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Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs, CHAPTER I. LOST ON PELLUCIDAR

CHAPTER I. LOST ON PELLUCIDAR

The Arabs, of whom I wrote you at the end of my last letter (Innes began), and whom I thought to be enemies intent only upon murdering me, proved to be exceedingly friendly—they were searching for the very band of marauders that had threatened my existence. The huge rhamphorhynchus-like reptile that I had brought back with me from the inner world—the ugly Mahar that Hooja the Sly One had substituted for my dear Dian at the moment of my departure—filled them with wonder and with awe.

Nor less so did the mighty subterranean prospector which had carried me to Pellucidar and back again, and which lay out in the desert about two miles from my camp.

With their help I managed to get the unwieldy tons of its great bulk into a vertical position—the nose deep in a hole we had dug in the sand and the rest of it supported by the trunks of date-palms cut for the purpose.

It was a mighty engineering job with only wild Arabs and their wilder mounts to do the work of an electric crane—but finally it was completed, and I was ready for departure.

For some time I hesitated to take the Mahar back with me. She had been docile and quiet ever since she had discovered herself virtually a prisoner aboard the "iron mole." It had been, of course, impossible for me to communicate with her since she had no auditory organs and I no knowledge of her fourth-dimension, sixth-sense method of communication.

Naturally I am kind-hearted, and so I found it beyond me to leave even this hateful and repulsive thing alone in a strange and hostile world. The result was that when I entered the iron mole I took her with me.

That she knew that we were about to return to Pellucidar was evident, for immediately her manner changed from that of habitual gloom that had pervaded her, to an almost human expression of contentment and delight.

Our trip through the earth's crust was but a repetition of my two former journeys between the inner and the outer worlds. This time, however, I imagine that we must have maintained a more nearly perpendicular course, for we accomplished the journey in a few minutes' less time than upon the occasion of my first journey through the five-hundred-mile crust. Just a trifle less than seventy-two hours after our departure into the sands of the Sahara, we broke through the surface of Pellucidar.

Fortune once again favored me by the slightest of margins, for when I opened the door in the prospector's outer jacket I saw that we had missed coming up through the bottom of an ocean by but a few hundred yards. The aspect of the surrounding country was entirely unfamiliar to me—I had no conception of precisely where I was upon the one hundred and twenty-four million square miles of Pellucidar's vast land surface. The perpetual midday sun poured down its torrid rays from zenith, as it had done since the beginning of Pellucidarian time—as it would continue to do to the end of it. Before me, across the wide sea, the weird, horizonless seascape folded gently upward to meet the sky until it lost itself to view in the azure depths of distance far above the level of my eyes.

How strange it looked! How vastly different from the flat and puny area of the circumscribed vision of the dweller upon the outer crust!

I was lost. Though I wandered ceaselessly throughout a lifetime, I might never discover the whereabouts of my former friends of this strange and savage world. Never again might I see dear old Perry, nor Ghak the Hairy One, nor Dacor the Strong One, nor that other infinitely precious one—my sweet and noble mate, Dian the Beautiful!

But even so I was glad to tread once more the surface of Pellucidar. Mysterious and terrible, grotesque and savage though she is in many of her aspects, I can not but love her. Her very savagery appealed to me, for it is the savagery of unspoiled Nature.

The magnificence of her tropic beauties enthralled me. Her mighty land areas breathed unfettered freedom.

Her untracked oceans, whispering of virgin wonders unsullied by the eye of man, beckoned me out upon their restless bosoms.

Not for an instant did I regret the world of my nativity. I was in Pellucidar. I was home. And I was content.

As I stood dreaming beside the giant thing that had brought me safely through the earth's crust, my traveling companion, the hideous Mahar, emerged from the interior of the prospector and stood beside me. For a long time she remained motionless.

What thoughts were passing through the convolutions of her reptilian brain?

I do not know.

She was a member of the dominant race of Pellucidar. By a strange freak of evolution her kind had first developed the power of reason in that world of anomalies.

To her, creatures such as I were of a lower order. As Perry had discovered among the writings of her kind in the buried city of Phutra, it was still an open question among the Mahars as to whether man possessed means of intelligent communication or the power of reason.

