Adventure Books

06 - At The Earth's Core - Edgar Rice Burroughs

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Duration:: 14m
Broadcast on:: 24 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

>> Save on O'Reilly Break Parts Cleaner. Get two cans of O'Reilly Break Parts Cleaner for just $8. Ballad in store only at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Is your vehicle stopping like it should? Does it squeal or grind when you break? Don't miss out on summer break deals at O'Reilly Auto Parts. >> Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly Auto Parts. >> Chapter 6, The Beginning of Horror. Within Polycidar one time is as good as another. There were no nights to mask our attempt to escape. All must be done in broad daylight. All but the work I had to do in the apartment beneath the building. So we determined to put our plan to an immediate test, lest the May hairs who made it possible should awake before I reached them. But we were doomed to disappoint, for no sooner had we reached the main floor of the building on our way to the pits beneath, than we encountered hurrying bands of slaves being hastened under strong segoth guard out of the edifice to the avenue beyond. Other segaths were darting hither and thither in search of other slaves, and the moment that we appeared we were pounced upon and hustled into the line of marching humans. What the purpose or nature of the general exodus we did not know, but presently through the line of captives ran the rumour that two escaped slaves had been recaptured, a man and a woman, and that we were marching to witness their punishment, for the man had killed a segoth of the detachment that had pursued and overtaken them. At the intelligence my heart sprang to my throat, for I assured that the two were of those who escaped in the dark grotto with who did the sly one, and that Diane must be the woman. Gack thought so too, as did Perry. Is there not that we may do to save her, I asked Gack? Not, he replied. Along the crowded avenue we marched, the guards showing unusual cruelty towards us, as though we too had been implicated in the murder of their fellow. The occasion was to serve as an object lesson to all other slaves of the danger and futility of attempted escape, and the fatal consequences of taking the life of a superior being, and so I imagined that segoths felt amply justified in making the entire proceeding as uncomfortable and painful to us as possible. They jabbed us with their spears and struck at us with the hatchets at the least provocation, and at no provocation at all. It was the most uncomfortable half-hour that we spent before we were finally herded through a low entrance into a huge building the center of which was given up to a good-sized arena. Benches surrounded this open space upon three sides, and along the fourth were heaped huge boulders which rose in receding tears toward the roof. At first I couldn't make out the purpose of this mighty pile of rock, unless it were intended as a rough and picturesque background for the scenes which were enacted in the arena before it, but presently, after the wooden benches had been pretty well filled by slaves and segoths, I discovered the purpose of the boulders. For then the Mahars began to file into the enclosure. They marched directly across the arena toward the rocks upon the opposite side, where, spreading their bat-like wings, they rose above the high wall of the pit, settling down upon the boulders above. These were the reserve seats, the boxes, of the elect. Reptiles that they are, the rough surface of a great stone is to them as plush as upholstery to us. Here they lolled, blinking their hideous eyes, and doubtless conversing with one another in their sixth sense, fourth-dimension language. For the first time I beheld their queen. She differed from the others in no feature that was appreciable to my earthly eyes. In fact, all Mahars look alike to me, but when she crossed the arena after the balance of her female subjects had found their boulders, she was preceded by a score of huge sagoths, the largest I had ever seen, and on either side of her waddled a huge thip-dar, while behind came another score of sagoth guardsmen. At the barrier the sagoths clambered up the steep side with truly ape-like agility, while behind them the haughty queen rose upon her wings with her two frightful dragons close behind her. At the barrier the sagoths clambered up the steep side with truly ape-like agility, while behind them the haughty queen rose upon her wings with her two frightful dragons close beside her, and settled down upon the largest boulder of them all in the exact center of that side of the amphitheater which is reserved for the dominant race. Here she squatted a most repulsive and uninteresting queen, though doubtless quite as well assured of her beauty and divine right to rule as the proudest monarch of the outer world. And then the music started, music without sound. The Mahars cannot hear so the drums and fives and horns of earthly bands are unknown among them. The band consists of a score or more, Mahars. It filed out in the center of the arena where the creatures upon the rocks might see it, and they are performed for fifteen or twenty minutes. Their technique consisted in waving their tails and moving their heads in a regular secession of measured movements resulting in a cadence which evidently pleased the eye of the Mahar as the cadence of our own instrumental music cleanses our ears. Sometimes the band took measured steps in unison to one side or the other, or backward and again forward. It all seemed very silly and meaningless to me, but at the end of the first piece the Mahars upon the rocks showed the first indications of enthusiasm that I had seen displayed by the dominant race of Polycidar. They beat their great wings up and down, and smote their rocky perches with their mighty tails until the ground shook. Then the band started another piece, and all was again as silent as the grave. There was one great beauty about Mahar music. If you didn't happen to like a piece that was being played, all you had to do was shut your eyes. When the band had exhausted its repertory, it took wing and settled upon the rocks above and behind the queen. Then the business of the day was on. A man and a woman were pushed into the arena by a couple of segeth guardsmen. I leaned forward in my seat to scrutinize the female, hoping against hope that she might prove to be another, then die in the beautiful. Her back was toward me for a while, and the sight of the great mass of raven