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09 - At The Earth's Core - Edgar Rice Burroughs · Thrilling Adventures - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine, The Face of Death. I must have fallen
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  Speaker 1: asleep from exhaustion. When I awoke, I was very hungry,
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  Speaker 1: and after busying myself searching for fruit for a while,
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  Speaker 1: I set off through the jungle to find the beach.
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  Speaker 1: I knew that the island was not so large, but
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  Speaker 1: that I could easily find the sea if I did
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  Speaker 1: but move in a straight line. But there came the difficulty,
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  Speaker 1: as there was no way in which I could direct
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  Speaker 1: my course and hold it, the sun, of course, being
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  Speaker 1: always directly above my head, and the trees so thickly
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  Speaker 1: set that I could see no distant object which might
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  Speaker 1: serve to guide me in a straight line. As it was,
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  Speaker 1: I must have walked for a great distance, since I
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  Speaker 1: ate four times and slept twice before I reached the sea.
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  Speaker 1: But at last I did so, and my pleasure at
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  Speaker 1: the sight of it was greatly enhanced by the chance
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  Speaker 1: discovery of a hidden canoe among the bushes through which
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  Speaker 1: I had stumbled just prior to coming upon the beach.
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  Speaker 1: I can tell you that it did not take me
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  Speaker 1: long to pull that awkward craft down to the water
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  Speaker 1: and shove it far out from shore. My experience with
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  Speaker 1: jaw it taught me that if I were to steal
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  Speaker 1: another canoe, I must be quick about it and get
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  Speaker 1: far beyond the owner's reach as soon as possible. I
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  Speaker 1: must have come out upon the opposite side of the
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  Speaker 1: island from that at which Jah and I had entered it,
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  Speaker 1: for the mainland was nowhere in sight. For a long time,
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  Speaker 1: I paddled round the shore, though well out before I
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  Speaker 1: saw the mainland in the distance. At the sight of it,
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  Speaker 1: I lost no time in directing my course toward it,
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  Speaker 1: for I had long since made up my mind to
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  Speaker 1: return to Phutra and give myself up, that I might
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  Speaker 1: be once more with Perry and Ghak the Hairy One.
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  Speaker 1: I felt that I was a fool ever to have
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  Speaker 1: attempted to escape alone, especially in view of the fact
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  Speaker 1: that our plans were already well formulated to make a
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  Speaker 1: break for freedom together. Of course, I realized that the
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  Speaker 1: chances of the success of our proposed venture were slim. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: but I knew that I never could enjoy freedom without
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  Speaker 1: Perry so long as the old man lived, and I
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  Speaker 1: had learned that the probability that I might find him
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  Speaker 1: was less than slight. Had Perry been dead, I should
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  Speaker 1: gladly have pitted my strength and wit against the savage
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  Speaker 1: and primordial world in which I found myself. I could
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  Speaker 1: have lived in seclusion with thin some rocky cave until
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  Speaker 1: I had found the means to outfit myself with the
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  Speaker 1: crude weapons of the Stone Age, and then set out
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  Speaker 1: in search of her, whose image had now become the
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  Speaker 1: constant companion of my waking hours and the central and
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  Speaker 1: beloved figure of my dreams. But to the best of
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  Speaker 1: my knowledge, Parry still lived, and it was my duty
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  Speaker 1: and wish to be again with him, that we might
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  Speaker 1: share the dangers and vicissitudes of this strange world we
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  Speaker 1: had discovered. And Ghak, too, the great shaggy man, had
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  Speaker 1: found a place in the hearts of us, both, for
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  Speaker 1: he was indeed every inch a man and king, uncouth perhaps,
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  Speaker 1: and brutal too, if judged too harshly by the standards
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  Speaker 1: of a feat twentieth century civilization. But withal noble, dignified, chivalrous,
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  Speaker 1: and lovable chance carried me to the very beach upon
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  Speaker 1: which I had discovered Jaw's canoe, and a short time
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  Speaker 1: later I was scrambling up the steep bank to retrace
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  Speaker 1: my steps from the plain of Phutra. But my troubles
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  Speaker 1: came when I entered the canyon beyond the summit, For
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  Speaker 1: here I found that several of them centered at the
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  Speaker 1: point where I crossed the divide, and which one I
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  Speaker 1: had traversed to reach the pass. I could not, for
