At the Earth's Core, Chapters 11-15

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CHAPTER XI

FOUR DEAD MAHARS

A MOMENT LATER I WAS STANDING BEFORE A DOZEN

Mahars--the social investigators of Phutra.  They asked

me many questions, through a Sagoth interpreter.

I answered them all truthfully.  They seemed particularly

interested in my account of the outer earth and the strange

vehicle which had brought Perry and me to Pellucidar.

I thought that I had convinced them, and after they had

sat in silence for a long time following my examination,

I expected to be ordered returned to my quarters.

During this apparent silence they were debating through

the medium of strange, unspoken language the merits of

my tale.  At last the head of the tribunal communicated

the result of their conference to the officer in charge

of the Sagoth guard.

"Come," he said to me, "you are sentenced to the

experimental pits for having dared to insult the

intelligence of the mighty ones with the ridiculous

tale you have had the temerity to unfold to them."

"Do you mean that they do not believe me?" I asked,

totally astonished.

"Believe you!" he laughed.  "Do you mean to say that you

expected any one to believe so impossible a lie?"

It was hopeless, and so I walked in silence beside my

guard down through the dark corridors and runways toward

my awful doom.  At a low level we came upon a number

of lighted chambers in which we saw many Mahars engaged

in various occupations.  To one of these chambers my guard

escorted me, and before leaving they chained me to a

side wall.  There were other humans similarly chained.

Upon a long table lay a victim even as I was ushered

into the room.  Several Mahars stood about the poor

creature holding him down so that he could not move.

Another, grasping a sharp knife with her three-toed

fore foot, was laying open the victim's chest and abdomen.

No anesthetic had been administered and the shrieks

and groans of the tortured man were terrible to hear.

This, indeed, was vivisection with a vengeance.

Cold sweat broke out upon me as I realized that soon my turn

would come.  And to think that where there was no such

thing as time I might easily imagine that my suffering

was enduring for months before death finally released me!

The Mahars had paid not the slightest attention to me

as I had been brought into the room.  So deeply immersed

were they in their work that I am sure they did

not even know that the Sagoths had entered with me.

The door was close by.  Would that I could reach it!

But those heavy chains precluded any such possibility.

I looked about for some means of escape from my bonds.

Upon the floor between me and the Mahars lay a tiny

surgical instrument which one of them must have dropped.

It looked not unlike a button-hook, but was much smaller,

and its point was sharpened.  A hundred times in my boyhood

days had I picked locks with a buttonhook.  Could I but

reach that little bit of polished steel I might yet effect

at least a temporary escape.

Crawling to the limit of my chain, I found that by

reaching one hand as far out as I could my fingers

still fell an inch short of the coveted instrument.

It was tantalizing!  Stretch every fiber of my being

as I would, I could not quite make it.

At last I turned about and extended one foot toward

the object.  My heart came to my throat!  I could just

touch the thing!  But suppose that in my effort to drag it

toward me I should accidentally shove it still farther

away and thus entirely out of reach!  Cold sweat broke

out upon me from every pore.  Slowly and cautiously I

made the effort.  My toes dropped upon the cold metal.

Gradually I worked it toward me until I felt that it was

within reach of my hand and a moment later I had turned

about and the precious thing was in my grasp.

Assiduously I fell to work upon the Mahar lock that held

my chain.  It was pitifully simple.  A child might have

picked it, and a moment later I was free.  The Mahars

were now evidently completing their work at the table.

One already turned away and was examining other victims,

evidently with the intention of selecting the next subject.

Those at the table had their backs toward me.  But for the

creature walking toward us I might have escaped that moment.

Slowly the thing approached me, when its attention was

attracted by a huge slave chained a few yards to my right.

Here the reptile stopped and commenced to go over the poor

devil carefully, and as it did so its back turned toward me

for an instant, and in that instant I gave two mighty leaps

that carried me out of the chamber into the corridor beyond,

down which I raced with all the speed I could command.

Where I was, or whither I was going, I knew not.

My only thought was to place as much distance as possible

between me and that frightful chamber of torture.

Presently I reduced my speed to a brisk walk, and later

realizing the danger of running into some new predicament,

were I not careful, I moved still more slowly and cautiously.

After a time I came to a passage that seemed in some

mysterious way familiar to me, and presently, chancing to

glance within a chamber which led from the corridor I saw

three Mahars curled up in slumber upon a bed of skins.

I could have shouted aloud in joy and relief.  It was

the same corridor and the same Mahars that I had intended

to have lead so important a role in our escape from Phutra.

Providence had indeed been kind to me, for the reptiles

still slept.

My one great danger now lay in returning to the upper

levels in search of Perry and Ghak, but there was nothing

else to be done, and so I hastened upward.  When I came

to the frequented portions of the building, I found a large

burden of skins in a corner and these I lifted to my head,

carrying them in such a way that ends and corners fell

down about my shoulders completely hiding my face.

Thus disguised I found Perry and Ghak together in the

chamber where we had been wont to eat and sleep.

Both were glad to see me, it was needless to say, though of

course they had known nothing of the fate that had been

meted out to me by my judges.  It was decided that no time

should now be lost before attempting to put our plan of

escape to the test, as I could not hope to remain hidden

from the Sagoths long, nor could I forever carry that bale

of skins about upon my head without arousing suspicion.

However it seemed likely that it would carry me once

more safely through the crowded passages and chambers

of the upper levels, and so I set out with Perry and

Ghak--the stench of the illy cured pelts fairly choking me.

Together we repaired to the first tier of corridors beneath

the main floor of the buildings, and here Perry and Ghak

halted to await me.  The buildings are cut out of the solid

limestone formation.  There is nothing at all remarkable about

their architecture.  The rooms are sometimes rectangular,

sometimes circular, and again oval in shape.  The corridors

which connect them are narrow and not always straight.

The chambers are lighted by diffused sunlight reflected

through tubes similar to those by which the avenues

are lighted.  The lower the tiers of chambers, the darker.

Most of the corridors are entirely unlighted.  The Mahars

can see quite well in semidarkness.

Down to the main floor we encountered many Mahars,

Sagoths, and slaves; but no attention was paid to us as we

had become a part of the domestic life of the building.

There was but a single entrance leading from the place

into the avenue and this was well guarded by Sagoths--this

doorway alone were we forbidden to pass.  It is true

that we were not supposed to enter the deeper corridors

and apartments except on special occasions when we were

instructed to do so; but as we were considered a lower

order without intelligence there was little reason

to fear that we could accomplish any harm by so doing,

and so we were not hindered as we entered the corridor

which led below.

Wrapped in a skin I carried three swords, and the two bows,

and the arrows which Perry and I had fashioned.

As many slaves bore skin-wrapped burdens to and fro my load

attracted no comment.  Where I left Ghak and Perry there

were no other creatures in sight, and so I withdrew one sword

from the package, and leaving the balance of the weapons

with Perry, started on alone toward the lower levels.

Having come to the apartment in which the three Mahars slept

I entered silently on tiptoe, forgetting that the creatures

were without the sense of hearing.  With a quick thrust

through the heart I disposed of the first but my second

thrust was not so fortunate, so that before I could kill

the next of my victims it had hurled itself against the third,

who sprang quickly up, facing me with wide-distended jaws.

But fighting is not the occupation which the race

of Mahars loves, and when the thing saw that I already

had dispatched two of its companions, and that my sword

was red with their blood, it made a dash to escape me.

But I was too quick for it, and so, half hopping,

half flying, it scurried down another corridor with me

close upon its heels.

Its escape meant the utter ruin of our plan, and in all

probability my instant death.  This thought lent wings

to my feet; but even at my best I could do no more than

hold my own with the leaping thing before me.

Of a sudden it turned into an apartment on the right

of the corridor, and an instant later as I rushed

in I found myself facing two of the Mahars.  The one

who had been there when we entered had been occupied

with a number of metal vessels, into which had been put

powders and liquids as I judged from the array of flasks

standing about upon the bench where it had been working.

In an instant I realized what I had stumbled upon.

It was the very room for the finding of which Perry had

given me minute directions.  It was the buried chamber

in which was hidden the Great Secret of the race of Mahars.

And on the bench beside the flasks lay the skin-bound book

which held the only copy of the thing I was to have sought,

after dispatching the three Mahars in their sleep.

There was no exit from the room other than the doorway

in which I now stood facing the two frightful reptiles.

Cornered, I knew that they would fight like demons,

and they were well equipped to fight if fight they must.

Together they launched themselves upon me, and though I ran

one of them through the heart on the instant, the other

fastened its gleaming fangs about my sword arm above

the elbow, and then with her sharp talons commenced to rake

me about the body, evidently intent upon disemboweling me.

I saw that it was useless to hope that I might release

my arm from that powerful, viselike grip which seemed

to be severing my arm from my body.  The pain I suffered

was intense, but it only served to spur me to greater

efforts to overcome my antagonist.

Back and forth across the floor we struggled--the Mahar

dealing me terrific, cutting blows with her fore feet,

while I attempted to protect my body with my left hand,

at the same time watching for an opportunity to transfer

my blade from my now useless sword hand to its rapidly

weakening mate.  At last I was successful, and with what

seemed to me my last ounce of strength I ran the blade

through the ugly body of my foe.

Soundless, as it had fought, it died, and though weak from

pain and loss of blood, it was with an emotion of triumphant

pride that I stepped across its convulsively stiffening

corpse to snatch up the most potent secret of a world.