Her kind believed that in the center of all-pervading solidity there was a single, vast, spherical cavity, which was Pellucidar. This cavity had been left there for the sole purpose of providing a place for the creation and propagation of the Mahar race. Everything within it had been put there for the uses of the Mahar.

I wondered what this particular Mahar might think now. I found pleasure in speculating upon just what the effect had been upon her of passing through the earth's crust, and coming out into a world that one of even less intelligence than the great Mahars could easily see was a different world from her own Pellucidar. What had she thought of the outer world's tiny sun? What had been the effect upon her of the moon and myriad stars of the clear African nights?

How had she explained them?

With what sensations of awe must she first have watched the sun moving slowly across the heavens to disappear at last beneath the western horizon, leaving in his wake that which the Mahar had never before witnessed—the darkness of night? For upon Pellucidar there is no night. The stationary sun hangs forever in the center of the Pellucidarian sky—directly overhead.

Then, too, she must have been impressed by the wondrous mechanism of the prospector which had bored its way from world to world and back again. And that it had been driven by a rational being must also have occurred to her.

Too, she had seen me conversing with other men upon the earth's surface. She had seen the arrival of the caravan of books and arms, and ammunition, and the balance of the heterogeneous collection which I had crammed into the cabin of the iron mole for transportation to Pellucidar.

She had seen all these evidences of a civilization and brain-power transcending in scientific achievement anything that her race had produced; nor once had she seen a creature of her own kind.

There could have been but a single deduction in the mind of the Mahar—there were other worlds than Pellucidar, and the gilak was a rational being.

Now the creature at my side was creeping slowly toward the near-by sea. At my hip hung a long-barreled six-shooter—somehow I had been unable to find the same sensation of security in the newfangled automatics that had been perfected since my first departure from the outer world—and in my hand was a heavy express rifle.

I could have shot the Mahar with ease, for I knew intuitively that she was escaping—but I did not.

I felt that if she could return to her own kind with the story of her adventures, the position of the human race within Pellucidar would be advanced immensely at a single stride, for at once man would take his proper place in the considerations of the reptilia.

At the edge of the sea the creature paused and looked back at me. Then she slid sinuously into the surf.

For several minutes I saw no more of her as she luxuriated in the cool depths.

Then a hundred yards from shore she rose and there for another short while she floated upon the surface.

Finally she spread her giant wings, flapped them vigorously a score of times and rose above the blue sea. A single time she circled far aloft—and then straight as an arrow she sped away.

I watched her until the distant haze enveloped her and she had disappeared. I was alone.

My first concern was to discover where within Pellucidar I might be—and in what direction lay the land of the Sarians where Ghak the Hairy One ruled.

But how was I to guess in which direction lay Sari?

And if I set out to search—what then?

Could I find my way back to the prospector with its priceless freight of books, firearms, ammunition, scientific instruments, and still more books—its great library of reference works upon every conceivable branch of applied sciences?

And if I could not, of what value was all this vast storehouse of potential civilization and progress to be to the world of my adoption?

Upon the other hand, if I remained here alone with it, what could I accomplish single-handed?

Nothing.

But where there was no east, no west, no north, no south, no stars, no moon, and only a stationary mid-day sun, how was I to find my way back to this spot should ever I get out of sight of it?

I didn't know. For a long time I stood buried in deep thought, when it occurred to me to try out one of the compasses I had brought and ascertain if it remained steadily fixed upon an unvarying pole. I reentered the prospector and fetched a compass without.

Moving a considerable distance from the prospector that the needle might not be influenced by its great bulk of iron and steel I turned the delicate instrument about in every direction.

Always and steadily the needle remained rigidly fixed upon a point straight out to sea, apparently pointing toward a large island some ten or twenty miles distant. This then should be north.

I drew my note-book from my pocket and made a careful topographical sketch of the locality within the range of my vision. Due north lay the island, far out upon the shimmering sea.

The spot I had chosen for my observations was the top of a large, flat boulder which rose six or eight feet above the turf. This spot I called Greenwich. The boulder was the "Royal Observatory." I had made a start! I cannot tell you what a sense of relief was imparted to me by the simple fact that there was at least one spot within Pellucidar with a familiar name and a place upon a map.

It was with almost childish joy that I made a little circle in my note-book and traced the word Greenwich beside it.

