At the Earth's Core

PHUTRA AGAIN

I hastened to the cliff edge above Ja and helped him to a secure footing.  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 you may imagine my surprise when on seeing a canoe dragged up upon the beach of the mainland I discovered your own footprints in the sand beside it.

“I immediately set out in search of you, knowing as I did that you must be entirely unarmed and defenseless against the many dangers which lurk upon the mainland both in the form of savage beasts and reptiles, and men as well.  I had no difficulty in tracking you to this point.  It is well that I arrived when I did.”

“But why did you do it?” I asked, puzzled at this show of friendship on the 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 to protect and befriend you.  I would have been no true Mezop had I evaded my 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 member of my tribe.  Among us there is the best of hunting and fishing, and you shall have, to choose a mate from, the most beautiful girls of Pellucidar.  Will you come?”

I told him about Perry then, and Dian the Beautiful, and how my duty was to them first.  Afterward I should return and visit him—­if I could ever find his island.

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

“But how am I to find the Mountains of the Clouds?” I asked.  “Men say that they are visible from half Pellucidar,” he replied.

“How large is Pellucidar?” I asked, wondering what sort of theory these primitive men had concerning the form and substance of their world.

“The Mahars say it is round, like the inside of a tola shell,” he answered, “but that is ridiculous, since, were it true, we should fall back were we to travel far in any direction, and all the waters of Pellucidar would run to one spot and drown us.  No, Pellucidar is quite flat 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 wall that prevents the earth and waters from escaping over into the burning sea whereon Pellucidar floats; but I never have been so far from Anoroc as to have seen this wall with my own eyes.  However, it is quite reasonable to believe that this is true, whereas there is no reason at all in the foolish belief of the Mahars.  According to them Pellucidarians who live upon the opposite side walk always with their heads pointed downward!” and Ja laughed uproariously at the very thought.

It was plain to see that the human folk of this inner world had not advanced far in learning, and the thought that the ugly Mahars had so outstripped them was a very pathetic one indeed.  I wondered how many ages it would take to lift these people out of their ignorance even were it given to Perry and me to attempt it.  Possibly we would be killed for our pains as were those men of the outer world who dared challenge the dense ignorance and superstitions of the earth’s younger days.  But it was worth the effort if the opportunity ever presented itself.

And then it occurred to me that here was an opportunity—­that I might make a small beginning upon Ja, who was my friend, and thus note the effect of my teaching upon a Pellucidarian.

“Ja,” I said, “what would you say were I to tell you that in so far as the Mahars’ theory of the shape of Pellucidar is concerned it is correct?”

“I would say,” he replied, “that either you are a fool, or took me for one.”

“But, Ja,” I insisted, “if their theory is incorrect how do you account for the fact that I was able to pass through the earth from the outer crust to Pellucidar.  If your theory is correct all is a sea of flame beneath us, where in no peoples could exist, and yet I come from a great 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 your head pointed downward?” he scoffed.  “And were I to believe that, my friend, I should indeed be mad.”

I attempted to explain the force of gravity to him, and by the means of the dropped fruit to illustrate how impossible it would be for a body to fall off the earth under any circumstances.  He listened so intently that I thought I had made an impression, and started the train of thought 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 your theory.”  He dropped a fruit from his hand to the ground.  “See,” he said, “without support even this tiny fruit falls until it strikes something that stops it.  If Pellucidar were not supported upon the flaming sea it too would fall as the fruit falls—­you have proven it yourself!” 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, for when I contemplated the necessity explanation of our solar system and the universe I realized how futile it would be to attempt to picture to Ja or any other Pellucidarian the sun, the moon, the planets, and the countless stars.  Those born within the inner world could no more conceive of such things than can we of the outer crust reduce to factors appreciable to our finite minds such terms as space and eternity.

“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 much where we came from as where we are going now.  For my part I wish that you could guide me to Phutra where I may give myself up to the Mahars once more that my friends and I may work out the plan of escape which the Sagoths interrupted when they gathered us together and drove us to the arena to witness the punishment of the slaves who killed the guardsman.  I wish now that I had not left the arena for by this time my friends and I might have made good our escape, whereas this delay may mean the wrecking of all our plans, which depended for their consummation upon the continued sleep of the three Mahars who lay in the 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 in Pellucidar, except yourself.  What else may I do under the circumstances?”

