Back To Earth

: At The Earth's Core

WE CROSSED THE RIVER AND PASSED THROUGH THE mountains beyond, and

finally we came out upon a great level plain which stretched away as

far as the eye could reach. I cannot tell you in what direction it

stretched even if you would care to know, for all the while that I was

within Pellucidar I never discovered any but local methods of

indicating direction--there is no north, no south, no east, no west.

UP is about the o
ly direction which is well defined, and that, of

course, is DOWN to you of the outer crust. Since the sun neither rises

nor sets there is no method of indicating direction beyond visible

objects such as high mountains, forests, lakes, and seas.



The plain which lies beyond the white cliffs which flank the Darel Az

upon the shore nearest the Mountains of the Clouds is about as near to

any direction as any Pellucidarian can come. If you happen not to have

heard of the Darel Az, or the white cliffs, or the Mountains of the

Clouds you feel that there is something lacking, and long for the good

old understandable northeast and southwest of the outer world.



We had barely entered the great plain when we discovered two enormous

animals approaching us from a great distance. So far were they that we

could not distinguish what manner of beasts they might be, but as they

came closer, I saw that they were enormous quadrupeds, eighty or a

hundred feet long, with tiny heads perched at the top of very long

necks. Their heads must have been quite forty feet from the ground.

The beasts moved very slowly--that is their action was slow--but their

strides covered such a great distance that in reality they traveled

considerably faster than a man walks.



As they drew still nearer we discovered that upon the back of each sat

a human being. Then Dian knew what they were, though she never before

had seen one.



"They are lidis from the land of the Thorians," she cried. "Thoria

lies at the outer verge of the Land of Awful Shadow. The Thorians

alone of all the races of Pellucidar ride the lidi, for nowhere else

than beside the dark country are they found."



"What is the Land of Awful Shadow?" I asked.



"It is the land which lies beneath the Dead World," replied Dian; "the

Dead World which hangs forever between the sun and Pellucidar above the

Land of Awful Shadow. It is the Dead World which makes the great

shadow upon this portion of Pellucidar."



I did not fully understand what she meant, nor am I sure that I do yet,

for I have never been to that part of Pellucidar from which the Dead

World is visible; but Perry says that it is the moon of Pellucidar--a

tiny planet within a planet--and that it revolves around the earth's

axis coincidently with the earth, and thus is always above the same

spot within Pellucidar.



I remember that Perry was very much excited when I told him about this

Dead World, for he seemed to think that it explained the hitherto

inexplicable phenomena of nutation and the precession of the equinoxes.



When the two upon the lidis had come quite close to us we saw that one

was a man and the other a woman. The former had held up his two hands,

palms toward us, in sign of peace, and I had answered him in kind, when

he suddenly gave a cry of astonishment and pleasure, and slipping from

his enormous mount ran forward toward Dian, throwing his arms about her.



In an instant I was white with jealousy, but only for an instant; since

Dian quickly drew the man toward me, telling him that I was David, her

mate.



"And this is my brother, Dacor the Strong One, David," she said to me.



It appeared that the woman was Dacor's mate. He had found none to his

liking among the Sari, nor farther on until he had come to the land of

the Thoria, and there he had found and fought for this very lovely

Thorian maiden whom he was bringing back to his own people.



When they had heard our story and our plans they decided to accompany

us to Sari, that Dacor and Ghak might come to an agreement relative to

an alliance, as Dacor was quite as enthusiastic about the proposed

annihilation of the Mahars and Sagoths as either Dian or I.



After a journey which was, for Pellucidar, quite uneventful, we came to

the first of the Sarian villages which consists of between one and two

hundred artificial caves cut into the face of a great cliff. Here to

our immense delight, we found both Perry and Ghak. The old man was

quite overcome at sight of me for he had long since given me up as dead.



When I introduced Dian as my wife, he didn't quite know what to say,

but he afterward remarked that with the pick of two worlds I could not

have done better.



Ghak and Dacor reached a very amicable arrangement, and it was at a

council of the head men of the various tribes of the Sari that the

eventual form of government was tentatively agreed upon. Roughly, the

various kingdoms were to remain virtually independent, but there was to

be one great overlord, or emperor. It was decided that I should be the

first of the dynasty of the emperors of Pellucidar.