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  Speaker 1: the life of me remember it was all matter of chance,
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  Speaker 1: And so I set off down that which seemed the
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  Speaker 1: easiest going. And in this I made the same mistake
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  Speaker 1: that many of us two in selecting the path along
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  Speaker 1: which we shall follow out the course of our lives,
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  Speaker 1: and again learned that it is not always best to
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  Speaker 1: follow the line of least resistance. By the time I
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  Speaker 1: had eaten eight meals and slept twice, I was convinced
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  Speaker 1: that I was upon the wrong trail. For between Putras
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  Speaker 1: in the inland sea, I had not slept at all
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  Speaker 1: and had eaten but once to retrace my steps to
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  Speaker 1: the summit of the divide and explore another canyon seemed
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  Speaker 1: the only solution of my problem. But a sudden widening
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  Speaker 1: and levelness of the canyon just before me seemed to
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  Speaker 1: suggest that it was about to open into a level country,
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  Speaker 1: And with the lure of discovery strong upon me, I
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  Speaker 1: decided to proceed, but a short distance farther before I
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  Speaker 1: turned back. The next turn of the canyon brought me
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  Speaker 1: to its mouth, and before me I saw a narrow
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  Speaker 1: plain leading down to an ocean. At my right, the
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  Speaker 1: side of the canyon continued to the water's edge, the
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  Speaker 1: valley lying to my left, and the foot of it
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  Speaker 1: running gradually into the sea, where it formed a broad
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  Speaker 1: level beach. Clumps of strange trees dotted the landscape here
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  Speaker 1: and there, almost to the water, and rank grass and
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  Speaker 1: ferns grew between. From the nature of the vegetation, I
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  Speaker 1: was convinced that the land between the ocean and the
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  Speaker 1: foothills was swampy, though directly before me it seemed dry
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  Speaker 1: enough all the way to the sandy strip, along which
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  Speaker 1: the restless waters advanced and retreated. Curiosity prompted me to
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  Speaker 1: walk down to the beach, for the scene was very beautiful.
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  Speaker 1: As I passed along beside the deep and tangled vegetation
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  Speaker 1: of the swamp, I thought that I saw a movement
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  Speaker 1: of the ferns at my left, but though I stopped
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  Speaker 1: a moment to look, it was not repeated, and if
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  Speaker 1: anything lay hid there, my eyes could not penetrate the
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  Speaker 1: dense foliage to discern it. Presently I stood upon the beach,
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  Speaker 1: looking out over that wide and lonely sea, across whose
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  Speaker 1: forbidding bosom, no human being had yet ventured to discover
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  Speaker 1: what strange and mysterious lands lay beyond, or what its
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  Speaker 1: invisible islands held of riches, wonders or adventure, What savage faces,
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  Speaker 1: what fierce and formidable beasts were this very instant watching
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  Speaker 1: the lapping of the waves upon its farther shore. How
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  Speaker 1: far did it extend? Parry had told me that the
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  Speaker 1: seas of Pellucidar were small in comparison with those of
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  Speaker 1: the outer crust. But even so this great ocean might
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  Speaker 1: stretch its broad expanse for thousands of miles, for countless
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  Speaker 1: ages it had rolled up and down its countless miles
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  Speaker 1: of shore, And yet to day it remained all unknown
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  Speaker 1: beyond the tiny strip that was visible from its beaches.
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  Speaker 1: The fascination of speculation was strong upon me. It was
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  Speaker 1: as though I had been carried back to the birth
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  Speaker 1: time of our own outer world to look upon its
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  Speaker 1: lands and seas ages before man had traversed either. Here
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  Speaker 1: was a new world, all untouched, It called to me
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  Speaker 1: to explore it. I was dreaming of the excitement and
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  Speaker 1: adventure which lay before us. Could parry and I but
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  Speaker 1: escaped the mahars when something, a slight noise, I imagine, drew
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  Speaker 1: my attention behind me. As I turned romance, adventure, and
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  Speaker 1: discovery in the abstract, took wing before the terrible embodied
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  Speaker 1: of all three in concrete form, that I beheld advancing
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  Speaker 1: upon me. A huge, slimy amphibian. It was with a
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  Speaker 1: toad like body and the mighty jaws of an alligator.
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  Speaker 1: Its immense carcass must have weighed tons, and yet it
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  Speaker 1: moved swiftly and silently toward me. Upon one hand was
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  Speaker 1: the bluff that ran from the canyon to the sea.
