 CHAPTER X. THE RAID ON THE CAVE PRISON. His head was turned over his shoulder, as I first saw him. He was looking back toward the village. As I leaped for him, his eyes fell upon me. Never in my life have I seen a more surprised mortal than this poor caveman. Before he could utter a single scream of warning or alarm, I had my fingers on his throat and had dragged him behind the boulder where I proceeded to sit upon him while I figured out what I had best do with him. He struggled a little at first, but finally lay still, and so I released the pressure of my fingers at his windpipe, for which I imagine he was quite thankful. I know that I should have been. I hated to kill him in cold blood, but what else I was to do with him I could not see, for to turn him loose would have been merely to have the entire village aroused and down upon me in a moment. The fellow lay looking up at me with the surprise still deeply written on his countenance. At last, all of a sudden, a look of recognition entered his eyes. "'I have seen you before,' he said. "'I saw you in the arena at the Mayhars City of Futra, when the Thip-Dars dragged the Tareb from you and your mate. I never understood that. Afterward they put me in the arena with two warriors from Gomble,' he smiled in recollection. "'It would have been the same had there been ten warriors from Gomble. I slew them, winning my freedom. Look!' He half turned his left shoulder toward me, exhibiting the newly healed scar of the Mayhars branded mark. "'Then,' he continued, as I was returning to my people, I met some of them fleeing. They told me that one called Hujja, the sly one, had come and seized our village, putting our people into slavery. So I hurried hither to learn the truth, and sure enough here I found Hujja and his wicked men living in my village and my father's people but slaves among them. I was discovered and captured, but Hujja did not kill me. I am the chief son, and through me he hoped to win my father's warriors back to the village to help him in a great war,' he says, that he will soon commence. Among his prisoners is Dian, the beautiful one, whose brother, Dachor, the strong chief of Amos, once saved my life when he came to Thuria to steal a mate. I helped him capture her, and we are good friends. So when I learned that Dian, the beautiful one, was Hujja's prisoner, I told him that I would not aid him if he harmed her. Recently one of Hujja's warriors overheard me talking with another prisoner. We were planning to combine all the prisoners, seize weapons, and when most of Hujja's warriors were away, slay the rest and retake our hilltop. Had we done so we could have held it for there are only two entrances, the narrow tunnel at one end and the steep path up the cliffs at the other. But when Hujja heard what we had planned he was very angry and ordered that I die. They bound me hand and foot and placed me in a cave until all the warriors should return to witness my death, but while they were away I heard someone calling me in a muffled voice which seemed to come from the wall of the cave. When I replied the voice, which was a woman's, told me that she had overheard all that had passed between me and those who had brought me thither, and that she was Dachor's sister and would find a way to help me. Eventually a little hole appeared in the wall at the point from which the voice had come. After a time I saw a woman's hand digging with a bit of stone. Dachor's sister made a hole in the wall between the cave where I lay bound and that in which she had been confined, and soon she was by my side and had cut my bonds. We talked then and I offered to make the attempt to take her away and back to the land of Sari, where she told me she would be able to learn the whereabouts of her mate. Just now I was going to the other end of the island to see if a boat lay there, and if the way was clear for our escape. Most of the boats are always away now for a great many of Hujah's men and nearly all the slaves are upon the island of Trees, where Hujah is having many boats built to carry his warriors across the water to the mouth of the great river which he discovered while he was returning from Futra, a vast river that empties into the sea there. The speaker pointed toward the northeast, it is wide and smooth and slow running almost to the land of Sari, he added, and where is Diane the beautiful one now, I asked. I had released my prisoner as soon as I found that he was Hujah's enemy, and now the pair of us were squatting beside the boulder while he told his story. She returned to the cave where she had been imprisoned, he replied, and is awaiting me there. There is no danger that Hujah will come while you are away. Hujah is upon the island of Trees, he replied. Can you direct me to the cave so that I can find it alone, I asked. He said he could, and in the strange yet explicit fashion of the Plucidarians, he explained minutely how I might reach the cave where he had been imprisoned and through the hole in its wall reached Diane. I thought it best for but one of us to return, since two could accomplish but little more than one and would double the risk of discovery. In the meantime he could make his way to the sea and guard the boat which I told him lay there at the foot of the cliff. I told him to await us at the cliff top, and if Diane came alone to do his best to get away with her and take her to Sari, as I thought it quite possible that in case of detection and pursuit it might be necessary for me to hold off Hujah's people while Diane made her way alone to where my new friend was to await her. I impressed upon him the fact that he might have to resort to trickery or even to force to get Diane to leave me, but I made him promise that he would sacrifice everything, even his life, in an attempt to rescue Dachor's sister. Then we parted. He to take up his position where he could watch the boat and await Diane. I to crawl cautiously on toward the caves. I had no difficulty in following the directions given me by Joag, the name by which Dachor's friend said he was called. There was the leaning tree, my first point he told me to look for after rounding the boulder where we had met. After that I crawled to the balanced rock, a huge boulder resting upon a tiny base no larger than the palm of your hand. From here I had my first view of the village of caves. A low bluff ran diagonally across one end of the mesa, and in the face of this bluff were the mouths of many caves. Zigzag trails led up to them, and narrow ledges scooped from the face of the soft rock connected those upon the same level. The cave in which Joag had been confined was at the extreme end of the cliff nearest me. By taking advantage of the bluff itself I could approach within a few feet of the aperture without being visible from any other cave. There were few people about at the time. Most of these were congregated at the foot of the far end of the bluff, where they were so engrossed in excited conversation that I felt but little fear of detection. However, I exercised the greatest care in approaching the cliff. After watching for a while until I caught an instant when every head was turned away from me I darted rabbit-like into the cave. Like many of the man-made caves of Plucidar, this one consisted of three chambers, one behind another, and all unlit except for what sunlight filtered in through the external opening. The result was gradually increasing darkness as one passed into each succeeding chamber. In the last of the three I could just distinguish objects, and that was all. As I was groping around the walls for the hole that should lead into the cave where Diane was imprisoned I heard a man's voice quite close to me. The speaker had evidently but just entered, for he spoke in a loud tone, demanding the whereabouts of one whom he had come in search of. "'Where are you, woman?' he cried. "'Who do I have sent for you?' And then a woman's voice answered him. "'And what does who do you want of me?' The voice was Diane's. I groped in the direction of the sounds, feeling for the hole. "'He wishes you brought to the island of trees,' replied the man, "'for he is ready to take you as his mate.' "'I will not go,' said Diane. "'I will die first. "'I am sent to bring you, and bring you I shall.' I could hear him crossing the cave toward her. Frantically I clod the wall of the cave in which I was in, in an effort to find the elusive aperture that would lead me to Diane's side. I heard the sound of a scuffle in the next cave. Then my fingers sank into loose rock and earth in the side of the cave. In an instant I realized why I had been unable to find the opening while I had been lightly feeling the surface of the walls. Diane had blocked up the hole she had made, lest it arouse suspicion and lead to an early discovery of Jewog's escape. Plunging my weight against the crumbling mass, I sent it crashing into the adjoining cavern. With it came I, David, emperor of Plucidar. I doubt if any other potentate in a world's history ever made a more undignified entrance. I landed headfirst on all fours, but I came quickly and was on my feet before the man in the dark gassed what had happened. He saw me, though, when I arose, and sensing that no friend came thus precipitately, turned to meet me even as I charged him. I had my stone knife in my hand, and he had his. In the darkness of the cave there was little opportunity for a display of science, though even at that I ventured to say that we fought in a pretty duel. Before I came to Plucidar I do not recall that I ever had seen a stone knife, and I am sure that I never fought with a knife of any description, but now I do not have to take my hat off to any of them when it comes to wielding that primitive yet wicked weapon. I could just see Diane in the darkness, but I knew that she could not see my features or recognize me, and I enjoyed in anticipation, even while I was fighting for her life and mine, her dear joy when she should discover that it was I who was her deliverer. My opponent was large, but he also was active and no mean knife-man. He caught me once fairly in the shoulder. I carry the scar yet, and shall carry it to the grave. And then he did a foolish thing, for as I leaped back to gain a second in which to calm the shock of the wound he rushed after me and tried to clinch. He rather neglected his knife for the moment in his greater desire to get his hands on me. Seeing the opening I swung my left fist fairly to the point of his jaw. Down he went. Before ever he could scramble up again I was on him and had buried my knife in his heart. Then I stood up, and there was Diane facing me and peering at me through the dense gloom. "'You are not Jog,' she exclaimed. "'Who are you?' I took a stepped order. My arms outstretched. "'It is I, Diane,' I said. "'It is David.' At the sound of my voice she gave a little cry in which tears were mingled, a pathetic little cry that told me all without words how far hope had gone from her. And then she ran forward and threw herself in my arms. I covered her perfect lips and her beautiful face with kisses and stroked her thick black hair and told her again and again what she already knew, what she had known for years, that I loved her better than all else which two worlds had to offer. We couldn't devote much time, though, to the happiness of love-making, for we were in the midst of enemies who might discover us at any moment. I drew her into the adjoining cave, thence we made our way to the mouth of the cave that had given me entrance to the cliff. Here I reconnoitred for a moment, and seeing the coast clear ran swiftly forth with Diane at my side. We dodged around the cliff-end, then paused for an instant, listening. No sound reached our ears to indicate that any had seen us, and we moved cautiously onward along the way by which I had come. As we went Diane