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plete & Unabridged

BY THE AUTHOR OF “TARZAN”

When David Innes returned from the outer world to


Pellucidar, the land “At the Earth’s Core,” he brought
with him such implements as might aid him to establish
the Empire of which he dreamed.

But David and his friend Perry were dealt unexpectedly


heavy blows that set back their scheme to bring civil-
ization to the Stone Age land. For Hooja the Sly One was
quick to turn David’s advantages against him, dealing
the cruelest blow by the abduction of Dian the Beautiful
One.

In a land of savagery and eternal sunlight, David


and Perry live an adventure that only the inspired pen
of Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of Tarzan novels, could
write.

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EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS


PELLUGIDEI
AN ACE BOOK
Ace Publishing Corporation
1120 Avenue of the Americas
New York, N.Y. 10036

PELLUCIDAR

Cover art and title-page illustration by Roy Krenkel, Jr.


Copyright ©, 1915, by Frank A. Munsey Company

An Ace Book, by arrangement with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ine.

PRINTED IN U.S.A,

we «

PROLOG

ae YEARS had elapsed since I had found


the opportunity to do any big-game hunting; for at last I had
my plans almost perfected for a return to my old stamping-
grounds in northern Africa, where in other days I had had
excellent sport in pursuit of the king of beasts.

The date of my departure had been set; I was to leave in


two weeks. No. schoolboy counting the lagging hours that
must pass before the beginning of “long vacation” released
him to the delirious joys of the summer camp could have
been filled with greater impatience or keener anticipation.

And then came a letter that started me for Africa twelve


days ahead of my schedule.

Often am I in receipt of letters from strangers who have


found something in a story of mine to commend or to con-
demn. My interest in this department of my correspondence
is ever fresh. I opened this particular letter with all the zest
of pleasurable anticipation with which I had opened so many
others. The post-mark (Algiers) had aroused my interest and
curiosity, especially at this time, since it-was Algiers that was
presently to witness the termination of my coming sea voyage
in search of sport and adventure.

Before the reading of that letter was completed lions and


lion-hunting had fled my thoughts, and I was in a state of
excitement bordering upon frenzy.

It—well, read it yourself, and see if you, too, do not find


food for frantic conjecture, for tantalizing doubts, and for
a great hope.

Here it is:

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

DeEaAR Sm: I think that I have run across one of the


most remarkable coincidences in modern literature. But
let me start at the beginning:

I am, by profession, a wanderer upon the face of the


earth. I have no trade—nor any other occupation.

My father bequeathed me a competency; some re-


moter ancestor—a lust to roam. I have combined the two
and invested them carefully and without extravagance.

I became interested in your story, At the Earth's Core,


not so much because of the probability of the tale as of a
great and abiding wonder that people should be paid
real money for writing such impossible trash. You will —
pardon my candor, but it is necessary that you under-
stand my mental attitude toward this particular story—
that you may credit that which follows.

Shortly thereafter I started for the Sahara in search of


a rather rare species of antelope that is to be found only
occasionally within a limited area at a certain season of
the year. My chase led me far from the haunts of
man.

It was a fruitless search, however, in so far as antelope


is concerned; but one night as I lay courting sleep at the
edge of a little cluster of date-palms that surround an
ancient well in the midst of the arid, shifting sands, I sud-
denly became conscious of a strange sound coming ap-
parently from the earth beneath my head.

It was an intermittent ticking!

No reptile or insect with which I am familiar repro-


duces any such notes. I lay for an hour—listening intently.

At last my curiosity got the better of me. I arose,


lighted my lamp and commenced to investigate.

My bedding lay upon a rug stretched directly upon


the warm sand. The noise appeared to be coming from
beneath the rug. I raised it, but found nothing—yet, at
intervals, the sound continued.

I dug into the sand with the point of my hunting-


knife. A few inches below the surface of the sand I
encountered a solid substance that had the feel of wood
beneath the sharp steel.

PELLUCIDAR

Excavating about it, I unearthed a small wooden box.


From this receptacle issued the strange sound that I had
heard. |

How had it come here?

What did it contain?

In attempting to lift it from its burying place I dis-


covered that it seemed to be held fast by means of a
very small insulated cable running farther into the sand
beneath it.

My first impulse was to drag- the thing loose by main


strength; but fortunately I thought better of this and fell
to examining the box. I soon saw that it was covered by
a hinged lid, which was held closed by a simple screw-
hook and eye.

It took but a moment to loosen this and raise the cover,


when, to my utter astonishment, I discovered an ordinary
telegraph instrument clicking away within.

. “What in the world,” thought I, “is this thing doing


ere?”

That it was a French military instrument was my first


guess; but really there didn’t seem much likelihood that
this was the correct explanation, when one took into ac-
count the loneliness and remoteness of the spot.

As I sat gazing at my remarkable find, which was tick-


ing and clicking away there in the silence of the desert
night, trying to convey some message which I was un-
able to interpret, my eyes fell upon a bit of paper lying
in the bottom of the box beside the instrument. I picked
i up and examined it. Upon it were written but two
etters:

D. I.

They meant nothing to me then. I was baffled.

Once, in an interval of silence upon the part of the


receiving instrument, I moved the sending-key up and
down a few times. Instantly the receiving mechanism
commenced to work frantically.

I tried to recall something of the Morse Code, with


which I had played as a little boy—but time had ob-
literated it from my memory. I became almost frantic

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

as I let my imagination run riot among the possibilities


for which this clicking instrument might stand.

Some poor devil at the unknown other end might be


in dire need of succor. The very franticness of the in-
strument’s wild clashing betokened something of the kind.

And there sat I, powerless to interpret, and so power-


less to help!

It was then that the inspiration came to me. In a flash


there leaped to my mind the closing paragraphs of the
story I had read in the club at Algiers: |

Does the answer lie somewhere upon the bosom of the


broad Sahara, at the. ends of two tiny wires, hidden
beneath a lost cairn?

The idea seemed preposterous. Experience and intel-


ligence combined to assure me that there could be no
slightest grain of truth or possibility in your wild tale—
it was fiction pure and simple.

And yet where were the other ends of those wires?

What was this instrument—ticking away here in the


great Sahara—but a travesty upon the possible!

Would I have believed in it had I not seen it with my ©


own eyes? |

And the initials—p. 1.—upon the slip of paper! David’s


initials were these—David Innes.

I smiled at my imaginings. I ridiculed the assumption


that there was an inner world and that these wires led
downward through the earth’s crust to the surface of
Pellucidar. And yet—

Well, I sat there all night, listening to that tantalizing


clicking, now and then moving the sending-key just to
Jet the other end know that the instrument had been
discovered. In the morning, after carefully returning the
box to its hole and covering it over with sand, I called
my servants about me, snatched a hurried breakfast,
mounted my horse, and started upon a forced march
for Algiers.

I arrived here today. In writing you this letter I feel


that I am making a fool of myself.

There is no David Innes.

PELLUCIDAR

There is no Dian the Beautiful.

There is no world within a world.

Pellucidar is but a realm of your imagination—nothing


more.

But—

The incident of the finding of that buried telegraph


instrument upon the lonely Sahara is little short of un-
canny, in view of your story of the adventures of David
Innes.

I have called it one of the most remarkable coinci-


dences in modern fiction. I called it literature before,
but—again pardon my candor—your story is not.

And now—why am I writing you?

Heaven knows, unless it is that the persistent clicking


of that unfathomable enigma out there in the vast silences
of the Sahara has so wrought upon my nerves that
reason refuses longer to function sanely.

I cannot hear it now, yet I know that far away to the


south, all alone beneath the sands, it is still pounding
out its vain, frantic appeal.

It is maddening!

It is your fault—I want you to release me from it.

Cable me at once, at my expense, that there was no


basis of fact for your story, At the Earth's Core.

. Very respectfully yours,


Cocpon NESTOR,
—and—Club,
Algiers.
June Ist,—.
Ten minutes after reading this letter I had cabled Mr.
Nestor as follows:

Story true. Await me Algiers.

As fast as train and boat would carry me, I sped toward


my destination. For all those dragging days my mind was a
whirl of mad conjecture, of frantic hope, of numbing fear.
The finding of the telegraph-instrument practically assured

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

me that David Innes had driven Perry's iron mole back


through the earth’s crust to the buried world of Pellucidar;
but what adventures had befallen him since his return?

Had he found Dian the Beautiful, his half-savage mate,


safe among his friends, or had Hooja the Sly One succeeded
in his nefarious schemes to abduct her?

Did Abner Perry, the lovable old inventor and paleontolo-


gist, still live?

Had the federated tribes of Pellucidar succeeded in over-


throwing the mighty Mahars, the dominant race of reptilian
monsters, and their fierce, gorilla-like soldiery, the savage
Sagoths?

I must admit that I was in a state bordering upon nervous


prostration when I entered the —and—Club, in Algiers, and
inquired for Mr. Nestor. A moment later I was ushered into
his presence, to find myself clasping hands with the sort
of chap that the world holds only too few of.

He was a tall, smooth-faced man of about_thirty, clean-cut,


straight, and strong, and weather-tanned to the hue of a
desert Arab. I liked him immensely from the first, and I hope
that after our three months together in the desert country—
three months not entirely lacking in adventure—he found
that a man may be a writer of “impossible trash” and yet
have some redeeming qualities.

The day following my arrival at Algiers we left for the


south, Nestor having made all arrangements in advance,
guessing, as he naturally did, that I could be coming to
Africa for but a single purpose—to hasten at once to the
buried telegraph-instrument and wrest its secret from it.

In addition to our native servants, we took along an


English telegraph-operator named Frank Downes. Nothing of
interest enlivened our journey by rail and caravan till we
came to the cluster of date-palms about the ancient well upon
the rim of the Sahara.

It was the very spot at which I first had seen David Innes.
If he had ever raised a cairn above the telegraph instrument |
no sign of it remained now. Had it not been for the chance
that caused Cogdon Nestor to throw down his sleeping rug

10

-PELLUCIDAR

directly over the hidden instrument, it might still be clicking

there unheard—and this story still unwritten.

When we reached the spot and unearthed the little box


the instrument was quiet, nor did repeated attempts upon the

part of our telegrapher succeed in winning a response from

the other end of the line. After several days of futile endeavor
to raise Pellucidar, we had begun to despair. I was as —

_ positive that the other end of that little cable protruded

through the surface of the inner world as I am that I sit here


today in my study—when about midnight of the fourth day
I was awakened by the sound of the instrument.

Leaping to my feet I grasped Downes roughly by the neck


and dragged him out of his blankets. He didn’t need to be
told what caused my excitement, for the instant he was awake
he, too, heard the long-hoped for click, and with a whoop of
delight pounced upon the instrument.

_ Nestor was on his feet almost as soon as I. The three of us


huddled about that little box as if our lives depended upon
the message it had for us.

Downes interrupted the clicking with his sending-key. The


noise of the receiver stopped instantly.

“Ask who it is, Downes,” I directed.

He did so, and while we awaited the Englishman’s trans-


lation of the reply, I doubt if either Nestor or I breathed.
“He says he’s David Innes,” said Downes. “He wants to
know who we are.”

“Tell him,” said I; “and that we want to know how he is—


and all that has befallen him since I last saw him.”

For two months I talked with David Innes almost every


day, and as Downes translated, either Nestor or I took notes.
From these, arranged in chronological order, I have set
down the following account of the further adventures of
David Innes at the earth’s core, practically in his own words.

Il

CHAPTER I

LOST ON PELLUCIDAR

Tw ARABS, of whom I wrote you at the end


of my last letter (Innes began), and whom I thought to be
enemies intent only upon murdering me, proved to be ex-
ceedingly friendly—they were searching for the very band
of marauders that had threatened my existence. The huge
rhamphorhynchus-like reptile that I had brought back with
me from the inner world—the ugly Mahar that Hooja the
Sly One had substituted for my dear Dian at the moment
of my departure—filled them with wonder and with awe.

Nor less so did the mighty subterranean prospector which


had carried me to Pellucidar and back again, and which lay
Out in the desert about two miles from my camp.

With their help I managed to get the unwieldy tons of its


great bulk into a vertical position—the nose deep in a hole
we had dug in the sand and the rest of it supported by the
trunks of date-palms cut for the purpose.

It was a mighty engineering job with only wild Arabs and


their wilder mounts to do the work of an electric crane—but
finally it was completed, and I was ready for departure.

For some time I hesitated to take the Mahar back with


me. She had been docile and quiet ever since she had dis- °
covered herself virtually a prisoner aboard the “iron mole.”
It had been, of course, impossible for me to communicate with
her since she had no auditory organs and I no knowledge of
her fourth-dimension, sixth-sense method of communication.

Naturally I am kind-hearted, and so I found it beyond me

12

PELLUCIDAR
~to leave even this hateful and repulsive thing alone in a
strange and hostile world. The result was that when I entered
the iron mole I took her with me.

That she knew that we were about to return to Pellucidar


was evident, for immediately her manner changed from
that of habitual gloom that had pervaded her, to an almost
human expression of contentment and delight.

Our trip through the earth’s crust was but a repetition of


my two former journeys between the inner and the outer
worlds. This time, however, I imagine that we must have
maintained a more nearly perpendicular course, for we ac-
complished the journey in a few minutes’ less time than
upon the occasion of my first journey through the five-
hundred-mile crust. Just a trifle less than seventy-two hours
after our departure into the sands of the Sahara, we broke
through the surface of Pellucidar.

- Fortune once again favored me by the slightest of margins,


for when I opened the door in the prospector’s outer jacket
I saw that we had missed coming up through the bottom of
an ocean by but a few hundred yards.

The aspect of the surrounding country was entirely un-


familiar to me—I had no conception of precisely where I
was upon the one hundred and twenty-four million square
miles of Pellucidar’s vast land surface.

The perpetual midday sun poured down its torrid rays.


from zenith, as it had done since the beginning of Pelluci-
darian time—as it would continue to do to the end of it.
Before me, across the wide sea, the weird, horizonless sea-
scape folded gently upward to meet the sky until it lost itself
to view in the azure depths of distance far above the level
of my eyes.

How strange it looked! How vastly different from the flat


and puny area of the circumscribed vision of the dweller
upon the outer crust!

I was lost. Though I wandered ceaselessly throughout a


lifetime, I might never discover the whereabouts of my
former friends of this strange and savage world. Never again
might I see dear old Perry, nor Ghak the Hairy One, nor

aie

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

Dacor the Strong One, nor that other infinitely precious one—
my sweet and noble mate, Dian the Beautiful! |

But even so J was glad to tread once more the surface of


Pellucidar. Mysterious and terrible, grotesque and savage
though she is in many of her aspects, I can not but love her.
Her very savagery appealed to me, for it is the savagery of
unspoiled Nature.

The magnificence of her tropic beauties enthralled me. Her


mighty land areas breathed unfettered freedom.

Her untracked oceans, whispering of virgin wonders un-


sullied by the eye of man, beckoned me out upon their
restless bosoms.

Not for an instant did I regret the world of my nativity.


I was in Pellucidar. I was home. And I was content.

As I stood dreaming beside the giant thing that had brought


me safely through the earth's crust, my traveling companion,
the hideous Mahar, emerged from the interior of the pros-
pector and stood beside me. For a long time she remained
motionless.

What thoughts were passing through the convolutions of


her reptilian brainP

I do not know.

She was a member of the dominant race of Pellucidar. By


a strange freak of evolution her kind had first developed
the power of reason in that world of anomalies.

To her, creatures such as I were of a lower order. As Perry


had discovered among the writings of her kind in the buried
city of Phutra, it was still an open question among the
Mahars as to whether man possessed means of intelligent
communication or the power of reason. 3

Her kind believed that in the center of all-pervading


solidity there was a single, vast, spherical cavity, which
was Pellucidar. This cavity had been left there for the sole
purpose of providing a place for the creation and propaga-
tion of the Mahar race. Everything within it had been put
there for the uses of the Mahar.

I wondered what this particular Mahar might think now.


I found pleasure in speculating upon just what the effect had
been upon her of passing through the earth’s crust, and

14

PELLUCIDAR

coming out into a world that one of even less intelligence


than the great Mahars could easily see was a different
world from her own Pellucidar.

What had she thought of the outer world’s tiny sun?

What had been the effect upon her of the moon and
myriad stars of the clear African nights?

How had she explained them?

With what sensations of awe must she first have watched


the sun moving slowly across the heavens to disappear at
last beneath the western horizon, leaving in his wake that
which the Mahar had never before witnessed—the darkness
of night? For upon Pellucidar there is no night. The
stationary sun hangs forever in the center of the Pellucidarian
sky—directly overhead.

Then, too, she must have been impressed by the wondrous


mechanism of the prospector which had bored its way from
world to world and back again. And that it had been driven
by a rational being must also have occurred to her.

Too, she had seen me conversing with other men upon


the earth’s surface. She had seen the arrival of the caravan
of books and arms, and ammunition, and the balance of the
heterogeneous collection which I had crammed into the
cabin of the iron mole for transportation to Pellucidar.

She had seen all these evidences of a civilization and


brain-power transcending in scientific achievement anything
that her race had produced; nor once had she seen a creature
of her own kind.

There could have been but a single deduction in the


mind of the Mahar—there were other worlds than Pellucidar,
and the gilak was a rational being.

Now the creature at my side was creeping slowly toward


the near-by~sea. At my hip hung a long-barreled six-
shooter—somehow I had been unable to find the same sen-
sation of security in the new-fangled automatics that had
been perfected since my first departure from the outer
world—and in my hand was a heavy express rifle.

I could have shot the Mahar with ease, for I knew in-
tuitively that she was escaping—but I did not.

I felt that if she could return to her own kind with the

15

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

story of her adventures, the position of the human race


within Pellucidar would be advanced immensely at a single
stride, for at once man would take his proper place in the
considerations of the reptilia.

At the edge of the sea the creature paused and looked


back at me. Then she slid sinuously into the surf.

For several minutes I saw no more of her as she luxuriated


in the cool depths.

Then a hundred yards from shore she rose and there for
‘another short while she floated upon the surface.

Finally she spread her giant wings, flapped them vigorously


a score of times and rose above the blue sea. A single time
she circled far aloft—and then straight as an arrow she
sped away.

I watched her until the distant haze enveloped her. and


she had disappeared. I was alone.

My first concern was to discover where within Pellucidar


I might be—and in what direction lay the land of the Sarians
where Ghak the Hairy One ruled.

But how was I to guess in which direction lay SariP

And if I set out to search—what then?

Could I find my way back to the prospector with its price-


less freight of books, firearms, ammunition, scientific instru-
ments, and still more books—its great library of reference works
upon every conceivable branch of applied sciences?

And if I could not, of what value was all this vast store-
house of potential civilization and progress to be to the
world of my adoption?

Upon the other hand, if I remained here alone with it,


what could I accomplish single-handed?

Nothing.

But where there was no east, no west, no north, no south,


no stars, no moon, and only a stationary midday sun, how
was I to find my way back to: this spot should ever I get
out of sight of it?

I didn’t know.

For a long time I stood buried in deep thought, when it


occurred to me to try out one of the compasses I had brought
and ascertain if it remained steadily fixed upon an unvarying

16

PELLUCIDAR
pole. I reentered the prospector and fetched a compass
without.

Moving a considerable distance from the prospector that


the needle might not be influenced by its great bulk of iron
and steel, I turned the delicate instrument about in every
direction.

Always and steadily the needle remained rigidly fixed


upon a point straight out to sea, apparently pointing toward
a large island some ten or twenty miles distant. This then
should be north.

I drew my note-book from my pocket and made a careful


topographical sketch of the locality within the range of my
vision. Due north lay the island, far out upon the shimmering
sea.

The spot I had chosen for my observations was the top


of a large, flat boulder which rose six or eight feet above
the turf. This spot I called Greenwich. The boulder was the
“Royal Observatory.” |

I had made a start! I cannot tell you what a sense of relief


was imparted to me by the simple fact that there was at least
one spot within Pellucidar with a familiar name and a place
upon 2 map.

It was with almost childish joy that I made a little circle


in my note-book and traced the word Greenwich beside it.

Now I felt I might start out upon my search with some


assurance of finding my way back again to the prospector.

I decided that at first I would travel directly south in the


hope that I might in that direction find some familiar land-
mark. It was as good a direction as any. This much at least
might be said of it.

Among the many other things I had brought from the


outer world were a number of pedometers. I slipped three
of these into my pockets with the idea that I might arrive
at a more or less accurate mean from the registrations of
them all.

On my map I would register so many paces south, so many


east, so many west, and so on. When I was ready to return
I would then do so by any route that I might choose.

I also strapped a considerable quantity of ammunition

17

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

across my shoulders, pocketed some matches, and hooked an


aluminum fry-pan and a small stew-kettle of the same metal
to my belt.

I was ready—ready to go forth and-explore a world!

Ready to search a land area of 124,110,000 square miles


for my friends, my incomparable mate, and good old Perry!

And so, after locking the door in the outer shell of the
prospector, I set out upon my quest. Due south I traveled,
across lovely valleys thick-dotted with grazing herds.

Through dense primeval forests I forced my way and up >


the slopes of mighty mountains searching for a pass to their
farther sides.

Ibex and musk-sheep fell before my good old revolver, so


that I lacked not for food in the higher altitudes. The forests
and the plains gave plentifully of fruits and wild birds,
antelope, aurochsen, and elk.

Occasionally, for the larger game animals and the gigantic


beasts of prey, I used my express rifle, but for the most part
the revolver filled all my needs.

There were times, too, when faced by a mighty cave bear, —


a saber-toothed tiger, or huge felis spelaea, black-maned and
terrible, even my powerful rifle seemed pitifully inadequate—
but fortune favored me so that I passed unscathed through
adventures that even the recollection of causes the short
hairs to bristle at the nape of my neck.

How long I wandered toward the south I do not know,


for shortly after I left the prospector something went wrong
with my watch, and I was again at the mercy of the baffling
timelessness of Pellucidar, forging steadily ahead beneath the
great, motionless sun which hangs eternally at noon.

I ate many times, however, so that days must have elapsed,


possibly months with no familiar landscape rewarding my
eager eyes.

I saw no men nor signs of men. Nor is this strange, for


Pellucidar, in its land area, is immense, while the human race
there is very young and consequently far from numerous.

-Doubtless upon that long search mine was the first human
foot to touch the soil in many places—mine the first human
eye to rest upon the gorgeous wonders of the landscape.

18

PELLUCIDAR

It was a staggering thought. I could not but dwell upon


it often as I made my lonely way through this virgin world.
Then, quite suddenly, one day I stepped out of the peace
of manless primality into the presence of man—and peace
was gone.

It happened thus:

I had been following a ravine downward out of a chain


of lofty hills and had paused at its mouth to view the lovely
little valley that lay before me. At one side was tangled
wood, while straight ahead a river wound peacefully along
parallel to the cliffs in which the hills terminated at the
valley's edge.

Presently, as I stood enjoying the lovely scene, as in-


satiate for Nature’s wonders as if I had not looked upon
similar landscapes countless times, a sound of shouting
broke from the direction of the woods. That the harsh, dis-
cordant notes rose from the throats of men I could not doubt.

I slipped behind a large boulder near the mouth of the


ravine and waited. I could hear the crashing of underbrush
in the forest, and I guessed that whoever came came
quickly—pursued and pursuers, doubtless.

In a short time some hunted animal would break into


view, and a moment later a score of half-naked savages
would come leaping after with spears or club or great
stone-knives.

I had seen the thing so many times during my life within


Pellucidar that I felt that I could anticipate to a nicety
precisely what I was about to witness. I hoped that the
hunters would prove friendly and be able to direct me toward
Sari.

Even as I was thinking these thoughts the quarry emerged


from the forest. But it was no terrified four-footed beast.
Instead, what I saw was an old man—a terrified old man!

Staggering feebly and hopelessly from what must have


been some very terrible fate, if one could judge from the
horrified expressions he continually cast behind him toward the
wood, he came stumbling on in my direction.

He had covered but a short distance from the forest when


I beheld the first of his pursuers—a Sagoth, one of those grim

19

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

and terrible gorilla-men who guard the mighty Mahars in


their buried cities, faring forth from time to time upon slave-
raiding or punitive expeditions against the human race of
Pellucidar, of whom the dominant race of the inner world
think as we think of the bison or the wild sheep of our
own world.

Close behind the foremost Sagoth came others until a full


dozen raced, shouting after the terror-stricken old man. They
would be upon him shortly, that was plain.

One of them was rapidly overhauling him, his back-thrown


spear-arm testifying to his purpose.

And then, quite with the suddenness of an unexpected


blow, I realized a past familiarity with the gait and carriage
of the fugitive.

Simultaneously there swept over me the staggering fact that


the old man was—Perry! That he was about to die before my
very eyes with no hope that I could reach him in time to
avert the awful catastrophe—for to me it meant a real
catastrophe!

Perry was my best friend.

Dian, of course, I looked upon as more than friend. She


was my mate—a part of me.

I had entirely forgotten the rifle in my hand and the


revolvers at my belt; one does not readily synchronize his
thoughts with the stone age and the twentieth century
simultaneously.

Now from past habit I still thought in the stone age, and
in my thoughts of the stone age there were no thoughts of
firearms.

The fellow was almost upon Perry when the feel of the
gun in my hand awoke me from the lethargy of terror that
had gripped me. From behind my boulder I threw up the
heavy express rifle—a mighty engine of destruction that
might bring down a cave bear or a mammoth at a single
shot—and let drive at the Sagoth’s broad, hairy breast.

At the sound of the shot he stopped stock-still. His spear


dropped from his hand.

Then he lunged forward upon his face.

The effect upon the others was little less remarkable. Perry

20:

PELLUCIDAR

alone could have possibly guessed the meaning of the loud


report or explained its connection with the sudden collapse
of the Sagoth. The other gorrilla-men halted for but an
instant. Then with renewed shrieks of rage they sprang
forward to finish Perry.
At the same time I stepped from behind my boulder, draw-
ing one of my revolvers that I might conserve the more
précious ammunition of the express rifle. Quickly I fired
again with the lesser weapon.

Then it was that all eyes were directed toward me. An-
other Sagoth fell to the bullet from the revolver; but it did
not stop his companions. They were out for revenge as well
as blood now, and they meant to have both.

As I ran forward toward Perry I fired four more shots,


dropping three of our antagonists. Then at last the re-
maining seven wavered. It was too much for them, this roar-
ing death that leaped, invisible, upon them from a great
distance.

As they hesitated I reached Perry’s side. I have never seen


such an expression upon any man’s face as that upon Perry's
when he recognized me. I have no words wherewith to
describe it. There was not time to talk then—scarce for a
greeting. I thrust the full, loaded revolver into his hand,
fired the last shot in my own, and reloaded. There were but
six Sagoths left then.

