×

We use cookies to help make LingQ better. By visiting the site, you agree to our cookie policy.


image

Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs, PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

Several years had elapsed since I had found the opportunity to do any big-game hunting; for at last I had my plans almost perfected for a return to my old stamping-grounds in northern Africa, where in other days I had had excellent sport in pursuit of the king of beasts.

The date of my departure had been set; I was to leave in two weeks. No schoolboy counting the lagging hours that must pass before the beginning of "long vacation" released him to the delirious joys of the summer camp could have been filled with greater impatience or keener anticipation. And then came a letter that started me for Africa twelve days ahead of my schedule.

Often am I in receipt of letters from strangers who have found something in a story of mine to commend or to condemn. My interest in this department of my correspondence is ever fresh. I opened this particular letter with all the zest of pleasurable anticipation with which I had opened so many others. The post-mark (Algiers) had aroused my interest and curiosity, especially at this time, since it was Algiers that was presently to witness the termination of my coming sea voyage in search of sport and adventure.

Before the reading of that letter was completed lions and lion-hunting had fled my thoughts, and I was in a state of excitement bordering upon frenzy.

It—well, read it yourself, and see if you, too, do not find food for frantic conjecture, for tantalizing doubts, and for a great hope.

Here it is:

DEAR SIR: I think that I have run across one of the most remarkable coincidences in modern literature. But let me start at the beginning:

I am, by profession, a wanderer upon the face of the earth. I have no trade—nor any other occupation.

My father bequeathed me a competency; some remoter ancestors lust to roam. I have combined the two and invested them carefully and without extravagance.

I became interested in your story, At the Earth's Core, not so much because of the probability of the tale as of a great and abiding wonder that people should be paid real money for writing such impossible trash. You will pardon my candor, but it is necessary that you understand my mental attitude toward this particular story—that you may credit that which follows.

Shortly thereafter I started for the Sahara in search of a rather rare species of antelope that is to be found only occasionally within a limited area at a certain season of the year. My chase led me far from the haunts of man.

It was a fruitless search, however, in so far as antelope is concerned; but one night as I lay courting sleep at the edge of a little cluster of date-palms that surround an ancient well in the midst of the arid, shifting sands, I suddenly became conscious of a strange sound coming apparently from the earth beneath my head.

It was an intermittent ticking!

No reptile or insect with which I am familiar reproduces any such notes. I lay for an hour—listening intently.

At last my curiosity got the better of me. I arose, lighted my lamp and commenced to investigate.

My bedding lay upon a rug stretched directly upon the warm sand. The noise appeared to be coming from beneath the rug. I raised it, but found nothing—yet, at intervals, the sound continued.

I dug into the sand with the point of my hunting-knife. A few inches below the surface of the sand I encountered a solid substance that had the feel of wood beneath the sharp steel.

Excavating about it, I unearthed a small wooden box. From this receptacle issued the strange sound that I had heard.

How had it come here?

What did it contain?

In attempting to lift it from its burying place I discovered that it seemed to be held fast by means of a very small insulated cable running farther into the sand beneath it.

My first impulse was to drag the thing loose by main strength; but fortunately I thought better of this and fell to examining the box. I soon saw that it was covered by a hinged lid, which was held closed by a simple screwhook and eye.

It took but a moment to loosen this and raise the cover, when, to my utter astonishment, I discovered an ordinary telegraph instrument clicking away within.

"What in the world," thought I, "is this thing doing here?" That it was a French military instrument was my first guess; but really there didn't seem much likelihood that this was the correct explanation, when one took into account the loneliness and remoteness of the spot. As I sat gazing at my remarkable find, which was ticking and clicking away there in the silence of the desert night, trying to convey some message which I was unable to interpret, my eyes fell upon a bit of paper lying in the bottom of the box beside the instrument. I picked it up and examined it. Upon it were written but two letters:

D. I.

They meant nothing to me then. I was baffled.

Once, in an interval of silence upon the part of the receiving instrument, I moved the sending-key up and down a few times. Instantly the receiving mechanism commenced to work frantically.