hair piled high upon her head filled me with alarm. Presently, a door in one side of the arena wall was open to admit a huge, shaggy, bull-like creature. A boss, whispered Perry excitedly. His kind roamed the outer crust with the cave bare and the mammoth ages and ages ago. We have been carried back a million years, David, to the childhood of a planet. Is it not wondrous? But I saw only the raven hair of a half-naked girl, and my heart stood still in dumb misery at the sight of her. Nor had I any eyes for the wonders of natural history. But for Perry and Gack, I should have leapt to the floor of the arena and shared whatever fate lay in store for this priceless treasure of the Stone Age. With the advent of the boss, they called the thing a "thag" within Palucidar, two spears were tossed into the arena at the feet of the prisoners. It seemed to me that a bean-shooter would have been as effective against the mighty monster as these pitiful weapons. As the animal approached the two, bellowing and pawing the ground with the strength of many earthly bulls, another door directly beneath us was opened, and from it issued the most horrific roar that had ever fallen upon my outraged ears. I could not at first see the beast from which emanated this fearsome challenge, but the sound had the effect of bringing the two victims around with a sudden start, and then I saw the girl's face. She was not Diane. I could have wept for relief. And now, as the two stood frozen in terror, I saw the author of that fearsome sound creeping stealthily into view. It was a huge tiger such as hunted the great boss through the jungle's primeval when the world was young. In contour and markings, it was not unlike the noblest of the Bengals of our own world. But as its dimensions were exaggerated to its colossal proportions, so too were its colorings exaggerated. Its vivid yellows fairly screamed aloud, its whites were as eider-down, its blacks, glossy as the finest anthracite coal, and its coat long and shaggy as a mountain goat. That a disa-beautiful animal there is no gain-saying, but if its size and colors are magnified here within Pulucidar, so is the ferocity of its disposition. It is not the occasional member of our species that is a man-hunter. All are man-hunters, but they do confide their forging to man alone. For there is no flesh or fish within Pulucidar that they will not eat, with relish in the constant efforts, which they make to furnish their huge carcasses with sufficient sustenance to maintain their mighty thews. Upon one side of the doomed pair the fag bellowed in advanced, and upon the other tarrag the frightful crept toward them with gaping mouth and dripping fags. The man seized the spear, handing one of them to the woman. At the sound of the roaring of the tiger the bull's bellowing became a veritable frenzy of rageful noise. Never in my life had I heard such an infernal din as the two brutes made, and to think it was all lost upon the hideous reptiles for whom the show was staged. The fag was charging now from one side, and the tarrag from another. The two puny things standing between them seemed already lost, but at the very moment that the beasts were upon them the man grasped his companion by the arm, and together they leapt to one side, while the frenzied creatures came together like locomotives and collision. There ensued a battle-royal, which for sustained and frightful ferocity transcends the power of imagination or description. Time and again the colossal bull tossed to the enormous tiger into the air, but each time that the huge cat touched the ground he returned to the encounter with apparently undiminished strength, and seemingly increased ire. For a while the man and woman busied themselves only with keeping out of the way of the two creatures, but finally I saw them separate and each creep stealthily toward one of the combatants. The tiger was now upon the bull's broad back, clinging to the huge neck, with powerful fangs while its long, strong talons ripped to the heavy hide into shreds and ribbons. For a moment the bull stood bellowing and quivering with pain and rage, its cloven hooves widespread, its tail lashing viciously from side to side, and then, in a mad orgy of bucking, it went careening about the arena and frenzied attempt to unseat its rending rider. It was with difficulty that the girl avoided the first mad rush of the wounded animal. All its efforts to rid itself of the tiger seemed futile, until desperation it threw itself upon the ground rolling over and over. A little of this so disconcerted the tiger, knocking its breath from it, I imagine, that it lost its hold and then, quick as a cat, the great fag was up again and had buried those mighty horns deep in the tar-ex abdomen, pinning him to the floor of the arena. The great cat clawed at the shaggy head until eyes and ears were gone, and not but a few strips of ragged bloody flesh remained upon the skull. Yet through all the agony of that fearful punishment the fag still stood motionless pinning down his adversary, and then the man leaped in, seeing that the blind bull would be the least formidable enemy and ran his spear through the tar-ex heart. As the animal's fierce clawing ceased, the bull raised his gory, sightless head, and with a horrid roar, ran headlong across the arena. With great leaps and bounds he came straight toward the arena wall directly beneath where we sat, and then the accident carried him in one of his mighty springs, completely over the barrier into the midst of the slaves and sagas just in front of us, swinging his bloody horns from side to side the beast cut a wide swath before him straight upward toward our seats. Before him slaves and guerilla men fought in mad stampede to escape the menace of the creature's death agonies, for such only could that frightful charge have been. Forgetful of us our guards joined in the general crush for the exits, many of which pierced the wall of the amphitheaters behind us. Perry, Gack, and I became separated in the chaos which rained for a few moments after the beast cleared the wall of the arena, each intent upon saving his own hide. I ran to the right passing several exits choked with a fear mad mob that were battling to escape. One would have thought that an entire herd of Thags was loose behind them rather than a single blinded dying beast, but such is the effect of panic upon a crowd. End of Chapter 6 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. Transform 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. 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