"PROLOGUE\n\nSeveral years had elapsed since I had found the opportunity to do any\nbig-game hunting; for at last I had my plans almost perfected for a\nreturn to my old stamping-grounds in northern Africa, where in other\ndays I had had excellent sport in pursuit of the king of beasts.\n\nThe date of my departure had been set; I was to leave in two weeks.  No\nschoolboy counting the lagging hours that must pass before the\nbeginning of \"long vacation\" released him to the delirious joys of the\nsummer camp could have been filled with greater impatience or keener\nanticipation.\n\nAnd then came a letter that started me for Africa twelve days ahead of\nmy schedule.\n\nOften am I in receipt of letters from strangers who have found\nsomething in a story of mine to commend or to condemn.  My interest in\nthis department of my correspondence is ever fresh.  I opened this\nparticular letter with all the zest of pleasurable anticipation with\nwhich I had opened so many others.  The post-mark (Algiers) had aroused\nmy interest and curiosity, especially at this time, since it was\nAlgiers that was presently to witness the termination of my coming sea\nvoyage in search of sport and adventure.\n\nBefore the reading of that letter was completed lions and lion-hunting\nhad fled my thoughts, and I was in a state of excitement bordering upon\nfrenzy.\n\nIt--well, read it yourself, and see if you, too, do not find food for\nfrantic conjecture, for tantalizing doubts, and for a great hope.\n\nHere it is:\n\nDEAR SIR: I think that I have run across one of the most remarkable\ncoincidences in modern literature.  But let me start at the beginning:\n\nI am, by profession, a wanderer upon the face of the earth.  I have no\ntrade--nor any other occupation.\n\nMy father bequeathed me a competency; some remoter ancestors lust to\nroam.  I have combined the two and invested them carefully and without\nextravagance.\n\nI became interested in your story, At the Earth's Core, not so much\nbecause of the probability of the tale as of a great and abiding wonder\nthat people should be paid real money for writing such impossible\ntrash.  You will pardon my candor, but it is necessary that you\nunderstand my mental attitude toward this particular story--that you\nmay credit that which follows.\n\nShortly thereafter I started for the Sahara in search of a rather rare\nspecies of antelope that is to be found only occasionally within a\nlimited area at a certain season of the year.  My chase led me far from\nthe haunts of man.\n\nIt was a fruitless search, however, in so far as antelope is concerned;\nbut one night as I lay courting sleep at the edge of a little cluster\nof date-palms that surround an ancient well in the midst of the arid,\nshifting sands, I suddenly became conscious of a strange sound coming\napparently from the earth beneath my head.\n\nIt was an intermittent ticking!\n\nNo reptile or insect with which I am familiar reproduces any such\nnotes.  I lay for an hour--listening intently.\n\nAt last my curiosity got the better of me.  I arose, lighted my lamp\nand commenced to investigate.\n\nMy bedding lay upon a rug stretched directly upon the warm sand.  The\nnoise appeared to be coming from beneath the rug.  I raised it, but\nfound nothing--yet, at intervals, the sound continued.\n\nI dug into the sand with the point of my hunting-knife.  A few inches\nbelow the surface of the sand I encountered a solid substance that had\nthe feel of wood beneath the sharp steel.\n\nExcavating about it, I unearthed a small wooden box.  From this\nreceptacle issued the strange sound that I had heard.\n\nHow had it come here?\n\nWhat did it contain?\n\nIn attempting to lift it from its burying place I discovered that it\nseemed to be held fast by means of a very small insulated cable running\nfarther into the sand beneath it.\n\nMy first impulse was to drag the thing loose by main strength; but\nfortunately I thought better of this and fell to examining the box.  I\nsoon saw that it was covered by a hinged lid, which was held closed by\na simple screwhook and eye.\n\nIt took but a moment to loosen this and raise the cover, when, to my\nutter astonishment, I discovered an ordinary telegraph instrument\nclicking away within.\n\n\"What in the world,\" thought I, \"is this thing doing here?\"\n\nThat it was a French military instrument was my first guess; but really\nthere didn't seem much likelihood that this was the correct\nexplanation, when one took into account the loneliness and remoteness\nof the spot.\n\nAs I sat gazing at my remarkable find, which was ticking and clicking\naway there in the silence of the desert night, trying to convey some\nmessage which I was unable to interpret, my eyes fell upon a bit of\npaper lying in the bottom of the box beside the instrument.  I picked\nit up and examined it.  Upon it were written but two letters:\n\nD. I.\n\nThey meant nothing to me then.  I was baffled.\n\nOnce, in an interval of silence upon the part of the receiving\ninstrument, I moved the sending-key up and down a few times.  Instantly\nthe receiving mechanism commenced to work frantically.\n\nI tried to recall something of the Morse Code, with which I had played\nas a little boy--but time had obliterated it from my memory.  I became\nalmost frantic as I let my imagination run riot among the possibilities\nfor which this clicking instrument might stand.\n\nSome poor devil at the unknown other end might be in dire need of\nsuccor.  The very franticness of the instrument's wild clashing\nbetokened something of the kind.\n\nAnd there sat I, powerless to interpret, and so powerless to help!\n\nIt was then that the inspiration came to me.  In a flash there leaped\nto my mind the closing paragraphs of the story I had read in the club\nat Algiers:\n\nDoes the answer lie somewhere upon the bosom of the broad Sahara, at\nthe ends of two tiny wires, hidden beneath a lost cairn?\n\nThe idea seemed preposterous.  Experience and intelligence combined to\nassure me that there could be no slightest grain of truth or\npossibility in your wild tale--it was fiction pure and simple.\n\nAnd yet where WERE the other ends of those wires?\n\nWhat was this instrument--ticking away here in the great Sahara--but a\ntravesty upon the possible!\n\nWould I have believed in it had I not seen it with my own eyes?\n\nAnd the initials--D. I.--upon the slip of paper!\n\nDavid's initials were these--David Innes.\n\nI smiled at my imaginings.  I ridiculed the assumption that there was\nan inner world and that these wires led downward through the earth's\ncrust to the surface of Pellucidar.  And yet--\n\nWell, I sat there all night, listening to that tantalizing clicking,\nnow and then moving the sending-key just to let the other end know that\nthe instrument had been discovered.  In the morning, after carefully\nreturning the box to its hole and covering it over with sand, I called\nmy servants about me, snatched a hurried breakfast, mounted my horse,\nand started upon a forced march for Algiers.\n\nI arrived here today.  In writing you this letter I feel that I am\nmaking a fool of myself.\n\nThere is no David Innes.\n\nThere is no Dian the Beautiful.\n\nThere is no world within a world.\n\nPellucidar is but a realm of your imagination--nothing more.\n\nBUT--\n\nThe incident of the finding of that buried telegraph instrument upon\nthe lonely Sahara is little short of uncanny, in view of your story of\nthe adventures of David Innes.\n\nI have called it one of the most remarkable coincidences in modern\nfiction.  I called it literature before, but--again pardon my\ncandor--your story is not.\n\nAnd now--why am I writing you?\n\nHeaven knows, unless it is that the persistent clicking of that\nunfathomable enigma out there in the vast silences of the Sahara has so\nwrought upon my nerves that reason refuses longer to function sanely.\n\nI cannot hear it now, yet I know that far away to the south, all alone\nbeneath the sands, it is still pounding out its vain, frantic appeal.\n\nIt is maddening.\n\nIt is your fault--I want you to release me from it.\n\nCable me at once, at my expense, that there was no basis of fact for\nyour story, At the Earth's Core.\n\nVery respectfully yours,\n\nCOGDON NESTOR,\n  ---- and ---- Club,\n    Algiers.\n      June 1st, --.\n\n\n\nTen minutes after reading this letter I had cabled Mr. Nestor as\nfollows:\n\n\nStory true.  Await me Algiers.\n\n\nAs fast as train and boat would carry me, I sped toward my destination.\nFor all those dragging days my mind was a whirl of mad conjecture, of\nfrantic hope, of numbing fear.\n\nThe finding of the telegraph-instrument practically assured me that\nDavid Innes had driven Perry's iron mole back through the earth's crust\nto the buried world of Pellucidar; but what adventures had befallen him\nsince his return?\n\nHad he found Dian the Beautiful, his half-savage mate, safe among his\nfriends, or had Hooja the Sly One succeeded in his nefarious schemes to\nabduct her?\n\nDid Abner Perry, the lovable old inventor and paleontologist, still\nlive?\n\nHad the federated tribes of Pellucidar succeeded in overthrowing the\nmighty Mahars, the dominant race of reptilian monsters, and their\nfierce, gorilla-like soldiery, the savage Sagoths?\n\nI must admit that I was in a state bordering upon nervous prostration\nwhen I entered the ---- and ---- Club, in Algiers, and inquired for Mr.\nNestor.  A moment later I was ushered into his presence, to find myself\nclasping hands with the sort of chap that the world holds only too few\nof.\n\nHe was a tall, smooth-faced man of about thirty, clean-cut, straight,\nand strong, and weather-tanned to the hue of a desert Arab.  I liked\nhim immensely from the first, and I hope that after our three months\ntogether in the desert country--three months not entirely lacking in\nadventure--he found that a man may be a writer of \"impossible trash\"\nand yet have some redeeming qualities.\n\nThe day following my arrival at Algiers we left for the south, Nestor\nhaving made all arrangements in advance, guessing, as he naturally did,\nthat I could be coming to Africa for but a single purpose--to hasten at\nonce to the buried telegraph-instrument and wrest its secret from it.\n\nIn addition to our native servants, we took along an English\ntelegraph-operator named Frank Downes.  Nothing of interest enlivened\nour journey by rail and caravan till we came to the cluster of\ndate-palms about the ancient well upon the rim of the Sahara.\n\nIt was the very spot at which I first had seen David Innes.  If he had\never raised a cairn above the telegraph instrument no sign of it\nremained now.  Had it not been for the chance that caused Cogdon Nestor\nto throw down his sleeping rug directly over the hidden instrument, it\nmight still be clicking there unheard--and this story still unwritten.\n\nWhen we reached the spot and unearthed the little box the instrument\nwas quiet, nor did repeated attempts upon the part of our telegrapher\nsucceed in winning a response from the other end of the line.  After\nseveral days of futile endeavor to raise Pellucidar, we had begun to\ndespair.  I was as positive that the other end of that little cable\nprotruded through the surface of the inner world as I am that I sit\nhere today in my study--when about midnight of the fourth day I was\nawakened by the sound of the instrument.\n\nLeaping to my feet I grasped Downes roughly by the neck and dragged him\nout of his blankets.  He didn't need to be told what caused my\nexcitement, for the instant he was awake he, too, heard the long-hoped\nfor click, and with a whoop of delight pounced upon the instrument.\n\nNestor was on his feet almost as soon as I. The three of us huddled\nabout that little box as if our lives depended upon the message it had\nfor us.\n\nDownes interrupted the clicking with his sending-key.  The noise of the\nreceiver stopped instantly.\n\n\"Ask who it is, Downes,\" I directed.\n\nHe did so, and while we awaited the Englishman's translation of the\nreply, I doubt if either Nestor or I breathed.\n\n\"He says he's David Innes,\" said Downes.  \"He wants to know who we are.\"\n\n\"Tell him,\" said I; \"and that we want to know how he is--and all that\nhas befallen him since I last saw him.\"\n\nFor two months I talked with David Innes almost every day, and as\nDownes translated, either Nestor or I took notes.  From these, arranged\nin chronological order, I have set down the following account of the\nfurther adventures of David Innes at the earth's core, practically in\nhis own words.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nLOST ON PELLUCIDAR\n\nThe Arabs, of whom I wrote you at the end of my last letter (Innes\nbegan), and whom I thought to be enemies intent only upon murdering me,\nproved to be exceedingly friendly--they were searching for the very\nband of marauders that had threatened my existence.  The huge\nrhamphorhynchus-like reptile that I had brought back with me from the\ninner world--the ugly Mahar that Hooja the Sly One had substituted for\nmy dear Dian at the moment of my departure--filled them with wonder and\nwith awe.\n\nNor less so did the mighty subterranean prospector which had carried me\nto Pellucidar and back again, and which lay out in the desert about two\nmiles from my camp.\n\nWith their help I managed to get the unwieldy tons of its great bulk\ninto a vertical position--the nose deep in a hole we had dug in the\nsand and the rest of it supported by the trunks of date-palms cut for\nthe purpose.\n\nIt was a mighty engineering job with only wild Arabs and their wilder\nmounts to do the work of an electric crane--but finally it was\ncompleted, and I was ready for departure.\n\nFor some time I hesitated to take the Mahar back with me.  She had been\ndocile and quiet ever since she had discovered herself virtually a\nprisoner aboard the \"iron mole.\" It had been, of course, impossible for\nme to communicate with her since she had no auditory organs and I no\nknowledge of her fourth-dimension, sixth-sense method of communication.\n\nNaturally I am kind-hearted, and so I found it beyond me to leave even\nthis hateful and repulsive thing alone in a strange and hostile world.\nThe result was that when I entered the iron mole I took her with me.\n\nThat she knew that we were about to return to Pellucidar was evident,\nfor immediately her manner changed from that of habitual gloom that had\npervaded her, to an almost human expression of contentment and delight.\n\nOur trip through the earth's crust was but a repetition of my two\nformer journeys between the inner and the outer worlds.  This time,\nhowever, I imagine that we must have maintained a more nearly\nperpendicular course, for we accomplished the journey in a few minutes'\nless time than upon the occasion of my first journey through the\nfive-hundred-mile crust.  Just a trifle less than seventy-two hours\nafter our departure into the sands of the Sahara, we broke through the\nsurface of Pellucidar.\n\nFortune once again favored me by the slightest of margins, for when I\nopened the door in the prospector's outer jacket I saw that we had\nmissed coming up through the bottom of an ocean by but a few hundred\nyards.\n\nThe aspect of the surrounding country was entirely unfamiliar to me--I\nhad no conception of precisely where I was upon the one hundred and\ntwenty-four million square miles of Pellucidar's vast land surface.\n\nThe perpetual midday sun poured down its torrid rays from zenith, as it\nhad done since the beginning of Pellucidarian time--as it would\ncontinue to do to the end of it.  Before me, across the wide sea, the\nweird, horizonless seascape folded gently upward to meet the sky until\nit lost itself to view in the azure depths of distance far above the\nlevel of my eyes.\n\nHow strange it looked! How vastly different from the flat and puny area\nof the circumscribed vision of the dweller upon the outer crust!\n\nI was lost.  Though I wandered ceaselessly throughout a lifetime, I\nmight never discover the whereabouts of my former friends of this\nstrange and savage world.  Never again might I see dear old Perry, nor\nGhak the Hairy One, nor Dacor the Strong One, nor that other infinitely\nprecious one--my sweet and noble mate, Dian the Beautiful!\n\nBut even so I was glad to tread once more the surface of Pellucidar.\nMysterious and terrible, grotesque and savage though she is in many of\nher aspects, I can not but love her.  Her very savagery appealed to me,\nfor it is the savagery of unspoiled Nature.\n\nThe magnificence of her tropic beauties enthralled me. Her mighty land\nareas breathed unfettered freedom.\n\nHer untracked oceans, whispering of virgin wonders unsullied by the eye\nof man, beckoned me out upon their restless bosoms.\n\nNot for an instant did I regret the world of my nativity.  I was in\nPellucidar.  I was home.  And I was content.\n\nAs I stood dreaming beside the giant thing that had brought me safely\nthrough the earth's crust, my traveling companion, the hideous Mahar,\nemerged from the interior of the prospector and stood beside me.  For a\nlong time she remained motionless.\n\nWhat thoughts were passing through the convolutions of her reptilian\nbrain?\n\nI do not know.\n\nShe was a member of the dominant race of Pellucidar.  By a strange\nfreak of evolution her kind had first developed the power of reason in\nthat world of anomalies.\n\nTo her, creatures such as I were of a lower order.  As Perry had\ndiscovered among the writings of her kind in the buried city of Phutra,\nit was still an open question among the Mahars as to whether man\npossessed means of intelligent communication or the power of reason.\n\nHer kind believed that in the center of all-pervading solidity there\nwas a single, vast, spherical cavity, which was Pellucidar.  This\ncavity had been left there for the sole purpose of providing a place\nfor the creation and propagation of the Mahar race.  Everything within\nit had been put there for the uses of the Mahar.\n\nI wondered what this particular Mahar might think now.  I found\npleasure in speculating upon just what the effect had been upon her of\npassing through the earth's crust, and coming out into a world that one\nof even less intelligence than the great Mahars could easily see was a\ndifferent world from her own Pellucidar.\n\nWhat had she thought of the outer world's tiny sun?\n\nWhat had been the effect upon her of the moon and myriad stars of the\nclear African nights?\n\nHow had she explained them?\n\nWith what sensations of awe must she first have watched the sun moving\nslowly across the heavens to disappear at last beneath the western\nhorizon, leaving in his wake that which the Mahar had never before\nwitnessed--the darkness of night? For upon Pellucidar there is no\nnight.  The stationary sun hangs forever in the center of the\nPellucidarian sky--directly overhead.\n\nThen, too, she must have been impressed by the wondrous mechanism of\nthe prospector which had bored its way from world to world and back\nagain.  And that it had been driven by a rational being must also have\noccurred to her.\n\nToo, she had seen me conversing with other men upon the earth's\nsurface.  She had seen the arrival of the caravan of books and arms,\nand ammunition, and the balance of the heterogeneous collection which I\nhad crammed into the cabin of the iron mole for transportation to\nPellucidar.\n\nShe had seen all these evidences of a civilization and brain-power\ntranscending in scientific achievement anything that her race had\nproduced; nor once had she seen a creature of her own kind.\n\nThere could have been but a single deduction in the mind of the\nMahar--there were other worlds than Pellucidar, and the gilak was a\nrational being.\n\nNow the creature at my side was creeping slowly toward the near-by sea.\nAt my hip hung a long-barreled six-shooter--somehow I had been unable\nto find the same sensation of security in the newfangled automatics\nthat had been perfected since my first departure from the outer\nworld--and in my hand was a heavy express rifle.\n\nI could have shot the Mahar with ease, for I knew intuitively that she\nwas escaping--but I did not.\n\nI felt that if she could return to her own kind with the story of her\nadventures, the position of the human race within Pellucidar would be\nadvanced immensely at a single stride, for at once man would take his\nproper place in the considerations of the reptilia.\n\nAt the edge of the sea the creature paused and looked back at me.  Then\nshe slid sinuously into the surf.\n\nFor several minutes I saw no more of her as she luxuriated in the cool\ndepths.\n\nThen a hundred yards from shore she rose and there for another short\nwhile she floated upon the surface.\n\nFinally she spread her giant wings, flapped them vigorously a score of\ntimes and rose above the blue sea.  A single time she circled far\naloft--and then straight as an arrow she sped away.\n\nI watched her until the distant haze enveloped her and she had\ndisappeared.  I was alone.\n\nMy first concern was to discover where within Pellucidar I might\nbe-and in what direction lay the land of the Sarians where Ghak the\nHairy One ruled.\n\nBut how was I to guess in which direction lay Sari?\n\nAnd if I set out to search--what then?\n\nCould I find my way back to the prospector with its priceless freight\nof books, firearms, ammunition, scientific instruments, and still more\nbooks--its great library of reference works upon every conceivable\nbranch of applied sciences?\n\nAnd if I could not, of what value was all this vast storehouse of\npotential civilization and progress to be to the world of my adoption?\n\nUpon the other hand, if I remained here alone with it, what could I\naccomplish single-handed?\n\nNothing.\n\nBut where there was no east, no west, no north, no south, no stars, no\nmoon, and only a stationary midday sun, how was I to find my way back\nto this spot should ever I get out of sight of it?\n\nI didn't know.\n\nFor a long time I stood buried in deep thought, when it occurred to me\nto try out one of the compasses I had brought and ascertain if it\nremained steadily fixed upon an unvarying pole.  I reentered the\nprospector and fetched a compass without.\n\nMoving a considerable distance from the prospector that the needle\nmight not be influenced by its great bulk of iron and steel I turned\nthe delicate instrument about in every direction.\n\nAlways and steadily the needle remained rigidly fixed upon a point\nstraight out to sea, apparently pointing toward a large island some ten\nor twenty miles distant.  This then should be north.\n\nI drew my note-book from my pocket and made a careful topographical\nsketch of the locality within the range of my vision.  Due north lay\nthe island, far out upon the shimmering sea.\n\nThe spot I had chosen for my observations was the top of a large, flat\nboulder which rose six or eight feet above the turf.  This spot I\ncalled Greenwich.  The boulder was the \"Royal Observatory.\"\n\nI had made a start! I cannot tell you what a sense of relief was\nimparted to me by the simple fact that there was at least one spot\nwithin Pellucidar with a familiar name and a place upon a map.\n\nIt was with almost childish joy that I made a little circle in my\nnote-book and traced the word Greenwich beside it.\n\nNow I felt I might start out upon my search with some assurance of\nfinding my way back again to the prospector.\n\nI decided that at first I would travel directly south in the hope that\nI might in that direction find some familiar landmark.  It was as good\na direction as any.  This much at least might be said of it.\n\nAmong the many other things I had brought from the outer world were a\nnumber of pedometers.  I slipped three of these into my pockets with\nthe idea that I might arrive at a more or less accurate mean from the\nregistrations of them all.\n\nOn my map I would register so many paces south, so many east, so many\nwest, and so on.  When I was ready to return I would then do so by any\nroute that I might choose.\n\nI also strapped a considerable quantity of ammunition across my\nshoulders, pocketed some matches, and hooked an aluminum fry-pan and a\nsmall stew-kettle of the same metal to my belt.\n\nI was ready--ready to go forth and explore a world!\n\nReady to search a land area of 124,110,000 square miles for my friends,\nmy incomparable mate, and good old Perry!\n\nAnd so, after locking the door in the outer shell of the prospector, I\nset out upon my quest.  Due south I traveled, across lovely valleys\nthick-dotted with grazing herds.\n\nThrough dense primeval forests I forced my way and up the slopes of\nmighty mountains searching for a pass to their farther sides.\n\nIbex and musk-sheep fell before my good old revolver, so that I lacked\nnot for food in the higher altitudes.  The forests and the plains gave\nplentifully of fruits and wild birds, antelope, aurochsen, and elk.\n\nOccasionally, for the larger game animals and the gigantic beasts of\nprey, I used my express rifle, but for the most part the revolver\nfilled all my needs.\n\nThere were times, too, when faced by a mighty cave bear, a\nsaber-toothed tiger, or huge felis spelaea, black-maned and terrible,\neven my powerful rifle seemed pitifully inadequate--but fortune favored\nme so that I passed unscathed through adventures that even the\nrecollection of causes the short hairs to bristle at the nape of my\nneck.\n\nHow long I wandered toward the south I do not know, for shortly after I\nleft the prospector something went wrong with my watch, and I was again\nat the mercy of the baffling timelessness of Pellucidar, forging\nsteadily ahead beneath the great, motionless sun which hangs eternally\nat noon.\n\nI ate many times, however, so that days must have elapsed, possibly\nmonths with no familiar landscape rewarding my eager eyes.\n\nI saw no men nor signs of men.  Nor is this strange, for Pellucidar, in\nits land area, is immense, while the human race there is very young and\nconsequently far from numerous.\n\nDoubtless upon that long search mine was the first human foot to touch\nthe soil in many places--mine the first human eye to rest upon the\ngorgeous wonders of the landscape.\n\nIt was a staggering thought.  I could not but dwell upon it often as I\nmade my lonely way through this virgin world.  Then, quite suddenly,\none day I stepped out of the peace of manless primality into the\npresence of man--and peace was gone.\n\nIt happened thus:\n\nI had been following a ravine downward out of a chain of lofty hills\nand had paused at its mouth to view the lovely little valley that lay\nbefore me.  At one side was tangled wood, while straight ahead a river\nwound peacefully along parallel to the cliffs in which the hills\nterminated at the valley's edge.\n\nPresently, as I stood enjoying the lovely scene, as insatiate for\nNature's wonders as if I had not looked upon similar landscapes\ncountless times, a sound of shouting broke from the direction of the\nwoods.  That the harsh, discordant notes rose from the throats of men I\ncould not doubt.\n\nI slipped behind a large boulder near the mouth of the ravine and\nwaited.  I could hear the crashing of underbrush in the forest, and I\nguessed that whoever came came quickly--pursued and pursuers, doubtless.\n\nIn a short time some hunted animal would break into view, and a moment\nlater a score of half-naked savages would come leaping after with\nspears or club or great stone-knives.\n\nI had seen the thing so many times during my life within Pellucidar\nthat I felt that I could anticipate to a nicety precisely what I was\nabout to witness.  I hoped that the hunters would prove friendly and be\nable to direct me toward Sari.\n\nEven as I was thinking these thoughts the quarry emerged from the\nforest.  But it was no terrified four-footed beast.  Instead, what I\nsaw was an old man--a terrified old man!\n\nStaggering feebly and hopelessly from what must have been some very\nterrible fate, if one could judge from the horrified expressions he\ncontinually cast behind him toward the wood, he came stumbling on in my\ndirection.\n\nHe had covered but a short distance from the forest when I beheld the\nfirst of his pursuers--a Sagoth, one of those grim and terrible\ngorilla-men who guard the mighty Mahars in their buried cities, faring\nforth from time to time upon slave-raiding or punitive expeditions\nagainst the human race of Pellucidar, of whom the dominant race of the\ninner world think as we think of the bison or the wild sheep of our own\nworld.\n\nClose behind the foremost Sagoth came others until a full dozen raced,\nshouting after the terror-stricken old man.  They would be upon him\nshortly, that was plain.\n\nOne of them was rapidly overhauling him, his back-thrown spear-arm\ntestifying to his purpose.\n\nAnd then, quite with the suddenness of an unexpected blow, I realized a\npast familiarity with the gait and carriage of the fugitive.\n\nSimultaneously there swept over me the staggering fact that the old man\nwas--PERRY! That he was about to die before my very eyes with no hope\nthat I could reach him in time to avert the awful catastrophe--for to\nme it meant a real catastrophe!\n\nPerry was my best friend.\n\nDian, of course, I looked upon as more than friend.  She was my mate--a\npart of me.\n\nI had entirely forgotten the rifle in my hand and the revolvers at my\nbelt; one does not readily synchronize his thoughts with the stone age\nand the twentieth century simultaneously.\n\nNow from past habit I still thought in the stone age, and in my\nthoughts of the stone age there were no thoughts of firearms.\n\nThe fellow was almost upon Perry when the feel of the gun in my hand\nawoke me from the lethargy of terror that had gripped me.  From behind\nmy boulder I threw up the heavy express rifle--a mighty engine of\ndestruction that might bring down a cave bear or a mammoth at a single\nshot--and let drive at the Sagoth's broad, hairy breast.\n\nAt the sound of the shot he stopped stock-still.  His spear dropped\nfrom his hand.\n\nThen he lunged forward upon his face.\n\nThe effect upon the others was little less remarkable.  Perry alone\ncould have possibly guessed the meaning of the loud report or explained\nits connection with the sudden collapse of the Sagoth.  The other\ngorilla-men halted for but an instant.  Then with renewed shrieks of\nrage they sprang forward to finish Perry.\n\nAt the same time I stepped from behind my boulder, drawing one of my\nrevolvers that I might conserve the more precious ammunition of the\nexpress rifle.  Quickly I fired again with the lesser weapon.\n\nThen it was that all eyes were directed toward me.  Another Sagoth fell\nto the bullet from the revolver; but it did not stop his companions.\nThey were out for revenge as well as blood now, and they meant to have\nboth.\n\nAs I ran forward toward Perry I fired four more shots, dropping three\nof our antagonists.  Then at last the remaining seven wavered.  It was\ntoo much for them, this roaring death that leaped, invisible, upon them\nfrom a great distance.\n\nAs they hesitated I reached Perry's side.  I have never seen such an\nexpression upon any man's face as that upon Perry's when he recognized\nme.  I have no words wherewith to describe it.  There was not time to\ntalk then--scarce for a greeting.  I thrust the full, loaded revolver\ninto his hand, fired the last shot in my own, and reloaded.  There were\nbut six Sagoths left then.\n\nThey started toward us once more, though I could see that they were\nterrified probably as much by the noise of the guns as by their\neffects.  They never reached us.  Half-way the three that remained\nturned and fled, and we let them go.\n\nThe last we saw of them they were disappearing into the tangled\nundergrowth of the forest.  And then Perry turned and threw his arms\nabout my neck and, burying his old face upon my shoulder, wept like a\nchild.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTRAVELING WITH TERROR\n\nWe made camp there beside the peaceful river.  There Perry told me all\nthat had befallen him since I had departed for the outer crust.\n\nIt seemed that Hooja had made it appear that I had intentionally left\nDian behind, and that I did not purpose ever returning to Pellucidar.\nHe told them that I was of another world and that I had tired of this\nand of its inhabitants.\n\nTo Dian he had explained that I had a mate in the world to which I was\nreturning; that I had never intended taking Dian the Beautiful back\nwith me; and that she had seen the last of me.\n\nShortly afterward Dian had disappeared from the camp, nor had Perry\nseen or heard aught of her since.\n\nHe had no conception of the time that had elapsed since I had departed,\nbut guessed that many years had dragged their slow way into the past.\n\nHooja, too, had disappeared very soon after Dian had left.  The\nSarians, under Ghak the Hairy One, and the Amozites under Dacor the\nStrong One, Dian's brother, had fallen out over my supposed defection,\nfor Ghak would not believe that I had thus treacherously deceived and\ndeserted them.\n\nThe result had been that these two powerful tribes had fallen upon one\nanother with the new weapons that Perry and I had taught them to make\nand to use.  Other tribes of the new federation took sides with the\noriginal disputants or set up petty revolutions of their own.\n\nThe result was the total demolition of the work we had so well started.\n\nTaking advantage of the tribal war, the Mahars had gathered their\nSagoths in force and fallen upon one tribe after another in rapid\nsuccession, wreaking awful havoc among them and reducing them for the\nmost part to as pitiable a state of terror as that from which we had\nraised them.\n\nAlone of all the once-mighty federation the Sarians and the Amozites\nwith a few other tribes continued to maintain their defiance of the\nMahars; but these tribes were still divided among themselves, nor had\nit seemed at all probable to Perry when he had last been among them\nthat any attempt at re-amalgamation would be made.\n\n\"And thus, your majesty,\" he concluded, \"has faded back into the\noblivion of the Stone Age our wondrous dream and with it has gone the\nFirst Empire of Pellucidar.\"\n\nWe both had to smile at the use of my royal title, yet I was indeed\nstill \"Emperor of Pellucidar,\" and some day I meant to rebuild what the\nvile act of the treacherous Hooja had torn down.\n\nBut first I would find my empress.  To me she was worth forty empires.\n\n\"Have you no clue as to the whereabouts of Dian?\" I asked.\n\n\"None whatever,\" replied Perry.  \"It was in search of her that I came\nto the pretty pass in which you discovered me, and from which, David,\nyou saved me.\n\n\"I knew perfectly well that you had not intentionally deserted either\nDian or Pellucidar.  I guessed that in some way Hooja the Sly One was\nat the bottom of the matter, and I determined to go to Amoz, where I\nguessed that Dian might come to the protection of her brother, and do\nmy utmost to convince her, and through her Dacor the Strong One, that\nwe had all been victims of a treacherous plot to which you were no\nparty.\n\n\"I came to Amoz after a most trying and terrible journey, only to find\nthat Dian was not among her brother's people and that they knew naught\nof her whereabouts.\n\n\"Dacor, I am sure, wanted to be fair and just, but so great were his\ngrief and anger over the disappearance of his sister that he could not\nlisten to reason, but kept repeating time and again that only your\nreturn to Pellucidar could prove the honesty of your intentions.\n\n\"Then came a stranger from another tribe, sent I am sure at the\ninstigation of Hooja.  He so turned the Amozites against me that I was\nforced to flee their country to escape assassination.\n\n\"In attempting to return to Sari I became lost, and then the Sagoths\ndiscovered me.  For a long time I eluded them, hiding in caves and\nwading in rivers to throw them off my trail.\n\n\"I lived on nuts and fruits and the edible roots that chance threw in\nmy way.\n\n\"I traveled on and on, in what directions I could not even guess; and\nat last I could elude them no longer and the end came as I had long\nforeseen that it would come, except that I had not foreseen that you\nwould be there to save me.\"\n\nWe rested in our camp until Perry had regained sufficient strength to\ntravel again.  We planned much, rebuilding all our shattered\nair-castles; but above all we planned most to find Dian.\n\nI could not believe that she was dead, yet where she might be in this\nsavage world, and under what frightful conditions she might be living,\nI could not guess.\n\nWhen Perry was rested we returned to the prospector, where he fitted\nhimself out fully like a civilized human being--under-clothing, socks,\nshoes, khaki jacket and breeches and good, substantial puttees.\n\nWhen I had come upon him he was clothed in rough sadak sandals, a\ngee-string and a tunic fashioned from the shaggy hide of a thag.  Now\nhe wore real clothing again for the first time since the ape-folk had\nstripped us of our apparel that long-gone day that had witnessed our\nadvent within Pellucidar.\n\nWith a bandoleer of cartridges across his shoulder, two six-shooters at\nhis hips, and a rifle in his hand he was a much rejuvenated Perry.\n\nIndeed he was quite a different person altogether from the rather shaky\nold man who had entered the prospector with me ten or eleven years\nbefore, for the trial trip that had plunged us into such wondrous\nadventures and into such a strange and hitherto undreamed-of-world.\n\nNow he was straight and active.  His muscles, almost atrophied from\ndisuse in his former life, had filled out.\n\nHe was still an old man of course, but instead of appearing ten years\nolder than he really was, as he had when we left the outer world, he\nnow appeared about ten years younger.  The wild, free life of\nPellucidar had worked wonders for him.\n\nWell, it must need have done so or killed him, for a man of Perry's\nformer physical condition could not long have survived the dangers and\nrigors of the primitive life of the inner world.\n\nPerry had been greatly interested in my map and in the \"royal\nobservatory\" at Greenwich.  By use of the pedometers we had retraced\nour way to the prospector with ease and accuracy.\n\nNow that we were ready to set out again we decided to follow a\ndifferent route on the chance that it might lead us into more familiar\nterritory.\n\nI shall not weary you with a repetition of the countless adventures of\nour long search.  Encounters with wild beasts of gigantic size were of\nalmost daily occurrence; but with our deadly express rifles we ran\ncomparatively little risk when one recalls that previously we had both\ntraversed this world of frightful dangers inadequately armed with\ncrude, primitive weapons and all but naked.\n\nWe ate and slept many times--so many that we lost count--and so I do\nnot know how long we roamed, though our map shows the distances and\ndirections quite accurately.  We must have covered a great many\nthousand square miles of territory, and yet we had seen nothing in the\nway of a familiar landmark, when from the heights of a mountain-range\nwe were crossing I descried far in the distance great masses of\nbillowing clouds.\n\nNow clouds are practically unknown in the skies of Pellucidar.  The\nmoment that my eyes rested upon them my heart leaped.  I seized Perry's\narm and, pointing toward the horizonless distance, shouted:\n\n\"The Mountains of the Clouds!\"\n\n\"They lie close to Phutra, and the country of our worst enemies, the\nMahars,\" Perry remonstrated.