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04 - At The Earth's Core - Edgar Rice Burroughs · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four, Die in the Beautiful. When our guards arose
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: us from sleep, we were much refreshed. They gave us food,
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  Speaker 1: strips of dried meat. It was, but it put a
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  Speaker 1: new life and strength into us, so that now we
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  Speaker 1: too marched with high held heads and took noble strides.
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  Speaker 1: At least I did, for I was young and proud.
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  Speaker 1: But poor Perry hated walking on earth. I had often
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  Speaker 1: seen him call a cab to travel a square. He
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  Speaker 1: was paying for it now, and his old legs wobbled,
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  Speaker 1: so that I put my arm about him and half
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  Speaker 1: carried him through the balance of those frightful marches. The
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  Speaker 1: country began to change at last, and we wound up
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  Speaker 1: out of the level plain through mighty mountains of virgin granite.
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  Speaker 1: The tropical verdure of the lowlands was replaced by heartier vegetation.
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  Speaker 1: But even here the effects of constant heat and light
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  Speaker 1: were apparent in the immensity of the trees and the
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  Speaker 1: pro fusion of foliage and blooms. Crystal streams roared through
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  Speaker 1: the rocky channels, fed by the perpetual snows, which we
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  Speaker 1: could see far above us. Above the snow capped heights
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  Speaker 1: hung masses of heavy clouds. It was these, Perry explained,
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  Speaker 1: which evidently served the double purpose of replenishing the melting
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  Speaker 1: snows and protecting them from the direct rays of the sun.
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  Speaker 1: By this time we had picked up a smattering of
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  Speaker 1: the bastard language in which our guards addressed us, as
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  Speaker 1: well as making good headway in the rather charming tongue
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  Speaker 1: of our co captives. Directly ahead of me in the
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  Speaker 1: chain gang was a young woman. Three feet of chain
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  Speaker 1: linked us together in a forced companionship which I at
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  Speaker 1: least soon rejoiced in, for I found her a willing teacher,
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  Speaker 1: and from her I learned the language of her tribe
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  Speaker 1: and much of the life and customs of the inner world,
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  Speaker 1: at least that part of it which she was familiar.
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  Speaker 1: She told me that she was called Diane the Beautiful,
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  Speaker 1: and that she belonged to the tribe of Amos, which
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  Speaker 1: dwells in the cliffs above the darrel As or shallow Sea.
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  Speaker 1: How came you here, I asked her. I was running
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  Speaker 1: away from Juwbel the ugly one. She answered, as though
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  Speaker 1: that was explanation quite sufficient. Who is Jubal the ugly one?
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  Speaker 1: I asked, and why did you run away from him?
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  Speaker 1: She looked at me in surprise. Why does a woman
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  Speaker 1: run away from a man? She answered my question with another.
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  Speaker 1: They do not where I come from, I replied, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: they run after them. But she could not understand, nor
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  Speaker 1: could I get her to grasp the fact that I
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  Speaker 1: was of another world. She was quite as positive that
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  Speaker 1: creation was originated solely to produce her own kind and
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  Speaker 1: the world she lived in, as are many of the
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  Speaker 1: outer world. But jubilisted tell me about him, and why
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  Speaker 1: you ran away to be chained by the neck and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: scourged across the face of a world. Jubil the Ugly
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  Speaker 1: One placed his trophy before my father's house. It was
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  Speaker 1: the head of a mighty tandor it remained there, and
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  Speaker 1: no greater trophy was placed beside it. So I knew
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  Speaker 1: that Jubal the Ugly One would come and take me
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  Speaker 1: as his mate. None other so powerful wished me, or
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  Speaker 1: they would have slain a mightier beast and thus have
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  Speaker 1: won me from Jubil. My father is not a mighty hunter.
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  Speaker 1: Once he was, but a zedak tossed him, and never
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  Speaker 1: again had he the full use of his right arm.
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  Speaker 1: My brother, Decor, the strong One, had gone to the
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  Speaker 1: land of Sari to steal a mate for himself. Thus
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  Speaker 1: there was none father, brother or lover to save me
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  Speaker 1: from Jubil the ugly one. And I ran away and
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  Speaker 1: hid among the hills that skirt the land of Amos,
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  Speaker 1: And there these sagoths found me and made me captive.
