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03 - At The Earth's Core - Edgar Rice Burroughs · Classic Adventure Books Collection

• Chapter three, A Change of Masters. We must have traveled several miles through the dark and dismal wood when we came suddenly upon a dense village built high among the branches of the trees. As we approached it, my escort broke into wild shouting, which was immediately answered from within, and a moment later a swarm of creatures of the same strange race as those who had captured me poured out to meet us again. I was the center of a wildly chattering horde. I was pulled this way and that, pinched, pounded, and thumped until I was black and blue. Yet I do not think that their treatment was dictated by either cruelty or malice. I was a curiosity, a freak, a new plaything, and their childish minds required the added evidence of all their senses to back up the testimony of their eyes. They dragged me within the village, which consisted of several hundred rude shelters of boughs and leaves supported upon the branches of the trees. Between the huts, which sometimes formed crooked streets, were dead branches, and the trunks of small trees which connected the huts upon one tree to those with adjoining trees, the whole network of huts and pathways forming an almost solid flooring and good fifty feet above the ground. I wondered why these agile creatures required connecting bridges between the trees, But later, when I saw the motley aggregation of half savage beasts which they kept within their village, I realized the necessity for the pathways. There were a number of the same vicious wolf dogs which we had left, worrying the dearth, and many goat like animals, whose distended utters explained the reasons for their presence. My guard halted before one of the huts into which I was pushed. Then two of the creatures squatted down before the entrance to prevent my escape. Doubtless, though where I should have escaped two, I certainly had not the remotest conception. I had no more than entered the dark shadows of the interior than there fell upon my ears the tone of a familiar voice in prayer. Parry, I cried, dear old Perry, thank the Lord, you are safe. David, can it be possible that you escaped? And the old man stumbled toward me and threw his arms about me. He had seen me fall before the dearth, and then he had been seized by a number of the apelike creatures and borne through the tree tops to their village. His captors had been as inquisitive as to his strange clothing as had mine, with the same result. As we looked at each other, we could not help but laugh with a tail. David remarked, Perry, you would make a very handsome ape. Maybe we can borrow a couple, I rejoined. They seem to be quite the thing this season. I wonder what the creatures intend doing with us, Perry. They don't seem really savage. What do you suppose they can be? You were about to tell me where we are when that great hairy frigate bore down upon us. Have you really any idea at all? Yes, David, he replied, I know precisely where we are. We have made a magnificent discovery, my boy. We have proved that the earth is hollow. We have passed entirely through its crust to the inner world. Perry, you were mad, not at all, David. For two hundred and fifty miles, our prospector bore us through the crust, beneath our outer world. At that point it reached the center of gravity of the five hundred mile thi crust. Up to that point we had been descending. Direction is of course merely relative. Then, at the moment that our seats revolved, the thing that made you believe we had turned about and were speeding upward, we passed the center of gravity, And though we did not alter the direction of our progress, yet we were in reality moving upward toward the surface of the inner world. Does not the strange fauna and flora which we have seen convince you that you are not in the world of your birth? And the horizon? Could it present the strange aspects which we both noted, unless we were indeed standing upon the inside of a sphere. But the sun, Perry, I urged, How in the world can the sun shine through five hundred miles of solid crust. It is not the sun of the outer world that we have seen here. It is another son, an entirely different sun, that casts turn nal noonday effulgence upon the face of the inner world. Look at it now, David, if you can see it from the doorway of this hut, and you will see that it is still in the exact center of the heavens. We have been here for many hours, yet it is still noon. And withal it is very simple, David. The Earth was once a nebulous mass. It cooled, and as it cooled it shrank at length. A thin crust of solid matter formed upon its outer surface, a sort of shell, but within it was partially molten matter and highly expanded gases. As it continued to cool, what happened centrifugal forces hurled the particles of the nebula center toward the crust as rapidly as they approached a solid state. You have seen the same principle practically applied in the modern cream separator. Presently there was only a small superheated core of gaseous matter remaining within a huge vacant interior left by the contraction of the cooling gases. The equal attraction of the solid crust from all directions maintained this luminous core in the exact center of the hollow