\n\n\"I know it,\" I replied, \"but they give us a starting-point from which\nto prosecute our search intelligently.  They are at least a familiar\nlandmark.\n\n\"They tell us that we are upon the right trail and not wandering far in\nthe wrong direction.\n\n\"Furthermore, close to the Mountains of the Clouds dwells a good\nfriend, Ja the Mezop.  You did not know him, but you know all that he\ndid for me and all that he will gladly do to aid me.\n\n\"At least he can direct us upon the right direction toward Sari.\"\n\n\"The Mountains of the Clouds constitute a mighty range,\" replied Perry.\n\"They must cover an enormous territory.  How are you to find your\nfriend in all the great country that is visible from their rugged\nflanks?\"\n\n\"Easily,\" I answered him, \"for Ja gave me minute directions.  I recall\nalmost his exact words:\n\n\"'You need merely come to the foot of the highest peak of the Mountains\nof the Clouds.  There you will find a river that flows into the Lural\nAz.\n\n\"'Directly opposite the mouth of the river you will see three large\nislands far out--so far that they are barely discernible.  The one to\nthe extreme left as you face them from the mouth of the river is\nAnoroc, where I rule the tribe of Anoroc.'\"\n\nAnd so we hastened onward toward the great cloud-mass that was to be\nour guide for several weary marches.  At last we came close to the\ntowering crags, Alp-like in their grandeur.\n\nRising nobly among its noble fellows, one stupendous peak reared its\ngiant head thousands of feet above the others.  It was he whom we\nsought; but at its foot no river wound down toward any sea.\n\n\"It must rise from the opposite side,\" suggested Perry, casting a\nrueful glance at the forbidding heights that barred our further\nprogress.  \"We cannot endure the arctic cold of those high flung\npasses, and to traverse the endless miles about this interminable range\nmight require a year or more.  The land we seek must lie upon the\nopposite side of the mountains.\"\n\n\"Then we must cross them,\" I insisted.\n\nPerry shrugged.\n\n\"We can't do it, David,\" he repeated. \"We are dressed for the tropics.\nWe should freeze to death among the snows and glaciers long before we\nhad discovered a pass to the opposite side.\"\n\n\"We must cross them,\" I reiterated.  \"We will cross them.\"\n\nI had a plan, and that plan we carried out.  It took some time.\n\nFirst we made a permanent camp part way up the slopes where there was\ngood water.  Then we set out in search of the great, shaggy cave bear\nof the higher altitudes.\n\nHe is a mighty animal--a terrible animal.  He is but little larger than\nhis cousin of the lesser, lower hills; but he makes up for it in the\nawfulness of his ferocity and in the length and thickness of his shaggy\ncoat.  It was his coat that we were after.\n\nWe came upon him quite unexpectedly.  I was trudging in advance along a\nrocky trail worn smooth by the padded feet of countless ages of wild\nbeasts.  At a shoulder of the mountain around which the path ran I\ncame face to face with the Titan.\n\nI was going up for a fur coat.  He was coming down for breakfast.  Each\nrealized that here was the very thing he sought.\n\nWith a horrid roar the beast charged me.\n\nAt my right the cliff rose straight upward for thousands of feet.\n\nAt my left it dropped into a dim, abysmal canyon.\n\nIn front of me was the bear.\n\nBehind me was Perry.\n\nI shouted to him in warning, and then I raised my rifle and fired into\nthe broad breast of the creature.  There was no time to take aim; the\nthing was too close upon me.\n\nBut that my bullet took effect was evident from the howl of rage and\npain that broke from the frothing jowls.  It didn't stop him, though.\n\nI fired again, and then he was upon me.  Down I went beneath his ton of\nmaddened, clawing flesh and bone and sinew.\n\nI thought my time had come.  I remember feeling sorry for poor old\nPerry, left all alone in this inhospitable, savage world.\n\nAnd then of a sudden I realized that the bear was gone and that I was\nquite unharmed.  I leaped to my feet, my rifle still clutched in my\nhand, and looked about for my antagonist.\n\nI thought that I should find him farther down the trail, probably\nfinishing Perry, and so I leaped in the direction I supposed him to be,\nto find Perry perched upon a projecting rock several feet above the\ntrail.  My cry of warning had given him time to reach this point of\nsafety.\n\nThere he squatted, his eyes wide and his mouth ajar, the picture of\nabject terror and consternation.\n\n\"Where is he?\" he cried when he saw me.  \"Where is he?\"\n\n\"Didn't he come this way?\" I asked.\n\n\"Nothing came this way,\" replied the old man.  \"But I heard his\nroars--he must have been as large as an elephant.\"\n\n\"He was,\" I admitted; \"but where in the world do you suppose he\ndisappeared to?\"\n\nThen came a possible explanation to my mind.  I returned to the point\nat which the bear had hurled me down and peered over the edge of the\ncliff into the abyss below.\n\nFar, far down I saw a small brown blotch near the bottom of the canon.\nIt was the bear.\n\nMy second shot must have killed him, and so his dead body, after\nhurling me to the path, had toppled over into the abyss.  I shivered at\nthe thought of how close I, too, must have been to going over with him.\n\nIt took us a long time to reach the carcass, and arduous labor to\nremove the great pelt.  But at last the thing was accomplished, and we\nreturned to camp dragging the heavy trophy behind us.\n\nHere we devoted another considerable period to scraping and curing it.\nWhen this was done to our satisfaction we made heavy boots, trousers,\nand coats of the shaggy skin, turning the fur in.\n\nFrom the scraps we fashioned caps that came down around our ears, with\nflaps that fell about our shoulders and breasts.  We were now fairly\nwell equipped for our search for a pass to the opposite side of the\nMountains of the Clouds.\n\nOur first step now was to move our camp upward to the very edge of the\nperpetual snows which cap this lofty range.  Here we built a snug,\nsecure little hut, which we provisioned and stored with fuel for its\ndiminutive fireplace.\n\nWith our hut as a base we sallied forth in search of a pass across the\nrange.\n\nOur every move was carefully noted upon our maps which we now kept in\nduplicate.  By this means we were saved tedious and unnecessary\nretracing of ways already explored.\n\nSystematically we worked upward in both directions from our base, and\nwhen we had at last discovered what seemed might prove a feasible pass\nwe moved our belongings to a new hut farther up.\n\nIt was hard work--cold, bitter, cruel work.  Not a step did we take in\nadvance but the grim reaper strode silently in our tracks.\n\nThere were the great cave bears in the timber, and gaunt, lean\nwolves--huge creatures twice the size of our Canadian timber-wolves.\nFarther up we were assailed by enormous white bears--hungry, devilish\nfellows, who came roaring across the rough glacier tops at the first\nglimpse of us, or stalked us stealthily by scent when they had not yet\nseen us.\n\nIt is one of the peculiarities of life within Pellucidar that man is\nmore often the hunted than the hunter.  Myriad are the huge-bellied\ncarnivora of this primitive world.  Never, from birth to death, are\nthose great bellies sufficiently filled, so always are their mighty\nowners prowling about in search of meat.\n\nTerribly armed for battle as they are, man presents to them in his\nprimal state an easy prey, slow of foot, puny of strength, ill-equipped\nby nature with natural weapons of defense.\n\nThe bears looked upon us as easy meat.  Only our heavy rifles saved us\nfrom prompt extinction.  Poor Perry never was a raging lion at heart,\nand I am convinced that the terrors of that awful period must have\ncaused him poignant mental anguish.\n\nWhen we were abroad pushing our trail farther and farther toward the\ndistant break which, we assumed, marked a feasible way across the\nrange, we never knew at what second some great engine of clawed and\nfanged destruction might rush upon us from behind, or lie in wait for\nus beyond an ice-hummock or a jutting shoulder of the craggy steeps.\n\nThe roar of our rifles was constantly shattering the world-old silence\nof stupendous canons upon which the eye of man had never before gazed.\nAnd when in the comparative safety of our hut we lay down to sleep the\ngreat beasts roared and fought without the walls, clawed and battered\nat the door, or rushed their colossal frames headlong against the hut's\nsides until it rocked and trembled to the impact.\n\nYes, it was a gay life.\n\nPerry had got to taking stock of our ammunition each time we returned\nto the hut.  It became something of an obsession with him.\n\nHe'd count our cartridges one by one and then try to figure how long it\nwould be before the last was expended and we must either remain in the\nhut until we starved to death or venture forth, empty, to fill the\nbelly of some hungry bear.\n\nI must admit that I, too, felt worried, for our progress was indeed\nsnail-like, and our ammunition could not last forever.  In discussing\nthe problem, finally we came to the decision to burn our bridges behind\nus and make one last supreme effort to cross the divide.\n\nIt would mean that we must go without sleep for a long period, and with\nthe further chance that when the time came that sleep could no longer\nbe denied we might still be high in the frozen regions of perpetual\nsnow and ice, where sleep would mean certain death, exposed as we would\nbe to the attacks of wild beasts and without shelter from the hideous\ncold.\n\nBut we decided that we must take these chances and so at last we set\nforth from our hut for the last time, carrying such necessities as we\nfelt we could least afford to do without.  The bears seemed unusually\ntroublesome and determined that time, and as we clambered slowly upward\nbeyond the highest point to which we had previously attained, the cold\nbecame infinitely more intense.\n\nPresently, with two great bears dogging our footsteps we entered a\ndense fog.\n\nWe had reached the heights that are so often cloud-wrapped for long\nperiods.  We could see nothing a few paces beyond our noses.\n\nWe dared not turn back into the teeth of the bears which we could hear\ngrunting behind us.  To meet them in this bewildering fog would have\nbeen to court instant death.\n\nPerry was almost overcome by the hopelessness of our situation.  He\nflopped down on his knees and began to pray.\n\nIt was the first time I had heard him at his old habit since my return\nto Pellucidar, and I had thought that he had given up his little\nidiosyncrasy; but he hadn't.  Far from it.\n\nI let him pray for a short time undisturbed, and then as I was about to\nsuggest that we had better be pushing along one of the bears in our\nrear let out a roar that made the earth fairly tremble beneath our feet.\n\nIt brought Perry to his feet as if he had been stung by a wasp, and\nsent him racing ahead through the blinding fog at a gait that I knew\nmust soon end in disaster were it not checked.\n\nCrevasses in the glacier-ice were far too frequent to permit of\nreckless speed even in a clear atmosphere, and then there were hideous\nprecipices along the edges of which our way often led us.  I shivered\nas I thought of the poor old fellow's peril.\n\nAt the top of my lungs I called to him to stop, but he did not answer\nme.  And then I hurried on in the direction he had gone, faster by far\nthan safety dictated.\n\nFor a while I thought I heard him ahead of me, but at last, though I\npaused often to listen and to call to him, I heard nothing more, not\neven the grunting of the bears that had been behind us.  All was\ndeathly silence--the silence of the tomb.  About me lay the thick,\nimpenetrable fog.\n\nI was alone.  Perry was gone--gone forever, I had not the slightest\ndoubt.\n\nSomewhere near by lay the mouth of a treacherous fissure, and far down\nat its icy bottom lay all that was mortal of my old friend, Abner\nPerry.  There would his body be preserved in its icy sepulcher for\ncountless ages, until on some far distant day the slow-moving river of\nice had wound its snail-like way down to the warmer level, there to\ndisgorge its grisly evidence of grim tragedy, and what in that far\nfuture age, might mean baffling mystery.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nSHOOTING THE CHUTES--AND AFTER\n\nThrough the fog I felt my way along by means of my compass.  I no\nlonger heard the bears, nor did I encounter one within the fog.\n\nExperience has since taught me that these great beasts are as\nterror-stricken by this phenomenon as a landsman by a fog at sea, and\nthat no sooner does a fog envelop them than they make the best of their\nway to lower levels and a clear atmosphere.  It was well for me that\nthis was true.\n\nI felt very sad and lonely as I crawled along the difficult footing.\nMy own predicament weighed less heavily upon me than the loss of Perry,\nfor I loved the old fellow.\n\nThat I should ever win the opposite slopes of the range I began to\ndoubt, for though I am naturally sanguine, I imagine that the\nbereavement which had befallen me had cast such a gloom over my spirits\nthat I could see no slightest ray of hope for the future.\n\nThen, too, the blighting, gray oblivion of the cold, damp clouds\nthrough which I wandered was distressing.  Hope thrives best in\nsunlight, and I am sure that it does not thrive at all in a fog.\n\nBut the instinct of self-preservation is stronger than hope.  It\nthrives, fortunately, upon nothing.  It takes root upon the brink of\nthe grave, and blossoms in the jaws of death.  Now it flourished\nbravely upon the breast of dead hope, and urged me onward and upward in\na stern endeavor to justify its existence.\n\nAs I advanced the fog became denser.  I could see nothing beyond my\nnose.  Even the snow and ice I trod were invisible.\n\nI could not see below the breast of my bearskin coat.  I seemed to be\nfloating in a sea of vapor.\n\nTo go forward over a dangerous glacier under such conditions was little\nshort of madness; but I could not have stopped going had I known\npositively that death lay two paces before my nose.  In the first\nplace, it was too cold to stop, and in the second, I should have gone\nmad but for the excitement of the perils that beset each forward step.\n\nFor some time the ground had been rougher and steeper, until I had been\nforced to scale a considerable height that had carried me from the\nglacier entirely.  I was sure from my compass that I was following the\nright general direction, and so I kept on.\n\nOnce more the ground was level.  From the wind that blew about me I\nguessed that I must be upon some exposed peak of ridge.\n\nAnd then quite suddenly I stepped out into space.  Wildly I turned and\nclutched at the ground that had slipped from beneath my feet.\n\nOnly a smooth, icy surface was there.  I found nothing to clutch or\nstay my fall, and a moment later so great was my speed that nothing\ncould have stayed me.\n\nAs suddenly as I had pitched into space, with equal suddenness did I\nemerge from the fog, out of which I shot like a projectile from a\ncannon into clear daylight.  My speed was so great that I could see\nnothing about me but a blurred and indistinct sheet of smooth and\nfrozen snow, that rushed past me with express-train velocity.\n\nI must have slid downward thousands of feet before the steep incline\ncurved gently on to a broad, smooth, snow-covered plateau.  Across this\nI hurtled with slowly diminishing velocity, until at last objects about\nme began to take definite shape.\n\nFar ahead, miles and miles away, I saw a great valley and mighty woods,\nand beyond these a broad expanse of water.  In the nearer foreground I\ndiscerned a small, dark blob of color upon the shimmering whiteness of\nthe snow.\n\n\"A bear,\" thought I, and thanked the instinct that had impelled me to\ncling tenaciously to my rifle during the moments of my awful tumble.\n\nAt the rate I was going it would be but a moment before I should be\nquite abreast the thing; nor was it long before I came to a sudden stop\nin soft snow, upon which the sun was shining, not twenty paces from the\nobject of my most immediate apprehension.\n\nIt was standing upon its hind legs waiting for me.  As I scrambled to\nmy feet to meet it, I dropped my gun in the snow and doubled up with\nlaughter.\n\nIt was Perry.\n\nThe expression upon his face, combined with the relief I felt at seeing\nhim again safe and sound, was too much for my overwrought nerves.\n\n\"David!\" he cried.  \"David, my boy! God has been good to an old man.\nHe has answered my prayer.\"\n\nIt seems that Perry in his mad flight had plunged over the brink at\nabout the same point as that at which I had stepped over it a short\ntime later.  Chance had done for us what long periods of rational labor\nhad failed to accomplish.\n\nWe had crossed the divide.  We were upon the side of the Mountains of\nthe Clouds that we had for so long been attempting to reach.\n\nWe looked about.  Below us were green trees and warm jungles.  In the\ndistance was a great sea.\n\n\"The Lural Az,\" I said, pointing toward its blue-green surface.\n\nSomehow--the gods alone can explain it--Perry, too, had clung to his\nrifle during his mad descent of the icy slope.  For that there was\ncause for great rejoicing.\n\nNeither of us was worse for his experience, so after shaking the snow\nfrom our clothing, we set off at a great rate down toward the warmth\nand comfort of the forest and the jungle.\n\nThe going was easy by comparison with the awful obstacles we had had to\nencounter upon the opposite side of the divide.  There were beasts, of\ncourse, but we came through safely.\n\nBefore we halted to eat or rest, we stood beside a little mountain\nbrook beneath the wondrous trees of the primeval forest in an\natmosphere of warmth and comfort.  It reminded me of an early June day\nin the Maine woods.\n\nWe fell to work with our short axes and cut enough small trees to build\na rude protection from the fiercer beasts.  Then we lay down to sleep.\n\nHow long we slept I do not know.  Perry says that inasmuch as there is\nno means of measuring time within Pellucidar, there can be no such\nthing as time here, and that we may have slept an outer earthly year,\nor we may have slept but a second.\n\nBut this I know.  We had stuck the ends of some of the saplings into\nthe ground in the building of our shelter, first stripping the leaves\nand branches from them, and when we awoke we found that many of them\nhad thrust forth sprouts.\n\nPersonally, I think that we slept at least a month; but who may say?\nThe sun marked midday when we closed our eyes; it was still in the same\nposition when we opened them; nor had it varied a hair's breadth in the\ninterim.\n\nIt is most baffling, this question of elapsed time within Pellucidar.\n\nAnyhow, I was famished when we awoke.  I think that it was the pangs of\nhunger that awoke me.  Ptarmigan and wild boar fell before my revolver\nwithin a dozen moments of my awakening.  Perry soon had a roaring fire\nblazing by the brink of the little stream.\n\nIt was a good and delicious meal we made.  Though we did not eat the\nentire boar, we made a very large hole in him, while the ptarmigan was\nbut a mouthful.\n\nHaving satisfied our hunger, we determined to set forth at once in\nsearch of Anoroc and my old friend, Ja the Mezop.  We each thought that\nby following the little stream downward, we should come upon the large\nriver which Ja had told me emptied into the Lural Az op-posite his\nisland.\n\nWe did so; nor were we disappointed, for at last after a pleasant\njourney--and what journey would not be pleasant after the hardships we\nhad endured among the peaks of the Mountains of the Clouds--we came\nupon a broad flood that rushed majestically onward in the direction of\nthe great sea we had seen from the snowy slopes of the mountains.\n\nFor three long marches we followed the left bank of the growing river,\nuntil at last we saw it roll its mighty volume into the vast waters of\nthe sea.  Far out across the rippling ocean we descried three islands.\nThe one to the left must be Anoroc.\n\nAt last we had come close to a solution of our problem--the road to\nSari.\n\nBut how to reach the islands was now the foremost question in our\nminds.  We must build a canoe.\n\nPerry is a most resourceful man.  He has an axiom which carries the\nthought-kernel that what man has done, man can do, and it doesn't cut\nany figure with Perry whether a fellow knows how to do it or not.\n\nHe set out to make gunpowder once, shortly after our escape from Phutra\nand at the beginning of the confederation of the wild tribes of\nPellucidar.  He said that some one, without any knowledge of the fact\nthat such a thing might be concocted, had once stumbled upon it by\naccident, and so he couldn't see why a fellow who knew all about powder\nexcept how to make it couldn't do as well.\n\nHe worked mighty hard mixing all sorts of things together, until\nfinally he evolved a substance that looked like powder.  He had been\nvery proud of the stuff, and had gone about the village of the Sarians\nexhibiting it to every one who would listen to him, and explaining what\nits purpose was and what terrific havoc it would work, until finally\nthe natives became so terrified at the stuff that they wouldn't come\nwithin a rod of Perry and his invention.\n\nFinally, I suggested that we experiment with it and see what it would\ndo, so Perry built a fire, after placing the powder at a safe distance,\nand then touched a glowing ember to a minute particle of the deadly\nexplosive.  It extinguished the ember.\n\nRepeated experiments with it determined me that in searching for a high\nexplosive, Perry had stumbled upon a fire-extinguisher that would have\nmade his fortune for him back in our own world.\n\nSo now he set himself to work to build a scientific canoe.  I had\nsuggested that we construct a dugout, but Perry convinced me that we\nmust build something more in keeping with our positions of supermen in\nthis world of the Stone Age.\n\n\"We must impress these natives with our superiority,\" he explained.\n\"You must not forget, David, that you are emperor of Pellucidar.  As\nsuch you may not with dignity approach the shores of a foreign power in\nso crude a vessel as a dugout.\"\n\nI pointed out to Perry that it wasn't much more incongruous for the\nemperor to cruise in a canoe, than it was for the prime minister to\nattempt to build one with his own hands.\n\nHe had to smile at that; but in extenuation of his act he assured me\nthat it was quite customary for prime ministers to give their personal\nattention to the building of imperial navies; \"and this,\" he said, \"is\nthe imperial navy of his Serene Highness, David I, Emperor of the\nFederated Kingdoms of Pellucidar.\"\n\nI grinned; but Perry was quite serious about it.  It had always seemed\nrather more or less of a joke to me that I should be addressed as\nmajesty and all the rest of it.  Yet my imperial power and dignity had\nbeen a very real thing during my brief reign.\n\nTwenty tribes had joined the federation, and their chiefs had sworn\neternal fealty to one another and to me.  Among them were many powerful\nthough savage nations.  Their chiefs we had made kings; their tribal\nlands kingdoms.\n\nWe had armed them with bows and arrows and swords, in addition to their\nown more primitive weapons.  I had trained them in military discipline\nand in so much of the art of war as I had gleaned from extensive\nreading of the campaigns of Napoleon, Von Moltke, Grant, and the\nancients.\n\nWe had marked out as best we could natural boundaries dividing the\nvarious kingdoms.  We had warned tribes beyond these boundaries that\nthey must not trespass, and we had marched against and severely\npunished those who had.\n\nWe had met and defeated the Mahars and the Sagoths.  In short, we had\ndemonstrated our rights to empire, and very rapidly were we being\nrecognized and heralded abroad when my departure for the outer world\nand Hooja's treachery had set us back.\n\nBut now I had returned.  The work that fate had undone must be done\nagain, and though I must need smile at my imperial honors, I none the\nless felt the weight of duty and obligation that rested upon my\nshoulders.\n\nSlowly the imperial navy progressed toward completion.  She was a\nwondrous craft, but I had my doubts about her.  When I voiced them to\nPerry, he reminded me gently that my people for many generations had\nbeen mine-owners, not ship-builders, and consequently I couldn't be\nexpected to know much about the matter.\n\nI was minded to inquire into his hereditary fitness to design\nbattleships; but inasmuch as I already knew that his father had been a\nminister in a back-woods village far from the coast, I hesitated lest I\noffend the dear old fellow.\n\nHe was immensely serious about his work, and I must admit that in so\nfar as appearances went he did extremely well with the meager tools and\nassistance at his command.  We had only two short axes and our\nhunting-knives; yet with these we hewed trees, split them into planks,\nsurfaced and fitted them.\n\nThe \"navy\" was some forty feet in length by ten feet beam.  Her sides\nwere quite straight and fully ten feet high--\"for the purpose,\"\nexplained Perry, \"of adding dignity to her appearance and rendering it\nless easy for an enemy to board her.\"\n\nAs a matter of fact, I knew that he had had in mind the safety of her\ncrew under javelin-fire--the lofty sides made an admirable shelter.\nInside she reminded me of nothing so much as a floating trench.  There\nwas also some slight analogy to a huge coffin.\n\nHer prow sloped sharply backward from the water-line--quite like a line\nof battleship.  Perry had designed her more for moral effect upon an\nenemy, I think, than for any real harm she might inflict, and so those\nparts which were to show were the most imposing.\n\nBelow the water-line she was practically non-existent.  She should have\nhad considerable draft; but, as the enemy couldn't have seen it, Perry\ndecided to do away with it, and so made her flat-bottomed.  It was this\nthat caused my doubts about her.\n\nThere was another little idiosyncrasy of design that escaped us both\nuntil she was about ready to launch--there was no method of propulsion.\nHer sides were far too high to permit the use of sweeps, and when Perry\nsuggested that we pole her, I remonstrated on the grounds that it would\nbe a most undignified and awkward manner of sweeping down upon the foe,\neven if we could find or wield poles that would reach to the bottom of\nthe ocean.\n\nFinally I suggested that we convert her into a sailing vessel.  When\nonce the idea took hold Perry was most enthusiastic about it, and\nnothing would do but a four-masted, full-rigged ship.\n\nAgain I tried to dissuade him, but he was simply crazy over the\npsychological effect which the appearance of this strange and mighty\ncraft would have upon the natives of Pellucidar.  So we rigged her with\nthin hides for sails and dried gut for rope.\n\nNeither of us knew much about sailing a full-rigged ship; but that\ndidn't worry me a great deal, for I was confident that we should never\nbe called upon to do so, and as the day of launching approached I was\npositive of it.\n\nWe had built her upon a low bank of the river close to where it emptied\ninto the sea, and just above high tide.  Her keel we had laid upon\nseveral rollers cut from small trees, the ends of the rollers in turn\nresting upon parallel tracks of long saplings.  Her stern was toward\nthe water.\n\nA few hours before we were ready to launch her she made quite an\nimposing picture, for Perry had insisted upon setting every shred of\n\"canvas.\"  I told him that I didn't know much about it, but I was sure\nthat at launching the hull only should have been completed, everything\nelse being completed after she had floated safely.\n\nAt the last minute there was some delay while we sought a name for her.\nI wanted her christened the Perry in honor both of her designer and\nthat other great naval genius of another world, Captain Oliver Hazard\nPerry, of the United States Navy.  But Perry was too modest; he\nwouldn't hear of it.\n\nWe finally decided to establish a system in the naming of the fleet.\nBattle-ships of the first-class should bear the names of kingdoms of\nthe federation; armored cruisers the names of kings; cruisers the names\nof cities, and so on down the line.  Therefore, we decided to name the\nfirst battle-ship Sari, after the first of the federated kingdoms.\n\nThe launching of the Sari proved easier than I contemplated.  Perry\nwanted me to get in and break something over the bow as she floated\nout upon the bosom of the river, but I told him that I should feel\nsafer on dry land until I saw which side up the Sari would float.\n\nI could see by the expression of the old man's face that my words had\nhurt him; but I noticed that he didn't offer to get in himself, and so\nI felt less contrition than I might otherwise.\n\nWhen we cut the ropes and removed the blocks that held the Sari in\nplace she started for the water with a lunge.  Before she hit it she\nwas going at a reckless speed, for we had laid our tracks quite down to\nthe water, greased them, and at intervals placed rollers all ready to\nreceive the ship as she moved forward with stately dignity.  But there\nwas no dignity in the Sari.\n\nWhen she touched the surface of the river she must have been going\ntwenty or thirty miles an hour.  Her momentum carried her well out into\nthe stream, until she came to a sudden halt at the end of the long line\nwhich we had had the foresight to attach to her bow and fasten to a\nlarge tree upon the bank.\n\nThe moment her progress was checked she promptly capsized.  Perry was\noverwhelmed.  I didn't upbraid him, nor remind him that I had \"told him\nso.\"\n\nHis grief was so genuine and so apparent that I didn't have the heart\nto reproach him, even were I inclined to that particular sort of\nmeanness.\n\n\"Come, come, old man!\" I cried.  \"It's not as bad as it looks.  Give me\na hand with this rope, and we'll drag her up as far as we can; and then\nwhen the tide goes out we'll try another scheme.  I think we can make a\ngo of her yet.\"\n\nWell, we managed to get her up into shallow water.  When the tide\nreceded she lay there on her side in the mud, quite a pitiable object\nfor the premier battle-ship of a world--\"the terror of the seas\" was\nthe way Perry had occasionally described her.\n\nWe had to work fast; but before the tide came in again we had stripped\nher of her sails and masts, righted her, and filled her about a quarter\nfull of rock ballast.  If she didn't stick too fast in the mud I was\nsure that she would float this time right side up.\n\nI can tell you that it was with palpitating hearts that we sat upon the\nriver-bank and watched that tide come slowly in.  The tides of\nPellucidar don't amount to much by comparison with our higher tides of\nthe outer world, but I knew that it ought to prove ample to float the\nSari.\n\nNor was I mistaken.  Finally we had the satisfaction of seeing the\nvessel rise out of the mud and float slowly upstream with the tide.  As\nthe water rose we pulled her in quite close to the bank and clambered\naboard.\n\nShe rested safely now upon an even keel; nor did she leak, for she was\nwell calked with fiber and tarry pitch.  We rigged up a single short\nmast and light sail, fastened planking down over the ballast to form a\ndeck, worked her out into midstream with a couple of sweeps, and\ndropped our primitive stone anchor to await the turn of the tide that\nwould bear us out to sea.\n\nWhile we waited we devoted the time to the construction of an upper\ndeck, since the one immediately above the ballast was some seven feet\nfrom the gunwale.  The second deck was four feet above this.  In it was\na large, commodious hatch, leading to the lower deck.  The sides of the\nship rose three feet above the upper deck, forming an excellent\nbreastwork, which we loopholed at intervals that we might lie prone and\nfire upon an enemy.\n\nThough we were sailing out upon a peaceful mission in search of my\nfriend Ja, we knew that we might meet with people of some other island\nwho would prove unfriendly.\n\nAt last the tide turned.  We weighed anchor.  Slowly we drifted down\nthe great river toward the sea.\n\nAbout us swarmed the mighty denizens of the primeval deep--plesiosauri\nand ichthyosauria with all their horrid, slimy cousins whose names were\nas the names of aunts and uncles to Perry, but which I have never been\nable to recall an hour after having heard them.\n\nAt last we were safely launched upon the journey to which we had looked\nforward for so long, and the results of which meant so much to me.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nFRIENDSHIP AND TREACHERY\n\nThe Sari proved a most erratic craft.  She might have done well enough\nupon a park lagoon if safely anchored, but upon the bosom of a mighty\nocean she left much to be desired.\n\nSailing with the wind she did her best; but in quartering or when\nclose-hauled she drifted terribly, as a nautical man might have guessed\nshe would.  We couldn't keep within miles of our course, and our\nprogress was pitifully slow.\n\nInstead of making for the island of Anoroc, we bore far to the right,\nuntil it became evident that we should have to pass between the two\nright-hand islands and attempt to return toward Anoroc from the\nopposite side.\n\nAs we neared the islands Perry was quite overcome by their beauty.\nWhen we were directly between two of them he fairly went into raptures;\nnor could I blame him.\n\nThe tropical luxuriance of the foliage that dripped almost to the\nwater's edge and the vivid colors of the blooms that shot the green\nmade a most gorgeous spectacle.\n\nPerry was right in the midst of a flowery panegyric on the wonders of\nthe peaceful beauty of the scene when a canoe shot out from the nearest\nisland.  There were a dozen warriors in it; it was quickly followed by\na second and third.\n\nOf course we couldn't know the intentions of the strangers, but we\ncould pretty well guess them.\n\nPerry wanted to man the sweeps and try to get away from them, but I\nsoon convinced him that any speed of which the Sari was capable would\nbe far too slow to outdistance the swift, though awkward, dugouts of\nthe Mezops.\n\nI waited until they were quite close enough to hear me, and then I\nhailed them.  I told them that we were friends of the Mezops, and that\nwe were upon a visit to Ja of Anoroc, to which they replied that they\nwere at war with Ja, and that if we would wait a minute they'd board us\nand throw our corpses to the azdyryths.\n\nI warned them that they would get the worst of it if they didn't leave\nus alone, but they only shouted in derision and paddled swiftly toward\nus.  It was evident that they were considerably impressed by the\nappearance and dimensions of our craft, but as these fellows know no\nfear they were not at all awed.\n\nSeeing that they were determined to give battle, I leaned over the rail\nof the Sari and brought the imperial battle-squadron of the Emperor of\nPellucidar into action for the first time in the history of a world.\nIn other and simpler words, I fired my revolver at the nearest canoe.\n\nThe effect was magical.  A warrior rose from his knees, threw his\npaddle aloft, stiffened into rigidity for an instant, and then toppled\noverboard.\n\nThe others ceased paddling, and, with wide eyes, looked first at me and\nthen at the battling sea-things which fought for the corpse of their\ncomrade.  To them it must have seemed a miracle that I should be able\nto stand at thrice the range of the most powerful javelin-thrower and\nwith a loud noise and a smudge of smoke slay one of their number with\nan invisible missile.\n\nBut only for an instant were they paralyzed with wonder.  Then, with\nsavage shouts, they fell once more to their paddles and forged rapidly\ntoward us.\n\nAgain and again I fired.  At each shot a warrior sank to the bottom of\nthe canoe or tumbled overboard.\n\nWhen the prow of the first craft touched the side of the Sari it\ncontained only dead and dying men.  The other two dugouts were\napproaching rapidly, so I turned my attention toward them.\n\nI think that they must have been commencing to have some doubts--those\nwild, naked, red warriors--for when the first man fell in the second\nboat, the others stopped paddling and commenced to jabber among\nthemselves.\n\nThe third boat pulled up alongside the second and its crews joined in\nthe conference.  Taking advantage of the lull in the battle, I called\nout to the survivors to return to their shore.\n\n\"I have no fight with you,\" I cried, and then I told them who I was and\nadded that if they would live in peace they must sooner or later join\nforces with me.\n\n\"Go back now to your people,\" I counseled them, \"and tell them that you\nhave seen David I, Emperor of the Federated Kingdoms of Pellucidar, and\nthat single-handed he has overcome you, just as he intends overcoming\nthe Mahars and the Sagoths and any other peoples of Pellucidar who\nthreaten the peace and welfare of his empire.\"\n\nSlowly they turned the noses of their canoes toward land.  It was\nevident that they were impressed; yet that they were loath to give up\nwithout further contesting my claim to naval supremacy was also\napparent, for some of their number seemed to be exhorting the others to\na renewal of the conflict.\n\nHowever, at last they drew slowly away, and the Sari, which had not\ndecreased her snail-like speed during this, her first engagement,\ncontinued upon her slow, uneven way.\n\nPresently Perry stuck his head up through the hatch and hailed me.\n\n\"Have the scoundrels departed?\" he asked.  \"Have you killed them all?\"\n\n\"Those whom I failed to kill have departed, Perry,\" I replied.\n\nHe came out on deck and, peering over the side, descried the lone canoe\nfloating a short distance astern with its grim and grisly freight.\nFarther his eyes wandered to the retreating boats.\n\n\"David,\" said he at last, \"this is a notable occasion.  It is a great\nday in the annals of Pellucidar.  We have won a glorious victory.\n\n\"Your majesty's navy has routed a fleet of the enemy thrice its own\nsize, manned by ten times as many men.  Let us give thanks.\"\n\nI could scarce restrain a smile at Perry's use of the pronoun \"we,\" yet\nI was glad to share the rejoicing with him as I shall always be glad to\nshare everything with the dear old fellow.\n\nPerry is the only male coward I have ever known whom I could respect\nand love.  He was not created for fighting; but I think that if the\noccasion should ever arise where it became necessary he would give his\nlife cheerfully for me--yes, I KNOW it.\n\nIt took us a long time to work around the islands and draw in close to\nAnoroc.  In the leisure afforded we took turns working on our map, and\nby means of the compass and a little guesswork we set down the\nshoreline we had left and the three islands with fair accuracy.\n\nCrossed sabers marked the spot where the first great naval engagement\nof a world had taken place.  In a note-book we jotted down, as had been\nour custom, details that would be of historical value later.\n\nOpposite Anoroc we came to anchor quite close to shore.  I knew from my\nprevious experience with the tortuous trails of the island that I could\nnever find my way inland to the hidden tree-village of the Mezop\nchieftain, Ja; so we remained aboard the Sari, firing our express\nrifles at intervals to attract the attention of the natives.