I tried to recall something of the Morse Code, with which I had played as a little boy—but time had obliterated it from my memory. I became almost frantic as I let my imagination run riot among the possibilities for which this clicking instrument might stand.

Some poor devil at the unknown other end might be in dire need of succor. The very franticness of the instrument's wild clashing betokened something of the kind. And there sat I, powerless to interpret, and so powerless to help!

It was then that the inspiration came to me. In a flash there leaped to my mind the closing paragraphs of the story I had read in the club at Algiers:

Does the answer lie somewhere upon the bosom of the broad Sahara, at the ends of two tiny wires, hidden beneath a lost cairn?

The idea seemed preposterous. Experience and intelligence combined to assure me that there could be no slightest grain of truth or possibility in your wild tale—it was fiction pure and simple.

And yet where WERE the other ends of those wires?

What was this instrument—ticking away here in the great Sahara—but a travesty upon the possible!

Would I have believed in it had I not seen it with my own eyes?

And the initials—D. I.—upon the slip of paper!

David's initials were these—David Innes. I smiled at my imaginings. I ridiculed the assumption that there was an inner world and that these wires led downward through the earth's crust to the surface of Pellucidar. And yet—

Well, I sat there all night, listening to that tantalizing clicking, now and then moving the sending-key just to let the other end know that the instrument had been discovered. In the morning, after carefully returning the box to its hole and covering it over with sand, I called my servants about me, snatched a hurried breakfast, mounted my horse, and started upon a forced march for Algiers.

I arrived here today. In writing you this letter I feel that I am making a fool of myself.

There is no David Innes.

There is no Dian the Beautiful.

There is no world within a world.

Pellucidar is but a realm of your imagination—nothing more.

BUT—

The incident of the finding of that buried telegraph instrument upon the lonely Sahara is little short of uncanny, in view of your story of the adventures of David Innes.

I have called it one of the most remarkable coincidences in modern fiction. I called it literature before, but—again pardon my candor—your story is not.

And now—why am I writing you?

Heaven knows, unless it is that the persistent clicking of that unfathomable enigma out there in the vast silences of the Sahara has so wrought upon my nerves that reason refuses longer to function sanely.

I cannot hear it now, yet I know that far away to the south, all alone beneath the sands, it is still pounding out its vain, frantic appeal.

It is maddening.

It is your fault—I want you to release me from it.

Cable me at once, at my expense, that there was no basis of fact for your story, At the Earth's Core. Very respectfully yours,

COGDON NESTOR, —— and —— Club, Algiers. June 1st, —.

Ten minutes after reading this letter I had cabled Mr. Nestor as follows:

Story true. Await me Algiers.

As fast as train and boat would carry me, I sped toward my destination. For all those dragging days my mind was a whirl of mad conjecture, of frantic hope, of numbing fear.

The finding of the telegraph-instrument practically assured me that David Innes had driven Perry's iron mole back through the earth's crust to the buried world of Pellucidar; but what adventures had befallen him since his return? Had he found Dian the Beautiful, his half-savage mate, safe among his friends, or had Hooja the Sly One succeeded in his nefarious schemes to abduct her?

Did Abner Perry, the lovable old inventor and paleontologist, still live?

Had the federated tribes of Pellucidar succeeded in overthrowing the mighty Mahars, the dominant race of reptilian monsters, and their fierce, gorilla-like soldiery, the savage Sagoths?

I must admit that I was in a state bordering upon nervous prostration when I entered the —— and —— Club, in Algiers, and inquired for Mr. Nestor. A moment later I was ushered into his presence, to find myself clasping hands with the sort of chap that the world holds only too few of.

He was a tall, smooth-faced man of about thirty, clean-cut, straight, and strong, and weather-tanned to the hue of a desert Arab. I liked him immensely from the first, and I hope that after our three months together in the desert country—three months not entirely lacking in adventure—he found that a man may be a writer of "impossible trash" and yet have some redeeming qualities. The day following my arrival at Algiers we left for the south, Nestor having made all arrangements in advance, guessing, as he naturally did, that I could be coming to Africa for but a single purpose—to hasten at once to the buried telegraph-instrument and wrest its secret from it.