told me that her captors had informed her how close I had come in search of her, even to the land of awful shadow, and how one of Huja's men who knew me had discovered me asleep and robbed me of all my possessions, and then how Huja had sent four others to find me and take me prisoner. But these men, she said, had not yet returned, or at least she had not heard of their return. Nor will you ever, I responded, for they have gone to that place whence none ever returns. I then related my adventure with these four. We had come almost to the cliff-edge where Juog should be awaiting us when we saw two men walking rapidly toward the same spot from another direction. They did not see us, nor did they see Juog, whom I now discovered hiding behind a low bush close to the verge of the precipice which drops into the sea at this point. As quickly as possible, without exposing ourselves too much to the enemy, we hastened forward that we might reach Juog as quickly as they. But they noticed him first and immediately charged for him, for one of them had been his guard, and they had both been sent to search for him, his escape having been discovered between the time he left the cave and the time when I reached it. Evidently they had wasted precious moments looking for him in the other portions of the mesa. When I saw that the two of them were rushing him, I called out to attract their attention to the fact that they had more than a single man to cope with. They paused at the sound of my voice and looked about. When they discovered Diane and me, they exchanged a few words, and one of them continued toward Juog while the other turned upon us. As he came nearer, I saw that he carried in his hand one of my six shooters, but he was holding it by the barrel, evidently mistaking it for some sort of war-club or tomahawk. I could scarce refrain a grin when I thought of the wasted possibilities that deadly revolver in the hands of an untutored warrior of the Stone Age. Had he but reversed it and pulled the trigger, he might still be alive. Maybe he is, for all I know, since I did not kill him then. When he was about twenty feet from me I flung my javelin with a quick movement that I had learned from Gok. He ducked to avoid it, and instead of receiving it in his heart, for which it was intended, he got it on the side of the head. Down he went, all in a heap. Then I glanced toward Juog. He was having a most exciting time. The fellow pitted against Juog was a veritable giant. He was hacking and hewing away at the poor slave with a villainous-looking knife that might have been designed for butchering mastodons. Step by step he was forcing Juog back toward the edge of the cliff with a fiendish cunning that permitted his adversary no chance to sidestep the terrible consequences of retreating in this direction. I saw quickly that in another moment Juog must deliberately hurl himself to death over the precipice or be pushed over by his fulmin. And as I saw Juog's predicament I saw, too, in the same instant a way to relieve him. Leaping quickly to the side of the fellow I had just fell, I snatched up my fallen revolver. It was a desperate chance to take, and I realized it in the instant that I threw the gun up from my hip and pulled the trigger. There was no time to aim. Juog was upon the very brink of the chasm. His relentless foe was pushing him hard, beating at him furiously with a heavy knife. And then the revolver spoke, loud and sharp. The giant threw his hands above his head, whirled about like a huge top and lunged forward over the precipice. At Juog he cast a single affrighted glance in my direction, where before, of course, had he heard the report of a firearm. And with a howl of dismay he too turned and plunged head foremost from side. Horror struck I hastened to the brink of the abyss, just in time to see two splashes upon the surface of the little cove below. For an instant I stood there watching with Diane at my side. Then to my utter amazement I saw Juog rise to the surface and swim strongly toward the boat. The fellow had dived that incredible distance and come up unharmed. I called to him to await us below, assuring him that he need have no fear of my weapon, since it would harm only my enemies. He shook his head and muttered something which I could not hear at so great a distance. But when I pushed him he promised to wait for us. At the same instant Diane caught my arm and pointed toward the village. My shot had brought a crowd of natives on the run toward us. The fellow whom I had stunned with my javelin had regained consciousness and scrambled to his feet. He was now racing as fast as he could go back toward his people. It looked mighty dark for Diane and me with that ghastly descent between us and even the beginnings of liberty and a horde of savage enemies advancing at a rapid run. There was but one hope that was to get Diane started for the bottom without delay. I took her in my arms just for an instant. I felt somehow that it might be for the last time. For the life of me I couldn't see how both of us could escape. I asked her if she could make the descent alone, if she were not afraid. She smiled up at me bravely and shrugged her shoulders. She afraid so beautiful is she that I am always having difficulty in remembering that she is a primitive, half-savage cave girl of the Stone Age and often find myself mentally limiting her capacities to those of the aphete and over-civilized beauties of the outer crust. And you, she asked as she swung over the edge of the cliff. I shall follow you after I take a shot or two at our friends, I replied. I just want to give them a taste of this new medicine which is going to cure Pellucidar of all its ills. That will stop them long enough for me to join you. Now hurry and tell Joag to be ready to shove off the moment I reach the boat or the instant that it becomes apparent that I cannot reach it. You, Diane, must return to sorry if anything happens to me, that you may devote your life to carrying out with Perry the hopes and plans for Pellucidar that are so dear to my heart. Promise me, dear. She hated to promise to desert me, nor would she, only shaking her head and making no move to descend. The tribesmen were nearing us. Joag was shouting up to us from below. It was evident that he realized from my actions that I was attempting to persuade Diane to descend, and that grave danger threatened us from above. Dive, he cried. Dive! I looked at Diane and then down at the abyss below us. The cove appeared no larger than a saucer. How Joag ever had hit it I could not guess. Dive! cried Joag. It is the only way. There is no time to climb down. End of chapter 10. Chapter 11 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 Burles. Chapter 11. Escape. Diane glanced downward and shuddered. Her tribe were hill-people. They were not accustomed to swimming other than in quiet rivers and placid lakelets. It was not the steep that appalled her. It was the ocean, vast, mysterious, terrible. To dive into it from this great height was beyond her. I couldn't wonder, either. To have attempted it myself seemed too preposterous, even for thought. Only one consideration could have prompted me to leap head foremost from that giddy height, suicide, or at least so I thought at the moment. Quick, I urged Diane, you cannot dive, but I can hold them until you reach safety. And you, she asked once more, can you dive when they come too close? Otherwise you could not escape if you waited here until I reached the bottom. I saw that she would not leave me unless she thought that I could make that frightful dive as we had seen Joag make it. I glanced once downward. Then with a mental shrug I assured her that I would dive the moment that she reached the boat. Satisfied, she began the descent, carefully, yet swiftly. I watched her for a moment. My heart and my mouth left some slight misstep, or the slipping of a finger-hold should pitch her to a frightful death upon the rocks below. Then I turned toward the advancing Hoosians, Hoosiers, very dubbed them, even going so far as to christen this island where Hoosia held sway, Indiana, it is so marked now upon our maps. They were coming on at a great rate. I raised my revolver, took deliberate aim at the foremost warrior, and pulled the trigger. With the bark of the gun the fellow lunged forward, his head doubled beneath him. He rolled over and over two or three times before he came to a stop to lie very quietly in the thick grass among the brilliant wildflowers. Those behind him halted. One of them hurled a javelin toward me, but it fell short. They were just beyond javelin range. There were two armed with bows and arrows. These I kept my eyes on. All of them appeared awestruck and frightened by the sound and effect of the firearm. They kept looking from the corpse to me and jabbering among themselves. I took advantage of the lull in hostilities to throw a quick glance over the edge toward Diane. She was half way down the cliff and progressing finely. Then I turned back toward the enemy. One of the bowmen was fitting an arrow to his bow. I raised my hand. Stop! I cried. Whoever shoots at me or advances toward me, I shall kill as I killed him. I pointed at the dead man. The fellow lured his bow. Again there was animated discussion. I could see that those who were not armed with bows were urging something upon the two who were. At last the majority appeared to prevail. For simultaneously the two archers raised their weapons. At the same instant I fired at one of them, dropping him in his tracks. The other, however, launched his missile, but the report of my gun had given him such a start that the arrow flew wild above my head. A second after an he too was sprawled upon the sword with a round hole between his eyes. It had been a rather good shot. I glanced over the edge again. Diane was almost at the bottom. I could see Juog standing just beneath her, with his hands up stretched to a sister. A sullen roar from the warriors recalled my attention toward them. They stood shaking their fists at me and yelling insults. From the direction of the village I saw a single warrior coming to join them. He was a huge fellow, and when he strode among them I could tell by his bearing and their deference toward him that he was a chieftain. He listened to all they had to tell of the happenings of the last few minutes. Then with a command and a roar he started for me with the whole pack at his heels. All they had needed had arrived, namely a brave leader. I had two unfired cartridges in the chambers of my gun. I let the big warrior have one of them, thinking that his death would stop them all. But I guess they were worked up to such a frenzy of rage by this time that nothing would have stopped them. At any rate they only yelled the louder as he fell and increased their speed toward me. I dropped another with my remaining cartridge. Then they were upon me, or almost. I thought of my promise to Diane. The awful abyss was behind me, a big devil with a huge bludgeon in front of me. I grasped my six-shooter by the barrel and hurled it squarely in his face with all my strength. Then without waiting to learn the effect of my throw, I wheeled, ran the few steps to the edge, and leaped as far out over that frightful chasm as I could. I know something of diving, and all that I know I put into that dive, which I was positive would be my last. For a couple of hundred feet I fell in horizontal position. The momentum I gained was terrific. I could feel the air almost as a solid body, so swiftly I hurtled through it. Then my position gradually changed to the vertical, and with hands outstretched I slipped through the air, cleaving it like a flying arrow. Just before I struck the water a perfect shower of javelins fell all about. My enemies had rushed to the brink and hurled their weapons after me. By a miracle I was untouched. In