\n\nAfter some ten shots had been fired at considerable intervals a body of\ncopper-colored warriors appeared upon the shore.  They watched us for a\nmoment and then I hailed them, asking the whereabouts of my old friend\nJa.\n\nThey did not reply at once, but stood with their heads together in\nserious and animated discussion.  Continually they turned their eyes\ntoward our strange craft.  It was evident that they were greatly\npuzzled by our appearance as well as unable to explain the source of\nthe loud noises that had attracted their attention to us.  At last one\nof the warriors addressed us.\n\n\"Who are you who seek Ja?\" he asked.  \"What would you of our chief?\"\n\n\"We are friends,\" I replied.  \"I am David.  Tell Ja that David, whose\nlife he once saved from a sithic, has come again to visit him.\n\n\"If you will send out a canoe we will come ashore.  We cannot bring our\ngreat warship closer in.\"\n\nAgain they talked for a considerable time.  Then two of them entered a\ncanoe that several dragged from its hiding-place in the jungle and\npaddled swiftly toward us.\n\nThey were magnificent specimens of manhood.  Perry had never seen a\nmember of this red race close to before.  In fact, the dead men in the\ncanoe we had left astern after the battle and the survivors who were\npaddling rapidly toward their shore were the first he ever had seen.\nHe had been greatly impressed by their physical beauty and the promise\nof superior intelligence which their well-shaped skulls gave.\n\nThe two who now paddled out received us into their canoe with dignified\ncourtesy.  To my inquiries relative to Ja they explained that he had\nnot been in the village when our signals were heard, but that runners\nhad been sent out after him and that doubtless he was already upon his\nway to the coast.\n\nOne of the men remembered me from the occasion of my former visit to\nthe island; he was extremely agree-able the moment that he came close\nenough to recognize me. He said that Ja would be delighted to welcome\nme, and that all the tribe of Anoroc knew of me by repute, and had\nreceived explicit instructions from their chieftain that if any of\nthem should ever come upon me to show me every kindness and attention.\n\nUpon shore we were received with equal honor.  While we stood\nconversing with our bronze friends a tall warrior leaped suddenly from\nthe jungle.\n\nIt was Ja.  As his eyes fell upon me his face lighted with pleasure.\nHe came quickly forward to greet me after the manner of his tribe.\n\nToward Perry he was equally hospitable.  The old man fell in love with\nthe savage giant as completely as had I. Ja conducted us along the\nmaze-like trail to his strange village, where he gave over one of the\ntree-houses for our exclusive use.\n\nPerry was much interested in the unique habitation, which resembled\nnothing so much as a huge wasp's nest built around the bole of a tree\nwell above the ground.\n\nAfter we had eaten and rested Ja came to see us with a number of his\nhead men.  They listened attentively to my story, which included a\nnarrative of the events leading to the formation of the federated\nkingdoms, the battle with the Mahars, my journey to the outer world,\nand my return to Pellucidar and search for Sari and my mate.\n\nJa told me that the Mezops had heard something of the federation and\nhad been much interested in it.  He had even gone so far as to send a\nparty of warriors toward Sari to investigate the reports, and to\narrange for the entrance of Anoroc into the empire in case it appeared\nthat there was any truth in the rumors that one of the aims of the\nfederation was the overthrow of the Mahars.\n\nThe delegation had met with a party of Sagoths.  As there had been a\ntruce between the Mahars and the Mezops for many generations, they\ncamped with these warriors of the reptiles, from whom they learned that\nthe federation had gone to pieces.  So the party returned to Anoroc.\n\nWhen I showed Ja our map and explained its purpose to him, he was much\ninterested.  The location of Anoroc, the Mountains of the Clouds, the\nriver, and the strip of seacoast were all familiar to him.\n\nHe quickly indicated the position of the inland sea and close beside\nit, the city of Phutra, where one of the powerful Mahar nations had its\nseat.  He likewise showed us where Sari should be and carried his own\ncoast-line as far north and south as it was known to him.\n\nHis additions to the map convinced us that Greenwich lay upon the verge\nof this same sea, and that it might be reached by water more easily\nthan by the arduous crossing of the mountains or the dangerous approach\nthrough Phutra, which lay almost directly in line between Anoroc and\nGreenwich to the northwest.\n\nIf Sari lay upon the same water then the shore-line must bend far back\ntoward the southwest of Greenwich--an assumption which, by the way, we\nfound later to be true.  Also, Sari was upon a lofty plateau at the\nsouthern end of a mighty gulf of the Great Ocean.\n\nThe location which Ja gave to distant Amoz puzzled us, for it placed it\ndue north of Greenwich, apparently in mid-ocean.  As Ja had never been\nso far and knew only of Amoz through hearsay, we thought that he must\nbe mistaken; but he was not.  Amoz lies directly north of Greenwich\nacross the mouth of the same gulf as that upon which Sari is.\n\nThe sense of direction and location of these primitive Pellucidarians\nis little short of uncanny, as I have had occasion to remark in the\npast.  You may take one of them to the uttermost ends of his world, to\nplaces of which he has never even heard, yet without sun or moon or\nstars to guide him, without map or compass, he will travel straight for\nhome in the shortest direction.\n\nMountains, rivers, and seas may have to be gone around, but never once\ndoes his sense of direction fail him--the homing instinct is supreme.\n\nIn the same remarkable way they never forget the location of any place\nto which they have ever been, and know that of many of which they have\nonly heard from others who have visited them.\n\nIn short, each Pellucidarian is a walking geography of his own district\nand of much of the country contiguous thereto.  It always proved of the\ngreatest aid to Perry and me; nevertheless we were anxious to enlarge\nour map, for we at least were not endowed with the homing instinct.\n\nAfter several long councils it was decided that, in order to expedite\nmatters, Perry should return to the prospector with a strong party of\nMezops and fetch the freight I had brought from the outer world.  Ja\nand his warriors were much impressed by our firearms, and were also\nanxious to build boats with sails.\n\nAs we had arms at the prospector and also books on boat-building we\nthought that it might prove an excellent idea to start these naturally\nmaritime people upon the construction of a well built navy of staunch\nsailing-vessels.  I was sure that with definite plans to go by Perry\ncould oversee the construction of an adequate flotilla.\n\nI warned him, however, not to be too ambitious, and to forget about\ndreadnoughts and armored cruisers for a while and build instead a few\nsmall sailing-boats that could be manned by four or five men.\n\nI was to proceed to Sari, and while prosecuting my search for Dian\nattempt at the same time the rehabilitation of the federation.  Perry\nwas going as far as possible by water, with the chances that the entire\ntrip might be made in that manner, which proved to be the fact.\n\nWith a couple of Mezops as companions I started for Sari.  In order to\navoid crossing the principal range of the Mountains of the Clouds we\ntook a route that passed a little way south of Phutra.  We had eaten\nfour times and slept once, and were, as my companions told me, not far\nfrom the great Mahar city, when we were suddenly confronted by a\nconsiderable band of Sagoths.\n\nThey did not attack us, owing to the peace which exists between the\nMahars and the Mezops, but I could see that they looked upon me with\nconsiderable suspicion.  My friends told them that I was a stranger\nfrom a remote country, and as we had previously planned against such a\ncontingency I pretended ignorance of the language which the human\nbeings of Pellucidar employ in conversing with the gorilla-like\nsoldiery of the Mahars.\n\nI noticed, and not without misgivings, that the leader of the Sagoths\neyed me with an expression that betokened partial recognition.  I was\nsure that he had seen me before during the period of my incarceration\nin Phutra and that he was trying to recall my identity.\n\nIt worried me not a little.  I was extremely thankful when we bade them\nadieu and continued upon our journey.\n\nSeveral times during the next few marches I became acutely conscious of\nthe sensation of being watched by unseen eyes, but I did not speak of\nmy suspicions to my companions.  Later I had reason to regret my\nreticence, for--\n\nWell, this is how it happened:\n\nWe had killed an antelope and after eating our fill I had lain down to\nsleep.  The Pellucidarians, who seem seldom if ever to require sleep,\njoined me in this instance, for we had had a very trying march along\nthe northern foothills of the Mountains of the Clouds, and now with\ntheir bellies filled with meat they seemed ready for slumber.\n\nWhen I awoke it was with a start to find a couple of huge Sagoths\nastride me.  They pinioned my arms and legs, and later chained my\nwrists behind my back.  Then they let me up.\n\nI saw my companions; the brave fellows lay dead where they had slept,\njavelined to death without a chance at self-defense.\n\nI was furious.  I threatened the Sagoth leader with all sorts of dire\nreprisals; but when he heard me speak the hybrid language that is the\nmedium of communication between his kind and the human race of the\ninner world he only grinned, as much as to say, \"I thought so!\"\n\nThey had not taken my revolvers or ammunition away from me because they\ndid not know what they were; but my heavy rifle I had lost.  They\nsimply left it where it had lain beside me.\n\nSo low in the scale of intelligence are they, that they had not\nsufficient interest in this strange object even to fetch it along with\nthem.\n\nI knew from the direction of our march that they were taking me to\nPhutra.  Once there I did not need much of an imagination to picture\nwhat my fate would be. It was the arena and a wild thag or fierce tarag\nfor me--unless the Mahars elected to take me to the pits.\n\nIn that case my end would be no more certain, though infinitely more\nhorrible and painful, for in the pits I should be subjected to cruel\nvivisection.  From what I had once seen of their methods in the pits of\nPhutra I knew them to be the opposite of merciful, whereas in the arena\nI should be quickly despatched by some savage beast.\n\nArrived at the underground city, I was taken immediately before a slimy\nMahar.  When the creature had received the report of the Sagoth its\ncold eyes glistened with malice and hatred as they were turned\nbalefully upon me.\n\nI knew then that my identity had been guessed.  With a show of\nexcitement that I had never before seen evinced by a member of the\ndominant race of Pellucidar, the Mahar hustled me away, heavily\nguarded, through the main avenue of the city to one of the principal\nbuildings.\n\nHere we were ushered into a great hall where presently many Mahars\ngathered.\n\nIn utter silence they conversed, for they have no oral speech since\nthey are without auditory nerves.  Their method of communication Perry\nhas likened to the projection of a sixth sense into a fourth dimension,\nwhere it becomes cognizable to the sixth sense of their audience.\n\nBe that as it may, however, it was evident that I was the subject of\ndiscussion, and from the hateful looks bestowed upon me not a\nparticularly pleasant subject.\n\nHow long I waited for their decision I do not know, but it must have\nbeen a very long time.  Finally one of the Sagoths addressed me.  He\nwas acting as interpreter for his masters.\n\n\"The Mahars will spare your life,\" he said, \"and release you on one\ncondition.\"\n\n\"And what is that condition?\" I asked, though I could guess its terms.\n\n\"That you return to them that which you stole from the pits of Phutra\nwhen you killed the four Mahars and escaped,\" he replied.\n\nI had thought that that would be it.  The great secret upon which\ndepended the continuance of the Mahar race was safely hid where only\nDian and I knew.\n\nI ventured to imagine that they would have given me much more than my\nliberty to have it safely in their keeping again; but after that--what?\n\nWould they keep their promises?\n\nI doubted it.  With the secret of artificial propagation once more in\ntheir hands their numbers would soon be made so to overrun the world of\nPellucidar that there could be no hope for the eventual supremacy of\nthe human race, the cause for which I so devoutly hoped, for which I\nhad consecrated my life, and for which I was not willing to give my\nlife.\n\nYes! In that moment as I stood before the heartless tribunal I felt\nthat my life would be a very little thing to give could it save to the\nhuman race of Pellucidar the chance to come into its own by insuring\nthe eventual extinction of the hated, powerful Mahars.\n\n\"Come!\" exclaimed the Sagoths.  \"The mighty Mahars await your reply.\"\n\n\"You may say to them,\" I answered, \"that I shall not tell them where\nthe great secret is hid.\"\n\nWhen this had been translated to them there was a great beating of\nreptilian wings, gaping of sharp-fanged jaws, and hideous hissing.  I\nthought that they were about to fall upon me on the spot, and so I laid\nmy hands upon my revolvers; but at length they became more quiet and\npresently transmitted some command to my Sagoth guard, the chief of\nwhich laid a heavy hand upon my arm and pushed me roughly before him\nfrom the audience-chamber.\n\nThey took me to the pits, where I lay carefully guarded.  I was sure\nthat I was to be taken to the vivisection laboratory, and it required\nall my courage to fortify myself against the terrors of so fearful a\ndeath.  In Pellucidar, where there is no time, death-agonies may endure\nfor eternities.\n\nAccordingly, I had to steel myself against an endless doom, which now\nstared me in the face!\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nSURPRISES\n\nBut at last the allotted moment arrived--the moment for which I had\nbeen trying to prepare myself, for how long I could not even guess.  A\ngreat Sagoth came and spoke some words of command to those who watched\nover me.  I was jerked roughly to my feet and with little consideration\nhustled upward toward the higher levels.\n\nOut into the broad avenue they conducted me, where, amid huge throngs\nof Mahars, Sagoths, and heavily guarded slaves, I was led, or, rather,\npushed and shoved roughly, along in the same direction that the mob\nmoved.  I had seen such a concourse of people once before in the\nburied city of Phutra; I guessed, and rightly, that we were bound for\nthe great arena where slaves who are condemned to death meet their end.\n\nInto the vast amphitheater they took me, stationing me at the extreme\nend of the arena.  The queen came, with her slimy, sickening retinue.\nThe seats were filled.  The show was about to commence.\n\nThen, from a little doorway in the opposite end of the structure, a\ngirl was led into the arena.  She was at a considerable distance from\nme.  I could not see her features.\n\nI wondered what fate awaited this other poor victim and myself, and why\nthey had chosen to have us die together.  My own fate, or rather, my\nthought of it, was submerged in the natural pity I felt for this lone\ngirl, doomed to die horribly beneath the cold, cruel eyes of her awful\ncaptors.  Of what crime could she be guilty that she must expiate it in\nthe dreaded arena?\n\nAs I stood thus thinking, another door, this time at one of the long\nsides of the arena, was thrown open, and into the theater of death\nslunk a mighty tarag, the huge cave tiger of the Stone Age.  At my\nsides were my revolvers.  My captors had not taken them from me,\nbecause they did not yet realize their nature.  Doubtless they thought\nthem some strange manner of war-club, and as those who are condemned to\nthe arena are permitted weapons of defense, they let me keep them.\n\nThe girl they had armed with a javelin.  A brass pin would have been\nalmost as effective against the ferocious monster they had loosed upon\nher.\n\nThe tarag stood for a moment looking about him--first up at the vast\naudience and then about the arena.  He did not seem to see me at all,\nbut his eyes fell presently upon the girl.  A hideous roar broke from\nhis titanic lungs--a roar which ended in a long-drawn scream that is\nmore human than the death-cry of a tortured woman--more human but more\nawesome.  I could scarce restrain a shudder.\n\nSlowly the beast turned and moved toward the girl.  Then it was that I\ncame to myself and to a realization of my duty.  Quickly and as\nnoiselessly as possible I ran down the arena in pursuit of the grim\ncreature.  As I ran I drew one of my pitifully futile weapons.  Ah!\nCould I but have had my lost express-gun in my hands at that moment! A\nsingle well-placed shot would have crumbled even this great monster.\nThe best I could hope to accomplish was to divert the thing from the\ngirl to myself and then to place as many bullets as possible in it\nbefore it reached and mauled me into insensibility and death.\n\nThere is a certain unwritten law of the arena that vouchsafes freedom\nand immunity to the victor, be he beast or human being--both of whom,\nby the way, are all the same to the Mahar.  That is, they were\naccustomed to look upon man as a lower animal before Perry and I broke\nthrough the Pellucidarian crust, but I imagine that they were beginning\nto alter their views a trifle and to realize that in the gilak--their\nword for human being--they had a highly organized, reasoning being to\ncontend with.\n\nBe that as it may, the chances were that the tarag alone would profit\nby the law of the arena.  A few more of his long strides, a prodigious\nleap, and he would be upon the girl.  I raised a revolver and fired.\nThe bullet struck him in the left hind leg.  It couldn't have damaged\nhim much; but the report of the shot brought him around, facing me.\n\nI think the snarling visage of a huge, enraged, saber-toothed tiger is\none of the most terrible sights in the world.  Especially if he be\nsnarling at you and there be nothing between the two of you but bare\nsand.\n\nEven as he faced me a little cry from the girl carried my eyes beyond\nthe brute to her face.  Hers was fastened upon me with an expression of\nincredulity that baffles description.  There was both hope and horror\nin them, too.\n\n\"Dian!\" I cried.  \"My Heavens, Dian!\"\n\nI saw her lips form the name David, as with raised javelin she rushed\nforward upon the tarag.  She was a tigress then--a primitive savage\nfemale defending her loved one.  Before she could reach the beast with\nher puny weapon, I fired again at the point where the tarag's neck met\nhis left shoulder.  If I could get a bullet through there it might\nreach his heart.  The bullet didn't reach his heart, but it stopped him\nfor an instant.\n\nIt was then that a strange thing happened.  I heard a great hissing\nfrom the stands occupied by the Mahars, and as I glanced toward them I\nsaw three mighty thipdars--the winged dragons that guard the queen, or,\nas Perry calls them, pterodactyls--rise swiftly from their rocks and\ndart lightning-like, toward the center of the arena.  They are huge,\npowerful reptiles.  One of them, with the advantage which his wings\nmight give him, would easily be a match for a cave bear or a tarag.\n\nThese three, to my consternation, swooped down upon the tarag as he was\ngathering himself for a final charge upon me.  They buried their talons\nin his back and lifted him bodily from the arena as if he had been a\nchicken in the clutches of a hawk.\n\nWhat could it mean?\n\nI was baffled for an explanation; but with the tarag gone I lost no\ntime in hastening to Dian's side.  With a little cry of delight she\nthrew herself into my arms.  So lost were we in the ecstasy of reunion\nthat neither of us--to this day--can tell what became of the tarag.\n\nThe first thing we were aware of was the presence of a body of Sagoths\nabout us.  Gruffly they commanded us to follow them.  They led us from\nthe arena and back through the streets of Phutra to the audience\nchamber in which I had been tried and sentenced.  Here we found\nourselves facing the same cold, cruel tribunal.\n\nAgain a Sagoth acted as interpreter.  He explained that our lives had\nbeen spared because at the last moment Tu-al-sa had returned to Phutra,\nand seeing me in the arena had prevailed upon the queen to spare my\nlife.\n\n\"Who is Tu-al-sa?\" I asked.\n\n\"A Mahar whose last male ancestor was--ages ago--the last of the male\nrulers among the Mahars,\" he replied.\n\n\"Why should she wish to have my life spared?\"\n\nHe shrugged his shoulders and then repeated my question to the Mahar\nspokesman.  When the latter had explained in the strange sign-language\nthat passes for speech between the Mahars and their fighting men the\nSagoth turned again to me:\n\n\"For a long time you had Tu-al-sa in your power,\" he explained.  \"You\nmight easily have killed her or abandoned her in a strange world--but\nyou did neither.  You did not harm her, and you brought her back with\nyou to Pellucidar and set her free to return to Phutra.  This is your\nreward.\"\n\nNow I understood.  The Mahar who had been my involuntary companion upon\nmy return to the outer world was Tu-al-sa.  This was the first time\nthat I had learned the lady's name.  I thanked fate that I had not left\nher upon the sands of the Sahara--or put a bullet in her, as I had been\ntempted to do.  I was surprised to discover that gratitude was a\ncharacteristic of the dominant race of Pellucidar.  I could never think\nof them as aught but cold-blooded, brainless reptiles, though Perry had\ndevoted much time in explaining to me that owing to a strange freak of\nevolution among all the genera of the inner world, this species of the\nreptilia had advanced to a position quite analogous to that which man\nholds upon the outer crust.\n\nHe had often told me that there was every reason to believe from their\nwritings, which he had learned to read while we were incarcerated in\nPhutra, that they were a just race, and that in certain branches of\nscience and arts they were quite well advanced, especially in genetics\nand metaphysics, engineering and architecture.\n\nWhile it had always been difficult for me to look upon these things as\nother than slimy, winged crocodiles--which, by the way, they do not at\nall resemble--I was now forced to a realization of the fact that I was\nin the hands of enlightened creatures--for justice and gratitude are\ncertain hallmarks of rationality and culture.\n\nBut what they purposed for us further was of most imminent interest to\nme.  They might save us from the tarag and yet not free us.  They\nlooked upon us yet, to some extent, I knew, as creatures of a lower\norder, and so as we are unable to place ourselves in the position of\nthe brutes we enslave--thinking that they are happier in bondage than\nin the free fulfilment of the purposes for which nature intended\nthem--the Mahars, too, might consider our welfare better conserved in\ncaptivity than among the dangers of the savage freedom we craved.\nNaturally, I was next impelled to inquire their further intent.\n\nTo my question, put through the Sagoth interpreter, I received the\nreply that having spared my life they considered that Tu-al-sa's debt\nof gratitude was canceled.  They still had against me, however, the\ncrime of which I had been guilty--the unforgivable crime of stealing\nthe great secret.  They, therefore, intended holding Dian and me\nprisoners until the manuscript was returned to them.\n\nThey would, they said, send an escort of Sagoths with me to fetch the\nprecious document from its hiding-place, keeping Dian at Phutra as a\nhostage and releasing us both the moment that the document was safely\nrestored to their queen.\n\nThere was no doubt but that they had the upper hand.  However, there\nwas so much more at stake than the liberty or even the lives of Dian\nand myself, that I did not deem it expedient to accept their offer\nwithout giving the matter careful thought.\n\nWithout the great secret this maleless race must eventually become\nextinct.  For ages they had fertilized their eggs by an artificial\nprocess, the secret of which lay hidden in the little cave of a far-off\nvalley where Dian and I had spent our honeymoon.  I was none too sure\nthat I could find the valley again, nor that I cared to.  So long as\nthe powerful reptilian race of Pellucidar continued to propagate, just\nso long would the position of man within the inner world be\njeopardized.  There could not be two dominant races.\n\nI said as much to Dian.\n\n\"You used to tell me,\" she replied, \"of the wonderful things you could\naccomplish with the inventions of your own world.  Now you have\nreturned with all that is necessary to place this great power in the\nhands of the men of Pellucidar.\n\n\"You told me of great engines of destruction which would cast a\nbursting ball of metal among our enemies, killing hundreds of them at\none time.\n\n\"You told me of mighty fortresses of stone which a thousand men armed\nwith big and little engines such as these could hold forever against a\nmillion Sagoths.\n\n\"You told me of great canoes which moved across the water without\npaddles, and which spat death from holes in their sides.\n\n\"All these may now belong to the men of Pellucidar.  Why should we fear\nthe Mahars?\n\n\"Let them breed! Let their numbers increase by thousands.  They will\nbe helpless before the power of the Emperor of Pellucidar.\n\n\"But if you remain a prisoner in Phutra, what may we accomplish?\n\n\"What could the men of Pellucidar do without you to lead them?\n\n\"They would fight among themselves, and while they fought the Mahars\nwould fall upon them, and even though the Mahar race should die out, of\nwhat value would the emancipation of the human race be to them without\nthe knowledge, which you alone may wield, to guide them toward the\nwonderful civilization of which you have told me so much that I long\nfor its comforts and luxuries as I never before longed for anything.\n\n\"No, David; the Mahars cannot harm us if you are at liberty.  Let them\nhave their secret that you and I may return to our people, and lead\nthem to the conquest of all Pellucidar.\"\n\nIt was plain that Dian was ambitious, and that her ambition had not\ndulled her reasoning faculties.  She was right.  Nothing could be\ngained by remaining bottled up in Phutra for the rest of our lives.\n\nIt was true that Perry might do much with the contents of the\nprospector, or iron mole, in which I had brought down the implements of\nouter-world civilization; but Perry was a man of peace.  He could never\nweld the warring factions of the disrupted federation.  He could never\nwin new tribes to the empire.  He would fiddle around manufacturing\ngun-powder and trying to improve upon it until some one blew him up\nwith his own invention.  He wasn't practical.  He never would get\nanywhere without a balance-wheel--without some one to direct his\nenergies.\n\nPerry needed me and I needed him.  If we were going to do anything for\nPellucidar we must be free to do it together.\n\nThe outcome of it all was that I agreed to the Mahars' proposition.\nThey promised that Dian would be well treated and protected from every\nindignity during my absence.  So I set out with a hundred Sagoths in\nsearch of the little valley which I had stumbled upon by accident, and\nwhich I might and might not find again.\n\nWe traveled directly toward Sari.  Stopping at the camp where I had\nbeen captured I recovered my express rifle, for which I was very\nthankful.  I found it lying where I had left it when I had been\noverpowered in my sleep by the Sagoths who had captured me and slain my\nMezop companions.\n\nOn the way I added materially to my map, an occupation which did not\nelicit from the Sagoths even a shadow of interest.  I felt that the\nhuman race of Pellucidar had little to fear from these gorilla-men.\nThey were fighters--that was all.  We might even use them later\nourselves in this same capacity.  They had not sufficient brain power\nto constitute a menace to the advancement of the human race.\n\nAs we neared the spot where I hoped to find the little valley I became\nmore and more confident of success.  Every landmark was familiar to me,\nand I was sure now that I knew the exact location of the cave.\n\nIt was at about this time that I sighted a number of the half-naked\nwarriors of the human race of Pellucidar.  They were marching across\nour front.  At sight of us they halted; that there would be a fight I\ncould not doubt.  These Sagoths would never permit an opportunity for\nthe capture of slaves for their Mahar masters to escape them.\n\nI saw that the men were armed with bows and arrows, long lances and\nswords, so I guessed that they must have been members of the\nfederation, for only my people had been thus equipped.  Before Perry\nand I came the men of Pellucidar had only the crudest weapons wherewith\nto slay one another.\n\nThe Sagoths, too, were evidently expecting battle.  With savage shouts\nthey rushed forward toward the human warriors.\n\nThen a strange thing happened.  The leader of the human beings stepped\nforward with upraised hands.  The Sagoths ceased their war-cries and\nadvanced slowly to meet him.  There was a long parley during which I\ncould see that I was often the subject of their discourse.  The\nSagoths' leader pointed in the direction in which I had told him the\nvalley lay.  Evidently he was explaining the nature of our expedition\nto the leader of the warriors.  It was all a puzzle to me.\n\nWhat human being could be upon such excellent terms with the\ngorilla-men?\n\nI couldn't imagine.  I tried to get a good look at the fellow, but the\nSagoths had left me in the rear with a guard when they had advanced to\nbattle, and the distance was too great for me to recognize the features\nof any of the human beings.\n\nFinally the parley was concluded and the men continued on their way\nwhile the Sagoths returned to where I stood with my guard.  It was time\nfor eating, so we stopped where we were and made our meal.  The Sagoths\ndidn't tell me who it was they had met, and I did not ask, though I\nmust confess that I was quite curious.\n\nThey permitted me to sleep at this halt.  Afterward we took up the last\nleg of our journey.  I found the valley without difficulty and led my\nguard directly to the cave.  At its mouth the Sagoths halted and I\nentered alone.\n\nI noticed as I felt about the floor in the dim light that there was a\npile of fresh-turned rubble there.  Presently my hands came to the spot\nwhere the great secret had been buried.  There was a cavity where I had\ncarefully smoothed the earth over the hiding-place of the document--the\nmanuscript was gone!\n\nFrantically I searched the whole interior of the cave several times\nover, but without other result than a complete confirmation of my worst\nfears.  Someone had been here ahead of me and stolen the great secret.\n\nThe one thing within Pellucidar which might free Dian and me was gone,\nnor was it likely that I should ever learn its whereabouts.  If a Mahar\nhad found it, which was quite improbable, the chances were that the\ndominant race would never divulge the fact that they had recovered the\nprecious document.  If a cave man had happened upon it he would have no\nconception of its meaning or value, and as a consequence it would be\nlost or destroyed in short order.\n\nWith bowed head and broken hopes I came out of the cave and told the\nSagoth chieftain what I had discovered.  It didn't mean much to the\nfellow, who doubt-less had but little better idea of the contents of\nthe document I had been sent to fetch to his masters than would the\ncave man who in all probability had discovered it.\n\nThe Sagoth knew only that I had failed in my mission, so he took\nadvantage of the fact to make the return journey to Phutra as\ndisagreeable as possible.  I did not rebel, though I had with me the\nmeans to destroy them all.  I did not dare rebel because of the\nconsequences to Dian.  I intended demanding her release on the grounds\nthat she was in no way guilty of the theft, and that my failure to\nrecover the document had not lessened the value of the good faith I had\nhad in offering to do so.  The Mahars might keep me in slavery if they\nchose, but Dian should be returned safely to her people.\n\nI was full of my scheme when we entered Phutra and I was conducted\ndirectly to the great audience-chamber.  The Mahars listened to the\nreport of the Sagoth chieftain, and so difficult is it to judge their\nemotions from their almost expressionless countenance, that I was at a\nloss to know how terrible might be their wrath as they learned that\ntheir great secret, upon which rested the fate of their race, might now\nbe irretrievably lost.\n\nPresently I could see that she who presided was communicating something\nto the Sagoth interpreter--doubt-less something to be transmitted to me\nwhich might give me a forewarning of the fate which lay in store for\nme. One thing I had decided definitely: If they would not free Dian I\nshould turn loose upon Phutra with my little arsenal.  Alone I might\neven win to freedom, and if I could learn where Dian was imprisoned it\nwould be worth the attempt to free her.  My thoughts were interrupted\nby the interpreter.\n\n\"The mighty Mahars,\" he said, \"are unable to reconcile your statement\nthat the document is lost with your action in sending it to them by a\nspecial messenger.  They wish to know if you have so soon forgotten the\ntruth or if you are merely ignoring it.\"\n\n\"I sent them no document,\" I cried.  \"Ask them what they mean.\"\n\n\"They say,\" he went on after conversing with the Mahar for a moment,\n\"that just before your return to Phutra, Hooja the Sly One came,\nbringing the great secret with him.  He said that you had sent him\nahead with it, asking him to deliver it and return to Sari where you\nwould await him, bringing the girl with him.\"\n\n\"Dian?\" I gasped.  \"The Mahars have given over Dian into the keeping of\nHooja.\"\n\n\"Surely,\" he replied.  \"What of it? She is only a gilak,\" as you or I\nwould say, \"She is only a cow.\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nA PENDENT WORLD\n\nThe Mahars set me free as they had promised, but with strict\ninjunctions never to approach Phutra or any other Mahar city.  They\nalso made it perfectly plain that they considered me a dangerous\ncreature, and that having wiped the slate clean in so far as they were\nunder obligations to me, they now considered me fair prey.  Should I\nagain fall into their hands, they intimated it would go ill with me.\n\nThey would not tell me in which direction Hooja had set forth with\nDian, so I departed from Phutra, filled with bitterness against the\nMahars, and rage toward the Sly One who had once again robbed me of my\ngreatest treasure.\n\nAt first I was minded to go directly back to Anoroc; but upon second\nthought turned my face toward Sari, as I felt that somewhere in that\ndirection Hooja would travel, his own country lying in that general\ndirection.\n\nOf my journey to Sari it is only necessary to say that it was fraught\nwith the usual excitement and adventure, incident to all travel across\nthe face of savage Pellucidar.  The dangers, however, were greatly\nreduced through the medium of my armament.  I often wondered how it had\nhappened that I had ever survived the first ten years of my life within\nthe inner world, when, naked and primitively armed, I had traversed\ngreat areas of her beast-ridden surface.\n\nWith the aid of my map, which I had kept with great care during my\nmarch with the Sagoths in search of the great secret, I arrived at Sari\nat last.  As I topped the lofty plateau in whose rocky cliffs the\nprincipal tribe of Sarians find their cave-homes, a great hue and cry\narose from those who first discovered me.\n\nLike wasps from their nests the hairy warriors poured from their caves.\nThe bows with their poison-tipped arrows, which I had taught them to\nfashion and to use, were raised against me.  Swords of hammered\niron--another of my innovations--menaced me, as with lusty shouts the\nhorde charged down.\n\nIt was a critical moment.  Before I should be recognized I might be\ndead.  It was evident that all semblance of intertribal relationship\nhad ceased with my going, and that my people had reverted to their\nformer savage, suspicious hatred of all strangers.  My garb must have\npuzzled them, too, for never before of course had they seen a man\nclothed in khaki and puttees.\n\nLeaning my express rifle against my body I raised both hands aloft.  It\nwas the peace-sign that is recognized everywhere upon the surface of\nPellucidar.  The charging warriors paused and surveyed me.  I looked\nfor my friend Ghak, the Hairy One, king of Sari, and presently I saw\nhim coming from a distance.  Ah, but it was good to see his mighty,\nhairy form once more! A friend was Ghak--a friend well worth the\nhaving; and it had been some time since I had seen a friend.\n\nShouldering his way through the throng of warriors, the mighty\nchieftain advanced toward me.  There was an expression of puzzlement\nupon his fine features.  He crossed the space between the warriors and\nmyself, halting before me.\n\nI did not speak.  I did not even smile.  I wanted to see if Ghak, my\nprincipal lieutenant, would recognize me.  For some time he stood there\nlooking me over carefully.  His eyes took in my large pith helmet, my\nkhaki jacket, and bandoleers of cartridges, the two revolvers swinging\nat my hips, the large rifle resting against my body.  Still I stood\nwith my hands above my head.  He examined my puttees and my strong tan\nshoes--a little the worse for wear now.  Then he glanced up once more\nto my face.  As his gaze rested there quite steadily for some moments I\nsaw recognition tinged with awe creep across his countenance.\n\nPresently without a word he took one of my hands in his and dropping to\none knee raised my fingers to his lips.  Perry had taught them this\ntrick, nor ever did the most polished courtier of all the grand courts\nof Europe perform the little act of homage with greater grace and\ndignity.\n\nQuickly I raised Ghak to his feet, clasping both his hands in mine.  I\nthink there must have been tears in my eyes then--I know I felt too\nfull for words.  The king of Sari turned toward his warriors.\n\n\"Our emperor has come back,\" he announced.  \"Come hither and--\"\n\nBut he got no further, for the shouts that broke from those savage\nthroats would have drowned the voice of heaven itself.  I had never\nguessed how much they thought of me.  As they clustered around, almost\nfighting for the chance to kiss my hand, I saw again the vision of\nempire which I had thought faded forever.\n\nWith such as these I could conquer a world.  With such as these I WOULD\nconquer one! If the Sarians had remained loyal, so too would the\nAmozites be loyal still, and the Kalians, and the Suvians, and all the\ngreat tribes who had formed the federation that was to emancipate the\nhuman race of Pellucidar.