A single glance assured me it was the very thing that

Perry had described to me.

And as I grasped it did I think of what it meant to the

human race of Pellucidar--did there flash through my

mind the thought that countless generations of my own

kind yet unborn would have reason to worship me for the

thing that I had accomplished for them?  I did not.

I thought of a beautiful oval face, gazing out of

limpid eyes, through a waving mass of jet-black hair.

I thought of red, red lips, God-made for kissing.

And of a sudden, apropos of nothing, standing there

alone in the secret chamber of the Mahars of Pellucidar,

I realized that I loved Dian the Beautiful.

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CHAPTER XII

PURSUIT

FOR AN INSTANT I STOOD THERE THINKING OF HER, and then,

with a sigh, I tucked the book in the thong that supported

my loin cloth, and turned to leave the apartment.

At the bottom of the corridor which leads aloft from

the lower chambers I whistled in accordance with the

prearranged signal which was to announce to Perry and Ghak

that I had been successful.  A moment later they stood

beside me, and to my surprise I saw that Hooja the Sly

One accompanied them.

"He joined us," explained Perry, "and would not be denied.

The fellow is a fox.  He scents escape, and rather than

be thwarted of our chance now I told him that I would

bring him to you, and let you decide whether he might

accompany us."

I had no love for Hooja, and no confidence in him.

I was sure that if he thought it would profit him he would

betray us; but I saw no way out of it now, and the fact

that I had killed four Mahars instead of only the three I

had expected to, made it possible to include the fellow

in our scheme of escape.

"Very well," I said, "you may come with us, Hooja; but at

the first intimation of treachery I shall run my sword

through you.  Do you understand?"

He said that he did.

Some time later we had removed the skins from the four Mahars,

and so succeeded in crawling inside of them ourselves

that there seemed an excellent chance for us to pass

unnoticed from Phutra.  It was not an easy thing to fasten

the hides together where we had split them along the belly

to remove them from their carcasses, but by remaining

out until the others had all been sewed in with my help,

and then leaving an aperture in the breast of Perry's

skin through which he could pass his hands to sew me up,

we were enabled to accomplish our design to really much

better purpose than I had hoped.  We managed to keep the

heads erect by passing our swords up through the necks,

and by the same means were enabled to move them about in

a life-like manner.  We had our greatest difficulty with

the webbed feet, but even that problem was finally solved,

so that when we moved about we did so quite naturally.

Tiny holes punctured in the baggy throats into which our

heads were thrust permitted us to see well enough to guide

our progress.

Thus we started up toward the main floor of the building.

Ghak headed the strange procession, then came Perry,

followed by Hooja, while I brought up the rear,

after admonishing Hooja that I had so arranged my sword

that I could thrust it through the head of my disguise into

his vitals were he to show any indication of faltering.

As the noise of hurrying feet warned me that we were

entering the busy corridors of the main level, my heart

came up into my mouth.  It is with no sense of shame that I

admit that I was frightened--never before in my life,

nor since, did I experience any such agony of soulsearing

fear and suspense as enveloped me.  If it be possible

to sweat blood, I sweat it then.

Slowly, after the manner of locomotion habitual to

the Mahars, when they are not using their wings, we crept

through throngs of busy slaves, Sagoths, and Mahars.

After what seemed an eternity we reached the outer door

which leads into the main avenue of Phutra.  Many Sagoths

loitered near the opening.  They glanced at Ghak as he

padded between them.  Then Perry passed, and then Hooja.

Now it was my turn, and then in a sudden fit of freezing

terror I realized that the warm blood from my wounded arm

was trickling down through the dead foot of the Mahar skin

I wore and leaving its tell-tale mark upon the pavement,

for I saw a Sagoth call a companion's attention to it.

The guard stepped before me and pointing to my bleeding

foot spoke to me in the sign language which these two

races employ as a means of communication.  Even had I

known what he was saying I could not have replied

with the dead thing that covered me.  I once had seen

a great Mahar freeze a presumptuous Sagoth with a look.

It seemed my only hope, and so I tried it.  Stopping in

my tracks I moved my sword so that it made the dead head

appear to turn inquiring eyes upon the gorilla-man. For

a long moment I stood perfectly still, eyeing the fellow

with those dead eyes.  Then I lowered the head and started

slowly on.  For a moment all hung in the balance,

but before I touched him the guard stepped to one side,

and I passed on out into the avenue.

On we went up the broad street, but now we were safe

for the very numbers of our enemies that surrounded us

on all sides.  Fortunately, there was a great concourse

of Mahars repairing to the shallow lake which lies a mile

or more from the city.  They go there to indulge their

amphibian proclivities in diving for small fish, and enjoying

the cool depths of the water.  It is a fresh-water lake,

shallow, and free from the larger reptiles which make the use

of the great seas of Pellucidar impossible for any but their

own kind.

In the thick of the crowd we passed up the steps and out

onto the plain.  For some distance Ghak remained with the

stream that was traveling toward the lake, but finally,

at the bottom of a little gully he halted, and there we

remained until all had passed and we were alone.  Then,

still in our disguises, we set off directly away from Phutra.

The heat of the vertical rays of the sun was fast

making our horrible prisons unbearable, so that after

passing a low divide, and entering a sheltering forest,

we finally discarded the Mahar skins that had brought

us thus far in safety.

I shall not weary you with the details of that bitter

and galling flight.  How we traveled at a dogged run until

we dropped in our tracks.  How we were beset by strange

and terrible beasts.  How we barely escaped the cruel fangs

of lions and tigers the size of which would dwarf into

pitiful insignificance the greatest felines of the outer world.

On and on we raced, our one thought to put as much

distance between ourselves and Phutra as possible.

Ghak was leading us to his own land--the land of Sari.

No sign of pursuit had developed, and yet we were sure

that somewhere behind us relentless Sagoths were dogging

our tracks.  Ghak said they never failed to hunt down

their quarry until they had captured it or themselves been

turned back by a superior force.

Our only hope, he said, lay in reaching his tribe

which was quite strong enough in their mountain fastness

to beat off any number of Sagoths.

At last, after what seemed months, and may, I now realize,

have been years, we came in sight of the dun escarpment

which buttressed the foothills of Sari.  At almost

the same instant, Hooja, who looked ever quite as much

behind as before, announced that he could see a body

of men far behind us topping a low ridge in our wake.

It was the long-expected pursuit.

I asked Ghak if we could make Sari in time to escape them.

"We may," he replied; "but you will find that the

Sagoths can move with incredible swiftness, and as they

are almost tireless they are doubtless much fresher

than we.  Then--" he paused, glancing at Perry.

I knew what he meant.  The old man was exhausted.

For much of the period of our flight either Ghak or I had

half supported him on the march.  With such a handicap,

less fleet pursuers than the Sagoths might easily

overtake us before we could scale the rugged heights

which confronted us.

"You and Hooja go on ahead," I said.  "Perry and I will make

it if we are able.  We cannot travel as rapidly as you two,

and there is no reason why all should be lost because

of that.  It can't be helped--we have simply to face it."

"I will not desert a companion," was Ghak's simple reply.

I hadn't known that this great, hairy, primeval man had

any such nobility of character stowed away inside him.

I had always liked him, but now to my liking was added honor

and respect.  Yes, and love.

But still I urged him to go on ahead, insisting that if he

could reach his people he might be able to bring out

a sufficient force to drive off the Sagoths and rescue

Perry and myself.

No, he wouldn't leave us, and that was all there was to it,

but he suggested that Hooja might hurry on and warn

the Sarians of the king's danger.  It didn't require much

urging to start Hooja--the naked idea was enough to send

him leaping on ahead of us into the foothills which we

now had reached.

Perry realized that he was jeopardizing Ghak's life and mine

and the old fellow fairly begged us to go on without him,

although I knew that he was suffering a perfect anguish

of terror at the thought of falling into the hands of

the Sagoths.  Ghak finally solved the problem, in part,

by lifting Perry in his powerful arms and carrying him.

While the act cut down Ghak's speed he still could travel

faster thus than when half supporting the stumbling

old man.

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CHAPTER XIII

THE SLY ONE

THE SAGOTHS WERE GAINING ON US RAPIDLY, FOR once they

had sighted us they had greatly increased their speed.

On and on we stumbled up the narrow canyon that Ghak had

chosen to approach the heights of Sari.  On either side

rose precipitous cliffs of gorgeous, parti-colored rock,

while beneath our feet a thick mountain grass formed a soft

and noiseless carpet.  Since we had entered the canyon we

had had no glimpse of our pursuers, and I was commencing

to hope that they had lost our trail and that we would

reach the now rapidly nearing cliffs in time to scale them

before we should be overtaken.

Ahead we neither saw nor heard any sign which might

betoken the success of Hooja's mission.  By now he

should have reached the outposts of the Sarians, and we

should at least hear the savage cries of the tribesmen

as they swarmed to arms in answer to their king's appeal

for succor.  In another moment the frowning cliffs ahead

should be black with primeval warriors.  But nothing

of the kind happened--as a matter of fact the Sly One

had betrayed us.  At the moment that we expected to see

Sarian spearmen charging to our relief at Hooja's back,

the craven traitor was sneaking around the outskirts

of the nearest Sarian village, that he might come up

from the other side when it was too late to save us,

claiming that he had become lost among the mountains.

Hooja still harbored ill will against me because of the blow

I had struck in Dian's protection, and his malevolent spirit

was equal to sacrificing us all that he might be revenged upon

me.

