 CHAPTER V. SURPRISES But at last the allotted moment arrived, the moment for which I had been trying to prepare myself for how long I could not even guess. A great seagoth came and spoke some words of command to those who watched over me. I was jerked roughly to my feet and with little consideration hustled upward toward the higher levels. Out into the broad avenue they conducted me where, amid huge throngs of mayhars, seagoths, and heavily guarded slaves, I was led, or rather pushed and shoved roughly, along in the same direction that the mob moved. I had seen such a concourse of people once before in the buried city of Futra. I gassed and rightly that we were bound for the great arena where slaves who are condemned to death meet their end. Into the vast amphitheater they took me, stationing me at the extreme end of the arena. The queen came with her slimy, sickening retinue. The seats were filled. The show was about to commence. Then from a little doorway in the opposite end of the structure a girl was led into the arena. She was at a considerable distance from me. I could not see her features. I wondered what fate awaited this other poor victim and myself, and why they had chosen to have us die together. My own fate, or rather my thought of it, was submerged in the natural pity I felt for this lone girl, doomed to die horribly beneath the cold, cruel eyes of her awful captors. Of what crime could she be guilty that she must expiate it in the dreaded arena? As I stood thus thinking, another door, this time at one of the long sides of the arena, was thrown open and into the theater of death slunk a mighty tarig, the huge cave tiger of the Stone Age. At my side were my revolvers. My captors had not taken them from me because they did not yet realize their nature. Doubtless they thought them some strange manner of war-club, and as those who were condemned to the arena are permitted weapons of defense, they let me keep them. The girl they had armed with a javelin, a brass pin would have been almost as effective against the ferocious monster they had loosed upon her. The tarig stood for a moment looking about him, first up at the vast audience and then about the arena. He did not seem to see me at all, but his eyes fell presently upon the girl. A hideous roar broke from his titanic lungs, a roar which ended in a long-drawn scream that is more human than the death cry of a tortured woman, more human but more awesome. I could scarce restrain a shudder. Slowly the beast turned and moved toward the girl. Then it was that I came to myself and to a realization of my duty. Quickly and as noiselessly as possible I ran down the arena in pursuit of the grim creature. As I ran I drew one of my pitifully futile weapons. Ah, could I but have had my lost express gun in my hands at that moment. A single well-placed shot would have crumbled even this great monster. The best I could hope to accomplish was to divert the thing from the girl to myself and then to place as many bullets as possible in it before it reached and mauled me into insensibility and death. There is a certain unwritten law of the arena that bout safes, freedom and immunity to the victor, be he beast or human being, both of whom by the way are all the same to the mehar. That is, they were accustomed to look upon man as a lore animal before Perry and I broke through the pelucidarian crust, but I imagine that they were beginning to alter their views at trifle and to realize that in the gilok, their word for human being, they had a highly organized reasoning being to contend with. Be that as it may, the chances were that the tarig alone would profit by the law of the arena. A few more of his long strides, a prodigious leap, and he would be upon the girl. I raised the revolver and fired. The bullet struck him in the left hind leg. It couldn't have damaged him much, but the report of the shot brought him around, facing me. I think the snarling visage of a huge enraged saber-tooth tiger is one of the most terrible sights in the world, especially if he be snarling at you and there be nothing between the two of you but bare sand. Even as he faced me, a little cry from the girl carried my eyes beyond the brute to her face. Hers was fastened upon me with an expression of incredulity that baffles description. There was both hope and horror in them, too. Diane, I cried. My heavens, Diane! I saw her lips form the name David, as with raised javelins she rushed forward upon the tarig. She was a Tigris then, a primitive, savage female defending her loved one. Before she could reach the beast with her puny weapon I fired again at the point where the tarig's neck met his left shoulder. If I could get a bullet through there it might reach his heart. The bullet didn't reach his heart, but it stopped him for an instant. It was then that a strange thing happened. I heard a great hissing from the stands occupied by the mayhars, and as I glanced toward them I saw three mighty thip-dars, the winged dragons that guard the queen, or, as Perry calls them, pterodactyls, rise swiftly from their rocks and dark lightning-like toward the center of their arena. They are huge, powerful reptiles. One of them, with the advantage which his wings might give him, would easily be a match for a cave bear or a tarig. These three, to my consternation, swooped down upon the tarig as he was gathering himself for a final charge upon me. They buried their talons in his back and lifted him bodily from the arena as if he had been a chicken in the clutches of a hawk. What could it mean? I was baffled for an explanation, but with the tarig gone I lost no time in hastening to Diane's side. With a little cry of delight she threw herself into my arms. So lost were we in the ecstasy of reunion that neither of us, to this day, can tell what became of the tarig. The first thing we were aware of was the presence of a body of sagoths about us. Roughly they commanded us to follow them. They led us from the arena and back through the streets of Futra to the audience chamber in which I had been tried and sentenced. Here we found ourselves facing the same cold, cruel tribunal. Again a sagoth acted as interpreter. He explained that our lives had been spared because at the last moment Tualsa had returned to Futra and seeing me in the arena had prevailed upon the queen to spare my life. Who is Tualsa? I asked. A mayhar whose last male ancestor was, ages ago, the last of the male rulers among the mayhars, he replied. Why should she wish to have my life spared? He shrugged his shoulders and then repeated my question to the mayhar spokesman. When the latter had explained in the strange sign language that passes for speech between the mayhars and their fighting men, the sagoth turned again to me. For a long time you had Tualsa in your power, he explained. You might easily have killed her or abandoned her in a strange world, but you did neither. You did not harm her, and you brought her back with you to Pellucidar and set her free to return to Futra. This is your reward. Now I understood. The mayhar who had been my involuntary companion upon my return to the outer world was Tualsa. This was the first time that I had learned the lady's name. I thanked fate that I had not left her upon the sands of the Sahara, or put a bullet in her, as I had been tempted to do. I was surprised to discover that gratitude was a characteristic of the dominant race of Pellucidar. I could never think of them as ought but cold-blooded, brainless reptiles, though Perry had devoted much time in explaining to me that owing to a strange freak of evolution among all the genera of the inner world this species of the reptilia had advanced to a position quite analogous to that which man holds upon the outer crust. He had often told me that there was every reason to believe from their writings, which he had learned to read, while we were incarcerated in Futra, that they were a just race, and that in certain branches of science and arts they were quite well advanced, especially in genetics and metaphysics, engineering and architecture. While it had always been difficult for me to look upon these things as other than slimy winged crocodiles, which, by the way, they do not at all resemble, I was now forced to a realization of the fact that I was in the hands of enlightened creatures for justice and gratitude are certain hallmarks of rationality and culture. But what they proposed for us further was of most imminent interest to me. They might save us from the tarig and yet not free us. They looked upon us yet, to some extent I knew, as creatures of a lower order, and so as we are unable to place ourselves in the position of the brutes we enslave, thinking that they are happier in bondage than in the free fulfillment of the purposes for which nature intended them, the mayhars too might consider our welfare better conserved in captivity than among the dangers of the savage freedom we craved. Naturally I was next impelled to inquire their further intent. To my question, put through the Segoth interpreter, I received the reply that having spared my life they considered that Tuolse's debt of gratitude was cancelled. They still had against me, however, the crime of which I had been guilty, the unforgivable crime of stealing the great secret. They therefore intended holding Diane and me prisoners until the manuscript was returned to them. They would, they said, send an escort of Segoths with me to fetch the precious document from its hiding-place, keeping Diane at Futra as a hostage and releasing us both the moment that the document was safely restored to their queen. There was no doubt that they had the upper hand, however, there was so much more at stake than the liberty or even the lives of Diane and myself that I did not deem it expedient to accept their offer without giving the matter careful thought. Without the great secret this male-less race must eventually become extinct. For ages they had fertilized their eggs by an artificial process, the secret of which lay hidden in the little cave of a far-off valley where Diane and I had spent our honeymoon. I was none too sure that I could find the valley again, nor that I cared to. So long as the powerful reptilian race of Pellucidar continued to propagate just so long with the position of man within the inner world be jeopardized, there could not be two dominant races. I said as much to Diane. You used to tell me, she replied, of the wonderful things you could accomplish with the inventions of your own world. Now you have returned with all that is necessary to place this great power in the hands of the men of Pellucidar. You told me of great engines of destruction which would cast a bursting ball of metal among our enemies, killing hundreds of them at one time. You told me of mighty fortresses of stone which a thousand men armed with big and little engines such as these could hold forever against a million sagoths. You told me of great canoes which moved across the water without paddles and which spat death from holes in their sides. All these may now belong to the men of Pellucidar. Why should we fear the mayhars? Let them breed. Let their numbers increase by thousands. They will be helpless before the power of the emperor of Pellucidar. But if you remain a prisoner in Futra, what may we accomplish? What could the men of Pellucidar do without you to lead them? They would fight among themselves, and while they fought, the mayhars would fall upon them, and even though the mayhar race should die out, of what value would the emancipation of the human race be to them without the knowledge which you alone may wield to guide them toward the wonderful civilization of which you have told me so much that I long for its comforts and luxuries as I never before long for anything. No, David, the mayhars cannot harm us if you are at liberty. Let them have their secret that you and I may return to our people and lead them to the conquest of all Pellucidar. It was plain that Diane was ambitious and that her ambition had not dulled her reasoning faculties. She was right. Nothing could be