\n\nPerry was safe with the Mezops; I was safe with the Sarians; now if\nDian were but safe with me the future would look bright indeed.\n\nIt did not take long to outline to Ghak all that had befallen me since\nI had departed from Pellucidar, and to get down to the business of\nfinding Dian, which to me at that moment was of even greater importance\nthan the very empire itself.\n\nWhen I told him that Hooja had stolen her, he stamped his foot in rage.\n\n\"It is always the Sly One!\" he cried.  \"It was Hooja who caused the\nfirst trouble between you and the Beautiful One.\n\n\"It was Hooja who betrayed our trust, and all but caused our recapture\nby the Sagoths that time we escaped from Phutra.\n\n\"It was Hooja who tricked you and substituted a Mahar for Dian when you\nstarted upon your return journey to your own world.\n\n\"It was Hooja who schemed and lied until he had turned the kingdoms one\nagainst another and destroyed the federation.\n\n\"When we had him in our power we were foolish to let him live.  Next\ntime--\"\n\nGhak did not need to finish his sentence.\n\n\"He has become a very powerful enemy now,\" I replied.  \"That he is\nallied in some way with the Mahars is evidenced by the familiarity of\nhis relations with the Sagoths who were accompanying me in search of\nthe great secret, for it must have been Hooja whom I saw conversing\nwith them just before we reached the valley.  Doubtless they told him\nof our quest and he hastened on ahead of us, discovered the cave and\nstole the document.  Well does he deserve his appellation of the Sly\nOne.\"\n\nWith Ghak and his head men I held a number of consultations.  The\nupshot of them was a decision to combine our search for Dian with an\nattempt to rebuild the crumbled federation.  To this end twenty\nwarriors were despatched in pairs to ten of the leading kingdoms, with\ninstructions to make every effort to discover the whereabouts of Hooja\nand Dian, while prosecuting their missions to the chieftains to whom\nthey were sent.\n\nGhak was to remain at home to receive the various delegations which we\ninvited to come to Sari on the business of the federation.  Four\nhundred warriors were started for Anoroc to fetch Perry and the\ncontents of the prospector, to the capitol of the empire, which was\nalso the principal settlements of the Sarians.\n\nAt first it was intended that I remain at Sari, that I might be in\nreadiness to hasten forth at the first report of the discovery of Dian;\nbut I found the inaction in the face of my deep solicitude for the\nwelfare of my mate so galling that scarce had the several units\ndeparted upon their missions before I, too, chafed to be actively\nengaged upon the search.\n\nIt was after my second sleep, subsequent to the departure of the\nwarriors, as I recall, that I at last went to Ghak with the admission\nthat I could no longer support the intolerable longing to be personally\nupon the trail of my lost love.\n\nGhak tried to dissuade me, though I could tell that his heart was with\nme in my wish to be away and really doing something.  It was while we\nwere arguing upon the subject that a stranger, with hands above his\nhead, entered the village.  He was immediately surrounded by warriors\nand conducted to Ghak's presence.\n\nThe fellow was a typical cave man-squat muscular, and hairy, and of a\ntype I had not seen before.  His features, like those of all the\nprimeval men of Pellucidar, were regular and fine.  His weapons\nconsisted of a stone ax and knife and a heavy knobbed bludgeon of wood.\nHis skin was very white.\n\n\"Who are you?\" asked Ghak.  \"And whence come you?\"\n\n\"I am Kolk, son of Goork, who is chief of the Thurians,\" replied the\nstranger.  \"From Thuria I have come in search of the land of Amoz,\nwhere dwells Dacor, the Strong One, who stole my sister, Canda, the\nGrace-ful One, to be his mate.\n\n\"We of Thuria had heard of a great chieftain who has bound together\nmany tribes, and my father has sent me to Dacor to learn if there be\ntruth in these stories, and if so to offer the services of Thuria to\nhim whom we have heard called emperor.\"\n\n\"The stories are true,\" replied Ghak, \"and here is the emperor of whom\nyou have heard.  You need travel no farther.\"\n\nKolk was delighted.  He told us much of the wonderful resources of\nThuria, the Land of Awful Shadow, and of his long journey in search of\nAmoz.\n\n\"And why,\" I asked, \"does Goork, your father, desire to join his\nkingdom to the empire?\"\n\n\"There are two reasons,\" replied the young man.  \"Forever have the\nMahars, who dwell beyond the Lidi Plains which lie at the farther rim\nof the Land of Awful Shadow, taken heavy toll of our people, whom they\neither force into lifelong slavery or fatten for their feasts.  We have\nheard that the great emperor makes successful war upon the Mahars,\nagainst whom we should be glad to fight.\n\n\"Recently has another reason come.  Upon a great island which lies in\nthe Sojar Az, but a short distance from our shores, a wicked man has\ncollected a great band of outcast warriors of all tribes.  Even are\nthere many Sagoths among them, sent by the Mahars to aid the Wicked One.\n\n\"This band makes raids upon our villages, and it is constantly growing\nin size and strength, for the Mahars give liberty to any of their male\nprisoners who will promise to fight with this band against the enemies\nof the Mahars.  It is the purpose of the Mahars thus to raise a force\nof our own kind to combat the growth and menace of the new empire of\nwhich I have come to seek information.  All this we learned from one of\nour own warriors who had pretended to sympathize with this band and had\nthen escaped at the first opportunity.\"\n\n\"Who could this man be,\" I asked Ghak, \"who leads so vile a movement\nagainst his own kind?\"\n\n\"His name is Hooja,\" spoke up Kolk, answering my question.\n\nGhak and I looked at each other.  Relief was written upon his\ncountenance and I know that it was beating strongly in my heart.  At\nlast we had discovered a tangible clue to the whereabouts of Hooja--and\nwith the clue a guide!\n\nBut when I broached the subject to Kolk he demurred.  He had come a\nlong way, he explained, to see his sister and to confer with Dacor.\nMoreover, he had instructions from his father which he could not ignore\nlightly.  But even so he would return with me and show me the way to\nthe island of the Thurian shore if by doing so we might accomplish\nanything.\n\n\"But we cannot,\" he urged.  \"Hooja is powerful.  He has thousands of\nwarriors.  He has only to call upon his Mahar allies to receive a\ncountless horde of Sagoths to do his bidding against his human enemies.\n\n\"Let us wait until you may gather an equal horde from the kingdoms of\nyour empire.  Then we may march against Hooja with some show of success.\n\n\"But first must you lure him to the mainland, for who among you knows\nhow to construct the strange things that carry Hooja and his band back\nand forth across the water?\n\n\"We are not island people.  We do not go upon the water.  We know\nnothing of such things.\"\n\nI couldn't persuade him to do more than direct me upon the way.  I\nshowed him my map, which now included a great area of country extending\nfrom Anoroc upon the east to Sari upon the west, and from the river\nsouth of the Mountains of the Clouds north to Amoz.  As soon as I had\nexplained it to him he drew a line with his finger, showing a sea-coast\nfar to the west and south of Sari, and a great circle which he said\nmarked the extent of the Land of Awful Shadow in which lay Thuria.\n\nThe shadow extended southeast of the coast out into the sea half-way to\na large island, which he said was the seat of Hooja's traitorous\ngovernment.  The island itself lay in the light of the noonday sun.\nNorthwest of the coast and embracing a part of Thuria lay the Lidi\nPlains, upon the northwestern verge of which was situated the Mahar\ncity which took such heavy toll of the Thurians.\n\nThus were the unhappy people now between two fires, with Hooja upon one\nside and the Mahars upon the other.  I did not wonder that they sent\nout an appeal for succor.\n\nThough Ghak and Kolk both attempted to dissuade me, I was determined to\nset out at once, nor did I delay longer than to make a copy of my map\nto be given to Perry that he might add to his that which I had set down\nsince we parted.  I left a letter for him as well, in which among other\nthings I advanced the theory that the Sojar Az, or Great Sea, which\nKolk mentioned as stretching eastward from Thuria, might indeed be the\nsame mighty ocean as that which, swinging around the southern end of a\ncontinent ran northward along the shore opposite Phutra, mingling its\nwaters with the huge gulf upon which lay Sari, Amoz, and Greenwich.\n\nAgainst this possibility I urged him to hasten the building of a fleet\nof small sailing-vessels, which we might utilize should I find it\nimpossible to entice Hooja's horde to the mainland.\n\nI told Ghak what I had written, and suggested that as soon as he could\nhe should make new treaties with the various kingdoms of the empire,\ncollect an army and march toward Thuria--this of course against the\npossibility of my detention through some cause or other.\n\nKolk gave me a sign to his father--a lidi, or beast of burden, crudely\nscratched upon a bit of bone, and beneath the lidi a man and a flower;\nall very rudely done perhaps, but none the less effective as I well\nknew from my long years among the primitive men of Pellucidar.\n\nThe lidi is the tribal beast of the Thurians; the man and the flower in\nthe combination in which they appeared bore a double significance, as\nthey constituted not only a message to the effect that the bearer came\nin peace, but were also Kolk's signature.\n\nAnd so, armed with my credentials and my small arsenal, I set out alone\nupon my quest for the dearest girl in this world or yours.\n\nKolk gave me explicit directions, though with my map I do not believe\nthat I could have gone wrong.  As a matter of fact I did not need the\nmap at all, since the principal landmark of the first half of my\njourney, a gigantic mountain-peak, was plainly visible from Sari, though\na good hundred miles away.\n\nAt the southern base of this mountain a river rose and ran in a\nwesterly direction, finally turning south and emptying into the Sojar\nAz some forty miles northeast of Thuria.  All that I had to do was\nfollow this river to the sea and then follow the coast to Thuria.\n\nTwo hundred and forty miles of wild mountain and primeval jungle, of\nuntracked plain, of nameless rivers, of deadly swamps and savage\nforests lay ahead of me, yet never had I been more eager for an\nadventure than now, for never had more depended upon haste and success.\n\nI do not know how long a time that journey required, and only half did\nI appreciate the varied wonders that each new march unfolded before me,\nfor my mind and heart were filled with but a single image--that of a\nperfect girl whose great, dark eyes looked bravely forth from a frame\nof raven hair.\n\nIt was not until I had passed the high peak and found the river that my\neyes first discovered the pendent world, the tiny satellite which hangs\nlow over the surface of Pellucidar casting its perpetual shadow always\nupon the same spot--the area that is known here as the Land of Awful\nShadow, in which dwells the tribe of Thuria.\n\nFrom the distance and the elevation of the highlands where I stood the\nPellucidarian noonday moon showed half in sunshine and half in shadow,\nwhile directly beneath it was plainly visible the round dark spot upon\nthe surface of Pellucidar where the sun has never shone.  From where I\nstood the moon appeared to hang so low above the ground as almost to\ntouch it; but later I was to learn that it floats a mile above the\nsurface--which seems indeed quite close for a moon.\n\nFollowing the river downward I soon lost sight of the tiny planet as I\nentered the mazes of a lofty forest.  Nor did I catch another glimpse\nof it for some time--several marches at least.  However, when the river\nled me to the sea, or rather just before it reached the sea, of a\nsudden the sky became overcast and the size and luxuriance of the\nvegetation diminished as by magic--as if an omni-potent hand had drawn\na line upon the earth, and said:\n\n\"Upon this side shall the trees and the shrubs, the grasses and the\nflowers, riot in profusion of rich colors, gigantic size and\nbewildering abundance; and upon that side shall they be dwarfed and\npale and scant.\"\n\nInstantly I looked above, for clouds are so uncommon in the skies of\nPellucidar--they are practically unknown except above the mightiest\nmountain ranges--that it had given me something of a start to discover\nthe sun obliterated.  But I was not long in coming to a realization of\nthe cause of the shadow.\n\nAbove me hung another world.  I could see its mountains and valleys,\noceans, lakes, and rivers, its broad, grassy plains and dense forests.\nBut too great was the distance and too deep the shadow of its under\nside for me to distinguish any movement as of animal life.\n\nInstantly a great curiosity was awakened within me.  The questions\nwhich the sight of this planet, so tantalizingly close, raised in my\nmind were numerous and unanswerable.\n\nWas it inhabited?\n\nIf so, by what manner and form of creature?\n\nWere its people as relatively diminutive as their little world, or were\nthey as disproportionately huge as the lesser attraction of gravity\nupon the surface of their globe would permit of their being?\n\nAs I watched it, I saw that it was revolving upon an axis that lay\nparallel to the surface of Pellucidar, so that during each revolution\nits entire surface was once exposed to the world below and once bathed\nin the heat of the great sun above.  The little world had that which\nPellucidar could not have--a day and night, and--greatest of boons to\none outer-earthly born--time.\n\nHere I saw a chance to give time to Pellucidar, using this mighty\nclock, revolving perpetually in the heavens, to record the passage of\nthe hours for the earth below.  Here should be located an observatory,\nfrom which might be flashed by wireless to every corner of the empire\nthe correct time once each day.  That this time would be easily\nmeasured I had no doubt, since so plain were the landmarks upon the\nunder surface of the satellite that it would be but necessary to erect\na simple instrument and mark the instant of passage of a given landmark\nacross the instrument.\n\nBut then was not the time for dreaming; I must devote my mind to the\npurpose of my journey.  So I hastened onward beneath the great shadow.\nAs I advanced I could not but note the changing nature of the\nvegetation and the paling of its hues.\n\nThe river led me a short distance within the shadow before it emptied\ninto the Sojar Az.  Then I continued in a southerly direction along the\ncoast toward the village of Thuria, where I hoped to find Goork and\ndeliver to him my credentials.\n\nI had progressed no great distance from the mouth of the river when I\ndiscerned, lying some distance at sea, a great island.  This I assumed\nto be the stronghold of Hooja, nor did I doubt that upon it even now\nwas Dian.\n\nThe way was most difficult, since shortly after leaving the river I\nencountered lofty cliffs split by numerous long, narrow fiords, each of\nwhich necessitated a considerable detour.  As the crow flies it is\nabout twenty miles from the mouth of the river to Thuria, but before I\nhad covered half of it I was fagged.  There was no familiar fruit or\nvegetable growing upon the rocky soil of the cliff-tops, and I would\nhave fared ill for food had not a hare broken cover almost beneath my\nnose.\n\nI carried bow and arrows to conserve my ammunition-supply, but so quick\nwas the little animal that I had no time to draw and fit a shaft.  In\nfact my dinner was a hundred yards away and going like the proverbial\nbat when I dropped my six-shooter on it.  It was a pretty shot and when\ncoupled with a good dinner made me quite contented with myself.\n\nAfter eating I lay down and slept.  When I awoke I was scarcely so\nself-satisfied, for I had not more than opened my eyes before I became\naware of the presence, barely a hundred yards from me, of a pack of\nsome twenty huge wolf-dogs--the things which Perry insisted upon\ncalling hyaenodons--and almost simultaneously I discovered that while I\nslept my revolvers, rifle, bow, arrows, and knife had been stolen from\nme.\n\nAnd the wolf-dog pack was preparing to rush me.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nFROM PLIGHT TO PLIGHT\n\nI have never been much of a runner; I hate running.  But if ever a\nsprinter broke into smithereens all world's records it was I that day\nwhen I fled before those hideous beasts along the narrow spit of rocky\ncliff between two narrow fiords toward the Sojar Az.  Just as I reached\nthe verge of the cliff the foremost of the brutes was upon me. He\nleaped and closed his massive jaws upon my shoulder.\n\nThe momentum of his flying body, added to that of my own, carried the\ntwo of us over the cliff.  It was a hideous fall.  The cliff was almost\nperpendicular.  At its foot broke the sea against a solid wall of rock.\n\nWe struck the cliff-face once in our descent and then plunged into the\nsalt sea.  With the impact with the water the hyaenodon released his\nhold upon my shoulder.\n\nAs I came sputtering to the surface I looked about for some tiny foot-\nor hand-hold where I might cling for a moment of rest and recuperation.\nThe cliff itself offered me nothing, so I swam toward the mouth of the\nfiord.\n\nAt the far end I could see that erosion from above had washed down\nsufficient rubble to form a narrow ribbon of beach.  Toward this I swam\nwith all my strength.  Not once did I look behind me, since every\nunnecessary movement in swimming detracts so much from one's endurance\nand speed.  Not until I had drawn myself safely out upon the beach did I\nturn my eyes back toward the sea for the hyaenodon.  He was swimming\nslowly and apparently painfully toward the beach upon which I stood.\n\nI watched him for a long time, wondering why it was that such a\ndoglike animal was not a better swimmer.  As he neared me I realized\nthat he was weakening rapidly.  I had gathered a handful of stones to\nbe ready for his assault when he landed, but in a moment I let them\nfall from my hands.  It was evident that the brute either was no\nswimmer or else was severely injured, for by now he was making\npractically no headway.  Indeed, it was with quite apparent difficulty\nthat he kept his nose above the surface of the sea.\n\nHe was not more than fifty yards from shore when he went under.  I\nwatched the spot where he had disappeared, and in a moment I saw his\nhead reappear.  The look of dumb misery in his eyes struck a chord in\nmy breast, for I love dogs.  I forgot that he was a vicious, primordial\nwolf-thing--a man-eater, a scourge, and a terror.  I saw only the sad\neyes that looked like the eyes of Raja, my dead collie of the outer\nworld.\n\nI did not stop to weigh and consider.  In other words, I did not stop\nto think, which I believe must be the way of men who do things--in\ncontradistinction to those who think much and do nothing.  Instead, I\nleaped back into the water and swam out toward the drowning beast.  At\nfirst he showed his teeth at my approach, but just before I reached him\nhe went under for the second time, so that I had to dive to get him.\n\nI grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and though he weighed as much\nas a Shetland pony, I managed to drag him to shore and well up upon the\nbeach.  Here I found that one of his forelegs was broken--the crash\nagainst the cliff-face must have done it.\n\nBy this time all the fight was out of him, so that when I had gathered\na few tiny branches from some of the stunted trees that grew in the\ncrevices of the cliff, and returned to him he permitted me to set his\nbroken leg and bind it in splints.  I had to tear part of my shirt into\nbits to obtain a bandage, but at last the job was done.  Then I sat\nstroking the savage head and talking to the beast in the man-dog talk\nwith which you are familiar, if you ever owned and loved a dog.\n\nWhen he is well, I thought, he probably will turn upon me and attempt\nto devour me, and against that eventuality I gathered together a pile\nof rocks and set to work to fashion a stone-knife.  We were bottled up\nat the head of the fiord as completely as if we had been behind prison\nbars.  Before us spread the Sojar Az, and elsewhere about us rose\nunscalable cliffs.\n\nFortunately a little rivulet trickled down the side of the rocky wall,\ngiving us ample supply of fresh water--some of which I kept constantly\nbeside the hyaenodon in a huge, bowl-shaped shell, of which there were\ncountless numbers among the rubble of the beach.\n\nFor food we subsisted upon shellfish and an occasional bird that I\nsucceeded in knocking over with a rock, for long practice as a pitcher\non prep-school and varsity nines had made me an excellent shot with a\nhand-thrown missile.\n\nIt was not long before the hyaenodon's leg was sufficiently mended to\npermit him to rise and hobble about on three legs.  I shall never\nforget with what intent interest I watched his first attempt.  Close at\nmy hand lay my pile of rocks.  Slowly the beast came to his three good\nfeet.  He stretched himself, lowered his head, and lapped water from\nthe drinking-shell at his side, turned and looked at me, and then\nhobbled off toward the cliffs.\n\nThrice he traversed the entire extent of our prison, seeking, I\nimagine, a loop-hole for escape, but finding none he returned in my\ndirection.  Slowly he came quite close to me, sniffed at my shoes, my\nputtees, my hands, and then limped off a few feet and lay down again.\n\nNow that he was able to get around, I was a little uncertain as to the\nwisdom of my impulsive mercy.\n\nHow could I sleep with that ferocious thing prowling about the narrow\nconfines of our prison?\n\nShould I close my eyes it might be to open them again to the feel of\nthose mighty jaws at my throat.  To say the least, I was uncomfortable.\n\nI have had too much experience with dumb animals to bank very strongly\non any sense of gratitude which may be attributed to them by\ninexperienced sentimentalists.  I believe that some animals love their\nmasters, but I doubt very much if their affection is the outcome of\ngratitude--a characteristic that is so rare as to be only occasionally\ntraceable in the seemingly unselfish acts of man himself.\n\nBut finally I  was forced to sleep.  Tired nature would be put off no\nlonger.  I simply fell asleep, willy nilly, as I sat looking out to\nsea.  I had been very uncomfortable since my ducking in the ocean, for\nthough I could see the sunlight on the water half-way toward the island\nand upon the island itself, no ray of it fell upon us.  We were well\nwithin the Land of Awful Shadow.  A perpetual half-warmth pervaded the\natmosphere, but clothing was slow in drying, and so from loss of sleep\nand great physical discomfort, I at last gave way to nature's demands\nand sank into profound slumber.\n\nWhen I awoke it was with a start, for a heavy body was upon me.  My\nfirst thought was that the hyaenodon had at last attacked me, but as my\neyes opened and I struggled to rise, I saw that a man was astride me\nand three others bending close above him.\n\nI am no weakling--and never have been.  My experience in the hard life\nof the inner world has turned my thews to steel.  Even such giants as\nGhak the Hairy One have praised my strength; but to it is added another\nquality which they lack--science.\n\nThe man upon me held me down awkwardly, leaving me many openings--one\nof which I was not slow in taking advantage of, so that almost before\nthe fellow knew that I was awake I was upon my feet with my arms over\nhis shoulders and about his waist and had hurled him heavily over my\nhead to the hard rubble of the beach, where he lay quite still.\n\nIn the instant that I arose I had seen the hyaenodon lying asleep\nbeside a boulder a few yards away.  So nearly was he the color of the\nrock that he was scarcely discernible.  Evidently the newcomers had not\nseen him.\n\nI had not more than freed myself from one of my antagonists before the\nother three were upon me.  They did not work silently now, but charged\nme with savage cries--a mistake upon their part.  The fact that they\ndid not draw their weapons against me convinced me that they desired to\ntake me alive; but I fought as desperately as if death loomed immediate\nand sure.\n\nThe battle was short, for scarce had their first wild whoop\nreverberated through the rocky fiord, and they had closed upon me, than\na hairy mass of demoniacal rage hurtled among us.\n\nIt was the hyaenodon!\n\nIn an instant he had pulled down one of the men, and with a single\nshake, terrier-like, had broken his neck.  Then he was upon another.\nIn their efforts to vanquish the wolf-dog the savages forgot all about\nme, thus giving me an instant in which to snatch a knife from the\nloin-string of him who had first fallen and account for another of\nthem.  Almost simultaneously the hyaenodon pulled down the remaining\nenemy, crushing his skull with a single bite of those fearsome jaws.\n\nThe battle was over--unless the beast considered me fair prey, too.  I\nwaited, ready for him with knife and bludgeon--also filched from a dead\nfoeman; but he paid no attention to me, falling to work instead to\ndevour one of the corpses.\n\nThe beast bad been handicapped but little by his splinted leg; but\nhaving eaten he lay down and commenced to gnaw at the bandage.  I was\nsitting some little distance away devouring shellfish, of which, by the\nway, I was becoming exceedingly tired.\n\nPresently, the hyaenodon arose and came toward me. I did not move.  He\nstopped in front of me and deliberately raised his bandaged leg and\npawed my knee.  His act was as intelligible as words--he wished the\nbandage removed.\n\nI took the great paw in one hand and with the other hand untied and\nunwound the bandage, removed the splints and felt of the injured\nmember.  As far as I could judge the bone was completely knit.  The\njoint was stiff; when I bent it a little the brute winced--but he\nneither growled nor tried to pull away.  Very slowly and gently I\nrubbed the joint and applied pressure to it for a few moments.\n\nThen I set it down upon the ground.  The hyaenodon walked around me a\nfew times, and then lay down at my side, his body touching mine.  I\nlaid my hand upon his head.  He did not move.  Slowly, I scratched\nabout his ears and neck and down beneath the fierce jaws.  The only\nsign he gave was to raise his chin a trifle that I might better caress\nhim.\n\nThat was enough! From that moment I have never again felt suspicion of\nRaja, as I immediately named him.  Somehow all sense of loneliness\nvanished, too--I had a dog! I had never guessed precisely what it was\nthat was lacking to life in Pellucidar, but now I knew it was the total\nabsence of domestic animals.\n\nMan here had not yet reached the point where he might take the time\nfrom slaughter and escaping slaughter to make friends with any of the\nbrute creation.  I must qualify this statement a trifle and say that\nthis was true of those tribes with which I was most familiar.  The\nThurians do domesticate the colossal lidi, traversing the great Lidi\nPlains upon the backs of these grotesque and stupendous monsters, and\npossibly there may also be other, far-distant peoples within the great\nworld, who have tamed others of the wild things of jungle, plain or\nmountain.\n\nThe Thurians practice agriculture in a crude sort of way.  It is my\nopinion that this is one of the earliest steps from savagery to\ncivilization.  The taming of wild beasts and their domestication\nfollows.\n\nPerry argues that wild dogs were first domesticated for hunting\npurposes; but I do not agree with him.  I believe that if their\ndomestication were not purely the result of an accident, as, for\nexample, my taming of the hyaenodon, it came about through the desire\nof tribes who had previously domesticated flocks and herds to have some\nstrong, ferocious beast to guard their roaming property.  However, I\nlean rather more strongly to the theory of accident.\n\nAs I sat there upon the beach of the little fiord eating my unpalatable\nshell-fish, I commenced to wonder how it had been that the four savages\nhad been able to reach me, though I had been unable to escape from my\nnatural prison.  I glanced about in all directions, searching for an\nexplanation.  At last my eyes fell upon the bow of a small dugout\nprotruding scarce a foot from behind a large boulder lying half in the\nwater at the edge of the beach.\n\nAt my discovery I leaped to my feet so suddenly that it brought Raja,\ngrowling and bristling, upon all fours in an instant.  For the moment I\nhad forgotten him.  But his savage rumbling did not cause me any\nuneasiness.  He glanced quickly about in all directions as if searching\nfor the cause of my excitement.  Then, as I walked rapidly down toward\nthe dugout, he slunk silently after me.\n\nThe dugout was similar in many respects to those which I had seen in\nuse by the Mezops.  In it were four paddles.  I was much delighted, as\nit promptly offered me the escape I had been craving.\n\nI pushed it out into water that would float it, stepped in and called\nto Raja to enter.  At first he did not seem to understand what I wished\nof him, but after I had paddled out a few yards he plunged through the\nsurf and swam after me.  When he had come alongside I grasped the\nscruff of his neck, and after a considerable struggle, in which I\nseveral times came near to overturning the canoe, I managed to drag\nhim aboard, where he shook himself vigorously and squatted down before\nme.\n\nAfter emerging from the fiord, I paddled southward along the coast,\nwhere presently the lofty cliffs gave way to lower and more level\ncountry.  It was here somewhere that I should come upon the principal\nvillage of the Thurians.  When, after a time, I saw in the distance\nwhat I took to be huts in a clearing near the shore, I drew quickly\ninto land, for though I had been furnished credentials by Kolk, I was\nnot sufficiently familiar with the tribal characteristics of these\npeople to know whether I should receive a friendly welcome or not; and\nin case I should not, I wanted to be sure of having a canoe hidden\nsafely away so that I might undertake the trip to the island, in any\nevent--provided, of course, that I escaped the Thurians should they\nprove belligerent.\n\nAt the point where I landed the shore was quite low.  A forest of pale,\nscrubby ferns ran down almost to the beach.  Here I dragged up the\ndugout, hiding it well within the vegetation, and with some loose rocks\nbuilt a cairn upon the beach to mark my cache.  Then I turned my steps\ntoward the Thurian village.\n\nAs I proceeded I began to speculate upon the possible actions of Raja\nwhen we should enter the presence of other men than myself.  The brute\nwas padding softly at my side, his sensitive nose constantly atwitch\nand his fierce eyes moving restlessly from side to side--nothing would\never take Raja unawares!\n\nThe more I thought upon the matter the greater became my perturbation.\nI did not want Raja to attack any of the people upon whose friendship I\nso greatly depended, nor did I want him injured or slain by them.\n\nI wondered if Raja would stand for a leash.  His head as he paced\nbeside me was level with my hip.  I laid my hand upon it caressingly.\nAs I did so he turned and looked up into my face, his jaws parting and\nhis red tongue lolling as you have seen your own dog's beneath a love\npat.\n\n\"Just been waiting all your life to be tamed and loved, haven't you,\nold man?\" I asked.  \"You're nothing but a good pup, and the man who put\nthe hyaeno in your name ought to be sued for libel.\"\n\nRaja bared his mighty fangs with upcurled, snarling lips and licked my\nhand.\n\n\"You're grinning, you old fraud, you!\" I cried.  \"If you're not, I'll\neat you.  I'll bet a doughnut you're nothing but some kid's poor old\nFido, masquerading around as a real, live man-eater.\"\n\nRaja whined.  And so we walked on together toward Thuria--I talking to\nthe beast at my side, and he seeming to enjoy my company no less than I\nenjoyed his.  If you don't think it's lonesome wandering all by\nyourself through savage, unknown Pellucidar, why, just try it, and you\nwill not wonder that I was glad of the company of this first dog--this\nliving replica of the fierce and now extinct hyaenodon of the outer\ncrust that hunted in savage packs the great elk across the snows of\nsouthern France, in the days when the mastodon roamed at will over the\nbroad continent of which the British Isles were then a part, and\nperchance left his footprints and his bones in the sands of Atlantis as\nwell.\n\nThus I dreamed as we moved on toward Thuria.  My dreaming was rudely\nshattered by a savage growl from Raja.  I looked down at him.  He had\nstopped in his tracks as one turned to stone.  A thin ridge of stiff\nhair bristled along the entire length of his spine.  His yellow green\neyes were fastened upon the scrubby jungle at our right.\n\nI fastened my fingers in the bristles at his neck and turned my eyes in\nthe direction that his pointed.  At first I saw nothing.  Then a slight\nmovement of the bushes riveted my attention.  I thought it must be some\nwild beast, and was glad of the primitive weapons I had taken from the\nbodies of the warriors who had attacked me.\n\nPresently I distinguished two eyes peering at us from the vegetation.\nI took a step in their direction, and as I did so a youth arose and\nfled precipitately in the direction we had been going.  Raja struggled\nto be after him, but I held tightly to his neck, an act which he did\nnot seem to relish, for he turned on me with bared fangs.\n\nI determined that now was as good a time as any to discover just how\ndeep was Raja's affection for me.  One of us could be master, and\nlogically I was the one.  He growled at me.  I cuffed him sharply\nacross the nose.  He looked it me for a moment in surprised\nbewilderment, and then he growled again.  I made another feint at him,\nexpecting that it would bring him at my throat; but instead he winced\nand crouched down.\n\nRaja was subdued!\n\nI stooped and patted him.  Then I took a piece of the rope that\nconstituted a part of my equipment and made a leash for him.\n\nThus we resumed our journey toward Thuria.  The youth who had seen us\nwas evidently of the Thurians.  That he had lost no time in racing\nhomeward and spreading the word of my coming was evidenced when we had\ncome within sight of the clearing, and the village--the first real\nvillage, by the way, that I had ever seen constructed by human\nPellucidarians.  There was a rude rectangle walled with logs and\nboulders, in which were a hundred or more thatched huts of similar\nconstruction.  There was no gate.  Ladders that could be removed by\nnight led over the palisade.\n\nBefore the village were assembled a great concourse of warriors.\nInside I could see the heads of women and children peering over the top\nof the wall; and also, farther back, the long necks of lidi, topped by\ntheir tiny heads.  Lidi, by the way, is both the singular and plural\nform of the noun that describes the huge beasts of burden of the\nThurians.  They are enormous quadrupeds, eighty or a hundred feet long,\nwith very small heads perched at the top of very long, slender necks.\nTheir heads are quite forty feet from the ground.  Their gait is slow\nand deliberate, but so enormous are their strides that, as a matter of\nfact, they cover the ground quite rapidly.\n\nPerry has told me that they are almost identical with the fossilized\nremains of the diplodocus of the outer crust's Jurassic age.  I have to\ntake his word for it--and I guess you will, unless you know more of\nsuch matters than I.\n\nAs we came in sight of the warriors the men set up a great jabbering.\nTheir eyes were wide in astonishment--not only, I presume, because of my\nstrange garmenture, but as well from the fact that I came in company\nwith a jalok, which is the Pellucidarian name of the hyaenodon.\n\nRaja tugged at his leash, growling and showing his long white fangs.\nHe would have liked nothing better than to be at the throats of the\nwhole aggregation; but I held him in with the leash, though it took all\nmy strength to do it.  My free hand I held above my head, palm out, in\ntoken of the peacefulness of my mission.\n\nIn the foreground I saw the youth who had discovered us, and I could\ntell from the way he carried himself that he was quite overcome by his\nown importance.  The warriors about him were all fine looking fellows,\nthough shorter and squatter than the Sarians or the Amozites.  Their\ncolor, too, was a bit lighter, owing, no doubt, to the fact that much\nof their lives is spent within the shadow of the world that hangs\nforever above their country.\n\nA little in advance of the others was a bearded fellow tricked out in\nmany ornaments.  I didn't need to ask to know that he was the\nchieftain--doubtless Goork, father of Kolk.  Now to him I addressed\nmyself.\n\n\"I am David,\" I said, \"Emperor of the Federated Kingdoms of Pellucidar.\nDoubtless you have heard of me?\"\n\nHe nodded his head affirmatively.\n\n\"I come from Sari,\" I continued, \"where I just met Kolk, the son of\nGoork.  I bear a token from Kolk to his father, which will prove that I\nam a friend.\"\n\nAgain the warrior nodded.  \"I am Goork,\" he said.  \"Where is the token?\"\n\n\"Here,\" I replied, and fished into the game-bag where I had placed it.\n\nGoork and his people waited in silence.  My hand searched the inside of\nthe bag.\n\nIt was empty!\n\nThe token had been stolen with my arms!\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nCAPTIVE\n\nWhen Goork and his people saw that I had no token they commenced to\ntaunt me.\n\n\"You do not come from Kolk, but from the Sly One!\" they cried.  \"He has\nsent you from the island to spy upon us. Go away, or we will set upon\nyou and kill you.\"\n\nI explained that all my belongings had been stolen from me, and that\nthe robber must have taken the token too; but they didn't believe me.\nAs proof that I was one of Hooja's people, they pointed to my weapons,\nwhich they said were ornamented like those of the island clan.\nFurther, they said that no good man went in company with a jalok--and\nthat by this line of reasoning I certainly was a bad man.\n\nI saw that they were not naturally a war-like tribe, for they preferred\nthat I leave in peace rather than force them to attack me, whereas the\nSarians would have killed a suspicious stranger first and inquired into\nhis purposes later.\n\nI think Raja sensed their antagonism, for he kept tugging at his leash\nand growling ominously.  They were a bit in awe of him, and kept at a\nsafe distance.  It was evident that they could not comprehend why it\nwas that this savage brute did not turn upon me and rend me.\n\nI wasted a long time there trying to persuade Goork to accept me at my\nown valuation, but he was too canny.  The best he would do was to give\nus food, which he did, and direct me as to the safest portion of the\nisland upon which to attempt a landing, though even as he told me I am\nsure that he thought my request for information but a blind to deceive\nhim as to my true knowledge of the insular stronghold.