As we drew nearer the barrier cliffs and no sign of rescuing

Sarians appeared Ghak became both angry and alarmed,

and presently as the sound of rapidly approaching pursuit

fell upon our ears, he called to me over his shoulder

that we were lost.

A backward glance gave me a glimpse of the first of

the Sagoths at the far end of a considerable stretch

of canyon through which we had just passed, and then

a sudden turning shut the ugly creature from my view;

but the loud howl of triumphant rage which rose behind

us was evidence that the gorilla-man had sighted us.

Again the canyon veered sharply to the left, but to the

right another branch ran on at a lesser deviation from

the general direction, so that appeared more like the main

canyon than the lefthand branch.  The Sagoths were now

not over two hundred and fifty yards behind us, and I saw

that it was hopeless for us to expect to escape other than

by a ruse.  There was a bare chance of saving Ghak and Perry,

and as I reached the branching of the canyon I took the chance.

Pausing there I waited until the foremost Sagoth hove

into sight.  Ghak and Perry had disappeared around a bend

in the left-hand canyon, and as the Sagoth's savage

yell announced that he had seen me I turned and fled

up the right-hand branch.  My ruse was successful,

and the entire party of man-hunters raced headlong after

me up one canyon while Ghak bore Perry to safety up the other.

Running has never been my particular athletic forte,

and now when my very life depended upon fleetness of foot

I cannot say that I ran any better than on the occasions

when my pitiful base running had called down upon my head

the rooter's raucous and reproachful cries of "Ice Wagon,"

and "Call a cab."

The Sagoths were gaining on me rapidly.  There was

one in particular, fleeter than his fellows, who was

perilously close.  The canyon had become a rocky slit,

rising roughly at a steep angle toward what seemed a pass

between two abutting peaks.  What lay beyond I could

not even guess--possibly a sheer drop of hundreds of feet

into the corresponding valley upon the other side.

Could it be that I had plunged into a cul-de-sac?

Realizing that I could not hope to outdistance the Sagoths

to the top of the canyon I had determined to risk all

in an attempt to check them temporarily, and to this

end had unslung my rudely made bow and plucked an arrow

from the skin quiver which hung behind my shoulder.

As I fitted the shaft with my right hand I stopped

and wheeled toward the gorilla-man.

In the world of my birth I never had drawn a shaft,

but since our escape from Phutra I had kept the party

supplied with small game by means of my arrows, and so,

through necessity, had developed a fair degree of accuracy.

During our flight from Phutra I had restrung my bow with a piece

of heavy gut taken from a huge tiger which Ghak and I had

worried and finally dispatched with arrows, spear, and sword.

The hard wood of the bow was extremely tough and this,

with the strength and elasticity of my new string,

gave me unwonted confidence in my weapon.

Never had I greater need of steady nerves than then--never

were my nerves and muscles under better control.

I sighted as carefully and deliberately as though at

a straw target.  The Sagoth had never before seen a bow

and arrow, but of a sudden it must have swept over his dull

intellect that the thing I held toward him was some sort

of engine of destruction, for he too came to a halt,

simultaneously swinging his hatchet for a throw.

It is one of the many methods in which they employ

this weapon, and the accuracy of aim which they achieve,

even under the most unfavorable circumstances, is little

short of miraculous.

My shaft was drawn back its full length--my eye had centered

its sharp point upon the left breast of my adversary;

and then he launched his hatchet and I released my arrow.

At the instant that our missiles flew I leaped to one side,

but the Sagoth sprang forward to follow up his attack

with a spear thrust.  I felt the swish of the hatchet

at it grazed my head, and at the same instant my shaft

pierced the Sagoth's savage heart, and with a single groan

he lunged almost at my feet--stone dead.  Close behind

him were two more--fifty yards perhaps--but the distance

gave me time to snatch up the dead guardsman's shield,

for the close call his hatchet had just given me had borne

in upon me the urgent need I had for one.  Those which I

had purloined at Phutra we had not been able to bring along

because their size precluded our concealing them within

the skins of the Mahars which had brought us safely from

the city.

With the shield slipped well up on my left arm I let fly

with another arrow, which brought down a second Sagoth,

and then as his fellow's hatchet sped toward me I caught

it upon the shield, and fitted another shaft for him;

but he did not wait to receive it.  Instead, he turned and

retreated toward the main body of gorilla-men. Evidently he

had seen enough of me for the moment.

Once more I took up my flight, nor were the Sagoths

apparently overanxious to press their pursuit so closely

as before.  Unmolested I reached the top of the canyon

where I found a sheer drop of two or three hundred feet

to the bottom of a rocky chasm; but on the left a narrow

ledge rounded the shoulder of the overhanging cliff.

Along this I advanced, and at a sudden turning,

a few yards beyond the canyon's end, the path widened,

and at my left I saw the opening to a large cave.

Before, the ledge continued until it passed from sight

about another projecting buttress of the mountain.

Here, I felt, I could defy an army, for but a single

foeman could advance upon me at a time, nor could he know

that I was awaiting him until he came full upon me around

the corner of the turn.  About me lay scattered stones

crumbled from the cliff above.  They were of various

sizes and shapes, but enough were of handy dimensions

for use as ammunition in lieu of my precious arrows.

Gathering a number of stones into a little pile beside

the mouth of the cave I waited the advance of the Sagoths.

As I stood there, tense and silent, listening for the

first faint sound that should announce the approach

of my enemies, a slight noise from within the cave's

black depths attracted my attention.  It might have

been produced by the moving of the great body of some

huge beast rising from the rock floor of its lair.

At almost the same instant I thought that I caught the

scraping of hide sandals upon the ledge beyond the turn.

For the next few seconds my attention was considerably divided.

And then from the inky blackness at my right I saw two

flaming eyes glaring into mine.  They were on a level

that was over two feet above my head.  It is true that the

beast who owned them might be standing upon a ledge within

the cave, or that it might be rearing up upon its hind legs;

but I had seen enough of the monsters of Pellucidar to know

that I might be facing some new and frightful Titan whose

dimensions and ferocity eclipsed those of any I had seen before.

Whatever it was, it was coming slowly toward the entrance

of the cave, and now, deep and forbidding, it uttered a low

and ominous growl.  I waited no longer to dispute possession

of the ledge with the thing which owned that voice.

The noise had not been loud--I doubt if the Sagoths heard

it at all--but the suggestion of latent possibilities

behind it was such that I knew it would only emanate

from a gigantic and ferocious beast.

As I backed along the ledge I soon was past the mouth

of the cave, where I no longer could see those fearful

flaming eyes, but an instant later I caught sight of the

fiendish face of a Sagoth as it warily advanced beyond

the cliff's turn on the far side of the cave's mouth.

As the fellow saw me he leaped along the ledge in pursuit,

and after him came as many of his companions as could

crowd upon each other's heels.  At the same time the beast

emerged from the cave, so that he and the Sagoths came

face to face upon that narrow ledge.

The thing was an enormous cave bear, rearing its colossal

bulk fully eight feet at the shoulder, while from the tip

of its nose to the end of its stubby tail it was fully twelve

feet in length.  As it sighted the Sagoths it emitted a most

frightful roar, and with open mouth charged full upon them.

With a cry of terror the foremost gorilla-man turned to escape,

but behind him he ran full upon his on-rushing companions.

The horror of the following seconds is indescribable.

The Sagoth nearest the cave bear, finding his escape

blocked, turned and leaped deliberately to an awful

death upon the jagged rocks three hundred feet below.

Then those giant jaws reached out and gathered in the

next--there was a sickening sound of crushing bones,

and the mangled corpse was dropped over the cliff's edge.

Nor did the mighty beast even pause in his steady advance

along the ledge.

Shrieking Sagoths were now leaping madly over the precipice

to escape him, and the last I saw he rounded the turn still

pursuing the demoralized remnant of the man hunters.

For a long time I could hear the horrid roaring of the brute

intermingled with the screams and shrieks of his victims,

until finally the awful sounds dwindled and disappeared

in the distance.

Later I learned from Ghak, who had finally come to his

tribesmen and returned with a party to rescue me,

that the ryth, as it is called, pursued the Sagoths until

it had exterminated the entire band.  Ghak was, of course,

positive that I had fallen prey to the terrible creature,

which, within Pellucidar, is truly the king of beasts.

Not caring to venture back into the canyon, where I

might fall prey either to the cave bear or the Sagoths I

continued on along the ledge, believing that by following

around the mountain I could reach the land of Sari from

another direction.  But I evidently became confused by the

twisting and turning of the canyons and gullies, for I did

not come to the land of Sari then, nor for a long time

thereafter.

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CHAPTER XIV

THE GARDEN OF EDEN

WITH NO HEAVENLY GUIDE, IT IS LITTLE WONDER that I became

confused

and lost in the labyrinthine maze of those mighty hills.

What, in reality, I did was to pass entirely through them

and come out above the valley upon the farther side.

I know that I wandered for a long time, until tired and

hungry I came upon a small cave in the face of the limestone

formation which had taken the place of the granite farther back.

The cave which took my fancy lay halfway up the precipitous

side of a lofty cliff.  The way to it was such that I

knew no extremely formidable beast could frequent it,

nor was it large enough to make a comfortable habitat

for any but the smaller mammals or reptiles.  Yet it

was with the utmost caution that I crawled within its

dark interior.

