The evening world. Newspaper, June 9, 1914, Page 17

ARREARS, 1014, by the Frank A, Munsey Oo.) (who tells the ator) forme could tell, where it was alw: in, no time had judgment told me t must have been several hours in this strange world. Presently the forest terminated and we came out upon a@ level plain. fore us rose a fow low, rocky hills. Toward these our fter @ short CG , Te ey dyna Tained od Tey glared short distance i iding the victim to David the ave penetrated, CHAPTER III. ‘A Change of Masters. OT at all, David. For two hundred and fifty miles our prospector bore us the crust be- neath our outer world. At that point it reached the centre of gravity of the five-hundred-mile- Up to that point we had been descending—direction Is, of course, merely relative. “Then at the moment seats revolved—which made you be- lieve we had turned about and were upward—we centre of gravity and, though we did not alter the direction of our progre: yot we were in reality moving up- ‘ward—toward the surface of the inner Fry. tries to et fhe world into which into a tiny, circular valley. down to work, and we were soon nvinced that if we were not t to make a Roman holiday we were to die for some purpos ‘rhe attitude of our captors alter they entered the na ural arena within the rocky hills. Their laughter ceased. Grim ferocity menaced us upon all sides. were placed in the center of the amphitheatre, the thousand creatures orming a great ring about us. Then ight—byaenodon Perry called it—and turned loose wi Tt he circle. The thing's body legs were short and powerful, and its jaws broad and Dark, shaggy hair covered its back and sides while its breast and belly were quite white. As it slunk toward ‘us it presented a most formidable as- pect with its up-curled lips baring its mighty fangs. , Perry was on his knees, praying. 1 stooped and picked up a small stone. At my movement the beast veered off a bit and commenced circling us. cvidently it had been a target for thick crust. “Does not this strange fauna and flora which we have seen convince you that you are not in the world of And the horizon—could it present the strange aspect which ‘we both noted unless we were Indeed @tanding upon the inside surface of here?” But the sun, Perry!" 1 urged. world can the sun shine through five hundred miles of solid jt?" The ape-things were dancing up and down, urging the brute on with savage cries, until I did not throw, he charged us. At Andover, and later at Yale, I had pitched on winning bail teams. My speed and control must both have been above the ordinary, for I made such @ record during my senior year at college that overtures were made me in behalf of one of the great league team: pinch that ever had con- fronted me in the past there had never been such need for control as now. As I wound up for the delivery I held my nerves and muscles under absolute command, though the grin- ning jaws were hurtling toward me And then I let go, with every ounce of my weight and muscle and science back of throw. The stone caught the hyaeno- 4g, don full upon the end of the nose and him bowling over upon his t last, seeing that “It is not the sun of the outer ‘world that we see here. sun—an entirely different sun—that casts its eternal noonday effulgence the face of the inner world. ‘Look at it now, David—if you can eee it from the doorway of this hu and you will see that it is still in th exact centre of the heavens. been here for many hours—yet it ts Tt is another EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS forced companionship whch I, at least, soon rejoiced in. teacher and from her I learned the language of her tribe, and much of the life and customs of the inner world—at least of that part of rae which hide of some shaggy beast, long ends of which depended before and behind rly to the ground. si res these ends were finished with the strong talons of the beast from which the hide had been tak Our guards, w In some in- at terrific speed. “And withal it 1s very simple, Da- vid. The earth was once a nebulous . It cooled, and as it cooled ‘t hrank. At length a thin crust of sgolid matter formed upon its outer gurface—a sort of shell, but within molten matter and m i have already la-like men, rather lighter in build than a gorilla, but even #0, they were indeed mighty, creatures. Their arms and legs were proportioned more in conformity with human standards, bodies were covered with shaggy brown hair, and their faces were quite those of the fow stuffed specimens of the gorilla