\n\nAt last I turned away from them--rather disheartened, for I had hoped\nto be able to enlist a considerable force of them in an attempt to rush\nHooja's horde and rescue Dian.  Back along the beach toward the hidden\ncanoe we made our way.\n\nBy the time we came to the cairn I was dog-tired.  Throwing myself upon\nthe sand I soon slept, and with Raja stretched out beside me I felt a\nfar greater security than I had enjoyed for a long time.\n\nI awoke much refreshed to find Raja's eyes glued upon me.  The moment I\nopened mine he rose, stretched himself, and without a backward glance\nplunged into the jungle.  For several minutes I could hear him crashing\nthrough the brush.  Then all was silent.\n\nI wondered if he had left me to return to his fierce pack.  A feeling\nof loneliness overwhelmed me.  With a sigh I turned to the work of\ndragging the canoe down to the sea.  As I entered the jungle where the\ndugout lay a hare darted from beneath the boat's side, and a well-aimed\ncast of my javelin brought it down.  I was hungry--I had not realized\nit before--so I sat upon the edge of the canoe and devoured my repast.\nThe last remnants gone, I again busied myself with preparations for my\nexpedition to the island.\n\nI did not know for certain that Dian was there; but I surmised as much.\nNor could I guess what obstacles might confront me in an effort to\nrescue her.  For a time I loitered about after I had the canoe at the\nwater's edge, hoping against hope that Raja would return; but he did\nnot, so I shoved the awkward craft through the surf and leaped into it.\n\nI was still a little downcast by the desertion of my new-found friend,\nthough I tried to assure myself that it was nothing but what I might\nhave expected.\n\nThe savage brute had served me well in the short time that we had been\ntogether, and had repaid his debt of gratitude to me, since he had\nsaved my life, or at least my liberty, no less certainly than I had\nsaved his life when he was injured and drowning.\n\nThe trip across the water to the island was uneventful.  I was mighty\nglad to be in the sunshine again when I passed out of the shadow of the\ndead world about half-way between the mainland and the island.  The hot\nrays of the noonday sun did a great deal toward raising my spirits, and\ndispelling the mental gloom in which I had been shrouded almost\ncontinually since entering the Land of Awful Shadow.  There is nothing\nmore dispiriting to me than absence of sunshine.\n\nI had paddled to the southwestern point, which Goork said he believed\nto be the least frequented portion of the island, as he had never seen\nboats put off from there.  I found a shallow reef running far out into\nthe sea and rather precipitous cliffs running almost to the surf.  It\nwas a nasty place to land, and I realized now why it was not used by\nthe natives; but at last I managed, after a good wetting, to beach my\ncanoe and scale the cliffs.\n\nThe country beyond them appeared more open and park-like than I had\nanticipated, since from the mainland the entire coast that is visible\nseems densely clothed with tropical jungle.  This jungle, as I could\nsee from the vantage-point of the cliff-top, formed but a relatively\nnarrow strip between the sea and the more open forest and meadow of the\ninterior.  Farther back there was a range of low but apparently very\nrocky hills, and here and there all about were visible flat-topped\nmasses of rock--small mountains, in fact--which reminded me of pictures\nI had seen of landscapes in New Mexico.  Altogether, the country was\nvery much broken and very beautiful.  From where I stood I counted no\nless than a dozen streams winding down from among the table-buttes and\nemptying into a pretty river which flowed away in a northeasterly\ndirection toward the op-posite end of the island.\n\nAs I let my eyes roam over the scene I suddenly became aware of figures\nmoving upon the flat top of a far-distant butte.  Whether they were\nbeast or human, though, I could not make out; but at least they were\nalive, so I determined to prosecute my search for Hooja's stronghold in\nthe general direction of this butte.\n\nTo descend to the valley required no great effort.  As I swung along\nthrough the lush grass and the fragrant flowers, my cudgel swinging in\nmy hand and my javelin looped across my shoulders with its aurochs-hide\nstrap, I felt equal to any emergency, ready for any danger.\n\nI had covered quite a little distance, and I was passing through a\nstrip of wood which lay at the foot of one of the flat-topped hills,\nwhen I became conscious of the sensation of being watched.  My life\nwithin Pellucidar has rather quickened my senses of sight, hearing, and\nsmell, and, too, certain primitive intuitive or instinctive qualities\nthat seem blunted in civilized man.  But, though I was positive that\neyes were upon me, I could see no sign of any living thing within the\nwood other than the many, gay-plumaged birds and little monkeys which\nfilled the trees with life, color, and action.\n\nTo you it may seem that my conviction was the result of an overwrought\nimagination, or to the actual reality of the prying eyes of the little\nmonkeys or the curious ones of the birds; but there is a difference\nwhich I cannot explain between the sensation of casual observation and\nstudied espionage.  A sheep might gaze at you without transmitting a\nwarning through your subjective mind, because you are in no danger from\na sheep.  But let a tiger gaze fixedly at you from ambush, and unless\nyour primitive instincts are completely calloused you will presently\ncommence to glance furtively about and be filled with vague,\nunreasoning terror.\n\nThus was it with me then.  I grasped my cudgel more firmly and unslung\nmy javelin, carrying it in my left hand.  I peered to left and right,\nbut I saw nothing.  Then, all quite suddenly, there fell about my neck\nand shoulders, around my arms and body, a number of pliant fiber ropes.\n\nIn a jiffy I was trussed up as neatly as you might wish.  One of the\nnooses dropped to my ankles and was jerked up with a suddenness that\nbrought me to my face upon the ground.  Then something heavy and hairy\nsprang upon my back.  I fought to draw my knife, but hairy hands\ngrasped my wrists and, dragging them behind my back, bound them\nsecurely.\n\nNext my feet were bound.  Then I was turned over upon my back to look\nup into the faces of my captors.\n\nAnd what faces! Imagine if you can a cross between a sheep and a\ngorilla, and you will have some conception of the physiognomy of the\ncreature that bent close above me, and of those of the half-dozen\nothers that clustered about.  There was the facial length and great\neyes of the sheep, and the bull-neck and hideous fangs of the gorilla.\nThe bodies and limbs were both man and gorilla-like.\n\nAs they bent over me they conversed in a mono-syllabic tongue that was\nperfectly intelligible to me.  It was something of a simplified\nlanguage that had no need for aught but nouns and verbs, but such words\nas it included were the same as those of the human beings of\nPellucidar.  It was amplified by many gestures which filled in the\nspeech-gaps.\n\nI asked them what they intended doing with me; but, like our own North\nAmerican Indians when questioned by a white man, they pretended not to\nunderstand me.  One of them swung me to his shoulder as lightly as if I\nhad been a shoat.  He was a huge creature, as were his fellows,\nstanding fully seven feet upon his short legs and weighing considerably\nmore than a quarter of a ton.\n\nTwo went ahead of my bearer and three behind.  In this order we cut to\nthe right through the forest to the foot of the hill where precipitous\ncliffs appeared to bar our farther progress in this direction.  But my\nescort never paused.  Like ants upon a wall, they scaled that seemingly\nunscalable barrier, clinging, Heaven knows how, to its ragged\nperpendicular face.  During most of the short journey to the summit I\nmust admit that my hair stood on end.  Presently, however, we topped\nthe thing and stood upon the level mesa which crowned it.\n\nImmediately from all about, out of burrows and rough, rocky lairs,\npoured a perfect torrent of beasts similar to my captors.  They\nclustered about, jabbering at my guards and attempting to get their\nhands upon me, whether from curiosity or a desire to do me bodily harm\nI did not know, since my escort with bared fangs and heavy blows kept\nthem off.\n\nAcross the mesa we went, to stop at last before a large pile of rocks\nin which an opening appeared.  Here my guards set me upon my feet and\ncalled out a word which sounded like \"Gr-gr-gr!\" and which I later\nlearned was the name of their king.\n\nPresently there emerged from the cavernous depths of the lair a\nmonstrous creature, scarred from a hundred battles, almost hairless and\nwith an empty socket where one eye had been.  The other eye, sheeplike\nin its mildness, gave the most startling appearance to the beast, which\nbut for that single timid orb was the most fearsome thing that one\ncould imagine.\n\nI had encountered the black, hairless, long-tailed ape--things of the\nmainland--the creatures which Perry thought might constitute the link\nbetween the higher orders of apes and man--but these brute-men of\nGr-gr-gr seemed to set that theory back to zero, for there was less\nsimilarity between the black ape-men and these creatures than there was\nbetween the latter and man, while both had many human attributes, some\nof which were better developed in one species and some in the other.\n\nThe black apes were hairless and built thatched huts in their arboreal\nretreats; they kept domesticated dogs and ruminants, in which respect\nthey were farther advanced than the human beings of Pellucidar; but\nthey appeared to have only a meager language, and sported long, apelike\ntails.\n\nOn the other hand, Gr-gr-gr's people were, for the most part, quite\nhairy, but they were tailless and had a language similar to that of the\nhuman race of Pellucidar; nor were they arboreal.  Their skins, where\nskin showed, were white.\n\nFrom the foregoing facts and others that I have noted during my long\nlife within Pellucidar, which is now passing through an age analogous\nto some pre-glacial age of the outer crust, I am constrained to the\nbelief that evolution is not so much a gradual transition from one form\nto another as it is an accident of breeding, either by crossing or the\nhazards of birth.  In other words, it is my belief that the first man\nwas a freak of nature--nor would one have to draw overstrongly upon\nhis credulity to be convinced that Gr-gr-gr and his tribe were also\nfreaks.\n\nThe great man-brute seated himself upon a flat rock--his throne, I\nimagine--just before the entrance to his lair.  With elbows on knees\nand chin in palms he regarded me intently through his lone sheep-eye\nwhile one of my captors told of my taking.\n\nWhen all had been related Gr-gr-gr questioned me.  I shall not attempt\nto quote these people in their own abbreviated tongue--you would have\neven greater difficulty in interpreting them than did I. Instead, I\nshall put the words into their mouths which will carry to you the ideas\nwhich they intended to convey.\n\n\"You are an enemy,\" was Gr-gr-gr's initial declaration.  \"You belong to\nthe tribe of Hooja.\"\n\nAh!  So they knew Hooja and he was their enemy!  Good!\n\n\"I am an enemy of Hooja,\" I replied.  \"He has stolen my mate and I have\ncome here to take her away from him and punish Hooja.\"\n\n\"How could you do that alone?\"\n\n\"I do not know,\" I answered, \"but I should have tried had you not\ncaptured me.  What do you intend to do with me?\"\n\n\"You shall work for us.\"\n\n\"You will not kill me?\" I asked.\n\n\"We do not kill except in self-defense,\" he replied; \"self-defense and\npunishment.  Those who would kill us and those who do wrong we kill.\nIf we knew you were one of Hooja's people we might kill you, for all\nHooja's people are bad people; but you say you are an enemy of Hooja.\nYou may not speak the truth, but until we learn that you have lied we\nshall not kill you.  You shall work.\"\n\n\"If you hate Hooja,\" I suggested, \"why not let me, who hate him, too,\ngo and punish him?\"\n\nFor some time Gr-gr-gr sat in thought.  Then he raised his head and\naddressed my guard.\n\n\"Take him to his work,\" he ordered.\n\nHis tone was final.  As if to emphasize it he turned and entered his\nburrow.  My guard conducted me farther into the mesa, where we came\npresently to a tiny depression or valley, at one end of which gushed a\nwarm spring.\n\nThe view that opened before me was the most surprising that I have ever\nseen.  In the hollow, which must have covered several hundred acres,\nwere numerous fields of growing things, and working all about with\ncrude implements or with no implements at all other than their bare\nhands were many of the brute-men engaged in the first agriculture that\nI had seen within Pellucidar.\n\nThey put me to work cultivating in a patch of melons.\n\nI never was a farmer nor particularly keen for this sort of work, and I\nam free to confess that time never had dragged so heavily as it did\nduring the hour or the year I spent there at that work.  How long it\nreally was I do not know, of course; but it was all too long.\n\nThe creatures that worked about me were quite simple and friendly.  One\nof them proved to be a son of Gr-gr-gr.  He had broken some minor\ntribal law, and was working out his sentence in the fields.  He told me\nthat his tribe had lived upon this hilltop always, and that there were\nother tribes like them dwelling upon other hilltops.  They had no wars\nand had always lived in peace and harmony, menaced only by the larger\ncarnivora of the island, until my kind had come under a creature called\nHooja, and attacked and killed them when they chanced to descend from\ntheir natural fortresses to visit their fellows upon other lofty mesas.\n\nNow they were afraid; but some day they would go in a body and fall\nupon Hooja and his people and slay them all.  I explained to him that I\nwas Hooja's enemy, and asked, when they were ready to go, that I be\nallowed to go with them, or, better still, that they let me go ahead\nand learn all that I could about the village where Hooja dwelt so that\nthey might attack it with the best chance of success.\n\nGr-gr-gr's son seemed much impressed by my suggestion.  He said that\nwhen he was through in the fields he would speak to his father about\nthe matter.\n\nSome time after this Gr-gr-gr came through the fields where we were,\nand his son spoke to him upon the subject, but the old gentleman was\nevidently in anything but a good humor, for he cuffed the youngster\nand, turning upon me, informed me that he was convinced that I had lied\nto him, and that I was one of Hooja's people.\n\n\"Wherefore,\" he concluded, \"we shall slay you as soon as the melons are\ncultivated.  Hasten, therefore.\"\n\nAnd hasten I did.  I hastened to cultivate the weeds which grew among\nthe melon-vines.  Where there had been one sickly weed before, I\nnourished two healthy ones.  When I found a particularly promising\nvariety of weed growing elsewhere than among my melons, I forthwith dug\nit up and transplanted it among my charges.\n\nMy masters did not seem to realize my perfidy.  They saw me always\nlaboring diligently in the melon-patch, and as time enters not into the\nreckoning of Pellucidarians--even of human beings and much less of\nbrutes and half brutes--I might have lived on indefinitely through this\nsubterfuge had not that occurred which took me out of the melon-patch\nfor good and all.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nHOOJA'S CUTTHROATS APPEAR\n\nI had built a little shelter of rocks and brush where I might crawl in\nand sleep out of the perpetual light and heat of the noonday sun.  When\nI was tired or hungry I retired to my humble cot.\n\nMy masters never interposed the slightest objection.  As a matter of\nfact, they were very good to me, nor did I see aught while I was among\nthem to indicate that they are ever else than a simple, kindly folk\nwhen left to themselves.  Their awe-inspiring size, terrific strength,\nmighty fighting-fangs, and hideous appearance are but the attributes\nnecessary to the successful waging of their constant battle for\nsurvival, and well do they employ them when the need arises.  The only\nflesh they eat is that of herbivorous animals and birds.  When they\nhunt the mighty thag, the prehistoric bos of the outer crust, a single\nmale, with his fiber rope, will catch and kill the greatest of the\nbulls.\n\nWell, as I was about to say, I had this little shelter at the edge of\nmy melon-patch.  Here I was resting from my labors on a certain\noccasion when I heard a great hub-bub in the village, which lay about a\nquarter of a mile away.\n\nPresently a male came racing toward the field, shouting excitedly.  As\nhe approached I came from my shelter to learn what all the commotion\nmight be about, for the monotony of my existence in the melon-patch\nmust have fostered that trait of my curiosity from which it had always\nbeen my secret boast I am peculiarly free.\n\nThe other workers also ran forward to meet the messenger, who quickly\nunburdened himself of his information, and as quickly turned and\nscampered back toward the village.  When running these beast-men often\ngo upon all fours.  Thus they leap over obstacles that would slow up a\nhuman being, and upon the level attain a speed that would make a\nthoroughbred look to his laurels.  The result in this instance was that\nbefore I had more than assimilated the gist of the word which had been\nbrought to the fields, I was alone, watching my co-workers speeding\nvillageward.\n\nI was alone! It was the first time since my capture that no beast-man\nhad been within sight of me.  I was alone! And all my captors were in\nthe village at the op-posite edge of the mesa repelling an attack of\nHooja's horde!\n\nIt seemed from the messenger's tale that two of Gr-gr-gr's great males\nhad been set upon by a half-dozen of Hooja's cutthroats while the\nformer were peaceably returning from the thag hunt.  The two had\nreturned to the village unscratched, while but a single one of Hooja's\nhalf-dozen had escaped to report the outcome of the battle to their\nleader.  Now Hooja was coming to punish Gr-gr-gr's people.  With his\nlarge force, armed with the bows and arrows that Hooja had learned from\nme to make, with long lances and sharp knives, I feared that even the\nmighty strength of the beastmen could avail them but little.\n\nAt last had come the opportunity for which I waited!  I was free to\nmake for the far end of the mesa, find my way to the valley below, and\nwhile the two forces were engaged in their struggle, continue my search\nfor Hooja's village, which I had learned from the beast-men lay farther\non down the river that I had been following when taken prisoner.\n\nAs I turned to make for the mesa's rim the sounds of battle came\nplainly to my ears--the hoarse shouts of men mingled with the\nhalf-beastly roars and growls of the brute-folk.\n\nDid I take advantage of my opportunity?\n\nI did not.  Instead, lured by the din of strife and by the desire to\ndeliver a stroke, however feeble, against hated Hooja, I wheeled and\nran directly toward the village.\n\nWhen I reached the edge of the plateau such a scene met my astonished\ngaze as never before had startled it, for the unique battle-methods of\nthe half-brutes were rather the most remarkable I had ever witnessed.\nAlong the very edge of the cliff-top stood a thin line of mighty\nmales--the best rope-throwers of the tribe.  A few feet behind these\nthe rest of the males, with the exception of about twenty, formed a\nsecond line.  Still farther in the rear all the women and young\nchildren were clustered into a single group under the protection of\nthe remaining twenty fighting males and all the old males.\n\nBut it was the work of the first two lines that interested me.  The\nforces of Hooja--a great horde of savage Sagoths and primeval cave\nmen--were working their way up the steep cliff-face, their agility but\nslightly less than that of my captors who had clambered so nimbly\naloft--even he who was burdened by my weight.\n\nAs the attackers came on they paused occasionally wherever a projection\ngave them sufficient foothold and launched arrows and spears at the\ndefenders above them.  During the entire battle both sides hurled\ntaunts and insults at one another--the human beings naturally excelling\nthe brutes in the coarseness and vileness of their vilification and\ninvective.\n\nThe \"firing-line\" of the brute-men wielded no weapon other than their\nlong fiber nooses.  When a foeman came within range of them a noose\nwould settle unerringly about him and he would be dragged, fighting and\nyelling, to the cliff-top, unless, as occasionally occurred, he was\nquick enough to draw his knife and cut the rope above him, in which\nevent he usually plunged down-ward to a no less certain death than that\nwhich awaited him above.\n\nThose who were hauled up within reach of the powerful clutches of the\ndefenders had the nooses snatched from them and were catapulted back\nthrough the first line to the second, where they were seized and killed\nby the simple expedient of a single powerful closing of mighty fangs\nupon the backs of their necks.\n\nBut the arrows of the invaders were taking a much heavier toll than the\nnooses of the defenders and I foresaw that it was but a matter of time\nbefore Hooja's forces must conquer unless the brute-men changed their\ntactics, or the cave men tired of the battle.\n\nGr-gr-gr was standing in the center of the first line.  All about him\nwere boulders and large fragments of broken rock.  I approached him and\nwithout a word toppled a large mass of rock over the edge of the cliff.\nIt fell directly upon the head of an archer, crushing him to instant\ndeath and carrying his mangled corpse with it to the bottom of the\ndeclivity, and on its way brushing three more of the attackers into the\nhereafter.\n\nGr-gr-gr turned toward me in surprise.  For an instant he appeared to\ndoubt the sincerity of my motives.  I felt that perhaps my time had\ncome when he reached for me with one of his giant paws; but I dodged\nhim, and running a few paces to the right hurled down another missile.\nIt, too, did its allotted work of destruction.  Then I picked up\nsmaller fragments and with all the control and accuracy for which I had\nearned justly deserved fame in my collegiate days I rained down a hail\nof death upon those beneath me.\n\nGr-gr-gr was coming toward me again.  I pointed to the litter of rubble\nupon the cliff-top.\n\n\"Hurl these down upon the enemy!\" I cried to him.  \"Tell your warriors\nto throw rocks down upon them!\"\n\nAt my words the others of the first line, who had been interested\nspectators of my tactics, seized upon great boulders or bits of rock,\nwhichever came first to their hands, and, without waiting for a\ncommand from Gr-gr-gr, deluged the terrified cave men with a perfect\navalanche of stone.  In less than no time the cliff-face was stripped\nof enemies and the village of Gr-gr-gr was saved.\n\nGr-gr-gr was standing beside me when the last of the cave men\ndisappeared in rapid flight down the valley.  He was looking at me\nintently.\n\n\"Those were your people,\" he said.  \"Why did you kill them?\"\n\n\"They were not my people,\" I returned.  \"I have told you that before,\nbut you would not believe me.  Will you believe me now when I tell you\nthat I hate Hooja and his tribe as much as you do? Will you believe me\nwhen I tell you that I wish to be the friend of Gr-gr-gr?\"\n\nFor some time he stood there beside me, scratching his head.  Evidently\nit was no less difficult for him to readjust his preconceived\nconclusions than it is for most human beings; but finally the idea\npercolated--which it might never have done had he been a man, or I\nmight qualify that statement by saying had he been some men.  Finally\nhe spoke.\n\n\"Gilak,\" he said, \"you have made Gr-gr-gr ashamed.  He would have\nkilled you.  How can he reward you?\"\n\n\"Set me free,\" I replied quickly.\n\n\"You are free,\" he said.  \"You may go down when you wish, or you may\nstay with us.  If you go you may always return.  We are your friends.\"\n\nNaturally, I elected to go.  I explained all over again to Gr-gr-gr the\nnature of my mission.  He listened attentively; after I had done he\noffered to send some of his people with me to guide me to Hooja's\nvillage.  I was not slow in accepting his offer.\n\nFirst, however, we must eat.  The hunters upon whom Hooja's men had\nfallen had brought back the meat of a great thag.  There would be a\nfeast to commemorate the victory--a feast and dancing.\n\nI had never witnessed a tribal function of the brute-folk, though I had\noften heard strange sounds coming from the village, where I had not\nbeen allowed since my capture.  Now I took part in one of their orgies.\n\nIt will live forever in my memory.  The combination of bestiality and\nhumanity was oftentimes pathetic, and again grotesque or horrible.\nBeneath the glaring noonday sun, in the sweltering heat of the\nmesa-top, the huge, hairy creatures leaped in a great circle.  They\ncoiled and threw their fiber-ropes; they hurled taunts and insults at\nan imaginary foe; they fell upon the carcass of the thag and literally\ntore it to pieces; and they ceased only when, gorged, they could no\nlonger move.\n\nI had to wait until the processes of digestion had released my escort\nfrom its torpor.  Some had eaten until their abdomens were so distended\nthat I thought they must burst, for beside the thag there had been\nfully a hundred antelopes of various sizes and varied degrees of\ndecomposition, which they had unearthed from burial beneath the floors\nof their lairs to grace the banquet-board.\n\nBut at last we were started--six great males and myself.  Gr-gr-gr had\nreturned my weapons to me, and at last I was once more upon my\noft-interrupted way toward my goal.  Whether I should find Dian at the\nend of my journey or no I could not even surmise; but I was none the\nless impatient to be off, for if only the worst lay in store for me I\nwished to know even the worst at once.\n\nI could scarce believe that my proud mate would still be alive in the\npower of Hooja; but time upon Pellucidar is so strange a thing that I\nrealized that to her or to him only a few minutes might have elapsed\nsince his subtle trickery had enabled him to steal her away from\nPhutra.  Or she might have found the means either to repel his advances\nor escape him.\n\nAs we descended the cliff we disturbed a great pack of large hyena-like\nbeasts--hyaena spelaeus, Perry calls them--who were busy among the\ncorpses of the cave men fallen in battle.  The ugly creatures were far\nfrom the cowardly things that our own hyenas are reputed to be; they\nstood their ground with bared fangs as we approached them.  But, as I\nwas later to learn, so formidable are the brute-folk that there are few\neven of the larger carnivora that will not make way for them when they\ngo abroad.  So the hyenas moved a little from our line of march,\nclosing in again upon their feasts when we had passed.\n\nWe made our way steadily down the rim of the beautiful river which\nflows the length of the island, coming at last to a wood rather denser\nthan any that I had before encountered in this country.  Well within\nthis forest my escort halted.\n\n\"There!\" they said, and pointed ahead.  \"We are to go no farther.\"\n\nThus having guided me to my destination they left me. Ahead of me,\nthrough the trees, I could see what appeared to be the foot of a steep\nhill.  Toward this I made my way.  The forest ran to the very base of a\ncliff, in the face of which were the mouths of many caves.  They\nappeared untenanted; but I decided to watch for a while before\nventuring farther.  A large tree, densely foliaged, offered a splendid\nvantage-point from which to spy upon the cliff, so I clambered among\nits branches where, securely hidden, I could watch what transpired\nabout the caves.\n\nIt seemed that I had scarcely settled myself in a comfortable position\nbefore a party of cave men emerged from one of the smaller apertures in\nthe cliff-face, about fifty feet from the base.  They descended into\nthe forest and disappeared.  Soon after came several others from the\nsame cave, and after them, at a short interval, a score of women and\nchildren, who came into the wood to gather fruit.  There were several\nwarriors with them--a guard, I presume.\n\nAfter this came other parties, and two or three groups who passed out\nof the forest and up the cliff-face to enter the same cave.  I could\nnot understand it.  All who came out had emerged from the same cave.\nAll who returned reentered it.  No other cave gave evidence of\nhabitation, and no cave but one of extraordinary size could have\naccommodated all the people whom I had seen pass in and out of its\nmouth.\n\nFor a long time I sat and watched the coming and going of great numbers\nof the cave-folk.  Not once did one leave the cliff by any other\nopening save that from which I had seen the first party come, nor did\nany reenter the cliff through another aperture.\n\nWhat a cave it must be, I thought, that houses an entire tribe!  But\ndissatisfied of the truth of my surmise, I climbed higher among the\nbranches of the tree that I might get a better view of other portions\nof the cliff.  High above the ground I reached a point whence I could\nsee the summit of the hill.  Evidently it was a flat-topped butte\nsimilar to that on which dwelt the tribe of Gr-gr-gr.\n\nAs I sat gazing at it a figure appeared at the very edge.  It was that\nof a young girl in whose hair was a gorgeous bloom plucked from some\nflowering tree of the forest.  I had seen her pass beneath me but a\nshort while before and enter the small cave that had swallowed all of\nthe returning tribesmen.\n\nThe mystery was solved.  The cave was but the mouth of a passage that\nled upward through the cliff to the summit of the hill.  It served\nmerely as an avenue from their lofty citadel to the valley below.\n\nNo sooner had the truth flashed upon me than the realization came that\nI must seek some other means of reaching the village, for to pass\nunobserved through this well-traveled thoroughfare would be impossible.\nAt the moment there was no one in sight below me, so I slid quickly\nfrom my arboreal watch-tower to the ground and moved rapidly away to\nthe right with the intention of circling the hill if necessary until I\nhad found an unwatched spot where I might have some slight chance of\nscaling the heights and reaching the top unseen.\n\nI kept close to the edge of the forest, in the very midst of which the\nhill seemed to rise.  Though I carefully scanned the cliff as I\ntraversed its base, I saw no sign of any other entrance than that to\nwhich my guides had led me.\n\nAfter some little time the roar of the sea broke upon my ears.  Shortly\nafter I came upon the broad ocean which breaks at this point at the\nvery foot of the great hill where Hooja had found safe refuge for\nhimself and his villains.\n\nI was just about to clamber along the jagged rocks which lie at the\nbase of the cliff next to the sea, in search of some foothold to the\ntop, when I chanced to see a canoe rounding the end of the island.  I\nthrew myself down behind a large boulder where I could watch the\ndugout and its occupants without myself being seen.\n\nThey paddled toward me for a while and then, about a hundred yards from\nme, they turned straight in toward the foot of the frowning cliffs.\nFrom where I was it seemed that they were bent upon self-destruction,\nsince the roar of the breakers beating upon the perpendicular rock-face\nappeared to offer only death to any one who might venture within their\nrelentless clutch.\n\nA mass of rock would soon hide them from my view; but so keen was the\nexcitement of the instant that I could not refrain from crawling\nforward to a point whence I could watch the dashing of the small craft\nto pieces on the jagged rocks that loomed before her, although I\nrisked discovery from above to accomplish my design.\n\nWhen I had reached a point where I could again see the dugout, I was\njust in time to see it glide unharmed between two needle-pointed\nsentinels of granite and float quietly upon the unruffled bosom of a\ntiny cove.\n\nAgain I crouched behind a boulder to observe what would next transpire;\nnor did I have long to wait.  The dugout, which contained but two men,\nwas drawn close to the rocky wall.  A fiber rope, one end of which was\ntied to the boat, was made fast about a projection of the cliff face.\n\nThen the two men commenced the ascent of the almost perpendicular wall\ntoward the summit several hundred feet above.  I looked on in\namazement, for, splendid climbers though the cave men of Pellucidar\nare, I never before had seen so remarkable a feat performed.  Upwardly\nthey moved without a pause, to disappear at last over the summit.\n\nWhen I felt reasonably sure that they had gone for a while at least I\ncrawled from my hiding-place and at the risk of a broken neck leaped\nand scrambled to the spot where their canoe was moored.\n\nIf they had scaled that cliff I could, and if I couldn't I should die\nin the attempt.\n\nBut when I turned to the accomplishment of the task I found it easier\nthan I had imagined it would be, since I immediately discovered that\nshallow hand and foot-holds had been scooped in the cliff's rocky face,\nforming a crude ladder from the base to the summit.\n\nAt last I reached the top, and very glad I was, too.  Cautiously I\nraised my head until my eyes were above the cliff-crest.  Before me\nspread a rough mesa, liberally sprinkled with large boulders.  There\nwas no village in sight nor any living creature.\n\nI drew myself to level ground and stood erect.  A few trees grew among\nthe boulders.  Very carefully I advanced from tree to tree and boulder\nto boulder toward the inland end of the mesa.  I stopped often to\nlisten and look cautiously about me in every direction.\n\nHow I wished that I had my revolvers and rifle! I would not have to\nworm my way like a scared cat toward Hooja's village, nor did I relish\ndoing so now; but Dian's life might hinge upon the success of my\nventure, and so I could not afford to take chances.  To have met\nsuddenly with discovery and had a score or more of armed warriors upon\nme might have been very grand and heroic; but it would have immediately\nput an end to all my earthly activities, nor have accomplished aught in\nthe service of Dian.\n\nWell, I must have traveled nearly a mile across that mesa without\nseeing a sign of anyone, when all of a sudden, as I crept around the\nedge of a boulder, I ran plump into a man, down on all fours like\nmyself, crawling toward me.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE RAID ON THE CAVE-PRISON\n\nHis head was turned over his shoulder as I first saw him--he was\nlooking back toward the village.  As I leaped for him his eyes fell\nupon me.  Never in my life have I seen a more surprised mortal than\nthis poor cave man.  Before he could utter a single scream of warning\nor alarm I had my fingers on his throat and had dragged him behind the\nboulder, where I proceeded to sit upon him, while I figured out what I\nhad best do with him.\n\nHe struggled a little at first, but finally lay still, and so I\nreleased the pressure of my fingers at his  windpipe, for which I\nimagine he was quite thankful--I know that I should have been.\n\nI hated to kill him in cold blood; but what else I was to do with him I\ncould not see, for to turn him loose would have been merely to have the\nentire village aroused and down upon me in a moment.  The fellow lay\nlooking up at me with the surprise still deeply written on his\ncountenance.  At last, all of a sudden, a look of recognition entered\nhis eyes.\n\n\"I have seen you before,\" he said.  \"I saw you in the arena at the\nMahars' city of Phutra when the thipdars dragged the tarag from you and\nyour mate.  I never understood that.  Afterward they put me in the\narena with two warriors from Gombul.\"\n\nHe smiled in recollection.\n\n\"It would have been the same had there been ten warriors from Gombul.\nI slew them, winning my freedom.  Look!\"\n\nHe half turned his left shoulder toward me, exhibiting the newly healed\nscar of the Mahars' branded mark.\n\n\"Then,\" he continued, \"as I was returning to my people I met some of\nthem fleeing.  They told me that one called Hooja the Sly One had come\nand seized our village, putting our people into slavery.  So I hurried\nhither to learn the truth, and, sure enough, here I found Hooja and his\nwicked men living in my village, and my father's people but slaves\namong them.\n\n\"I was discovered and captured, but Hooja did not kill me.  I am the\nchief's son, and through me he hoped to win my father's warriors back\nto the village to help him in a great war he says that he will soon\ncommence.\n\n\"Among his prisoners is Dian the Beautiful One, whose brother, Dacor\nthe Strong One, chief of Amoz, once saved my life when he came to\nThuria to steal a mate.  I helped him capture her, and we are good\nfriends.  So when I learned that Dian the Beautiful One was Hooja's\nprisoner, I told him that I would not aid him if he harmed her.\n\n\"Recently one of Hooja's warriors overheard me talking with another\nprisoner.  We were planning to combine all the prisoners, seize\nweapons, and when most of Hooja's warriors were away, slay the rest and\nretake our hilltop.  Had we done so we could have held it, for there\nare only two entrances--the narrow tunnel at one end and the steep path\nup the cliffs at the other.\n\n\"But when Hooja heard what we had planned he was very angry, and\nordered that I die.  They bound me hand and foot and placed me in a\ncave until all the warriors should return to witness my death; but\nwhile they were away I heard someone calling me in a muffled voice\nwhich seemed to come from the wall of the cave.  When I replied the\nvoice, which was a woman's, told me that she had overheard all that had\npassed between me and those who had brought me thither, and that she\nwas Dacor's sister and would find a way to help me.\n\n\"Presently a little hole appeared in the wall at the point from which\nthe voice had come.  After a time I saw a woman's hand digging with a\nbit of stone.  Dacor's sister made a hole in the wall between the cave\nwhere I lay bound and that in which she had been confined, and soon she\nwas by my side and had cut my bonds.\n\n\"We talked then, and I offered to make the attempt to take her away and\nback to the land of Sari, where she told me she would be able to learn\nthe whereabouts of her mate.  Just now I was going to the other end of\nthe island to see if a boat lay there, and if the way was clear for our\nescape.  Most of the boats are always away now, for a great many of\nHooja's men and nearly all the slaves are upon the Island of Trees,\nwhere Hooja is having many boats built to carry his warriors across the\nwater to the mouth of a great river which he discovered while he was\nreturning from Phutra--a vast river that empties into the sea there.\"\n\nThe speaker pointed toward the northeast.  \"It is wide  and  smooth and\nslow-running  almost  to  the land of Sari,\" he added.\n\n\"And where is Dian the Beautiful One now?\" I asked.\n\nI had released my prisoner as soon as I found that he was Hooja's\nenemy, and now the pair of us were squat-ting beside the boulder while\nhe told his story.