CHAPTER VI

Pellicudar

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER VI, PELLICUDAR by Edgar R. Burroughs
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A PENDENT WORLD

The Mahars set me free as they had promised, but with
strict injunctions never to approach Phutra or any other
Mahar city. They also made it perfectly plain that they
considered me a dangerous creature, and that having
wiped the slate clean in so far as they were under
obligations to me, they now considered me fair prey.
Should I again fall into their hands, they intimated it
would go ill with me.

They would not tell me in which direction Hooja had
set forth with Dian, so I departed from Phutra, filled
with bitterness against the Mahars, and rage toward the
Sly One who had once again robbed me of my greatest
treasure.

At first I was minded to go directly back to Anoroc;
but upon second thought turned my face toward Sari,
as I felt that somewhere in that direction Hooja would
travel, his own country lying in that general direction.

Of my journey to Sari it is only necessary to say that
it was fraught with the usual excitement and adventure,
incident to all travel across the face of savage Pellucidar.
The dangers, however, were greatly reduced through
the medium of my armament. I often wondered how it
had happened that I had ever survived the first ten
years of my life within the inner world, when, naked
and primitively armed, I had traversed great areas of
her beast-ridden surface.

With the aid of my map, which I had kept with great
care during my march with the Sagoths in search of the
great secret, I arrived at Sari at last. As I topped the
lofty plateau in whose rocky cliffs the principal tribe of
Sarians find their cave-homes, a great hue and cry arose
from those who first discovered me.

Like wasps from their nests the hairy warriors poured
from their caves. The bows with their poison-tipped
arrows, which I had taught them to fashion and to use,
were raised against me. Swords of hammered iron--
another of my innovations--menaced me, as with lusty
shouts the horde charged down.

It was a critical moment. Before I should be recog-
nized I might be dead. It was evident that all semblance
of intertribal relationship had ceased with my going, and
that my people had reverted to their former savage,
suspicious hatred of all strangers. My garb must have
puzzled them, too, for never before of course had they
seen a man clothed in khaki and puttees.

Leaning my express rifle against my body I raised both
hands aloft. It was the peace-sign that is recognized
everywhere upon the surface of Pellucidar. The charging
warriors paused and surveyed me. I looked for my
friend Ghak, the Hairy One, king of Sari, and presently
I saw him coming from a distance. Ah, but it was good
to see his mighty, hairy form once more! A friend was
Ghak--a friend well worth the having; and it had been
some time since I had seen a friend.

Shouldering his way through the throng of warriors,
the mighty chieftain advanced toward me. There was
an expression of puzzlement upon his fine features. He
crossed the space between the warriors and myself, halt-
ing before me.

I did not speak. I did not even smile. I wanted to see
if Ghak, my principal lieutenant, would recognize me.
For some time he stood there looking me over carefully.
His eyes took in my large pith helmet, my khaki jacket,
and bandoleers of cartridges, the two revolvers swinging
at my hips, the large rifle resting against my body. Still
I stood with my hands above my head. He examined
my puttees and my strong tan shoes--a little the worse
for wear now. Then he glanced up once more to my
face. As his gaze rested there quite steadily for some
moments I saw recognition tinged with awe creep
across his countenance.

Presently without a word he took one of my hands in
his and dropping to one knee raised my fingers to his
lips. Perry had taught them this trick, nor ever did the
most polished courtier of all the grand courts of Europe
perform the little act of homage with greater grace and
dignity.

Quickly I raised Ghak to his feet, clasping both his
hands in mine. I think there must have been tears in
my eyes then--I know I felt too full for words. The king
of Sari turned toward his warriors.

"Our emperor has come back," he announced. "Come
hither and--"

But he got no further, for the shouts that broke from
those savage throats would have drowned the voice of
heaven itself. I had never guessed how much they
thought of me. As they clustered around, almost fighting
for the chance to kiss my hand, I saw again the vision of
empire which I had thought faded forever.

With such as these I could conquer a world. With
such as these I WOULD conquer one! If the Sarians had
remained loyal, so too would the Amozites be loyal still,
and the Kalians, and the Suvians, and all the great
tribes who had formed the federation that was to eman-
cipate the human race of Pellucidar.

Perry was safe with the Mezops; I was safe with the
Sarians; now if Dian were but safe with me the future
would look bright indeed.

It did not take long to outline to Ghak all that had
befallen me since I had departed from Pellucidar, and
to get down to the business of finding Dian, which to
me at that moment was of even greater importance than
the very empire itself.

When I told him that Hooja had stolen her, he
stamped his foot in rage.