which I had geen in the museums at home. Their only redeeming feature lay in the development of the head above and back of the ears. In this respect they were not one whit less human than we. ‘They were clothed in a sort of tunic of light cloth which reached to the knees. Beneath this they wo @ loin-cloth of the same material, while their feet were shod with rather heavy sandals apparently made of the thick hide of some mammotb creature of this inner world. Their arms and necks were encir- cled by many ornaments of metal— predominating—and on tunics were sewn the heads of tiny in odd and rather artistic de- was familiar. told me that she was Dian the Beautiful, and that she be- Jonged to the tribe of Amo: dwell in the cliffs above the Darel As, or Shallow Sea. “How came you here?” I asked her. “I was running away from Jubal, she answered, At the same instant a chorus of shrieks and howls rose from the circle of spectators eo that for a moment I thought that the upsetting of their champion was the cause, but in this I soon saw that I was mistaken. As in 1 looked the ape-things broke in all the surroundin; I distinguished th Teal cause kd their perturbation. Dighiy expende a but their entire to cool what hap- 1 force hurled the of the nebulous cent! the crust as rapid: hed a solid state. nee! rinciple practically applied ‘cream separator. Pres- ore was only & Coe ar. ‘core of gaseous matter remain- within fs oes vacant interior left contraction of the cooling “The equal attraction of the solid crust from al at ‘this luminous core in t! though that w “Who is Jubal the Ugly One?’ I “And why did you run a from him?" She looked at me in by does a woman run away fr She answered my ques: with another. “They do not, where I come from,” “Sometimes they run after directions t like creatures ormed with spears aud tchets and bearing Like devils they set on the ape-things, and before them the hy- which had now its senses and its feet, fled howling Past us swept ‘the pur- sued and the pursuers, nor did the hairy ones accord us more than a passing glance until the arena hi been emptied of its former occupants. ‘Then they returned to us and one who seemed to have authority di- rected that we be brought with them. @ had passed out of the amphitheatre onto the great plain we saw a caravan of men and wom- man beings like ourselves, and for the first time hope and relief unti! I could have iu the exuberance of my But she could mot understand. Nor could I get her to grasp the fact that was of another world. She was quite as positive that creation was originated solely to produce her own d the world she lived in as ny of the outer world. jut Jubal,” I insisted. nd why you ran away to ined by the neck and scourged ually to every part of this {nner world it diffuses its per- of the earth. id torrid heat. a? noonday light a “Tals inner world must sufficiently to life appeared upon the but that the eame agen- rk here is evident forms of both ani- ble creation which we They talked among themselves as they marched along on either side of ‘us, but in a language which I perceived differed from that employed by our fellow prisoners. When dressed the latter the; later learned 1 cies were at wo from the @imil: mal and vegetal have alrendy seen. “Take the grea ‘tacked us, for example. ably a counterpart of tl rium of the post-pliocene phy before my father’s hous the head of a mighty tandor. mained there and no greater trophy used what ap- t beast which at- language, and Unquestion- he Megathe- was placed beside it. Jubal the Ugly One would come and take me as his mate. “None other so powerful would have slain a beast and thus have won So I knew that It is true that they were a naked, wild apearing aggregation; but they at least were fashioned along the lines as ourselves—there was nothing grotesque or horrible about them as the other creatures we had inge, weird world. But as we came closer our hearts for we discovered that the poor wretches were chained neck to neck in a long line and that the gorilla-men were their guards. With little ceremony Perry ai I were chained at the end of the line, and the interrupted march resumed. CHAPTER Iv. Dian the Beautiful. © this time the excitement had kept us both up; now the tiresome monotony of the long march across the sun-baked plain brought ‘on all the agonies consequent to long- denied sleep. On and on we stumbled beneath that hateful noonday sun. we were prodded with a sharp spear- we marched I have no nor had Perry. us were asleep much of the