 PROLOG OF AT THE EARTH'S CORP. In the first place, please bear in mind that I do not expect you to believe this story. Nor could you wonder had you witnessed a recent experience of mine when, in the armor of blissful and stupendous ignorance, I gaily narrated the gist of it to a fellow of the Royal Geological Society on the occasion of my last trip to London. You would surely have thought that I had been detected in no less a heinous crime than the perloining of the crown jewels from the tower, or putting poison in the coffee of His Majesty the King. The erudite gentleman in whom I confided congealed before I was half through, it is all that saved him from exploding, and my dreams of an honorary fellowship, gold medals, and a niche in the hall of fame faded into the thin, cold air of his arctic atmosphere. But I believe this story, and so would you, and so would the learned fellow of the Royal Geological Society, had you and he heard it from the lips of the man who told it to me? Had you seen, as I did, the fire of truth in those gray eyes? Had you felt the ring of sincerity in that quiet voice? Had you realized the pathos of it all? You too would believe. You would not have needed the final ocular proof that I had the weird ramopharynx-like creature which he had brought back with him from the inner world. I came upon him quite suddenly, and no less unexpectedly, upon the rim of the great Sahara desert. He was standing before a goat-skin tent amidst a clump of date-palms within a tiny oasis. Looks by was an Arab doer of some eight or ten tents. I had come down from the north to hunt lion. My party consisted of a dozen children of the desert. I was the only white man. As we approached a little clump of verter, I saw the man come from his tent with hand-shielded eyes, pure and tently at us. At the sight of me he advanced rapidly to meet us. A white man, he cried. May the good Lord be praised. I had been watching you for hours, hoping against hope that this time there would be a white man. Tell me the date. What year is it? And when I had told him, he staggered, as though he had been struck full in the face so that he was compelled to grasp my stirrup a leather for support. It cannot be, he cried after a moment. Cannot be! Tell me that you were mistaken, or that you were but joking. I am telling you the truth, my friend, I replied. Why should I deceive a stranger or attempt to in so simple a matter as the date? For some time he stood in silence with bowed head. Ten years, he murmured at last. Ten years. And I thought that at most it could be scarce more than one. That night he told me his story. The story that I give you here as nearly in his own words as I can recall them. CHAPTER 1 OF AT THE EARTH'S CORE This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. AT THE EARTH'S CORE BY EDGAR RICE BURROWS CHAPTER 1 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 fulfill 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 passed 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 plowing her way downward into the bowels of the earth or running horizontally along some great seam of coal, or rising vertically towards 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 ought but cling with that proverbial desperation of the drowning man to the handrails of our swinging seats. Then Perry glanced at the thermometer. Gadd, 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 give 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 elude 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 towards 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 atmospheric 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 doing so before we reach the higher internal temperatures, 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 one hundred ten 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 to that as there are geologists, was his answer. One estimate is thirty miles, because the internal heat increasing at a rate of about one degree to each sixty or seventy feet depth would be sufficient to fuse the most refractory substance at that distance beneath the earth. Another finds that the phenomenon of procession 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 all be 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 has all 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 one hundred forty 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 implications. Once more I tried my hand at the wheel, but I might as well have a say to swing the earth itself. In 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 breath. 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 a 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 one hundred forty-five 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 boarded to a depth of eighty-four miles, at which point the mercury registered one hundred fifty-three degrees Fahrenheit. 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 in 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? Henry's voice broke in upon my somber reflections. Ninety miles and one-five-three degrees, I replied. Gad, but we've knocked that thirty-mile crust, theory, into a cocked hat! He cried cleafly. Precious lot of good it'll 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 one-hundred-fifty-three degrees or one-hundred-fifty-three-thousand? 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 blasting 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 one-hundred-fifty-two-and-a-half 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 thirty-two 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 one-hundred-fifty-three degrees. Feverishly I watched the thermometer. Slowly it rose. Perry had ceased singing and was at last praying. Our hopes had received such a death blow 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 one-hundred-fifty-three 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 there was no hope, and yet with the persistence of life itself we continued to hope against practical certainty. Maybe 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! It's one-fifty-two 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 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 realization broke upon us that death was very near. Perry was the first to discover it. I saw him fussing with the valves that regulated 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 towards 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 towards 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 on the ice and sped upwards towards 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. End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 of At the Earth's Core This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs Chapter 2 A Strange World I was unconscious little more than an instant. For as I lunged forward from the cross-beam 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, its 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 have 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 aisles, some towering barren granite rock, others resplendent and gorgeous trappings of tropical vegetation, myriad starred with the magnificent splendor of vivid blooms. Behind us rose a dark and foreboding 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 underbush 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'm not so sure that we are on earth. What do you mean? I cried. Do you think that we are dead and that 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 sticks. 