Now I felt I might start out upon my search with some assurance of finding my way back again to the prospector.

I decided that at first I would travel directly south in the hope that I might in that direction find some familiar landmark. It was as good a direction as any. This much at least might be said of it.

Among the many other things I had brought from the outer world were a number of pedometers. I slipped three of these into my pockets with the idea that I might arrive at a more or less accurate mean from the registrations of them all.

On my map I would register so many paces south, so many east, so many west, and so on. When I was ready to return I would then do so by any route that I might choose.

I also strapped a considerable quantity of ammunition across my shoulders, pocketed some matches, and hooked an aluminum fry-pan and a small stew-kettle of the same metal to my belt.

I was ready—ready to go forth and explore a world!

Ready to search a land area of 124,110,000 square miles for my friends, my incomparable mate, and good old Perry!

And so, after locking the door in the outer shell of the prospector, I set out upon my quest. Due south I traveled, across lovely valleys thick-dotted with grazing herds.

Through dense primeval forests I forced my way and up the slopes of mighty mountains searching for a pass to their farther sides.

Ibex and musk-sheep fell before my good old revolver, so that I lacked not for food in the higher altitudes. The forests and the plains gave plentifully of fruits and wild birds, antelope, aurochsen, and elk.

Occasionally, for the larger game animals and the gigantic beasts of prey, I used my express rifle, but for the most part the revolver filled all my needs.

There were times, too, when faced by a mighty cave bear, a saber-toothed tiger, or huge felis spelaea, black-maned and terrible, even my powerful rifle seemed pitifully inadequate—but fortune favored me so that I passed unscathed through adventures that even the recollection of causes the short hairs to bristle at the nape of my neck.

How long I wandered toward the south I do not know, for shortly after I left the prospector something went wrong with my watch, and I was again at the mercy of the baffling timelessness of Pellucidar, forging steadily ahead beneath the great, motionless sun which hangs eternally at noon.

I ate many times, however, so that days must have elapsed, possibly months with no familiar landscape rewarding my eager eyes.

I saw no men nor signs of men. Nor is this strange, for Pellucidar, in its land area, is immense, while the human race there is very young and consequently far from numerous.

Doubtless upon that long search mine was the first human foot to touch the soil in many places—mine the first human eye to rest upon the gorgeous wonders of the landscape.

It was a staggering thought. I could not but dwell upon it often as I made my lonely way through this virgin world. Then, quite suddenly, one day I stepped out of the peace of manless primality into the presence of man—and peace was gone.

It happened thus:

I had been following a ravine downward out of a chain of lofty hills and had paused at its mouth to view the lovely little valley that lay before me. At one side was tangled wood, while straight ahead a river wound peacefully along parallel to the cliffs in which the hills terminated at the valley's edge. Presently, as I stood enjoying the lovely scene, as insatiate for Nature's wonders as if I had not looked upon similar landscapes countless times, a sound of shouting broke from the direction of the woods. That the harsh, discordant notes rose from the throats of men I could not doubt.

I slipped behind a large boulder near the mouth of the ravine and waited. I could hear the crashing of underbrush in the forest, and I guessed that whoever came came quickly—pursued and pursuers, doubtless.

In a short time some hunted animal would break into view, and a moment later a score of half-naked savages would come leaping after with spears or club or great stone-knives.

I had seen the thing so many times during my life within Pellucidar that I felt that I could anticipate to a nicety precisely what I was about to witness. I hoped that the hunters would prove friendly and be able to direct me toward Sari.

Even as I was thinking these thoughts the quarry emerged from the forest. But it was no terrified four-footed beast. Instead, what I saw was an old man—a terrified old man!

Staggering feebly and hopelessly from what must have been some very terrible fate, if one could judge from the horrified expressions he continually cast behind him toward the wood, he came stumbling on in my direction.

He had covered but a short distance from the forest when I beheld the first of his pursuers—a Sagoth, one of those grim and terrible gorilla-men who guard the mighty Mahars in their buried cities, faring forth from time to time upon slave-raiding or punitive expeditions against the human race of Pellucidar, of whom the dominant race of the inner world think as we think of the bison or the wild sheep of our own world.

Close behind the foremost Sagoth came others until a full dozen raced, shouting after the terror-stricken old man. They would be upon him shortly, that was plain.