Here I found a rather large chamber, lighted by a

narrow cleft in the rock above which let the sunlight

filter in in sufficient quantities partially to dispel

the utter darkness which I had expected.  The cave was

entirely empty, nor were there any signs of its having been

recently occupied.  The opening was comparatively small,

so that after considerable effort I was able to lug

up a bowlder from the valley below which entirely blocked it.

Then I returned again to the valley for an armful of grasses

and on this trip was fortunate enough to knock over

an orthopi, the diminutive horse of Pellucidar, a little

animal about the size of a fox terrier, which abounds

in all parts of the inner world.  Thus, with food

and bedding I returned to my lair, where after a meal

of raw meat, to which I had now become quite accustomed,

I dragged the bowlder before the entrance and curled

myself upon a bed of grasses--a naked, primeval, cave man,

as savagely primitive as my prehistoric progenitors.

I awoke rested but hungry, and pushing the bowlder aside

crawled out upon the little rocky shelf which was my

front porch.  Before me spread a small but beautiful valley,

through the center of which a clear and sparkling river

wound its way down to an inland sea, the blue waters

of which were just visible between the two mountain ranges

which embraced this little paradise.  The sides of the

opposite hills were green with verdure, for a great forest

clothed them to the foot of the red and yellow and copper

green of the towering crags which formed their summit.

The valley itself was carpeted with a luxuriant grass,

while here and there patches of wild flowers made great

splashes of vivid color against the prevailing green.

Dotted over the face of the valley were little clusters

of palmlike trees--three or four together as a rule.

Beneath these stood antelope, while others grazed in the open,

or wandered gracefully to a near-by ford to drink.

There were several species of this beautiful animal,

the most magnificent somewhat resembling the giant eland

of Africa, except that their spiral horns form a complete

curve backward over their ears and then forward again

beneath them, ending in sharp and formidable points

some two feet before the face and above the eyes.

In size they remind one of a pure bred Hereford bull,

yet they are very agile and fast.  The broad yellow bands

that stripe the dark roan of their coats made me take

them for zebra when I first saw them.  All in all they

are handsome animals, and added the finishing touch

to the strange and lovely landscape that spread before my

new home.

I had determined to make the cave my headquarters,

and with it as a base make a systematic exploration

of the surrounding country in search of the land

of Sari.  First I devoured the remainder of the carcass

of the orthopi I had killed before my last sleep.

Then I hid the Great Secret in a deep niche at the back

of my cave, rolled the bowlder before my front door,

and with bow, arrows, sword, and shield scrambled down

into the peaceful valley.

The grazing herds moved to one side as I passed through them,

the little orthopi evincing the greatest wariness and

galloping to safest distances.  All the animals stopped

feeding as I approached, and after moving to what they

considered a safe distance stood contemplating me with

serious eyes and up-cocked ears.  Once one of the old bull

antelopes of the striped species lowered his head and

bellowed angrily--even taking a few steps in my direction,

so that I thought he meant to charge; but after I had passed,

he resumed feeding as though nothing had disturbed him.

Near the lower end of the valley I passed a number of tapirs,

and across the river saw a great sadok, the enormous

double-horned progenitor of the modern rhinoceros.

At the valley's end the cliffs upon the left ran

out into the sea, so that to pass around them as I

desired to do it was necessary to scale them in search

of a ledge along which I might continue my journey.

Some fifty feet from the base I came upon a projection

which formed a natural path along the face of the cliff,

and this I followed out over the sea toward the cliff's end.

Here the ledge inclined rapidly upward toward the top

of the cliffs--the stratum which formed it evidently having

been forced up at this steep angle when the mountains

behind it were born.  As I climbed carefully up the ascent

my attention suddenly was attracted aloft by the sound

of strange hissing, and what resembled the flapping of wings.

And at the first glance there broke upon my horrified vision

the most frightful thing I had seen even within Pellucidar.

It was a giant dragon such as is pictured in the legends

and fairy tales of earth folk.  Its huge body must have

measured forty feet in length, while the batlike wings

that supported it in midair had a spread of fully thirty.

Its gaping jaws were armed with long, sharp teeth,

and its claw equipped with horrible talons.

The hissing noise which had first attracted my attention

was issuing from its throat, and seemed to be directed

at something beyond and below me which I could not see.

The ledge upon which I stood terminated abruptly a few

paces farther on, and as I reached the end I saw the cause

of the reptile's agitation.

Some time in past ages an earthquake had produced a fault

at this point, so that beyond the spot where I stood

the strata had slipped down a matter of twenty feet.

The result was that the continuation of my ledge lay twenty

feet below me, where it ended as abruptly as did the end

upon which I stood.

And here, evidently halted in flight by this insurmountable

break in the ledge, stood the object of the creature's

attack--a girl cowering upon the narrow platform,

her face buried in her arms, as though to shut out the

sight of the frightful death which hovered just above her.

The dragon was circling lower, and seemed about to dart

in upon its prey.  There was no time to be lost,

scarce an instant in which to weigh the possible

chances that I had against the awfully armed creature;

but the sight of that frightened girl below me called

out to all that was best in me, and the instinct for

protection of the other sex, which nearly must have

equaled the instinct of self-preservation in primeval man,

drew me to the girl's side like an irresistible magnet.

Almost thoughtless of the consequences, I leaped from

the end of the ledge upon which I stood, for the tiny

shelf twenty feet below.  At the same instant the dragon

darted in toward the girl, but my sudden advent upon the

scene must have startled him for he veered to one side,

and then rose above us once more.

The noise I made as I landed beside her convinced the girl

that the end had come, for she thought I was the dragon;

but finally when no cruel fangs closed upon her she

raised her eyes in astonishment.  As they fell upon me

the expression that came into them would be difficult

to describe; but her feelings could scarcely have been

one whit more complicated than my own--for the wide eyes

that looked into mine were those of Dian the Beautiful.

"Dian!" I cried.  "Dian!  Thank God that I came in time."

"You?" she whispered, and then she hid her face again;

nor could I tell whether she were glad or angry that I

had come.

Once more the dragon was sweeping toward us, and so rapidly

that I had no time to unsling my bow.  All that I could

do was to snatch up a rock, and hurl it at the thing's

hideous face.  Again my aim was true, and with a hiss

of pain and rage the reptile wheeled once more and soared away.

Quickly I fitted an arrow now that I might be ready

at the next attack, and as I did so I looked down at

the girl, so that I surprised her in a surreptitious

glance which she was stealing at me; but immediately,

she again covered her face with her hands.

"Look at me, Dian," I pleaded.  "Are you not glad to see me?"

She looked straight into my eyes.

"I hate you," she said, and then, as I was about to beg

for a fair hearing she pointed over my shoulder.

"The thipdar comes," she said, and I turned again to meet

the reptile.

So this was a thipdar.  I might have known it.  The cruel

bloodhound of the Mahars.  The long-extinct pterodactyl

of the outer world.  But this time I met it with a weapon it

never had faced before.  I had selected my longest arrow,

and with all my strength had bent the bow until the very

tip of the shaft rested upon the thumb of my left hand,

and then as the great creature darted toward us I let

drive straight for that tough breast.

Hissing like the escape valve of a steam engine,

the mighty creature fell turning and twisting into the

sea below, my arrow buried completely in its carcass.

I turned toward the girl.  She was looking past me.

It was evident that she had seen the thipdar die.

"Dian," I said, "won't you tell me that you are not sorry

that I have found you?"

"I hate you," was her only reply; but I imagined

that there was less vehemence in it than before--yet

it might have been but my imagination.

"Why do you hate me, Dian?" I asked, but she did not

answer me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, "and what has happened

to you since Hooja freed you from the Sagoths?"

At first I thought that she was going to ignore me entirely,

but finally she thought better of it.

"I was again running away from Jubal the Ugly One,"

she said.  "After I escaped from the Sagoths I made my way

alone back to my own land; but on account of Jubal I did

not dare enter the villages or let any of my friends know

that I had returned for fear that Jubal might find out.

By watching for a long time I found that my brother

had not yet returned, and so I continued to live in a

cave beside a valley which my race seldom frequents,

awaiting the time that he should come back and free me

from Jubal.

"But at last one of Jubal's hunters saw me as I was creeping

toward my father's cave to see if my brother had yet

returned and he gave the alarm and Jubal set out after me.

He has been pursuing me across many lands.  He cannot

be far behind me now.  When he comes he will kill you

and carry me back to his cave.  He is a terrible man.

I have gone as far as I can go, and there is no escape,"

and she looked hopelessly up at the continuation of the ledge

twenty feet above us.

"But he shall not have me," she suddenly cried,

with great vehemence.  "The sea is there"--she pointed over

the edge of the cliff--"and the sea shall have me rather than

Jubal."

"But I have you now Dian," I cried; "nor shall Jubal,

nor any other have you, for you are mine," and I seized

her hand, nor did I lift it above her head and let it fall

in token of release.

She had risen to her feet, and was looking straight

into my eyes with level gaze.

"I do not believe you," she said, "for if you meant it

you would have done this when the others were present

to witness it--then I should truly have been your mate;

now there is no one to see you do it, for you know that

without witnesses your act does not bind you to me,"

and she withdrew her hand from mine and turned away.

I tried to convince her that I was sincere, but she

simply couldn't forget the humiliation that I had put

upon her on that other occasion.

"If you mean all that you say you will have ample chance to

prove it," she said, "if Jubal does not catch and kill you.

I am in your power, and the treatment you accord me

will be the best proof of your intentions toward me.