In addition to our native servants, we took along an English telegraph-operator named Frank Downes. Nothing of interest enlivened our journey by rail and caravan till we came to the cluster of date-palms about the ancient well upon the rim of the Sahara.

It was the very spot at which I first had seen David Innes. If he had ever raised a cairn above the telegraph instrument no sign of it remained now. Had it not been for the chance that caused Cogdon Nestor to throw down his sleeping rug directly over the hidden instrument, it might still be clicking there unheard—and this story still unwritten.

When we reached the spot and unearthed the little box the instrument was quiet, nor did repeated attempts upon the part of our telegrapher succeed in winning a response from the other end of the line. After several days of futile endeavor to raise Pellucidar, we had begun to despair. I was as positive that the other end of that little cable protruded through the surface of the inner world as I am that I sit here today in my study—when about midnight of the fourth day I was awakened by the sound of the instrument.

Leaping to my feet I grasped Downes roughly by the neck and dragged him out of his blankets. He didn't need to be told what caused my excitement, for the instant he was awake he, too, heard the long-hoped for click, and with a whoop of delight pounced upon the instrument. Nestor was on his feet almost as soon as I. The three of us huddled about that little box as if our lives depended upon the message it had for us.

Downes interrupted the clicking with his sending-key. The noise of the receiver stopped instantly.

"Ask who it is, Downes," I directed. He did so, and while we awaited the Englishman's translation of the reply, I doubt if either Nestor or I breathed. "He says he's David Innes," said Downes. "He wants to know who we are." "Tell him," said I; "and that we want to know how he is—and all that has befallen him since I last saw him." For two months I talked with David Innes almost every day, and as Downes translated, either Nestor or I took notes. From these, arranged in chronological order, I have set down the following account of the further adventures of David Innes at the earth's core, practically in his own words.


PROLOGUE PROLOG PRÓLOGO PRÓLOGO 序幕

Several years had elapsed since I had found the opportunity to do any big-game hunting; for at last I had my plans almost perfected for a return to my old stamping-grounds in northern Africa, where in other days I had had excellent sport in pursuit of the king of beasts. Plusieurs années s'étaient écoulées depuis que j'avais trouvé l'occasion de faire la moindre chasse au gros gibier ; car enfin j'avais presque perfectionné mes plans pour un retour à mes anciens terrains de prédilection en Afrique du Nord, où en d'autres jours j'avais eu un excellent sport à la poursuite du roi des bêtes. Прошло несколько лет с тех пор, как я нашел возможность заняться охотой на крупную дичь; наконец-то мои планы относительно возвращения в мои старые бродячие места в северной Африке, где в прежние дни я отлично развлекался в погоне за царем зверей, были почти завершены.

The date of my departure had been set; I was to leave in two weeks. Дата моего отъезда была назначена; Я должен был уехать через две недели. No schoolboy counting the lagging hours that must pass before the beginning of "long vacation" released him to the delirious joys of the summer camp could have been filled with greater impatience or keener anticipation. Aucun écolier comptant les heures de retard qui doivent s'écouler avant que le début des "grandes vacances" ne le livre aux joies délirantes du camp d'été n'aurait pu être rempli d'une plus grande impatience ou d'une plus vive anticipation. Ни один школьник, считая отстающие часы, которые должны пройти до начала «долгих каникул», отпустивших его к бредовым радостям летнего лагеря, не мог бы испытывать большего нетерпения и более острого предвкушения. And then came a letter that started me for Africa twelve days ahead of my schedule. Et puis vint une lettre qui me lança pour l'Afrique douze jours avant mon emploi du temps. А потом пришло письмо, в котором я отправился в Африку на двенадцать дней раньше запланированного срока.