They started toward us once more, though I could see


that they were terrified probably as much by the noise of
the guns as by their effects. They never reached us. Half-way
the three that remained turned and fled, and we let them go.

The last we saw of them they were disappearing into the


tangled undergrowth of the forest. And then Perry turned
and threw his arms about my neck and, burying his old face
upon my shoulder, wept like a child.

21

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

CHAPTER II

TRAVELING WITH TERROR

WE MADE camp there beside the peaceful river. There Perry


told me all that had befallen him since I had departed for
the outer crust.

It seemed that Hooja had made it appear that I had in-


tentionally left Dian behind, and that I did not purpose ever
returning to Pellucidar. He teld them that I was of another
world and that I had tired of this and of its inhabitants.

To Dian he had explained that I had.a mate in the world


to which I was returning; that I had never intended taking
Dian the Beautiful back with me; and that she had seen the
last of me.

Shortly afterward Dian had disappeared from the camp,


nor had Perry seen or heard aught of her since.

He had no conception of the time that had elapsed since


I had departed, but guessed that many years had dragged
their slow way into the past.

Hooja, too, had disappeared very soon after Dian had left.
The Sarians, under Ghak the Hairy One, and the Amozites
under Dacor the Strong One, Dian’s brother, had fallen out
Over my supposed defection, for Ghak would not believe
that I had thus treacherously deceived and deserted them.

The result had been that these two powerful tribes had
fallen upon one another with the new weapons that Perry
and I had taught them to make and to use. Other tribes of
the new federation took sides with the original disputants
or set up petty revolutions of their own. ;

The result was the total demolition of the work we had


so well started. : |

Taking advantage of the tribal war, the Mahars had


gathered their Sagoths in force and fallen upon one tribe
after another in rapid succession, wreaking awful havoc
among them and reducing them for the most part to as

22

. PELLUCIDAR

pitiable a state of terror as that from which we had raised


them.

Alone of all the once-mighty federation the Sarians and


the Amozites with a few other tribes continued to maintain
their defiance of the Mahars; but these tribes were still
divided among themselves, nor had it seemed at all probable
to Perry when he had last been among them that any at-
tempt at re-amalgamation would be made.

“And thus, your majesty,” he concluded, “has faded back


into the oblivion of the Stone Age our wondrous dream and
with it has gone the First Empire of Pellucidar.”

We both had to smile at the use of my royal title, yet I


was indeed still “Emperor of Pellucidar,” and some day I
meant to rebuild what the vile act of the treacherous Hooja
had torn down.

But first I would find my empress. To me she was worth


forty empires.

“Have you no clue as to the whereabouts of Dian?” I asked.

“None whatever,” replied Perry. “It was in search of her


that I came to the pretty pass in which you discovered me,
and from which, David, you saved me.

“I knew perfectly well that you had not intentionally


deserted either Dian or Pellucidar. I guessed that in some
way Hooja the Sly One was at the bottom of the matter, and
I determined to go to Amoz, where I guessed that Dian
might come to the protection of her brother, and do my ut-
most to convince her, and through her Dacor the Strong One,
that we had all been victims of a treacherous plot to which
you were no party. |

“I came to Amoz after a most trying and terribly journey,


only to find that Dian was not among her brother’s people
and that they knew naught of her whereabouts.

“Dacor, I am sure, wanted to be fair and just, but so great


were his grief and anger over the disappearance of his sister
that he could not listen to reason, but kept repeating time
and again that only your return to Pellucidar could prove
the honesty of your intentions.

“Then came a stranger from another tribe, sent I am sure


at the instigation of Hooja. He so turned the Amozites against

23

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

me that I was forced to flee their country to escape as-


sassination. |

“In attempting to return to Sari I became lost, and then


the Sagoths discovered me. For a long time I eluded them,
hiding in caves and wading in rivers to throw them off my
trail.

“TI lived on nuts and fruits and the edible roots that
chance threw in my way.

“I traveled on and on, in what directions I could not even


guess; and at last I could elude them no longer and the end
came as I had long foreseen that it would come, except that I
had not forseen that you would be there to save me.”

We rested in our camp until Perry had regained sufficient


strength to travel again. We planned much, rebuilding all
our shattered air-castles; but above all we planned most to
find Dian.

I could not believe that she was dead, yet where she
might be in this savage world, and under what frightful
conditions she might be living, I could not guess.

When Perry was rested we returned to the prospector,


where he fitted himself out fully like a civilized human
being—under-clothing, socks, shoes, khaki jacket and breeches
and good, substantial puttees.

When I had come upon him he was clothed in rough


sadak sandals, a gee-string and a tunic fashioned from the
shaggy hide of a thag. Now he wore real clothing again
for the first time since the ape-folk had stripped us of our
apparel that long-gone day that had witnessed our advent ©
within Pellucidar.

With a bandoleer of cartridges across his shoulder, two six-


shooters at his hips, and a rifle in his hand he was a much
rejuvenated Perry.

. Indeed he was quite a different person altogether from


the rather shaky old man who had entered the prospector with
me ten or eleven years before, for the trial trip that had
plunged us into such wondrous adventures and‘ into such
a strange and hitherto undreamed-of-world.

Now he was straight and active. His muscles, almost


atrophied from disuse in his former life, had filled out.

24

PELLUCIDAR

He was still an old man of course, but instead of appear-


ing ten years older than he really was, as he had when we
left the outer world, he now appeared about ten years
younger. The wild, free life of Pellucidar had worked won-
ders for him.

Well, it must need have done so or killed him, for a man


of Perry’s former physical condition could not long have
survived the dangers and rigors of the primitive life of the
inner world.

Perry had been greatly interested in my map and in the


“royal observatory” at Greenwich. By use of the pedometers
we had retraced our way to the prospector with ease and
accuracy.

Now that we were ready to set out again we decided to


follow a different route on the chance that it might lead
us into more familiar territory.

I shall not weary you with a repetition of the countless


adventures of our long search. Encounters with wild beasts
of gigantic size were of almost daily occurrence; but with
our deadly express rifles we ran comparatively little risk when
one recalls that previously we had both traversed this world
of frightful dangers inadequately armed with crude, primitive
weapons and all but naked.

We ate and slept many times—so many that we lost


count—and so I do not know how Jong we roamed, though
our map shows the distances and directions quite accurately.
We must have covered a great many thousand square miles
of territory, and yet we had seen nothing in the way of a
familiar landmark, when from the heights of a mountain-
range we were crossing I descried far in the distance great
masses of billowing clouds.

Now clouds are practically unknown in the skies of Pel-


lucidar. The moment that my eyes rested upon them my
heart leaped. I seized Perry’s arm and, pointing toward
the horizonless distance, shouted:

“The Mountains of the Clouds!”

“They lie close to Phutra, and the country of our worst


enemies, the Mahars,” Perry remonstrated.

“I know it,” I replied, “but they give us a starting-point

25

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

from which to prosecute our search intelligently. They are


at least a familiar Jandmark.

“They tell us that we are upon the right trail and not
wandering far in the wrong direction.

“Furthermore, close to the Mountains of the Clouds dwells


a good friend, Ja the Mezop. You did not know him, but you
know all that he did for me and all that he will gladly do
to aid me.

“At least he can direct us upon the right direction toward


Sari.”

“The Mountains of the Clouds constitute a mighty range,”


replied Perry. “They must cover an enormous territory. How
are you to find your friend in all the great country that is
visible from their rugged flanks?”

“Easily,” I answered him, “for Ja gave me minute direc-


tions. I recall almost his exact words:

“ ‘You need merely come to the foot of the highest peak


of the Mountains of the Clouds. There you will find a river
that flows into the Lural Az.

‘Directly opposite the mouth of the river you will see


three large islands far out—so far that they are barely dis-
cernible. The one to the extreme left as you face them from
the mouth of the river is Anoroc, where I rule the tribe of
Anoroc.’ ”

And so we hastened onward toward the great cloud-mass


that was to be our guide for several weary marches. At last
we came close to the towering crags, Alp-like in their
grandeur.

Rising nobly among its noble fellows, one stupendous peak


reared its giant head thousands of feet above the others. It
was he whom we sought; but at its foot no river wound down -
toward any sea. |

“It must rise from the opposite side,” suggested Prery,


casting a rueful glance at the forbidding heights that barred
our further progress. “We cannot endure the arctic cold of
those high flung passes, and to traverse the endless miles
about this interminable range might require a year or more. |
The land we seek must lie upon the opposite side of the ©
mountains.”

26

PELLUCIDAR

“Then we must cross them,” I insisted.

Perry shrugged.

“We can’t lo it, David,” he repeated. “We are dressed: for


the tropics. We should freeze to death among the snows and
glaciers long before we had discovered a pass to the op-
posite side.”

“We must cross them,” I reiterated. “We will cross them.”

I had a plan, and that plan we carried out. It took some


time.

First we made a permanent camp part way up the slopes


where there was good water. Then we set out in search of
the great, shaggy cave bear of the higher altitudes.

He is a mighty animal—a terrible animal. He is but little


larger than his cousin of the lesser, lower hills; but he makes
up for it in the awfulness of his ferocity and in the length
and thickness of his shaggy coat. It was his coat that we
were after.

We came upon him quite unexpectedly. I was trudging in


advance along a rocky trail worm smooth by the padded feet
of countless ages of wild beasts. At a shoulder of the mountain
around which the path ran I came face to face with the Titan.

I was going up for a fur coat. He was coming down for


—_" Each realized that here was the very thing he
sougnt.

With a horrid roar the beast charged me.

a my right the cliff rose straight upward for thousands


or feet.

At my left it dropped into a va abysmal cajion.

In front of me was the bear

Behind me was Perry.

I shouted to him in warning, and then I raised my rifle


and fired into the broad breast of the creature. There was no
time to take aim; the thing was too close upon me.

But that my bullet took effect was evident from the howl
of rage and pain that broke from the frothing jowls. It didnt
stop him, though.

I fired again, and then he was upon me. Down I went


beneath his ton of maddened, clawing flesh and bone and
sinew.

bill

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

I thought my time had come. I remember feeling sorry for


poor old Perry, left all alone in this inhospitable, savage
world.

And then of a sudden I realized that the bear was gone


and that I was quite unharmed. I leaped to my feet, my rifle
still clutched in my hand, and looked about for my antagonist.

I thought that I should find him farther down the trail,


_ probably finishing Perry, and so J leaped in the direction I
supposed him to be, to find Perry perched upon a projecting
rock several feet above the trail. My cry of warning had given
him time to reach this point of safety.

There he squatted, his eyes wide and his mouth ajar, the
picture of abject terror and consternation.

“Where is heP” he cried when he saw me. “Where is he?”

“Didn't he come this way?” I asked.

“Nothing came this way,” replied the old man. “But I heard
his roars—he must have been as large as an elephant.”

“He was,” I admitted; “but where in the world do you


suppose he disappeared to?”

Then came a possible explanation to my mind. I returned


to the point at which the bear had hurled me down and
peered over the edge of the cliff into the abyss below.

Far, far down I saw a small brown blotch near the bottom
of the cafion. It was the bear.

My second shot must have killed him, and so his dead body,
after hurling me to the path, had toppled over into the
abyss. I shivered at the thought of how close I, too, must
have been to going over with him. —

It took us a long time to reach the carcass, and arduous


labor to remove the great pelt. But at last the thing was ac-
complished, and we returned to camp dragging the heavy
trophy behind us.

Here we devoted another considerable period to scraping


and curing it. When this was done to our satisfaction we
made heavy boots, trousers, and coats of the shaggy skin,
turning the fur in.

From the scraps we fashioned caps that came down


around our ears, with flaps that fell about our shoulders
and breasts. We were now fairly well equipped for our

28

PELLUCIDAR

search for a pass to the opposite side of the Mountains


of the Clouds.

Our first step now was to move our camp upward to the
very edge of the perpetual snows which cap this lofty range.
Here we built a snug, secure little hut, which we provisioned
and stored with fuel for its diminutive fireplace.

With our hut as a base we sallied forth in search of a pass


across the range.

Our every move was carefully noted upon our maps which
we now kept in duplicate. By this means we were saved
tedious and unnecessary retracing of ways already explored.

Systematically we worked upward in both directions from ~


our base, and when we had at last discovered what seemed
might prove a feasible pass we moved our belongings to a new
hut farther up.

It was hard work—cold, bitter, cruel work. Not a step


did we take in advance but the grim reaper strode silently
in our tracks.

There were the great cave bears in the timber, and gaunt,
lean wolves—huge creatures twice the size of our Canadian
timber-wolves. Farther up we were assailed by enormous
white bears—hungry, devilish fellows, who came roaring
across the rough glacier tops at the first glimpse of us, or
stalked us stealthily by scent when they had not yet seen us.

It is one of the peculiarities of life within Pellucidar that


man is more often the hunted than the hunter. Myriad are
the huge-bellied carnivora of this primitive world. Never, from
birth to death, are those great bellies sufficiently filled, so
always are their mighty owners prowling about in search of
meat.

Terribly armed for battle as they are, man presents to


them in his primal state an easy prey, slow of foot, puny of
strength, ill-equipped by nature with natural weapons of
defense.

The bears looked upon us as easy meat. Only our heavy


rifles saved us from prompt extinction. Poor Perry never was
a raging lion at heart, and I am convinced that the terrors
of that awful period must have caused him poignant mental
anguish. :

29

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

When we were abroad pushing our trail farther and


farther toward the distant break which, we assumed, marked
a feasible way across the range, we never knew at what
second some great engine of clawed and fanged destruction
might rush upon us from behind, or lie in wait for us beyond
an ice-hummock or a jutting shoulder of the craggy steeps.

The roar of our rifles was constantly shattering the world-


old silence of stupendous cafions upon which the eye of man
had never before gazed. And when in the comparative safety
of our hut we lay down to sleep the great beasts roared
and fought without the walls, clawed and battered at the
door, or rushed their colossal frames headlong against the
hut’s sides until it rocked and trembled to the impact.

Yes, it was a gay life. 7

Perry had got to taking stock of our ammunition each


time we returned to the hut. It became something of an ob-
session with him.

He'd count our cartridges one by one and then try to


figure how long it would be before the last was expended
and we must either remain in the hut until we starved to
death or venture forth, empty, to fill the belly of some
hungry bear.

I must admit that I, too, felt worried, for our progress was
indeed snail-like, and our ammunition could not last for-
ever. In discussing the problem, finally we came to the de-
cision to burn our bridges behind us and make one last
supreme effort to cross the divide.

It would mean that we must go without sleep for a long


period, and with the further chance that when the time
came that sleep could no longer be denied we might still be
high in the frozen regions of perpetual snow and ice, where
sleep would mean certain death, exposed as we would be to
the attacks of wild beasts and without shelter from the
hideous cold.

But we decided that we must take these chances, and so at


last we set forth from our hut for the last time, carrying such
necessities as we felt we could least afford to do without.
The bears seemed unusually troublesome and determined that ~
time, and as we clambered. slowly upward beyond the

30

PELLUCIDAR

highest point to which we had previously attained, the cold


became infinitely more intense. -

Presently, with two great bears dogging our footsteps we


entered a dense fog.

We had reached the heights that are so often cloud-


wrapped for long periods. We could see nothing a few paam
beyond our noses.
We dared not turn back into the teeth of the bears which we
could hear grunting behind us. To meet them in this be-
wildering fog would have been to court instant death.

Perry was almost overcome by the hopelessness of our


situation. He flopped down on his knees and began to pray.

It was the first time I had heard him at his old habit since
my return to Pellucidar, and I had thought that he had given
up his litte idiosyncrasy; but he hadn’t. Far from it.

I let him pray for a short time undisturbed, and then as I


was about to suggest that we had better be pushing along
one of the bears in our rear let out a roar that made the
earth fairly tremble beneath our feet.

It brought Perry to his feet as if he had been stung by a


wasp, and sent him racing ahead through the blinding fog
at a gait that I knew must soon end in disaster were it not
checked.

Crevasses in the glacier-ice were far too frequent to permit


of reckless speed even in a clear atmosphere, and then
there were hideous precipices along the edges of which our
way often led us. I shivered as I thought of the poor old
fellow’s peril.

. At the top of my lungs I called to him to stop, but he did


not answer me. And then I hurried on in the direction he had
gone, faster by far than safety dictated.

For a while I thought I heard him ahead of me, but at last,


though I paused often to listen and to call to him, I heard
nothing more, not even the grunting of the bears that had
been behind us. All was deathly silence—the silence of the
tomb. About me lay the thick, impenetrable fog.

I was alone. Perry was gone—gone forever, I had not the


slightest doubt.

Somewhere near by lay the mouth of a treacherous fis-

3l

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

sure, and far down at its icy bottom lay all that was mortal
of my old friend, Abner Perry. There would his body lie
preserved in its icy sepulcher for countless ages, until on
some far distant day the slow-moving river of ice had wound
its snail-like way down to the warmer level, there to dis-
gorge its grisly evidence of grim tragedy, and what in that
far future age, might mean baffiing mystery.

CHAPTER It
SHOOTING THE CHUTES—AND AFTER

THROUGH THE FOG I felt my way along by means of my


compass. I no longer heard the bears, nor did I encounter
one within the fog.

Experience has since taught me that these great beasts are


as terror-stricken by this phenomenon as a Jandsman by a fog
at sea, and that no sooner does a fog envelop them than they
make the best of their way to lower levels and a clear at-
mosphere. It was well for me that this was true.

I felt very sad and lonely as I crawled along the difficult


footing. My own predicament weighed less heavily upon
me than the loss of Perry, for I loved the old fellow.

That I should ever win the opposite slopes of the range I


began to doubt, for though I am naturally sanguine, I
imagine that the bereavement which had befallen me had
cast such a gloom over my spirits that I could see no
slightest ray of hope for the future.

Then, too, the blighting, gray oblivion of the cold, damp


clouds through which I wandered was depresssing. Hope
thrives best in sunlight, and I am sure that it does not thrive
at all in a fog.

But the instinct of self-preservation is stronger than hope.


It thrives, fortunately, upon nothing. It takes root upon the
brink of the grave, and blossoms in the jaws of death. Now

32

PELLUCIDAR

it flourished bravely upon the breast of dead hope, and


urged me onward and upward in a stern endeavor to justify
its existence. :

As I advanced the fog became denser. I could see nothing


beyond my nose. Even the snow and ice I trod were invisible.

I could not see below the breast of my bearskin coat. I


seemed to be floating in a sea of vapor.

To go forward over a dangerous glacier under such con-


ditions was little short of madness; but I could not have
stopped going had I known positively that death lay two
paces before my nose. In the first place, it was too cold to
stop, and in the second, I should have gone mad but for
the excitement of the perils that beset each forward step.

For some time the ground had been rougher and steeper,
until I had been forced to scale a considerable height that
had carried me from the glacier entirely. I was sure from my
compass that I was following the right general] direction, and
so I kept on.

Once more the ground was level. From the wind that blew .
about me I guessed that I must be upon some exposed peak
of ridge.

And then quite suddenly I stepped out into space. Wildly


I turned and clutched at the ground that had slipped from
beneath my feet.

Only a smooth, icy surface was there. I found nothing to


clutch or stay my fall, and a moment later so great was my
speed that nothing could have stayed me.

As suddenly as I had pitched into space, with equal sud-


denness did I emerge from the fog, out of which I shot like
a projectile from a cannon into clear daylight. My speed
was so great that I could see nothing about me but a blurred
and indistinct sheet of smooth and frozen snow, that rushed
past me with express-train velocity.

I must have slid downward thousands of feet before the


steep incline curved gently on to a broad, smooth, snow-
covered plateau. Across this I hurtled with slowly diminish-
ing velocity, until at last objects about me began to take defin-
ite shape. |

Far ahead, miles and miles away, I saw a great valley and

33

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

mighty woods, and beyond these a broad expanse of water.


In the nearer foreground I discerned a small, dark blob of
color upon the shimmering whiteness of the snow.

“A bear,” thought I, and thanked the instinct that had


impelled me to cling tenaciously to my rifle during the mo-
ments of my awful tumble.

_ At the rate I was going it would be but a moment before


I should be quite abreast the thing; nor was it long before
I came to a sudden stop in soft snow, upon which the sun
was shining, not twenty paces from the object of my most
immediate apprehension.

It was standing upon its hind legs waiting for me. As I


scrambled to my feet to meet it, I dropped my gun in the
snow and doubled up with laughter.
It was Perry.

The expression upon his face, combined with the relief I


felt at seeing him again safe and sound, was too much for
my overwrought nerves.

“David!” he cried. “David, my boy! God has been good to


an old man. He has answered my prayer.”

It seems that Perry in his mad flight had plunged over the
brink at about the same point as that at which I had stepped
over it a short time later. Chance had done for us what long
periods of rational labor had failed to accomplish.

We had crossed the divide. We were upon the side of the’


Mountains of the Clouds that we had for so long been at-
tempting to reach.

We looked about. Below us were green trees and warm


jungles. In the distance was a great sea.

“The Lural Az,” I said, pointing toward its blue-green sur-


ace.

Somehow—the gods alone can explain it—Perry, too, had


clung to his rifle during his mad descent of the icy slope. For
that there was cause for great rejoicing. , f

Neither of us was worse for his experience, so after shaking


the snow from our clothing, we set off at a great rate down
toward the warmth and comfort of the forest and the jungle.

The going was easy by comparison with the awful ob-


stacles we had had to encounter upon the opposite side of

34

PELLUCIDAR

the divide. There were beasts, of course, but we came through


safely.

Before we halted to eat or rest, we stood beside a little


mountain brook beneath the wondrous trees of the primeval
forest in an atmosphere of warmth and comfort. It reminded
me of an early June day in the Maine woods.

We fell to work with our short axes and cut enough small
trees to build a rude protection from the fiercer beasts. Then
we lay down to sleep.

How long we slept I do not know. Perry says that inasmuch


as there is no means of measuring time within Pellucidar,
there can be no such thing as time here, and that we may
have slept an outer earthly year, or we may have slept but
a second.

But this I know. We had stuck the ends of some of the


saplings into the ground in the building of our shelter, first
stripping the leaves and branches from them, and when we
awoke we found that many of them had thrust forth sprouts.

Personally, I think that we slept at least a month; but


who may say? The sun marked midday when we closed our
eyes; it was still in the same position when we opened them;
nor had it varied a hair’s breadth in the interim.

It is most baffling, this question of elapsed time within


Pellucidar. |

Anyhow, I was famished when we awoke. I think that it was


the pangs of hunger that awoke me. Ptarmigan and wild boar
fell before my revolver within a dozen moments of my
awakening. Perry soon had a roaring fire blazing by the
brink of the little stream.

It was a good and delicious meal we made. Though we


did not eat the entire boar, we made a very large hole in

him, while the ptarmigan was but a mouthful.


' Having satisfied our hunger, we determined to set forth at
once in search of Anoroc and my old friend, Ja the Mezop.
We each thought that by following the little stream down-
ward, we should come upon the large river which Ja had told
me emptied into the Lural Az opposite his island.

We did so; nor were we disappointed, for at last after a


pleasant journey—and what journey would not be pleasant

35

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

after the hardships we had endured among the peaks of the


Mountains of the Clouds—we came upon a broad flood that
rushed majestically onward in the direction of the great sea
we had seen from the snowy slopes of the mountains.

For three long marches we followed the left bank of the


growing river, until at last we saw it roll its mighty volume
into the vast waters of the sea. Far out across the rippling
Ocean we descried three islands. The one to the left must be
Anoroc.

At last we had come close to a solution of our problem—


the road to Sari.

But how to reach the islands was now the foremost ques-
tion in our minds. We must build a canoe.

Perry is a most resourceful man. He has an axiom which


carries the thought-kernel that what man has done, man can
do, and it doesn’t cut any figure with Perry whether a
fellow knows how to do it or not.

He set out to make gunpowder once, shortly after our es-


cape from Phutra and at the beginning of the confederation
of the wild tribes of Pellucidar. He said that some one, with-
out any knowledge of the fact that such a thing might be
concocted, had once stumbled upon it by accident, and so
he couldn’t see why a fellow who knew all about powder
except how to make it couldn’t do as well.

He worked mighty hard mixing all sorts of things together,


until finally he evolved a substance that looked like powder.
He had been very proud of the stuff, and had gone about
the village of the Sarians exhibiting it to every one who
would listen to him, and explaining what its purpose was
and what terrific havoc it would work, until finally the
natives became so terrified at the stuff that they wouldn’t
come within a rod of Perry and his invention.

Finally, I suggested that we experiment with it and see


what it would do, so Perry built a fire, after placing the
powder at a safe distance, and then touched a glowing
ember to a minute particle of the deadly explosive. It ex-
tinguished the ember.

Repeated experiments with it determined me that in


searching for a high explosive, Perry had stumbled upon a

36

PELLUCIDAR

fire-extinguisher that would have made his fortune for him


back in our own world.

So now he set himself to work to build a scientific canoe. ©


I had suggested that we construct a dugout, but Perry con-
vinced me that we must build something more in keeping
with our positions of supermen in this world of the Stone Age.

“We must impress these natives with our superiority,” he


explained. “You must not forget, David, that you are emperor
of Pellucidar. As such you may not with dignity approach
the shores of a foreign power in so crude a vessel as a dugout.” ~

I pointed out to Perry that it wasn’t much more incon-


gruous for the emperor to cruise in a canoe, than it was for
ue ae minister to attempt to build one with his own

S. :
He had to smile at that; but in extenuation of his act he
assured me that it was quite customary for prime ministers
to give their personal attention to the building of imperial
navies; “and this,” he said, “is the imperial navy of his Serene
Highness, David 1, Emperor of the Federated Kingdoms of
Pellucidar.”

I grinned; but Perry was quite serious about it. It had


always seemed rather more or less of a joke to me that I
should be addressed as majesty and all the rest of it. Yet my
imperial power and dignity had been a very real thing during
my brief reign.

Twenty tribes had joined the federation, and their chiefs


had sworn eternal fealty to one another and to me. Among
them were many powerful though savage nations. Their
chiefs we had made kings; their tribal lands kingdoms.

We had armed them with bows and arrows and swords, in


addition to their own more primitive weapons. I had trained
them in military discipline and in so much of the art of
war as I had gleaned from extensive reading of the campaigns
of Napoleon, Von Moltke, Grant, and the ancients. .

We had marked out as best we could natural boundaries


dividing the various kingdoms. We had warned tribes be-
yond these boundaries that they must not trespass, and we
had marched against and severely punished those who had.

