SHOOTING THE CHUTES—AND AFTER
Through the I my way along by means of my compass. I no longer the bears, did I one the fog.
Experience has since me that these great are as terror-stricken by this as a by a at sea, and that no sooner a them than they make the best of their way to and a clear atmosphere. It was well for me that this was true.
I very sad and as I along the difficult footing. My own less upon me than the of Perry, for I loved the old fellow.
That I should win the opposite of the range I to doubt, for though I am naturally sanguine, I that the which had me had such a over my that I see no of for the future.
Then, too, the blighting, of the cold, clouds through which I was distressing. Hope best in sunlight, and I am sure that it not at all in a fog.
But the of self-preservation is than hope. It thrives, fortunately, upon nothing. It takes upon the of the grave, and in the of death. Now it upon the of hope, and me and in a to its existence.
As I the denser. I see nothing my nose. Even the and ice I were invisible.
I not see the of my coat. I to be in a sea of vapor.
To go over a under such was little of madness; but I not have stopped going had I positively that death two my nose. In the place, it was too cold to stop, and in the second, I should have gone but for the of the that each step.
For some time the ground had been and steeper, until I had been to a that had me from the entirely. I was sure from my that I was the right direction, and so I on.
Once more the ground was level. From the wind that about me I that I must be upon some of ridge.
And then I out into space. Wildly I and at the ground that had from my feet.
Only a smooth, surface was there. I nothing to or my fall, and a moment later so great was my speed that nothing have me.
As as I had into space, with equal did I from the fog, out of which I like a from a into clear daylight. My speed was so great that I see nothing about me but a and of and snow, that past me with express-train velocity.
I must have thousands of the on to a broad, smooth, snow-covered plateau. Across this I with slowly velocity, until at last objects about me to take shape.
Far ahead, miles and miles away, I saw a great and woods, and these a of water. In the nearer I a small, dark of color upon the of the snow.
"A bear," I, and thanked the that had me to to my the moments of my tumble.
At the I was going it would be but a moment I should be the thing; was it long I came to a stop in soft snow, upon which the sun was shining, not twenty from the object of my most apprehension.
It was upon its waiting for me. As I to my to meet it, I my gun in the and up with laughter.
It was Perry.
The upon his face, with the I at him again safe and sound, was too much for my nerves.
"David!" he cried. "David, my boy! God has been good to an old man. He has answered my prayer."
It that Perry in his had over the at about the same point as that at which I had over it a time later. Chance had done for us what long of labor had failed to accomplish.
We had the divide. We were upon the of the Mountains of the Clouds that we had for so long been attempting to reach.
We looked about. Below us were green trees and warm jungles. In the was a great sea.
"The Lural Az," I said, pointing toward its blue-green surface.
Somehow—the gods alone can it—Perry, too, had to his his of the slope. For that there was for great rejoicing.
Neither of us was for his experience, so after the from our clothing, we set off at a great toward the and of the and the jungle.
The going was easy by with the we had had to upon the opposite of the divide. There were beasts, of course, but we came through safely.
Before we to eat or rest, we a little the trees of the in an of and comfort. It me of an early June day in the Maine woods.
We to work with our and cut small trees to a protection from the beasts. Then we to sleep.
How long we slept I do not know. Perry says that as there is no means of time Pellucidar, there can be no such thing as time here, and that we may have slept an year, or we may have slept but a second.
But this I know. We had the ends of some of the into the ground in the of our shelter, the and from them, and when we we that many of them had sprouts.
Personally, I think that we slept at least a month; but who may say? The sun marked when we closed our eyes; it was still in the same position when we opened them; had it a hair's in the interim.
It is most baffling, this question of time Pellucidar.
Anyhow, I was when we awoke. I think that it was the of that me. Ptarmigan and wild my a dozen moments of my awakening. Perry soon had a fire by the of the little stream.
It was a good and we made. Though we did not eat the entire boar, we a very large in him, while the was but a mouthful.
Having satisfied our hunger, we to set at once in search of Anoroc and my old friend, Ja the Mezop. We each that by the little downward, we should come upon the large river which Ja had told me into the Lural Az op-posite his island.
We did so; were we disappointed, for at last after a journey—and what would not be after the we had among the of the Mountains of the Clouds—we came upon a that in the direction of the great sea we had from the of the mountains.
For three long we the left bank of the river, until at last we saw it roll its into the of the sea. Far out across the we three islands. The one to the left must be Anoroc.
At last we had come close to a of our problem—the road to Sari.
But how to the was now the question in our minds. We must a canoe.
Perry is a most man. He has an which the thought-kernel that what man has done, man can do, and it doesn't cut any with Perry a how to do it or not.
He set out to make once, after our from Phutra and at the of the of the wild of Pellucidar. He said that some one, without any knowledge of the that such a thing might be concocted, had once upon it by accident, and so he couldn't see why a who all about how to make it couldn't do as well.
He hard mixing all of together, until he a that looked like powder. He had been very proud of the stuff, and had gone about the village of the Sarians it to every one who would to him, and what its purpose was and what it would work, until the so at the that they wouldn't come a of Perry and his invention.
Finally, I that we with it and see what it would do, so Perry a fire, after the at a safe distance, and then touched a to a minute particle of the explosive. It the ember.
Repeated with it me that in for a high explosive, Perry had upon a fire-extinguisher that would have his for him in our own world.
So now he set himself to work to a scientific canoe. I had that we a dugout, but Perry me that we must something more in with our positions of in this world of the Stone Age.
"We must these with our superiority," he explained. "You must not forget, David, that you are of Pellucidar. As such you may not with approach the of a power in so a as a dugout."
I pointed out to Perry that it wasn't much more for the to in a canoe, than it was for the minister to attempt to one with his own hands.
