Adventure Books
14 - At The Earth's Core - Edgar Rice Burroughs
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- Duration:
- 36m
- Broadcast on:
- 02 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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With no heavenly guide, it is little wonder that I became confused and lost in the liberating maze of those mighty hills. What in reality I did was to pass entirely through them and come out above the valley upon the farther side. I know that I wandered for a long time. Until tired and hungry I came upon a small cave in the face of the limestone formation, which had taken the place of the granite farther back. The cave which took my fancy lay halfway up the precipitous side of a lofty cliff. The way to it was such that I knew no extremely formidable beast could frequent it, nor was it large enough to make a comfortable habitat for any but the smaller mammals or reptiles. Yet it was with the utmost caution that I crawled within its dark interior. Here I found a rather large chamber, lighted by a narrow cleft in the rock above, which let the sunlight filter in and sufficient quantities partially to dispel the utter darkness which I had expected. The cave was entirely empty, nor were there any signs of its having been recently occupied. The opening was comparatively small, so that after considerable effort I was able to lug up a boulder from the valley below which entirely blocked it. Then I returned again to the valley for an armful of grasses and on this trip was fortunate enough to knock over an orthopi, the diminutive horse of Palucidar, a little animal about the size of a fox terrier which abounds in all parts of the inner world. Thus with food and bedding I returned to my lair, or after a meal of raw meat, to which I had now become quite accustomed, I dragged the boulder before the entrance and curled myself up upon a bed of grasses, a naked, primeval caveman, as savagely primitive as my prehistoric progenitors. I awoke rusted but hungry, and pushing the boulder aside crawled out on the little rocky shelf which was my front porch. Before me spread a small but beautiful valley, through the centre of which a clear and sparkling river wound its way down to an inland sea, the blue waters of which were just visible between the two mountain ranges which embraced this little paradise. The sides of the opposite hills were green with verdour, for a great forest clothed them, to the foot of the red and yellow and copper green of the towering crags which formed their summit. The valley itself was carpeted with a luxuriant grass, where herein their patches of wildflowers made great splashes of vivid colour against the prevailing green. Dotted over the face of this valley were little clusters of palm-like trees, three or four together as a rule, beneath these stood antelope, while others grazed in the open, or wandered gracefully to a nearby fort to drink. There were several species of this beautiful animal, the most magnificent somewhat resembling the giant island of Africa, except that their spiral horns form a complete curve backward over their ears, and then forward again beneath them, ending in sharp and formidable points, some two feet before the face and above the eyes. In size they remained one of a purebred hereford bull, yet they were very agile and fast. The broad yellow bands that striped the dark roan of their coats made me take them for zebra when I first saw them. All in all there are handsome animals, and added the finishing touch to the strange and lovely landscape that spread before my new home. I had determined to make the cave my headquarters, and with it as a base make systematic exploration of the surrounding country in search of the land of Sarri. First I devoured the remainder of the carcass of the orthopi I had killed before my last sleep. Then I hid the great secret and a deep niche at the back of my cave, rolled the boulder before my front door, and with bow arrows, sword, and shield, scrambled down into the peaceful valley. The grazing herds moved to one side as I passed through them, the little orthopi evincing the greatest weariness and galloping to safest distances. All of the animals stopped feeding as I approached, and after moving to what they considered a safe distance stood contemplating me with serious eyes and upcocked ears. Once one of the old bull antelopes of the striped species lowered his head and bellowed angrily, even taking a few steps in my direction so that I thought he meant to charge. And after I had passed he resumed feeding as though nothing had disturbed him. Near the lower end of the valley I passed a number of tapers and across the river I saw a great sadok, the enormous double-horned progenitor of the modern rhinoceros. At the valley's end the cliffs upon the left ran out into the sea, so that to pass around them as I desired to do it was necessary to scale them in search of a ledge along which I might continue my journey. From fifty feet from the base I came upon a projection which formed a natural path along the face of the cliff, and this I followed out over the sea toward the cliff's end. Here the ledge inclined rapidly upward toward the top of the cliffs. The stratum which formed it evidently having been forced up at this steep angle when the mountains behind it were born. As I climbed carefully