We had met and defeated the Mahars and the Sagoths. In

37

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

short, we had demonstrated our rights to empire, and very


rapidly were we being recognized and heralded abroad
when my departure for the outer world and Hooja’s treachery
had set us back. | |

But now I had returned. The work that fate had undone
must be done again, and though I must need smile at my im-
perial honors, I none the less felt the weight of duty and
obligation that rested upon my shoulders.

Slowly the imperial navy progressed toward completion.


She was a wondrous craft, but I had my doubts about her.
When I voiced them to Perry, he reminded me gently that
my people for many generations had been mine-owners, not
ship-builders, and consequently I couldn't be expected to
know much about the matter. |

I was minded to inquire into his hereditary fitness to design


battleships; but inasmuch as I already knew that his father
had been a minister in a backwoods village far from the
coast, I hesitated lest I offend the dear old fellow.
He was immensely serious about his work, and I must
admit that in so far as appearances went he did extremely well
with the meager tools and assistance at his command. We had
only two short axes and our hunting-knives; yet with these
ote hewed trees, split them into planks, surfaced and fitted

em. .

The “navy” was some forty feet in length by ten feet beam.
Her sides were quite straight and fully ten feet high—“for
the purpose,” explained Perry, “of adding dignity to her ap-
eee and rendering it less easy for an enemy to board

er.

As a matter of fact, I knew that he had had in mind the


safety of her crew under javelin-fire—the lofty sides made
an admirable shelter. Inside she reminded me of nothing so
much as a floating trench. There was also some slight analogy
to a huge coffin.

Her prow sloped sharply backward from the water-line—


quite like a line of battleship. Perry had designed her more
for her moral effect upon an enemy, I think, than for any real
harm she might inflict, and so those parts which were to
show were the most imposing.

38

PELLUCIDAR

Below the water-line she was practically non-existent. She


should have had considerable draft; but, as the enemy
souldn’t have seen it, Perry decided to do away with it, and
so made her flat-bottomed. It was this that caused my doubts
about her.

There was another little idiosyncrasy of design that es-


caped us both until she was about ready to Jaunch—there
was no method of propulsion. Her sides were far too high
to permit the use of sweeps, and when Perry suggested that
we pole her, I remonstrated on the grounds that it would be
aA most undignified and awkward manner of sweeping down
upon the foe, even if we could find or wield poles that would
reach to the bottom of the ocean.

Finally I suggested that we convert her into a sailing ves-


sel. When once the idea took hold Perry was most en-
thusiastic about it, and nothing would do but a four-masted,
full-rigged ship.

Again I tried to dissuade him, but he was simply crazy


over the psychological effect which the appearance of this
strange and mighty craft would have upon the natives of
Pellucidar. So we rigged her with thin hides for sails and
dried gut for rope.

Neither of us knew much about sailing a full-rigged ship;

but that didn’t worry me a great deal, for I was confident


that we should never be called upon to do so, and as the day
of launching approached I was positive of it.
' We had built her upon a low bank of the river close to
where it emptied into the sea, and just above high tide. Her
keel we had laid upon several rollers-cut from small trees, the
ends of the rollers in turn resting upon parallel tracks of long
saplings. Her stern was toward the water.

A few hours before we were ready to launch her she


made quite an imposing picture, for Perry had insisted upon
setting every shred of “canvas.” I told him that I didn’t know
much about it, but I was sure that at launching the hull only
should have been completed, everything else being com-
pleted after she had floated safely.

At the last minute there was some delay while we sought a


name for her. I wanted her christened the Perry in honor

39

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

both of her designer and that other great naval genius of an-
other world, Captain Oliver Hazard Perry, of the United
States Navy. But Perry was too modest; he wouldn’t hear of it.

We finally decided to establish a system in the naming |


of the fleet. Battle-ships of the first-class should bear the ©
names of kingdoms of the federation; armored cruisers the ©
names of kings; cruisers the names of cities, and so on down _
the line. Therefore, we decided to name the first battle-ship
Sari, after the first of the federated kingdoms.

The launching of the Sari proved easier than I con-


templated. Perry wanted me to get in and break something:
over the bow as she floated out upon the bosom of the
river, but I told him that I should feel safer on dry land
until I saw which side up the Sari would float.

I could see by the expression of the old man’s face that


my words had hurt him; but I noticed that he didn't offer
to get in himself, and so I felt less contrition than I might
otherwise.

When we cut the ropes and removed the blocks that held.
the Sari in place she started for the water with a lunge.
Before she hit it she was going at a reckless speed, for we
had laid our tracks quite down to the water, greased
them, and at intervals placed rollers all ready to receive the
ship as she moved forward with stately dignity. But there
was no dignity in the Sari.
When she touched the surface of the river she must have
been going twenty or thirty miles an hour. Her momentum
carried her well out into the stream, until she came to a
sudden halt at the end of the long line which we had had
the foresight to attach to her bow and fasten to a large tree
upon the bank

The moment her progress was checked she promptly cap-


sized. Perry was overwhelmed. I didn’t upbraid him, nor
remind him that I had “told him so.”

His grief was so genuine and so apparent that I didn’t


have the heart to reproach him, even were I inclined to that
particular sort of meanness.

“Come, come, old man!” I cried. “It’s not as bad.-as it looks.


Give me a hand with ‘this rope, and well drag her up as far

40

PELLUCIDAR

as we can; and then when the tide goes out well try an-
other scheme. I think we can make a go of her yet.”

Well, we managed to get her up into shallow water. When


the tide receded she lay there on her side in the mud, quite a
pitiable object for the premier battle-ship of a world—“the
terror of the seas” was the way Perry had occasionally
described her. |

We had to work fast; but before the tide came in again


we had stripped her of her sails and masts, righted her, and
filled her about a quarter full of rock ballast. If she didn't
stick too fast in the mud I was sure that she would float
this time right side up.

I can tell you that it was with palpitating hearts that we


sat upon the river-bank and watched that tide come slowly
in. The tides of Pellucidar don’t amount to much by com-
parison with our higher tides of the outer world, but I] knew
that it ought to prove ample to float the Sari.

Nor was I mistaken. Finally we had the satisfaction of


seeing the vessel rise out of the mud and float slowly up-
stream with the tide. As the water rose we pulled her in quite
close to the bank and clambered aboard.

She rested safely now upon an even keel; nor did she leak,
for she was well calked with fiber and tarry pitch. We
rigged up a single short mast and light sail, fastened planking
down over the ballast to form a deck, -worked her out into
midstream with a couple of sweeps, and dropped our primi-
tive stone anchor to await the turn of the tide that would
bear us out to sea.
While we waited we devoted the time to the construction
of an upper deck, since the one immediately above the ballast
was some seven feet from the gunwale. The second deck was
four feet above this. In it was a large, commodious hatch,
leading to the lower deck. The sides of the ship rose three
feet above the upper deck, forming an excellent breastwork,
which we loopholed at intervals that we might lie prone
and fire upon an enemy.

Though we were sailing out upon a peaceful mission in


search of my friend Ja, we knew that we might meet with
people of some other island who would prove unfriendly.

41

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

At last the tide turned. We weighed anchor. Slowly we


drifted down the great river toward the sea.

About us swarmed the mighty denizens of the primeval


deep—plesiosauri and ichthyosauria with all their horrid,
slimy cousins whose names were as the names of aunts and.
uncles to Perry, but which I have never been able to recall
an hour after having heard them.

At last we were safely launched upon the journey to


which we had looked forward for so long, and the results of
which meant so much to me.

CHAPTER IV

FRIENDSHIP AND TREACHERY

THe Sari proved a most erratic craft. She might have done
well enough upon a park lagoon if safely anchored, but upon |
the bosom of a mighty ocean she left much to be desired.

Sailing with the wind she did her best; but in quartering or
when close-hauled she drifted terribly, as a nautical man
might have guessed she would. We couldn’t keep within
miles of our course, and our progress was pitifully slow.

Instead of making for the island of Anoroc, we bore far


to the right, until it became evident that we should have to
pass between the two right-hand islands and attempt to re-
turn toward Anoroc from the opposite side.

As we neared the islands Perry was quite overcome by


their beauty. When we were directly between two of them
he fairly went into raptures; nor could I blame him.
The tropical luxuriance of the foliage that dripped almost —
to the water’s edge and the vivid colors of the blooms that
shot the green made a most gorgeous spectacle.

Perry was right in the midst of a flowery panegyric on


the wonders of the peaceful beauty of the scene when a
canoe shot out from the nearest island. There were a dozen

42

PELLUCIDAR

warriors in it; it was quickly followed by a second and third.

Of course we couldn’t know the intentions of the strangers,


but we could pretty well guess them.

Perry wanted to man the sweeps and try to get away from
them, but I soon convinced him that any speed of which
the Sari was capable would be far too slow to outdistance the
swift, though awkward, dugouts of the Mezops.

I waited until they were quite close enough to hear me,


and then I hailed them. I told them that we were friends of
the Mezops, and that we were upon a visit to Ja of Anoroc,
to which they replied that they were at war with Ja, and
that if we would wait a minute they'd board us and throw
our corpses to the azdyryths.

I warned them that they would get the worst of it if they


didn’t leave us alone, but they only shouted in derision and
paddled swiftly toward us. It was evident that they were
considerably impressed by the appearance and dimensions
of our craft, but as these fellows know no fear they were
not at all awed.

Seeing that they were determined to give battle, I leaned


over the rail of the Sari and brought the imperial baittle-
squadron of the Emperor of Pellucidar into action for the
first time in the history of a world. In other and simpler
words, I fired my revolver at the nearest canoe.

The effect was magical. A warrior rose from his knees, threw
his paddle aloft, stiffened into rigidity for an instant, and
then toppled overboard.

The others ceased paddling, and, with wide eyes, looked


first at me and then at the battling sea-things which fought
for the corpse of their comrade. To them it must have seemed
a miracle that I should be able to stand at thrice the range
of the most powerful javelin-thrower and with a loud noise and
a smudge of smoke slay one of their number with an in-
visible missile.

But only for an instant were they paralyzed with wonder.


Then, with savage shouts, they fell once more to their pad-
dles and forged rapidly toward us.

Again and again I fired. At each shot a warrior sank to


the bottom of the canoe or tumbled overboard.

43

BIGGAR AIG DUNNVUGTID

When the prow of the first craft touched the side of the
Sari it contained only dead and dying men. The other two
dugouts were approaching rapidly, so I turned my at-
tention toward them.

I think that they must have been commencing to have


some doubts—those wild, naked, red warriors—for when
the first man fell in the second boat the others stopped
paddling and commenced to-jabber among themselves.

The third boat pulled up alongside the second and its


crews joined in the conference. Taking advantage of the lull
in the battle, I called out to the survivors to retum to their
shore.

“I have no fight with you,” I cried, and then I told them


who I was and added that if they would live in peace they
must sooner or later join forces with me.

“Go back now to your people,” I counseled them, “and tell


them that you have seen David 1, Emperor of the Federated
Kingdoms of Pellucidar, and that single-handed he has
overcome you, just as he intends overcoming the Mahars and
the Sagoths and any other peoples of Pellucidar who
threaten the peace and welfare of his empire.”

Slowly they turned the noses of their canoes toward land.


It was evident that they were impressed; yet that they were
loath to give up without further contesting my claim to naval
supremacy was also apparent, for some of their number
seemed to be exhorting the others to a renewal of the
conflict.

However, at last they drew slowly away, and the Sari,


which had not decreased her snail-like speed during this, her
first engagement, continued upon her slow, uneven way.

Presently Perry stuck his head up through the hatch and


hailed me.

“Have the scoundrels departed?” he asked. “Have you


killed them all?”

“Those whom I failed to kill have departed, Perry,” I


replied.
He came out on deck and, peering over the side, descried
the lone canoe floating a short distance astern with its grim

24

PELLUCIDAR

and grisly freight. Farther his eyes wandered to the re-


treating boats.

“David,” said he at last, “this is a notable occasion. It is a


great day in the annals of Pellucidar,. We have won a
glorious victory.

“Your majestys navy has routed a fleet of the enemy


thrice its own size, manned by ten times as many men. Let
us give thanks.”

I could scarce restrain a smile at Perry’s use of the pro-


noun “we, yet I was glad to share the rejoicing with him as
I shall always be glad to share everything with the dear
old fellow.

Perry is the only male coward I have ever known whom I


could respect and love. He was not created for fighting;
but I think that if the occasion should ever arise where it
became necessary he would give his life cheerfully for
me—yes, I know it.

It took us a long time to work around the islands and


draw in close to Anoroc. In the leisure afforded we took turns
working on our map, and by means of the compass and a
little guesswork we set down the shoreline we had left and
the three islands with fair accuracy.

Crossed sabers marked the spot where the first great naval
engagement of a world had taken place. In a note-book we
jotted down, as had been our custom, details that would
be of historical value later.

Opposite Anoroc we came to anchor quite close to shore. I


knew from my previous experience with the tortuous trails
of the island that I could never find my way inland to the
hidden tree-village of the Mezop chieftain, Ja; so we re-
mained aboard the Sari, firing our express rifles at intervals to
attract the attention of the natives.

After some ten shots had been fired at considerable inter-


vals a body of copper-colored warriors appeared upon the
shore. They watched us for a moment and then I hailed
them, asking the whereabouts of my old friend Ja.

They did not reply at once, but stood with their heads
together in serious and animated discussion. Continually they
turned their eyes toward our strange craft. It was evident that
45

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

they were greatly puzzled by our appearance as well as un-


able to explain the source of the loud noises that had at-
tracted their attention to us. At last one of the warriors
addressed us.

“Who are you who seek JaP” he asked. “What would you
of our chief?”

“We are friends,” I replied. “I am David. Tell Ja that


David, whose life he once saved from a sithic, has come
again to visit him.

“If you will send out a canoe we will come ashore. We


cannot bring our great warship closer in.”

Again they talked for a considerable time. Then two of

them entered a canoe that several dragged from its hiding- ~

place in the jungle and paddled swiftly toward us.

They were magnificent specimens of manhood. Perry had


never seen a member of this red race close to before. In fact,
the dead men in the canoe we had left astern after the battle
and the survivors who were paddling rapidly toward their
shore were the first he ever had seen. He had been greatly
impressed by their physical beauty and the promise of superior
intelligence which their well-shaped skulls gave. -

The two who now paddled out received us into their

canoe with dignified courtesy. To my inquiries relative to Ja


they explained that he had not been in the village when our
signals were heard, but that runners had been sent out after
him and that doubtless he was already upon his way to
the coast.

One of the men remembered me from the occasion of my


former visit to the island; he was extremely agreeable the
moment that he came close enough to recognize me. He said
that Ja would be delighted to welcome me, and that all the
tribe of Anoroc knew of me by repute, and had received
explicit instructions from their chieftain that if any of them
should ever come upon me to show me every kindness and
attention.

Upon shore we were received with equal honor. While we


stood conversing with our bronze friends a tall warrior leaped
suddenly from the jungle.

It was Ja. As his eyes fell upon me his face lighted with

- 46

PELLUCIDAR

pleasure. He came quickly forward to greet me after the


manner of his tribe.

Toward Perry he was equally hospitable. The old man fell


in love with the savage giant as completely as had I. Ja
conducted us along the maze-like trail to his strange village,
where he gave over one of the tree-houses for our exclusive
use.

Perry was much interested in the unique habitation, which


resembled nothing so much as a huge wasp’s nest built
around the bole of a tree well above the ground.

After we had eaten and rested Ja came to see us with a


number of his head men. They listened attentively to my
story, which included a narrative of the events leading to the
formation of the federated kingdoms, the battle with the
Mahars, my journey to the outer world, and my return to
Pellucidar and search for Sari and my mate.

Ja told me that the Mezops had heard something of the


federation and had been much interested in it. He had even
gone so far as to send a party of warriors toward Sari to in-
vestigate the reports, and to arrange for the entrance of Anoroc
into the empire in case it appeared that there was any truth
in the rumors that one of the aims of the federation was the
overthrow of the Mahars. 1

The delegation had met with a party of Sagoths. As there


had been a truce between the Mahars and the Mezops fo!
many generations, they camped with these warriors of the
reptiles, from whom they learned that the federation had gone
to pieces. So the party returned to Anoroc.

When I showed Ja our map and explained its purpose tc


him, he was much interested. The location of Anoroc, the
Mountains of the Clouds, the river, and the strip of sea
coast were all familiar to him.

He quickly indicated the position of the inland sea and


close beside it, the city of Phutra, where one of the powertu
Mahar nations had its seat. He likewise showed us where
Sari should be and carried his own coast-line as far north anc
south as it was known to him.
His additions to the map convinced us that Greenwich la
upon the verge of this same sea, and that it might be reachec

47

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

by water more easily than by the arduous crossing of the


mountains or the dangerous approach through Phutra, which
lay almost directly in line between Anoroc and Greenwich to
the northwest.

If Sari lay upon the same water then the shore-line must
bend far back toward the southwest of Greenwich—an assump-
tion which, by the way, we found later to be true. Also, Sari
was upon a lofty plateau at the southern end of a mighty
gulf of the Great Ocean.

The location which Ja gave to distant Amoz puzzled us, for


it placed it due north of Greenwich, apparently in mid-ocean.
As Ja had never been so far and knew only of Amoz through
hearsay, we thought that he must be mistaken; but he was not.
Amoz lies directly north of Greenwich across the mouth of
the same gulf as that upon which Sari is.

The sense of direction and location of these primitive


Pellucidarians is little short of uncanny, as I have had oc-
casion to remark in the past. You may take one of them to
the uttermost ends of his world, to places of which he has
never even heard, yet without sun or moon or stars to guide
him, without map or compass, he will travel straight for home
in the shortest direction.

Mountains, rivers, and seas may have to be gone around,


but never once does his sense of direction fail him—the hom-
ing instinct is supreme.

In the same remarkable way they never forget the location


of any place to which they have ever been, and know that
of many of which they have only heard from others who
have visited them.

In short, each Pellucidarian is a walking geography of his


own district and of much of the country contiguous thereto. It
always proved of the greatest aid to Perry and me; never-
theless we were anxious to enlarge our map, for we ‘at least
were not endowed with the homing instinct.

After several long councils it was decided that, in order


to expedite matters, Perry should return to the prospector with
a strong party of Mezops and fetch the freight I had brought
from the outer world. Ja and his warriors were much im-_

48
PELLUCIDAR

pressed by our firearms, and were also anxious to build boats


with sails. ,

As we had arms at the prospector and also books on boat-


building we thought that it might prove an excellent idea to
start these naturally maritime people upon the construction
of a well built navy of staunch sailing-vessels. I was sure that
with definite plans to go by Perry could oversee the construc-
tion of an adequate flotilla.

I warned him, however, not to be too ambitious, and to


forget about dreadnoughts and armored cruisers for a while
and build instead a few small sailing-boats that could be
manned by four or five men.

I was to proceed to Sari, and while prosecuting my search


for Dian attempt at the same time the rehabilitation of the
federation. Perry was going as far as possible by water, with
the chances that the entire trip might be made in that man-
ner, which proved to be the fact.

With a couple of Mezops as companions IJ started for Sari.


In order to avoid crossing the principal range of the Mountains
of the Clouds we took a route that passed a little way south
of Phutra. We had eaten four times and slept once, and
were, aS my companions told me, not far from the great
Mahar city, when we were suddenly confronted by a con-
siderable band of Sagoths.

They did not attack us, owing to the peace which exists
between the Mahars and the Mezops, but I could see that
they looked upon me with considerable suspicion. My friends
told them that I was a stranger from a remote country, and
as we had previously planned against such a contingency I
pretended ignorance of the language which the human beings
of Pellucidar employ in conversing with the gorilla-like soldi-
ery of the Mahars.

I noticed, and not without misgivings, that the leader of


the Sagoths eyed me with an expression that betokened
partial recognition. I was sure that he had seen me before
during the period of my incarceration in Phutra and that he
was trying to recall my identity.

It worried me not a little. I was extremely thankful when


we bade them adieu and continued upon our journey.

49

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

Several times during the next few marches I became


acutely conscious of the sensation of being watched by un-
seen eyes, but I did not speak of my suspicions to my
companions. Later I had reason to regret my reticence, for—

Well, this is how it happened:

We had killed an antelope and after eating our fill I had


lain down to sleep. The Pellucidarians, who seem seldom if
ever to require sleep, joined me in this instance, for we had |
had a very trying march along the northern foothills of the
Mountains of the Clouds, and now with their bellies filled
with meat they seemed ready for slumber.

When I awoke it was with a start to find a couple of huge


Sagoths astride me. They pinioned my arms and legs, and
later chained my wrists behind my back. Then they let me up.

I saw my companions; the brave fellows lay dead where


they had slept, javelined to death without a chance at self-
defense.

I was furious. I threatened the Sagoth leader with all sorts


of dire reprisals; but when he heard me speak the hybrid
language that is the medium of communication between his
kind and the human race-of the inner world he only primed
as much as to say, “I thought so!”

They had not taken my revolvers or ammunition away


from me because they did not know what they were; but
my heavy rifle I had lost. They simply left it where it had
lain beside me.

So low in the scale of intelligence are they, that they had


not sufficient interest in this strange object even to fetch it
along with them.

J knew from the direction of our march that they were


taking me to Phutra. Once there I did not need much of an
imagination to picture what my fate would be. It was the
arena and a wild thag or fierce tarag for me—unless the
Mahars elected to take me to the pits.

In that case my end would be no more certain, though


infinitely more horrible and painful, for in the pits I should
be subjected to cruel vivisection. From what I had once seen
of their methods in the pits of Phutra I knew them to be the

50

FLELLUUCINAR

opposite of merciful, whereas in the arena I should be quickly


despatched by some savage beast.

Arrived at the underground city, I was taken immediately


before a slimy Mahar. When the creature had received the
report of the Sagoth its cold eyes glistened with malice and
hatred as they were turned balefully upon me.

I knew then that my identity had been guessed. With a


show of excitement that I had never before seen evinced by
a member of the dominant race of Pellucidar, the Mahar
hustled me away, heavily guarded, through the main avenue
of the city to one of the principal buildings.

Here we were ushered into a great hall where presently


many Mahars gathered.

In utter silence they conversed, for they have no oral


speech since they are without auditory nerves. Their method
of communication Perry has likened to the projection of a
sixth sense into a fourth dimension, where it becomes cog-
nizable to the sixth sense of their audience. |

Be that as it may, however, it was evident that I was the


subject of discussion, and from the hateful looks bestowed
upon me not a particularly pleasant subject.

How long I waited for their decision I do not know, but


it must have been a very long time. Finally one of the Sagoths
addressed me. He was acting as interpreter for his masters.

“The Mahars will spare your life,” he said, “and release


you on one condition.”

“And what is that condition?” I asked, though I could guess


its terms.

“That you return to them that which you stole from the
pits of Phutra when you killed the four Mahars and es-
caped,” he replied.

I had thought that that would be it. The great secret upon
which depended the continuance of the Mahar race was
safely hid where only Dian and J knew.

I ventured to imagine that they would have given me much


more than my liberty to have it safely in their keeping again;
but after that—whatP

Would they keep their promises?

I doubted it. With the secret of artificial propagation once

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS :

more in their hands their numbers would soon be made so to


overrun the world of Pellucidar that there could be no hope
for the eventual supremacy of the human race, the cause
for which I so devoutly hoped, for which I had con-
secrated my life, ans for which I was not willing to give
my life.
Yes! In that moment as I stood before the heartless
tribunal I felt that my life would be a very little thing to
give could it save to the human race of Pellucidar the chance
to come into its own by insuring the eventual extinction of
the hated, powerful Mahars.

“Come!” exclaimed the Sagoths. “The mighty Mahars await

your reply.”

“You may say to them,” I answered, “that I shall not tell —

them where the great secret is hid.”

When this had been translated to them there was a great


beating of reptilian wings, gaping of sharp-fanged jaws, and
hideous hissing. I thought that they were about to fall upon
me on the spot, and so I laid my hands upon my revolvers;
but at length they became more quiet and presently trans-

mitted some command to my Sagoth guard, the chief of |

which laid a heavy hand upon my arm and pushed me


roughly before him from the audience-chamber.

They took me to the pits, where I lay carefully guarded. I ©


was sure that I was to be taken to the vivisection labora- —

tory, and it required all my courage to fortify myself against


the terrors of so fearful a death. In Pellucidar, where there
is no time, death-agonies may endure for eternities.

Accordingly, I had to steel myself against an endless —_


which now stared me in the facel

52

& £4 £4 £4404 AY ZAM LALLY

CHAPTER V

SURPRISES
But aT Last the allotted moment arrived—the moment for
which I had been trying to prepare myself, for how long I
could not even guess. A great Sagoth came and spoke some
words of command to those who watched over me. I was
jerked roughly to my feet and with little consideration
hustled upward toward the higher levels.

' Out into the broad avenue they conducted me, where,
amid huge throngs of Mahars, Sagoths, and heavily guarded
slaves, I was led, or, rather, pushed and shoved roughly, along
in the same direction that the mob moved. I had seen such
a concourse of people once before in the buried city of
Phutra; I guessed, and rightly, that we were bound for the
great arena where slaves who are condemned to death meet
their end.

Into the vast amphitheater they took me, stationing me


at the extreme end of the arena. The queen came, with her
slimy, sickening retinue. The seats were filled. The show was
about to commence.

Then, from a little doorway in the opposite end of the


structure, a girl was led into the arena. She was at a con-
siderable distance from me. I could not see her features.

I wondered what fate awaited this other poor victim and


mvself, and why they had chosen to have us die together.
My own fate, or rather, my thought of it, was submerged in
the natural pity I felt for this lone girl, doomed to die
horribly beneath the child, cruel eyes of her awful captors.
Of what crime could she be guilty that she must expiate it
in the dreaded arena?

As I stood thus thinking, another door, this time at one of


the long sides of the arena, was thrown open, and into the
theater of death slunk a mighty tarag, the huge cave tiger
of the Stone Age. At my sides were my revolvers. My captors

Oo

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

had not taken them from me, because they did not yet realize
their nature. Doubtless they thought them some strange
manner of war-club, and as those who are condemned to the
arena are permitted weapons of defense, they let me keep
them.

The girl they had armed with a javelin. A brass pin


would have been almost as effective against the ferocious
monster they had loosed upon her.

The tarag stood for a moment looking about him—first up


at the vast audience and then about the arena. He did not
seem to see me at all, but his eyes fell presently upon the girl.
A hideous roar broke from his titanic lungs—a roar which.
ended in a long-drawn scream that is more human than the
death-cry of a tortured woman—more human but more awe-
some. I could scarce restrain a shudder.

