SURPRISES
But at last the moment arrived—the moment for which I had been trying to prepare myself, for how long I not guess. A great Sagoth came and spoke some of to those who over me. I was to my and with little toward the higher levels.
Out into the they me, where, of Mahars, Sagoths, and slaves, I was led, or, rather, pushed and roughly, along in the same direction that the moved. I had such a of people once in the city of Phutra; I guessed, and rightly, that we were for the great where who are to death meet their end.
Into the they took me, me at the end of the arena. The queen came, with her slimy, retinue. The seats were filled. The was about to commence.
Then, from a little in the opposite end of the structure, a girl was into the arena. She was at a from me. I not see her features.
I what this other and myself, and why they had to have us die together. My own fate, or rather, my of it, was in the natural I for this girl, to die the cold, of her captors. Of what she be that she must it in the arena?
As I thus thinking, another door, this time at one of the long of the arena, was open, and into the of death a tarag, the tiger of the Stone Age. At my were my revolvers. My had not taken them from me, they did not yet their nature. Doubtless they them some manner of war-club, and as those who are to the are permitted of defense, they let me keep them.
The girl they had with a javelin. A pin would have been almost as against the they had upon her.
The for a moment looking about him—first up at the audience and then about the arena. He did not to see me at all, but his presently upon the girl. A from his lungs—a which ended in a long-drawn that is more than the death-cry of a woman—more but more awesome. I a shudder.
Slowly the and moved toward the girl. Then it was that I came to myself and to a of my duty. Quickly and as as possible I ran the in of the creature. As I ran I one of my weapons. Ah! Could I but have had my express-gun in my hands at that moment! A single well-placed would have this great monster. The best I to was to the thing from the girl to myself and then to place as many as possible in it it and me into and death.
There is a law of the that and to the victor, be he or being—both of whom, by the way, are all the same to the Mahar. That is, they were to look upon man as a animal Perry and I through the Pellucidarian crust, but I that they were to their views a and to that in the gilak—their word for being—they had a organized, being to with.
Be that as it may, the were that the alone would profit by the law of the arena. A more of his long strides, a leap, and he would be upon the girl. I a and fired. The him in the left leg. It couldn't have him much; but the report of the him around, me.
I think the of a huge, enraged, saber-toothed tiger is one of the most terrible in the world. Especially if he be at you and there be nothing the two of you but sand.
Even as he me a little from the girl my the to her face. Hers was upon me with an of that description. There was and in them, too.
"Dian!" I cried. "My Heavens, Dian!"
I saw her the name David, as with she upon the tarag. She was a then—a female her loved one. Before she the with her weapon, I again at the point where the tarag's met his left shoulder. If I a through there it might his heart. The didn't his heart, but it stopped him for an instant.
It was then that a thing happened. I a great from the by the Mahars, and as I toward them I saw three thipdars—the that the queen, or, as Perry calls them, pterodactyls—rise from their and lightning-like, toward the center of the arena. They are huge, powerful reptiles. One of them, with the which his might give him, would easily be a match for a or a tarag.
These three, to my consternation, upon the as he was himself for a final upon me. They their in his and him from the as if he had been a chicken in the of a hawk.
What it mean?
I was for an explanation; but with the gone I no time in to Dian's side. With a little of she herself into my arms. So were we in the of that neither of us—to this day—can tell what of the tarag.
The thing we were aware of was the presence of a of Sagoths about us. Gruffly they us to them. They us from the and through the of Phutra to the audience in which I had been and sentenced. Here we ourselves the same cold, tribunal.
Again a Sagoth as interpreter. He that our had been at the last moment Tu-al-sa had returned to Phutra, and me in the had upon the queen to my life.
"Who is Tu-al-sa?" I asked.
"A Mahar last male was—ages ago—the last of the male among the Mahars," he replied.
"Why should she wish to have my life spared?"