gained by remaining bottled up in Futra for the rest of our lives. It was true that Perry might do much with the contents of the Prospector, or Iron Mole, in which I had brought down the implements of our outer world's civilization. But Perry was a man of peace. He could never weld the warring factions of the disrupted federation. He could never win new tribes to the empire. He would fiddle around manufacturing gunpowder and trying to improve upon it until someone blew him up with his own invention. He wasn't practical. He never would get anywhere without a balanced wheel, without someone to direct his energies. Perry needed me and I needed him. If we were going to do anything for Pellucidar we must be free to do it together. The outcome of it all was that I agreed to the Mahar's proposition. They promised that Diane would be well treated and protected from every indignity during my absence. So I set out with a hundred seagoths in search of the little valley which I had stumbled upon by accident and which I might and might not find again. We traveled directly toward Sarri, stopping at the camp where I had been captured. I recovered my express rifle, for which I was very thankful. I found it lying where I had left it, when I had been overpowered in my sleep by the seagoths who had captured me and slain my mesop companions. On the way I added materially to my map, an occupation which did not elicit from the seagoths even a shadow of interest. I felt that the human race of Pellucidar had little to fear from these guerrilla men. They were fighters. That was all. We might even use them later ourselves in this same capacity. They had not sufficient brain power to constitute a menace to the advancement of the human race. As we neared the spot where I hoped to find the little valley I became more and more confident of success. Every landmark was familiar to me, and I was sure now that I knew the exact location of the cave. It was at about this time that I sighted a number of the half-naked warriors of the human race of Pellucidar. They were marching across our front. At sight of us they halted, that there would be a fight I could not doubt. These seagoths would never permit an opportunity for the capture of slaves for their mehar masters to escape them. I saw that the men were armed with bows and arrows, long lances and swords, so I guessed that they must have been members of the Federation, for only my people had been thus equipped. Before Perry and I came the men of Pellucidar had only the crudest weapons wherewith to slay one another. The seagoths, too, were evidently expecting battle. With savage shouts they rushed forward toward the human warriors. Then a strange thing happened. The leader of the human being stepped forward with upraised hands. The seagoths ceased their war cries and advanced slowly to meet him. There was a long parley during which I could see that I was often the subject of their discourse. The seagoths' leader pointed in the direction in which I had told him the valley lay. Evidently he was explaining the nature of our expedition to the leader of the warriors. It was all a puzzle to me. What human being could be upon such excellent terms with the guerrilla man? I couldn't imagine. I tried to get a good look at the fellow, but the seagoths had left me in the rear with a guard when they had advanced to battle and the distance was too great for me to recognize the features of any of the human beings. Finally the parley was concluded and the men continued on their way while the seagoths returned to where I stood with my guard. It was time for eating, so we stopped where we were and made our meal. The seagoths didn't tell me who it was they had met and I did not ask, though I must confess that I was quite curious. They permitted me to sleep at this halt. Afterward we took up the last leg of our journey. I found the valley without difficulty and led my guard directly to the cave. At his mouth the seagoths halted and I entered alone. I noticed as I felt about the floor in the dim light that there was a pile of fresh-turned rubble there. Presently my hands came to the spot where the great secret had been buried. There was a cavity where I had carefully smoothed the earth over the hiding place of the document. The manuscript was gone. Frantically I searched the whole interior of the cave several times over, but without other result than a complete confirmation of my worst fears. Someone had been here ahead of me and stolen the great secret. The one thing within Pellucidar which might free Diane and me was gone, nor was it likely that I should ever learn its whereabouts. If a mehar had found it, which was quite improbable, the chances were that the dominant race would never divulge the fact that they had recovered the precious document. If a caveman had happened upon it he would have no conception of its meaning or value, and as a consequence it would be lost or destroyed in short order. With bowed head and broken hopes I came out of the cave and told the seagoth chieftain what I had discovered. It didn't mean much to the fellow who doubtless had but little better idea of the contents of the document I had been sent to fetch to his masters than would the caveman who in all probability had discovered it. The seagoth knew only that I had failed in my mission, so he took advantage of the fact to make the return journey to Futra as disagreeable as possible. I did not rebel, though I had with me the means to destroy them all. I did not dare rebel because of the consequences to Diane. I intended demanding her release on the grounds that she was in no way guilty of the theft and that my failure to recover the document had not lessened the value of the good faith I had had in offering to do so. The mayhars might keep me in slavery if they chose, but Diane should be returned safely to her people. I was full of my scheme when we entered Futra and I was conducted directly to the Great Audience Chamber. The mayhars listened to the report of the seagoth chieftain, and so difficult is it to judge their emotions from their almost expressionless countenance that I was at a loss to know how terrible might be their wrath as they learned that their great secret upon which rested the fate of their race might now be irretrievably lost. Presently I could see that she who presided was communicating something to the seagoth interpreter. Doubtless something to be transmitted to me which might give me a forewarning of the fate which lay in store for me. One thing I had decided definitely. If they would not free Diane I should turn loose upon Futra with my little arsenal. Alone I might even win to freedom, and if I could learn where Diane was imprisoned it would be worth the attempt to free her. My thoughts were interrupted by the interpreter. The mighty mayhars, he said, are unable to reconcile your statement that the document is lost with your action in sending it to them by a special messenger. They wish to know if you have so soon forgotten the truth, or if you are merely ignoring it. I sent them no document, I cried. Asked them what they mean. They say, he went on after conversing with the mayhar for a moment, that just before your return to Futra, Huja the sly one came, bringing the great secret with him. He said that you had sent him ahead with it, asking him to deliver it and return to Sari where you would wait him, bringing the girl with him. Diane, I gassed, the mayhars have given over Diane into the keeping of Huja. Surely, he replied, what of it? She is only a Gillak. As you or I would say, she is only a cow. End of chapter five. Chapter six of Pellucidar. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Ralph Snelson. Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Chapter six. A Pendant World. The mayhars set me free as they had promised, but with strict injunctions never to approach Futra or any other mayhar city. They also made it perfectly plain that they considered me a dangerous creature and that having wiped the slate clean in so far as they were under obligations to me, they now considered me fair prey. Should I again fall into their hands, they intimated it would go ill with me. They would not tell me in which direction Huja had set forth with Diane, so I departed from Futra, filled with bitterness against the mayhars, and raged toward the sly one who had once again robbed me of my greatest treasure. At first I was minded to go directly back to Anorok, but upon second thought turned my face toward Sari as I felt that somewhere in that direction Huja would travel, his own country lying in that general direction. Of my journey to Sari it is only necessary to say that it was fraught with the usual excitement and adventure incident to all travel across the face of savage Pellucidar. The dangers, however, were greatly reduced through the medium of my armament. I often wondered how it had happened that I had ever survived the first ten years of my life within the inner world when naked and primitively armed I had traversed great areas of her beast-ridden surface. With the aid of my map, which I had kept with great care during my march with the Segoths in search of the great secret, I arrived at Sari at last. As I topped the lofty plateau in whose rocky cliffs the principal tribe of Sarians find their cave-homes, a great hue and cry arose from those who first discovered me. Like wasps from their nests, the hairy warriors poured from their caves, the bows with their poison-tipped arrows, which I had taught them to fashion and to use, were raised against me. Swords of hammered iron, another of my innovations, menaced me, as with lusty shouts the horde charged down. It was a critical moment. Before I should be recognized I might be dead. It was evident that all semblance of intertribal relationship had ceased with my going, and that my people had reverted to their former savage suspicious hatred of all strangers. My garb must have puzzled them, too, for never before, of course, had they seen a man clothed in khaki and putties. Leaning my express rifle against my body I raised both hands aloft. It was the peace sign that is recognized everywhere upon the surface of Plucidar. The charging warriors paused and surveyed me. I looked for my friend Gok, the hairy one, king of Sari, and presently I saw him coming from a distance. Ah, but it was good to see his mighty hairy form once more. A friend was Gok, a friend well worth the having, and it had been some time since I had seen a friend. Shouldering his way through the throng of warriors, the mighty chieftain advanced toward me. There was an expression of puzzlement upon his fine features. He crossed the space between the warriors and myself, halting before me. I did not speak. I did not even smile. I wanted to see if Gok, my principal lieutenant, would recognize me. For some time he stood there looking me over carefully. His eyes took in my large pith helmet, my khaki jacket, and bandoliers of cartridges, the two revolvers swinging at my hips, the large rifle resting against my body. Still I stood with my hands above my head. He examined my putties and my strong tan shoes, a little the worse for where now. Then he glanced up once more to my face. As his gaze rested there quite steadily for some moments I saw recognition tinned with awe creep across his countenance. Presently without a word he took one of my hands in his and dropping to one knee raised my fingers to his lips. Perry had taught them this trick, nor ever did the most policed courtier of all the Grand Courts of Europe perform the little act of homage with greater grace and dignity. Quickly I raised Gok to his feet, clasping both his hands in mine. I think there must have been tears in my eyes then. I know I felt too full for words. The King of Surrey turned toward his warriors. Our emperor has come back, he announced. Come hither and—but he got no further, for the shouts that broke from those savage throats would have drowned the voice of heaven itself. I had never guessed how much they thought of me. As they clustered around, almost fighting for the chance