Slowly the beast turned and moved toward the girl. Then
it was that I came to myself and to a realization of my duty.
Quickly and as noiselessly as possible I ran down the arena
in pursuit of the grim creature. As I ran I drew one of my
pitifully futile weapons. Ah! Could I but have had my lost
_express-gun in my hands at that moment! A single well-placed
shot would have crumbled even this great monster. The best I
could hope to accomplish was to divert the thing from the girl
to myself and then to place as many bullets as possible in it
before it reached and mauled me into insensibility and death.

There is a certain unwritten law of the arena that vouch-


safes freedom and immunity to the victor, be he beast or
human being—both of whom, by the way, are all the same
to the Mahar. That is, they were accustomed to look upon
man as a lower animal before Perry and I broke through
the Pellucidarian crust, but I imagine that they were begin-
ning to alter their views a trifle and to realize that in the
gilak—their word for human being—they had a highly or-
ganized, reasoning being to contend with.

Be that as it may, the chances were that the tarag alone


would profit by the law of the arena. A few more of his
long strides, a prodigious leap, and he would be upon the girl.
I raised a revolver and fired. The bullet struck him in the left

54

FLLLYUUIYAR

hind leg. It couldn’t have damaged him much; but the report
of the shot brought him around, facing me.

I think the snarling visage of a huge, enraged, saber-


toothed tiger is one of the most terrible sights in the world.
Especially if he be snarling at you and there be nothing be-
tween the two of you but bare sand.

Even as he faced me a little cry from the girl carried my


eyes beyond the brute to her face. Hers was fastened upon
me with an expression of incredulity that baffles description.
There was both hope and horror in them, too.

“Dian!” I cried. “My Heavens, Dian!”

I saw her lips form the name David, as with raised javelin
she rushed forward upon the tarag. She was a tigress then—
a primitive savage female defending her loved one. Before
she could reach the beast with her puny weapon, I fired
again at the point where the tarag’s neck met his left shoulder
If I could get a bullet through there it might reach his heart.
The bullet didn’t reach his heart, but it stopped him for an
instant.

It was then that a strange thing happened. I heard a great


hissing from the stands occupied by the Mahars, and as I
glanced toward them I saw three mighty thipdars—the
winged dragons that guard the queen, or, as Perry calls them,
pterodactyls—rise swiftly from their rocks and dart lightning-
like, toward the center of the arena. They are huge,
powerful reptiles. One of them, with the advantage which his
wings might give him, would easily be a match for a cave
bear or a tarag.

These three, to my consternation, swooped down upon the


tarag as he was gathering himself for a final charge upon
me. They buried their talons in his back and lifted him
bodily from the arena as if he had been a chicken in the
clutches of a hawk.

What could it mean?

I was baffled for an explanation; but with the tarag gone


I lost no time in hastening to Dian’s side. With a little cry of
delight she threw herself into-my arms. So lost were we in the |
ecstasy of reunion that neither of us—to this day—can tell
what became of the tarag.

ayo)

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

The first thing we were aware of was the presence of al


body of Sagoths about us. Gruffly they commanded us to
follow them. They led us from the arena and back through the |
streets of Phutra to the audience chamber in which I had
been tried and sentenced. Here we found ourselves facing the ©
same cold, cruel tribunal. ;

Again a Sagoth acted as interpreter. He explained that


our lives had been spared because at the last moment Tu-al-sa
had returned to Phutra, and seeing me in the arena had
prevailed upon the queen to spare my life. |

“Who is Tu-al-saP” I asked. |

“A Mahar whose last male ancestor was—ages ago—the -


last of the male rulers among the Mahars,” he replied. \

“Why should she wish to have my life spared?” |

He shrugged his shoulders and then repeated my question |


to the Mahar spokesman. When the latter had explained in —
the strange sign-language that passes for speech between the
Mahars and their fighting men the Sagoth turned again to me: |

“For a long time you had Tu-al-sa in your power,” he ex-


plained. “You might easily have killed her or abandoned her
in a strange world—but you did neither. You did not harm
her, and you brought her back with you to Pellucidar and ©
set her free to return to Phutra. This is your reward.” |

Now I understood. The Mahar who had been my in-


voluntary companion upon my return to the outer world was —
Tu-al-sa. This was the first time that I had learned the lady’s
name. I thanked fate that I had not left her upon the sands
of the Sahara—or put a bullet in her, as I had been tempted
to do. I was surprised to discover that gratitude was a
characteristic of the dominant race of Pellucidar. I could —
never think of them as aught but cold-blooded, brainless
reptiles, though Perry had devoted much time in explaining —
to me that owing to a strange freak of evolution among all |
the genera of the inner world, this species of the reptilia had -
advanced to a position quite analogous to that which man
holds upon the outer crust. |

He had often told me that there was every reason to be- |


lieve from their writings, which he had learned to read |
while we were incarcerated in Phutra, that they were a just.

56

PELLUCIDAR

race, and that in certain branches of science and arts they


were quite well advanced, especially in genetics and meta-
physics, engineering and architecture.

While it had always been difficult for me to look upon these


things as other than slimy, winged crocodiles—which, by
the way, they do not at all resemble—I was now forced to
a realization of the fact that I was in the hands of enlightened
creatures—for justice and gratitude are certain hallmarks
of rationality and culture.

But what they purposed for us further was of most im-


minent interest to me. They might save us from the tarag
and yet not free us. They looked upon us yet, to some ex-
tent, I knew, as creatures of a lower order, and so as we are
unable to place ourselves in the position of the brutes we
enslave—thinking that they are happier in bondage than in
the free fulfilment of the purposes for which nature intended
them—the Mahars, too, might consider our welfare better
conserved in captivity than among the dangers of the savage
freedom we craved. Naturally, I was next impelled to inquire
their further intent.

To my question, put through the Sagoth interpreter, I


received the reply that having spared my life they con-
sidered that Tu-al-sa’s debt of gratitude was canceled. They
still had against me, however, the crime of which I had been
guilty—the unforgivable crime of stealing the great secret.
They, therefore, intended holding Dian and me prisoners until
the manuscript was returned to them. -
They would, they said, send an escort of Sagoths with me
to fetch the precious document from its hiding-place, keeping
Dian at Phutra as a hostage and releasing us both the mo-
ment that the document was safely restored to their queen.

There was no doubt but that they had the upper hand.
However, there was so much more at stake than the liberty
or even the lives of Dian and myself, that I did not deem it
expedient to accept their offer without giving the matter care-
ful thought.

Without the great secret this maleless race must eventually


become extinct. For ages they had fertilized their eggs by
an artificial process, the secret of which lay hidden in the

o7

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

little cave of a far-off valley where Dian and I had spent our
honeymoon. I was none too sure that I could find the valley
again, nor that I cared to. So long as the powerful reptilian
race of Pellucidar continued to propagate, just so long would
the position of man within the inner world be jeopardized.
There could not be two dominant races.

I said as much to Dian.

“You used to tell me,” she replied, “of the wonderful things
you could accomplish with the inventions of your own world.
Now you have returned with all that is necessary to place
this great power in the hands of the men of Pellucidar.

“You told me of great engines of destruction which would


cast a bursting ball of metal among our enemies, killing
hundreds of them at one time.

“You told me of mighty fortresses of stone which a


thousand men armed with big and little engines such as these
could hold forever against a million Sagoths.

“You told me of great canoes which moved across the


water without paddles, and which spat death from holes in
their sides.

“All these may now belong to the men of Pellucidar.


Why should we fear the Mahars?

- “Let them breed! Let their numbers increase by thousands.


They will be helpless before the power of the Emperor of
Pellucidar. .

“But if you remain a prisoner in Phutra, what may we


accomplish?
“What could the men of Pellucidar do without you to
lead them?

“They would fight among themselves, and while they


fought the Mahars would fall upon them, and even though
the Mahar race should die out, of what value would the
emancipation of the human race be to them without the
knowledge, which you alone may wield, to guide them
toward the wonderful civilization of which you have told
me so much that I long for its comforts and luxuries as I
never before longed for anything. 7

“No, David; the Mahars cannot harm us if you are at


liberty. Let them have their secret that you and I may return

08

PELLUCIDAR

to our people, and lead them to the- conquest of all Pel-


lucidar.” ,

It was plain that Dian was ambitious, and that her am-
bition had not dulled her reasoning faculties. She was right.
Nothing could be gained by remaining bottled up in Phutra
for the rest of our lives.

It was true that Perry might do much with the contents


of the prospector, or iron mole, in which I had brought
down the implements of outer-world civilization; but Perry
was a man of peace. He could never weld the warring factions
of the disrupted federation. He could never win new tribes
to the empire. He would fiddle around manufacturing gun-
powder and trying to improve upon it until some one blew
him up with his own invention. He wasn’t practical. He never
would get anywhere without a balance-wheel—without some
one to direct his energies.

Perry needed me and I needed him. If we were going to


do anything for Pellucidar we must be free to do it together.

The outcome of it all was that I agreed to the Mahars


proposition. They promised that Dian would be well treated
and protected from every indignity during my absence. So
I set out with a hundred Sagoths in search of the little valley
which I had stumbled upon by accident, and which I might
and might not find again.

We traveled directly toward Sari. Stopping at the camp


where I had been captured I recovered my express rifle, for
which I was very thankful. I found it lying where I had left it
when I had been overpowered in my sleep by the Sagoths
who had captured me and slain my Mezop companions.

On the way I added materially to my map, an occupation


which did not elicit from the Sagoths even a shadow of in-
terest. I felt that the human race of Pellucidar had little to.
fear from these gorilla-men. They were fighters—that was all.
We might even use them later ourselves in this same capacity.
They had not sufficient brain power to constitute a menace
to the advancement of the human race. |

As we neared the spot where I hoped to find the little


valley I became more and more confident of success. Every

o9

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

landmark was familiar to me, and I was sure-now that I knew


the exact location of the cave.

It was at about this time that I sighted a number of the


half-naked warriors of the human race of Pellucidar. They
were marching across our front. At sight of us they halted;
that there would be a fight I could not doubt. These Sag-
oths would never permit an opportunity for the capture of
slaves for their Mahar masters to escape them.

I saw that the men were armed with bows and arrows,
long Jances and swords, so I guessed that they must have
been members of the federation, for only my people had been
thus equipped. Before Perry and I came the men of Pel-
lucidar had only the crudest weapons wherewith to slay one
another.

The Sagoths, too, were evidently expecting battle. With


savage shouts they rushed forward toward the human war-
riors.

Then a strange thing happened. The leader of the human


beings stepped forward with upraised hands. The Sagoths
ceased their war-cries and advanced slowly to meet him.
There was a long parley during which I could see that I was
often the subject of their discourse. The Sagoths’ leader
pointed in the direction in which I had told him the valley
lay. Evidently he was explaining the nature of our expedi-
tion to the leader of the warriors. It was all a puzzle to me.

What human being could be upon such excellent terms


with the gorilla-menP

I couldn't imagine. I tried to get a good look at the fellow,


but the Sagoths had left me in the rear with a guard when
they had advanced to battle, and the distance was too great
for me to recognize the features of any of the human beings.

Finally the parley was concluded and the men continued


on their way while the Sagoths returned to where I stood
with my guard. It was time for eating, so we stopped where -
we were and made our meal. The Sagoths didn’t tell me
who it was they had met, and I did not ask, though I must
confess that I was quite curious.

They permitted me to sleep at this halt. Afterward we took


up the last leg of our journey. I found the valley without

60

_PELLUCIDAR

difficulty and led my guard directly to the cave. At its


mouth the Sagoths halted and I entered alone.

I noticed as I felt about the floor in the dim light that


there was a pile of fresh-turned rubble there. Presently my
hands came to the spot where the great secret had been
buried. There was a cavity where I had carefully smoothed
the earth over the hiding-place of the document—the man-
uscript was gonel

Franctically I searched the whole interior of the cave


several times over, but without other result than a complete
confirmation of my worst fears. Someone had been here ahead
of me and stolen the great secret.

The one thing within Pellucidar which might free Dian and
me was gone, nor was it likely that I should ever learn its
whereabouts. If a Mahar had found it, which was quite im-
probable, the chances were that the dominant race would
never divulge the fact that they had recovered the precious
document. If a cave man had happened upon it he would
have no conception of its meaning or value, and as a con-
sequence it would be lost or destroyed in short order.

With bowed head and broken hopes I came out of the


cave and told the Sagoth chieftain what I had discovered.
It didn’t mean much to the fellow, who doubtless had but
little better idea of the contents of the document I had been
sent to fetch to his masters than would the cave man who
in all probability had discovered it.

The Sagoth knew only that J had failed in my mission, sc


he took advantage of the fact to make the return journey tc
Phutra as disagreeable as possible. I did not rebel, though |
had with me the means to destroy them all. I did not dare
rebel because of the consequences to Dian. I intended de.
manding her release on the grounds that she was in no way
guilty of the theft, and that my failure to recover the docu
ment had not lessened the value of the good faith I had hac
in offering to do so. The Mahars might keep me in slavery
if they chose, but Dian should be returned safely to he
people.

I was full of my scheme when we entered Phutra and |


was conducted directly to the great audience-chamber. Thi
61

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

Mahars listened to the report of the Sagoth chieftain, and so


difficult is it to judge their emotions from their almost ex-
pressionless countenances, that I was at a loss to know how
terrible might be their wrath as they learned that their great
secret, upon which rested the fate of their race, might now
be irretrievably lost.

Presently I could see that she who presided was com-


municating something to the Sagoth interpreter—doubtless
something to be transmitted to me which might give me a
forewarning of the fate which lay in store for me. One thing
I had decided definitely: If they would not free Dian I should
turn loose upon Phutra with my little arsenal. Alone I might
even win to freedom, and if I could learn where Dian was
imprisoned it would be worth the attempt to free her. My
thoughts were interrupted by the interpreter.

“The mighty Mahars,” he said, “are unable to reconcile


your statement that the document is lost with your action in
sending it to them by a special messenger. They wish to
know if you have so soon forgotten the truth or if you are
merely ignoring it.” -

wl sent them no document,” I cried. “Ask them what they


mean.

“They say,” he went on after conversing with the Mahar for


a moment, “that just before you returned to Phutra, Hooja
the Sly One came, bringing the great secret with him. He
said that you had sent him ahead with it, asking him to
deliver it and return to Sari where you would await him,
bringing the girl with him.”

“Dian?” I gasped. “The Mahars have given over Dian into


the keeping of Hooja.”

“Surely,” he replied. “What of it? She is only a gilak,” as


you or I would say, “She is only a cow.”

62

PELLUCIDAR

CHAPTER VI

A PENDENT WORLD

THE Manars set me free as they had promised, but with


strict injunctions never to approach Phutra or any other
Mahar city. They also made it perfectly plain that they
considered me a dangerous creature, and that having wiped
the slate clean in so far as they were under obligations to
me, they now considered me fair prey. Should I again fall
into their hands, they intimated it would go ill with me.

They would not tell me in which direction Hooja had set


forth with Dian, so I departed from Phutra, filled with bit-
terness against the Mahars, and rage toward the Sly One who
had once again robbed me of my greatest treasure.

At first I was minded to go directly back to Anoroc; but


upon second thought turned my face toward Sari, as I felt
that somewhere in that direction Hooja would travel, his
own country lying in that general direction.

Of my journey to Sari it is only necessary to say that it was


fraught with the usual excitement and adventure, incident
to all travel across the face of savage Pellucidar. The dangers,
however, were greatly reduced through the medium of my
armament. I often wondered how it had happened that I
had ever survived the first ten years of my life within the
inner world, when, naked and primitively armed, I had
traversed great areas of her beast-ridden surface. |

With the aid of my map, which I had kept with great care
during my march with the Sagoths in search of the great
secret, I arrived at Sari at last. As I topped the lofty plateau
in whose rocky cliffs the principal tribe of Sarians find their
cave-homes, a great hue and cry arose from those who first
discovered me.

Like wasps from their nests the hairy warriors poured from
théir caves. The bows with their poison-tipped arrows, which
I had taught them to fashion and to use, were raised against

63

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

me. Swords of hammered iron—another of my innovations—


menaced me, as with lusty shouts the horde charged down.

It was a critical moment. Before I should be recognized I


might be dead. It was evident that all semblance of intertribal
relationship had ceased with my going, and that my people .
had reverted to their former savage, suspicious hatred of all
strangers. My garb must have puzzled them, too, for never
before of course had they seen a man clothed in khaki and
puttees.

Leaning my express rifle against my body I raised both


hands aloft. It was the peace-sign that is recognized every-
where upon the surface of Pellucidar. The charging warriors
paused and surveyed me. I looked for my friend Ghak, the
Hairy One, king of Sari, and presently I saw him coming
from a distance. Ah, but it was good to see his mighty,
hairy form once more! A friend was Ghak—a friend well
worth the having; and it had been some time since I had
seen a friend.

Shouldering his way through the throng of warriors, the


mighty chieftain advanced toward me. There was an ex-
pression of puzzlement upon his fine features. He crossed
the space between the warriors and myself, halting before me.

I did not speak. I did not even smile. I wanted to see if


Ghak, my principal lieutenant, would recognize me. For
some time he stood there looking me over carefully. His eyes
took in my large pith helmet, my khaki jacket, and bando-
leers of cartridges, the two revolvers swinging at my hips,
the large rifle resting against my body. Still I stood with my
hands above my head. He examined my puttees and my
strong tan shoes—a little the worse for wear now. Then he
glanced up once more to my face. As his gaze rested there
quite steadily for some moments I saw recognition tinged
with awe creep across his countenance.

Presently without a word he took one of my-hands in his


and dropping to one knee raised my fingers to his lips. Perry
had taught them this trick, nor ever did the most polished
courtier of all the grand courts of Europe perform the little
act of homage with greater grace and dignity.

Quickly I raised Ghak to his feet, clasping both his hands

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PELLUCIDAR

in mine. I think there must have been tears in my eyes then—


I know I felt too full for words. The king of Sari turned
toward his warriors.

“Our emperor has come back,” he announced. “Come


hither and—”

But he got no further, for the shouts that broke from


those savage throats would have drowned the voice of heaven
itself. I had never guessed how much they thought of me.
As they clustered around, almost fighting for the chance to
kiss my hand, I saw again the vision of empire which I had
thought faded forever.

With such as these I could conquer a world. With such


as these I would conquer one! If the Sarians had remained
loyal, so too would the Amozites be loyal still, and the Kalians,
and the Suvians, and all the great tribes who had formed the
federation that was to emancipate the human race of Pellu-
cidar.

Perry was safe with the Mezops; I was safe with the
Sarians; now if Dian were but safe with me the future would
look bright indeed.

It did not take long to outline to Ghak all that had be-
fallen me since I had departed from Pellucidar, and to get
down to the business of finding Dian, which to me at that
moment was of even greater importance than the very
empire itself.

When I told him that Hooja had stolen her, he stamped


his foot in rage.

“It is always the Sly One!” he cried. “It was Hooja who
caused the first trouble between you and the Beautiful One.

“Jt was Hooja who betrayed our trust, and all but caused
our recapture by the Sagoths that time we escaped from
Phutra.

“It was Hooja who tricked you and substituted a Mahar


for Dian when you started upon your return journey to your
own world.

“It was Hooja who schemed and lied until he had turned
the kingdoms one against another and destroyed the fed-
eration.

65

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

“When we had him in our power we were foolish to let


him live. Next time—”

Ghak did not need to finish his sentence.

“He has become a very powerful enemy now,” I replied.


“That he is allied in some way with the Mahars is evidenced
by the familiarity of his relations with the Sagoths who
Were accompanying me in search of the great secret, for it
must have been Hooja whom I saw conversing with them
just before we reached the valley. Doubtless they told him
of our quest and he hastened on ahead of us, discovered the
cave and stole the document. Well does he deserve his ap-
pellation of the Sly One.”

With Ghak and his head men IJ held a number of con-


sultations. The upshot of them was a decision to combine
our search for Dian with an attempt to rebuild the crumbled
federation. To this end twenty warriors were despatched in
pairs to ten of the leading kingdoms, with instructions to make
every effort to discover the whereabouts of Hooja and Dian,
while prosecuting their missions to the chieftains to whom
they were sent.

Ghak was to remain at home to receive the various


delegations which we invited to come to Sari on the business
of the federation. Four hundred warriors were started for
Anoroc to fetch Perry and the contents of the prospector, to
the capitol of the empire, which was also the principal
settlements of the Sarians.

At first it was intended that I remain at Sari, that I might


be in readiness to hasten forth at the first report of the dis-
covery of Dian; but I found the inaction in the face of my
deep solicitude for the welfare of my mate so galling that
scarce had the several units departed upon their missions
before I, too, chafed to be actively engaged upon the search.

Tt was after my second sleep, subsequent to the departure


of the warriors, as I recall, that I at last went to Ghak with
the admission that I could no longer support the intolerable
longing to be personally upon the trail of my lost Jove.

Ghak tried to dissuade me, though I could tell that his


heart was with me in my wish to be away and really doing
something. It was while we were arguing upon the subject

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PELLUCIDAR

that a stranger, with hands above his head, entered the


village. He was immediately surrounded by warriors and
conducted to Ghak’s presence.

The fellow was a typical cave man—squat, muscular, and


hairy, and of a type I had not seen before. His features, like
those of all the primeval men of Pellucidar, were regular and
fine. His weapons consisted of a stone ax and knife and a
heavy knobbed bludgeon of wood. His skin was very white.

“Who are you?” asked Ghak. “And whence come you?”

“I am Kolk, son of Goork, who is chief of the Thurians,”


replied the stranger. “From Thuria I have come in search of
the land of Amoz, where dwells Dacor, the Strong One, who
stole my sister, Canda, the Graceful One, to be his mate.

“We of Thuria had heard of a great chieftain who has


bound together many tribes, and my father has sent me to
Dacor to learn if there be truth in these stories, and if so to
offer the services of Thuria to him whom we have heard
called emperor.”

“The stories are true,” replied Ghak, “and here is the


emperor of whom you have heard. You need travel no
farther.”
Kolk was delighted. He told us much of the wonderful
resources of Thuria, the Land of Awful Shadow, and of his
long journey in search of Amoz.

“And why,” I asked, “does Goork, your father, desire to


join his kingdom to the empire?”

“There are two reasons,” replied the young man. “Forever


have the Mahars, who dwell beyond the Sidi Plains which
lie at the farther rim of the Land of Awful Shadow, taken
heavy toll of our people, whom they either force into life-
long slavery or fatten for their feasts. We have heard that the
great emperor makes successful war upon the Mahars, against
whom we should be glad to fight.

“Recently has another reason come. Upon a great island


which lies in the Sojar Az, but a short distance from our
shores, a wicked man has collected a great band of outcast
warriors of all tribes. Even are there many Sagoths among
them, sent by the Mahars to aid the Wicked One.

“This band makes raids upon our villages, and it is con-

67

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

stantly growing in size and strength, for the Mahars give


liberty to any of their male prisoners who will promise to
fight with this band against the enemies of the Mahars. It is
the purpose of the Mahars thus to raise a force of our own
kind to combat the growth and menace of the new empire
of which I have come to seek information. All this we
learned from one of our own warriors who had pretended
to sympathize with this band and had then escaped at the
first opportunity.”

“Who could this man be,” I asked Ghak, “who leads so


‘vile a movement against his own kind?”

“His name is Hooja,” spoke up Kolk, answering my question.

Ghak and I looked at each other. Relief was written upon


his countenance and I know that it was beating strongly in
my heart. At last we had discovered a tangible clue to the
whereabouts of Hooja—and with the clue a guide!

But when I broached the subject to Kolk he demurred.


He had come a long way, he explained, to see his sister and
to confer with Dacor. Moreoever, he had instructions from
his father which he could not ignore lightly. But even so he
would return with me and show me the way to the island of
the Thurian shore if by doing so we might accomplish
anything.
“But we cannot,” he urged. “Hooja is powerful. He has
thousands of warriors. He has only to call upon his Maha
allies to receive a countless horde of Sagoths to do his bid-
ding against his human enemies.

“Let us wait until you may gather an equal horde from


the kingdoms of your empire. Then we may march against
Hooja with some show of success. __

“But first must you lure him to the mainland, for who
among you knows how to construct the strange things that
carry Hooja and his band back and forth across the water?

“We are not island people. We do not go upon the water.


We know nothing of such things.”

I couldn’t persuade him to do more than direct me upon


the way. I showed him my map, which now included a great
area of country extending from Anoroc upon the east of Sari
upon the west, and from the river south of the Mountains

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PELLUCIDAR

of the Clouds north to Amoz. As soon as J had explained it


to him he drew a line with his finger, showing a sea-coast
far to the west and south of Sari, and a great circle which
he said marked the extent of the Land of Awful Shadow in
which lay Thuria.

The shadow extended southeast of the coast out into the


sea half-way to a large island, which he said was the seat of
Hooja’s traitorous government. The island itself lay in the
light of the noonday sun. Northwest of the coast and em-
bracing a part of Thuria lay the Lidi Plains, upon the north-
western verge of which was situated the Mahar city which
took such heavy toll of the Thurians.

Thus were the unhappy people now between two fires,


with Hooja upon one side and the Mahars upon the other. I
did not wonder that they sent out an appeal for succor.

Though Ghak and Kolk both attempted to dissuade me, I


was determined to set out at once, nor did I delay longer than
to make a copy of my map to be given to Perry that he
might add to his that which I had set down since we parted.
I left a letter for him as well, in which among other things I
advanced the theory that the Sojar Az, or Great Sea, which
Kolk mentioned as stretching eastward from Thuria, might
indeed be the same mighty ocean as that which, swinging
around the southern end of a continent ran northward along
the shore opposite Phutra, mingling its waters with the huge
gulf upon which lay Sari, Amoz, and Greenwich.

Against this possibility I urged him to hasten the building


of a fleet of small sailing-vessels, which we might utilize should
I find it impossible to entice Hooja’s horde to the mainland.

I told Ghak what I had written, and suggested that as


soon as he could he should make new treaties with the various
‘kingdoms of the empire, collect an army and march toward
Thuria—this of course against the possibility of my detention
through some cause or other.

Kolk gave me a sign to his father—a lidi, or beast of bur-


den, crudely scratched upon a bit of bone, and beneath the
lidi a man and a flower; all very rudely done perhaps, but
none the less effective as I well knew from my long years
among the primitive men of Pellucidar.

69

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

The lidi is the tribal beast of the Thurians; the man and |
the flower in the combination in which they appeared bore
a double significance, as they constituted not only a message
-to the effect that the bearer came in peace, but were also
Kolk’s signature.

And so, armed with my credentials and my small arsenal, I


set out alone upon my quest for the dearest girl in this |
world or yours.