time for hours before a halt was called—then e dropped in our tracks. I say “for may one measure time where time does not exist! When our march commenced the sun stood at zenith; when we halted our shadows still pointed toward na- ether an instant or an eter- ipsed who may as been found inhabitants of “Surely they t in the earth's She grotesque mighty hunter. is £0 if @ sadok tossed him and never bad he the full use of his right 5 “My brother, Dacor, the Strong One, had gone to the land of a@ mate for himself. Once he wa have no counterpar' met with tn thi: Hy titute the link be- “They may cons tween ape and which have countless = ci ransacked th may be merel; .tion along slight! Either theory is qu’ Further speculation ed by the appearance our captors before th Two of them entere h. The perilous path- inding trees were sank once more, Thus there wi save me from Jtibal, the Ugly and I ran away and hid among th hills that skirt the land of Amo: And there these Sagoths found me and made mo captive.” “What will they do with you?" I “Where are they taking us Again she looked her incredullt; “1 can almost believe that you ai of another world,” " otherwise such ignorance were ine: Do you really mean thi you do not know that the Sagoths are the creatures the mighty Mahars who think thi Pelucidar and walks or grows upon its surface, or creeps or burrows beneath, or swims within {ts lakes and oceans, or files through its alr? Next you will be telling me that you never before heard of the Mahars!” 1 was loath to do it, and further but there waa no Poot onvulsions which have e outer crust, or they y the result of evolu- nity of earthly time e! say? That march m pied nine years and eleven months of the ten years that I spent in the in- ner world, or it may have been ac- complished in the fraction of a aec- 1 cannot tell. But this I do know, that since you have told me that ten years have elapsed since I departed from this earth I have lost all respect for time. Tam commencing to doubt that such a thing exists other than in the weak and finite mind of man. When our guards roused us from our sleep, we were much refreshed ‘They gave us food, meat {t was, but it put new life and that now we, too, h-held heads, and ite possible.” Sas interrupt- of several of e entrance of dragged us fort ways and the surr filled with the black ape-men, females and their young. There wi not an ornament, | garment among the lot “Quite low in the sca’ commented Perry. “Quite high deuce with us, tnoug' ‘Now, what do you suppose they in- tend doing with us?” ‘We were not long in learning. As on the occasion of our trip to the village, we uple of the powerful creatures and Jwhirled away through the tree-tops, 1 out us and in our chattering, jibbering, erin- horde of plesk. black api m: rers m| Tug, and rt ceased beat- of the Mahars le of creation,” to play the Strips of dried I strength into us, marched with took noble strides, At least I did, for I was young and proud; but poor Perry hated walking. On earth I had often seen him call a cab to travel a square; he was pay- ing for it now, wabbled so that I put my arm about him and half carried him through the balance of those frightful marc to change at up out of the incur her scorn; alternative if I were to absorb knowl- edge, 80 1 made a clean breast of my ignorance as to the seized by & Our companions In chains did not They strode along proudly Occasionally they would ex- words with one another in a They were a She was shocked. But she did her to enlighten that she said w would have been to her, monosyllabic langu: noble appearing formed heads and perfect physique: The men were heavily bearded, tall The women smaller and more gracefully molded, with great masses of raven hair caught into loose knots upon their heads. features of both sexes were well pro- portioned; there was not a face among them that would have been called plain if judged by earthy stand- and we wound plain through tains of virgin granite. verdure of the lowlands was replaced by hardier vegetation, but even here the effects of constant heat and Ieht were apparent tn the trees and the profusion of foliage the tangled dead wood ns th amon: jon But on both occasions powerful tails reached out id sustaining branches, nor ‘The tropical Are You Going Away for the Summer? “4 either of ir grasp sermed, that the incidents were of ater moment to them be the stubbing of one’ in the outer wor! the creatures loosen the immensity of out of town for the summer you may find it ts