CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Don Holbert 
 
 UNMHORADL'ATE DgRXS? 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PS3503.U8175A8 1914 
 
 At the earth's core / 
 
 3 1924 012 920 777 
 
 AT THE EABTH'S CORE 
 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 CATLeRD 
 
 
 
 1 miNTIOlM U.S.A. 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924012920777 
 

 AT THE 
 
 EARTH'S CORE; 
 
 by Edgar Rice Burroughs 
 
 Nelson Doxjbleday, Inc. 
 Garden City, New York 
 
 URIS LIBRARY 
 
 ''EB 1 6 1988 
 
Wl\JD 
 3.S63, 
 
 C'Ji of ^0^ HfflUi^t 
 
 Copyright © 1914 by Frank A. Munsey Company 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Designed by Ron Lombardi 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
33 
 44 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PROLOG 1 
 
 I TOWARD THE ETERNAL FIRES 3 
 
 II A STRANGE WORLD 13 
 
 III A CHANGE OF MASTERS 24 
 
 IV DIAN THE BEAUTIFUL 
 V SLAVES 
 
 VI THE BEGINNING OF HORROR 53 
 
 VII FREEDOM 60 
 
 VIII THE MAHAR TEMPLE 67 
 
 IX THE FACE OF DEATH 81 
 
 X PHUTRA AGAIN 89 
 
 XI FOUR DEAD MAHARS 102 
 
 XII PURSUIT 109 
 
 XIII THE SLY ONE 114 
 
 XIV THE GARDEN OF EDEN 120 
 XV BACK TO EARTH 141 
 
AT THE EARTH'S COBE 
 
PROLOG 
 
 In the first place please bear in mind that I do not ex- 
 pect you to believe this story. Nor covdd you wonder had 
 you witnessed a recent experience of mine when, in the 
 armor of bhssful and stupendous ignorance, I gaily nar- 
 rated the gist of it to a Fellow of the Royal Geological So- 
 ciety on the occasion of my last trip to London. 
 
 You would surely have thought that I had been de- 
 tected in no less a heinous crime than the purloining of 
 the Crown Jewels from the Tower, or putting poison in 
 the coffee of His Majesty the King. 
 
 The erudite gentleman in whom I confided congealed 
 before I was half through!— it is all that saved him from 
 exploding— and my dreams of an Honorary Fellowship, 
 gold medals, and a niche in the Hall of Fame faded into 
 the thin, cold air of his arctic atmosphere. 
 
 But I beUeve the story, and so would you, and so would 
 the learned Fellow of the Royal Geological Society, had 
 you and he heard it from the Hps of the man who told it 
 to me. Had you seen, as I did, the fire of truth in those 
 gray eyes; had you felt the ring of sincerity in that quiet 
 voice; had you realized the pathos of it all— you, too, 
 would believe. You would not have needed the final ocu- 
 lar proof that I had— the weird rhamphorhynchus-Hke 
 creature which he had brought back with him from the 
 inner world. 
 
 I came upon him quite suddenly, and no less unex- 
 pectedly, upon the rim of the great Sahara Desert. He 
 was standing before a goat-skin tent amidst a clump of 
 
4 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 make us fabulously wealthy— we were going to make the 
 whole thing pubhc after the successful issue of our first 
 secret trial— but Perry never returned from that trial trip, 
 and I only after ten years. 
 
 I recall as it were but yesterday the night of that mo- 
 mentous occasion upon which we were to test the practi- 
 caUty of that wondrous invention. It was near midnight 
 when we repaired to the lofty tower in which Perry had 
 constructed his "iron mole" as he was wont to call the 
 thing. The great nose rested upon the bare earth of the 
 floor. We passed through the doors into the outer jacket, 
 secured them, and then passing on into the cabin, which 
 contained the controlling mechanism within the inner 
 tube, switched on the electric hghts. 
 
 Perry looked to his generator; to the great tanks that 
 held the life-giving chemicals with which he was to man- 
 ufacture fresh air to replace that which we consumed in 
 breathing; to his instruments for recording temperatures, 
 speed, distance, and for examining the materials through 
 which we were to pass. 
 
 He tested the steering device, and overlooked the 
 mighty cogs which transmitted its marvelous velocity to 
 the giant drill at the nose of his strange craft. 
 
 Our seats, into which we strapped om-selves, were so 
 arranged upon transverse bars that we would be upright 
 whether the craft were ploughing her way downward into 
 the bowels of the earth, or running horizontally along 
 some great seam of coal, or rising vertically toward the 
 surface again. 
 
 At length all was ready. Perry bowed his head in 
 prayer. For a moment we were silent, and then the old 
 man's hand grasped the starting lever. There was a fright- 
 ful roaring beneath us— the giant frame trembled and vi- 
 brated—there was a rush of soimd as the loose earth 
 passed up through the hollow space between the inner 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 5 
 
 and outer jackets to be deposited in our wake. We were 
 ofiFI 
 
 The noise was deafening. The sensation was frightful. 
 For a full minute neither of us could do aught but chng 
 with the proverbial desperation of the drowning man to 
 the handrails of our swinging seats. Then Perry glanced 
 at the thermometer. 
 
 "GadI" he cried, "it cannot be possible— quick! What 
 does the distance meter read?" 
 
 That and the speedometer were both on my side of the 
 cabin, and as I turned to take a reading from the former I 
 could see Perry muttering. 
 
 "Ten degrees rise— it cannot be possible!" and then I 
 saw him tug frantically upon the steering wheel. 
 
 As I finally found the tiny needle in the dim Hght I 
 translated Perry's evident excitement, and my heart sank 
 within me. But when I spoke I hid the fear which 
 haunted me. 
 
 "It wiU be seven hundred feet, Perry," I said, "by the 
 time you can turn her into the horizontal." 
 
 "You'd better lend me a hand then, my boy," he re- 
 phed, "for I cannot budge her out of the vertical alone. 
 God give that our combined strength may be equal to the 
 task, for else we are lost." 
 
 I wormed my way to the old man's side with never a 
 doubt but that the great wheel would yield on the instant 
 to the power of my young and vigorous muscles. Nor was 
 my belief mere vanity, for always had my physique been 
 the envy and despair of my fellows. And for that very 
 reason it had waxed even greater than nature had in- 
 tended, since my natural pride in my great strength had 
 led me to care for and develop my body and my muscles 
 by every means within my power. What with boxing, 
 football, and base-ball, I had been in training since child- 
 hood. 
 
6 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 And so it was with the utmost confidence that I laid 
 hold of the huge iron rim; but though I threw every 
 otmce of my strength into it, my best effort was as una- 
 vailing as Perry's had been— the thing would not budge— 
 the grim, insensate, horrible thing that was holding us 
 upon the straight road to death! 
 
 At length I gave up the useless struggle, and without a 
 word returned to my seat. There was no need for words— 
 at least none that I could imagine, unless Perry desired to 
 pray. And I was quite sure that he would, for he never 
 left an opportunity neglected where he might sandwich 
 in a prayer. He prayed when he arose in the morning, he 
 prayed before he ate, he prayed when he had finished 
 eating, and before he went to bed at night he prayed 
 again. In between he often found excuses to pray even 
 when the provocation seemed rather far-fetched to my 
 worldly eyes— now that he was about to die I felt positive 
 that I should witness a perfect orgy of prayer— if one may 
 allude with such a simile to so solemn an act. 
 
 But to my astonishment I discovered that with death 
 staring him in the face Abner Perry was transformed into 
 a new being. From his hps there flowed— not prayer— but 
 a clear and Hmpid stream of imdiluted profanity, and it 
 was aU directed at that quietly stubborn piece of unyield- 
 ing mechanism. 
 
 T should think. Perry," I chided, "that a man of your 
 professed rehgiousness would rather be at his prayers 
 than cursing in the presence of imminent death." 
 
 "Death!" he cried. "Death is it that appalls you? That 
 is nothing by comparison with the loss the world must 
 suffer. Why, David, within this iron cyhnder we have 
 demonstrated possibiUties that science has scarce 
 dreamed. We have harnessed a new principle, and with it 
 animated a piece of steel with the power of ten thousand 
 men. That two fives will be snuffed out is nothing to the 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 7 
 
 world calamity that entombs in the bowels of the earth 
 the discoveries that I have made and proved in the suc- 
 cessful construction of the thing that is now carrying us 
 farther and farther toward the eternal central fires." 
 
 I am frank to admit that for myself I was much more 
 concerned with our own immediate future than with any 
 problematical loss which the world might be about to 
 suffer. The world was at least ignorant of its bereavement, 
 while to me it was a real and terrible actuality. 
 
 "What can we do?" I asked, hiding my perturbation 
 beneath the mask of a low and level voice. 
 
 "We may stop here, and die of asphyxiation when our 
 atmosphere tanks are empty," replied Perry, "or we may 
 continue on with the slight hope that we may later 
 suflSciently deflect the prospector from the vertical to 
 carry us along the arc of a great circle which must even- 
 tually return us to the surface. If we succeed in so doing 
 before we reach the higher internal temperature we may 
 even yet survive. There would seem to me to be about 
 one chance in several million that we shall succeed- 
 otherwise we shall die more quickly but no more surely 
 than as though we sat supinely waiting for the torture of 
 a slow and horrible death." 
 
 I glanced at the thermometer. It registered no de- 
 grees. While we were talking the mighty iron mole had 
 bored its way over a mile into the rock of the earth's 
 crust. 
 
 "Let us continue on, then," I rephed. "It should soon 
 be over at this rate. You never intimated that the speed of 
 this thing would be so high. Perry. Didn't you know it?" 
 
 "No," he answered. "I could not figure the speed ex- 
 actly, for I had no instrument for measuring the mighty 
 power of my generator. I reasoned, however, that we 
 should make about five hundred yards an hour." 
 
 "And we are making seven miles an hour," I concluded 
 
8 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 for him, as I sat with my eyes upon the distance meter. 
 "How thick is the earth's crust, Perry?" I asked. 
 
 "There are almost as many conjectures as to that as 
 there are geologists," was his answer. "One estimates it 
 thirty miles, because the internal heat, increasing at the 
 rate of about one degree to each sixty to seventy feet 
 depth, would be suflBcient to fuse the most refractory sub- 
 stances at that distance beneath the siurface. Another 
 finds that the phenomena of precession and nutation re- 
 quire that the earth, if not entirely sohd, must at least 
 have a shell not less than eight hundred to a thousand 
 miles in thickness. So there you are. You may take your 
 choice." 
 
 "And if it should prove solid?" I asked. 
 
 "It will be all the same to us in the end, David," replied 
 Perry. "At the best our oil fuel wiU suffice to carry us but 
 three or four days, while our atmosphere cannot last to 
 exceed three. Neither, then, is sufficient to bear us in 
 safety through eight thousand miles of rock to the an- 
 tipodes." 
 
 "If the crust is of sufficient thickness we shall come to a 
 final stop between six and seven hundred miles beneath 
 the earth's surface; but during the last hundred and fifty 
 miles of oiu: journey we shall be corpses. Am I correct?" I 
 asked. 
 
 "Quite correct, David. Are you frightened?" 
 
 "I do not know. It aU has come so suddenly that I 
 scarce beHeve that either of us realizes the real terrors of 
 our position. I feel that I should be reduced to panic; but 
 yet I am not. I imagine that the shock has been so great 
 as to partially stun our sensibihties." 
 
 Again I turned to the thermometer. The mercury was 
 rising with less rapidity. It was now but 140 degrees, al- 
 though we had penetrated to a depth of nearly four nules. 
 I told"Perry, and he snuled. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 9 
 
 "We have shattered one theory at least/' was his only 
 comment, and then he returned to his self-assumed occu- 
 pation of fluently cursing the steering wheel. I once 
 heard a pirate swear, but his best efforts would have 
 seemed like those of a tyro alongside of Perry's masterful 
 and scientific imprecations. 
 
 Once more I tried my hand at the wheel, but I might as 
 well have essayed to swing the earth itself. At my sugges- 
 tion Perry stopped the generator, and as we came to rest I 
 again threw all my strength into a supreme effort to move 
 the thing even a hair's breadth— but the results were as 
 barren as when we had been travehng at top speed. 
 
 I shook my head sadly, and motioned to the starting 
 lever. Perry puUed it toward him, and once again we 
 were plunging downward toward eternity at the rate of 
 seven miles an hour. I sat with my eyes glued to the ther- 
 mometer and the distance meter. The mercury was rising 
 very slowly now, though even at 145 degrees it was al- 
 most unbearable within the narrow confines of our metal 
 prison. 
 
 About noon, or twelve hours after our start upon this 
 unfortunate journey, we had bored to a depth of eighty- 
 four miles, at which point the mercvuy registered 153 de- 
 grees F. 
 
 Perry was becoming more hopeful, although upon what 
 meager food he sustained his optimism I could not con- 
 jecture. From cursing he had tinned to singing— I felt that 
 the strain had at last affected his mind. For several hours 
 we had not spoken except as he asked me for the readings 
 of the instruments from time to time, and I announced 
 them. My thoughts were filled with vain regrets. I re- 
 called numerous acts of my past life which I should have 
 been glad to have had a few more years to live down. 
 There was the affair in the Latin Commons at Andover 
 when Calhoxm and I had put gimpowder in the stove— 
 
10 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 and nearly kj^ed one of the masters. And then— but what 
 was the use, I was about to die and atone for all these 
 things and several more. Abready the heat was suflBcient 
 to give me a foretaste of the hereafter. A few more de- 
 grees and I felt that I should lose consciousness. 
 
 "What are the readings now, David?" Perry's voice 
 broke in upon my somber reflections. 
 
 "Ninety miles and 153 degrees," I repUed. 
 
 "Gad, but we've knocked that thirty-mile-crust theory 
 into a cocked hat!" he cried gleefully. 
 
 "Precious lot of good it wiU do us," I growled back. 
 
 "But, my boy," he continued, "doesn't that tempera- 
 ture reading mean anything to you? Why, it hasn't gone 
 up in six miles. Think of it, soni" 
 
 "Yes, I'm thinking of it," I answered; "hut what 
 difference will it make when our air supply is exhausted 
 whether the temperature is 153 degrees or 153,000? We'll 
 be just as dead, and no one will know the difference, any- 
 how." But I must admit that for some unaccotmtable rea- 
 son the stationary temperature did renew my waning 
 hope. What I hoped for I could not have explained, nor 
 did I try. The very fact, as Perry took pains to explain, of 
 the blasting of several very exact and learned scientific 
 hypotheses made it apparent that we could not know 
 what lay before us within the bowels of the earth, and so 
 we might continue to hope for the best, at least until we 
 were dead— when hope would no longer be essential to 
 our happiness. It was very good, and logical reasoning, 
 and so I embraced it. 
 
 At one hundred miles the temperature had dropped to 
 i52y2 degrees! When I announced it Perry reached 
 over and hugged me. 
 
 From then on until noon of the second day it continued 
 to drop until it became as uncomfortably cold as it had 
 been unbearably hot before. At the depth of two hundred 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 1 1 
 
 and forty miles our nostrils were assailed tjy almost over- 
 powering ammonia fumes, and the temperature had 
 dropped to ten below zerol We suffered nearly two hours 
 of this intense and bitter cold, until at about two hundred 
 and forty-five miles from the surface of the earth we en- 
 tered a stratum of solid ice, when the mercury quickly 
 rose to 32 degrees. During the next three hours we passed 
 through ten miles of ice, eventually emerging into an- 
 other series of ammonia-impregnated strata, where the 
 mercury again fell to ten degrees below zero. 
 
 Slowly it rose once more until we were convinced that 
 at last we were nearing the molten interior of the earth. 
 At four hundred miles the temperatxire had reached 153 
 degrees. Feverishly I watched the thermometer. Slowly it 
 rose. Perry had ceased singing and was at last praying. 
 
 Our hopes had received such a deathblow that the 
 gradually increasing heat seemed to our distorted imagi- 
 nations much greater than it really was. For another hour 
 I saw that pitiless column of mercury rise and rise until at 
 four himdred and ten miles it stood at 153 degrees. Now 
 it was that we began to hang upon those readings in al- 
 most breathless anxiety. 
 
 One hundred and fifty-three degrees had been the max- 
 imum temperature above the ice stratum. Would it stop 
 at this point again, or would it continue its merciless 
 chmb? We knew that there was no hope, and yet with the 
 persistence of life itself we continued to hope against 
 practical certainty. 
 
 Already the air tanks were at low ebb— there was barely 
 enough of the precious gases to sustain us for another 
 twelve hours. But would we be ahve to know or care? It 
 seemed incredible. 
 
 At four hundred and twenty miles I took another 
 reading. 
 
12 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 "Perry!" I shouted. "Perry, man! She's going down! 
 She's going down! She's 152 degrees again." 
 
 "Gad!" he cried. "What can it mean? Can the earth be 
 cold at the center?" 
 
 "I do not know. Perry," I answered; "but thank God, if 
 I am to die it shall not be by fire— that is all that I have 
 feared. I can face the thought of any death but that." 
 
 Down, down went the mercury imtil it stood as low as 
 it had seven miles from the surface of the earth, and then 
 of a sudden the realization broke upon us that death was 
 very near. Perry was the first to discover it. I saw him 
 fussing with the valves that regulate the air supply. And 
 at the same time I experienced difficulty in breathing. My 
 head felt dizzy— my limbs heavy. 
 
 I saw Perry crumple in his seat. He gave himself a 
 shake and sat erect again. Then he turned toward me. 
 
 "Good-bye, David," he said, "I guess this is the end," 
 and then he smiled and closed his eyes. 
 
 "Good-bye, Perry, and good luck to you," I answered, 
 smiling back at him. But I fought off that awful lethargy. 
 I was very young— I did not want to die. 
 
 For an hoiu: I battled against the cruelly enveloping 
 death that surrounded me upon all sides. At first I found 
 that by climbing high into the framework above me I 
 could find more of the precious life-giving elements, and 
 for a while these sustained me. It must have been an hour 
 after Perry had succumbed that I at last came to the reali- 
 zation that I could no longer carry on this unequal strug- 
 gle against the inevitable. 
 
 With my last flickering ray of consciousness I turned 
 mechanically toward the distance meter. It stood at ex- 
 actly five hundred miles from the earth's surface— and 
 then of a sudden the huge thing that bore us came to a 
 stop. The rattle of hiulUng rock through the hollow jacket 
 ceased. The wild racing of the giant drill betokened that 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 13 
 
 it was running loose in atr— and then another truth flashed 
 upon me. The point of the prospector was above us. 
 Slowly it dawned on me that since passing through the 
 ice strata it had been above. We had turned in the ice and 
 sped upward toward the earth's crust Thank GodI We 
 were safe! 
 
 I put my nose to the intake pipe through which samples 
 were to have been taken dining the passage of the pros- 
 pector through the earth, and my fondest hopes were 
 realized— a flood of fresh air was pouring into the iron 
 cabin. The reaction left me in a state of collapse, and I 
 lost consciousness. 
 
 CHAPTER n 
 
 A STRA.NGE WORLD 
 
 I WAS vmconscious Uttle more than an instant, for as I 
 lunged forward from the crossbeam to which I had been 
 dinging, and fell with a crash to the floor of the cabin, the 
 shock brought me to myself. 
 
 My first concern was with Perry. I was horrified at the 
 thought that upon the very threshold of salvation he 
 might be dead. Tearing open his shirt I placed my ear to 
 his breast. I could have cried with relief— his heart was 
 beating quite regularly. 
 
 At the water tank I wetted my handkerchief, slapping 
 it smartly across his forehead and face several times. In a 
 moment I was rewarded by the raising of his Uds. For a 
 time he lay wide-eyed and quite imcomprehending. Then 
 his scattered wits slowly foregathered, and he sat up 
 sniffing the air with an expression of wonderment upon 
 his face. 
 
 "Why, David," he cried at last, "it's air, as smre as I 
 
14 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 live. Why— why what does it mean? Where in the world 
 are we? What has happened?" 
 
 "It means that we're back at the surface all right, 
 Perry," I cried; "but where, I don't know. I haven't 
 opened her up yet. Been too busy reviving you. Lord, 
 man, but you had a close squeakl" 
 
 "You say we're back at the surface, David? How can 
 that be? How long have I been unconscious?" 
 
 "Not long. We ttirned in the ice stratum. Don't you re- 
 call the sudden whirling of our seats? After that the drill 
 was above us instead of below. We didn't notice it at the 
 time; but I recall it now." 
 
 "You mean to say that we turned back in the ice stra- 
 tum, David? That is not possible. The prospector cannot 
 turn unless its nose is deflected. If the nose were de- 
 flected from the outside— by some external force or re- 
 sistance—the steering wheel within would have moved in 
 response. The steering wheel has not budged, David, 
 since we started. You know that." 
 
 I did know it; but here we were with our drill racing in 
 pure air, and copious volumes of it pouring into the cabin. 
 
 "We couldn't have turned in the ice stratimi. Perry, I 
 know as well as you," I repHed; "but the fact remains that 
 we did, for here we are this minute at the surface of the 
 earth again, and I am going out to see just where." 
 
 "Better wait till morning, David— it must be midnight 
 now." 
 
 I glanced at the chronometer. 
 
 "Half after twelve. We have been out seventy-two 
 hours, so it must be midnight. Nevertheless I am going to 
 have a look at the blessed sky that I had given up aU hope 
 of ever seeing again," and so saying I lifted the bars from 
 the inner door, and swimg it open. There was quite a 
 quantity of loose material in the jacket, and this I had to 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 15 
 
 remove with a shovel to get at the opposite door in the 
 outer shell. 
 
 In a short time I had removed enough of the earth and 
 rock to the floor of the cabin to expose the door beyond. 
 Perry was directly behind me as I threw it open. The 
 upper half was above the smrf ace of the ground. With an 
 expression of surprise I turned and looked at Perry— it was 
 broad dayhght without! 
 
 "Something seems to have gone wrong either with our 
 calculations or the chronometer," I said. Perry shook his 
 head— there was a strange expression in his eyes. 
 
 "Let's have a look beyond that door, David," he cried. 
 
 Together we stepped out to stand in silent contem- 
 plation of a landscape at once weird and beautiful. Before 
 us a low and level shore stretched down to a silent sea. As 
 far as the eye could reach the surface of the water was 
 dotted with cormtless tiny isles— some of towering, barren, 
 granitic rock- others resplendent in gorgeous trappings of 
 tropical vegetation, myriad starred with the magnificent 
 splendor of vivid blooms. 
 
 Behind us rose a dark and forbidding wood of giant ar- 
 borescent ferns intermingled with the commoner types of 
 a primeval tropical forest. Huge creepers depended in 
 great loops from tree to tree, dense underbrush overgrew 
 a tangled mass of fallen trunks and branches. Upon the 
 outer verge we could see the same splendid coloring of 
 countless blossoms that glorified the islands, but within 
 the dense shadows all seemed dark and gloomy as the 
 grave. 
 
 And upon all the noonday sun poured its torrid rays out 
 of a cloudless sky. 
 
 "Where on earth can we be?" I asked, turning to Perry. 
 
 For some moments the old man did not reply. He stood 
 with bowed head, buried in deep thought But at last he 
 spoke. 
 
16 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 "David," he said, "I am not so sure that we are on 
 earth." 
 
 "What do you mean, Perry?" I cried. "Do you think 
 that we are dead, and that this is heaven?" 
 
 He smiled, and turning, pointed to the nose of the 
 prospector protruding from the ground at our backs. 
 
 "But for that, David, I might believe that we were in- 
 deed come to the country beyond the Styx, The prospec- 
 tor renders that theory untenable— it, certainly, could 
 never have gone to heaven. However I am willing to con- 
 cede that we actually may be in another world from that 
 which we have always known. If we are not on earth, 
 there is every reason to beHeve that we may be in it." 
 
 "We may have quartered through the earth's crust and 
 come out upon some tropical island of the West Indies," I 
 suggested. Again Perry shook his head. 
 
 "Let us wait and see, David," he repUed, "and in the 
 meantime suppose we do a bit of exploring up and down 
 the coast— we may find a native who can enlighten us." 
 
 As we walked along the beach Perry gazed long and 
 earnestly across the water. Evidently he was vvrestling 
 vsdth a mighty problem. 
 
 "David," he said abruptly, "do you perceive anything 
 imusual about the horizon?" 
 
 As I looked I began to appreciate the reason for the 
 strangeness of the landscape that had haunted me from 
 the first with an illusive suggestion of the bizarre and un- 
 natural— fWe was no horizoni As far as the eye could 
 reach out the sea continued and upon its bosom floated 
 tiny islands, those in the distance reduced to mere specks; 
 but ever beyond them was the sea, untU the impression 
 became quite real that one was looking up at the most 
 distant point that the eye could fathom— the distance was 
 lost in the distance. That was all— there was no clear-cut 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 17 
 
 horizontal line marking the dip of the globe below the 
 hne of vision. 
 
 "A great light is commencing to break on me," contin- 
 ued Perry, taking out his watch. "I believe that I have 
 partially solved the riddle. It is now two o'clock. When 
 we emerged from the prospector the sun was directly 
 above us. Where is it now?" 
 
 I glanced up to find the great orb stiU motionless in the 
 center of the heavens. And such a sunl I had scarcely no- 
 ticed it before. FuUy thrice the size of the sun I had 
 known throughout my life, and apparently so near that 
 the sight of it carried the conviction that one might al- 
 most reach up and touch it. 
 
 "My God, Perry, where are we?" I exclaimed. "This 
 thing is beginning to get on my nerves." 
 
 "I think that I may state quite positively, David," he 
 commenced, "that we are—" but he got no further. From 
 behind us in the vicinity of the prospector there came the 
 most thunderous, awe-inspiring roar that ever had fallen 
 upon my ears. With one accord we turned to discover the 
 author of that fearsome noise. 
 
 Had I stiU retained the suspicion that we were on earth 
 the sight that met my eyes would quite entirely have 
 banished it. Emerging from the forest was a colossal beast 
 which closely resembled a bear. It was fully as large as 
 the largest elephant and with great forepaws armed with 
 huge claws. Its nose, or snout, depended nearly a foot 
 below its lower jaw, much after the manner of a rudimen- 
 tary trunk. The giant body was covered by a coat of thick, 
 shaggy hair. 
 
 Roaring horribly it came toward us at a ponderous, 
 shuffling trot. I turned toward Perry to suggest that it 
 might be wise to seek other stirroundings— the idea had 
 evidently occurred to Perry previously, for he was already 
 a hundred paces away, and with each second his prodi- 
 
18 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 gious bounds increased the distance. I had never guessed 
 what latent speed possibilities the old gentleman pos- 
 sessed. 
 
 I saw that he was headed toward a Httle point of the 
 forest which ran out toward the sea not far from where 
 we had been standing, and as the mighty creature, the 
 sight of which had galvanized him into such remarkable 
 action, was forging steadily toward me I set oflF after 
 Perry, though at a somewhat more decorous pace. It was 
 evident that the massive beast pursuing us was not built 
 for speed, so all that I considered necessary was to gain 
 the trees su£Bciently ahead of it to enable me to climb to 
 the safety of some great branch before it came up. 
 
 Notwithstanding our danger I could not help but laugh 
 at Perry's frantic capers as he essayed to gain the safety of 
 the lower branches of the trees he now had reached. The 
 stems were bare for a distance of some fifteen feet— at 
 least on those trees which Perry attempted to ascend, for 
 the suggestion of safety carried by the larger of the forest 
 giants had evidently attracted him to them. A dozen 
 times he scrambled up the trunks hke a huge cat only to 
 fall back to the ground once more, and with each failure 
 he cast a horrified glance over his shoulder at the oncom- 
 ing brute, simultaneously emitting terror-stricken shrieks 
 that awoke the echoes of the grim forest. 
 
 At length he spied a dangling creeper about the bigness 
 of one's wrist, and when I reached the trees he was racing 
 madly up it, hand over hand. He had almost reached the 
 lowest branch of the tree from which the creeper de- 
 pended when the thing parted beneath his weight and he 
 fell sprawling at my feet. 
 
 The misfortune now was no longer amusing, for the 
 beast was already too close to us for comfort. Seizing 
 Perry by the shoulder I dragged him to his feet, and 
 rushing to a smaller tree— one that he could easily encircle 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 19 
 
 with his arms and legs— I boosted him as far up as I could, 
 and then left him to his fate, for a glance over my shoul- 
 der revealed the awful beast almost upon me. 
 
 It was the great size of the thing alone that saved me. 
 Its enormous bulk rendered it too slow upon its feet to 
 cope with the agility of my young muscles, and so I was 
 enabled to dodge out of its way and run completely be- 
 hind it before its slow wits could direct it in pursuit. 
 
 The few seconds of grace that this gave me found me 
 safely lodged in the branches of a tree a few paces from 
 that in which Perry had at last found a haven. 
 
 Did I say safely lodged? At the time I thought we were 
 quite safe, and so did Perry. He was praying— raising his 
 voice in thanksgiving at our deHverance— and had just 
 completed a sort of paeon of gratitude that the thing 
 couldn't climb a tree when without warning it reared up 
 beneath him on its enormous tail and hind feet, and 
 reached those fearfully armed paws quite to the branch 
 upon which he crouched. 
 
 The accompanying roar was all but drowned in Perry's 
 scream of fright, and he came near tumbhng headlong 
 into the gaping jaws beneath him, so precipitate was his 
 impetuous haste to vacate the dangerous hmb. It was 
 with a deep sigh of rehef that I saw him gain a higher 
 branch in safety. 
 
 And then the brute did that which froze us both anew 
 with horror. Grasping the tree's stem with his powerful 
 paws he dragged down with all the great weight of his 
 huge bulk and all the irresistible force of those mighty 
 muscles. Slowly, but surely, the stem began to bend to- 
 ward him. Inch by inch he worked his paws upward as 
 the tree leaned more and more from the perpendicular. 
 Perry clung chattering in a panic of terror. Higher and 
 higher into the bending and swaying tree he clambered. 
 
20 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 More and more rapidly was the tree top inclining toward 
 the ground. 
 
 I saw now why the great brute was armed with such 
 enormous paws. The use that he was putting them to was 
 precisely that for which nature had intended them. The 
 sloth-hke creature was herbivorous, and to feed that 
 mighty carcass entire trees must be stripped of their foh- 
 age. The reason for its attacking us might easily be ac- 
 counted for on the supposition of an ugly disposition such 
 as that which the fierce and stupid rhinoceros of Africa 
 possesses. But these were later reflections. At the moment 
 I was too frantic with apprehension on Perry's behalf to 
 consider aught other than a means to save him from the 
 death that loomed so close. 
 
 Reahzing that I could outdistance the clumsy brute in 
 the open, I dropped from my leafy sanctuary intent only 
 on distracting the thing's attention from Perry long 
 enough to enable the old man to gain the safety of a 
 larger tree. There were many close by which not even the 
 terrific strength of that titanic monster could bend. 
 
 As I touched the ground I snatched a broken limb from 
 the tangled mass that matted the jungle-hke floor of the 
 forest and, leaping unnoticed behind the shaggy back, 
 dealt the brute a terrific blow. My plan worked Hke 
 magic. From the previous slowness of the beast I had 
 been led to look for no such marvelous agihty as he now 
 displayed. Releasing his hold upon the tree he dropped 
 on all-fours and at the same time swung his great, vdcked 
 tail with a force that would have broken every bone in 
 my body had it struck me; but, fortunately, I had turned 
 to flee at the very instant that I felt my blow land upon 
 the towering back. 
 
