I HASTENED TO THE CLIFF EDGE ABOVE JA AND helped himto a secure footing. He would not listen to any thanksfor his attempt to save me, which had come so near miscarrying.

"I had given you up for lost when you tumbled into theMahar temple," he said, "for not even I could save you fromtheir clutches, and you may imagine my surprise when onseeing a canoe dragged up upon the beach of the mainlandI discovered your own footprints in the sand beside it.

"I immediately set out in search of you, knowing as I didthat you must be entirely unarmed and defenseless againstthe many dangers which lurk upon the mainland both in theform of savage beasts and reptiles, and men as well.I had no difficulty in tracking you to this point.It is well that I arrived when I did."

"But why did you do it?" I asked, puzzled at this showof friendship on the part of a man of another worldand a different race and color.

"You saved my life," he replied; "from that moment itbecame my duty to protect and befriend you. I wouldhave been no true Mezop had I evaded my plain duty;but it was a pleasure in this instance for I like you.I wish that you would come and live with me. You shallbecome a member of my tribe. Among us there is the bestof hunting and fishing, and you shall have, to choosea mate from, the most beautiful girls of Pellucidar.Will you come?"

I told him about Perry then, and Dian the Beautiful,and how my duty was to them first. Afterward I shouldreturn and visit him--if I could ever find his island.

"Oh, that is easy, my friend," he said. "You need merelyto come to the foot of the highest peak of the Mountainsof the Clouds. There you will find a river which flowsinto the Lural Az. Directly opposite the mouth of theriver you will see three large islands far out, so farthat they are barely discernible, the one to the extremeleft as you face them from the mouth of the river is Anoroc,where I rule the tribe of Anoroc."

"But how am I to find the Mountains of the Clouds?" I asked."Men say that they are visible from half Pellucidar,"he replied.

"How large is Pellucidar?" I asked, wondering what sortof theory these primitive men had concerning the formand substance of their world.

"The Mahars say it is round, like the inside of a tola shell,"he answered, "but that is ridiculous, since, were it true,we should fall back were we to travel far in any direction,and all the waters of Pellucidar would run to one spotand drown us. No, Pellucidar is quite flat and extendsno man knows how far in all directions. At the edges,so my ancestors have reported and handed down to me,is a great wall that prevents the earth and waters fromescaping over into the burning sea whereon Pellucidar floats;but I never have been so far from Anoroc as to haveseen this wall with my own eyes. However, it is quitereasonable to believe that this is true, whereas thereis no reason at all in the foolish belief of the Mahars.According to them Pellucidarians who live upon the oppositeside walk always with their heads pointed downward!" and Jalaughed uproariously at the very thought.

It was plain to see that the human folk of this innerworld had not advanced far in learning, and the thoughtthat the ugly Mahars had so outstripped them was avery pathetic one indeed. I wondered how many ages itwould take to lift these people out of their ignoranceeven were it given to Perry and me to attempt it.Possibly we would be killed for our pains as were thosemen of the outer world who dared challenge the denseignorance and superstitions of the earth's younger days.But it was worth the effort if the opportunity everpresented itself.

And then it occurred to me that here was an opportunity--thatI might make a small beginning upon Ja, who was my friend,and thus note the effect of my teaching upon a Pellucidarian.

"Ja," I said, "what would you say were I to tell youthat in so far as the Mahars' theory of the shapeof Pellucidar is concerned it is correct?"

"I would say," he replied, "that either you are a fool,or took me for one."

"But, Ja," I insisted, "if their theory is incorrecthow do you account for the fact that I was able to passthrough the earth from the outer crust to Pellucidar.If your theory is correct all is a sea of flame beneath us,where in no peoples could exist, and yet I come from agreat world that is covered with human beings, and beasts,and birds, and fishes in mighty oceans."

"You live upon the under side of Pellucidar, and walkalways with your head pointed downward?" he scoffed."And were I to believe that, my friend, I should indeedbe mad."

I attempted to explain the force of gravity to him,and by the means of the dropped fruit to illustrate howimpossible it would be for a body to fall off the earthunder any circumstances. He listened so intently that Ithought I had made an impression, and started the trainof thought that would lead him to a partial understandingof the truth. But I was mistaken.

"Your own illustration," he said finally, "proves thefalsity of your theory." He dropped a fruit from his handto the ground. "See," he said, "without support even thistiny fruit falls until it strikes something that stops it.If Pellucidar were not supported upon the flaming sea it toowould fall as the fruit falls--you have proven it yourself!"He had me, that time--you could see it in his eye.