difficult and costly to provide yourself with the right sort of reading their rocky channels fed by the per- petual snow which we could see far Above the snow capped heights hung masses of heavy clouds It was these, Perry explained, which evidently served the double purpose of replenishing and protecting them from the direct rays of the ever present sun By this time we had picked up a smattering of the bastard language in our guards addressed well as making good headway in the rather charming tongue of our co- eet crossing bag but laughed uproariously and (ved on with me. For ‘through the forest—how long I could learning what ‘was later borne very forcibly to my mind, that time ceases to be a factor the moment means for measuring it coase to exist. «Our watches were gone, and we ‘were living beneath a stationary sun. Already I was puzzled to compute the time which had e! ed wince we broke through the crust of It might be hours, or it might be daya—who in the world They wore no ornaments; but this I later learned was due to the fact that their captors had stripped them of everything of value. As garmenture the women possessed a single robe of some light colored, la Why send to the city for novels at $1,25 or $1.50 each or buy them at a fancy price in some country store? You can supply yourself with the best, most delightful summer reading for six cents a week. subscribing to The Evening World for the summer months secure a complete novel each week. Not some old book a n able to sell, bat the finest up-to-date fiction ss, for I was melting snows pearance to a leopard’s skin. they wore either supported entirely about the waist by a leathern thong, so that {t hung partially knee on one side, or possibly looped gracefully across one shoulder. feet were shod with skin sandals. The men wore loin cloths of the country dealer has not by the foremost living authors. Bear this in mi , Not only for yourself but for any of your friends who expect to spend the summer In the country. ahead of me tn the chain- a young woman. ‘Three feet the inner world. SR GORRRR TRIE RIOR ATRIOS, Bhe described the Mahars largely by comparisons. In this way they were like unto thipdars, {m that to the hairless lidi. About all I gleaned of them waa that they were quite hideous, had wings and web-feet; lived in cities built beneath the ground; could swim under water for great distances, and were very, very wise. The Sagoths were thelr weapon of offense and defense, and the races lke herself were their hands and feet; they were the slaves and ser vants who did all the manual labor. The Mahars were the heads—the brains—of the inner world. | longed to see this wondrous race of super- mi learned the langu with me. When we halted, as we ocasion ally did, though sometimes the halts seemed ages apart, he would join in the conversation, as would Ghak the Hairy One, he who was chained just ahead of Dian the Beautiful. Abead of Ghak was Hooja the Sly He, too, entered the conversa- tion ocasionally. Most of his remarks were directed to Dian the Beautiful. It didn't take half an eye to see that he had developed ad case; but thi girl appeared totally oblivious to his thinly veiled advances. Did I say thinly veiled? There is race of men in New Zealand, or Australia, I have forgotten which, who indicate their preference for the lady of thelr affections by banging her over the head with a bludgeon. By comparison with this method Hooja’s lovemaking might be called thinly veiled. At first it caused me to biush violently, though I have known freedom and license in less fashionable places off Broadway and in Vienna and Hamburg. But the girl! ‘was magnificent. Tt was easy to see that she considered reelf entirely above and apart from her present surroundings and com- 1 ny. bart talked with me and with Perry and with the taciturn Ghak becau: we were respectful; but she couldn’ even seo Hooja the Sly One, much less hear him, and that made him furious. He tried to get one of the Sagoths to move the girl up ahead of him in the slave-gang, but the fellow only poked him with his spear and told him that he had selected the girl for his own property—that he would buy her from the Mahars as soon as they reached Phutra. Phutra, it seemed, was the city of our destination. After pa: ie over the first chain of mountains we skirted a salt sea, upon whose bosom swam countless horrid things. Seal-like creatures there were with long necks stretching ten and more feet above their enorm- ous bodies, and whose snake heads were