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

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  Chapter six, the beginning of horror within Pellucidar. One time is as good
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  as another. There were no knights to mask our attempt to escape. All
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  must be done in broad daylight, all but the work I had to do
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  in the apartment beneath the building. So we determined to put our plan to
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  an immediate test, lest the Mahars, who made it possible, should awake
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  before I reached them. But we were doomed to disappoint, for no sooner
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  had we reached the main floor of the building on our way to the pits
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  beneath, than we encountered hurrying bands of slaves being hastened under strong Sagoth guard
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  out of the edifice to the avenue beyond. Other Sagoths were darting hither and
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  thither in search of other slaves, And the moment that we appeared, we
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  were pounced upon, unhustled into the line of marching humans. What the purpose
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  or nature of the general exodus we did not know. But presently through the
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  line of captives ran the rumor that two escaped slaves had been recaptured, a
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  man and a woman, and that we were marching to witness their punishment for
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  the man had killed a Sagoth of the detachment that had pursued and overtaken them.
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  At the intelligence, my heart sprang to my throat, for I was
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  sure that the two were of those who escaped in the dark grotto with Hooja,
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  the sly one, and that Diane must be the woman. Ghak thought
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  so too, as did Perry. Is there not that we may do to
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  save her? I asked Ghak, not, he replied. Along the crowded
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  avenue we marched the guards, showing unusual cruelty towards us, as though we
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  too had been implicated in the murder of their fellow. The occasion was to
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  serve as an object lesson to all other slaves of the danger and futility of
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  attempted escape and the fatal consequences of taking the life of a superior being.
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  And so I imagined that Sagoths felt amply justified in making the entire proceeding as
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  uncomfortable and painful to us as possible. They jabbed us with their spears and
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  struck at us with the hatchets at the least provocation, and at no provocation
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  at all. It was a most uncomfort half hour that we spent before we
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  were finally herded through a low entrance into a huge building, the center of
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  which was given up to a good sized arena. Benches surrounded this open space
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  upon three sides, and along the fourth were heaped huge boulders, which rose
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  in receding tiers toward the roof. At first I couldn't make out the purpose
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  of this mighty pile of rock, unless it were intended as a rough and
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  picturesque background for the scenes which were enacted in the arena before it. But
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  presently, after the wooden benches had been pretty well filled by slaves and sagoths,
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  I discovered the purpose of the boulders, For then the Mahars began to
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  file into the enclosure. They marched directly across the arena toward the rocks upon
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  the opposite side, where, spreading their bat like wings, they rose above
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  the high wall of the pit, settling down upon the boulders above. These
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  were the reserved seats, the boxes of the elect reptiles. That they are,
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  the rough surface of a great stone is to them as plush as upholstery
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  to us. Here they lolled, blinking their hideous eyes, and doubtless conversing
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  with one another in their sixth sense fourth dimension language. For the first time
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  I beheld their queen. She differed from the others in no feature that was
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  appreciable to my earthly eyes. In fact, all Mahars look alike to me.
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  But when she crossed the arena, after the balance of her female subjects
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  had found their bowlders, she was preceded by a score of huge Sagoths,
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  the largest I had ever seen, and on either side of her waddled a
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  huge thipdar, while behind came another score of Sagoth guardsmen. At the barrier,
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  the Sagoths clambered up the steep side with truly apelike agility, while behind
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  them, the haughty queen rose upon her wings, with her two frightful dragons
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  close behind her. At the barrier, the Sagoths clambered up the steep side
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  with truly apelike agility, while behind them, the haughty Queen rose upon her
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  wings, with her two frightful dragons close beside her, and settled down upon
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  the largest boulder of them all, in the exact center of that side of
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  the amphitheater, which is reserved for the dominant race. Here she squatted a
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  most repulsive and uninteresting queen, though doubtless quite as well assured of her beauty
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  and divine right to rule as the proudest monarch of the outer world. And
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  then the music started. Music without sound. The mahars cannot hear, so
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  the drums and fifes and horns of earthly bands are unknown among them. The
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  band consists of a score or more mahars. It filed out in the center
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  of the arena, where the creatures upon the rocks might see it, and
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  there it performed for fifteen or twenty minutes. Their technique consisted in waving their
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  tails and moving their heads in a regular succession of measured movements, resulting in
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  a cadence which evidently pleased the eye of the mahar, as the cadence of
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  our own instrumental music pleases our ears. Sometimes the band took measured steps in
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  unison to one side or the other, or backward and again forward. It
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  all seemed very silly and meaningless to me. But at the end of the
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  first piece, the mahars upon the rocks showed the first indications of enthusiasm that
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  I had seen displayed by the dominant race of pellucidar. They beat their great
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  wings up and down, and smote their rocky perches with their mighty tails until
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  the ground shook. Then the band started another piece, and all was again
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  as silent as the grave. There was one great beauty about mahar music.
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  If you didn't happen to like a piece that was being played, all you
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  had to do was shut your eyes. When the band had exhausted its repertory,
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  it took wing and settled upon the rocks above and behind the Queen.
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  Then the business of the day was on. A man and a woman were
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  pushed into the arena by a couple of Sagoth guardsmen. I leaned forward in
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  my seat to scrutinize the female, hoping against hope that she might prove to
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  be another than Dian the beautiful. Her back was toward me for a while,
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  and the sight of the great mass of raven hair piled high upon her
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  head filled me with a long arm. Presently, a door in one side
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  of the arena wall was opened to admit a huge, shaggy bull like creature.
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  A boss, whispered Perry. Excitedly. His kind roamed the outer crust
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  with the cave bear and the mammoth ages and ages ago. We have been
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  carried back a million years, David, to the childhood of a planet.