He his and then my question to the Mahar spokesman. When the had in the sign-language that for speech the Mahars and their men the Sagoth again to me:
"For a long time you had Tu-al-sa in your power," he explained. "You might easily have killed her or her in a world—but you did neither. You did not her, and you her with you to Pellucidar and set her free to return to Phutra. This is your reward."
Now I understood. The Mahar who had been my upon my return to the world was Tu-al-sa. This was the time that I had learned the lady's name. I thanked that I had not left her upon the of the Sahara—or put a in her, as I had been to do. I was to that was a of the of Pellucidar. I think of them as but cold-blooded, reptiles, though Perry had much time in to me that to a of among all the of the world, this of the had to a position to that which man upon the crust.
He had often told me that there was every to from their writings, which he had learned to read while we were in Phutra, that they were a just race, and that in of science and they were well advanced, in and metaphysics, and architecture.
While it had always been difficult for me to look upon these as other than slimy, crocodiles—which, by the way, they do not at all resemble—I was now to a of the that I was in the hands of creatures—for and are of and culture.
But what they for us was of most to me. They might save us from the and yet not free us. They looked upon us yet, to some extent, I knew, as of a order, and so as we are unable to place ourselves in the position of the we enslave—thinking that they are in than in the free of the purposes for which nature them—the Mahars, too, might our in than among the of the we craved. Naturally, I was next to their intent.
To my question, put through the Sagoth interpreter, I the reply that having my life they that Tu-al-sa's of was canceled. They still had against me, however, the of which I had been guilty—the of the great secret. They, therefore, Dian and me until the was returned to them.
They would, they said, send an of Sagoths with me to the document from its hiding-place, Dian at Phutra as a and us the moment that the document was safely to their queen.
There was no but that they had the upper hand. However, there was so much more at than the or the of Dian and myself, that I did not it to accept their offer without the thought.
Without the great this must extinct. For they had their eggs by an process, the of which in the little of a far-off where Dian and I had our honeymoon. I was none too sure that I the again, that I to. So long as the powerful of Pellucidar to propagate, just so long would the position of man the world be jeopardized. There not be two races.
I said as much to Dian.
"You used to tell me," she replied, "of the you with the of your own world. Now you have returned with all that is necessary to place this great power in the hands of the men of Pellucidar.
"You told me of great of which would a of metal among our enemies, killing hundreds of them at one time.
"You told me of of which a thousand men with big and little such as these against a Sagoths.
"You told me of great which moved across the water without paddles, and which death from in their sides.
"All these may now to the men of Pellucidar. Why should we the Mahars?
"Let them breed! Let their numbers by thousands. They will be the power of the Emperor of Pellucidar.
"But if you a in Phutra, what may we accomplish?
"What the men of Pellucidar do without you to lead them?
"They would among themselves, and while they the Mahars would upon them, and though the Mahar should die out, of what value would the of the be to them without the knowledge, which you alone may wield, to them toward the of which you have told me so much that I long for its and as I for anything.
"No, David; the Mahars cannot us if you are at liberty. Let them have their that you and I may return to our people, and lead them to the of all Pellucidar."
It was plain that Dian was ambitious, and that her had not her faculties. She was right. Nothing be by up in Phutra for the of our lives.
It was true that Perry might do much with the of the prospector, or iron mole, in which I had the of outer-world civilization; but Perry was a man of peace. He the of the federation. He win new to the empire. He would around gun-powder and trying to upon it until some one him up with his own invention. He wasn't practical. He would without a balance-wheel—without some one to direct his energies.
Perry needed me and I needed him. If we were going to do anything for Pellucidar we must be free to do it together.
The outcome of it all was that I to the Mahars' proposition. They promised that Dian would be well and protected from every my absence. So I set out with a hundred Sagoths in search of the little which I had upon by accident, and which I might and might not again.
We directly toward Sari. Stopping at the where I had been I my rifle, for which I was very thankful. I it where I had left it when I had been in my sleep by the Sagoths who had me and my Mezop companions.