split with gaping mouths brist- ling with countless fangs. ‘There were huge tortoises, too, pad- @ling about among these other rep- tiles, which Perry said were plesio- sours of the Li: I didn’t question his veracity; they might have been most anythin, Dian told me they were tandora: or tandors of the sea, and that the other and more fearsome reptiles which occasionally rose from the deep to do battle with them were azdy- ryths, or sea-dyryths—Perry called them ichthyosaurs. ‘They resembled a whale with the head of an alligator. Thad forgotten what little paleonto- Josy I hati studied at school—about all that remained was an impression of horror that the illustrations of re- stored prehistoric monsters had made upon me, and a_ well-defined bellet that any man with a pig's shank a vivid imagination could “resto: most any sort of palacolithic monst he saw fit, and take rank as a first class paleontologist. But when I saw these sleek, shiny carcasses shimmering In the sunlight as they emerged from the ocean, shaking their giant heads; when saw the waters roll from thete gin- uous bodies in,miniature waterfalls as they gilded hither and thither, now upon the surface, now half sub- merged; as I saw them meet. open- mouthed. hissing and snorting, in their titante and interminable warring, I realized how futile {s man's poor, weak imagination by comparison with Nature's incredible genius, And Perry! He was absolutely flabbergasted. He said so himself. Javid,” he remarked, after we had marched for a long time beside that awful sea—“David, used to teach geology, and I thought that I believed what [ taught; but now I see that I did not believe it—that it fs impossible for man to believe such things as these unless he sees them with his own eyes. ‘We take things for granted, per- haps, because we are told them over nd over again, and have no way of disproving them—like religions, for example; but we don't believe them; we only think we do. If you ever ge back to the outer world, you will find that the geologists and paleontologists will be the first to set you down a liar, for they know that no auch creatures as they restore ever existed, It 1s all right to imagine them as existing in an equally imaginary epoch—but now” rh At the next halt Hooja the Sly One managed to find enough slack chain to permit him to worm himself back quite close to Dian ‘We were all standing, and as he edged near the girl she turned her back upon him tn such a truly earth- ly feminine manner that I could id need of light The Evening World Daily Magazine: Tuesday. lune 9, 1914 ROOT, ‘TARZAN’S” AUTHOR— re BY ‘ RAIA I IR Woprright, scarce rey ssa smile. But it wan a short-li smile, for on the instant the Sly One's hand fell upc girl's bare arm, jerking her roughly toward him, I was not then famillar with the customs or social ethics which prevail within Pellucidar; but even so Lt did not need the appealing look which the girl shot at me from her max- nificent eyes to influence my subse: quent act. What the Sly One's intention was I paused not to inquire; but instead, before he could lay hold of her with his other hand I placed a right to the point of his jaw that felled him in bis tracks, A roar of approval went up from those of the other prisoners and the Sagoths who had witnessed the brief drama; not, as I later learned, be- cause | had championed the girl, but for the neat and, to them, astound- fog method by ich I had bested Hooja. And the girl?) At first ahe at ine with wide- wondering eyes, and then she dropped head, her fa half averted, and a delicate flush suf fused her cheek. For a moment she stood thus in silence, and then her head went high, and she turned her back upon meas she had upon Hooja. Some of the prisoners laughed, and I saw the face of Ghak the Hairy One go very black as he looked at me gearchingly. And what I could ace of Dian’s cheek went suddenly from red to white. Immediately after we resumed the march, and though | realized that in some way I had offended Dian the Beautiful, | could not prevail upon her to talk with me that 1 might learn wherein I had erred. In tact, I might quite as well have been a dressing @ aphynx for all the atten- tion I got. At last my own foolish pride stepped in and prevented my making thus a to any further attempts, and companionship that had come oo & great deal to me, was cut off. Thereafter I confined my conversa- dion to Perry. Hoojah did not renew his advances toward the girl, nor did he again venture near me. Again the weary and apparently interminable marching became a per- fect nightmare of horrors to me. The mo pale ti that the girl's friendship T came to mias It; and the more {m- pregnab But Tw: not ask very young, and woul for the explanat right again, On the march, or head or directly through me. and how | might make reparation. 