Four Dead Mahars

: At The Earth's Core

A MOMENT LATER I WAS STANDING BEFORE A DOZEN Mahars--the social

investigators of Phutra. They asked me many questions, through a

Sagoth interpreter. I answered them all truthfully. They seemed

particularly interested in my account of the outer earth and the

strange vehicle which had brought Perry and me to Pellucidar. I

thought that I had convinced them, and after they had sat in silence

for a long time following m examination, I expected to be ordered

returned to my quarters.



During this apparent silence they were debating through the medium of

strange, unspoken language the merits of my tale. At last the head of

the tribunal communicated the result of their conference to the officer

in charge of the Sagoth guard.



"Come," he said to me, "you are sentenced to the experimental pits for

having dared to insult the intelligence of the mighty ones with the

ridiculous tale you have had the temerity to unfold to them."



"Do you mean that they do not believe me?" I asked, totally astonished.



"Believe you!" he laughed. "Do you mean to say that you expected any

one to believe so impossible a lie?"



It was hopeless, and so I walked in silence beside my guard down

through the dark corridors and runways toward my awful doom. At a low

level we came upon a number of lighted chambers in which we saw many

Mahars engaged in various occupations. To one of these chambers my

guard escorted me, and before leaving they chained me to a side wall.

There were other humans similarly chained. Upon a long table lay a

victim even as I was ushered into the room. Several Mahars stood about

the poor creature holding him down so that he could not move. Another,

grasping a sharp knife with her three-toed fore foot, was laying open

the victim's chest and abdomen. No anesthetic had been administered

and the shrieks and groans of the tortured man were terrible to hear.

This, indeed, was vivisection with a vengeance. Cold sweat broke out

upon me as I realized that soon my turn would come. And to think that

where there was no such thing as time I might easily imagine that my

suffering was enduring for months before death finally released me!



The Mahars had paid not the slightest attention to me as I had been

brought into the room. So deeply immersed were they in their work that

I am sure they did not even know that the Sagoths had entered with me.

The door was close by. Would that I could reach it! But those heavy

chains precluded any such possibility. I looked about for some means

of escape from my bonds. Upon the floor between me and the Mahars lay

a tiny surgical instrument which one of them must have dropped. It

looked not unlike a button-hook, but was much smaller, and its point

was sharpened. A hundred times in my boyhood days had I picked locks

with a buttonhook. Could I but reach that little bit of polished steel

I might yet effect at least a temporary escape.



Crawling to the limit of my chain, I found that by reaching one hand as

far out as I could my fingers still fell an inch short of the coveted

instrument. It was tantalizing! Stretch every fiber of my being as I

would, I could not quite make it.



At last I turned about and extended one foot toward the object. My

heart came to my throat! I could just touch the thing! But suppose

that in my effort to drag it toward me I should accidentally shove it

still farther away and thus entirely out of reach! Cold sweat broke

out upon me from every pore. Slowly and cautiously I made the effort.

My toes dropped upon the cold metal. Gradually I worked it toward me

until I felt that it was within reach of my hand and a moment later I

had turned about and the precious thing was in my grasp.



Assiduously I fell to work upon the Mahar lock that held my chain. It

was pitifully simple. A child might have picked it, and a moment later

I was free. The Mahars were now evidently completing their work at the

table. One already turned away and was examining other victims,

evidently with the intention of selecting the next subject.



Those at the table had their backs toward me. But for the creature

walking toward us I might have escaped that moment. Slowly the thing

approached me, when its attention was attracted by a huge slave chained

a few yards to my right. Here the reptile stopped and commenced to go

over the poor devil carefully, and as it did so its back turned toward

me for an instant, and in that instant I gave two mighty leaps that

carried me out of the chamber into the corridor beyond, down which I

raced with all the speed I could command.



Where I was, or whither I was going, I knew not. My only thought was

to place as much distance as possible between me and that frightful

chamber of torture.



Presently I reduced my speed to a brisk walk, and later realizing the

danger of running into some new predicament, were I not careful, I

moved still more slowly and cautiously. After a time I came to a

passage that seemed in some mysterious way familiar to me, and

presently, chancing to glance within a chamber which led from the

corridor I saw three Mahars curled up in slumber upon a bed of skins.

I could have shouted aloud in joy and relief. It was the same corridor

and the same Mahars that I had intended to have lead so important a

role in our escape from Phutra. Providence had indeed been kind to me,

for the reptiles still slept.



My one great danger now lay in returning to the upper levels in search

of Perry and Ghak, but there was nothing else to be done, and so I

hastened upward. When I came to the frequented portions of the

building, I found a large burden of skins in a corner and these I

lifted to my head, carrying them in such a way that ends and corners

fell down about my shoulders completely hiding my face. Thus disguised

I found Perry and Ghak together in the chamber where we had been wont

to eat and sleep.