We set about teaching the women how to make bows and arrows, and poison

pouches. The young men hunted the vipers which provided the virus, and

it was they who mined the iron ore, and fashioned the swords under

Perry's direction. Rapidly the fever spread from one tribe to another

until representatives from nations so far distant that the Sarians had

never even heard of them came in to take the oath of allegiance which

we required, and to learn the art of making the new weapons and using

them.



We sent our young men out as instructors to every nation of the

federation, and the movement had reached colossal proportions before

the Mahars discovered it. The first intimation they had was when three

of their great slave caravans were annihilated in rapid succession.

They could not comprehend that the lower orders had suddenly developed

a power which rendered them really formidable.



In one of the skirmishes with slave caravans some of our Sarians took a

number of Sagoth prisoners, and among them were two who had been

members of the guards within the building where we had been confined at

Phutra. They told us that the Mahars were frantic with rage when they

discovered what had taken place in the cellars of the buildings. The

Sagoths knew that something very terrible had befallen their masters,

but the Mahars had been most careful to see that no inkling of the true

nature of their vital affliction reached beyond their own race. How

long it would take for the race to become extinct it was impossible

even to guess; but that this must eventually happen seemed inevitable.



The Mahars had offered fabulous rewards for the capture of any one of

us alive, and at the same time had threatened to inflict the direst

punishment upon whomever should harm us. The Sagoths could not

understand these seemingly paradoxical instructions, though their

purpose was quite evident to me. The Mahars wanted the Great Secret,

and they knew that we alone could deliver it to them.



Perry's experiments in the manufacture of gunpowder and the fashioning

of rifles had not progressed as rapidly as we had hoped--there was a

whole lot about these two arts which Perry didn't know. We were both

assured that the solution of these problems would advance the cause of

civilization within Pellucidar thousands of years at a single stroke.

Then there were various other arts and sciences which we wished to

introduce, but our combined knowledge of them did not embrace the

mechanical details which alone could render them of commercial, or

practical value.



"David," said Perry, immediately after his latest failure to produce

gunpowder that would even burn, "one of us must return to the outer

world and bring back the information we lack. Here we have all the

labor and materials for reproducing anything that ever has been

produced above--what we lack is knowledge. Let us go back and get that

knowledge in the shape of books--then this world will indeed be at our

feet."



And so it was decided that I should return in the prospector, which

still lay upon the edge of the forest at the point where we had first

penetrated to the surface of the inner world. Dian would not listen to

any arrangement for my going which did not include her, and I was not

sorry that she wished to accompany me, for I wanted her to see my

world, and I wanted my world to see her.



With a large force of men we marched to the great iron mole, which

Perry soon had hoisted into position with its nose pointed back toward

the outer crust. He went over all the machinery carefully. He

replenished the air tanks, and manufactured oil for the engine. At

last everything was ready, and we were about to set out when our

pickets, a long, thin line of which had surrounded our camp at all

times, reported that a great body of what appeared to be Sagoths and

Mahars were approaching from the direction of Phutra.



Dian and I were ready to embark, but I was anxious to witness the first

clash between two fair-sized armies of the opposing races of

Pellucidar. I realized that this was to mark the historic beginning of

a mighty struggle for possession of a world, and as the first emperor

of Pellucidar I felt that it was not alone my duty, but my right, to be

in the thick of that momentous struggle.



As the opposing army approached we saw that there were many Mahars with

the Sagoth troops--an indication of the vast importance which the

dominant race placed upon the outcome of this campaign, for it was not

customary with them to take active part in the sorties which their

creatures made for slaves--the only form of warfare which they waged

upon the lower orders.



Ghak and Dacor were both with us, having come primarily to view the

prospector. I placed Ghak with some of his Sarians on the right of our

battle line. Dacor took the left, while I commanded the center.

Behind us I stationed a sufficient reserve under one of Ghak's head

men. The Sagoths advanced steadily with menacing spears, and I let

them come until they were within easy bowshot before I gave the word to

fire.