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 it seems most foolish, for the Mahars will most certainly condemn you to death for running away, and so you will be accomplishing nothing for your friends by returning.  Never in all my life have I heard of a prisoner returning to the Mahars of his own free will.  There are but few who escape them, though some do, and these would rather die than be recaptured.”

“I see no other way, Ja,” I said, “though I can assure you that I would rather go to Sheol after Perry than to Phutra.  However, Perry is much too pious to make the probability at all great that I should ever be called upon to rescue him from the former locality.”

Ja asked me what Sheol was, and when I explained, as best I could, he said, “You are speaking of Molop Az, the flaming sea upon which Pellucidar 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 demons who dwell there.  We know this because when graves are opened we find that the bodies have been partially or entirely borne off.  That is why we of Anoroc place our dead in high trees where the birds may find them and bear them bit by bit to the Dead World above the Land of Awful Shadow.  If we kill an enemy we place his body in the ground that it may go to Molop Az.”

As we talked we had been walking up the canyon down which I had come to the great ocean and the sithic.  Ja did his best to dissuade me from returning to Phutra, but when he saw that I was determined to do so, he consented to guide me to a point from which I could see the plain where lay the city.  To my surprise the distance was but short from the beach where I had again met Ja.  It was evident that I had spent much time following the windings of a tortuous canon, while just beyond the ridge lay 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 the flowered plain at our feet Ja made a final effort to persuade me to abandon my mad purpose and return with him to Anoroc, but I was firm in my resolve, and at last he bid me good-bye, assured in his own mind that he was looking upon me for the last time.

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

There was, however, one great thing to be accomplished first—­at least it was the great thing to me—­the finding of Dian the Beautiful.  I wanted to make amends for the affront I had put upon her in my ignorance, and I wanted to—­well, I wanted to see her again, and to be with her.

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

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

“What do you here?” shouted one, and then as he recognized me, “Ho!  It is the slave who claims to be from another world—­he who escaped when the 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, as did others, and coming into a long passage I became confused and lost my way in the foothills beyond Phutra.  Only now have I found my way back.”

“And you come of your free will back to Phutra!” exclaimed one of the guardsmen.

“Where else might I go?” I asked.  “I am a stranger within Pellucidar and know no other where than Phutra.  Why should I not desire to be in Phutra?  Am I not well fed and well treated?  Am I not happy?  What better lot could man desire?”

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

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

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

“You say that you returned to Phutra of your own free will, because you think yourself better off here than elsewhere—­do you not know that you may be the next chosen to give up your life in the interests of the wonderful scientific investigations that our learned ones are continually occupied with?”

I hadn’t heard of anything of that nature, but I thought best not to admit it.

“I could be in no more danger here,” I said, “than naked and unarmed in the savage jungles or upon the lonely plains of Pellucidar.  I was fortunate, I think, to return to Phutra at all.  As it was I barely escaped death within the jaws of a huge sithic.  No, I am sure that I am safer in the hands of intelligent creatures such as rule Phutra.  At least such would be the case in my own world, where human beings like myself rule supreme.  There the higher races of man extend protection and hospitality to the stranger within their gates, and being a stranger here I naturally assumed that a like courtesy would be accorded me.”

The Mahar looked at me in silence for some time after I ceased speaking and the Sagoth had translated my words to his master.  The creature seemed deep in thought.  Presently he communicated some message to the Sagoth.  The latter turned, and motioning me to follow him, left the presence of the reptile.  Behind and on either side of me marched the balance 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 you regarding 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 who lie to them?”

“No,” I replied, “nor does it interest me, as I have no intention of lying to the Mahars.”

“Then be careful that you don’t repeat the impossible tale you told Sol-to-to just now—­another world, indeed, where human beings rule!” he concluded 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 be judged by one with but half an eye.”

“What will they do with me,” I asked, “if they do not have a mind to believe me?”

“You may be sentenced to the arena, or go to the pits to be used in research 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 little good.  It is said that the learned ones cut up their subjects while they are yet alive, thus learning many useful things.  However I should not imagine that it would prove very useful to him who was being cut up; but of course this is all but conjecture.  The chances are that ere long you will know much more about it than I,” and he grinned as he spoke.  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 you escaped?” 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 be employed.”

“It is sure death in either event?” I asked.

“What becomes of those who go below with the learned ones I do not know, nor does any other,” he replied; “but those who go to the arena may come out alive and thus regain their liberty, as did the two whom you saw.”

