XI

XI

FOUR DEAD MAHARS

A MOMENT LATER I WAS STANDING BEFORE A DOZEN

Mahars--the social investigators of Phutra. They asked

me many questions, through a Sagoth interpreter.

I answered them all truthfully. They seemed particularly

interested in my account of the outer earth and the strange

vehicle which had brought Perry and me to Pellucidar.

I thought that I had convinced them, and after they had

sat in silence for a long time following my examination,

I expected to be ordered returned to my quarters.

During this apparent silence they were debating through

the medium of strange, unspoken language the merits of

my tale. At last the head of the tribunal communicated

the result of their conference to the officer in charge

of the Sagoth guard.

"Come," he said to me, "you are sentenced to the

experimental pits for having dared to insult the

intelligence of the mighty ones with the ridiculous

tale you have had the temerity to unfold to them."

"Do you mean that they do not believe me?" I asked,

totally astonished.

"Believe you!" he laughed. "Do you mean to say that you

expected any one to believe so impossible a lie?"

It was hopeless, and so I walked in silence beside my

guard down through the dark corridors and runways toward

my awful doom. At a low level we came upon a number

of lighted chambers in which we saw many Mahars engaged

in various occupations. To one of these chambers my guard

escorted me, and before leaving they chained me to a

side wall. There were other humans similarly chained.

Upon a long table lay a victim even as I was ushered

into the room. Several Mahars stood about the poor

creature holding him down so that he could not move.

Another, grasping a sharp knife with her three-toed

fore foot, was laying open the victim's chest and abdomen.

No anesthetic had been administered and the shrieks

and groans of the tortured man were terrible to hear.

This, indeed, was vivisection with a vengeance.

Cold sweat broke out upon me as I realized that soon my turn

would come. And to think that where there was no such

thing as time I might easily imagine that my suffering

was enduring for months before death finally released me!

The Mahars had paid not the slightest attention to me

as I had been brought into the room. So deeply immersed

were they in their work that I am sure they did

not even know that the Sagoths had entered with me.

The door was close by. Would that I could reach it!

But those heavy chains precluded any such possibility.

I looked about for some means of escape from my bonds.

Upon the floor between me and the Mahars lay a tiny

surgical instrument which one of them must have dropped.

It looked not unlike a button-hook, but was much smaller,

and its point was sharpened. A hundred times in my boyhood

days had I picked locks with a buttonhook. Could I but

reach that little bit of polished steel I might yet effect

at least a temporary escape.

Crawling to the limit of my chain, I found that by

reaching one hand as far out as I could my fingers

still fell an inch short of the coveted instrument.

It was tantalizing! Stretch every fiber of my being

as I would, I could not quite make it.

At last I turned about and extended one foot toward

the object. My heart came to my throat! I could just

touch the thing! But suppose that in my effort to drag it

toward me I should accidentally shove it still farther

away and thus entirely out of reach! Cold sweat broke

out upon me from every pore. Slowly and cautiously I

made the effort. My toes dropped upon the cold metal.

Gradually I worked it toward me until I felt that it was

within reach of my hand and a moment later I had turned

about and the precious thing was in my grasp.

Assiduously I fell to work upon the Mahar lock that held

my chain. It was pitifully simple. A child might have

picked it, and a moment later I was free. The Mahars

were now evidently completing their work at the table.

One already turned away and was examining other victims,

evidently with the intention of selecting the next subject.

Those at the table had their backs toward me. But for the

creature walking toward us I might have escaped that moment.

Slowly the thing approached me, when its attention was

attracted by a huge slave chained a few yards to my right.

Here the reptile stopped and commenced to go over the poor

devil carefully, and as it did so its back turned toward me

for an instant, and in that instant I gave two mighty leaps

that carried me out of the chamber into the corridor beyond,

down which I raced with all the speed I could command.

Where I was, or whither I was going, I knew not.

My only thought was to place as much distance as possible

between me and that frightful chamber of torture.

Presently I reduced my speed to a brisk walk, and later

realizing the danger of running into some new predicament,

were I not careful, I moved still more slowly and cautiously.

After a time I came to a passage that seemed in some

mysterious way familiar to me, and presently, chancing to

glance within a chamber which led from the corridor I saw

three Mahars curled up in slumber upon a bed of skins.

I could have shouted aloud in joy and relief. It was

the same corridor and the same Mahars that I had intended

to have lead so important a role in our escape from Phutra.

Providence had indeed been kind to me, for the reptiles

still slept.

My one great danger now lay in returning to the upper

levels in search of Perry and Ghak, but there was nothing

else to be done, and so I hastened upward. When I came

to the frequented portions of the building, I found a large

burden of skins in a corner and these I lifted to my head,

carrying them in such a way that ends and corners fell

down about my shoulders completely hiding my face.

Thus disguised I found Perry and Ghak together in the

chamber where we had been wont to eat and sleep.