\n\n\"She returned to the cave where she had been imprisoned,\" he replied,\n\"and is awaiting me there.\"\n\n\"There is no danger that Hooja will come while you are away?\"\n\n\"Hooja is upon the Island of Trees,\" he replied.\n\n\"Can you direct me to the cave so that I can find it alone?\" I asked.\n\nHe said he could, and in the strange yet explicit fashion of the\nPellucidarians he explained minutely how I might reach the cave where\nhe had been imprisoned, and through the hole in its wall reach Dian.\n\nI thought it best for but one of us to return, since two could\naccomplish but little more than one and would double the risk of\ndiscovery.  In the meantime he could make his way to the sea and guard\nthe boat, which I told him lay there at the foot of the cliff.\n\nI told him to await us at the cliff-top, and if Dian came alone to do\nhis best to get away with her and take her to Sari, as I thought it\nquite possible that, in case of detection and pursuit, it might be\nnecessary for me to hold off Hooja's people while Dian made her way\nalone to where my new friend was to await her.  I impressed upon him\nthe fact that he might have to resort to trickery or even to force to\nget Dian to leave me; but I made him promise that he would sacrifice\neverything, even his life, in an attempt to rescue Dacor's sister.\n\nThen we parted--he to take up his position where he could watch the\nboat and await Dian, I to crawl cautiously on toward the caves.  I had\nno difficulty in following the directions given me by Juag, the name by\nwhich Dacor's friend said he was called.  There was the leaning tree,\nmy first point he told me to look for after rounding the boulder where\nwe had met.  After that I crawled to the balanced rock, a huge boulder\nresting upon a tiny base no larger than the palm of your hand.\n\nFrom here I had my first view of the village of caves.  A low bluff ran\ndiagonally across one end of the mesa, and in the face of this bluff\nwere the mouths of many caves.  Zig-zag trails led up to them, and\nnarrow ledges scooped from the face of the soft rock connected those\nupon the same level.\n\nThe cave in which Juag had been confined was at the extreme end of the\ncliff nearest me.  By taking advantage of the bluff itself, I could\napproach within a few feet of the aperture without being visible from\nany other cave.  There were few people about at the time; most of these\nwere congregated at the foot of the far end of the bluff, where they\nwere so engrossed in excited conversation that I felt but little fear\nof detection.  However I exercised the greatest care in approaching the\ncliff.  After watching for a while until I caught an instant when every\nhead was turned away from me, I darted, rabbitlike, into the cave.\n\nLike many of the man-made caves of Pellucidar, this one consisted of\nthree chambers, one behind another, and all unlit except for what\nsunlight filtered in through the external opening.  The result was\ngradually increasing darkness as one passed into each succeeding\nchamber.\n\nIn the last of the three I could just distinguish objects, and that was\nall.  As I was groping around the walls for the hole that should lead\ninto the cave where Dian was imprisoned, I heard a man's voice quite\nclose to me.\n\nThe speaker had evidently but just entered, for he spoke in a loud\ntone, demanding the whereabouts of one whom he had come in search of.\n\n\"Where are you, woman?\" he cried.  \"Hooja has sent for you.\"\n\nAnd then a woman's voice answered him:\n\n\"And what does Hooja want of me?\"\n\nThe voice was Dian's.  I groped in the direction of the sounds, feeling\nfor the hole.\n\n\"He wishes you brought to the Island of Trees,\" replied the man; \"for\nhe is ready to take you as his mate.\"\n\n\"I will not go,\" said Dian.  \"I will die first.\"\n\n\"I am sent to bring you, and bring you I shall.\"\n\nI could hear him crossing the cave toward her.\n\nFrantically I clawed the wall of the cave in which I was in an effort\nto find the elusive aperture that would lead me to Dian's side.\n\nI heard the sound of a scuffle in the next cave.  Then my fingers sank\ninto loose rock and earth in the side of the cave.  In an instant I\nrealized why I had been unable to find the opening while I had been\nlightly feeling the surface of the walls--Dian had blocked up the hole\nshe had made lest it arouse suspicion and lead to an early discovery of\nJuag's escape.\n\nPlunging my weight against the crumbling mass, I sent it crashing into\nthe adjoining cavern.  With it came I, David, Emperor of Pellucidar.  I\ndoubt if any other potentate in a world's history ever made a more\nundignified entrance.  I landed head first on all fours, but I came\nquickly and was on my feet before the man in the dark guessed what had\nhappened.\n\nHe saw me, though, when I arose and, sensing that no friend came thus\nprecipitately, turned to meet me even as I charged him.  I had my stone\nknife in my hand, and he had his.  In the darkness of the cave there\nwas little opportunity for a display of science, though even at that I\nventure to say that we fought a very pretty duel.\n\nBefore I came to Pellucidar I do not recall that I ever had seen a\nstone knife, and I am sure that I never fought with a knife of any\ndescription; but now I do not have to take my hat off to any of them\nwhen it comes to wielding that primitive yet wicked weapon.\n\nI could just see Dian in the darkness, but I knew that she could not\nsee my features or recognize me; and I enjoyed in anticipation, even\nwhile I was fighting for her life and mine, her dear joy when she\nshould discover that it was I who was her deliverer.\n\nMy opponent was large, but he also was active and no mean knife-man.\nHe caught me once fairly in the shoulder--I carry the scar yet, and\nshall carry it to the grave.  And then he did a  foolish thing, for as\nI leaped back to gain a second  in which to calm the shock of the wound\nhe rushed after me and tried to clinch.  He rather neglected his knife\nfor the moment in his greater desire to get his hands on me.  Seeing\nthe opening, I swung my left fist fairly to the point of his jaw.\n\nDown he went.  Before ever he could scramble up again I was on him and\nhad buried my knife in his heart.  Then I stood up--and there was Dian\nfacing me and peering at me through the dense gloom.\n\n\"You are not Juag!\" she exclaimed.  \"Who are you?\"\n\nI took a step toward her, my arms outstretched.\n\n\"It is I, Dian,\" I said.  \"It is David.\"\n\nAt the sound of my voice she gave a little cry in which tears were\nmingled--a pathetic little cry that told me all without words how far\nhope had gone from her--and then she ran forward and threw herself in\nmy arms.  I covered her perfect lips and her beautiful face with\nkisses, and stroked her thick black hair, and told her again and again\nwhat she already knew--what she had known for years--that I loved her\nbetter than all else which two worlds had to offer.  We couldn't devote\nmuch time, though, to the happiness of love-making, for we were in the\nmidst of enemies who might discover us at any moment.\n\nI drew her into the adjoining cave.  Thence we made our way to the\nmouth of the cave that had given me entrance to the cliff.  Here I\nreconnoitered for a moment, and seeing the coast clear, ran swiftly\nforth with Dian at my side.  We dodged around the cliff-end, then\npaused for an instant, listening.  No sound reached our ears to\nindicate that any had seen us, and we moved cautiously onward along the\nway by which I had come.\n\nAs we went Dian told me that her captors had informed her how close I\nhad come in search of her--even to the Land of Awful Shadow--and how\none of Hooja's men who knew me had discovered me asleep and robbed me\nof all my possessions.  And then how Hooja had sent four others to find\nme and take me prisoner.  But these men, she said, had not yet\nreturned, or at least she had not heard of their return.\n\n\"Nor will you ever,\" I responded, \"for they have gone to that place\nwhence none ever returns.\" I then related my adventure with these four.\n\nWe had come almost to the cliff-edge where Juag should be awaiting us\nwhen we saw two men walking rapidly toward the same spot from another\ndirection.  They did not see us, nor did they see Juag, whom I now\ndiscovered hiding behind a low bush close to the verge of the precipice\nwhich drops into the sea at this point.  As quickly as possible,\nwithout exposing ourselves too much to the enemy, we hastened forward\nthat we might reach Juag as quickly as they.\n\nBut they noticed him first and immediately charged him, for one of them\nhad been his guard, and they had both been sent to search for him, his\nescape having been discovered between the time he left the cave and the\ntime when I reached it.  Evidently they had wasted precious moments\nlooking for him in other portions of the mesa.\n\nWhen I saw that the two of them were rushing him, I called out to\nattract their attention to the fact that they had more than a single\nman to cope with.  They paused at the sound of my voice and looked\nabout.\n\nWhen they discovered Dian and me they exchanged a few words, and one of\nthem continued toward Juag while the other turned upon us.  As he came\nnearer I saw that he carried in his hand one of my six-shooters, but he\nwas holding it by the barrel, evidently mistaking it for some sort of\nwarclub or tomahawk.\n\nI could scarce refrain a grin when I thought of the wasted\npossibilities of that deadly revolver in the hands of an untutored\nwarrior of the stone age.  Had he but reversed it and pulled the\ntrigger he might still be alive; maybe he is for all I know, since I\ndid not kill him then.  When he was about twenty feet from me I flung\nmy javelin with a quick movement that I had learned from Ghak.  He\nducked to avoid it, and instead of receiving it in his heart, for which\nit was intended, he got it on the side of the head.\n\nDown he went all in a heap.  Then I glanced toward Juag.  He was having\na most exciting time.  The fellow pitted against Juag was a veritable\ngiant; he was hacking and hewing away at the poor slave with a\nvillainous-looking knife that might have been designed for butchering\nmastodons.  Step by step, he was forcing Juag back toward the edge of\nthe cliff with a fiendish cunning that permitted his adversary no\nchance to side-step the terrible consequences of retreat in this\ndirection.  I saw quickly that in another moment Juag must deliberately\nhurl himself to death over the precipice or be pushed over by his\nfoeman.\n\nAnd as I saw Juag's predicament I saw, too, in the same instant, a way\nto relieve him.  Leaping quickly to the side of the fellow I had just\nfelled, I snatched up my fallen revolver.  It was a desperate chance to\ntake, and I realized it in the instant that I threw the gun up from my\nhip and pulled the trigger.  There was no time to aim.  Juag was upon\nthe very brink of the chasm.  His relentless foe was pushing him hard,\nbeating at him furiously with the heavy knife.\n\nAnd then the revolver spoke--loud and sharp.  The giant threw his hands\nabove his head, whirled about like a huge top, and lunged forward over\nthe precipice.\n\nAnd Juag?\n\nHe cast a single affrighted glance in my direction--never before, of\ncourse, had he heard the report of a firearm--and with a howl of dismay\nhe, too, turned and plunged headforemost from sight.  Horror-struck, I\nhastened to the brink of the abyss just in time to see two splashes\nupon the surface of the little cove below.\n\nFor an instant I stood there watching with Dian at my side.  Then, to\nmy utter amazement, I saw Juag rise to the surface and swim strongly\ntoward the boat.\n\nThe fellow had dived that incredible distance and come up unharmed!\n\nI called to him to await us below, assuring him that he need have no\nfear of my weapon, since it would harm only my enemies.  He shook his\nhead and mut-tered something which I could not hear at so great a\ndistance; but when I pushed him he promised to wait for us.  At the\nsame instant Dian caught my arm and pointed toward the village.  My\nshot had brought a crowd of natives on the run toward us.\n\nThe fellow whom I had stunned with my javelin had regained\nconsciousness and scrambled to his feet.  He was now racing as fast as\nhe could go back toward his people.  It looked mighty dark for Dian and\nme with that ghastly descent between us and even the beginnings of\nliberty, and a horde of savage enemies advancing at a rapid run.\n\nThere was but one hope.  That was to get Dian started for the bottom\nwithout delay.  I took her in my arms just for an instant--I felt,\nsomehow, that it might be for the last time.  For the life of me I\ncouldn't see how both of us could escape.\n\nI asked her if she could make the descent alone--if she were not\nafraid.  She smiled up at me bravely and shrugged her shoulders.  She\nafraid! So beautiful is she that I am always having difficulty in\nremembering that she is a primitive, half-savage cave girl of the stone\nage, and often find myself mentally limiting her capacities to those of\nthe effete and overcivilized beauties of the outer crust.\n\n\"And you?\" she asked as she swung over the edge of the cliff.\n\n\"I shall follow you after I take a shot or two at our friends,\" I\nreplied.  \"I just want to give them a taste of this new medicine which\nis going to cure Pellucidar of all its ills.  That will stop them long\nenough for me to join you.  Now hurry, and tell Juag to be ready to\nshove off the moment I reach the boat, or the instant that it becomes\napparent that I cannot reach it.\n\n\"You, Dian, must return to Sari if anything happens to me, that you may\ndevote your life to carrying out with Perry the hopes and plans for\nPellucidar that are so dear to my heart.  Promise me, dear.\"\n\nShe hated to promise to desert me, nor would she; only shaking her head\nand making no move to descend.  The tribesmen were nearing us.  Juag\nwas shouting up to us from below.  It was evident that he realized from\nmy actions that I was attempting to persuade Dian to descend, and that\ngrave danger threatened us from above.\n\n\"Dive!\" he cried.  \"Dive!\"\n\nI looked at Dian and then down at the abyss below us. The cove appeared\nno larger than a saucer.  How Juag ever had hit it I could not guess.\n\n\"Dive!\" cried Juag.  \"It is the only way--there is no time to climb\ndown.\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nESCAPE\n\nDian glanced downward and shuddered.  Her tribe were hill people--they\nwere not accustomed to swimming other than in quiet rivers and placid\nlakelets.  It was not the steep that appalled her.  It was the\nocean--vast, mysterious, terrible.\n\nTo dive into it from this great height was beyond her.  I couldn't\nwonder, either.  To have attempted it myself seemed too preposterous\neven for thought.  Only one consideration could have prompted me to\nleap headforemost from that giddy height--suicide; or at least so I\nthought at the moment.\n\n\"Quick!\" I urged Dian.  \"You cannot dive; but I can hold them until you\nreach safety.\"\n\n\"And you?\" she asked once more.  \"Can you dive when they come too\nclose? Otherwise you could not escape if you waited here until I\nreached the bottom.\"\n\nI saw that she would not leave me unless she thought that I could make\nthat frightful dive as we had seen Juag make it.  I glanced once\ndownward; then with a mental shrug I assured her that I would dive the\nmoment that she reached the boat.  Satisfied, she began the descent\ncarefully, yet swiftly.  I watched her for a moment, my heart in my\nmouth lest some slight mis-step or the slipping of a finger-hold should\npitch her to a frightful death upon the rocks below.\n\nThen I turned toward the advancing Hoojans--\"Hoosiers,\" Perry dubbed\nthem--even going so far as to christen this island where Hooja held\nsway Indiana; it is so marked now upon our maps.  They were coming on\nat a great rate.  I raised my revolver, took deliberate aim at the\nforemost warrior, and pulled the trigger.  With the bark of the gun the\nfellow lunged forward.  His head doubled beneath him.  He rolled over\nand over two or three times before he came to a stop, to lie very\nquietly in the thick grass among the brilliant wild flowers.\n\nThose behind him halted.  One of them hurled a javelin toward me, but\nit fell short--they were just beyond javelin-range.  There were two\narmed with bows and arrows; these I kept my eyes on.  All of them\nappeared awe-struck and frightened by the sound and effect of the\nfirearm.  They kept looking from the corpse to me and jabbering among\nthemselves.\n\nI took advantage of the lull in hostilities to throw a quick glance\nover the edge toward Dian.  She was half-way down the cliff and\nprogressing finely.  Then I turned back toward the enemy.  One of the\nbowmen was fitting an arrow to his bow.  I raised my hand.\n\n\"Stop!\" I cried.  \"Whoever shoots at me or advances toward me I shall\nkill as I killed him!\"\n\nI pointed at the dead man.  The fellow lowered his bow.  Again there\nwas animated discussion.  I could see that those who were not armed\nwith bows were urging something upon the two who were.\n\nAt last the majority appeared to prevail, for simu-taneously the two\narchers raised their weapons.  At the same instant I fired at one of\nthem, dropping him in his tracks.  The other, however, launched his\nmissile, but the report of my gun had given him such a start that the\narrow flew wild above my head.  A second after and he, too, was\nsprawled upon the sward with a round hole between his eyes.  It had\nbeen a rather good shot.\n\nI glanced over the edge again.  Dian was almost at the bottom.  I could\nsee Juag standing just beneath her with his hands upstretched to assist\nher.\n\nA sullen roar from the warriors recalled my attention toward them.\nThey stood shaking their fists at me and yelling insults.  From the\ndirection of the village I saw a single warrior coming to join them.\nHe was a huge fellow, and when he strode among them I could tell by his\nbearing and their deference toward him that he was a chieftain.  He\nlistened to all they had to tell of the happenings of the last few\nminutes; then with a command and a roar he started for me with the\nwhole pack at his heels.  All they had needed had arrived--namely, a\nbrave leader.\n\nI had two unfired cartridges in the chambers of my gun.  I let the big\nwarrior have one of them, thinking that his death would stop them all.\nBut I guess they were worked up to such a frenzy of rage by this time\nthat nothing would have stopped them.  At any rate, they only yelled\nthe louder as he fell and increased their speed toward me.  I dropped\nanother with my remaining cartridge.\n\nThen they were upon me--or almost.  I thought of my promise to\nDian--the awful abyss was behind me--a big devil with a huge bludgeon\nin front of me.  I grasped my six-shooter by the barrel and hurled it\nsquarely in his face with all my strength.\n\nThen, without waiting to learn the effect of my throw, I wheeled, ran\nthe few steps to the edge, and leaped as far out over that frightful\nchasm as I could.  I know something of diving, and all that I know I\nput into that dive, which I was positive would be my last.\n\nFor a couple of hundred feet I fell in horizontal position. The\nmomentum I gained was terrific.  I could feel the air almost as a solid\nbody, so swiftly I hurtled through it.  Then my position gradually\nchanged to the vertical, and with hands outstretched I slipped through\nthe air, cleaving it like a flying arrow.  Just before I struck the\nwater a perfect shower of javelins fell all about.  My enemies had\nrushed to the brink and hurled their weapons after me.  By a miracle I\nwas untouched.\n\nIn the final instant I saw that I had cleared the rocks and was going\nto strike the water fairly.  Then I was in and plumbing the depths.  I\nsuppose I didn't really go very far down, but it seemed to me that I\nshould never stop.  When at last I dared curve my hands upward and\ndivert my progress toward the surface, I thought that I should explode\nfor air before I ever saw the sun again except through a swirl of\nwater.  But at last my head popped above the waves, and I filled my\nlungs with air.\n\nBefore me was the boat, from which Juag and Dian were clambering.  I\ncouldn't understand why they were deserting it now, when we were about\nto set out for the mainland in it; but when I reached its side I\nunderstood.  Two heavy javelins, missing Dian and Juag by but a hair's\nbreadth, had sunk deep into the bottom of the dugout in a straight line\nwith the grain of the wood, and split her almost in two from stem to\nstern.  She was useless.\n\nJuag was leaning over a near-by rock, his hand out-stretched to aid me\nin clambering to his side; nor did I lose any time in availing myself\nof his proffered assistance.  An occasional javelin was still dropping\nperilously close to us, so we hastened to draw as close as possible to\nthe cliffside, where we were comparatively safe from the missiles.\n\nHere we held a brief conference, in which it was decided that our only\nhope now lay in making for the opposite end of the island as quickly as\nwe could, and utilizing the boat that I had hidden there, to continue\nour journey to the mainland.\n\nGathering up three of the least damaged javelins that had fallen about\nus, we set out upon our journey, keeping well toward the south side of\nthe island, which Juag said was less frequented by the Hoojans than the\ncentral portion where the river ran.  I think that this ruse must have\nthrown our pursuers off our track, since we saw nothing of them nor\nheard any sound of pursuit during the greater portion of our march the\nlength of the island.\n\nBut the way Juag had chosen was rough and round-about, so that we\nconsumed one or two more marches in covering the distance than if we\nhad followed the river.  This it was which proved our undoing.\n\nThose who sought us must have sent a party up the river immediately\nafter we escaped; for when we came at last onto the river-trail not far\nfrom our destination, there can be no doubt but that we were seen by\nHoojans who were just ahead of us on the stream.  The result was that\nas we were passing through a clump of bush a score of warriors leaped\nout upon us, and before we could scarce strike a blow in defense, had\ndisarmed and bound us.\n\nFor a time thereafter I seemed to be entirely bereft of hope.  I could\nsee no ray of promise in the future--only immediate death for Juag and\nme, which didn't concern me much in the face of what lay in store for\nDian.\n\nPoor child! What an awful life she had led! From the moment that I had\nfirst seen her chained in the slave caravan of the Mahars until now, a\nprisoner of a no less cruel creature, I could recall but a few brief\nintervals of peace and quiet in her tempestuous existence.  Before I\nhad known her, Jubal the Ugly One had pursued her across a savage world\nto make her his mate.  She had eluded him, and finally I had slain him;\nbut terror and privations, and exposure to fierce beasts had haunted\nher footsteps during all her lonely flight from him.  And when I had\nreturned to the outer world the old trials had recommenced with Hooja\nin Jubal's role.  I could almost have wished for death to vouchsafe her\nthat peace which fate seemed to deny her in this life.\n\nI spoke to her on the subject, suggesting that we expire together.\n\n\"Do not fear, David,\" she replied.  \"I shall end my life before ever\nHooja can harm me; but first I shall see that Hooja dies.\"\n\nShe drew from her breast a little leathern thong, to the end of which\nwas fastened a tiny pouch.\n\n\"What have you there?\" I asked.\n\n\"Do you recall that time you stepped upon the thing you call viper in\nyour world?\" she asked.\n\nI nodded.\n\n\"The accident gave you the idea for the poisoned arrows with which we\nfitted the warriors of the empire,\" she continued.  \"And, too, it gave\nme an idea.  For a long time I have carried a viper's fang in my bosom.\nIt has given me strength to endure many dangers, for it has always\nassured me immunity from the ultimate insult.  I am not ready to die\nyet.  First let Hooja embrace the viper's fang.\"\n\nSo we did not die together, and I am glad now that we did not.  It is\nalways a foolish thing to contemplate suicide; for no matter how dark\nthe future may appear today, tomorrow may hold for us that which will\nalter our whole life in an instant, revealing to us nothing but\nsunshine and happiness.  So, for my part, I shall always wait for\ntomorrow.\n\nIn Pellucidar, where it is always today, the wait may not be so long,\nand so it proved for us.  As we were passing a lofty, flat-topped hill\nthrough a park-like wood a perfect network of fiber ropes fell suddenly\nabout our guard, enmeshing them.  A moment later a horde of our\nfriends, the hairy gorilla-men, with the mild eyes and long faces of\nsheep leaped among them.\n\nIt was a very interesting fight.  I was sorry that my bonds prevented\nme from taking part in it, but I urged on the brutemen with my voice,\nand cheered old Gr-gr-gr, their chief, each time that his mighty jaws\ncrunched out the life of a Hoojan.  When the battle was over we found\nthat a few of our captors had escaped, but the majority of them lay\ndead about us.  The gorilla-men paid no further attention to them.\nGr-gr-gr turned to me.\n\n\"Gr-gr-gr and all his people are your friends,\" he said.  \"One saw the\nwarriors of the Sly One and followed them.  He saw them capture you,\nand then he flew to the village as fast as he could go and told me all\nthat he had seen.  The rest you know.  You did much for Gr-gr-gr and\nGr-gr-gr's people.  We shall always do much for you.\"\n\nI thanked him; and when I had told him of our escape and our\ndestination, he insisted on accompanying us to the sea with a great\nnumber of his fierce males.  Nor were we at all loath to accept his\nescort.  We found the canoe where I had hidden it, and bidding Gr-gr-gr\nand his warriors farewell, the three of us embarked for the mainland.\n\nI questioned Juag upon the feasibility of attempting to cross to the\nmouth of the great river of which he had told me, and up which he said\nwe might paddle almost to Sari; but he urged me not to attempt it,\nsince we had but a single paddle and no water or food.  I had to admit\nthe wisdom of his advice, but the desire to explore this great waterway\nwas strong upon me, arousing in me at last a determination to make the\nattempt after first gaining the mainland and rectifying our\ndeficiencies.\n\nWe landed several miles north of Thuria in a little cove that seemed to\noffer protection from the heavier seas which sometimes run, even upon\nthese usually pacific oceans of Pellucidar.  Here I outlined to Dian\nand Juag the plans I had in mind.  They were to fit the canoe with a\nsmall sail, the purposes of which I had to explain to them both--since\nneither had ever seen or heard of such a contrivance before.  Then they\nwere to hunt for food which we could transport with us, and prepare a\nreceptacle for water.\n\nThese two latter items were more in Juag's line, but he kept muttering\nabout the sail and the wind for a long time.  I could see that he was\nnot even half convinced that any such ridiculous contraption could make\na canoe move through the water.\n\nWe hunted near the coast for a while, but were not rewarded with any\nparticular luck.  Finally we decided to hide the canoe and strike\ninland in search of game.  At Juag's suggestion we dug a hole in the\nsand at the upper edge of the beach and buried the craft, smoothing the\nsurface over nicely and throwing aside the excess material we had\nexcavated.  Then we set out away from the sea.  Traveling in Thuria is\nless arduous than under the midday sun which perpetually glares down on\nthe rest of Pellucidar's surface; but it has its draw-backs, one of\nwhich is the depressing influence exerted by the everlasting shade of\nthe Land of Awful Shadow.\n\nThe farther inland we went the darker it became, until we were moving\nat last through an endless twilight.  The vegetation here was sparse\nand of a weird, colorless nature, though what did grow was wondrous in\nshape and form.  Often we saw huge lidi, or beasts of burden, striding\nacross the dim landscape, browsing upon the grotesque vegetation or\ndrinking from the slow and sullen rivers that run down from the Lidi\nPlains to empty into the sea in Thuria.\n\nWhat we sought was either a thag--a sort of gigantic elk--or one of the\nlarger species of antelope, the flesh of either of which dries nicely\nin the sun.  The bladder of the thag would make a fine water-bottle,\nand its skin, I figured, would be a good sail.  We traveled a\nconsiderable distance inland, entirely crossing the Land of Awful\nShadow and emerging at last upon that portion of the Lidi Plains which\nlies in the pleasant sunlight.  Above us the pendent world revolved\nupon its axis, filling me especially--and Dian to an almost equal\nstate--with wonder and insatiable curiosity as to what strange forms of\nlife existed among the hills and valleys and along the seas and rivers,\nwhich we could plainly see.\n\nBefore us stretched the horizonless expanses of vast Pellucidar, the\nLidi Plains rolling up about us, while hanging high in the heavens to\nthe northwest of us I thought I discerned the many towers which marked\nthe entrances to the distant Mahar city, whose inhabitants preyed upon\nthe Thurians.\n\nJuag suggested that we travel to the northeast, where, he said, upon\nthe verge of the plain we would find a wooded country in which game\nshould be plentiful.  Acting upon his advice, we came at last to a\nforest-jungle, through which wound innumerable game-paths.  In the\ndepths of this forbidding wood we came upon the fresh spoor of thag.\n\nShortly after, by careful stalking, we came within javelin-range of a\nsmall herd.  Selecting a great bull, Juag and I hurled our weapons\nsimultaneously, Dian reserving hers for an emergency.  The beast\nstaggered to his feet, bellowing.  The rest of the herd was up and away\nin an instant, only the wounded bull remaining, with lowered head and\nroving eyes searching for the foe.\n\nThen Juag exposed himself to the view of the bull--it is a part of the\ntactics of the hunt--while I stepped to one side behind a bush.  The\nmoment that the savage beast saw Juag he charged him.  Juag ran\nstraight away, that the bull might be lured past my hiding-place.  On\nhe came--tons of mighty bestial strength and rage.\n\nDian had slipped behind me.  She, too, could fight a thag should\nemergency require.  Ah, such a girl! A rightful empress of a stone age\nby every standard which two worlds might bring to measure her!\n\nCrashing down toward us came the bull thag, bellowing and snorting,\nwith the power of a hundred outer-earthly bulls.  When he was opposite\nme I sprang for the heavy mane that covered his huge neck.  To tangle\nmy fingers in it was the work of but an instant.  Then I was running\nalong at the beast's shoulder.\n\nNow, the theory upon which this hunting custom is based is one long ago\ndiscovered by experience, and that is that a thag cannot be turned from\nhis charge once he has started toward the object of his wrath, so long\nas he can still see the thing he charges.  He evidently believes that\nthe man clinging to his mane is attempting to restrain him from\novertaking his prey, and so he pays no attention to this enemy, who, of\ncourse, does not retard the mighty charge in the least.\n\nOnce in the gait of the plunging bull, it was but a slight matter to\nvault to his back, as cavalrymen mount their chargers upon the run.\nJuag was still running in plain sight ahead of the bull.  His speed was\nbut a trifle less than that of the monster that pursued him.  These\nPellucidarians are almost as fleet as deer; because I am not is one\nreason that I am always chosen for the close-in work of the thag-hunt.\nI could not keep in front of a charging thag long enough to give the\nkiller time to do his work.  I learned that the first--and last--time I\ntried it.\n\nOnce astride the bull's neck, I drew my long stone knife and, setting\nthe point carefully over the brute's spine, drove it home with both\nhands.  At the same instant I leaped clear of the stumbling animal.\nNow, no vertebrate can progress far with a knife through his spine, and\nthe thag is no exception to the rule.\n\nThe fellow was down instantly.  As he wallowed Juag returned, and the\ntwo of us leaped in when an opening afforded the opportunity and\nsnatched our javelins from his side.  Then we danced about him, more\nlike two savages than anything else, until we got the opening we were\nlooking for, when simultaneously, our javelins pierced his wild heart,\nstilling it forever.\n\nThe thag had covered considerable ground from the point at which I had\nleaped upon him.  When, after despatching him, I looked back for Dian,\nI could see nothing of her.  I called aloud, but receiving no reply,\nset out at a brisk trot to where I had left her.  I had no difficulty\nin finding the self-same bush behind which we had hidden, but Dian was\nnot there.  Again and again I called, to be rewarded only by silence.\nWhere could she be? What could have become of her in the brief interval\nsince I had seen her standing just behind me?\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nKIDNAPED!\n\nI searched about the spot carefully.  At last I was rewarded by the\ndiscovery of her javelin, a few yards from the bush that had concealed\nus from the charging thag--her javelin and the indications of a\nstruggle revealed by the trampled vegetation and the overlapping\nfootprints of a woman and a man.  Filled with consternation and dismay,\nI followed these latter to where they suddenly disappeared a hundred\nyards from where the struggle had occurred.  There I saw the huge\nimprints of a lidi's feet.\n\nThe story of the tragedy was all too plain.  A Thurian had either been\nfollowing us, or had accidentally espied Dian and taken a fancy to her.\nWhile Juag and I had been engaged with the thag, he had abducted her.\nI ran swiftly back to where Juag was working over the kill.  As I\napproached him I saw that something was wrong in this quarter as well,\nfor the islander was standing upon the carcass of the thag, his javelin\npoised for a throw.\n\nWhen I had come nearer I saw the cause of his belligerent attitude.\nJust beyond him stood two large jaloks, or wolf-dogs, regarding him\nintently--a male and a female.  Their behavior was rather peculiar, for\nthey did not seem preparing to charge him.  Rather, they were\ncontemplating him in an attitude of questioning.\n\nJuag heard me coming and turned toward me with a grin.  These fellows\nlove excitement.  I could see by his expression that he was enjoying in\nanticipation the battle that seemed imminent.  But he never hurled his\njavelin.  A shout of warning from me stopped him, for I had seen the\nremnants of a rope dangling from the neck of the male jalok.\n\nJuag again turned toward me, but this time in surprise.  I was abreast\nhim in a moment and, passing him, walked straight toward the two\nbeasts.  As I did so the female crouched with bared fangs.  The male,\nhowever, leaped forward to meet me, not in deadly charge, but with\nevery expression of delight and joy which the poor animal could exhibit.\n\nIt was Raja--the jalok whose life I had saved, and whom I then had\ntamed! There was no doubt that he was glad to see me.  I now think that\nhis seeming desertion of me had been but due to a desire to search out\nhis ferocious mate and bring her, too, to live with me.\n\nWhen Juag saw me fondling the great beast he was filled with\nconsternation, but I did not have much time to spare to Raja while my\nmind was filled with the grief of my new loss.  I was glad to see the\nbrute, and I lost no time in taking him to Juag and making him\nunderstand that Juag, too, was to be Raja's friend.  With the female\nthe matter was more difficult, but Raja helped us out by growling\nsavagely at her whenever she bared her fangs against us.\n\nI told Juag of the disappearance of Dian, and of my suspicions as to\nthe explanation of the catastrophe.  He wanted to start right out after\nher, but I suggested that with Raja to help me it might be as well were\nhe to remain and skin the thag, remove its bladder, and then return to\nwhere we had hidden the canoe on the beach.  And so it was arranged\nthat he was to do this and await me there for a reasonable time.  I\npointed to a great lake upon the surface of the pendent world above us,\ntelling him that if after this lake had appeared four times I had not\nreturned to go either by water or land to Sari and fetch Ghak with an\narmy.  Then, calling Raja after me, I set out after Dian and her\nabductor.  First I took the wolf dog to the spot where the man had\nfought with Dian.  A few paces behind us followed Raja's fierce mate.\nI pointed to the ground where the evidences of the struggle were\nplainest and where the scent must have been strong to Raja's nostrils.\n\nThen I grasped the remnant of leash that hung about his neck and urged\nhim forward upon the trail.  He seemed to understand.  With nose to\nground he set out upon his task.  Dragging me after him, he trotted\nstraight out upon the Lidi Plains, turning his steps in the direction\nof the Thurian village.  I could have guessed as much!\n\nBehind us trailed the female.  After a while she closed upon us, until\nshe ran quite close to me and at Raja's side.  It was not long before\nshe seemed as easy in my company as did her lord and master.\n\nWe must have covered considerable distance at a very rapid pace, for we\nhad reentered the great shadow, when we saw a huge lidi ahead of us,\nmoving leisurely across the level plain.  Upon its back were two human\nfigures.  If I could have known that the jaloks would not harm Dian I\nmight have turned them loose upon the lidi and its master; but I could\nnot know, and so dared take no chances.\n\nHowever, the matter was taken out of my hands presently when Raja\nraised his head and caught sight of his quarry.  With a lunge that\nhurled me flat and jerked the leash from my hand, he was gone with the\nspeed of the wind after the giant lidi and its riders.  At his side\nraced his shaggy mate, only a trifle smaller than he and no whit less\nsavage.\n\nThey did not give tongue until the lidi itself discovered them and\nbroke into a lumbering, awkward, but none the less rapid gallop.  Then\nthe two hound-beasts commenced to bay, starting with a low, plaintive\nnote that rose, weird and hideous, to terminate in a series of short,\nsharp yelps.  I feared that it might be the hunting-call of the pack;\nand if this were true, there would be slight chance for either Dian or\nher abductor--or myself, either, as far as that was concerned.  So I\nredoubled my efforts to keep pace with the hunt; but I might as well\nhave attempted to distance the bird upon the wing; as I have often\nreminded you, I am no runner.  In that instance it was just as well\nthat I am not, for my very slowness of foot played into my hands; while\nhad I been fleeter, I might have lost Dian that time forever.\n\nThe lidi, with the hounds running close on either side, had almost\ndisappeared in the darkness that enveloped the surrounding landscape,\nwhen I noted that it was bearing toward the right.  This was accounted\nfor by the fact that Raja ran upon his left side, and unlike his mate,\nkept leaping for the great beast's shoulder.  