Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-02

| THE f3HNflNNlNNT Of ttORHOhS.
TJASTEN1NG back to Perry where he
Ilpored over a musty pile Of, to me.
meaningless heroglyphlcs, explained my
plan to him. To my surprise he was hor.
rifed.
ut would be murder, Davidr' he cried
| Murder to kill q reptilian monster2" l
| asked in astonishment
! Here they are not monsters David
| he replied. Here they are the dominant
| race; we are the monsters-the lower
| orders. In Peilucdar evolution has pro.
| gressed along different lines than upon
| the outer earth
There terrible commissions of nature
| time and time again wiped out the existing
| species; but for this fact some monster Of
the Saurozoic epoch might rule today upon
our own world We see here what might
we'll have occurred In our own history had
conditions been what they have been
here
Life within Pellucidar is far younger
| than upon the outer crust. Here man has
! but reached stage analogous to the stone
! age Of our own worlds history but for
! countless millions of years these reptiles
! have been progressing, Possibly 1t Is the
sixth sense which I am sure they possess
| that has given them an advantage over the
other and more frightfuly armed of their
fellows; but this we may never know.
"They look upon us as we look upon
| the beasts of our fields, and learn from
their written records that other races of
Mahars feed upon men. They keep them
| In great droves as we keep cattle They
breed them most carefully, and when they
are quite fat they kill and eat them"
I shuddered
What is there horrible about It.
| David?' the old man asked. "They un-
derstand us no better than we understand
ba piy olu nf r,1-
/ have come across here very learned dis
cussions of the question as to whether
gilaks-that is, men-have any means of
communication.
zone writer claims that we do not even
reason: that our every act is mechanical
or instructive. The dominant race of Pei
lucidar, David has not yet learned that
mon converse among themselves. or rea.
son. Because we do not converse as they
do, II Is beyond them to imagine that
we converse at all. 1t Is thus that we
reason in relation to the brutes of our own
world.
"They know that the Sagoths have n
spoken language. but yet they cannot COM
prehend 1t or how II manfests itself, since
they have no auditory apparatus They
believe that the motions of the lips alone
convey the meaning. That the Sagoths
can communicate with us Is incompre-
hensible to them.
"Yes, David" he concluded; at would
entail murder to carry out your plan"
VERY well then, Perry" / replied, 'I
shall become a murderer"
He got me to go over the plan again
most carefully, and for some reason which
was not at the time clear to me, insisted
upon a very careful description of the
apartments and corridors 1 had just
explored.
81 wonder, David" he said at length,
'if. as you are determined to carry out
your wild scheme, If we could not accom-
plish something of very real and lasting
benefit for the human race of Pellucidar
at the same time. Listen. I have learned
much of most surprising nature from
these archives of the Mahars That you
may appreciate my plan, shall briefly
outline the history of the race.
"Once the males were all powerful: but
ages ago the females, little by little as.
sumed the mastery. For other ages no
noticeable change took place in the race of
Mahars. IT continued to progress under
the intelligent and beneflcent rule of the
women.
Science took vast strides. This was
especially true of the sciences which we
know as biology and eugenics Finally
certain female scientist announced the
fact that she had discovered a method
whereby eggs might be fertilized by chem
ical means after they were laid; all true
reptiles you know, are Matched from eggs,
what happened! Immediately the
necessity for males ceased to eXist--the
race was no longer dependent upon them.
More ages elapsed, until at the present
time we find race consisting exclusively
of females.
But here is the point The secret of
this chemical formula is kept by a single
race of Mahars. 1t is in the city of
Phutra; and unless l am greatly in error,
Judge from your description of the
vaults through which you passed today
that It lies hidden in the cellar of this
building
For two reasons they hide it away and
guard 1t jealously. First. because upon II
depends the very life of the race Of Ma
hars; and second, owing to the fact that
when II was public property, as at first so
many were experimenting with 1t that the
danger of overpopulation became very
grave.
David If we can escape, and at the
same time take with us this great secret
what will we not have accomplished for
the human race within Pellucidar."
Only the Sagoths would then stand be-
tween them and absolute supremacy and I
was not quite sure but that the Sagoths
owed all their power to the greater intelli-
gence of the Mahars; could not believe
that the gorilla,like beasts were the mental |
superIors of the human race OF Pellucidar |
CONTINUED TOMORROW,