WE MUST HAVE TRAVELED SEVERAL MILES THROUGH the darkand dismal wood when we came suddenly upon a densevillage built high among the branches of the trees.As we approached it my escort broke into wild shoutingwhich was immediately answered from within, and a momentlater a swarm of creatures of the same strange raceas those who had captured me poured out to meet us.Again I was the center of a wildly chattering horde.I was pulled this way and that. Pinched, pounded,and thumped until I was black and blue, yet I do notthink that their treatment was dictated by either crueltyor malice--I was a curiosity, a freak, a new plaything,and their childish minds required the added evidence of alltheir senses to back up the testimony of their eyes.

Presently they dragged me within the village,which consisted of several hundred rude sheltersof boughs and leaves supported upon the branches of the trees.

Between the huts, which sometimes formed crooked streets,were dead branches and the trunks of small trees which connectedthe huts upon one tree to those within adjoining trees;the whole network of huts and pathways forming an almostsolid flooring a good fifty feet above the ground.

I wondered why these agile creatures required connectingbridges between the trees, but later when I saw the motleyaggregation of half-savage beasts which they kept withintheir village I realized the necessity for the pathways.There were a number of the same vicious wolf-dogswhich we had left worrying the dyryth, and many goatlikeanimals whose distended udders explained the reasonsfor their presence.

My guard halted before one of the huts into which I was pushed;then two of the creatures squatted down before the entrance--toprevent my escape, doubtless. Though where I should haveescaped to I certainly had not the remotest conception.I had no more than entered the dark shadows of the interiorthan there fell upon my ears the tones of a familiar voice,in prayer.

"Perry!" I cried. "Dear old Perry! Thank the Lord youare safe."

"David! Can it be possible that you escaped?" And the oldman stumbled toward me and threw his arms about me.

He had seen me fall before the dyryth, and then he had beenseized by a number of the ape-creatures and borne throughthe tree tops to their village. His captors had beenas inquisitive as to his strange clothing as had mine,with the same result. As we looked at each other wecould not help but laugh.

"With a tail, David," remarked Perry, "you would makea very handsome ape."

"Maybe we can borrow a couple," I rejoined. "They seemto be quite the thing this season. I wonder what thecreatures intend doing with us, Perry. They don't seemreally savage. What do you suppose they can be? Youwere about to tell me where we are when that great hairyfrigate bore down upon us--have you really any idea at all?"

"Yes, David," he replied, "I know precisely where we are.We have made a magnificent discovery, my boy! We haveproved that the earth is hollow. We have passed entirelythrough its crust to the inner world."

"Perry, you are mad!"

"Not at all, David. For two hundred and fifty miles ourprospector bore us through the crust beneath our outer world.At that point it reached the center of gravity of thefive-hundred-mile-thick crust. Up to that point we had beendescending--direction is, of course, merely relative.Then at the moment that our seats revolved--the thingthat made you believe that we had turned about and werespeeding upward--we passed the center of gravity and,though we did not alter the direction of our progress,yet we were in reality moving upward--toward the surfaceof the inner world. Does not the strange fauna and florawhich we have seen convince you that you are not in theworld of your birth? And the horizon--could it presentthe strange aspects which we both noted unless we wereindeed standing upon the inside surface of a sphere?"

"But the sun, Perry!" I urged. "How in the world canthe sun shine through five hundred miles of solid crust?"

"It is not the sun of the outer world that we see here.It is another sun--an entirely different sun--thatcasts its eternal noonday effulgence upon the faceof the inner world. Look at it now, David--if you cansee it from the doorway of this hut--and you will seethat it is still in the exact center of the heavens.We have been here for many hours--yet it is still noon.

"And withal it is very simple, David. The earth was oncea nebulous mass. It cooled, and as it cooled it shrank.At length a thin crust of solid matter formed uponits outer surface--a sort of shell; but within it waspartially molten matter and highly expanded gases.As it continued to cool, what happened? Centrifugalforce hurled the particles of the nebulous center towardthe crust as rapidly as they approached a solid state.You have seen the same principle practically appliedin the modern cream separator. Presently there was onlya small super-heated core of gaseous matter remainingwithin a huge vacant interior left by the contractionof the cooling gases. The equal attraction of the solidcrust from all directions maintained this luminous corein the exact center of the hollow globe. What remainsof it is the sun you saw today--a relatively tiny thingat the exact center of the earth. Equally to every partof this inner world it diffuses its perpetual noonday lightand torrid heat.