The man on the lidi's\nback was prodding at the hyaenodon with his long spear, but still Raja\nkept springing up and snapping.\n\nThe effect of this was to turn the lidi toward the right, and the\nlonger I watched the procedure the more convinced I became that Raja\nand his mate were working together with some end in view, for the\nshe-dog merely galloped steadily at the lidi's right about op-posite\nhis rump.\n\nI had seen jaloks hunting in packs, and I recalled now what for the\ntime I had not thought of--the several that ran ahead and turned the\nquarry back toward the main body.  This was precisely what Raja and his\nmate were doing--they were turning the lidi back toward me, or at least\nRaja was.  Just why the female was keeping out of it I did not\nunderstand, unless it was that she was not entirely clear in her own\nmind as to precisely what her mate was attempting.\n\nAt any rate, I was sufficiently convinced to stop where I was and await\ndevelopments, for I could readily realize two things.  One was that I\ncould never overhaul them before the damage was done if they should\npull the lidi down now.  The other thing was that if they did not pull\nit down for a few minutes it would have completed its circle and\nreturned close to where I stood.\n\nAnd this is just what happened.  The lot of them were almost swallowed\nup in the twilight for a moment.  Then they reappeared again, but this\ntime far to the right and circling back in my general direction.  I\nwaited until I could get some clear idea of the right spot to gain that\nI might intercept the lidi; but even as I waited I saw the beast\nattempt to turn still more to the right--a move that would have carried\nhim far to my left in a much more circumscribed circle than the\nhyaenodons had mapped out for him.  Then I saw the female leap forward\nand head him; and when he would have gone too far to the left, Raja\nsprang, snapping at his shoulder and held him straight.\n\nStraight for me the two savage beasts were driving their quarry!  It\nwas wonderful.\n\nIt was something else, too, as I realized while the monstrous beast\nneared me.  It was like standing in the middle of the tracks in front\nof an approaching express-train.  But I didn't dare waver; too much\ndepended upon my meeting that hurtling mass of terrified flesh with a\nwell-placed javelin.  So I stood there, waiting to be run down and\ncrushed by those gigantic feet, but determined to drive home my weapon\nin the broad breast before I fell.\n\nThe lidi was only about a hundred yards from me when Raja gave a few\nbarks in a tone that differed materially from his hunting-cry.\nInstantly both he and his mate leaped for the long neck of the ruminant.\n\nNeither missed.  Swinging in mid-air, they hung tenaciously, their\nweight dragging down the creature's head and so retarding its speed\nthat before it had reached me it was almost stopped and devoting all\nits energies to attempting to scrape off its attackers with its\nforefeet.\n\nDian had seen and recognized me, and was trying to extricate herself\nfrom the grasp of her captor, who, handicapped by his strong and agile\nprisoner, was unable to wield his lance effectively upon the two\njaloks.  At the same time I was running swiftly toward them.\n\nWhen the man discovered me he released his hold upon Dian and sprang to\nthe ground, ready with his lance to meet me.  My javelin was no match\nfor his longer weapon, which was used more for stabbing than as a\nmissile.  Should I miss him at my first cast, as was quite probable,\nsince he was prepared for me, I would have to face his formidable lance\nwith nothing more than a stone knife.  The outlook was scarcely\nentrancing.  Evidently I was soon to be absolutely at his mercy.\n\nSeeing my predicament, he ran toward me to get rid of one antagonist\nbefore he had to deal with the other two.  He could not guess, of\ncourse, that the two jaloks were hunting with me; but he doubtless\nthought that after they had finished the lidi they would make after the\nhuman prey--the beasts are notorious killers, often slaying wantonly.\n\nBut as the Thurian came Raja loosened his hold upon the lidi and dashed\nfor him, with the female close after.  When the man saw them he yelled\nto me to help him, protesting that we should both be killed if we did\nnot fight together.  But I only laughed at him and ran toward Dian.\n\nBoth the fierce beasts were upon the Thurian simu-taneously--he must\nhave died almost before his body tumbled to the ground.  Then the\nfemale wheeled toward Dian.  I was standing by her side as the thing\ncharged her, my javelin ready to receive her.\n\nBut again Raja was too quick for me.  I imagined he thought she was\nmaking for me, for he couldn't have known anything of my relations\ntoward Dian.  At any rate he leaped full upon her back and dragged her\ndown.  There ensued forthwith as terrible a battle as one would wish to\nsee if battles were gaged by volume of noise and riotousness of action.\nI thought that both the beasts would be torn to shreds.\n\nWhen finally the female ceased to struggle and rolled over on her back,\nher forepaws limply folded, I was sure that she was dead.  Raja stood\nover her, growling, his jaws close to her throat.  Then I saw that\nneither of them bore a scratch.  The male had simply administered a\nsevere drubbing to his mate.  It was his way of teaching her that I was\nsacred.\n\nAfter a moment he moved away and let her rise, when she set about\nsmoothing down her rumpled coat, while he came stalking toward Dian and\nme.  I had an arm about Dian now.  As Raja came close I caught him by\nthe neck and pulled him up to me.  There I stroked him and talked to\nhim, bidding Dian  do the same, until I think he pretty well understood\nthat if I was his friend, so was Dian.\n\nFor a long time he was inclined to be shy of her, often baring his\nteeth at her approach, and it was a much longer time before the female\nmade friends with us. But by careful kindness, by never eating without\nsharing our meat with them, and by feeding them from our hands, we\nfinally won the confidence of both animals.  However, that was a long\ntime after.\n\nWith the two beasts trotting after us, we returned to where we had left\nJuag.  Here I had the dickens' own time keeping the female from Juag's\nthroat.  Of all the venomous, wicked, cruel-hearted beasts on two\nworlds, I think a female hyaenodon takes the palm.\n\nBut eventually she tolerated Juag as she had Dian and me, and the five\nof us set out toward the coast, for Juag had just completed his labors\non the thag when we arrived.  We ate some of the meat before starting,\nand gave the hounds some.  All that we could we carried upon our backs.\n\nOn the way to the canoe we met with no mishaps.  Dian told me that the\nfellow who had stolen her had come upon her from behind while the\nroaring of the thag had drowned all other noises, and that the first\nshe had known he had disarmed her and thrown her to the back of his\nlidi, which had been lying down close by waiting for him.  By the time\nthe thag had ceased bellowing the fellow had got well away upon his\nswift mount.  By holding one palm over her mouth he had prevented her\ncalling for help.\n\n\"I thought,\" she concluded, \"that I should have to use the viper's\ntooth, after all.\"\n\nWe reached the beach at last and unearthed the canoe.  Then we busied\nourselves stepping a mast and rigging a small sail--Juag and I, that\nis--while Dian cut the thag meat into long strips for drying when we\nshould be out in the sunlight once more.\n\nAt last all was done.  We were ready to embark.  I had no difficulty in\ngetting Raja aboard the dugout; but Ranee--as we christened her after I\nhad explained to Dian the meaning of Raja and its feminine\nequivalent--positively refused for a time to follow her mate aboard.\nIn fact, we had to shove off without her.  After a moment, however, she\nplunged into the water and swam after us.\n\nI let her come alongside, and then Juag and I pulled her in, she\nsnapping and snarling at us as we did so; but, strange to relate, she\ndidn't offer to attack us after we had ensconced her safely in the\nbottom alongside Raja.\n\nThe canoe behaved much better under sail than I had hoped--infinitely\nbetter than the battle-ship Sari had--and we made good progress almost\ndue west across the gulf, upon the opposite side of which I hoped to\nfind the mouth of the river of which Juag had told me.\n\nThe islander was much interested and impressed by the sail and its\nresults.  He had not been able to understand exactly what I hoped to\naccomplish with it while we were fitting up the boat; but when he saw\nthe clumsy dugout move steadily through the water without paddles, he\nwas as delighted as a child.  We made splendid headway on the trip,\ncoming into sight of land at last.\n\nJuag had been terror-stricken when he had learned that I intended\ncrossing the ocean, and when we passed out of sight of land he was in a\nblue funk.  He said that he had never heard of such a thing before in\nhis life, and that always he had understood that those who ventured far\nfrom land never returned; for how could they find their way when they\ncould see no land to steer for?\n\nI tried to explain the compass to him; and though he never really\ngrasped the scientific explanation of it, yet he did learn to steer by\nit quite as well as I. We passed several islands on the\njourney--islands which Juag told me were entirely unknown to his own\nisland folk.  Indeed, our eyes may have been the first ever to rest\nupon them.  I should have liked to stop off and explore them, but the\nbusiness of empire would brook no unnecessary delays.\n\nI asked Juag how Hooja expected to reach the mouth of the river which\nwe were in search of if he didn't cross the gulf, and the islander\nexplained that Hooja would undoubtedly follow the coast around.  For\nsome time we sailed up the coast searching for the river, and at last\nwe found it.  So great was it that I thought it must be a mighty gulf\nuntil the mass of driftwood that came out upon the first ebb tide\nconvinced me that it was the mouth of a river.  There were the trunks\nof trees uprooted by the undermining of the river banks, giant\ncreepers, flowers, grasses, and now and then the body of some land\nanimal or bird.\n\nI was all excitement to commence our upward journey when there\noccurred that which I had never before seen within Pellucidar--a really\nterrific wind-storm.  It blew down the river upon us with a ferocity\nand suddenness that took our breaths away, and before we could get a\nchance to make the shore it became too late.  The best that we could do\nwas to hold the scud-ding craft before the wind and race along in a\nsmother of white spume.  Juag was terrified.  If Dian was, she hid it;\nfor was she not the daughter of a once great chief, the sister of a\nking, and the mate of an emperor?\n\nRaja and Ranee were frightened.  The former crawled close to my side\nand buried his nose against me.  Finally even fierce Ranee was moved to\nseek sympathy from a human being.  She slunk to Dian, pressing close\nagainst her and whimpering, while Dian stroked her shaggy neck and\ntalked to her as I talked to Raja.\n\nThere was nothing for us to do but try to keep the canoe right side up\nand straight before the wind.  For what seemed an eternity the tempest\nneither increased nor abated.  I judged that we must have blown a\nhundred miles before the wind and straight out into an unknown sea!\n\nAs suddenly as the wind rose it died again, and when it died it veered\nto blow at right angles to its former course in a gentle breeze.  I\nasked Juag then what our course was, for he had had the compass last.\nIt had been on a leather thong about his neck.  When he felt for it,\nthe expression that came into his eyes told me as plainly as words what\nhad happened--the compass was lost!  The compass was lost!\n\nAnd we were out of sight of land without a single celestial body to\nguide us! Even the pendent world was not visible from our position!\n\nOur plight seemed hopeless to me, but I dared not let Dian and Juag\nguess how utterly dismayed I was; though, as I soon discovered, there\nwas nothing to be gained by trying to keep the worst from Juag--he knew\nit quite as well as I. He had always known, from the legends of his\npeople, the dangers of the open sea beyond the sight of land.  The\ncompass, since he had learned its uses from me, had been all that he\nhad to buoy his hope of eventual salvation from the watery deep.  He\nhad seen how it had guided me across the water to the very coast that I\ndesired to reach, and so he had implicit confidence in it.  Now that it\nwas gone, his confidence had departed, also.\n\nThere seemed but one thing to do; that was to keep on sailing straight\nbefore the wind--since we could travel most rapidly along that\ncourse--until we sighted land of some description.  If it chanced to be\nthe mainland, well and good; if an island--well, we might live upon an\nisland.  We certainly could not live long in this little boat, with\nonly a few strips of dried thag and a few quarts of water left.\n\nQuite suddenly a thought occurred to me.  I was surprised that it had\nnot come before as a solution to our problem.  I turned toward Juag.\n\n\"You Pellucidarians are endowed with a wonderful instinct,\" I reminded\nhim, \"an instinct that points the way straight to your homes, no matter\nin what strange land you may find yourself.  Now all we have to do is\nlet Dian guide us toward Amoz, and we shall come in a short time to the\nsame coast whence we just were blown.\"\n\nAs I spoke I looked at them with a smile of renewed hope; but there was\nno answering smile in their eyes.  It was Dian who enlightened me.\n\n\"We could do all this upon land,\" she said.  \"But upon the water that\npower is denied us.  I do not know why; but I have always heard that\nthis is true--that only upon the water may a Pellucidarian be lost.\nThis is, I think, why we all fear the great ocean so--even those who go\nupon its surface in canoes.  Juag has told us that they never go beyond\nthe sight of land.\"\n\nWe had lowered the sail after the blow while we were discussing the\nbest course to pursue.  Our little craft had been drifting idly, rising\nand falling with the great waves that were now diminishing.  Sometimes\nwe were upon the crest--again in the hollow.  As Dian ceased speaking\nshe let her eyes range across the limitless expanse of billowing\nwaters.  We rose to a great height upon the crest of a mighty wave.  As\nwe topped it Dian gave an exclamation and pointed astern.\n\n\"Boats!\" she cried.  \"Boats! Many, many boats!\"\n\nJuag and I leaped to our feet; but our little craft had now dropped to\nthe trough, and we could see nothing but walls of water close upon\neither hand.  We waited for the next wave to lift us, and when it did\nwe strained our eyes in the direction that Dian had indicated.  Sure\nenough, scarce half a mile away were several boats, and scattered far\nand wide behind us as far as we could see were many others! We could\nnot make them out in the distance or in the brief glimpse that we\ncaught of them before we were plunged again into the next wave canon;\nbut they were boats.\n\nAnd in them must be human beings like ourselves.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nRACING FOR LIFE\n\nAt last the sea subsided, and we were able to get a better view of the\narmada of small boats in our wake.  There must have been two hundred of\nthem.  Juag said that he had never seen so many boats before in all his\nlife.  Where had they come from? Juag was first to hazard a guess.\n\n\"Hooja,\" he said, \"was building many boats to carry his warriors to the\ngreat river and up it toward Sari.  He was building them with almost\nall his warriors and many slaves upon the Island of Trees.  No one else\nin all the history of Pellucidar has ever built so many boats as they\ntold me Hooja was building.  These must be Hooja's boats.\"\n\n\"And they were blown out to sea by the great storm just as we were,\"\nsuggested Dian.\n\n\"There can be no better explanation of them,\" I agreed.\n\n\"What shall we do?\" asked Juag.\n\n\"Suppose we make sure that they are really Hooja's people,\" suggested\nDian.  \"It may be that they are not, and that if we run away from them\nbefore we learn definitely who they are, we shall be running away from\na chance to live and find the mainland.  They may be a people of whom\nwe have never even heard, and if so we can ask them to help us--if they\nknow the way to the mainland.\"\n\n\"Which they will not,' interposed Juag.\n\n\"Well,\" I said, \"it can't make our predicament any more trying to wait\nuntil we find out who they are.  They are heading for us now.\nEvidently they have spied our sail, and guess that we do not belong to\ntheir fleet.\"\n\n\"They probably want to ask the way to the mainland themselves,\" said\nJuag, who was nothing if not a pessimist.\n\n\"If they want to catch us, they can do it if they can paddle faster\nthan we can sail,\" I said.  \"If we let them come close enough to\ndiscover their identity, and can then sail faster than they can paddle,\nwe can get away from them anyway, so we might as well wait.\"\n\nAnd wait we did.\n\nThe sea calmed rapidly, so that by the time the foremost canoe had come\nwithin five hundred yards of us we could see them all plainly.  Every\none was headed for us.  The dugouts, which were of unusual length, were\nmanned by twenty paddlers, ten to a side.  Besides the paddlers there\nwere twenty-five or more warriors in each boat.\n\nWhen the leader was a hundred yards from us Dian called our attention\nto the fact that several of her crew were Sagoths.  That convinced us\nthat the flotilla was indeed Hooja's.  I told Juag to hail them and get\nwhat information he could, while I remained in the bottom of our canoe\nas much out of sight as possible.  Dian lay down at full length in the\nbottom; I did not want them to see and recognize her if they were in\ntruth Hooja's people.\n\n\"Who are you?\" shouted Juag, standing up in the boat and making a\nmegaphone of his palms.\n\nA figure arose in the bow of the leading canoe--a figure that I was\nsure I recognized even before he spoke.\n\n\"I am Hooja!\" cried the man, in answer to Juag.\n\nFor some reason he did not recognize his former prisoner and\nslave--possibly because he had so many of them.\n\n\"I come from the Island of Trees,\" he continued.  \"A hundred of my\nboats were lost in the great storm and all their crews drowned.  Where\nis the land? What are you, and what strange thing is that which\nflutters from the little tree in the front of your canoe?\"\n\nHe referred to our sail, flapping idly in the wind.\n\n\"We, too, are lost,\" replied Juag.  \"We know not where the land is.  We\nare going back to look for it now.\"\n\nSo saying he commenced to scull the canoe's nose before the wind, while\nI made fast the primitive sheets that held our crude sail.  We thought\nit time to be going.\n\nThere wasn't much wind at the time, and the heavy, lumbering dugout was\nslow in getting under way.  I thought it never would gain any momentum.\nAnd all the while Hooja's canoe was drawing rapidly nearer, propelled\nby the strong arms of his twenty paddlers.  Of course, their dugout was\nmuch larger than ours, and, consequently, infinitely heavier and more\ncumbersome; nevertheless, it was coming along at quite a clip, and ours\nwas yet but barely moving.  Dian and I remained out of sight as much as\npossible, for the two craft were now well within bow-shot of one\nanother, and I knew that Hooja had archers.\n\nHooja called to Juag to stop when he saw that our craft was moving.  He\nwas much interested in the sail, and not a little awed, as I could tell\nby his shouted remarks and questions.  Raising my head, I saw him\nplainly.  He would have made an excellent target for one of my guns,\nand I had never been sorrier that I had lost them.\n\nWe were now picking up speed a trifle, and he was not gaining upon us\nso fast as at first.  In consequence, his requests that we stop\nsuddenly changed to commands as he became aware that we were trying to\nescape him.\n\n\"Come back!\" he shouted.  \"Come back, or I'll fire!\"\n\nI use the word fire because it more nearly translates into English the\nPellucidarian word trag, which covers the launching of any deadly\nmissile.\n\nBut Juag only seized his paddle more tightly--the paddle that answered\nthe purpose of rudder, and commenced to assist the wind by vigorous\nstrokes.  Then Hooja gave the command to some of his archers to fire\nupon us.  I couldn't lie hidden in the bottom of the boat, leaving Juag\nalone exposed to the deadly shafts, so I arose and, seizing another\npaddle, set to work to help him.  Dian joined me, though I did my best\nto persuade her to remain sheltered; but being a woman, she must have\nher own way.\n\nThe instant that Hooja saw us he recognized us.  The whoop of triumph\nhe raised indicated how certain he was that we were about to fall into\nhis hands.  A shower of arrows fell about us.  Then Hooja caused his\nmen to cease firing--he wanted us alive.  None of the missiles struck\nus, for Hooja's archers were not nearly the marksmen that are my\nSarians and Amozites.\n\nWe had now gained sufficient headway to hold our own on about even\nterms with Hooja's paddlers.  We did not seem to be gaining, though;\nand neither did they.  How long this nerve-racking experience lasted I\ncannot guess, though we had pretty nearly finished our meager supply of\nprovisions when the wind picked up a bit and we commenced to draw away.\n\nNot once yet had we sighted land, nor could I understand it, since so\nmany of the seas I had seen before were thickly dotted with islands.\nOur plight was anything but pleasant, yet I think that Hooja and his\nforces were even worse off than we, for they had no food nor water at\nall.\n\nFar out behind us in a long line that curved upward in the distance, to\nbe lost in the haze, strung Hooja's two hundred boats.  But one would\nhave been enough to have taken us could it have come alongside.  We had\ndrawn some fifty yards ahead of Hooja--there had been times when we\nwere scarce ten yards in advance-and were feeling considerably safer\nfrom capture.  Hooja's men, working in relays, were commencing to show\nthe effects of the strain under which they had been forced to work\nwithout food or water, and I think their weakening aided us almost as\nmuch as the slight freshening of the wind.\n\nHooja must have commenced to realize that he was going to lose us, for\nhe again gave orders that we be fired upon.  Volley after volley of\narrows struck about us. The distance was so great by this time that\nmost of the arrows fell short, while those that reached us were\nsufficiently spent to allow us to ward them off with our paddles.\nHowever, it was a most exciting ordeal.\n\nHooja stood in the bow of his boat, alternately urging his men to\ngreater speed and shouting epithets at me.  But we continued to draw\naway from him.  At last the wind rose to a fair gale, and we simply\nraced away from our pursuers as if they were standing still.  Juag was\nso tickled that he forgot all about his hunger and thirst.  I think\nthat he had never been entirely reconciled to the heathenish invention\nwhich I called a sail, and that down in the bottom of his heart he\nbelieved that the paddlers would eventually overhaul us; but now he\ncouldn't praise it enough.\n\nWe had a strong gale for a considerable time, and eventually dropped\nHooja's fleet so far astern that we could no longer discern them.  And\nthen--ah, I shall never forget that moment--Dian sprang to her feet\nwith a cry of \"Land!\"\n\nSure enough, dead ahead, a long, low coast stretched across our bow.\nIt was still a long way off, and we couldn't make out whether it was\nisland or mainland; but at least it was land.  If ever shipwrecked\nmariners were grateful, we were then.  Raja and Ranee were commencing\nto suffer for lack of food, and I could swear that the latter often\ncast hungry glances upon us, though I am equally sure that no such\nhideous thoughts ever entered the head of her mate.  We watched them\nboth most closely, however.  Once while stroking Ranee I managed to get\na rope around her neck and make her fast to the side of the boat.  Then\nI felt a bit safer for Dian.  It was pretty close quarters in that\nlittle dugout for three human beings and two practically wild,\nman-eating dogs; but we had to make the best of it, since I would not\nlisten to Juag's suggestion that we kill and eat Raja and Ranee.\n\nWe made good time to within a few miles of the shore.  Then the wind\ndied suddenly out.  We were all of us keyed up to such a pitch of\nanticipation that the blow was doubly hard to bear.  And it was a blow,\ntoo, since we could not tell in what quarter the wind might rise again;\nbut Juag and I set to work to paddle the remaining distance.\n\nAlmost immediately the wind rose again from precisely the opposite\ndirection from which it had formerly blown, so that it was mighty hard\nwork making progress against it.  Next it veered again so that we had\nto turn and run with it parallel to the coast to keep from being\nswamped in the trough of the seas.\n\nAnd while we were suffering all these disappointments Hooja's fleet\nappeared in the distance!\n\nThey evidently had gone far to the left of our course, for they were\nnow almost behind us as we ran parallel to the coast; but we were not\nmuch afraid of being overtaken in the wind that was blowing.  The gale\nkept on increasing, but it was fitful, swooping down upon us in great\ngusts and then going almost calm for an instant.  It was after one of\nthese momentary calms that the catastrophe occurred.  Our sail hung\nlimp and our momentum decreased when of a sudden a particularly vicious\nsquall caught us.  Before I could cut the sheets the mast had snapped\nat the thwart in which it was stepped.\n\nThe worst had happened; Juag and I seized paddles and kept the canoe\nwith the wind; but that squall was the parting shot of the gale, which\ndied out immediately after, leaving us free to make for the shore,\nwhich we lost no time in attempting.  But Hooja had drawn closer in\ntoward shore than we, so it looked as if he might head us off before we\ncould land.  However, we did our best to distance him, Dian taking a\npaddle with us.\n\nWe were in a fair way to succeed when there appeared, pouring from\namong the trees beyond the beach, a horde of yelling, painted savages,\nbrandishing all sorts of devilish-looking primitive weapons.  So\nmenacing was their attitude that we realized at once the folly of\nattempting to land among them.\n\nHooja was drawing closer to us.  There was no wind.  We could not hope\nto outpaddle him.  And with our sail gone, no wind would help us,\nthough, as if in derision at our plight, a steady breeze was now\nblowing.  But we had no intention of sitting idle while our fate\novertook us, so we bent to our paddles and, keeping parallel with the\ncoast, did our best to pull away from our pursuers.\n\nIt was a grueling experience.  We were weakened by lack of food.  We\nwere suffering the pangs of thirst.  Capture and death were close at\nhand.  Yet I think that we gave a good account of ourselves in our\nfinal effort to escape.  Our boat was so much smaller and lighter than\nany of Hooja's that the three of us forced it ahead almost as rapidly\nas his larger craft could go under their twenty paddles.\n\nAs we raced along the coast for one of those seemingly interminable\nperiods that may draw hours into eternities where the labor is\nsoul-searing and there is no way to measure time, I saw what I took for\nthe opening to a bay or the mouth of a great river a short distance\nahead of us.  I wished that we might make for it; but with the menace\nof Hooja close behind and the screaming natives who raced along the\nshore parallel to us, I dared not attempt it.\n\nWe were not far from shore in that mad flight from death.  Even as I\npaddled I found opportunity to glance occasionally toward the natives.\nThey were white, but hideously painted.  From their gestures and\nweapons I took them to be a most ferocious race.  I was rather glad\nthat we had not succeeded in landing among them.\n\nHooja's fleet had been in much more compact formation when we sighted\nthem this time than on the occasion following the tempest.  Now they\nwere moving rapidly in pursuit of us, all well within the radius of a\nmile.  Five of them were leading, all abreast, and were scarce two\nhundred yards from us.  When I glanced over my shoulder I could see\nthat the archers had already fitted arrows to their bows in readiness\nto fire upon us the moment that they should draw within range.\n\nHope was low in my breast.  I could not see the slightest chance of\nescaping them, for they were overhauling us rapidly now, since they\nwere able to work their paddles in relays, while we three were rapidly\nwearying beneath the constant strain that had been put upon us.\n\nIt was then that Juag called my attention to the rift in the shore-line\nwhich I had thought either a bay or the mouth of a great river.  There\nI saw moving slowly out into the sea that which filled my soul with\nwonder.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nGORE AND DREAMS\n\nIt was a two-masted felucca with lateen sails! The craft was long and\nlow.  In it were more than fifty men, twenty or thirty of whom were at\noars with which the craft was being propelled from the lee of the land.\nI was dumbfounded.\n\nCould it be that the savage, painted natives I had seen on shore had so\nperfected the art of navigation that they were masters of such advanced\nbuilding and rigging as this craft proclaimed? It seemed impossible!\nAnd as I looked I saw another of the same type swing into view and\nfollow its sister through the narrow strait out into the ocean.\n\nNor were these all.  One after another, following closely upon one\nanother's heels, came fifty of the trim, graceful vessels.  They were\ncutting in between Hooja's fleet and our little dugout.\n\nWhen they came a bit closer my eyes fairly popped from my head at what\nI saw, for in the eye of the leading felucca stood a man with a\nsea-glass leveled upon us.  Who could they be? Was there a civilization\nwithin Pellucidar of such wondrous advancement as this? Were there\nfar-distant lands of which none of my people had ever heard, where a\nrace had so greatly outstripped all other races of this inner world?\n\nThe man with the glass had lowered it and was shouting to us.  I could\nnot make out his words, but presently I saw that he was pointing aloft.\nWhen I looked I saw a pennant fluttering from the peak of the forward\nlateen yard--a red, white, and blue pennant, with a single great white\nstar in a field of blue.\n\nThen I knew.  My eyes went even wider than they had before.  It was the\nnavy! It was the navy of the empire of Pellucidar which I had\ninstructed Perry to build in my absence.  It was MY navy!\n\nI dropped my paddle and stood up and shouted and waved my hand.  Juag\nand Dian looked at me as if I had gone suddenly mad.  When I could stop\nshouting I told them, and they shared my joy and shouted with me.\n\nBut still Hooja was coming nearer, nor could the leading felucca\noverhaul him before he would be along-side or at least within bow-shot.\n\nHooja must have been as much mystified as we were as to the identity of\nthe strange fleet; but when he saw me waving to them he evidently\nguessed that they were friendly to us, so he urged his men to redouble\ntheir efforts to reach us before the felucca cut him off.\n\nHe shouted word back to others of his fleet--word that was passed back\nuntil it had reached them all--directing them to run alongside the\nstrangers and board them, for with his two hundred craft and his eight\nor ten thousand warriors he evidently felt equal to overcoming the\nfifty vessels of the enemy, which did not seem to carry over three\nthousand men all told.\n\nHis own personal energies he bent to reaching Dian and me first,\nleaving the rest of the work to his other boats.  I thought that there\ncould be little doubt that he would be successful in so far as we were\nconcerned, and I feared for the revenge that he might take upon us\nshould the battle go against his force, as I was sure it would; for I\nknew that Perry and his Mezops must have brought with them all the arms\nand ammunition that had been contained in the prospector.  But I was\nnot prepared for what happened next.\n\nAs Hooja's canoe reached a point some twenty yards from us a great puff\nof smoke broke from the bow of the leading felucca, followed almost\nsimultaneously by a terrific explosion, and a solid shot screamed close\nover the heads of the men in Hooja's craft, raising a great splash\nwhere it clove the water just beyond them.\n\nPerry had perfected gunpowder and built cannon!  It was marvelous!\nDian and Juag, as much surprised as Hooja, turned wondering eyes toward\nme.  Again the cannon spoke.  I suppose that by comparison with the\ngreat guns of modern naval vessels of the outer world it was a\npitifully small and inadequate thing; but here in Pellucidar, where it\nwas the first of its kind, it was about as awe-inspiring as anything\nyou might imagine.\n\nWith the report an iron cannonball about five inches in diameter struck\nHooja's dugout just above the water-line, tore a great splintering hole\nin its side, turned it over, and dumped its occupants into the sea.\n\nThe four dugouts that had been abreast of Hooja had turned to intercept\nthe leading felucca.  Even now, in the face of what must have been a\nwithering catastrophe to them, they kept bravely on toward the strange\nand terrible craft.\n\nIn them were fully two hundred men, while but fifty lined the gunwale\nof the felucca to repel them.  The commander of the felucca, who proved\nto be Ja, let them come quite close and then turned loose upon them a\nvolley of shots from small-arms.\n\nThe cave men and Sagoths in the dugouts seemed to wither before that\nblast of death like dry grass before a prairie fire.  Those who were\nnot hit dropped their bows and javelins and, seizing upon paddles,\nattempted to escape.  But the felucca pursued them relentlessly, her\ncrew firing at will.\n\nAt last I heard Ja shouting to the survivors in the dugouts--they were\nall quite close to us now--offering them their lives if they would\nsurrender.  Perry was standing close behind Ja, and I knew that this\nmerciful action was prompted, perhaps commanded, by the old man; for no\nPellucidarian would have thought of showing leniency to a defeated foe.\n\nAs there was no alternative save death, the survivors surrendered and a\nmoment later were taken aboard the Amoz, the name that I could now see\nprinted in large letters upon the felucca's bow, and which no one in\nthat whole world could read except Perry and I.\n\nWhen the prisoners were aboard, Ja brought the felucca alongside our\ndugout.  Many were the willing hands that reached down to lift us to\nher decks.  The bronze faces of the Mezops were broad with smiles, and\nPerry was fairly beside himself with joy.\n\nDian went aboard first and then Juag, as I wished to help Raja and\nRanee aboard myself, well knowing that it would fare ill with any Mezop\nwho touched them.  We got them aboard at last, and a great commotion\nthey caused among the crew, who had never seen a wild beast thus\nhandled by man before.\n\nPerry and Dian and I were so full of questions that we fairly burst,\nbut we had to contain ourselves for a while, since the battle with the\nrest of Hooja's fleet had scarce commenced.  From the small forward\ndecks of the feluccas Perry's crude cannon were belching smoke, flame,\nthunder, and death.  The air trembled to the roar of them.  Hooja's\nhorde, intrepid, savage fighters that they were, were closing in to\ngrapple in a last death-struggle with the Mezops who manned our vessels.\n\nThe handling of our fleet by the red island warriors of Ja's clan was\nfar from perfect.  I could see that Perry had lost no time after the\ncompletion of the boats in setting out upon this cruise.  What little\nthe captains and crews had learned of handling feluccas they must have\nlearned principally since they embarked upon this voyage, and while\nexperience is an excellent teacher and had done much for them, they\nstill had a great deal to learn.  In maneuvering for position they were\ncontinually fouling one another, and on two occasions shots from our\nbatteries came near to striking our own ships.\n\nNo sooner, however, was I aboard the flagship than I attempted to\nrectify this trouble to some extent.  By passing commands by word of\nmouth from one ship to another I managed to get the fifty feluccas into\nsome sort of line, with the flag-ship in the lead.  In this formation\nwe commenced slowly to circle the position of the enemy.  The dugouts\ncame for us right along in an attempt to board us, but by keeping on\nthe move in one direction and circling, we managed to avoid getting in\neach other's way, and were enabled to fire our cannon and our small\narms with less danger to our own comrades.\n\nWhen I had a moment to look about me, I took in the felucca on which I\nwas.  I am free to confess that I marveled at the excellent\nconstruction and stanch yet speedy lines of the little craft.  That\nPerry had chosen this type of vessel seemed rather remarkable, for\nthough I had warned him against turreted battle-ships, armor, and like\nuseless show, I had fully expected that when I beheld his navy I should\nfind considerable attempt at grim and terrible magnificence, for it was\nalways Perry's idea to overawe these ignorant cave men when we had to\ncontend with them in battle.  But I had soon learned that while one\nmight easily astonish them with some new engine of war, it was an utter\nimpossibility to frighten them into surrender.\n\nI learned later that Ja had gone carefully over the plans of various\ncraft with Perry.  The old man had explained in detail all that the\ntext told him of them.  The two had measured out dimensions upon the\nground, that Ja might see the sizes of different boats.  Perry had\nbuilt models, and Ja had had him read carefully and explain all that\nthey could find relative to the handling of sailing vessels.  The\nresult of this was that Ja was the one who had chosen the felucca.  It\nwas well that Perry had had so excellent a balance wheel, for he had\nbeen wild to build a huge frigate of the Nelsonian era--he told me so\nhimself.\n\nOne thing that had inclined Ja particularly to the felucca was the fact\nthat it included oars in its equipment.  He realized the limitations\nof his people in the matter of sails, and while they had never used\noars, the implement was so similar to a paddle that he was sure they\nquickly could master the art--and they did.  As soon as one hull was\ncompleted Ja kept it on the water constantly, first with one crew and\nthen with another, until two thousand red warriors had learned to row.\nThen they stepped their masts and a crew was told off for the first\nship.\n\nWhile the others were building they learned to handle theirs.  As each\nsucceeding boat was launched its crew took it out and practiced with it\nunder the tutorage of those who had graduated from the first ship, and\nso on until a full complement of men had been trained for every boat.\n\nWell, to get back to the battle: The Hoojans kept on coming at us, and\nas fast as they came we mowed them down.  It was little else than\nslaughter.  