Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-03-24
CHAPTER I
Lost on PeLLuciddr

TTNHE Arabs, of whom wrote you at the
i end of my last letter Qnnes began). and
whom / thought to be enemies intent only
upon numbering me, proved to be exceed
ingly friendly-they were searching for the
very band of marauders that had threat
ened my existence. The huge rhamphoryn-
chuslike reptile that I had brought back
with me from the inner world-the ugly
Mahar that Hooja the Sly One had substi-
tuted for my dear Dian at the moment Of
my departure-filled them with wonder and
with awe.
Nor less so did the mighty subterranean
prospector which had carried mo to Pel-
lucdar and back again, and which lay out
in the desert about two miles from my
camp
With their help managed to get the un-
wieldy tons Of its great bulk into a vertical
postion-the nose deep in a hole we had
dug in the sand and the rest of 1t supported
by the trunks of date palms cut for the
purpose.
1t was a mighty engineering Job, with
only wild Arabs and their wilder mounts
to do the work of an electric crane-but
finally it was completed, and I was ready
for departure.
For some time I hesitated to take the
Mahar back with me. She had been docile
and quiet ever since she had discovered her.
self virtually a prisoner aboard the Iron
Mole. 1t had been, of course impossible
for me to communicate with her since she
had no auditory organs and no knowledge
of her fourth dimension, sxth-sense method
Of communication
Naturally I am kind-heavted, and so I
found it beyond me to leave even this hate
full and repulsive thing alone in a strange
and hostile world. The result was that
when I entered the Iron Mole I took her
with me.
That she knew that we were about to
return to Pellucdar was evident for i'm
npdiatply her manner changed from that
| of habitual gloom that had pervaded her to
an almost human expression of contentment
| and delight.
Our trip through the earth's crust was
| but repetition Of my two former Journeys
| between the inner and the outer worlds
| This time. however l imagine that We must
| have maintained more nearly perpendicu.
| lar course, for we accomplished the jour.
ney in a few minutes less time than upor
| the occasion of my first journey through
| the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS crust Just trift
| less than seventy-two hours after our de
| parture into the sands Of the Sahara W,
broke through the surface Of Pellucidar.
| Fortune once again favored me by tn,
slightest of margins. for when I opened thu
door in the prospector's outer jacket I saw
| that we had missed coming up through tn,
bottom Of an ocean by but a few
hundred yards.
Ths aspect of the surrounding
country was entirely unfamiliar to
mel had no conception of precisely II
| where / was upon the 124,0O0.OOO m
SQUARE miles of Pellucidar's vast
land surface
The perpetual midday sun poured
down its torrid rays from zenith. as
IL has done since the beginning Of Pei
lucidarian time-as 1t would continue
to do to the end Of It. Before me, IL
across the wide sea, the weird, hori- III
zonless seascape folded gently up IN
ward to meet the sky until 1t lost IL
itself to view in the azure depths OF III
distance far above the level OF my
eyes.
How strange 1t looked! How vastly
different from the fiat and puny area
| of the circumscribed vision or the vi
'dweller upon the outer crust!
was lost. Though / wandered
ceaselessly throughout q lifetime,
might never discover the whereabouts
of my former friends of this strange
and savage world. Never again
might I see dear old Perry, nor
Ghak the Hairy One. nor Dacor the
strong One, nor that other Infinitely
| precious one-my sweet and noble
mate, Dian the Beautiful. IL
!, But even go I was glad to tread
once more the surface Of Pellucidar.
Mysterious and terrible, grotesque
and savage though she was In many
of her aspects. I could not but love
) her Her very SAW Tery appealed
to me, for it was the oavagery of un-
, spoiled Nature.
1 The magnifcence of her topic