At the Earth's Core

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  X

  PHUTRA AGAIN

  I hastened to the cliff edge above Ja and helped him to a securefooting. He would not listen to any thanks for his attempt to save me,which had come so near miscarrying.

  "I had given you up for lost when you tumbled into the Mahar temple,"he said, "for not even I could save you from their clutches, and youmay imagine my surprise when on seeing a canoe dragged up upon thebeach of the mainland I discovered your own footprints in the sandbeside it.

  "I immediately set out in search of you, knowing as I did that you mustbe entirely unarmed and defenseless against the many dangers which lurkupon the mainland both in the form of savage beasts and reptiles, andmen as well. I had no difficulty in tracking you to this point. It iswell that I arrived when I did."

  "But why did you do it?" I asked, puzzled at this show of friendship onthe part of a man of another world and a different race and color.

  "You saved my life," he replied; "from that moment it became my duty toprotect and befriend you. I would have been no true Mezop had I evadedmy plain duty; but it was a pleasure in this instance for I like you.I wish that you would come and live with me. You shall become a memberof my tribe. Among us there is the best of hunting and fishing, andyou shall have, to choose a mate from, the most beautiful girls ofPellucidar. Will you come?"

  I told him about Perry then, and Dian the Beautiful, and how my dutywas to them first. Afterward I should return and visit him--if I couldever find his island.

  "Oh, that is easy, my friend," he said. "You need merely to come tothe foot of the highest peak of the Mountains of the Clouds. There youwill find a river which flows into the Lural Az. Directly opposite themouth of the river you will see three large islands far out, so farthat they are barely discernible, the one to the extreme left as youface them from the mouth of the river is Anoroc, where I rule the tribeof Anoroc."

  "But how am I to find the Mountains of the Clouds?" I asked. "Men saythat they are visible from half Pellucidar," he replied.

  "How large is Pellucidar?" I asked, wondering what sort of theory theseprimitive men had concerning the form and substance of their world.

  "The Mahars say it is round, like the inside of a tola shell," heanswered, "but that is ridiculous, since, were it true, we should fallback were we to travel far in any direction, and all the waters ofPellucidar would run to one spot and drown us. No, Pellucidar is quiteflat and extends no man knows how far in all directions. At the edges,so my ancestors have reported and handed down to me, is a great wallthat prevents the earth and waters from escaping over into the burningsea whereon Pellucidar floats; but I never have been so far from Anorocas to have seen this wall with my own eyes. However, it is quitereasonable to believe that this is true, whereas there is no reason atall in the foolish belief of the Mahars. According to themPellucidarians who live upon the opposite side walk always with theirheads pointed downward!" and Ja laughed uproariously at the verythought.

  It was plain to see that the human folk of this inner world had notadvanced far in learning, and the thought that the ugly Mahars had sooutstripped them was a very pathetic one indeed. I wondered how manyages it would take to lift these people out of their ignorance evenwere it given to Perry and me to attempt it. Possibly we would bekilled for our pains as were those men of the outer world who daredchallenge the dense ignorance and superstitions of the earth's youngerdays. But it was worth the effort if the opportunity ever presenteditself.

  And then it occurred to me that here was an opportunity--that I mightmake a small beginning upon Ja, who was my friend, and thus note theeffect of my teaching upon a Pellucidarian.

  "Ja," I said, "what would you say were I to tell you that in so far asthe Mahars' theory of the shape of Pellucidar is concerned it iscorrect?"

  "I would say," he replied, "that either you are a fool, or took me forone."

  "But, Ja," I insisted, "if their theory is incorrect how do you accountfor the fact that I was able to pass through the earth from the outercrust to Pellucidar. If your theory is correct all is a sea of flamebeneath us, where in no peoples could exist, and yet I come from agreat world that is covered with human beings, and beasts, and birds,and fishes in mighty oceans."

  "You live upon the under side of Pellucidar, and walk always with yourhead pointed downward?" he scoffed. "And were I to believe that, myfriend, I should indeed be mad."

  I attempted to explain the force of gravity to him, and by the means ofthe dropped fruit to illustrate how impossible it would be for a bodyto fall off the earth under any circumstances. He listened so intentlythat I thought I had made an impression, and started the train ofthought that would lead him to a partial understanding of the truth.But I was mistaken.

  "Your own illustration," he said finally, "proves the falsity of yourtheory." He dropped a fruit from his hand to the ground. "See," hesaid, "without support even this tiny fruit falls until it strikessomething that stops it. If Pellucidar were not supported upon theflaming sea it too would fall as the fruit falls--you have proven ityourself!" He had me, that time--you could see it in his eye.