up the ascent my attention suddenly was attracted aloft by the sound of strange hissing and what resembled the flapping of wings. But at the first glance there broke upon my horrified vision the most frightful thing I had seen, even within Pulucidar. It was a giant dragon such as his pictured in the legends and fairy tales of earth folk. Its huge body must have measured forty feet in length, while the bat-like wings that supported it in midair had a spread of fully thirty. Its gaping jaws were armed with long sharp teeth and its claw equipped with horrible talons. The hissing noise which had first attracted my attention was issuing from its throat and seemed to be directed at something beyond and below me which I could not see. The ledge upon which I stood terminated abruptly a few paces farther on, and as I reached the end I saw the cause of the reptile's agitation. Some time in past ages an earthquake had produced a fault at this point so that beyond the spot where I stood the strata had slipped down a matter of twenty feet. The result was that the continuation of my ledge lay twenty feet below me, where it ended as abruptly as it did the end upon which I stood. And here evidently halted in flight by this insurmountable break in the ledge, stood the object of the creature's attack, a girl cowering upon the narrow platform, her face buried in her arms, as though to shut out the sight of the frightful death which hovered just above her. The dragon was circling lower and seemed about to dart in upon its prey. There was no time to be lost, scarce an instant in which to weigh the possible chances that I had against the awfully armed creature, but the sight of that frightened girl below me called out to all that was best in me and the instinct for protection of the other sex, which nearly must have equalled the instinct of self-preservation in primeval man, drew me to the girl's side like an irresistible magnet. Almost thoughtless of the consequences I leaped from the end of the ledge upon which I stood for the tiny shelf twenty feet below. At the same instant the dragon darted in toward the girl, but my sudden advent upon the scene must have startled him for he veered to one side, and then rose above us once more. The noise I made as I landed beside her convinced the girl that the end had come, for she thought I was the dragon, but finally when no cruel fangs closed upon her she raised her eyes in astonishment. As they fell upon me the expression that came into them would be difficult to describe, but her feelings could scarcely have been one wit more complicated than my own, where the wide eyes that looked into mine were those of Diane the beautiful. "Diane!" I cried. "Diane, thank God that I came in time. You!" she whispered, and then she hid her face again, nor could I tell whether she were glad or angry that I had come. Once more the dragon was sweeping toward us, and so rapidly that I had no time to unsling my bow. All that I could do was to snatch up a rock and hurl it at the thing s hideous face. Again my aim was true, and with a hiss of pain and rage, the reptile wheeled once more and soared away. Quickly I fitted an arrow now that I might be ready at the next attack, and as I did so I looked down at the girl so that I surprised her in a surreptitious glance which she was stealing at me, but immediately she again covered her face with her hands. Look at me Diane, I pleaded. "Are you not glad to see me?" she looked straight into my eyes. "I hate," she said, and then as I was about to beg for a fair hearing she pointed over my shoulder. "The thriftar comes," she said, and I turned again to meet the reptile. So this was a thriftar. I might have known it. The cruel bloodhound of the Mayhars, the long extinct pterodactyl of the outer world. But this time I met it with a weapon it had never faced before. I had selected my longest arrow, and with all my strength I had bent the bow until the very tip of the shaft rested upon the thumb of my left hand, and then as the great creature darted toward us I let drive straight for that tough breast, hissing like the escaped valve of a steam engine the mighty creature fell turning and twisting into the sea below. My arrow buried completely in its carcass. I turned toward the girl. She was looking past me. It was evident that she had seen the thriftar die. "Diane," I said, "won't you tell me that you are not sorry that I have found you? I hate you," was her only reply. But I imagined that there was less vehemence in it than before, yet it might have been but my imagination. "Why do you hate me, Diane?" I asked, but she did not answer me. "What are you doing here?" I asked. "And what has happened to you since Huja freed you from the segoths? At first I thought that she was going to ignore me entirely, but finally she thought better of it. I was again running away from Jubal the ugly one," she said. After I escaped from the segoths I made my way alone back to my own land, but on account of Jubal I did not dare enter the villages or let any of my friends know that I had returned for fear that Jubal might find out. By watching for a long time I found that my brother had not yet returned, and so I continued to live in a cave beside a valley which my race seldom frequents, awaiting the time that he should come back and free me from Jubal. But at last one of Jubal's hunters