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07 - At The Earth's Core - Edgar Rice Burroughs · Adventure Books Library

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  Chapter seven Freedom. Once out of the direct path of the animal, fear
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  of it left me, but another emotion as quickly gripped me, hope of
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  escape that the demoralized condition of the guards made possible. For the instant I
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  thought of Perry, but for the hope that I might better encompass his release
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  if myself free, I should have put the thought of freedom from me at
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  once. As it was, I hastened on toward the right, searching for
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  an exit toward which no sagoths were fleeing, And at last I found it,
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  a low, narrow aperture leading into a dark corridor. Without thought of
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  the possible consequence, I darted into the shadows of the tunnel, feeling my
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  way along through the gloom. For some distance, the noises of the amphitheater
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  had grown fainter and fainter, until now all was as silent as the tomb
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  about me. Faint light filtered from above through occasional ventilating and lighting tubes,
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  but it was scarce sufficient to enable my human eyes to cope with the darkness,
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  and so I was forced to move with extreme care, feeling my way
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  along step by step, with a hand upon the wall. Beside me.
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  Presently the light increased, and a moment later, to my delight, I
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  came upon a flight of step leading upward, at the top of which the
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  brilliant light of the noonday sun shone through an opening in the ground. Cautiously,
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  I crept up the stairway to the tunnel's end, and peering out,
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  saw the broad plain of Phutra before me. The numerous lofty granite towers which
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  mark the several entrances to the subterranean city, were all in front of me.
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  Behind the plain stretched level and unbroken to the nearby foothills. I had
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  come to the surface, then beyond the city, and my chances for escape
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  seemed much enhanced. My first impulse was to await darkness before attempting to cross
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  the plain, so deeply implanted are habits of thought. But of a sudden
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  I recollected the perpetual noonday brilliance which envelops Pellucidar, and with a smile,
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  I stepped forth into the daylight. Rank grass waist high grows upon the plain
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  of Phutra, the gorgeous flowering grass of the inner world, each particular blade
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  of which is tipped with a tiny five pointed blossom, brilliant little stars of
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  varying colors that twinkle in the green foliage, to add still another charm to
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  the weird yet lovely landscape. But then the only aspect which attracted me was
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  the distant hills in which I hoped to find sanctuary, and so I hastened
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  on trampling the myriad beauties beneath my hurrying feet. Parry says that the force
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  of gravity is less upon the surface of the inner world than upon that of
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  the outer. He explained it all to me once, but I was never
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  particularly brilliant in such matters, and so most of it has escaped me as
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  I recall it. The difference is due in some part to the counter attraction
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  of that portion of the Earth's crust directly opposite the spot upon the face of
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  Pellucidar at which one's calculations are being made. Be that as it may,
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  it always seemed to me that I moved with greater speed and agility within Pellucidar
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  than upon the outer surface. There was a certain airy lightness of step that
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  was most pleasing, and a feeling of bodily detachment which I can only compare
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  with that occasionally experienced in dreams, and as I crossed Phutra's flower bespangled plain
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  that time I seemed almost to fly. Though how much of the sensation was
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  due to Perry's suggestion and how much to actuality, I am sure I do
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  not know. The more I thought of Perry, the less pleasure I took
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  in my new found freedom. There could be no liberty for me within Pellucidar
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  unless the old man shared it with me, and only the hope that I
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  might find some way to encompass his release kept me from turning back to Phutra.
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  Just how I was to help Perry I could scarce imagine, but I
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  hoped that some fortuitous circumstance might solve the proper problem for me. It was
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  quite evident, however, that little less than a miracle could aid me,
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  for what could I accomplish in this strange world, naked and unarmed? It
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  was even doubtful that I could retrace my steps to Phutra should I once pass
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  beyond view of the plain, And even were that possible, what aid could
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  I bring to Perry? No matter how far I wandered, The case looked
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  more and more hopeless the longer I viewed it. Yet with a stubborn persistency,
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  I forged a head toward the foothills behind me. No sign of pursuit
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  developed before me. I saw no living thing. It was as though I
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  moved through a dead and forgotten world. I have no idea, of course,
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  how long it took me to reach the limit of the plain. But
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  at last I entered the foothills, following a pretty little canyon upward toward the
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  mountains. Beside me froliced a laughing brooklet. Hurrying upon its noisy way down
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  to the silent sea. In its quieter pools, I discovered many small fish
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  of four or five pound weight. I should imagine in appearance, except as
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  to size and color, they were not unlike the whale of our own seas.