the final instant I saw that I had cleared the rocks and it was going to strike the water fairly. Then I was in and plumbing the depths. I suppose I didn't really go very far down, but it seemed to me that I should never stop. When at last I dared curb my hands upward and divert my progress toward the surface, I thought that I should explode for air before I ever saw the sun again except through a swirl of water. But at last my head popped above the waves and I filled my lungs with air. Before me was the boat from which Jog and Diane were clamoring. I couldn't understand why they were deserting it now when we were about to set out for the mainland in it. But when I reached its side I understood. Two heavy javelins missing Diane and Jog by but a hair's breath had sunk deep into the bottom of the dugout in a straight line with the grain of the wood and split her almost in two from stem to stern. She was useless. Jog was leaning over a nearby rock, his hand outstretched to aid me in clamoring to his side. Nor did I lose any time in availing myself of his proffered assistance. The occasional javelin was still dropping perilously close to us so we hastened to draw as close as possible to the cliffside where we were comparatively safe from the missiles. Here we held a brief conference in which it was decided that our only hope now lay in making for the opposite end of the island as quickly as we could and utilizing the boat that I had hidden there to continue our journey to the mainland. Gathering up three of the least damaged javelins that had fallen about us, we set out upon our journey, keeping well toward the south side of the island which Jog said was less frequented by the Hujins than the central portion where the river ran. I think that this ruse must have thrown our pursuers off our track since we saw nothing of them nor heard any sound of pursuit during the greater portion of our march the length of the island. But the way Jog had chosen was rough and round about so that we consumed one or two more marches in covering the distance than if we had followed the river. This it was which proved our undoing. Those who saw us must have sent a party up the river immediately after we escaped, for when we came at last on to the river trail not far from our destination there can be no doubt but that we were seen by Hujins who were just ahead of us on the stream. The result was that as we were passing through a clump of bush a score of warriors leaped out upon us and before we could scare strike a blow in defense had disarmed and bound us. For a time thereafter I seemed to be entirely bereft of hope. I could see no ray of promise in the future. Only immediate death were Jog and me which didn't concern me much in the face of what lay in store for Diane. Poor child, what an awful life she had led. From the moment that I had first seen her chained in the slave caravan of the Mayhards until now, a prisoner of a no less cruel creature I could recall but a few brief intervals of peace and quiet in her tempestuous existence. Before I had known her, Jubal, the ugly one, had pursued her across a savage world to make her his mate. She had eluded him and finally had slain him, but terror and privations and exposure to fierce beasts had haunted her footsteps during all her lonely flight from him. And when I had returned to the outer world the old trials had recommenced with Hujah in Jubal's role. I could almost have wished for death to about save her that peace which fate seemed to deny her in this life. I spoke to her on the subject suggesting that we expire together. Do not fear, David, she replied. I shall end my life before ever Hujah can harm me. But first I shall see that Hujah dies. She drew from her breast a little leathern thong to the end of which was fastened a tiny pouch. What have you there? I asked. Do you recall that time you stepped upon the thing you call Viper in your world? She asked. I nodded. The accident gave you the idea for the poisoned arrows with which we fitted the warriors of the empire, she continued, and too it gave me an idea. For a long time I have carried a Viper's fang in my bosom. It has given me strength to endure many dangers, for it has always assured me immunity from the ultimate insult. I am not ready to die yet. First let Hujah embrace the Viper's fang. So we did not die together, and I am glad now that we did not. It is always a foolish thing to contemplate suicide. For no matter how dark the future may appear today, tomorrow may hold for us that which will alter our whole life in an instant, revealing to us nothing but sunshine and happiness. So for my part I shall always wait for tomorrow. In Blucidar, where it is always today, the wait may not be so long, and so it proved for us. As we were passing a lofty flat-topped hill through a park like wood, a perfect network of fiber ropes fell suddenly about our guard, enmeshing them. A moment later a horde of our friends, the hairy gorilla man, with the mild eyes and long faces of sheep, leaped upon them. It was a very interesting fight. I was sorry that my bonds prevented me from taking part in it, but I urged on the brute man with my voice and cheered ol' Gergerger, their chief, each time that his mighty jaws crunched out the life of a Hoogen. When the battle was over we found that a few of our captors had escaped, but the majority of them laid dead about us. The gorilla man paid no further attention to them. Gergerger turned to me. Gergerger and all his people are your friends, he said. One saw the warriors of the Slywin and followed them. He saw them capture you, and then he flew to the village as fast as he could go, and told me all that he had seen. The rest you know. You did much for Gergerger and Gergerger's people. We shall always do much for you. I thanked him, and when I had told him of our escape and our destination he insisted on accompanying us to the sea with a great number of his fierce males. Nor were we at all low to accept his escort. We found the canoe where I had hidden it, and bidding Gergerger and his warriors farewell, the three of us embarked for the mainland. I questioned Joag upon the feasibility of attempting to cross to the mouth of the great river of which he had told me, and up which he said we might paddle almost sorry, but he urged me not to attempt it since we had but a single paddle and no water or food. I had to admit the wisdom of his advice, but the desire to explore this great waterway was strong upon me, arousing in me at last a determination to make the attempt after first gaining the mainland and rectifying our deficiencies. We landed several miles north of Thuria in a little cove that seemed to offer protection from the heavier seas which sometimes run even upon the usually Pacific oceans of Plucidar. Here I outlined to Diane and Joag the plans I had in mind. They were to fit the canoe with a small sail, the purposes of which I had to explain to them both since neither had ever seen or heard of such a contrivance before. Then they were to hunt for food which we could transport with us and prepare a receptacle for water. These two ladder items were more in Joag's line, but he kept muttering about the sail and the wind for a long time. I could see that he was not even half convinced that any such ridiculous contraption could make a canoe move through the water. We hunted near the coast for a while but were not rewarded with any particular luck. Finally we decided to hide the canoe and strike inland in search of game. At Joag's suggestion we dug a hole in the sand at the upper edge of the beach and buried the craft smoothing the surface over nicely and throwing aside the excess material we had excavated. Then we set out away from the sea. Traveling in Thuria is less arduous than under the midday sun which perpetually glares down on the rest of Palucidar's surface. But it has its drawbacks, one of which is the depressing influence exerted by the everlasting shade of the land of awful shadow. The farther inland we went the darker it became until we were moving at last through an endless twilight. The vegetation here was sparse and of a weird colorless nature though what did grow was wondrous in shape and form. Often we saw a huge leady or beast of burdens striding across the dim landscape browsing upon the grotesque vegetation or drinking from the slow and sullen rivers that run down from the leady plains to empty into the sea in Thuria. What we saw it was either a thag, sort of gigantic elk, or one of the larger species of antelope, the flesh of either of which dries nicely in the sun. The bladder of the thag would make a fine water bottle and its skin, I figured, would be a good sail. We traveled a considerable distance inland entirely crossing the land of awful shadow and emerging at last upon that portion of the leady plains which lies in the pleasant sunlight. Above us the pendant world revolved upon its axis filling me especially and Diane to an almost equal state with wonder and insatiable curiosity as to what strange forms of life existed among the hills and valleys and along the seas and rivers which we could plainly see. Before us stretched the horizonless expanses of vast Plucidar, the leady plains rolling up about us. While hanging high in the heavens to the northwest of us I thought I discerned the many towers which marked the entrances to the distant Mahar city whose inhabitants preyed upon the Thurians. Duog suggested that we travel to the northeast where he said upon the verge of the plain we would find a wooded country in which game should be plentiful. Acting upon his advice we came at last to a forest jungle through which wound innumerable game paths. In the depths of this forbidding wood we came upon the fresh spore of thag. Shortly after by careful stalking we came within javelin range of a small herd selecting a great bull, Duog and I hurled our weapons simultaneously, Diane reserving hers for an emergency. The beast staggered to his feet, bellowing. The rest of the herd was up and away in an instant only the wounded bull remaining with lowered head and roving eyes searching for the foal. Then Duog exposed himself to the view of the bull. It is a part of the tactics of the hunt while I stepped to one side behind a bush. The moment that the savage beast saw Duog he charged him. Duog ran straight away that the bull might be lured past my hiding place. On he came tons of mighty bestial strength and rage. Diane had slipped behind me. She too could fight a thag should emergency require. Ah, such a girl. A rightful empress of a stone age by every standard which two worlds might bring to measure her. Crashing down toward us came the bull thag, bellowing and snorting with the power of a hundred outer earthly bulls. When he was opposite me I sprang for the heavy mane that covered his huge neck. To tangle my fingers in it was the work of but an instant. Then I was running along at the beast's shoulder. Now the theory upon which this hunting custom is based is one long ago discovered by experience. And that is that a thag cannot be turned from his charge once he has started toward the object of his wrath. So long as he can still see the thing he charges. He evidently believes that the man clinging to his mane is attempting to restrain him from overtaking his prey. And so he pays no attention to this enemy who of course does not retard the mighty charge in the least. Once in the gate of the plunging bull it was but a slight matter to vault to his back as cavalrymen mount their chargers upon the run. Juag was still running in plain sight ahead of the bull. His speed was but a trifle less than that of the monster that pursued him. These Belucidarians are almost as fleet as dear because I am not is one reason that I'm always chosen for the close in work of the thag hunt. I could not keep in front of a charging