"It is always the Sly One!" he cried. "It was Hooja who
caused the first trouble between you and the Beautiful
One.

"It was Hooja who betrayed our trust, and all but
caused our recapture by the Sagoths that time we
escaped from Phutra.

"It was Hooja who tricked you and substituted a
Mahar for Dian when you started upon your return
journey to your own world.

"It was Hooja who schemed and lied until he had
turned the kingdoms one against another and de-
stroyed the federation.

"When we had him in our power we were foolish to
let him live. Next time--"

Ghak did not need to finish his sentence.

"He has become a very powerful enemy now," I re-
plied. "That he is allied in some way with the Mahars is
evidenced by the familiarity of his relations with the
Sagoths who were accompanying me in search of the
great secret, for it must have been Hooja whom I saw
conversing with them just before we reached the valley.
Doubtless they told him of our quest and he hastened on
ahead of us, discovered the cave and stole the document.
Well does he deserve his appellation of the Sly One."

With Ghak and his head men I held a number of
consultations. The upshot of them was a decision to com-
bine our search for Dian with an attempt to rebuild the
crumbled federation. To this end twenty warriors were
despatched in pairs to ten of the leading kingdoms, with
instructions to make every effort to discover the where-
abouts of Hooja and Dian, while prosecuting their
missions to the chieftains to whom they were sent.

Ghak was to remain at home to receive the various
delegations which we invited to come to Sari on the
business of the federation. Four hundred warriors were
started for Anoroc to fetch Perry and the contents of the
prospector, to the capitol of the empire, which was also
the principal settlements of the Sarians.

At first it was intended that I remain at Sari, that I
might be in readiness to hasten forth at the first report
of the discovery of Dian; but I found the inaction in the
face of my deep solicitude for the welfare of my mate
so galling that scarce had the several units departed
upon their missions before I, too, chafed to be actively
engaged upon the search.

It was after my second sleep, subsequent to the de-
parture of the warriors, as I recall that I at last went to
Ghak with the admission that I could no longer support
the intolerable longing to be personally upon the trail of
my lost love.

Ghak tried to dissuade me, though I could tell that his
heart was with me in my wish to be away and really
doing something. It was while we were arguing upon the
subject that a stranger, with hands above his head,
entered the village. He was immediately surrounded by
warriors and conducted to Ghak's presence.

The fellow was a typical cave man--squat muscular,
and hairy, and of a type I had not seen before. His
features, like those of all the primeval men of Pellucidar,
were regular and fine. His weapons consisted of a stone
ax and knife and a heavy knobbed bludgeon of wood.
His skin was very white.

"Who are you?" asked Ghak. "And whence come you?"

"I am Kolk, son of Goork, who is chief of the
Thurians," replied the stranger. "From Thuria I have
come in search of the land of Amoz, where dwells Dacor,
the Strong One, who stole my sister, Canda, the Grace-
ful One, to be his mate.

"We of Thuria had heard of a great chieftain who has
bound together many tribes, and my father has sent me
to Dacor to learn if there be truth in these stories, and
if so to offer the services of Thuria to him whom we have
heard called emperor."

"The stories are true," replied Ghak, "and here is the
emperor of whom you have heard. You need travel no
farther."

Kolk was delighted. He told us much of the wonderful
resources of Thuria, the Land of Awful Shadow, and of
his long journey in search of Amoz.

"And why," I asked, "does Goork, your father, desire
to join his kingdom to the empire?"

"There are two reasons," replied the young man. "For-
ever have the Mahars, who dwell beyond the Lidi Plains
which lie at the farther rim of the Land of Awful
Shadow, taken heavy toll of our people, whom they
either force into lifelong slavery or fatten for their feasts.
We have heard that the great emperor makes successful
war upon the Mahars, against whom we should be glad
to fight.

"Recently has another reason come. Upon a great
island which lies in the Sojar Az, but a short distance
from our shores, a wicked man has collected a great
band of outcast warriors of all tribes. Even are there
many Sagoths among them, sent by the Mahars to aid
the Wicked One.

"This band makes raids upon our villages, and it is
constantly growing in size and strength, for the Mahars
give liberty to any of their male prisoners who will
promise to fight with this band against the enemies of
the Mahars. It is the purpose of the Mahars thus to raise
a force of our own kind to combat the growth and
menace of the new empire of which I have come to seek
information. All this we learned from one of our own
warriors who had pretended to sympathize with this
band and had then escaped at the first opportunity."

"Who could this man be," I asked Ghak, "who leads
so vile a movement against his own kind?"