1 made up my mind that T should We were approaching another range of moun- when we of winding across them through some bigh-flung pass, we entered @ mighty natural labyrinthian do thia at the next halt. tains at reached the time, them, nat and tunnel—a series of grottos, dark as Erebun. ‘The guards had no torches or lights we had of fire In petual noon there ts no bove ground, yet I mar- veled that they had no means of light- ing their way through these dark, sub- of any descriptions, In fac seen no artificial lght or si since we had entered Pellu a land of p terranean passag So we crept along at @ snail's pace, with much stumbling and falling—the guards keeping up a singsong chant interspersed with certain 1 high notes which I found always indi- ahead of ¥ cated rough, places and turns. Halts were now more frequent, but I did not wish to speak to Dian until xpression of her face how she was receiving my apolo- I could see from the gies. At last a faint glow ahead fore- warned us of the end of the tunnel, for which I for one was devoutly thankful Then at a sudden turn we emerged into the full light of the noonday sun. But with tt came a sudden realisa- tion of what meant to me a rea catantrophe. Dian was pe and with her half @ dozen other CHAPTER V. Slaves, JHE guards, too, jaw the behold. ‘Their awesome, beatial faces were contorted in the most diabolical ex- pressions as they accused each other of responsibility for the loas, Pinally they fell upon ua, beating us with their spear-shafts and hatchets, ‘They had already killed two, and were 4 the balance of us, when thetr leader finally put a like to have fintsl stop to the brutal slaughter, Never in all my life had I witnessed a more horrible exhibition of bestial rage. I thanked Heaven that Dian had not been one of those left to endure it. Of the twelve prisoners who had been chained ahead of me each alter- nate one had been freed, commencing Ghak What could It mean? How with Dian. remained. Hooja was gone. had {t been accomplished? ‘The commander of the guards was investigating. Soon he discovered that the rude locks which had held the neckbands tn place had been deftly pick “Hooja the Sly One," murmured Ghak, who was now next to me tn line, “He has taken the girl that you would not have,” he continued, glan- cing at me. “yhat 1 would not have?" I erted, t do you mean”” He looked at me closely for a mo- ment the kl * mates firmly fixed became the meant so much to me, the more the barrier of silly pride. in which | was sure he could give, and that might have made everything all during halts, Dian refused consistently to notice ‘When her eyen wandered In my direction she looked elther over my At last became desperate, and determined wallow my acif-eateem and again « her to tell me how I had offended, cape of Dian and the other prisoners, and the ferocity of their rage was terrible to THE ADVENTURES OF TWO EXPLORERS WHO DISCOVER A NEW AND ASTONISHING WORLD “I have doubted your story that you are from another world,” he eaid at i “but yet upon no other grounds could your ignorance of the ways of Pellucidar be explained. Do you mean that you do not know that you of- fended the Beautiful One, and how?" “I do not know, Ghak,” [ replied. “Then shall 1 tell you. When a man of Pellucidar intervenes between another man and the woman the other man would have, the woman belongs to the victor, Dian the Beautiful be- longs to you. You should have claimed her or released her. “Had you taken her hand it would have indicated your desire to make your mate, and had you raised rr hand above Rer head and then ped it, it would have meant that released her from all obligation to you. By doing neither you have put upon her the greatest affront that @ man may put upon @ woman. “Now she ts your slave, No man will take her as mate, or may take her honorably, until he shall have overcome you in combat, and men do not ch mlave-women as their at least, not the men of Pellu- eldar.” 