Kolk gave me explicit directions, though with my map I do


not believe that I could have gone wrong. As a matter of
fact I did not need the map at all, since the principal Jand-
mark of the first half of my journey, a gigantic mountain-
peak, was plainly visible from Sari, though a good hundred
miles away. |

At the southern base of this mountain a river rose and ran


in a westerly direction, finally turning south and emptying >
into the Sojar Az some forty miles northeast of Thuria. All
that I had to do was follow this river to the sea and then
follow the coast to Thuria.

Two hundred and forty miles of wild mountain and


primeval jungle, of untracked plain, of nameless rivers, of
deadly swamps and savage forests lay ahead of me, yet never
had I been more eager for an adventure than now, for.
never had more depended upon haste and success.

I do not know how long a time that journey required, and


only half did I appreciate the varied wonders that each
new march unfolded before me, for my mind and heart
were filled with but a single image—that of a perfect girl
whose great, dark eyes looked bravely forth from a frame
of raven hair. )

It was not until I had passed the high peak and found
the river that my eyes first discovered the pendent world,
the tiny satellite which hangs iow over the surface of Pellu-'
cidar casting its perpetual shadow always upon the same spot—
the area that is known here as the Land of Awful Shadow,
in which dwells the tribe of Thuria. __.

From the distance and the elevation of the highlands where


I stood the Pellucidarian noonday moon showed half in
sunshine and half in shadow, while directly beneath it was

70

PELLUCIDAR

plainly visible the round dark spot upon the surface of


Pellucidar where the sun has never shone. From where I
stood the moon appeared to hang so low above the ground as
almost to touch it; but later I was to learn that it floats a
mile above the surface—which seems indeed quite close for
a moon.

Following the river downward I soon lost sight of the tiny


planet as I entered the mazes of a lofty forest. Nor did I
catch another glimpse of it for some time—several marches
at least. However, when the river led me to the sea, or rather
just before it reached the sea, of a sudden the sky became
overcast and the size and luxuriance of the vegetation dim-
inished as by magic—as if an omnipotent hand had drawn
a line upon the earth, and said:

“Upon this side shall the trees and the shrubs, the grasses
and the flowers, riot in profusion of rich colors, gigantic size
and bewildering abundance; and upon that side shall they
be dwarfed and pale and scant.”

Instantly I looked above, for clouds are so uncommon in


the skies of Pellucidar—they are practically unknown ex-
cept above the mightiest mountain ranges—that it had given
me something of a start to discover the sun obliterated. But
} was not long in coming to a realization of the cause of the
shadow.

Above me hung another- world. I could see its mountains


and valleys, oceans, lakes, and rivers, its broad, grassy plains
and dense forests. But too great was the distance and too
deep the shadow of its under side for me to distinguish
any movement as of animal life.

Instantly a great curiosity was awakened within me. The


questions which the sight of this planet, so tantalizingly
close, raised in my mind were numerous and unanswerable.

Was it inhabitedP

If so, by what manner and form of creature?


Were its people as relatively diminutive as their little
world, or were they as disproportionately huge as the lesser
attraction of gravity upon the surface of their globe would
permit of their being?

As I watched it, I sdw that it was revolving upon an axis

71

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

that lay parallel to the surface of Pellucidar, so that during


each revolution its entire surface was once exposed to the
world below and once bathed in the heat of the great sun
above. The little world: had that which Pellucidar could not
have—a day and night, and—greatest of boons to one outer-
earthly born—time.

Here I saw a chance to give time to Pellucidar, using


this mighty clock, revolving perpetually in the heavens, to
record the passage of the hours for the earth below. Here
should be located an observatory, from which might be
flashed by wireless to every corner of the empire the correct
time once each day. That this time would be easily measured
I had no doubt, since so plain were the Jandmarks upon
the under surface of the satellite that it would be but
necessary to erect a simple instrument and mark the instant
of passage of a given landmark across the instrument.

But then was not the time for dreaming; I must devote
my mind to the purpose cf my journey. So I hastened on-
ward beneath the great shadow. As I advanced I could not
but note the changing nature of the vegetation and the -
paling of its hues.

The river led me a short distance within the shadow be-


fore it emptied into the Sojar Az. Then IJ continued in a
southerly direction along the coast toward the village of
Thuria, where I hoped to find Goork and deliver to him my
credentials.

I had progressed no great distance from the mouth of the


river when I discerned, lying some distance at sea, a great
island. This I assumed to be the stronghold of Hooja, nor
did I doubi that upon it even now was Dian.

The way was most difficult, since shortly after leaving the
river I encountered lofty cliffs split by numerous long, narrow
fiords, each of which necessitated a considerable detour. As
_the crow flies it is about twenty miles from-~the mouth of the
river to Thuria, but before I had covered half of it I was
fagged. There was no familiar fruit or vegetable growing upon
the rocky soil of the cliff-tops, and I would have fared ill for
food had not a hare broken cover almost beneath my nose.

I carried bow and arrows to conserve my ammunition- |


72

PELLUCIDAR

supply, but so quick was the little animal that I had no time
to draw and fit a shaft. In fact my dinner was a hundred
yards away and going like the proverbial] bat when I dropped
mv six-shooter on it. It was a pretty shot and when coupled
with a good dinner made me quite contented with myself.

After eating I lay down and slept. When I awoke I was


scarcely so self-satished, for I had not more than opened
my eves before I became aware of the presence, barely a
hundred yards from me, of a pack of some twenty huge
wolt-dogs—the things which Perry insisted upon calling
hyaenodons—and almost simultaneously I discovered that
while I slept my revolvers, rifle, bow, arrows, and knife had
been stolen from me.

And the wolf-dog pack was preparing to rush me.

CHAPTER VH

FROM PLIGHT TO PLIGHT

I HAVE never been much of a runner; I hate running. But if


ever a sprinter broke intc smithereens all world’s records it
was I that day when I fled before those hideous beasts
along the narrow spit of rocky cliff between two narrow
fiords toward the Sojar Az. Just as I reached the verge of the
cliff the foremost of the brutes was upon me. He leaped and
closed his massive jaws upon my shoulder.

The momentum of his flying body, added to that of my


own, carried the two of us over the cliff. It was a hideous fall.
The cliff was almost perpendicular. At its foot broke the sea
against a solid wall of rock.

We struck the cliff-face once in our descent and then


plunged into the salt sea. With the impact with the water
the hyaenodon released his hold upon my shoulder.

As I came sputtering to the surface I looked about for


some tiny foot or hand-hold where I might cling for a mo-

73

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS


ment of rest and recuperation. The cliff itself offered me
nothing, so I swam toward the mouth of the fiord.

At the far end I could see that erosion from above had
washed down sufficient rubble to form a narrow ribbon of
beach. Toward this I swam with all my strength. Not once
did I look behind me, since every unnecessary movement in
swimming detracts so much from one’s endurance and speed.
Not until I had drawn myself safely out upon the beach
did I turn my eyes back toward the sea for the hyaenodon.
He was swimming slowly and apparently painfully toward
the beach upon which I stood.

I watched him for a long time, wondering why it was


that such a doglike animal was not a better swimmer. As
he neared me I realized that he was weakening rapidly. I
had gathered a handful of stones to be ready for his assault
when he landed, but in a moment I let them fall from my
hands. It was evident that the brute either was no swimmer
or else was severely injured, for by now he was making
practically no headway. Indeed, it was with quite apparent
difficulty that he kept his nose above the surface of the sea.

He was not more than fifty yards from shore when he


went under. I watched the spot where he had disappeared,
and in a moment I saw his head reappear. The look of dumb
misery in his eyes struck a chord in my breast, for I love
dogs. I forgot that he was a-vicious, primordial wolf-thing—
a man-eater, a scourge, and a terror. I saw only the sad eyes
that looked like the eyes of Raja, my dead collie of the
outer world. |

I did not stop to weigh and consider. In other words, I


did not stop to think, which I believe must be the way of
men who do things—in contradistinction to those who
think much and do nothing. Instead, I leaped back into the
water and swam ‘out toward the drowning beast. At first
he showed his teeth at my approach, but just before I
reached him he went under for the second time, so that I
had to dive to get him.

I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and though he


weighed as much as a Shetland pony, I managed to drag
him to shore and well up upon the beach. Here I found that

74

PELLUCIDAR

one of his forelegs was broken—the crash against the cliff-


face must have done it.

By this time all the fight was out of him, so that when I
had gathered a few tiny branches from some of the stunted
trees that grew in the crevices of the cliff, and returned to
him he permitted me to set his broken leg and bind it in
splints. I had to tear part of my shirt into bits to obtain a
bandage, but at last the job was done. Then I sat stroking
the savage head and talking to the beast in the man-dog talk
with which you are familiar, if you ever owned and loved
a dog.

When he is well, I thought, he probably will tum upon


me and attempt to devour me, and against that eventuality I
gathered together a pile of rocks and set to work to fashion a
stone-knife. We were bottled up at the head of the fiord
as completely as if we had been behind prison bars. Before
us spread the Sojar Az, and elsewhere about us rose un-
scalable cliffs.

Fortunately a little rivulet trickled down the side of the


rocky wall, giving us ample supply of fresh water—some of
which I kept constantly beside the hyaenodon in a huge, bowl-
shaped shell, of which there were countless numbers among
the rubble of the beach.

For food we subsisted upon shell-fish and an occasional


bird that I succeeded in knocking over with a rock, for long
practice as a pitcher on prep-school and varsity nines had
made me an excellent shot with a hand-thrown missile.

It was not long before the hyaenodon’s leg was sufficiently


mended to permit him to rise and hobble about on three
legs. I shall never forget with what intent interest I watched
his first attempt. Close at my hand lay my pile of rocks.
Slowly the beast came to his three good feet. He stretched
himself, lowered his head, and lapped water from the drink
ing-shell at his side, turned and looked at me, and then hob-
bled off toward the cliffs.

Thrice he traversed the entire extent of our prison, seeking,


I imagine, a loop-hole for escape, but finding none he returned
in my direction. Slowly he came quite close to me, sniffed at

79

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

my shoes, my puttees, my hands, and then limped off a few


feet and lay down again.

Now that he was able to get around, I was a little un-


certain as to the wisdom of my impulsive mercy.

How could I sleep with that ferocious thing prowling


about the narrow confines of our prison?

Should I close my eyes it might be to open them again to


the feel of those mighty jaws at my throat. To say the least, I
was uncomfortable.

I have had too much experience with dumb animals to


bank very strongly on any sense of gratitude which may be
attributed to them by inexperienced sentimentalists. I be-
lieve that some animals love their masters, but I doubt very
much if their affection is the outcome of gratitude—a char-
acteristic that is so rare as to be only occasionally traceable
in the seemingly unselfish acts of man himself.

But finally I was forced to sleep. Tired nature would be


put off no longer. I simply fell asleep, willy nilly, as I sat
looking out to sea. I had been very uncomfortable since my
ducking in the-ocean, for though I could see the sunlight on
the water half-way out toward the island and upon the island
itself, no ray of it fell upon us. We were well within the
Land of Awful Shadow. A perpetual half-warmth pervaded
the atmosphere, but clothing was slow in drying, and so
from loss of sleep and great physical discomfort, I at last
gave way to natures demands and sank into profound slumber.

When I awoke it was with a start, for a heavy body was


upon me. My first thought was that the hyaenodon had at
last attacked me, but as my eyes opened and I struggled to
rise, I saw that a man was astride me and three others
bending close above him.

I am no weakling—and never have been. My experience


in the hard life of the inner world has turned my thews to
steel. Even such giants as Ghak the Hairy One have praised
my strength; but to it is added another quality which they
lack—science.

The man upon me held me down awkwardly, leaving me


many openings—one of which I was not slow in taking ad-
vantage of, so that almost before the fellow knew that I was

76

PELLUCIDAR

awake I was upon my feet with my arms over his shoulders


and about his waist and had hurled him heavily over my
head to the hard rubble of the beach, where he lay quite still.

In the instant that I arose I had seen the hyaenodon lying


asleep beside a boulder a few yards away. So nearly was he
the color of the rock that he was scarcely discernible. Evi-
dently the newcomers had not seen him.

I had not more than freed myself from one of my antagon-


ists before the other three were upon me. They did not work
silently now, but charged me with savage cries—a mistake
upon their part. The fact that they did not draw their
weapons against me convinced me that they desired to take
me alive; but I fought as desperately as if death loomed
immediate and sure.

The battle was short, for scarce had their first wild whoop
reverberated through the rocky fiord, and they had closed
upon me, than a hairy mass of demoniacal rage hurtled
among us.

It was the hyaenodon!

In an instant he had pulled down one of the men, and


with a single shake, terrier-like, had broken his neck. Then
he was upon another. In their efforts to vanquish the wolf-dog
the savages forgot all about me, thus giving me an instant’
in which to snatch a knife from the loin-string of him who
had first fallen and account for another of them. Almost
simultaneously the hyaendon pulled down the’ remaining
enemy, crushing his skull with a single bit of those fearsome
jaws.

The battle was over—unless the beast considered me fair


prey, too. I waited, ready for him with knife and bludgeon—
also filched from a dead foeman; but he paid no attention
to me, falling to work instead to devour one of the corpses.

The beast had been handicapped but little by his splinted


leg; but having eaten he lay down and commenced to gnaw
at the bandage. I was sitting some little distance away de-
vouring shellfish, of which, by the way, I was becoming
exceedingly tired.

Presently the hyaenodon arose and came toward me. I did


not move. He stopped in front of me and deliberately raised

T7

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

his bandaged leg and pawed my knee. His act was as intel-
ligible as words—he wished the bandage removed.

I took the great paw in one hand and with the other hand
untied and unwound the bandage, removed the splints and
felt of the injured member. As far as I could judge the bone
was completely knit. The joint was stiff; when I bent it a little
the brute winced—but he neither growled nor tried to pull
away. Very slowly and gently I rubbed the joint and ap-
plied pressure to it for a few moments.

Then I set it down upon the ground. The hyaenodon


walked around me a few times, and then Jay down at my
side, his body touching mine. I laid my hand upon his head.
He did not move. Slowly I scratched about his ears and neck
and down beneath the fierce jaws. The only sign he gave
was to raise his chin a trifle that I might better caress him.

That was enough! From that moment I have never again


felt suspicion of Raja, as 1 immediately named him. Some-
how all sense of loneliness vanished, too—I had a dog! I had
never guessed precisely what it was that was lacking to life
in Pellucidar, but now I knew that it was the total absence
of domestic animals.

Man here had not yet reached the point where he might
take the time from slaughter and escaping slaughter to make
friends with any of the brute creation. I must qualify this
statement a trifle and say that this was true of those tribes
with which I was most familiar. The Thurians do domesti-
cate the colossal lidi, traversing the great Lidi Plains upon
the backs of these grotesque and stupendous monsters, and
possibly there may also be other, far-distant peoples within
this great world, who have tamed others of the wild things
of jungle, plain or mountain.

The Thurians practice agriculture in a crude sort of way.


It is my opinion that this is one of the earliest steps from
savagery to civilization. The taming of wild beasts and their
domestication follows.

Perry argues that wild dogs were first domesticated for


hunting purposes; but I do not agree with him. I believe
that if their domestication were not purely the result of an
accident, as, for example, my taming of the hyaenodon, it

78

PELLUCIDAR

came about through the desire. of tribes who had previously


domesticated flocks and herds to have some strong, ferocious
beast to guard their roaming property. However, I lean
rather more strongly to the theory of accident.

As I sat there upon the beach of the little ford eating my


unpalatable shell-fish, I commenced to wonder how it had
been that the four savages had been able to reach me, though
I had been unable to escape from my natural prison. I
glanced about in all directions, searching for an explanation.
At last my eyes fell upon the bow of a small dugout pro-
truding scarce a foot from behind a large boulder lying half
in the water at the edge of the beach.

At my discovery I leaped to my feet so suddenly that it


brought Raja, growling and bristling, upon all fours in an
instant. For the moment I had forgotten him. But his savage
rumbling did not cause me any uneasiness. He glanced
quickly about in all directions as if searching for the cause of
my excitement. Then, as I walked rapidly down toward the
dugout, he slunk silently after me.

The dugout was similar in many respects to those which I


had seen in use by the Mezops. In it were four paddles. I was
much delighted, as it promptly offered me the escape I had
been craving.

I pushed it out into water that would float it, stepped


in and called to Raja to enter. At first he did not seem to
understand what I wished of him, but after I had paddled
out a few yards he plunged through the surf and swam after
me. When he had cone alongside I grasped the scruff of his
neck, and after a considerable struggle, in which I several
fimes came near to overturning the canoe, I managed to drag
him aboard, where he shook himself vigorously and squatted
down before me.

After emerging from the fiord, I paddled southward along


the coast, where presently the lofty cliffs gave way to lower
and more level country. It was here somewhere that I should
come upon the principal village of the Thurians. When, after
a time, I saw in the distance what I took to be huts in a
clearing near the shore, I drew quickly into land, for though
I had been furnished with credentials by Kolk, I was not

719

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

sufficiently familiar with the tribal characteristics of these


people to know whether I should receive a friendly welcome
or not; and in case I should not, I wanted to be sure of
having a canoe hidden safely away so that I might undertake
the trip to the island, in any event—provided, of course, that
I escaped the Thurians should they prove belligerent.

At the point where I landed the shore was quite low. A


forest of pale, scrubby ferns ran down almost to the beach.
Here I dragged up the dugout, hiding it well within the
vegetation, and with some loose rocks built a cairn upon the
beach to mark my cache. Then I turned my steps toward
the Thurian village.

As I proceeded I began to speculate upon the possible


actions of Raja when we should enter the presence of other
men than myself. The brute was padding softly at my side,
his sensitive nose constantly atwitch and his fierce eyes
moving restlessly from side to side—nothing would ever take
Raja unawares!

The more IJ thought upon the matter the greater became


my perturbation. I did not want Raja to attack any of the
people upon whose friendship I so greatly depended, nor
did I want him injured or slain by them.

I wondered if Raja would stand for a Jeash. His head as


he paced beside me was level with my hip. I laid my hand
upon it caressingly. As I did so he turned and looked up into
my face, his jaws parting and his red tongue lolling as you
have seen your own dog’s beneath a love pat.

“Just been waiting all your life to be tamed and loved,


haven’t you, old man?” I asked. “You're nothing but a good
old pup, and the man who put the hyaeno in your name
ought to be sued for libel.”

Raja bared his mighty fangs with upcurled, snarling lips


and licked my hand.

“Youre grinning, you old fraud, youl” I cried. “If you re


not, Ill eat you. I'll bet a doughnut youre nothing but some
kid’s poor | old Fido, masquerading around as a real, live
man-eater.”

Raja whined. And so we walked on together toward Thu-


ria—I talking to the beast at my side, and he seeming to

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PELLUCIDAR

enjoy my company no less than I enjoyed his. If you don't


think it’s lonesome wandering all by yourself through savage,
unknown Pellucidar, why, just try it, and you will not wonder
that I was glad of the company of this first dog—this living
replica of the fierce and now extinct hyaenodon of the outer
crust that hunted in savage packs the great elk across the
snows of southern France, in the days when the mastodon
roamed at will over the broad continent of which the British
Isles were then a part, and perchance left his footprints and
his bones in the sands of Atlantis as well.

Thus I dreamed as we moved on toward Thuria. My


dreaming was rudely shattered by a savage growl from
Raja. I looked down at him. He had stopped in his tracks
as one turned to stone. A thin ridge of stiff hair bristled
along the entire length of his spine. His yellow-green eyes
were fastened upon the scrubby jungle at our right.

I fastened my fingers in the bristles at his neck and turned


my eyes in the direction that his pointed. At first I saw
nothing. Then a slight movement of: the bushes riveted my
attention. I thought it must be some wild beast, and was
glad of the primitive weapons I had taken from the bodies of
the warriors who had attacked me.

Presently I distinguished two eyes peering at us from the


vegetation. I took a step in their direction, and as I did so a
youth arose and fled precipitately in the direction we had
been going. Raja struggled to be after him, but I held tightly
to his neck, an act which he did not seem to relish, for he
turned on me with bared fangs.

I determined that now was as good a time as any to


discover just how deep was Raja’s affection for me. One of us
must be master, and logically I was the one. He growled at
me. I cuffed him sharply across the nose. He looked at me
for a moment in surprised bewilderment, and then he
growled again. I made another feint at him, expecting that
it would bring him at my throat; but instead he winced
and crouched down.

Raja was subdued!

I stooped and patted him. Then I took a piece of the

81

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

rope that constituted a part of my equipment and made a


leash for him.

Thus we resumed our journey toward Thuria. The youth


who had seen us was evidently of the Thurians. That he had
lost no time in racing homeward and spreading the word
of my coming was evidenced when we had come within
sight of the clearing, and the village—the first real village,
by the way, that I had ever seen constructed by human
Pellucidarians. There was a rude rectangle walled with logs
and boulders, in which were a hundred or more thatched
huts of similar construction. There was no gate. Ladders
that could be removed by night led over the palisade.

Before the village were assembled a great concourse of


warriors. Inside I could see the heads of women and children
peering over the top of the wall; and also, farther back, the
long necks of lidi, topped by their tiny heads. Lidi, by the
way, is both the singular and plural form of the noun that
describes the huge beasts of burden of the Thurians. They
are enormous quadrupeds, eighty or a hundred feet long,
with very small heads perched at the top of very long,
slender necks. Their heads are quite forty feet from the
_ ground. Their gait is slow and deliberate, but so enormous
are their strides that, as a matter of fact, they cover the
ground quite rapidly.

Perry has told me that they are almost identical with the
fossilized remains of the diplodocus of the outer crust’s Jurassic
age. I have to take his word for it~and I guess you will,
unless you know more of such matters than I.

As we came in sight of the warriors the men set up a great


jabbering. Their eyes were wide in astonishment—not only,
I presume, because of my strange garmenture, but as well
from the fact that I came in company with a jalok, which is:
the Pellucidarian name of the hyaenodon.

Raja tugged at his leash, growling and showing his long:


white fangs. He would have liked nothing better than to be:
at the throats of the whole aggregation; but I held him in:
with the leash, though it took all my strength to do it. My
free hand I held above my head, palm out, in token of the
peacefulness of my mission.
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PELLUCIDAR

In the foreground I saw the youth who had discovered


us, and I could tell from the way he carried himself that
he was quite overcome by his own importance. The warriors
about him were all fine looking fellows, though shorter and
squatter than the Sarians or the Amozites. Their color, too,
was a bit lighter, owing, no doubt, to the fact that much of
their lives is spent within the shadow of the world that hangs
forever above their country.

A little in advance of the others was a bearded fellow


tricked out in many ornaments. I didn’t need to ask to
know that he was the chieftain—doubtless Goork, father of
Kolk. Now to him I addressed myself.

“TI am David,” I said, “Emperor of the Federated King-


doms of Pellucidar. Doubtless you have heard of me?”

He nodded his head affirmatively.

“I come from Sari,” I continued, “where I just met Kolk,


the son of Goork. I bear a token from Kolk to his father,
which will prove that I am a friend.”

Again the warrior nodded. “I am Goork,” he said. “Where is


the token?”

“Here,” I replied, and fished into the game-bag where I had


placed it.

Goork and his people waited in silence. My hand searched


the inside of the bag.

It was empty!

The token had been stolen with my arms!

CHAPTER VIII

CAPTIVE

Wuen Goork and his people saw that I had no token they
commenced to taunt me.

“You do not come from Kolk, but from the Sly One!” they
cried. “He has sent you from the island to spy upon us. Go
away, or we will set upon you and kill you.”

83
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

I explained that all my belongings had been stolen from


me, and that the robber must have taken the token, too; but
they didn’t believe me. As proof that I was one of Hooja’s
people, they pointed to my weapons, which they said were
ornamented like those of the island clan. Further, they said
that no good man went in company with a jalok—and that
by this line of reasoning I certainly was a bad man.

I saw that they were not naturally a war-like tribe, for they
preferred that I leave in peace rather than force them to
attack me, whereas the Sarians would have killed a sus-
picious stranger first and inquired into his purposes later.

I think Raja sensed their antagonism, for he kept tugging


at his leash and growling ominously. They were a bit in awe
of him, and kept at a safe distance. It was evident that they
could not comprehend why it was that this savage brute did
not turn upon me and rend me.

I wasted a long time there trying to persuade Goork to ac-


cept me at my own valuation, but he was too canny. The best
he would do was to give us food, which he did, and direct me
as to the safest portion of the island upon which to attempt ©
a landing, though even as he told me I am sure that he >
thought my request for information but a blind to deceive
him as to my true knowledge of the insular stronghold.

At last I turned away from them=rather disheartened, for


I had hoped to be able to enlist a considerable force of them
in an attempt to rush Hooja’s horde and rescue Dian. Back
along the beach toward the hidden canoe we made our way.

By the time we came to the cairn I was dog-tired. Throwing


myself upon the sand I soon slept, and with Raja stretched
out beside me I felt a far greater security than I had en-
joyed for a long time.

I awoke much refreshed to find Raja’s eyes glued upon me. .


The moment I opened mine he rose, stretched himself, and
without a backward glance plunged into the jungle. For —
several minutes I could hear him crashing through the brush.
Then all was silent.

I wondered if he had left me to return to his late pack.’


A feeling of loneliness overwhelmed me. With a sigh I
turned to the work of dragging the canoe down to the sea.

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PELLUCIDAR

As J entered the jungle where the dugout lay a hare darted


from beneath the boat’s side, and a well-aimed cast of my
javelin brought it down. I was hungry—I had not realized
it before—so I sat upon the edge of the canoe and devoured
my repast. The last remnants gone, I again busied myself
with preparations for my expedition to the island.

I did not know for certain that Dian was there; but I
surmised as much. Nor could I guess what obstacles might
confront me in an effort to rescue her. For a time I loitered
about after I had the canoe at the waters edge, hoping
against hope that Raja would return; but he did not, so I
shoved the awkward craft through the surf and leaped into it.

I was still a little downcast by the desertion of my new-


found friend, though I tried to assure myself that it was
nothing but what I might have expected.

The savage brute had served me well in the short time


that we had been together, and had repaid his debt of grati-
tude to me, since he had saved my life, or at least my liberty,
no less certainly than I had saved his life when he was in-
jured and drowning.

The trip across the water to the island was uneventful. I


was mighty glad to be in the sunshine again when I passed
out of the shadow of the dead world about half-way between
the mainland and the island. The hot rays of the noonday
sun did a great deal toward raising my spirits, and dispelling
the mental gloom in which I had been shrouded almost con-
tinually since entering the Land of Awful Shadow. There is
nothing more dispiriting to me than absence of sunshine.

