X

X

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.