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  Speaker 1: On the other the fearsome swamp from which the creature
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  Speaker 1: had sneaked upon me. Behind lay the mighty untracked sea.
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  Speaker 1: And before me, in the center of the narrow way
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  Speaker 1: that led to safety, stood this huge mountain of terrible
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  Speaker 1: and menacing flesh. A single glance at the thing was
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  Speaker 1: sufficient to assure me that I was facing one of
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  Speaker 1: those long extinct prehistoric creatures whose fossilized remains are found
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  Speaker 1: within the outer crust, as far back as the Triassic Formation,
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  Speaker 1: a gigantic labyrinthodon, and there I was unarmed and with
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  Speaker 1: the exception of a loincloth, as naked as I had
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  Speaker 1: come in to the world. I could imagine how my
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  Speaker 1: first ancestor felt that distant, prehistoric mourn that he encountered
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  Speaker 1: for the first time. The terrifying progenitor of the thing
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  Speaker 1: that had me cornered now beside the restless, mysterious sea.
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  Speaker 1: Unquestionably he had survived or I should not have been
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  Speaker 1: within Pellucidar or elsewhere, And I wished at that moment
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  Speaker 1: that he had handed down to me with the various
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  Speaker 1: attributes that I presumed I have inherited from him, the
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  Speaker 1: specific application of the instinct of self preservation which saved
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  Speaker 1: him from the fate which loomed so close before me
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  Speaker 1: to day. To seek escape in the swamp or in
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  Speaker 1: the ocean would have been similar to jumping into a
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  Speaker 1: den of lions who escape one upon the outside. The
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  Speaker 1: sea and swamp both were doubtless alive with these mighty
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  Speaker 1: carnivorous amphibians, and if not, the individual that menaced me
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  Speaker 1: would pursue me into either the sea or swamp with
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  Speaker 1: equal facility. There seemed nothing to do but stand super
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  Speaker 1: finely and await my end. I thought of Perry, how
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  Speaker 1: he would wonder what had become of me. I thought
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  Speaker 1: of my friends of the outer world, and of how
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  Speaker 1: they all would go on living their lives in total
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  Speaker 1: ignorance of the strange and terrible fate that had overtaken me,
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  Speaker 1: or unguessing the weird surroundings which had witnessed the last
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  Speaker 1: frightful agony of my extinction. And with these thoughts came
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  Speaker 1: a realization of how unimportant to the life and happiness
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  Speaker 1: of the world is the existence of any one of us.
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  Speaker 1: We may be snuffed out without an instant's warning, and
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  Speaker 1: for a brief day, our friends speak of us with
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  Speaker 1: subdued voices. The following morning, while the first worm is
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  Speaker 1: busily engaged in testing the construction of our coffin, they
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  Speaker 1: are teeing up for the first whole to suffer more
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  Speaker 1: acute sorrow over a sliced ball than they did over
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  Speaker 1: our to us untimely demise. The labyrinthodon was coming more
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  Speaker 1: slowly now. He seemed to realize that that escape for
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  Speaker 1: me was impossible, and I could have sworn that his
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  Speaker 1: huge fanged jaws grinned and pleasurable appreciation of my predicament,
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  Speaker 1: or was it in anticipation of the juicy morsel which
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  Speaker 1: would so soon be pulp between those formidable teeth. He
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  Speaker 1: was about fifty feet from me when I heard a
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  Speaker 1: voice calling to me from the direction of the bluff
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  Speaker 1: at my left. I looked and could have shouted in
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  Speaker 1: delight at the sight that met my eyes, for there
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  Speaker 1: stood Jaw, waving frantically to me and urging me to
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  Speaker 1: run for it to the cliff's base. I had no
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  Speaker 1: idea that I should escape the monster that had marked
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  Speaker 1: me for his breakfast, but at least I should not
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  Speaker 1: die alone. Human eyes would watch me end. It was
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  Speaker 1: cold comfort, I presume, but yet I derived some slight
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  Speaker 1: peace of mind from the contemplation of it. To run
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  Speaker 1: seemed ridiculous, especially toward that steep and unscalable cliff, and
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  Speaker 1: yet I did so. And as I ran, I saw
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  Speaker 1: Jaw agile as a monkey crawled down the precipitous face
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  Speaker 1: of the rocks, clinging to small projections and the tough
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  Speaker 1: creepers that had found root hold here and there. The
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  Speaker 1: labyrinthodon evidently thought the jaw was coming to double his
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  Speaker 1: portion of human flesh, so he was in no haste
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  Speaker 1: to pursue me to the cliff and frighten away this
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  Speaker 1: other tidbit. Instead, he merely trotted along behind me. As
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  Speaker 1: I approached the foot of the cliff, I saw what
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  Speaker 1: Jaw intended doing, but I doubted if the thing would
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  Speaker 1: prove successful. He had come down to within twenty feet
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  Speaker 1: of the bottom, and there, clinging with one hand to
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  Speaker 1: a small ledge and with his feet resting precariously upon
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  Speaker 1: tiny bushes that grew from the solid face of the rock,
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  Speaker 1: he lowered the point of his long spear until it
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  Speaker 1: hung some six feet above the ground. To clamber up
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  Speaker 1: that slim shaft without dragging Jaw down and precipitating both
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  Speaker 1: to the same doom from which the copper colored one
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  Speaker 1: was attempting to save me seemed utterly impossible, and as
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  Speaker 1: I came near the spear, I told Jaw so and
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  Speaker 1: that I could not risk him to try to save myself.
