Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-17
AT THE EARTHSC CORE
BY EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS AUTHOR osrApzAan

tinguish what manner Of beasts they
might be, but as they came closer I saw
that they were enormous quadrupeds so
OF 100 feet long, with tiny heads perched
at the top Of very long necls.
Their heads must have been quite 40
feet from the ground. The beasts moved
very slowly-that is their action was
slow-but their strides covered such a
great distance that in reality they trav.
eled considerably faster than a man
walks.
AS they drew still nearer we discovered
that upon the back of each sat human
being, Then Dian knew what they were,
though she never before had seen one.
They are lids from the land of the
Thorians - she cried "Thoria lies at the
outer verge of the Land of Awful
Shadow. The Thorians alone Of all the
races of Pellucidar. ride the lidl. for no.
where else than beside the dark country
are they found"
What is the Land of Awful Shadow p"
asked.
ut is the land whScn lies beneath the
Dead World" replied Dian, "the Dead
World which hangs forever between the
sun and Pelucidar above the Land of
Awful Shadow. 1t Is the Dead World
which makes the great shadow upon this
portion of Pellucidar
1 did not fully understand what she
VI my lIltIu Jt meant, nor am l sure
that | do yet, for | have never been to
that part of Pellucidar from which the
Dead World Is visible; but Perry says
that It is the moon of Pellucldar--a tiny
planet within n panet--and that IL re-
wolves about the earth's axis coincidently
with the EARTH and thus is always above
the same spot within Pe,sucidar.
l remember that Perry was very much
excited when told him about this Dead
World, for he seemed to think that II ex-
planned the hitherto inexplicable phe-
nomena of mutation and the procession of
the two equinoxes.
When the two upon the Lids had come
quite close to us we saw that one was a
man and the other a woman. The former
had held up his two hands, palms toward
us. In sign of peace, and 1 had answered
him in kind, when he suddenly gave a
cry of astonishment and pleasure, and
slipping from his enormous mount ran
forward toward Dian. throwing his arms
about her.
In an instant was white with jealousy.
but only for an instant: since Dian
quickly drew the man toward me- telling
him that was David, her mate.
And this is my brother. Dacor the
Strong One, David" she said to me.
1t appeared that the woman was
Dacor's mate. He had found none to his
liking among the Sari, nor further on
until he had come to the land of the
Thoria, and there he had found and
fought for this very lovely Thorlan
maiden, whom he was bringing back to his
own people.
When they had heard our story and
our plans they decided to accompany us
to Sari, that DacOr and Ghak might come
to an agreement relative to an alliance,
as Dacor was quite as enthusiastic about
the proposed annihlation of the Mahars
and Sagoths as either Dian or l.
After journey which was for Pei
lucidar, quite uneventful, we came to the
first of the Sarian villages, which con-
sists of between 100 and 200 artificial
caves cut into the face of a great chalk
cliff.
Here, to our immense delight, we found
both Perry and Chalk The old man was
quite overcome at sight of me. for he had
long since given me up as dead.
When l introduced Dian as my wife he
didn't quite know what TO say. but he
afterward remarked that with the pick of
two worlds l could not have done better