I am not your mate, and again I tell you that I hate you,

and that I should be glad if I never saw you again."

Dian certainly was candid.  There was no gainsaying that.

In fact I found candor and directness to be quite

a marked characteristic of the cave men of Pellucidar.

Finally I suggested that we make some attempt to gain

my cave, where we might escape the searching Jubal,

for I am free to admit that I had no considerable desire

to meet the formidable and ferocious creature, of whose

mighty prowess Dian had told me when I first met her.

He it was who, armed with a puny knife, had met and killed

a cave bear in a hand-to-hand struggle.  It was Jubal who

could cast his spear entirely through the armored carcass

of the sadok at fifty paces.  It was he who had crushed

the skull of a charging dyryth with a single blow of his

war club.  No, I was not pining to meet the Ugly One-and it

was quite certain that I should not go out and hunt for him;

but the matter was taken out of my hands very quickly,

as is often the way, and I did meet Jubal the Ugly One face

to face.

This is how it happened.  I had led Dian back along

the ledge the way she had come, searching for a path

that would lead us to the top of the cliff, for I knew

that we could then cross over to the edge of my own

little valley, where I felt certain we should find a means

of ingress from the cliff top.  As we proceeded along

the ledge I gave Dian minute directions for finding my

cave against the chance of something happening to me.

I knew that she would be quite safely hidden away

from pursuit once she gained the shelter of my lair,

and the valley would afford her ample means of sustenance.

Also, I was very much piqued by her treatment of me.

My heart was sad and heavy, and I wanted to make her feel

badly by suggesting that something terrible might happen

to me--that I might, in fact, be killed.  But it didn't

work worth a cent, at least as far as I could perceive.

Dian simply shrugged those magnificent shoulders of hers,

and murmured something to the effect that one was not rid of

trouble so easily as that.

For a while I kept still.  I was utterly squelched.

And to think that I had twice protected her from

attack--the last time risking my life to save hers.

It was incredible that even a daughter of the Stone Age

could be so ungrateful--so heartless; but maybe her heart

partook of the qualities of her epoch.

Presently we found a rift in the cliff which had been widened

and extended by the action of the water draining through it

from the plateau above.  It gave us a rather rough climb

to the summit, but finally we stood upon the level mesa

which stretched back for several miles to the mountain range.

Behind us lay the broad inland sea, curving upward in the

horizonless distance to merge into the blue of the sky,

so that for all the world it looked as though the sea

lapped back to arch completely over us and disappear beyond

the distant mountains at our backs--the weird and uncanny

aspect of the seascapes of Pellucidar balk description.

At our right lay a dense forest, but to the left the country

was open and clear to the plateau's farther verge.

It was in this direction that our way led, and we had

turned to resume our journey when Dian touched my arm.

I turned to her, thinking that she was about to make

peace overtures; but I was mistaken.

"Jubal," she said, and nodded toward the forest.

I looked, and there, emerging from the dense wood,

came a perfect whale of a man.  He must have been seven

feet tall, and proportioned accordingly.  He still was

too far off to distinguish his features.

"Run," I said to Dian.  "I can engage him until you get

a good start.  Maybe I can hold him until you have gotten

entirely away," and then, without a backward glance,

I advanced to meet the Ugly One.  I had hoped that Dian

would have a kind word to say to me before she went,

for she must have known that I was going to my death

for her sake; but she never even so much as bid me

good-bye, and it was with a heavy heart that I strode

through the flower-bespangled grass to my doom.

When I had come close enough to Jubal to distinguish

his features I understood how it was that he had earned

the sobriquet of Ugly One.  Apparently some fearful

beast had ripped away one entire side of his face.

The eye was gone, the nose, and all the flesh, so that

his jaws and all his teeth were exposed and grinning

through the horrible scar.

Formerly he may have been as good to look upon as the others

of his handsome race, and it may be that the terrible

result of this encounter had tended to sour an already

strong and brutal character.  However this may be it

is quite certain that he was not a pretty sight, and now

that his features, or what remained of them, were distorted

in rage at the sight of Dian with another male, he was

indeed most terrible to see--and much more terrible to meet.

He had broken into a run now, and as he advanced he

raised his mighty spear, while I halted and fitting

an arrow to my bow took as steady aim as I could.

I was somewhat longer than usual, for I must confess that

the sight of this awful man had wrought upon my nerves

to such an extent that my knees were anything but steady.

What chance had I against this mighty warrior for whom

even the fiercest cave bear had no terrors!  Could I

hope to best one who slaughtered the sadok and dyryth

singlehanded!  I shuddered; but, in fairness to myself,

my fear was more for Dian than for my own fate.

And then the great brute launched his massive stone-tipped

spear, and I raised my shield to break the force of its

terrific velocity.  The impact hurled me to my knees,

but the shield had deflected the missile and I was unscathed.

Jubal was rushing upon me now with the only remaining

weapon that he carried--a murderous-looking knife.

He was too close for a careful bowshot, but I let drive

at him as he came, without taking aim.  My arrow pierced

the fleshy part of his thigh, inflicting a painful

but not disabling wound.  And then he was upon me.

My agility saved me for the instant.  I ducked beneath

his raised arm, and when he wheeled to come at me again he

found a sword's point in his face.  And a moment later he

felt an inch or two of it in the muscles of his knife arm,

so that thereafter he went more warily.

It was a duel of strategy now--the great, hairy man maneuvering

to get inside my guard where he could bring those giant

thews to play, while my wits were directed to the task

of keeping him at arm's length.  Thrice he rushed me,

and thrice I caught his knife blow upon my shield.

Each time my sword found his body--once penetrating

to his lung.  He was covered with blood by this time,

and the internal hemorrhage induced paroxysms of coughing

that brought the red stream through the hideous mouth

and nose, covering his face and breast with bloody froth.

He was a most unlovely spectacle, but he was far from dead.

As the duel continued I began to gain confidence, for,

to be perfectly candid, I had not expected to survive

the first rush of that monstrous engine of ungoverned

rage and hatred.  And I think that Jubal, from utter

contempt of me, began to change to a feeling of respect,

and then in his primitive mind there evidently loomed

the thought that perhaps at last he had met his master,

and was facing his end.

At any rate it is only upon this hypothesis that I can

account for his next act, which was in the nature of a last

resort--a sort of forlorn hope, which could only have been

born of the belief that if he did not kill me quickly

I should kill him.  It happened on the occasion of his

fourth charge, when, instead of striking at me with his knife,

he dropped that weapon, and seizing my sword blade in both

his hands wrenched the weapon from my grasp as easily as

from a babe.

Flinging it far to one side he stood motionless for just

an instant glaring into my face with such a horrid leer

of malignant triumph as to almost unnerve me--then he

sprang for me with his bare hands.  But it was Jubal's

day to learn new methods of warfare.  For the first time

he had seen a bow and arrows, never before that duel

had he beheld a sword, and now he learned what a man

who knows may do with his bare fists.

As he came for me, like a great bear, I ducked again

beneath his outstretched arm, and as I came up planted

as clean a blow upon his jaw as ever you have seen.

Down went that great mountain of flesh sprawling upon

the ground.  He was so surprised and dazed that he lay there

for several seconds before he made any attempt to rise,

and I stood over him with another dose ready when he

should gain his knees.

Up he came at last, almost roaring in his rage and mortification;

but he didn't stay up--I let him have a left fair on the

point of the jaw that sent him tumbling over on his back.

By this time I think Jubal had gone mad with hate, for no sane

man would have come back for more as many times as he did.

Time after time I bowled him over as fast as he could

stagger up, until toward the last he lay longer on the

ground between blows, and each time came up weaker than before.

He was bleeding very profusely now from the wound in his lungs,

and presently a terrific blow over the heart sent him

reeling heavily to the ground, where he lay very still,

and somehow I knew at once that Jubal the Ugly One would

never get up again.  But even as I looked upon that massive

body lying there so grim and terrible in death, I could

not believe that I, single-handed, had bested this slayer

of fearful beasts--this gigantic ogre of the Stone Age.

Picking up my sword I leaned upon it, looking down on

the dead body of my foeman, and as I thought of the battle

I had just fought and won a great idea was born in my

brain--the outcome of this and the suggestion that Perry

had made within the city of Phutra.  If skill and science

could render a comparative pygmy the master of this

mighty brute, what could not the brute's fellows accomplish

with the same skill and science.  Why all Pellucidar would

be at their feet--and I would be their king and Dian their queen.

Dian!  A little wave of doubt swept over me.  It was quite

within the possibilities of Dian to look down upon me even

were I king.  She was quite the most superior person I

ever had met--with the most convincing way of letting you

know that she was superior.  Well, I could go to the cave,

and tell her that I had killed Jubal, and then she

might feel more kindly toward me, since I had freed her

of her tormentor.  I hoped that she had found the cave

easily--it would be terrible had I lost her again, and I

turned to gather up my shield and bow to hurry after her,

when to my astonishment I found her standing not ten paces

behind me.

"Girl!" I cried, "what are you doing here?  I thought

that you had gone to the cave, as I told you to do."

Up went her head, and the look that she gave me took

all the majesty out of me, and left me feeling more

like the palace janitor--if palaces have janitors.

"As you told me to do!" she cried, stamping her little foot.

"I do as I please.  I am the daughter of a king,

and furthermore, I hate you."

I was dumbfounded--this was my thanks for saving

her from Jubal!  I turned and looked at the corpse.

