VII

VII

FREEDOM

ONCE OUT OF THE DIRECT PATH OF THE ANIMAL, fear of it

left me, but another emotion as quickly gripped me--hope

of escape that the demoralized condition of the guards

made possible for the instant.

I thought of Perry, but for the hope that I might better

encompass his release if myself free I should have put

the thought of freedom from me at once. As it was I

hastened on toward the right searching for an exit toward

which no Sagoths were fleeing, and at last I found it--a low,

narrow aperture leading into a dark corridor.

Without thought of the possible consequence, I darted into

the shadows of the tunnel, feeling my way along through

the gloom for some distance. The noises of the amphitheater

had grown fainter and fainter until now all was as silent

as the tomb about me. Faint light filtered from above

through occasional ventilating and lighting tubes, but it

was scarce sufficient to enable my human eyes to cope with

the darkness, and so I was forced to move with extreme care,

feeling my way along step by step with a hand upon the

wall beside me.

Presently the light increased and a moment later,

to my delight, I came upon a flight of steps leading upward,

at the top of which the brilliant light of the noonday

sun shone through an opening in the ground.

Cautiously I crept up the stairway to the tunnel's end,

and peering out saw the broad plain of Phutra before me.

The numerous lofty, granite towers which mark the several

entrances to the subterranean city were all in front

of me--behind, the plain stretched level and unbroken

to the nearby foothills. I had come to the surface,

then, beyond the city, and my chances for escape seemed

much enhanced.

My first impulse was to await darkness before attempting

to cross the plain, so deeply implanted are habits

of thought; but of a sudden I recollected the perpetual

noonday brilliance which envelopes Pellucidar,

and with a smile I stepped forth into the day-light.

Rank grass, waist high, grows upon the plain of

Phutra--the gorgeous flowering grass of the inner world,

each particular blade of which is tipped with a tiny,

five-pointed blossom--brilliant little stars of varying

colors that twinkle in the green foliage to add still

another charm to the weird, yet lovely, land-scape.

But then the only aspect which attracted me was the distant

hills in which I hoped to find sanctuary, and so I hastened on,

trampling the myriad beauties beneath my hurrying feet.

Perry says that the force of gravity is less upon the

surface of the inner world than upon that of the outer.

He explained it all to me once, but I was never particularly

brilliant in such matters and so most of it has escaped me.

As I recall it the difference is due in some part to the

counter-attraction of that portion of the earth's crust

directly opposite the spot upon the face of Pellucidar

at which one's calculations are being made. Be that as

it may, it always seemed to me that I moved with greater

speed and agility within Pellucidar than upon the outer

surface--there was a certain airy lightness of step that was

most pleasing, and a feeling of bodily detachment which

I can only compare with that occasionally experienced in dreams.

And as I crossed Phutra's flower-bespangled plain that time

I seemed almost to fly, though how much of the sensation

was due to Perry's suggestion and how much to actuality

I am sure I do not know. The more I thought of Perry

the less pleasure I took in my new-found freedom.

There could be no liberty for me within Pellucidar unless

the old man shared it with me, and only the hope that I

might find some way to encompass his release kept me

from turning back to Phutra.

Just how I was to help Perry I could scarce imagine,

but I hoped that some fortuitous circumstance might solve

the problem for me. It was quite evident however that

little less than a miracle could aid me, for what could

I accomplish in this strange world, naked and unarmed?

It was even doubtful that I could retrace my steps

to Phutra should I once pass beyond view of the plain,

and even were that possible, what aid could I bring

to Perry no matter how far I wandered?

The case looked more and more hopeless the longer I viewed it,

yet with a stubborn persistency I forged ahead toward

the foothills. Behind me no sign of pursuit developed,

before me I saw no living thing. It was as though I

moved through a dead and forgotten world.

I have no idea, of course, how long it took me to reach

the limit of the plain, but at last I entered the foothills,

following a pretty little canyon upward toward

the mountains. Beside me frolicked a laughing brooklet,

hurrying upon its noisy way down to the silent sea.

In its quieter pools I discovered many small fish, of four-

or five-pound weight I should imagine. In appearance,

except as to size and color, they were not unlike the

whale of our own seas. As I watched them playing about

I discovered, not only that they suckled their young,

but that at intervals they rose to the surface to breathe

as well as to feed upon certain grasses and a strange,

scarlet lichen which grew upon the rocks just above the

water line.

It was this last habit that gave me the opportunity I

craved to capture one of these herbivorous cetaceans--that

is what Perry calls them--and make as good a meal as one can

on raw, warm-blooded fish; but I had become rather used,

by this time, to the eating of food in its natural state,

though I still balked on the eyes and entrails,

much to the amusement of Ghak, to whom I always passed

these delicacies.

Crouching beside the brook, I waited until one of the

diminutive purple whales rose to nibble at the long

grasses which overhung the water, and then, like the beast

of prey that man really is, I sprang upon my victim,

appeasing my hunger while he yet wriggled to escape.

