Pellucidar

made it perfectly plain that they considered me a dangerous creature, and that having wiped the slate clean in so far as they were un

o I departed from Phutra, filled with bitterness against the Mahars, and r

ught turned my face toward Sari, as I felt that somewhere in that direct

savage Pellucidar. The dangers, however, were greatly reduced through the medium of my armament. I often wondered how it had happened that I had ever s

e great secret, I arrived at Sari at last. As I topped the lofty plateau in whose rocky cliffs the princi

n-tipped arrows, which I had taught them to fashion and to use, were raised against me. Swords of

relationship had ceased with my going, and that my people had reverted to their former savage, suspicious hatred of all st

charging warriors paused and surveyed me. I looked for my friend Ghak, the Hairy One, king of Sari, and presently I saw him coming from a distance. Ah, bu

vanced toward me. There was an expression of puzzlement upon his fine featu

y khaki jacket, and bandoleers of cartridges, the two revolvers swinging at my hips, the large rifle resting against my body. Still I stood with my hands above my head. He examined my puttees and my strong

gers to his lips. Perry had taught them this trick, nor ever did the most polished courtier of

e. I think there must have been tears in my eyes then-I know I fe

e back," he announce

of heaven itself. I had never guessed how much they thought of me. As they clustered around, almost figh

ad remained loyal, so too would the Amozites be loyal still, and the Kalians, and the Suvians, and a

with the Sarians; now if Dian were but safe

parted from Pellucidar, and to get down to the business of finding Dian, which

oja had stolen her, he

"It was Hooja who caused the first tro

nd all but caused our recapture by the

uted a Mahar for Dian when you started up

l he had turned the kingdoms one agains

power we were foolish to

need to finis

goths who were accompanying me in search of the great secret, for it must have been Hooja whom I saw conversing with them just before we reached the valley. Doub

to rebuild the crumbled federation. To this end twenty warriors were despatched in pairs to ten of the leading kingdoms, with instructions t

siness of the federation. Four hundred warriors were started for Anoroc to fetch Perry and the contents

discovery of Dian; but I found the inaction in the face of my deep solicitude for the welfare of my mate so galling that

recall, that I at last went to Ghak with the admission that I could no longer

lly doing something. It was while we were arguing upon the subject that a stranger, with hands above hi

His features, like those of all the primeval men of Pellucidar, were regular and fine. His weapo

sked Ghak. "And

. "From Thuria I have come in search of the land of Amoz, where dwells Dacor,

and my father has sent me to Dacor to learn if there be truth in these stories, a

"and here is the emperor of whom you h

erful resources of Thuria, the Land of Awful Sh

rk, your father, desire to jo

her rim of the Land of Awful Shadow, taken heavy toll of our people, whom they either force into lifelong slavery or fatten for

rt distance from our shores, a wicked man has collected a great band of outcast warriors of

with this band against the enemies of the Mahars. It is the purpose of the Mahars thus to raise a force of our own kind to combat the growth and menace of the new empire of whi

ed Ghak, "who leads so vile a

" spoke up Kolk, an

nd I know that it was beating strongly in my heart. At last we had discove

onfer with Dacor. Moreover, he had instructions from his father which he could not ignore lightly. But even so he wou

warriors. He has only to call upon his Mahar allies to receive a co

e from the kingdoms of your empire. Then we may

ong you knows how to construct the strange things that c

do not go upon the water. We

ast to Sari upon the west, and from the river south of the Mountains of the Clouds north to Amoz. As soon as I had explained it to him he drew a line with his f

itorous government. The island itself lay in the light of the noonday sun. Northwest of the coast and embracing a part of Thuria

h Hooja upon one side and the Mahars upon the other. I

own since we parted. I left a letter for him as well, in which among other things I advanced the theory that the Sojar Az, or Great Sea, which Kolk mentioned as stretching eastward from Thuria, might indeed be

a fleet of small sailing-vessels, which we might utilize shou

ew treaties with the various kingdoms of the empire, collect an army and march toward T

of bone, and beneath the lidi a man and a flower; all very rudely done perhaps, but none

ion in which they appeared bore a double significance, as they constituted not only

all arsenal, I set out alone upon my quest

s a matter of fact I did not need the map at all, since the principal landmark of the first half of m

lly turning south and emptying into the Sojar Az some forty miles northeast of Thuria. A

nameless rivers, of deadly swamps and savage forests lay ahead of me, yet never had I bee

ders that each new march unfolded before me, for my mind and heart were filled with but a single i

ld, the tiny satellite which hangs low over the surface of Pellucidar casting its perpetual shadow always upo

beneath it was plainly visible the round dark spot upon the surface of Pellucidar where the sun has never shone. From where I stood the moon appeared to ha

r some time-several marches at least. However, when the river led me to the sea, or rather just before it reached the sea, of a sudden the sky becam

wers, riot in profusion of rich colors, gigantic size and bewildering a

unknown except above the mightiest mountain ranges-that it had given me something of a start to dis

ivers, its broad, grassy plains and dense forests. But too great was the distance and to

uestions which the sight of this planet, so tantalizingly

t inh

manner and fo

were they as disproportionately huge as the lesser attraction of

h revolution its entire surface was once exposed to the world below and once bathed in the heat of the great sun above. The

an observatory, from which might be flashed by wireless to every corner of the empire the correct time once each day. That this time would be easily measured I had no doubt, since so plain w

my journey. So I hastened onward beneath the great shadow. As I advanced I cou

Sojar Az. Then I continued in a southerly direction along the coast toward the

scerned, lying some distance at sea, a great island. This I assumed to b

nsiderable detour. As the crow flies it is about twenty miles from the mouth of the river to Thuria, but before I had covered half of it I was fagged. There was no

draw and fit a shaft. In fact my dinner was a hundred yards away and going like the proverbial bat when I dropped

ware of the presence, barely a hundred yards from me, of a pack of some twenty huge wolf-dogs-the things which Perry insisted upon calling

g pack was prep