saw me as I was creeping toward my father's cave to see if my brother had yet returned and he gave the alarm and Jubal set out after me. He has been pursuing me across many lands. He cannot be far behind me now. When he comes he will kill you and carry me back to his cave. He is a terrible man. I have gone as far as I can go and there is no escape, and she looked hopelessly up at the continuation of the ledge twenty feet above us. But he shall not have me, she suddenly cried with great vehemence. The sea is there, she pointed over the edge of the cliff, and the sea shall have me rather than Jubal. "But I have you now, Diane," I cried, "nor shall Jubal, nor any other have you, for you are mine, and I seized her hand, nor did I lift it above her head and let it fall in and token of release. She had risen to her feet and was looking straight into my eyes with level gaze. I do not believe you," she said. "For if you meant it, you would have done this when the others were present to witness it. Then I should truly have been your mate. Now there is no one to see you do it, for you know that without witnesses your act does not bind you to me." And she withdrew her hand from mine and turned away. I tried to convince her that I was sincere, but she simply couldn't forget the humiliation that I had put upon her on that other occasion. "If you mean all that you say, you will have ample chance to prove it," she said. "If Jubal does not catch and kill you, I am in your power, and the treatment you accord me will be the best proof of your intentions toward me. I am not your mate, and again I tell you that I hate you, and that I should be glad if I never saw you again." Diane certainly was candid. There was no gain saying that. In fact, I found candor and directness to be quite a market characteristic of cavemen of Palucidar, finally I suggested that we make some attempt to gain my cave, where we might escape the searching Jubal, for I am free to admit that I had no considerable desire to meet the formidable and ferocious creature of whose mighty prowess Diane had told me when I first met her. He it was who armed with a puny knife had met and killed a cave bear in a hand-to-hand struggle. It was Jubal who could cast his spear entirely through the armored carcass of the Seydock at fifty paces. It was he who had crushed the skull of a charging diarith with a single blow of his war club. No, I was not pining to meet the ugly one, and it was quite certain that I should not go out and hunt for him, but the matter was taken out of my hands very quickly, as is often the way, and I did meet Jubal the ugly one face to face. This is how it happened. I had led Diane back along the ledge the way she had come, searching for a path that would lead us to the top of the cliff, for I knew that we could then cross over to the edge of my own little valley, where I felt certain that we should find a means of ingress from the cliff-top. As we proceeded along the ledge I gave Diane my newt directions for finding my cave against the chance of something happening to me. I knew that she would be quite safely hidden away from pursuit once she gained the shelter of my lair, and that the valley would afford her ample means of sustenance. Also I was very much piqued by her treatment of me. My heart was sad and heavy, and I wanted to make her feel badly by suggesting that something terrible might happen to me, that I might in fact be killed, but it didn't work worth a cent, at least as far as I could perceive. Diane simply shrugged those magnificent shoulders of hers and murmured something to the effect that one was not rid of trouble so easily as that. For a while I kept still, I was utterly squelched, and to think that I had twice protected her from attack, the last time risking my life to save hers. It was incredible that even a daughter of the Stone Age could be so ungrateful, so heartless. But maybe her heart partook of the qualities of her epic. Presently we found a rift in the cliff, which had been widened and extended by the action of the water draining through it from the plateau above. It gave us a rather rough climb to the summit, but finally we stood upon the level mesa which stretched back for several miles to the mountain range. Behind us lay the broad inland sea, curving upward in the horizonless distance to merge into the blue of the sky, so that for all the world it looked as though the sea lapped back to arch completely over us and disappear beyond the distant mountains at our backs, the weird and uncanny aspect of the seascapes of palucidar bulk description. At our right lay a dense forest, but to the left the country was open and clear to the plateau's farther verge. It was in this direction that our way led, and we had turned to resume our journey when Diane touched my arm. I turned to her, thinking that she was about to make peace overtures, but I was mistaken. "Jubal," she said, and nodded toward the forest. I looked, and there, emerging from the dense wood, came a perfect whale of a man. He must have been seven feet tall and proportioned accordingly. He still was too far off to distinguish his features. "Run," I said to Diane, "I can engage him until you get a good start. Maybe we can hold him until you have gotten entirely away." And then, without a backward glance, I advanced to meet the ugly one. I had hoped that Diane