I had paddled to the southwestern point, which Goork said


he believed to be the least frequented portion of the island,
as he had never seen boats put off from there. I found a
shallow reef running far out into the sea and rather precipi-
tous cliffs running almost to the surf. It was a nasty place
to land, and I realized now why it was not used by the na-
tives; but at last I managed, after a good wetting, to beach
my canoe and scale the cliffs.

The country beyond them appeared more open and park-


like than I had anticipated, since from the mainland the entire
coast that is visible seems densely clothed with tropical

85

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

jungle. This jungle, as I could see from the vantage-point of


the cliff-top, formed but a relatively narrow strip between the
sea and the more open forest and meadow of the interior.
Farther back there was a range of low but apparently very
rocky hills, and here and there all about were visible flat-
topped masses of rock—small mountains, in fact—which
reminded me of pictures I had seen of landscapes in New.
Mexico. Altogether, the country was very much broken and
very beautiful. From where I stood I counted no less than a
dozen streams winding down from among the table-buttes
and emptying into a pretty river which flowed away in a
northeasterly direction toward the opposite end of the island.

As I let my eyes roam over the scene I suddenly became


aware of figures moving upon the flat top of a far-distant
butte. Whether they were beast or human, though, I could
not make out; but at least they were alive, so I determined
to prosecute my search for Hooja’s stronghold in the general
direction of this butte.

To descend to the valley required no great effort. As I


swung along through the lush grass and the fragrant flowers,
my cudgel swinging in my hand and my javelin looped across
my shoulders with its aurochs-hide strap, 1 felt equal to any
emergency, ready for any danger.

I had covered quite a little distance, and I was passing


through a strip of wood which lay at the foot of one of the
flat-topped hills, when I became conscious of the sensation
of being watched. My life within Pellucidar has rather
quickened my senses of sight, hearing, and smell, and, too,
certain primitive intuitive or instinctive qualities that seem
blunted in civilized man. But, though I was positive that |
eyes were upon me, I could see no sign of any living thing
within the wood other than the many, gay-plumaged birds
and little monkeys which filled the trees with life, color, and |
action. |

To you it may seem that my conviction was the result of


an overwrought imagination, or to the actual reality of the
prying eyes of the little monkeys or the curious ones of the
birds; but there is a difference which I cannot explain be-
tween the sensation of casual observation and studied es-

86

PELLUCIDAR

pionage. A sheep might gaze at you without transmitting a


warning through your subjective mind, because you are in
no danger from a sheep. But let a tiger gaze fixedly at you
from ambush, and unless your primitive instincts are com-
pletely calloused you will presently commence to glance
furtively about and be filled with vague, unreasoning terror.

Thus was it with me then. I grasped my cudgel more


firmly and unslung my javelin, carrying it in my left hand.
I peered to left and right, but I saw nothing. Then, all quite
suddenly, there fell about my neck and shoulders, around
my arms and body, a number of pliant fiber ropes.

In a jiffy I was trussed up as neatly as you might wish. One


of the nooses dropped to my ankles and was jerked up with
a suddenness that brought me to my face upon the ground.
Then something heavy and hairy sprang upon my back. I
fought to draw my knife, but hairy hands grasped my
wrists and, dragging them behind my back, bound them
securely.

Next my feet were bound. Then I was turned over upon


my back to look up into the faces of my captors.

And what faces! Imagine if you can a cross between a


sheep and a gorilla, and you will have some conception of
the physiognomy of the creature that bent close above me,
and of those of the half-dozen others that clustered about.
There was the facial length and great eyes of the sheep, and
the bull-neck and hideous fangs of the gorilla. The bodies
and limbs were both man and gorilla-like.

As they bent over me they conversed in a monosyllabic


tongue that was perfectly intelligible to me. It was something
of a simplified language that had no need for aught but
nouns and verbs, but such words as it included were the same
as those of the human beings of Pellucidar. It was ampli-
fied by many gestures which filled in the speech-gaps.

I asked them what they intended doing with me; but, like
our own North American Indians when questioned by a
white man, they pretended not to understand me. One of them
swung me to his shoulder as lightly as if I had been a
shoat. He was a huge creature, as were his fellows, standing

87

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

fully seven feet upon his short legs and weighing consider-
ably more than a quarter of a ton.

Two went ahead of my bearer and three behind. In this


order we cut to the right through the forest to the foot of
the hill where precipitous cliffs appeared to bar our farther
progress in this direction. But my escort never paused. Like
ants upon a wall, they scaled that seemingly unscalable
barrier, clinging, Heaven knows how, to its ragged, perpen-
dicular face. During most of the short journey to the summit J
must admit that my hair stood on end. Presently, however,
we topped the thing and stood upon the level mesa which
crowned it. | |

Immediately from all about, out of burrows and rough,


rocky lairs, poured a perfect torrent of beasts similar to my |
captors. They clustered about, jabbering at my guards and
attempting to get their hands upon me, whether from
curiosity or a desire to do me bodily harm [ did not know, |
since my eScort with bared fangs and heavy blows kept
them off. ; !

Across the mesa we went, to siop at last before a large pile -


of rocks in which an opening appeared. Here my guards set
me upon my feet and called out a word which sounded
like “Gr-gr-gr!’ and which I later learned was the name
of their king.

Presently there emerged from the cavernous depths of the


lair a monstrous creature, scarred from a hundred battles,
almost hairless and with an empty socket where one eye had
been. The other eye, sheeplike in its mildness, gave the most -
Startling appearance to the beast, which but for that single
timid orb was the most fearsome thing that one could im-
agine.

I had encountered the black, hairless, long-tailed ape-things


of the mainland—the creatures which Perry thought might
constitute the link between the higher orders of apes and
man—but these brute-men of Gr-gr-gr seemed to set that
theory back to zero, for there was less similiarity between
the black ape-men and these creatures than there was be-:
tween the latter and man, while both had many human

88

PELLUCIDAR

attributes, some of which were better developed in one species


and some in the other.

The black apes were hairless and built thatched huts in


their arborea] retreats; they kept domesticated dogs and
ruminants, in which respect they were farther advanced than
the human beings of Pellucidar; but they appeared to have
only a meager language, and sported long, apelike tails.

On the other hand, Gr-gr-gr’s people were, for the most


part, quite hairy, but they were tailless and had a language
similar to that of the human race of Pellucidar; nor were
they arboreal. Their skins, where skin showed, were white.

From the foregoing facts and others that I have noted


during my long life within Pellucidar, which is now passing
through an age analogous to some preglacial age of the outer
crust, | am constrained to the belief that evolution is not so
much a gradual transition from one form to another as it is an
accident of breeding, either by crossing or the hazards of
birth. In other words, it is my belief that the first man was a
freak of nature—nor would one have to draw over-strongly
upon his credulity to be convinced that Gr-gr-gr and his tribe -
were also freaks.

The great man-brute seated himself upon a flat rock—his


throne, I imagine—just before the entrance to his lair. With
elbows on knees and chin in palms he regarded me intently
through his lone sheep-eye while one of my captors told of
my taking.
_ When all had been related Gr-gr-gr questioned me. I shall
not attempt to quote these people in their own abbreviated
tongue—you would have been greater difficulty in inter-
preting them than did I. Instead, I shall put the words into
their mouths which will carry to you the ideas which they
intended to convey.

“You are an enemy,” was Gr-gr-gi’s initial declaration. “You


belong to the tribe of Hooja.”

Ah! So they knew Hooja and he was their enemy! Good!

“Iam an enemy of Hooja,” I replied. “He has stolen my


mate and I have come here to take her away from him and
punish Hooja.”

“How could you do that alone?”

89

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

“I do not know,” I answered, “but I should have tried


had you not captured me. What do you intend to do with
me?”

“You shall work for us.’

“You will not kill meP” I asked.

“We do not kill except in self-defense,” _ replied; “self-


defense and punishment. Those who would kill us and those
who do wrong we kill. If we knew that you were one of
Hooja’s people we might kill you, for all Hoojas’ people are
bad people; but you say you are an enemy of Hooja. You
may not speak the truth, but until we learn that you have
lied we shall not kill you. You shall work.”

“If you hate Hooja,” I suggested, “why not let me, who
hate him, too, go and punish him?”

For some time Gr-gr-gr sat in thought. Then he raised his


head and addressed my guard.

“Take him to his work,” he ordered.

His tone was final. As if to emphasize it he turned and


entered his burrow. My guard conducted me farther into the
mesa, where we came presently to a tiny depression or valley,
at one end of which gushed a warm spring.

The view that opened before me was the most surprising


that I have ever seen. In the hollow, which must have
covered several hundred acres, were numerous fields of grow-
ing things, and working all about with crude implements or
with no implements at all other than their bare hands were
many of the brute-men engaged in the first agriculture that
I had seen within Pellucidar.

They. put me to work cultivating in a patch of melons. I


mever was a farmer nor particularly keen for this sort of
work, and I am free to confess that time never had dragged
SO heavily as it did during the hour or the year I spent
there at that work. How long it really was I do not know,
of course; but it was all too long.

The creatures that worked about me were quite simple


and friendly. One of them proved to be a son of Gr-gr-gr. He
had broken some minor tribal law, and was working out his
sentence in the fields. He told me that his tribe had lived upon
this hilltop always, and that there were other tribes like them

90

PELLUCIDAR

dwelling upon other hilltops. They had no wars and had


always lived in peace and harmony, menaced only by the
larger carnivora of the island, until my kind had come under
a creature called Hooja, and attacked and killed them when
they chanced to descend from their natural fortresses to visit
their fellows upon other lofty mesas.

Now they were afraid; but some day they would go in a


body and fall upon Hooja and his people and slay them all.
I explained to him that I was Hooja’s enemy, and asked,
when they were ready to go, that I be allowed to go with
them, or, better still, that they let me go ahead and learn
all that I could about the village where Hooja dwelt so that
they might attack it with the best chance of success. .

Gr-gr-grs son seemed much impressed by my suggestion.


He said that when he was through in the fields he would
speak to his father about the matter.

Some time after this Gr-gr-gr came through the fields


where we were, and his son spoke to him upon the subject,
but the old gentleman was evidently in anything but a good
humor, for he cuffed the youngster and, turning upon me,
informed me that he was convinced that I had lied to him,
and that I was one of Hooja’s people.

“Wherefore,” he concluded, “we shall slay you as soon as


the melons are cultivated. Hasten, therefore.”

And hasten I did. I hastened to cultivate the weeds which


grew among the melon-vines. Where there had been one
sickly weed before, I nourished two healthy ones. When |
found a particularly promising variety of weed growing else-
where than among my melons, I forthwith dug it up and
transplanted it among my charges.

My masters did not seem to realize my perfidy. They saw


me always laboring diligently in the melon-patch, and as
time enters not into the reckoning of Pellucidarians—even of
human beings and much less of brutes and half brutes—I
might have lived on indefinitely through this subterfuge had
not that occurred which took me out of the melon-patch

for good and all.

91

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

CHAPTER IX

HOOJA’S CUTTHROATS APPEAR

I wap BUILT a little shelter of rocks and brush where I might


crawl in and sleep out of the perpetual light and heat of the
noonday sun. When I was tired or hungry I retired to my
humble cot.

My masters never interposed the slightest objection. As a


matter of fact, they were very good to me, nor did I see
aught while I was among them to indicate that they are
ever else than a simple, kindly folk when left to themselves.
Their awe-inspiring size, terrific strength, mighty fighting-
fangs, and hideous appearance are but the attributes neces-
sary to the successful waging of their constant battle for
survival, and well do they employ them when the need
arises. The only flesh they eat is that of herbivorous animals
and birds. When they hunt the mighty thag, the prehistoric
bos of the outer crust, a single male, with his fiber rope, will
catch and kill the greatest of the bulls.

Well, as I was about to say, I had this little shelter at the


edge of my melon-patch. Here I was resting from my labors
on a certain occasion when I heard a great hub-bub in the
village, which lay about a quarter of a mile away.

Presently a male came racing toward the field, shouting


excitedly. As he approached I came from my shelter to learn
what all the commotion might be about, for the monotony of
my existence in the melon-patch must have fostered that trait
of curiosity from which it had always been my secret boast
I am peculiarly free.

The other workers also ran forward to meet the messenger,


who quickly unburdened himself of his information, and as
quickly turned and scampered back toward the village. When
running these beast-men often go upon all fours. Thus they
leap over obstacles that would slow up a human being, and
upon the level attain a speed that would make a thorough-

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PELLUCIDAR

bred look to his laurels. The result in this instance was that
before I had more than assimilated the gist of the word which
had been brought to the fields, I was alone, watching my
erstwhile co-workers speeding villageward.

I was alone! It was the first time since my capture that no


beast-man had been within sight of me. I was alone! And
all my captors were in the village at the opposite edge of the
mesa repelling an attack of Hooja’ s horde! :

It seemed from the messenger’s tale that two of Gr-gr-gr's


great males had been set upon by a half-dozen of Hooja's
cutthroats while the former were peaceably returning from
the thag hunt. The two had returned to the village un-
scratched, while but a single one of Hooja’s half-dozen had
escaped to report the outcome of the battle to their leader.
Now Hooja was coming to punish Gr-gr-gr’s people. With
his large force, armed with the bows and arrows that Hooja
had learned from me to make, with long lances and sharp
knives, I feared that even the mighty strength of the beast-
men could avail them but little.

At last had come the opportunity for which I waited! I |


was free to make for the far end of the mesa, find my way
to the valley below, and while the two forces were engaged
in their struggle, continue my search for Hooja’s village, which
I had learned from the beast-men lay farther on down the
river that I had been following when taken prisoner.

As I turned to make for the mesa’s rim the sounds of battle


came plainly to my ears—the hoarse shouts of men mingled
with the half-beastly roars and growls of the brute-folk.

Did I take advantage of my opportunity?

I did not. Instead, lured by the din of strife and by the


desire to deliver a stroke, however feeble, against hated
Hooja, I wheeled and ran directly toward the village.

When I reached the edge of the plateau such a scene met


my astonished gaze as never before had startled it, for the
unique battle-methods of the half-brutes were rather the
most remarkable I had ever witnessed. Along the very edge of
the cliff-top stood a thin line of mighty males—the best
rope-throwers of the tribe. A few feet behind these the rest
of the males, with the exception of about twenty, formed a
93

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

second line. Still farther in the rear all the women and young
children were clustered into a single group under the pro-_
tection of the remaining twenty fighting males and all the
old males.

But it was the work of the first two lines that interested me.
The forces of Hooja—a great horde of savage Sagoths and
primeval cave men—were working their way up the steep
cliff-face, their agility but slightly less than that of my cap-
tors who had clambered so nimbly aloft—even he who was
burdened by my weight.

As the attackers came on they paused occasionally wher-


ever a projection gave them sufficient foothold and launched
arrows and spears at the defenders above them. During the
entire battle both sides hurled taunts and insults at one
another—the human beings naturally excelling the brutes in
the coarseness and vileness of their vilification and invective.

The “firing-line” of the brute-men wielded no weapon other


than their long fiber nooses. When a foeman came within
range of them a noose would settle unerringly about him and
he would be dragged, fighting and yelling, to the cliff-top,
unless, as occasionally occurred, he was quick enough to
draw his knife and cut the rope above him, in which event
he usually plunged downward to a no less certain death than
that which awaited him above.

Those who were hauled up within reach of the powerful


clutches of the defenders had the nooses snatched from
them and were catapulted back through the first line to the
second, where they were seized and killed by the simple
expedient of a single powerful closing of mighty fangs upon
the backs of their necks.

But the arrows of the invaders were taking a much heavier


toll than the nooses of the defenders and I foresaw that it
was but a matter of time before Hooja’s forces must conquer
unless the brute-men changed their tactics, or the cave men
tired of the battle.

Gr-gr-gr was standing in the center of the first line. All


about him were boulders and large fragments of broken rock.
I approached him and without a word toppled a large mass
of rock over the edge of the cliff. It fell directly upon the

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PELLUCIDAR

head of an archer, crushing him to instant death and carrying


his mangled corpse with it to the bottom of the declivity, and
on its way brushing three more of the attackers into the
hereafter.

Gr-gr-gr turned toward me in surprise. For an instant he


appeared to doubt the sincerity of my motives. I felt that
perhaps my time had come when he reached for me with one
of his giant paws; but I dodged him, and running a few
paces to the right hurled down another missile. It, too, did
its allotted work of destruction. Then I picked up smaller frag-
‘ments and with all the control and accuracy for which I had

earned justly deserved fame in my collegiate days I rained


~ down a hail of death upon those beneath me.

Gr-gr-gr was coming toward me again. I pointed to the


litter of rubble upon the cliff-top.
“Hurl these down upon the enemy!” I cried to him. “Tell
your warriors to throw rocks down upon them!”
At my words the others of the first line, who had been
_ interested spectators of my tactics, seized upon great boulders
or bits of rock, whichever came first to their hands, and,
- without waiting for a command from Gr-gr-gr, deluged the
terrified cave men with a perfect avalanche of stone. In less
than no time the cliff-face was stripped of enemies and the
| village of Gr-gr-gr was saved.

Gr-gr-gr was standing beside me when the last of the cave


men disappeared in rapid flight down the valley. He was
looking at me intently. :

_ “Those were your people,” he said. “Why did you kill


| them?”

“They were not my people,” I returned. “I have told you


that before, but you would not believe me. Will you believe
- me now when I tell you that I hate Hooja and his tribe as
- much as you do? Will you believe me when I tell you that I
_ wish to be the friend of Gr-gr-gr?” |

For some time he stood there beside me, scratching his


| head. Evidently-it was no less difficult for him to readjust his
preconceived conclusions than it is for most human beings;
but finally the idea percolated—which it might never have

95

= ——————— eo SC S—~—CS eee i


>
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

done had he been a man, or I might qualify that statement


by saying had he been some men. Finally he spoke.

“Gilak,” ne said, “you have made Gr-gr-gr ashamed. He


would have killed you. How can he reward you?”

“Set me free,” I replied quickly.

“You are free,” he said. “You may go down when you


wish, or you may stay with us. If you go you may always
return. We are your friends.”

Naturally, I elected to go. I explained all over again to


Gr-gr-gr the nature of my mission. He listened attentively; af-
ter I had done he offered to send some of his people with
me to guide me to Hooja’s village. I was not slow in ac-
cepting his offer.

First, however, we must eat. The hunters upon whom


Hooja’s men had fallen had brought back the meat of a great
thag. There would be a feast to commemorate the victory—
a feast and dancing.

I had never witnessed a tribal function of the brute-folk,


though I had often heard strange sounds coming from the
village, where I had not been allowed since my capture. Now
I took part in one of their orgies.

It will live forever in my memory. The combination of bes-


tiality and humanity was oftentimes pathetic, and again
grotesque or horrible. Beneath the glaring noonday sun, in
the sweltering heat of the mesa-top, the huge, hairy creatures
leaped in a great circle. They coiled and threw their fiber-
ropes; they hurled taunts and insults at an imaginary foe;
they fell upon the carcass of the thag and literally tore it to
pieces; and they ceased only when, gorged, they could no
longer move.

I had to wait until the processes of digestion had released


my escort from its torpor. Some had eaten until their ab-
domens were so distended that I thought they must burst,
for beside the thag there had been fully a hundred antelopes
of various sizes and varied degrees of decomposition, which
they had unearthed from burial beneath the floors of their
lairs to grace the banquet-board.

But at last we were started—six great males and myself.


Gr-gr-gr had returned my weapons to me, and at last I was

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PELLUCIDAR
- once more upon my oft-interrupted way toward my goal.
Whether I should find Dian at the end of my journey or no
I could not even surmise; but I was none the less impatient
to be off, for if only the worst lay in store for me I wished to
know even the worst at once.

I could scarce believe that my proud mate would still be


alive in the power of Hooja; but time upon Pellucidar is so
strange a thing that I realized that to her or to him only a
few minutes might have elapsed since his subtle trickery had
enabled him to steal her away from Phutra. Or she might
have found the means either to repel his advances or escape
him.

As we descended the cliff we disturbed a great pack of


large hyena-like beasts—hyaena spelaeus, Perry calls them—
who were busy among the corpses of the cave men fallen
in battle. The ugly creatures were far from the cowardly
things that our own hyenas are reputed to be; they stood
their ground with bared fangs as we approached them.
But, as I was later to learn, so formidable are the brute-folk
that there are few even of the larger carnivora that will not
make way for them when they go abroad. So the hyenas
moved a little from our line of march, closing in again upon
their feasts when we had passed.

We made our way steadily down the rim of the beautiful


river which flows the length of the island, coming at last to
a wood rather denser than any that I had before encountered
in this country. Well within this forest my escort halted.

“There!” they said, and pointed ahead. “We are to go no


farther.” :

Thus having guided me to my destination they left me.


Ahead of me, through the trees, I could see what appeared
to be the foot of a steep hill. Toward this I made my way.
The forest ran to the very base of a cliff, in the face of which
were the mouths of many caves. They appeared untenanted;
but I decided to watch for a while before venturing farther.
A large tree, densely foliaged, offered a splendid vantage-
point from which to spy upon the cliff, so I clambered among
its branches where, securely hidden, I could watch what
transpired about the caves.

97

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

It seemed that I had scarcely settled myself in a com-


fortable position before a party of cave men emerged from
one of the smaller apertures in the cliff-face, about fifty feet
from the base. They descended into the forest and disap-
peared. Soon after came several others from the same cave,
and after them, at a short interval, a score of women and
children, who came into the wood to gather fruit. There were
several warriors with them—a guard, I presume.

After this came other parties, and two or three groups who
passed out of the forest and up the cliff-face to enter the
same cave. I could not understand it. All who had come out
had emerged from the same cave. All who returned re-
entered it. No other cave gave evidence of habitation, and
no cave but one of extraordinary size could have accom-
modated all the people whom I had seen pass in and out of
its mouth.

For a long time IJ sat and watched the coming and going
of great numbers of the cave-folk. Not once did one leave the
cliff by any other opening save that from which I had seen
the first party come, nor did any re-enter the cliff through
another aperture.

What a cave it must be, I thought, that houses an entire


tribe! But, dissatisfied of the truth of my surmise, I climbed
higher among the branches of the tree that I might get a
better view of other portions of the cliff. High above the
ground I reached a point whence I could see the summit of
the hill. Evidently it was a flat-topped butte similar to that
on which dwelt the tribe of Gr-gr-gr.

As J sat gazing at it a figure appeared at the very edge.


It was that of a young girl in whose hair was a gorgeous
bloom plucked from some flowering tree of the forest. I had
seen her pass beneath me but a short while before and enter
he small cave that had swallowed all of the returning
tribesmen.

The mystery was solved. The cave was but the mouth of a
passage that led upward through the cliff to the summit of the
aill, It served merely as an avenue from their lofty citadel
‘o the valley below.

No sooner had the truth flashed upon me than the realiza-

98

PELLUCIDAR

tion came that I must seek some other means of reaching


the village, for to pass unobserved through this well-traveled
thoroughfare would be impossible. At the moment there was
no one in sight below me, so I slid quickly from my arboreal
watch-tower to the ground and moved rapidly away to the
right with the intention of circling the hill if necessary until
I had found an unwatched spot where I might have some
slight chance of scaling the heights and reaching the top
unseen.

I kept close to the edge of the forest, in the very midst of


which the hill seemed to rise. Though I carefully scanned the
cliff as I traversed its base, I saw no sign of any other en-
trance than that to which my guides had led me.

After some little time the roar of the sea broke upon my
ears. Shortly after I came upon the broad ocean which breaks
at this point at the very foot of the great hill where Hooja
had found safe refuge for himself and his villains.

I was just about to clamber along the jagged rocks which


lie at the base of the cliff next to the sea, in search of some
foothold to the top, when I chanced to see a canoe rounding
the end of the island. I threw myself down behind a large
boulder where I could watch the dugout and its occupants
without myself being seen.

They paddled toward me for a while and then, about a


hundred yards from me, they turned straight in toward the
foot of the frowning cliffs. From where I was it seemed that
they were bent upon self-destruction, since the roar of the
breakers beating upon the perpendicular rock-face appeared
to offer only death to any one who might venture within their
relentless clutch.

A mass of rock would soon hide them from my view; but


so keen was the excitement of the instant that I could not
refrain from crawling foward to a point whence I could
watch the dashing of the small craft to pieces on the jagged
rocks that loomed before her, although I risked discovery
from above to accomplish my design.

When I had reached a point where I could again see the


dugout, I was just in time to see it glide unharmed between

99

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

two needle-pointed sentinels of granite and float quietly upon


the unruffled bosom of a tiny cove.

Again I crouched behind a boulder to observe what would


next transpire; nor did I have long to wait. The dugout,
which contained but two men, was drawn close to the rocky
wall. A fiber rope, one end of which was tied to the boat,
was made fast about a projection of the cliff face.

Then the two men commenced the ascent of the almost


perpendicular wall toward the summit several hundred feet
above. I looked on in amazement, for, splendid climbers
though the cave men of Pellucidar are, I never before had
seen so remarkable a feat performed. Upward they moved
without a pause, to disappear at last over the summit.

When I felt reasonably sure that they had gone for a while
at least I crawled from my hiding-place and at the risk of a
broken neck leaped and scrambled to the spot where their
canoe was moored.

If they had scaled that cliff I could, and if I couldn't


I should die in the attempt.

But when I turned to the accomplishment of the task I


found it easier than I had imagined it would be, since I im-
mediately discovered that shallow hand and footholds had
been scooped in the cliff’s rocky face, forming a crude ladder
from the base to the summit.

At last I reached the top, and very glad I was, too.


Cautiously I raised my head until my eyes were above the
cliff-crest. Before me spread a rough mesa, liberally sprinkled
with large boulders. There was no village in sight nor any
living creature. :

I drew myself to level ground and stood erect. A few


trees grew among the boulders. Very carefully I advanced
from tree to tree and boulder to boulder toward the inland
end of the mesa. I stopped often to listen and look cautiously
about me in every direction.

How I wished that I had my revolvers and rifle! I would


not have to worm my way like a scared cat toward Hooja’s
village, nor did I relish doing so now; but Dian’s life might
hinge upon the success of my venture, and so I could not
afford to take chances. To have met suddenly with discovery

100

PELLUCIDAR

and had a score or more of armed warriors upon me might


have been very grand and heroic; but it would have im-
mediately put an end to all my earthly activities, nor have
accomplished aught in the service of Dian.

Well, I must have traveled nearly a mile across that mesa


without seeing a sign of anyone, when all of a sudden, as I
crept around the edge of a boulder, I ran plump into a man,
down on all fours like myself, crawling toward me.

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 cave man. 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 Jooking 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 Mahars’ city of Phutra when the thipdars dragged
the tarag from you and your mate. I never understood that.

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EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

Afterward they put me in the arena with two warriors from


Gombul.”

He smiled in recollection.