"This inner world must have cooled sufficiently tosupport animal life long ages after life appeared uponthe outer crust, but that the same agencies were at workhere is evident from the similar forms of both animaland vegetable creation which we have already seen.Take the great beast which attacked us, for example.Unquestionably a counterpart of the Megatherium of thepost-Pliocene period of the outer crust, whose fossilizedskeleton has been found in South America."

"But the grotesque inhabitants of this forest?" I urged."Surely they have no counterpart in the earth's history."

"Who can tell?" he rejoined. "They may constitute thelink between ape and man, all traces of which have beenswallowed by the countless convulsions which have rackedthe outer crust, or they may be merely the result of evolutionalong slightly different lines--either is quite possible."

Further speculation was interrupted by the appearanceof several of our captors before the entrance of the hut.Two of them entered and dragged us forth. The perilouspathways and the surrounding trees were filled withthe black ape-men, their females, and their young.There was not an ornament, a weapon, or a garment amongthe lot.

"Quite low in the scale of creation," commented Perry.

"Quite high enough to play the deuce with us, though,"I replied. "Now what do you suppose they intend doingwith us?"

We were not long in learning. As on the occasion of ourtrip to the village we were seized by a couple of thepowerful creatures and whirled away through the tree tops,while about us and in our wake raced a chattering,jabbering, grinning horde of sleek, black ape-things.

Twice my bearers missed their footing, and my heart ceasedbeating as we plunged toward instant death among the tangleddeadwood beneath. But on both occasions those lithe,powerful tails reached out and found sustaining branches,nor did either of the creatures loosen their grasp upon me.In fact, it seemed that the incidents were of no greatermoment to them than would be the stubbing of one's toeat a street crossing in the outer world--they but laugheduproariously and sped on with me.

For some time they continued through the forest--how longI could not guess for I was learning, what was laterborne very forcefully to my mind, that time ceases to bea factor the moment means for measuring it cease to exist.Our watches were gone, and we were living beneath astationary sun. Already I was puzzled to compute the periodof time which had elapsed since we broke through the crustof the inner world. It might be hours, or it might bedays--who in the world could tell where it was alwaysnoon! By the sun, no time had elapsed--but my judgmenttold me that we must have been several hours in thisstrange world.

Presently the forest terminated, and we came out upona level plain. A short distance before us rose a few low,rocky hills. Toward these our captors urged us, and aftera short time led us through a narrow pass into a tiny,circular valley. Here they got down to work, and wewere soon convinced that if we were not to die to makea Roman holiday, we were to die for some other purpose.The attitude of our captors altered immediately as theyentered the natural arena within the rocky hills.Their laughter ceased. Grim ferocity marked their bestialfaces--bared fangs menaced us.

We were placed in the center of the amphitheater--thethousand creatures forming a great ring about us.Then a wolf-dog was brought--hyaenadon Perry called it--andturned loose with us inside the circle. The thing'sbody was as large as that of a full-grown mastiff,its legs were short and powerful, and its jaws broadand strong. Dark, shaggy hair covered its back and sides,while its breast and belly were quite white. As it slunktoward us it presented a most formidable aspect with itsupcurled lips baring its mighty fangs.

Perry was on his knees, praying. I stooped and pickedup a small stone. At my movement the beast veered offa bit and commenced circling us. Evidently it had beena target for stones before. The ape-things were dancingup and down urging the brute on with savage cries,until at last, seeing that I did not throw, he charged us.

At Andover, and later at Yale, I had pitched on winningball teams. My speed and control must both have beenabove the ordinary, for I made such a record duringmy senior year at college that overtures were madeto me in behalf of one of the great major-league teams;but in the tightest pitch that ever had confronted mein the past I had never been in such need for controlas now.

As I wound up for the delivery, I held my nerves and musclesunder absolute command, though the grinning jaws werehurtling toward me at terrific speed. And then I let go,with every ounce of my weight and muscle and science in backof that throw. The stone caught the hyaenodon full uponthe end of the nose, and sent him bowling over upon his back.