1 did not know, Ghak!" I cried “T did not huow for all Petty cidar would L have harmed Dian the Beautiful by word, or look, or act of mine, Ido not want her as my slave. I do not want her as my"*-—— But here I stopped. The viston of that sweet and Innocent face floated before me amid the soft mista of im- agination, and where L had on the second believed that [ clung only to memory of the gentle friendship I p, had lost, yet now it seemed that it would have been disloyalty to her ta have said that I did not want Dian the Beautiful as my mate, I had no thought of her except as @ welcome friend in a strange, cruel world. Even now I did not think that 1 loved her, re I believe Ghak must have read the truth more {n my expression than in my words, for pr ly he laid his hand upon my shoulder. ‘Man of another world,” he sald, 1 believe you. Lips may ite, but when the heart speaks through the eyes It tells only the truth, Your heart h: jpoken to me, [ know now that yo ant no affront to Dian the Beautiful. “She is not of my tribe, but her mother is my sister, She does not know It. Her mother was stolen by Dian's father, who came with many others of the tribe of Amos to battle with us for our women—the most beautiful women of Pellucida was her father king of Amoi mother was daughter of the king of Sari—to whose power I, his son, bave succeeded. “Dian is the daughter of kings, though her father is no longer king since the Sadok tossed him and Jubal the Ugly One wrested his kingship from him. Because of her lineage the wrong you did her was greatly mag- eyes of all who saw it. you.” T asked Ghak If there was not some way tn which I could release tho girl from the bondage and ignominy 1 had unwittingly placed upon her. “If ever you find her, yes,” he an- awered. “Merely to raise her hand above her head and drop it in the presence of ethers Is suM@cient to re- lease her; but how may you ever find her who are doomed to a life of slavery yourself in the buried city of Phutra?” 8 there no escape’ “Hooja the Sly One escaped and took the others with him," replied Ghak, “But there are no more dark places on the way to Phutra, and once there it ts got so easy—t! hars are very wise. Even if o1 caped from Phutra, there a thipdars—they would find you, and then" The Hairy One shuddered, “No, you will never escape the Ma- bars.” It was certainly a cheerful prospect. 1 asked Perry wat he thought about it; but he only ahPugged hia shoulders and continued @ prayer he had been at for some time. He was wont to say that the only redeeming feature of our captivity was the ample timo ¢, it gave bin: for the improvisation of prayers. It was becoming an ob- session with him. The Sagoths had begun to take no- tice of his habit of declaiming throughout entire marches, One of them asked him what he was saying fave me an idea, so I wered Kly, before Perry could say any- I asked. ~ to whom he was talking. | 'T tlon “Do not interrupt him,” I sald. “He in a very holy man in the world from which we come. He is speaking to spirits which you cannot aee. Do not interrupt him or they will spring out of the alr upon you and rend you limb from limb—Iike that,” and T jumped toward the great brute with a loud “Boo!” that sent him stumbling back- ward I took @ long chance, I realize, but {f we could make any capital out of Perry's harmless manta [ wanted to make It while the making was prime. It worked splendidly, The 8: 4 treated us both with marked reapect during the balance of the journey, and the ssed the word along to their mi , the Mahars. ‘Two marches after this episode we oame to the city of Phutra. ‘The en- trance to it was marked by two lofty towers of granite which guarded a Aight of steps leading to the buried elty Sagoths were on guard here, as well as at a hundred or more other towers scattered about over a large plain, As we descended the broad atair- case which led to the main avenue of Phutra I caught my frat eight of the dominant race of the inner world, fly I shrank back as one tures approached to tn- spect A more hideous thing it would be impossible to 1 The eldar a eight feet in length, with long, heads and great round eyes Their beaklike mouths are lined with sharp, white fangs, and the backs of their huge lizard bodies are serrated tnt end of their long tatls. Their feet are equipped with three webbed toes, while from the fore-feet membranous wings, which are at. tached to their bodies just In front of NEXT WEEK’S COMPLETE NOVEL = IN THE EVENING WORLD => E Pe) Aa 0 THE BEST MAN. FA “JUNE WEDDIN ae, protrude at an, rear, endihg with its several feet above the! their hind le; toward thi man was gazing a ture with wide, “A thamphorrhynch f olitic, David,” he said; “but, enormous. The largest remains we have ever discovered