One of them was rapidly overhauling him, his back-thrown spear-arm testifying to his purpose.

And then, quite with the suddenness of an unexpected blow, I realized a past familiarity with the gait and carriage of the fugitive.

Simultaneously there swept over me the staggering fact that the old man was—PERRY! That he was about to die before my very eyes with no hope that I could reach him in time to avert the awful catastrophe—for to me it meant a real catastrophe!

Perry was my best friend.

Dian, of course, I looked upon as more than friend. She was my mate—a part of me.

I had entirely forgotten the rifle in my hand and the revolvers at my belt; one does not readily synchronize his thoughts with the stone age and the twentieth century simultaneously.

Now from past habit I still thought in the stone age, and in my thoughts of the stone age there were no thoughts of firearms.

The fellow was almost upon Perry when the feel of the gun in my hand awoke me from the lethargy of terror that had gripped me. From behind my boulder I threw up the heavy express rifle—a mighty engine of destruction that might bring down a cave bear or a mammoth at a single shot—and let drive at the Sagoth's broad, hairy breast. At the sound of the shot he stopped stock-still. His spear dropped from his hand.

Then he lunged forward upon his face.

The effect upon the others was little less remarkable. Perry alone could have possibly guessed the meaning of the loud report or explained its connection with the sudden collapse of the Sagoth. The other gorilla-men halted for but an instant. Then with renewed shrieks of rage they sprang forward to finish Perry.

At the same time I stepped from behind my boulder, drawing one of my revolvers that I might conserve the more precious ammunition of the express rifle. Quickly I fired again with the lesser weapon.

Then it was that all eyes were directed toward me. Another Sagoth fell to the bullet from the revolver; but it did not stop his companions. They were out for revenge as well as blood now, and they meant to have both.

As I ran forward toward Perry I fired four more shots, dropping three of our antagonists. Then at last the remaining seven wavered. It was too much for them, this roaring death that leaped, invisible, upon them from a great distance.

As they hesitated I reached Perry's side. I have never seen such an expression upon any man's face as that upon Perry's when he recognized me. I have no words wherewith to describe it. There was not time to talk then—scarce for a greeting. I thrust the full, loaded revolver into his hand, fired the last shot in my own, and reloaded. There were but six Sagoths left then.

They started toward us once more, though I could see that they were terrified probably as much by the noise of the guns as by their effects. They never reached us. Half-way the three that remained turned and fled, and we let them go.

The last we saw of them they were disappearing into the tangled undergrowth of the forest. And then Perry turned and threw his arms about my neck and, burying his old face upon my shoulder, wept like a child.


CHAPTER I. LOST ON PELLUCIDAR KAPITEL I. VERLOREN AUF PELLUCIDAR CAPÍTULO I. PERDIDOS EN PELLUCIDAR CAPITOLO I. PERSO A PELLUCIDAR CAPÍTULO I. PERDIDO EM PELLUCIDAR

The Arabs, of whom I wrote you at the end of my last letter (Innes began), and whom I thought to be enemies intent only upon murdering me, proved to be exceedingly friendly—they were searching for the very band of marauders that had threatened my existence. The huge rhamphorhynchus-like reptile that I had brought back with me from the inner world—the ugly Mahar that Hooja the Sly One had substituted for my dear Dian at the moment of my departure—filled them with wonder and with awe. L'énorme reptile ressemblant à un rhamphorhynchus que j'avais ramené avec moi du monde intérieur - le vilain Mahar que Hooja le Sournois avait remplacé ma chère Dian au moment de mon départ - les remplissait d'émerveillement et d'effroi.

Nor less so did the mighty subterranean prospector which had carried me to Pellucidar and back again, and which lay out in the desert about two miles from my camp. Pas moins que le puissant prospecteur souterrain qui m'avait transporté à Pellucidar et retour, et qui s'étendait dans le désert à environ deux milles de mon camp.

With their help I managed to get the unwieldy tons of its great bulk into a vertical position—the nose deep in a hole we had dug in the sand and the rest of it supported by the trunks of date-palms cut for the purpose. Avec leur aide, j'ai réussi à mettre en position verticale les tonnes encombrantes de sa grande masse - le nez enfoncé dans un trou que nous avions creusé dans le sable et le reste soutenu par des troncs de palmiers dattiers coupés à cet effet.