He had to at that; but in of his act he me that it was for ministers to give their personal attention to the of navies; "and this," he said, "is the of his Serene Highness, David I, Emperor of the Federated Kingdoms of Pellucidar."
I grinned; but Perry was about it. It had always more or less of a joke to me that I should be as and all the of it. Yet my power and had been a very thing my reign.
Twenty had joined the federation, and their had to one another and to me. Among them were many powerful though nations. Their we had kings; their lands kingdoms.
We had them with and and swords, in to their own more weapons. I had them in and in so much of the art of as I had from reading of the of Napoleon, Von Moltke, Grant, and the ancients.
We had marked out as best we natural the kingdoms. We had these that they must not trespass, and we had against and those who had.
We had met and the Mahars and the Sagoths. In short, we had our to empire, and very were we being and when my for the world and Hooja's had set us back.
But now I had returned. The work that had must be done again, and though I must need at my honors, I none the less the weight of and that rested upon my shoulders.
Slowly the toward completion. She was a craft, but I had my about her. When I them to Perry, he me that my people for many had been mine-owners, not ship-builders, and I couldn't be to know much about the matter.
I was to into his to design battleships; but as I already that his father had been a minister in a back-woods village from the coast, I I the dear old fellow.
He was about his work, and I must admit that in so as he did well with the and at his command. We had only two and our hunting-knives; yet with these we trees, them into planks, and them.
The "navy" was some in length by ten beam. Her were and ten high—"for the purpose," Perry, "of adding to her and it less easy for an enemy to her."
As a of fact, I that he had had in mind the safety of her under javelin-fire—the an shelter. Inside she me of nothing so much as a trench. There was also some to a coffin.
Her from the water-line—quite like a line of battleship. Perry had designed her more for upon an enemy, I think, than for any she might inflict, and so those parts which were to were the most imposing.
Below the water-line she was non-existent. She should have had draft; but, as the enemy couldn't have it, Perry to do away with it, and so her flat-bottomed. It was this that my about her.
There was another little of design that us until she was about to launch—there was no method of propulsion. Her were too high to permit the use of sweeps, and when Perry that we her, I on the that it would be a most and manner of upon the foe, if we or that would to the of the ocean.
Finally I that we her into a vessel. When once the idea took Perry was most about it, and nothing would do but a four-masted, full-rigged ship.
Again I to him, but he was over the which the of this and would have upon the of Pellucidar. So we her with thin for and for rope.
Neither of us much about a full-rigged ship; but that didn't worry me a great deal, for I was that we should be called upon to do so, and as the day of approached I was positive of it.
We had her upon a low bank of the river close to where it into the sea, and just above high tide. Her we had upon cut from small trees, the ends of the in turn upon of long saplings. Her was toward the water.
A hours we were to her she an picture, for Perry had upon setting every of "canvas." I told him that I didn't know much about it, but I was sure that at the only should have been completed, else being after she had safely.
At the last minute there was some while we a name for her. I wanted her the Perry in of her and that other great of another world, Captain Oliver Hazard Perry, of the United States Navy. But Perry was too modest; he wouldn't of it.
We to a in the of the fleet. Battle-ships of the first-class should the names of of the federation; the names of kings; the names of cities, and so on the line. Therefore, we to name the battle-ship Sari, after the of the kingdoms.
The of the Sari proved than I contemplated. Perry wanted me to in and something over the as she out upon the of the river, but I told him that I should on land until I saw which up the Sari would float.
I see by the of the old man's that my had him; but I noticed that he didn't offer to in himself, and so I less than I might otherwise.
When we cut the and the that the Sari in place she started for the water with a lunge. Before she it she was going at a speed, for we had our to the water, them, and at all to the ship as she moved with dignity. But there was no in the Sari.
When she touched the surface of the river she must have been going twenty or thirty miles an hour. Her her well out into the stream, until she came to a at the end of the long line which we had had the to to her and to a large tree upon the bank.
The moment her progress was she capsized. Perry was overwhelmed. I didn't him, him that I had "told him so."
His was so and so that I didn't have the to him, were I to that particular of meanness.
"Come, come, old man!" I cried. "It's not as as it looks. Give me a hand with this rope, and we'll her up as as we can; and then when the goes out we'll try another scheme. I think we can make a go of her yet."
Well, we managed to her up into water. When the she there on her in the mud, a object for the battle-ship of a world—"the terror of the seas" was the way Perry had occasionally her.
We had to work fast; but the came in again we had her of her and masts, her, and her about a full of ballast. If she didn't too fast in the I was sure that she would this time right up.
I can tell you that it was with that we sat upon the river-bank and that come slowly in. The of Pellucidar don't amount to much by with our higher of the world, but I that it ought to prove to the Sari.
Nor was I mistaken. Finally we had the of the out of the and slowly with the tide. As the water rose we her in close to the bank and aboard.
She rested safely now upon an keel; did she leak, for she was well with and pitch. We up a single and light sail, over the to a deck, her out into with a of sweeps, and our to the turn of the that would us out to sea.
While we waited we the time to the of an upper deck, since the one above the was some seven from the gunwale. The second was four above this. In it was a large, hatch, leading to the deck. The of the ship rose three above the upper deck, an excellent breastwork, which we at that we might and fire upon an enemy.
Though we were out upon a peaceful mission in search of my friend Ja, we that we might meet with people of some other who would prove unfriendly.
At last the turned. We anchor. Slowly we the great river toward the sea.
About us the of the deep—plesiosauri and with all their horrid, names were as the names of and to Perry, but which I have been able to an hour after having them.
At last we were safely upon the to which we had looked for so long, and the results of which meant so much to me.