“They gained their liberty?  And how?”

“It is the custom of the Mahars to liberate those who remain alive within the arena after the beasts depart or are killed.  Thus it has happened that several mighty warriors from far distant lands, whom we have captured on our slave raids, have battled the brutes turned in upon them and slain them, thereby winning their freedom.  In the instance which you witnessed the beasts killed each other, but the result was the same—­the man and woman were liberated, furnished with weapons, and started on their homeward journey.  Upon the left shoulder of each a mark was burned—­the mark of the Mahars—­which will forever protect these two from slaving parties.”

“There is a slender chance for me then if I be sent to the arena, and none at all if the learned ones drag me to the pits?”

“You are quite right,” he replied; “but do not felicitate yourself too quickly should you be sent to the arena, for there is scarce one in a thousand who comes out alive.”

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

“He will doubtless be called before the investigators shortly,” said he who had brought me back, “so have him in readiness.”

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

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

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

“Why, Perry!” I exclaimed, “haven’t you a word for me after my long absence?”

“Long absence!” he repeated in evident astonishment.  “What do you mean?”

“Are you crazy, Perry?  Do you mean to say that you have not missed me since that time we were separated by the charging thag within the arena?”

“’That time’,” he repeated.  “Why man, I have but just returned from the arena!  You reached here almost as soon as I. Had you been much later I should indeed have been worried, and as it is I had intended asking you about how you escaped the beast as soon as I had completed the translation of this most interesting passage.”

“Perry, you are mad,” I exclaimed.  “Why, the Lord only knows how long I have been away.  I have been to other lands, discovered a new race of humans within Pellucidar, seen the Mahars at their worship in their hidden temple, and barely escaped with my life from them and from a great labyrinthodon that I met afterward, following my long and tedious wanderings across an unknown world.  I must have been away for months, Perry, and now you barely look up from your work when I return and insist that we have been separated but a moment.  Is that any way to treat a friend?  I’m surprised at you, Perry, and if I’d thought for a moment that you cared no more for me than this I should not have returned 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 a puzzled expression upon his wrinkled face, and a look of hurt sorrow in his eyes.

“David, my boy,” he said, “how could you for a moment doubt my love for you?  There is something strange here that I cannot understand.  I know that I am not mad, and I am equally sure that you are not; but how in the world are we to account for the strange hallucinations that each of us seems to harbor relative to the passage of time since last we saw each other.  You are positive that months have gone by, while to me it seems equally certain that not more than an hour ago I sat beside you in the amphitheater.  Can it be that both of us are right and at the same time both are wrong?  First tell me what time is, and then maybe I can 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 my book here, there has been no lapse of time.  I have done little or nothing to waste my energies and so have required neither food nor sleep, but you, on the contrary, have walked and fought and wasted strength and tissue which must needs be rebuilt by nutriment and food, and so, having eaten and slept many times since last you saw me you naturally measure the lapse of time largely by these acts.  As a matter of fact, David, I am rapidly coming to the conviction that there is no such thing as time—­surely there can be no time here within Pellucidar, where there are no means for measuring or recording time.  Why, the Mahars themselves take no account of such a thing as time.  I find here in all their literary works but a single tense, the present.  There seems to be neither past nor future with them.  Of course it is impossible for our outer-earthly minds to grasp such a condition, but our recent experiences seem to demonstrate its existence.”

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

“Come!” commanded the intruder, beckoning to me.  “The investigators would speak with you.”

“Good-bye, Perry!” I said, clasping the old man’s hand.  “There may be nothing but the present and no such thing as time, but I feel that I am about to take a trip into the hereafter from which I shall never return.  If you and Ghak should manage to escape I want you to promise me that you will find Dian the Beautiful and tell her that with my last words I asked her forgiveness for the unintentional affront I put upon her, and that my one wish was to be spared long enough to right the wrong that I had done her.”

Tears came to Perry’s eyes.

“I cannot believe but that you will return, David,” he said.  “It would be awful to think of living out the balance of my life without you among these hateful and repulsive creatures.  If you are taken away I shall never escape, for I feel that I am as well off here as I should be anywhere within this buried world.  Good-bye, my boy, good-bye!” and then his old voice faltered and broke, and as he hid his face in his hands the Sagoth guardsman grasped me roughly by the shoulder and hustled me from the chamber.