globe. What remains of it is the sun you saw today, a relatively tiny thing at the exact center of the Earth equally to every part of this inner world. It diffuses its perpetually noonday light and torrid heat. This inner world must have cooled sufficiently to support animal life long ages after life appeared upon the outer crust. But that the same agencies were at work here is evident from the similar forms of both animal and vegetable creation which we have already seen. Take the great beast which attacked us, for example, unquestionably a counterpart of the megatherium of the post Pliocene period of the Outer Crust, whose fossilize skeleton has been found in South America. But the grotesque inhabitants of the forest, I urged, surely they have no counterpart in the Earth's history. Who can tell he rejoined. They may constitute the link between ape and man, all traces of which have been swallowed by the countless convulsions which have racked the outer Crust. Or they may be merely the result of evolution along slightly different lines. Either is quite possible. Further speculation was interrupted by the appearance of several of our captors before the entrance of the hut. Two of them entered and dragged us forth. The perilous pathways and the surrounding trees were filled with the black ape men, their females, and their young. There was not an ornament, a weapon, or a garment among the lot. Quite low in the scale of creation, commented Perry, quite high enough to play the deuce with us, though I replied, now, what do you suppose they intend on doing with us? We were not long in learning, as on the occasion of our trip to the village, we were seized by a couple of the powerful creatures and whirled away through the tree tops, while about us and in our wake, raced a chattering, jabbering, grinning horde of sleek, black ape things. Twice my bearers missed their footing, and my heart ceased beating as we plunged towards instant death among the tangled deadwood beneath. But on both occasions those lithe powerful tales reached out and found sustaining branches. Nor did either of the creatures loosen their grasp upon me. In fact, it seemed that the incidents were of no greater moment to them than would be the stubbing of one's toe at a street crossing in the outer world. They but laughed uproariously and sped on with me for some time. They continued through the forest. How long I could not guess, for I was learning what was later borne very forcefully to my mind, that time ceases to be a factor the moment means for measuring it ceased to exist. Our watches were gone, and we were living beneath a stationary sun. Already I was puzzled to compute the period of time which had elapsed since we broke through the crust of the inner world. It might be ours, or it might be days. Who in the world could tell? Where It was always noon by the sun. No time had elapsed, but my judgment told me that we must have been several hours in this strange world. Presently, the forest terminated, and we came out upon a level plain. A short distance before us rose a few low rocky hills. Toward these, our captors urged us, and after a short time, led us through a narrow pass into a tiny circular valley. Here they got down to work, and we were soon convinced that if we were not to die to make a Roman holiday, we were to die for some other purpose. The attitude of our captors altered immediately as they entered the natural arena within the rocky hills. Their laughter ceased, grim ferocity marked their beastial faces, bared fangs menaced us. We were placed in the center of the amphitheater, the thousand creatures forming a great ring about us. Then a wolf dog was brought Hyenodon. Perry called it, and turned loose with us inside the circle. The thing's body was as large as that of a full grown mastiff. Its legs were short and powerful, and its jaws broad and strong. Dark shaggy hair covered its back and sides, while its breast and belly were quite white. As it slunk toward us, it presented a most formidable aspect with its upcurled lips bearing its mighty fangs. Perry was on his knees praying. I stooped and picked up a small stone. At my movement, the beast veered off a bit and commenced circling us. Evidently it had been a target for stones before. The ape things were dancing up and down, urging the brute on with savage cries, until at last, seeing that I did not throw, he charged us at andover and later at Yale. I had pitched on winning ball teams. My speed and control must both have been above ordinary, for I made such a record during my senior year at college that overtures were made to me in behalf of one of the great Major League teams, but in the tightest pitch that had ever confronted me in the past, I had never been in such need for control as now. As I wound up for the delivery, I held my nerves and muscles under absolute command, though the grinning jaws were hurtling towards me at terrific speed. And then I let go with every ounce of my weight and muscle and science. In back of that throw, the stone caught the hyaenodon full upon the end of the nose and sent him bowling over upon his back. At the same instant, a chorus of shrieks and howls arose from the circle of spectators, so that for a moment I thought that the upsetting of their champion was the cause. But in this I soon saw I