"May be that I saved you from a worse fate, old man,"

I said, but I guess it was lost on Dian, for she never

seemed to notice it at all.

"Let us go to my cave," I said, "I am tired and hungry."

She followed along a pace behind me, neither of us speaking.

I was too angry, and she evidently didn't care to converse

with the lower orders.  I was mad all the way through,

as I had certainly felt that at least a word of thanks should

have rewarded me, for I knew that even by her own standards,

I must have done a very wonderful thing to have killed

the redoubtable Jubal in a hand-to-hand encounter.

We had no difficulty in finding my lair, and then I went

down into the valley and bowled over a small antelope,

which I dragged up the steep ascent to the ledge before

the door.  Here we ate in silence.  Occasionally I glanced

at her, thinking that the sight of her tearing at raw

flesh with her hands and teeth like some wild animal

would cause a revulsion of my sentiments toward her;

but to my surprise I found that she ate quite as daintily

as the most civilized woman of my acquaintance, and finally

I found myself gazing in foolish rapture at the beauties

of her strong, white teeth.  Such is love.

After our repast we went down to the river together

and bathed our hands and faces, and then after drinking

our fill went back to the cave.  Without a word I crawled

into the farthest corner and, curling up, was soon asleep.

When I awoke I found Dian sitting in the doorway looking out

across the valley.  As I came out she moved to one side to let

me pass, but she had no word for me.  I wanted to hate her,

but I couldn't. Every time I looked at her something came

up in my throat, so that I nearly choked.  I had never been

in love before, but I did not need any aid in diagnosing

my case--I certainly had it and had it bad.  God, how I

loved that beautiful, disdainful, tantalizing, prehistoric girl!

After we had eaten again I asked Dian if she intended

returning to her tribe now that Jubal was dead, but she

shook her head sadly, and said that she did not dare,

for there was still Jubal's brother to be considered--his

oldest brother.

"What has he to do with it?" I asked.  "Does he too want you,

or has the option on you become a family heirloom,

to be passed on down from generation to generation?"

She was not quite sure as to what I meant.

"It is probable," she said, "that they all will want revenge

for the death of Jubal--there are seven of them--seven

terrible men.  Someone may have to kill them all,

if I am to return to my people."

It began to look as though I had assumed a contract much

too large for me--about seven sizes, in fact.

"Had Jubal any cousins?" I asked.  It was just as well

to know the worst at once.

"Yes," replied Dian, "but they don't count--they all have mates.

Jubal's brothers have no mates because Jubal could get

none for himself.  He was so ugly that women ran away

from him--some have even thrown themselves from the cliffs

of Amoz into the Darel Az rather than mate with the Ugly One."

"But what had that to do with his brothers?" I asked.

"I forget that you are not of Pellucidar," said Dian,

with a look of pity mixed with contempt, and the contempt

seemed to be laid on a little thicker than the circumstance

warranted--as though to make quite certain that I shouldn't

overlook it.  "You see," she continued, "a younger brother

may not take a mate until all his older brothers have

done so, unless the older brother waives his prerogative,

which Jubal would not do, knowing that as long as he

kept them single they would be all the keener in aiding

him to secure a mate."

Noticing that Dian was becoming more communicative I

began to entertain hopes that she might be warming up

toward me a bit, although upon what slender thread

I hung my hopes I soon discovered.

"As you dare not return to Amoz," I ventured, "what is

to become of you since you cannot be happy here with me,

hating me as you do?"

"I shall have to put up with you," she replied coldly,

"until you see fit to go elsewhere and leave me in peace,

then I shall get along very well alone."

I looked at her in utter amazement.  It seemed

incredible that even a prehistoric woman could

be so cold and heartless and ungrateful.  Then I arose.

"I shall leave you NOW," I said haughtily, "I have had quite

enough of your ingratitude and your insults," and then I

turned and strode majestically down toward the valley.

I had taken a hundred steps in absolute silence, and then

Dian spoke.

"I hate you!" she shouted, and her voice broke--in rage,

I thought.

I was absolutely miserable, but I hadn't gone too far

when I began to realize that I couldn't leave her alone

there without protection, to hunt her own food amid

the dangers of that savage world.  She might hate me,

and revile me, and heap indignity after indignity upon me,

as she already had, until I should have hated her;

but the pitiful fact remained that I loved her, and I

couldn't leave her there alone.

The more I thought about it the madder I got,

so that by the time I reached the valley I was furious,

and the result of it was that I turned right around

and went up that cliff again as fast as I had come down.

I saw that Dian had left the ledge and gone within the cave,

but I bolted right in after her.  She was lying upon her

face on the pile of grasses I had gathered for her bed.

When she heard me enter she sprang to her feet like

a tigress.

"I hate you!" she cried.

Coming from the brilliant light of the noonday sun into

the semidarkness of the cave I could not see her features,

and I was rather glad, for I disliked to think of the hate

that I should have read there.

I never said a word to her at first.  I just strode

across the cave and grasped her by the wrists, and when

she struggled, I put my arm around her so as to pinion her

hands to her sides.  She fought like a tigress, but I took

my free hand and pushed her head back--I imagine that I

had suddenly turned brute, that I had gone back a thousand

million years, and was again a veritable cave man taking

my mate by force--and then I kissed that beautiful mouth

again and again.

"Dian," I cried, shaking her roughly, "I love you.

Can't you understand that I love you?  That I love you

better than all else in this world or my own?  That I am

going to have you?  That love like mine cannot be denied?"

I noticed that she lay very still in my arms now,

and as my eyes became accustomed to the light I saw

that she was smiling--a very contented, happy smile.

I was thunderstruck.  Then I realized that, very gently,

she was trying to disengage her arms, and I loosened my

grip upon them so that she could do so.  Slowly they came

up and stole about my neck, and then she drew my lips down

to hers once more and held them there for a long time.

At last she spoke.

"Why didn't you do this at first, David?  I have been

waiting so long."

"What!" I cried.  "You said that you hated me!"

"Did you expect me to run into your arms, and say that I

loved you before I knew that you loved me?" she asked.

"But I have told you right along that I love you," I said.

"Love speaks in acts," she replied.  "You could have made

your mouth say what you wished it to say, but just now

when you came and took me in your arms your heart spoke

to mine in the language that a woman's heart understands.

What a silly man you are, David?"

"Then you haven't hated me at all, Dian?" I asked.

"I have loved you always," she whispered, "from the

first moment that I saw you, although I did not know

it until that time you struck down Hooja the Sly One,

and then spurned me."

"But I didn't spurn you, dear," I cried.  "I didn't know

your ways--I doubt if I do now.  It seems incredible

that you could have reviled me so, and yet have cared

for me all the time."

"You might have known," she said, "when I did not run away

from you that it was not hate which chained me to you.

While you were battling with Jubal, I could have run

to the edge of the forest, and when I learned the outcome

of the combat it would have been a simple thing to have

eluded you and returned to my own people."

"But Jubal's brothers--and cousins--" I reminded her,

"how about them?"

She smiled, and hid her face on my shoulder.

"I had to tell you SOMETHING, David," she whispered.

"I must needs have SOME excuse for remaining near you."

"You little sinner!" I exclaimed.  "And you have caused

me all this anguish for nothing!"

"I have suffered even more," she answered simply, "for I

thought that you did not love me, and I was helpless.

I couldn't come to you and demand that my love be returned,

as you have just come to me.  Just now when you went away

hope went with you.  I was wretched, terrified, miserable,

and my heart was breaking.  I wept, and I have not done

that before since my mother died," and now I saw that there

was the moisture of tears about her eyes.  It was near

to making me cry myself when I thought of all that poor

child had been through.  Motherless and unprotected;

hunted across a savage, primeval world by that hideous

brute of a man; exposed to the attacks of the countless

fearsome denizens of its mountains, its plains, and its

jungles--it was a miracle that she had survived it all.

To me it was a revelation of the things my early forebears

must have endured that the human race of the outer

crust might survive.  It made me very proud to think

that I had won the love of such a woman.  Of course

she couldn't read or write; there was nothing cultured

or refined about her as you judge culture and refinement;

but she was the essence of all that is best in woman,

for she was good, and brave, and noble, and virtuous.

And she was all these things in spite of the fact

that their observance entailed suffering and danger

and possible death.

How much easier it would have been to have gone to Jubal

in the first place!  She would have been his lawful mate.

She would have been queen in her own land--and it meant

just as much to the cave woman to be a queen in the Stone

Age as it does to the woman of today to be a queen now;

it's all comparative glory any way you look at it,

and if there were only half-naked savages on the outer

crust today, you'd find that it would be considerable glory

to be the wife a Dahomey chief.

I couldn't help but compare Dian's action with that

of a splendid young woman I had known in New York--I

mean splendid to look at and to talk to.  She had been

head over heels in love with a chum of mine--a clean,

manly chap--but she had married a broken-down, disreputable

old debauchee because he was a count in some dinky

little European principality that was not even accorded

a distinctive color by Rand McNally.

Yes, I was mighty proud of Dian.

After a time we decided to set out for Sari, as I was anxious

to see Perry, and to know that all was right with him.

I had told Dian about our plan of emancipating the human

race of Pellucidar, and she was fairly wild over it.

She said that if Dacor, her brother, would only return he

could easily be king of Amoz, and that then he and Ghak

could form an alliance.  That would give us a flying start,

for the Sarians and the Amozites were both very powerful tribes.