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  Is it not wondrous? But I saw only the raven hair of a half
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  naked girl, and my heart stood still in dumb misery at the sight of
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  her. Nor had I any eyes for the wonders of natural history. But
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  for Perry and Ghak, I should have leaped to the floor of the arena
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  and shared whatever fate lay in store for this priceless treasure of the Stone Age.
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  With the advent of the boss, they call the thing a thag.
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  Within Pellucidar, two spears were tossed into the arena at the feet of the
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  prisoners. It seemed to me that a bean shooter would have been as effective
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  against the mighty monster as these pitiful weapons. As the animal approached the two,
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  bellowing and pawing the ground with the strain length of many earthly bulls,
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  another door directly beneath us was opened, and from it issued the most terrific
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  roar that had ever fallen upon my outraged ears. I could not at first
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  see the beast from which emanated this fearsome challenge, but the sound had the
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  effect of bringing the two victims around with a sudden start. And then I
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  saw the girl's face. She was not Diane. I could have wept for
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  relief. And now, as the two stood frozen in terror, I saw
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  the author of that fearsome sound creeping stealthily into view. It was a huge
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  tiger, such as hunted the Great Boss through the jungle's primeval when the world
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  was young. In contour and markings, it was not unlike the noblest of
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  the Bengals of our own world. But as its dimensions were exaggerated to colossal
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  proportions, so too were its colorings exaggerated. Its vivid yellows fairly screamed aloud,
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  its whites were as eider down, its blacks glossy as the finest anthracite
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  coal, and its coat long and shaggy as a mountain goat. That it
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  is a beautiful animal, there is no gainsaying. But if its size and
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  colors are magnified here within Pellucidar, so is the ferocity of its disposition.
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  It is not the occasional member of our species that is a man hunter.
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  All are man hunters, but they do confide their forging to man alone,
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  For there is no flesh or fish within Pellucidar that they will not eat with
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  relish in the constant efforts which they make to furnish their huge carcasses with sufficient
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  sustenance to maintain their mighty thews. Upon one side of the doomed pair,
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  the thag bellowed and advanced, and upon the other Tarag the frightful, crept
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  toward them with gaping mouth and dripping fags. The man seized the spear,
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  handing one of them to the woman. At the sound of the roaring of
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  the tiger, the bulls bellowing became a veritable frenzy of rageful noise. Never
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  in my life had I heard such an infernal din as the two brutes made,
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  And to think it was all laws upon the hideous reptiles for whom the
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  show was staged. The thag was charging now from one side, and the
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  tareg from the other. The two puny things standing between them seemed already lost,
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  But at the very moment that the beasts were upon them, the man
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  grasped his companion by the arm, and together they leaped to one side,
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  while the frenzied creatures came together like locomotives in collision. There ensued a battle
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  royal, which, for sustained and frightful ferocity transcends the power of imagination or
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  description. Time and again, the colossal bull tossed to the enormous tiger into
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  the air, but each time that the huge cat touched the ground, he
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  returned to the encounter with apparently undiminished strength and seemingly increased ire. For a
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  while, the man and woman busied themselves only with keeping out of the way
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  of the two creatures. But finally I saw them separate and each creep stealthily
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  toward one of the combatants. The tiger was now upon the bull's broad back,
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  clinging to the huge neck with powerful fang, while its long, strong
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  talons ripped the heavy hide into shreds and ribbons. For a moment, the
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  bull stood bellowing and quivering with pain and rage, its cloven hoofs wide spread,
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  its tail lashing viciously from side to side, and then, in a
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  mad orgy of bucking, it went careening about the arena in frenzied attempt to
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  unseat its rending rider. It was with difficulty that the girl avoided the first
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  mad rush of the wounded animal. All its efforts to rid itself of the
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  tiger seemed futile, until desperation, it threw itself upon the ground, rolling
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  over and over. A little of this so disconcerted the tiger, knocking its
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  breath from it, I imagine that it lost its hold. And then,
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  quick as a cat, the great Thag was up again and had buried those
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  mighty horns deep in the Tarag's abdomen, pinning him to the floor of the
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  arena. The great cat clawed at the shaggy head until eyes and ears were
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  gone, and naught but a few strips of ragged, bloody flesh remained upon
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  the skull. Yet through all the agony of that fear punishment, the Thag
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  still stood motionless, pinning down his adversary. And then the man leaped in,
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  seeing that the blind bull would be the least formidable enemy, and ran
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  his spear through the Tarag's heart. As the animal's fierce clawing ceased, the
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  bull raised his gory, sightless head and with a horrid roar, ran headlong
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  across the arena. With great leaps and bounds, he came straight toward the
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  arena wall, directly beneath where we sat, and then the accident carried him
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  in one of his mighty springs, completely over the barrier into the midst of
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  the slaves and sagoths just in front of us. Swinging his bloody horns from
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  side to side, the beast cut a wide swathe before him, straight upward
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  toward our seats. Before him, slaves and guerrilla men fought in mad stampede
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  to escape the menace of the creature's death agonies. For such only could that
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  frightful charge have been forgetful of us. Our guards joined in the general crush
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  for the exits, many of which pierced the wall of the amphitheatres behind us.
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  Perry Ghak and I became separated in the chaos which reigned for a few
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  moments after the beast cleared the wall of the arena, Each intent upon saving
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  his own hide, I ran to the right, passing several exits, choked
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  with a fear mad mob that were battling to escape. One would have thought
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  that an entire herd of thags was loose behind them, rather than a single,
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  blinded, dying beast. But such is the effect of panic upon a
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  crowd. End of Chapter six