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

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  Chapter thirteen, The Sly One. The Sagoths were gaining on us rapidly,
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  for once they had sighted us, they had greatly increased their speed. On
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  and on we stumbled up the narrow canyon that Ghak had chosen to approach the
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  heights of Sari. On either side rose precipitous cliffs of gorgeous Parti colored rock,
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  while beneath our feet a thick mountain grass formed a soft and noiseless carpet.
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  Since we had entered the canyon, we had had no glimpse of our
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  pursuers, and I was commencing to hope that they had lost our trail,
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  and that we would reach the now rapidly nearing cliffs in time to scale them
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  before we should be overtaken. Ahead, we neither saw nor heard any sign
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  which might betoken the success of Hujah's mission. By now, he should have
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  reached the outposts of the Sarians, and we should at least hear the savage
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  cries of the tribesmen as they swarmed to arms in answer to their king's appeal
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  for succor. In another moment, the frowning cliffs aheadge be black with primeval
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  warriors, but nothing of the kind happened. As a matter of fact,
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  the sly one had betrayed us at the moment that we expected to see Sarian
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  spearmen charging to our relief at Hooja's back. The craven trader was sneaking round
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  the outskirts of the nearest Sarian village that he might come up from the other
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  side when it was too late to save us, claiming that he had become
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  lost among the mountains. Hooja still harbored ill will against me because of the
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  blow I had struck in Dian's protection, and his malevolent spirit was equal to
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  sacrificing us all that he might be revenged upon me. As we drew nearer
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  the barrier cliffs and no sign of rescuing Sarians appeared, Ghak became both angry
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  and alarmed. Presently, as the sound of rapidly approaching pursuit fell upon our
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  ears, he called to me over his shoulder that we were lost. A
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  backward glance gave me a glimpse of the first of the Sagoths at the far
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  end of a considerable stretch of canyon through which we had just passed, and
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  then a sudden turning shut the ugly creature from my view, but the loud
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  howl of triumphant rage which rose behind us was evidence that the guerrilla man had
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  sighted us. Again. The canyon veered sharply to the left, but to
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  the right, and other branch ran on at a lesser deviation from the general
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  direction, so that appeared more like the main canyon than the left hand branch.
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  The Sagoths were now not over two hundred and fifty yards behind us,
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  and I saw that it was hopeless for us to expect to escape other than
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  by a ruse. There was a bare chance of saving Ghak and Perry,
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  and as I reached the branching of the canyon, I took the chance.
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  Pausing there, I waited until the foremost Sagoth hove into sight. Ghak and
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  Perry had disappeared around a bend in the left hand canyon, and as the
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  sagoth's savage yell announced that he had seen me, I turned and fled up
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  the right hand branch. My ruse was successful, and the entire party of
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  man hunters raced headlong after me up one canyon, while Ghak bore Perry to
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  safety up the other, running as never been my particular athletic forte. And
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  now, when my very life depended on fleetness of foot, I cannot say
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  that I ran any better than on the occasions when my pitiful base running had
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  called down upon my head the rouder's raucous and reproachful cries of ice wagon and
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  call a cab. The Sagoths were gaining on me rapidly. There was one
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  in particular, fleeter than his fellows, who was perilously close. The canyon
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  had become a rocky slit, rising roughly at a steep angle toward what seemed
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  to pass between two abutting peaks. What lay beyond I could not even guess,
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  possibly a sheer drop of hundreds of feet into the corresponding valley upon the
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  other side. Could it be that I had plunged into a cul de sac.
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  Realizing that now I could not hope to outdistance the Sagoths to the top
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  of the canyon, I had determined to risk all in an attempt to check
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  them temporarily, And to this end had unslung my rudely made bow and plucked
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  an arrow from the skin quiver, which hung behind my shoulder. As I
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  fitted the shaft with my right hand, I stopped and wheeled toward the gorilla
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  man. In the world of my birth, I had never drawn a shaft,
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  But since our escape from Phutra, I had kept the party supplied with
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  small game by means of my arrows, and so through necessity, had developed
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  a fair degree of accuracy. During our flight from Futra, I had restrung
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  my bow with a piece of heavy gut taken from a huge tiger, which
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  Ghak and I had worried and finally dispatched with arrows, spear and sword.
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  The hard wood of the bow was extremely tough, and this, with the
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  strength and elasticity of my new string, gave me unwonted confidence in my new
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  weapon. Never had I greater need of steady nerves than then. Never were
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  my nerves and muscles under better control. I sighted as carefully and deliberately as
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  though at a straw target. The Sagoth had never before seen a bow and
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  arrow, But of a sudden it must have swept over his dull intellect that
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  the thing I held toward him was some sort of engine of destruction, for
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  he too came to a halt, simultaneously swinging his hatchet for a throw.
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  It is one of the many method in which they employ this weapon, and
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  the accuracy of aim which they achieve even under the most unfavorable circumstances, is
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  little short of miraculous. My shaft was drawn back its full length, my
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  eye had centered its sharp point upon the left breast of my adversary, and
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  then he launched his hatchet, and I released my arrow at the instant that
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  our missiles flew, I leaped to one side, but the Sagoth sprang forward
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  to follow up his attack with a spear thrust. I felt the swish of
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  the hatchet as it grazed my head, and at the same instant my shaft
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  pierced the Sagoth's savage heart, and with a single groan, he lunged almost
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  at my feet stone dead. Close behind him were two more fifty yards perhaps,
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  but the distance gave me time to snatch up the dead guardsman's shield,
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  for the close call his hatchet had just given me had borne in upon me
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  the urgent need I had for one Those which I had purloined at Phutra,
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  we had not been able to bring along because their size precluded our concealing them
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  within the skins of the mahars, which had brought us safely from the city.
