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 truthfully. They seemed
particularly interested in my account 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 communicated the result of their conference
to the officer in charge of the Sagoth guard.
"Come," he said to me, "you are sentenced to the experimental pits
for having dared to insult the intelligence 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.
"Believe you!" 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 toward 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 abdomen.
No anesthetic had been administered and the shrieks and groans of
the tortured 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 suffering was enduring
for months before death finally released me!
The Mahars had paid not the slightest 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 it! 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 instrument which one of them
must have dropped. It looked not unlike a button-hook, but was
much smaller, and its point was sharpened. A hundred times in my
boyhood days had I picked locks with a buttonhook. Could I but
reach that little bit of polished steel I might yet effect at least
a temporary escape.
Crawling to the limit of my chain, I found that by reaching one
hand as far out as I could my fingers still fell an inch short of
the coveted instrument. It was tantalizing! 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 throat! 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. Gradually
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 already turned away and was examining other
victims, 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 attention 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
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 realizing
the danger of running into some new predicament, 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 familiar to me, and
presently, 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 relief. It was the
same corridor and the same Mahars that I had intended to have lead
so important a role in our escape from Phutra. Providence had
indeed been kind to me, for the reptiles still 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 corners fell down about my shoulders completely hiding my face.
Thus disguised I found Perry and Ghak together in the chamber where
we had been wont to eat and sleep.
Both were glad to see me, it was needless to say, though of course
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 could 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 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 illy cured
pelts fairly choking me.
Together we repaired to the first tier of corridors beneath 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 remarkable about their architecture. The
rooms are sometimes rectangular, sometimes circular, and again
oval in shape. The corridors which connect them are narrow and
not always straight. The chambers are lighted by diffused sunlight
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 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 creatures 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 hopping, 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 turned 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 liquids 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 hidden 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 doorway in which
I now stood facing the two frightful reptiles. Cornered, I knew
that they would fight like demons, and they were well equipped to
fight if fight they must. Together they launched 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 commenced 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 triumphant 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
countless 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 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.
Read next: CHAPTER XII - PURSUIT
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