Often am I in receipt of letters from strangers who have found something in a story of mine to commend or to condemn. Je reçois souvent des lettres d'étrangers qui ont trouvé quelque chose dans une de mes histoires à recommander ou à condamner. My interest in this department of my correspondence is ever fresh. Mon intérêt pour ce département de ma correspondance est toujours frais. I opened this particular letter with all the zest of pleasurable anticipation with which I had opened so many others. Я открыл это письмо со всем тем пылом приятного предвкушения, с каким открывал многие другие. The post-mark (Algiers) had aroused my interest and curiosity, especially at this time, since it was Algiers that was presently to witness the termination of my coming sea voyage in search of sport and adventure. Le cachet de la poste (Alger) avait éveillé mon intérêt et ma curiosité, surtout à cette époque, puisque c'était Alger qui allait voir bientôt s'achever mon prochain voyage en mer à la recherche de sport et d'aventure. Почтовый штемпель (Алжир) пробудил во мне интерес и любопытство, особенно в это время, так как именно Алжир должен был стать свидетелем окончания моего предстоящего морского путешествия в поисках спорта и приключений.

Before the reading of that letter was completed lions and lion-hunting had fled my thoughts, and I was in a state of excitement bordering upon frenzy. Avant que la lecture de cette lettre fût achevée, les lions et la chasse aux lions avaient fui mes pensées, et j'étais dans un état d'excitation frisant la frénésie. Еще до того, как я прочитал это письмо, львы и охота на львов вылетели из моих мыслей, и я был в состоянии возбуждения, граничащего с безумием.

It—well, read it yourself, and see if you, too, do not find food for frantic conjecture, for tantalizing doubts, and for a great hope. Il... eh bien, lisez-le vous-même, et voyez si vous aussi vous n'y trouvez pas matière à des conjectures frénétiques, à des doutes tentants et à un grand espoir.

Here it is:

DEAR SIR: I think that I have run across one of the most remarkable coincidences in modern literature. CHER MONSIEUR, Je pense que j'ai rencontré l'une des coïncidences les plus remarquables de la littérature moderne. УВАЖАЕМЫЙ СЭР! Я думаю, что столкнулся с одним из самых замечательных совпадений в современной литературе. But let me start at the beginning:

I am, by profession, a wanderer upon the face of the earth. Я по профессии странник на земле. I have no trade—nor any other occupation.

My father bequeathed me a competency; some remoter ancestors lust to roam. Mon père m'a légué une compétence; certains ancêtres plus éloignés désirent errer. I have combined the two and invested them carefully and without extravagance.

I became interested in your story, At the Earth's Core, not so much because of the probability of the tale as of a great and abiding wonder that people should be paid real money for writing such impossible trash. Je me suis intéressé à votre histoire, At the Earth's Core, non pas tant à cause de la probabilité de l'histoire que d'une grande et permanente merveille que les gens devraient être payés en argent réel pour écrire des déchets aussi impossibles. You will pardon my candor, but it is necessary that you understand my mental attitude toward this particular story—that you may credit that which follows. Vous me pardonnerez ma candeur, mais il est nécessaire que vous compreniez mon attitude mentale envers cette histoire particulière, afin que vous puissiez créditer celle qui suit.

Shortly thereafter I started for the Sahara in search of a rather rare species of antelope that is to be found only occasionally within a limited area at a certain season of the year. My chase led me far from the haunts of man. Ma chasse m'a conduit loin des repaires de l'homme.

It was a fruitless search, however, in so far as antelope is concerned; but one night as I lay courting sleep at the edge of a little cluster of date-palms that surround an ancient well in the midst of the arid, shifting sands, I suddenly became conscious of a strange sound coming apparently from the earth beneath my head. C'était une recherche infructueuse, cependant, en ce qui concerne l'antilope; mais une nuit, alors que j'étais étendu pour courtiser mon sommeil au bord d'un petit groupe de palmiers dattiers qui entourent un ancien puits au milieu des sables arides et mouvants, j'ai soudainement pris conscience d'un son étrange venant apparemment de la terre sous ma tête . Однако в том, что касается антилопы, поиски оказались бесплодными; но однажды ночью, когда я засыпал на краю небольшой группы финиковых пальм, окружающих древний колодец посреди засушливых, зыбучих песков, я вдруг ощутил странный звук, исходящий, по-видимому, из-под земли под моей головой. .