thag long enough to give the killer time to do his work. I learned that the first and last time I tried it. Once astride the bull's neck I drew my long stone knife and setting the point carefully over the brute's spine drove it home with both hands. At the same instant I leaped clear of the stumbling animal. Now no vertebrate can progress far with a knife through his spine and the thag is no exception to the rule. The fellow was down instantly. As he wallowed Juag returned and the two of us leaped in when an opening afforded the opportunity and snatched our javelins from his side. Then we danced about him more like two savages than anything else until we got the opening we were looking for when simultaneously our javelins pierced his wild heart, stilling it forever. The thag had covered considerable ground from the point at which I had leaped upon him. When after dispatching him I looked back where Diane I could see nothing other. I called aloud, but receiving no reply set out at a brisk trot to where I had left her. I had no difficulty in finding the self-same bush behind which we had hidden, but Diane was not there. Again and again I called to be rewarded only by silence. Where could she be? What could have become of her in the brief interval since I had seen her standing just behind me? End of chapter 11. Chapter 12 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 12. Kidnapped. I searched about the spot carefully. At last I was rewarded by the discovery of her javelin, a few yards from the bush that had concealed us from the charging thag. Her javelin and the indications of a struggle revealed by the trampled vegetation and the overlapping footprints of a woman and a man. Filled with consternation and dismay, I followed these latter to where they suddenly disappeared a hundred yards from where the struggle had occurred. There I saw the huge imprints of a lady's feet. The story of the tragedy was all too plain. Athurium had either been following us or had accidentally espied Diane and taken a fancy to her. While Joag and I had been engaged with the thag, he had abducted her. I ran swiftly back to where Joag was working over the kill. As I approached him I saw that something was wrong in this quarter as well, for the islander was standing upon the carcass of the thag, his javelin poised for a throw. When I had come nearer I saw the cause of his belligerent attitude. Just beyond him stood two large jailocks or wolf dogs regarding him intently, a male and a female. Their behavior was rather peculiar for they did not seem preparing to charge him. Rather they were contemplating him in an attitude of questioning. Joag heard me coming and turned toward me with a grin. These fellows love excitement. I could see by his expression that he was enjoying in anticipation the battle that seemed imminent. But he never hurled his javelin. A shout of warning from me stopped him, for I had seen the remnants of a rope dangling from the neck of the male jailock. Joag again turned toward me, but this time in surprise I was abreast him in a moment and passing him, walked straight toward the two beasts. As I did so the female crouched with bared fangs. The male, however, leaped forward to meet me, not in deadly charge, but with every expression of delight and joy which the poor animal could exhibit. It was Raja, the jailock whose life I had saved, and whom I then had tamed. There was no doubt that he was glad to see me. I now think that his seeming desertion of me had been but due to a desire to search out his ferocious mate and bring her too to live with me. When Joag saw me fondling the great beast, he was filled with consternation, but I did not have much time to spare to Raja while my mind was filled with the grief of my new loss. I was glad to see the brute, and I lost no time in taking him to Joag and making him understand that Joag, too, was to be Raja's friend. With the female the matter was more difficult, but Raja helped us out by growling savagely at her whenever she'd bared her fangs against us. I told Joag of the disappearance of Diane and of my suspicions as to the explanation of the catastrophe. He wanted to start right out after her, but I suggested that with Raja to help me it might be as well were he to remain and skin the thag, remove its bladder, and then return to where we had hidden the canoe on the beach. And so it was arranged that he was to do this and await me there for a reasonable time. I pointed to a great lake upon the surface of the pendant world above us, telling him that if after this lake had appeared four times I had not returned to go either by water or land to Sari and fetch Gok with an army. Then, calling Raja after me, I set out after Diane and her abductor. First I took the wolf dog to the spot where the man had fought with Diane. A few paces behind us followed Raja's fierce mate. I pointed to the ground where the evidences of the struggle were plainest and where the scent must have been strong to Raja's nostrils. Then I grasped the remnant of leash that hung about his neck and urged him forward upon the trail. He seemed to understand. With nose to ground he set out upon his task. Dragging me after him he trotted straight out upon the leady plains, turning his steps in the direction of the Thurian village. I could have guessed as much. Behind us trailed the female. After a while she closed upon us until she ran quite close to me and at Raja's side. It was not long before she seemed as easy in my company as did her lord and master. We must have covered considerable distance at a very rapid pace, for we had re-entered the great shadow when we saw a huge leady ahead of us moving leisurely across the level plain. Upon its back were two human figures. If I could have known that the J. Lux would not harm Diane, I might have turned them loose upon the leady and its master, but I could not know, and so dared take no chances. However the matter was taken out of my hands presently when Raja raised his head and caught sight of his quarry. With a lunge that hurled me flat and jerked the leash from my hand he was gone with the speed of the wind after the giant leady and its riders. At his side raced his shidey mate, only a trifle smaller than he and no wit less savage. They did not give tongue until the leady itself discovered them and broke into a lumbering awkward but nonetheless rapid gallop. Then the two hound-bees commenced to bay, starting with a low-plainting note that rose weird and hideous to terminate in a series of short, sharp yelts. I feared that it might be the hunting-call of the pack, and if this were true there would be slight chance for either Diane or her abductor, or myself either, as far as that was concerned. So I redoubled my efforts to keep pace with the hunt, but I might as well have attempted to distance the bird upon the wing as I have often reminded you I am no runner. In that instance it was just as well that I am not, for my very slowness of foot played into my hands. While had I been fleeter I might have lost Diane that time forever. The leady, with the hounds running close on either side, had almost disappeared in the darkness that enveloped the surrounding landscape when I noticed that it was bearing toward the right. This was accounted for by the fact that Roger ran upon his left side, and unlike his mate kept leaping for the great beast's shoulder, the man on the leady's back was prodding at the hyena dawn with his long spear, but still Roger kept springing up and snapping. The effect of this was to turn the leady toward the right, and the longer I watched the procedure the more convinced I became that Roger and his mate were working together with some end in view, for the she-dog merely galloped steadily at the leady's right, about opposite his rump. I had seen J. Locke's hunting in packs, and I recalled now what for the time I had not thought of the several that ran ahead and turned the query back toward the main body. This was precisely what Roger and his mate were doing. They were turning the leady back toward me, or at least Roger was. Just why the female was keeping out of it, I did not understand, unless it was that she was not entirely clear in her all mind as to precisely what her mate was attempting. At any rate, I was sufficiently convinced to stop where I was and await developments, for I could readily realize two things. One was that I could never overhaul them before the damage was done if they should pull the leady down now. The other thing was that if they did not pull it down for a few minutes, it would have completed its circle and return close to where I stood. And this is just what happened. The lot of them were almost swallowed up in the twilight for a moment. Then they reappeared again, but this time far to the right and circling back in my general direction. I waited until I could get some clear idea of the right spot to gain that I might intercept the leady. But even as I waited, I saw the beast attempt to turn still more to the right, a move that would have carried him far to my left in a much more circumscribed circle than the hyena dons had mapped out for him. Then I saw the female leap forward and head him and when he would have gone too far to the left, Roger sprang, snapping at his shoulder and held him straight. Straight for me the two savage beasts were driving their query. It was wonderful. It was something else too, as I realized, while the monstrous beast neared me. It was like standing in the middle of the tracks in front of an approaching express train. But I didn't dare waver, too much depended upon my meeting that hurtling mass of terrified flesh with a well-placed javelin. So I stood there, waiting to be run down and crushed by those gigantic feet, but determined to drive home my weapon in the broad breast before I fell. The leady was only about a hundred yards from me when Roger gave a few barks in a tone that differed materially from his hunting cry. Instantly both he and his mate leaped for the long neck of the ruminant. Neither missed, swinging in midair, they hung tenaciously, their weight dragging down the creature's head and so retarding its speed that before it had reached me it was almost stopped and devoting all its energies to attempting to scrape off its attackers with its forefeet. Diane had seen and recognized me and was trying to extricate herself from the grasp of her captor, who, handicapped by his strong and agile prisoner, was unable to wield his lance effectively upon the two jailocks. At the same time I was running swiftly toward them. When the man discovered me, he released his hold upon Diane and sprang to the ground, ready with his lance to meet me. My javelin was no match for his longer weapon, which was used more for stabbing than as a missile. Should I miss him at my first cast, as was quite probable since he was prepared for me, I would have to face his formidable lance with nothing more than a stone knife. The outlook was scarcely entrancing. Evidently I was soon to be absolutely at his mercy. Seeing my predicament, he ran toward me to get rid of one antagonist before he had to deal with the other two. He could not guess, of course, that the two jailocks were hunting with me, but he doubtless thought that after they had finished the leady they would make after the human prey. The beasts are notorious killers, often slaying wantonly. But as the Thurian came, Roger loosened his hold upon the leady and dashed for him with the female close after. When the man saw them, he yelled to me to help him, protesting that we should both be killed if we did not fight together. But I only laughed at him and ran toward Diane. Both the fierce beasts were upon the Thurians simultaneously. He must have died almost before his body tumbled to the ground. Then the female wheeled toward Diane. I was standing by her side as the thing