A MOMENT LATER I WAS STANDING BEFORE A DOZENMahars--the social investigators of Phutra. They askedme many questions, through a Sagoth interpreter.I answered them all truthfully. They seemed particularlyinterested in my account of the outer earth and the strangevehicle which had brought Perry and me to Pellucidar.I thought that I had convinced them, and after they hadsat in silence for a long time following my examination,I expected to be ordered returned to my quarters.

During this apparent silence they were debating throughthe medium of strange, unspoken language the merits ofmy tale. At last the head of the tribunal communicatedthe result of their conference to the officer in chargeof the Sagoth guard.

"Come," he said to me, "you are sentenced to theexperimental pits for having dared to insult theintelligence of the mighty ones with the ridiculoustale you have had the temerity to unfold to them."

"Do you mean that they do not believe me?" I asked,totally astonished.

"Believe you!" he laughed. "Do you mean to say that youexpected any one to believe so impossible a lie?"

It was hopeless, and so I walked in silence beside myguard down through the dark corridors and runways towardmy awful doom. At a low level we came upon a numberof lighted chambers in which we saw many Mahars engagedin various occupations. To one of these chambers my guardescorted me, and before leaving they chained me to aside wall. There were other humans similarly chained.Upon a long table lay a victim even as I was usheredinto the room. Several Mahars stood about the poorcreature holding him down so that he could not move.Another, grasping a sharp knife with her three-toedfore foot, was laying open the victim's chest and abdomen.No anesthetic had been administered and the shrieksand groans of the tortured man were terrible to hear.This, indeed, was vivisection with a vengeance.Cold sweat broke out upon me as I realized that soon my turnwould come. And to think that where there was no suchthing as time I might easily imagine that my sufferingwas enduring for months before death finally released me!

The Mahars had paid not the slightest attention to meas I had been brought into the room. So deeply immersedwere they in their work that I am sure they didnot even know that the Sagoths had entered with me.The door was close by. Would that I could reach it!But those heavy chains precluded any such possibility.I looked about for some means of escape from my bonds.Upon the floor between me and the Mahars lay a tinysurgical instrument which one of them must have dropped.It looked not unlike a button-hook, but was much smaller,and its point was sharpened. A hundred times in my boyhooddays had I picked locks with a buttonhook. Could I butreach that little bit of polished steel I might yet effectat least a temporary escape.

Crawling to the limit of my chain, I found that byreaching one hand as far out as I could my fingersstill fell an inch short of the coveted instrument.It was tantalizing! Stretch every fiber of my beingas I would, I could not quite make it.

At last I turned about and extended one foot towardthe object. My heart came to my throat! I could justtouch the thing! But suppose that in my effort to drag ittoward me I should accidentally shove it still fartheraway and thus entirely out of reach! Cold sweat brokeout upon me from every pore. Slowly and cautiously Imade the effort. My toes dropped upon the cold metal.Gradually I worked it toward me until I felt that it waswithin reach of my hand and a moment later I had turnedabout and the precious thing was in my grasp.

Assiduously I fell to work upon the Mahar lock that heldmy chain. It was pitifully simple. A child might havepicked it, and a moment later I was free. The Maharswere now evidently completing their work at the table.One already turned away and was examining other victims,evidently with the intention of selecting the next subject.

Those at the table had their backs toward me. But for thecreature walking toward us I might have escaped that moment.Slowly the thing approached me, when its attention wasattracted by a huge slave chained a few yards to my right.Here the reptile stopped and commenced to go over the poordevil carefully, and as it did so its back turned toward mefor an instant, and in that instant I gave two mighty leapsthat carried me out of the chamber into the corridor beyond,down which I raced with all the speed I could command.

Where I was, or whither I was going, I knew not.My only thought was to place as much distance as possiblebetween me and that frightful chamber of torture.

Presently I reduced my speed to a brisk walk, and laterrealizing the danger of running into some new predicament,were I not careful, I moved still more slowly and cautiously.After a time I came to a passage that seemed in somemysterious way familiar to me, and presently, chancing toglance within a chamber which led from the corridor I sawthree Mahars curled up in slumber upon a bed of skins.I could have shouted aloud in joy and relief. It wasthe same corridor and the same Mahars that I had intendedto have lead so important a role in our escape from Phutra.Providence had indeed been kind to me, for the reptilesstill slept.

My one great danger now lay in returning to the upperlevels in search of Perry and Ghak, but there was nothingelse to be done, and so I hastened upward. When I cameto the frequented portions of the building, I found a largeburden of skins in a corner and these I lifted to my head,carrying them in such a way that ends and corners felldown about my shoulders completely hiding my face.Thus disguised I found Perry and Ghak together in thechamber where we had been wont to eat and sleep.