“It would have been the same had there been ten warriors.
from Gombul. I slew them, winning my freedom. Look!”

He half turned his left shoulder toward me, exhibiting the


newly healed scar of the Mahars’ branded mark.

“Then,” he continued, “as I was returning to my people I


met some of them fleeing. They told me that one called
Hooja the Sly One had come and seized our village, putting
our people into slavery. So I hurried hither to Jearn the truth,
and, sure enough, here I found Hooja and his wicked men
living in my village, and my father’s people but slaves among
them.

“I was discovered and captured, but Hooja did not kill me.
I am the chief's 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, Dacor the Strong One, chief of Amoz, 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
the Dian the Beautiful One was Hooja’s prisoner, I told him
that I would not aid him if he harmed her.

“Recently one of Hooja’s warriors overheard me talking


with another prisoner. We were planning to combine all the
prisoners, seize weapons, and when most of Hoojas 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 Hooja 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 over-
heard all that had passed between me and those who had

102

PELLUCIDAR

brought me thither, and that she was Dacor’s sister and would
find a way to help me. _

“Presently 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. Dacor’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 Hooja’s
men and nearly all the slaves are upon the Island of Trees,
where Hooja is having many boats built to carry his warriors
across the water to the mouth of a great river which he dis-
covered while he was returning from Phutra—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 Dian the Beautiful One now?” I asked. ©

I had released my prisoner as soon as I found that he was


Hooja’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 im-


prisoned,” he replied, “and is awaiting me there.”
“There is no danger that Hooja will come while you are
away?”

“Hooja 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 Pellucidarians he explained minutely how I might
reach the cave where he had been imprisoned, and thrcugh
the hole in its wall reach Dian. |

I thought it best for but one of us to return, since two


could accomplish but little more than one and would double

103

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

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 Dian 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 Hooja’s
people while Dian 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
Dian to leave me; but I made him promise that he would
sacrifice everything, even his life, in an attempt to rescue
Dacor’s sister.

Then we parted—he to take up his position where he


could watch the boat and await Dian, I to crawl cautiously
on toward the caves. I had no difficulty in followirig the
directions given me by Juag, the name by which Dacor’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. Zig-zag
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 Juag 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 con-
gregated 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, rabbitlike, into the cave.

Like many of the man-made caves of Pellucidar, this one

104

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PELLUCIDAR

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 Dian was im-
prisoned, 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. “Hooja has sent for


you.

And then a woman's voice answered him:

“And what does Hooja want of me?”

The voice was Dian’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 Dian. “I will die first.”

“I am sent to bring you, and bring you I shall.”

J could hear him crossing the cave toward her.

Frantically I clawed the wall of the cave in which I was in

an effort to find the elusive aperture that would lead me to

Dian’s side. 7
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—Dian had blocked up the hole she had made lest it
arouse suspicion and lead to an early discovery of Juags
escape.

Plunging my weight against the crumbling mass, I sent it


crashing into the adjoining cavern. With it came I, David,
Emperor of Pellucidar. I doubt if any other potentate in a
world’s history ever made a more undignified entrance. |

_ Janded head first on all fours, but I came quickly and was on

my feet before the man in the dark guessed what had

happened.

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EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

He saw me, though, when I arose and, sensing that no


friend came thus precipitately, turned to meet me even as J
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 venture to say
that we fought a very pretty duel.

Before I came to Pellucidar 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 primi-
tive yet wicked weapon.

I could just see Dian 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 Dian facing me and peering at me
through the dense gloom. ,

“You are not Juag!” she exclaimed. “Who are you?”

I took a step toward her, my arms outstretched.

“It is I, Dian,” 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

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PELLUCIDAR

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 reconnoitered for a moment, and seeing the
coast clear, ran swiftly forth with Dian 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 Dian 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 Hooja’s men who knew
me had discovered me asleep and robbed me of all my pos-
sessions. And then how Hooja 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 Juag 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 Juag, whom I now discovered hiding be-
hind 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 for-
ward that we might reach Juag as quickly as they.

But they noticed him first and immediately charged 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 |
reached it. Evidently they had wasted precious moments look-
ing for him in 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

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EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

more than a single man to cope with. They paused at the


sound of my voice and looked about.

When they discovered Dian and me they exchanged a


few words, and one of them continued toward Juag 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 of that deadly revolver in the hands of an un-—
tutored 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 Ghak. 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 Juag.


He was having a most exciting time. The fellow pitted against
Juag 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 Juag back toward the edge of the
cliff with a fiendish cunning that permitted his adversary no
chance to side-step the terrible consequences of retreat in
this direction. I saw quickly that in another moment Juag
must deliberately hurl himself to death over the precipice or
be pushed over by his foeman.

And as I saw Juag’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 felled. I snatched up my fallen re-
volver. 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. Juag was upon the very
brink of the chasm. His relentless foe was pushing him
hard, beating at him furiously with the 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.


. 108

PELLUCIDAR

And Juag?

He cast a single affrighted glance in my direction—never


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 sight. 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 Dian at my side.


Then, to my utter amazement, I saw Juag 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
Dian 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 re-


gained 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 Dian and me with that ghastly des-
cent between us and even the beginnings of liberty, and a
horde of savage enemies advancing ata rapid run. -

There was but one hope. That was to get Dian 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 al-
ways 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 effete and
overcivilized beauties of the outer crust.
“And youP” she asked as she swung over the edge of the
cliff.

“JY shall follow you after I take a shot or two at our

109

BuhJrois dt Litto DUVALL YU ile

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 Juag 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, Dian, must return to Sari 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. Juag was shouting up to us from
below. It was evident that he realized from my actions that
I was attempting to persuade Dian to descend, and that
grave danger threatened us from above.

“Dive!” he cried. “Divel”

I looked at Dian and then down at the abyss below us.


The cove appeared no larger than a saucer. How Juag
ever had hit it I could not guess.

“Divel” cried Juag. “It is the only way—there is no time

to climb down.”

CHAPTER XI

ESCAPE

DIAN 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

110
- PELLUCIDAR

sould have prompted me to leap headforemost from that giddy


reight—suicide; or at least so I thought at the moment.

“Quick!” I urged Dian. “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.”

1 saw that she would not leave me unless she thought that
I could make that frightful dive as we had seen Juag make it.
[ glanced once downward; then with a mental shrug I as-
sured her that I would dive the moment that she reached the
boat. Satisfied, she began the descent carefully, yet swiftly.
1 watched her for a moment, my heart in my mouth lest
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 Hoojans—“Hoosiers, ©


Perry dubbed them—even going so far as to christen this
island where Hooja held sway Indiana; it is so marked now
upon our maps. They were coming on at a great rate. |
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
wild flowers. :

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 awe-struck 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 Dian. She was half-way down the
clif 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!”

111

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS


I pointed at the dead man. The fellow lowered 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 and he, too, was sprawled upon the
sward with a round hole between his eyes. It had been a
rather good shot.

I glanced over the edge again. Dian was almost at the bot-
tom. I could see Juag standing just beneath her with his
hands upstretched to assist her:

A sullen roar from the warriors recalled my attention to-


ward 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 Dian—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

112

PELLUCIDAR

far out over that frightful chasm as I could. I know some-


thing 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
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 curve 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 J filled my lungs with air.

Before me was the boat, from which Juag and Dian were
clambering. I couldn’t understand why there 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 Dian and Juag by but a hair’s breadth, 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. |

Juag was leaning over a near-by rock, his hand outstretched


to aid me in clambering to his side; nor did I lose any time
in availing myself of his proffered assistance. An 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

113

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

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 Juag said was
less frequented by the Hoojans 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 Juag had chosen was rough and roundabout,
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 sought us must have sent a party up the river


immediately after we escaped; for when we came at last onto
the river-trail not far from our destination, there can be no
doubt but that we were seen by Hoojans 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 scarce 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 im-
mediate death for Juag and me, which didn’t concern me
much in the face of what lay in store for Dian.

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 Mahars 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 I 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 Hooja in Jubal’s réle. I could
almost have wished for death to vouchsafe her that peace
which fate seemed to deny her in this life.

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PELLUCIDAR

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 Hooja can harm me; but first I shall see that
Hooja 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 con-
tinued. “And, too, it gave me an idea. For a long time I have
carried a vipers fang in my bosom. It has given me strength
to endure many dangers, for it has always assured me im-
munity from the ultimate insult. I am not ready to die yet.
First let Hooja 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, to-
morrow 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 to-
morrow.

In Pellucidar, 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 parklike 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-men,
with the mild eyes and long faces of sheep leaped among
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-
men with my voice, and cheered old Gr-gr-gr, their chief,
each time that his mighty jaws crunched out the life of a
Hoojan. When the battle was over we found that a few of
our captors had escaped, but the majority of them lay dead

115

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

about us. The gorilla-men paid no further attention to them.


Gr-gr-gr turned to me.

“Gr-gr-gr and all his people are your friends,” he said. “One
saw the warriors of the Sly One 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 Gr-gr-gr and Gr-gr-gr’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 loath to accept his escort. We found the canoe where I
had hidden it, and bidding Gr-gr-gr and his warriors fare-
well, the three of us embarked for the mainland.

I questioned Juag 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 to Sari;
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 rectify-
ing our deficiencies. .

We landed several miles north of Thuria in a little cove that.


seemed to offer protection from the heavier seas which some-
times run, even upon these usually pacific oceans of Pellu-
cidar. Here I outlined to Dian and Juag 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 latter items were more in Juag’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 re-
warded with any particular luck. Finally we decided to hide

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PELLUCIDAR

the canoe and strike inland in search of game. At Juag’s sug-


gestion 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 Pellucidar’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 huge lidi, or beasts of burden, striding across
the dim landscape, browsing upon the grotesque vegetation
or drinking from the slow and sullen rivers that run down
from the Lidi Plains to empty into the sea in Thuria.

What we sought was either thag—a 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 Lidi Plains which
lies in the pleasant sunlight. Above us the pendent world
revolved upon its axis, filling me especially—and Dian 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 Pel-
lucidar, the Lidi Plains rolling up about us, while hanging
high in the heavens to the northwest of us I thought I dis-
cerned the many towers which marked the entrances to the
distant Mahar city, whose inhabitants preyed upon the
Thurians.

Juag 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

117-

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

advice, we came at last to a forest-jungle, through which


wound innumerable game-paths. In the depths of this for-
bidding wood we came upon the fresh spoor of thag.

Shortly after, by careful stalking, we came within javelin-


range of a small herd. Selecting a great bull, Juag and I!
hurled our weapons simultaneously, Dian 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 foe.

Then Juag 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 Juag
he charged him. Juag ran straight away, that the bull might!
be lured past my hiding-place. On he came—tons of mighty:
bestial strength and rage.

Dian 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! j

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 gait 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 Pellucidarians are.

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PELLUCIDAR

almost as fleet as deer; because I am not is one reason that


I am 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 re-


turned, 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 despatching
him, I looked back for Dian, I could see nothing of her. 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 Dian 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?

CHAPTER XII

KIDNAPED[I =>;

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 ~
119

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

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 lidi’s feet.

The story of the tragedy was all too plain. A Thurian had
either been following us, or had accidentally espied Dian
and taken a fancy to her. While Juag and I had been en-
gaged with the thag, he had abducted her. I ran swiftly
back to where Juag was working over the kill. As I ap-
proached 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 jaloks, 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 at-
titude of questioning.

Juag 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 jalok.

Juag 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 for-
ward 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 jalok 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 Juag saw me fondling the great beast he was filled


120
PELLUCIDAR

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 Juag and making him understand that Juag, 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 bared her fangs against us.

I told Juag of the disappearance of Dian, and of my sus-


picions 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 Jake upon the surface of the pen-
dent 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 Ghak with an army. Then,
calling Raja after me, I set out after Dian and her abductor.
First I took the wolf dog to the spot where the man had
fought with Dian. 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 Lidi
Plains, turning his steps in the direction of the Thurian vil-
lage. 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 lidi ahead of us, moving leisurely across the level
plain. Upon its back were two human figures. If I could have
known that the jaloks would not harm Dian I might have

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EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

turned them loose upon the lidi 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 lidi and its riders. At his side raced his shaggy mate,
only a trifle smaller than he and no whit less savage.

They did not give tongue until the lidi itself discovered
them and broke into a lumbering, awkward, but none the less
rapid gallop. Then the two hound-beasts commenced to bay,
starting with a low, plaintive note that rose, weird and
hideous, to terminate in a series of short, sharp yelps. I
feared that it might be the hunting-call of the pack; and if
this were true, there would be slight chance for either Dian
or her abductor—or myself, either, as far as that was con-
cerned. 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 Dian that time forever.

The lidi, with the hounds running close on either side,


had almost disappeared in the darkness that enveloped the
surrounding landscape, when I noted that it was bearing to-
_ ward the right. This was accounted for by -the fact that Raja

ran upon his left side, and unlike his mate, kept leaping for
the great beast’s shoulder. The man on the lidi’s back was
prodding at the hyaenodon with his long spear, but still.
Raja kept springing up and snapping.

The effect of this was to turn the lidi toward the right,
and the longer I watched the procedure the more convinced’
I became that Raja and his mate were working together;
with some end in view, for the she-dog merely galloped:
steadily at the lidi’s right about opposite his rump.

I had seen jaloks hunting in packs, and I recalled now what!


for the time I had not thought of—the several that ran ahead!
and turned the quarry back toward the main body. This
-was precisely what Raja and his mate were doing—they were:

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PELLUCIDAR

turning the lidi back toward me, or at least Raja 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 own
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 lidi 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 returned close
to where I stood.

And this is just what happened. The lot of them were al-
most 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
lidi; 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
hyaenodons 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, Raja sprang, snapping, at his shoulder
and held him straight.

Straight for me the two savage beasts were driving their


quarry! 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 lidi was only about a hundred yards from me when


Raja 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 mid-air, they hung tenaciously,


their weight dragging down the creature’s head and so re-

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EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

tarding its speed that before it had reached me it was al-


most stopped and devoting all its energies to attempting to
scrape off its attackers with its forefeet. ,

Dian had seen and recognized me, and was trying to ex-
tricate herself from the grasp of her captor, who, handi-
capped by his strong and agile prisoner, was unable to wield
his lance effectively upon the two jaloks. At the same time
I was running swiftly toward them.

When the man discovered me he released his hold upon


Dian 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
Jance 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 jaloks were hunting with
me; but he doubtless thought that after they had finished
the lidi they would make after the human prey—the beasts
are notorious killers, often slaying wantonly.

But as the Thurian came Raja loosened his hold upon the
lidi 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 Dian.

Both the fierce beasts were upon the Thurian simultane-


ously—he must have died almost before his body tumbled
to the ground. Then the female wheeled toward Dian. I
was standing by her side as the thing charged her, my javelin
ready to receive her.

But again Raja 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 Dian. 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 gaged by volume of noise and riotousness of

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PELLUCIDAR

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. Raja 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 drubbing 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 Dian and me. I had an arm about
Dian now. As Raja came close I caught him by the neck and
pulled him up to me. There I stroked him and talked to him,
bidding Dian do the same, until I think he pretty well under-
stood that if I was his friend, so was Dian.

For a long time he was inclined to be shy of her, often


baring his teeth at her approach, and it was a much longer
time before the female made friends with us. But by care-
ful 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 Juag. Here I had the dickens’ own time keeping
the female from Juag’s throat. Of all the venomous, wicked,
cruel-hearted beasts on two worlds, I think a female hyaen-
odon takes the palm.

But eventually she tolerated Juag as she had Dian and me,
and the five of us set out toward the coast, for Juag had just
completed his labors on the thag when we arrived. We ate
some of the meat before starting, and gave the hounds
some. All that we could we carried upon our backs.

On the way to the canoe we met with no mishaps. Dian


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 dis-
armed her and thrown her to the back of his lidi, 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

125

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

:
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
vipers tooth, after all.”

We reached the beach at last and unearthed the canoe. ~

Then we busied ourselves stepping a mast and rigging a

small sail—Juag and I, that is—while Dian cut the thag ©

meat into long strips for drving when we should be out


in the sunlight once more.

At last ali was done. We were ready to embark. I had no ©

difficulty in getting Raja aboard the dugout; but Ranee—as


we christened her after I had explained to Dian 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 Juag 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 battle-ship 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 Juag 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.

Juag 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? :

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PELLUCIDAR

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 Juag 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 Juag how Hooja 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 Hooja would un-
doubtedly 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 river
banks, giant creepers, Howers, grasses, and now and then the
body of some Jand 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 scudding craft before the wind and race along in a
smother of white spume. Juag was terrified. If Dian 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?

Raja and Ranee were frightened. The former crawled close


to my side and buried his nose against me. Finally even
fierce Ranee was moved to seek sympathy from a human
being. She slunk to Dian, pressing close against her and
whimpering, while Dian stroked her shaggy neck and talked
to her as J talked to Raja.

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

127

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

that we must have blown a hundred miles before the wind


and straight out into an unknown seal |

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 Juag 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 hap-
pened—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 pendent world was not visible
from our position!

Our plight seemed hopeless to me, but I dared not let Dian
and Juag guess how utterly dismayed I was; though, as I
soon discovered, there was nothing to be gained by trying
to keep the worst from Juag—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 it chanced 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 Juag.

“You Pellucidarians are endowed with a wonderful in-


stinct,” 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 Dian guide

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PELLUCIDAR

us toward Amoz, and we shall come in a short time to the


same coast whence 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 Dian
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 Pellucidarian be lost. This is, I think, why we
all fear the great ocean so—even those who go upon its sur-
face in canoes. Juag has told us that they never go beyond
the sight of land.”

We had lowered the sail after the blow while we were dis-
cussing 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 Dian 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 Dian gave an exclamation and pointed astern.

“Boats!” she cried. “Boats! Many, many boats!”

. Juag 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 Dian had indicated. Sure enough, scarce half
a mile away were several boats, 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 cafion; but they were boats.

And in them must be human beings like ourselves.

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EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

CHAPTER XI

RACING FOR LIFE

Ar tast the sea subsided, and we were able to get a better


view of the armada of small boats in our wake. There must
have been two hundred of them. Juag said that he had
never seen so many boats before in all his life. Where had
they come from? Juag was first to hazard a guess.

- “Hooja,” he said, “was building many boats to carry his


warriors to the great river and up it toward Sari. 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 boats as they told me
Hooja was building. These must be Hooja’s boats.”

“And they were blown out to sea by the great storm just
as we were, suggested Dian.

“There can be no better explanation of them,” I agreed.

“What shall we do?” asked Juag.

“Suppose we make sure that they are really Hooja’s people,”


suggested Dian. “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 Juag.

“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
guess that we do not belong to their fleet.”

“They probably want to ask the way to the mainland


themselves,” said Juag, who was nothing if not a pessimist.

“If they want to catch us, they can do it if they can


paddle faster than we can sail,” I said. “If we Jet them come
close enough to discover their identity, and can then sail

130

_ PELLUCIDAR

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 five hundred 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
twenty paddlers, ten to a side. Besides the paddlers there
were twenty-five or more warriors in each boat.

When the leader was a hundred yards from us Dian called


our attention to the fact that several of her crew were Sagoths.
That convinced us that the flotilla was indeed Hooja’s. I told
Juag 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. Dian lay down at full length in the bottom; I did
not want them to see and recognize her if they were in truth
Hoojas people.

“Who are youP” shouted Juag, 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 J recognized even before he spoke.

“I am Hooja!” cried the man, in answer to Juag.

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 hun-


dred 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 Juag. “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, lum-
bering dugout was slow in getting under way. I thought it
never would gain any momentum. And all the while Hooja’s
canoe was drawing rapidly nearer, propelled by the strong

131

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

arms of his twenty 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. Dian and
I remained out of sight as much as possible, for the two
craft were now well within bow-shot of one another, and I
knew that Hooja had archers.

Hooja called to Juag to stop when he saw that our craft


was moving. He was much interested in the sail, and not a
little awed, as I could tell by his shouted remarks and
questions. Raising my head, I saw him plainly. He would
have made an excellent target for one of my guns, and I
had never been sorrier that I had lost them.

We were now picking up speed a trifle, and he was not


gaining upon us so fast as at first. In consequence, his re-
quests that we stop 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 use the word fire because it more nearly translates into


English the Pellucidarian word trag, which covers the launch-
ing of any deadly missile.

But Juag only seized his paddle more tightly—the paddle


that answered the purpose of rudder, and commenced to as-
sist the wind by vigorous strokes. Then Hooja gave the
command to some of his archers to fire upon us. I couldn't
lie hidden in the bottom of the boat, leaving Juag alone ex-
posed to the deadly shafts, so I arose and, seizing another
paddle, set to work to help him. Dian 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 Hooja saw us he recognized us. The


whoop 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 Hooja caused his men to cease firing—he
wanted us alive. None of the missiles struck us, for Hooja’s
archers were not nearly the marksmen that are my Sarians
and Amozites. |

We had now gained sufficient headway to hold our own


on about even terms with Hooja’s paddlers. We did not

132
PELLUCIDAR

seem to be gaining, though; and neither did they. How long


this nerve-racking 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 sighted land, nor could I understand


it, since so many of thé seas I had seen before were thickly
dotted with islands. Our plight was anything but pleasant,
yet I think that Hooja 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 curved upward in the


distance, to be lost in the haze, strung Hooja’s two hundred
boats. But one would have been enough to have taken us
could it have come alongside. We had drawn some fifty
yards ahead of Hooja—there had been times when we were
scarce ten yards in advance—and were feeling considerably
safer from capture. Hooja’s 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. 7 |

Hooja 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. ,

Hooja 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. Juag was so tickled that he
forgot all about his hunger and thirst. I think that he had
never been entirely reconciled to the heathenish invention
which I called a sail, and that down in the bottom of his
heart he believed that the paddlers would eventually over-
haul us; but now he couldn’t praise it enough.

We had a strong gale for a considerable time, and

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EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

eventually dropped Hooja’s fleet so far astern that we could


no longer discern them. And then—ah, I shall never forget that
moment—Dian 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 then. Raja and Ranee were commencing to suffer for
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 Ranee 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 Dian. It was pretty close quarters in that little dug-
out for three human beings and two practically wild, man-
eating dogs; but we had to make the best of it, since 1
would not listen to Juag’s suggestion that we kill and eat
Raja and Ranee.

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 Juag 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


Hooja’s fleet appeared in the distance!

They evidently had gone far to the left of our course, for
they were now almost behind us as we ran parallel to the
coast; but we were not much afraid of bemg 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

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PELLUCIDAR

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; Juag 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 at-
tempting. But Hooja had drawn closer in toward 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, Dian 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.

Hooja was drawing closer to us. There was no wind. We


could not hope to outpaddle 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 Hooja’s that the
three of us forced it ahead almost as rapidly as his larger
craft could go under their twenty 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
wished that we might make for it; but with the menace of

135

Pal

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

Hooja close behind and the screaming natives who raced


along the shore parallel to us, I dared 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.

Hooja’s fleet had been in much more compact formation


when we sighted them this time than on the occasion fol-
lowing 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 wearying beneath the
constant strain that had been put upon us.

It was then that Juag called my attention to the rift in |


the shore-line 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.

CHAPTER XIV

GORE AND DREAMS

It was a two-masted felucca with Jateen sails! The craft


was long and low. In it were more than fifty men, twenty ©
or thirty of whom were at oars with which the craft was
being propelled from the lee of the land. I was dumb-
founded.

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PELLUCIDAR

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! And 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 fifty of the trim, graceful
vessels. They were cutting in between Hooja’s fleet and our
little dugout.

When they came a bit closer my eyes fairly popped from


head at at what I saw, for in the eye of the leading felucca
stood a man with a sea-glass leveled 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, where a race
had so greatly outstripped all other races of this inner world?

The man with the glass had lowered 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 flut-
tering from the peak of the forward lateen 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 ab-
sence. It was my navy!

I dropped my paddle and stood up and shouted and


waved my hand. Juag and Dian 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 Hooja was coming nearer, nor could the leading
felucca overhaul him before he would be alongside or at least
within bow-shot.

Hooja 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 felucca cut him off.

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EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

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 Dian 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 Mezops must have brought with them all the
arms and ammunition that had been contained in the pros-
pector. But I was not prepared for what happened next.

As Hooja’s canoe reached a point some twenty yards from


us a great puff of smoke broke from the bow of the leading
felucca, followed almost simultaneously by a terrific ex-
plosion, and a solid shot screamed close over the heads of
the men in Hooja’s craft, raising a great splash where it
clove the water just beyond them.

Perry had perfected gunpowder and built cannon! It was


marvelous! Dian and Juag, as much surprised as Hooja, turned
wondering eyes toward me. Again the cannon spoke. I sup-
pose that by comparison with the great guns of modern naval
vessels of the outer world it was a pitifully small and in-
adequate thing; but here in Pellucidar, where it was the first
of its kind, it was about as awe-inspiring as anything you
might imagine. :

With the report an iron cannon-ball about five inches in


diameter struck Hooja’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 Hooja had


turned to intercept the leading felucca. 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

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PELLUCIDAR

the gunwale of the felucca to repel them. The commander of


the felucca, who proved to be Ja, let them come quite close
and then turned loose upon them a volley of shots from
small-arms.

; The cave men and Sagoths in the dugouts 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 felucca pursued them relentlessly, her crew firing at will.

At last I heard Ja shouting to the survivors in the dug-


outs—they were all quite close to us now—offering them
their lives if they would surrender. Perry was standing close
behind Ja, 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 Amoz,
the name that I could now see printed in large letters upon
the felucca’s bow, and which no one in that whole world
could read except Perry and I.

When the prisoners were aboard, Ja brought the felucca


alongside our dugout. Many were the willing hands that
reached down to lift us to her decks. The bronze faces of
the Mezops were broad with smiles, and Perry was fairly
beside himself with joy.

Dian went aboard first and then Juag, as I wished to help


Raja and Ranee aboard myself, well knowing that it would
fare ill with any Mezop 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 Dian 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 Hooja’s fleet had scarce
commenced. From the small forward decks of the feluccas
Perry’s crude cannon were belching smoke, flame, thunder,
and death. The air trembled to the roar of them. Hooja’s
horde, intrepid, savage fighters that they were, were closing

139

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

in to grapple in a last death-struggle with the Mezops who


manned our vessels. |

The handling of our fleet by the red island warriors of Ja’s


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 feluccas 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 at-


tempted to rectify this trouble to some extent. By passing
commands by word of mouth from one ship to another I
managed to get the fifty feluccas into some sort of line, with
the flag-ship 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 enabled to fire .
- our cannon and our small arms with less danger to our own
comrades.