charged her, my javelin ready to receive her. But again Roger was too quick for me. I imagined he thought she was making for me, for he couldn't have known anything of my relations toward Diane. At any rate, he leaped full upon her back and dragged her down. There ensued forthwith as terrible a battle as one would wish to see if battles were gauged by volume of noise and riotousness of action. I thought that both the beasts would be torn to shreds. When finally the female ceased to struggle and rolled over on her back, her forepaws limply folded. I was sure that she was dead. Roger stood over her growling, his jaws close to her throat. Then I saw that neither of them bore a scratch. The male had simply administered a severe rubbing to his mate. It was his way of teaching her that I was sacred. After a moment he moved away and let her rise. When she set about smoothing down her rumpled coat while he came stalking toward Diane and me, I had an arm about Diane now. As Roger came close, I caught him by the neck and pulled him up to me. There I stroked him and talked to him, bidding Diane do the same, until I think he pretty well understood that if I was his friend, so was Diane. For a long time he was inclined to be shy of her, often bearing his teeth at her approach. And it was a much longer time before the female made friends with us. But by careful kindness, by never eating without sharing our meat with them, and by feeding them from our hands, we finally won the confidence of both animals. However, that was a long time after. With the two beasts trotting after us, we returned to where we had left Joag. Here I had the dickens' own time keeping the female from Joag's throat. Of all the venomous, wicked, cruel-hearted beasts on two worlds, I think a female hyena don takes the palm. But eventually she tolerated Joag as she had Diane and me. And the five of us set out toward the coast, for Joag had just completed his labors on the thag when we arrived. We ate some of the meat before starting and gave the hound some. All that we could, we carried upon our backs. On the way to the canoe, we met with no mishaps. Diane told me that the fellow who had stolen her had come upon her from behind while the roaring of the thag had drowned all other noises, and that the first she had known, he had disarmed her and thrown her to the back of his leady, which had been lying down close by, waiting for him. By the time the thag had ceased bellowing, the fellow had got well away upon his swift mount. By holding one palm over her mouth, he had prevented her calling for help. I thought, she concluded, that I should have to use the viper's tooth after all. We reached the beach at last and unearthed the canoe. Then we busied ourselves, stepping amassed and rigging a small sail. Joag and I, that is, while Diane cut the thag meat into long strips for drying when we should be out in the sunlight once more. At last all was done. We were ready to embark. I had no difficulty in getting Raja aboard the dugout, but Renee, as we christened her after I had explained to Diane the meaning of Raja and its feminine equivalent, positively refused for a time to follow her mate aboard. In fact, we had to shove off without her. After a moment, however, she plunged into the water and swam after us. I let her come alongside and then Joag and I pulled her in. She snapping and snarling at us as we did so. But strange to relate, she didn't offer to attack us after we had ensconced her safely in the bottom alongside Raja. The canoe behaved much better under sail than I had hoped, infinitely better than the battleship Sari had, and we made good progress almost due west across the gulf upon the opposite side of which I hoped to find the mouth of the river of which Joag had told me. The islander was much interested and impressed by the sail and its results. He had not been able to understand exactly what I hoped to accomplish with it while we were fitting up the boat. But when he saw the clumsy dugout move steadily through the water without paddles, he was as delighted as a child. We made splendid headway on the trip, coming into sight of land at last. Joag had been terror-stricken when he had learned that I intended crossing the ocean, and when we passed out of sight of land, he was in a blue funk. He said that he had never heard of such a thing before in his life, and that always he had understood that those who ventured far from land never returned, for how could they find their way when they could see no land to steer for? I tried to explain the compass to him, and though he never really grasped the scientific explanation of it, yet he did learn to steer by it quite as well as I. We passed several islands on the journey. Islands which Joag told me were entirely unknown to his own island folk. Indeed, our eyes may have been the first ever to rest upon them. I should have liked to stop off and explore them, but the business of empire would brook no unnecessary delays. I asked Joag how Huja expected to reach the mouth of the river which we were in search of if he didn't cross the gulf, and the islander explained that Huja would undoubtedly follow the coast around. For some time we sailed up the coast searching for the river, and at last we found it. So great was it that I thought it must be a mighty gulf until the mass of driftwood that came out upon the first ebb tide convinced me that it was the mouth of a river. There were the trunks of trees uprooted by the undermining of the riverbanks, giant creepers, flowers, grasses, and now and then the body of some land animal or bird. I was all excitement to commence our upward journey when there occurred that which I had never before seen within Pellucidar, a really terrific wind storm. It blew down the river upon us with a ferocity and suddenness that took our breaths away, and before we could get a chance to make the shore it became too late. The best that we could do was to hold the scutting craft before the wind and race along in a smother of white spume. Joag was terrified. If Diane was, she hid it. For was she not the daughter of a once great chief, the sister of a king, and the mate of an emperor? Roger and Renee were frightened. The former crawled close to my side and buried his nose against me. Finally even fierce Renee was moved to seek sympathy from a human being. She slumped to Diane, pressing close against her and whimpering, while Diane stroked her shaggy neck and talked to her as I talked to Roger. There was nothing for us to do but try to keep the canoe right side up and straight before the wind. For what seemed an eternity, the tempest neither increased nor abated, I judged that we must have blown a hundred miles before the wind and straight out into an unknown sea. As suddenly as the wind rose, it died again, and when it died it veered to blow at right angles to its former course in a gentle breeze. I asked Joag, then, what our course was, for he had had the compass last. It had been on a leather thong about his neck. When he felt for it, the expression that came into his eyes told me as plainly as words what had happened. The compass was lost. The compass was lost. And we were out of sight of land without a single celestial body to guide us. Even the pendant world was not visible from our position. Our plight seemed hopeless to me, but I dared not let Diane and Joag guess how utterly dismayed I was, though as I soon discovered there was nothing to be gained by trying to keep the worst from Joag. He knew it quite as well as I. He had always known from the legends of his people the dangers of the open sea beyond the sight of land, the compass, since he had learned its uses from me, had been all that he had to buoy his hope of eventual salvation from the watery deep. He had seen how it had guided me across the water to the very coast that I desired to reach, and so he had implicit confidence in it. Now that it was gone, his confidence had departed also. There seemed but one thing to do. That was to keep on sailing straight before the wind, since we could travel most rapidly along that course until we sighted land of some description. If a chance to be the mainland, well and good, if an island, well we might live upon an island. We certainly could not live long in this little boat with only a few strips of dried thag and a few quarts of water left. Quite suddenly a thought occurred to me. I was surprised that it had not come before as a solution to our problem. I turned toward Joag. You pelucidarians are endowed with a wonderful instinct, I reminded him, an instinct that points the way straight to your homes, no matter in what strange land you may find yourself. Now all we have to do is let Diane guide us toward Amos, and we shall come in a short time to the same coast once we just were blown. As I spoke I looked at them with a smile of renewed hope, but there was no answering smile in their eyes. It was Diane who enlightened me. We could do all this upon land, she said, but upon the water that power is denied us. I do not know why, but I have always heard that this is true, that only upon the water may a pelucidarian be lost. This is, I think, why we all fear the great ocean so, even those who go upon its surface in canoes. Joag has told us that they never go beyond the sight of land. We had lured the sail after the blow while we were discussing the best course to pursue. Our little craft had been drifting idly, rising and falling with the great waves that were now diminishing. Sometimes we were upon the crest, again in the hollow. As Diane ceased speaking, she let her eyes range across the limitless expanse of billowing waters. We rose to a great height upon the crest of a mighty wave. As we topped it, Diane gave an exclamation and pointed a stern. Bolts, she cried, Bolts, many, many Bolts! Joag and I leaped to our feet, but our little craft had now dropped to the trough and we could see nothing but walls of water close upon either hand. We waited for the next wave to lift us and when it did we strained our eyes in the direction that Diane had indicated. Sure enough, scarce half a mile away were several Bolts and scattered far and wide behind us as far as we could see were many others. We could not make them out in the distance or in the brief glimpse that we caught of them before we were plunged again into the next wave canyon, but they were Bolts, and in them must be human beings like ourselves. End of chapter 12. Chapter 13 of Pellucidar. This is a Librebox recording. All Librebox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librebox.org. Recording by Ralph Snelson. Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Chapter 13, Racing for Life. At last the sea subsided and we were able to get a better view of the armada of small Bolts in our wake. There must have been 200 of them. Joag said that he had never seen so many Bolts before in all his life. Where had they come from? Joag was first to hazard a guess. Hoogah, he said, was building many Bolts to carry his warriors to the Great River and up it toward Surrey. He was building them with almost all his warriors and many slaves upon the island of trees. No one else in all the history of Pellucidar has ever built so many Bolts as they told me Hoogah was building. These must be Hoogah's Bolts. And they were blown out to sea by the great storm just as we were, suggested Diane. There can be no better explanation of them, I agreed. What shall we do? asked Joag. Suppose we make sure that they are really Hoogah's people, suggested Diane. It may be that they are not and that if we run away from them before we learn definitely who they are, we shall be running away from a chance to live and find the mainland. They may be a people of whom we have never even heard and if so, we can ask them to help us if they know the way to the mainland. Which they will not, interposed Joag. Well, I said, it can't make our predicament any more trying to wait until we find out who they are. They are heading for us now. Evidently they have spied our sail and guessed that we do not belong to their fleet. They probably want to ask the way to the mainland, themselves, said Joag, who was nothing if not a pessimist. If they want to catch us, they can do it. If they can paddle faster, then we can sail, I said. If we let them come close enough to discover their identity and can then sail faster than they can paddle, we can get away from them anyway. So we might as well wait. And wait we did. The sea calmed rapidly so that by the time the foremost canoe had come within 500 yards of us, we could see them all plainly. Every one was headed for us. The dugouts, which were of unusual length, were manned by 20 paddlers, 10 to a side. Beside the paddlers, there were 25 or more warriors in each boat. When the leader was 100 yards from us, Diane called our attention to the fact that several of her crew were seagoths. That convinced us that the flotilla was indeed Hooges. I told Joag to hail them and get what information he could, while I remained in the bottom of our canoe as much out of sight as possible. Diane lay down at full length in the bottom. I did not want them to see and recognize her if they were in truth Hooges people. Who are you? shouted Joag, standing up in the boat and making a megaphone of his palms. A figure arose in the bow of the leading canoe, a figure that I was sure I recognized even before he spoke. I am Hooges, cried the man in answer to Joag. For some reason he did not recognize his former prisoner and slave, possibly because he had so many of them. I come from the island of trees, he continued. A hundred of my boats were lost in the great storm and all their crews drowned. Where is the land? What are you and what strange thing is that which flutters from the little tree in the front of your canoe? He referred to our sail flapping idly in the wind. We too are lost, replied Joag. We know not where the land is. We are going back to look for it now. So saying he commenced to scull the canoe's nose before the wind while I made fast the primitive sheets that held our crude sail. We thought it time to be going. There wasn't much wind at the time and the heavy lumbering dugout was slow in getting under way. I thought it never would gain any momentum and all the while Hooges' canoe was drawing rapidly nearer, propelled by the strong arms of his 20 paddlers. Of course their dugout was much larger than ours and consequently infinitely heavier and more cumbersome. Nevertheless it was coming along at quite a clip and ours was yet but barely moving. Diane and I remained out of sight as much as possible for the two craft were now well within bow-shot out of one another and I knew that Hooges had archers. Hooges called to Joag to stop when he saw that our craft was moving. He was much interested in the sail and not a little odd as I could tell by his shouted remarks and questions. Raising my head I saw him play me. He would have made an excellent target for one of my guns and I had never been sorryer that I had lost them. We were now picking up speed at trifle and he was not gaining upon us so fast as at first. In consequence his request that we stopped suddenly changed to commands as he became aware that we were trying to escape him. Come back, he shouted, come back or I'll fire. I used the word fire because it more nearly translates into English the Plucidarian word tag which covers the launching of any deadly missile. But Joag only seized his paddle more tightly, the paddle that answered the purpose of rudder and commenced to assist the wind by vigorous strokes. Then Hooges gave the command to some of his archers to fire upon us. I couldn't lie hidden in the bottom of the boat leaving Joag alone exposed to the deadly shafts so I rose and seizing another paddle set to work to help him. Diane joined me though I did my best to persuade her to remain sheltered but being a woman she must have her own way. The instant that Hooges saw us he recognized us. The hoop of triumph he raised indicated how certain he was that we were about to fall into his hands. A shower of arrows fell about us. Then Hooges caused his men to cease firing. He wanted us alive. None of the missiles struck us for Hooges archers were not nearly the marksmen that are mysarians and amazites. We had now gained sufficient headway to hold our own on about even terms with Hooges paddlers. We did not seem to be gaining though and neither did they. How long this nerve-wracking experience lasted I cannot guess though we had pretty nearly finished our meager supply of provisions when the wind picked up a bit and we commenced to draw away. Not once yet had we sited land nor could I understand it since so many of the seas I had seen before were thickly dotted with islands. Our plight was anything but pleasant yet I think that Hooges and his forces were even worse off than we for they had no food nor water at all. Far out behind us in a long line that curbed upward in the distance to be lost in the haze strung Hooges 200 bolts but one would have been enough to have taken us could it have come alongside. We had drawn some 50 yards ahead of Hooges. There had been times when we were scarce 10 yards in advance and were feeling considerably safer from capture. Hooges men working in relays were commencing to show the effects of the strain under which they had been forced to work without food or water and I think their weakening aided us almost as much as the slight freshening of the wind. Hooges must have commenced to realize that he was going to lose us for he again gave orders that we be fired upon. Volley after Volley of arrows struck about us. The distance was so great by this time that most of the arrows fell short while those that reached us were sufficiently spent to allow us to ward them off with our paddles. However it was a most exciting ordeal. Hooges stood in the bow of his boat alternately urging his men to greater speed and shouting epithets at me but we continued to draw away from him. At last the wind rose to a fair gale and we simply raced away from our pursuers as if they were standing still. Joog was so tickled that he forgot all about his hunger and thirst. I think that he had never been entirely reconciled to the heathen-ish invention which I call the sail and that down in the bottom of his heart he believed that the paddlers would eventually overhaul us but now he couldn't praise it enough. We had a strong gale for a considerable time and eventually dropped Hooges' fleet so far a stern that we could no longer discern them. And then, ah, I shall never forget that moment, Diane sprang to her feet with a cry of land. Sure enough dead ahead a long low coast stretched across our bow. It was still a long way off and we couldn't make out whether it was island or mainland but at least it was land. If ever shipwrecked mariners were grateful we were them. Raja and Renee were commencing to suffer lack of food and I could swear that the latter often cast hungry glances upon us, though I am equally sure that no such hideous thoughts ever entered the head of her mate. We watched them both most closely, however. Once, while stroking Renee, I managed to get a rope around her neck and make her fast to the side of the boat. Then I felt a bit safer for Diane. It was pretty close quarters in that little dugout for three human beings and two practically wild man-eating dogs, but we had to make the best of it since I would not listen to Jog's suggestion that we kill and eat Raja and Renee. We made good time to within a few miles of the shore. Then the wind died suddenly out. We were all of us keyed up to such a pitch of anticipation that the blow was doubly hard to bear and it was a blow too since we could not tell in what quarter the wind might rise again. But Jog and I set to work to paddle the remaining distance. Almost immediately the wind rose again from precisely the opposite direction from which it had formerly blown so that it was mighty hard work making progress against it. Next it veered again so that we had to turn and run with it parallel to the coast to keep from being swamped in the trough of the seas. And while we were suffering all these disappointments who just fleet appeared in the distance, they evidently had gone far to the left of our course where they were now almost behind us as we ran parallel to the coast. But we were not much afraid of being overtaken in the wind that was blowing. The gale kept on increasing but it was fitful, swooping down upon us in great gusts and then going almost calm for an instant. It was after one of these momentary calms that the catastrophe occurred. Our sail hung limp and our momentum decreased when of a sudden a particularly vicious squall caught us. Before I could cut the sheets, the mast had snapped at the thwart in which it was stepped. The worst had happened. Joag and I seized paddles and kept the canoe with the wind. But that squall was the parting shot of the gale which died out immediately after, leaving us free to make for the shore, which we lost no time in attempting. But Hoogia had drawn closer in towards shore than we, so it looked as if he might head us off before we could land. However we did our best to distance him, Diane taking a paddle with us. We were in a fair way to succeed when there appeared, pouring from among the trees beyond the beach a horde of yelling painted savages, brandishing all sorts of devilish looking primitive weapons. So menacing was their attitude that we realized at once the folly of attempting to land among them. Hoogia was drawing closer to us. There was no wind. We could not hope to out-paddle him. And with our sail gone, no wind would help us, though as if in derision at our plight a steady breeze was now blowing. But we had no intention of sitting idle while our fate overtook us. So we bent to our paddles and keeping parallel with the coast did our best to pull away from our pursuers. It was a grueling experience. We were weakened by lack of food. We were suffering the pangs of thirst. Capture and death were close at hand. Yet I think that we gave a good account of ourselves in our final effort to escape. Our boat was so much smaller and lighter than any of Hoogia's that the three of us forced it ahead almost as rapidly as his larger craft could go under their 20 paddles. As we raced along the coast for one of those seemingly interminable periods that may draw hours into eternities where the labor is soul searing and there is no way to measure time, I saw what I took for the opening to a bay or the mouth of a great river a short distance ahead of us. I wish that we might make for it but with the menace of Hoogia close behind and the screaming natives who raced along the shore parallel to us I dare not attempt it. We were not far from shore in that mad flight from death. Even as I paddled I found opportunity to glance occasionally toward the natives. They were white but hideously painted. From their gestures and weapons I took them to be a most ferocious race. I was rather glad that we had not succeeded in landing among them. Hoogia's fleet had been in much more compact formation when we sighted them this time than on the occasion following the tempest. Now they were moving rapidly in pursuit of us all well within the radius of a mile. Five of them were leading all abreast and were scarce two hundred yards from us. When I glanced over my shoulder I could see that the archers had already fitted arrows to their bows in readiness to fire upon us the moment that they should draw within range. Hope was low in my breast. I could not see the slightest chance of escaping them for they were overhauling us rapidly now since they were able to work their paddles in relays