  It seemed a hopeless job and I gave it up, temporarily at least, forwhen I contemplated the necessity explanation of our solar system andthe universe I realized how futile it would be to attempt to picture toJa or any other Pellucidarian the sun, the moon, the planets, and thecountless stars. Those born within the inner world could no moreconceive of such things than can we of the outer crust reduce tofactors appreciable to our finite minds such terms as space andeternity.

  "Well, Ja," I laughed, "whether we be walking with our feet up or down,here we are, and the question of greatest importance is not so muchwhere we came from as where we are going now. For my part I wish thatyou could guide me to Phutra where I may give myself up to the Maharsonce more that my friends and I may work out the plan of escape whichthe Sagoths interrupted when they gathered us together and drove us tothe arena to witness the punishment of the slaves who killed theguardsman. I wish now that I had not left the arena for by this timemy friends and I might have made good our escape, whereas this delaymay mean the wrecking of all our plans, which depended for theirconsummation upon the continued sleep of the three Mahars who lay inthe pit beneath the building in which we were confined."

  "You would return to captivity?" cried Ja.

  "My friends are there," I replied, "the only friends I have inPellucidar, except yourself. What else may I do under thecircumstances?"

  He thought for a moment in silence. Then he shook his head sorrowfully.

  "It is what a brave man and a good friend should do," he said; "yet itseems most foolish, for the Mahars will most certainly condemn you todeath for running away, and so you will be accomplishing nothing foryour friends by returning. Never in all my life have I heard of aprisoner returning to the Mahars of his own free will. There are butfew who escape them, though some do, and these would rather die than berecaptured."

  "I see no other way, Ja," I said, "though I can assure you that I wouldrather go to Sheol after Perry than to Phutra. However, Perry is muchtoo pious to make the probability at all great that I should ever becalled upon to rescue him from the former locality."

  Ja asked me what Sheol was, and when I explained, as best I could, hesaid, "You are speaking of Molop Az, the flaming sea upon whichPellucidar floats. All the dead who are buried in the ground go there.Piece by piece they are carried down to Molop Az by the little demonswho dwell there. We know this because when graves are opened we findthat the bodies have been partially or entirely borne off. That is whywe of Anoroc place our dead in high trees where the birds may find themand bear them bit by bit to the Dead World above the Land of AwfulShadow. If we kill an enemy we place his body in the ground that itmay go to Molop Az."

  As we talked we had been walking up the canyon down which I had come tothe great ocean and the sithic. Ja did his best to dissuade me fromreturning to Phutra, but when he saw that I was determined to do so, heconsent
ed to guide me to a point from which I could see the plain wherelay the city. To my surprise the distance was but short from the beachwhere I had again met Ja. It was evident that I had spent much timefollowing the windings of a tortuous canon, while just beyond the ridgelay the city of Phutra near to which I must have come several times.

  As we topped the ridge and saw the granite gate towers dotting theflowered plain at our feet Ja made a final effort to persuade me toabandon my mad purpose and return with him to Anoroc, but I was firm inmy resolve, and at last he bid me good-bye, assured in his own mindthat he was looking upon me for the last time.

  I was sorry to part with Ja, for I had come to like him very muchindeed. With his hidden city upon the island of Anoroc as a base, andhis savage warriors as escort Perry and I could have accomplished muchin the line of exploration, and I hoped that were we successful in oureffort to escape we might return to Anoroc later.

  There was, however, one great thing to be accomplished first--at leastit was the great thing to me--the finding of Dian the Beautiful. Iwanted to make amends for the affront I had put upon her in myignorance, and I wanted to--well, I wanted to see her again, and to bewith her.

  Down the hillside I made my way into the gorgeous field of flowers, andthen across the rolling land toward the shadowless columns that guardthe ways to buried Phutra. At a quarter-mile from the nearest entranceI was discovered by the Sagoth guard, and in an instant four of thegorilla-men were dashing toward me.

  Though they brandished their long spears and yelled like wild ComanchesI paid not the slightest attention to them, walking quietly toward themas though unaware of their existence. My manner had the effect uponthem that I had hoped, and as we came quite near together they ceasedtheir savage shouting. It was evident that they had expected me toturn and flee at sight of them, thus presenting that which they mostenjoyed, a moving human target at which to cast their spears.

  "What do you here?" shouted one, and then as he recognized me, "Ho! Itis the slave who claims to be from another world--he who escaped whenthe thag ran amuck within the amphitheater. But why do you return,having once made good your escape?"

  "I did not 'escape'," I replied. "I but ran away to avoid the thag, asdid others, and coming into a long passage I became confused and lostmy way in the foothills beyond Phutra. Only now have I found my wayback."

  "And you come of your free will back to Phutra!" exclaimed one of theguardsmen.

  "Where else might I go?" I asked. "I am a stranger within Pellucidarand know no other where than Phutra. Why should I not desire to be inPhutra? Am I not well fed and well treated? Am I not happy? Whatbetter lot could man desire?"