It was a mighty engineering job with only wild Arabs and their wilder mounts to do the work of an electric crane—but finally it was completed, and I was ready for departure. C'était un énorme travail d'ingénierie avec seulement des Arabes sauvages et leurs montures les plus sauvages pour faire le travail d'une grue électrique - mais finalement c'était terminé, et j'étais prêt pour le départ.

For some time I hesitated to take the Mahar back with me. She had been docile and quiet ever since she had discovered herself virtually a prisoner aboard the "iron mole." Elle était docile et tranquille depuis qu'elle s'était retrouvée pratiquement prisonnière à bord de la « taupe de fer ». It had been, of course, impossible for me to communicate with her since she had no auditory organs and I no knowledge of her fourth-dimension, sixth-sense method of communication.

Naturally I am kind-hearted, and so I found it beyond me to leave even this hateful and repulsive thing alone in a strange and hostile world. Naturellement, j'ai bon cœur, et j'ai donc trouvé qu'il était hors de moi de laisser même cette chose odieuse et répugnante seule dans un monde étrange et hostile. The result was that when I entered the iron mole I took her with me.

That she knew that we were about to return to Pellucidar was evident, for immediately her manner changed from that of habitual gloom that had pervaded her, to an almost human expression of contentment and delight. Qu'elle sache que nous étions sur le point de retourner à Pellucidar était évident, car immédiatement son attitude passa de la morosité habituelle qui l'avait envahie à une expression presque humaine de contentement et de joie.

Our trip through the earth's crust was but a repetition of my two former journeys between the inner and the outer worlds. Notre voyage à travers la croûte terrestre n'était que la répétition de mes deux précédents voyages entre le monde intérieur et le monde extérieur. This time, however, I imagine that we must have maintained a more nearly perpendicular course, for we accomplished the journey in a few minutes' less time than upon the occasion of my first journey through the five-hundred-mile crust. Just a trifle less than seventy-two hours after our departure into the sands of the Sahara, we broke through the surface of Pellucidar. Un peu moins de soixante-douze heures après notre départ dans les sables du Sahara, nous avons percé la surface de Pellucidar.

Fortune once again favored me by the slightest of margins, for when I opened the door in the prospector's outer jacket I saw that we had missed coming up through the bottom of an ocean by but a few hundred yards. La fortune m'a une fois de plus favorisé par la moindre des marges, car lorsque j'ai ouvert la porte dans la veste extérieure du prospecteur, j'ai vu que nous n'avions manqué de traverser le fond d'un océan que de quelques centaines de mètres. The aspect of the surrounding country was entirely unfamiliar to me—I had no conception of precisely where I was upon the one hundred and twenty-four million square miles of Pellucidar's vast land surface. The perpetual midday sun poured down its torrid rays from zenith, as it had done since the beginning of Pellucidarian time—as it would continue to do to the end of it. Le soleil perpétuel de midi déversait du zénith ses rayons torrides, comme il le faisait depuis le début des temps pellucidaires — comme il continuerait à le faire jusqu'à la fin. Before me, across the wide sea, the weird, horizonless seascape folded gently upward to meet the sky until it lost itself to view in the azure depths of distance far above the level of my eyes. Devant moi, de l'autre côté de la vaste mer, l'étrange paysage marin sans horizon s'est plié doucement vers le haut pour rencontrer le ciel jusqu'à ce qu'il se perde dans les profondeurs azur de la distance bien au-dessus du niveau de mes yeux.

How strange it looked! How vastly different from the flat and puny area of the circumscribed vision of the dweller upon the outer crust! Combien différent de la zone plate et chétive de la vision circonscrite de l'habitant sur la croûte extérieure !

I was lost. Though I wandered ceaselessly throughout a lifetime, I might never discover the whereabouts of my former friends of this strange and savage world. Bien que j'ai erré sans cesse tout au long de ma vie, je ne découvrirais peut-être jamais où se trouvaient mes anciens amis de ce monde étrange et sauvage. Never again might I see dear old Perry, nor Ghak the Hairy One, nor Dacor the Strong One, nor that other infinitely precious one—my sweet and noble mate, Dian the Beautiful!