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  Speaker 1: What will they do with you? I asked? Where are
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  Speaker 1: they taking us? Again? She looked her incredulity. I can
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  Speaker 1: almost believe that you are of another world, she said,
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  Speaker 1: for otherwise such ignorance were inexplicable. Do you really mean
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  Speaker 1: that you do not know that the sagoths are the
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  Speaker 1: creatures of the mayors, the mighty mayors, who think they
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  Speaker 1: own Pellucidar and all that walks or grows upon its surface,
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  Speaker 1: or creeps or burrows beneath, or swims within its lakes
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  Speaker 1: and oceans, or flies through its air. Next you will
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  Speaker 1: be telling me that you've never before heard of the
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  Speaker 1: Mayor's I was loath to do it and further incur
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  Speaker 1: her scorn, but there was no alternative if I were
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  Speaker 1: to absorb knowledge. So I made a clean breast of
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: my pitiful ignorance as to the mighty mayors. She was shocked,
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  Speaker 1: but she did her very best to enlighten me, though
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  Speaker 1: much that she said was as Greek would have been
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  Speaker 1: to her. She described the mayors largely by comparison. In
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  Speaker 1: this way, they were like unto Thipdars, in that to
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  Speaker 1: the hairless liddy. About all I gleaned of them was
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  Speaker 1: that they were quite hideous, had wings and webbed feet,
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  Speaker 1: lived in cities built beneath the ground, could swim under
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  Speaker 1: water for great distances, and were very, very wise. The
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  Speaker 1: Sagoths were their weapons of offense and defense, and the races,
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  Speaker 1: like herself, were their hands and feet. They were the
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  Speaker 1: slaves and servants who did all the manual labor. The
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  Speaker 1: mayors were the heads, the brains of the inner world.
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  Speaker 1: I longed to see this wondrous race of supermen. Perry
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  Speaker 1: learned the language with me when we halted, as we
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: occasionally did, though sometimes the halts seemed ages apart. He
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  Speaker 1: would join in the conversation, as would Ghak, the hairy one.
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  Speaker 1: He who was chained just ahead of Dian the beautiful.
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  Speaker 1: Ahead of Ghak was Hooja, the sly one. He too,
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  Speaker 1: entered the conversation occasionally. Most of his remarks were directed
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  Speaker 1: towards Diane the beautiful. It didn't take half an eye
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  Speaker 1: to see that he had developed a bad case. But
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  Speaker 1: the girl appeared totally oblivious to his thinly veiled advances.
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  Speaker 1: Did I say, thinley Field. There is a race of
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  Speaker 1: men in New Zealand or Australia, I've forgotten which, who
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  Speaker 1: indicate their preference for the lady of their affections by
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  Speaker 1: banging her over the head with a bludgeon. By comparison
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  Speaker 1: with this method, Hooja's love making might be called thinley veild.
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  Speaker 1: At first it caused me to blush violently, although I
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  Speaker 1: have seen several old years out at Rector's and in
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  Speaker 1: other less fashionable places off Broadway, and in Vienna and Hamburg.
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  Speaker 1: But that girl, she was magnificent. It was easy to
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  Speaker 1: see that she considered herself as entirely above and apart
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  Speaker 1: from her present surroundings. In company. She talked with me
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  Speaker 1: and with Perry and with the taciturn Ghak, because we
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  Speaker 1: were respectful. But she couldn't even see Hooja the sly one,
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  Speaker 1: much less hear him, and that made him furious. He
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  Speaker 1: tried to get one of the Sagoths to move the
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  Speaker 1: girl up ahead of him in the slave gang, but
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  Speaker 1: the fellow only poked him with his spear and told
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  Speaker 1: him that he had selected the girl for his own property,
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  Speaker 1: that he would buy her from the mayors as soon
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: as they reached Putra Poutra, it seemed was the city
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  Speaker 1: of our destination. After passing over the first chain of
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  Speaker 1: the mountains, we skirted a salt sea, upon whose bosom
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  Speaker 1: swam countless horrid things. Seal like creatures there were, with
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  Speaker 1: long necks stretching ten or more feet above their enormous bodies,
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  Speaker 1: and whose snake heads were split with gaping mouths bristling
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  Speaker 1: with countless fangs. There were huge tortoises, too, paddling about
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  Speaker 1: among these other reptiles, which Perry said were plesiosaurs of
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  Speaker 1: the Lias. I didn't question his veracity. They might have
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  Speaker 1: been most anything. Dian told me they were tandoraises or
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  Speaker 1: tandors of the sea, and that the other and more
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  Speaker 1: fearsome reptiles which occasionally rose from the deep to do
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  Speaker 1: battle with them, were as diaryths or sea dearyths. Perry
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  Speaker 1: called them ichtheosaurs. They resembled a whale with the head