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 elusive 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 had ever 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 towards us at a ponderous, shuffling trot. I turned to Perry to suggest that it might be wise to sink 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 towards 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 assayed to gain the safety of the lower branches of the trees he had now 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 at 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 sprawlingly 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 unable 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 peon 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 screams 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. Between 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 towards him. Inch by inch he worked his paws upward as the tree leaned more and more from the perpendicular. Perry clung chattering in the panic of terror higher and higher into the bending and swaying tree he clamored. More and more rapidly was the treetop inclined 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 ought other than a means to save him from the death that loomed so close. Realizing that I could out-distance 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 I had 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 advantage. For climbing upon it I leaped another few paces farther on, and in this way was able to keep clear of the mush that had 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. Immediately 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 backwards 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 dearth, as afterward I 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 rust, 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 man-like creatures, evidently urging on the dog-pack. They were, to all appearances, strikingly similar an 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 long, 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 had 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 dearth at bay. Outside of me several of the savage creatures left off worrying the great brute, to come slinking with bared fangs towards me, and as I turned to run towards the trees again to seek safety among the lower branches, I saw a number of 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 towards 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 the spirit of escaping them. When one of the creatures in the tree above swung down head foremost 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. Ape-like they assayed 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 the 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, starting off at a most terrifying pace through the treetops. Never have I experienced such a journey before or since. Even now I often times 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 glimps 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 up. END OF CHAPTER III A CHANGE OF MASTERS We must have travelled 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 play-thing, 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 with 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 dearest, and many goat-like 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, too, I certainly had not the remotest conception. I had no more than entered the dark shadows of the interior, then there fell upon my ears the tone of a familiar voice. In prayer. Parry, I cried, dear old Parry, 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 dearth, and then he had been seized by a number of the ape-like creatures, and borne through the treetops 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 Parry, you would make a very handsome ape. Maybe we can borrow a couple. I rejoined. They seemed to be quite the thing this season. I wonder what the creatures intend doing with us, Parry. 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 Harry 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. Parry, 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 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 of a sphere? But the sun, Parry, 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 have seen 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 with all 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? Centrificial forces 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, superheated 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 perpetually 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 wracked 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 on 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 treetops, 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 towards 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 ceased 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. Baird 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. Hyenodon, 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 breasts and belly were quite white. As it slunk toward us, it presented a most formidable aspect, with its up-curled lips bearing 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 and over, and later at Yale, I had pitched on winning ball teams. My speed and control must both have been above 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 had ever 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 towards 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 hyenodon 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 I was mistaken. As I looked, the ape-things broke in all directions towards 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 hyenodon 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 the strange weird world. But as we came closer our hearts sank once more. Before we discovered that the poor wretches were chained neck to neck in a long line and that the guerrilla 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 and 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 skinned sandals. The men wore loincloth 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 have already described as guerrilla-like men, were rather lighter in build than a guerrilla. 