid itself of the tiger seemed futile,
until in desperation it threw itself upon the ground,
rolling over and over. A little of this so disconcerted
the tiger, knocking its breath from it I imagine,
that it lost its hold and then, quick as a cat, the great
thag was up again and had buried those mighty horns
deep in the tarag's abdomen, pinning him to the floor
of the arena.
The great cat clawed at the shaggy head until eyes and
ears were gone, and naught but a few strips of ragged,
bloody flesh remained upon the skull. Yet through all
the agony of that fearful punishment the thag still stood
motionless pinning down his adversary, and then the man
leaped in, seeing that the blind bull would be the least
formidable enemy, and ran his spear through the tarag's heart.
As the animal's fierce clawing ceased, the bull raised
his gory, sightless head, and with a horrid roar ran
headlong across the arena. With great leaps and bounds
he came, straight toward the arena wall directly beneath
where we sat, and then accident carried him, in one
of his mighty springs, completely over the barrier into
the midst of the slaves and Sagoths just in front of us.
Swinging his bloody horns from side to side the beast cut
a wide swath before him straight upward toward our seats.
Before him slaves and gorilla-men fought in mad stampede
to escape the menace of the creature's death agonies,
for such only could that frightful charge have been.
Forgetful of us, our guards joined in the general
rush for the exits, many of which pierced the wall
of the amphitheater behind us. Perry, Ghak, and I
became separated in the chaos which reigned for a few
moments after the beast cleared the wall of the arena,
each intent upon saving his own hide.
I ran to the right, passing several exits choked with the
fear mad mob that were battling to escape. One would
have thought that an entire herd of thags was loose
behind them, rather than a single blinded, dying beast;
but such is the effect of panic upon a crowd.
VII
FREEDOM
ONCE OUT OF THE DIRECT PATH OF THE ANIMAL, fear of it
left me, but another emotion as quickly gripped me--hope
of escape that the demoralized condition of the guards
made possible for the instant.
I thought of Perry, but for the hope that I might better
encompass his release if myself free I should have put
the thought of freedom from me at once. As it was I
hastened on toward the right searching for an exit toward
which no Sagoths were fleeing, and at last I found it--a low,
narrow aperture leading into a dark corridor.
Without thought of the possible consequence, I darted into
the shadows of the tunnel, feeling my way along through
the gloom for some distance. The noises of the amphitheater
had grown fainter and fainter until now all was as silent
as the tomb about me. Faint light filtered from above
through occasional ventilating and lighting tubes, but it
was scarce sufficient to enable my human eyes to cope with
the darkness, and so I was forced to move with extreme care,
feeling my way along step by step with a hand upon the
wall beside me.
Presently the light increased and a moment later,
to my delight, I came upon a flight of steps leading upward,
at the top of which the brilliant light of the noonday
sun shone through an opening in the ground.
Cautiously I crept up the stairway to the tunnel's end,
and peering out saw the broad plain of Phutra before me.
The numerous lofty, granite towers which mark the several
entrances to the subterranean city were all in front
of me--behind, the plain stretched level and unbroken
to the nearby foothills. I had come to the surface,
then, beyond the city, and my chances for escape seemed
much enhanced.
My first impulse was to await darkness before attempting
to cross the plain, so deeply implanted are habits
of thought; but of a sudden I recollected the perpetual
noonday brilliance which envelopes Pellucidar,
and with a smile I stepped forth into the day-light.
Rank grass, waist high, grows upon the plain of
Phutra--the gorgeous flowering grass of the inner world,
each particular blade of which is tipped with a tiny,
five-pointed blossom--brilliant little stars of varying
colors that twinkle in the green foliage to add still
another charm to the weird, yet lovely, land-scape.
But then the only aspect which attracted me was the distant
hills in which I hoped to find sanctuary, and so I hastened on,
trampling the myriad beauties beneath my hurrying feet.
Perry says that the force of gravity is less upon the
surface of the inner world than upon that of the outer.
He explained it all to me once, but I was never particularly
brilliant in such matters and so most of it has escaped me.
As I recall it the difference is due in some part to the
counter-attraction of that portion of the earth's crust
directly opposite the spot upon the face of Pellucidar
at which one's calculations are being made. Be that as
it may, it always seemed to me that I moved with greater
speed and agility within Pellucidar than upon the outer
surface--there was a certain airy lightness of step that was
most pleasing, and a feeling of bodily detachment which
I can only compare with that occasionally experienced in dreams.
And as I crossed Phutra's flower-bespangled plain that time
I seemed almost to fly, though how much of the sensation
was due to Perry's suggestion and how much to actuality
I am sure I do not know. The more I thought of Perry
the less pleasure I took in my new-found freedom.
There could be no liberty for me within Pellucidar unless
the old man shared it with me, and only the hope that I
might find some way to encompass his release kept me
from turning back to Phutra.
Just how I was to help Perry I could scarce imagine,
but I hoped that some fortuitous circumstance might solve
the problem for me. It was quite evident however that
little less than a miracle could aid me, for what could
I accomplish in this strange world, naked and unarmed?