would have a kind word to say to me before she went. For she must have known that I was going to my death for her sake. But she never even so much as bid me good-bye, and it was with a heavy heart that I strode through the flower-bus-bangled grass to my doom. When I had come close enough to Jubal to distinguish his features, I understood how it was that he had earned the sober-kay of ugly one. Apparently some fearful beast had ripped away one entire side of his face. The eye was gone, the nose, and all the flesh. So that his jaws and all his teeth were exposed and grinning through the horrible scar. Formally he may have been as good to look upon as the others of his handsome race, and it may be that the terrible result of this encounter had tended to sour an already strong and brutal character. However, this may be, it is quite certain that he was not a pretty sight, and now that his features, or what remained of them, were distorted in rage at the sight of Diane with another male, he was indeed most terrible to see, and much more terrible to meet. He had broken into a run now, and as he advanced he raised his mighty spear while I halted and fitting an arrow to my bow, took as steady aim as I could. I was somewhat longer than usual, for I must confess that the sight of his awful man had wrought upon my nerves to such an extent that my knees were anything but steady. What chance had I against this mighty warrior for whom even the fiercest cave-bear had no terrors? Could I hope to best one who slaughtered the sadock, and direth single-handed? I shuddered, but in fairness to myself my fear was more for Diane than for my own fate, and then the great brute lunched his massive stone-tipped spear, and I raised my shield to break the force of its terrific velocity. The impact hurled me to my knees, but the shield had deflected the missile, and I was unscathed. Jubal was rushing upon me now with the only remaining weapon that he carried, a murderous looking knife. He was too close for a careful bow shot, but I let drive at him as he came, without taking aim. My arrow pierced the fleshy part of his thigh, inflicting a painful but not disabling wound, and then he was upon me. My agility saved me, for the instant, I ducked behind his raised arm, and when he wheeled to come at me again he found a sword's point in his face, and a moment later he felt an inch or two of it in the muscles of his knife arm, so that thereafter he went more warrally. It was a duel of strategy now, the great hairy man maneuvering to get inside my guard, where he could bring those giant thieves to play while my wits were directed to the task of keeping him at arm's length. Thrice, he rushed me, and thrice I caught his knife blow upon my shield. Each time my sword found his body, once penetrating to his lung, he was covered with blood by this time, and the internal hemorrhage induced paroxysms of coughing that brought the red stream to the hideous mouth and nose, covering his face and breast with bloody froth. He was a most unlovely spectacle, but he was far from dead. As the duel continued I began to gain confidence for it to be perfectly candid, I had not expected to survive the first rush of that monstrous engine of ungoverned rage and hatred. And I think that Jubal, from utter contempt of me, began to change to a feeling of respect, and then in his primitive mind there evidently loomed the thought that perhaps at last he had met his master and was facing his end. At any rate it is only upon this hypothesis that I can account for his next act, which was in the nature of a last resort, a sword of forlorn hope which could only have been born of the belief that if he did not kill me quickly, I should kill him. It happened on the occasion of his fourth charge, when instead of striking at me with his knife, he dropped that weapon, and seizing my sword blade in both his hands, wrenched the weapon from my grasp as easily as from a babe, flinging it far to one side he stood motionless for just an instant, glaring into my face with such a horrid leer of malignant triumph as to almost unnerved me. Then he sprang for me with his bare hands, but it was Jubal's day to learn new methods of warfare. For the first time he had seen a bow and arrows, never before that duel had he beheld a sword, and now he learned what a man who knows may do with his bare fists. As he came for me, like a great bear, I ducked again beneath his outstretched arm, and as I came up, planted as clean a blow upon his jaws, ever you have seen. Down went that great mountain of flesh sprawling upon the ground. He was so surprised in days that he lay there for several seconds before he made any attempt to rise, and I stood over him with another dose ready when he should gain his knees. Up he came at last, almost roaring in his rage and mortification, but he didn't stay up. I let him have a left fare on the point of the jaw that sent him tumbling over on his back. By this time I think Jubal had gone mad with hate, for no sane man would have come back for more as many times as he did. Time after time I bowled him over as fast as he could stagger up, until, toward the last, he lay longer on the ground between blows, and each time came up weaker than before. He was bleeding very profusely now, from the wound in his lungs, and presently a terrific blow over the heart sent him reeling heavily