was mistaken. As I looked the ape, things broke in all directions towards the surrounding hills, and then I distinguished the real cause of their perturbation. Behind them, Streaming through the pass which leads into the valley, came a swarm of hairy men, guerrilla like creatures armed with spears and hatchets, and bearing long oval shields like demons, they set upon the ape things, and before them the hyaenodon, which had now regained its senses and its feet, fled howling with fright past us swept the pursuit and the pursuers, Nor did the hairy ones accord us more than a passing glance until the arena had been emptied of its former occupants. Then they returned to us, and one who seemed to have authority among them, directed that we be brought with them. When we had passed out of the amphitheater on to the great plain, we saw a caravan of men and women, human beings like ourselves, and for the first time, hope and relief filled my heart, until I could have cried out in the exuberance of my happiness. It is true that they were a half naked, wild appearing aggregation, but they at least were fashioned along the same lines as ourselves. There was nothing grotesque or horrible about them, as about the other creatures in the strange, weird world. But as we came closer, our hearts sank once more, for we discovered that the poor wretches were chained neck to neck in a long line, and that the guerrilla men were their guards. With little ceremony, PERI and I were chained at the end of the line, and without further ado, the interrupted march was resumed. Up to this time, the excitement had kept us both up. But now the tiresome monotony of the long march across the sun baked plain brought on all the agonies consequent to a long denied sleep. On and on we stumbled beneath that hateful noonday sun. If we fell, we were prodded with a sharp point. Our companions and chains did not stumble. They strode along proudly, erect. Occasionally they would exchange words with one another in a monosyllabic language. They were a noble appearing race, with well formed heads and perfect physiques. The men were heavily bearded, tall and muscular, the women smaller and more gracefully molded, with great masses of raven hair caught into loose knots upon their heads. The features of both sexes were well proportioned. There was not a face among them that would have been called even plain if judged by earthly standards. They wore no ornaments, but this I later learned was due to the fact that their captors had stripped them of everything of value as garniture. The women possessed a single robe of some light colored spotted hide, rather similar in appearance to a leopard skin. This they wore, either supported entirely about the waist by a leathern thong, so that it hung partially below the knee on one side, or possibly looped gracefully across one shoulder. Their feet were shod with skin sandals. The men wore loincloth of the hide of some shaggy beast, long ends of which depended before and behind, nearly to the ground. In some instances, these ends were finished with the strong talons of the beast from which the hides had been taken. Our guards, whom I have already described as gorilla like men, were rather lighter in build than a gorilla, but even so they were indeed mighty creatures. Their arms and legs were proportioned more in conformity with human standards, but their entire bodies were covered with shaggy brown hair, and their faces were quite as brutal as those of the few stuffed specimens of the gorilla which I had seen in the museums at home. Their only redeeming feature lay in the development of the head above and back of the ears. In this respect, they were not one whit less human than we. They were clothed in a sort of tunic of light cloth which reached to the knees. Beneath this, they wore only a loin cloth of the same material, while their feet were shod with thick hide of some mammoth creature of this inner world. Their arms and necks were encircled by many ornaments of metal, silver predominating, and on their tunics were sown the heads of tiny reptiles in odd and rather artistic designs. They talked among themselves as they marched along on either side of us, but in a language which I perceived differed from that employed by our fellow prisoners. When they addressed the latter, they used what appeared to be a third language, and which I later learned is a mongrel tongue, rather analogous to the pigeon English of the Chinese coolie. How far we marched, I have no conception, nor has Perry. Both of us were asleep much of the time, for hours before a halt was called. Then we dropped in our tracks. I say for hours. But how may one measure time? Or time does not exist? When our march commenced, the sun stood at zenith. When we halted, our shadows still pointed towards nadir. Whether an instant or an eternity of earthly time elapsed, Who may say that mark may have occupied nine years and eleven months of that ten years that I spent in the inner world, or it may have been accomplished in the fraction of a second. I cannot tell. But this I do know that since you have told me that ten years have elapsed since I departed from this earth, I have lost all respect for time. I am commencing to doubt that such a thing exists other than in the weak, finite mind of man. End of Chapter three.