It was an intermittent ticking! C'était un tic-tac intermittent !

No reptile or insect with which I am familiar reproduces any such notes. I lay for an hour—listening intently.

At last my curiosity got the better of me. I arose, lighted my lamp and commenced to investigate.

My bedding lay upon a rug stretched directly upon the warm sand. Ma literie reposait sur un tapis tendu directement sur le sable chaud. Моя постель лежала на ковре, расстеленном прямо на теплом песке. The noise appeared to be coming from beneath the rug. I raised it, but found nothing—yet, at intervals, the sound continued.

I dug into the sand with the point of my hunting-knife. A few inches below the surface of the sand I encountered a solid substance that had the feel of wood beneath the sharp steel. À quelques centimètres sous la surface du sable, j'ai rencontré une substance solide qui avait la sensation du bois sous l'acier tranchant.

Excavating about it, I unearthed a small wooden box. En fouillant à ce sujet, j'ai déterré une petite boîte en bois. From this receptacle issued the strange sound that I had heard. De ce réceptacle sortait le bruit étrange que j'avais entendu.

How had it come here?

What did it contain?

In attempting to lift it from its burying place I discovered that it seemed to be held fast by means of a very small insulated cable running farther into the sand beneath it. En essayant de le soulever de son lieu d'enfouissement, j'ai découvert qu'il semblait être maintenu fermement au moyen d'un très petit câble isolé qui s'enfonçait plus loin dans le sable en dessous.

My first impulse was to drag the thing loose by main strength; but fortunately I thought better of this and fell to examining the box. Ma première impulsion fut de tirer la chose par la force principale ; mais heureusement j'y pensai mieux et me mis à examiner la boîte. Моим первым порывом было вытащить эту штуку изо всех сил; но, к счастью, я одумался и принялся рассматривать коробку. I soon saw that it was covered by a hinged lid, which was held closed by a simple screwhook and eye. Je vis bientôt qu'il était recouvert d'un couvercle à charnière, qui était maintenu fermé par un simple crochet à vis et un œil.

It took but a moment to loosen this and raise the cover, when, to my utter astonishment, I discovered an ordinary telegraph instrument clicking away within. Il n'a fallu qu'un instant pour desserrer cela et soulever le couvercle, quand, à mon plus grand étonnement, j'ai découvert un instrument télégraphique ordinaire cliquetant à l'intérieur.

"What in the world," thought I, "is this thing doing here?" That it was a French military instrument was my first guess; but really there didn't seem much likelihood that this was the correct explanation, when one took into account the loneliness and remoteness of the spot. Qu'il s'agissait d'un instrument militaire français était ma première supposition; mais vraiment il ne semblait pas très probable que ce soit la bonne explication, quand on tenait compte de la solitude et de l'éloignement de l'endroit. As I sat gazing at my remarkable find, which was ticking and clicking away there in the silence of the desert night, trying to convey some message which I was unable to interpret, my eyes fell upon a bit of paper lying in the bottom of the box beside the instrument. I picked it up and examined it. Upon it were written but two letters:

D. I.

They meant nothing to me then. I was baffled. J'étais déconcerté.

Once, in an interval of silence upon the part of the receiving instrument, I moved the sending-key up and down a few times. Une fois, dans un intervalle de silence de la part de l'instrument récepteur, j'ai déplacé la touche d'envoi de haut en bas à quelques reprises. Instantly the receiving mechanism commenced to work frantically. Instantanément, le mécanisme de réception a commencé à fonctionner frénétiquement.

I tried to recall something of the Morse Code, with which I had played as a little boy—but time had obliterated it from my memory. J'ai essayé de me rappeler quelque chose du code Morse, avec lequel j'avais joué quand j'étais petit garçon, mais le temps l'avait effacé de ma mémoire. I became almost frantic as I let my imagination run riot among the possibilities for which this clicking instrument might stand. Je suis devenu presque frénétique alors que je laissais mon imagination se déchaîner parmi les possibilités que cet instrument à cliquet pourrait représenter.