Then I drank from the clear pool, and after washing my hands

and face continued my flight. Above the source of the brook

I encountered a rugged climb to the summit of a long ridge.

Beyond was a steep declivity to the shore of a placid,

inland sea, upon the quiet surface of which lay several

beautiful islands.

The view was charming in the extreme, and as no man or beast

was to be seen that might threaten my new-found liberty,

I slid over the edge of the bluff, and half sliding,

half falling, dropped into the delightful valley,

the very aspect of which seemed to offer a haven of peace

and security.

The gently sloping beach along which I walked was thickly

strewn with strangely shaped, colored shells; some empty,

others still housing as varied a multitude of mollusks

as ever might have drawn out their sluggish lives along the

silent shores of the antediluvian seas of the outer crust.

As I walked I could not but compare myself with the first

man of that other world, so complete the solitude which

surrounded me, so primal and untouched the virgin wonders

and beauties of adolescent nature. I felt myself a second

Adam wending my lonely way through the childhood of a world,

searching for my Eve, and at the thought there rose

before my mind's eye the exquisite outlines of a perfect

face surmounted by a loose pile of wondrous, raven hair.

As I walked, my eyes were bent upon the beach so that it

was not until I had come quite upon it that I discovered

that which shattered all my beautiful dream of solitude

and safety and peace and primal overlordship. The thing

was a hollowed log drawn upon the sands, and in the bottom

of it lay a crude paddle.

The rude shock of awakening to what doubtless might prove

some new form of danger was still upon me when I heard

a rattling of loose stones from the direction of the bluff,

and turning my eyes in that direction I beheld the

author of the disturbance, a great copper-colored man,

running rapidly toward me.

There was that in the haste with which he came which

seemed quite sufficiently menacing, so that I did

not need the added evidence of brandishing spear and

scowling face to warn me that I was in no safe position,

but whither to flee was indeed a momentous question.

The speed of the fellow seemed to preclude the possibility

of escaping him upon the open beach. There was but a

single alternative--the rude skiff--and with a celerity

which equaled his, I pushed the thing into the sea and

as it floated gave a final shove and clambered in over the end.

A cry of rage rose from the owner of the primitive craft,

and an instant later his heavy, stone-tipped spear grazed

my shoulder and buried itself in the bow of the boat beyond.

Then I grasped the paddle, and with feverish haste urged

the awkward, wobbly thing out upon the surface of the sea.

A glance over my shoulder showed me that the copper-colored

one had plunged in after me and was swimming rapidly

in pursuit. His mighty strokes bade fair to close up

the distance between us in short order, for at best I

could make but slow progress with my unfamiliar craft,

which nosed stubbornly in every direction but that which I

desired to follow, so that fully half my energy was

expended in turning its blunt prow back into the course.

I had covered some hundred yards from shore when it became

evident that my pursuer must grasp the stern of the skiff

within the next half-dozen strokes. In a frenzy of despair,

I bent to the grandfather of all paddles in a hopeless

effort to escape, and still the copper giant behind me

gained and gained.

His hand was reaching upward for the stern when I saw a sleek,

sinuous body shoot from the depths below. The man saw

it too, and the look of terror that overspread his face

assured me that I need have no further concern as to him,

for the fear of certain death was in his look.

And then about him coiled the great, slimy folds of a

hideous monster of that prehistoric deep--a mighty serpent

of the sea, with fanged jaws, and darting forked tongue,

with bulging eyes, and bony protuberances upon head

and snout that formed short, stout horns.

As I looked at that hopeless struggle my eyes met

those of the doomed man, and I could have sworn

that in his I saw an expression of hopeless appeal.

But whether I did or not there swept through me a sudden

compassion for the fellow. He was indeed a brother-man,

and that he might have killed me with pleasure

had he caught me was forgotten in the extremity of his danger.

Unconsciously I had ceased paddling as the serpent rose

to engage my pursuer, so now the skiff still drifted close

beside the two. The monster seemed to be but playing with his

victim before he closed his awful jaws upon him and dragged

him down to his dark den beneath the surface to devour him.

The huge, snakelike body coiled and uncoiled about its prey.

The hideous, gaping jaws snapped in the victim's face.

The forked tongue, lightning-like, ran in and out upon

the copper skin.

Nobly the giant battled for his life, beating with his

stone hatchet against the bony armor that covered that

frightful carcass; but for all the damage he inflicted

he might as well have struck with his open palm.

At last I could endure no longer to sit supinely by while

a fellowman was dragged down to a horrible death by that

repulsive reptile. Embedded in the prow of the skiff lay

the spear that had been cast after me by him whom I suddenly

desired to save. With a wrench I tore it loose, and standing

upright in the wobbly log drove it with all the strength

of my two arms straight into the gaping jaws of the hydrophidian.

With a loud hiss the creature abandoned its prey to

turn upon me, but the spear, imbedded in its throat,

prevented it from seizing me though it came near

to overturning the skiff in its mad efforts to reach me