Time and time again I cried to them to surrender, promising\nthem their lives if they would do so.  At last there were but ten\nboatloads left.  These turned in flight.  They thought they could\npaddle away from us--it was pitiful! I passed the word from boat to\nboat to cease firing--not to kill another Hoojan unless they fired on\nus.  Then we set out after them.  There was a nice little breeze\nblowing and we bowled along after our quarry as gracefully and as\nlightly as swans upon a park lagoon.  As we approached them I could see\nnot only wonder but admiration in their eyes.  I hailed the nearest\ndugout.\n\n\"Throw down your arms and come aboard us,\" I cried, \"and you shall not\nbe harmed.  We will feed you and return you to the mainland.  Then you\nshall go free upon your promise never to bear arms against the Emperor\nof Pellucidar again!\"\n\nI think it was the promise of food that interested them most.  They\ncould scarce believe that we would not kill them.  But when I exhibited\nthe prisoners we already had taken, and showed them that they were\nalive and unharmed, a great Sagoth in one of the boats asked me what\nguarantee I could give that I would keep my word.\n\n\"None other than my word,\" I replied.  \"That I do not break.\"\n\nThe Pellucidarians themselves are rather punctilious about this same\nmatter, so the Sagoth could understand that I might possibly be\nspeaking the truth.  But he could not understand why we should not kill\nthem unless we meant to enslave them, which I had as much as denied\nalready when I had promised to set them free.  Ja couldn't exactly see\nthe wisdom of my plan, either.  He thought that we ought to follow up\nthe ten remaining dugouts and sink them all; but I insisted that we\nmust free as many as possible of our enemies upon the mainland.\n\n\"You see,\" I explained, \"these men will return at once to Hooja's\nIsland, to the Mahar cities from which they come, or to the countries\nfrom which they were stolen by the Mahars.  They are men of two races\nand of many countries.  They will spread the story of our victory far\nand wide, and while they are with us, we will let them see and hear\nmany other wonderful things which they may carry back to their friends\nand their chiefs.  It's the finest chance for free publicity, Perry,\" I\nadded to the old man, \"that you or I have seen in many a day.\"\n\nPerry agreed with me.  As a matter of fact, he would have agreed to\nanything that would have restrained us from killing the poor devils who\nfell into our hands.  He was a great fellow to invent gunpowder and\nfirearms and cannon; but when it came to using these things to kill\npeople, he was as tender-hearted as a chicken.\n\nThe Sagoth who had spoken was talking to other Sagoths in his boat.\nEvidently they were holding a council over the question of the wisdom\nof surrendering.\n\n\"What will become of you if you don't surrender to us?\" I asked.  \"If\nwe do not open up our batteries on you again and kill you all, you will\nsimply drift about the sea helplessly until you die of thirst and\nstarvation.  You cannot return to the islands, for you have seen as\nwell as we that the natives there are very numerous and warlike.  They\nwould kill you the moment you landed.\"\n\nThe upshot of it was that the boat of which the Sagoth speaker was in\ncharge surrendered.  The Sagoths threw down their weapons, and we took\nthem aboard the ship next in line behind the Amoz.  First Ja had to\nimpress upon the captain and crew of the ship that the prisoners were\nnot to be abused or killed.  After that the remaining dugouts paddled\nup and surrendered.  We distributed them among the entire fleet lest\nthere be too many upon any one vessel.  Thus ended the first real naval\nengagement that the Pellucidarian seas had ever witnessed--though Perry\nstill insists that the action in which the Sari took part was a battle\nof the first magnitude.\n\nThe battle over and the prisoners disposed of and fed--and do not\nimagine that Dian, Juag, and I, as well as the two hounds were not fed\nalso--I turned my attention to the fleet.  We had the feluccas close in\nabout the flag-ship, and with all the ceremony of a medieval potentate\non parade I received the commanders of the forty-nine feluccas that\naccompanied the flag-ship--Dian and I together--the empress and the\nemperor of Pellucidar.\n\nIt was a great occasion.  The savage, bronze warriors entered into the\nspirit of it, for as I learned later dear old Perry had left no\nopportunity neglected for impressing upon them that David was emperor\nof Pellucidar, and that all that they were accomplishing and all that\nhe was accomplishing was due to the power, and redounded to the glory\nof David.  The old man must have rubbed it in pretty strong, for those\nfierce warriors nearly came to blows in their efforts to be among the\nfirst of those to kneel before me and kiss my hand.  When it came to\nkissing Dian's I think they enjoyed it more; I know I should have.\n\nA happy thought occurred to me as I stood upon the little deck of the\nAmoz with the first of Perry's primitive cannon behind me.  When Ja\nkneeled at my feet, and first to do me homage, I drew from its scabbard\nat his side the sword of hammered iron that Perry had taught him to\nfashion.  Striking him lightly on the shoulder I created him king of\nAnoroc.  Each captain of the forty-nine other feluccas I made a  duke.\nI left it to Perry to enlighten them as to the value of the honors I\nhad bestowed upon them.\n\nDuring these ceremonies Raja and Ranee had stood beside Dian and me.\nTheir bellies had been well filled, but still they had difficulty in\npermitting so much edible humanity to pass unchallenged.  It was a good\neducation for them though, and never after did they find it difficult\nto associate with the human race without arousing their appetites.\n\nAfter the ceremonies were over we had a chance to talk with Perry and\nJa.  The former told me that Ghak, king of Sari, had sent my letter and\nmap to him by a runner, and that he and Ja had at once decided to set\nout on the completion of the fleet to ascertain the correctness of my\ntheory that the Lural Az, in which the Anoroc Islands lay, was in\nreality the same ocean as that which lapped the shores of Thuria under\nthe name of Sojar Az, or Great Sea.\n\nTheir destination had been the island retreat of Hooja, and they had\nsent word to Ghak of their plans that we might work in harmony with\nthem.  The tempest that had blown us off the coast of the continent had\nblown them far to the south also.  Shortly before discovering us they\nhad come into a great group of islands, from between the largest two of\nwhich they were sailing when they saw Hooja's fleet pursuing our dugout.\n\nI asked Perry if he had any idea as to where we were, or in what\ndirection lay Hooja's island or the continent.  He replied by producing\nhis map, on which he had carefully marked the newly discovered\nislands--there described as the Unfriendly Isles--which showed Hooja's\nisland northwest of us about two points West.\n\nHe then explained that with compass, chronometer, log and reel, they\nhad kept a fairly accurate record of their course from the time they\nhad set out.  Four of the feluccas were equipped with these\ninstruments, and all of the captains had been instructed in their use.\n\nI was very greatly surprised at the ease with which these savages had\nmastered the rather intricate detail of this unusual work, but Perry\nassured me that they were a wonderfully intelligent race, and had been\nquick to grasp all that he had tried to teach them.\n\nAnother thing that surprised me was the fact that so much had been\naccomplished in so short a time, for I could not believe that I had\nbeen gone from Anoroc for a sufficient period to permit of building a\nfleet of fifty feluccas and mining iron ore for the cannon and balls,\nto say nothing of manufacturing these guns and the crude muzzle-loading\nrifles with which every Mezop was armed, as well as the gunpowder and\nammunition they had in such ample quantities.\n\n\"Time!\" exclaimed Perry.  \"Well, how long were you gone from Anoroc\nbefore we picked you up in the Sojar Az?\"\n\nThat was a puzzler, and I had to admit it.  I didn't know how much time\nhad elapsed and neither did Perry, for time is nonexistent in\nPellucidar.\n\n\"Then, you see, David,\" he continued, \"I had almost unbelievable\nresources at my disposal.  The Mezops inhabiting the Anoroc Islands,\nwhich stretch far out to sea beyond the three principal isles with\nwhich you are familiar, number well into the millions, and by far the\ngreater part of them are friendly to Ja.  Men, women, and children\nturned to and worked the moment Ja explained the nature of our\nenterprise.\n\n\"And not only were they anxious to do all in their power to hasten the\nday when the Mahars should be overthrown, but--and this counted for\nmost of all--they are simply ravenous for greater knowledge and for\nbetter ways of doing things.\n\n\"The contents of the prospector set their imaginations to working\novertime, so that they craved to own, themselves, the knowledge which\nhad made it possible for other men to create and build the things which\nyou brought back from the outer world.\n\n\"And then,\" continued the old man, \"the element of time, or, rather,\nlack of time, operated to my advantage.  There being no nights, there\nwas no laying off from work--they labored incessantly stopping only to\neat and, on rare occasions, to sleep.  Once we had discovered iron ore\nwe had enough mined in an incredibly short time to build a thousand\ncannon.  I had only to show them once how a thing should be done, and\nthey would fall to work by thousands to do it.\n\n\"Why, no sooner had we fashioned the first muzzle-loader and they had\nseen it work successfully, than fully three thousand Mezops fell to\nwork to make rifles.  Of course there was much confusion and lost\nmotion at first, but eventually Ja got them in hand, detailing squads\nof them under competent chiefs to certain work.\n\n\"We now have a hundred expert gun-makers.  On a little isolated isle we\nhave a great powder-factory.  Near the iron-mine, which is on the\nmainland, is a smelter, and on the eastern shore of Anoroc, a well\nequipped ship-yard.  All these industries are guarded by forts in which\nseveral cannon are mounted and where warriors are always on guard.\n\n\"You would be surprised now, David, at the aspect of Anoroc.  I am\nsurprised myself; it seems always to me as I compare it with the day\nthat I first set foot upon it from the deck of the Sari that only a\nmiracle could have worked the change that has taken place.\"\n\n\"It is a miracle,\" I said; \"it is nothing short of a miracle to\ntransplant all the wondrous possibilities of the twentieth century back\nto the Stone Age.  It is a miracle to think that only five hundred\nmiles of earth separate two epochs that are really ages and ages apart.\"\n\n\"It is stupendous, Perry! But still more stupendous is the power that\nyou and I wield in this great world.  These people look upon us as\nlittle less than supermen.  We must show them that we are all of that.\n\n\"We must give them the best that we have, Perry.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" he agreed; \"we must.  I have been thinking a great deal lately\nthat some kind of shrapnel shell or explosive bomb would be a most\nsplendid innovation in their warfare.  Then there are breech-loading\nrifles and those with magazines that I must hasten to study out and\nlearn to reproduce as soon as we get settled down again; and--\"\n\n\"Hold on, Perry!\" I cried.  \"I didn't mean these sorts of things at\nall.  I said that we must give them the best we have.  What we have\ngiven them so far has been the worst.  We have given them war and the\nmunitions of war.  In a single day we have made their wars infinitely\nmore terrible and bloody than in all their past ages they have been\nable to make them with their crude, primitive weapons.\n\n\"In a period that could scarcely have exceeded two outer earthly hours,\nour fleet practically annihilated the largest armada of native canoes\nthat the Pellucidarians ever before had gathered together.  We\nbutchered some eight thousand warriors with the twentieth-century gifts\nwe brought.  Why, they wouldn't have killed that many warriors in the\nentire duration of a dozen of their wars with their own weapons!  No,\nPerry; we've got to give them something better than scientific methods\nof killing one another.\"\n\nThe old man looked at me in amazement.  There was reproach in his eyes,\ntoo.\n\n\"Why, David!\" he said sorrowfully.  \"I thought that you would be\npleased with what I had done.  We planned these things together, and I\nam sure that it was you who suggested practically all of it.  I have\ndone only what I thought you wished done and I have done it the best\nthat I know how.\"\n\nI laid my hand on the old man's shoulder.\n\n\"Bless your heart, Perry!\" I cried.  \"You've accomplished miracles.\nYou have done precisely what I should have done, only you've done it\nbetter.  I'm not finding fault; but I don't wish to lose sight myself,\nor let you lose sight, of the greater work which must grow out of this\npreliminary and necessary carnage.  First we must place the empire upon\na secure footing, and we can do so only by putting the fear of us in\nthe hearts of our enemies; but after that--\n\n\"Ah, Perry! That is the day I look forward to! When you and I can build\nsewing-machines instead of battle-ships, harvesters of crops instead of\nharvesters of men, plow-shares and telephones, schools and colleges,\nprinting-presses and paper! When our merchant marine shall ply the\ngreat Pellucidarian seas, and cargoes of silks and typewriters and\nbooks shall forge their ways where only hideous saurians have held sway\nsince time began!\"\n\n\"Amen!\" said Perry.\n\nAnd Dian, who was standing at my side, pressed my hand.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nCONQUEST AND PEACE\n\nThe fleet sailed directly for Hooja's island, coming to anchor at its\nnorth-eastern extremity before the flat-topped hill that had been\nHooja's stronghold.  I sent one of the prisoners ashore to demand an\nimmediate surrender; but as he told me afterward they wouldn't believe\nall that he told them, so they congregated on the cliff-top and shot\nfutile arrows at us.\n\nIn reply I had five of the feluccas cannonade them.  When they\nscampered away at the sound of the terrific explosions, and at sight of\nthe smoke and the iron balls I landed a couple of hundred red warriors\nand led them to the opposite end of the hill into the tunnel that ran\nto its summit.  Here we met a little resistance; but a volley from the\nmuzzle-loaders turned back those who disputed our right of way, and\npresently we gained the mesa.  Here again we met resistance, but at\nlast the remnant of Hooja's horde surrendered.\n\nJuag was with me, and I lost no time in returning to him and his tribe\nthe hilltop that had been their ancestral home for ages until they were\nrobbed of it by Hooja.  I created a kingdom of the island, making Juag\nking there.  Before we sailed I went to Gr-gr-gr, chief of the\nbeast-men, taking Juag with me.  There the three of us arranged a code\nof laws that would permit the brute-folk and the human beings of the\nisland to live in peace and harmony.  Gr-gr-gr sent his son with me\nback to Sari, capital of my empire, that he might learn the ways of the\nhuman beings.  I have hopes of turning this race into the greatest\nagriculturists of Pellucidar.  When I returned to the fleet I found\nthat one of the islanders of Juag's tribe, who had been absent when we\narrived, had just returned from the mainland with the news that a great\narmy was encamped in the Land of Awful Shadow, and that they were\nthreatening Thuria.  I lost no time in weighing anchors and setting out\nfor the continent, which we reached after a short and easy voyage.\n\nFrom the deck of the Amoz I scanned the shore through the glasses that\nPerry had brought with him.  When we were close enough for the glasses\nto be of value I saw that there was indeed a vast concourse of warriors\nentirely encircling the walled-village of Goork, chief of the Thurians.\nAs we approached smaller objects became distinguishable.  It was then\nthat I discovered numerous flags and pennants floating above the army\nof the besiegers.\n\nI called Perry and passed the glasses to him.\n\n\"Ghak of Sari,\" I said.\n\nPerry looked through the lenses of a moment, and then turned to me with\na smile.\n\n\"The red, white, and blue of the empire,\" he said.  \"It is indeed your\nmajesty's army.\"\n\nIt soon became apparent that we had been sighted by those on shore, for\na great multitude of warriors had congregated along the beach watching\nus.  We came to anchor as close in as we dared, which with our light\nfeluccas was within easy speaking-distance of the shore.  Ghak was\nthere and his eyes were mighty wide, too; for, as he told us later,\nthough he knew this must be Perry's fleet it was so wonderful to him\nthat he could not believe the testimony of his own eyes even while he\nwas watching it approach.\n\nTo give the proper effect to our meeting I commanded that each felucca\nfire twenty-one guns as a salute to His Majesty Ghak, King of Sari.\nSome of the gunners, in the exuberance of their enthusiasm, fired solid\nshot; but fortunately they had sufficient good judg-ment to train their\npieces on the open sea, so no harm was done.  After this we landed--an\narduous task since each felucca carried but a single light dugout.\n\nI learned from Ghak that the Thurian chieftain, Goork, had been\ninclined to haughtiness, and had told Ghak, the Hairy One, that he knew\nnothing of me and cared less; but I imagine that the sight of the fleet\nand the sound of the guns brought him to his senses, for it was not\nlong before he sent a deputation to me, inviting me to visit him in his\nvillage.  Here he apologized for the treatment he had accorded me, very\ngladly swore allegiance to the empire, and received in return the title\nof king.\n\nWe remained in Thuria only long enough to arrange the treaty with\nGoork, among the other details of which was his promise to furnish the\nimperial army with a thousand lidi, or Thurian beasts of burden, and\ndrivers for them.  These were to accompany Ghak's army back to Sari by\nland, while the fleet sailed to the mouth of the great river from which\nDian, Juag, and I had been blown.\n\nThe voyage was uneventful.  We found the river easily, and sailed up it\nfor many miles through as rich and wonderful a plain as I have ever\nseen.  At the head of navigation we disembarked, leaving a sufficient\nguard for the feluccas, and marched the remaining distance to Sari.\n\nGhak's army, which was composed of warriors of all the original tribes\nof the federation, showing how successful had been his efforts to\nrehabilitate the empire, marched into Sari some time after we arrived.\nWith them were the thousand lidi from Thuria.\n\nAt a council of the kings it was decided that we should at once\ncommence the great war against the Mahars, for these haughty reptiles\npresented the greatest obstacle to human progress within Pellucidar.  I\nlaid out a plan of campaign which met with the enthusiastic\nindorsement of the kings.  Pursuant to it, I at once despatched fifty\nlidi to the fleet with orders to fetch fifty cannon to Sari.  I also\nordered the fleet to proceed at once to Anoroc, where they were to take\naboard all the rifles and ammunition that had been completed since\ntheir departure, and with a full complement of men to sail along the\ncoast in an attempt to find a passage to the inland sea near which lay\nthe Mahars' buried city of Phutra.\n\nJa was sure that a large and navigable river connected the sea of\nPhutra with the Lural Az, and that, barring accident, the fleet would\nbe before Phutra as soon as the land forces were.\n\nAt last the great army started upon its march.  There were warriors\nfrom every one of the federated kingdoms.  All were armed either with\nbow and arrows or muzzle-loaders, for nearly the entire Mezop\ncontingent had been enlisted for this march, only sufficient having\nbeen left aboard the feluccas to man them properly.  I divided the\nforces into divisions, regiments, battalions, companies, and even to\nplatoons and sections, appointing the full complement of officers and\nnoncommissioned officers.  On the long march I schooled them in their\nduties, and as fast as one learned I sent him among the others as a\nteacher.\n\nEach regiment was made up of about a thousand bowmen, and to each was\ntemporarily attached a company of Mezop musketeers and a battery of\nartillery--the latter, our naval guns, mounted upon the broad backs of\nthe mighty lidi.  There was also one full regiment of Mezop musketeers\nand a regiment of primitive spearmen.  The rest of the lidi that we\nbrought with us were used for baggage animals and to transport our\nwomen and children, for we had brought them with us, as it was our\nintention to march from one Mahar city to another until we had subdued\nevery Mahar nation that menaced the safety of any kingdom of the empire.\n\nBefore we reached the plain of Phutra we were discovered by a company\nof Sagoths, who at first stood to give battle; but upon seeing the vast\nnumbers of our army they turned and fled toward Phutra.  The result of\nthis was that when we came in sight of the hundred towers which mark\nthe entrances to the buried city we found a great army of Sagoths and\nMahars lined up to give us battle.\n\nAt a thousand yards we halted, and, placing our artillery upon a slight\neminence at either flank, we commenced to drop solid shot among them.\nJa, who was chief artillery officer, was in command of this branch of\nthe service, and he did some excellent work, for his Mezop gunners had\nbecome rather proficient by this time.  The Sagoths couldn't stand much\nof this sort of warfare, so they charged us, yelling like fiends.  We\nlet them come quite close, and then the musketeers who formed the first\nline opened up on them.\n\nThe slaughter was something frightful, but still the remnants of them\nkept on coming until it was a matter of hand-to-hand fighting.  Here\nour spearmen were of value, as were also the crude iron swords with\nwhich most of the imperial warriors were armed.\n\nWe lost heavily in the encounter after the Sagoths reached us; but they\nwere absolutely exterminated--not one remained even as a prisoner.  The\nMahars, seeing how the battle was going, had hastened to the safety of\ntheir buried city.  When we had overcome their gorilla-men we followed\nafter them.\n\nBut here we were doomed to defeat, at least temporarily; for no sooner\nhad the first of our troops descended into the subterranean avenues\nthan many of them came stumbling and fighting their way back to the\nsurface, half-choked by the fumes of some deadly gas that the reptiles\nhad liberated upon them.  We lost a number of men here.  Then I sent\nfor Perry, who had remained discreetly in the rear, and had him\nconstruct a little affair that I had had in my mind against the\npossibility of our meeting with a check at the entrances to the\nunderground city.\n\nUnder my direction he stuffed one of his cannon full of powder, small\nbullets, and pieces of stone, almost to the muzzle.  Then he plugged\nthe muzzle tight with a cone-shaped block of wood, hammered and jammed\nin as tight as it could be.  Next he inserted a long fuse.  A dozen men\nrolled the cannon to the top of the stairs leading down into the city,\nfirst removing it from its carriage.  One of them then lit the fuse and\nthe whole thing was given a shove down the stairway, while the\ndetachment turned and scampered to a safe distance.\n\nFor what seemed a very long time nothing happened.  We had commenced to\nthink that the fuse had been put out while the piece was rolling down\nthe stairway, or that the Mahars had guessed its purpose and\nextinguished it themselves, when the ground about the entrance rose\nsuddenly into the air, to be followed by a terrific explosion and a\nburst of smoke and flame that shot high in company with dirt, stone,\nand fragments of cannon.\n\nPerry had been working on two more of these giant bombs as soon as the\nfirst was completed.  Presently we launched these into two of the other\nentrances.  They were all that were required, for almost immediately\nafter the third explosion a stream of Mahars broke from the exits\nfurthest from us, rose upon their wings, and soared northward.  A\nhundred men on lidi were despatched in pursuit, each lidi carrying two\nriflemen in addition to its driver.  Guessing that the inland sea,\nwhich lay not far north of Phutra, was their destination, I took a\ncouple of regiments and followed.\n\nA low ridge intervenes between the Phutra plain where the city lies,\nand the inland sea where the Mahars were wont to disport themselves in\nthe cool waters.  Not until we had topped this ridge did we get a view\nof the sea.\n\nThen we beheld a scene that I shall never forget so long as I may live.\n\nAlong the beach were lined up the troop of lidi, while a hundred yards\nfrom shore the surface of the water was black with the long snouts and\ncold, reptilian eyes of the Mahars.  Our savage Mezop riflemen, and the\nshorter, squatter, white-skinned Thurian drivers, shading their eyes\nwith their hands, were gazing seaward beyond the Mahars, whose eyes\nwere fastened upon the same spot.  My heart leaped when I discovered\nthat which was chaining the attention of them all.  Twenty graceful\nfeluccas were moving smoothly across the waters of the sea toward the\nreptilian horde!\n\nThe sight must have filled the Mahars with awe and consternation, for\nnever had they seen the like of these craft before.  For a time they\nseemed unable to do aught but gaze at the approaching fleet; but when\nthe Mezops opened on them with their muskets the reptiles swam rapidly\nin the direction of the feluccas, evidently thinking that these would\nprove the easier to overcome.  The commander of the fleet permitted\nthem to approach within a hundred yards.  Then he opened on them with\nall the cannon that could be brought to bear, as well as with the small\narms of the sailors.\n\nA great many of the reptiles were killed at the first volley.  They\nwavered for a moment, then dived; nor did we see them again for a long\ntime.\n\nBut finally they rose far out beyond the fleet, and when the feluccas\ncame about and pursued them they left the water and flew away toward\nthe north.\n\nFollowing the fall of Phutra I visited Anoroc, where I found the people\nbusy in the shipyards and the factories that Perry had established.  I\ndiscovered something, too, that he had not told me of--something that\nseemed infinitely more promising than the powder-factory or the\narsenal.  It was a young man poring over one of the books I had brought\nback from the outer world! He was sitting in the log cabin that Perry\nhad had built to serve as his sleeping quarters and office.  So\nabsorbed was he that he did not notice our entrance.  Perry saw the\nlook of astonishment in my eyes and smiled.\n\n\"I started teaching him the alphabet when we first reached the\nprospector, and were taking out its contents,\" he explained.  \"He was\nmuch mystified by the books and anxious to know of what use they were.\nWhen I explained he asked me to teach him to read, and so I worked with\nhim whenever I could.  He is very intelligent and learns quickly.\nBefore I left he had made great progress, and as soon as he is\nqualified he is going to teach others to read.  It was mighty hard work\ngetting started, though, for everything had to be translated into\nPellucidarian.\n\n\"It will take a long time to solve this problem, but I think that by\nteaching a number of them to read and write English we shall then be\nable more quickly to give them a written language of their own.\"\n\nAnd this was the nucleus about which we were to build our great system\nof schools and colleges--this almost naked red warrior, sitting in\nPerry's little cabin upon the island of Anoroc, picking out words\nletter by letter from a work on intensive farming.  Now we have--\n\nBut I'll get to all that before I finish.\n\nWhile we were at Anoroc I accompanied Ja in an expedition to South\nIsland, the southernmost of the three largest which form the Anoroc\ngroup--Perry had given it its name--where we made peace with the tribe\nthere that had for long been hostile toward Ja.  They were now glad\nenough to make friends with him and come into the federation.  From\nthere we sailed with sixty-five feluccas for distant Luana, the main\nisland of the group where dwell the hereditary enemies of Anoroc.\n\nTwenty-five of the feluccas were of a new and larger type than those\nwith which Ja and Perry had sailed on the occasion when they chanced to\nfind and rescue Dian and me.  They were longer, carried much larger\nsails, and were considerably swifter.  Each carried four guns instead\nof two, and these were so arranged that one or more of them could be\nbrought into action no matter where the enemy lay.\n\nThe Luana group lies just beyond the range of vision from the mainland.\nThe largest island of it alone is visible from Anoroc; but when we\nneared it we found that it comprised many beautiful islands, and that\nthey were thickly populated.  The Luanians had not, of course, been\nignorant of all that had been going on in the domains of their nearest\nand dearest enemies.  They knew of our feluccas and our guns, for\nseveral of their riding-parties had had a taste of both.  But their\nprincipal chief, an old man, had never seen either.  So, when he\nsighted us, he put out to overwhelm us, bringing with him a fleet of\nabout a hundred large war-canoes, loaded to capacity with javelin-armed\nwarriors.  It was pitiful, and I told Ja as much.  It seemed a shame to\nmassacre these poor fellows if there was any way out of it.\n\nTo my surprise Ja felt much as I did.  He said he had always hated to\nwar with other Mezops when there were so many alien races to fight\nagainst.  I suggested that we hail the chief and request a parley; but\nwhen Ja did so the old fool thought that we were afraid, and with loud\ncries of exultation urged his warriors upon us.\n\nSo we opened up on them, but at my suggestion centered our fire upon\nthe chief's canoe.  The result was that in about thirty seconds there\nwas nothing left of that war dugout but a handful of splinters, while\nits crew--those who were not killed--were struggling in the water,\nbattling with the myriad terrible creatures that had risen to devour\nthem.\n\nWe saved some of them, but the majority died just as had Hooja and the\ncrew of his canoe that time our second shot capsized them.\n\nAgain we called to the remaining warriors to enter into a parley with\nus; but the chief's son was there and he would not, now that he had\nseen his father killed.  He was all for revenge.  So we had to open up\non the brave fellows with all our guns; but it didn't last long at\nthat, for there chanced to be wiser heads among the Luanians than their\nchief or his son had possessed.  Presently, an old warrior who\ncommanded one of the dugouts surrendered.  After that they came in one\nby one until all had laid their weapons upon our decks.\n\nThen we called together upon the flag-ship all our captains, to give\nthe affair greater weight and dignity, and all the principal men of\nLuana.  We had conquered them, and they expected either death or\nslavery; but they deserved neither, and I told them so.  It is always\nmy habit here in Pellucidar to impress upon these savage people that\nmercy is as noble a quality as physical bravery, and that next to the\nmen who fight shoulder to shoulder with one, we should honor the brave\nmen who fight against us, and if we are victorious, award them both the\nmercy and honor that are their due.\n\nBy adhering to this policy I have won to the federation many great and\nnoble peoples, who under the ancient traditions of the inner world\nwould have been massacred or enslaved after we had conquered them; and\nthus I won the Luanians.  I gave them their freedom, and returned their\nweapons to them after they had sworn loyalty to me and friendship and\npeace with Ja, and I made the old fellow, who had had the good sense to\nsurrender, king of Luana, for both the old chief and his only son had\ndied in the battle.\n\nWhen I sailed away from Luana she was included among the kingdoms of\nthe empire, whose boundaries were thus pushed eastward several hundred\nmiles.\n\nWe now returned to Anoroc and thence to the mainland, where I again\ntook up the campaign against the Mahars, marching from one great buried\ncity to another until we had passed far north of Amoz into a country\nwhere I had never been.  At each city we were victorious, killing or\ncapturing the Sagoths and driving the Mahars further away.\n\nI noticed that they always fled toward the north.  The Sagoth prisoners\nwe usually found quite ready to trans-fer their allegiance to us, for\nthey are little more than brutes, and when they found that we could\nfill their stomachs and give them plenty of fighting, they were nothing\nloath to march with us against the next Mahar city and battle with men\nof their own race.\n\nThus we proceeded, swinging in a great half-circle north and west and\nsouth again until we had come back to the edge of the Lidi Plains north\nof Thuria.  Here we overcame the Mahar city that had ravaged the Land\nof Awful Shadow for so many ages.  When we marched on to Thuria, Goork\nand his people went mad with joy at the tidings we brought them.\n\nDuring this long march of conquest we had passed through seven\ncountries, peopled by primitive human tribes who had not yet heard of\nthe federation, and succeeded in joining them all to the empire.  It\nwas noticeable that each of these peoples had a Mahar city situated\nnear by, which had drawn upon them for slaves and human food for so\nmany ages that not even in legend had the population any folk-tale\nwhich did not in some degree reflect an inherent terror of the\nreptilians.\n\nIn each of these countries I left an officer and warriors to train them\nin military discipline, and prepare them to receive the arms that I\nintended furnishing them as rapidly as Perry's arsenal could turn them\nout, for we felt that it would be a long, long time before we should\nsee the last of the Mahars.  That they had flown north but temporarily\nuntil we should be gone with our great army and terrifying guns I was\npositive, and equally sure was I that they would presently return.\n\nThe task of ridding Pellucidar of these hideous creatures is one which\nin all probability will never be entirely completed, for their great\ncities must abound by the hundreds and thousands in the far-distant\nlands that no subject of the empire has ever laid eyes upon.\n\nBut within the present boundaries of my domain there are now none left\nthat I know of, for I am sure we should have heard indirectly of any\ngreat Mahar city that had escaped us, although of course the imperial\narmy has by no means covered the vast area which I now rule.\n\nAfter leaving Thuria we returned to Sari, where the seat of government\nis located.  Here, upon a vast, fertile plateau, overlooking the great\ngulf that runs into the continent from the Lural Az, we are building\nthe great city of Sari.  Here we are erecting mills and factories.\nHere we are teaching men and women the rudiments of agriculture.  Here\nPerry has built the first printing-press, and a dozen young Sarians are\nteaching their fellows to read and write the language of Pellucidar.\n\nWe have just laws and only a few of them.  Our people are happy because\nthey are always working at something which they enjoy.  There is no\nmoney, nor is any money value placed upon any commodity.  Perry and I\nwere as one in resolving that the root of all evil should not be\nintroduced into Pellucidar while we lived.\n\nA man may exchange that which he produces for something which he\ndesires that another has produced; but he cannot dispose of the thing\nhe thus acquires.  In other words, a commodity ceases to have pecuniary\nvalue the instant that it passes out of the hands of its producer.  All\nexcess reverts to government; and, as this represents the production of\nthe people as a government, government may dispose of it to other\npeoples in exchange for that which they produce.  Thus we are\nestablishing a trade between kingdoms, the profits from which go to the\nbetterment of the people--to building factories for the manufacture of\nagricultural implements, and machinery for the various trades we are\ngradually teaching the people.\n\nAlready Anoroc and Luana are vying with one another in the excellence\nof the ships they build.  Each has several large ship-yards.  Anoroc\nmakes gunpowder and mines iron ore, and by means of their ships they\ncarry on a very lucrative trade with Thuria, Sari, and Amoz.  The\nThurians breed lidi, which, having the strength and intelligence of an\nelephant, make excellent draft animals.\n\nAround Sari and Amoz the men are domesticating the great striped\nantelope, the meat of which is most delicious.  I am sure that it will\nnot be long before they will have them broken to harness and saddle.\nThe horses of Pellucidar are far too diminutive for such uses, some\nspecies of them being little larger than fox-terriers.\n\nDian and I live in a great palace overlooking the gulf.  There is no\nglass in our windows, for we have no windows, the walls rising but a\nfew feet above the floor-line, the rest of the space being open to the\nceilings; but we have a roof to shade us from the perpetual noon-day\nsun.  Perry and I decided to set a style in architecture that would not\ncurse future generations with the white plague, so we have plenty of\nventilation.  Those of the people who prefer, still inhabit their\ncaves, but many are building houses similar to ours.\n\nAt Greenwich we have located a town and an observatory--though there is\nnothing to observe but the stationary sun directly overhead.  Upon the\nedge of the Land of Awful Shadow is another observatory, from which the\ntime is flashed by wireless to every corner of the empire twenty-four\ntimes a day.  In addition to the wireless, we have a small telephone\nsystem in Sari.  Everything is yet in the early stages of development;\nbut with the science of the outer-world twentieth century to draw upon\nwe are making rapid progress, and with all the faults and errors of the\nouter world to guide us clear of dangers, I think that it will not be\nlong before Pellucidar will become as nearly a Utopia as one may expect\nto find this side of heaven.\n\nPerry is away just now, laying out a railway-line from Sari to Amoz.\nThere are immense anthracite coal-fields at the head of the gulf not\nfar from Sari, and the railway will tap these.  Some of his students\nare working on a locomotive now.  It will be a strange sight to see an\niron horse puffing through the primeval jungles of the stone age, while\ncave bears, saber-toothed tigers, mastodons and the countless other\nterrible creatures of the past look on from their tangled lairs in\nwide-eyed astonishment.\n\nWe are very happy, Dian and I, and I would not return to the outer\nworld for all the riches of all its princes.  I am content here.  Even\nwithout my imperial powers and honors I should be content, for have I\nnot that greatest of all treasures, the love of a good woman--my\nwondrous empress, Dian the Beautiful?"