Some poor devil at the unknown other end might be in dire need of succor. Un pauvre diable à l'autre bout inconnu pourrait avoir un besoin urgent de secours. The very franticness of the instrument's wild clashing betokened something of the kind. La frénésie même du choc sauvage de l'instrument annonçait quelque chose de ce genre. And there sat I, powerless to interpret, and so powerless to help! Et j'étais assis là, impuissant à interpréter, et tellement impuissant à aider !

It was then that the inspiration came to me. In a flash there leaped to my mind the closing paragraphs of the story I had read in the club at Algiers: En un éclair, me revinrent à l'esprit les derniers paragraphes de l'histoire que j'avais lue au club d'Alger :

Does the answer lie somewhere upon the bosom of the broad Sahara, at the ends of two tiny wires, hidden beneath a lost cairn? La réponse se trouve-t-elle quelque part au sein du vaste Sahara, aux extrémités de deux fils minuscules, cachés sous un cairn perdu ?

The idea seemed preposterous. L'idée semblait saugrenue. Experience and intelligence combined to assure me that there could be no slightest grain of truth or possibility in your wild tale—it was fiction pure and simple. L'expérience et l'intelligence se sont combinées pour m'assurer qu'il ne pouvait y avoir le moindre grain de vérité ou de possibilité dans votre histoire folle - c'était de la fiction pure et simple.

And yet where WERE the other ends of those wires?

What was this instrument—ticking away here in the great Sahara—but a travesty upon the possible! Qu'est-ce que cet instrument, qui résonnait ici dans le grand Sahara, sinon une parodie du possible !

Would I have believed in it had I not seen it with my own eyes? Y aurais-je cru si je ne l'avais pas vu de mes propres yeux ?

And the initials—D. I.—upon the slip of paper! I.—sur le bout de papier!

David's initials were these—David Innes. Les initiales de David étaient celles-ci : David Innes. I smiled at my imaginings. I ridiculed the assumption that there was an inner world and that these wires led downward through the earth's crust to the surface of Pellucidar. J'ai ridiculisé l'hypothèse qu'il y avait un monde intérieur et que ces fils descendaient à travers la croûte terrestre jusqu'à la surface de Pellucidar. And yet—

Well, I sat there all night, listening to that tantalizing clicking, now and then moving the sending-key just to let the other end know that the instrument had been discovered. Eh bien, je suis resté assis là toute la nuit, écoutant ce cliquetis alléchant, déplaçant de temps en temps la touche d'envoi juste pour faire savoir à l'autre bout que l'instrument avait été découvert. In the morning, after carefully returning the box to its hole and covering it over with sand, I called my servants about me, snatched a hurried breakfast, mounted my horse, and started upon a forced march for Algiers. Au matin, après avoir soigneusement remis la caisse dans son trou et l'avoir recouverte de sable, j'appelai mes domestiques autour de moi, pris un déjeuner rapide, montai à cheval et me mis en marche forcée vers Alger.

I arrived here today. In writing you this letter I feel that I am making a fool of myself.

There is no David Innes.

There is no Dian the Beautiful.

There is no world within a world.

Pellucidar is but a realm of your imagination—nothing more.

BUT—

The incident of the finding of that buried telegraph instrument upon the lonely Sahara is little short of uncanny, in view of your story of the adventures of David Innes. L'incident de la découverte de cet instrument télégraphique enterré sur le Sahara solitaire est un peu étrange, compte tenu de votre récit des aventures de David Innes.

I have called it one of the most remarkable coincidences in modern fiction. I called it literature before, but—again pardon my candor—your story is not. Je l'appelais littérature auparavant, mais—encore une fois, excusez ma candeur—votre histoire ne l'est pas.

And now—why am I writing you?