Once they had been armed with swords, and bows and arrows,

and trained in their use we were confident that they

could overcome any tribe that seemed disinclined to join

the great army of federated states with which we were

planning to march upon the Mahars.

I explained the various destructive engines of war

which Perry and I could construct after a little

experimentation--gunpowder, rifles, cannon, and the like,

and Dian would clap her hands, and throw her arms about my neck,

and tell me what a wonderful thing I was.  She was beginning

to think that I was omnipotent although I really hadn't

done anything but talk--but that is the way with women

when they love.  Perry used to say that if a fellow was

one-tenth as remarkable as his wife or mother thought him,

he would have the world by the tail with a down-hill drag.

The first time we started for Sari I stepped into a nest

of poisonous vipers before we reached the valley.

A little fellow stung me on the ankle, and Dian made me

come back to the cave.  She said that I mustn't exercise,

or it might prove fatal--if it had been a full-grown

snake that struck me she said, I wouldn't have moved

a single pace from the nest--I'd have died in my tracks,

so virulent is the poison.  As it was I must have been laid

up for quite a while, though Dian's poultices of herbs

and leaves finally reduced the swelling and drew out

the poison.

The episode proved most fortunate, however, as it gave

me an idea which added a thousand-fold to the value

of my arrows as missiles of offense and defense.

As soon as I was able to be about again, I sought out

some adult vipers of the species which had stung me,

and having killed them, I extracted their virus,

smearing it upon the tips of several arrows.  Later I

shot a hyaenodon with one of these, and though my arrow

inflicted but a superficial flesh wound the beast

crumpled in death almost immediately after he was hit.

We now set out once more for the land of the Sarians,

and it was with feelings of sincere regret that we bade

good-bye to our beautiful Garden of Eden, in the comparative

peace and harmony of which we had lived the happiest moments

of our lives.  How long we had been there I did not know,

for as I have told you, time had ceased to exist for me

beneath that eternal noonday sun--it may have been an hour,

or a month of earthly time; I do not know.

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CHAPTER XV

BACK TO EARTH


WE CROSSED THE RIVER AND PASSED THROUGH THE mountains beyond,
and finally we came out upon a great level plain which
stretched away as far as the eye could reach.  I cannot tell
you in what direction it stretched even if you would care
to know, for all the while that I was within Pellucidar
I never discovered any but local methods of indicating
direction--there is no north, no south, no east, no west.
UP is about the only direction which is well defined,
and that, of course, is DOWN to you of the outer crust.
Since the sun neither rises nor sets there is no method
of indicating direction beyond visible objects such as
high mountains, forests, lakes, and seas.

The plain which lies beyond the white cliffs which flank
the Darel Az upon the shore nearest the Mountains
of the Clouds is about as near to any direction as any
Pellucidarian can come.  If you happen not to have heard
of the Darel Az, or the white cliffs, or the Mountains
of the Clouds you feel that there is something lacking,
and long for the good old understandable northeast
and southwest of the outer world.

We had barely entered the great plain when we discovered
two enormous animals approaching us from a great distance.
So far were they that we could not distinguish what manner
of beasts they might be, but as they came closer, I saw that
they were enormous quadrupeds, eighty or a hundred feet long,
with tiny heads perched at the top of very long necks.
Their heads must have been quite forty feet from the ground.
The beasts moved very slowly--that is their action was
slow--but their strides covered such a great distance
that in reality they traveled considerably faster than
a man walks.

As they drew still nearer we discovered that upon the back
of each sat a human being.  Then Dian knew what they were,
though she never before had seen one.

"They are lidis from the land of the Thorians," she cried.
"Thoria lies at the outer verge of the Land of Awful Shadow.
The Thorians alone of all the races of Pellucidar ride
the lidi, for nowhere else than beside the dark country
are they found."

"What is the Land of Awful Shadow?" I asked.

"It is the land which lies beneath the Dead World,"
replied Dian; "the Dead World which hangs forever between
the sun and Pellucidar above the Land of Awful Shadow.
It is the Dead World which makes the great shadow upon this
portion of Pellucidar."

I did not fully understand what she meant, nor am I
sure that I do yet, for I have never been to that part
of Pellucidar from which the Dead World is visible;
but Perry says that it is the moon of Pellucidar--a tiny
planet within a planet--and that it revolves around
the earth's axis coincidently with the earth, and thus
is always above the same spot within Pellucidar.

I remember that Perry was very much excited when I told
him about this Dead World, for he seemed to think that it
explained the hitherto inexplicable phenomena of nutation
and the precession of the equinoxes.

When the two upon the lidis had come quite close to us
we saw that one was a man and the other a woman.
The former had held up his two hands, palms toward us,
in sign of peace, and I had answered him in kind,
when he suddenly gave a cry of astonishment and pleasure,
and slipping from his enormous mount ran forward toward Dian,
throwing his arms about her.

In an instant I was white with jealousy, but only for
an instant; since Dian quickly drew the man toward me,
telling him that I was David, her mate.

"And this is my brother, Dacor the Strong One, David,"
she said to me.

It appeared that the woman was Dacor's mate.  He had
found none to his liking among the Sari, nor farther on
until he had come to the land of the Thoria, and there
he had found and fought for this very lovely Thorian
maiden whom he was bringing back to his own people.

When they had heard our story and our plans they decided
to accompany us to Sari, that Dacor and Ghak might come
to an agreement relative to an alliance, as Dacor was
quite as enthusiastic about the proposed annihilation
of the Mahars and Sagoths as either Dian or I.

After a journey which was, for Pellucidar, quite uneventful,
we came to the first of the Sarian villages which consists
of between one and two hundred artificial caves cut into
the face of a great cliff.  Here to our immense delight,
we found both Perry and Ghak.  The old man was quite
overcome at sight of me for he had long since given me
up as dead.

When I introduced Dian as my wife, he didn't quite know
what to say, but he afterward remarked that with the pick
of two worlds I could not have done better.

Ghak and Dacor reached a very amicable arrangement,
and it was at a council of the head men of the various
tribes of the Sari that the eventual form of government
was tentatively agreed upon.  Roughly, the various
kingdoms were to remain virtually independent,
but there was to be one great overlord, or emperor.
It was decided that I should be the first of the dynasty
of the emperors of Pellucidar.

We set about teaching the women how to make bows and arrows,
and poison pouches.  The young men hunted the vipers which
provided the virus, and it was they who mined the iron ore,
and fashioned the swords under Perry's direction.
Rapidly the fever spread from one tribe to another until
representatives from nations so far distant that the
Sarians had never even heard of them came in to take
the oath of allegiance which we required, and to learn
the art of making the new weapons and using them.

We sent our young men out as instructors to every
nation of the federation, and the movement had reached
colossal proportions before the Mahars discovered it.
The first intimation they had was when three of their great
slave caravans were annihilated in rapid succession.
They could not comprehend that the lower orders had suddenly
developed a power which rendered them really formidable.

In one of the skirmishes with slave caravans some of our
Sarians took a number of Sagoth prisoners, and among
them were two who had been members of the guards within
the building where we had been confined at Phutra.
They told us that the Mahars were frantic with rage
when they discovered what had taken place in the cellars
of the buildings.  The Sagoths knew that something very
terrible had befallen their masters, but the Mahars had been
most careful to see that no inkling of the true nature
of their vital affliction reached beyond their own race.
How long it would take for the race to become extinct
it was impossible even to guess; but that this must
eventually happen seemed inevitable.

The Mahars had offered fabulous rewards for the capture
of any one of us alive, and at the same time had threatened
to inflict the direst punishment upon whomever should
harm us.  The Sagoths could not understand these seemingly
paradoxical instructions, though their purpose was quite
evident to me.  The Mahars wanted the Great Secret,
and they knew that we alone could deliver it to them.

Perry's experiments in the manufacture of gunpowder and the
fashioning of rifles had not progressed as rapidly as we
had hoped--there was a whole lot about these two arts which
Perry didn't know.  We were both assured that the solution
of these problems would advance the cause of civilization
within Pellucidar thousands of years at a single stroke.
Then there were various other arts and sciences which we
wished to introduce, but our combined knowledge of them
did not embrace the mechanical details which alone
could render them of commercial, or practical value.

"David," said Perry, immediately after his latest failure to
produce gunpowder that would even burn, "one of us must return
to the outer world and bring back the information we lack.
Here we have all the labor and materials for reproducing
anything that ever has been produced above--what we lack
is knowledge.  Let us go back and get that knowledge
in the shape of books--then this world will indeed be at our
feet."

And so it was decided that I should return in the prospector,
which still lay upon the edge of the forest at the point where
we had first penetrated to the surface of the inner world.
Dian would not listen to any arrangement for my going
which did not include her, and I was not sorry that she
wished to accompany me, for I wanted her to see my world,
and I wanted my world to see her.

With a large force of men we marched to the great iron mole,
which Perry soon had hoisted into position with its nose
pointed back toward the outer crust.  He went over all
the machinery carefully.  He replenished the air tanks,
and manufactured oil for the engine.  At last everything
was ready, and we were about to set out when our pickets,
a long, thin line of which had surrounded our camp at
all times, reported that a great body of what appeared
to be Sagoths and Mahars were approaching from the direction
of Phutra.

Dian and I were ready to embark, but I was anxious
to witness the first clash between two fair-sized armies
of the opposing races of Pellucidar.  I realized that this
was to mark the historic beginning of a mighty struggle
for possession of a world, and as the first emperor
of Pellucidar I felt that it was not alone my duty,
but my right, to be in the thick of that momentous struggle.