 As it started in pursuit of me I made the mistake of 
 running along the edge of the forest rather than making 
 for the open beach. In a moment I was knee-deep in rot- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 21 
 
 ting vegetation, and the awful thing behind me was gain- 
 ing rapidly as I floundered and fell in my efforts to ex- 
 tricate myself. 
 
 A fallen log gave me an instant's advantage, for climb- 
 ing upon it I leaped to another a few paces farther on, 
 and in this way was able to keep clear of the mush that 
 carpeted the surroimding groimd. But the zigzag course 
 that this necessitated was placing such a heavy handicap 
 upon me that my pursuer was steadily gaining upon me. 
 
 Suddenly from behind I heard a tumult of howls, and 
 sharp, piercing barks— much the sound that a pack of 
 wolves raises when in full cry. Involuntarily I glanced 
 backward to discover the origin of this new and menacing 
 note with the result that I missed my footing and went 
 sprawling once more upon my face in the deep muck. 
 
 My mammoth enemy was so close by this time that I 
 knew I must feel the weight of one of his terrible paws 
 before I could rise, but to my surprise the blow did not 
 fall upon me. The howHng and snapping and barking of 
 the new element which had been infused into the m^l^e 
 now seemed centered quite close behind me, and as I 
 raised myself upon my hands and glanced around I saw 
 what it was that had distracted the dyryih, as I afterward 
 learned the thing is called, from my trail. 
 
 It was siUTOunded by a pack of some hundred wolflike 
 creatures— wild dogs they seemed— that rushed growling 
 and snapping in upon it from all sides, so that they sank 
 their white fangs into the slow brute and were away 
 again before it could reach them with its huge paws or 
 sweeping tail. 
 
 But these were not all that my startled eyes perceived. 
 Chattering and gibbering through the lower branches of 
 the trees came a company of manhke creatures evidently 
 urging on the dog pack. They were to aU appearances 
 strikingly similar in aspect to the Negro of Africa. Their 
 
22 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 skins were very black, and their features much like those 
 of the more pronounced Negroid type except that the 
 head receded more rapidly above the eyes, leaving little 
 or no forehead. Their arms were rather longer and their 
 legs shorter in proportion to the torso than in man, and 
 late I noticed that their great toes protruded at right an- 
 gles from their feet— because of their arboreal habits, I 
 presume. Behind them trailed long, slender tails which 
 they used in climbing quite as much as they did either 
 their hands or feet. 
 
 I had stiunbled to my feet the moment that I discov- 
 ered that the wolf-dogs were holding the dyryth at bay. 
 At sight of me several of the savage creatures left oflF wor- 
 rying the great brute to come shnking with bared fangs 
 toward me, and as I turned to run toward the trees again 
 to seek safety among the lower branches, I saw a number 
 of the man-apes leaping and chattering in the fohage of 
 the nearest tree. 
 
 Between them and the beasts behind me there was ht- 
 tle choice, but at least there was a doubt as to the recep- 
 tion these grotesque parodies on humanity would accord 
 me, while there was none as to the fate which awaited me 
 beneath the grinning fangs of my fierce pursuers. 
 
 And so I raced on toward the trees intending to pass 
 beneath that which held the man-things and take refuge 
 in another farther on; but the wolE-dogs were very close 
 behind me— so close that I had despaired of escaping 
 them, when one of the creatmres in the tree above swung 
 down headforemost, his tail looped about a great limb, 
 and grasping me beneath my armpits swung me in safety 
 up among his fellows. 
 
 There they fell to examining me with the utmost excite- 
 ment and curiosity. They picked at my clothing, my hair, 
 and my flesh. They turned me about to see if I had a tail, 
 and when they discovered that I was not so equipped 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 23 
 
 they fell into roars of laughter. Their teeth were very 
 large and white and even, except for the upper canines 
 which were a trifle longer than the others— protruding just 
 a bit when the mouth was closed. 
 
 When they had examined me for a few moments one of 
 them discovered that my clothing was not a part of me, 
 with the result that garment by garment they tore it from 
 me amidst peals of the wildest laughter. Apehke, they es- 
 sayed to don the apparel themselves, but their ingenuity 
 was not suflBcient to the task and so they gave it up. 
 
 In the meantime I had been straining my eyes to catch 
 a glimpse of Perry, but nowhere about could I see him, al- 
 though the clump of trees in which he had first taken ref- 
 uge was in full view. I was much exercised by fear that 
 something had befallen him, and though I called his 
 name aloud several times there was no response. 
 
 Tired at last of playing with my clothing the creatures 
 threw it to the ground, and catching me, one on either 
 side, by an arm, started oflF at a most terrifying pace 
 through the tree tops. Never have I experienced such a 
 journey before or since— even now I oftentimes awake 
 from a deep sleep haunted by the horrid remembrance of 
 that awful experience. 
 
 From tree to tree the agile creatures sprang Hke flying 
 squirrels, while the cold sweat stood upon my brow as I 
 ghmpsed the depths beneath, into which a single misstep 
 on the part of either of my bearers would hurl me. As 
 they bore me along, my mind was occupied with a thou- 
 sand bewildering thoughts. What had become of Perry? 
 Would I ever see him again? What were the intentions of 
 these half-human things into whose hands I had fallen? 
 Were they inhabitants of the same world into which I had 
 been born? No I It could not be. But yet where else? I had 
 not left that earth— of that I was sure. Still neither could I 
 
24 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 reconcile the things which I had seen to a beUef that I 
 was still in the world of my birth. With a sigh I gave it 
 up. 
 
 CHAPTER ni 
 
 A CHANGE OF MASTERS 
 
 We must have traveled several miles through the dark 
 and dismal wood when we came suddenly upon a dense 
 village built high among the branches of the trees. As we 
 approached it my escort broke into wild shouting which 
 was immediately answered from within, and a moment 
 later a swarm of creatures of the same strange race as 
 those who had captured me poured out to meet us. Again 
 I was the center of a wildly chattering horde. I was 
 pulled this way and that. Pinched, pounded, and 
 thumped until I was black and blue, yet I do not think 
 that their treatment was dictated by either cruelty or 
 maUce— I was a curiosity, a freak, a new plaything, and 
 their childish minds required the added evidence of all 
 their senses to back up the testimony of their eyes. 
 
 Presently they dragged me within the village, which 
 consisted of several hvmdred rude shelters of boughs and 
 leaves supported upon the branches of the trees. Between 
 the huts, which sometimes formed crooked streets, were 
 dead branches and the trunks of small trees which con- 
 nected the huts upon one tree to those within adjoining 
 trees; the whole network of huts and pathways forming 
 an almost sohd flooring a good fifty feet above the 
 ground. 
 
 I wondered why these agile creatures required con- 
 necting bridges between the trees, but later when I saw 
 the motley aggregation of half-savage beasts which they 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 25 
 
 kept within their village I reahzed the necessity for the 
 pathways. There were a number of the same vicious wolf- 
 dogs which we had left worrying the dyryth, and many 
 goathke animals whose distended udders explained the 
 reason for their presence. 
 
 My guard halted before one of the huts into which I 
 was pushed; then two of the creatures squatted down be- 
 fore the entrance— to prevent my escape, doubtless. 
 Though where I should have escaped to I certainly had 
 not the remotest conception. I had no more than entered 
 the dark shadows of the interior than there fell upon my 
 ears the tones of a famihar voice, in prayer. 
 
 "Perryl" I cried. "Dear old Perry! Thank the Lord you 
 are safe." 
 
 "David! Can it be possible that you escaped?" And the 
 old man stumbled toward me and threw his arms about 
 me. 
 
 He had seen me fall before the dyryth, and then he had 
 been seized by a number of the ape-creatures and borne 
 through the tree tops to their village. His captors had 
 been as inquisitive as to his strange clothing as had mine, 
 with the same result. As we looked at each other we could 
 not help but laugh. 
 
 "With a tail, David," remarked Perry, "you would 
 make a very handsome ape." 
 
 "Maybe we can borrow a couple," I rejoined. "They 
 seem to be quite the thing this season. I wonder what the 
 creattires intend doing with us. Perry. They don't seem re- 
 ally savage. What do you suppose they can be? You were 
 about to tell me where we are when that great hairy frig- 
 ate bore down upon us— have you really any idea at all?" 
 
 "Yes, David," he replied, "I know precisely where we 
 are. We have made a magnificent discovery, my boy! We 
 have proved that the earth is hollow. We have passed en- 
 tirely through its crust to the inner world." 
 
26 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 "Perry, you are mad!" 
 
 "Not at all, David. For two hundred and fifty miles our 
 prospector bore us through the crust beneath otu outer 
 world. At that point it reached the center of gravity of the 
 five-himdred-mile-thick crust. Up to that point we had 
 been descending— direction is, of course, merely relative. 
 Then at the moment that our seats revolved— the thing 
 that made you beheve that we had tiumed about and 
 were speeding upward— we passed the center of gravity 
 and, though we did not alter the direction of our progress, 
 yet we were in reality moving upward— toward the stir- 
 face of the inner world. Does not the strange fauna and 
 flora which we have seen convince you that you are not in 
 the world of your birth? And the horizon— could it present 
 the strange aspect which we both noted unless we were 
 indeed standing upon the inside surface of a sphere?" 
 
 "But the sun. Perry!" I urged. "How in the world can 
 the sun shine through five hundred miles of sohd crust?" 
 
 "It is not the sim of the outer world that we see here. It 
 is another sun— an entirely different sun— that casts its 
 eternal noonday effulgence upon the face of the inner 
 world. Look at it now, David— if you can see it from the 
 doorway of this hut— and you vdll see that it is still in the 
 exact center of the heavens. We have been here for many 
 hours— yet it is still noon. 
 
 "And withal it is very simple, David. The earth was 
 once a nebulous mass. It cooled, and as it cooled it 
 shrank. At length a thin crust of solid matter formed upon 
 its outer surface— a sort of shell; but within it was par- 
 tially molten matter and highly expanded gases. As it con- 
 tinued to cool, what happened? Centrifugal force hurled 
 the particles of the nebulous center toward the crust as 
 rapidly as they approached a soHd state. You have seen 
 the same principle practically appHed in the modem 
 cream separator. Presently there was only a small super- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 27 
 
 heated core of gaseous matter remaining within a huge 
 vacant interior left by the contraction of the cooling 
 gases. The equal attraction of the solid crust from all di- 
 rections maintained this luminous core in the exact center 
 of the hollow globe. What remains of it is the sun you saw 
 today— a relatively tiny thing at the exact center of the 
 earth. Equally to every part of this inner world it diffuses 
 its perpetual noonday light and torrid heat. 
 
 "This inner world must have cooled sufficiently to sup- 
 port animal Ufe long ages after life appeared upon the 
 outer crust, but that the same agencies were at work here 
 is evident from the similar forms of both animal and vege- 
 table creation which we have already seen. Take the 
 great beast which attacked us, for example. Unques- 
 tionably a coimterpart of the Megatherium of the post- 
 Pliocene period of the outer crust, whose fossilized skele- 
 ton has been found in South America." 
 
 "But the grotesque inhabitants of this forest?" I urged. 
 "Surely they have no counterpart in the earth's history." 
 
 "Who can tell?" he rejoined. "They may constitute the 
 link between ape and man, all traces of which have been 
 swallowed by the countless convulsions which have 
 racked the outer crust, or they may be merely the result 
 of evolution along sHghdy different hues— either is quite 
 possible." 
 
 Further speculation was interrupted by the appearance 
 of several of our captors before the entrance of the hut. 
 Two of them entered and dragged us forth. The perilous 
 pathways and the surrounding trees were filled with the 
 black ape-men, their females, and their young. There was 
 not an ornament, a weapon, or a garment among the lot. 
 
 "Quite low in the scale of creation," commented Perry. 
 
 "Quite high enough to play the deuce with us, though," 
 I rephed. "Now what do you suppose they intend doing 
 with us?" 
 
28 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 We were not long in learning. As on the occasion of our 
 trip to the village we were seized by a couple of the pow- 
 erful creatures and whirled away through the tree tops, 
 while about us and in our wake raced a chattering, jibber- 
 ing, grinning horde of sleek, black ape-things. 
 
 Twice my bearers missed their footing, and my heart 
 ceased beating as we plunged toward instant death 
 among the tangled deadwood beneath. But on both occa- 
 sions those hthe, powerful tails reached out and found 
 sustaining branches, nor did either of the creatiures loosen 
 their grasp upon me. In fact, it seemed that the incidents 
 were of no greater moment to them than would be the 
 stubbing of one's toe at a street crossing in the outer 
 world— they but laughed uproariously and sped on with 
 me. 
 
 For some time they continued through the forest— how 
 long I could not guess for I was learning, what was later 
 borne very forcefully to my mind, that time ceases to be a 
 factor the moment means for measuring it cease to exist. 
 Our watches were gone, and we were Hving beneath a 
 stationary sun. Already I was puzzled to compute the pe- 
 riod of time which had elapsed since we broke through 
 the crust of the inner world. It might be hours, or it might 
 be days— who in the world could teU where it was always 
 noon! By the sun, no time had elapsed— but my judgment 
 told me that we must have been several hours in this 
 strange world. 
 
 Presently the forest terminated, and we came out upon 
 a level plain. A short distance before us rose a few low, 
 rocky hiUs. Toward these our captors lurged us, and after 
 a short time led us through a narrow pass into a tiny, cir- 
 cular valley. Here they got down to work, and we were 
 soon convinced that if we were not to die to make a 
 Roman hohday, we were to die for some other purpose. 
 The attitude of our captors altered immediately they en- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 29 
 
 tered the natural arena within the rocky hills. Their 
 laughter ceased. Grim ferocity marked their bestial faces 
 —bared fangs menaced us. 
 
 We were placed in the center of the amphitheater— the 
 thousand creatures forming a great ring about us. Then a 
 wolf-dog was brought— hyaenodon Perry called it— and 
 turned loose with us inside the circle. The thing's body 
 was as large as that of a full-grown mastiff, its legs were 
 short and powerful, and its jaws broad and strong. Dark, 
 shaggy hair covered its back and sides, while its breast 
 and belly were quite white. As it slunk toward us it pre- 
 sented a most formidable aspect with its upcurled hps 
 baring its mighty fangs. 
 
 Perry was on his knees, praying. I stooped and picked 
 up a small stone. At my movement the beast veered off a 
 bit and commenced circling us. Evidently it had been a 
 target for stones before. The ape-things were dancing up 
 and down urging the brute on with savage cries, until at 
 last, seeing that I did not throw, he charged us. 
 
 At Andover, and later at Yale, I had pitched on win- 
 ning ball teams. My speed and control must both have 
 been above the ordinary, for I made such a record during 
 my senior year at college that overtures were made to me 
 in behalf of one of the great major-league teams; but in 
 the tightest pitch that ever had confronted me in the past 
 I had never been in such need for control as now. 
 
 As I wound up for the deHvery, I held my nerves and 
 muscles under absolute command, though the grinning 
 jaws were hurtling toward me at terrific speed. And then 
 I let go, with every ounce of my weight and muscle and 
 science back of that throw. The stone caught the hyaeno- 
 don full upon the end of the nose, and sent him bowhng 
 over upon his back. 
 
 At the same instant a chorus of shrieks and howls arose 
 from the circle of spectators, so that for a moment I 
 
30 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 thought that the upsetting of their champion was the 
 cause; but in this I soon saw that I was mistaken. As I 
 looked, the ape-things broke in all directions toward the 
 surroimding hiUs, and then I distinguished the real cause 
 of their perturbation. Behind them, streaming through 
 the pass which leads into the valley, came a swarm of 
 hairy men— goriUa-hke creatures armed with spears and 
 hatchets, and bearing long, oval shields. 
 
 Like demons they set upon the ape-thiugs, and before 
 them the hyaenodon, which had now regained its senses 
 and its feet, fled howhng with fright. Past us swept the 
 pursued and the pursuers, nor did the hairy ones accord 
 us more than a passing glance until the arena had been 
 emptied of its former occupants. Then they returned to 
 us, and one who seemed to have authority among them 
 directed that we be brought with them. 
 
 When we had passed out of the amphitheater onto the 
 great plain we saw a caravan of men and women— human 
 beings like ourselves— and for the first time hope and re- 
 hef filled my heart, until I could have cried out in the ex- 
 uberance of my happiness. It is true that they were a half- 
 naked, wild-appearing aggregation; but they at least were 
 fashioned along the same Unes as ourselves— there was 
 nothing grotesque or horrible about them as about the 
 other creatures in this strange, weird world. 
 
 But as we came closer, our hearts sank once more, for 
 we discovered that the poor wretches were chained neck 
 to neck in a long Hne, and that the gorilla-men were their 
 guards. With httle ceremony Perry and I were chained at 
 the end of the line, and without further ado the inter- 
 rupted march was resumed. 
 
 Up to this time the excitement had kept us both up; but 
 now the tiresome monotony of the long march across the 
 sun-baked plain brought on aU the agonies consequent to 
 long-denied sleep. On and on we stumbled beneath that 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 31 
 
 hateful noonday sun. If we fell we were prodded with a 
 sharp point. Our companions in chains did not stumble. 
 They strode along proudly erect. Occasionally they would 
 exchange words with one another in a monosyllabic lan- 
 guage. They were a noble-appearing race with well- 
 formed heads and perfect physiques. The men were heav- 
 ily bearded, tall and muscular; the women, smaller and 
 more gracefully molded, with great masses of raven hair 
 caught into loose knots upon their heads. The features of 
 both sexes were well proportioned— there was not a face 
 among them that would have been called even plain if 
 judged by earthly standards. They wore no ornaments; 
 but this I later learned was due to the fact that their cap- 
 tors had stripped them of everything of value. As garmen- 
 ture the women possessed a single robe of some light- 
 colored, spotted hide, rather similar in appearance to a 
 leopard's skin. This they wore either supported entirely 
 about the waist by a leathern thong, so that it hung par- 
 tially below the knee on one side, or possibly looped 
 gracefully across one shoulder. Their feet were shod with 
 skin sandals. The men wore loin cloths of the hide of 
 some shaggy beast, long ends of which depended before 
 and behind nearly to the ground. In some instances these 
 ends were finished with the strong talons of the beast 
 from which the hides had been taken. 
 
 Oxxr guards, whom I already have described as gorilla- 
 Uke men, were rather Hghter in build than a gorilla, but 
 even so they were indeed mighty creatures. Their arms 
 and legs were proportioned more in conformity with 
 human standards, but their entire bodies were covered 
 with shaggy, brown hair, and their faces were quite as 
 brutal as those of the few stuffed specimens of the gorilla 
 which I had seen in the musemns at home. 
 
 Their only redeeming feature lay in the development of 
 the head above and back of the ears. In this respect they 
 
32 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 were not one whit less human than we. They were 
 clothed in a sort of tunic of light cloth which reached to 
 the knees. Beneath this they wore only a loin cloth of the 
 same material, while their feet were shod with rather 
 heavy sandals apparently made of the thick hide of some 
 mammoth creature of this ioner world. 
 
 Their arms and necks were encircled by many orna- 
 ments of metal— silver predominating— and on their tunics 
 wer&^sevvTi the heads of tiny reptiles in odd and rather ar- 
 tistic designs. They talked among themselves as they 
 marched along on either side of us, but in a language 
 which I perceived differed from that employed by our 
 fellow prisoners. When they addressed the latter they 
 used what appeared to be a third language, and which I 
 later learned in a mongrel tongue rather analogous to the 
 Pidgin-English of the Chinese coohe. 
 
 How far we marched I have no conception, nor has 
 Perry. Both of us were asleep much of the time for hours 
 before a halt was called— then we dropped in our tracks. I 
 say "for hours;" but how may one measure time where 
 time does not exist! When our march commenced the sun 
 stood at zenith, when we halted our shadows stitl pointed 
 toward nadir. Whether an instant or an eternity of earthly 
 time elapsed who may say. That march may have occu- 
 pied nine years and eleven months of the ten years that I 
 spent in the inner world, or it may have been accom- 
 phshed in the fraction of a second— I cannot tell. But this 
 I do know that since you have told me that ten years have 
 elapsed since I departed from this earth I have lost all re- 
 spect for time— I am commencing to doubt that such a 
 thing exists other than in the weak, finite mind of man. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 DIAN THE BEAUTIFUL 
 
 When our guards aroused us from sleep we were much 
 refreshed. They gave us food. Strips of dried meat it was, 
 but it put new life and strength into us, so that now we 
 too marched with high-held heads, and took noble strides. 
 At least I did, for I was young and proud; but poor Perry 
 hated walking. On earth I had often seen him call a cab 
 to travel a square— he was paying for it now, and his old 
 legs wobbled so that I put my arm about him and half 
 carried him through the balance of those frightful 
 marches. 
 
 The cotmtry began to change at last, and we woimd up 
 out of the level plain through mighty mountains of virgin 
 granite. The tropical verdure of the lowlands was re- 
 placed by hardier vegetation, but even here the effects of 
 constant heat and light were apparent in the immensity of 
 the trees and the profusion of foUage and blooms. Crystal 
 streams roared through their rocky channels, fed by the 
 perpetual snows which we could see far above us. Above 
 the snowcapped heights hung masses of heavy clouds. It 
 was these. Perry explained, which evidently served the 
 double purpose of replenishing the melting snows and 
 protecting them from the direct rays of the sun. 
 
 By this time we had picked up a smattering of the bas- 
 tard language in which our guards addressed us, as well 
 as making good headway in the rather charming tongue 
 of oiu: co-captives. Directly ahead of me in the chain gang 
 was a young woman. Three feet of chain linked us to- 
 gether in a forced companionship which I, at least, soon 
 rejoiced in. For I found her a willing teacher, and from 
 
34 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 her I learned the language of her tribe, and much of the 
 life and customs of the inner world— at least that part of it 
 with which she was familiar. 
 
 She told me that she was called Dian the Beautiful, and 
 that she belonged to the tribe of Amoz, which dwells in 
 the cliflfs above the Darel Az, or shallow sea. 
 
 "How came you here?" I asked her. 
 
 "I was running away from Jubal the Ugly One," she an- 
 swered, as though that was explanation quite suflBcient. 
 
 "Who is Jubal the Ugly One?" I asked. "And why did 
 you run away from him?" 
 
 She looked at me in surprise. 
 
 "Why does a woman run away from a man?" She an- 
 swered my question with another. 
 
 "They do not, where I come from," I replied. "Some- 
 times they run after them." 
 
 But she could not understand. Nor could I get her to 
 grasp the fact that I was of another world. She was quite 
 as positive that creation was originated solely to produce 
 her own kind and the world she Hved in as are many of 
 the outer world. 
 
 "But Jubal," I insisted. "Tell me about him, and why 
 you ran away to be chained by the neck and scourged 
 across the face of a world." 
 
 "Jubal the Ugly One placed his trophy before my fa- 
 ther's house. It was the head of a mighty tandor. It re- 
 mained there and no greater trophy was placed beside it. 
 So I knew that Jubal the Ugly One would come and take 
 me as his mate. None other so powerful wished me, or 
 they would have slain a mightier beast and thus have won 
 me from Jubal. My father is not a mighty hunter. Once he 
 was, but a sadok tossed him, and never again had he the 
 fuU use of his right arm. My brother, Dacor the Strong 
 One, had gone to the land of Sari to steal a mate for him- 
 self. Thus there was none, father, brother, or lover, to 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 35 
 
 save me from Jubal the Ugly One, and I ran away and hid 
 among the hills that skirt the land of Amoz. And there 
 these Sagoths found me and made me captive." 
 
 "What wiU they do with you?" I asked. "Where are 
 they taking us?" 
 
 Again she looked her increduHty. 
 
 "I can almost beUeve that you are of another world," 
 she said, "for otherwise such ignorance were inexphcable. 
 Do you reaUy mean that you do not know that the Sa- 
 goths are the creatures of the Mahars— the mighty Mahars 
 who think that they own Pellucidar and aU that walks or 
 grows upon its surface, or creeps or burrows beneath, or 
 swims within its lakes and oceans, or flies through its air? 
 Next you wiU be telling me that you never before heard 
 of the MaharsI" 
 
 I was loath to do it, and further incur her scorn; but 
 there was no alternative if I were to absorb knowledge, so 
 I made a clean breast of my pitiful ignorance as to the 
 mighty Mahars. She was shocked. But she did her very 
 best to enlighten me, though much that she said was as 
 Greek would have been to her. She described the Mahars 
 largely by comparisons. In this way they were like unto 
 thipdars, in that to the hairless lidi. 
 
 About all I gleaned of them was that they were quite 
 hideous, had wings, and webbed feet; Hved in cities bmlt 
 beneath the ground; could swim under water for great 
 distances, and were very, very wise. The Sagoths were 
 their weapons of offense and defense, and the races like 
 herself were their hands and feet— they were the slaves 
 and servants who did all the manual labor. The Mahars 
 were the heads— the brains— of the iimer world. I longed 
 to see this wondrous race of supermen. 
 
 Perry learned the language with me. When we halted, 
 as we occasionally did, though sometimes the halts 
 seemed ages apart, he would join in the conversation, as 
 
36 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 would Ghak the Hairy One, he who was chained just 
 ahead of Dian the Beautiful. Ahead of Ghak was Hooja 
 the Sly One. He too entered the conversation occa- 
 sionally. Most of his remarks were directed toward Dian 
 the Beautiful. It didn't take half an eye to see that he had 
 developed a bad case; but the girl appeared totally obhvi- 
 otis to his thinly veiled advances. Did I say thinly veiled? 
 There is a race of men in New Zealand, or AustraUa, I 
 have forgotten which, who indicate their preference for 
 the lady of their affections by banging her over the head 
 with a bludgeon. By comparison with this method Hooja's 
 lovemaking might be called thinly veiled. At first it 
 caused me to blush violently although I have seen several 
 Old Years out at Rectors, and in other less fashionable 
 places off Broadway, £ind in Vienna, and Hamburg. 
 
 But the girll She was magnificent. It was easy to see 
 that she considered herself as entirely above and apart 
 from her present surroundings and company. She talked 
 with me, and with Perry, and with the taciturn Ghak be- 
 cause we were respectful; but she couldn't even see Hooja 
 the Sly One, much less hear him, and that made him furi- 
 ous. He tried to get one of the Sagoths to move the girl up 
 ahead of him in the slave gang, but the fellow only poked 
 him with his spear and told him that he had selected the 
 girl for his own property— that he would buy her from the 
 Mahars as soon as they reached Phutra. Phutra, it 
 seemed, was the city of our destination. 
 
 After passing over the first chain of mountains we 
 skirted a salt sea, upon whose bosom swam countless hor- 
 rid things. Seal-like creatures there were with long necks 
 stretching ten and more feet above their enormous bod- 
 ies, and whose snake heads were split with gaping mouths 
 bristhng with countless fangs. There were huge tortoises 
 too, paddling about among these other reptiles, which 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 37 
 
 Perry said were Plesiosaurs of the Lias. I didn't question 
 his veracity— they might have been most anything. 
 
 Dian told me they were tandorazes, or tandors of the 
 sea, and that the other, and more fearsome reptiles, which 
 occasionally rose from the deep to do battle with them, 
 were azdyryths, or sea-dyryths— Perry called them Ich- 
 thyosaurs. They resembled a whale with the head of an 
 alligator. 
 
 I had forgotten what little geology I had studied at 
 school— about all that remained was an impression of hor- 
 ror that the illustrations of restored prehistoric monsters 
 had made upon me, and a well-defined belief that any 
 man with a pig's shank and a vivid imagination could "re- 
 store" most any sort of paleolithic monster he saw fit, and 
 take rank as a first class paleontologist. But when I saw 
 these sleek, shiny carcasses shimmering in the sunlight as 
 they emerged from the ocean, shaking their giant heads; 
 when I saw the waters roll from their sinuous bodies in 
 miniature waterfalls as they glided hither and thither, 
 now upon the surface, now half submerged; as I saw 
 them meet, open-mouthed, hissing and snorting, in their 
 titanic and interminable warring I realized how futile is 
 man's poor, weak imagination by comparison with Na- 
 ture's incredible genius. 
 
 And Perryl He was absolutely flabbergasted. He said so 
 himself. 
 
 "David," he remarked, after we had marched for a long 
 time beside that awful sea. "David, I used to teach geol- 
 ogy, and I thought that I believed what I taught; but now 
 I see that I did not believe it— that it is impossible for man 
 to believe such things as these unless he sees them with 
 his own eyes. We take things for granted, perhaps, be- 
 cause we are told them over and over again, and have no 
 way of disproving them— like religions, for example; but 
 we don't believe them, we only think we do. If you ever 
 
38 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 get back to the outer world you will find that the geolo- 
 gists and paleontologists will be the first to set you down 
 a liar, for they know that no such creatures as they restore 
 ever existed. It is all right to imagine them as existing in 
 an equally imaginary epoch— but now? poofi" 
 
 At the next halt Hooja the Sly One managed to find 
 enough slack chain to permit him to worm himself back 
 quite close to Dian. We were all standing, and as he 
 edged near the girl she turned her back upon him in such 
 a truly earthly feminine manner that I could scarce 
 repress a smile; but it was a short-lived smile for on the 
 instant the Sly One's hand fell upon the girl's bare arm, 
 jerking her roughly toward him. 
 
 I was not then familiar with the customs or social ethics 
 which prevailed within Pellucidar; but even so I did not 
 need the appeafing look which the girl shot at me from 
 her magnificent eyes to influence my subsequent act. 
 What the Sly One's intention was I paused not to inquire; 
 but instead, before he could lay hold of her with his other 
 hand, I placed a right to the point of his jaw that feUed 
 him in his tracks. 
 
 A roar of approval went up from those of the other pris- 
 oners and the Sagoths who had witnessed the brief 
 drama; not, as I later learned, because I had championed 
 the girl, but for the neat and, to them, astoimding method 
 by which I had bested Hooja. 
 
 And the girl? At first she looked at me with vdde, won- 
 dering eyes, and then she dropped her head, her face half 
 averted, and a delicate flush suffused her cheek. For a 
 moment she stood thus in silence, and then her head went 
 high, and she turned her back upon me as she had upon 
 Hooja. Some of the prisoners laughed, and I saw the face 
 of Ghak the Hairy One go very black as he looked at me 
 searchingly. And what I could see of Dian's cheek went 
 suddenly from red to white. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 39 
 
 Immediately after we resumed the march, and though I 
 realized that in some way I had offended Dian the Beau- 
 tiful I could not prevail upon her to talk with me that I 
 might learn wherein I had erred— in fact I might quite as 
 well have been addressing a sphinx for all the attention I 
 got. At last my own foohsh pride stepped in and pre- 
 vented my making any further attempts, and thus a com- 
 panionship that without my realizing it had come to mean 
 a great deal to me was cut off. Thereafter I confined my 
 conversation to Perry. Hooja did not renew his advances 
 toward the girl, nor did he again venture near me. 
 
 Again the weary and apparently interminable marching 
 became a perfect nightmare of horrors to me. The more 
 firmly fixed became the realization that the girl's friend- 
 ship had meant so much to me, the more I came to miss 
 it; and the more impregnable the barrier of siUy pride. 
 But I was very yoimg and would not ask Ghak for the ex- 
 planation which I was stire he could give, and that might 
 have made everjiiung all right again. 
 
 On the march, or during halts, Dian refused consis- 
 tently to notice me— when her eyes wandered in my direc- 
 tion she looked either over my head or directly through 
 me. At last I became desperate, and determined to swal- 
 low my self-esteem, and again beg her to tell me how I 
 had offended, and how I might make reparation. I made 
 up my mind that I should do this at the next halt. We 
 were approaching another range of mountains at the 
 time, and when we reached them, instead of winding 
 across them through some high-flung pass we entered a 
 mighty natural tunnel— a series of labyrinthine grottoes, 
 dark as Erebus. 
 