to the ground, where he lay very still, and somehow I knew at once that Jubal the ugly one would never get up again. But even as I looked upon that massive body lying there so grim and terrible in death, I could not believe that I, single-handed, had bested this slayer of fearful beasts, this gigantic ogre of the Stone Age. Picking up my sword, I leaned upon it, looking down on the dead body of my Fomen, and as I thought of the battle I had just fought, and won, a great idea was born in my brain. The outcome of this, and the suggestion that Perry had made within the city of Futra. If skill and science could render a comparative pygmy, the master of this mighty Brute, what could not the Brute's fellows accomplish with the same skill and science? Why all palucidar would be at their feet, and I would be their king, and Diane their queen. Diane, a little wave of doubt swept over me. It was quite within the possibilities of Diane to look down upon me even where I king. She was quite the most superior person I had ever met, with the most convincing way of letting you know that she was superior, while I could go up to the cave and tell her that I had killed Jubal, and then she might feel more kindly toward me, since I had freed her of her tormentor. I hoped that she had found the cave easily, it would be terrible had I lost her again, and I turned to gather up my shield and bow to hurry after her, went to my astonishment, I found her standing not ten paces behind me. Girl, I cried, what are you doing here? I thought that you had gone to the cave as I told you to do. Up went her head, and the look that she gave me took all the majesty out of me, and left me feeling more like the palace janitor, if palaces have janitors. As you told me to do she cried, stamping her little foot. I do as I please, I am the daughter of a king, and furthermore I hate you. I was dumbfounded, this was my thanks for saving her from Jubal. I turned and looked at the corpse. I see that I save you from a worse fate old man, I said, but I guess it was lost on Diane, for she never seemed to notice it at all. Let us go to my cave, I said. I am tired and hungry. She followed along a pace behind me, neither of us speaking. I was too angry, and she evidently didn't care to converse with the lower orders. I was mad all the way through, as I had certainly felt that at least a word of thanks should have rewarded me, for I knew that even by her own standards I must have done a very wonderful thing to have killed the redoubtable Jubal in a hand-to-hand encounter. We had no difficulty in finding my lair, and then I went down into the valley and bowled over a small antelope, which I dragged up the steep ascent to the ledge before the door. Here we ate in silence. Occasionally I glanced at her, thinking that the sight of her tearing at raw flesh with her hands and teeth like some wild animal would cause a revulsion of my sentiments toward her, but to my surprise I found that she ate quite as daintily as the most civilized woman of my acquaintance, and I finally found myself gazing in foolish rapture at the beauty's very strong white teeth, such as love. After our repast we went down to the river together and bathed our hands and faces, and then after drinking our fill went back to the cave. Without a word I crawled into the farthest corner, and curling up was soon asleep. When I awoke I found Diane sitting in the doorway looking out across the valley. As I came out she moved to one side to let me pass, but she had no word for me. I wanted to hate her, but I couldn't. Every time I looked at her something came up in my throat, so that I nearly choked. I had never been in love before, but I did not need any aid in diagnosing my case. I certainly had it and had it bad. God how I loved that beautiful, disdainful, tantalizing, prehistoric girl. After we had eaten again I asked Diane if she intended, returning to her tribe now that Jubal was dead, but she shook her head sadly, and said that she did not dare for there was still Jubal's brother to be considered, his oldest brother. What is he to do with it, I asked? Does he too want you, or has the option on you become a family heirloom to be passed down from generation to generation? She was not quite sure as to what I meant. It is probable, she said, that they all will want revenge for the death of Jubal. There are seven of them, seven terrible men. Someone may have to kill them all if I am to return to my people. It began to look as though I had assumed a contract much too large for me. About seven sizes, in fact. Had Jubal any cousins, I asked? It was just as well to know the worst at once. Yes, replied Diane, but they do not count. They all have mates. Jubal's brothers have no mates because Jubal could get none for himself. He was so ugly that women ran away from him. Some have even thrown themselves from the cliffs of Amaz into the Darrel Az, rather than mate with the ugly one. But what had that to do with his brothers, I asked? I forget that you are not of Palucidar, said Diane, with a look of pity mixed with contempt. And the contempt seemed to be laid on a little thicker than the circumstance warranted as though to make quite certain that I shouldn't overlook it. You see, she continued, a younger brother may not take a mate until all his older brothers have done so, unless the older brother waves his