But even so I was glad to tread once more the surface of Pellucidar. Mysterious and terrible, grotesque and savage though she is in many of her aspects, I can not but love her. Her very savagery appealed to me, for it is the savagery of unspoiled Nature. Su mismo salvajismo me atraía, porque es el salvajismo de la naturaleza virgen.

The magnificence of her tropic beauties enthralled me. La magnificence de ses beautés tropicales m'a captivé. Her mighty land areas breathed unfettered freedom. Ses vastes étendues terrestres respiraient une liberté sans entraves.

Her untracked oceans, whispering of virgin wonders unsullied by the eye of man, beckoned me out upon their restless bosoms. Ses océans vierges, chuchotant de merveilles vierges non souillées par l'œil de l'homme, m'ont fait signe de sortir sur leurs poitrines agitées.

Not for an instant did I regret the world of my nativity. I was in Pellucidar. I was home. And I was content.

As I stood dreaming beside the giant thing that had brought me safely through the earth's crust, my traveling companion, the hideous Mahar, emerged from the interior of the prospector and stood beside me. Tandis que je rêvais à côté de la chose géante qui m'avait conduit en toute sécurité à travers la croûte terrestre, mon compagnon de voyage, le hideux Mahar, émergea de l'intérieur du prospecteur et se tint à côté de moi. For a long time she remained motionless.

What thoughts were passing through the convolutions of her reptilian brain? ¿Qué pensamientos pasaban por las circunvoluciones de su cerebro reptiliano?

I do not know.

She was a member of the dominant race of Pellucidar. By a strange freak of evolution her kind had first developed the power of reason in that world of anomalies. Par un étrange phénomène d'évolution, son espèce avait d'abord développé le pouvoir de la raison dans ce monde d'anomalies.

To her, creatures such as I were of a lower order. As Perry had discovered among the writings of her kind in the buried city of Phutra, it was still an open question among the Mahars as to whether man possessed means of intelligent communication or the power of reason. Comme Perry l'avait découvert parmi les écrits de son espèce dans la ville enterrée de Phutra, c'était encore une question ouverte parmi les Mahars de savoir si l'homme possédait des moyens de communication intelligents ou le pouvoir de la raison.

Her kind believed that in the center of all-pervading solidity there was a single, vast, spherical cavity, which was Pellucidar. Son espèce croyait qu'au centre de la solidité omniprésente, il y avait une seule et vaste cavité sphérique, qui était Pellucidar. This cavity had been left there for the sole purpose of providing a place for the creation and propagation of the Mahar race. Cette cavité avait été laissée là dans le seul but de fournir un lieu pour la création et la propagation de la race Mahar. Everything within it had been put there for the uses of the Mahar.

I wondered what this particular Mahar might think now. I found pleasure in speculating upon just what the effect had been upon her of passing through the earth's crust, and coming out into a world that one of even less intelligence than the great Mahars could easily see was a different world from her own Pellucidar. J'ai trouvé du plaisir à spéculer sur l'effet qu'avait eu sur elle le fait de traverser la croûte terrestre et d'entrer dans un monde qu'une personne encore moins intelligente que les grands Mahars pouvait facilement voir était un monde différent de son propre Pellucidar. What had she thought of the outer world's tiny sun? Qu'avait-elle pensé du minuscule soleil du monde extérieur ? What had been the effect upon her of the moon and myriad stars of the clear African nights?

How had she explained them?

With what sensations of awe must she first have watched the sun moving slowly across the heavens to disappear at last beneath the western horizon, leaving in his wake that which the Mahar had never before witnessed—the darkness of night? For upon Pellucidar there is no night. The stationary sun hangs forever in the center of the Pellucidarian sky—directly overhead. Le soleil stationnaire est suspendu pour toujours au centre du ciel pellucidaire, directement au-dessus.

Then, too, she must have been impressed by the wondrous mechanism of the prospector which had bored its way from world to world and back again. Puis, aussi, elle a dû être impressionnée par le merveilleux mécanisme du prospecteur qui s'était frayé un chemin de monde en monde et vice-versa. And that it had been driven by a rational being must also have occurred to her. Et qu'il avait été poussé par un être rationnel devait aussi lui venir à l'esprit.