It seemed a hopeless job and I gave it up, temporarily at least,for when I contemplated the necessity explanation of oursolar system and the universe I realized how futile it wouldbe to attempt to picture to Ja or any other Pellucidarianthe sun, the moon, the planets, and the countless stars.Those born within the inner world could no more conceiveof such things than can we of the outer crust reduceto factors appreciable to our finite minds such termsas space and eternity.

"Well, Ja," I laughed, "whether we be walking with our feetup or down, here we are, and the question of greatestimportance is not so much where we came from as where weare going now. For my part I wish that you could guideme to Phutra where I may give myself up to the Maharsonce more that my friends and I may work out the planof escape which the Sagoths interrupted when theygathered us together and drove us to the arena to witnessthe punishment of the slaves who killed the guardsman.I wish now that I had not left the arena for by thistime my friends and I might have made good our escape,whereas this delay may mean the wrecking of all our plans,which depended for their consummation upon the continuedsleep of the three Mahars who lay in the pit beneaththe building in which we were confined."

"You would return to captivity?" cried Ja.

"My friends are there," I replied, "the only friends Ihave in Pellucidar, except yourself. What else may Ido under the circumstances?"

He thought for a moment in silence. Then he shook hishead sorrowfully.

"It is what a brave man and a good friend should do,"he said; "yet it seems most foolish, for the Mahars willmost certainly condemn you to death for running away,and so you will be accomplishing nothing for your friendsby returning. Never in all my life have I heard of aprisoner returning to the Mahars of his own free will.There are but few who escape them, though some do,and these would rather die than be recaptured."

"I see no other way, Ja," I said, "though I can assureyou that I would rather go to Sheol after Perrythan to Phutra. However, Perry is much too piousto make the probability at all great that I shouldever be called upon to rescue him from the former locality."

Ja asked me what Sheol was, and when I explained, as bestI could, he said, "You are speaking of Molop Az, the flamingsea upon which Pellucidar floats. All the dead who are buriedin the ground go there. Piece by piece they are carrieddown to Molop Az by the little demons who dwell there.We know this because when graves are opened we find thatthe bodies have been partially or entirely borne off.That is why we of Anoroc place our dead in high treeswhere the birds may find them and bear them bit by bitto the Dead World above the Land of Awful Shadow.If we kill an enemy we place his body in the ground that itmay go to Molop Az."

As we talked we had been walking up the canyon downwhich I had come to the great ocean and the sithic.Ja did his best to dissuade me from returning to Phutra,but when he saw that I was determined to do so,he consented to guide me to a point from which I could seethe plain where lay the city. To my surprise the distancewas but short from the beach where I had again met Ja.It was evident that I had spent much time following thewindings of a tortuous canon, while just beyond the ridgelay the city of Phutra near to which I must have comeseveral times.

As we topped the ridge and saw the granite gate towersdotting the flowered plain at our feet Ja made a finaleffort to persuade me to abandon my mad purpose andreturn with him to Anoroc, but I was firm in my resolve,and at last he bid me good-bye, assured in his own mindthat he was looking upon me for the last time.

I was sorry to part with Ja, for I had come to like himvery much indeed. With his hidden city upon the islandof Anoroc as a base, and his savage warriors as escortPerry and I could have accomplished much in the lineof exploration, and I hoped that were we successfulin our effort to escape we might return to Anoroc later.

There was, however, one great thing to be accomplishedfirst--at least it was the great thing to me--the findingof Dian the Beautiful. I wanted to make amends for theaffront I had put upon her in my ignorance, and I wantedto--well, I wanted to see her again, and to be with her.

Down the hillside I made my way into the gorgeous fieldof flowers, and then across the rolling land toward theshadowless columns that guard the ways to buried Phutra.At a quarter-mile from the nearest entrance I wasdiscovered by the Sagoth guard, and in an instant fourof the gorilla-men were dashing toward me.

Though they brandished their long spears and yelledlike wild Comanches I paid not the slightest attentionto them, walking quietly toward them as though unawareof their existence. My manner had the effect upon themthat I had hoped, and as we came quite near together theyceased their savage shouting. It was evident that theyhad expected me to turn and flee at sight of them,thus presenting that which they most enjoyed, a movinghuman target at which to cast their spears.

"What do you here?" shouted one, and then as he recognized me,"Ho! It is the slave who claims to be from another world--hewho escaped when the thag ran amuck within the amphitheater.But why do you return, having once made good your escape?"

"I did not 'escape'," I replied. "I but ran away to avoidthe thag, as did others, and coming into a long passageI became confused and lost my way in the foothillsbeyond Phutra. Only now have I found my way back."

"And you come of your free will back to Phutra!"exclaimed one of the guardsmen.

"Where else might I go?" I asked. "I am a strangerwithin Pellucidar and know no other where than Phutra.Why should I not desire to be in Phutra? Am I not well fedand well treated? Am I not happy? What better lot couldman desire?"