Heaven knows, unless it is that the persistent clicking of that unfathomable enigma out there in the vast silences of the Sahara has so wrought upon my nerves that reason refuses longer to function sanely. Dieu sait, à moins que le cliquetis persistant de cette énigme insondable là-bas dans les vastes silences du Sahara m'ait tellement énervé que la raison refuse plus longtemps de fonctionner sainement.

I cannot hear it now, yet I know that far away to the south, all alone beneath the sands, it is still pounding out its vain, frantic appeal. Je ne peux pas l'entendre maintenant, pourtant je sais que loin au sud, tout seul sous les sables, il martèle encore son appel vain et frénétique.

It is maddening.

It is your fault—I want you to release me from it.

Cable me at once, at my expense, that there was no basis of fact for your story, At the Earth's Core. Câblez-moi immédiatement, à mes frais, qu'il n'y avait aucune base factuelle pour votre histoire, Au cœur de la Terre. Very respectfully yours,

COGDON NESTOR, —— and —— Club, Algiers. June 1st, —.

Ten minutes after reading this letter I had cabled Mr. Nestor as follows:

Story true. Await me Algiers.

As fast as train and boat would carry me, I sped toward my destination. Aussi vite que le train et le bateau me portaient, j'ai filé vers ma destination. For all those dragging days my mind was a whirl of mad conjecture, of frantic hope, of numbing fear. Pendant toutes ces journées interminables, mon esprit était un tourbillon de conjectures folles, d'espoir frénétique, de peur engourdie.

The finding of the telegraph-instrument practically assured me that David Innes had driven Perry's iron mole back through the earth's crust to the buried world of Pellucidar; but what adventures had befallen him since his return? La découverte de l'instrument télégraphique m'a pratiquement assuré que David Innes avait repoussé la taupe de fer de Perry à travers la croûte terrestre jusqu'au monde enfoui de Pellucidar ; mais quelles aventures lui étaient arrivées depuis son retour ? Had he found Dian the Beautiful, his half-savage mate, safe among his friends, or had Hooja the Sly One succeeded in his nefarious schemes to abduct her? Avait-il trouvé Dian la Belle, sa compagne à moitié sauvage, en sécurité parmi ses amis, ou Hooja le Sournois avait-il réussi dans ses plans infâmes pour l'enlever ?

Did Abner Perry, the lovable old inventor and paleontologist, still live? Abner Perry, l'adorable vieil inventeur et paléontologue, vivait-il encore ?

Had the federated tribes of Pellucidar succeeded in overthrowing the mighty Mahars, the dominant race of reptilian monsters, and their fierce, gorilla-like soldiery, the savage Sagoths? Les tribus fédérées de Pellucidar avaient-elles réussi à renverser les puissants Mahars, la race dominante de monstres reptiliens, et leur féroce soldat ressemblant à des gorilles, les sauvages Sagoths ?

I must admit that I was in a state bordering upon nervous prostration when I entered the —— and —— Club, in Algiers, and inquired for Mr. Nestor. Je dois avouer que j'étais dans un état voisin de la prostration nerveuse lorsque j'entrai au —— et —— Club, à Alger, et m'enquis de M. Nestor. A moment later I was ushered into his presence, to find myself clasping hands with the sort of chap that the world holds only too few of. Un instant plus tard, j'ai été introduit en sa présence, pour me retrouver à serrer les mains avec le genre de gars dont le monde ne compte que trop peu.

He was a tall, smooth-faced man of about thirty, clean-cut, straight, and strong, and weather-tanned to the hue of a desert Arab. C'était un homme d'une trentaine d'années, grand, au visage lisse, bien coupé, droit et fort, et bronzé par le temps à la teinte d'un Arabe du désert. I liked him immensely from the first, and I hope that after our three months together in the desert country—three months not entirely lacking in adventure—he found that a man may be a writer of "impossible trash" and yet have some redeeming qualities. Je l'aimais énormément dès le début, et j'espère qu'après nos trois mois passés ensemble dans le pays désertique - trois mois pas totalement dépourvus d'aventure - il a découvert qu'un homme peut être un écrivain de "poubelle impossible" et pourtant avoir des qualités rédemptrices. . The day following my arrival at Algiers we left for the south, Nestor having made all arrangements in advance, guessing, as he naturally did, that I could be coming to Africa for but a single purpose—to hasten at once to the buried telegraph-instrument and wrest its secret from it. Le lendemain de mon arrivée à Alger, nous partîmes pour le sud, Nestor ayant pris toutes les dispositions à l'avance, devinant, comme il le faisait naturellement, que je ne pouvais venir en Afrique que dans un seul but - se hâter immédiatement vers le télégraphe enterré - instrument et lui arracher son secret.