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  With the sh shield slipped well up on my left arm, I let
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  fly with another arrow, which brought down a second sagoth, and then as
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  his fellow's hatchet sped toward me, I caught it upon the shield and fitted
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  another shaft for him, But he did not wait to receive it. Instead,
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  he turned and retreated toward the main body of guerrilla men. Evidently he
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  had seen enough of me for the moment. Once more, I took up
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  my flight. Nor were the sagoths apparently over anxious to press their pursuit so
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  closely as before. Unmolested. I reached the top of the canyon, where
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  I found a sheer drop of two or three hundred feet to the bottom of
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  a rocky chasm, but on the left a narrow ledge rounded the shoulder of
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  the overhanging cliff. Along this I advanced, and at a sudden turning a
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  few yards beyond the canyon's end, the path widened, and at my left
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  I saw the opening to a large cave before the ledge continued until it passed
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  from sight about another projecting buttress of the mountain. Here I felt I could
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  defy an army for but a single foeman could advance upon me at a time,
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  nor could he know that I was awaiting him, until he came full
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  upon me. Around the corner of the turn. About me lay scattered stones
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  crumbled from the cliff above. They were of various sizes and shapes, but
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  enoughware of handy dimensions for use as ammunition in lieu of my precious arrows.
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  Gathering a number of stones into a little pile beside the mouth of the cave,
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  I waited the advance of the Sagoths. As I stood there, tense
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  and silent, listening for the first faint sound that should announce the approach of
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  my enemies. A slight noise from within the cave's black depths attracted my attention.
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  It might have been produced by the moving of the great body of some
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  huge beast rising from the rock floor of its lair. At almost the same
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  instant, I thought that I caught the scraping of hide sandals upon the ledge
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  beyond the turn. For the next few seconds my attention was considerably divided,
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  And then from the inky blackness at my right, I saw two flaming eyes
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  glaring into mine. They were on a level that was over two feet above
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  my head. It is true that the beast who owned them might be standing
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  upon a ledge within the cave, or that it might be rearing up upon
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  its hind legs. But I had seen enough of the monsters of Pellucidar to
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  know that I might be facing some new and frightful titan whose dimensions and ferocity
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  eclipsed those of any I had seen before. Whatever it was, it was
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  coming slowly toward the entrance of the cave, and now deep and forbidding it
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  uttered a low and ominous growl. I waited no longer to dispute possession of
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  the ledge with the thing which owned that voice. The noise had not been
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  allowed. I doubt if the Sagoths heard it at all, But the suggestion
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  of latent possibilities behind it was such that I knew it would only emanate from
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  a gigantic and ferocious beast. As I backed along the ledge, I soon
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  was past the mouth of the cave, where I no longer could see those
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  fearful, flaming eyes. But an instant later I caught sight of the fiendish
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  face of a Sagoth as it warily advanced beyond the cliff's turn on the far
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  side of the cave's mouth. As the fellow saw me, he leaped along
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  the ledge in pursuit, and after him came as many of his companions as
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  could crowd upon each other's heels. At the same time, the beast emerged
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  from the cave, so that he and the Sagoths came face to face upon
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  that narrow ledge. The thing was an enormous cave bear, rearing its colossal
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  bulk fully eight feet at the shoulder, while from the tip of its nose
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  to the end of its stubby tail it was fully twelve feet in length.
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  As it sighted the Sagoths, it emitted a most frightful roar, and with
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  open mouth, charged full upon them with a cry of terror. The foremost
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  guerrilla man turned to escape, but behind him he ran full upon his on
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  rushing companions. The horror of the following seconds is indescribable. The sagoth nearest
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  the cave bear, finding his escape blocked, turned and leaped deliberately into an
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  awful death upon the jack rocks three hundred feet below. Then those giant jaws
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  reached out and gathered in the next there was a sickening sound of crushing bones,
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  and the mangled corpse was dropped over the cliff's edge. Nor did the
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  mighty beast even pause in his steady advance along the ledge. Shrieking Sagoths were
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  now leaping madly over the precipice to escape him, and the last I saw
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  he rounded the turn, still pursuing the demoralized remnant of the man hunters.
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  For a long time I could hear the horrid roaring of the brute, intermingled
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  with the screams and shrieks of his victims, until finally the awful sounds dwindled
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  and disappeared in the distance. Later I learned from Ghak, who had finally
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  come to his tribesmen and returned with a party to rescue me, that the
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  Riff, as it is called, pursued the Sagoths until it had exterminated the
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  entire band. Ghak was of course positive that I had fallen prey to the
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  terrible creature, which within pellucidars truly the king of beasts. Not caring to
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  venture back into the canyon where I might fall prey either to the cave bear
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  or the Sagoths, I continued on along the ledge, believing that by following
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  around the mountain. I could reach the land of Sere from another direction.
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  But I evidently became confused by the twisting and turning of the canyons and gullies,
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  for I did not come to the land of Serre then, nor for
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  a long time thereafter. End of Chapter thirteen.