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  As I watched them playing about, I discovered not only that they suckled
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  their young, but that at intervals they rose to the surface to breathe,
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  as well as to feed upon certain grasses and a strange scarlet lichen which grew
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  upon the rocks just above the water line. It was this last habit that
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  gave me the opportunity I craved to capture one of these herbivorous cetaceans, that
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  is what Perry calls them, and make as good a meal as one can
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  on raw, warm blooded fish. But I had become rather used by this
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  time to the eating of food in its natural state, though I still balked
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  on the eyes and entrails, much to the amusement of Ghak, to whom
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  I always passed these delicacies. Crouching beside the brook, I waited until one
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  of the diminutive purple whales rose to nibble at the long grasses which overhung the
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  water. And then, like the beast of prey that man really is,
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  I sprang upon my victim, appeasing my hunger, while he yet wriggled to
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  escape. Then I drank from the clear pool, and after washing my hands
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  and face, continued my flight. Above the source of the brook. I
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  encountered a rugged climb to the summit of a long ridge. Beyond was a
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  steep declivity to the shore of a placid inland sea, upon the quiet surface
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  of which lay several beautiful islands. The view was charming in the extreme,
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  and as no man or beast was to be seen that might threaten my new
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  found liberty, I slid over the edge of the bluff, and half sliding,
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  half falling, dropped into the delightful valley, the very aspect of which
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  seemed to offer a haven of peace and security. The gently sloping beach along
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  which I walked was thickly strewn with strangely shaped colored shells, some empty,
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  others still housing as buried a multitude of mollusks, as ever might have drawn
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  out their sluggish lives upon the silent shores of the antidiluvian seas of the outer
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  Crust. As I walked, I could not but compare myself with the first
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  man of that other world, so complete the solitude which surrounded me, so
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  primal and untouched, the virgin wonders and beauties of adolescent nature. I felt
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  myself a second atom, wending my lonely way through the childhood of a world,
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  searching for my eve. And at the thought, there rose before my
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  mind's eye the exquisite outlines of a perfect face, surmounted by a loose pile
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  of wondrous raven hair. As I walked, my eyes were bent upon the
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  beach, so that it was not until I had come quite upon it that
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  I discovered that which shattered all my beautiful dream of solitude and safety, and
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  peace and primal overlordship. The thing was a hollowed log drawn upon the sands,
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  and in the bottom of it lay a crude paddle. The rude shock
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  of awakening to what, doubtless might prove some new form of danger was still
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  upon me when I heard a rattling of loose stones from the direction of the
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  bluff, and turning my eyes in that direction, I beheld the author of
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  the disturbance, a great copper colored man, running rapidly toward me. There
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  was that in the haste with which he came, which seemed quite sufficiently menacing,
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  so that I did not need the added evidence of brandishing spear and scowling
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  face to warn me that I was in no safe position. But whither to
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  flee was indeed a momentous question. The speed of the fellow seemed to preclude
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  the possibility of escaping him. Upon the open beach, there was but a
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  single alternative, the rude skiff, And with a celerity which equalled his,
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  I pushed the thing into the sea, and as it floated, gave a
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  final shove and clambered in Over the end. A cry of rage rose from
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  the owner of the primitive craft, and an instant later his heavy stone tipped
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  spear grazed my shoulder and buried itself in the bow of the boat beyond.
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  Then I grasped the paddle and with feverish haste, urged the awkward, wobbly
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  thing out upon the surface of the sea. A glance over my shoulder showed
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  me that the copper colored one had plunged in after me, and was swimming
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  rapidly in pursuit. His mighty strokes bade fair to close up the distance between
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  us in short order, for at best I could make but slow progress with
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  my unfamiliar craft, which nosed stubbornly in every direction but that which I desired
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  to follow, so that fully half my energy was expended in turning its blunt
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  prow back into the course. I had covered some hundred yards from shore when
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  it became evident that my pursuer must grasp the stern of the skiff within the
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  next half dozen strokes. In a frenzy of despair, I bent to the
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  grandfather of all paddles in a hopeless effort to escape, and still the copper
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  giant behind me gained and gained his hand was reaching upward for the stern,
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  when I saw a sleek, sinuous body shoot from the depths below. The
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  man saw it too, and the look of terror that overspread his face assured
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  me that I need have no further concern as to him, for the fear
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  of certain death was in his look. And then about him coiled the great,
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  slimy folds of a hideous monster of that prehistoric deep, a mighty serpent
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  of the sea, with fanged jaws and darting forked tongue, with bulging eyes
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  and bony protuberances upon head and snout that formed short stout horns. As I
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  looked at that hopeless struggle, my eyes met those of the doomed man,
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  and I could have sworn that in his I saw an expression of hopeless appeal.
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  But whether I did or not, there swept through me a sudden compassion
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  for the fellow. He was indeed a brother man, and that he might
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  have killed me with pleasure had he caught me was forgotten in the extremity of
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  his danger. Unconsciously, I had ceased paddling as the serpent rose to engage
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  my pursuer. So now the skiff still drifted close beside the two. The
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  monster seemed to be but playing with his victim, before he closed his awful
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  jaws upon him and dragged him down to his dark den beneath the surface to
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  devour him. The huge snakelike body coiled and uncoiled about its prey. The
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  hideous, gaping jaws snapped in the victim's face, the forked tongue, lightning
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  like, ran in and out upon the copper's skin. Nobly, the giant
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  battled for his life, beating with his stone hatchet against the bony armor that
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  covered the frightful carcass. But for all the damage he inflicted, he might
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  as well have struck with his open palm. At last, I could endure
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  no longer to sit supinely by while a fellow man was dragged down to a
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  horrible death by that repulsive reptile. Embedded in the prow of the skiff lay
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  the spear that had been cast after me by him, whom I suddenly desired
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  to save. With a wrench, I tore it loose, and, standing
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  upright in the wobbly log, drove it with all the strength of my two
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  arms, straight into the gaping jaws of the hydrophidian, With a loud hiss,
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  the creature abandoned its prey to turn upon me, but the spear embedded
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  in its throat prevented it from seizing me, though it came near to overturning
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  the skiff in its mad efforts to reach me. End of Chapter seven