have never indi- cated a size greater than that attained by an ordinary crow.” As we continued on ‘through main avenue of Phutra we saw mi thousands of these creat and going upon their daily: du hey paid but little attention to ua. «4. Phutra ts laid out underground wi @ regularity that indicates remarkable It is hewn from | The streets ate - engineering skill, solid limestone strata. broad and of a uniform helgh twenty feet. At intervals tubes pl the roof of this underground city, means of lenses and reflec transmit the sunlight, softened and dif~ pel what would otherwise In like man- ner air tn Introduced. Perry and I were taken, with Ghak, public bullding, where one of the Sagoths who had formed our guard explained to a Maharan official circumstances surrounding . our capture, The method of communica- tion between these two was remark~, able in that no spoken 3 exchanged. They employed a species} Aa I was to learn later, the Mahars! oo ears nor any spok guage. Among themselves they com- muntcate by means of what Perry says must be a sixth sense which te cognizant of a fourth dtmenston. I never did quite grasp him, though he endeavored to explain it to me upon numerous occasions. ted telepathy, but he sald no, that 8 not telepathy, since they could ommunicate when other's presence, nor could they talk the Sagoths or the other in- habitants of Pellucidar by the same method they used to converse with one another. “What they do,” said Perry, “is to et their thoughts into the fourth become preciable to the sixth sense of their Do | make myself clear?” ." T_ replied. in_ despair and “You do not, Per He shook his h returned to his work. They had set us to carrying @ great accumuiation of Maharan literature from one apart- other, and there arranging as Ne commenced to discoves the key: to their written language, he assur that we were handling the ano‘tat archives of the my though: htt namely Sens Dian, be enue was, of course, escaped the Mahars, and the ae been suggested by the gotha, who had threaten: chase her upon our arrival at Phutra. I n wondered if the little party ives had been overtaken by the guards who had returned to search for them. Sometimes I was not so sure but that I should hi been more contented to know Dian was here in Phutra, tha: think of her at the Sly One. the mercy of Hooja Ghak, Perry and I oft >” gether of possible eaca; uu tee Gag rian was so steeped in his Iii that no one cou Mahars except by a he was not much ald to us. Ala al titude was of wane the miracle to come to him. At my suggestion Perry and’? fashs\* foned some swords of sera; we we diac rul jb in the cells where . for we were permitted almost unter strained freedom of action wi he limits of the butldin; i we had been assigned. Shoat week the number of slaves upon the inhabitants of Phutra’ ¢ none of us was ap! dened with work, e eres to us. our new wea! the bpm which formed in Perry eonceiy: of making bows and aren od apparently unknown witbia Pel Next came shields, but found it easier to steal fro walla of the outer oe to be overbure,* oF were our “ So amas Suardroom of the , We had completed these arr: ments for our protection after lea’ Phutra when the Sagoths who hi been. sent to recapture the escaped prisoners returned with four of - of whom Hooja was one. two others had eluded them. 1 0 the old man, ery Inch of this Inj Dian the Beautiful and, riebe, the wrong I unintentionally did her.” That was the excuse I made Perry's benefit. bod “Diminutive world!” “You don't know what you are talki: about, my boy,” and then he sho: me a map of Pellucidar whieh he had recently discovered among the manu- script he was arranging. “We know that the crust of the globe is five hundred miles in thick- neas; then the inside diameter of Pel- luctdar must be seven thousand miles, and the superfictal area something more than one hundred and etxty million aquare milea Three-fourtha of this 1s land. Think of it! area of one hundred and twenty-four milion equare miles! “Our own world contains but fifty- three million equare miles of land, the balance of Its surface being cov- Just as we often compare nations by thetr relative Jand compare these two worlds {n the same way, we have the strange anomaly of a larger world vast Pellucifar uid you search for your Dian? Without stars or moon or sun, how could you find her, even though you knew where she might be bony ridges from thetr necks to the* found?” “it T have to search ered by water. Th took my breath a that It left me G” COMPLICA’