prerogative, which Jubal would not do, knowing that as long as he kept them single, they would be all the keener in aiding him to secure a mate. Noticing that Diane was becoming more communicative, I began to entertain hopes that she might be warming up toward me a bit. Although upon what slender thread I hung my hopes I soon discovered, as you dare not return to Amaz, I ventured, what has to become of you since you cannot be happy here with me, hating me as you do? I shall have to put up with you, she replied coldly, until you see fit to go elsewhere and leave me in peace, then I shall get along very well alone. I looked at her in utter amazement. It seemed incredible that even a prehistoric woman could be so cold and heartless and ungrateful. Then I arose. "I shall leave you now," I said haughtily, "I have had quite enough of your ingratitude and your insults." And then I turned and strode majestically down toward the valley. I had taken a hundred steps in absolute silence, and then Diane spoke. "I hate you," she shouted, "and her voice broke in rage," I thought. I was absolutely miserable, but I hadn't gone too far when I began to realize that I couldn't leave her alone there without protection to hunt her own food amid the dangers of that savage world. She might hate me and revile me, and heap in dignity after indignity upon me, as she already had, until I should have hated her. But the pitiful factor made that I loved her, and I couldn't leave her there alone. The more I thought about it, the matter I got, so that by the time I reached the valley I was furious, and the result of it was that I turned right around and went up that cliff again as fast as I had come down. I saw that Diane had left the ledge and gone within the cave, but I bolted right in after her. She was lying upon her face on the pile of grasses I had gathered for her bed. When she heard me enter, she sprang to her feet like a Tigris. "I hate you," she cried, coming from the brilliant light of the noonday sun into the semi-darkness of the cave I could not see her features, and I was rather glad for I disliked to think of the hate that I should have read there. I never said a word to her at first. I just strode across the cave and grasped her by the wrists, and when she struggled I put my arm around her so as to pinion her hands to her sides. She fought like a Tigris, but I took my free hand and pushed her head back. I imagined that I had suddenly turned brute, that I had gone back a thousand million years and was again a veritable caveman taking my mate by force, and then I kissed that beautiful mouth again and again. "Dan," I cried, shaking her roughly, "I love you. Can't you understand that I love you? That I love you better than all else in this world or my own? That I am going to have you? That love like mine cannot be denied?" I noticed that she lay very still in my arms now, and as my eyes became accustomed to the light I saw that she was smiling, a very contented, happy smile. I was thunderstruck, then I realized that very gently she was trying to disengage her arms, and I loosened my grip upon them so that she could do so. Slowly they came up and stole about my neck, and then she drew my lips down to hers once more and held them there for a long time. At last she spoke. "Why didn't you do this at first, David? I have been waiting for so long." "What?" I cried. "You said that you hated me." "Did you expect me to run into your arms and say that I loved you before I knew that you loved me?" She asked. "But I have told you right along that I love you." I said. "Love speaks in acts," she replied. "You could have made your mouth say what you wished it to say, but just now when you came and took me in your arms your hearts spoke to mine in the language that a woman's heart understands." "What a silly man you are, David." "Then you haven't hated me at all, Diane?" I asked. "I have loved you always," she whispered, "from the moment that I saw you, although I did not know it until that time you struck down Huja the sly one. And then spurned me. But I didn't spurn you, dear," I cried. "I didn't know your ways. I doubt if I do now. It seems incredible that you could have reviled me so, and yet have cared for me all the time. You might have known," she said, "when I did not run away from you, that it was not hate which chained me to you. While you were battling with Jubal I could have run to the edge of the forest, and when I learned the outcome of the combat, it would have been a simple thing to have eluded you and returned to my own people. But Jubal's brothers and cousins," I reminded her, "how about them?" She smiled and hid her face on my shoulder. "I had to tell you something, David," she whispered. "I must need to have some excuse for remaining near you." "You little sinner," I exclaimed, "and you have caused me all this anguish for nothing. I have suffered even more," she answered simply, "for I thought that you did not love me and I was helpless. I couldn't come to you in demand that my love be returned as you have just come to me. Just now when you went away, hope went with you. I was wretched, terrified, miserable, and my heart was breaking. I wept, and I had not done that before since my mother died. And now I saw that there was the moisture of tears about her eyes. It was near to making me cry myself when I thought of all that