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 guerrilla 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 wit 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 loincloth 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 pigeon English of the Chinese Cooley. 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 Xenith. When we halted our shadows still pointed towards 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 that 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. End of Chapter 3. Chapter 4 of At the Earth's Core. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Chapter 4. Die in the Beautiful. When our guards arose us from sleep we were much refreshed. They gave us food, strips of dried meat it was, but it put a 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 verger 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 the rocky channels, fed by the perpetual snows which we could see far above us. Above the snow-capped 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 Diane the Beautiful, and that she belonged to the tribe of Amos, which dwells in the cliffs above the Darrell As 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 tandoor. 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 sedac tossed him, and never again had he the full use of his right arm. My brother Dekor, 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 Amos. And there these seagoths found me and made me captive. What will they do with you? I asked. Where are they taking us? Again she looked her in credulity. 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 seagoths are the creatures of the mayors? The mighty mayors 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've never before heard of the mayors. 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 mayors. 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 mayors largely by comparison. In this way they were like unto Thiptars, in that to the hairless Liddy. 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 Seigoths 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 mayors 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 Gack the hairy one, he who was chained just ahead of Dian the beautiful. Ahead of Gack was Huja the sly one. He too entered the conversation occasionally. Most of his remarks were directed towards 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've 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, Huja's love making 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 that girl, she was magnificent. It was easy to see that she considered herself as entirely above and apart from her present surroundings in company. She talked with me and with Perry, and with the taciturn gack because we were respectful. But she couldn't even see Huja the sly one, much less hear him, and that made him furious. He tried to get one of the seagoths 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 mayors as soon as they reached Putra. Putra, it seemed, was the city of our destination. After passing over the first chain of the mountains, we skirted a salt sea upon whose bosom swam countless horrid things. Seal-like creatures there were, with long necks stretching ten or 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 lyos. I didn't question his veracity. They might have been most anything. Diane told me they were tandoorazes, or tandoors of the sea, and that the other and more fearsome reptiles, which occasionally rose from the deep to do battle with them, were azdeeriths, or sea-deeriths. 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 the meat 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 seized 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 prove. At the next halt, Hoja the Sly One managed to find enough slack chain to permit him to worm himself back quite close to Diane. 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 towards 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 to 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 Segoths 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 Hujah and the girl. At first she looked at me with wide, wandering eyes, and then she dropped her head, her face half averted, and a delicate flush suffused her cheeks. 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 Hujah. Some of the prisoners laughed, and I saw the face of Gak the hairy one go very black as he looked at me, searchingly. And what I could see of Diane'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 Diane 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. Hujah did not renew his advances toward the girl, nor did he again venture near me. Then 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 Gak 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, Diane 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 labyrinthian grottoes, dark as arabus. The guards had no torches or lights 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 sing-song chant ahead of us, interspersed with certain high notes which I found always indicated rough places and turns. Alts were now more frequent, but I did not wish to speak to Diane 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. Diane 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 Diane 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 Diane. Ujja was gone, Gak 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 neck-bands in place had been deftly picked. Ujja, the sly one, murmured Gak, who is 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 ground could your ignorance of the ways of Pellucidar be explained. Do you really mean that you do not know that you have offended the beautiful one, and how? I do not know, Gak, I replied. Then I shall 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. Why in 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 your mate, and that you released her from all obligations to you. By doing neither you have put upon her the greatest affront that any man may put upon a woman. Now she is your slave. No man will take her as a 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, Gak, I cried. I did not know. Not for all Pellucidar would I have harmed Diane the beautiful by word or look or act of mind. I do not want her as my slave, I do not want her as my—but here I stopped. The vision of that sweet 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 Diane the beautiful as my mate. I have not thought of her except as a welcome friend in a strange, cruel world. And now I did not think that I loved her. I believe Gak must have read the truth more in my expression than in my words, for presently he laid his hand upon my shoulder. Men 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 Diane the beautiful. She is