As the opposing army approached we saw that there were many
Mahars with the Sagoth troops--an indication of the vast
importance which the dominant race placed upon the outcome
of this campaign, for it was not customary with them to take
active part in the sorties which their creatures made for
slaves--the only form of warfare which they waged upon the
lower orders.

Ghak and Dacor were both with us, having come primarily to
view the prospector.  I placed Ghak with some of his Sarians
on the right of our battle line.  Dacor took the left,
while I commanded the center.  Behind us I stationed
a sufficient reserve under one of Ghak's head men.
The Sagoths advanced steadily with menacing spears,
and I let them come until they were within easy bowshot
before I gave the word to fire.

At the first volley of poison-tipped arrows the front
ranks of the gorilla-men crumpled to the ground; but those
behind charged over the prostrate forms of their comrades
in a wild, mad rush to be upon us with their spears.
A second volley stopped them for an instant, and then
my reserve sprang through the openings in the firing line
to engage them with sword and shield.  The clumsy spears
of the Sagoths were no match for the swords of the Sarian
and Amozite, who turned the spear thrusts aside with their
shields and leaped to close quarters with their lighter,
handier weapons.

Ghak took his archers along the enemy's flank, and while
the swordsmen engaged them in front, he poured volley after
volley into their unprotected left.  The Mahars did little
real fighting, and were more in the way than otherwise,
though occasionally one of them would fasten its powerful
jaw upon the arm or leg of a Sarian.

The battle did not last a great while, for when Dacor
and I led our men in upon the Sagoth's right with naked
swords they were already so demoralized that they turned
and fled before us.  We pursued them for some time,
taking many prisoners and recovering nearly a hundred slaves,
among whom was Hooja the Sly One.

He told me that he had been captured while on his way
to his own land; but that his life had been spared
in hope that through him the Mahars would learn the
whereabouts of their Great Secret.  Ghak and I were
inclined to think that the Sly One had been guiding
this expedition to the land of Sari, where he thought
that the book might be found in Perry's possession;
but we had no proof of this and so we took him in and
treated him as one of us, although none liked him.
And how he rewarded my generosity you will presently learn.

There were a number of Mahars among our prisoners,
and so fearful were our own people of them that they
would not approach them unless completely covered
from the sight of the reptiles by a piece of skin.
Even Dian shared the popular superstition regarding
the evil effects of exposure to the eyes of angry Mahars,
and though I laughed at her fears I was willing enough
to humor them if it would relieve her apprehension
in any degree, and so she sat apart from the prospector,
near which the Mahars had been chained, while Perry and I
again inspected every portion of the mechanism.

At last I took my place in the driving seat, and called
to one of the men without to fetch Dian.  It happened that
Hooja stood quite close to the doorway of the prospector,
so that it was he who, without my knowledge, went to
bring her; but how he succeeded in accomplishing the
fiendish thing he did, I cannot guess, unless there were
others in the plot to aid him.  Nor can I believe that,
since all my people were loyal to me and would have made
short work of Hooja had he suggested the heartless scheme,
even had he had time to acquaint another with it.
It was all done so quickly that I may only believe that it
was the result of sudden impulse, aided by a number of,
to Hooja, fortuitous circumstances occurring at precisely
the right moment.

All I know is that it was Hooja who brought Dian
to the prospector, still wrapped from head to toe
in the skin of an enormous cave lion which covered her
since the Mahar prisoners had been brought into camp.
He deposited his burden in the seat beside me.  I was all
ready to get under way.  The good-byes had been said.
Perry had grasped my hand in the last, long farewell.
I closed and barred the outer and inner doors,
took my seat again at the driving mechanism, and pulled
the starting lever.

As before on that far-gone night that had witnessed our
first trial of the iron monster, there was a frightful
roaring beneath us--the giant frame trembled and vibrated--
there was a rush of sound as the loose earth passed up
through the hollow space between the inner and outer jackets
to be deposited in our wake.  Once more the thing was off.

But on the instant of departure I was nearly thrown
from my seat by the sudden lurching of the prospector.
At first I did not realize what had happened, but presently
it dawned upon me that just before entering the crust the
towering body had fallen through its supporting scaffolding,
and that instead of entering the ground vertically we were
plunging into it at a different angle.  Where it would bring
us out upon the upper crust I could not even conjecture.
And then I turned to note the effect of this strange
experience upon Dian.  She still sat shrouded in the great skin.

"Come, come," I cried, laughing, "come out of your shell.
No Mahar eyes can reach you here," and I leaned over and
snatched the lion skin from her.  And then I shrank back
upon my seat in utter horror.

The thing beneath the skin was not Dian--it was a
hideous Mahar.  Instantly I realized the trick that Hooja
had played upon me, and the purpose of it.  Rid of me,
forever as he doubtless thought, Dian would be at his mercy.
Frantically I tore at the steering wheel in an effort
to turn the prospector back toward Pellucidar; but, as on
that other occasion, I could not budge the thing a hair.

It is needless to recount the horrors or the monotony
of that journey.  It varied but little from the former one
which had brought us from the outer to the inner world.
Because of the angle at which we had entered the ground
the trip required nearly a day longer, and brought me out
here upon the sand of the Sahara instead of in the United
States as I had hoped.

For months I have been waiting here for a white man to come.
I dared not leave the prospector for fear I should never
be able to find it again--the shifting sands of the desert
would soon cover it, and then my only hope of returning
to my Dian and her Pellucidar would be gone forever.

That I ever shall see her again seems but remotely possible,
for how may I know upon what part of Pellucidar my return
journey may terminate--and how, without a north or south
or an east or a west may I hope ever to find my way across
that vast world to the tiny spot where my lost love lies
grieving for me?


That is the story as David Innes told it to me in the
goat-skin tent upon the rim of the great Sahara Desert.
The next day he took me out to see the prospector--it
was precisely as he had described it.  So huge was it
that it could have been brought to this inaccessible part
of the world by no means of transportation that existed
there--it could only have come in the way that David
Innes said it came--up through the crust of the earth
from the inner world of Pellucidar.

I spent a week with him, and then, abandoned my
lion hunt, returned directly to the coast and hurried
to London where I purchased a great quantity of stuff
which he wished to take back to Pellucidar with him.
There were books, rifles, revolvers, ammunition, cameras,
chemicals, telephones, telegraph instruments, wire,
tool and more books--books upon every subject under
the sun.  He said he wanted a library with which they
could reproduce the wonders of the twentieth century
in the Stone Age and if quantity counts for anything
I got it for him.

I took the things back to Algeria myself, and accompanied
them to the end of the railroad; but from here I
was recalled to America upon important business.
However, I was able to employ a very trustworthy man
to take charge of the caravan--the same guide, in fact,
who had accompanied me on the previous trip into the
Sahara--and after writing a long letter to Innes in which
I gave him my American address, I saw the expedition head south.

Among the other things which I sent to Innes was over five
hundred miles of double, insulated wire of a very fine gauge.
I had it packed on a special reel at his suggestion, as it
was his idea that he could fasten one end here before he
left and by paying it out through the end of the prospector
lay a telegraph line between the outer and inner worlds.
In my letter I told him to be sure to mark the terminus
of the line very plainly with a high cairn, in case I
was not able to reach him before he set out, so that I
might easily find and communicate with him should he
be so fortunate as to reach Pellucidar.

I received several letters from him after I returned
to America--in fact he took advantage of every
northward-passing caravan to drop me word of some sort.
His last letter was written the day before he intended
to depart.  Here it is.


MY DEAR FRIEND:

Tomorrow I shall set out in quest of Pellucidar and Dian.
That is if the Arabs don't get me.  They have been very nasty
of late.  I don't know the cause, but on two occasions they
have threatened my life.  One, more friendly than the rest,
told me today that they intended attacking me tonight.
It would be unfortunate should anything of that sort happen
now that I am so nearly ready to depart.

However, maybe I will be as well off, for the nearer the
hour approaches, the slenderer my chances for success appear.

Here is the friendly Arab who is to take this letter north
for me, so good-bye, and God bless you for your kindness
to me.

The Arab tells me to hurry, for he sees a cloud of sand
to the south--he thinks it is the party coming to murder me,
and he doesn't want to be found with me.  So goodbye again.

Yours,

DAVID INNES.


A year later found me at the end of the railroad
once more, headed for the spot where I had left Innes.
My first disappointment was when I discovered that my
old guide had died within a few weeks of my return,
nor could I find any member of my former party who could
lead me to the same spot.

For months I searched that scorching land, interviewing
countless desert sheiks in the hope that at last I might find
one who had heard of Innes and his wonderful iron mole.
Constantly my eyes scanned the blinding waste of sand
for the ricky cairn beneath which I was to find the wires
leading to Pellucidar--but always was I unsuccessful.

And always do these awful questions harass me when I
think of David Innes and his strange adventures.

Did the Arabs murder him, after all, just on the eve
of his departure?  Or, did he again turn the nose of his
iron monster toward the inner world?  Did he reach it,
or lies he somewhere buried in the heart of the great crust?
And if he did come again to Pellucidar was it to break
through into the bottom of one of her great island seas,
or among some savage race far, far from the land of his
heart's desire?

Does the answer lie somewhere upon the bosom of the
broad Sahara, at the end of two tiny wires, hidden beneath
a lost cairn?  I wonder.

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Chapters 6-10

(previous several chapters)

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