to kiss my hand, I saw again the vision of empire which I had thought faded forever. With such as these I could conquer a world. With such as these I would conquer one. If the Sarians had remained loyal, so too would the Amazites be loyal still, and the Calians, and the Suvians, and all the great tribes who had formed the Federation that was to emancipate the human race of Pellucidar. Perry was safe with the Meezabs. I was safe with the Sarians. Now, if Diane were but safe with me, the future would look bright indeed. It did not take long to outline to Gawk all that had befallen me since I had departed from Pellucidar, and to get down to the business of finding Diane, which to me at that moment was of even greater importance than the very empire itself. When I told him that Huja had stolen her, he stamped his foot in rage. It is always the sly one, he cried. It was Huja who caused the first trouble between you and the beautiful one. It was Huja who betrayed our trust, and all but caused our recapture by the Segos, that time we escaped from Futra. It was Huja who tricked you and substituted a mehar for Diane when you started upon your return journey to your own world. It was Huja who schemed and lied until he had turned the kingdom's one against another and destroyed the Federation. When we had him in our power we were foolish to let him live. Next time Gawk did not need to finish his sentence. He has become a very powerful enemy now, I replied, that he is allied in some way with the mehar's is evidenced by the familiarity of his relations with the Segos who were accompanying me in search of the great secret, for it must have been Huja whom I saw conversing with them just before we reached the valley. Doubtless they told him of our quest, and he hastened on ahead of us, discovered the cave, and stole the document. Well does he deserve his appellation of the sly one. With Gawk and his headmen I held a number of consultations. The upshot of them was a decision to combine our search for Diane with an attempt to rebuild the crumbled Federation. To this end twenty warriors were dispatched in pairs to ten of the leading kingdoms, with instructions to make every effort to discover the whereabouts of Huja and Diane, while prosecuting their missions to the chieftains to whom they were sent. Gawk was to remain at home to receive the various delegations which we invited to come to Sari on the business of the Federation. Four hundred warriors were started for Anroc to fetch Perry and the contents of the prospector to the capital of the Empire, which was also the principal settlements of the Sarians. At first it was intended that I remain at Sari, that I might be in readiness to hasten forth at the first report of the discovery of Diane, but I found the inaction in the face of my deep solicitude for the welfare of my mate so galling that scarce had the several units departed upon their missions before I too chafed to be actively engaged upon the search. It was after my second sleep subsequent to the departure of the warriors, as I recall, that I at last went to Gawk with the admission that I could no longer support the intolerable longing to be personally upon the trail of my lost love. Gawk tried to dissuade me, though I could tell that his heart was with me and my wish to be away and really doing something. It was while we were arguing upon the subject that a stranger, with hands above his head, entered the village. He was immediately surrounded by warriors and conducted to Gawk's presence. The fellow was a typical caveman, squat, muscular, and hairy, and of a type I had not seen before. His features, like those of all the primeval men of Palucidar, were regular and fine. His weapons consisted of a stone axe and knife and heavy-knobbed bludgeon of wood. His skin was very white. Who are you? asked Gawk. And whence come you? I am Gawk, son of Gork, who is the chief of the Thurians, replied the stranger. From Thuria I have come in search of the land of Amos, where dwells Dachor, the strongman, who stole my sister Kanda, the graceful one, to be his mate. We of Thuria had heard of a great chieftain who has bound together many tribes, and my father has sent me to Dachor to learn if there be truth in these stories, and if so to offer the services of Thuria to him whom we have heard called Emperor. The stories are true, replied Gawk, and here is the Emperor of whom you have heard. You need travel no farther. Kolk was delighted. He told us much of the wonderful resources of Thuria, the land of awful shadow, and of his long journey in search of Amos. And why, I asked, did Gork your father desire to join his kingdom to the Empire? There are two reasons, replied the young man. Forever have the Mayhors, who dwell beyond the leady plains, which lie at the farther rim of the land of awful shadow, taken heavy toll of our people, whom they either force into lifelong slavery, or fatten for their feasts. We have heard that the great Emperor makes successful war upon the Mayhors, against whom we should be glad to fight. Recently has another reason come. Upon a great island which lies in the Sojaras, but a short distance from our shores, a wicked man has collected a great band of outcast warriors of all tribes. Even are there many seagoths among them, sent by the Mayhors to aid the wicked one. This band makes raids upon our villages, and it is constantly growing in size and strength. For the Mayhors give liberty to any of their male prisoners who will promise to fight with this band against the enemies of the Mayhors. It is the purpose of the Mayhors thus to raise a force of our own kind to combat the growth and menace of the new Empire of which I have come to seek information. All this we learned from one of our own warriors, who had pretended to sympathize with this band, and had then escaped at the first opportunity. Who could this man be, I asked Gok, who leads so vile a movement against his own kind. His name is Huja, spoke up Koch, answering my question. Gok and I looked at each other. Relief was written upon his countenance, and I know that it was beating strongly in my heart. At last we had discovered a tangible clue to the whereabouts of Huja, and with the clue a guide. But when I broached the subject to Koch, he demurred. He had come a long way, he explained, to see his sister and to confer with Dachor. Moreover he had instructions from his father which he could not ignore lightly. But even so he would return with me and show me the way to the island of the Thurian shore, if by doing so we might accomplish anything. But we cannot, he urged. Huja is powerful. He has thousands of warriors. He has only to call upon his Mehar allies to receive a countless horde of Segos to do his bidding against his human enemies. Let us wait until you may gather an equal horde from the kingdoms of your empire, then we may march against Huja with some show of success. But first must you lure him to the mainland. For who among you knows how to construct the strange things that carry Huja and his band back and forth across the water? We are not island people. We do not go upon the water. We know nothing of such things. I couldn't persuade him to do more than direct me upon the way. I showed him my map, which now included a great area of country extending from Anorak upon the east to Sari upon the west and from the river south of the mountains of the clouds north to Amos. As soon as I had explained it to him he drew a line with his finger showing a sea coast far to the west and south of Sari and a great circle which he said marked the extent of the land of offal shadow in which lay Thuria. The shadow extended southeast of the coast out into the sea halfway to a large island which he said was the seat of Huja's traitorous government. The island itself lay in the light of the noonday sun. Northwest of the coast and embracing a part of Thuria lay the Lidi Plains upon the northwestern verge of which was situated the Meihar city which took such heavy toll of the Thurians. Thus were the unhappy people now between two fires, with Huja upon one side and the Meihars upon the other. I did not wonder that they sent out an appeal for succor. Though Gok and Koch both attempted to dissuade me, I was determined to set out at once, nor did I delay longer than to make a copy of my map to be given to Perry that he might add to his that which I had set down since we parted. I left a letter for him as well, in which, among other things, I advanced the theory that the Sojoraz, or Great Sea, which Koch mentioned as stretching eastward from Thuria, might indeed be the same mighty ocean as that which swinging around the southern end of a continent ran northward along the shore opposite Futra, mingling its waters with the huge gulf upon which lay Sari, Amos, and Greenwich. Against this possibility I urged him to hasten the building of a fleet of small sailing vessels, which we might utilize should I find it impossible to entice Huja's horde to the mainland. I told Gok what I had written, and suggested that as soon as he could he should make new treaties with the various kingdoms of the Empire, collect an army, and march toward Thuria, this, of course, against the possibility of my detention through some cause or other. Koch gave me a sign to his father, a leedy, or beast of burden, crudely scratched upon a bit of bone, and beneath the leedy a man and a flower. All very rudely done, perhaps, but nonetheless effective as I well knew from my long years among the primitive men of Pellucidar. The leedy is the tribal beast of the Thurians. The man and the flower in the combination in which they appeared bore a double significance, as they constituted not only a message to the effect that the bearer came in peace, but were also Koch's signature. And so armed with my credentials and my small arsenal I set out alone upon my quest for the dearest girl in this world or yours. Koch gave me explicit directions, though with my map I do not believe that I could have gone wrong. As a matter of fact I did not need the map at all, since the principal landmark of the first half of my journey, a gigantic mountain peak, was plainly visible from Sari, though a good hundred miles away. At the southern base of this mountain a river rose and ran in a westerly direction, finally turning south and emptying into the Sogyar Oz, some forty miles northeast of Thuria. All that I had to do was follow this river to the sea, and then follow the coast to Thuria. Two hundred and forty miles of wild mountain and primeval jungle, of untracked plain, of nameless rivers, of deadly swamps and savage forests lay ahead of me, yet never had I been more eager for an adventure than now, for never had more depended upon my haste and success. I do not know how long a time that journey required, and only half did I appreciate the buried wonders that each new march unfolded before me, for my mind and heart were filled with but a single image. That of a perfect girl, whose great dark eyes looked bravely forth from a frame of raven hair. It was not until I had passed the high peak and found the river that my eyes first discovered the pendant world, the tiny satellite which hangs low over the surface of Plucidar, casting its perpetual shadow always upon the same spot, the area that is known here as the land of awful shadow, in which dwells the tribe of Thuria. From the distance and the elevation of the Highlands, where I stood, the Plucidarian noonday moon showed half in sunshine and half in shadow, while directly beneath it was plainly visible the round dark spot upon the surface of Plucidar, where the sun has never shone. From where I stood, the moon appeared to hang so low above the ground as almost to touch it, but later I was to learn that it floats a mile above the surface, which seems indeed quite close for a moon. Following the river downward, I soon lost sight of the tiny planet as I entered the mazes of a lofty forest, nor did I catch another glimpse of it for some time, several marches at least. However, when the river led me to the sea, or rather just before it reached