poor child had been through. Motherless and unprotected, hunted across a savage, primeval world by that hideous brute of a man, exposed to the attacks of the countless fearsome denizens of its mountains, its plains, and its jungles. It was a miracle that she had survived at all. To me it was a revelation of the things my early forebears must have endured that the human race of the outer crust must survive. It made me very proud to think that I had won the love of such a woman. Of course she couldn't read or write. There was nothing cultured or refined about her as you judge culture and refinement, but she was the essence of all that is best in woman, for she was good and brave and noble and virtuous. And she was all these things in spite of the fact that their observance entailed suffering and danger and possible death. How much easier it would have been to have gone to Jewell in the first place. She would have been his lawful mate. She would have been queen in her own land, and it meant just as much to the cavewoman to be a queen in the Stone Age as it does to the woman of today to be a queen now. That's all comparative glory any way you look at it, and if there were only half-naked savages on the outer crust today you'd find that it would be considerable glory to be the wife of a de homie chief. I couldn't help but compare Diane's action with that of a splendid young woman I had known in New York. I mean splendid to look at and talk to. She had been head over heels in love with a chum of mine, a clean manly chap, but she had married a broken-down, disreputable old débace because he was a count in some dinky little European principality that was not even accorded a distinctive color by Rand McNally. Yes, I was mighty proud of Diane. After a time we decided to set out for Sarri, as I was anxious to see Perry, and to know that all was right with him. I had told Diane about our plan of emancipating the human race of Palucidar, and she was fairly wild over it. She said that if Dachor, her brother, would only return, he could easily be king of Amos, and that then he and Gak could form an alliance. That would give us a flying start, for the Sarians and the Amazites were both very powerful tribes. Once they had been armed with swords and bows and arrows, and trained in their use, we were confident that they could overcome any tribe that seemed disinclined to join the great army of federated states, with which we were planning to march upon the Mayhars. I explained the various destructive engines of war which Perry and I could construct after a little experimentation, gunpowder, rifles, cannon and the like, and Diane would clap her hands and throw her arms about my neck, and tell me what a wonderful thing I was. She was beginning to think that I was omnipotent, although I really hadn't done anything but talk. But that is the way with women when they love. Perry used to say that if a fellow was one-tenth as remarkable as his wife or mother thought him, he would have the world by the tail with the downhill drag. The first time we started for Sarri, I stepped into a nest of poisonous vipers before we reached the valley. A little fellow stung me on the ankle and Diane made me come back to the cave. She said that I mustn't exercise or it might prove fatal. If it had been a full-grown snake that struck me, she said, I wouldn't have moved a single pace from the nest. I'd have died in my tracks so virulent as the poison, as it was I must have been laid up for quite a while, though Diane's pultuses of herbs and leaves finally reduced the swelling and drew out the poison. The episode proved most fortunate, however, as it gave me an idea, which added a thousand fold to the value of my arrows as missiles of offense and defense. As soon as I was able to be about again, I sought out some adult vipers of the species which had stung me, and having killed them I extracted their virus, smearing it upon the tips of several arrows. Later I shot a hyenodon with one of these, and though my arrow inflicted but a superficial flesh wound, the beast crumpled in death almost immediately after he was hit. We now set out once more for the land of the Sarians, and it was with feelings of sincere regret that we bade good-bye to our beautiful Garden of Eden, in the comparative peace and harmony of which we had lived at the happiest moments of our lives. How long we had been there I did not know, for as I have told you, time had ceased to exist for me beneath that eternal noon-day sun, it may have been an hour or a month of earthly time, I do not know. Hey there, listeners. Are you ready to unlock a world of captivating stories, soothing sounds, and enlightening lectures? At Solgood Media, we believe in the power of audio to enrich your life, and now we're offering you a chance to experience it all for free. For a limited time, you can get a one-month free trial to our premium, ad-free service. Imagine having unlimited access to over 500 audiobooks, meditative sounds, and exclusive shows, all at your fingertips. Just head over to solgoodmedia.com and sign up to start your free trial today. No ads, no interruptions, just pure, immersive audio content. Don't miss out. From your listening experience with Solgood Media, visit solgoodmedia.com and start your free trial now. We can't wait for you to join our audio community. Happy listening. [MUSIC]