THE ABORIGINE, APPARENTLY UNINJURED, CLIMBED quickly intothe skiff, and seizing the spear with me helped to holdoff the infuriated creature. Blood from the woundedreptile was now crimsoning the waters about us and soonfrom the weakening struggles it became evident that Ihad inflicted a death wound upon it. Presently itsefforts to reach us ceased entirely, and with a fewconvulsive movements it turned upon its back quite dead.

And then there came to me a sudden realization of thepredicament in which I had placed myself. I was entirelywithin the power of the savage man whose skiff I had stolen.Still clinging to the spear I looked into his face to findhim scrutinizing me intently, and there we stood for someseveral minutes, each clinging tenaciously to the weaponthe while we gazed in stupid wonderment at each other.

What was in his mind I do not know, but in my own wasmerely the question as to how soon the fellow wouldrecommence hostilities.

Presently he spoke to me, but in a tongue which I wasunable to translate. I shook my head in an effort toindicate my ignorance of his language, at the same timeaddressing him in the bastard tongue that the Sagothsuse to converse with the human slaves of the Mahars.

To my delight he understood and answered me in the same jargon.

"What do you want of my spear?" he asked.

"Only to keep you from running it through me," I replied.

"I would not do that," he said, "for you have just savedmy life," and with that he released his hold upon itand squatted down in the bottom of the skiff.

"Who are you," he continued, "and from what countrydo you come?"

I too sat down, laying the spear between us, and triedto explain how I came to Pellucidar, and wherefrom, but itwas as impossible for him to grasp or believe the strangetale I told him as I fear it is for you upon the outercrust to believe in the existence of the inner world.To him it seemed quite ridiculous to imagine that therewas another world far beneath his feet peopled bybeings similar to himself, and he laughed uproariouslythe more he thought upon it. But it was ever thus.That which has never come within the scope of our reallypitifully meager world-experience cannot be--our finiteminds cannot grasp that which may not exist in accordancewith the conditions which obtain about us upon the outsideof the insignificant grain of dust which wends its tinyway among the bowlders of the universe--the speck of moistdirt we so proudly call the World.

So I gave it up and asked him about himself. He said hewas a Mezop, and that his name was Ja.

"Who are the Mezops?" I asked. "Where do they live?"

He looked at me in surprise.

"I might indeed believe that you were from another world,"he said, "for who of Pellucidar could be so ignorant! TheMezops live upon the islands of the seas. In so far as Iever have heard no Mezop lives elsewhere, and no othersthan Mezops dwell upon islands, but of course it may bedifferent in other far-distant lands. I do not know.At any rate in this sea and those near by it is true thatonly people of my race inhabit the islands.

"We are fishermen, though we be great hunters as well,often going to the mainland in search of the gamethat is scarce upon all but the larger islands. And weare warriors also," he added proudly. "Even the Sagothsof the Mahars fear us. Once, when Pellucidar was young,the Sagoths were wont to capture us for slaves as theydo the other men of Pellucidar, it is handed down fromfather to son among us that this is so; but we foughtso desperately and slew so many Sagoths, and those of usthat were captured killed so many Mahars in their owncities that at last they learned that it were betterto leave us alone, and later came the time that theMahars became too indolent even to catch their own fish,except for amusement, and then they needed us to supplytheir wants, and so a truce was made between the races.Now they give us certain things which we are unableto produce in return for the fish that we catch,and the Mezops and the Mahars live in peace.

"The great ones even come to our islands. It is there,far from the prying eyes of their own Sagoths, that theypractice their religious rites in the temples they havebuilded there with our assistance. If you live amongus you will doubtless see the manner of their worship,which is strange indeed, and most unpleasant for the poorslaves they bring to take part in it."

As Ja talked I had an excellent opportunity to inspect himmore closely. He was a huge fellow, standing I should saysix feet six or seven inches, well developed and of a copperyred not unlike that of our own North American Indian,nor were his features dissimilar to theirs. He hadthe aquiline nose found among many of the higher tribes,the prominent cheek bones, and black hair and eyes,but his mouth and lips were better molded. All in all,Ja was an impressive and handsome creature, and he talkedwell too, even in the miserable makeshift language wewere compelled to use.