the sea, of a sudden the sky became overcast, and the size and luxuriance of the vegetation diminished as by magic, as if an omnipotent hand had drawn a line upon the earth and said, upon this side shall the trees and the shrubs, the grasses and the flowers riot in profusion of rich colors, gigantic size and bewildering abundance, and upon that side shall they be dwarfed and pale and scant. Instantly I looked above, for clouds are so uncommon in the skies of Plucidar, they are practically unknown except above the mightiest mountain ranges, that it had given me something of a start to discover the sun obliterated. But I was not long in coming to a realization of the cause of the shadow. Above me hung another world, I could see its mountains and valleys, oceans, lakes and rivers, its broad grassy plains and dense forests. But too great was the distance and too deep the shadow of its underside for me to distinguish any movement as of the animal life. Instantly a great curiosity was awakened within me. The questions which the side of this planet so tantalizingly closed, raised in my mind, were numerous and unanswerable. Was it inhabited? If so, by what manner and form of creature? Were its people as relatively diminutive as their little world, or were they as disproportionately huge as the lesser attraction of gravity upon the surface of their globe would permit of their being? As I watched it, I saw that it was revolving upon an axis that lay parallel to the surface of Plucidar, so that during each revolution its entire surface was once exposed to the world below and once bathed in the heat of the great sun above. The little world had that which Plucidar could not have, a day and night, and greatest of boons to one outer earthly born, time. Here I saw a chance to give time to Plucidar, using this mighty clock, revolving perpetually in the heavens to record the passage of the hours for the earth below. Here should be located an observatory, from which might be flashed by wireless to every corner of the empire the correct time once each day. That this time would be easily measured, I had no doubt, since so plain were the landmarks upon the under-surface of the satellite that it would be but necessary to erect a simple instrument and mark the instant of passage of a given landmark across the instrument. But then was not the time for dreaming. I must devote my mind to the purpose of my journey. So I hastened onward beneath the great shadow. As I advanced I could not but note the changing nature of the vegetation and the paling of its hues. The river led me a short distance within the shadow before it emptied into the sojourn as. Then I continued in a southerly direction along the coast toward the village of Thuria, where I hoped to find Gork and deliver to him my credentials. I had progressed no great distance from the mouth of the river when I discerned, lying some distance at sea, a great island. This I assumed to be the stronghold of Hoogia, nor did I doubt that upon it even now was Diane. The way was most difficult, since shortly after leaving the river I encountered lofty cliffs split by numerous long narrow fjords, each of which necessitated a considerable detour. As the crow flies it is about twenty miles from the mouth of the river to Thuria, but before I had covered half of it I was fagged. There was no familiar fruit or vegetable growing upon the rocky soil of the cliff-tops, and I would have fared ill for food had not a hair broken cover almost beneath my nose. I carried bow and arrows to conserve my ammunition supply, but so quick was the little animal that I had no time to draw and fit a shaft. In fact my dinner was a hundred yards away and going like the proverbial bat when I dropped my six-shooter on it. It was a pretty shot, and when coupled with a good dinner made me quite contented with myself. After eating I lay down and slept. When I awoke I was scarcely so self-satisfied, for I had not more than opened my eyes before I became aware of the presence, barely a hundred yards from me, of a pack of some twenty huge wolf-dogs, the things which Perry insisted upon calling hyenodons, and almost simultaneously I discovered that while I slept my revolvers, rifle, bow, arrows, and knife had been stolen from me, and the wolf-dog pack was preparing to rush me. I have never been much of a runner. I hate running. But if ever a sprinter broke into smithereens all world's records it was I that day when I fled before those hideous beasts along the narrow spit of rocky cliff between two narrow fjords toward the sojourn as. Just as I reached the verge of the cliff the foremost of the brutes was upon me. He leaped and closed his massive jaws upon my shoulder. The momentum of his flying body added to that of my own carried the two of us over the cliff. It was a hideous fall. The cliff was almost perpendicular, and its foot broke the sea against a solid wall of rock. We struck the cliff face once in our descent, and then plunged into the salt sea. With the impact with the water the hyenodon released his hold upon my shoulder. As I came sputtering to the surface I looked about for some tiny foot or handhold where I might cling for a moment of rest and recuperation. The cliff itself offered me nothing, so I swam toward the mouth of the fjord. At the far end I could see that erosion from above had washed down sufficient rubble to form a narrow ribbon of beach. Toward this I swam with all my strength. Not once did I look behind me, since every unnecessary movement in swimming detracts so much from one's endurance speed. Not until I had drawn myself safely out upon the beach did I turn my eyes back toward the sea for the hyenodon. He was swimming slowly and apparently painfully toward the beach upon where I stood. I watched him for a long time, wondering why it was that such a dog-like animal was not a better swimmer. As he neared me I realized that he was weakening rapidly. I had gathered a handful of stones to be ready for his assault when he landed. But in a moment I let them fall from my hands. It was evident that the brute either was no swimmer or else was severely injured, for by now he was making practically no headway. Indeed it was with quite apparent difficulty that he kept his nose above the surface of the sea. He was not more than fifty yards from shore when he went under. I watched the spot where he had disappeared, and in a moment I saw his head reappear. The look of dumb misery in his eyes struck a chord in my breast, for I loved dogs. I forgot that he was a vicious primordial wolf thing, a man-eater, a scourge, and a terror. I saw only the sad eyes that looked like the eyes of Raja, my dead collie of the outer world. I did not stop to weigh and consider. In other words, I did not stop to think, which I believe must be the way of men who do things in contra-distinction to those who think much and do nothing. Instead I leaped back into the water and swam out toward the drowning beast. At first he showed his teeth at my approach, but just before I reached him he went under for the second time, so that I had to dive to get him. I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and though he weighed as much as a Shetland pony, I managed to drag him to shore and well up upon the beach. Here I found that one of his forelegs was broken. The crash against the cliff face must have done it. By this time all the fight was out of him, so that when I had gathered a few tiny branches from some of the stunted trees that grew in the crevices of the cliff and returned to him, he permitted me to set his broken leg and bind it in splints. I had to tear part of my shirt into bits to obtain a bandage, but at last the job was done. Then I sat stroking the savage head and talking to the beast in the man-dog-talk with which you are familiar, if you ever owned and loved a dog. When he is well I thought he probably will turn upon me and attempt to devour me, and against that eventuality I gathered together a pile of rocks and set to work to fashion a stone knife. We were bottled up at the head of the fjord as completely as if we had been behind prison bars before us spread the sojourn as, and elsewhere about us rose unscalable cliffs. Fortunately a little rivulet trickled down the side of the rocky wall, giving a sample supply of fresh water, some of which I kept constantly beside the hyena dawn in a huge bowl-shaped shell of which there were countless numbers among the rubble of the beach. For food we subsisted upon shellfish and an occasional bird that I succeeded in knocking over with a rock, for long practices of picture on prep school and varsity nines had made me an excellent shot with a hand-thrown missile. It was not long before the hyena dawn's leg was sufficiently mended to permit him to rise and hobble about on three legs. I shall never forget with what intent interest I watched his first attempt. Close at my hand lay my pile of rocks. Slowly the beast came to his three good feet. He stretched himself, lured his head, and lapped water from the drinking shell at his side, turned and looked at me, and then hobbled off toward the cliffs. Thrice he traversed the entire extent of our prison, seeking, I imagine, a loophole for escape, but finding none he returned in my direction. Slowly he came quite close to me, sniffed at my shoes, my putties, my hands, and then limped off a few feet and lay down again. Now that he was able to get around I was a little uncertain as to the wisdom of my impulsive mercy. How could I sleep with that ferocious thing prowling about the narrow confines of our prison? Should I close my eyes, it might be to open them again to feel of those mighty jaws at my throat. To say the least I was uncomfortable. I have had too much experience with dumb animals to bank very strongly on any sense of gratitude which may be attributed to them by inexperienced sentimentalists. I believe that some animals love their masters, but I doubt very much if their affection is the outcome of gratitude, a characteristic that is so rare as to be only occasionally traceable in the seemingly unselfish acts of man himself. But finally I was forced to sleep. Tired nature would be put off no longer. I simply fell asleep willy-nilly as I sat looking out to sea. I had been very uncomfortable since my ducking in the ocean, for though I could see the sunlight on the water halfway toward the island and upon the island itself, no ray of it fell upon us. We were well within the land of awful shadow. A perpetual half warmth pervaded the atmosphere, but clothing was slow in drying, and so from loss of sleep and great physical discomfort I at last gave way to nature's demands and sank into profound slumber. When I awoke it was with a start, for a heavy body was upon me. My first thought was that the hyena don had at last attacked me, but as my eyes opened and I struggled to rise I saw that a man was astride me and three others bending close above him. I am no weakling and never have been. My experience in the hard life of the inner world has turned my fuse to steel. Even such giants as God, the hairy one, have praised my strength, but to it is added another quality which they lack—science. The man upon me held me down awkwardly, leaving me many openings, one of which I was not slow in taking advantage of, so that almost before the fellow knew that I was awake I was upon my feet with my arms over his shoulders and about his waist, and had hurled him heavily over my head to the hard rubble of the beach where he lay quite still. In the instant that I arose I had seen the hyena don lying asleep beside a boulder a few yards away. So nearly was he the color of the rock that he was scarcely discernible. Evidently the newcomers had not seen him. I had not more than freed myself from one of my antagonists before the other three were upon me. They did not work silently now but charged me with savage cries, a mistake upon their part, the fact that they did not draw their weapons against me convinced me that they desired to take me alive, but I fought as desperately as if death loomed immediate and sure. The