In addition to our native servants, we took along an English telegraph-operator named Frank Downes. Nothing of interest enlivened our journey by rail and caravan till we came to the cluster of date-palms about the ancient well upon the rim of the Sahara. Rien d'intéressant n'a égayé notre voyage en chemin de fer et en caravane jusqu'à ce que nous arrivions au groupe de palmiers dattiers autour de l'ancien puits au bord du Sahara.

It was the very spot at which I first had seen David Innes. C'était l'endroit même où j'avais vu David Innes pour la première fois. If he had ever raised a cairn above the telegraph instrument no sign of it remained now. S'il avait jamais élevé un cairn au-dessus de l'instrument télégraphique, il n'en restait plus aucun signe. Had it not been for the chance that caused Cogdon Nestor to throw down his sleeping rug directly over the hidden instrument, it might still be clicking there unheard—and this story still unwritten. Si ce n'était pas le hasard qui a poussé Cogdon Nestor à jeter son tapis directement sur l'instrument caché, il se pourrait qu'il clique toujours là sans être entendu - et cette histoire n'est toujours pas écrite.

When we reached the spot and unearthed the little box the instrument was quiet, nor did repeated attempts upon the part of our telegrapher succeed in winning a response from the other end of the line. After several days of futile endeavor to raise Pellucidar, we had begun to despair. I was as positive that the other end of that little cable protruded through the surface of the inner world as I am that I sit here today in my study—when about midnight of the fourth day I was awakened by the sound of the instrument. J'étais aussi sûr que l'autre extrémité de ce petit câble dépassait à travers la surface du monde intérieur que je le suis que je suis assis ici aujourd'hui dans mon bureau - lorsque vers minuit le quatrième jour je fus réveillé par le son de l'instrument.

Leaping to my feet I grasped Downes roughly by the neck and dragged him out of his blankets. He didn't need to be told what caused my excitement, for the instant he was awake he, too, heard the long-hoped for click, and with a whoop of delight pounced upon the instrument. Il n'avait pas besoin qu'on lui dise ce qui provoquait mon excitation, car à l'instant où il fut éveillé, il entendit lui aussi le clic tant espéré et, avec un cri de joie, se jeta sur l'instrument. Nestor was on his feet almost as soon as I. The three of us huddled about that little box as if our lives depended upon the message it had for us. Nestor s'est levé presque aussitôt que moi. Nous nous sommes blottis tous les trois autour de cette petite boîte comme si nos vies dépendaient du message qu'elle avait pour nous.

Downes interrupted the clicking with his sending-key. Downes a interrompu le clic avec sa clé d'envoi. The noise of the receiver stopped instantly.

"Ask who it is, Downes," I directed. He did so, and while we awaited the Englishman's translation of the reply, I doubt if either Nestor or I breathed. Il l'a fait, et pendant que nous attendions la traduction de la réponse de l'Anglais, je doute que Nestor ou moi ayons respiré. "He says he's David Innes," said Downes. "He wants to know who we are." "Tell him," said I; "and that we want to know how he is—and all that has befallen him since I last saw him." For two months I talked with David Innes almost every day, and as Downes translated, either Nestor or I took notes. From these, arranged in chronological order, I have set down the following account of the further adventures of David Innes at the earth's core, practically in his own words. À partir de ceux-ci, classés par ordre chronologique, j'ai établi le récit suivant des aventures ultérieures de David Innes au cœur de la terre, pratiquement dans ses propres mots.