The Sagoths scratched their heads. This was a new oneon them, and so being stupid brutes they took me to theirmasters whom they felt would be better fitted to solvethe riddle of my return, for riddle they still considered it.

I had spoken to the Sagoths as I had for the purposeof throwing them off the scent of my purposed attemptat escape. If they thought that I was so satisfiedwith my lot within Phutra that I would voluntarily returnwhen I had once had so excellent an opportunity to escape,they would never for an instant imagine that I couldbe occupied in arranging another escape immediatelyupon my return to the city.

So they led me before a slimy Mahar who clung to a slimyrock within the large room that was the thing's office.With cold, reptilian eyes the creature seemed to bore throughthe thin veneer of my deceit and read my inmost thoughts.It heeded the story which the Sagoths told of my returnto Phutra, watching the gorilla-men's lips and fingersduring the recital. Then it questioned me through one ofthe Sagoths.

"You say that you returned to Phutra of your own free will,because you think yourself better off here than elsewhere--doyou not know that you may be the next chosen to give upyour life in the interests of the wonderful scientificinvestigations that our learned ones are continuallyoccupied with?"

I hadn't heard of anything of that nature, but I thoughtbest not to admit it.

"I could be in no more danger here," I said, "than nakedand unarmed in the savage jungles or upon the lonelyplains of Pellucidar. I was fortunate, I think, to returnto Phutra at all. As it was I barely escaped death withinthe jaws of a huge sithic. No, I am sure that I am saferin the hands of intelligent creatures such as rule Phutra.At least such would be the case in my own world, where humanbeings like myself rule supreme. There the higher racesof man extend protection and hospitality to the strangerwithin their gates, and being a stranger here I naturallyassumed that a like courtesy would be accorded me."

The Mahar looked at me in silence for some time after Iceased speaking and the Sagoth had translated my wordsto his master. The creature seemed deep in thought.Presently he communicated some message to the Sagoth.The latter turned, and motioning me to follow him, left thepresence of the reptile. Behind and on either side of memarched the balance of the guard.

"What are they going to do with me?" I asked the fellowat my right.

"You are to appear before the learned ones who willquestion you regarding this strange world from which yousay you come."

After a moment's silence he turned to me again.

"Do you happen to know," he asked, "what the Maharsdo to slaves who lie to them?"

"No," I replied, "nor does it interest me, as I haveno intention of lying to the Mahars."

"Then be careful that you don't repeat the impossibletale you told Sol-to-to just now--another world, indeed,where human beings rule!" he concluded in fine scorn.

"But it is the truth," I insisted. "From where else thendid I come? I am not of Pellucidar. Anyone with halfan eye could see that."

"It is your misfortune then," he remarked dryly, "that youmay not be judged by one with but half an eye."

"What will they do with me," I asked, "if they do nothave a mind to believe me?"

"You may be sentenced to the arena, or go to the pitsto be used in research work by the learned ones,"he replied.

"And what will they do with me there?" I persisted.

"No one knows except the Mahars and those who go to the pitswith them, but as the latter never return, their knowledgedoes them but little good. It is said that the learnedones cut up their subjects while they are yet alive,thus learning many useful things. However I should notimagine that it would prove very useful to him who wasbeing cut up; but of course this is all but conjecture.The chances are that ere long you will know muchmore about it than I," and he grinned as he spoke.The Sagoths have a well-developed sense of humor.

"And suppose it is the arena," I continued; "what then?"

"You saw the two who met the tarag and the thag the timethat you escaped?" he said.

"Yes. "

"Your end in the arena would be similar to what wasintended for them," he explained, "though of coursethe same kinds of animals might not be employed."

"It is sure death in either event?" I asked.

"What becomes of those who go below with the learnedones I do not know, nor does any other," he replied;"but those who go to the arena may come out alive and thusregain their liberty, as did the two whom you saw."

"They gained their liberty? And how?"

"It is the custom of the Mahars to liberate those whoremain alive within the arena after the beasts departor are killed. Thus it has happened that several mightywarriors from far distant lands, whom we have capturedon our slave raids, have battled the brutes turned in uponthem and slain them, thereby winning their freedom.In the instance which you witnessed the beasts killedeach other, but the result was the same--the man and womanwere liberated, furnished with weapons, and startedon their homeward journey. Upon the left shoulderof each a mark was burned--the mark of the Mahars--whichwill forever protect these two from slaving parties."

"There is a slender chance for me then if I be sentto the arena, and none at all if the learned ones dragme to the pits?"

"You are quite right," he replied; "but do not felicitateyourself too quickly should you be sent to the arena,for there is scarce one in a thousand who comes out alive."