Both were glad to see me, it was needless to say, though of course they

had known nothing of the fate that had been meted out to me by my

judges. It was decided that no time should now be lost before

attempting to put our plan of escape to the test, as I could not hope

to remain hidden from the Sagoths long, nor could I forever carry that

bale of skins about upon my head without arousing suspicion. However

it seemed likely that it would carry me once more safely through the

crowded passages and chambers of the upper levels, and so I set out

with Perry and Ghak--the stench of the illy cured pelts fairly choking

me.



Together we repaired to the first tier of corridors beneath the main

floor of the buildings, and here Perry and Ghak halted to await me.

The buildings are cut out of the solid limestone formation. There is

nothing at all remarkable about their architecture. The rooms are

sometimes rectangular, sometimes circular, and again oval in shape.

The corridors which connect them are narrow and not always straight.

The chambers are lighted by diffused sunlight reflected through tubes

similar to those by which the avenues are lighted. The lower the tiers

of chambers, the darker. Most of the corridors are entirely unlighted.

The Mahars can see quite well in semidarkness.



Down to the main floor we encountered many Mahars, Sagoths, and slaves;

but no attention was paid to us as we had become a part of the domestic

life of the building. There was but a single entrance leading from the

place into the avenue and this was well guarded by Sagoths--this

doorway alone were we forbidden to pass. It is true that we were not

supposed to enter the deeper corridors and apartments except on special

occasions when we were instructed to do so; but as we were considered a

lower order without intelligence there was little reason to fear that

we could accomplish any harm by so doing, and so we were not hindered

as we entered the corridor which led below.



Wrapped in a skin I carried three swords, and the two bows, and the

arrows which Perry and I had fashioned. As many slaves bore

skin-wrapped burdens to and fro my load attracted no comment. Where I

left Ghak and Perry there were no other creatures in sight, and so I

withdrew one sword from the package, and leaving the balance of the

weapons with Perry, started on alone toward the lower levels.



Having come to the apartment in which the three Mahars slept I entered

silently on tiptoe, forgetting that the creatures were without the

sense of hearing. With a quick thrust through the heart I disposed of

the first but my second thrust was not so fortunate, so that before I

could kill the next of my victims it had hurled itself against the

third, who sprang quickly up, facing me with wide-distended jaws. But

fighting is not the occupation which the race of Mahars loves, and when

the thing saw that I already had dispatched two of its companions, and

that my sword was red with their blood, it made a dash to escape me.

But I was too quick for it, and so, half hopping, half flying, it

scurried down another corridor with me close upon its heels.



Its escape meant the utter ruin of our plan, and in all probability my

instant death. This thought lent wings to my feet; but even at my best

I could do no more than hold my own with the leaping thing before me.



Of a sudden it turned into an apartment on the right of the corridor,

and an instant later as I rushed in I found myself facing two of the

Mahars. The one who had been there when we entered had been occupied

with a number of metal vessels, into which had been put powders and

liquids as I judged from the array of flasks standing about upon the

bench where it had been working. In an instant I realized what I had

stumbled upon. It was the very room for the finding of which Perry had

given me minute directions. It was the buried chamber in which was

hidden the Great Secret of the race of Mahars. And on the bench beside

the flasks lay the skin-bound book which held the only copy of the

thing I was to have sought, after dispatching the three Mahars in their

sleep.



There was no exit from the room other than the doorway in which I now

stood facing the two frightful reptiles. Cornered, I knew that they

would fight like demons, and they were well equipped to fight if fight

they must. Together they launched themselves upon me, and though I ran

one of them through the heart on the instant, the other fastened its

gleaming fangs about my sword arm above the elbow, and then with her

sharp talons commenced to rake me about the body, evidently intent upon

disemboweling me. I saw that it was useless to hope that I might

release my arm from that powerful, viselike grip which seemed to be

severing my arm from my body. The pain I suffered was intense, but it

only served to spur me to greater efforts to overcome my antagonist.



Back and forth across the floor we struggled--the Mahar dealing me

terrific, cutting blows with her fore feet, while I attempted to

protect my body with my left hand, at the same time watching for an

opportunity to transfer my blade from my now useless sword hand to its

rapidly weakening mate. At last I was successful, and with what seemed

to me my last ounce of strength I ran the blade through the ugly body

of my foe.



Soundless, as it had fought, it died, and though weak from pain and

loss of blood, it was with an emotion of triumphant pride that I

stepped across its convulsively stiffening corpse to snatch up the most

potent secret of a world. A single glance assured me it was the very

thing that Perry had described to me.



And as I grasped it did I think of what it meant to the human race of

Pellucidar--did there flash through my mind the thought that countless

generations of my own kind yet unborn would have reason to worship me

for the thing that I had accomplished for them? I did not. I thought

of a beautiful oval face, gazing out of limpid eyes, through a waving

mass of jet-black hair. I thought of red, red lips, God-made for

kissing. And of a sudden, apropos of nothing, standing there alone in

the secret chamber of the Mahars of Pellucidar, I realized that I loved

Dian the Beautiful.