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 cannot 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 indicating 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 lies beyond the white cliffs which flank the Darel
Az upon the shore nearest the Mountains of the Clouds is about
as near to any direction as any Pellucidarian can come. If you
happen not to have heard of the Darel Az, or the white cliffs, or
the Mountains of the Clouds you feel that there is something lacking,
and long for the good old understandable northeast and southwest
of the outer world.
We had barely entered the great plain when we discovered 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
reality they traveled considerably 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
lies at the outer verge of the Land of Awful Shadow. The Thorians
alone of all the races of Pellucidar ride the lidi, 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 between 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 sure 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
around the earth's axis 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 inexplicable phenomena of nutation and the precession 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 slipping 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, telling 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 our story and our plans they decided 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
annihilation of the Mahars and Sagoths as either Dian or I.
After a journey which was, for Pellucidar, quite uneventful, 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
cliff. 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.
When I introduced Dian as my wife, he didn't quite 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 kingdoms 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 Pellucidar.
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
distant 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 nation of the
federation, and the movement had reached colossal 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 formidable.
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 cellars of
the buildings. The Sagoths knew that something very terrible had
befallen their masters, but the Mahars had been most careful to
see that no inkling of the true nature of their vital affliction
reached beyond their own race. How long it would take for the race
to become extinct it was impossible even to guess; but that this
must eventually happen seemed inevitable.
The Mahars had offered fabulous rewards for the capture of any one
of us alive, and at the same time had threatened to inflict the
direst punishment upon whomever should 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 deliver 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 details 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 information 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 will
indeed be at our feet."
And so it was decided that I should return in the prospector,
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 listen 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 our
pickets, a long, thin line of which had surrounded our camp at all
times, reported that a great body of what appeared to be Sagoths
and Mahars were 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 Pellucidar 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 customary 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 primarily to view the
prospector. I placed Ghak with some of his Sarians on the right of
our battle line. Dacor took the left, while I commanded the center.
Behind us I stationed a sufficient reserve under one of Ghak's
head men. 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 line
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 lighter, 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 jaw 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 demoralized that they turned and fled before us. We pursued
them for some time, taking 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 life had been spared in hope that through him
the Mahars would learn the whereabouts 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, although none
liked him. And how he rewarded my generosity you will 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 believe that,
since all 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 believe that it was the result of sudden impulse,
aided by a number of, to Hooja, fortuitous circumstances occurring
at precisely the right moment.
All 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 covered her since the Mahar prisoners had been brought into
camp. He deposited 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 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 our 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 scaffolding, and that instead of entering the ground
vertically we were plunging into it at a different angle. Where it
would bring us out upon the upper crust I could not even conjecture.
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 hideous 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 Pellucidar;
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 here upon the sand 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 returning to my Dian and her Pellucidar
would be gone forever.
That I ever shall see her again seems but remotely possible, for
how may I know upon what part of Pellucidar my return journey may
terminate--and how, without a north or 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 lies 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, abandoned my lion hunt, returned
directly to the coast and hurried to London 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, tool and more
books--books upon every subject under the sun. He said he wanted
a library 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 accompanied them to
the end of the railroad; 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 accompanied 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 suggestion, 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 line between
the outer and inner worlds. In my letter I told him to be sure 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 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 DEAR FRIEND:
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 occasions 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 off, for the nearer the hour
approaches, the slenderer my chances for success appear.
Here is the friendly Arab who is to take this letter north 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 goodbye again.
Yours,
DAVID INNES.
A year later found me at the end of the railroad once more, headed
for the spot where I had left Innes. 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, interviewing 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 unsuccessful.
And always do these awful questions harass me when I think of David
Innes and his strange adventures.
Did the Arabs murder him, after all, 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 beneath a lost cairn? I wonder.
THE END.
'At the Earth's Core', by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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