During our conversation Ja had taken the paddle and waspropelling the skiff with vigorous strokes toward a largeisland that lay some half-mile from the mainland.The skill with which he handled his crude and awkwardcraft elicited my deepest admiration, since it had beenso short a time before that I had made such pitiful workof it.

As we touched the pretty, level beach Ja leaped outand I followed him. Together we dragged the skifffar up into the bushes that grew beyond the sand.

"We must hide our canoes," explained Ja, "for the Mezopsof Luana are always at war with us and would steal themif they found them," he nodded toward an island fartherout at sea, and at so great a distance that it seemedbut a blur hanging in the distant sky. The upward curveof the surface of Pellucidar was constantly revealing theimpossible to the surprised eyes of the outer-earthly. Tosee land and water curving upward in the distance until itseemed to stand on edge where it melted into the distant sky,and to feel that seas and mountains hung suspended directlyabove one's head required such a complete reversalof the perceptive and reasoning faculties as almost tostupefy one.

No sooner had we hidden the canoe than Ja plungedinto the jungle, presently emerging into a narrow butwell-defined trail which wound hither and thither muchafter the manner of the highways of all primitive folk,but there was one peculiarity about this Mezop trailwhich I was later to find distinguished them from allother trails that I ever have seen within or without the earth.

It would run on, plain and clear and well defined to endsuddenly in the midst of a tangle of matted jungle, then Jawould turn directly back in his tracks for a little distance,spring into a tree, climb through it to the other side,drop onto a fallen log, leap over a low bush and alightonce more upon a distinct trail which he would follow backfor a short distance only to turn directly about and retracehis steps until after a mile or less this new pathwayended as suddenly and mysteriously as the former section.Then he would pass again across some media which wouldreveal no spoor, to take up the broken thread of thetrail beyond.

As the purpose of this remarkable avenue dawned upon me Icould not but admire the native shrewdness of the ancientprogenitor of the Mezops who hit upon this novel plan tothrow his enemies from his track and delay or thwart themin their attempts to follow him to his deep-buried cities.

To you of the outer earth it might seem a slowand tortuous method of traveling through the jungle,but were you of Pellucidar you would realize that timeis no factor where time does not exist. So labyrinthineare the windings of these trails, so varied the connectinglinks and the distances which one must retrace one'ssteps from the paths' ends to find them that a Mezopoften reaches man's estate before he is familiareven with those which lead from his own city to the sea.

In fact three-fourths of the education of the youngmale Mezop consists in familiarizing himself with thesejungle avenues, and the status of an adult is largelydetermined by the number of trails which he can followupon his own island. The females never learn them,since from birth to death they never leave the clearingin which the village of their nativity is situated exceptthey be taken to mate by a male from another village,or captured in war by the enemies of their tribe.

After proceeding through the jungle for what must have beenupward of five miles we emerged suddenly into a largeclearing in the exact center of which stood as strangean appearing village as one might well imagine.

Large trees had been chopped down fifteen or twenty feetabove the ground, and upon the tops of them sphericalhabitations of woven twigs, mud covered, had been built.Each ball-like house was surmounted by some mannerof carven image, which Ja told me indicated the identityof the owner.

Horizontal slits, six inches high and two or threefeet wide, served to admit light and ventilation.The entrances to the house were through small aperturesin the bases of the trees and thence upward by rudeladders through the hollow trunks to the rooms above.The houses varied in size from two to several rooms.The largest that I entered was divided into two floors andeight apartments.

All about the village, between it and the jungle,lay beautifully cultivated fields in which the Mezops raisedsuch cereals, fruits, and vegetables as they required.Women and children were working in these gardens as we crossedtoward the village. At sight of Ja they saluted deferentially,but to me they paid not the slightest attention.Among them and about the outer verge of the cultivated areawere many warriors. These too saluted Ja, by touchingthe points of their spears to the ground directly before them.

Ja conducted me to a large house in the center of thevillage--the house with eight rooms--and taking me upinto it gave me food and drink. There I met his mate,a comely girl with a nursing baby in her arms. Ja toldher of how I had saved his life, and she was thereaftermost kind and hospitable toward me, even permitting meto hold and amuse the tiny bundle of humanity whom Jatold me would one day rule the tribe, for Ja, it seemed,was the chief of the community.