At the first volley of poison-tipped arrows the front ranks of the

gorilla-men crumpled to the ground; but those behind charged over the

prostrate forms of their comrades in a wild, mad rush to be upon us

with their spears. A second volley stopped them for an instant, and

then my reserve sprang through the openings in the firing line to

engage them with sword and shield. The clumsy spears of the Sagoths

were no match for the swords of the Sarian and Amozite, who turned the

spear thrusts aside with their shields and leaped to close quarters

with their lighter, handier weapons.



Ghak took his archers along the enemy's flank, and while the swordsmen

engaged them in front, he poured volley after volley into their

unprotected left. The Mahars did little real fighting, and were more

in the way than otherwise, though occasionally one of them would fasten

its powerful jaw upon the arm or leg of a Sarian.



The battle did not last a great while, for when Dacor and I led our men

in upon the Sagoth's right with naked swords they were already so

demoralized that they turned and fled before us. We pursued them for

some time, taking many prisoners and recovering nearly a hundred

slaves, among whom was Hooja the Sly One.



He told me that he had been captured while on his way to his own land;

but that his life had been spared in hope that through him the Mahars

would learn the whereabouts of their Great Secret. Ghak and I were

inclined to think that the Sly One had been guiding this expedition to

the land of Sari, where he thought that the book might be found in

Perry's possession; but we had no proof of this and so we took him in

and treated him as one of us, although none liked him. And how he

rewarded my generosity you will presently learn.



There were a number of Mahars among our prisoners, and so fearful were

our own people of them that they would not approach them unless

completely covered from the sight of the reptiles by a piece of skin.

Even Dian shared the popular superstition regarding the evil effects of

exposure to the eyes of angry Mahars, and though I laughed at her fears

I was willing enough to humor them if it would relieve her apprehension

in any degree, and so she sat apart from the prospector, near which the

Mahars had been chained, while Perry and I again inspected every

portion of the mechanism.



At last I took my place in the driving seat, and called to one of the

men without to fetch Dian. It happened that Hooja stood quite close to

the doorway of the prospector, so that it was he who, without my

knowledge, went to bring her; but how he succeeded in accomplishing the

fiendish thing he did, I cannot guess, unless there were others in the

plot to aid him. Nor can I believe that, since all my people were

loyal to me and would have made short work of Hooja had he suggested

the heartless scheme, even had he had time to acquaint another with it.

It was all done so quickly that I may only believe that it was the

result of sudden impulse, aided by a number of, to Hooja, fortuitous

circumstances occurring at precisely the right moment.



All I know is that it was Hooja who brought Dian to the prospector,

still wrapped from head to toe in the skin of an enormous cave lion

which covered her since the Mahar prisoners had been brought into camp.

He deposited his burden in the seat beside me. I was all ready to get

under way. The good-byes had been said. Perry had grasped my hand in

the last, long farewell. I closed and barred the outer and inner

doors, took my seat again at the driving mechanism, and pulled the

starting lever.



As before on that far-gone night that had witnessed our first trial of

the iron monster, there was a frightful roaring beneath us--the giant

frame trembled and vibrated--there was a rush of sound as the loose

earth passed up through the hollow space between the inner and outer

jackets to be deposited in our wake. Once more the thing was off.



But on the instant of departure I was nearly thrown from my seat by the

sudden lurching of the prospector. At first I did not realize what had

happened, but presently it dawned upon me that just before entering the

crust the towering body had fallen through its supporting scaffolding,

and that instead of entering the ground vertically we were plunging

into it at a different angle. Where it would bring us out upon the

upper crust I could not even conjecture. And then I turned to note the

effect of this strange experience upon Dian. She still sat shrouded in

the great skin.



"Come, come," I cried, laughing, "come out of your shell. No Mahar

eyes can reach you here," and I leaned over and snatched the lion skin

from her. And then I shrank back upon my seat in utter horror.



The thing beneath the skin was not Dian--it was a hideous Mahar.

Instantly I realized the trick that Hooja had played upon me, and the

purpose of it. Rid of me, forever as he doubtless thought, Dian would

be at his mercy. Frantically I tore at the steering wheel in an effort

to turn the prospector back toward Pellucidar; but, as on that other

occasion, I could not budge the thing a hair.



It is needless to recount the horrors or the monotony of that journey.

It varied but little from the former one which had brought us from the

outer to the inner world. Because of the angle at which we had entered

the ground the trip required nearly a day longer, and brought me out

here upon the sand of the Sahara instead of in the United States as I

had hoped.