not of my tribe, but her mother is my sister. She does not know it. Her mother was stolen by Diane's father who came with others from the tribe of Amos to battle with us for our women, the most beautiful women of Pelucidar. Then was her father the king of Amos, and her mother was daughter of the king of Sari, to whose power I, his son, have succeeded. Diane is the daughter of kings, though her father is no longer king since the Sadov tossed him, and Jubal the ugly one rested 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 Gak 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 Putra? Is there no escape? I asked. Hujja the sly one escaped and took the others with him, replied Gak. But there are no more dark places on the way to Putra, and once there it is not so easy. The mayors are very wise. And if one escaped from Putra, there are the Thipdars, they would find you, and then the hairy one shuddered. No, you will never escape the mayors. It was a cheerful prospect. I asked Perry what he thought about it, but he only shrugged his shoulders and continued a long-winded 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 Segoths 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 rind you limb from limb, like that. And I jumped towards the great brute with the 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 Segoths treated us both with marked respect during the balance of our journey. And then passed the word along to their masters, the mayors. Two marches after this episode we came to the city of Putra. The entrance to it was marked by two lofty towers of granite, which guarded a flight of steps leading to the buried city. Segoths were on guard here, as well as at a hundred or more other towers scattered about over a large plain. CHAPTER V SLAVES As we descended the broad staircase, which led to the main avenue of Putra, 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 mayhairs 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. In 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 four feet membranous wings, which are attached to their bodies just in front of the hind legs, protruded an angle of forty-five 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 hard creatures with wide, astonished eyes. When it passed on he turned to me. I ran for hinkus of the middle-olidic, David, he said, but gad, how enormous! The largest remains we've ever discovered have never indicated a size greater than that attained by an ordinary crow. As we continued on through the main avenue of Futra we saw many thousand of the creatures coming and going upon their daily duties. They paid but little attention to us. The creatures laid out on the ground 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 Silmarian darkness, in like manner air is introduced. Perry and I were taken, with gack, to a large public building, where one of the sagas 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 other's presence, nor could they talk with the sagas 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 Futra, 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 Diane the beautiful. I was, of course, glad that she had escaped the Mahars, and the fate that had been suggested by the Sagath, who had threatened to purchase her upon our arrival at Futra. 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 I should have been more contented to know that Diane was here in Futra than to think of her at the mercy of Hootia the sly one. Gack, 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 Futra 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 guard room of the building. We had completed these arrangements for our protection after leaving Futra when the sagas who had been sent to recapture the escaped prisoners returned with four of them, of whom Hootia was one. Diane and two others had eluded them. It so happened that Hootia was confined in the same building with us. He told Gack that he had not seen Diane 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 Diane, and at this time I imagined 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 I was determined to escape the Mahayas. Perry I confided to the old man, if I have to search every inch of this diminutive world I'm going to find Diane the beautiful and right the wrong that I unintentionally did her. That was the excuse I made for Perry's benefit. Diminutive world, he scoffed. You don't know what you're talking about, my boy. And then he showed me a map of Palusadar 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 Palusadar 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 million 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. Wherewith invest, Palusadar, would you search for your Diane? 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 Gack 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. Gack, I said, we are determined to escape from this bondage. Will you accompany us? They will set the thip-dars 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 Diane? Yes. But how, persisted Perry, could you travel to strange country without heavenly bodies or compass to guide you? Gack didn't know what Perry meant by heavenly bodies or compass, but he assured us that you might blindfold any man of Pellucidar and carry him to the farthest corner of the world, yet he would be able to come directly to his own home again by the shortest route. He seemed to surprise to think that we found anything wonderful in it. Perry said it must be some sort of homing instinct, such as this possessed by certain breeds of earthly pigeons. I didn't know, of course, but it gave me an idea. Then Diane could have found her way directly to her own people, I asked. Surely, replied Gack, unless some mighty beast of prey killed her. I was for making the attempt to escape at once, but both Perry and Gack counseled waiting for some propitious accident which would ensure 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 them have never slept, 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 Mahare stays awake for three years, he will make up all his lost sleep in a long year's snooze. That may all be true, but I never saw but three of them asleep. It was the sight of these three that gave me a suggestion for our means of escape. I had been searching out 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 Mahare's 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 alluding the watchfulness of our captors and the saggoth guards. Hastening back to Perry where he poured 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 that 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 Sorazoic 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 my hairs 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 varied learned discussions of the questions as to whether Gilax, 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 sagas 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 sagas 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 now the time clear to me insisted upon a very careful description of the apartments and corridors I had just explored. I wondered, 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 Maharas. 