At the Earth's Core, Chapters 1-5

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CHAPTER 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.

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CHAPTER 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.

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CHAPTER 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.

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CHAPTER 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.

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CHAPTER 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.

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