"His name is Hooja," spoke up Kolk, answering my
question.

Ghak and I looked at each other. Relief was written
upon his countenance and I know that it was beating
strongly in my heart. At last we had discovered a tan-
gible clue to the whereabouts of Hooja--and with the
clue a guide!

But when I broached the subject to Kolk he demurred.
He had come a long way, he explained, to see his sister
and to confer with Dacor. Moreover, he had instructions
from his father which he could not ignore lightly. But
even so he would return with me and show me the way
to the island of the Thurian shore if by doing so we
might accomplish anything.

"But we cannot," he urged. "Hooja is powerful. He
has thousands of warriors. He has only to call upon his
Mahar allies to receive a countless horde of Sagoths to
do his bidding against his human enemies.

"Let us wait until you may gather an equal horde
from the kingdoms of your empire. Then we may march
against Hooja with some show of success.

"But first must you lure him to the mainland, for who
among you knows how to construct the strange things
that carry Hooja and his band back and forth across the
water?

"We are not island people. We do not go upon the
water. We know nothing of such things."

I couldn't persuade him to do more than direct me
upon the way. I showed him my map, which now in-
cluded a great area of country extending from Anoroc
upon the east to Sari upon the west, and from the river
south of the Mountains of the Clouds north to Amoz. As
soon as I had explained it to him he drew a line with his
finger, showing a sea-coast far to the west and south of
Sari, and a great circle which he said marked the extent
of the Land of Awful Shadow in which lay Thuria.

The shadow extended southeast of the coast out into
the sea half-way to a large island, which he said was the
seat of Hooja's traitorous government. The island itself
lay in the light of the noonday sun. Northwest of the
coast and embracing a part of Thuria lay the Lidi
Plains, upon the northwestern verge of which was situ-
ated the Mahar city which took such heavy toll of the
Thurians.

Thus were the unhappy people now between two
fires, with Hooja upon one side and the Mahars upon
the other. I did not wonder that they sent out an appeal
for succor.

Though Ghak and Kolk both attempted to dissuade
me, I was determined to set out at once, nor did I delay
longer than to make a copy of my map to be given to
Perry that he might add to his that which I had set down
since we parted. I left a letter for him as well, in which
among other things I advanced the theory that the Sojar
Az, or Great Sea, which Kolk mentioned as stretching
eastward from Thuria, might indeed be the same mighty
ocean as that which, swinging around the southern end
of a continent ran northward along the shore opposite
Phutra, mingling its waters with the huge gulf upon
which lay Sari, Amoz, and Greenwich.

Against this possibility I urged him to hasten the
building of a fleet of small sailing-vessels, which we
might utilize should I find it impossible to entice Hooja's
horde to the mainland.

I told Ghak what I had written, and suggested that as
soon as he could he should make new treaties with the
various kingdoms of the empire, collect an army and
march toward Thuria--this of course against the possi-
bility of my detention through some cause or other.

Kolk gave me a sign to his father--a lidi, or beast of
burden, crudely scratched upon a bit of bone, and be-
neath the lidi a man and a flower; all very rudely done
perhaps, but none the less effective as I well knew from
my long years among the primitive men of Pellucidar.

The lidi is the tribal beast of the Thurians; the man
and the flower in the combination in which they ap-
peared bore a double significance, as they constituted
not only a message to the effect that the bearer came in
peace, but were also Kolk's signature.

And so, armed with my credentials and my small
arsenal, I set out alone upon my quest for the dearest
girl in this world or yours.

Kolk gave me explicit directions, though with my map
I do not believe that I could have gone wrong. As a
matter of fact I did not need the map at all, since the
principal landmark of the first half of my journey, a gi-
gantic mountainpeak, was plainly visible from Sari,
though a good hundred miles away.

At the southern base of this mountain a river rose and
ran in a westerly direction, finally turning south and
emptying into the Sojar Az some forty miles northeast of
Thuria. All that I had to do was follow this river to the
sea and then follow the coast to Thuria.

Two hundred and forty miles of wild mountain and
primeval jungle, of untracked plain, of nameless rivers,
of deadly swamps and savage forests lay ahead of me,
yet never had I been more eager for an adventure than
now, for never had more depended upon haste and
success.

I do not know how long a time that journey required,
and only half did I appreciate the varied wonders that
each new march unfolded before me, for my mind and
heart were filled with but a single image--that of a
perfect girl whose great, dark eyes looked bravely forth
from a frame of raven hair.