We had eaten and rested, and I had slept, much to Ja'samusement, for it seemed that he seldom if ever did so,and then the red man proposed that I accompany him to thetemple of the Mahars which lay not far from his village."We are not supposed to visit it," he said; "but the greatones cannot hear and if we keep well out of sight they neednever know that we have been there. For my part I hate themand always have, but the other chieftains of the islandthink it best that we continue to maintain the amicablerelations which exist between the two races; otherwise Ishould like nothing better than to lead my warriors amongstthe hideous creatures and exterminate them--Pellucidarwould be a better place to live were there none of them."

I wholly concurred in Ja's belief, but it seemed that itmight be a difficult matter to exterminate the dominant raceof Pellucidar. Thus conversing we followed the intricate trailtoward the temple, which we came upon in a small clearingsurrounded by enormous trees similar to those which musthave flourished upon the outer crust during the carboniferousage.

Here was a mighty temple of hewn rock built in the shapeof a rough oval with rounded roof in which were severallarge openings. No doors or windows were visible inthe sides of the structure, nor was there need of any,except one entrance for the slaves, since, as Ja explained,the Mahars flew to and from their place of ceremonial,entering and leaving the building by means of the aperturesin the roof.

"But," added Ja, "there is an entrance near the baseof which even the Mahars know nothing. Come," and heled me across the clearing and about the end to a pileof loose rock which lay against the foot of the wall.Here he removed a couple of large bowlders, revealing asmall opening which led straight within the building,or so it seemed, though as I entered after Ja I discoveredmyself in a narrow place of extreme darkness.

"We are within the outer wall," said Ja. "It is hollow.Follow me closely."

The red man groped ahead a few paces and then beganto ascend a primitive ladder similar to that which leadsfrom the ground to the upper stories of his house.We ascended for some forty feet when the interior ofthe space between the walls commenced to grow lighterand presently we came opposite an opening in the innerwall which gave us an unobstructed view of the entireinterior of the temple.

The lower floor was an enormous tank of clear water inwhich numerous hideous Mahars swam lazily up and down.Artificial islands of granite rock dotted this artificial sea,and upon several of them I saw men and women like myself.

"What are the human beings doing here?" I asked.

"Wait and you shall see," replied Ja. "They are to takea leading part in the ceremonies which will followthe advent of the queen. You may be thankful that youare not upon the same side of the wall as they."

Scarcely had he spoken than we heard a great flutteringof wings above and a moment later a long processionof the frightful reptiles of Pellucidar winged slowlyand majestically through the large central openingin the roof and circled in stately manner about the temple.

There were several Mahars first, and then at leasttwenty awe-inspiring pterodactyls--thipdars, they arecalled within Pellucidar. Behind these came the queen,flanked by other thipdars as she had been when sheentered the amphitheater at Phutra.

Three times they wheeled about the interior of the ovalchamber, to settle finally upon the damp, cold bowldersthat fringe the outer edge of the pool. In the centerof one side the largest rock was reserved for the queen,and here she took her place surrounded by her terrible guard.

All lay quiet for several minutes after settlingto their places. One might have imagined them insilent prayer. The poor slaves upon the diminutiveislands watched the horrid creatures with wide eyes.The men, for the most part, stood erect and statelywith folded arms, awaiting their doom; but the women andchildren clung to one another, hiding behind the males.They are a noble-looking race, these cave men of Pellucidar,and if our progenitors were as they, the human raceof the outer crust has deteriorated rather than improvedwith the march of the ages. All they lack is opportunity.We have opportunity, and little else.

Now the queen moved. She raised her ugly head,looking about; then very slowly she crawled to the edgeof her throne and slid noiselessly into the water.Up and down the long tank she swam, turning at the endsas you have seen captive seals turn in their tiny tanks,turning upon their backs and diving below the surface.

Nearer and nearer to the island she came until at last sheremained at rest before the largest, which was directlyopposite her throne. Raising her hideous head from thewater she fixed her great, round eyes upon the slaves.They were fat and sleek, for they had been brought froma distant Mahar city where human beings are kept in droves,and bred and fattened, as we breed and fatten beef cattle.