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  Speaker 1: But he insisted that he knew what he was doing
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  Speaker 1: and was in no danger himself. The danger is still yours,
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  Speaker 1: he called for, Unless you move much more rapidly than
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  Speaker 1: you are now. The Scythic will be upon you and
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  Speaker 1: drag you back before ever you are half way up
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  Speaker 1: the spear. He can rear up and reach you with
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  Speaker 1: ease anywhere below where I stand. Well, Jos should know
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  Speaker 1: his own business, I thought, and so I grasped the
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  Speaker 1: spear and clambered up toward the red Man as rapidly
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  Speaker 1: as I could, being so far removed from my Simian
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  Speaker 1: ancestors as I am, I imagine, the slow witted Scythic,
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  Speaker 1: as Jo called him, suddenly realized our intentions, and that
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  Speaker 1: he was quite likely to lose all his meal instead
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  Speaker 1: of having it doubled as he had hoped. When he
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  Speaker 1: saw me clambering up that spear, he led out a
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  Speaker 1: hiss that fairly shook the ground, and came charging after
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  Speaker 1: me at a terrific rate. I had reached the top
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  Speaker 1: of the spear by this time, or almost another six
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  Speaker 1: inches would give me a hold on Jo's hand, when
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  Speaker 1: I felt a sudden wrench from below, and glancing fearful down,
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  Speaker 1: saw the mighty jaws of the monster close on the
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  Speaker 1: sharp point of the weapon. I made a frantic effort
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  Speaker 1: to reach Jaw's hand. The scythec gave a tremendous tug
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  Speaker 1: that came near to jerking Jaw from his frail hold
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  Speaker 1: on the surface of the rock. The spear slipped from
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  Speaker 1: his fingers, and still clinging to it, I plunged feet
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  Speaker 1: foremost towards my executioner. At the instant that he felt
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  Speaker 1: the spear come away from Jaw's hand, the creature must
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  Speaker 1: have opened his huge jaws to catch me, for when
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  Speaker 1: I came down, still clinging to the butt end of
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  Speaker 1: the weapon, the point yet rested in his mouth, and
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  Speaker 1: the result was that the sharpened end transfixed his lower jaw.
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  Speaker 1: With the pain he snapped his mouth closed. I fell
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  Speaker 1: upon his snout, lost my hold upon the spear, rolled
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  Speaker 1: the length of his face and head, across his short neck,
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  Speaker 1: on to his broad back, and from there to the ground.
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  Speaker 1: Scarce had I touched the earth than I was upon
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  Speaker 1: my feet, dashing madly for the path by which I
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  Speaker 1: had entered this horrible valley. A glance over my shoulders
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  Speaker 1: showed me the scythic engaged and pawing at the spear
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  Speaker 1: stuck through his lower jaw. And so busily engaged did
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  Speaker 1: he remain in this occupation that I had gained the
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  Speaker 1: safety of the cliff top before he was ready to
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  Speaker 1: take up the pursuit. When he did not discover me
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  Speaker 1: in sight within the valley, he dashed, kissing into the
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  Speaker 1: rank vegetation of the swamp, and that was the last
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  Speaker 1: I saw of him. End of chapter nine.