Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-07

At the sight of It lost no time in
| directing my course toward II, for | had
long since made up my mind TO return
| to Phutra and give myself up that ]
might be once more with Perry and Ghak
| the Hairy One.
attempted to escape alone, especially In
| view of the fact that our plans were
| already well.formulated to make break
for freedom together
OF course I realized that the chances
of the success of our proposed venture
! were slim Indeed. I knew, however, that
| never could enjoy freedom without
Perry so long as the old man lived, and
| l had learned that the probability that
| l might find means from without to rescue
| him was less than slight.
Had Perry been dead 1 should gladly
| have pitted my strength and wit against
| the savage and primordlal world in
which I found myself, 1 could have
| lived In secluson within some rocky cave
until had found tho means to outfit
myself with the crude weapons Of the
| Stone Age, and then set out in search Of
| her whose image had now become the
| constant companion of my waking hours,
and the central and beloved figure of my
| dreams.
But, to the best of my knowledge,
| Perry still lived and 1t was my duty and
| my wish to be again with him, that we
| might share the dangers and vicssltudes
| of the strange world we had discovered
And Ghak, too; the great, shaggy man
| had found place in the hearts of us both,
| for he was indeed every inch n man and
| king. Uncouth perhaps and brutal, too,
| If Judged too harshly by the standards of
| effete twentieth century civilization, but
withal noble, dgnined, chivalrous and
| iovable.
Chance carried me to the very beach
| upon which I had discovered Jas canoe,
| and a short time later I was scrambllng
| up the steep bank to retrace my steps
| from the plain Of Phutra.
But my troubles came when / entered
the canyon beyond the summit, for here
l found that several of them centred at
the point where I crossed the divide, and
which one 1 had traversed to reach the
pass / could not for the life of me re.
member
1t was all matter of chance. and
so 1 set off down that which seemed
the easiest going, and in this L made the
same mistake that many of us do in Sc
lecting the path along which we shall
follow out the course of our lives, and
again learned that 1t Is not always best
to follow the line Of least resistance.
By the time l had eaten eight meals
and slept twice l was convinced that 1
was upon the wrong trail for between
Phutra and the inland sea had not
slept ana mad eaten but once.
To retrace my steps to the summit of
the divide and explore another canyon
seemed the only solution of my problem,
but sudden widening of the canyon just
before me seemed to suggest that 1t was
about to open into n level country, and,
with the lure of discovery strong upon
me, decided to proceed but n short dis
tance farther before l turned back.
The next turn OF the canyon brought
mouth bnfOrn |
narrow plain leading down to an
ocean. At my right the side of the canyon
continued to the waters edge, the valley
lying to my left and the foot of 1t run
ming into the sea, where 1t formed
broad, level beach.
Clumps of strange trees dotted the lans-
scape here and there almost to the water.
and rank grass and ferns grew between.
From the nature of the vegetation, l was
convinced that the land between the ocean
and the foothills was swampy, though
directly before me ii seemed dry enough
all the way to the sandy strip along which
the restless waters advanced and re-
treated.
Curiosity prompted me to walk down
to the beach, for the scene was very
beautiful AS l passed along beside the
deep and tangled vegetation of the swamp
l thought l saw movement of the ferns
at my left but though l stopped n mo.
anything lay hid there my eyes could not
penetrate the dense foliage to discern 1t.
Presently I stood upon the beach, look
ing out over the wide and lonely sea,
across whose forbidding bosom no human
being had yet ventured to discover what
strange and mysterious lands lay beyond
or what its invisible Islands held of riches,
wonders, or adventure.
What savage races, what fierce and
formidable beasts, were this very instant
watching the tapping of the waves upon
its farther shore? How far did 1t extend?
Perry had told me that the seas of
Pellucidar were small in comparison with
those of the outer crust, but even so this
great ocean might stretch its broad eX-
panse for thousands of miles, For count |
less ages It had rolled up and down it's
countless miles of shore; and yet today |
1t remained all unknown beyond the tiny |
strip that was visible from its beaches |
The fascination of speculation was
strong upon me. 1t was as though |
had been carried back to the birth of |
time of our own outer world to look upon |
its lands and seas ages before man had |
traversed either. Here was new world, |
all untouched. 1t called to me to explore |
it,
I was dreaming of the excitement and |
adventure which lay before us could Perry |
and ! but escape the Mahars, when some
thing-a slight noise, 1 imagine-drew |
my attention behind me.
As | turned, romance, adventure and
discovery in the abstract took wing be-
fore the terrible embodiment of all three
in concrete form that beheld advancing
upon me.
A huge, slimy amphibian it was, with
toadliIe body and the mighty jaws of an
alligator It's immense carcass must have
weighed tons, and yet 1t moved swiftly
and silently toward me,
Upon one hand was the bluff that ran
from the canyon to the sea, on the other
the fearsome swamp from which the
creature had sneaked upon me, behind |
lay the mighty untracked sea, and before
me in the centre of the narrow way that
led TO safety stood this huge mountain Of
terrible and menacng flesh.
A single glance at the thing was suf-
ficlent to assure me that was facing one
of those long-extinct, prehistorie creatures
whose fossilized remains are found with
in the outer crust as far back as the
Triassic formation, a gigantic labyrin-
thodon.
And there / was unarmed and, with
the exception Of a Ioin cloth as naked
as / had come into the world. / could
imagine how my first ancestor felt that
distant, prehistoric morn that he encoun-
tered for the first time the terrifying
progenitor of the thing that had me
|