At the same instant a chorus of shrieks and howls arosefrom the circle of spectators, so that for a momentI thought that the upsetting of their champion wasthe cause; but in this I soon saw that I was mistaken.As I looked, the ape-things broke in all directionstoward the surrounding hills, and then I distinguishedthe real cause of their perturbation. Behind them,streaming through the pass which leads into the valley,came a swarm of hairy men--gorilla-like creatures armedwith spears and hatchets, and bearing long, oval shields.Like demons they set upon the ape-things, and beforethem the hyaenodon, which had now regained its sensesand its feet, fled howling with fright. Past us sweptthe pursued and the pursuers, nor did the hairy ones accordus more than a passing glance until the arena had beenemptied of its former occupants. Then they returned to us,and one who seemed to have authority among them directedthat we be brought with them.

When we had passed out of the amphitheater onto thegreat plain we saw a caravan of men and women--humanbeings like ourselves--and for the first time hopeand relief filled my heart, until I could have criedout in the exuberance of my happiness. It is truethat they were a half-naked, wild-appearing aggregation;but they at least were fashioned along the same linesas ourselves--there was nothing grotesque or horrible aboutthem as about the other creatures in this strange,weird world.

But as we came closer, our hearts sank once more, for wediscovered that the poor wretches were chained neck to neckin a long line, and that the gorilla-men were their guards.With little ceremony Perry and I were chained at the endof the line, and without further ado the interruptedmarch was resumed.

Up to this time the excitement had kept us both up;but now the tiresome monotony of the long marchacross the sun-baked plain brought on all the agoniesconsequent to a long-denied sleep. On and on we stumbledbeneath that hateful noonday sun. If we fell we wereprodded with a sharp point. Our companions in chainsdid not stumble. They strode along proudly erect.Occasionally they would exchange words with one anotherin a monosyllabic language. They were a noble-appearingrace with well-formed heads and perfect physiques.The men were heavily bearded, tall and muscular; the women,smaller and more gracefully molded, with great massesof raven hair caught into loose knots upon their heads.The features of both sexes were well proportioned--therewas not a face among them that would have been calledeven plain if judged by earthly standards. They woreno ornaments; but this I later learned was due to thefact that their captors had stripped them of everythingof value. As garmenture the women possessed a singlerobe of some light-colored, spotted hide, rather similarin appearance to a leopard's skin. This they wore eithersupported entirely about the waist by a leathern thong,so that it hung partially below the knee on one side,or possibly looped gracefully across one shoulder.Their feet were shod with skin sandals. The men woreloin cloths of the hide of some shaggy beast, long endsof which depended before and behind nearly to the ground.In some instances these ends were finished with thestrong talons of the beast from which the hides hadbeen taken.

Our guards, whom I already have described as gorilla-like men,were rather lighter in build than a gorilla, but even sothey were indeed mighty creatures. Their arms and legswere proportioned more in conformity with human standards,but their entire bodies were covered with shaggy, brown hair,and their faces were quite as brutal as those of the few stuffedspecimens of the gorilla which I had seen in the museums at home.

Their only redeeming feature lay in the developmentof the head above and back of the ears. In thisrespect they were not one whit less human than we.They were clothed in a sort of tunic of light cloth whichreached to the knees. Beneath this they wore only a loincloth of the same material, while their feet were shodwith thick hide of some mammoth creature of this inner world.

Their arms and necks were encircled by many ornaments ofmetal--silver predominating--and on their tunics were sewnthe heads of tiny reptiles in odd and rather artistic designs.They talked among themselves as they marched along oneither side of us, but in a language which I perceiveddiffered from that employed by our fellow prisoners.When they addressed the latter they used what appearedto be a third language, and which I later learned isa mongrel tongue rather analogous to the Pidgin-Englishof the Chinese coolie.

How far we marched I have no conception, nor has Perry.Both of us were asleep much of the time for hours beforea halt was called--then we dropped in our tracks.I say "for hours," but how may one measure time where timedoes not exist! When our march commenced the sun stoodat zenith. When we halted our shadows still pointedtoward nadir. Whether an instant or an eternity ofearthly time elapsed who may say. That march may haveoccupied nine years and eleven months of the ten yearsthat I spent in the inner world, or it may have beenaccomplished in the fraction of a second--I cannot tell.But this I do know that since you have told me that tenyears have elapsed since I departed from this earthI have lost all respect for time--I am commencing todoubt that such a thing exists other than in the weak,finite mind of man.