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 Maharas. 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 Maharas. It is in the city of Futra. Unless I am greatly in error, I judge from your description of the vaults through which you pass 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 the Maharas. 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 every population became very grave. David, if we could 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 too would be the means of placing the men of the inner world in their rightful place among created things. Only the Sagas would then stand between them and absolute supremacy. And I was not quite sure, but that the Sagas owed all their power to the greater intelligence of the Maharas. 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 20th 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. Gack 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 where we were 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 where we captured, he accorded a reluctant assent. Our one time is as good as another. There were no nights to mask our attempt at escape. All must be done in broad daylight, all but the work I had to do in the apartment beneath the building. So we determined to put our plan to an immediate test, lest the may-hares who made it possible should awake before I reached them. But we were doomed to disappoint, for no sooner had we reached the main floor of the building on our way to the pits beneath, than we encountered hurrying bands of slaves being hastened under strong segoth guard out of the edifice to the avenue beyond. Other segoths were darting hither and thither in search of other slaves, and the moment that we appeared we were pounced upon and hustled into the line of marching humans. What the purpose or nature of the general exodus we did not know, but presently through the line of captives ran the rumour that two escaped slaves had been recaptured, a man and a woman, and that we were marching to witness their punishment. For the man had killed a segoth of the detachment that had pursued and overtaken them. At the intelligence my heart sprang to my throat, for I assured that the two were of those who escaped in the dark grotto with Huja the sly one, and that Diane must be the woman. Gack thought so too, as did Perry. Is there not that we may do to save her, I asked Gack? Not, he replied. Along the crowded avenue we marched the guards showing unusual cruelty towards us, as though we too had been implicated in the murder of their fellow. The occasion was to serve as an object lesson to all other slaves of the danger and futility of attempted escape, and the fatal consequences of taking the life of a superior being, and so I imagine that segoths felt amply justified in making the entire proceeding as uncomfortable and painful to us as possible. They jabbed us with their spears and struck at us with the hatchets at the least provocation, and at no provocation at all. It was the most uncomfortable half-hour that we spent before we were finally herded through a low entrance, into a huge building, the center of which was given up to a good-sized arena. Benches surrounded this open space upon three sides, and along the fourth were heaped huge boulders which rose in receding tears toward the roof. At first I couldn't make out the purpose of this mighty pile of rock, unless it were intended as a rough and picturesque background for the scenes which were enacted in the arena before it, but presently, after the wooden benches had been pretty well filled by slaves and segoths, I discovered the purpose of the boulders, for then the maheres began to file into the enclosure. They marched directly across the arena toward the rocks upon the opposite side, where, spreading their bat-like wings, they rose above the high wall of the pit, settling down upon the boulders above. These were the reserved seats, the boxes of the elect. Because that they are the rough surface of a great stone is to them as plush as a paltry to us. Here they lulled, blinking their hideous eyes, and doubtless conversing with one another in their sixth sense, fourth-dimension language. For the first time I beheld their queen. She differed from the others in no feature that was appreciable to my earthly eyes. In fact, all maheres look alike to me, but when she crossed the arena after the balance of her female subjects had found their boulders, she was preceded by a score of huge saggaths, the largest I had ever seen, and on either side of her waddled a huge thip-dar, while behind came another score of saggath guardsmen. At the barrier the saggaths climbed up the steep side with truly ape-like agility. While behind them the haughty queen rose upon her wings with her two frightful dragons close behind her. At the barrier the saggaths climbed up the steep side with truly ape-like agility. While behind them the haughty queen rose upon her wings with her two frightful dragons close beside her, and settled down upon the largest boulder of them all, in the exact center of that side of the amphitheater which is reserved for the dominant race. Here she squatted a most repulsive and uninteresting queen, though doubtless quite as well assured of her beauty and divine right to rule as the proudest monarch of the outer world. And then the music started, music without sound. The mehares cannot hear so the drums and fiefs and horns of earthly bands are unknown among them. The band consists of a score or more mehares. It filed out in the center of the arena where the creatures upon the rocks might see it, and there it performed for fifteen or twenty minutes. Their technique consisted in waving their tails and moving their heads in a regular secession of measured movements resulting in a cadence which evidently pleased the eye of the mehares as the cadence of our own instrumental music pleases our ears. Sometimes the band took measured steps in unison to one side or the other, or backward and again forward. It all seemed very silly and meaningless to me, but at the end of the first piece the mehares upon the rocks showed the first indications of enthusiasm that I had seen displayed by the dominant race of Pellucidar. They beat their great wings up and down, and smote their rocky perches with their mighty tails until the ground shook. Then the band started another piece, and all was again as silent as the grave. There was one great beauty about me hair music. If you didn't happen to like a piece that was being played, all you had to do was