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  Speaker 1: of an alligator. I had forgotten what little geology I
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  Speaker 1: had studied at school. About all that remained was an
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  Speaker 1: impression of horror that the illustrations of restored prehistoric monsters
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  Speaker 1: had made upon me, and a well defined belief that
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  Speaker 1: any man with a pig's shank and a vivid imagination
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  Speaker 1: could restore most any sort of paleolithic monster he saw
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  Speaker 1: fit and take rank as a first class paleontologist. But
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  Speaker 1: when I saw these sleek, shiny carcasses shimmering in the
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  Speaker 1: sunlight as they emerged from the ocean, shaking their giant heads,
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  Speaker 1: When I saw the waters roll from their sinuous bodies
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  Speaker 1: in miniature waterfalls, as they glided hither and thither, now
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  Speaker 1: upon the surface, now half submerged. As I saw them
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  Speaker 1: meat open mouthed, hissing and snorting in their titanic and
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  Speaker 1: interminable warring, I realized how futile is man's poor, weak
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  Speaker 1: imagination by comparison with nature's incredible genius. And Perry, he
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  Speaker 1: was absolutely flabbergasted. He said so himself. David, he remarked,
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  Speaker 1: after we had marched for a long time beside that
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  Speaker 1: awful sea. David, I used to teach geology, and I
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  Speaker 1: thought that I believed what I taught, But now I
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  Speaker 1: see that I did not believe it. That it is
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  Speaker 1: impossible for man to believe such things as these unless
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  Speaker 1: he sees them with his own eyes. We take things
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  Speaker 1: for granted, perhaps because we are told them over and
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  Speaker 1: over again and have no way of disproving them, like religions,
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  Speaker 1: for example, but we don't believe them. We only think
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  Speaker 1: we do. If you ever get back to the outer world,
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  Speaker 1: you will find that the geologists and paleontologists will be
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  Speaker 1: the first who set you down a liar, for they
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  Speaker 1: know that no such creatures as they restore ever existed.
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  Speaker 1: It is all right to imagine them as existing in
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  Speaker 1: an equally imaginary epoch. But now prove At the next
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  Speaker 1: halt Hooja, the sly One managed to find enough slack
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  Speaker 1: chain to permit him to worm himself back quite close
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  Speaker 1: to Diane. We were all standing, and as he edged
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  Speaker 1: near the girl, she turned her back upon him in
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  Speaker 1: such a truly earthly, feminine manner that I could scarce
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  Speaker 1: repress a smile. But it was a short lived smile,
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  Speaker 1: for on the instant the sly One's hand fell upon
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  Speaker 1: the girl's bare arm, jerking her roughly towards him. I
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  Speaker 1: was not then familiar with the customs or social ethics
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  Speaker 1: which prevailed within Pellucidar, But even so I did not
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  Speaker 1: need the appealing look to which the girl shot to
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  Speaker 1: me from her magnificent eyes to influence my subsequent act.
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  Speaker 1: What the sly one's intention was, I paused not to inquire,
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  Speaker 1: but instead, before he could lay hold of her with
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  Speaker 1: his other hand, I placed a right to the point
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  Speaker 1: of his jaw that felled him in his tracks. A
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  Speaker 1: roar of approval went up from those of the other
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  Speaker 1: prisoners and the Sagoths who had witnessed the brief drama,
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  Speaker 1: not as I later learned, because I had championed the girl,
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  Speaker 1: but for the knee and to them astounding method by
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  Speaker 1: which I had bested Hooja and the girl. At first
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  Speaker 1: she looked at me with wide, wondering eyes, and then
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  Speaker 1: she dropped her head, her face half averted, and a
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  Speaker 1: delicate flush suffused her cheeks. For a moment she stood
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  Speaker 1: thus in silence, and then her head went high, and
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  Speaker 1: she turned her back upon me as she had upon Hooja.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the prisoners laughed, and I saw the face
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  Speaker 1: of Ghak, the hairy one, go very black as he
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  Speaker 1: looked at me searchingly, and what I could see of
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  Speaker 1: Diane's cheek went suddenly from red to white. Immediately after
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  Speaker 1: we resumed the march, and though I realized that in
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  Speaker 1: some way I had offended Diane the Beautiful, I could
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  Speaker 1: not prevail upon her to talk with me that I
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  Speaker 1: might learn wherein I had erred. In fact, I might
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  Speaker 1: quite as well have been addressing a sphinx for all
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  Speaker 1: the attention I got. At last, my own foolish pride
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  Speaker 1: step in and prevented my making any further attempts, and
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  Speaker 1: thus a companionship that, without my realizing it had come
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  Speaker 1: to mean a great deal to me, was cut off.