  The Sagoths scratched their heads. This was a new one on them, and sobeing stupid brutes they took me to their masters whom they felt wouldbe better fitted to solve the riddle of my return, for riddle theystill considered it.

  I had spoken to the Sagoths as I had for the purpose of throwing themoff the scent of my purposed attempt at escape. If they thought that Iwas so satisfied with my lot within Phutra that I would voluntarilyreturn when I had once had so excellent an opportunity to escape, theywould never for an instant imagine that I could be occupied inarranging another escape immediately upon my return to the city.

  So they led me before a slimy Mahar who clung to a slimy rock withinthe large room that was the thing's office. With cold, reptilian eyesthe creature seemed to bore through the thin veneer of my deceit andread my inmost thoughts. It heeded the story which the Sagoths told ofmy return to Phutra, watching the gorilla-men's lips and fingers duringthe recital. Then it questioned me through one of the Sagoths.

  "You say that you returned to Phutra of your own free will, because youthink yourself better off here than elsewhere--do you not know that youmay be the next chosen to give up your life in the interests of thewonderful scientific investigations that our learned ones arecontinually occupied with?"

  I hadn't heard of anything of that nature, but I thought best not toadmit it.

  "I could be in no more danger here," I said, "than naked and unarmed inthe savage jungles or upon the lonely plains of Pellucidar. I wasfortunate, I think, to return to Phutra at all. As it was I barelyescaped death within the jaws of a huge sithic. No, I am sure that Iam safer in the hands of intelligent creatures such as rule Phutra. Atleast such would be the case in my own world, where human beings likemyself rule supreme. There the higher races of man extend protectionand hospitality to the stranger within their gates, and being astranger here I naturally assumed that a like courtesy would beaccorded me."

  The Mahar looked at me in silence for some time after I ceased speakingand the Sagoth had translated my words to his master. The creatureseemed deep in thought. Presently he communicated some message to theSagoth. The latter turned, and motioning me to follow him, left thepresence of the reptile. Behind and on either side of me marched thebalance of the guard.

  "What are they going to do with me?" I asked the fellow at my right.

  "You are to appear before the learned ones who will question youregarding this strange world from which you say you come."

  After a moment's silence he turned to me again.

  "Do you happen to know," he asked, "what the Mahars do to slaves wholie to them?"

  "No," I replied, "nor does it interest me, as I have no intention oflying to the Mahars."

  "Then be careful that you don't repeat the impossible tale you toldSol-to-to just now--another world, indeed, where human beings rule!" heconcluded in fine scorn.

  "But it is the truth," I insisted. "From where else then did I come?I am not of Pellucidar. Anyone with half an eye could see that."

  "It is your misfortune then," he remarked dryly, "that you may not bejudged by one with but half an eye."

  "What will they do with me," I asked, "if they do not have a mind tobelieve me?"

  "You may be sentenced to the arena, or go to the pits to be used inresearch work by the learned ones," he replied.

  "And what will they do with me there?" I persisted.

  "No one knows except the Mahars and those who go to the pits with them,but as the latter never return, their knowledge does them but littlegood. It is said that the learned ones cut up their subjects whilethey are yet alive, thus learning many useful things. However I shouldnot imagine that it would prove very useful to him who was being cutup; but of course this is all but conjecture. The chances are that erelong you will know much more about it than I," and he grinned as hespoke. The Sagoths have a well-developed sense of humor.

  "And suppose it is the arena," I continued; "what then?"

  "You saw the two who met the tarag and the thag the time that youescaped?" he said.

  "Yes."

  "Your end in the arena would be similar to what was intended for them,"he explained, "though of course the same kinds of animals might not beemployed."

  "It is sure death in either event?" I asked.

  "What becomes of those who go below with the learned ones I do notknow, nor does any other," he replied; "but those who go to the arenamay come out alive and thus regain their liberty, as did the two whomyou saw."

  "They gained their liberty? And how?"

  "It is the custom of the Mahars to liberate those who remain alivewithin the arena after the beasts depart or are killed. Thus it hashappened that several mighty warriors from far distant lands, whom wehave captured on our slave raids, have battled the brutes turned inupon them and slain them, thereby winning their freedom. In theinstance which you witnessed the beasts killed each other, but theresult was the same--the man and woman were liberated, furnished withweapons, and started on their homeward journey. Upon the left shoulderof each a mark was burned--the mark of the Mahars--which will foreverprotect these two from slaving parties."

  "There is a slender chance for me then if I be sent to the arena, andnone at all if the learned ones drag me to the pits?"

  "You are quite right," he replied; "but do not felicitate yoursel
f tooquickly should you be sent to the arena, for there is scarce one in athousand who comes out alive."