Both were glad to see me, it was needless to say, though ofcourse they had known nothing of the fate that had beenmeted out to me by my judges. It was decided that no timeshould now be lost before attempting to put our plan ofescape to the test, as I could not hope to remain hiddenfrom the Sagoths long, nor could I forever carry that baleof skins about upon my head without arousing suspicion.However it seemed likely that it would carry me oncemore safely through the crowded passages and chambersof the upper levels, and so I set out with Perry andGhak--the stench of the illy cured pelts fairly choking me.

Together we repaired to the first tier of corridors beneaththe main floor of the buildings, and here Perry and Ghakhalted to await me. The buildings are cut out of the solidlimestone formation. There is nothing at all remarkable abouttheir architecture. The rooms are sometimes rectangular,sometimes circular, and again oval in shape. The corridorswhich connect them are narrow and not always straight.The chambers are lighted by diffused sunlight reflectedthrough tubes similar to those by which the avenuesare lighted. The lower the tiers of chambers, the darker.Most of the corridors are entirely unlighted. The Maharscan see quite well in semidarkness.

Down to the main floor we encountered many Mahars,Sagoths, and slaves; but no attention was paid to us as wehad become a part of the domestic life of the building.There was but a single entrance leading from the placeinto the avenue and this was well guarded by Sagoths--thisdoorway alone were we forbidden to pass. It is truethat we were not supposed to enter the deeper corridorsand apartments except on special occasions when we wereinstructed to do so; but as we were considered a lowerorder without intelligence there was little reasonto fear that we could accomplish any harm by so doing,and so we were not hindered as we entered the corridorwhich led below.

Wrapped in a skin I carried three swords, and the two bows,and the arrows which Perry and I had fashioned.As many slaves bore skin-wrapped burdens to and fro my loadattracted no comment. Where I left Ghak and Perry therewere no other creatures in sight, and so I withdrew one swordfrom the package, and leaving the balance of the weaponswith Perry, started on alone toward the lower levels.

Having come to the apartment in which the three Mahars sleptI entered silently on tiptoe, forgetting that the creatureswere without the sense of hearing. With a quick thrustthrough the heart I disposed of the first but my secondthrust was not so fortunate, so that before I could killthe next of my victims it had hurled itself against the third,who sprang quickly up, facing me with wide-distended jaws.But fighting is not the occupation which the raceof Mahars loves, and when the thing saw that I alreadyhad dispatched two of its companions, and that my swordwas red with their blood, it made a dash to escape me.But I was too quick for it, and so, half hopping,half flying, it scurried down another corridor with meclose upon its heels.

Its escape meant the utter ruin of our plan, and in allprobability my instant death. This thought lent wingsto my feet; but even at my best I could do no more thanhold my own with the leaping thing before me.

Of a sudden it turned into an apartment on the rightof the corridor, and an instant later as I rushedin I found myself facing two of the Mahars. The onewho had been there when we entered had been occupiedwith a number of metal vessels, into which had been putpowders and liquids as I judged from the array of flasksstanding about upon the bench where it had been working.In an instant I realized what I had stumbled upon.It was the very room for the finding of which Perry hadgiven me minute directions. It was the buried chamberin which was hidden the Great Secret of the race of Mahars.And on the bench beside the flasks lay the skin-bound bookwhich held the only copy of the thing I was to have sought,after dispatching the three Mahars in their sleep.

There was no exit from the room other than the doorwayin which I now stood facing the two frightful reptiles.Cornered, I knew that they would fight like demons,and they were well equipped to fight if fight they must.Together they launched themselves upon me, and though I ranone of them through the heart on the instant, the otherfastened its gleaming fangs about my sword arm abovethe elbow, and then with her sharp talons commenced to rakeme about the body, evidently intent upon disemboweling me.I saw that it was useless to hope that I might releasemy arm from that powerful, viselike grip which seemedto be severing my arm from my body. The pain I sufferedwas intense, but it only served to spur me to greaterefforts to overcome my antagonist.

Back and forth across the floor we struggled--the Mahardealing me terrific, cutting blows with her fore feet,while I attempted to protect my body with my left hand,at the same time watching for an opportunity to transfermy blade from my now useless sword hand to its rapidlyweakening mate. At last I was successful, and with whatseemed to me my last ounce of strength I ran the bladethrough the ugly body of my foe.

Soundless, as it had fought, it died, and though weak frompain and loss of blood, it was with an emotion of triumphantpride that I stepped across its convulsively stiffeningcorpse to snatch up the most potent secret of a world.A single glance assured me it was the very thing thatPerry had described to me.

And as I grasped it did I think of what it meant to thehuman race of Pellucidar--did there flash through mymind the thought that countless generations of my ownkind yet unborn would have reason to worship me for thething that I had accomplished for them? I did not.I thought of a beautiful oval face, gazing out oflimpid eyes, through a waving mass of jet-black hair.I thought of red, red lips, God-made for kissing.And of a sudden, apropos of nothing, standing therealone in the secret chamber of the Mahars of Pellucidar,I realized that I loved Dian the Beautiful.