while we three were rapidly wearing beneath the constant strain that had been put upon us. It was then that Joag called my attention to the rift in the shoreline which I had thought either a bay or the mouth of a great river. There I saw moving slowly out into the sea that which filled my soul with wonder. End of chapter 13. Chapter 14 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 14. Gore and Dreams. It was a two-masted faluca with Latin sails. The craft was long and low. In it were more than 50 men, 20 or 30 of whom were at oars with which the craft was being propelled from the lee of the land. I was dumbfounded. Could it be that the savage painted natives I had seen on shore had so perfected the art of navigation that they were masters of such advanced building and rigging as this craft proclaimed? It seemed impossible. As I looked I saw another of the same type swing into view and follow its sister through the narrow strait out into the ocean. Nor were these all, one after another following closely upon one another's heels came 50 of the trim graceful vessels. They were cutting in between Hooges' fleet and our little dugout. When they came a bit closer my eyes fairly popped from my head at what I saw, for in the eye of the leading faluca stood a man with a sea-glass level upon us. Who could they be? Was there a civilization within Pellucidar of such wondrous advancement as this? Were there far distant lands of which none of my people had ever heard? Were a race had so greatly outstripped all other races of this inner world? The man with the glass had lured it and was shouting to us. I could not make out his words, but presently I saw that he was pointing aloft. When I looked I saw a pennant fluttering from the peak of the forward Latin yard, a red, white, and blue pennant with a single great white star in a field of blue. Then I knew my eyes went even wider than they had before. It was the navy. It was the navy of the empire of Pellucidar, which I had instructed Perry to build in my absence. It was my navy. I dropped my paddle and stood up and shouted and waved my hand. Joag and Diane looked at me as if I had gone suddenly mad. When I could stop shouting I told them and they shared my joy and shouted with me. But still, Hoogia was coming nearer, nor could the leading faluca overhaul him before he would be alongside, or at least within, Boshat. Hoogia must have been as much mystified as we were as to the identity of the strange fleet. But when he saw me waving to them he evidently guessed that they were friendly to us. So he urged his men to redouble their efforts to reach us before the faluca cut him off. He shouted word back to others of his fleet, word that was passed back until it had reached them all, directing them to run alongside the strangers and board them, for with his two hundred craft and his eight or ten thousand warriors he evidently felt equal to overcoming the fifty vessels of the enemy which did not seem to carry over three thousand men all told. His own personal energies he bent to reaching Diane and me first, leaving the rest of the work to his other boats. I thought that there could be little doubt that he would be successful in so far as we were concerned and I feared for the revenge that he might take upon us should the battle go against his force, as I was sure it would, for I knew that Perry and his mesops must have brought with them all the arms and ammunition that had been contained in the prospector. But I was not prepared for what happened next. As Hooge's canoe reached a point some twenty yards from us a great puff of smoke broke from the bow of the leading faluca, followed almost simultaneously by a terrific explosion and a solid shot screened close over the heads of the men in Hooge's craft, raising a great splash where it clove the water just beyond them. Perry had perfected gunpowder and built cannon. It was marvelous. Diane and Joag as much surprised as Hooge turned wondering lies toward me. Again the cannon spoke. I suppose that by comparison with the great guns of modern naval vessels of the outer world it was a pitifully small and inadequate thing. But here in Plucidar, where it was the first of its kind, it was about as awe-inspiring as anything you might imagine. With the report an iron cannonball about five inches in diameter struck Hooge's dugout just above the water line, tore a great splintering hole in its side, turned it over and dumped its occupants into the sea. The four dugouts that had been abreast of Hooge had turned to intercept the leading Faluka. Even now, in the face of what must have been a withering catastrophe to them, they kept bravely on toward the strange and terrible craft. In them were fully two hundred men, while but fifty lined the gunwale of the Faluka to repel them. The commander of the Faluka, who proved to be jaw, let them come quite close and then turn loose upon them a volley of shots from small arms. The cavemen and seagoths in the dugout seemed to wither before that blast of death like dry grass before a prairie fire. Those who were not hit dropped their bows and javelins and seizing upon paddles attempted to escape. But the Faluka pursued them relentlessly, her crew firing at will. At last I heard jaw shouting to the survivors in the dugouts, they were all quite close to us now, offering them their lives if they would surrender. Perry was standing close behind jaw and I knew that this merciful action was prompted, perhaps commanded by the old man, for no Pellucidarian would have thought of showing leniency to a defeated foe. As there was no alternative, save death, the survivors surrendered and a moment later were taken aboard the Amos, the name that I could now see printed in large letters upon the Faluka's bow and which no one in that whole world could read except Perry and I. When the prisoners were aboard, jaw brought the Faluka alongside our dugout. Many were the willing hands that reached down to lift us to her decks. The bronze faces of the Meezops were broad with smiles and Perry was fairly beside himself with joy. Diane went aboard first and then jogged as I wished to help Roger and Renee aboard myself, well knowing that it would fare ill with any Meezop who touched them. We got them aboard at last and a great commotion they caused among the crew who had never seen a wild beast thus handled by man before. Perry and Diane and I were so full of questions that we fairly burst, but we had to contain ourselves for a while since the battle with the rest of Hooge's fleet had scarce commands. From the small forward decks of the Faluka's, Perry's crude cannon were belching smoke, flame, thunder, and death. The air trembled to the roar of them. Hooge's horde and trepid savage fighters that they were were closing in to grapple in a last death struggle with the Meezops who manned our vessels. The handling of our fleet by the Red Island warriors of Jaws Clan was far from perfect. I could see that Perry had lost no time after the completion of the boats in setting out upon this cruise. What little the captains and crews had learned of handling the Faluka's, they must have learned principally since they embarked upon this voyage. And while experience is an excellent teacher and had done much for them, they still had a great deal to learn. In maneuvering for position, they were continually fouling one another and on two occasions shots from our batteries came near to striking our own ships. No sooner, however, was I aboard the flagship than I attempt to rectify this trouble to some extent. By passing commands by word of mouth from one ship to another, I managed to get the 50 Falukas into some sort of line with the flagship in the lead. In this formation, we commenced slowly to circle the position of the enemy. The dugouts came for us right along in an attempt to board us, but by keeping on the move in one direction and circling, we managed to avoid getting in each other's way and were unable to fire our cannon and small arms with less danger to our own comrades. When I had a moment to look about me, I took in the Faluka on which I was. I am free to confess that I marveled at the excellent construction and staunch yet speedy lines of the little craft. That Perry had chosen this type of vessel seemed rather remarkable, for though I had warned him against turreted battleships, armor, and like useless show, I had fully expected that when I beheld his navy I should find considerable attempt at grim and terrible magnificence, for it was always Perry's idea to overaw these ignorant cavemen when we had to contend with them in battle. But I had soon learned that while one might easily astonish them with some new engine of war, it was an utter impossibility to frighten them into surrender. I learned later that Jha had gone carefully over the plans of various craft with Perry. The old man had explained in detail all that the text told him of them. The two had measured out dimensions upon the ground. The Jha might see the sizes of different boats. Perry had built models and Jha had had him read carefully and explained all that they could find relative to the handling of sailing vessels. The result of this was that Jha was the one who had chosen the Faluka. It was well that Perry had had so excellent a balance wheel, for he had been wild to build a huge frigate of the Nelsonian era. He told me so himself. One thing that had inclined Jha particularly to the Faluka was the fact that it included oars in its equipment. He realized the limitations of his people in the matter of sails and while they had never used oars, the implement was so similar to a paddle that he was sure they quickly could master the art and they did. As soon as one hull was completed, Jha kept it on the water constantly, first with one crew and then with another until 2,000 red warriors had learned to roll. Then they stepped their mass and a crew was told off for the first ship. While the others were building, they learned to handle theirs. As each succeeding boat was launched, its crew took it out and practiced with it under the tutorage of those who had graduated from the first ship and so on until a full compliment of men had been trained for every boat. Well, to get back to the battle, the Hujans kept on coming at us and as fast as they came we mowed them down. It was little else than slaughter. Time and time again I cried to them to surrender, promising them their lives if they would do so. At last there were but 10 boatloads left. These turned in flight. They thought they could paddle away from us. It was pitiful. I passed the word from boat to boat to cease firing, not to kill another Hujan unless they fired on us. Then we set out after them. There was a nice little breeze blowing and we bowled along after our quarry as gracefully and as lightly as swans upon a park lagoon. As we approached them I could see not only wonder but admiration in their eyes. I hailed the nearest dugout. Throw down your arms and come aboard us, I cried, and you shall not be harmed. We will feed you and return you to the mainland. Then you shall go free upon your promise never to bear arms against the emperor of Pellucidar again. I think it was the promise of food that interested them most. They could scarce believe that we would not kill them. But when I exhibited the prisoners we already had taken and showed them that they were alive and unharmed, a great seagoth in one of the boats asked me what guarantee I could give that I would keep my word. None other than my word, I replied, that I do not break. The Plucidarians themselves are rather punctilious about this same matter, so the seagoth could understand that I might possibly be speaking the truth. But he could not understand why we should not kill them unless we meant to enslave them, which I had as much as denied already when I had promised to set them