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  Speaker 1: Hooja did not renew his advances toward the girl, nor
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  Speaker 1: did he again venture near me again. The weary and
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  Speaker 1: apparently interminable marching became a perfect nightmare of horrors to me.
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  Speaker 1: The more firmly fixed became the realization that the girl's
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  Speaker 1: friendship had meant so much to me, the more I
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  Speaker 1: came to miss it, and the more impregnable the barrier
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  Speaker 1: of silly pride. But I was very young and would
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  Speaker 1: not ask Ghak for the explanation which I was sure
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  Speaker 1: he could give, and that might have made everything all
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  Speaker 1: right again. On the march or during halts, Diane refused
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  Speaker 1: consistently to notice me. When her eyes wandered in my direction,
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  Speaker 1: she looked either over my head or directly through me.
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  Speaker 1: At last, I became desperate and determined to swallow my
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  Speaker 1: self esteem and again beg her to tell me how
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  Speaker 1: I had offended and how I might make reparation. I
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  Speaker 1: made up my mind that I should do this. At
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  Speaker 1: the next halt. We were approaching another range of mountains
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: at the time, and when we reached them, instead of
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: winding across them through some high flung pass we entered
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: a mighty natural tunnel, a series of labyrinthian grottos, dark
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: as erebus. The guards had no torches or lights of
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: any description. In fact, we had seen no artificial light
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  Speaker 1: or sign of fire since we had entered Pellucidar. In
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: a land of perpetual noon, there is no need of
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: light above ground. Yet I marveled that they had no
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: means of lighting their way through these dark, subterranean passages.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: So we crept along at a snail's pace, with much
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: stumbling and falling, the guards keeping up a singing song
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  Speaker 1: chant ahead of us, interspersed with certain high notes which
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  Speaker 1: I found always indicated rough places and turns Aults were
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: now more frequent. But I did not wish to speak
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: to Diane until I could see from the expression of
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  Speaker 1: her face how she was receiving my apologies. At last,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: a faint glow ahead forewarned us of the end of
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the tunnel, for which I, for one was devoutly thankful.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Then at a sudden turn, we emerged into the full
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: light of the noonday sun. But with it came a
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: sudden realization of what meant to me a real catastrophe.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Diane was gone, and with her a half dozen other prisoners.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: The guard saw it too, and the ferocity of their
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: rage was terrible to behold. Their awesome, beastial faces were
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: contorted in the most diabolical expressions as they accused each
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: other of responsibility for the loss. Finally they fell upon us,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: beating us with their spear shafts and hatchets. They had
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: already killed two near the head of the line, and
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: were like to have finished the balance of us when
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: their leader finally put a stop to the brutal slaughter.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Never in all my life had I witnessed a more
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: horrible exhibition of beastial rage. I thanked God that Diane
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: had not been one of those left to endure it.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Of the twelve prisoners who had been chained ahead of me,
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  Speaker 1: each alternate one had been freed. Commencing with Diane, Hooja
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: was gone. Ghak remained, what could it mean? How had
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: it been accomplished? The commander of the guards was investigating.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Soon he discovered that the rude locks which had held
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the neck bands in place had been deftly picked. Hooja,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: the sly one, murmured, Ghak, who is now next to
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  Speaker 1: me in line? He has taken the girl that you
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: would not have, he continued, glancing at me, that I
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: would not have. I cried, what do you mean? He
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: looked at me closely for a moment. I have doubted
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: your story, that you are from another world, he said
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: at last, But yet upon no other ground could your
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: ignorance of the ways of Pellucidar be explained. Do you
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  Speaker 1: really mean that you do not know that you have
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: offended the beautiful one? And how I do not know? Ghak?
