At the Earth's Core

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  VII

  FREEDOM

  Once out of the direct path of the animal, fear of it left me, butanother emotion as quickly gripped me--hope of escape that thedemoralized condition of the guards made possible for the instant.

  I thought of Perry, but for the hope that I might better encompass hisrelease if myself free I should have put the thought of freedom from meat once. As it was I hastened on toward the right searching for anexit toward which no Sagoths were fleeing, and at last I found it--alow, narrow aperture leading into a dark corridor.

  Without thought of the possible consequence, I darted into the shadowsof the tunnel, feeling my way along through the gloom for somedistance. The noises of the amphitheater had grown fainter and fainteruntil now all was as silent as the tomb about me. Faint light filteredfrom above through occasional ventilating and lighting tubes, but itwas scarce sufficient to enable my human eyes to cope with thedarkness, and so I was forced to move with extreme care, feeling my wayalong step by step with a hand upon the wall beside me.

  Presently the light increased and a moment later, to my delight, I cameupon a flight of steps leading upward, at the top of which thebrilliant light of the noonday sun shone through an opening in theground.

  Cautiously I crept up the stairway to the tunnel's end, and peering outsaw the broad plain of Phutra before me. The numerous lofty, granitetowers which mark the several entrances to the subterranean city wereall in front of me--behind, the plain stretched level and unbroken tothe nearby foothills. I had come to the surface, then, beyond thecity, and my chances for escape seemed much enhanced.

  My first impulse was to await darkness before attempting to cross theplain, so deeply implanted are habits of thought; but of a sudden Irecollected the perpetual noonday brilliance which envelopesPellucidar, and with a smile I stepped forth into the day-light.

  Rank grass, waist high, grows upon the plain of Phutra--the gorgeousflowering grass of the inner world, each particular blade of which istipped with a tiny, five-pointed blossom--brilliant little stars ofvarying colors that twinkle in the green foliage to add still anothercharm to the weird, yet lovely, landscape.

  But then the only aspect which attracted me was the distant hills inwhich I hoped to find sanctuary, and so I hastened on, trampling themyriad beauties beneath my hurrying feet. Perry says that the force ofgravity is less upon the surface of the inner world than upon that ofthe outer. He explained it all to me once, but I was neverparticularly brilliant in such matters and so most of it has escapedme. As I recall it the difference is due in some part to thecounter-attraction of that portion of the earth's crust directlyopposite the spot upon the face of Pellucidar at which one'scalculations are being made. Be that as it may, it always seemed to methat I moved with greater speed and agility within Pellucidar than uponthe outer surface--there was a certain airy lightness of step that wasmost pleasing, and a feeling of bodily detachment which I can onlycompare with that occasionally experienced in dreams.

  And as I crossed Phutra's flower-bespangled plain that time I seemedalmost to fly, though how much of the sensation was due to Perry'ssuggestion and how much to actuality I am sure I do not know. The moreI 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 manshared it with me, and only the hope that I might find some way toencompass his release kept me from turning back to Phutra.

  Just how I was to help Perry I could scarce imagine, but I hoped thatsome fortuitous circumstance might solve the problem for me. It wasquite evident however that little less than a miracle could aid me, forwhat could I accomplish in this strange world, naked and unarmed? Itwas even doubtful that I could retrace my steps to Phutra should I oncepass beyond view of the plain, and even were that possible, what aidcould I bring to Perry no matter how far I wandered?

  The case looked more and more hopeless the longer I viewed it, yet witha stubborn persistency I forged ahead toward the foothills. Behind meno sign of pursuit developed, before me I saw no living thing. It wasas though I moved through a dead and forgotten world.

  I have no idea, of course, how long it took me to reach the limit ofthe plain, but at last I entered the foothills, following a prettylittle canyon upward toward the mountains. Beside me frolicked alaughing brooklet, hurrying upon its noisy way down to the silent sea.In its quieter pools I discovered many small fish, of four-orfive-pound weight I should imagine. In appearance, except as to sizeand color, they were not unlike the whale of our own seas. As Iwatched them playing about I discovered, not only that they suckledtheir young, but that at intervals they rose to the surface to breatheas well as to feed upon certain grasses and a strange, scarlet lichenwhich grew upon the rocks just above the water line.

  It was this last habit that gave me the opportunity I craved to captureone of these herbivorous cetaceans--that is what Perry calls them--andmake as good a meal as one can on raw, warm-blooded fish; but I hadbecome rather used, by this time, to the eating of food in its naturalstate, though I still balked on the eyes and entrails, much to theamusement of Ghak, to whom I always passed these delicacies.