It was not until I had passed the high peak and found
the river that my eyes first discovered the pendent
world, the tiny satellite which hangs low over the surface
of Pellucidar casting its perpetual shadow always upon
the same spot--the area that is known here as the
Land of Awful Shadow, in which dwells the tribe of
Thuria.

From the distance and the elevation of the highlands
where I stood the Pellucidarian noonday moon showed
half in sunshine and half in shadow, while directly be-
neath it was plainly visible the round dark spot upon the
surface of Pellucidar where the sun has never shone.
From where I stood the moon appeared to hang so low
above the ground as almost to touch it; but later I was to
learn that it floats a mile above the surface--which
seems indeed quite close for a moon.

Following the river downward I soon lost sight of the
tiny planet as I entered the mazes of a lofty forest. Nor
did I catch another glimpse of it for some time--several
marches at least. However, when the river led me to the
sea, or rather just before it reached the sea, of a sudden
the sky became overcast and the size and luxuriance of
the vegetation diminished as by magic--as if an omni-
potent hand had drawn a line upon the earth, and said:

"Upon this side shall the trees and the shrubs, the
grasses and the flowers, riot in profusion of rich colors,
gigantic size and bewildering abundance; and upon that
side shall they be dwarfed and pale and scant."

Instantly I looked above, for clouds are so uncommon
in the skies of Pellucidar--they are practically unknown
except above the mightiest mountain ranges--that it
had given me something of a start to discover the sun
obliterated. But I was not long in coming to a realization
of the cause of the shadow.

Above me hung another world. I could see its moun-
tains and valleys, oceans, lakes, and rivers, its broad,
grassy plains and dense forests. But too great was the
distance and too deep the shadow of its under side for
me to distinguish any movement as of animal life.

Instantly a great curiosity was awakened within me.
The questions which the sight of this planet, so tanta-
lizingly close, raised in my mind were numerous and
unanswerable.

Was it inhabited?

If so, by what manner and form of creature?

Were its people as relatively diminutive as their little
world, or were they as disproportionately huge as the
lesser attraction of gravity upon the surface of their
globe would permit of their being?

As I watched it, I saw that it was revolving upon an
axis that lay parallel to the surface of Pellucidar, so that
during each revolution its entire surface was once ex-
posed to the world below and once bathed in the heat of
the great sun above. The little world had that which
Pellucidar could not have--a day and night, and--
greatest of boons to one outer-earthly born--time.

Here I saw a chance to give time to Pellucidar, using
this mighty clock, revolving perpetually in the heavens,
to record the passage of the hours for the earth below.
Here should be located an observatory, from which
might be flashed by wireless to every corner of the em-
pire the correct time once each day. That this time
would be easily measured I had no doubt, since so plain
were the landmarks upon the under surface of the
satellite that it would be but necessary to erect a simple
instrument and mark the instant of passage of a given
landmark across the instrument.

But then was not the time for dreaming; I must de-
vote my mind to the purpose of my journey. So I
hastened onward beneath the great shadow. As I ad-
vanced I could not but note the changing nature of the
vegetation and the paling of its hues.

The river led me a short distance within the shadow
before it emptied into the Sojar Az. Then I continued in
a southerly direction along the coast toward the village
of Thuria, where I hoped to find Goork and deliver to
him my credentials.

I had progressed no great distance from the mouth of
the river when I discerned, lying some distance at sea,
a great island. This I assumed to be the stronghold of
Hooja, nor did I doubt that upon it even now was Dian.

The way was most difficult, since shortly after leaving
the river I encountered lofty cliffs split by numerous
long, narrow fiords, each of which necessitated a con-
siderable detour. As the crow flies it is about twenty
miles from the mouth of the river to Thuria, but be-
fore I had covered half of it I was fagged. There was no
familiar fruit or vegetable growing upon the rocky soil of
the cliff-tops, and I would have fared ill for food had
not a hare broken cover almost beneath my nose.

I carried bow and arrows to conserve my ammunition-
supply, but so quick was the little animal that I had no
time to draw and fit a shaft. In fact my dinner was a
hundred yards away and going like the proverbial bat
when I dropped my six-shooter on it. It was a pretty shot
and when coupled with a good dinner made me quite
contented with myself.

After eating I lay down and slept. When I awoke I
was scarcely so self-satisfied, for I had not more than
opened my eyes before I became aware of the presence,
barely a hundred yards from me, of a pack of some
twenty huge wolf-dogs--the things which Perry insisted
upon calling hyaenodons--and almost simultaneously I
discovered that while I slept my revolvers, rifle, bow,
arrows, and knife had been stolen from me.

And the wolf-dog pack was preparing to rush me.