Too, she had seen me conversing with other men upon the earth's surface. She had seen the arrival of the caravan of books and arms, and ammunition, and the balance of the heterogeneous collection which I had crammed into the cabin of the iron mole for transportation to Pellucidar. Elle avait vu arriver la caravane de livres, d'armes et de munitions, et le reste de la collection hétéroclite que j'avais entassée dans la cabine de la taupe de fer pour la transporter à Pellucidar.

She had seen all these evidences of a civilization and brain-power transcending in scientific achievement anything that her race had produced; nor once had she seen a creature of her own kind. Elle avait vu toutes ces évidences d'une civilisation et d'un pouvoir intellectuel transcendant dans la réalisation scientifique tout ce que sa race avait produit ; elle n'avait pas non plus vu une seule créature de son espèce.

There could have been but a single deduction in the mind of the Mahar—there were other worlds than Pellucidar, and the gilak was a rational being. Il ne pouvait y avoir qu'une seule déduction dans l'esprit du Mahar - il y avait d'autres mondes que Pellucidar, et le gilak était un être rationnel.

Now the creature at my side was creeping slowly toward the near-by sea. Maintenant, la créature à mes côtés rampait lentement vers la mer toute proche. At my hip hung a long-barreled six-shooter—somehow I had been unable to find the same sensation of security in the newfangled automatics that had been perfected since my first departure from the outer world—and in my hand was a heavy express rifle. À ma hanche pendait un six coups à long canon - je n'avais pas réussi à trouver la même sensation de sécurité dans les nouveaux systèmes automatiques qui avaient été perfectionnés depuis mon premier départ du monde extérieur - et dans ma main se trouvait un lourd fusil express .

I could have shot the Mahar with ease, for I knew intuitively that she was escaping—but I did not. J'aurais pu facilement abattre le Mahar, car je savais intuitivement qu'il s'enfuyait, mais je ne le fis pas.

I felt that if she could return to her own kind with the story of her adventures, the position of the human race within Pellucidar would be advanced immensely at a single stride, for at once man would take his proper place in the considerations of the reptilia.

At the edge of the sea the creature paused and looked back at me. Then she slid sinuously into the surf. Puis elle glissa sinueusement dans les vagues.

For several minutes I saw no more of her as she luxuriated in the cool depths. Pendant plusieurs minutes, je ne la vis plus tandis qu'elle se prélassait dans les profondeurs fraîches.

Then a hundred yards from shore she rose and there for another short while she floated upon the surface. Puis, à une centaine de mètres du rivage, elle s'éleva et là, pendant encore un court moment, elle flotta à la surface.

Finally she spread her giant wings, flapped them vigorously a score of times and rose above the blue sea. Enfin, elle déploya ses ailes géantes, les battit vigoureusement vingt fois et s'éleva au-dessus de la mer bleue. A single time she circled far aloft—and then straight as an arrow she sped away. Une seule fois, elle tourna en rond très haut, puis, droite comme une flèche, elle s'éloigna.

I watched her until the distant haze enveloped her and she had disappeared. I was alone.

My first concern was to discover where within Pellucidar I might be—and in what direction lay the land of the Sarians where Ghak the Hairy One ruled.

But how was I to guess in which direction lay Sari? Mais comment deviner dans quelle direction reposait Sari ?

And if I set out to search—what then? Et si je me mettais à chercher, et alors ?

Could I find my way back to the prospector with its priceless freight of books, firearms, ammunition, scientific instruments, and still more books—its great library of reference works upon every conceivable branch of applied sciences? Pourrais-je retrouver le chemin du prospecteur avec son inestimable fret de livres, d'armes à feu, de munitions, d'instruments scientifiques et encore plus de livres - sa grande bibliothèque d'ouvrages de référence sur toutes les branches imaginables des sciences appliquées ?

And if I could not, of what value was all this vast storehouse of potential civilization and progress to be to the world of my adoption? Et si je ne pouvais pas, de quelle valeur était tout ce vaste réservoir de civilisation et de progrès potentiels pour le monde de mon adoption ?

Upon the other hand, if I remained here alone with it, what could I accomplish single-handed? D'un autre côté, si je restais ici seul avec lui, que pourrais-je accomplir tout seul ?

Nothing.