 The guards had no torches or hght of any description. 
 In fact we had seen no artificial light or sign of fire since 
 we had entered Pellucidar. In a land of perpetual noon 
 there is no need of Hght above ground, yet I marveled 
 
40 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 that they had no means of lighting their way through 
 these dark, subterranean passages. So we crept along at a 
 snail's pace, with much stumbHng and falling— the guards 
 keeping up a singsong chant ahead of us, interspersed 
 with certain high notes which I found always indicated 
 rough places and turns. 
 
 Halts were now more frequent, but I did not wish to 
 speak to Dian until I could see from the expression of her 
 face how she was receiving my apologies. At last a faint 
 glow ahead forewarned us of the end of the tunnel, for 
 which I for one was devoutly thankful. Then at a sudden 
 turn we emerged into the fuU Ught of the noonday sun. 
 
 But with it came a sudden realization of what meant to 
 me a real catastrophe— Dian was gone, and with her a 
 half-dozen other prisoners. The guards saw it too, and the 
 ferocity of their rage was terrible to behold. Their awe- 
 some, bestial faces were contorted in the most diaboHcal 
 expressions, as they accused each other of responsibihty 
 for the loss. Finally they fell upon us, beating us with 
 their spear shafts, and hatchets. They had already killed 
 two near the head of the Hne, and were Hke to have 
 finished the balance of us when their leader finally put a 
 stop to the brutal slaughter. Never in all my life had I 
 witnessed a more horrible exhibition of bestial rage— I 
 thanked God that Dian had not been one of those left to 
 endure it. 
 
 Of the twelve prisoners who had been chained ahead of 
 me each alternate one had been freed commencing with 
 Dian. Hooja was gone. Ghak remained. What could it 
 mean? How had it been accomphshed? The commander 
 of the guards was investigating. Soon he discovered that 
 the rude locks which had held the neckbands in place had 
 been deftly picked. 
 
 "Hooja the Sly One," murmiured Ghak, who was now 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 41 
 
 next to me in line. "He has taken the girl that you would 
 not have," he continued, glancing at me. 
 
 "That I would not have!" I cried. "What do you 
 mean?" 
 
 He looked at me closely for a moment 
 
 "I have doubted your story that you are from another 
 world," he said at last, "but yet upon no other groimds 
 could your ignorance of the ways of Pellucidar be ex- 
 plained. Do you really mean that you do not know that 
 you offended the Beautiful One, and how?" 
 
 "I do not know, Ghak," I repHed. 
 
 "Then shall I tell you. When a man of Pellucidar inter- 
 venes between another man and the woman the other 
 man would have, the woman belongs to the victor. Dian 
 the Beautiful belongs to you. You should have claimed 
 her or released her. Had you taken her hand, it would 
 have indicated your desire to make her your mate, and 
 had you raised her hand above her head and then 
 dropped it, it would have meant that you did not wish her 
 for a mate and that you released her from all obligation to 
 you. By doing neither you have put upon her the greatest 
 affront that a man may put upon a woman. Now she is 
 your slave. No man will take her as mate, or may take her 
 honorably, until he shall have overcome you in combat, 
 and men do not choose slave women as their mates— at 
 least not the men of Pellucidar." 
 
 "I did not know, Ghak," I cried. "I did not know. Not 
 for aU Pellucidar would I have harmed Dian the Beautiftd 
 by word, or look, or act of mine. I do not want her as my 
 slave. I do not want her as my—" but here I stopped. ITie 
 vision of that sweet and innocent face floated before me 
 amidst the soft mists of imagination, and where I had on 
 the second beheved that I clung only to the memory of a 
 gentle friendship I had lost, yet now it seemed that it 
 would have been disloyalty to her to have said that I did 
 
42 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 not want Dian the Beautiful as my mate. I had not 
 thought of her except as a welcome friend in a strange, 
 cruel world. Even now I did not think that I loved her. 
 
 I believe Ghak must have read the truth more in my ex- 
 pression than in my words, for presently he laid his hand 
 upon my shoulder. 
 
 "Man of another world," he said, "I beheve you. Lips 
 may he, but when the heart speaks through the eyes it 
 teUs only the truth. Your heart has spoken to me. I know 
 now that you meant no affront to Dian the Beautiful. She 
 is not of my tribe; but her mother is my sister. She does 
 not know it— her mother was stolen by Dian's father who 
 came with many others of the tribe of Amoz to battle 
 with us for our women— the most beautiful women of 
 PeUucidar. Then was her father king of Amoz, and her 
 mother was daughter of the king of Sari— to whose power 
 I, his son, have succeeded. Dian is the daughter of kings, 
 though her father is no longer king since the sadok tossed 
 him and Jubal the Ugly One wrested his kingship from 
 him. Because of her lineage the wrong you did her was 
 greatly magnified in the eyes of all who saw it. She wiU 
 never forgive you." 
 
 I asked Ghak if there was not some way in which I 
 could release the girl from the bondage and ignominy I 
 had unwittingly placed upon her. 
 
 "If ever you find her, yes," he answered. "Merely to 
 raise her hand above her head and drop it in the presence 
 of others is sufficient to release her; but how may you ever 
 find her, you who are doomed to a life of slavery yourself 
 in the buried city of Phutra?" 
 
 "Is there no escape?" I asked. 
 
 "Hooja the Sly One escaped and took the others with 
 him," rephed Ghak. "But there are no more dark places 
 on the way to Phutra, and once there it is not so easy— the 
 Mahars are very wise. Even if one escaped from Phutra 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 43 
 
 there are the thipdars-they would find you, and then-" 
 the Hairy One shuddered. "No, you will never escape the 
 Mahars." 
 
 It was a cheerful prospect. I asked Perry what he 
 thought about it; but he only shrugged his shoulders and 
 continued a longwinded prayer he had been at for some 
 time. He was wont to say that the only redeeming feature 
 of our captivity was the ample time it gave him for the 
 improvisation of prayers— it was becoming an obsession 
 vvath him. The Sagoths had begun to take notice of his 
 habit of declaiming throughout entire marches. One of 
 them asked him what he was saying— to whom he was 
 talking. The question gave me an idea, so I answered 
 quickly before Perry could say anything. 
 
 "Do not interrupt him," I said. "He is a very holy man 
 in the world from which we come. He is speaking to 
 spirits which you cannot see— do not interrupt him or they 
 will spring out of the air upon you and rend you hmb 
 from hmb— hke that," and I jimiped toward the great 
 brute with a loud "Bool" that sent him stimibUng back- 
 ward. 
 
 I took a long chance, I reahzed, but if we could make 
 any capital out of Perry's hamJess mania I wanted to 
 make it while the making was prime. It worked splen- 
 didly. The Sagoths treated us both with marked respect 
 during the balance of the journey, and then passed the 
 word along to their masters, the Mahars. 
 
 Two marches after this episode we came to the city of 
 Phutra. The entrance to it was marked by two lofty 
 towers of granite, which guarded a flight of steps leading 
 to the buried city. Sagoths were on guard here as well as 
 at a hundred or more other towers scattered about over a 
 large plain. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 SLAVES 
 
 As WE descended the broad staircase which led to the 
 main avenue of Phutra I caught my first sight of the dom- 
 inant race of the inner world. Involuntarily I shrank back 
 as one of the creatures approached to inspect us. A more 
 hideous thing it would be impossible to imagine. The all- 
 powerful Mahars of Pellucidar are great reptiles, some 
 six or eight feet in length, with long narrow heads and 
 great round eyes. Their beaklike mouths are Uned with 
 sharp, white fangs, and the backs of their huge, lizard 
 bodies are serrated into bony ridges from their necks to 
 the end of their long tails. Their feet are equipped with 
 three webbed toes, while from the fore feet membranous 
 wings, which are attached to their bodies just in front of 
 the hind legs, protrude at an angle of 45 degrees toward 
 the rear, ending in sharp points several feet above their 
 bodies. 
 
 I glanced at Perry as the thing passed me to inspect 
 him. The old man was gazing at the horrid creature with 
 wide astonished eyes. When it passed on, he turned to 
 me. 
 
 "A rhamphorhynchus of the Middle OUtic, David," he 
 said, 'Taut, gad, how enormous! The largest remains we 
 ever have discovered have never indicated a size greater 
 than that attained by an ordinary crow." 
 
 As we continued on through the main avenue of Phutra 
 we saw many thousand of the creatures coming and going 
 upon their daily duties. They paid but little attention to 
 us. Phutra is laid out underground with a regularity that 
 indicates remarkable engineering skill. It is hewn from 
 sohd limestone strata. The streets are broad and of a uni- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 45 
 
 form height of twenty feet. At intervals tubes pierce the 
 roof of this underground city, and by means of lenses and 
 reflectors transmit the sunhght, softened and diffused, to 
 dispel what would otherwise be Cimmerian darkness. In 
 hke manner air is introduced. 
 
 Perry and I were taken, with Ghak, to a large public 
 building, where one of the Sagoths who had formed our 
 guard explained to a Maharan o£Bcial the circumstances 
 surrounding our capture. The method of communication 
 between these two was remarkable in that no spoken 
 words were exchanged. They employed a species of sign 
 language. As I was to learn later, the Mahars have no 
 ears, nor any spoken language. Among themselves they 
 commimicate by means of what Perry says must be a 
 sixth sense which is cognizant of a fourth dimension. 
 
 I never did quite grasp him, though he endeavored to 
 explain it to me upon numerous occasions. I suggested te- 
 lepathy, but he said no, that it was not telepathy since 
 they could only communicate when in each other's pres- 
 ence, nor could they talk with the Sagoths or the other in- 
 habitants of Pellucidar by the same method they used to 
 converse with one another. 
 
 "What they do," said Perry, "is to project their 
 thoughts into the fourth dimension, when they become 
 appreciable to the sixth sense of their Ustener. Do I make 
 myself quite clear?" 
 
 "You do not. Perry," I repHed. He shook his head in de- 
 spair, and returned to his work. They had set us to carry- 
 ing a great accumulation of Maharan literature from one 
 apartment to another, and there arranging it upon 
 shelves. I suggested to Perry that we were in the pubhc H- 
 brary of Phutra, but later, as he commenced to discover 
 the key to their written language, he assured me that we 
 were handhng the ancient archives of the race. 
 
 During this period my thoughts were continually upon 
 
46 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 Dian the Beautiful. I was, of course, glad that she had es- 
 caped the Mahars, and the fate that had been suggested 
 by the Sagoth who had threatened to purchase her upon 
 our arrival at Phutra. I often wondered if the little party 
 of fugitives had been overtaken by the guards who had 
 returned to search for them. Sometimes I was not so sure 
 but that I should have been more contented to know that 
 Dian was here in Phutra, than to think of her at the 
 mercy of Hooja the Sly One. 
 
 Ghak, Perry, and I often talked together of possible es- 
 cape, but the Sarian was so steeped in his lifelong belief 
 that no one could escape from the Mahars except by a 
 miracle, that he was not much aid to us— his attitude was 
 of one who waits for the miracle to come to him. 
 
 At my suggestion Perry and I fashioned some swords of 
 scraps of iron which we discovered among some rubbish 
 in the cells where we slept, for we were permitted almost 
 unrestrained freedom of action within the limits of the 
 building to which we had been assigned. So great were 
 the number of slaves who waited upon the inhabitants of 
 Phutra that none of us was apt to be overburdened with 
 work, nor were our masters iinldnd to us. 
 
 We hid our new weapons beneath the skins which 
 formed our beds, and then Perry conceived the idea of 
 making bows and arrows— weapons apparently imknown 
 within PeUucidar. Next came shields; but these I found it 
 easier to steal from the waUs of the outer guardroom of 
 the building. 
 
 We had completed these arrangements for our protec- 
 tion after leaving Phutra when the Sagoths who had been 
 sent to recapture the escaped prisoners returned with four 
 of them, of whom Hooja was one. Dian and two others 
 had eluded them. It so happened that Hooja was confined 
 in the same building with us. He told Ghak that he had 
 not seen Dian or the others after releasing them within 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs A7 
 
 the dark grotto. What had become of them he had not the 
 faintest conception— they might be wandering yet, lost 
 within the labyrinthine tunnel, if not dead from starva- 
 tion. 
 
 I was now still further apprehensive as to the fate of 
 Dian, and at this time, I imagine, came the first realiza- 
 tion that my affection for the girl might be prompted by 
 more than friendship. During my waking hours she was 
 constantly the subject of my thoughts, and when I slept 
 her dear face haunted my dreams. More than ever was I 
 determined to escape the Mahars. 
 
 "Perry," I confided to the old man, "if I have to search 
 every inch of this diminutive world I am going to find 
 Dian the Beautiful and right the MTong I unintentionally 
 did her." That was the excuse I made for Perry's benefit. 
 
 "Diminutive world!" he scoffed. "You don't know what 
 you are talking about, my boy," and then he showed me a 
 map of Pellucidar which he had recendy discovered 
 among the manuscript he was arranging. 
 
 "Look," he cried, pointing to it, "this is evidently 
 water, and all this land. Do you notice the general 
 configuration of the two areas? Where the oceans are 
 upon the outer crust, is land here. These relatively small 
 areas of ocean foUow the general Hues of the continents of 
 the outer world. 
 
 "We know that the crust of the globe is 500 miles in 
 thickness; then the inside diameter of Pellucidar must be 
 7,000 miles, and the superficial area 165,480,000 square 
 miles. Three-fourths of this is land. Think of iti A land 
 area of 124,110,000 square milesl Our own world con- 
 tains but 53,000,000 square miles of land, the balance 
 of its surface being covered by water. Just as we of- 
 ten compare nations by their relative land areas, so if 
 we compare these two worlds in the same way we have 
 
48 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 the strange anomaly of a larger world within a smaller 
 one! 
 
 "Where within vast PeUucidar would you search for 
 your Dian? Without stars, or moon, or changing sun how 
 could you find her even though you knew where she 
 might be found?" 
 
 The proposition was a corker. It quite took my breath 
 away; but I found that it left me all the more determined 
 to attempt it. 
 
 "If Ghak will accompany us we may be able to do it," I 
 suggested. 
 
 Perry and I sought him out and put the question 
 straight to him. 
 
 "Ghak," I said, "we are determined to escape from this 
 bondage. Will you accompany us?" 
 
 "They will set the thipdars upon us," he said, "and 
 then we shall be killed; but—" he hesitated— "I would 
 take the chance if I thought that I might possibly escape 
 and return to my own people." 
 
 "Could you find your way back to yoiu* own land?" 
 asked Perry. "And could you aid David in his search for 
 Dian?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "But how," persisted Perry, "could you travel to 
 strange country without heavenly bodies or a compass to 
 guide you?" 
 
 Ghak didn't know what Perry meant by heavenly bod- 
 ies or a compass, but he assured us that you might bUnd- 
 fold any man of Pellucidar and carry him to the farther- 
 most corner of the world, yet he would be able to come 
 directly to his own home again by the shortest route. He 
 seemed surprised to think that we found anj^ng won- 
 derful in it. Perry said it must be some sort of homing in- 
 stinct such as is possessed by certain breeds of earthly pi- 
 geons. I didn't know, of course, but it gave me an idea. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 49 
 
 "Then Dian could have found her way directly to her 
 own people?" I asked. 
 
 "Surely," replied Ghak, "unless some mighty beast of 
 prey kiUed her." 
 
 I was for making the attempted escape at once, but 
 both Perry and Ghak coimseled waiting for some propi- 
 tious accident which would insure us some small degree 
 of success. I didn't see what accident could befaU a whole 
 community in a land of perpetual daylight where the in- 
 habitants had no fixed habits of sleep. Why, I am smre 
 that some of the Mahars never sleep, while others may, at 
 long intervals, crawl into the dark recesses beneath fieir 
 dwellings and curl up in protracted slumber. Perry says 
 that if a Mahar stays awake for three years he will make 
 up aU his lost sleep in a long year's snooze. That may be 
 all true, but I never saw but three of them asleep, and it 
 was the sight of these three that gave me a suggestion for 
 our means of escape. 
 
 I had been searching about far below the levels that we 
 slaves were supposed to frequent— possibly fifty feet be- 
 neath the main floor of the building— among a network of 
 corridors and apartments, when I came suddenly upon 
 three Mahars cxurled up upon a bed of skins. At first I 
 thought they were dead, but later their regular breathing 
 convinced me of my error. Like a flash the thought came 
 to me of the marvelous opportunity these sleeping reptiles 
 oflFered as a means of eluding the watchfulness of otir cap- 
 tors and the Sagoth guards. 
 
 Hastening back to Perry where he pored over a musty 
 pile of, to me, meaningless hieroglyphics, I explained my 
 plan to him. To my surprise he was horrified. 
 
 "It would be murder, David," he cried. 
 
 "Murder to kill a reptilian monster?" I asked in as- 
 tonishment. 
 
50 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 "Here they are not monsters, David," he replied. "Here 
 they are the dominant race— we are the 'monsters'— the 
 lower orders. In Pellucidar evolution has progressed along 
 dijierent lines than upon the outer earth. These terrible 
 convulsions of nature time and time again wiped out the 
 existing species— but for this fact some monster of the 
 Saiurozoic epoch might rule today upon our own world. 
 We see here what might well have occurred in our own 
 history had conditions been what they have been here. 
 
 "Life within Pellucidar is far younger than upon the 
 outer crust. Here man has but reached a stage analogous 
 to the Stone Age of our own world's history, but for 
 countless millions of years these reptiles have been 
 progressing. Possibly it is the sixth sense which I am sure 
 they possess that has given them an advantage over the 
 other and more frightfully armed of their fellows ; but this 
 we may never know. They look upon us as we look upon 
 the beasts of our fields, and I leam from their written rec- 
 ords that other races of Mahars feed upon men— they 
 keep them in great droves, as we keep cattle. They breed 
 them most carefully, and when they are quite fat, they 
 Idll and eat them." 
 
 I shuddered. 
 
 "What is there horrible about it, David?" the old man 
 asked. "They understand us no better than we tmder- 
 stand the lower animals of oiu: own world. Why, I have 
 come across here very learned discussions of the question 
 as to whether gilaks, that is men, have any means of com- 
 munication. One writer claims that we do not even reason 
 —that our every act is mechanical, or instinctive. The 
 dominant race of Pellucidar, David, has not yet learned 
 that men converse among themselves, or reason. Because 
 we do not converse as they do it is beyond them to imag- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 51 
 
 ine that we converse at all. It is thus that we reason in 
 relation to the brutes of our own world. They know that 
 the Sagoths have a spoken language, but yet they cannot 
 comprehend it, or how it manifests itself, since they have 
 no auditory apparatus. They believe that the motions of 
 the Hps alone convey the meaning. That the Sagoths can 
 communicate with us is incomprehensible to them. 
 
 'Tes, David," he concluded, "it would entail murder to 
 carry out yoiu: plan." 
 
 "Very weU then. Perry," I replied. "I shall become a 
 murderer." 
 
 He got me to go over the plan again most carefully, and 
 for some reason which was not at the time clear to me 
 insisted upon a very careful description of the apartments 
 and corridors I had just explored. 
 
 "I wonder, David," he said at length, "as you are deter- 
 mined to carry out your wild scheme, if we could not ac- 
 comphsh something of very real and lasting benefit for 
 the human race of Pellucidar at the same time. Listen, I 
 have learned much of a most surprising nature from these 
 archives of the Mahars. That you may appreciate my plan 
 I shall briefly outhne the history of the race. 
 
 "Once the males were all-powerful, but ages ago the 
 females, little by httle, assumed the mastery. For other 
 ages no noticeable change took place in the race of 
 Mahars. It continued to progress under the intelligent 
 and beneficent rule of the ladies. Science took vast 
 strides. This was especially true of the sciences which we 
 know as biology and eugenics. Finally a certain female 
 scientist announced the fact that she had discovered a 
 method whereby eggs might be fertilized by chemical 
 means after they were laid— aU true reptiles, you know, 
 are hatched from eggs. 
 
 "What happened? Immediately the necessity for males 
 
52 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 ceased to exist— the race was no longer dependent upon 
 them. More ages elapsed until at the present time we find 
 a race consisting exclusively of females. But here is the 
 point. The secret of this chemical formula is kept by a sin- 
 gle race of Mahars. It is in the city of Phutra, and unless I 
 am greatly in error I judge from your description of the 
 vaults through which you passed today that it lies hidden 
 in the cellar of this building. 
 
 "For two reasons they hide it away and guard it jea- 
 lously. First, because upon it depends the very life of the 
 race of Mahars, and second, owing to the fact that when 
 it was pubhc property as at first so many were ex- 
 perimenting with it that the danger of overpopulation 
 became very grave. 
 
 "David, if we can escape, and at the same time take 
 vdth us this great secret what wiU we not have accom- 
 plished for the human race within Pellucidarl" 
 
 The very thought of it fairly overpowered me. Why, we 
 two would be the means of placing the men of the inner 
 world in their rightful place among created things. Only 
 the Sagoths would then stand between them and absolute 
 supremacy, and I was not qmte sure but that the Sagoths 
 owed all their power to the greater inteUigence of the 
 Mahars— I could not believe that these gorilla-Hke beasts 
 were the mental superiors of the human race of Pellu- 
 cidar. 
 
 "Why, Perry," I exclaimed, "you and I may reclaim a 
 whole world! Together we can lead the races of men out 
 of the darkness of ignorance into the Hght of advance- 
 ment and civiHzation. At one step we may carry them 
 from the Age of Stone to the twentieth century. It's mar- 
 velous—absolutely marvelous just to think about it." 
 
 "David," said the old man, "I believe that Gk)d sent us 
 here for just that purpose— it shall be my life work to 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 53 
 
 teach them His word— to lead them into the hght of His 
 mercy while we are training their hearts and hands in the 
 ways of culture and civiUzation." 
 
 Tou are right, Perry," I said, "and while you are 
 teaching them to pray I'll be teaching them to fight, and 
 between us we'U make a race of men that will be an 
 honor to us both." 
 
 Ghak had entered the apartment some time before we 
 concluded our conversation, and now he wanted to know 
 what we were so excited about. Perry thought we had 
 best not teU him too much, and so I only explained that I 
 had a plan for escape. When I had outhned it to him, he 
 seemed about as horror-struck as Perry had been; but for 
 a diflEerent reason. The Hairy One only considered the 
 horrible fate that would be ours were we discovered; but 
 at last I prevailed upon him to accept my plan as the only 
 feasible one, and when I had assured him that I would 
 take all the responsibihty for it were we captured, he ac- 
 corded a reluctant assent. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF HORROR 
 
 WrrfflN Pellucidar one time is as good as another. There 
 were no nights to mask our attempted escape. All must be 
 done in broad dayUght— all but the work I had to do in 
 the apartment beneath the building. So we determined to 
 put our plan to an immediate test lest the Mahars who 
 made it possible should awake before I reached them; but 
 we were doomed to disappointment, for no sooner had we 
 reached the main floor of the building on our way to the 
 pits beneath, than we encountered hurrying bands of 
 
54 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 slaves being hastened under strong Sagoth guard out of 
 the edifice to the avenue beyond. 
 
 Other Sagoths were darting hither and thither in search 
 of other slaves, and the moment that we appeared we 
 were pounced upon and hustled into the line of marching 
 humans. 
 
 What the piupose or nature of the general exodus we 
 did not know, but presently through the line of captives 
 ran the rumor that two escaped slaves had been recap- 
 tured—a man and a woman— and that we were marching 
 to witness their pxmishment, for the man had killed a 
 Sagoth of the detachment that had pursued and over- 
 taken them. 
 
 At the intelligence my heart sprang to my throat, for I 
 was sure that the two were of those who escaped in the 
 dark grotto with Hooja the Sly One, and that Dian must 
 be the woman. Ghak thought so too, as did Perry. 
 
 "Is there naught that we may do to save her?" I asked 
 Ghak. 
 
 "Naught," he replied. 
 
 Along the crowded avenue we marched, the guards 
 showing unusual cruelty toward us, as though we, too, 
 had been implicated in the murder of their fellow. The 
 occasion was to serve as an object-lesson to aU other 
 slaves of the danger and futility of attempted escape, and 
 the fatal consequences of taking the life of a superior 
 being, and so I imagine that Sagoths felt amply justified 
 in making the entire proceeding as uncomfortable and 
 painful to us as possible. 
 
 They jabbed us with their spears and struck at us vidth 
 their hatchets at the least provocation, and at no provoca- 
 tion at all. It was a most uncomfortable half-hour that we 
 spent before we were finally herded through a low en- 
 trance into a huge building the center of which was given 
 up to a good-sized arena. Benches sxirrounded this open 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 55 
 
 space upon three sides, and along the fourth were heaped 
 huge bowlders which rose in receding tiers toward the 
 roof. 
 
 At first I couldn't make out the purpose of this mighty 
 pile of rock, unless it were intended as a rough and pic- 
 turesque background for the scenes which were enacted 
 in the arena before it, but presently, after the wooden 
 benches had been pretty well filled by slaves and Sagoths, 
 I discovered the purpose of the bowlders, for then the 
 Mahars began to file into the enclosure. 
 
 They marched directly across the arena toward the 
 rocks upon the opposite side, where, spreading their bat- 
 like wings, they rose above the high wall of the pit, set- 
 tling down upon the bowlders above. These were the re- 
 served seats, the boxes of the elect. 
 
 Reptiles that they are, the rough siurface of a great 
 stone is to them as plush and upholstery to us. Here they 
 lolled, blinking their hideous eyes, and doubtless con- 
 versing vtith one another in their sixth-sense-fourth- 
 dimension language. 
 
 For the first time I beheld their queen. She diflFered 
 from the others in no feature that was appreciable to my 
 earthly eyes, in fact all Mahars look alike to me; but when 
 she crossed the arena after the balance of her female sub- 
 jects had found their bowlders, she was preceded by a 
 score of huge Sagoths, the largest I ever had seen, and on 
 either side of her waddled a huge thipdar, while behind 
 came another score of Sagoth guardsmen. 
 
 At the barrier the Sagoths clambered up the steep side 
 with truly apelike agility, while behind them the haughty 
 queen rose upon her wings with her two frightful dragons 
 close beside her, and settled down upon the largest 
 bowlder of them all in the exact center of that side of the 
 amphitheater which is reserved for the dominant race. 
 Here she squatted, a most repulsive and uninteresting 
 
56 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 queen; though doubtless quite as well assured of her 
 beauty and divine right to rule as the proudest monarch 
 of the outer world. 
 
 And then the music started— music without sound! The 
 Mahars cannot hear, so the drums and fifes and horns of 
 earthly bands are unknown among them. The 'Taand" 
 consists of a score or more Mahars. It filed out in the cen- 
 ter of the arena where the creatures upon the rocks might 
 see it, and there it performed for fifteen or twenty min- 
 utes. 
 
 Their technic consisted in waving their tails and mov- 
 ing their heads in a regular succession of measured move- 
 ments resulting in a cadence which evidently pleased the 
 eye of the Mahar as the cadence of our own instrumental 
 music pleases our ears. Sometimes the band took meas- 
 ured steps in unison to one side or the other, or backward 
 and again forward— it all seemed very silly and meaning- 
 less to me, but at the end of the first piece the Mahars 
 upon the rocks showed the first indications of enthusiasm 
 that I had seen displayed by the donoinant race of Pelluci- 
 dar. They beat their great wings up and down, and smote 
 their rocky perches with their mighty tails until the 
 ground shook. Then the band started another piece, and 
 all was again as silent as the grave. That was one great 
 beauty about Mahar music— if you didn't happen to like a 
 piece that was being played all you had to do was shut 
 yoiu: eyes. 
 
 When the band had exhausted its repertory it took 
 wing and settled upon rocks above and behind the queen. 
 Then the business of the day was on. A man and woman 
 were pushed into the arena by a couple of Sagoth guards- 
 men. I leaned far forward in my seat to scrutinize the 
 female— hoping against hope that she might prove to be 
 another than Dian the Beautiful. Her back was toward 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 57 
 
 me for a while, and the sight of the great mass of raven 
 hair piled high upon her head filled me with alarm. 
 
 Presently a door in one side of the arena wall was 
 opened to admit a huge, shaggy, buU-like creature. 
 
 "A Bos," whispered Perry, excitedly. "His kind roamed 
 the outer crust with the cave bear and the mammoth ages 
 and ages ago. We have been carried back a miUion years, 
 David, to the childhood of a planet— is it not wondrous?" 
 
 But I saw only the raven hair of a half -naked girl, and 
 my heart stood still in dumb misery at the sight of her, 
 nor had I any eyes for the wonders of natural history. But 
 for Perry and Ghak I should have leaped to the floor of 
 the arena and shared whatever fate lay in store for this 
 priceless treasure of the Stone Age. 
 
 With the advent of the Bos— they call the thing a thag 
 within Pellucidar— two spears were tossed into the arena 
 at the feet of the prisoners. It seemed to me that a bean 
 shooter would have been as effective against the mighty 
 monster as these pitiful weapons. 
 
 As the animal approached the two, bellowing and paw- 
 ing the ground with the strength of many earthly bulls, 
 another door directly beneath us was opened, and from it 
 issued the most terrific roar that ever had fallen upon my 
 outraged ears. I could not at first see the beast from 
 which emanated this fearsome challenge, but the sound 
 had the effect of bringing the two victims around with a 
 sudden start, and then I saw the girl's face— she was not 
 Dian! I could have wept for rehef. 
 
 And now, as the two stood frozen in terror, I saw the 
 author of that fearsome sound creeping stealthily into 
 view. It was a huge tiger— such as hunted the great Bos 
 through the jungles primeval when the world was young. 
 In contour and markings it was not unlike the noblest of 
 the Bengals of oiur own world, but as its dimensions were 
 exaggerated to colossal proportions so too were its color- 
 
58 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 ings exaggerated. Its vivid yellows fairly screamed aloud; 
 its whites were as eider down; its blacks glossy as the 
 finest anthracite coal, and its coat long and shaggy as a 
 mountain goat. That it is a beautiful animal there is no 
 gainsaying, but if its size and colors are magnified here 
 within Pellucidar, so is the ferocity of its disposition. It is 
 not the occasional member of its species that is a man 
 hunter— all are man hunters; but they do not confine their 
 foraging to man alone, for there is no flesh or fish within 
 Pellucidar that they will not eat with relish in the con- 
 stant efforts which they make to furnish their huge 
 carcasses with sufiBcient sustenance to maintain their 
 mighty thews. 
 
 Upon one side of the doomed pair the thag bellowed 
 and advanced, and upon the other tarag, the frightful, 
 crept toward them with gaping mouth and dripping 
 fangs. 
 
 The man seized the spears, handing one of them to the 
 woman. At the soimd of the roaring of the tiger the bull's 
 bellowing became a veritable frenzy of rageful noise. 
 Never in my life had I heard such an infernal din as the 
 two brutes made, and to think that it was aU lost upon the 
 hideous reptiles for whom the show was stagedl 
 
 The thag was charging now from one side, and the 
 tarag from the other. The two puny things standing be- 
 tween them seemed already lost, but at the very moment 
 that the beasts were upon them the man grasped his com- 
 panion by the arm and together they leaped to one side, 
 while the frenzied creatures came together like locomo- 
 tives in coUision. 
 