The queen fixed her gaze upon a plump young maiden.Her victim tried to turn away, hiding her face in herhands and kneeling behind a woman; but the reptile,with unblinking eyes, stared on with such fixity that Icould have sworn her vision penetrated the woman,and the girl's arms to reach at last the very center ofher brain.

Slowly the reptile's head commenced to move to and fro,but the eyes never ceased to bore toward the frightened girl,and then the victim responded. She turned wide,fear-haunted eyes toward the Mahar queen, slowly she roseto her feet, and then as though dragged by some unseen powershe moved as one in a trance straight toward the reptile,her glassy eyes fixed upon those of her captor.To the water's edge she came, nor did she even pause,but stepped into the shallows beside the little island.On she moved toward the Mahar, who now slowly retreated as thoughleading her victim on. The water rose to the girl's knees,and still she advanced, chained by that clammy eye.Now the water was at her waist; now her armpits.Her fellows upon the island looked on in horror,helpless to avert her doom in which they saw a forecastof their own.

The Mahar sank now till only the long upper bill and eyeswere exposed above the surface of the water, and thegirl had advanced until the end of that repulsive beakwas but an inch or two from her face, her horror-filledeyes riveted upon those of the reptile.

Now the water passed above the girl's mouth and nose--hereyes and forehead all that showed--yet still she walkedon after the retreating Mahar. The queen's head slowlydisappeared beneath the surface and after it went theeyes of her victim--only a slow ripple widened towardthe shores to mark where the two vanished.

For a time all was silence within the temple. The slaveswere motionless in terror. The Mahars watched the surfaceof the water for the reappearance of their queen,and presently at one end of the tank her head roseslowly into view. She was backing toward the surface,her eyes fixed before her as they had been when shedragged the helpless girl to her doom.

And then to my utter amazement I saw the foreheadand eyes of the maiden come slowly out of the depths,following the gaze of the reptile just as when she haddisappeared beneath the surface. On and on came the girluntil she stood in water that reached barely to her knees,and though she had been beneath the surface sufficient timeto have drowned her thrice over there was no indication,other than her dripping hair and glistening body,that she had been submerged at all.

Again and again the queen led the girl into the depthsand out again, until the uncanny weirdness of the thinggot on my nerves so that I could have leaped into the tankto the child's rescue had I not taken a firm hold of myself.

Once they were below much longer than usual, and when they cameto the surface I was horrified to see that one of the girl'sarms was gone--gnawed completely off at the shoulder--butthe poor thing gave no indication of realizing pain,only the horror in her set eyes seemed intensified.

The next time they appeared the other arm was gone,and then the breasts, and then a part of the face--itwas awful. The poor creatures on the islands awaitingtheir fate tried to cover their eyes with their handsto hide the fearful sight, but now I saw that they toowere under the hypnotic spell of the reptiles, so thatthey could only crouch in terror with their eyes fixedupon the terrible thing that was transpiring before them.

Finally the queen was under much longer than ever before,and when she rose she came alone and swam sleepilytoward her bowlder. The moment she mounted it seemedto be the signal for the other Mahars to enter the tank,and then commenced, upon a larger scale, a repetitionof the uncanny performance through which the queen had ledher victim.

Only the women and children fell prey to the Mahars--theybeing the weakest and most tender--and when they had satisfiedtheir appetite for human flesh, some of them devouringtwo and three of the slaves, there were only a scoreof full-grown men left, and I thought that for some reasonthese were to be spared, but such was far from the case,for as the last Mahar crawled to her rock the queen's thipdarsdarted into the air, circled the temple once and then,hissing like steam engines, swooped down upon the remainingslaves.

There was no hypnotism here--just the plain, brutal ferocityof the beast of prey, tearing, rending, and gulping its meat,but at that it was less horrible than the uncanny method ofthe Mahars. By the time the thipdars had disposed of the lastof the slaves the Mahars were all asleep upon their rocks,and a moment later the great pterodactyls swung backto their posts beside the queen, and themselves droppedinto slumber.

"I thought the Mahars seldom, if ever, slept," I saidto Ja.