battle was short, for scarce had their first wild hoop reverberated through the rocky fjord, and they had closed upon me then a hairy mass of demonical rage hurtled among us. It was the hyena don. In an instant he had pulled down one of the men, and with a single shake, terrier-like had broken his neck. Then he was upon another, in their efforts to vanquish the wolf-dog, the savages forgot all about me, thus giving me an instant in which to snatch a knife from the loin-string of him who had first fallen and account for another of them. Almost simultaneously the hyena don pulled down the remaining enemy, crushing his skull with a single bite of those fearsome jaws. The battle was over, unless the beast considered me fair prey too. I waited, ready for him with knife and bludgeon, also filts from a dead foeman, but he paid no attention to me, falling to work instead to devour one of the corpses. The beast had been handicapped but little by his splinted leg, but having eaten he lay down and commenced to gnaw at the bandage. I was sitting some little distance away, devouring selfish, of which, by the way, I was becoming exceedingly tired. Presently the hyena don arose and came toward me. I did not move. He stopped in front of me and deliberately raised his bandage leg and pawed my knee. His act was as intelligible as words. He wished the bandage removed. I took the great paw in one hand, and with the other hand untied and unwound the bandage, removed the splints and felt of the injured member. As far as I could judge the bone was completely knit. The joint was stiff. When I bent it a little the brute winched, but he neither growled nor tried to pull away. Very slowly and gently I rubbed the joint and applied pressure to it for a few moments. Then I set it down upon the ground. The hyena don walked around me a few times and then lay down at my side, his body touching mine. I laid my hand upon his head. He did not move. Slowly I scratched about his ears and neck and down beneath the fierce jaws. The only sign he gave was to raise his chin a trifle that I might better caress him. That was enough. From that moment I have never again felt suspicion of Roger, as I immediately named him. Somehow all sense of loneliness vanished too. I had a dog. I had never guessed precisely what it was that was lacking to life in Pellucidar, but now I knew it was the total absence of domestic animals. Man here had not yet reached the point where he might take the time from slaughter and escaping slaughter to make friends with any of the brute creation. I must qualify this statement a trifle, and say that this was true of those tribes with which I was most familiar. The Thurians do domesticate the colossal Lidi, traversing the great Lidi planes upon the backs of these grotesque and stupendous monsters, and possibly there may also be other far distant peoples within the great world who have tamed others of the wild things of jungle, plain, or mountain. The Thurians practice agriculture in a crude sort of way. It is my opinion that this is one of the earliest steps from savagery to civilization. The taming of wild beasts and their domestication follows. Perry argues that wild dogs were first domesticated for hunting purposes, but I do not agree with him. I believe that if their domestication were not purely the result of an accident, as, for example, my taming of the Hyena Da, it came about through the desire of tribes who had previously domesticated flocks and herds to have some strong ferocious beasts to guard their roaming property. However, I lean rather more strongly to the theory of accident. As I sat there upon the beach of the little fjord, eating my unpalatable shellfish, I commenced to wonder how it had been that the four savages had been able to reach me, though I had been unable to escape from my natural prison. I glanced about in all directions, searching for an explanation. At last my eyes fell upon the bow of a small dugout protruding scarce a foot from behind a large boulder lying half in the water at the edge of the beach. At my discovery I leaped to my feet so suddenly that it brought Roger growling and bristling upon all fours in an instant. For the moment I had forgotten him, but his savage rumbling did not cause me any uneasiness. He glanced quickly about in all directions as if searching for the cause of my excitement. Then as I walked rapidly down toward the dugout, he slumped silently after me. The dugout was similar in many respects to those which I had seen in use by the mesots. In it were four paddles. I was much delighted as it promptly offered me the escape I had been craving. I pushed out into the water that would float it, stepped in and called to Roger to enter. At first he did not seem to understand what I wished of him, but after I had paddled out a few yards he plunged through the surf and swam after me. When he had come alongside I grasped the scruff of his neck and after a considerable struggle in which I several times came near to overturning the canoe I managed to drag him aboard where he shook himself vigorously and squatted down before me. After emerging from the fjord I paddled southward along the coast where presently the lofty cliffs gave way to lower and more level country. It was here somewhere that I should come upon the principal village of the Thurians. When after a time I saw in the distance what I took to be huts in a clearing near the shore, I drew quickly into land for though I had been furnished credentials by coat, I was not sufficiently familiar with the tribal characteristics of these people to know whether I should receive a friendly welcome or not. And in case I should not, I wanted to be sure of having a canoe hidden safely away so that I might undertake the trip to the island in any event, provided, of course, that I escaped the Thurians should they prove belligerent. At the point where I landed the shore was quite low. A forest of pale scrubby ferns ran down almost to the beach. Here I dragged up the dugout hiding it well within the vegetation, and with some loose rocks built a cairn upon the beach to mark my cache. Then I turned my steps toward the Thurian village. As I proceeded I began to speculate upon the possible actions of Raja when he should enter the presence of other men than myself. The brute was patting softly at my side, his sensitive nose constantly at twitch, and his fierce eyes moving restlessly from side to side. Nothing would ever take Raja unawares. The more I thought upon the matter, the greater became my perturbation. I did not want Raja to attack any of the people upon whose friendship I so greatly depended, nor did I want him injured or slain by them. I wondered if Raja would stand for a leash. His head, as he paced beside me, was level with my hip. I laid my hand upon it caressingly. As I did so he turned and looked up into my face, his jaws parting and his red-tongued lolling as you have seen your own dogs beneath a love-pat. Just been waiting all your life to be tamed and loved, haven't you, old man? I asked. You're nothing but a good pup, and the man who put the hyena on your name ought to be sued for libel. Raja buried his mighty fangs with up-curled snarling lips and licked my hand. You're grinning, you old fraud, you, I cried. If you're not, I'll eat you. I'll bet a doughnut you're nothing but some kid's poor old phyto masquerading around as a real, live man-eater. Raja whined, and so we walked on together toward Thuria, eye-talking to the beast at my side, and he seemed to enjoy my company no less than I enjoyed his. If you don't think it's lonesome, wandering all by yourself through savage, unknown pelucidar, why just try it, and you will not wonder that I was glad of the company of this first dog, this living replica of the fierce and now extinct hyena dawn of the outer crust that hunted in savage packs the great elk across the snows of southern France, in the days when the mastodon roamed at will over the broad continent of which the British Isles were then apart, and perchance left his footprints and his bones in the sands of Atlantis as well. Thus I dreamed as we moved on toward Thuria. My dreaming was rudely shattered by a savage growl from Raja. I looked down at him. He had stopped in his tracks as one turned to stone. A thin ridge of stiff hair bristled along the entire length of his spine. His yellow green eyes were fastened upon the scrubby jungle at our right. I fastened my fingers in the bristles at his neck and turned my eyes in the direction that his pointed. At first I saw nothing, then a slight movement of the bushes riveted my attention. I thought it must be some wild beast and was glad of the primitive weapons I had taken from the bodies of the warriors who had attacked me. Presently I distinguished two eyes peering at us from the vegetation. I took a step in their direction, and as I did so a youth arose and fled precipitately in the direction we had been going. Raja struggled to be after him, but I held tightly to his neck, an act which he did not seem to relish, for he turned on me with bared fangs. I determined that now was as good a time as any to discover just how deep was Raja's affection for me. One of us could be master, and logically I was the one. He growled at me. I cuffed him sharply across the nose. He looked at me for a moment in surprised bewilderment, and then he growled again. I made another faint at him, expecting that it would bring him at my throat. But instead he winched and crouched down. Raja was subdued. I stooped and patted him. Then I took a piece of the rope that constituted a part of my equipment and made a leash for him. Thus we resumed our journey toward Thuria. The youth who had seen us was evidently of the Thurians. That he had lost no time in racing homeward and spreading the word of my coming was evidenced when we had come within sight of the clearing, and the village, the first real village, by the way that I had ever seen constructed by human pollucidarians. There was a rude rectangle walled with logs and bowlers in which were a hundred or more thatched huts of similar construction. There was no gate, ladders that could be removed by night led over the palisade. Before the village were assembled a great concourse of warriors. Inside I could see the heads of women and children peering over the top of the wall, and also farther back the long necks of Lidi, topped by their tiny heads. Lidi, by the way, is both the singular and plural form of the noun that describes the huge beasts of burden of the Thurians. They are enormous quadrupeds, eighty or a hundred feet long, with very small heads perched at the top of very long slender necks. Their heads are quite forty feet from the ground. Their gait is slow and deliberate, but so enormous are their strides that, as a matter of fact, they cover the ground quite rapidly. Perry has told me that they are almost identical with the fossilized remains of the dipoleonochris of the outer crust's Jurassic age. I have to take his word for it, and I guess you will, unless you know more of such matters than I. As we came inside of the warriors the men set up a great jabbering. Their eyes were wide in astonishment, only I presume because of my strange garmenture, but as well from the fact that I came in company with a Jalak, which is the Pellucidarian name of the Hyena Dawn. Roger tugged at his leash, growling and showing his long white fangs. He would have liked nothing better than to be at the throats of the whole aggregation. But I held him in with the leash, though it took all my strength to do it. My free hand I held above my head, palm out, in token of the peacefulness of my mission. In the foreground I saw the youth who had discovered us, and I could tell from the way he carried himself that he was quite overcome by his own importance. The warriors about him were all fine-looking fellows, though shorter and squatter than the Saurians or the Amazipes. Their color, too, was a bit lighter, owing, no doubt, to the fact that much of their lives is spent within the shadow of the world that hangs forever above their