It was even doubtful that I could retrace my steps
to Phutra should I once pass beyond view of the plain,
and even were that possible, what aid could I bring
to Perry no matter how far I wandered?
The case looked more and more hopeless the longer I viewed it,
yet with a stubborn persistency I forged ahead toward
the foothills. Behind me no sign of pursuit developed,
before me I saw no living thing. It was as though I
moved through a dead and forgotten world.
I have no idea, of course, how long it took me to reach
the limit of the plain, but at last I entered the foothills,
following a pretty little canyon upward toward
the mountains. Beside me frolicked a laughing brooklet,
hurrying upon its noisy way down to the silent sea.
In its quieter pools I discovered many small fish, of four-
or five-pound weight I should imagine. In appearance,
except as to size and color, they were not unlike the
whale of our own seas. As I watched them playing about
I discovered, not only that they suckled their young,
but that at intervals they rose to the surface to breathe
as well as to feed upon certain grasses and a strange,
scarlet lichen which grew upon the rocks just above the
water line.
It was this last habit that gave me the opportunity I
craved to capture one of these herbivorous cetaceans--that
is what Perry calls them--and make as good a meal as one can
on raw, warm-blooded fish; but I had become rather used,
by this time, to the eating of food in its natural state,
though I still balked on the eyes and entrails,
much to the amusement of Ghak, to whom I always passed
these delicacies.
Crouching beside the brook, I waited until one of the
diminutive purple whales rose to nibble at the long
grasses which overhung the water, and then, like the beast
of prey that man really is, I sprang upon my victim,
appeasing my hunger while he yet wriggled to escape.
Then I drank from the clear pool, and after washing my hands
and face continued my flight. Above the source of the brook
I encountered a rugged climb to the summit of a long ridge.
Beyond was a steep declivity to the shore of a placid,
inland sea, upon the quiet surface of which lay several
beautiful islands.
The view was charming in the extreme, and as no man or beast
was to be seen that might threaten my new-found liberty,
I slid over the edge of the bluff, and half sliding,
half falling, dropped into the delightful valley,
the very aspect of which seemed to offer a haven of peace
and security.
The gently sloping beach along which I walked was thickly
strewn with strangely shaped, colored shells; some empty,
others still housing as varied a multitude of mollusks
as ever might have drawn out their sluggish lives along the
silent shores of the antediluvian seas of the outer crust.
As I walked I could not but compare myself with the first
man of that other world, so complete the solitude which
surrounded me, so primal and untouched the virgin wonders
and beauties of adolescent nature. I felt myself a second
Adam wending my lonely way through the childhood of a world,
searching for my Eve, and at the thought there rose
before my mind's eye the exquisite outlines of a perfect
face surmounted by a loose pile of wondrous, raven hair.
As I walked, my eyes were bent upon the beach so that it
was not until I had come quite upon it that I discovered
that which shattered all my beautiful dream of solitude
and safety and peace and primal overlordship. The thing
was a hollowed log drawn upon the sands, and in the bottom
of it lay a crude paddle.
The rude shock of awakening to what doubtless might prove
some new form of danger was still upon me when I heard
a rattling of loose stones from the direction of the bluff,
and turning my eyes in that direction I beheld the
author of the disturbance, a great copper-colored man,
running rapidly toward me.
There was that in the haste with which he came which
seemed quite sufficiently menacing, so that I did
not need the added evidence of brandishing spear and
scowling face to warn me that I was in no safe position,
but whither to flee was indeed a momentous question.
The speed of the fellow seemed to preclude the possibility
of escaping him upon the open beach. There was but a
single alternative--the rude skiff--and with a celerity
which equaled his, I pushed the thing into the sea and
as it floated gave a final shove and clambered in over the end.
A cry of rage rose from the owner of the primitive craft,
and an instant later his heavy, stone-tipped spear grazed
my shoulder and buried itself in the bow of the boat beyond.
Then I grasped the paddle, and with feverish haste urged
the awkward, wobbly thing out upon the surface of the sea.
A glance over my shoulder showed me that the copper-colored
one had plunged in after me and was swimming rapidly
in pursuit. His mighty strokes bade fair to close up
the distance between us in short order, for at best I
could make but slow progress with my unfamiliar craft,
which nosed stubbornly in every direction but that which I
desired to follow, so that fully half my energy was
expended in turning its blunt prow back into the course.
I had covered some hundred yards from shore when it became
evident that my pursuer must grasp the stern of the skiff
within the next half-dozen strokes. In a frenzy of despair,
I bent to the grandfather of all paddles in a hopeless
effort to escape, and still the copper giant behind me
gained and gained.
His hand was reaching upward for the stern when I saw a sleek,
sinuous body shoot from the depths below. The man saw
it too, and the look of terror that overspread his face
assured me that I need have no further concern as to him,
for the fear of certain death was in his look.
And then about him coiled the great, slimy folds of a
hideous monster of that prehistoric deep--a mighty serpent
of the sea, with fanged jaws, and darting forked tongue,
with bulging eyes, and bony protuberances upon head
and snout that formed short, stout horns.
As I looked at that hopeless struggle my eyes met
those of the doomed man, and I could have sworn
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