"They do many things in this temple which they do not doelsewhere,"he replied. "The Mahars of Phutra are not supposed to eathuman flesh, yet slaves are brought here by thousands andalmost always you will find Mahars on hand to consume them.I imagine that they do not bring their Sagoths here,because they are ashamed of the practice, which is supposedto obtain only among the least advanced of their race;but I would wager my canoe against a broken paddle thatthere is no Mahar but eats human flesh whenever she can get it."

"Why should they object to eating human flesh," I asked,"if it is true that they look upon us as lower animals?"

"It is not because they consider us their equals that they aresupposed to look with abhorrence upon those who eat our flesh,"replied Ja; "it is merely that we are warm-blooded animals.They would not think of eating the meat of a thag, which weconsider such a delicacy, any more than I would thinkof eating a snake. As a matter of fact it is difficultto explain just why this sentiment should exist among them."

"I wonder if they left a single victim," I remarked,leaning far out of the opening in the rocky wall toinspect the temple better. Directly below me the waterlapped the very side of the wall, there being a breakin the bowlders at this point as there was at severalother places about the side of the temple.

My hands were resting upon a small piece of granitewhich formed a part of the wall, and all my weight upon itproved too much for it. It slipped and I lunged forward.There was nothing to save myself and I plunged headforemostinto the water below.

Fortunately the tank was deep at this point, and I sufferedno injury from the fall, but as I was rising to the surfacemy mind filled with the horrors of my position as I thoughtof the terrible doom which awaited me the moment the eyesof the reptiles fell upon the creature that had disturbedtheir slumber.

As long as I could I remained beneath the surface,swimming rapidly in the direction of the islands that Imight prolong my life to the utmost. At last I wasforced to rise for air, and as I cast a terrified glancein the direction of the Mahars and the thipdars I wasalmost stunned to see that not a single one remained uponthe rocks where I had last seen them, nor as I searchedthe temple with my eyes could I discern any within it.

For a moment I was puzzled to account for the thing,until I realized that the reptiles, being deaf, could nothave been disturbed by the noise my body made when it hitthe water, and that as there is no such thing as timewithin Pellucidar there was no telling how long I had beenbeneath the surface. It was a difficult thing to attemptto figure out by earthly standards--this matter of elapsedtime--but when I set myself to it I began to realizethat I might have been submerged a second or a monthor not at all. You have no conception of the strangecontradictions and impossibilities which arise when allmethods of measuring time, as we know them upon earth,are non-existent.

I was about to congratulate myself upon the miracle which hadsaved me for the moment, when the memory of the hypnoticpowers of the Mahars filled me with apprehension lestthey be practicing their uncanny art upon me to the endthat I merely imagined that I was alone in the temple.At the thought cold sweat broke out upon me from every pore,and as I crawled from the water onto one of the tinyislands I was trembling like a leaf--you cannot imaginethe awful horror which even the simple thought of therepulsive Mahars of Pellucidar induces in the human mind,and to feel that you are in their power--that theyare crawling, slimy, and abhorrent, to drag you downbeneath the waters and devour you! It is frightful.

But they did not come, and at last I came to the conclusionthat I was indeed alone within the temple. How long Ishould be alone was the next question to assail me as Iswam frantically about once more in search of a meansto escape.

Several times I called to Ja, but he must have leftafter I tumbled into the tank, for I received no responseto my cries. Doubtless he had felt as certain of my doomwhen he saw me topple from our hiding place as I had,and lest he too should be discovered, had hastened fromthe temple and back to his village.

I knew that there must be some entrance to the building besidethe doorways in the roof, for it did not seem reasonableto believe that the thousands of slaves which were broughthere to feed the Mahars the human flesh they craved wouldall be carried through the air, and so I continued my searchuntil at last it was rewarded by the discovery of severalloose granite blocks in the masonry at one end of the temple.

A little effort proved sufficient to dislodge enoughof these stones to permit me to crawl through intothe clearing, and a moment later I had scurried acrossthe intervening space to the dense jungle beyond.

Here I sank panting and trembling upon the matted grassesbeneath the giant trees, for I felt that I had escapedfrom the grinning fangs of death out of the depths of myown grave. Whatever dangers lay hidden in this island jungle,there could be none so fearsome as those which I hadjust escaped. I knew that I could meet death bravelyenough if it but came in the form of some familiar beastor man--anything other than the hideous and uncanny Mahars.