Both were glad to see me, it was needless to say, though of

course they had known nothing of the fate that had been

meted out to me by my judges. It was decided that no time

should now be lost before attempting to put our plan of

escape to the test, as I could not hope to remain hidden

from the Sagoths long, nor could I forever carry that bale

of skins about upon my head without arousing suspicion.

However it seemed likely that it would carry me once

more safely through the crowded passages and chambers

of the upper levels, and so I set out with Perry and

Ghak--the stench of the illy cured pelts fairly choking me.

Together we repaired to the first tier of corridors beneath

the main floor of the buildings, and here Perry and Ghak

halted to await me. The buildings are cut out of the solid

limestone formation. There is nothing at all remarkable about

their architecture. The rooms are sometimes rectangular,

sometimes circular, and again oval in shape. The corridors

which connect them are narrow and not always straight.

The chambers are lighted by diffused sunlight reflected

through tubes similar to those by which the avenues

are lighted. The lower the tiers of chambers, the darker.

Most of the corridors are entirely unlighted. The Mahars

can see quite well in semidarkness.

Down to the main floor we encountered many Mahars,

Sagoths, and slaves; but no attention was paid to us as we

had become a part of the domestic life of the building.

There was but a single entrance leading from the place

into the avenue and this was well guarded by Sagoths--this

doorway alone were we forbidden to pass. It is true

that we were not supposed to enter the deeper corridors

and apartments except on special occasions when we were

instructed to do so; but as we were considered a lower

order without intelligence there was little reason

to fear that we could accomplish any harm by so doing,

and so we were not hindered as we entered the corridor

which led below.

Wrapped in a skin I carried three swords, and the two bows,

and the arrows which Perry and I had fashioned.

As many slaves bore skin-wrapped burdens to and fro my load

attracted no comment. Where I left Ghak and Perry there

were no other creatures in sight, and so I withdrew one sword

from the package, and leaving the balance of the weapons

with Perry, started on alone toward the lower levels.

Having come to the apartment in which the three Mahars slept

I entered silently on tiptoe, forgetting that the creatures

were without the sense of hearing. With a quick thrust

through the heart I disposed of the first but my second

thrust was not so fortunate, so that before I could kill

the next of my victims it had hurled itself against the third,

who sprang quickly up, facing me with wide-distended jaws.

But fighting is not the occupation which the race

of Mahars loves, and when the thing saw that I already

had dispatched two of its companions, and that my sword

was red with their blood, it made a dash to escape me.

But I was too quick for it, and so, half hopping,

half flying, it scurried down another corridor with me

close upon its heels.

Its escape meant the utter ruin of our plan, and in all

probability my instant death. This thought lent wings

to my feet; but even at my best I could do no more than

hold my own with the leaping thing before me.

Of a sudden it turned into an apartment on the right

of the corridor, and an instant later as I rushed

in I found myself facing two of the Mahars. The one

who had been there when we entered had been occupied

with a number of metal vessels, into which had been put

powders and liquids as I judged from the array of flasks

standing about upon the bench where it had been working.

In an instant I realized what I had stumbled upon.

It was the very room for the finding of which Perry had

given me minute directions. It was the buried chamber

in which was hidden the Great Secret of the race of Mahars.

And on the bench beside the flasks lay the skin-bound book

which held the only copy of the thing I was to have sought,

after dispatching the three Mahars in their sleep.

There was no exit from the room other than the doorway

in which I now stood facing the two frightful reptiles.

Cornered, I knew that they would fight like demons,

and they were well equipped to fight if fight they must.

Together they launched themselves upon me, and though I ran

one of them through the heart on the instant, the other

fastened its gleaming fangs about my sword arm above

the elbow, and then with her sharp talons commenced to rake

me about the body, evidently intent upon disemboweling me.

I saw that it was useless to hope that I might release

my arm from that powerful, viselike grip which seemed

to be severing my arm from my body. The pain I suffered

was intense, but it only served to spur me to greater

efforts to overcome my antagonist.

Back and forth across the floor we struggled--the Mahar

dealing me terrific, cutting blows with her fore feet,

while I attempted to protect my body with my left hand,

at the same time watching for an opportunity to transfer

my blade from my now useless sword hand to its rapidly

weakening mate. At last I was successful, and with what

seemed to me my last ounce of strength I ran the blade

through the ugly body of my foe.

Soundless, as it had fought, it died, and though weak from

pain and loss of blood, it was with an emotion of triumphant

pride that I stepped across its convulsively stiffening

corpse to snatch up the most potent secret of a world.

A single glance assured me it was the very thing that

Perry had described to me.

And as I grasped it did I think of what it meant to the

human race of Pellucidar--did there flash through my

mind the thought that countless generations of my own

kind yet unborn would have reason to worship me for the

thing that I had accomplished for them? I did not.

I thought of a beautiful oval face, gazing out of

limpid eyes, through a waving mass of jet-black hair.

I thought of red, red lips, God-made for kissing.

And of a sudden, apropos of nothing, standing there

alone in the secret chamber of the Mahars of Pellucidar,

I realized that I loved Dian the Beautiful.