When I had a moment to look about me, I took in the


felucca on which I was. I am free to confess that I marveled
at the excellent construction and stanch 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 battle-ships, 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 overawe these ignorant
cave men 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 impos-
sibility to frighten them into surrender.

I learned later that Ja 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

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PELLUCIDAR

measured out dimensions upon the ground, that Ja might


see the sizes of different boats. Perry had built models, and
Ja had had him read carefully and explain all that they
could find relative to the handling of sailing vessels. The
result of this was that Ja was the one who had chosen the
felucca. 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 Ja particularly to the felucca


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 com-
pleted Ja kept it on the water constantly, first with one crew .
and then with another, until two thousand red warriors had
learned to row. Then they stepped their masts 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
complement of men had been trained for every boat.

Well, to get back to the battle: The Hoojans 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 ten boat-
loads 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 Hoojan
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

14]
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

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
_Sagoth 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


reak.”

The Pellucidarians themselves are rather punctilious about


this same matter, so the Sagoth could understand that I
might possibly be speaking the truth. But he could not under-
stand 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 ten 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 wil] return at once to


Hooja’s Island, to the Mahar cities from which they come, or
to the countries from which they were stolen by the Mahars.
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 Sagoth who had spoken was talking to other Sagoths


in his boat. Evidently they were holding a council over the
question of the wisdom of surrendering.

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PELLUCIDAR

“What will become of you if you don’t surrender to us?”


~I asked. “If we do not open up our batteries on you again
and kill you all, you will simply drift about the sea help-
-lessly uniil 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 ‘his Sagoth


speaker was in charge surrendered. The Sagoths threw down
their weapons, and we took them aboard the ship next in
line behind the Amoz. First Ja 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 Pellucidarian
seas had ever witnessed—though Perry still insists that the
action in which the Sari took part was a battle of the first
magnitude.

The battle over and the prisoners disposed of and fed—and


do not imagine that Dian, Juag, and I, as well as the two
hounds were not fed also—I turned my attention to the fleet.
We had the feluccas close in about the flag-ship, and with
all the ceremony of a medieval potentate on parade I re-
ceived the commanders of the forty-nine feluccas that ac-
companied the flag-ship—Dian and I together—the empress
and the emperor of Pellucidar.

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 Pellucidar, and that all
that they were accomplishing and all that he was accomplish-
ing 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 Dian’s I think they en-
joyed it more; I know I should have.

A happy thought occurred to me as I stood upon little

143

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

deck of the Amoz with the first of Perry’s primitive cannon


behind me. When Ja kneeled at my. feet, and first to do me
homage, I drew from its scabbard at his side the sword of
hammered iron that Perry had taught him to fashion. Strik-
ing him lightly on the shoulder I created him king of Anoroc.
Each captain of the forty-nine other feluccas 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 Ranee had stood beside
Dian 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 Ja. The former told me that Ghak, king of
Sari, had sent my letter and map to him by a runner, and
that he and Ja had at once decided to set out on the com-
pletion of the fleet to ascertain the correctness of my theory
that the Lural Az, in which the Anoroc 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 Hooja, and


they had sent word to Ghak 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 Hooja’s fleet pur-
suing our dugout.

I asked Perry if he had any idea as to where we were, or


in what direction lay Hooja’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 Hooja’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 feluccas were

144

PELLUCIDAR

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 un-
usual work, but Perry assured me that they were a wonder-
fully 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 Anoroc for a sufficient
period to permit of building a fleet of fifty feluccas 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 Mezop was armed, as well as the
gunpowder and ammunition they had in such ample quan-
tities.

“Timel” exclaimed Perry. “Well, how long were you gone


from Anoroc before we picked you up in the Sojar Az?”

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 alma un-


believable resources at my disposal. The Mezops inhabiting
the Anoroc 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 Ja. Men, women, and children turned to and
worked the moment Ja explained the nature of our enterprise.

“And not only were they anxious to do all in their power


to hasten the day when the Mahars should be overthrown,
but—and this counted for most of all—they are simply
ravenous for greater knowledge and for better ways of doing

“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,


| 145

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

or, rather, lack of time, operated to my advantage. There


being no nights, there was no laying off from work—they
labored incessantly stopping only to eat and, on rare oc-
casions, to sleep. Once we had discovered iron ore we had
enough mined 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 three
thousand Mezops fell to work to make rifles. Of course there
was much confusion and lost motion at first, but eventually
Ja got them in hand, detailing squads of them under com-
petent chiefs to certain work.

“We now have a hundred expert gun-makers. On a little


isolated isle we have a great powder-factory. Near the iron-
mine, which is on the mainland, is a smelter, and on the
eastern shore of Anoroc, 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
Anoroc. 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 twentieth
century back to the Stone Age. It is a miracle to think that
only five hundred miles of earth separate two epochs that
are really ages and ages apart.

“It is stupendous, Perry! But still more stupendous is the


power that you and I wield in this great world. These people
look upon us as little less than supermen. 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

146

PELLUCIDAR

_ 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 Pellucidarians ever before
had gathered together. We butchered some eight thousand
warriors with the twentieth-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 sci-
entific methods of killing one another.”

The old man looked at me in amazement. There was re-

proach 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 sug-
gested 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 have done precisely what I should have done,
only you've done it better. I’m not finding fault; but I dont
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—

“Ah, 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, plow-shares
and telephones, schools and colleges, printing-presses and

147

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

paper! When our merchant marine shall ply the great Pelluci-
darian seas, and cargoes of silks and typewriters and books
shall forge their ways where only hideous saurians have
held sway since time began!”

“Amen!” said Perry. |

And Dian, who was standing at my side, pressed my hand.

CHAPTER XV

CONQUEST AND PEACE

THE FLEET sailed directly for Hooja’s island, coming to anchor


at its north-eastern extremity before the flat-topped hill that
had been Hooja’s stronghold. I-sent one of the prisoners
ashore to demand an immediate surrender; but as he told
me afterward they wouldn't believe all that he told them, so
they congregated on the cliff-top and shot futile arrows at us.

In repiy I had five of the feluccas cannonade thcm. When


they scampered away at the sound of the terrific explosions,
and at sight of the smoke and the iron balls I landed a couple
of hundred red warriors and led them to the opposite end of
the hill into the tunnel that ran to its summit. Here we met a
little resistance; but a volley from the muzzle-loaders turned
back those who disputed our right of way, and presently we
gained the mesa. Here again we met resistance, but at last
the remnant of Hooja’s horde surrendered.

Juag was with me, and I lost no time in returning to him ©


and his tribe the hilltop that had been their ancestral home
for ages until they were robbed of it by Hooja. I created a
kingdom of the island, making Juag king there. Before we
sailed I went to Cr-gr- -gr, chief of the beast-men, taking
Juag with me. There the three of us arranged a code of |
laws that would permit the brute-folk and the human
beings of the island to live in peace and harmony. Gr-gr-gr
sent his son with me back to: Sari, capital of my empire, that

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PELLUCIDAR

he might learn the ways of the human beings. I have hopes


of turning this race into the greatest agriculturists of Pel-
lucidar.

When I returned to the fleet I found that one of the


islanders of Juag’s tribe, who had been absent when we
arrived, had just returned from the mainland with the news
that a great army was encamped in the Land of Awful
Shadow, and that they were threatening Thuria. I lost no
time in weighing anchors and setting out for the continent,
which we reached after a short and easy voyage.

From the deck of the Amoz I scanned the shore through the
glasses that Perry had brought with him. When we were close
enough for the glasses to be of value 1 saw that there was in-
deed a vast concourse of warriors entirely encircling the
walled village of Goork, chief of the Thurians. As we ap-
proached smaller objects became distinguishable. It was
then that I discovered numerous flags and pennants floating
above the army of the besiegers.

I called Perry and passed the glasses to him.

“Ghak of Sari,” I said.

Perry looked through the lenses for a moment, and then


turned to me with a smile.

“The red, white, and blue of the empire,” he said. “It is


indeed your majesty s army.

It soon became apparent that we had been sighted by


those on shore, for a great multitude of warriors had con-
gregated along the beach watching us. We came to anchor
as close in as we dared, which with our light feluccas was
within easy speaking-distance of the shore. Ghak was there
and his eyes were mighty wide, too; for, as he told us later,
though he knew this must be Perry’s fleet it was so wonderful
to him that he could not believe the testimony of his own
eyes even while he was watching it approach.

To give the proper effect to our meeting I commanded that


each felucca fire twenty-one guns as a Salute to His Majesty
Ghak, King of Sari. Some of the gunners, in the exuberance
of their enthusiasm, fired solid shot; but fortunately they had
sufficient good judgment to train their pieces on the open sea,

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EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

so no harm was done. After this we landed—an arduous task


since each felucca carried but a single light dugout.

I learned from Ghak that the Thurian chieftain, Goork, had:


been inclined to haughtiness, and had told Ghak, the Hairy
One, that he knew nothing of me and cared less; but I
imagine that the sight of the feet and the sound of the guns
brought him to his senses, for it was not long before he sent |
a deputation to me, inviting me to visit him in his village.
Here he apologized for the treatment he had accorded me,
very gladly swore allegiance to the empire, and received in
return the title of king.

We remained in Thuria only long enough to arrange the


treaty with Goork, among the other details of which was his
promise to furnish the imperial army with a thousand lidi,
or Thurian beasts of burden, and drivers for them. These
were to accompany Ghak’s army back to Sari by land, while
the fleet sailed to the mouth of the great river from which
Dian, Juag, and I had been blown.

The voyage was uneventful. We found the river easily,


and sailed up it for many miles through as rich and wonder- —
ful a plain as I have ever seen. At the head of navigation
we disembarked, leaving a sufficient guard for the feluccas, ~
and marched the remaining distance to Sari.

Ghak’s army, which was composed of warriors of all the’


Original tribes of the federation, showing how successful had
been his efforts to rehabilitate the empire, marched into
Sari some time after we arrived. With them were the thousand
lidi from Thuria.

At a council of the kings it was decided that we should at


once commence the great war against the Mahars, for these
haughty reptiles presented the greatest obstacle to human
progress within Pellucidar. I laid out a plan of campaign
which met with the enthusiastic indorsement of the kings.
Pursuant to it, I at once despatched fifty lidi to the fleet
with orders to fetch fifty cannon to Sari. I also ordered the
fleet to proceed at once to Anoroc,-where they were to take
aboard all the rifles and ammunition that had been completed
since their departure, and with a full complement of men to
sail along the coast in an attempt to find a passage to the in-
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PELLUCIDAR

land sea near which lay the Mahars’ buried city of Phutra.

Ja was sure that a large and navigable river connected


the sea of Phutra with the Lural Az, and that, barring ac-
cident, the fleet would be before Phutra as soon as the land
forces were. _

At last the great army started upon its march. There were
warriors from every one of the federated kingdoms. All were
armed either with bow and arrows or muzzle-loaders, for
nearly the entire Mezop contingent had been enlisted for this
march, only sufficient having been left aboard the feluccas to
man them properly. I divided the forces into divisions, regi-
ments, battalions, companies, and even to platoons and sec-
tions, appointing the full complement of officers and non-
commissioned officers. On the long march I schooled them
in their duties, and as fast as one learned I sent him among
the others as a teacher.

Each regiment was made up of about a thousand bowmen,


and to each was temporarily attached a company of Mezop
musketeers and a battery of artillery—the latter, our naval
guns, mounted upon the broad backs of the mighty lidi.
There was also one full regiment of Mezop musketeers and
a regiment of primitive spearmen. The rest of the lidi that we
brought with us were used for baggage animals and to
transport our women and children, for we had brought them
with us, as it was our intention to march from one Mahar
city to another until we had subdued every Mahar nation
that menaced the safety of any kingdom of the empire.

Before we reached the plain of Phutra we were discovered


by a company of Sagoths, who at first stood to give battle;
but upon seeing the vast numbers of our army they turned
and fled toward Phutra. The result of this was that when we
came in sight of the hundred towers which mark the entrances
to the buried city we found a great army of Sagoths and
Mahars lined up to give us battle.

At a thousand yards we halted, and, placing our artillery


upon a slight eminence at either flank, we commenced to drop
solid shot among them. Ja, who was chief artillery officer,
was in command of this branch of the service, and he did
some excellent work, for his Mezop gunners had become

151

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS


rather proficient by this time. The Sagoths couldn’t stand
much of this sort of warfare, so they charged us, yelling like
fiends. We let them come quite close, and then the musketeers
who formed the first line opened up on them.

The slaughter was something frightful, but still the rem-


nants of them kept on coming until it was a matter of hand-
to-hand fighting. Here our spearmen were of value, as were
also the crude iron swords with which most .of the imperial
warriors were armed.

We lost heavily in the encounter after the Sagoths reached


us; but they were absolutely exterminated—not one re-
mained even as a prisoner. The Mahars, seeing how the battle
was going, had hastened to the safety of their buried city.
_— we had overcome their gorilla-men we followed after

em.

But here we were doomed to defeat, at least tempor-


arily; for no sooner had the first of our troops descended
into the subterranean avenues than many of.them came
stumbling and fighting their way back to the surface, half-
choked by the fumes of some deadly gas that the reptiles had
liberated upon them. We lost a number of men here. Then I
sent for Perry, who had remained discreetly in the rear, and
had him construct a little affair that I had had in my mind
against the possibility of our meeting with a check at the
entrances to the underground city.

Under my direction he stuffed one of his cannon full of


powder, small bullets, and pieces of stone, almost to the
muzzle. Then he plugged the muzzle tight with a cone-shaped
block of wood, hammered and jammed in as tight as it could
be. Next he inserted a long fuse. A dozen men rolled the
cannon to the top of the stairs leading down into the city,
first removing it from its carriage. One of them then lit the
fuse and the whole thing was given a shove down the
Stairway, while the detachment turned and scampered to a
safe distance.

.For what seemed a very long time nothing happened. We


had commenced to think that the fuse had been put out while ~
the piece was rolling down the stairway, or that the Mahars
had guessed its purpose and extinguished it themselves, when

152 3 :

PELLUCIDAR

the ground about the entrance rose suddenly into the air, to
be followed by a terrific explosion and a burst of smoke and
flame that shot high in company with dirt, stone, and frag-
ments of cannon.
Perry had been working on two more of these giant bombs
as soon as the first was completed. Presently we launched
these into two of the other entrances. They were all that were
required, for almost immediately after the third explosion a
stream of Mahars broke from the exits furthest from us, rose
upon their wings, and soared northward. A hundred men on
lidi were despatched in pursuit, each lidi carrying two riflemen
in addition to its driver. Guessing that the inland sea, which
lay not far north of Phutra, was their destination, I took a
couple of regiments and followed.

A low ridge intervenes between the Phutra plain where the


city lies, and the inland sea where the Mahars were wont to
disport themselves in the cool waters. Not until we had
topped this ridge did we get a view of the sea.

Then we beheld a scene that I shall never forget so long as


I may live. |

Along the beach were lined up the troop of lidi, while a


hundred yards from shore the surface of the water was black
with the long snouts and cold, reptilian eyes of the Mahars.
Our savage Mezop riflemen, and the shorter, squatter, white-
skinned Thurian drivers, shading their eyes with their hands,
were gazing seaward beyond the Mahars, whose eyes were
fastened upon the same spot. My heart leaped when I dis-
covered that which was chaining the attention of them all.
Twenty graceful feluccas were moving smoothly across the
waters of the sea toward the reptilian horde!

The sight must have filled the Mahars with awe and con-
sternation, for never had they seen the like of these craft
before. For a time they seemed unable to do aught but gaze
- at the approaching fleet; but when the Mezops opened on
them with their muskets the reptiles swam rapidly in the di-
rection of the feluccas, evidently thinking that these would
prove the easier to overcome. The commander of the fleet per-
mitted them to approach within a hundred yards. Then he

153

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

opened on them with all the cannon that could be brought


to bear, as well as with the small arms of the sailors.

A great many of the reptiles were killed at the first volley.


They wavered for a moment, then dived; nor did we see
them again for a long time. :

But finally they rose far out beyond the fleet, and when
the feluccas came about and pursued them they left the water
and flew away toward the north.

Following the fall of Phutra I visited Anoroc, where I found


the people busy in the shipyards and the factories that Perry
had established. I discovered something, too, that he had not
told me of—something that seemed infinitely more promis-
ing than the powder-factory or the arsenal. It was a young
man poring over one of the books I had brought back from
the outer world! He was sitting in the log cabin that Perry
had had built to serve as his sleeping quarters and office. So
absorbed was he that he did not notice our entrance. Perry
saw the look of astonishment in my eyes and smiled. |
_ “J started teaching him the alphabet when we first reached
the prospector, and were taking out its contents,” he ex-
plained. “He was much mystified by the books and anxious
to know of what use they were. When I explained he asked —
me to teach him to read, and so I worked with him whenever
I could. He is very intelligent and learns quickly. Before I left
he had made great progress, and as soon as he is qualified
he is going to teach others to read. It was mighty hard work
getting started, though, for everything had to be translated
into Pellucidarian.

“It will take a long time to solve this problem, but I think
that by teaching a number of them to read and write English
we shall then be able more quickly to give them a written
language of their own.”

And this was the nucleus about which we were to build


Our great system of schools and colleges—this almost naked
red warrior, sitting in Perry’s little cabin upon the island of
Anoroc, picking out words letter by letter from a work on in-
tensive farming. Now we have--

But Ill get to all that before I finish.

While we were at Anoroc I accompanied Ja in an ex-

154

PELLUCIDAR

-pedition to South Island, the southernmost of the three largest


which form the Anoroc group—Perry had given it its name—
where we made peace with the tribe there that had for long
been. hostile toward Ja. They were now glad enough to make
friends with him and come into the federation. From there
we sailed with sixty-five feluccas for distant Luana, the main
island of the group where dwell the hereditary enemies of
Anoroc. ,

Twenty-five of the feluccas were of a new and larger type


than those with which Ja and Perry had sailed on the oc-
casion when they chanced to find and rescue Dian and me.
They were longer, carried much larger sails, and were con-
siderably swifter. Each carried four guns instead of two, and
' these were so arranged that one or more of them could be
brought into action no matter where the enemy lay.

The Luana group lies just beyond the range of vision from
the mainland. The largest island of it alone is visible from
Anoroc; but when we neared it we found that it comprised
many beautiful islands, and that they were thickly populated.
The Luanians had not, of course, been ignorant of all that
had been going on in the domains of their nearest and dearest
enemies. They knew of our feluccas and our guns, for several
of their raiding-parties had had a taste of both. But their
principal chief, an old man, had never seen either. So, when
he sighted us, he put out to overwhelm us, bringing with
him a.fleet of about a hundred large war-canoes, loaded to
capacity with javelin-armed warriors. It was pitiful, and I told
Ja as much. It seemed a shame to massacre these poor fel-
lows if there was any way out of it.

To my surprise Ja felt much as I did. He said he had al-


ways hated to war with other Mezops when there were so
many alien races to fight against. I suggested that we hail
the chief and request a parley; but when Ja did so the old
fool thought that we were afraid, and with loud cries of exul-
tation urged his warriors upon us.

So we opened up on them, but at my suggestion centered


our fire upon the chief's canoe. The result was that in about
thirty seconds there was nothing left of that war dugout but a
handful of splinters, while its crew—those who were not

155

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS


killed—were struggling in the water, battling with the myriad

terrible creatures that had risen to devour them.

We saved some of them, but the majority died just as had


Hooja and the crew of his canoe that time our second shot
capsized them. |

Again we called to the remaining warriors to entér into a


parley with us; but the chief's son was there and he would
not, now that he had seen his father killed. He was all for
revenge. So we had to open up on the brave fellows with
all our guns; but it didn’t last long at that, for there chanced.
to be wiser heads among the Luanians than their chief or his
son had possessed. Presently, an old warrior who com-
manded one of the dugouts surrendered. After that they
came in one by one until all had laid their weapons upon
our decks.

Then we called together upon the flag-ship all our captains,


to give the affair greater weight and dignity, and all the
principal men of Luana. We had conquered them, and they
expected either death or slavery; but they deserved neither,
and I told them so. It is always my habit here in Pellucidar
to impress upon these savage people that mercy is as noble a —
quality as physical bravery, and that next to the men who fight
shoulder to shoulder with one, we should honor the brave
men who fight against us, and if we are victorious, award
them both the mercy and honor that are their due.

By adhering to this policy I have won to the federation


many great and noble peoples, who under the ancient tradi-
tions of the inner world would have been massacred or en-
slaved after we had conquered them; and thus I won the
Luanians. I gave them their freedom, and returned their
weapons to them after they had sworn loyalty to me and
friendship and peace with Ja, and~I made the old fellow,
who had had the good sense to surrender, king of Luana, for
both the old chief and his only son had-died in the battle.

When I sailed away from Luana she was included among


the kingdoms of the empire, whose boundaries were thus
pushed eastward several hundred miles.

We now returned to Anoroc and thence to the mainland,


where I again took up the campaign against the Mahars,

156

PELLUCIDAR

marching from one great buried city to another until we had


passed far north of Amoz into a country where I had never
been. At each city we were victorious, killing or capturing
the Sagoths and driving the Mahars further away.

I noticed that they always fled toward the north. The-


Sagoth prisoners we usually found quite ready to transfer
their allegiance to us, for they are little more than brutes,
and when they found that we could fill their stomachs and
give them plenty of fighting, they were nothing loath to
march with us against the next Mahar city and battle with
men of their own race.

Thus we proceeded, swinging in a great half-circle north


and west and south again until we had come back to the
edge of the Lidi Plains north of Thuria. Here we overcame

the Mahar city that had ravaged the Land of Awful Shadow
for so many ages. When we marched on to Thuria, Goork and
his people went mad with joy at the tidings we brought them.

During this long march of conquest we had passed through


seven countries, peopled by primitive human tribes who had
not yet heard of the federation, and succeeded in joining
them all to the empire. It was noticeable that each of these
peoples had a Mahar city situated near by, which had drawn
upon them for slaves and human food for so many ages that
not even in legend had the population any folk-tale which
did not in some degree reflect an inherent terror of the rep-

In each of these countries JI left an officer and warriors to


train them in military discipline, and prepare them to re-
ceive the arms that I intended furnishing them as rapidly as
Perry’s arsenal could turn them out, for we felt that it would
be a long, long time before we should see the last of the
Mahars. That they had flown north but temporarily until we
should be gone with our great army and terrifying guns I
was positive, and equally sure was I that they would
presently return. |

The task of ridding Pellucidar of these hideous creatures

_ is-one which in all probability will never be entirely com-


pleted, for their great cities must abound by the hundreds

157

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

and thousands in the far-distant lands that no subject of the


empire has ever laid eyes upon. ~

But within the present boundaries of my domain there are


now none left that I know of, for I am sure we should have
heard indirectly of any great Mahar city that had escaped
us, although of course the imperial army has by no means
covered the vast area which I now rule.

After leaving Thuria we returned to Sari, where the seat


of government is located. Here, upon a vast, fertile plateau,
overlooking the great gulf that runs into the continent from
the Lural Az, we are building the great city of Sari. Here
we are erecting mills and factories. Here we are teaching men
and women the rudiments of agriculture. Here Perry has
built the first printing-press, and a dozen young Sarians are
teaching their fellows to read and write the language of
Pellucidar.

We have just laws and only a few of them. Our people are
happy because they are always working at something which
they enjoy. There is no money, nor is any money value
placed upon any commodity. Perry and I were as one in
resolving that the root of all evil should not be introduced into
Pellucidar while we lived.

A man may exchange that which he produces for some-


thing which he desires that another has produced; but he
cannot dispose of the thing he thus acquires. In other
words, a commodity ceases to have pecuniary value the in-
stant that it passes out of the hands of its producer. All excess
reverts to government; and, as this represents the production
of the people as a government, government may dispose of
it to other peoples in exchange for that which they produce.
Thus we are establishing a trade between kingdoms, the
profits from which go to the betterment of the people—to
building factories for the manufacture of agricultural imple-
ments, and machinery for the various trades we are gradually
teaching the people.

Already Anoroc and Luana are vying with one another in


the excellence of the ships they build. Each has several
large ship-yards. Anoroc makes gunpowder and mines iron ore,

158

PELLUCIDAR

and by means of their ships they carry on a very lucrative


trade with Thuria, Sari, and Amoz. The Thurians breed lidi,
which, having the strength and intelligence of an elephant,
make excellent draft animals. _ |

Around Sari and Amoz the men are domesticating the great
striped antelope, the meat of which is most delicious. ] am
sure that it will not be long before they will have them
broken to harness and saddle. The horses of Pellucidar are
far too diminutive for such uses, some species of them being
little larger than fox-terriers.

-Dian and I live in a great palace overlooking the gulf.


There is no glass in our windows, for we have no windows,
the walls rising but a few feet above the floor-line, the rest
of the space being open to the ceilings; but we have a roof to
shade us from the perpetual noon-day sun. Perry and I de-
cided to set a style in architecture that would not curse
future generations with the white plague, so we have plenty
of ventilation. Those of the people who prefer, still inhabit
their caves, but many are building houses similar to ours.

At Greenwich we have located a town and an observatory—


though there is nothing to observe but the stationary sun
directly overhead. Upon the edge of the Land of Awful
Shadow is another observatory, from which the time is flashed
by wireless to every corner of the empire twenty-four times
a day. In addition to the wireless, we have a small telephone
system in Sari. Everything is yet in the early stages of
development; but with the science of the outer-world twenti-
eth century to draw upon we are making rapid progress, and
with all the faults and errors of the outer world to guide us
clear of dangers, I think that it will not be long before
Pellucidar will become as nearly a Utopia as one may expect
to find this side of heaven. | ,

_ Perry is away just now, laying out a railway-line from Sari


to Amoz. There are immense anthracite coal-fields at the head
of the gulf not far from Sari, and the railway will tap these.
Some of his students are working on a locomotive now. It
will be a strange sight to see an iron horse puffing through
the primeval jungles of the stone age, while cave bears, saber-
toothed tigers, mastodons and the countless other terrible
159 :

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

creatures of the past look on from their tangled lairs in


wide-eyed astonishment.

We are very happy, Dian and I, and IJ would not return


to the outer world for all the riches of all its princes. I am
‘content here. Even without my imperial powers and honors
I should be content, for have I not that greatest of all
treasures, the love of a good woman—my wondrous empress,
Dian the Beautiful?

160

PELLUGIDAR

In the hidden world at the Earth’s core,


David Innes who first discovered it, was
struggling to carve a civilization out of its
Stone Age perils, but he had to drop his
work to embark on a hunt for the kidnapped
empress, the cavewoman Dian the Beautiful.
His search for Dian, his use of surface sci-
ence against Pellucidar monsterdom, makes
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ PELLUCIDAR an_
action-packed high-adventure science-fiction
novel. -

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