 There ensued a battle royal which for sustained and 
 frightful ferocity transcends the power of imagination or 
 description. Time and again the colossal bull tossed the 
 enormous tiger high into the air, but each time that the 
 huge cat touched the ground he returned to the encoun- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 59 
 
 ter with apparently undiminished strength, and seem- 
 ingly increased ire. 
 
 For a while the man and woman busied themselves 
 only with keeping out of the way of the two creatures, 
 but finally I saw them separate and each creep stealthily 
 toward one of the combatants. The tiger was now upon 
 the bull's broad back, clinging to the huge neck with 
 powerful fangs while its long, strong talons ripped the 
 heavy hide into shreds and ribbons. 
 
 For a moment the bull stood bellowing and quivering 
 with pain and rage, its cloven hoofs widespread, its tail 
 lashing viciously from side to side, and then, in a mad 
 orgy of bucking, it went careening about the arena in 
 frenzied attempt to unseat its rending rider. It was with 
 difficulty that the girl avoided the first mad rush of the 
 wounded animal. 
 
 All its eflForts to rid itself of the tiger seemed futile, 
 imtil in desperation it threw itself upon the grovmd, roll- 
 ing over and over. A httle of this so disconcerted the 
 tiger, knocking its breath from it I imagine, that it lost its 
 hold, and then, quick as a cat, the great thag was up 
 again and had buried those mighty horns deep in the 
 tarag's abdomen, pinning him to the floor of the arena. 
 
 The great cat clawed at the shaggy head until eyes and 
 ears were gone, and naught but a few strips of ragged, 
 bloody flesh remained upon the skull. Yet through all the 
 agony of that fearful punishment the thag still stood mo- 
 tionless pinning down his adversary, and then the man 
 leaped in, seeing that the blind bull would be the least 
 formidable enemy, and ran his spear through the tarag's 
 heart. 
 
 As the animal's fierce clawing ceased, the buU raised his 
 gory, sightless head, and with a horrid roar ran headlong 
 across the arena. With great leaps and bounds he came, 
 
60 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 straight toward the arena wall directly beneath where we 
 sat, and then accident carried him, in one of his mighty 
 springs, completely over the barrier into the midst of the 
 slaves and Sagoths just in front of us. Swinging his bloody 
 horns from side to side the beast cut a wide swath before 
 him straight upward toward our seats. Before him slaves 
 and gorilla-men fought in mad stampede to escape the 
 menace of the creature's death agonies, for such only 
 could that frightful charge have been. 
 
 Forgetful of us, our guards joined in the general rush 
 for the exits, many of which pierced the wall of the am- 
 phitheater behind us. Perry, Ghak, and I became sepa- 
 rated in the chaos which reigned for a few moments after 
 the beast cleared the wall of the arena, each intent upon 
 saving his own hide. 
 
 I ran to the right, passing several exits choked with the 
 fear-mad mob that were battling to escape. One would 
 have thought that an entire herd of thags was loose be- 
 hind them, rather than a single bHnded, dying beast; but 
 such is the eflfect of panic upon a crowd. 
 
 CHAPTER vn 
 FREEDOM 
 
 Once out of the direct path of the animal, fear of it left 
 me, but another emotion as quickly gripped me— hope of 
 escape that the demoralized condition of the guards 
 made possible for the instant. 
 
 I thought of Perry, and but for the hope that I might 
 better encompass his release if myself free I should have 
 put the thought of freedom from me at once. As it was I 
 hastened on toward the right searching for an exit toward 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 61 
 
 which no Sagoths were fleeing, and at last I found it— a 
 low, narrow aperture leading into a dark corridor. 
 
 Without thought of the possible consequence, I darted 
 into the shadows of the tunnel, feeling my way along 
 through the gloom for some distance. The noises of the 
 amphitheater had grown fainter and fainter until now all 
 was as silent as the tomb about me. Faint hght filtered 
 from above through occasional ventilating and lighting 
 tubes, but it was scarce sufficient to enable my human 
 eyes to cope with the darkness, and so I was forced to 
 move with extreme care, feeling my way along step by 
 step with a hand upon the wall beside me. 
 
 Presently the hght increased and a moment later, to my 
 dehght, I came upon a ffight of steps leading upward, at 
 the top of which the briUiant hght of the noonday sun 
 shone through an opening in the ground. 
 
 Cautiously I crept up the stairway to the tunnel's end, 
 and peering out saw the broad plain of Phutra before me. 
 The nimierous lofty, granite towers which mark the sev- 
 eral entrances to the subterranean city were all in front of 
 me— behind, the plain stretched level and vmbroken to the 
 nearby foothills. I had come to the siu-face, then, be)^nd 
 the city, and my chances for escape seemed much en- 
 hanced. 
 
 My first impulse was to await darkness before attempt- 
 ing to cross the plain, so deeply implanted are habits of 
 thought; but of a sudden I recollected the perpetual 
 noonday brilliance which envelops PeUucidar, and with a 
 smile I stepped forth into the dayhght. 
 
 Rank grass, waist high, grows upon the plain of Phutra 
 —the gorgeous flowering grass of the inner world, each 
 particular blade of which is tipped with a tiny, five- 
 pointed blossom— brilliant httle stars of varying colors 
 that twinkle in the green fohage to add still another 
 charm to the weird, yet lovely, landscape. 
 
62 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 But then the only aspect which attracted me was the 
 distant hills in which I hoped to find sanctuary, and so I 
 hastened on, trampling the myriad beauties beneath my 
 hxuTjdng feet. Perry says that the force of gravity is less 
 upon the surface of the inner world than upon that of the 
 outer. He explained it aU to me once, but I was never par- 
 ticularly brilliant in such matters and so most of it has es- 
 caped me. As I recall it the diflference is due in some part 
 to the counter-attraction of that portion of the earth's 
 crust directly opposite the spot upon the face of PeUuci- 
 dar at which one's calculations are being made. Be that as 
 it may, it always seemed to me that I moved with greater 
 speed and agihty within Pellucidar than upon the outer 
 surface— there was a certain airy hghtness of step that was 
 most pleasing, and a feeling of bodily detachment which 
 I can only compare with that occasionally experienced in 
 dreams. 
 
 And as I crossed Phutra's flower-bespangled plain that 
 time I seemed almost to fly, though how much of the sen- 
 sation was due to Perry's suggestion and how much to ac- 
 tuahty I am sure I do not know. The more I thought of 
 Perry the less pleasure I took in my new-found freedom. 
 There could be no liberty for me within Pellucidar unless 
 the old man shared it with me, and only the hope that I 
 might find some way to encompass his release kept me 
 from turning back to Phutra. 
 
 Just how I was to help Perry I could scarce imagine, 
 but I hoped that some fortuitous circumstances might 
 solve the problem for me. It was quite evident however 
 that httle less than a miracle could aid me, for what 
 would I accomphsh in this strange world, naked and un- 
 armed? It was even doubtful that I could retrace my 
 steps to Phutra should I once pass beyond view of the 
 plain, and even were that possible, what aid could I bring 
 to Perry no matter how far I wandered? 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 63 
 
 The case looked more and more hopeless the longer I 
 viewed it, yet with a stubborn persistency I forged ahead 
 toward the foothills. Behind me no sign of pursuit devel- 
 oped, before me I saw no living thing. It was as though I 
 moved through a dead and forgotten world. 
 
 I have no idea, of course, how long it took me to reach 
 the limit of the plain, but at last I entered the foothills, 
 following a pretty little cafiion upward toward the moun- 
 tains. Beside me frolicked a laughing brooklet, hurrying 
 upon its noisy way down to the silent sea. In its quieter 
 pools I discovered many small fish, of four- or five-pound 
 weight I should imagine. In appearance, except as to size 
 and color, they were not unlike the whale of our own 
 seas. As I watched them playing about I discovered, not 
 only that they suckled their young, but that at intervals 
 they rose to the surface to breathe as well as to feed upon 
 certain grasses and a strange, scarlet lichen which grew 
 upon the rocks just above the water fine. 
 
 It was this last habit that gave me the opportunity I 
 craved to capture one of these herbivorous cetaceans— 
 that is what Perry caUs them— and make as good a meal as 
 one can on raw, warm-blooded fish; but I had become 
 rather used, by this time, to the eating of food in its natu- 
 ral state, though I still balked on the eyes and entrails, 
 much to the amusement of Ghak, to whom I always 
 passed these dehcacies. 
 
 Crouching beside the brook, I waited until one of the 
 diminutive purple whales rose to nibble at the long 
 grasses which overhung the water, and then, fike the 
 beast of prey that man really is, I sprang upon my victim, 
 appeasing my hunger while he yet vsriggled to escape. 
 
 Then I drank from the clear pool, and after washing my 
 hands and face continued my flight. Above the source of 
 the brook I encountered a rugged cfimb to the summit of 
 a long ridge. Beyond was a steep declivity to the shore of 
 
64 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 a placid, inland sea, upon the quiet surface of which lay 
 several beautiful islands. 
 
 The view was charming in the extreme, and as no man 
 or beast was to be seen that might threaten my new- 
 found hberty, I slid over the edge of the bluff, and half 
 sliding, half faUing, dropped into the delightful valley, 
 the very aspect of which seemed to offer a haven of peace 
 and security. 
 
 The gently sloping beach along which I walked was 
 thickly strewn with strangely shaped, colored shells; some 
 empty, others still housing as varied a multitude of 
 moUusks as ever might have drawn out their sluggish 
 lives along the silent shores of the antediluvian seas of the 
 outer crust. As I walked I could not but compare myself 
 with the first man of that other world, so complete the 
 soHtude which siu-rounded me, so primal and untouched 
 the virgin wonders and beauties of adolescent nature. I 
 felt myself a second Adam wending my lonely way 
 through the childhood of a world, searching for my Eve, 
 and at the thought there rose before my mind's eye the 
 exquisite outlines of a perfect face surmounted by a loose 
 pile of wondrous, raven hair. 
 
 As I walked, my eyes were bent upon the beach so that 
 it was not until I had come quite upon it that I discovered 
 that which shattered all my beautiful dream of soUtude 
 and safety and peace and primal overlordship. The thing 
 was a hollowed log drawn upon the sands, and in the bot- 
 tom of it lay a crude paddle. 
 
 The rude shock of awakening to what doubtless might 
 prove some new form of danger was still upon me when I 
 heard a rattUng of loose stones from the direction of the 
 bluff, and turning my eyes in that direction I beheld the 
 author of the disturbance, a great copper-colored man, 
 running rapidly toward me. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 65 
 
 There was that in the haste with which he came which 
 seemed quite sufficiently menacing, so that I did not need 
 the added evidence of brandishing spear and scowling 
 face to warn me that I was in no safe position, but 
 whither to flee was indeed a momentous question. 
 
 The speed of the fellow seemed to preclude the possi- 
 bility of escaping him upon the open beach. There was 
 but a single alternative— the rude skiff— and with a 
 celerity which equaled his, I pushed the thing into the sea 
 and as it floated gave a final shove and clambered in over 
 the end. 
 
 A cry of rage rose from the owner of the primitive craft, 
 and an instant later his heavy, stone-tipped spear grazed 
 my shoulder and buried itself in the bow of the boat be- 
 yond. Then I grasped the paddle, and with feverish haste 
 urged the awkward, wobbly thing out upon the surface of 
 the sea. 
 
 A glance over my shoulder showed me that the copper- 
 colored one had plunged in after me and was swimming 
 rapidly in piursuit. His mighty strokes bade fair to close 
 up the distance between us in short order, for at best I 
 could make but slow progress with my unfamiliar craft, 
 which nosed stubbornly in every direction but that which 
 I desired to follow, so that fully half my energy was ex- 
 pended in turning its blunt prow back into the coiurse. 
 
 I had covered some hundred yards from shore when it 
 became evident that my pursuer must grasp the stern of 
 the skiff vidthin the next half-dozen strokes. In a frenzy of 
 despair, I bent to the grandfather of all paddles in a hope- 
 less effort to escape, and still the copper giant behind me 
 gained and gained. 
 
 His hand was reaching upward for the stem when I 
 saw a sleek, sinuous body shoot from the depths below. 
 The man saw it too, and the look of terror that overspread 
 
66 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 his face assured me that I need have no further concern 
 as to him, for the fear of certain death was in his look. 
 
 And then about him coiled the great, shmy folds of a 
 hideous monster of that prehistoric deep— a mighty ser- 
 pent of the sea, with fanged jaws, and darting forked 
 tongue, with bulging eyes, and bony protuberances upon 
 head and snout that formed short, stout horns. 
 
 As I looked at that hopeless struggle my eyes met those 
 of the doomed man, and I cotJd have sworn that in his I 
 saw an expression of hopeless appeal. But whether I did 
 or no there swept through me a sudden compassion for 
 the fellow. He was indeed a brother-man, and that he 
 might have killed me with pleasure had he caught me was 
 forgotten in the extremity of his danger. 
 
 Unconsciously I had ceased paddling as the serpent 
 rose to engage my pursuer, so now the skiff stiU drifted 
 close beside the two. The monster seemed to be but play- 
 ing with his victim before he closed his awful jaws upon 
 him and dragged him down to his dark den beneath the 
 sinface to devour him. The huge, snakehke body coiled 
 and uncoiled about its prey. The hideous, gaping jaws 
 snapped in the victim's face. The forked tongue, light- 
 ning-hke, ran in and out upon the copper sldn. 
 
 Nobly the giant battled for his Ufe, beating with his 
 stone hatchet against the bony armor that covered that 
 frightful carcass; but for aU the damage he inflicted he 
 might as well have struck with his open palm. 
 
 At last I could endture no longer to sit supinely by while 
 a feUowman was dragged down to a horrible death by 
 that repulsive reptile. Embedded in the prow of the skiff 
 lay the spear that had been cast after me by him whom I 
 suddenly desired to save. With a vmrench I tore it loose, 
 and standing upright in the wobbly log drove it with all 
 the strength of my two arms straight ioto the gaping jaws 
 of the hydrophidian. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 67 
 
 With a loud hiss the creature abandoned its prey to 
 turn upon me, but the spear, imbedded in its throat, pre- 
 vented it from seizing me though it came near to over- 
 turning the ski£F in its mad efforts to reach me. 
 
 CHAPTER vni 
 
 THE MAHAR TEMPLE 
 
 The aborigine, apparently uninjured, climbed quickly 
 into the skiff, and seizing the spear with me helped to 
 hold off the infuriated creature. Blood from the wounded 
 reptile was now crimsoning the waters about us and soon 
 from the weakening struggles it became evident that I 
 had inflicted a death wound upon it. Presently its efforts 
 to reach us ceased entirely, and with a few convulsive 
 movements it turned upon its back quite dead. 
 
 And then there came to me a sudden realization of the 
 predicament in which I had placed myself. I was entirely 
 within the power of the savage man whose skiff I had 
 stolen. Still chnging to the spear I looked into his face to 
 find him scrutinizing me intently, and there we stood for 
 some several minutes, each clinging tenaciously to the 
 weapon the while we gazed in stupid wonderment at 
 each other. 
 
 What was in his mind I do not know, but in my own 
 was merely the question as to how soon the fellow would 
 recommence hostilities. 
 
 Presently he spoke to me, but in a tongue which I was 
 unable to translate. I shook my head in an effort to indi- 
 cate my ignorance of his language, at the same time 
 addressing him in the bastard tongue that the Sagoths use 
 to converse with the human slaves of the Mahars. 
 
68 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 To my delight he understood and answered me in the 
 same jargon. 
 
 "What do you want of my spear?" he asked. 
 
 "Only to keep you from rtmning it through me," I 
 repHed. 
 
 "I would not do that," he said, "for you have just saved 
 my life," and with that he released his hold upon it and 
 squatted down in the bottom of the skiff. 
 
 "Who are you," he continued, "and from what country 
 do you come?" 
 
 I too sat down, laying the spear between us, and tried 
 to explain how I came to Pellucidar, and wherefrom, but 
 it was as impossible for him to grasp or beheve the 
 strange tale I told him as I fear it is for you upon the 
 outer crust to beheve in the existence of the inner world. 
 
 To him it seemed quite ridiculous to imagine that there 
 was another world far beneath his feet peopled by beings 
 similar to himself, and he laughed uproariously the more 
 he thought upon it. But it was ever thus. That which has 
 never come within the scope of our really pitifully meager 
 world-experience cannot be— our finite minds cannot 
 grasp that which may not exist in accordance with the 
 conditions which obtain about us upon the outside of the 
 insignificant grain of dust which wends its tiny way 
 among the bowlders of the universe— the speck of moist 
 dirt we so proudly call the World. 
 
 So I gave it up and asked him about himself. He said 
 he was a Mezop, and that his name was Ja. 
 
 "Who are the Mezops?" I asked. "Where do they Uve?" 
 
 He looked at me in surprise. 
 
 "I might indeed beheve that you were from another 
 world," he said, "for who of Pellucidar could be so igno- 
 rantl The Mezops hve upon the islands of the seas. In so 
 far as I ever have heard no Mezop lives elsewhere, and no 
 others than Mezops dwell upon islands, but of course it 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 69 
 
 may be diJBFerent in other far-distant lands. I do not know. 
 At any rate in this sea and those near by it is true that 
 only people of my race inhabit the islands. 
 
 "We are fishermen, though we be great hunters as well, 
 often going to the mainland in search of the game that is 
 scarce upon all but the larger islands. And we are war- 
 riors also," he added proudly. "Even the Sagoths of the 
 Mahars fear us. Once, when Pellucidar was young, the 
 Sagoths were wont to capture us for slaves as they do the 
 other men of Pellucidar, it is handed down from father to 
 son among us that this is so; but we fought so desperately 
 and slew so many Sagoths, and those of us that were cap- 
 tured killed so many Mahars in their own cities that at 
 last they learned that it were better to leave us alone, and 
 later came the time that the Mahars became too indolent 
 even to catch their own fish, except for amusement, and 
 then they needed us to supply their wants, and so a truce 
 was made between the races. Now they give us certain 
 things which we are unable to produce in return for the 
 fish that we catch, and the Mezops and the Mahars Hve in 
 peace. 
 
 "The great ones even come to our islands. It is there, 
 far from the prying eyes of their own Sagoths, that they 
 practice their religious rites in the temples they have 
 builded there with our assistance. If you hve among us 
 you will doubtless see the manner of their worship, which 
 is strange indeed, and most unpleasant for the poor slaves 
 they bring to take part in it." 
 
 As Ja talked I had an excellent opportunity to inspect 
 him more closely. He was a huge fellow, standing I 
 should say six feet six or seven inches, weU developed and 
 of a coppery red not unlike that of oiu* own North Ameri- 
 can Indian, nor were his features dissimilar to theirs. He 
 had the aquihne nose found among many of the higher 
 tribes, the prominent cheek bones, and black hair and 
 
70 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 eyes, but his mouth and lips were better molded. All in 
 all, Ja was an impressive and handsome creature, and he 
 talked well too, even in the miserable makeshift language 
 we were compelled to use. 
 
 Diuing our conversation Ja had taken the paddle and 
 was propelling the skiff with vigorous strokes toward a 
 large island that lay some half-mile from the mainland. 
 The skill with which he handled his crude and awkward 
 craft elicited my deepest admiration, since it had been so 
 short a time before that I had made such pitiful work of 
 it. 
 
 As we touched the pretty, level beach Ja leaped out 
 and I followed him. Together we dragged the skiff far 
 up into the bushes that grew beyond the sand. 
 
 '^e must hide our canoes," explained Ja, "for the 
 Mezops of Luana are always at war with us and would 
 steal them if they found them," he nodded toward an is- 
 land farther out at sea, and at so great a distance that it 
 seemed but a blur hanging in the distant sky. The upward 
 curve of the surface of Pellucidar was constantly reveal- 
 ing the impossible to the surprised eyes of the outer- 
 earthly. To see land and water curving upward in the dis- 
 tance until it seemed to stand on edge where it melted 
 into the distant sky, and to feel that seas and mountains 
 htmg suspended directly above one's head required such 
 a complete reversal of the perceptive and reasoning fac- 
 ulties as almost to stupefy one. 
 
 No sooner had we hidden the canoe than Ja plunged 
 into the jungle, presently emerging into a narrow but 
 well-defined trail which wound hither and thither much 
 after the manner of the highways of all primitive folk, but 
 there was one peculiarity about this Mezop trail which I 
 was later to find distinguished them from all other trails 
 that I ever have seen within or without the earth. 
 
 It would nm on, plain and clear and well defined to 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 71 
 
 end suddenly in the midst of a tangle of matted jungle, 
 then Ja would turn directly back in his tracks for a Httle 
 distance, spring into a tree, cHmb through it to the other 
 side, drop onto a fallen log, leap over a low bush and 
 ahght once more upon a distinct trail which he would fol- 
 low back for a short distance only to tiurn directly about 
 and retrace his steps until after a mile or less this new 
 pathway ended as suddenly and mysteriously as the for- 
 mer section. Then he would pass again across some media 
 which would reveal no spoor, to take up the broken 
 thread of the trail beyond. 
 
 As the purpose of this remarkable avenue dawned upon 
 me I could not but admire the native shrewdness of the 
 ancient progenitor of the Mezops who hit upon this 
 novel plan to throw his enemies from his track and delay 
 or thwart them in their attempts to follow him to his 
 deep-buried cities. 
 
 To you of the outer earth it might seem a slow and tor- 
 tuous method of travehng through the jungle, but were 
 you of PeUucidar you would reaUze that time is no factor 
 where time does not exist. So labyrinthine are the wind- 
 ings of these trails, so varied the connecting Hnks and the 
 distances which one must retrace one's steps from the 
 paths' ends to find them that a Mezop often reaches man's 
 estate before he is familiar even with those which lead 
 from his own city to the sea. 
 
 In fact three-fourths of the education of the young 
 male Mezop consists in familiarizing himself with these 
 jungle avenues, and the status of an adult is largely deter- 
 mined by the number of trails which he can follow upon 
 his own island. The females never learn them, since from 
 birth to death they never leave the clearing in which the 
 village of their nativity is situated except they be taken to 
 mate by a male from another village, or captured in war 
 by the enemies of their tribe. 
 
71 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 After proceeding through the jungle for what must 
 have been upward of five miles we emerged suddenly 
 into a large clearing in the exact center of which stood as 
 strange an appearing village as one might well imagine. 
 
 Large trees had been chopped down fifteen or twenty 
 feet above the ground, and upon the tops of them spheri- 
 cal habitations of woven twigs, mud covered, had been 
 built. Each ball-like house was siumounted by some man- 
 ner of carven image, which Ja told me indicated the iden- 
 tity of the owner. 
 
 Horizontal slits, six inches high and two or three feet 
 wide, served to admit light and ventilation. The entrances 
 to the houses were through small apertures in the bases of 
 the trees and thence upward by rude ladders through the 
 hollow tnmks to the rooms above. The houses varied in 
 size from two to several rooms. The largest that I entered 
 was divided into two floors and eight apartments. 
 
 All about the village, between it and the jtmgle, lay 
 beautifully cultivated fields in which the Mezops raised 
 such cereals, fruits, and vegetables as they required. 
 Women and children were working in these gardens as 
 we crossed toward the village. At sight of Ja they saluted 
 deferentially, but to me they paid not the sUghtest atten- 
 tion. Among them and about the outer verge of the culti- 
 vated area were many warriors. TTiese too saluted Ja, by 
 touching the points of their spears to the ground directly 
 before them. 
 
 Ja conducted me to a large house in the center of the 
 village— the house with eight rooms— and taking me up 
 into it gave me food and drink. There I met his mate, a 
 comely girl with a nursing baby in her arms. Ja told her of 
 how I had saved his life, and she was thereafter most land 
 and hospitable toward me, even permitting me to hold 
 and amuse the tiny bundle of humanity whom Ja told me 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 73 
 
 would one day rule the tribe, for Ja, it seemed, was the 
 chief of the community. 
 
 We had eaten and rested, and I had slept, much to Ja's 
 amusement, for it seemed that he seldom if ever did so, 
 and then the red man proposed that I accompany him to 
 the temple of the Mahars which lay not far from his vil- 
 lage. 
 
 "We are not supposed to visit it," he said; "but the 
 great ones cannot hear and if we keep weU out of sight 
 they need never know that we have been there. For my 
 part I hate them and always have, but the other chief- 
 tains of the island think it best that we continue to main- 
 tain the amicable relations which exist between the two 
 races; otherwise I should like nothing better than to lead 
 my warriors amongst the hideous creatures and extermi- 
 nate them— Pellucidar would be a better place to Uve 
 were there none of them." 
 
 I whoUy concurred in Ja's belief, but it seemed that it 
 might be a difficult matter to exterminate the dominant 
 race of Pellucidar. Thus conversing we followed the intri- 
 cate trail toward the temple, which we came upon in a 
 small clearing surrounded by enormous trees similar to 
 those which must have flourished upon the outer crust 
 during the carboniferous age. 
 
 Here was a mighty temple of hewn rock built in the 
 shape of a rough oval with rounded roof in which were 
 several large openings. No doors or windows were visible 
 in the sides of the structure, nor was there need of any, 
 except one entrance for the slaves, since, as Ja explained, 
 the Mahars flew to and from their place of ceremonial, 
 entering and leaving the building by means of the aper- 
 tiures in the roof. 
 
 "But," added Ja, "there is an entrance near the base of 
 which even the Mahars know nothing. Come," and he led 
 me across the clearing and about the end to a pile of loose 
 
74 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 rock which lay against the foot of the wall. Here he re- 
 moved a couple of large bowlders, revealing a small open- 
 ing which led straight within the building, or so it 
 seemed, though as I entered after Ja I discovered myself 
 in a narrow place of extreme darkness. 
 
 "We are within the outer wall," said Ja. "It is hollow. 
 Follow me closely." 
 
 The red man groped ahead a few paces and then began 
 to ascend a primitive ladder similar to that which leads 
 from the ground to the upper stories of his house. We as- 
 cended for some forty feet when the interior of the space 
 between the walls commenced to grow lighter and pres- 
 ently we came opposite an opening in the inner wall 
 which gave us an unobstructed view of the entire interior 
 of the temple. 
 
 The lower floor was an enormous tank of clear water in 
 which numerous hideous Mahars swam lazily up and 
 down. Artificial islands of granite rock dotted this 
 artificial sea, and upon several of them I saw men and 
 women like myself. 
 
 "What are the human beings doing here?" I asked. 
 
 "Wait and you shall see," replied Ja. "They are to take 
 a leading part in the ceremonies which will foUow the ad- 
 vent of the queen. You may be thankful that you are not 
 upon the same side of the wall as they." 
 
 Scarcely had he spoken than we heard a great flutter- 
 ing of wings above and a moment later a long procession 
 of the frightful reptiles of PeUucidar winged slowly and 
 majestically through the large central opening in the roof 
 and circled in stately manner about the temple. 
 
 There were several Mahars first, and then at least 
 twenty awe-inspiring pterodactyls— thipdars, they are 
 called within Pellucidar. Behind these came the queen, 
 flanked by other thipdars as she had been when she en- 
 tered the amphitheater at Phutra. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 75 
 
 Three times they wheeled about the interior of the oval 
 chamber, to settle finally upon the damp, cold bowlders 
 that fringe the outer edge of the pool. In the center of one 
 side the largest rock was reserved for the queen, and here 
 she took her place surrounded by her terrible guard. 
 
 AU lay quiet for several minutes after settling to their 
 places. One might have imagined them in silent prayer. 
 The poor slaves upon the diminutive islands watched the 
 horrid creatures with wide eyes. The men, for the most 
 part, stood erect and stately with folded arms, awaiting 
 their doom; but the women and children clung to one an- 
 other, hiding behind the males. They are a noble-looldng 
 race, these cave men of PeUucidar, and if our progenitors 
 were as they, the human race of the outer crust has dete- 
 riorated rather than unproved with the march of the ages. 
 All they lack is opportunity. We have opportxmity, and 
 little else. 
 
 Now the queen moved. She raised her ugly head, look- 
 ing about; then very slowly she crawled to the edge of her 
 throne and slid noiselessly into the water. Up and down 
 the long tank she swam, turning at the ends as you have 
 seen captive seals turn in their tiny tanks, turning upon 
 their backs and diving below the surface. 
 
 Nearer and nearer to the island she came until at last 
 she remained at rest before the largest, which was 
 directly opposite her throne. Raising her hideous head 
 from the water she fixed her great, round eyes upon the 
 slaves. They were fat and sleek, for they had been 
 brought from a distant Mahar city where human beings 
 are kept in droves, and bred and fattened, as we breed 
 and fatten beef cattle. 
 
 The queen fixed her gaze upon a plump young maiden. 
 Her victim tried to turn away, hiding her face in her 
 hands and kneeUng behind a woman; but the reptile, vdth 
 unblinking eyes, stared on with such fixity that I could 
 
76 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 have sworn her vision penetrated the woman, and the 
 girl's arms to reach at last the very center of her brain. 
 
 Slowly the reptile's head commenced to move to and 
 fro, but the eyes never ceased to bore toward the fright- 
 ened girl, and then the victim responded. She turned 
 wide, fear-haunted eyes toward the Mahar queen, slowly 
 she rose to her feet, and then as though dragged by some 
 unseen power she moved as one in a trance straight to- 
 ward the reptile, her glassy eyes fixed upon those of her 
 captor. 
 
 To the water's edge she came, nor did she even pause, 
 but stepped into the shallows beside the Httle island. On 
 she moved toward the Mahar, who now slowly retreated 
 as though leading her victim on. The water rose to the 
 girl's knees, and stiU she advanced, chained by that 
 clammy eye. Now the water was at her waist; now her 
 armpits. Her fellows upon the island looked on in horror, 
 helpless to avert her doom in which they saw a forecast of 
 their own. 
 
 The Mahar sank now tiU only the long upper biU and 
 eyes were exposed above the surface of the water, and 
 the girl had advanced until the end of that repulsive beak 
 was but an inch or two from her face, her horror-filled 
 eyes riveted upon those of the reptile. 
 
 Now the water passed above the girl's mouth and nose 
 —her eyes and forehead aU that showed— yet stiU she 
 walked on after the retreating Mahar. The queen's head 
 slowly disappeared beneath the surface and after it went 
 the eyes of her victim— only a slow ripple widened toward 
 the shores to mark where the two vanished. 
 
 For a time all was silence within the temple. The slaves 
 were motionless in terror. The Mahars watched the sur- 
 face of the water for the reappearance of their queen, and 
 presently at one end of the tank her head rose slowly into 
 view. She was backing toward the surface, her eyes fixed 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 77 
 
 before her as they had been when she dragged the help- 
 less girl to her doom. 
 
 And then to my utter amazement I saw the forehead 
 and eyes of the maiden come slowly out of the depths, 
 following the gaze of the reptile just as when she had 
 disappeared beneath the surface. On and on came the girl 
 until she stood in water that reached barely to her knees, 
 and though she had been beneath the surface sufficient 
 time to have drowned her thrice over there was no indi- 
 cation, other than her dripping hair and ghstening body, 
 that she had been submerged at all. 
 
 Again and again the queen led the girl into the depths 
 and out again, imtil the uncanny weirdness of the thing 
 got on my nerves so that I could have leaped into the 
 tank to the child's rescue had I not taken a firm hold of 
 myself. 
 
 Once they were below much longer than usual, and 
 when they came to the surface I was horrified to see that 
 one of the girl's arms was gone— gnawed completely off at 
 the shoulder— but the poor thing gave no indication of re- 
 alizing pain, only the horror in her set eyes seemed in- 
 tensified. 
 