country. A little in advance of the others was a bearded fellow, tricked out in many ornaments. I didn't need to ask to know that he was the chieftain, doubtless Gork, father of Coke. Now to him I addressed myself. I am David, I said, Emperor of the Federated Kingdoms of Palucidar, doubtless you have heard of me. He nodded his head affirmatively. I come from Sari, I continued, where I just met Coke, the son of Gork. I bear a token from Coke to his father, which will prove that I am a friend. Again the warrior nodded. I am Gork, he said. Where is the token? Here I replied and fished into the game-bag where I had placed it. Gork and his people waited in silence. My hand searched the inside of the bag. It was empty. The token had been stolen with my arms. CHAPTER VIII. CAPTIV. When Gork and his people saw that I had no token, they commenced to taunt me. You do not come from Coke, but from the sly one, they cried. He has sent you from the island to spy upon us. Go away, or we will set upon you and kill you. I explained that all my belongings had been stolen from me, and that the robber must have taken the token too. But they didn't believe me. As proof that I was one of Hoogia's people, they pointed to my weapons, which they said were ornamented like those of the island clan. Further they said that no good man went in company with a Jalloch, and that by this line of reasoning I certainly was a bad man. I saw that they were not naturally a warlike tribe, for they preferred that I leave in peace rather than force them to attack me, whereas the Saurians would have killed a suspicious stranger first and inquired into his purposes later. I think Roger sensed their antagonism, for he kept tugging at his leash and growling ominously. They were a bit in awe of him, and kept at a safe distance. It was evident that they could not comprehend why it was that this savage brute did not turn upon me and rend me. I wasted a long time there trying to persuade Gork to accept me at my own valuation, but he was too canny. The best he would do was to give us food, which he did, and direct me to the safest portion of the island upon which to attempt a landing, though even as he told me I am sure that he thought my request for information but a blind to deceive him as to my true knowledge of the insular stronghold. At last I turned away from them, rather disheartened, for I had hoped to be able to enlist a considerable force of them in an attempt to rush Hoogia's horde and rescue Diane. Back along the beach toward the hidden canoe we made our way. By the time we came to the cairn I was dog-tired. Throwing myself upon the sand I soon slept, and with Roger stretched out beside me I felt a far greater security than I had enjoyed for a long time. I awoke much refreshed to find Roger's eyes glued upon me. The moment I opened mine he rose, stretched himself, and without a backward glance plunged into the jungle. For several minutes I could hear him crashing through the brush, then all was silent. I wondered if he had left me to return to his fierce pack. A feeling of loneliness overwhelmed me. With a sigh I turned to the work of dragging the canoe down to the sea. As I entered the jungle where the dugout lay, a hare darted from beneath the boat's side, and a well-aimed cast of my javelin brought it down. I was hungry. I had not realised it before, so I sat upon the edge of the canoe and devoured my repast. The last remnants gone I again busied myself with preparations for my expedition to the island. I did not know for certain that Diane was there, but I surmised as much. Nor could I guess what obstacles might confront me in an effort to rescue her. For a time I loitered about after I had the canoe at the water's edge, hoping against hope that Roger would return. But he did not. So I shoved the awkward craft through the surf and leaped into it. I was still a little downcast by the desertion of my newfound friend, though I tried to assure myself that it was nothing but what I might have expected. The savage brute had served me well in the short time that we had been together, and had repaid his debt of gratitude to me, since he had saved my life, or at least my liberty, no less certainly than I had saved his life when he was injured and drowning. The trip across the water to the island was uneventful. I was mighty glad to be in the sunshine again when I passed out of the shadow of the dead world about halfway between the mainland and the island. The hot rays of the noonday sun did a great deal toward raising my spirits and dispelling the mental bloom in which I had been shrouded almost continually since entering the land of awful shadow. There is nothing more dispiriting to me than absence of sunshine. I had paddled to the southwestern point, which Gort said he believed to be the least frequented portion of the island, as he had never seen boats put off from there. I found a shallow reef running far out into the sea and rather precipitous cliffs running almost to the surf. It was a nasty place to land, and I realized now why it was not used by the natives, but at last I managed, after a good wedding, to beach my canoe and scale the cliffs. The country beyond them appeared more open and park-like than I had anticipated, since from the mainland the entire coast that is visible seems densely clothed with tropical jungle. This jungle, as I could see from the vantage point of the cliff-top, formed but a relatively narrow strip between the sea and the more open forest and meadow of the interior. Farther back there was a range of low but apparently very rocky hills, and here and there all about were visible flat-topped masses of rock, small mountains, in fact, which reminded me of pictures I had seen of landscapes in New Mexico. All together the country was very much broken and very beautiful. From where I stood I counted no less than a dozen streams winding down from among the table-butes and emptying into a pretty river which flowed away in a northeasterly direction toward the opposite end of the island. As I let my eyes roam over the scene, I suddenly became aware of figures moving upon the flat top of a far-distant butte. Whether they were beast or human though I could not make out, but at least they were alive, so I determined to prosecute my search for Fuji's stronghold in the general direction of this butte. To descend to the valley required no great effort, as I swung along through the lush grass and the fragrant flowers, my cudgel swinging in my hand, and my javelin looped across my shoulders with its aurex-hide strap, I felt equal to any emergency, ready for any danger. I had covered quite a little distance and I was passing through a strip of wood which lay at the foot of one of the flat-topped hills when I became conscious of the sensation of being watched. My life within Pellucidar has rather quickened my senses of sight, hearing, and smell, and two certain primitive intuitive or instinctive qualities that seem blunted in symbolized man. But though I was positive that eyes were upon me, I could see no sign of any living thing within the wood other than the many gay plumaged birds and little monkeys which filled the trees with life, color, and action. To you it may seem that my conviction was the result of an overwrought imagination or to the actual reality of the prying eyes of the little monkeys or the curious ones of the birds. But there is a difference which I cannot explain between the sensation of casual observation and studied espionage. A sheep might gaze at you without transmitting a warning through your subjective mind, because you are in no danger from a sheep. But let a tiger gaze fixedly at you from ambush, and unless your primitive instincts are completely calloused, you will presently commence to glance furtively about and be filled with vague, unreasoning terror. Thus was it with me then. I grasped my cudgel more firmly and unslunged my javelin, carrying it in my left hand. I peered to left and right, but I saw nothing. Then all quite suddenly there fell about my neck and shoulders around my arms and body a number of pliant fiber ropes. In a jiffy I was trust up as neatly as you might wish. One of the nooses dropped my ankles and was jerked up with a suddenness that brought me to my face upon the ground. Then something heavy and hairy sprang upon my back. I fought to draw my knife, but hairy hands grasped my wrists and dragging them behind my back bound them securely. Next my feet were bound. Then I was turned over upon my back to look up into the faces of my captors. And what faces? Imagine if you can a cross between a sheep and a gorilla, and you will have some conception of the physiognomy of the creature that bent close above me, and of those of the half-dozen others that clustered about. There was the facial length and great eyes of the sheep, and the bull neck and hideous fangs of the gorilla. The bodies and limbs were both man and gorilla-like. As they bent over me they conversed in a monosyllabic tongue that was perfectly intelligible to me. It was something of a simplified language that had no need for ought but nouns and verbs, but such words as it included were the same as those of the human beings of Plucidar. It was amplified by many gestures which filled in the speech gaps. I asked them what they intended doing with me. But like our own North American Indians, when questioned by a white man, they pretended not to understand me. One of them swung me to his shoulder as lightly as if I had been a shoat. He was a huge creature, as were his fellows, standing fully seven feet upon his short legs and weighing considerably more than a quarter of a ton. Two went ahead of my bearer and three behind. In this order we cut to the right through the forest to the foot of the hill where precipitous cliffs appeared to bar our farther progress in this direction. But my escort never paused. Like ants upon a wall they scaled that seemingly unscalable barrier, clinging heaven-nose-how to its ragged perpendicular face. During most of the short journey to the summit I must admit that my hair stood on end. Presently, however, we topped the thing and stood upon the level mesa which crowned it. Immediately from all about out of burrows and rough rocky lairs poured a perfect torrent of beast similar to my captors. They clustered about jabbering at my guards and attempting to get their hands upon me, whether from curiosity or a desire to do me bodily harm I did not know, since my escort with bared fangs and heavy blows kept them off. Across the mesa we went to stop at last before a large pile of rocks in which an opening appeared. Here my guards set me upon my feet and called out a word which sounded like gurg-gurg-gurg, and which I later learned was the name of their king. Presently there emerged from the cavernous depths of the lair a monstrous creature scarred from a hundred battles, almost hairless, and with an empty socket where one eye had been. The other eye, sheep-like in its mildness, gave the most startling appearance to the beast, which but for that single timid orb was the most fearsome thing that one could imagine. I had encountered the black hairless long-tailed ape, things of the mainland, the creatures which Perry thought might constitute the link between the higher orders of apes and man, but these brute men of gurg-gurg-gurg seemed to set that theory back to zero, for there was less similarity between the black ape men and these creatures than there was between the latter and man. While both had many human attributes, some of which were better developed in one species and some in the other. The black apes were hairless and built thatched huts in their arboreal retreats. They kept domesticated dogs and ruminants, in which respect they were farther advanced than the human beings of Plucidar. But they appeared to have only a meager language and sported long, ape-like tails. On the other hand, gurg-gurgers people were, for the most part, quite hairy, but they were tailless and had a language similar to that of the human race of Plucidar, nor were they arboreal. Their