To my surprise they returned me to the same building in which Ihad been confined with Perry and Ghak before my escape.At the doorway I was turned over to the guards there.

"He will doubtless be called before the investigators shortly,"said he who had brought me back," so have him in readiness."

The guards in whose hands I now found myself, upon hearingthat I had returned of my own volition to Phutra evidentlyfelt that it would be safe to give me liberty withinthe building as had been the custom before I had escaped,and so I was told to return to whatever duty had beenmine formerly.

My first act was to hunt up Perry; whom I found poringas usual over the great tomes that he was supposed to bemerely dusting and rearranging upon new shelves.

As I entered the room he glanced up and nodded pleasantlyto me, only to resume his work as though I had neverbeen away at all. I was both astonished and hurt athis indifference. And to think that I was risking deathto return to him purely from a sense of duty and affection!

"Why, Perry!" I exclaimed, "haven't you a word for meafter my long absence?"

"Long absence!" he repeated in evident astonishment."What do you mean?"

"Are you crazy, Perry? Do you mean to say that youhave not missed me since that time we were separatedby the charging thag within the arena?"

"'That time'," he repeated. "Why man, I have but justreturned from the arena! You reached here almostas soon as I. Had you been much later I should indeedhave been worried, and as it is I had intendedasking you about how you escaped the beast as soonas I had completed the translation of this mostinteresting passage."

"Perry, you ARE mad," I exclaimed. "Why, the Lord only knowshow long I have been away. I have been to other lands,discovered a new race of humans within Pellucidar,seen the Mahars at their worship in their hidden temple,and barely escaped with my life from them and from agreat labyrinthodon that I met afterward, following mylong and tedious wanderings across an unknown world.I must have been away for months, Perry, and now you barelylook up from your work when I return and insist that wehave been separated but a moment. Is that any way to treata friend? I'm surprised at you, Perry, and if I'd thoughtfor a moment that you cared no more for me than this Ishould not have returned to chance death at the handsof the Mahars for your sake."

The old man looked at me for a long time before he spoke.There was a puzzled expression upon his wrinkled face,and a look of hurt sorrow in his eyes.

"David, my boy," he said, "how could you for a momentdoubt my love for you? There is something strange herethat I cannot understand. I know that I am not mad,and I am equally sure that you are not; but how in theworld are we to account for the strange hallucinationsthat each of us seems to harbor relative to the passageof time since last we saw each other. You are positivethat months have gone by, while to me it seems equallycertain that not more than an hour ago I sat beside youin the amphitheater. Can it be that both of us areright and at the same time both are wrong? First tell mewhat time is, and then maybe I can solve our problem.Do you catch my meaning?"

I didn't and said so.

"Yes," continued the old man, "we are both right. To me,bent over my book here, there has been no lapse of time.I have done little or nothing to waste my energiesand so have required neither food nor sleep, but you,on the contrary, have walked and fought and wasted strengthand tissue which must needs be rebuilt by nutrimentand food, and so, having eaten and slept many timessince last you saw me you naturally measure the lapseof time largely by these acts. As a matter of fact,David, I am rapidly coming to the conviction that thereis no such thing as time--surely there can be no time herewithin Pellucidar, where there are no means for measuringor recording time. Why, the Mahars themselves takeno account of such a thing as time. I find here in alltheir literary works but a single tense, the present.There seems to be neither past nor future with them.Of course it is impossible for our outer-earthly mindsto grasp such a condition, but our recent experiences seemto demonstrate its existence."

It was too big a subject for me, and I said so, but Perryseemed to enjoy nothing better than speculating upon it,and after listening with interest to my account of theadventures through which I had passed he returned once moreto the subject, which he was enlarging upon with considerablefluency when he was interrupted by the entrance of a Sagoth.

"Come!" commanded the intruder, beckoning to me."The investigators would speak with you."

"Good-bye, Perry!" I said, clasping the old man's hand."There may be nothing but the present and no such thingas time, but I feel that I am about to take a tripinto the hereafter from which I shall never return.If you and Ghak should manage to escape I want you topromise me that you will find Dian the Beautiful and tellher that with my last words I asked her forgivenessfor the unintentional affront I put upon her, and that myone wish was to be spared long enough to right the wrongthat I had done her."

Tears came to Perry's eyes.

"I cannot believe but that you will return, David," he said."It would be awful to think of living out the balance of mylife without you among these hateful and repulsive creatures.If you are taken away I shall never escape, for I feelthat I am as well off here as I should be anywhere withinthis buried world. Good-bye, my boy, good-bye!" and thenhis old voice faltered and broke, and as he hid his facein his hands the Sagoth guardsman grasped me roughlyby the shoulder and hustled me from the chamber.