 The next time they appeared the other arm was gone, 
 and then the breasts, and then a part of the face— it was 
 awful. The poor creatures on the islands awaiting their 
 fate tried to cover their eyes with their hands to hide the 
 fearful sight, but now I saw that they too were under the 
 hypnotic spell of the reptiles, so that they could only 
 crouch in terror with their eyes fixed upon the terrible 
 thing that was transpiring before them. 
 
 Finally the queen was under much longer than ever be- 
 fore, and when she rose she came alone and swam sleep- 
 ily toward her bowlder. The moment she mounted it 
 seemed to be the signal for the other Mahars to enter the 
 tank, and then commenced, upon a larger scale, a repeti- 
 
78 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 tion of the uncanny performance through which the 
 queen had led her victim. 
 
 Only the women and children fell prey to the Mahars— 
 they being the weakest and most tender— and when they 
 had satisfied their appetite for human flesh, some of them 
 devouring two and three of the slaves, there were only a 
 score of fuU-grown men left, and I thought that for some 
 reason these were to be spared, but such was far from the 
 case, for as the last Mahar crawled to her rock the queen's 
 thipdars darted into the air, circled the temple once and 
 then, hissing hke steam engines, swooped down upon the 
 remaining slaves. 
 
 There was no hypnotism here— just the plain, brutal fe- 
 rocity of the beast of prey, tearing, rending, and gulping 
 its meat, but at that it was less horrible than the uncanny 
 method of the Mahars. By the time the thipdars had 
 disposed of the last of the slaves the Mahars were all 
 asleep upon their rocks, and a moment later the great 
 pterodactyls swung back to their posts beside the queen, 
 and themselves dropped into slumber. 
 
 "I thought the Mahars seldom, if ever, slept," I said to 
 
 "They do many things in this temple which they do not 
 do elsewhere," he rephed. "The Mahars of Phutra are not 
 supposed to eat human flesh, yet slaves are brought here 
 by thousands and almost always you will find Mahars on 
 hand to consume them. I imagine that they do not bring 
 their Sagoths here, because they are ashamed of the prac- 
 tice, which is supposed to obtain only among the least ad- 
 vanced of their race; but I would wager my canoe against 
 a broken paddle that there is no Mahar but eats human 
 flesh whenever she can get it." 
 
 "Why should they object to eating human flesh," I 
 asked, "if it is true that they look upon us as lower ani- 
 mals?" 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 79 
 
 "It is not because they consider us their equals that 
 they are supposed to look with abhorrence upon those 
 who eat our flesh," replied Ja; "it is merely that we are 
 warm-blooded animals. They would not think of eating 
 the meat of a thag, which we consider such a dehcacy, 
 any more than I would think of eating a snake. As a mat- 
 ter of fact it is difiBcult to explain just why this sentiment 
 should exist among them." 
 
 '1 wonder if they left a single victim," I remarked, 
 leaning far out of the opening in the rocky wall to inspect 
 the temple better. Directly below me the water lapped 
 the very side of the waU, there being a break in the 
 bowlders at this point as there was at several other places 
 about the side of the temple. 
 
 My hands were resting upon a small piece of granite 
 which formed a part of the wall, and all my weight upon 
 it proved too much for it. It sUpped and I Ixmged forward. 
 There was nothing to grasp to save myself and I plunged 
 headforemost into the water below. 
 
 Fortrmately the tank was deep at this point, and I 
 sufFered no injury from the fall, but as I was rising to the 
 surface my mind filled with the horrors of my position as 
 I thought of the terrible doom which awaited me the mo- 
 ment the eyes of the reptiles fell upon the creature that 
 had disturbed their slumber. 
 
 As long as I could I remained beneath the surface, 
 swimming rapidly in the direction of the islands that I 
 might prolong my Ufe to the utmost. At last I was forced 
 to rise for air, and as I cast a terrified glance in the direc- 
 tion of the Mahars and the thipdars I was almost stunned 
 to see that not a single one remained upon the rocks 
 where I had last seen them, nor as I searched the temple 
 with my eyes could I discern any within it. 
 
 For a moment I was puzzled to account for the thing, 
 until I realized that the reptiles, being deaf, could not 
 
80 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 have been disturbed by the noise my body made when it 
 hit the water, and that as there is no such thing as time 
 within Pellucidar there was no telling how long I had 
 been beneath the surface. It was a dijfficult thing to at- 
 tempt to figure out by earthly standards— this matter of 
 elapsed time— but when I set myself to it I began to real- 
 ize that I might have been submerged a second or a 
 month or not at all. You have no conception of the 
 strange contradictions and impossibilities which arise 
 when all methods of measuring time, as we know them 
 upon earth, are non-existent. 
 
 I was about to congratulate myself upon the miracle 
 which had saved me for the moment, when the memory 
 of the hypnotic powers of the Mahars filled me with ap- 
 prehension lest they be practicing their uncanny art upon 
 me to the end that I merely imagined that I was alone in 
 the temple. At the thought cold sweat broke out upon me 
 from every pore, and as I crawled from the water onto 
 one of the tiny islands I was trembling like a leaf— you 
 cannot imagine the awful horror which even the simple 
 thought of the repulsive Mahars of PeUucidar induces in 
 the human mind, and to feel that you are in their power- 
 that they are crawhng, sHmy, and abhorrent, to drag you 
 down beneath the waters and devour youl It is frightful. 
 
 But they did not come, and at last I came to the con- 
 clusion that I was indeed alone within the temple. How 
 long I should be alone was the next question to assail me 
 as I swam frantically about once more in search of a 
 means to escape. 
 
 Several times I called to Ja, but he must have left after 
 I tumbled into the tank, for I received no response to my 
 cries. Doubtless he had felt as certain of my doom when 
 he saw me topple from our hiding place as I had, and lest 
 he too should be discovered, had hastened from the tem- 
 ple and back to his viUage. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 81 
 
 I knew that there must be some entrance to the build- 
 ing besides the doorways in the roof, for it did not seem 
 reasonable to believe that the thousands of slaves which 
 were brought here to feed the Mahars the human flesh 
 they craved would all be carried through the air, and so I 
 continued my search until at last it was rewarded by the 
 discovery of several loose granite blocks in the masonry at 
 one end of the temple. 
 
 A httle effort proved sufficient to dislodge enough of 
 these stones to permit me to crawl through into the clear- 
 ing, and a moment later I had scurried across the iuter- 
 vening space to the dense jungle beyond. 
 
 Here I sank panting and trembling upon the matted 
 grasses beneath the giant trees, for I felt that I had es- 
 caped from the grinning fangs of death out of the depths 
 of my own grave. Whatever dangers lay hidden in this is- 
 land jungle, there could be none so fearsome as those 
 which I had just escaped. I knew that I could meet death 
 bravely enough if it but came in the form of some famiUar 
 beast or man— anything other than the hideous and im- 
 canny Mahars. 
 
 CHAPTER rx 
 THE FACE OF DEATH 
 
 I MUST HAVE fallen asleep from exhaustion. When I awoke 
 I was very hungry, and after busying myself searching for 
 fruit for a while, I set off through the jungle to find the 
 beach. I knew that the island was not so large but that I 
 could easily find the sea if I did but move in a straight 
 hne, but there came the difficulty as there was no way in 
 which I could direct my course and hold it, the sun, of 
 
82 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 course, being always directly above my head, and the 
 trees so thickly set that I could see no distant object 
 which niight serve to guide me in a straight line. 
 
 As it was I must have walked for a great distance since 
 I ate four times and slept twice before I reached the sea, 
 but at last I did so, and my pleasmre at the sight of it was 
 greatly enhanced by the chance discovery of a hidden 
 canoe among the bushes through which I had stmnbled 
 just prior to coming upon the beacL 
 
 I can tell you that it did not take me long to pull that 
 awkward craft down to the water and shove it far out 
 from shore. My experience with Ja had taught me that if I 
 were to steal another canoe I must be quick about it and 
 get far beyond the owner's reach as soon as possible. 
 
 I must have come out upon the opposite side of the is- 
 land from that at which Ja and I had entered it, for the 
 mainland was nowhere in sight. For a long time I paddled 
 around the shore, though well out, before I saw the main- 
 land in the distance. At the sight of it I lost no time in 
 directing my coiurse toward it, for I had long since made 
 up my mind to return to Phutra and give myself up that I 
 might be once more with Perry and Ghak the Hairy One. 
 
 I felt that I was a fool ever to have attempted to escape 
 alone, especially in view of the fact that our plans were 
 aheady well formulated to make a break for freedom to- 
 gether. Of course I reaUzed that the chances of the suc- 
 cess of our proposed venture were sHm indeed, but I 
 knew that I never could enjoy freedom without Perry so 
 long as the old man lived, and I had learned that the 
 probability that I might find him was less than shght. 
 
 Had Perry been dead, I should gladly have pitted my 
 strength and wit against the savage and primordial world 
 in which I found myself. I could have Hved in seqlusion 
 within some rocky cave until I had found the means to 
 outfit myself with the crude weapons of the Stone Age, 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 83 
 
 and then set out in search of her whose image had now 
 become the constant companion of my waking hoiurs, and 
 the central and beloved figure of my dreams. 
 
 But, to the best of my knowledge, Perry still lived and 
 it was my duty and wish to be again with him, that we 
 might share the dangers and vicissitudes of the strange 
 world we had discovered. And Ghak, too; the great, 
 shaggy man had found a place in the hearts of us both, 
 for he was indeed every inch a man and king. Uncouth, 
 perhaps, and brutal, too, if judged too harshly by the 
 standards of efiFete twentieth-century civilization, but 
 withal noble, dignified, chivalrous, and lovable. 
 
 Chance carried me to the very beach upon which I had 
 discovered Ja's canoe, and a short time later I was scram- 
 bhng up the steep bank to retrace my steps from the plain 
 of Phutra. But my troubles came when I entered the 
 caiion beyond the summit, for here I found that several 
 of them centered at the point where I crossed the divide, 
 and which one I had traversed to reach the pass I could 
 not for the life of me remember. 
 
 It was all a matter of chance and so I set oflF down that 
 which seemed the easiest going, and in this I made the 
 same mistake that many of us do in selecting the path 
 along which we shall foUow out the course of our lives, 
 and again learned that it is not always best to follow the 
 line of least resistance. 
 
 By the time I had eaten eight meals and slept twice I 
 was convinced that I was upon the wrong trail, for be- 
 tween Phutra and the inland sea I had not slept at all, 
 and had eaten but once. To retrace my steps to the sum- 
 mit of the divide and explore another caiion seemed the 
 only solution of my problem, but a sudden widening and 
 levebiess of the caiion just before me seemed to suggest 
 that it was about to open into a level country, and with 
 
84 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 the lure of discovery strong upon me I decided to proceed 
 but a short distance farther before I turned back. 
 
 The next turn of the canon brought me to its mouth, 
 and before me I saw a narrow plain leading down to an 
 ocean. At my right the side of the caiion continued to the 
 water's edge, the valley lying to my left, and the foot of it 
 running gradually into the sea, where it formed a broad 
 level beach. 
 
 Clumps of strange trees dotted the landscape here and 
 there almost to the water, and rank grass and ferns grew 
 between. From the nature of the vegetation I was con- 
 vinced that the land between the ocean and the foothills 
 was swampy, though directly before me it seemed dry 
 enough all the way to the sandy strip along which the 
 restiess waters advanced and retreated. 
 
 Curiosity prompted me to walk dovim to the beach, for 
 the scene was very beautiful. As I passed along beside the 
 deep and tangled vegetation of the swamp I thought that 
 I saw a movement of the ferns at my left, but though I 
 stopped a moment to look it was not repeated, and if any- 
 thing lay hid there my eyes could not penetrate the dense 
 foliage to discern it. 
 
 Presently I stood upon the beach looking out over the 
 wide and lonely sea across whose forbidding bosom no 
 human being had yet ventured, to discover what strange 
 and mysterious lands lay beyond, or what its invisible is- 
 lands held of riches, wonders, or adventure. What savage 
 races, what fierce and formidable beasts were this very in- 
 stant watching the lapping of the waves upon its farther 
 shorel How far did it extend? Perry had told me that the 
 seas of Pellucidar were small in comparison with those of 
 the outer crust, but even so this great ocean might stretch 
 its broad expanse for thousands of miles. For countless 
 ages it had roUed up and down its countless miles of 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 85 
 
 shore, and yet today it remained all unknown beyond the 
 tiny strip that was visible from its beaches. 
 
 The fascination of speculation was strong upon me. It 
 was as though I had been carried back to the birth time 
 of our own outer world to look upon its lands and seas 
 ages before man had traversed either. Here was a new 
 world, all untouched. It called to me to explore it. I was 
 dreaming of the excitement and adventure which lay be- 
 fore us could Perry and I but escape the Mahars, when 
 something, a shght noise I imagine, drew my attention 
 behind me. 
 
 As I turned, romance, adventure, and discovery in the 
 abstract took wing before the terrible embodiment of all 
 three in concrete form that I beheld advancing upon me. 
 
 A huge, slimy amphibian it was, with toad-like body 
 and the mighty jaws of an alligator. Its immense carcass 
 must have weighed tons, and yet it moved swiftly and 
 silently toward me. Upon one hand was the bluff that ran 
 from the canon to the sea, on the other the fearsome 
 swamp from which the creature had sneaked upon me, 
 behind lay the mighty imtracked sea, and before me in 
 the center of the narrow way that led to safety stood this 
 huge moimtain of terrible and menacing flesh. 
 
 A single glance at the thing was suflBcient to assure me 
 that I was facing one of those long-extinct, prehistoric 
 creatures whose fossilized remains are found within the 
 outer crust as far back as the Triassic formation, a gigan- 
 tic labyrinthodon. And there I was, unarmed, and, with 
 the exception of a loin cloth, as naked as I had come into 
 the world. I could imagine how my first ancestor felt that 
 distant, prehistoric morn that he encountered for the first 
 time the terrifying progenitor of the thing that had me 
 cornered now beside the restless, mysterious sea. 
 
 Unquestionably he had escaped, or I should not have 
 been within Pellucidar or elsewhere, and I wished at that 
 
86 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 moment that he had handed down to me with the various 
 attributes that I presimie I have inherited from him, the 
 specific apphcation of the instinct of self-preservation 
 which saved him from the fate which loomed so close be- 
 fore me today. 
 
 To seek escape in the swamp or in the ocean would 
 have been similar to jumping into a den of hons to escape 
 one upon the outside. The sea and swamp both were 
 doubtless ahve with these mighty, carnivorous amphib- 
 ians, and if not, the individual that menaced me would 
 pursue me into either the sea or the swamp with equal fa- 
 cility. 
 
 There seemed nothing to do but stand supinely and 
 await my end. I thought of Perry— how he would wonder 
 what had become of me. I thought of my friends of the 
 outer world, and of how they all would go on Hving their 
 hves in total ignorance of the strange and terrible fate 
 that had overtaken me, or unguessing the weird surround- 
 ings which had witnessed the last frightful agony of my 
 extinction. And with these thoughts came a realization of 
 how unimportant to the life and happiness of the world is 
 the existence of any one of us. We may be snuffed out 
 without an instant's warning, and for a brief day our 
 friends speak of us with subdued voices. The following 
 morning, while the first worm is busily engaged in testing 
 the construction of our coffin, they are teeing up for the 
 first hole to suffer more acute sorrow over a sHced ball 
 than they did over our, to us, tmtimely demise. The laby- 
 rinthodon was coming more slowly now. He seemed to 
 realize that escape for me was impossible, and I could 
 have sworn that his huge, fanged jaws grinned in pleasm:- 
 able appreciation of my predicament, or was it in antici- 
 pation of the juicy morsel which would so soon be pulp 
 between those formidable teeth? 
 
 He was about fifty feet from me when I heard a voice 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 87 
 
 calling to me from the direction of the bluff at my left. I 
 looked and could have shouted in delight at the sight that 
 met my eyes, for there stood Ja, waving frantically to me, 
 and urging me to run for it to the cUff's base. 
 
 I had no idea that I should escape the monster that had 
 marked me for his breakfast, but at least I should not die 
 alone. Human eyes would watch me end. It was cold 
 comfort I presume, but yet I derived some shght peace of 
 mind from the contemplation of it. 
 
 To run seemed ridiculous, especially toward that steep 
 and unscalable cliff, and yet I did so, and as I ran I saw 
 Ja, agile as a monkey, crawl down the precipitous face of 
 the rocks, chnging to small projections, and the tough 
 creepers that had found root-hold here and there. 
 
 The labyrinthodon evidently thought that Ja was com- 
 ing to double his portion of human flesh, so he was in no 
 haste to pursue me to the chff and frighten away this 
 other titbit. Instead he merely trotted along behind me. 
 
 As I approached the foot of the cliff I saw what Ja in- 
 tended doing, but I doubted if the thing would prove suc- 
 cessful. He had come down to within twenty feet of the 
 bottom, and there, clinging with one hand to a small 
 ledge, and with his feet resting precariously upon tiny 
 bushes that grew from the sohd face of the rock, he low- 
 ered the point of his long spear until it hung some six feet 
 above the ground. 
 
 To clamber up that slim shaft without dragging Ja 
 down and precipitating both to the same doom from 
 which the copper-colored one was attempting to save me 
 seemed utterly impossible, and as I came near the spear I 
 told Ja so, and that I could not risk him to try to save my- 
 self. 
 
 But he insisted that he knew what he was doing and 
 was in no danger himself. 
 
 "The danger is still yours," he called, "for unless you 
 
88 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 move much more rapidly than you are now, the sithic will 
 be upon you and drag you back before ever you are half- 
 way up the spear— he can rear up and reach you with ease 
 anywhere below where I stand." 
 
 Well, Ja should know his own business, I thought, and 
 so I grasped the spear and clambered up toward the red 
 man as rapidly as I could— being so far removed from my 
 simian ancestors as I am. I imagine the slow-witted sithic, 
 as Ja called him, suddenly realized our intentions and 
 that he was quite likely to lose all his meal instead of hav- 
 ing it doubled as he had hoped. 
 
 When he saw me clambering up that spear he let out a 
 hiss that fairly shook the ground, and came charging after 
 me at a terrific rate. I had reached the top of the spear by 
 this time, or almost; another six inches would give me a 
 hold on Ja's hand, when I felt a sudden wrench from 
 below and glancing fearfully downward saw the mighty 
 jaws of the monster close on the sharp point of the 
 weapon. 
 
 I made a frantic ejBFort to reach Ja's hand, the sithic 
 gave a tremendous tug that came near to jerking Ja from 
 his frail hold on the surface of the rock, the spear shpped 
 from his fingers, and still clinging to it I plimged feet 
 foremost toward my executioner. 
 
 At the instant that he felt the spear come away from 
 Ja's hand the creature must have opened his huge jaws to 
 catch me, for when I came down, still clinging to the butt 
 end of the weapon, the point yet rested in his mouth and 
 the result was that the sharpened end transfixed his lower 
 jaw. 
 
 With the pain he snapped his mouth closed. I fell upon 
 his snout, lost my hold upon the spear, rolled the length 
 of his face and head, across his short neck onto his broad 
 back and from there to the ground. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 89 
 
 Scarce had I touched the earth than I was upon my 
 feet, dashing madly for the path by which I had entered 
 this horrible valley. A glance over my shoulder showed 
 me the sithic engaged in pawing at the spear stuck 
 through his lower jaw, and so busily engaged did he re-' 
 main in this occupation that I had gained the safety of 
 the chff top before he was ready to take up the pursuit. 
 When he did not discover me in sight within the valley he 
 dashed, hissing, into the rank vegetation of the swamp 
 and that was the last that I saw of him. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PHUTRA AGAIN 
 
 I HASTENED to the cliflF edge above Ja and helped him to a 
 secure footing. He would not listen to any thanks for his 
 attempt to save me, which had come so near miscarrying. 
 
 "I had given you up for lost when you tumbled into the 
 Mahar temple," he said, "for not even I could save you 
 from their clutches, and you may imagine my surprise 
 when on seeing a canoe dragged up upon the beach of 
 the mainland I discovered your own footprints in the 
 sand beside it. 
 
 "I immediately set out in search of you, knowing as I 
 did that you must be entirely unarmed and defenseless 
 against the many dangers which lurk upon the mainland 
 both in the form of savage beasts and reptiles, and men as 
 well. I had no difiBculty in tracking you to this point. It is 
 well that I arrived when I did." 
 
 "But why did you do it?" I asked, puzzled at this show 
 of friendship on the part of a man of another world and a 
 different race and color. 
 
90 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 "You saved my life," he replied; "from that moment it 
 became my duty to protect and befriend you. I would 
 have been no true Mezop had I evaded my plain duty; 
 but it was a pleasure in this instance for I like you. I wish 
 that you would come and live with me. You shall become 
 a member of ray tribe. Among us there is the best of hunt- 
 ing and fishing, and you shall have, to choose a mate 
 from, the most beautiful girls of Pellucidar. Will you 
 come?" 
 
 I told him about Perry then, and Dian the Beautiful, 
 and how my duty was to them first. Afterward I should 
 return and visit him— if I could ever find his island. 
 
 "Oh, that is easy, my friend," he said. "You need 
 merely to come to the foot of the highest peak of the 
 Mountains of the Clouds. There you will find a river 
 which 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 discernible, the one to the ex- 
 treme left as you face them from the mouth of the river is 
 Anoroc, where I rule the tribe of Anoroc." 
 
 "But how am I to find the Mountains of the Clouds?" I 
 asked. 
 
 "Men say that they are visible from half Pellucidar," he 
 repUed. 
 
 "How large is Pellucidar?" I asked, wondering what 
 sort of theory these primitive men had concerning the 
 form and substance of their world. 
 
 "The Mahars say it is round, fike the inside of a tola 
 shell," he answered, "but that is ridiculous, since, were it 
 true, we should fall back were we to travel far in any di- 
 rection, and all the waters of Pellucidar would run to one 
 spot and drown us. No, Pellucidar is quite flat and ex- 
 tends no man knows how far in all directions. At the 
 edges, so my ancestors have reported and handed down 
 to me, is a great wall that prevents the earth and waters 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 91 
 
 from escaping over into the burning sea whereon Pelluci- 
 dar floats; but I never have been so far from Anoroc as to 
 have seen this wall with my own eyes. However, it is 
 quite reasonable to beHeve that this is true, whereas there 
 is no reason at all in the foohsh behef of the Mahars. Ac- 
 cording to them Pellucidarians who Hve upon the oppo- 
 site side walk always with their heads pointed down- 
 ward!" and Ja laughed uproariously at the very thought. 
 
 It was plain to see that the human folk of this inner 
 world had not advanced far in learning, and the thought 
 that the ugly Mahars had so outstripped them was a very 
 pathetic one indeed. I wondered how many ages it would 
 take to lift these people out of their ignorance even were 
 it given to Perry and me to attempt it. Possibly we would 
 be kiUed for our pains as were those men of the outer 
 world who dared challenge the dense ignorance and su- 
 perstitions of the earth's younger days. But it was worth 
 the effort if the opportunity ever presented itself. 
 
 And then it occmred to me that here was an oppor- 
 tunity—that I might make a small beginning upon Ja, who 
 was my friend, and thus note the effect of my teaching 
 upon a Pellucidarian. 
 
 "Ja," I said, "what would you say were I to tell you 
 that in so far as the Mahars' theory of the shape of Pellu- 
 cidar is concerned it is correct?" 
 
 "I would say," he replied, "that either you are a fool, or 
 took me for one." 
 
 "But, Ja," I insisted, "if their theory is incorrect how do 
 you account for the fact that I was able to pass through 
 the earth from the outer crust to Pellucidar. If your 
 theory is correct aU is a sea of flame beneath us, where in 
 no peoples could exist, and yet I come from a great world 
 that is covered with human beings, and beasts, and birds, 
 and fishes in mighty oceans." 
 
 "You live upon the under side of Pellucidar, and walk 
 
92 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 always with your head pointed downward?" he scofiFed. 
 "And were I to believe that, my friend, I should indeed 
 be mad." 
 
 I attempted to explain the force of gravity to him, and 
 by the means of the dropped fruit to illustrate how impos- 
 sible it would be for a body to fall oflF the earth under any 
 circumstances. He listened so intently that I thought I 
 had made an impression, and started the train of thought 
 that would lead him to a partial understanding of the 
 truth. But I was mistaken. 
 
 "Your own illustration," he said finally, "proves the fal- 
 sity of your theory." He dropped a fruit from his hand to 
 the ground. "See," he stiid, "without support even this 
 tiny fruit falls until it strikes something that stops it. If 
 PeUucidar were not supported upon the flaming sea it too 
 would fall as the fruit falls— you have proven it yourself 1" 
 He had me, that time— you could see it in his eye. 
 
 It seemed a hopeless job and I gave it up, temporarily 
 at least, for when I contemplated the necessary explana- 
 tion of our solar system and the universe I reahzed how 
 futile it would be to attempt to picture to Ja or any other 
 Pellucidarian the sun, the moon, the planets, and the 
 countless stars. Those bom vidthin the iimer world could 
 no more conceive of such things than can we of the outer 
 crust reduce to factors appreciable to our finite minds 
 such terms as space and eternity. 
 
 "Well, Ja," I laughed, "whether we be walking with 
 our feet up or dowTi, here we are, and the question of 
 greatest importance is not so much where we came from 
 as where we are going now. For my part I wish that you 
 could guide me to Phutra where I may give myself up to 
 the Mahars once more that my friends and I may work 
 out the plan of escape which the Sagoths interrupted 
 when they gathered us together and drove us to the arena 
 to vidtness the punishment of the slaves who killed the 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 93 
 
 guardsman. I wish now that I had not left the arena for 
 by this time my friends and I might have made good our 
 escape, whereas this delay may mean the wrecking of all 
 our plans, which depended for their consummation upon 
 the continued sleep of the three Mahars who lay in the pit 
 beneath the building in which we were confined." 
 
 "You would return to captivity?" cried Ja. 
 
 "My friends are there," I replied, "the only friends I 
 have in Pellucidar, except yoiurself. What else may I do 
 under the circumstances?" 
 
 He thought for a moment in silence. Then he shook his 
 head sorrowfully. 
 
 ^t is what a brave man and a good friend should do," 
 he said; "yet it seems most foolish, for the Mahars wiJl 
 most certainly condemn you to death for running away, 
 and so you will be accomplishing nothing for your friends 
 by returning. Never in aU my life have I heard of a pris- 
 oner returning to the Mahars of his own free will. There 
 are but few who escape them, though some do, and these 
 would rather die than be recaptured." 
 
 "I see no other way, Ja," I said, "though I can assure 
 you that I would rather go to Sheol after Perry than to 
 Phutra. However, Perry is much too pious to make the 
 probability at all great that I should ever be called upon 
 to rescue him from the former locality." 
 
 Ja asked me what Sheol was, and when I explained, as 
 best I could, he said, "You are speaking of Molop Az, the 
 flaming sea upon which Pellucidar floats. All the dead 
 who are buried in the ground go there. Piece by piece 
 they are carried down to Molop Az by the little demons 
 who dwell there. We know this because when graves are 
 opened we find that the bodies have been partially or en- 
 tirely borne off. That is why we of Anoroc place our dead 
 in high trees where the birds may find them and bear 
 them bit by bit to the Dead World above the Land of 
 
94 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 Awful Shadow. If we kill an enemy we place his body in 
 the ground that it may go to Molop Az." 
 
 As we talked we had been walking up the cafion down 
 which I had come to the great ocean and the sithic. Ja did 
 his best to dissuade me from returning to Phutra, but 
 when he saw that I was determined to do so, he con- 
 sented to guide me to a point from which I could see the 
 plain where lay the city. To my surprise the distance was 
 but short from the beach where I had again met Ja. It 
 was evident that I had spent much time following the 
 windings of a tortuous canon, while just beyond the ridge 
 lay the city of Phutra near to which I must have come 
 several times. 
 
 As we topped the ridge and saw the granite gate towers 
 dotting the flowered plain at our feet Ja made a final 
 efiFort to persuade me to abandon my mad ptirpose and 
 return with him to Anoroc, but I was firm in my resolve, 
 and at last he bid me good-bye, assured in his own mind 
 that he was looking upon me for the last time. 
 
 I was sorry to part with Ja, for I had come to like him 
 very much indeed. With his hidden city upon the island 
 of Anoroc as a base, and his savage warriors as escort 
 Perry and I could have accompUshed much in the fine of 
 exploration, and I hoped that were we successful in our 
 effort to escape we might return to Anoroc later. 
 
 There was, however, one great thing to be accom- 
 plished first— at least it was the great thing to me— the 
 finding of Dian the Beautiful. I wanted to make amends 
 for the affront I had put upon her in my ignorance, and I 
 wanted to— well, I wanted to see her again, and to be 
 with her. 
 
 Down the hillside I made my way into the gorgeous 
 field of flowers, and then across the rolling land toward 
 the shadowless columns that guard the ways to binied 
 Phutra. At a quarter-mile from the nearest entrance I was 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 95 
 
 discovered by the Sagoth guard, and in an instant four of 
 the gorilla-men were dashing toward me. 
 
 Though they brandished their long spears and yeUed 
 like wild Comanches I paid not the slightest attention to 
 them, walking quietly toward them as though imaware of 
 their existence. My manner had the effect upon them that 
 I had hoped, and as we came quite near together they 
 ceased their savage shouting. It was evident that they had 
 expected me to turn and flee at sight of them, thus pre- 
 senting that which they most enjoyed, a moving human 
 target at which to cast their spears. 
 
 "What do you here?" shouted one, and then as he rec- 
 ognized me, "Hoi It is the slave who claims to be from 
 another world— he who escaped when the thag ran amuck 
 within the amphitheater. But why do you return, having 
 once made good your escape?" 
 
 "I did not escape'," I replied. "I but ran away to avoid 
 the thag, as did others, and coming into a long passage I 
 became confused and lost my way in the foothills beyond 
 Phutra. Only now have I found my way back." 
 
 "And you come of your free will back to Phutral" ex- 
 claimed one of the guardsmen. 
 
 "Where else might I go?" I asked. "I am a stranger 
 within PeUucidar and know no other where than Phutra. 
 Why should I not desire to be in Phutra? Am I not well 
 fed and well treated? Am I not happy? What better lot 
 could man desire?" 
 
 The Sagoths scratched their heads. This was a new one 
 on them, and so being stupid brutes they took me to their 
 masters whom they felt would be better fitted to solve the 
 riddle of my return, for riddle they still considered it. 
 
 I had spoken to the Sagoths as I had for the purpose of 
 throwing them off the scent of my purposed attempt at 
 escape. If they thought that I was so satisfied with my lot 
 within Phutra that I would voluntarily return when I had 
 
96 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 once had so excellent an opportunity to escape, they 
 would never for an instant imagine that I could be occu- 
 pied in arranging another escape immediately upon my 
 return to the city. 
 
 So they led me before a slimy Mahar who clung to a 
 shmy rock within the large room that was the thing's 
 o£Bce. With cold, reptihan eyes the creature seemed to 
 bore through the thin veneer of my deceit and read my 
 inmost thoughts. It heeded the story which the Sagoths 
 told of my return to Phutra, watching the goriUa-men's 
 hps and fingers during the recital. Then it questioned me 
 through one of the Sagoths. 
 
 "You say that you returned to Phutra of your own free 
 will, because you think yourself better off here than else- 
 where—do you not know that you may be the next cho- 
 sen to give up yomr life in the interests of the wonderful 
 scientific investigations that our learned ones are con- 
 tinually occupied with?" 
 