On the way I added to my map, an which did not from the Sagoths a of interest. I that the of Pellucidar had little to from these gorilla-men. They were fighters—that was all. We might use them later ourselves in this same capacity. They had not brain power to a to the of the race.
As we the spot where I to the little I more and more of success. Every was familiar to me, and I was sure now that I the exact of the cave.
It was at about this time that I a number of the half-naked of the of Pellucidar. They were across our front. At of us they halted; that there would be a I not doubt. These Sagoths would permit an opportunity for the of for their Mahar masters to them.
I saw that the men were with and arrows, long and swords, so I that they must have been members of the federation, for only my people had been thus equipped. Before Perry and I came the men of Pellucidar had only the to one another.
The Sagoths, too, were battle. With they toward the warriors.
Then a thing happened. The leader of the beings with hands. The Sagoths their war-cries and slowly to meet him. There was a long which I see that I was often the of their discourse. The Sagoths' leader pointed in the direction in which I had told him the lay. Evidently he was the nature of our to the leader of the warriors. It was all a puzzle to me.
What being be upon such excellent terms with the gorilla-men?
I couldn't imagine. I to a good look at the fellow, but the Sagoths had left me in the with a when they had to battle, and the was too great for me to the of any of the beings.
Finally the was and the men on their way while the Sagoths returned to where I with my guard. It was time for eating, so we stopped where we were and our meal. The Sagoths didn't tell me who it was they had met, and I did not ask, though I must that I was curious.
They permitted me to sleep at this halt. Afterward we took up the last leg of our journey. I the without and my directly to the cave. At its mouth the Sagoths and I entered alone.
I noticed as I about the in the light that there was a of fresh-turned there. Presently my hands came to the spot where the great had been buried. There was a where I had the earth over the hiding-place of the document—the was gone!
Frantically I the whole of the times over, but without other result than a complete of my fears. Someone had been here ahead of me and the great secret.
The one thing Pellucidar which might free Dian and me was gone, was it likely that I should learn its whereabouts. If a Mahar had it, which was improbable, the were that the would the that they had the document. If a man had upon it he would have no of its meaning or value, and as a it would be or in order.
With and I came out of the and told the Sagoth what I had discovered. It didn't much to the fellow, who doubt-less had but little idea of the of the document I had been sent to to his masters than would the man who in all had it.
The Sagoth only that I had failed in my mission, so he took of the to make the return to Phutra as as possible. I did not rebel, though I had with me the means to them all. I did not of the to Dian. I her on the that she was in no way of the theft, and that my failure to the document had not the value of the good I had had in to do so. The Mahars might keep me in if they chose, but Dian should be returned safely to her people.
I was full of my when we entered Phutra and I was directly to the great audience-chamber. The Mahars to the report of the Sagoth chieftain, and so difficult is it to judge their from their almost countenance, that I was at a to know how terrible might be their as they learned that their great secret, upon which rested the of their race, might now be lost.
Presently I see that she who was something to the Sagoth interpreter—doubt-less something to be to me which might give me a of the which in store for me. One thing I had definitely: If they would not free Dian I should turn upon Phutra with my little arsenal. Alone I might win to freedom, and if I learn where Dian was it would be the attempt to free her. My were by the interpreter.
"The Mahars," he said, "are unable to your that the document is with your action in sending it to them by a special messenger. They wish to know if you have so soon the truth or if you are it."
"I sent them no document," I cried. "Ask them what they mean."
"They say," he on after with the Mahar for a moment, "that just your return to Phutra, Hooja the Sly One came, the great with him. He said that you had sent him ahead with it, him to deliver it and return to Sari where you would him, the girl with him."
"Dian?" I gasped. "The Mahars have over Dian into the of Hooja."
"Surely," he replied. "What of it? She is only a gilak," as you or I would say, "She is only a cow."