skins, where skin showed, were white. From the foregoing facts and others that I have noted during my long life within Plucidar, which is now passing through an age analogous to some preglacial age of the outer crust, I am constrained to the belief that evolution is not so much a gradual transition from one form to another as it is an accident of breeding, either by crossing or the hazards of birth. In other words, it is my belief that the first man was a freak of nature, nor would one have to draw over strongly upon his credulity to be convinced that gurg-gurg-er and his tribe were also freaks. The great man-brood seated himself upon a flat rock, his throne, I imagine, just before the entrance to his lair. With elbows on knees and chin in palms, he regarded me intently through his lone sheep-eye while one of my captors told of my taking. When all had been related, gurg-gurg-er questioned me. I shall not attempt to quote these people in their own abbreviated tongue. You would have even greater difficulty in interpreting them than did I. Instead I shall put the words into their mouths which will carry to you the ideas which they intended to convey. You are an enemy, was gurg-gurg-er's initial declaration. You belong to the tribe of Hujah. Ah, so they knew Hujah, and he was their enemy. Good. I am an enemy of Hujah, I replied. He has stolen my mate, and I have come here to take her away from him and punish Hujah. How could you do that alone? I do not know, I answered, but I should have tried had you not captured me. What do you intend to do with me? You shall work for us. You will not kill me, I asked. We do not kill except in self-defense, he replied, self-defense and punishment. Those who would kill us, and those who do wrong, we kill. If we knew you were one of Hujah's people, we might kill you, for all Hujah's people are bad people. But you say you are an enemy of Hujah. You may not speak the truth, but until we learn that you have lied, we shall not kill you. You shall work. If you hate Hujah, I suggested, why not let me, who hate him too, go and punish him. For some time Gur-Gur-Gur sat in thought. Then he raised his head and addressed my guard. Take him to his work, he ordered. His tone was final. As if to emphasize it, he turned and entered his burl. My guard conducted me farther into the mesa, where we came presently to a tiny depression or valley, at one end of which gust of warm spring. The view that opened before me was the most surprising that I have ever seen. In the hollow, which must have covered several hundred acres, were numerous fields of growing things, and working all about with crude implements or with no implements at all other than their bare hands, were many of the brute men engaged in the first agriculture that I had seen within Pellucidar. They put me to work cultivating in a patch of melons. I never was a farmer nor particularly keen for this sort of work, and I am free to confess that time never had dragged so heavily as it did during the hour or the year I spent there at that work. How long it really was I do not know, of course, but it was all too long. The creatures that worked about me were quite simple and friendly. One of them proved to be a son of a gur-gur-gur. He had broken some minor tribal law, and was working out his sentence in the fields. He told me that his tribe had lived upon this hilltop always, and that there were other tribes like them dwelling upon other hilltops. They had no wars, and had always lived in peace and harmony, menaced only by the larger carnivora of the island, until my kind had come under a creature called Huja and attacked and killed them when they chanced to descend from their natural fortresses to visit their fellows upon other lofty maces. Now they were afraid, but some day they would go in a body and fall upon Huja and his people and slay them all. I explained to him that I was Huja's enemy, and asked, when they were ready to go, that I be allowed to go with them, or better still that they let me go ahead and learn all that I could about the village where Huja dwelt so that they might attack it with the best chance of success. Gur-gur-gur's son seemed much impressed by my suggestion. He said that when he was through in the fields he would speak to his father about the matter. Some time after this gur-gur-gur came through the fields where we were, and his son spoke to him upon the subject. But the old gentleman was evidently in anything but a good humor, for he cuffed the youngster and, turning upon me, informed me that he was convinced that I had lied to him and that I was one of Huja's people. Wherefore, he concluded, we shall slay you as soon as the melons are cultivated. Hasten therefore. And hasten I did. I hastened to cultivate the weeds which grew among the melon-bines. Where there had been one sickly weed before, I nourished two healthy ones. When I found a particularly promising variety of weed growing elsewhere than among the melons, I forthwith dug it up and transplanted it among my charges. My masters did not seem to realize my perfidy. They saw me always laboring diligently in the melon patch. But as time enters not into the reckoning of palusadarians, even of human beings and much less of brutes and half-brutes, I might have lived on indefinitely through this setter fuge had not that occurred which took me out of the melon patch for good and all. CHAPTER IX OF PALUSADAR This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Ralph Snelson. PALUSADAR by Edgar Rice Burroughs. CHAPTER IX HOOGES CUT THROATS APPEAR. I had built a little shelter of rocks and brush where I might crawl in and sleep out of the perpetual light and heat of the noonday sun. When I was tired or hungry I retired to my humble cot. My masters never interposed the slightest objection. As a matter of fact they were very good to me, nor did I see ought while I was among them to indicate that they are ever else than a simple, kindly folk when left to themselves. Their awe-inspiring size, terrific strength, mighty fighting fangs, and hideous appearance are but the attributes necessary to the successful waging of their constant battle for survival, and well do they employ them when the need arises. The only flesh they eat is that of herbivorous animals and birds. When they hunt the mighty thag, the prehistoric boss of the outer crust, a single male with his fiber-rope will catch and kill the greatest of the bulls. Well, as I was about to say, I had this little shelter at the edge of my melon patch. Here I was, resting from my labors on a certain occasion, when I heard a great hubbub in the village which lay about a quarter of a mile away. Presently a male came racing toward the field, shouting excitedly. As he approached I came from my shelter to learn what all the commotion might be about, for the monotony of my existence in the melon patch must have fostered that trait of my curiosity from which it had always been my secret boast I am peculiarly free. The other workers also ran forward to meet the messenger, who quickly unburdened himself of his information, and as quickly turned and scampered back toward the village. When running these beastmen often go upon all fours, thus they leap over obstacles that would slow up a human being, and upon the level attain a speed that would make a thoroughbred look to his laurels. The result in this instance was that before I had more than assimilated the gist of the word which had been brought to the fields, I was alone, watching my co-workers speeding villageward. I was alone. It was the first time since my capture that no beastman had been within sight of me. I was alone, and all my captors were in the village at the opposite edge of the mesa, repelling an attack of Hooge's horde. It seemed from the messenger's tale that two of Gergerger's great males had been set upon by a half-dozen of Hooge's cut-throats, while the former were peaceably returning from the thag-hunt. The two had returned to the village unscratched, while but a single one of Hooge's half-dozen had escaped to report the outcome of the battle to their leader. Now Hooge was coming to punish Gergerger's people, with his large force armed with the bows and arrows that Hooge had learned from me to make, with long lances and sharp knives, I feared that even the mighty strength of the beastman could avail them but little. At last had come the opportunity for which I waited. I was free to make the far end of the mesa, find my way to the valley below, and while the two forces were engaged in their struggle, continue my search for Hooge's village, which I had learned from the beastman, lay farther on down the river that I had been following when taken prisoner. As I turned to make for the mesa's rim, the sounds of battle came plainly to my ears. The hoarse shouts of men mingled with the half-beastly roars and growls of the brute folk. Did I take advantage of my opportunity? I did not. Instead, lured by the din of strife and by the desire to deliver a stroke, however feeble against hated Hooge, I wheeled and ran directly toward the village. When I reached the edge of the plateau, such a scene met my astonished gaze as never before had startled it. For the unique battle methods of the half-brutes were rather the most remarkable I had ever witnessed. Along the very edge of the cliff-tops stood a thin line of mighty males, the best rope-throwers of the tribe. A few feet behind these, the rest of the males, with the exception of about twenty, formed a second line. While farther in the rear all the women and young children were clustered into a single group under the protection of the remaining twenty fighting males and all the old males. But it was the work of the first two lines that interested me. The forces of Hooge, a great horde of savage seagoths and primeval cavemen, were working their way up the steep cliff-face, their agility but slightly less than that of my captors, who had clamored so nimbly aloft, even he who was burdened by my weight. As the attackers came on they paused occasionally wherever a projection gave them sufficient foothold and launched arrows and spears at the defenders above them. During the entire battle both sides hurled taunts and insults at one another, the human beings naturally excelling the brutes in the coarseness and vileness of their vilification and invective. The firing line of the brute men wielded no weapon other than their long fiber nooses. When a fulmin came within range of them a noose would settle unairingly about him and he would be dragged fighting and yelling to the cliff-top, unless, as occasionally occurred, he was quick enough to draw his knife and cut the rope above him, in which event he usually plunged downward to a no less certain death than that which awaited him above. Those who were hauled up within reach of the powerful clutches of the defenders had the nooses snatched from them and were catapulted back through the first line to the second, where they were seized and killed by the simple expedient of a single powerful closing of mighty fangs upon the backs of their necks. But the arrows of the invaders were taking a much heavier toll than the nooses of the defenders, and I foresaw that it was but a matter of time before Hooges' forces must conquer unless the brute men changed their tactics or the cavemen tired of the battle. Gurgurgur was standing in the center of the first line. All about him were boulders and large fragments of broken rock. I approached him and without a word toppled a large mass of rock over the edge of the cliff. It fell directly upon the head of an archer, crushing him to instant death and carrying his mangled corpse with it to the bottom of the declivity, and on its way brushing three more of the attackers into the hereafter. Gurgurgur turned toward me in surprise. For an instant he appeared to doubt the sincerity of my motives. I felt that perhaps my time had come when he reached for me with one of his great paws. But I dodged him, and running a few paces to the right hurled down another missile. It, too, did its allotted work of destruction. Then