 I hadn't heard of anything of that nature, but I thought 
 best not to admit it. 
 
 "I could be in no more danger here," I said, "than 
 naked and unarmed in the savage jungles or upon the 
 lonely plans of Pellucidar. I was fortunate, I think, to re- 
 turn to Phutra at aU. As it was I barely escaped death 
 within the jaws of a huge sithic. No, I am sure that I am 
 safer in the hands of intelligent creatures such as rule 
 Phutra. At least such woiild be the case in my own world, 
 where human beings like myself rule supreme. There the 
 higher races of man extend protection and hospitahty to 
 the stranger within their gates, and being a stranger here 
 I naturally assumed that a like courtesy would be ac- 
 corded me." 
 
 The Mahar looked at me in silence for some time after I 
 ceased speaking and the Sagoth had translated my words 
 to his master. The creature seemed deep in thought. Pres- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 97 
 
 ently he communicated some message to the Sagoth. The 
 latter turned, and motioning me to follow him, left the 
 presence of the reptile. Behind and on either side of me 
 marched the balance of the guard. 
 
 "What are they going to do with me?" I asked the 
 fellow at my right. 
 
 "You are to appear before the learned ones who wiU 
 question you regarding this strange world from which 
 you say you come." 
 
 After a moment's silence he turned to me again. 
 
 "Do you happen to know," he asked, "what the Mahars 
 do to slaves who lie to them?" 
 
 "No," I rephed, "nor does it interest me, as I have no 
 intention of lying to the Mahars." 
 
 "Then be careful that you don't repeat the impossible 
 tale you told Sol-to-to just now— another world, indeed, 
 where human beings rulel" he concluded in fine scorn. 
 
 "But it is the truth," I insisted. "From where else then 
 did I come? I am not of Pellucidar. Anyone with half an 
 eye could see that." 
 
 "It is your misfortune then," he remarked dryly, "that 
 you may not be judged by one with but half an eye." 
 
 "What will they do with me," I asked, "if they do not 
 have a mind to beheve me?" 
 
 "You may be sentenced to the arena, or go to the pits 
 to be used in research work by the learned ones," he 
 rephed. 
 
 "And what wiU they do with me there?" I persisted. 
 
 "No one knows except the Mahars and those who go to 
 the pits with them, but as the latter never retiuTi, their 
 knowledge does them but Httle good. It is said that the 
 learned ones cut up their subjects while they are yet aUve, 
 thus learning many useful things. However I should not 
 imagine that it would prove very useful to him who was 
 being cut up; but of course this is all but conjecture. The 
 
98 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 chances are that ere long you will know much more about 
 it than I," and he grinned as he spoke. The Sagoths have a 
 weU-developed sense of humor. 
 
 "And suppose it is the arena," I continued; "what 
 then?" 
 
 "You saw the two who met the tarag and the thag the 
 time that you escaped?" he said. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Yovir end in the arena would be similar to what was 
 intended for them," he explained, "though of course the 
 same kinds of animals might not be employed." 
 
 "It is sure death in either event?" I asked. 
 
 "What becomes of those who go below with the 
 learned ones I do not know, nor does any other," he 
 rephed; "but those who go to the arena may come out 
 alive and thus regain their Uberty, as did the two whom 
 you saw." 
 
 "They gained their hberty? And how?" 
 
 "It is the custom of the Mahars to hberate those who 
 remain alive within the arena after the beasts depart or 
 are killed. Thus it has happened that several mighty war- 
 riors from far distant lands, whom we have captured on 
 our slave raids, have battled the brutes turned in upon 
 them and slain them, thereby winning their freedom. In 
 the instance which you witnessed the beasts killed each 
 other, but the result was the same— the man and woman 
 were hberated, furnished with weapons, and started on 
 their homeward journey. Upon the left shoulder of each a 
 mark was burned— the mark of the Mahars— which will 
 forever protect these two from slaving parties." 
 
 "There is a slender chance for me then if I be sent to 
 the arena, and none at all if the learned ones drag me to 
 the pits?" 
 
 "You are quite right," he rephed; "but do not fehcitate 
 
SEVMOUR LIBRAS., 
 
 Edgar Rice Burroughs «UDlJrn, N^^^QpU 
 
 yourself too quickly should you be sent to the arena, for 
 there is scarce one in a thousand who comes out alive." 
 
 To my surprise they returned me to the same building 
 in which I had been confined with Perry and Ghak before 
 my escape. At the doorway I was turned over to the 
 guards there. 
 
 "He will doubtless be called before the investigators 
 shortly," said he who had brought me back, "so have him 
 in readiness." 
 
 The guards in whose hands I now found myself, upon 
 hearing that I had returned of my own voHtion to Phutra 
 evidently felt that it would be safe to give me Uberty 
 vdthin the building as had been the custom before I had 
 escaped, and so I was told to return to whatever duty had 
 been mine formerly. 
 
 My first act was to himt up Perry; whom I found poring 
 as usual over the great tomes that he was supposed to be 
 merely dusting and rearranging upon new shelves. 
 
 As I entered the room he glanced up and nodded pleas- 
 antly to me, only to resume his work as though I had 
 never been away at all. I was both astonished and hurt at 
 his indifference. And to think that I was risking death to 
 return to him purely from a sense of duty and affection! 
 
 "Why, Perryl" I exclaimed, "haven't you a word for me 
 after my long absence?" 
 
 "Long absence!" he repeated in evident astonishment. 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 "Are you crazy. Perry? Do you mean to say that you 
 have not missed me since that time we were separated by 
 the charging thag within the arena?" 
 
 "'That time'," he repeated. "Why man, I have but just 
 returned from the arena! You reached here almost as soon 
 as I. Had you been much later I should indeed have been 
 worried, and as it is I had intended asking you about how 
 
100 ■ AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 you escaped the beast as soon as I had completed the 
 translation of this most interesting passage." 
 
 "Perry, you are mad," I exclaimed. "Why, the Lord 
 only knows how long I have been away. I have been to 
 other lands, discovered a new race of humans within Pel- 
 lucidar, seen the Mahars at their worship in their hidden 
 temple, and barely escaped with my life from them and 
 from a great labyrinthodon that I met afterward, follow- 
 ing my long and tedious wanderings across an unknown 
 world. I must have been away for months, Perry, and now 
 you barely look up from your work when I rettun and in- 
 sist that we have been separated but a moment. Is that 
 any way to treat a friend? I'm surprised at you, Perry, and 
 if I'd thought for a moment that you cared no more for 
 me than this I should not have returned to chance death 
 at the hands of the Mahars for your sake." 
 
 The old man looked at me for a long time before he 
 spoke. There was a puzzled expression upon his wrinkled 
 face, and a look of hurt sorrow in his eyes. 
 
 "David, my boy," he said, "how could you for a mo- 
 ment doubt my love for you? There is something strange 
 here that I cannot understand. I know that I am not mad, 
 and I am equally sure that you are not; but how in the 
 world are we to account for the strange hallucinations 
 that each of us seems to harbor relative to the passage of 
 time since last we saw each other. You are positive that 
 months have gone by, "while to me it seems equally cer- 
 tain that not more than an hour ago I sat beside you in 
 the amphitheater. Can it be that both of us are right and 
 at the same time both are wrong? First tell me what time 
 is, and then maybe I can solve ovir problem. Do you catch 
 my meaning?" 
 
 I didn't and said so. 
 
 "Yes," continued the old man, "we are both right. To 
 me, bent over my book here, there has been no lapse of 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 101 
 
 time. I have done little or nothing to waste my energies 
 and so have required neither food nor sleep, but you, on 
 the contrary, have walked and fought and wasted 
 strength and tissue which must needs be rebuilt by nutri- 
 ment and food, and so, having eaten and slept many 
 times since last you saw me you naturally measure the 
 lapse of time largely by these acts. As a matter of fact, 
 David, I am rapidly coming to the conviction that there is 
 no such thing as time— surely there can be no time here 
 within Pellucidar, where there are no means for measur- 
 ing or recording time. Why, the Mahars themselves take 
 no account of such a thing as time. I find here in all their 
 literary works but a single tense, the present. There seems 
 to be neither past nor future with them. Of course it is im- 
 possible for our outer-earthly minds to grasp such a con- 
 dition, but our recent experiences seem to demonstrate its 
 existence." 
 
 It was too big a subject for me, and I said so, but Perry 
 seemed to enjoy nothing better than speculating upon it, 
 and after Hstening with iuterest to my account of the ad- 
 ventures through which I had passed he returned once 
 more to the subject, which he was enlarging upon with 
 considerable fluency when he was interrupted by the en- 
 trance of a Sagoth. 
 
 "Gomel" commanded the intruder, beckoning to me. 
 "The investigators would speak with you." 
 
 "Good-bye, Perryl" I said, clasping the old man's hand. 
 "There may be nothing but the present and no such thing 
 as time, but I feel that I am about to take a trip into the 
 hereafter from which I shall never return. If you and 
 Ghak should manage to escape I want you to promise me 
 that you will find Dian the Beautiful and tell her that 
 with my last words I asked her forgiveness for the unin- 
 tentional affront I put upon her, and that my one wish 
 
102 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 was to be spared long enough to right the wrong that I 
 had done her." 
 
 Tears came to Perry's eyes. 
 
 "I cannot beUeve but that you will return, David," he 
 said. "It would be awful to think of living out the balance 
 of my life without you among these hateftd and repulsive 
 creatures. If you are taken away I shall never escape, for I 
 feel that I am as well oflE here as I should be anywhere 
 within this buried world. Good-bye, my boy, good-bye!" 
 and then his old voice faltered and broke, and as he hid 
 his face in his hands the Sagoth guardsman grasped me 
 roughly by the shoulder and hustled me from the 
 chamber. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 FOUR DEAD MAHARS 
 
 A MOMENT later I was standing before a dozen Mahars— 
 the social investigators of Phutra. They asked me many 
 questions, through a Sagoth interpreter. I answered them 
 all truthfuUy. They seemed particularly interested in my 
 accotint of the outer earth and the strange vehicle which 
 had brought Perry and me to Pellucidar. I thought that I 
 had convinced them, and after they had sat in silence for 
 a long time following my examination, I expected to be 
 ordered returned to my quarters. 
 
 During this apparent silence they were debating 
 through the medium of strange, unspoken language the 
 merits of my tale. At last the head of the tribunal com- 
 municated the result of their conference to the oflBcer in 
 charge of the Sagoth guard. 
 
 "Come," he said to me, "you are sentenced to the ex- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 103 
 
 perimental pits for having dared to insult the intelhgence 
 of the mighty ones with the ridiculous tale you have had 
 the temerity to unfold to them." 
 
 "Do you mean that they do not believe me?" I asked, 
 totally astonished. 
 
 "Beheve youl" he laughed. "Do you mean to say that 
 you expected any one to believe so impossible a lie?" 
 
 It was hopeless, and so I walked in silence beside my 
 guard down through the dark corridors and runways to- 
 ward my awful doom. At a low level we came upon a 
 number of lighted chambers in which we saw many 
 Mahars engaged in various occupations. To one of these 
 chambers my guard escorted me, and before leaving they 
 chained me to a side wall. There were other humans 
 similarly chained. Upon a long table lay a victim even as I 
 was ushered into the room. Several Mahars stood about 
 the poor creature holding him down so that he could not 
 move. Another, grasping a sharp knife with her three-toed 
 fore foot, was laying open the victim's chest and abdo- 
 men. No anesthetic had been administered and the 
 shrieks and groans of the tortiured man were terrible to 
 hear. This, indeed, was vivisection with a vengeance. 
 Cold sweat broke out upon me as I realized that soon my 
 turn would come. And to think that where there was no 
 such thing as time I might easily imagine that my suffer- 
 ing was enduring for months before death finally released 
 mel 
 
 The Mahars had paid not the shghtest attention to me 
 as I had been brought into the room. So deeply immersed 
 were they in their work that I am sure they did not even 
 know that the Sagoths had entered with me. The door 
 was close by. Would that I could reach iti But those 
 heavy chains precluded any such possibility. I looked 
 about for some means of escape from my bonds. Upon 
 the floor between me and the Mahars lay a tiny surgical 
 
104 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 instrument which one of them must have dropped. It 
 looked not unlike a buttonhook, but was much smaller, 
 and its point was sharpened. A hundred times in my boy- 
 hood days had I picked locks with a buttonhook. Could I 
 but reach that Uttle bit of poHshed steel I might yet effect 
 at least a temporary escape. 
 
 Crawling to the hmit of my chain, I foimd that by 
 reaching one hand as far out as I could my fingers still fell 
 an inch short of the coveted instrument. It was tantaliz- 
 ing! Stretch every fiber of my being as I would, I could 
 not quite make it 
 
 At last I turned about and extended one foot toward 
 the object. My heart came to my throatl I could just 
 touch the thing! But suppose that in my effort to drag it 
 toward me I should accidentally shove it still farther 
 away and thus entirely out of reach! Cold sweat broke out 
 upon me from every pore. Slowly and , cautiously I made 
 the effort. My toes dropped upon the cold metal. Gradu- 
 ally I worked it toward me until I felt that it was within 
 reach of my hand and a moment later I had turned about 
 and the precious thing was in my grasp. 
 
 Assiduously I fell to work upon the Mahar lock that 
 held my chain. It was pitifully simple. A child might have 
 picked it, and a moment later I was free. The Mahars 
 were now evidently completing their work at the table. 
 One abeady turned away and was examining other vic- 
 tims, evidently with the intention of selecting the next 
 subject 
 
 Those at the table had their backs toward me. But for 
 the creature walking toward us I might have escaped that 
 moment. Slowly the thing approached me, when its atten- 
 tion was attracted by a huge slave chained a few yards to 
 my right. Here the reptile stopped and commenced to go 
 over the poor devil carefully, and as it did so its back 
 turned toward me for an instant, and in that instant I 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 105 
 
 gave two mighty leaps that carried me out of the chamber 
 into the corridor beyond, down which I raced with all the 
 speed I could command. 
 
 Where I was, or whither I was going, I knew not. My 
 only thought was to place as much distance as possible 
 between me and that frightful chamber of torture. 
 
 Presently I reduced my speed to a brisk walk, and later 
 reaUzing the danger of running into some new predica- 
 ment, were I not careful, I moved still more slowly and 
 cautiously. After a time I came to a passage that seemed 
 in some mysterious way famihar to me, and presendy, 
 chancing to glance within a chamber which led from the 
 corridor I saw three Mahars curled up in slumber upon a 
 bed of skins. I could have shouted aloud in joy and rehef . 
 It was the same corridor and the same Mahars that I had 
 intended to have lead so important a r61e in our escape 
 from Phutra. Providence had indeed been kind to me, for 
 the reptiles stiU slept. 
 
 My one great danger now lay in returning to the upper 
 levels in search of Perry and Ghak, but there was nothing 
 else to be done, and so I hastened upward. When I came 
 to the frequented portions of the building, I found a large 
 burden of skins in a corner and these I lifted to my head, 
 carrying them in such a way that ends and comers fell 
 down about my shoulders completely hiding my face. 
 Thus disguised I foxmd Perry and Ghak together in the 
 chamber where we had been wont to eat and sleep. 
 
 Both were glad to see me, it is needless to say, though 
 of coiu-se they had known nothing of the fate that had 
 been meted out to me by my judges. It was decided that 
 no time should now be lost before attempting to put our 
 plan of escape to the test, as I coidd not hope to remain 
 hidden from the Sagoths long, nor could I forever carry 
 that bale of skins about upon my head without arousing 
 suspicion. However it seemed likely that it would carry 
 
106 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 me once more safely through the crowded passages and 
 chambers of the upper levels, and so I set out with Perry 
 and Ghak— the stench of the iUy cured pelts fairly choking 
 me. 
 
 Together we repaired to the first tier of corridors be- 
 neath the main floor of the buildings, and here Perry and 
 Ghak halted to await me. The buildings are cut out of the 
 solid limestone formation. There is nothing at all remark- 
 able about their architecture. The rooms are sometimes 
 rectangular, sometimes circular, and again oval in shape. 
 The corridors which connect them are narrow and not al- 
 ways straight. The chambers are lighted by diffused sun- 
 light reflected through tubes similar to those by which the 
 avenues are lighted. The lower the tiers of chambers, the 
 darker. Most of the corridors are entirely unlighted. The 
 Mahars can see quite well in semidarkness. 
 
 Down to the main floor we encountered many Mahars, 
 Sagoths, and slaves; but no attention was paid to us as we 
 had become a part of the domestic life of the building. 
 There was but a single entrance leading from the place 
 into the avenue and this was well guarded by Sagoths— 
 this doorway alone were we forbidden to pass. It is true 
 that we were not supposed to enter the deeper corridors 
 and apartments except on special occasions when we 
 were instructed to do so; but as we were considered a 
 lower order without intelligence there was little reason to 
 fear that we could accomplish any harm by so doing, and 
 so we were not hindered as we entered the corridor which 
 led below. 
 
 Wrapped in a skin I carried three swords, and the two 
 bows, and the arrows which Perry and I had fashioned. 
 As many slaves bore skin-wrapped burdens to and fro my 
 load attracted no comment. Where I left Ghak and Perry 
 there were no other creatures in sight, and so I withdrew 
 one sword from the package, and leaving the balance of 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 107 
 
 the weapons with Perry, started on alone toward the 
 lower levels. 
 
 Having come to the apartment in which the three 
 Mahars slept I entered silently on tiptoe, forgetting that 
 the creatmres were without the sense of hearing. With a 
 quick thrust through the heart I disposed of the first but 
 my second thrust was not so fortunate, so that before I 
 could kill the next of my victims it had hurled itself 
 against the third, who sprang quickly up, facing me with 
 wide-distended jaws. But fighting is not the occupation 
 which the race of Mahars loves, and when the thing saw 
 that I already had dispatched two of its companions, and 
 that my sword was red with their blood, it made a dash to 
 escape me. But I was too quick for it, and so, half hop- 
 ping, half flying, it scurried down another corridor with 
 me close upon its heels. 
 
 Its escape meant the utter ruin of our plan, and in all 
 probability my instant death. This thought lent wings to 
 my feet; but even at my best I could do no more than 
 hold my own with the leaping thing before me. 
 
 Of a sudden it ttrrned into an apartment on the right of 
 the corridor, and an instant later as I rushed in I found 
 myself facing two of the Mahars. The one who had been 
 there when we entered had been occupied with a number 
 of metal vessels, into which had been put powders and 
 hquids as I judged from the array of flasks standing about 
 upon the bench where it had been working. In an instant 
 I realized what I had stumbled upon. It was the very 
 room for the finding of which Perry had given me minute 
 directions. It was the buried chamber in which was hid- 
 den the Great Secret of the race of Mahars. And on the 
 bench beside the flasks lay the skin-bound book which 
 held the only copy of the thing I was to have sought, after 
 dispatching the three Mahars in their sleep. 
 
 There was no exit from the room other than the door- 
 
108 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 way in which I now stood facing the two frightful rep- 
 tiles. Cornered, I knew that they would fight hke demons, 
 and they were well equipped to fight if fight they must. 
 Together they laimched themselves upon me, and though 
 I ran one of them through the heart on the instant, the 
 other fastened its gleaming fangs about my sword arm 
 above the elbow, and then with her sharp talons com- 
 menced to rake me about the body, evidently intent upon 
 disemboweling me. I saw that it was useless to hope that 
 I might release my arm from that powerful, viselike grip 
 which seemed to be severing my arm from my body. The 
 pain I suffered was intense, but it only served to spur me 
 to greater efforts to overcome my antagonist. 
 
 Back and forth across the floor we struggled— the 
 Mahar dealing me terrific, cutting blows with her fore 
 feet, while I attempted to protect my body with my left 
 hand, at the same time watching for an opportunity to 
 transfer my blade from my now useless sword hand to its 
 rapidly weakening mate. At last I was successful, and 
 with what seemed to me my last ounce of strength I ran 
 the blade through the ugly body of my foe. 
 
 Soundless, as it had fought, it died, and though weak 
 from pain and loss of blood, it was with an emotion of tri- 
 umphant pride that I stepped across its convulsively 
 stiffening corpse to snatch up the most potent secret of a 
 world. A single glance assured me it was the very thing 
 that Perry had described to me. 
 
 And as I grasped it did I think of what it meant to the 
 human race of Pellucidar— did there flash through my 
 mind the thought that coimtless generations of my own 
 kind yet unborn would have reason to worship me for the 
 thing that I had accomplished for them? I did not. I 
 thought of a beautiful oval face, gazing out of limpid 
 eyes, through a waving mass of jet-black hair. I thought 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 109 
 
 of red, red lips, God-made for kissing. And of a sudden, 
 apropos of nothing, standing there alone in the secret 
 chamber of the Mahars of Pellucidar, I realized that I 
 loved Dian the Beautiful. 
 
 CHAPTER xn 
 PURSUIT 
 
 For an instant I stood there thinking of her, and then, 
 with a sigh, I tucked the book in the thong that sup- 
 ported my loin cloth, and turned to leave the apartment. 
 At the bottom of the corridor which leads aloft from the 
 lower chambers I whistled in accordance with the prear- 
 ranged signal which was to announce to Perry and Ghak 
 that I had been successful. A moment later they stood be- 
 side me, and to my surprise I saw that Hooja the Sly One 
 accompanied them. 
 
 "He joined us," explained Perry, "and would not be de- 
 nied. The fellow is a fox. He scents escape, and rather 
 than be thwarted of our chance now I told him that I 
 would bring him to you, and let you decide whether he 
 might accompany us." 
 
 I had no love for Hooja, and no confidence in him. I 
 was sure that if he thought it would profit him he would 
 betray us; but I saw no way out of it now, and the fact 
 that I had killed four Mahars instead of only the three I 
 had expected to, made it possible to include the fellow in 
 our scheme of escape. 
 
 "Very well," I said, "you may come with us, Hooja; but 
 at the first intimation of treachery I shall run my sword 
 through you. Do you imderstand?" 
 
 He said that he did. 
 
110 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 Some time later we had removed the skins from the 
 four Mahars, and so succeeded in crawUng inside of them 
 ourselves that there seemed an excellent chance for us to 
 pass unnoticed from Phutra. It was not an easy thing to 
 fasten the hides together where we had spht them along 
 the belly to remove them from their carcasses, but by 
 remaining out until the others had all been sewed in with 
 my help, and then leaving an aperture in the breast of 
 Perry's skin through which he could pass his hands to sew 
 me up, we were enabled to accomplish our design to re- 
 ally much better purpose than I had hoped. We managed 
 to keep the heads erect by passing our swords up through 
 the necks, and by the same means were enabled to move 
 them about in a Ufe-like manner. We had our greatest 
 difficulty with the webbed feet, but even that problem 
 was finally solved, so that when we moved about we did 
 so quite naturally. Tiny holes punctured in the baggy 
 throats into which our heads were thrust permitted us to 
 see well enough to guide our progress. 
 
 Thus we started up toward the main floor of the build- 
 ing. Ghak headed the strange procession, then came 
 Perry, followed by Hooja, while I brought up the rear, 
 after admonishing Hooja that I had so arranged my sword 
 that I could thrust it through the head of my disguise into 
 his vitals were he to show any indication of faltering. 
 
 As the noise of hurrying feet warned me that we were 
 entering the busy corridors of the main level, my heart 
 came up into my mouth. It is with no sense of shame that 
 I admit that I was frightened— never before in my life, nor 
 since, did I ejcperience any such agony of soul-searing 
 fear and suspense as enveloped me. If it be possible to 
 sweat blood, I sweat it then. 
 
 Slowly, after the manner of locomotion habitual to the 
 Mahars, when they are not using their wings, we crept 
 through throngs of busy slaves, Sagoths, and Mahars. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 1 1 1 
 
 After what seemed an eternity we reached the outer door 
 which leads into the main avenue of Phutra. Many Sa- 
 goths loitered near the opening. They glanced at Ghak as 
 he padded between them. Then Perry passed, and then 
 Hooja. Now it was my turn, and then in a sudden fit of 
 freezing terror I reahzed that the warm blood from my 
 wounded arm was trickUng down through the dead foot 
 of the Mahar sldn I wore and leaving its tell-tale mark 
 upon the pavement, for I saw a Sagoth call a compan- 
 ion's attentions to it. 
 
 The guard stepped before me and pointing to my 
 bleeding foot spoke to me in the sign language which 
 these two races employ as a means of communication. 
 Even had I known what he was saying I could not have 
 replied with the dead thing that covered me. I once had 
 seen a great Mahar freeze a presumptuous Sagoth with a 
 look. It seemed my only hope, and so I tried it. Stopping 
 in my tracks I moved my sword so that it made the dead 
 head appear to turn inquiring eyes upon the gorilla-man. 
 For a long moment I stood perfectly still eyeing the fel- 
 low vdth those dead eyes. Then I lowered the head and 
 started slowly on. For a moment all hung in the balance, 
 but before I touched him the guard stepped to one side, 
 and I passed on out into the avenue. 
 
 On we went up the broad street, but now we were safe 
 for the very numbers of our enemies that surrounded us 
 on aU sides. Fortunately, there was a great concourse of 
 Mahars repairing to the shallow lake which hes a mile or 
 more from the city. They go there to indulge their am- 
 phibian prochvities in diving for small fish, and enjoying 
 the cool depths of the water. It is a fresh-water lake, shal- 
 low, and free from the larger reptiles which make the use 
 of the great seas of PeUucidar impossible for any but their 
 own kind. 
 
 In the thick of the crowd we passed up the steps and 
 
112 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 out onto the plain. For some distance Ghak remained 
 with the stream that was traveUng toward the lake, but 
 finally, at the bottom of a httle gully he halted, and there 
 we remained until all had passed and we were alone. 
 Then, still in our disguises, we set off directly away from 
 Phutra. 
 
 The heat of the vertical rays of the sun was fast making 
 our horrible prisons unbearable, so that after passing a 
 low divide, and entering a sheltering forest, we finally 
 discarded the Mahar skins that had brought us thus far in 
 safety. 
 
 I shall not weary you with the details of that bitter and 
 galling flight. How we traveled at a dogged run until we 
 dropped in our tracks. How we were beset by strange and 
 terrible beasts. How we barely escaped the cruel fangs of 
 hons and tigers the size of which would dwarf into pitiful 
 insignificance the greatest felines of the outer world. 
 
 On and on we raced, our one thought to put as much 
 distance between ourselves and Phutra as possible. Ghak 
 was leading us to his own land— the land of Sari. No sign 
 of pursuit had developed, and yet we were sure that 
 somewhere behind us relentless Sagoths were dogging 
 our tracks. Ghak said they never failed to hunt down their 
 quarry until they had captured it or themselves been 
 turned back by a superior force. 
 
 Our only hope, he said, lay in reaching his tribe which 
 was quite strong enough in their mountain fastness to 
 beat off any number of Sagoths. 
 
 At last, after what seemed months, and may, I now 
 reaUze, have been years, we came in sight of the dun es- 
 carpment which buttressed the foothills of Sari. At almost 
 the same instant, Hooja, who looked ever quite as much 
 behind as before, announced that he could see a body of 
 men far behind us topping a low ridge in our wake. It was 
 the long-expected pursuit. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 113 
 
 I asked Ghak if we could make Sari in time to escape 
 them. 
 
 "We may," he repUed; 'Tiut you will find that the Sa- 
 goths can move with incredible swiftness, and as they are 
 almost tireless they are doubdess much fresher than we. 
 Then—" he paused, glancing at Perry. 
 
 I knew what he meant. The old man was exhausted. 
 For much of the period of our flight either Ghak or I had 
 half supported him on the march. With such a handicap, 
 less fleet piu-suers than the Sagoths might easily overtake 
 us before we could scale the rugged heights which con- 
 fronted us. 
 
 "You and Hooja go on ahead," I said. "Perry and I will 
 make it if we are able. We cannot travel as rapidly as you 
 two, and there is no reason why all should be lost because 
 of that. It can't be helped— we have simply to face it." 
 
 "I will not desert a companion," was Ghak's simple 
 reply. I hadn't known that this great, hairy, primeval man 
 had any- such nobihty of character stowed away inside 
 him. I had always hked him, but now to my liking was 
 added honor and respect. Yes, and love. 
 
 But still I urged him to go on ahead, insisting that if he 
 coiJd reach his people he might be able to bring out a 
 su£Bcient force to drive oflF the Sagoths and rescue Perry 
 and myself. 
 
 No, he wouldn't leave us, and that was all there was to 
 it, but he suggested that Hooja might hurry on and warn 
 the Sarians of the king's danger. It didn't require much 
 urging to start Hooja— the naked idea was enough to send 
 him leaping on ahead of us into the foothills which we 
 now had reached. 
 
 Perry realized that he was jeopardizing Ghak's Hfe and 
 mine and the old fellow fairly begged us to go on without 
 him, although I knew that he was suffering a perfect an- 
 guish of terror at the thought of falling into the hands of 
 
114 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 the Sagoths. Ghak finally solved the problem, in part, by 
 lifting Perry in his powerful arms and carrying him. 
 While the act cut down Ghak's speed he still could travel 
 faster thus than when half supporting the stumbling old 
 man. 
 
 CHAPTER xm 
 THE SLY ONE 
 
 The Sagoths were gaining on us rapidly, for once they 
 had sighted us they had greatly increased their speed. On 
 and on we stumbled up the narrow canon that Ghak had 
 chosen to approach the heights of Sari. On either side 
 rose precipitous cliflFs of gorgeous, parti-colored rock, 
 while beneath our feet a thick mountain grass formed a 
 soft and noiseless carpet. Since we had entered the caiion 
 we had had no glimpse of our pmrsuers, and I was com- 
 mencing to hope that they had lost our trail and that we 
 would reach the now rapidly nearing cHffs in time to scale 
 them before we should be overtaken. 
 
 Ahead we neither saw nor heard any sign which might 
 betoken the success of Hooja's mission. By now he should 
 have reached the outposts of the Sarians, and we should 
 at least hear the savage cries of the tribesmen as they 
 swarmed to arms in answer to their king's appeal for suc- 
 cor. In another moment the frowning cliffs ahead should 
 be black with primeval warriors. But nothing of the kind 
 happened— as a matter of fact the Sly One had betrayed 
 us. At the moment that we expected to see Sarian spear- 
 men charging to our rehef at Hooja's back, the craven 
 traitor was sneaking around the outskirts of the nearest 
 Sarian village, that he might come up from the other side 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 115 
 
 when it was too late to save us, claiming that he had be- 
 come lost among the mountains. 
 
 Hooja still harbored iU will against me because of the 
 blow I had struck in Dian's protection, and his malevo- 
 lent spirit was equal to sacrificing us all that he might be 
 revenged upon me. 
 
 As we drew nearer the barrier clifFs and no sign of res- 
 cuing Sarians appeared Ghak became both angry and 
 alarmed, and presently as the soimds of rapidly approach- 
 ing pursuit fell upon oiu: ears, he called to me over his 
 shoulder that we were lost. 
 
 A backward glance gave me a ghmpse of the first of the 
 Sagoths at the far end of a considerable straight stretch of 
 canon through which we had just passed, and then a sud- 
 den turning shut the ugly creature from my view; but the 
 loud howl of triimiphant rage which rose behind us was 
 evidence that the gorilla-man had sighted us. 
 
 Again the canon veered sharply to the left, but to the 
 right another branch ran on at a lesser deviation from the 
 general direction, so that it appeared more like the main 
 canon than the left-hand branch. The Sagoths were now 
 not over two hundred and fifty yards behind us, and I 
 saw that it was hopeless for us to expect to escape other 
 than by a ruse. There was a bare chance of saving Ghak 
 and Perry, and as I reached the branching of the caiion I 
 took the chance. 
 