free. Ja couldn't exactly see the wisdom of my plan either. He thought that we ought to follow up the 10 remaining dugouts and sink them all. But I insisted that we must free as many as possible of our enemies upon the mainland. You see, I explained, these men will return at once to Huges Island, to the Meihar cities from which they come, or to the countries from which they were stolen by the Meihars. They are men of two races and of many countries. They will spread the story of our victory far and wide, and while they are with us, we will let them see and hear many other wonderful things which they may carry back to their friends and their chiefs. It's the finest chance for free publicity, Perry, I added to the old man, that you or I have seen in many a day. Perry agreed with me. As a matter of fact, he would have agreed to anything that would have restrained us from killing the poor devils who fell into our hands. He was a great fellow to invent gunpowder and firearms and cannon, but when it came to using these things to kill people, he was as tender-hearted as a chicken. The Segoth, who had spoken, was talking to other Segoths in his bolt. Evidently, they were holding a counsel over the question of the wisdom of surrendering. What will become of you if you don't surrender to us, I asked. If we do not open our batteries on you again and kill you all, you will simply drift about the sea helplessly until you die of thirst and starvation. You cannot return to the islands, for you have seen as well as we that the natives there are very numerous and warlike. They would kill you the moment you landed. The upshot of it was that the boat of which the Segoth speaker was in charge surrendered. The Segoths threw down their weapons and we took them aboard the ship next in line behind the Amos. First Jah had to impress upon the captain and crew of the ship that the prisoners were not to be abused or killed. After that the remaining dugouts paddled up and surrendered. We distributed them among the entire fleet, lest there be too many upon any one vessel. Thus ended the first real naval engagement that the Palusadarian seas had ever witnessed. Though Perry still insists that the action in which the sorry took part was a battle of the first magnitude. The battle over and the prisoners disposed of and fed and do not imagine that Diane, Joag and I as well as the two hounds were not fed also. I turned my attention to the fleet. We had the Falukas close in about the flagship and with all the ceremony of a medieval potentate on parade I received the commanders of the 49 Falukas that accompanied the flagship. Diane and I together, the Empress and the Emperor of Palusadar. It was a great occasion. The savage bronze warriors entered into the spirit of it, for as I learned later, dear old Perry had left no opportunity neglected for impressing upon them that David was Emperor of Palusadar and that all that they were accomplishing and all that he was accomplishing was due to the power and redounded to the glory of David. The old man must have rubbed it in pretty strong, for those fierce warriors nearly came to blows in their efforts to be among the first of those to kneel before me and kiss my hand. When it came to kissing Diane's, I think they enjoyed it more. I know I should have. A happy thought occurred to me as I stood upon the little deck of the Amos with the first of Perry's primitive cannon behind me. When John kneeled at my feet and first to do me homage, I drew from it scabbard at his side the sword of hammered iron that Perry had taught him to fashion. Striking him lightly on the shoulder, I created him King of Anorock. Each captain of the 49 other faluchuses, I made a duke. I left it to Perry to enlighten them as to the value of the honors I had bestowed upon them. During these ceremonies, Raja and Renee had stood beside Diane and me. Their bellies had been well filled, but still they had difficulty in permitting so much edible humanity to pass unchallenged. It was a good education for them, though, and never after did they find it difficult to associate with the human race without arousing their appetites. After the ceremonies were over, we had a chance to talk with Perry and Raja. The former told me that Gawk, King of Sarri, had sent my letter and map to him by a runner, and that he and Raja had at once decided to set out on the completion of the fleet to ascertain the correctness of my theory that the laurel as in which the Anorock Islands lay was in reality the same ocean as that which lapped the shores of Thuria under the name of Sojar Az, or Great Sea. Their destination had been the island retreat of Hoja, and they had sent word to Gawk of their plans that we might work in harmony with them. The tempest that had blown us off the coast of the continent had blown them far to the south also. Shortly before discovering us, they had come into a great group of islands from between the largest two of which they were sailing when they saw Hoja's fleet pursuing our dugout. I asked Perry if he had any idea as to where we were or in what direction lay Hoja's Island or the continent. He replied by producing his map on which he had carefully marked the newly discovered islands. There described as the unfriendly isles which showed Hoja's Island northwest of us about two points west. He then explained that with compass, chronometer, log, and reel, they had kept a fairly accurate record of their course from the time they had set out. Four of the falukas were equipped with these instruments and all of the captains had been instructed in their use. I was very greatly surprised at the ease with which these savages had mastered the rather intricate detail of this unusual work. But Perry assured me that they were a wonderfully intelligent race and had been quick to grasp all that he had tried to teach them. Another thing that surprised me was the fact that so much had been accomplished in so short a time, for I could not believe that I had been gone from Anorok for a sufficient period to permit a building, a fleet of 50 falukas and mining iron ore for the cannon and balls to say nothing of manufacturing these guns and the crude muzzle-loading rifles with which every mesop was armed, as well as the gunpowder and ammunition I had in such ample quantities. Time, exclaimed Perry? Well, how long were you gone from Anorok before we picked you up in the sojourn as? That was a puzzler, and I had to admit it. I didn't know how much time had elapsed and neither did Perry, for time is nonexistent in Pellucidar. Then you see, David, he continued, I had almost unbelievable resources at my disposal. The mesops inhabiting the Anorok islands which stretch far out to sea beyond the three principal isles with which you are familiar, number well into the millions, and by far the greater part of them are friendly to Jha. Men, women, and children turned to and worked the moment Jha explained the nature of our enterprise. And not only were they anxious to do all in their power to hasten the day when the mayhars should be overthrown, but, as this counted for most of all, they are simply ravenous for greater knowledge and for better ways of doing things. The contents of the prospector set their imaginations to working overtime so that they craved to own themselves the knowledge which had made it possible for other men to create and build the things which you brought back from the outer world. And then, continued the old man, the element of time, or rather lack of time, operated to my advantage. There being no nights there was no laying off from work. They labored incessantly, stuffing only to eat and on rare occasions to sleep. Once we had discovered iron ore, we had enough mind in an incredibly short time to build a thousand cannon. I had only to show them once how a thing should be done and they would fall to work by thousands to do it. Why no sooner had we fashioned the first muzzle loader and they had seen it work successfully than fully 3,000 mizots fell to work to make rifles. Of course, there was much confusion and lost motion at first, but eventually Jaw got them in hand, detailing squads of them under competent chiefs to certain work. We now have a hundred expert gun makers. On a little isolated aisle, we have a great powder factory. Near the iron mine, which is on the mainland, is a smelter and on the eastern shore of Anorak, a well-equipped shipyard. All these industries are guarded by forts in which several cannon are mounted and where warriors are always on guard. You would be surprised now, David, at the aspect of Anorak. I am surprised myself. It seems always to me, as I compare it with the day that I first set foot upon it from the deck of the sari, that only a miracle could have worked the change that has taken place. It is a miracle, I said. It is nothing short of a miracle to transplant all the wondrous possibilities of the 20th century back to the Stone Age. It is a miracle to think that only 500 miles of earth separate two epics that are really ages and ages apart. It is dependice, Perry. But still, most dependice is the power that you and I wield in this great world. These people look upon us as little less than Superman. We must show them that we are all of that. We must give them the best that we have, Perry. Yes, he agreed. We must. I have been thinking a great deal lately that some kind of shrapnel shell or explosive bomb would be a most splendid innovation in their warfare. Then there are breech loading rifles and those with magazines that I must hasten to study out and learn to reproduce as soon as we get settled down again. And, hold on, Perry, I cried. I didn't mean these sorts of things at all. I said that we must give them the best we have. What we have given them so far has been the worst. We have given them war and the munitions of war. In a single day we have made their wars infinitely more terrible and bloody than in all their past ages they have been able to make them with their crude, primitive weapons. In a period that could scarcely have exceeded two outer earthly hours, our fleet practically annihilated the largest armada of native canoes that the Palusadarians ever before had gathered together. We butchered some 8,000 warriors with the 20th century gifts we brought. Why, they wouldn't have killed that many warriors in the entire duration of a dozen of their wars with their own weapons. No, Perry, we've got to give them something better than scientific methods of killing one another. The old man looked at me in amazement. There was reproach in his eyes, too. Why, David, he said sorrowfully, I thought that you would be pleased with what I had done. We planned these things together, and I am sure that it was you who suggested practically all of it. I have done only what I thought you wished done, and I have done it the best that I know how. I laid my hand on the old man's shoulder. Bless your heart, Perry, I cried. You've accomplished miracles. You've done precisely what I should have done. Only you've done it better. I'm not finding fault, but I don't wish to lose sight myself or let you lose sight of the greater work which must grow out of this preliminary and necessary carnage. First, we must place the empire upon a secure footing, and we can do so only by putting the fear of us in the hearts of our enemies. But after that, oh, Perry, that is the day I look forward to. When you and I can build sewing machines instead of battleships, harvesters of crops instead of harvesters of men, plowshares and telephones, schools and colleges, printing presses and paper, when our merchant marine shall ply the great Pellucidarian seas and cargos of silks and typewriters and books shall forge their ways where only hideous Saurians have held sway since time began. Amen, said Perry, and Diane, who was standing at my side, pressed my hand. End of chapter 14.