For months I have been waiting here for a white man to come. I dared

not leave the prospector for fear I should never be able to find it

again--the shifting sands of the desert would soon cover it, and then

my only hope of returning to my Dian and her Pellucidar would be gone

forever.



That I ever shall see her again seems but remotely possible, for how

may I know upon what part of Pellucidar my return journey may

terminate--and how, without a north or south or an east or a west may I

hope ever to find my way across that vast world to the tiny spot where

my lost love lies grieving for me?





That is the story as David Innes told it to me in the goat-skin tent

upon the rim of the great Sahara Desert. The next day he took me out

to see the prospector--it was precisely as he had described it. So

huge was it that it could have been brought to this inaccessible part

of the world by no means of transportation that existed there--it could

only have come in the way that David Innes said it came--up through the

crust of the earth from the inner world of Pellucidar.



I spent a week with him, and then, abandoned my lion hunt, returned

directly to the coast and hurried to London where I purchased a great

quantity of stuff which he wished to take back to Pellucidar with him.

There were books, rifles, revolvers, ammunition, cameras, chemicals,

telephones, telegraph instruments, wire, tool and more books--books

upon every subject under the sun. He said he wanted a library with

which they could reproduce the wonders of the twentieth century in the

Stone Age and if quantity counts for anything I got it for him.



I took the things back to Algeria myself, and accompanied them to the

end of the railroad; but from here I was recalled to America upon

important business. However, I was able to employ a very trustworthy

man to take charge of the caravan--the same guide, in fact, who had

accompanied me on the previous trip into the Sahara--and after writing

a long letter to Innes in which I gave him my American address, I saw

the expedition head south.



Among the other things which I sent to Innes was over five hundred

miles of double, insulated wire of a very fine gauge. I had it packed

on a special reel at his suggestion, as it was his idea that he could

fasten one end here before he left and by paying it out through the end

of the prospector lay a telegraph line between the outer and inner

worlds. In my letter I told him to be sure to mark the terminus of the

line very plainly with a high cairn, in case I was not able to reach

him before he set out, so that I might easily find and communicate with

him should he be so fortunate as to reach Pellucidar.



I received several letters from him after I returned to America--in

fact he took advantage of every northward-passing caravan to drop me

word of some sort. His last letter was written the day before he

intended to depart. Here it is.





MY DEAR FRIEND:



Tomorrow I shall set out in quest of Pellucidar and Dian. That is if

the Arabs don't get me. They have been very nasty of late. I don't

know the cause, but on two occasions they have threatened my life.

One, more friendly than the rest, told me today that they intended

attacking me tonight. It would be unfortunate should anything of that

sort happen now that I am so nearly ready to depart.



However, maybe I will be as well off, for the nearer the hour

approaches, the slenderer my chances for success appear.



Here is the friendly Arab who is to take this letter north for me, so

good-bye, and God bless you for your kindness to me.



The Arab tells me to hurry, for he sees a cloud of sand to the

south--he thinks it is the party coming to murder me, and he doesn't

want to be found with me. So good-bye again.



Yours,



DAVID INNES.





A year later found me at the end of the railroad once more, headed for

the spot where I had left Innes. My first disappointment was when I

discovered that my old guide had died within a few weeks of my return,

nor could I find any member of my former party who could lead me to the

same spot.



For months I searched that scorching land, interviewing countless

desert sheiks in the hope that at last I might find one who had heard

of Innes and his wonderful iron mole. Constantly my eyes scanned the

blinding waste of sand for the ricky cairn beneath which I was to find

the wires leading to Pellucidar--but always was I unsuccessful.



And always do these awful questions harass me when I think of David

Innes and his strange adventures.



Did the Arabs murder him, after all, just on the eve of his departure?

Or, did he again turn the nose of his iron monster toward the inner

world? Did he reach it, or lies he somewhere buried in the heart of

the great crust? And if he did come again to Pellucidar was it to

break through into the bottom of one of her great island seas, or among

some savage race far, far from the land of his heart's desire?



Does the answer lie somewhere upon the bosom of the broad Sahara, at

the end of two tiny wires, hidden beneath a lost cairn? I wonder.



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