 Pausing there I waited until the foremost Sagoth hove 
 into sight. Ghak and Perry had disappeared around a 
 bend in the left-hand canon, and as the Sagoth's savage 
 yell announced that he had seen me I tiumed and fled up 
 the right-hand branch. My ruse was successful, and the 
 entire party of man-himters raced headlong after me up 
 one canon while Ghak bore Perry to safety up the other. 
 
 Running had never been my particular athletic forte, 
 and now when my very life depended upon fleetness of 
 
116 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 foot I cannot say that I ran any better than on the occa- 
 sions when my pitiful base running had called down upon 
 my head the rooters' raucous and reproachful cries of "Ice 
 wagon," and "Call a cab." 
 
 The Sagoths were gaining on me rapidly. There was 
 one in particular, fleeter than his fellows, who was peril- 
 ously close. The canon had become but a rocky sUt, ris- 
 ing roughly at a steep angle toward what seemed a pass 
 between two abutting peaks. What lay beyond I could 
 not even guess— possibly a sheer drop of hundreds of feet 
 into the corresponding valley upon the other side. Could 
 it be that I had plunged into a cul-de-sac? 
 
 Realizing that I could not hope to outdistance the Sa- 
 goths to the top of the canon I had determined to risk all 
 in an attempt to check them temporarily, and to this end 
 had unslung my rudely made bow and plucked an arrow 
 from the skin quiver which hung behind my shoulder. As 
 I fitted the shaft with my right hand I stopped and 
 wheeled toward the goriUa-man. 
 
 In the world of my birth I never had drawn a shaft, but 
 since oiu: escape from Phutra I had kept the party sup- 
 plied with small game by means of my arrows, and so, 
 through necessity, had developed a fair degree of accu- 
 racy. During our flight from Phutra I had restrung my 
 bow with a piece of heavy gut taken from a huge tiger 
 which Ghak and I had worried and finally dispatched 
 with arrows, spear, and sword. The hard wood of the bow 
 was extremely tough and this, with the strength and elas- 
 ticity of my new string, gave me unwonted confidence in 
 my weapon. 
 
 Never had I greater need of steady nerves than then— 
 never were my nerves and muscles under better control. I 
 sighted as carefully and dehberately as though at a straw 
 target. The Sagoth had never before seen a bow and 
 arrow, but of a sudden it must have swept over his dull 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 117 
 
 intellect that the thing I held toward him was some sort 
 of engine of destruction, for he too came to a halt, simul- 
 taneously swinging his hatchet for a throw. It is one of 
 the many methods in which they employ this weapon, 
 and the accuracy of aim which they achieve, even under 
 the most unfavorable circumstances, is little short of mi- 
 raculous. 
 
 My shaft was drawn back its full length— my eye had 
 centered its sharp point upon the left breast of my adver- 
 sary; and then he launched his hatchet and I released my 
 arrow. At the instant that our missiles flew I leaped to one 
 side, but the Sagoth sprang forward to follow up his at- 
 tack with a spear thrust. I felt the swish of the hatchet as 
 it grazed my head, and at the same instant my shaft 
 pierced the Sagoth's savage heart, and with a single groan 
 he lunged almost at my feet— stone dead. 
 
 Close behind him were two more— fifty yards perhaps 
 —but the distance gave me time to snatch up the dead 
 guardsman's shield, for the close call his hatchet had just 
 given me had borne in upon me the urgent need I had for 
 one. Those which I had purloined at Phutra we had not 
 been able to bring along because their size precluded our 
 conceahng them within the skins of the Mahars which 
 had brought us safely from the city. 
 
 With the shield sHpped well up on my left arm I let fly 
 another arrow, which brought down a second Sagoth, and 
 then as his fellow's hatchet sped toward me I caught it 
 upon the shield, and fitted another shaft for him; but he 
 did not wait to receive it. Instead, he turned and re- 
 treated toward the main body of gorilla-men. Evidently 
 he had seen enough of me for the moment. 
 
 Once more I took up my flight, nor were the Sagoths 
 apparently overanxious to press their pvusuit so closely as 
 before. Unmolested I reached the top of the caiion where 
 I fotmd a sheer drop of two or three hundred feet to the 
 
118 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 bottom of a rocky chasm; but on the left a narrow ledge 
 rounded the shoulder of the overhanging cHff. Along this 
 I advanced, and at a sudden turning, a few yards beyond 
 the canon's end, the path widened, and at my left I saw 
 the opening to a large cave. Before, the ledge continued 
 until it passed from sight about another projecting 
 buttress of the mountain. 
 
 Here, I felt, I could defy an army, for but a single 
 foeman could advance upon me at a time, nor could he 
 know that I was awaiting him until he came full upon me 
 around the comer of the turn. About me lay scattered 
 stones crumbled from the cliflE above. They were of vari- 
 ous sizes and shapes, but enough were of handy dimen- 
 sions for use as ammunition in Heu of my precious arrows. 
 Gathering a number of stones into a httle pile beside the 
 mouth of the cave I waited the advance of the Sagoths. 
 
 As I stood there, tense and silent, Hstening for the first 
 faint sound that should announce the approach of my en- 
 emies, a shght noise from within the cave's black depths 
 attracted my attention. It might have been produced by 
 the moving of the great body of some huge beast rising 
 from the rocky floor of its lair. At almost the same instant 
 I thought that I caught the scraping of hide sandals upon 
 the ledge beyond the turn. For the next few seconds my 
 attention was considerably divided. 
 
 And then from the inky blackness at my right I saw 
 two flaming eyes glaring into mine. They were on a level 
 that was over two feet above my head. It is true that the 
 beast who owned them might be standing upon a ledge 
 within the cave, or that it might be rearing up upon its 
 hind legs; but I had seen enough of the monsters of PeUu- 
 cidar to know that I might be facing some new and 
 frightful Titan whose dimensions and ferocity echpsed 
 those of any I had seen before. 
 
 Whatever it was, it was coming slowly toward the en- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 119 
 
 trance of the cave, and now, deep and forbidding, it ut- 
 tered a low and ominous growl. I waited no longer to dis- 
 pute possession of the ledge with the thing which owned 
 that voice. The noise had not been loud— I doubt if the 
 Sagoths heard it at all— but the suggestion of latent possi- 
 bilities behind it was such that I knew it would only ema- 
 nate from a gigantic and ferocious beast. 
 
 As I backed along the ledge I soon was past the mouth 
 of the cave, where I no longer could see those fearful 
 flaming eyes, but an instant later I caught sight of the 
 fiendish face of a Sagoth as it was warily advancing be- 
 yond the cliffs turn on the far side of the cave's mouth. 
 As the fellow saw me he leaped along the ledge in pur- 
 suit, and after him came as many of his companions as 
 could crowd upon each other's heels. At the same time 
 the beast emerged from the cave, so that he and the 
 Sagoths came face to face upon that narrow ledge. 
 
 The thing was an enormous cave bear, rearing its colos- 
 sal bulk fully eight feet at the shoulder, while from the tip 
 of its nose to the end of its stubby tail it was fuUy twelve 
 feet in length. As it sighted the Sagoths it emitted a most 
 frightful roar, and with open mouth charged full upon 
 them. With a cry of terror the foremost goriUa-man 
 turned to escape, but behind him he ran full upon his on- 
 rushing companions. 
 
 The horror of the foUowang seconds is indescribable. 
 The Sagoth nearest the cave bear, finding his escape 
 blocked, turned and leaped deliberately to an awful 
 death upon the jagged rocks three hundred feet below. 
 Then those giant jaws reached out and gathered in the 
 next— there was a sickening sound of crushing bones, and 
 the mangled corpse was dropped over the cliff's edge. Nor 
 did the mighty beast even pause in his steady advance 
 along the ledge. 
 
 Shrieking Sagoths were now leaping madly over the 
 
120 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 precipice to escape him, and the last I saw he rounded 
 the turn still pursuing the demoraUzed remnant of the 
 man hunters. For a long time I could hear the horrid roar- 
 ing of the brute intermingled with the screams and 
 shrieks of his victims, until finally the awful sounds dwin- 
 dled and disappeared in the distance. 
 
 Later I learned from Ghak, who had finally come to his 
 tribesmen and returned with a party to rescue me, that 
 the ryth, as it is called, pursued the Sagoths until it had 
 exterminated the entire band. Ghak was, of course, posi- 
 tive that I had fallen prey to the terrible creature, which, 
 within PeUucidar, is truly the king of beasts. 
 
 Not caring to ventiure back into the canon, where I 
 might fall prey either to the cave bear or the Sagoths I 
 continued on along the ledge, believing that by following 
 around the mountain I could reach the land of Sari from 
 another direction. But I evidently became confused by 
 the twisting and turning of the canons and gullies, for I 
 did not come to the land of Sari then, nor for a long time 
 thereafter. 
 
 CaiAPTER XIV 
 
 THE GARDEN OF EDEN 
 
 With no heavenly guide, it is Httle wonder that I became 
 confused and lost in the labyrinthine maze of those 
 mighty hills. What, in reaUty, I did was to pass entirely 
 through them and come out above the valley upon the 
 farther side. I know that I wandered for a long time, until 
 tired and hungry I came upon a small cave in the face of 
 the hmestone formation which had taken the place of the 
 granite farther back. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 121 
 
 The cave which took my fancy lay halfway up the 
 precipitous side of a lofty cliff. The way to it was such 
 that I knew no extremely formidable beast could frequent 
 it, nor was it large enough to make a comfortable habitat 
 for any but the smaller mammals or reptiles. Yet it was 
 with the utmost caution that I crawled within its dark in- 
 terior. 
 
 Here I found a rather large chamber, lighted by a nar- 
 row cleft in the rock above which let the sunlight filter in 
 in sufficient quantities partially to dispel the utter dark- 
 ness which I had expected. The cave was entirely empty, 
 nor were there any signs of its having been recendy occu- 
 pied. The opening was comparatively small, so that after 
 considerable effort I was able to lug up a bowlder from 
 the valley below which entirely blocked it. 
 
 Then I returned again to the valley for an armful of 
 grasses and on this trip was fortunate enough to knock 
 over an orthopi, the diminutive horse of PeUucidar, a Ut- 
 tle animal about the size of a fox terrier, which abounds 
 in all parts of the inner world. Thus, with food and bed- 
 ding I returned to my lair, where after a meal of raw 
 meat, to which I had now become quite accustomed, I 
 dragged the bowlder before the entrance and curled my- 
 self upon a bed of grasses— a naked, primeval, cave man, 
 as savagely primitive as my prehistoric progenitors. 
 
 I awoke rested but hungry, and pushing the bowlder 
 Eiside crawled out upon the httle rocky shelf which was 
 my front porch. Before me spread a small but beautiful 
 valley, through the center of which a clear and sparkling 
 river wound its way down to an inland sea, the blue 
 waters of which were just visible between the two moun- 
 tain ranges which embraced this httle paradise. The sides 
 of the opposite hills were green with verdure, for a great 
 forest clothed them to the foot of the red and yellow and 
 copper green of the towering crags which formed their 
 
1 22 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 summit. The valley itself was carpeted with a lujcuriant 
 grass, while here and there patches of wild flowers made 
 great splashes of vivid color against the prevailing green. 
 
 Dotted over the face of the valley were Httle clusters of 
 pahnhke trees— three or foiu: together as a rule. Beneath 
 these stood antelope, while others grazed in the open, or 
 wandered gracefully to a near-by ford to drink. There 
 were several species of this beautiful animal, the most 
 magnificent somewhat resembling the giant eland of 
 Africa, except that their spiral horns form a complete 
 curve backward over their ears and then forward again 
 beneath them, ending in sharp and formidable points 
 some two feet before the face and above the eyes. In size 
 they remind one of a pure bred Hereford buU, yet they 
 are very agile and fast. The broad yellow bands that 
 stripe the dark roan of their coats made me take them for 
 zebra when I first saw them. All in aU they are handsome 
 animals, and added the finishing touch to the strange and 
 lovely landscape that spread before my new home. 
 
 I had determined to make the cave my headquarters, 
 and with it as a base make a systematic exploration of the 
 surrounding country in search of the land of Sari. First I 
 devoured the remainder of the carcass of the orthopi I 
 had killed before my last sleep. Then I hid the Great Se- 
 cret in a deep niche at the back of my cave, rolled the 
 bowlder before my front door, and with bow, arrows, 
 sword, and shield scrambled down into the peaceful 
 valley. 
 
 The grazing herds moved to one side as I passed 
 through them, the little orthopi evincing the greatest 
 wariness and galloping to safest distances. All the animals 
 stopped feeding as I approached, and after moving to 
 what they considered a safe distance stood contemplating 
 me with serious eyes and up-cocked ears. Once one of the 
 old bull antelopes of the striped species lowered his head 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 123 
 
 and bellowed angrily— even taking a few steps in my di- 
 rection, so that I thought he meant to charge; but after I 
 had passed, he resiuned feeding as though nothing had 
 disturbed him. 
 
 Near the lower end of the valley I passed a number of 
 tapirs, and across the river saw a great sadok, the enor- 
 mous double-homed progenitor of the modern rhinoceros. 
 At the valley's end the chffs upon the left run out into the 
 sea, so that to pass around them as I desired to do it was 
 necessary to scale them in search of a ledge along which I 
 might continue my jomrney. Some fifty feet from the base 
 I came upon a projection which formed a natural path 
 along the face of the cliflE, and this I followed out over the 
 sea toward the cliff's end. 
 
 Here the ledge incUned rapidly upward toward the top 
 of the cliffs— the stratum which formed it evidently hav- 
 ing been forced up at this steep angle when the moun- 
 tains behind it were bom. As I climbed carefully up the 
 ascent my attention suddenly was attracted aloft by the 
 sound of strange hissing, and what resembled the flapping 
 of wings. 
 
 And at the first glance there broke upon my horrified 
 vision the most frightful thing I had seen even within 
 PeUucidar. It was a giant dragon such as is pictured in the 
 legends and fairy tales of earth folk. Its huge body must 
 have measured forty feet in length, while the bat-Hke 
 wings that supported it in midair had a spread of fully 
 thirty. Its gaping jaws were armed with long, sharp teeth, 
 and its claws equipped with horrible talons. 
 
 The hissing noise which had first attracted my attention 
 was issuing from its throat, and seemed to be directed at 
 something beyond and below me which I could not see. 
 The ledge upon which I stood terminated abmptly a few 
 paces farther on, and as I reached the end I saw the cause 
 of the reptile's agitation. 
 
124 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 Some time in past ages an earthquake had produced a 
 fault at this point, so that beyond the spot where I stood 
 the strata had sUpped down a matter of twenty feet. The 
 result was that the continuation of my ledge lay twenty 
 feet below me, where it ended as abruptly as did the end 
 upon which I stood. 
 
 And here, evidently halted in flight by this insur- 
 mountable break in the ledge, stood the object of the 
 creature's attack— a girl cowering upon the narrow plat- 
 form, her face buried in her arms, as though to shut out 
 the sight of the frightful death which hovered just above 
 her. 
 
 The dragon was circling lower, and seemed about to 
 dart in upon its prey. There was no time to be lost, scarce 
 an instant in which to weigh the possible chances that I 
 had against the awfully armed creature; but the sight of 
 that frightened girl below me caUed out to all that was 
 best in me, and the instinct for protection of the other sex, 
 which nearly must have equaled the instinct of self- 
 preservation in primeval man, drew me to the girl's side 
 like an irresistible magnet. 
 
 Almost thoughtless of the consequences, I leaped from 
 the end of the ledge upon which I stood, for the tiny shelf 
 twenty feet below. At the same instant the dragon darted 
 in toward the girl, but my sudden advent upon the scene 
 must have startled him for he veered to one side, and 
 then rose above us once more. 
 
 The noise I made as I landed beside her convinced the 
 girl that her end had come, for she thought that I was the 
 dragon; but finally when no cruel fangs closed upon her 
 she raised her eyes in astonishment. As they fell upon me 
 the expression that came into them would be difficult to 
 describe; but her feelings could scarcely have been one 
 whit more compHcated than my own— for the wide eyes 
 that looked into mine were those of Dian the Beautiful. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 125 
 
 "DianI" I cried. "Dianl Thank God that I came m 
 time." 
 
 "You?" she whispered, and then she hid her face again; 
 nor could I tell whether she were glad or angry that I had 
 come. 
 
 Once more the dragon was sweeping toward us, and so 
 rapidly that I had no time to unshng my bow. All that I 
 could do was to snatch up a rock, and hurl it at the thing's 
 hideous face. Again my aim was true, and with a hiss of 
 pain and rage the reptile wheeled once more and soared 
 away. 
 
 Quickly I fitted an arrow now that I might be ready at 
 the next attack, and as I did so I looked down at the girl, 
 so that I surprised her in a stirreptitious glance which she 
 was steahng at me; but immediately, she again covered 
 her face with her hands. 
 
 "Look at me, Dian," I pleaded. "Are you not glad to 
 see me?" 
 
 She looked straight into my eyes. 
 
 "I hate you," she said, and then, as I was about to beg 
 for a fair hearing she pointed over my shoulder. "The 
 thipdar comes," she said, and I turned again to meet the 
 reptile. 
 
 So this was a thipdar. I might have known it. The cruel 
 bloodhound of the Mahars. The long-extinct pterodactyl 
 of the outer world. But this time I met it with a weapon it 
 never had faced before. I had selected my longest arrow, 
 and with aU my strength had bent the bow until the very 
 tip of the shaft rested upon the thumb of my left hand, 
 and then as the great creature darted toward us I let 
 drive straight for that tough breast. 
 
 Hissing like the escape valve of a steam engine, the 
 mighty creature fell turning and twisting into the sea 
 below, my arrow buried completely in its carcass. I 
 
126 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 turned toward the girl. She was looking past me. It was 
 evident that she had seen the thipdar die. 
 
 "Dian," I said, "won't you tell me that you are not 
 sorry that I have found you?" 
 
 "I hate you," was her only reply; but I imagined that 
 there was less vehemence in it than before— yet it might 
 have been but my imagination. 
 
 "Why do you hate me, Dian?" I asked, but she did not 
 answer me. 
 
 "What are you doing here?" I asked, "and what has 
 happened to you since Hooja freed you from the Sa- 
 goths?" 
 
 At first I thought that she was going to ignore me en- 
 tirely, but finally she thought better of it. 
 
 "I was again running away from Jubal the Ugly One," 
 she said. "After I escaped from the Sagoths I made my 
 way alone back to my OAvn land; but on account of Jubal I 
 did not dare enter the villages or let any of my friends 
 know that I had returned for fear that Jubal might find 
 out. By watching for a long time I found that my brother 
 had not yet returned, and so I continued to Uve in a cave 
 beside a valley which my race seldom frequents, awaiting 
 the time that he should come back and free me from 
 Jubal. 
 
 "But at last one of Jubal's hunters saw me as I was 
 creeping toward my father's cave to see if my brother had 
 yet returned and he gave the alarm and Jubal set out 
 after me. He has been pursuing me across many lands. He 
 cannot be far behind me now. When he comes he will kill 
 you and carry me back to his cave. He is a terrible man. I 
 have gone as far as I can go, and there is no escape," and 
 she looked hopelessly up at the continuation of the ledge 
 twenty feet above us. 
 
 "But he shall not have me," she suddenly cried, with 
 great vehemence. "The sea is there"— she pointed over the 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 127 
 
 edge of the cliff-"and the sea shall have me rather than 
 Jubal." 
 
 "But I have you now Dian," I cried; "nor shall Jubal, 
 nor any other have you, for you are mine," and I seized 
 her hand, nor did I hft it above her head and let it fall in 
 token of release. 
 
 She had risen to her feet, and was looking straight into 
 my eyes with level gaze. 
 
 "I do not beheve you," she said, "for if you meant it 
 you would have done this when the others were present 
 to vsdtness it— then I should truly have been your mate; 
 now there is no one to see you do it, for you know that 
 without witnesses your act does not bind you to me," and 
 she withdrew her hand from mine and turned away. 
 
 I tried to convince her that I was sincere, but she sim- 
 ply couldn't forget the humiHation that I had put upon 
 her on that other occasion. 
 
 "If you mean all that you say you will have ample 
 chance to prove it," she said, "if Jubal does not catch and 
 kiU you. I am in your power, and the treatment you ac- 
 cord me will be the best proof of your intentions toward 
 me. I am not your mate, and again I tell you that I hate 
 you, and that I should be glad if I never saw you again." 
 
 Dian certainly was candid. There was no gainsaying 
 that. In fact I found candor and directness to be quite a 
 marked characteristic of the cave men of PeUucidar. Fi- 
 nally I suggested that we make some attempt to gain my 
 cave, where we might escape the searching Jubal, for I 
 am free to admit that I had no considerable desire to 
 meet the formidable and ferocious creature, of whose 
 mighty prowess Dian had told me when I first met her. 
 He it was who, armed with a puny knife, had met and 
 killed a cave bear in a hand-to-hand struggle. It was Jubal 
 who could cast his spear entirely through the armored 
 carcass of the sadok at fifty paces. It was he who had 
 
128 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 crushed the skuU of a charging dyryth with a single blow 
 of his war club. No, I was not pining to meet the Ugly 
 One— and it was quite certain that I should not go out 
 and hunt for him; but the matter was taken out of my 
 hands very quickly, as is often the way, and I did meet 
 Jubal the Ugly One face to face. 
 
 This is how it happened. I had led Dian back along the 
 ledge the way she had come, searching for a path that 
 would lead us to the top of the cHflF, for I knew that we 
 could then cross over to the edge of my own httle valley, 
 where I felt certain we should find a means of ingress 
 from the cliff top. As we proceeded along the ledge I gave 
 Dian minute directions for finding my cave against the 
 chance of something happening to me. I knew that she 
 would be quite safely hidden away from pursuit once she 
 gained the shelter of my lair, and the valley would afford 
 her ample means of sustenance. 
 
 Also, I was very much piqued by her treatment of me. 
 My heart was sad and heavy, and I wanted to make her 
 feel badly by suggesting that something terrible might 
 happen to me— that I might, in fact, be killed. But it 
 didn't work worth a cent, at least as far as I could per- 
 ceive. Dian simply shrugged those magnificent shoulders 
 of hers, and murmured something to the effect that one 
 was not rid of trouble so easily as that. 
 
 For a while I kept still. I was utterly squelched. And to 
 think that I had twice protected her from attack— the last 
 time risking my life to save hers. It was incredible that 
 even a daughter of the Stone Age could be so ungrateful— 
 so heartless; but maybe her heart partook of the qualities 
 of her epoch. 
 
 Presently we found a rift in the chff which had been 
 widened and extended by the action of water draining 
 through it from the plateau above. It gave us a rather 
 rough chmb to the summit, but finally we stood upon the 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 129 
 
 level mesa which stretched back for several miles to the 
 main mountain range. Behind us lay the broad inland sea, 
 cvuMng upward in the horizonless distance to merge into 
 the blue of the sky, so that for aU the world it looked as 
 though the sea lapped back to arch completely over us 
 and disappear beyond the distant mountains at our backs 
 —the weird and imcanny aspect of the seascapes of PeUu- 
 cidar balk description. 
 
 At our right lay a dense forest, but to the left the coun- 
 try was open and clear to the plateau's farther verge. It 
 was in this direction that our way led, and we had turned 
 to resume our journey when Dian touched my arm. I 
 turned to her, thinking that she was about to make peace 
 overtures; but I was mistaken. 
 
 "Jubal," she said, and nodded toward the forest. 
 
 I looked, and there, emerging from the dense wood, 
 came a perfect whale of a man. He must have been seven 
 feet tall, and proportioned accordingly. He stiU was too 
 far off to distinguish his features. 
 
 "Run," I said to Dian. "I can engage him until you get 
 a good start. Maybe I can hold him until you have gotten 
 entirely away," and then, without a backward glance, I 
 advanced to meet the Ugly One. I had hoped that Dian 
 would have a kind word to say to me before she went, for 
 she must have known that I was going to my death for 
 her sake; but she never even so much as bid me good-bye, 
 and it was with a heavy heart that I strode through the 
 flower-bespangled grass to my doom. 
 
 When I had come close enough to Jubal to distinguish 
 his features I understood how it was that he had earned 
 the sobriquet of Ugly One. Apparently some fearful beast 
 had ripped away one entire side of his face. The eye was 
 gone, the nose, and all the flesh, so that his jaws and all 
 his teeth were exposed and grinning through the horrible 
 scar. 
 
130 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 Fonnerly he may have been as good to look upon as the 
 others of his handsome race, and it may be that the terri- 
 ble result of this encounter had tended to sour an already 
 strong and brutal character. However this may be it is 
 quite certain that he was not a pretty sight, and now that 
 his features, or what remained of them, were distorted in 
 rage at the sight of Dian with another male, he was in- 
 deed most terrible to see— and much more terrible to 
 meet. 
 
 He had broken into a run now, and as he advanced he 
 raised his mighty spear, while I halted and fitting an 
 arrow to my bow took as steady aim as I could. I was 
 somewhat longer than usual, for I must confess that the 
 sight of this awful man had wrought upon my nerves to 
 such an extent that my knees were anything but steady. 
 What chance had I against this mighty warrior for whom 
 even the fiercest cave bear had no terrors! Could I hope 
 to best one who slaughtered the sadok and the dyryth 
 single-handed! I shuddered; but, in fairness to myself, my 
 fear was more for Dian than for my own fate. 
 
 And then the great brute launched his massive stone- 
 tipped spear, and I raised my shield to break the force of 
 its terrific velocity. The impact hiurled me to my knees, 
 but the shield had deflected the missile and I was un- 
 scathed. Jubal was rushing upon me now with the only 
 remaining weapon that he carried— a miu-derous-looking 
 knife. He was too close for a careful bowshot, but I let 
 drive at him as he came, without taking aim. My arrow 
 pierced the fleshy part of his thigh, inflicting a painful but 
 not disabhng wound. And then he was upon me. 
 
 My agility saved me for the instant. I ducked beneath 
 his raised arm, and when he wheeled to come at me again 
 he found a sword's point in his face. And a moment later 
 he felt an inch or two of it in the muscles of his knife arm, 
 so that thereafter he went more warily. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 131 
 
 It was a duel of strategy now— the great, hairy man ma- 
 neuvering to get inside my guard where he could bring 
 those giant thews to play, while my wits were directed to 
 the task of keeping him at arm's length. Thrice he rushed 
 me, and thrice I caught his knife blow upon my shield. 
 Each time my sword found his body— once penetrating to 
 his lung. He was covered with blood by this time, and the 
 internal hemorrhage induced paroxysms of coughing that 
 brought the red stream through the hideous mouth and 
 nose, covering his face and breast with bloody froth. He 
 was a most unlovely spectacle, but he was far from dead. 
 
 As the duel continued I began to gain confidence, for, 
 to be perfectly candid, I had not expected to survive the 
 first rush of that monstrous engine of ungovemed rage 
 and hatred. And I think that Jubal, from utter contempt 
 of me, began to change to a feehng of respect, and then in 
 his primitive mind there evidently loomed the thought 
 that perhaps at last he had met his master, and was facifig 
 his end. 
 
 At any rate it is only upon this hypothesis that I can ac- 
 coimt for his next act, which was in the nature of a last 
 resort— a sort of forlorn hope, which could only have been 
 bom of the behef that if he did not kiU me quickly I 
 should kill him. It happened on the occasion of his foiurth 
 charge, when, instead of striking at me with his knife, he 
 dropped that weapon, and seizing my sword blade in 
 both his hands wrenched the weapon from my grasp as 
 easily as from a babe. 
 
 Flinging it far to one side he stood motionless for just 
 an instant glaring into my face with such a horrid leer of 
 malignant triumph as to almost unnerve me— then he 
 sprang for me with his bare hands. But it was Jubal's day 
 to learn new methods of warfare. For the first time he had 
 seen a bow and arrows, never before that duel had he 
 
132 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 beheld a sword, and now he learned what a man who 
 knows may do vdth his bare fists. 
 
 As he came for me, like a great bear, I ducked again 
 beneath his outstretched arm, and as I came up planted 
 as clean a blow upon his jaw as ever you have seen. Down 
 went that great mountain of flesh sprawling upon the 
 ground. He was so surprised and dazed that he lay there 
 for several seconds before he made any attempt to rise, 
 and I stood over him with another dose ready when he 
 should gain his knees. 
 
 Up he came at last, almost roaring in his rage and 
 mortification; but he didn't stay up— I let him have a left 
 fair on the point of the jaw that sent him tumbling over 
 on his back. By this time I think Jubal had gone mad with 
 hate, for no sane man would have come back for more as 
 many times as he did. Time after time I bowled him over 
 as fast as he could stagger up, imtil toward the last he lay 
 longer on the ground between blows, and each time came 
 up weaker than before. 
 
 He was bleeding very profusely now from the wound in 
 his lungs, and presently a terrific blow over the heart sent 
 him reehng heavily to the ground, where he lay very still, 
 and somehow I knew at once that Jubal the Ugly One 
 would never get up again. But even as I looked upon that 
 massive body lying there so grim and terrible in death, I 
 could not beheve that I, single-handed, had bested this 
 slayer of fearful beasts— this gigantic ogre of the Stone 
 Age. 
 
 Picking up my sword I leaned upon it, looking down on 
 the dead body of my foeman, and as I thought of the bat- 
 tle I had just fought and won a great idea was born in my 
 brain— the outcome of this and the suggestion that Perry 
 had made within the city of Phutra. If skill and science 
 could render a comparative pygmy the master of this 
 mighty brute, what could not the brute's fellows accom- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 133 
 
 plish with the same skill and science. Why aU Pellucidar 
 would be at their feet— and I would be their king and 
 Dian their queen. 
 
 DianI A little wave of doubt swept over me. It was 
 quite within the possibilities of Dian to look down upon 
 me even were I king. She was quite the most superior per- 
 son I ever had met— with the most convincing way of let- 
 ting you know that she was superior. Well, I could go to 
 the cave, and tell her that I had killed Jubal, and then she 
 might feel more kindly toward me, since I had freed her 
 of her tormentor. I hoped that she had found the cave 
 easily— it would be terrible had I lost her again, and I 
 turned to gather up my shield and bow to hurry after her, 
 when to my astonishment I foiuid her standing not ten 
 paces behind me. 
 
 "Glrll" I cried, "what are you doing here? I thought 
 that you had gone to the cave, as I told you to do." 
 
 Up went her head, and the look that she gave me took 
 all the majesty out of me, and left me feeling more like 
 the palace janitor— if palaces have janitors. 
 
 "As you told me to do!" she cried, stamping her little 
 foot. "I do as I please. I am the daughter of a king, and, 
 furthermore, I hate you." 
 
 I was dumbfounded— this was my thanks for saving her 
 from Juball I turned and looked at the corpse. "May be 
 that I saved you from a worse fate, old man," I said, but I 
 guess it was lost on Dian, for she never seemed to notice 
 it at all. 
 
 "Let us go to my cave," I said, "I am tired and 
 hungry." 
 
 She followed along a pace behind me, neither of us 
 speaking. I was too angry, and she evidently didn't care 
 to converse with the lower orders. I was mad all the way 
 through, as I had certainly felt that at least a word of 
 thanks should have rewarded me, for I knew that even by 
 
134 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 her own standards I must have done a very vironderful 
 thing to have killed the redoubtable Jubal in a hand-to- 
 hand encounter. 
 