  To my surprise they returned me to the same building in which I hadbeen confined with Perry and Ghak before my escape. At the doorway Iwas turned over to the guards there.

  "He will doubtless be called before the investigators shortly," said hewho had brought me back, "so have him in readiness."

  The guards in whose hands I now found myself, upon hearing that I hadreturned of my own volition to Phutra evidently felt that it would besafe to give me liberty within the building as had been the custombefore I had escaped, and so I was told to return to whatever duty hadbeen mine formerly.

  My first act was to hunt up Perry; whom I found poring as usual overthe great tomes that he was supposed to be merely dusting andrearranging upon new shelves.

  As I entered the room he glanced up and nodded pleasantly to me, onlyto resume his work as though I had never been away at all. I was bothastonished and hurt at his indifference. And to think that I wasrisking death to return to him purely from a sense of duty andaffection!

  "Why, Perry!" I exclaimed, "haven't you a word for me after my longabsence?"

  "Long absence!" he repeated in evident astonishment. "What do youmean?"

  "Are you crazy, Perry? Do you mean to say that you have not missed mesince that time we were separated by the charging thag within thearena?"

  "'That time'," he repeated. "Why man, I have but just returned fromthe arena! You reached here almost as soon as I. Had you been muchlater I should indeed have been worried, and as it is I had intendedasking you about how you escaped the beast as soon as I had completedthe translation of this most interesting passage."

  "Perry, you ARE mad," I exclaimed. "Why, the Lord only knows how longI have been away. I have been to other lands, discovered a new race ofhumans within Pellucidar, seen the Mahars at their worship in theirhidden temple, and barely escaped with my life from them and from agreat labyrinthodon that I met afterward, following my long and tediouswanderings across an unknown world. I must have been away for months,Perry, and now you barely look up from your work when I return andinsist that we have been separated but a moment. Is that any way totreat a friend? I'm surprised at you, Perry, and if I'd thought for amoment that you cared no more for me than this I should not havereturned to chance death at the hands of the Mahars for your sake."

  The old man looked at me for a long time before he spoke. There was apuzzled expression upon his wrinkled face, and a look of hurt sorrow inhis eyes.

  "David, my boy," he said, "how could you for a moment doubt my love foryou? There is something strange here that I cannot understand. I knowthat I am not mad, and I am equally sure that you are not; but how inthe world are we to account for the strange hallucinations that each ofus seems to harbor relative to the passage of time since last we saweach other. You are positive that months have gone by, while to me itseems equally certain that not more than an hour ago I sat beside youin the amphitheater. Can it be that both of us are right and at thesame time both are wrong? First tell me what time is, and then maybe Ican solve our problem. Do you catch my meaning?"

  I didn't and said so.

  "Yes," continued the old man, "we are both right. To me, bent over mybook here, there has been no lapse of time. I have done little ornothing to waste my energies and so have required neither food norsleep, but you, on the contrary, have walked and fought and wastedstrength and tissue which must needs be rebuilt by nutriment and food,and so, having eaten and slept many times since last you saw me younaturally measure the lapse of time largely by these acts. As a matterof fact, David, I am rapidly coming to the conviction that there is nosuch thing as time--surely there can be no time here within Pellucidar,where there are no means for measuring or recording time. Why, theMahars themselves take no account of such a thing as time. I find herein all their literary works but a single tense, the present. Thereseems to be neither past nor future with them. Of course it isimpossible for our outer-earthly minds to grasp such a condition, butour recent experiences seem to demonstrate its existence."

  It was too big a subject for me, and I said so, but Perry seemed toenjoy nothing better than speculating upon it, and after listening withinterest to my account of the adventures through which I had passed hereturned once more to the subject, which he was enlarging upon withconsiderable fluency when he was interrupted by the entrance of aSagoth.

  "Come!" commanded the intruder, beckoning to me. "The investigatorswould speak with you."

  "Good-bye, Perry!" I said, clasping the old man's hand. "There may benothing but the present and no such thing as time, but I feel that I amabout to take a trip into the hereafter from which I shall neverreturn. If you and Ghak should manage to escape I want you to promiseme that you will find Dian the Beautiful and tell her that with my lastwords I asked her forgiveness for the unintentional affront I put uponher, and that my one wish was to be spared long enough to right thewrong that I had done her."

  Tears came to Perry's eyes.

  "I cannot believe but that you will return, David," he said. "It wouldbe awful to think of living out the balance of my life without youamong these hateful and repulsive creatures. If you are taken away Ishall never escape, for I feel that I am as well off here as I shouldbe anywhere within this buried world. Good-bye, my boy, good-bye!" andthen his old voice faltered and broke, and as he hid his face in hishands the Sagoth guardsman grasped me roughly by the shoulder andhustled me from the chamber.