  Crouching beside the brook, I waited until one of the diminutive purplewhales rose to nibble at the long grasses which overhung the water, andthen, like the beast of prey that man really is, I sprang upon myvictim, appeasing my hunger while he yet wriggled to escape.

  Then I drank from the clear pool, and after washing my hands and facecontinued my flight. Above the source of the brook I encountered arugged climb to the summit of a long ridge. Beyond was a steepdeclivity to the shore of a placid, inland sea, upon the quiet surfaceof which lay several beautiful islands.

  The view was charming in the extreme, and as no man or beast was to beseen that might threaten my new-found liberty, I slid over the edge ofthe bluff, and half sliding, half falling, dropped into the delightfulvalley, the very aspect of which seemed to offer a haven of peace andsecurity.

  The gently sloping beach along which I walked was thickly strewn withstrangely shaped, colored shells; some empty, others still housing asvaried a multitude of mollusks as ever might have drawn out theirsluggish lives along the silent shores of the antediluvian seas of theouter crust. As I walked I could not but compare myself with the firstman of that other world, so complete the solitude which surrounded me,so primal and untouched the virgin wonders and beauties of adolescentnature. I felt myself a second Adam wending my lonely way through thechildhood of a world, searching for my Eve, and at the thought thererose before my mind's eye the exquisite outlines of a perfect facesurmounted by a loose pile of wondrous, raven hair.

  As I walked, my eyes were bent upon the beach so that it was not untilI had come quite upon it that I discovered that which shattered all mybeautiful dream of solitude and safety and peace and primaloverlordship. The thing was a hollowed log drawn upon the sands, andin the bottom of it lay a crude paddle.

  The rude shock of awakening to what doubtless might prove some new formof danger was still upon me when I heard a rattling of loose stonesfrom the direction of the bluff, and turning my eyes in that directionI 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 quitesufficiently menacing, so that I did not need the added evidence ofbrandishing spear and scowling face to warn me that I was in no safeposition, but whither to flee was indeed a momentous question.

  The speed of the fellow seemed to preclude the possibility of escapinghim upon the open beach. There was but a single alternative--the rudeskiff--and with a celerity which equaled his, I pushed the thing intothe sea and as it floated gave a final shove and clambered in over theend.

  A cry of rage rose from the owner of the primitive craft, and aninstant later his heavy, stone-tipped spear grazed my shoulder andburied itself in the bow of the boat beyond. Then I grasped thepaddle, and with feverish haste urged the awkward, wobbly thing outupon the surface of the s
ea.

  A glance over my shoulder showed me that the copper-colored one hadplunged in after me and was swimming rapidly in pursuit. His mightystrokes 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 tofollow, so that fully half my energy was expended in turning its bluntprow back into the course.

  I had covered some hundred yards from shore when it became evident thatmy pursuer must grasp the stern of the skiff within the next half-dozenstrokes. In a frenzy of despair, I bent to the grandfather of allpaddles in a hopeless effort to escape, and still the copper giantbehind me gained and gained.

  His hand was reaching upward for the stern when I saw a sleek, sinuousbody shoot from the depths below. The man saw it too, and the look ofterror that overspread his face assured me that I need have no furtherconcern 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 monsterof that prehistoric deep--a mighty serpent of the sea, with fangedjaws, and darting forked tongue, with bulging eyes, and bonyprotuberances upon head and snout that formed short, stout horns.

  As I looked at that hopeless struggle my eyes met those of the doomedman, and I could have sworn that in his I saw an expression of hopelessappeal. But whether I did or not there swept through me a suddencompassion for the fellow. He was indeed a brother-man, and that hemight have killed me with pleasure had he caught me was forgotten inthe extremity of his danger.

  Unconsciously I had ceased paddling as the serpent rose to engage mypursuer, so now the skiff still drifted close beside the two. Themonster seemed to be but playing with his victim before he closed hisawful jaws upon him and dragged him down to his dark den beneath thesurface to devour him. The huge, snakelike body coiled and uncoiledabout 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 hatchetagainst the bony armor that covered that frightful carcass; but for allthe 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 fellowmanwas dragged down to a horrible death by that repulsive reptile.Embedded in the prow of the skiff lay the spear that had been castafter me by him whom I suddenly desired to save. With a wrench I toreit loose, and standing upright in the wobbly log drove it with all thestrength of my two arms straight into the gaping jaws of thehydrophidian.

  With a loud hiss the creature abandoned its prey to turn upon me, butthe spear, imbedded in its throat, prevented it from seizing me thoughit came near to overturning the skiff in its mad efforts to reach me.