 We had no diEBculty in finding my lair, and then I went 
 down into the vaUey and bowled over a small antelope, 
 which I dragged up the steep ascent to the ledge before 
 the door. Here we ate in silence. Occasionally I glanced 
 at her, thinking that the sight of her tearing at raw flesh 
 with her hands and teeth like some wild animal would 
 cause a revulsion of my sentiments toward her; but to my 
 surprise I found that she ate quite as daintily as the most 
 civilized woman of my acquaintance, and finally I found 
 myself gazing in foohsh rapture at the beauties of her 
 strong, white teeth. Such is love. 
 
 After our repast we went down to the river together 
 and bathed our hands and faces, and then after drinking 
 our fill went back to the cave. Without a word I crawled 
 into the farthest comer and, curhng up, was soon asleep. 
 
 When I awoke I found Dian sitting in the doorway 
 looking out across the valley. As I came out she moved to 
 one side to let me pass, but she had no word for me. I 
 wanted to hate her, but I couldn't. Every time I looked at 
 her something came up in my throat, so that I nearly 
 choked. I had never been in love before, but I did not 
 need any aid in diagnosing my case— I certainly had it 
 and had it bad. God, how I loved that beautiful, disdain- 
 ful, tantahzing, prehistoric girl! 
 
 After we had eaten again I asked Dian if she intended 
 returning to her tribe now that Jubal was dead, but she 
 shook her head sadly, and said that she did not dare, for 
 there was stiU Jubal's brother to be considered— his oldest 
 brother. 
 
 "What has he to do with it?" I asked. "Does he too 
 want you, or has the option on you become a family heir- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 135 
 
 loom, to be passed on down from generation to genera- 
 tion?" 
 
 She was not quite sure as to what I meant. 
 
 "It is probable," she said, "that they all will want re- 
 venge for the death of Jubal— there are seven of them— 
 seven terrible men. Someone may have to kill them all, if 
 I am to return to my people." 
 
 It began to look as though I had assumed a contract 
 much too large for me— about seven sizes, in fact. 
 
 "Had Jubal any cousins?" I asked. It was just as weU to 
 know the worst at once. 
 
 "Yes," rephed Dian, 'Taut they don't count— they aU 
 have mates. Jubal's brothers have no mates because Jubal 
 could get none for himself. He was so ugly that women 
 ran away from him— some have even thrown themselves 
 from the cliffs of Amoz into the Darel Az rather than 
 mate with the Ugly One." 
 
 "But what had that to do with his brothers?" I asked. 
 
 "I forget that you are not of PeUucidar," said Dian, 
 with a look of pity mixed with contempt, and the con- 
 tempt seemed to be laid on a Httle thicker than the cir- 
 cumstance warranted— as though to make quite certain 
 that I shouldn't overlook it. "You see," she continued, "a 
 younger brother may not take a mate until all his older 
 brothers have done so, unless the older brother waives his 
 prerogative, which Jubal would not do, knowing that as 
 long as he kept them single they would be all the keener 
 in aiding him to secure a mate." 
 
 Noticing that Dian was becoming more communicative 
 I began to entertain hopes that she might be warming up 
 toward me a bit, although upon what slender thread I 
 hung my hopes I soon discovered. 
 
 "As you dare not return to Amoz," I ventured, "what is 
 to become of you since you cannot be happy here with 
 me, hating me as you do?" 
 
136 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 "I shall have to put up with you," she repUed coldly, 
 "until you see fit to go elsewhere and leave me in peace, 
 then I shall get along very well alone." 
 
 I looked at her in utter amazement. It seemed incredi- 
 ble that even a prehistoric woman could be so cold and 
 heartless and ungrateful. Then I arose. 
 
 "I shall leave you now," I said haughtily, "I have had 
 quite enough of your ingratitude and yoiu: insults," and 
 then I ttuned and strode majestically down toward the 
 valley. I had taken a hundred steps in absolute silence, 
 and then Dian spoke. 
 
 "I hate you!" she shouted, and her voice broke— in rage, 
 I thought. 
 
 I was absolutely miserable, but I hadn't gone too far 
 when I began to realize that I couldn't leave her alone 
 there without protection, to hunt her own food amid the 
 dangers of that savage world. She might hate me, and 
 revile me, and heap indignity after indignity upon me, as 
 she already had, until I should have hated her; but the 
 pitiful fact remained that I loved her, and I couldn't leave 
 her there alone. 
 
 The more I thought about it the madder I got, so that 
 by the time I reached the valley I was ftirious, and the re- 
 sult of it was that I turned right around and went up that 
 cliff again as fast as I had come down. I saw that Dian 
 had left the ledge and gone within the cave, but I bolted 
 right in after her. She was lying upon her face on the pile 
 of grasses I had gathered for her bed. When she heard me 
 enter she sprang to her feet like a tigress. 
 
 "I hate youl" she cried. 
 
 Coming from the briUiant light of the noonday sun into 
 the semidarkness of the cave I could not see her features, 
 and I was rather glad, for I disliked to think of the hate 
 that I shoidd have read there. 
 
 I never said a word to her at first. I just strode across 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 137 
 
 the cave and grasped her by the wrists, and when she 
 straggled, I put my arm around her so as to pinion her 
 hands to her sides. She fought hke a tigress, but I took my 
 free hand and pushed her head back— I imagine that I 
 had suddenly turned brate, that I had gone back a thou- 
 sand million years, and was again a veritable cave man 
 taking my mate by force— and then I kissed that beautiful 
 mouth again and again. 
 
 "Dian," I cried, shaking her roughly, "I love you. Can't 
 you understand that I love you? That I love you better 
 than all else in this world or my own? That I am going to 
 have you? That love like mine cannot be denied?" 
 
 I noticed that she lay very still in my arms now, and as 
 my eyes became accustomed to the Hght I saw that she 
 was smihng— a very contented, happy smile. I was thun- 
 derstruck. Then I realized that, very gently, she was try- 
 ing to disengage her arms, and I loosened my grip upon 
 them so that she could do so. Slowly they came up and 
 stole about my neck, and then she drew my Ups down to 
 hers once more and held them there for a long time. At 
 last she spoke. 
 
 "Why didn't you do this at first, David? I have been 
 waiting so long." 
 
 "WhatI" I cried. "You said that you hated mel" 
 
 "Did you expect me to nm into your arms, and say that 
 I loved you before I knew that you loved me?" she asked. 
 
 "But I have told you right along that I love you," I 
 said. 
 
 "Love speaks in acts," she replied. "You could have 
 made your mouth say what you wished it to say, but just 
 now when you came and took me in your arms your heart 
 spoke to mine in the language that a woman's heart un- 
 derstands. What a siUy man you are, David." 
 
 "Then you haven't hated me at all, Dian?" I asked. 
 
 "I have loved you always," she whispered, "from the 
 
138 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 first moment that I saw you, although I did not know it 
 until that time you struck down Hooja the Sly One, and 
 then spurned me." 
 
 "But I didn't spurn you, dear," I cried. "I didn't know 
 your ways— I doubt if I do now. It seems incredible that 
 you could have revUed me so, and yet have cared for me 
 aU the time." 
 
 "You might have knoviTi," she said, "when I did not 
 run away from you that it was not hate which chained me 
 to you. While you were batthng with Jubal, I could have 
 run to the edge of the forest, and when I had learned the 
 outcome of the combat it would have been a simple thing 
 to have eluded you and returned to my own people." 
 
 "But Jubal's brothers— and cousins—" I reminded her, 
 "how about them?" 
 
 She smiled, and hid her face on my shoulder. 
 
 "I had to tell you something, David," she whispered. "I 
 must needs have some excuse for remaining near you." 
 
 "You httle sinner!" I exclaimed. "And you have caused 
 me all this anguish for nothingi" 
 
 "I have suflFered even more," she answered simply, "for 
 I thought that you did not love me, and I was helpless. I 
 couldn't come to you and demand that my love be re- 
 turned, as you have just come to me. Just now when you 
 went away hope went with you. I was vvretched, terrified, 
 miserable, and my heart was breaking. I wept, and I have 
 not done that before since my mother died," and now I 
 saw that there was the moisture of tears about her eyes. It 
 was near to making me cry myself when I thought of all 
 that poor child had been through. Motherless and unpro- 
 tected; hunted across a savage, primeval world by that 
 hideous brute of a man; exposed to the attacks of the 
 countless fearsome denizens of its mountains, its plains, 
 and its jungles— it was a miracle that she had siurvived at 
 aU. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 139 
 
 To me it was a revelation of the things my early fore- 
 bears must have endured that the human race of the 
 outer canst might survive. It made me very proud to think 
 that I had won the love of such a woman. Of course she 
 couldn't read or write; there was nothing cultured or 
 refined about her as you judge culture and refinement; 
 but she was the essence of all that is best in woman, for 
 she was good, and brave, and noble, and virtuous. And 
 she was all these things in spite of the fact that their ob- 
 servance entailed suffering and danger and possible 
 death. 
 
 How much easier it would have been to have gone to 
 Jubal in the first place! She would have been his lawful 
 mate. She would have been queen in her own land— and it 
 meant just as much to the cave woman to be a queen in 
 the Stone Age as it does to the woman of today to be a 
 queen now; it's all comparative glory any way you look at 
 it, and if there were only half-naked savages on the outer 
 crust today, you'd find that it would be considerable glory 
 to be the wife of a Dahomey chief. 
 
 I couldn't help but compare Dian's action with that of a 
 splendid young woman I had known in New York— I 
 mean splendid to look at and to talk to. She had been 
 head over heels in love with a chum of mine— a clean, 
 manly chap— but she had married a broken-down, disrep- 
 utable old debauchee because he was a count in some 
 dinky little European principality that was not even ac- 
 corded a distinctive color by Rand McNally. 
 
 Yes, I was mighty proud of Dian. 
 
 After a time we decided to set out for Sari, as I was 
 anxious to see Perry, and to know that all was right with 
 him. I had told Dian about our plan of emancipating the 
 human race of PeUucidar, and she was fairly wild over it. 
 She said that if Dacor, her brother, would only return he 
 could easily be king of Amoz, and that then he and Ghak 
 
140 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 could form an alliance. That would give us a flying start, 
 for the Sarians and the Amozites were both very powerful 
 tribes. Once they had been armed with swords, and bows 
 and arrows, and trained in their use we were confident 
 that they could overcome any tribe that seemed disin- 
 chned to join the great army of federated states with 
 which we were planning to march upon the Mahars. 
 
 I explained the various destructive engines of war 
 which Perry and I could construct after a little experi- 
 mentation—gunpowder, rifles, cannon, and the Hke, and 
 Dian would clap her hands, and throw her arms about my 
 neck, and tell me what a wonderful thing I was. She was 
 beginning to think that I was omnipotent although I re- 
 ally hadn't done anything but talk— but that is the way 
 with women when they love. Perry used to say that if a 
 feUow was one-tenth as remarkable as his wife or mother 
 thought him, he would have the world by the tail with a 
 down-hiU drag. 
 
 The first time we started for Sari I stepped into a nest 
 of poisonous vipers before we reached the valley. A httle 
 feUow stung me on the ankle, and Dian made me come 
 back to the cave. She said that I mustn't exercise, or it 
 might prove fatal— if it had been a fuU-grown snake that 
 struck me she said, I wouldn't have moved a single pace 
 from the nest— I'd have died in my tracks, so virulent is 
 the poison. As it was I must have been laid up for quite a 
 while, though Dian's poultices of herbs and leaves finally 
 reduced the swelling and drew out the poison. 
 
 The episode proved most fortunate, however, as it gave 
 me an idea which added a thousandfold to the value of 
 my arrows as missiles of offense and defense. As soon as I 
 was able to be about again, I sought out some adult 
 vipers of the species which had stung me, and having 
 killed them, I extracted their virus, smearing it upon the 
 tips of several arrows. Later I shot a hyaenodon with one 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 141 
 
 of these, and though my arrow Inflicted but a superficial 
 flesh wound the beast crumpled in death ahnost immedi- 
 ately he was hit. 
 
 We now set out once more for the land of the Sarians, 
 and it was with feelings of sincere regret that we bade 
 good-bye to oui beautiful Garden of Eden, in the compar- 
 ative peace and harmony of which we had Hved the hap- 
 piest moments of our hves. How long we had been there I 
 did not know, for as I have told you, time had ceased to 
 exist for me beneath that eternal noonday sun— it may 
 have been an hour, or a month of earthly time; I do not 
 know. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 BACK TO EARTH 
 
 We crossed the river and passed through the mountains 
 beyond, and finally we came out upon a great level plain 
 which stretched away as far as the eye could reach. I can- 
 not tell you in what direction it stretched even if you 
 would care to know, for all the while that I was within 
 Pellucidar I never discovered any but local methods of in- 
 dicating direction— there is no north, no south, no east, no 
 west. Up is about the only direction which is well 
 defined, and that, of course, is down to you of the outer 
 crust. Since the sun neither rises nor sets there is no 
 method of indicating direction beyond visible objects 
 such as high mountains, forests, lakes, and seas. 
 
 The plain which hes beyond the white cliffs which 
 flank the Darel Az upon the shore nearest the Mountains 
 of the Clouds is about as near to direction as any Pelluci- 
 darian can come. If you happen not to have heard of the 
 
142 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 Darel Az, or the white cliflFs, or the Mountains of the 
 Clouds you feel that there is something lacking, and long 
 for the good old understandable northeast or southwest of 
 the outer world. 
 
 We had barely entered the great plain when we discov- 
 ered two enormous animals approaching us from a great 
 distance. So far were they that we could not distinguish 
 what manner of beasts they might be, but as they came 
 closer, I saw that they were enormous quadrupeds, eighty 
 or a hundred feet long, with tiny heads perched at the top 
 of very long necks. Their heads must have been quite 
 forty feet from the ground. The beasts moved very slowly 
 —that is their action was slow— but their strides covered 
 such a great distance that in reahty they traveled consid- 
 erably faster than a man walks. 
 
 As they drew still nearer we discovered that upon the 
 back of each sat a human being. Then Dian knew what 
 they were, though she never before had seen one. 
 
 "They are lidis from the land of the Thorians," she 
 cried. "Thoria Hes at the outer verge of the Land of 
 Awful Shadow. The Thorians alone of all the races of 
 Pellucidar ride the Hdi, for nowhere else than beside the 
 dark country are they found." 
 
 "What is the Land of Awful Shadow?" I asked. 
 
 "It is the land which lies beneath the Dead World," 
 replied Dian; "the Dead World which hangs forever be- 
 tween the sun and Pellucidar above the Land of Awful 
 Shadow. It is the Dead World which makes the great 
 shadow upon this portion of Pellucidar." 
 
 I did not fully understand what she meant, nor am I 
 sm-e that I do yet, for I have never been to that part of 
 Pellucidar from which the Dead World is visible; but 
 Perry says that it is the moon of Pellucidar— a tiny planet 
 within a planet— and that it revolves about the earth's axis 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 143 
 
 coincidently with the earth, and thus is always above the 
 same spot within Pellucidar. 
 
 I remember that Perry was very much excited when I 
 told him about this Dead World, for he seemed to think 
 that it explained the hitherto inexpUcable phenomena of 
 nutation and the procession of the equinoxes. 
 
 When the two upon the lidis had come quite close to us 
 we saw that one was a man and the other a woman. The 
 former had held up his two hands, palms toward us, in 
 sign of peace, and I had answered him in kind, when he 
 suddenly gave a cry of astonishment and pleasure, and 
 shpping from his enormous mount ran forward toward 
 Dian, throwing his arms about her. 
 
 In an instant I was white with jealousy, but only for an 
 instant; since Dian quickly drew the man toward me, tell- 
 ing him that I was David, her mate. 
 
 "And this is my brother, Dacor the Strong One, 
 David," she said to me. 
 
 It appeared that the woman was Dacor 's mate. He had 
 found none to his liking among the Sari, nor farther on 
 until he had come to the land of the Thoria, and there he 
 had found and fought for this very lovely Thorian maiden 
 whom he was bringing back to his own people. 
 
 When they had heard oiu: story and our plans they de- 
 cided to accompany us to Sari, that Dacor and Ghak 
 might come to an agreement relative to an alliance, as 
 Dacor was quite as enthusiastic about the proposed anni- 
 hilation of the Mahars and Sagoths as either Dian or I. 
 
 After a journey which was, for Pellucidar, quite une- 
 ventful, we came to the first of the Sarian villages which 
 consists of between one and two hundred artificial caves 
 cut into the face of a great cUff. Here to our immense 
 delight, we found both Perry and Ghak. The old man was 
 quite overcome at sight of me for he had long since given 
 me up as dead. 
 
144 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 When I introduced Dian as my wife, he didn't qviite 
 know what to say, but he afterward remarked that with 
 the pick of two worlds I could not have done better. 
 
 Ghak and Dacor reached a very amicable arrangement, 
 and it was at a council of the head men of the various 
 tribes of the Sari that the eventual form of government 
 was tentatively agreed upon. Roughly, the various king- 
 doms were to remain virtually independent, but there was 
 to be one great overlord, or emperor. It was decided that 
 I should be the first of the dynasty of the emperors of 
 PeUucidar. 
 
 We set about teaching the women how to make bows 
 and arrows, and poison pouches. The young men hunted 
 the vipers which provided the virus, and it was they who 
 mined the iron ore, and fashioned the swords under 
 Perry's direction. Rapidly the fever spread from one tribe 
 to another until representatives from nations so far dis- 
 tant that the Sarians had never even heard of them came 
 in to take the oath of allegiance which we required, and 
 to learn the art of making the new weapons and using 
 them. 
 
 We sent our young men out as instructors to every na- 
 tion of the federation, and the movement had reached co- 
 lossal proportions before the Mahars discovered it. The 
 first intimation they had was when three of their great 
 slave caravans were annihilated in rapid succession. They 
 could not comprehend that the lower orders had suddenly 
 developed a power which rendered them really formi- 
 dable. 
 
 In one of the skirmishes with slave caravans some of 
 our Sarians took a number of Sagoth prisoners, and 
 among them were two who had been members of the 
 guards within the building where we had been confined 
 at Phutra. They told us that the Mahars were frantic with 
 rage when they discovered what had taken place in the 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 145 
 
 cellars of the building. The Sagoths knew that something 
 very terrible had befallen their masters, but the Mahars 
 had been most careful to see that no inkhng of the true 
 nature of their vital aflEiction reached beyond their own 
 race. How long it would take for the race to become ex- 
 tinct it was impossible even to guess; but that this must 
 eventually happen seemed inevitable. 
 
 The Mahars had offered fabulous rewards for the cap- 
 ture of any one of us alive, and at the same time had 
 threatened to inflict the direst pimishment upon whom- 
 ever shotdd harm us. The Sagoths could not understand 
 these seemingly paradoxical instructions, though their 
 purpose was quite evident to me. The Mahars wanted the 
 Great Secret, and they knew that we alone could dehver 
 it to them. 
 
 Perry's experiments in the manufacture of gunpowder 
 and the fashioning of rifles had not progressed as rapidly 
 as we had hoped— there was a whole lot about these two 
 arts which Perry didn't know. We were both assured that 
 the solution of these problems would advance the cause 
 of civilization within Pellucidar thousands of years at a 
 single stroke. Then there were various other arts and 
 sciences which we wished to introduce, but our combined 
 knowledge of them did not embrace the mechanical de- 
 tails which alone could render them of commercial, or 
 practical value. 
 
 "David," said Perry, immediately after his latest failure 
 to produce gunpowder that would even burn, "one of us 
 must return to the outer world and bring back the infor- 
 mation we lack. Here we have all the labor and materials 
 for reproducing anything that ever has been produced 
 above— what we lack is knowledge. Let us go back and 
 get that knowledge in the shape of books— then this world 
 wiU indeed be at our feet." 
 
 And so it was decided that I should return in the pros- 
 
146 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 pector, which still lay upon the edge of the forest at the 
 point where we had first penetrated to the surface of the 
 inner world. Dian would not Hsten to any arrangement 
 for my going which did not include her, and I was not 
 sorry that she wished to accompany me, for I wanted her 
 to see my world, and I wanted my world to see her. 
 
 With a large force of men we marched to the great iron 
 mole, which Perry soon had hoisted into position with its 
 nose pointed back toward the outer crust. He went over 
 all the machinery carefully. He replenished the air tanks, 
 and manufactured oil for the engine. At last everything 
 was ready, and we were about to set out when oiu: 
 pickets, a long, thin Hue of which had stirrounded oiu: 
 camp at all times, reported that a great body of what ap- 
 peared to be Sagoths and Mahars was approaching from 
 the direction of Phutra. 
 
 Dian and I were ready to embark, but I was anxious to 
 witness the first clash between two fair-sized armies of 
 the opposing races of Pellucidar. I realized that this was 
 to mark the historic beginning of a mighty struggle for 
 possession of a world, and as the first emperor of Pelluci- 
 dar I felt that it was not alone my duty, but my right, to 
 be in the thick of that momentous struggle. 
 
 As the opposing army approached we saw that there 
 were many Mahars with the Sagoth troops— an indication 
 of the vast importance which the dominant race placed 
 upon the outcome of this campaign, for it was not cus- 
 tomary with them to take active part in the sorties which 
 their creatures made for slaves— the only form of warfare 
 which they waged upon the lower orders. 
 
 Ghak and Dacor were both with us, having come pri- 
 marily to view the prospector. I placed Ghak with some 
 of his Sarians on the right of our battle hne. Dacor took 
 the left, while I commanded the center. Behind us I sta- 
 tioned a sufficient reserve under one of Ghak's head men. 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 147 
 
 The Sagoths advanced steadily with menacing spears, 
 and I let them come until they were within easy bowshot 
 before I gave the word to fire. 
 
 At the first volley of poison-tipped arrows the front 
 ranks of the gorilla-men crumpled to the ground; but 
 those behind charged over the prostrate forms of their 
 comrades in a wild, mad rush to be upon us with their 
 spears. A second volley stopped them for an instant, and 
 then my reserve sprang through the openings in the firing 
 hne to engage them with sword and shield. 
 
 The clumsy spears of the Sagoths were no match for 
 the swords of the Sarian and Amozite, who turned the 
 spear thrusts aside with their shields and leaped to close 
 quarters with their hghter, handier weapons. 
 
 Ghak took his archers along the enemy's flank, and 
 while the swordsmen engaged them in front, he poured 
 volley after volley into their unprotected left. The Mahars 
 did little real fighting, and were more in the way than 
 otherwise, though occasionally one of them would fasten 
 its powerful jaws upon the arm or leg of a Sarian. 
 
 The battle did not last a great while, for when Dacor 
 and I led our men in upon the Sagoth's right with naked 
 swords they were already so demorahzed that they turned 
 and fled before us. We ptirsued them for some time, tak- 
 ing many prisoners and recovering nearly a hundred 
 slaves, among whom was Hooja the Sly One. 
 
 He told me that he had been captured while on his way 
 to his own land; but that his Hfe had been spared in hope 
 that through him the Mahars would learn the wherea- 
 bouts of their Great Secret. Ghak and I were inclined to 
 think that the Sly One had been guiding this expedition 
 to the land of Sari, where he thought that the book might 
 be found in Perry's possession; but we had no proof of 
 this and so we took him in and treated him as one of us, 
 
148 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 although none Hked him. And how he rewarded my gen- 
 erosity you shall presently learn. 
 
 There were a number of Mahars among our prisoners, 
 and so fearful were our own people of them that they 
 would not approach them unless completely covered from 
 the sight of the reptiles by a piece of skin. Even Dian 
 shared the popular superstition regarding the evil effects 
 of exposure to the eyes of angry Mahars, and though I 
 laughed at her fears I was willing enough to humor them 
 if it would relieve her apprehension in any degree, and so 
 she sat apart from the prospector, near which the Mahars 
 had been chained, while Perry and I again inspected 
 every portion of the mechanism. 
 
 At last I took my place in the driving seat, and called to 
 one of the men without to fetch Dian. It happened that 
 Hooja stood quite close to the doorway of the prospector, 
 so that it was he who, without my knowledge, went to 
 bring her; but how he succeeded in accomplishing the 
 fiendish thing he did, I cannot guess, unless there were 
 others in the plot to aid him. Nor can I beheve that, since 
 aU my people were loyal to me and would have made 
 short work of Hooja had he suggested the heartless 
 scheme, even had he had time to acquaint another with 
 it. It was all done so quickly that I may only beheve that 
 it was the result of sudden impulse, aided by a number of, 
 to Hooja, fortuitous circumstances occurring at precisely 
 the right moment. 
 
 AU I know is that it was Hooja who brought Dian to 
 the prospector, still wrapped from head to toe in the skin 
 of an enormous cave lion which had covered her since the 
 Mahar prisoners had been brought into camp. He depos- 
 ited his burden in the seat beside me. I was all ready to 
 get under way. The good-byes had been said. Perry had 
 grasped my hand in the last, long farewell. I closed and 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 149 
 
 barred the outer and inner doors, took my seat again at 
 the driving mechanism, and pulled the starting lever. 
 
 As before on that far-gone night that had witnessed our 
 first trial of the iron monster, there was a frightful roaring 
 beneath us— the giant frame trembled and vibrated— there 
 was a rush of sound as the loose earth passed up through 
 the hollow space between the inner and outer jackets to 
 be deposited in ovi wake. Once more the thing was off. 
 
 But on the instant of departure I was nearly thrown 
 from my seat by the sudden lurching of the prospector. At 
 first I did not realize what had happened, but presently it 
 dawned upon me that just before entering the crust the 
 towering body had fallen through its supporting scaffold- 
 ing, and tibat instead of entering the ground vertically we 
 were plimging into it at a different angle. Where it would 
 bring us out upon the upper crust I could not even con- 
 jecture. And then I turned to note the effect of this 
 strange experience upon Dian. She still sat shrouded in 
 the great skin. 
 
 "Come, come," I cried, laughing, "come out of your 
 shell. No Mahar eyes can reach you here," and I leaned 
 over and snatched the lion skin from her. And then I 
 shrank back upon my seat in utter horror. 
 
 The thing beneath the skin was not Dian— it was a hid- 
 eous Mahar. Instantly I realized the trick that Hooja had 
 played upon me, and the purpose of it. Rid of me, forever 
 as he doubtless thought, Dian would be at his mercy. 
 Frantically I tore at the steering wheel in an effort to turn 
 the prospector back toward PeUucidar; but, as on that 
 other occasion, I could not budge the thing a hair. 
 
 It is needless to recount the horrors or the monotony of 
 that journey. It varied but little from the former one 
 which had brought us from the outer to the inner world. 
 Because of the angle at which we had entered the ground 
 the trip required nearly a day longer, and brought me out 
 
150 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 here upon the sands of the Sahara instead of in the 
 United States as I had hoped. 
 
 For months I have been waiting here for a white man 
 to come. I dared not leave the prospector for fear I should 
 never be able to find it again— the shifting sands of the 
 desert would soon cover it, and then my only hope of re- 
 turning to my Dian and her Pellucidar would be gone for- 
 ever. 
 
 That I ever shall see her again seems but remotely pos- 
 sible, for how may I know upon what part of Pellucidar 
 my return journey may terminate— and how, without a 
 north or a south or an east or a west may I hope ever to 
 find my way across that vast world to the tiny spot where 
 my lost love has grieving for me? 
 
 That is the story as David Innes told it to me in the 
 goat-skin tent upon the rim of the great Sahara Desert. 
 The next day he took me out to see the prospector— it was 
 precisely as he had described it. So huge was it that it 
 could have been brought to this inaccessible part of the 
 world by no means of transportation that existed there— it 
 could only have come in the way that David Innes said it 
 came— up through the crust of the earth from the inner 
 world of Pellucidar. 
 
 I spent a week with him, and then, abandoning my Hon 
 hunt, returned directly to the coast and hurried to Lon- 
 don where I purchased a great quantity of stuff which he 
 wished to take back to Pellucidar with him. There were 
 books, rifles, revolvers, ammunition, cameras, chemicals, 
 telephones, telegraph instruments, wire, tools and more 
 books— books upon every subject under the sun. He said 
 he wanted a Hbrary with which they could reproduce the 
 wonders of the twentieth century in the Stone Age and if 
 quantity counts for anything I got it for him. 
 
 I took the things back to Algeria myself, and accompa- 
 
Edgar Rice Burroughs 151 
 
 nied them to the end of the raihroad; but from here I was 
 recalled to America upon important business. However, I 
 was able to employ a very trustworthy man to take charge 
 of the caravan— the same guide, in fact, who had accom- 
 panied me on the previous trip into the Sahara— and after 
 writing a long letter to Innes in which I gave him my 
 American address, I saw the expedition head south. 
 
 Among the other things which I sent to Innes was over 
 five hundred miles of double, insulated wire of a very 
 fine gauge. I had it packed on a special reel at his sugges- 
 tion, as it was his idea that he could fasten one end here 
 before he left and by paying it out through the end of the 
 prospector lay a telegraph fine between the outer and 
 inner worlds. In my letter I told him to be siu:e to mark 
 the terminus of the line very plainly with a high cairn, in 
 case I was not able to reach him before he set out, so that 
 I might easily find it and communicate with him should 
 he be so fortunate as to reach Pellucidar. 
 
 I received several letters from him after I returned to 
 America— in fact he took advantage of every northward- 
 passing caravan to drop me word of some sort. His last 
 letter was written the day before he intended to depart. 
 Here it is. 
 
 My deab fbiend: 
 
 Tomorrow I shall set out in quest of Pellucidar and 
 Dian. That is if the Arabs don't get me. They have been 
 very nasty of late. I don't know the cause, but on two oc- 
 casions they have threatened my life. One, more friendly 
 than the rest, told me today that they intended attacking 
 me tonight. It would be unfortunate should anything of 
 that sort happen now that I am so nearly ready to depart. 
 
 However, maybe I will be as well o£F, for the nearer the 
 hour approaches, the slenderer my chances for success ap- 
 
 G 44 
 
 pear. 
 Here is the friendly Arab who is to take this letter north 
 
152 AT THE EARTH'S CORE 
 
 for me, so good-bye, and God bless you for your kindness 
 to me. 
 
 The Arab tells me to hurry, for he sees a cloud of sand 
 to the south— he thinks it is the party coming to murder 
 me, and he doesn't want to be found with me. So good- 
 bye again. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 David Inkes. 
 
 A year later found me at the end of the railroad once 
 more, headed for the spot where I had left Irnies. My first 
 disappointment was when I discovered that my old guide 
 had died within a few weeks of my return, nor could I 
 find any member of my former party who could lead me 
 to the same spot. 
 
 For months I searched that scorching land, interview- 
 ing countless desert sheiks in the hope that at last I might 
 find one who had heard of Innes and his wonderful iron 
 mole. Constantly my eyes scanned the blinding waste of 
 sand for the ricky cairn beneath which I was to find the 
 wires leading to Pellucidar— but always was I unsuc- 
 cessful. 
 
 And always do these awful questions harass me when I 
 think of David Innes and his strange adventures. 
 
 Did the Arabs murder him, after aU, just on the eve of 
 his departure? Or, did he again turn the nose of his iron 
 monster toward the inner world? Did he reach it, or lies 
 he somewhere buried in the heart of the great crust? And 
 if he did come again to Pellucidar was it to break through 
 into the bottom of one of her great island seas, or among 
 some savage race far, far from the land of his heart's 
 desire? 
 
 Does the answer lie somewhere upon the bosom of the 
 broad Sahara, at the end of two tiny wires, hidden be- 
 neath a lost cairn? I wonder.