I picked up smaller fragments, and with all the control and accuracy for which I had earned justly deserved fame in my collegiate days I reigned down a hail of death upon those beneath me. Gurgurgur was coming toward me again. I pointed to the litter of rubble upon the cliff top. Hurl these down upon the enemy, I cried to him. Tell your warriors to throw rocks down upon them. At my words the others of the first line, who had been interested spectators of my tactics, seized upon great boulders or bits of rock, whichever came first to their hands, and without waiting for a command from Gurgurgur, diluted the terrified cavemen with a perfect avalanche of stone. In less than no time the cliff face was stripped of enemies, and the village of Gurgurgur was saved. Gurgurgur was standing beside me when the last of the cavemen disappeared in rapid flight down the valley. He was looking at me intently. Those were your people, he said. Why did you kill them? They were not my people, I returned. I have told you that before, but you would not believe me. Will you believe me now when I tell you that I hate Hootia and his tribe as much as you do? Will you believe me when I tell you that I wish to be the friend of Gurgurgur? For some time he stood there beside me, scratching his head. Evidently it was no less difficult for him to readjust his preconceived conclusions than it is for most human beings. But finally the idea percolated, which it might never have done had he been a man, or I might qualify that statement by saying had he been some man. Finally he spoke. Gilak, he said, you have made Gurgurgur a shame. He would have killed you. How can he reward you? Set me free, I replied quickly. You are free, he said. You may go down when you wish, or you may stay with us. If you go, you may always return. We are your friends. Naturally I elected to go. I explained all over again to Gurgurgur the nature of my mission. He listened attentively. After I had done it, he offered to send some of his people with me to guide me to Huj's village. I was not slow in accepting his offer. First, however, we must eat. The hunters upon whom Huj's men had fallen had brought back the meat of a great thag. There would be a feast to commemorate the victory, a feast in dancing. I had never witnessed a tribal function of the brute folk, though I had often heard strange sounds coming from the village where I had not been allowed since my capture. Now I took part in one of their orgies. It will live forever in my memory. The combination of bestiality and humanity was oftentimes pathetic, and again grotesque or horrible. Beneath the glaring noonday sun, in the sweltering heat of the mesa top, the huge hairy creatures leaped in a great circle. They coiled and threw their fiber ropes. They hurled taunts and insults at an imaginary foe. They fell upon the carcass of the thag and literally tore it to pieces, and they ceased only when, gourds, they could no longer move. I had to wait until the processes of digestion had released my escort from its torpor. Some had eaten until their abdomens were so distended that I thought they must burst, for beside the thag there had been fully a hundred antelopes of various sizes and varied degrees of decomposition, which they had unearthed from burial beneath the floors of their lairs to grace the banquet board. But at last we were started, six great males and myself. Gurgerger had returned my weapons to me, and at last I was once more upon my oft-interrupted way toward my goal. Whether I should find Diane at the end of my journey or no, I could not even surmise. But I was none the less impatient to be off, for if only the worst lay in store for me I wish to know even the worst at once. I could scarce believe that my proud mate would still be alive in the power of Huja. But time upon Plucidar is so strange a thing that I realized that to her or to him only a few minutes might have elapsed since his subtle trickery had enabled him to steal her away from Futra, or she might have found the means either to repel his advances or escape him. As we descended the cliff we disturbed a great pack of large hyena-like beasts, hyenas Palaeus, Perry calls them, who were busy among the corpses of the cavemen fallen in battle. The ugly creatures were far from the cowardly things that our own hyenas are reputed to be. They stood their ground with bared fangs as we approached them. But as I was later to learn, so formidable are the brute folk, that there are few even of the large carnivora that will not make way for them when they go abroad. So the hyenas moved a little from our line of march, closing in again upon their feasts when we had passed. We made our way steadily down the rim of the beautiful river which flows the length of the island, coming at last to a wood rather denser than any that I had before encountered in this country, well within this forest my escort halted. There, they said, and pointed ahead, we are to go no farther. Thus having guided me to my destination they left me. Ahead of me through the trees I could see what appeared to be the foot of a steep hill. Toward this I made my way. The forest ran to the very base of a cliff, in the face of which were the mouths of many caves. They appeared untenanted. But I decided to watch for a while before venturing farther. A large tree densely foliageed offered a splendid vantage point from which to spy upon the cliff. So I clamored among its branches where, securely hidden, I could watch what transpired about the caves. It seemed that I had scarcely settled myself in a comfortable position before a party of cavemen emerged from one of the smaller apertures in the cliff face, about fifty feet from the base. They descended into the forest and disappeared. Soon after came several others from the same cave, and after them at short interval a score of women and children who came into the wood to gather fruit. There were several warriors with them, a guard I presume. After this came other parties and two or three groups who passed out of the forest and up the cliff face to enter the same cave. I could not understand it. All who came out had emerged from the same cave. All who returned re-entered it. No other cave gave evidence of habitation, and no cave but one of extraordinary size could have accommodated all the people whom I had seen pass in and out of its mouth. For a long time I sat and watched the coming and going of great numbers of the cave folk. Not once did one leave the cliff by any other openings save that from which I had seen the first party come, nor did any re-enter the cliff through another aperture. What a cave it must be, I thought, that houses an entire tribe. But dissatisfied of the truth of my surmise, I climbed higher among the branches of the tree, that I might get a better view of other portions of the cliff. High above the ground I reached a point whence I could see the summit of the hill. Evidently it was a flat-topped butte similar to that on which dwelt the tribe of Gergerger. As I sat gazing at it a figure appeared at the very edge. It was that of a young girl in whose hair was a gorgeous bloom plucked from some flowering tree of the forest. I had seen her pass beneath me but a short while before and entered the small cave that had swallowed all of the returning tribesmen. The mystery was solved. The cave was but the mouth of a passage that led upward through the cliff to the summit of the hill. It served merely as an avenue from their lofty citadel to the valley below. No sooner had the truth flashed upon me than the realization came that I must seek some other means of reaching the village, for to pass an observe through this well-traveled thoroughfare would be impossible. At the moment there was no one in sight below me, so I slid quickly from my arboreal watchtower to the ground and moved rapidly away to the right, with the intention of circling the hill if necessary, until I had found an unwatched spot where I might have some slight chance of scaling the heights and reaching the top unseen. I kept close to the edge of the forest in the very mist of which the hill seemed to rise. Though I carefully scanned the cliff as I traversed its base, I saw no sign of any other entrance than that to which my guides had led me. After some little time the roar of the sea broke upon my ears. Shortly after I came upon the broad ocean which breaks at this point at the very foot of the great hill where Hootia had found safe refuge for himself and his villains. I was just about to clamor along the jagged rocks which lie at the base of the cliff next to the sea in search of some foothold to the top when I chanced to see a canoe rounding the end of the island. I threw myself down behind a large boulder where I could watch the dugout and its occupants without myself being seen. They paddled toward me for a while, and then about a hundred yards from me they turned straight in toward the foot of the frowning cliffs. From where I was it seemed that they were bent upon self-destruction since the roar of the breakers beating upon the perpendicular rock face appeared to offer only death to anyone who might venture within their relentless clutch. A massive rock would soon hide them from my view, but so keen was the excitement of the instant that I could not refrain from crawling forward to a point whence I could watch the dashing of the small craft to pieces on the jagged rocks that loomed before her, although I risked discovery from above to accomplish my design. When I had reached a point where I could again see the dugout, I was just in time to see it glide unharmed between two needle-pointed sentinels of granite and float quietly upon the unruffled bosom of a tiny cove. Again I crouched behind a boulder to observe what would next transpire, nor did I have long to wait. The dugout, which contained but two men, was drawn close to the rocky wall, a fiber rope, one end of which was tied to the boat, was made fast about a projection of the cliff face. Then the two men commenced the ascent of the almost perpendicular wall toward the summit several hundred feet above. I looked on in amazement, for splendid climbers, though the cavemen of Plucidar are, I never before had seen so remarkable a feat performed. Upwardly they moved without a pause to disappear at last over the summit. When I felt reasonably sure that they had gone for a while, at least, I crawled from my hiding place and at the risk of a broken neck leaped and scrambled to the spot where their canoe was moored. If they had scaled that cliff I could, and if I couldn't I should die in the attempt. But when I turned to the accomplishment of the task I found it easier than I had imagined it would be, since I immediately discovered that shallow hand and footholds had been scooped in the cliff's rocky face, forming a crude ladder from the base to the summit. At last I reached the top, and very glad I was too. Cautiously I raised my head until my eyes were above the cliff crest. Before me spread a rough mesa, liberally sprinkled with large boulders. There was no village in sight nor any living creature. I drew myself to level ground and stood erect. A few trees grew among the boulders. Very carefully I advanced from tree to tree and boulder to boulder toward the inland end of the mesa. I stopped often to listen and look cautiously about me in every direction. How I wished that I had my revolvers and rifle. I would not have to worm my way like a scared cat toward Hooge's village, nor did I relish doing so now. But Diane's life might hinge upon the success of my venture, and so I could not afford to take chances. To a met suddenly with discovery and had a score or more of armed warriors upon me might have been very grand and heroic, but it would have immediately put an end to all my earthly activities, nor have accomplished ought in the service of Diane. Well, I must have traveled nearly a mile across that mesa without seeing a sign of anyone, when all of a sudden as I crept around the edge of a boulder I ran plump into a man down on all fours like myself, crawling toward me.