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: I replied, Then I shall tell you when a man
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: of Pellucidar intervenes between another man and the woman, the
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: other man would have the woman belongs to the victor.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Dian the Beautiful belongs to you. You should have claimed
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: her or released her. Had you taken her hand, it
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: would have indicated your desire to make her your mate.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: And had you raised her hand above her head and
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: then dropped it, it would have meant that you did
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: not wish her for your mate, and that you released
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: her from all obligations to you. By doing neither, you
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: have put upon her the greatest affront that any man
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: may put upon a woman. Now she is your slave.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: No man will take her as a mate, or may
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: take her honorably, until he shall have overcome you in
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: con and men do not choose slave women as their mates,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: at least not the men of Pellucidar. I did not know, ghak,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I cried, I did not know. Not for all Pellucidar,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: would I have harmed Dian the Beautiful by word or
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: look or act of mine. I do not want her
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: as my slave. I do not want her as my
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: But here I stopped the vision of that sweet, innocent
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: face floated before me amidst the soft mists of imagination,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: and where I had, on the second, believed that I
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: clung only to the memory of a gentle friendship I
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: had lost. Yet now it seemed that it would have
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: been disloyalty to her to have said that I did
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: not want Diane the Beautiful as my mate. I have
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: not thought of her except as a welcome friend in
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: a strange, cruel world. Even now I did not think
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: that I loved her. I believe Ghak must have read
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the truth more in my expression than in my words,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: For presently he laid his hand upon my shoulder. Men
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: of another world, he said, I believe you lips may lie,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: but when the heart speaks through the eyes, it tells
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: only the truth. Your heart has spoken to me. I
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: know now that you meant no affront to Dian the Beautiful.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: She is not of my tribe, but her mother is
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: my sister. She does not know it. Her mother was
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: stolen by Dian's father, who came with others from the
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: tribe of Amos to battle with us for our women,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the most beautiful women of Pellucidar. Then was her father
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: the king of Amos, and her mother was daughter of
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: the king of Sari, to whose power I his son,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: have succeeded. Diane is the daughter of kings, though her
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: father is no longer king, since this Sadok tossed him
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: and Jubile the ugly One wrested his kingship from him.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Because of her lineage, the wrong you did her was
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: greatly magnified in the eyes of all who saw it.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: She will never forgive you, I am asked Ghak, if
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: there was not some way in which I could release
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the girl from the bondage and ignominy I had unwittingly
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: placed upon her. If ever you find her, yes, he answered,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Merely to raise her hand above her head and drop
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: it in the presence of others is sufficient to release her.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: But how may you ever find her, You, who are
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: doomed to a life of slavery yourself in the buried
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: city of Putra. Is there no escape? I asked Hooja.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: The sly One escaped and took the others with him,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: replied Ghak. But there are no more dark places on
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: the way to Putra, and once there it is not
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: so easy. The mayors are very wise. Even if one
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: escaped from Putra, there are the thipdars. They would find you,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: and then the hairy one shuddered, No, you will never
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: escape the mayors. It was a cheerful prospect. I asked
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Perry what he thought about it, but he only shrugged
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: his shoulders and continued a long window prayer he had
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: been at for some time. He was wont to say
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: that the only redeeming feature of our captivity was the
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: ample time it gave him for the improvisation of prayers.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: It was becoming an obsession with him. The Sagoths had
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: begun to take notice of his habit of declaiming throughout
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: entire marches. One of them asked him what he was
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: saying to whom he was talking. The question gave me
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: an idea, so I answered quickly before Perry could say anything.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Do not interrupt him. I said, he is a very
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: holy man in the world from which we come. He
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: is speaking to spirits which you cannot see. Do not
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: interrupt him, or they will spring out of the air
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: upon you and rind you limb from limb. Like that,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and I jumped towards the great brute with a loud
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: boo that sent him stumbling backward. I took a long chance,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: I realized, but if we could make any capital out
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: of Perry's harmless Mania. I wanted to make it. While
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the making was it worked splendidly. The Sagoths treated us
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: both with marked respect during the balance of our journey,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and then passed the word along to their masters, the mayors.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Two marches after this episode, we came to the city
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: of Putra. The entrance to it was marked by two
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: lofty towers of granite, which guarded a flight of steps
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: leading to the buried city. Sagoths were on guard here,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: as well as at a hundred or more other towers
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: scattered about over a large plain. End of Chapter four