shut your eyes. When the band had exhausted its repertory it took wing and settled upon the rocks above and behind the queen. Then the business of the day was on. A man and a woman were pushed into the arena by a couple of segoth guardsmen. I leaned forward in my seat to scrutinize the female, hoping against hope that she might prove to be another than Diane the beautiful. Her back was toward me for a while, and the sight of the great mass of raven hair piled high upon her head filled me with alarm. Presently, a door in one side of the arena wall was open to admit a huge, shaggy, bull-like creature. A boss! whispered Perry excitedly. His kind roamed the outer crust with the cave-bear and the mammoth ages and ages ago. We've been carried back a million years, David, to the childhood of a planet. Is it not wondrous? But I saw only the raven hair of a half-naked girl, and my heart stood still in dumb misery at the sight of her. Nor had I any eyes for the wonders of natural history. But for Perry and Gack I should have leapt to the floor of the arena and shared whatever fate lay in store for this priceless treasure of the Stone Age. With the advent of the boss they called the thing a thag within Pellucidar. Two spears were tossed into the arena at the feet of the prisoners. It seemed to me that a bean-shooter would have been as effective against the mighty monster as these pitiful weapons. As the animal approached the two, bellowing and pawing the ground with the strength of many earthly bulls, another door directly beneath us was opened, and from it issued the most horrific roar that had ever fallen upon my outraged ears. I could not at first see the beast from which emanated this fearsome challenge. But the sound had the effect of bringing the two victims around with a sudden start, and then I saw the girl's face. She was not Diane. I could have wept for relief. And now, as the two stood frozen in terror, I saw the author of that fearsome sound creeping stealthily into view. It was a huge tiger, such as hunted the great boss through the jungle's primeval, when the world was young. In contour and markings it was not unlike the noblest of the bengals of our own world. But as its dimensions were exaggerated to colossal proportions, so too were its colorings exaggerated. Its vivid yellows fairly screamed aloud, its whites were as eider down, its blacks glossy as the finest anthracite coal, and its coat long and shaggy as a mountain goat. That it is a beautiful animal there is no gain saying. But if its size and colors are magnified here within Pellucidar so is the ferocity of its disposition. It is not the occasional member of our species that is a man-hunter. All are man-hunters, but they do confide their forging to man alone. For there is no flesh or fish within Pellucidar that they will not eat with relish in the constant efforts which they make to furnish their huge carcasses with sufficient sustenance to maintain their mighty thews. On one side of the doomed pair the thag bellowed and advanced, and upon the other tarag, the frightful, crept toward them with gaping mouth and dripping fags. The man seized the spear, handing one of them to the woman. At the sound of the roaring of the tiger the bull's bellowing became a veritable frenzy of rageful noise. Never in my life had I heard such an infernal din as the two brutes made, and to think it was all lost upon the hideous reptiles for whom the show was staged. The thag was charging now from one side, and the tarag from the other. The two puny things standing between them seemed already lost, but at the very moment that the beasts were upon them the man grasped his companion by the arm and together they leapt to one side, while the frenzied creatures came together like locomotives in collision. There ensued a battle-royal which fore-sustained in frightful ferocity transcends the power of imagination or description. Time and again the colossal bull tossed to the enormous tiger into the air, but each time that the huge cat touched the ground he returned to the encounter with apparently undiminished strength and seemingly increased ire. For a while the man and woman busied themselves only with keeping out of the way of the two creatures, but finally I saw them separate and each creep stealthily toward one of the combatants. The tiger was now upon the bull's broad back, clinging to the huge neck with powerful fangs while its long, strong talons ripped to the heavy hide into shreds and ribbons. For a moment the bull stood bellowing and quivering with pain and rage, its cloven hooves wide-spread, its tail lashing viciously from side to side, and then, in a mad orgy of bucking, it went careening about their arena in frenzied attempt to unseat its rending rider. It was with difficulty that the girl avoided the first mad rush of the wounded animal. All its efforts to rid itself of the tiger seemed futile, until desperation it threw itself upon the ground, rolling over and over. A little of this so disconcerted the tiger, knocking its breath from it, I imagine, that it lost its hold and then, quick as a cat, the great thag was up again and had buried those mighty horns deep in the tar-eggs abdomen, pinning him to the floor of the arena. The great cat clawed at the shaggy head until eyes and ears were gone, and not but a few strips of ragged, bloody flesh remained upon the skull. Yet through all the agony of that fearful punishment the thag still stood motionless pinning down his adversary, and then the man leaped in, seeing that the blind bull would be the least formidable enemy, and ran his spear through the tar-eggs heart. As the animal's fierce clawing ceased, the bull raised his gory, sightless head, and with a horrid roar ran headlong across the arena. With great leaps and bounds he came straight toward the arena wall directly beneath where we sat, and then the accident carried him in one of his mighty springs, completely over the barrier into the midst of the slaves and saggaths just in front of us. Swinging his bloody horns from side to side the beast cut a wide swath before him straight upward toward our seats. Before him slaves and gorillamen fought in mad stampede to escape the menace of the creature's death agonies, for such only could that frightful charge have been. Forgetful of us our guards joined in the general crush for the exits, many of which pierced the wall of the amphitheaters behind us. Perry, Gack and I became separated in the chaos which rained for a few moments after the beast cleared the wall of the arena, each intent upon saving his own hide. I ran to the right, passing several exits choked with a fear-mad mob that were battling to escape. One would have thought that an entire herd of thags was loose behind them rather than a single blinded dying beast, but such is the effect of panic upon a crowd. End of CHAPTER VI