But where there was no east, no west, no north, no south, no stars, no moon, and only a stationary mid-day sun, how was I to find my way back to this spot should ever I get out of sight of it? Mais là où il n'y avait pas d'est, pas d'ouest, pas de nord, pas de sud, pas d'étoiles, pas de lune, et seulement un soleil stationnaire à midi, comment pourrais-je retrouver mon chemin vers cet endroit si jamais je perdais la vue de ce?

I didn't know. For a long time I stood buried in deep thought, when it occurred to me to try out one of the compasses I had brought and ascertain if it remained steadily fixed upon an unvarying pole. Pendant longtemps, je restai plongé dans une profonde réflexion, quand l'idée me vint d'essayer l'un des compas que j'avais apportés et de vérifier s'il restait solidement fixé sur une perche invariable. I reentered the prospector and fetched a compass without. Je suis rentré dans le prospecteur et j'ai récupéré une boussole sans.

Moving a considerable distance from the prospector that the needle might not be influenced by its great bulk of iron and steel I turned the delicate instrument about in every direction. En m'éloignant du prospecteur d'une distance considérable pour que l'aiguille ne soit pas influencée par sa grande masse de fer et d'acier, je fis tourner le délicat instrument dans tous les sens.

Always and steadily the needle remained rigidly fixed upon a point straight out to sea, apparently pointing toward a large island some ten or twenty miles distant. Toujours et régulièrement, l'aiguille restait rigidement fixée sur un point directement au large, pointant apparemment vers une grande île distante d'environ dix ou vingt milles. This then should be north.

I drew my note-book from my pocket and made a careful topographical sketch of the locality within the range of my vision. Je tirai mon carnet de notes de ma poche et fis un croquis topographique soigné de la localité à portée de ma vision. Due north lay the island, far out upon the shimmering sea. Au nord s'étendait l'île, loin sur la mer scintillante.

The spot I had chosen for my observations was the top of a large, flat boulder which rose six or eight feet above the turf. L'endroit que j'avais choisi pour mes observations était le sommet d'un gros rocher plat qui s'élevait à six ou huit pieds au-dessus du gazon. This spot I called Greenwich. The boulder was the "Royal Observatory." I had made a start! J'avais commencé ! I cannot tell you what a sense of relief was imparted to me by the simple fact that there was at least one spot within Pellucidar with a familiar name and a place upon a map. Je ne peux pas vous dire quel sentiment de soulagement m'a procuré le simple fait qu'il y avait au moins un endroit à Pellucidar avec un nom familier et un endroit sur une carte.

It was with almost childish joy that I made a little circle in my note-book and traced the word Greenwich beside it.

Now I felt I might start out upon my search with some assurance of finding my way back again to the prospector. Maintenant, je sentais que je pouvais commencer ma recherche avec une certaine assurance de retrouver le chemin du prospecteur.

I decided that at first I would travel directly south in the hope that I might in that direction find some familiar landmark. It was as good a direction as any. This much at least might be said of it. On pourrait en dire au moins autant.

Among the many other things I had brought from the outer world were a number of pedometers. Parmi les nombreuses autres choses que j'avais apportées du monde extérieur, il y avait un certain nombre de podomètres. I slipped three of these into my pockets with the idea that I might arrive at a more or less accurate mean from the registrations of them all. J'en ai glissé trois dans mes poches avec l'idée que je pourrais arriver à une moyenne plus ou moins précise à partir des enregistrements de tous.

On my map I would register so many paces south, so many east, so many west, and so on. Sur ma carte, j'inscrirais tant de pas vers le sud, tant vers l'est, tant vers l'ouest, et ainsi de suite. When I was ready to return I would then do so by any route that I might choose.

I also strapped a considerable quantity of ammunition across my shoulders, pocketed some matches, and hooked an aluminum fry-pan and a small stew-kettle of the same metal to my belt. J'ai également attaché une quantité considérable de munitions sur mes épaules, empoché des allumettes et accroché une poêle à frire en aluminium et une petite marmite à ragoût du même métal à ma ceinture.

I was ready—ready to go forth and explore a world!

Ready to search a land area of 124,110,000 square miles for my friends, my incomparable mate, and good old Perry!

And so, after locking the door in the outer shell of the prospector, I set out upon my quest. Et donc, après avoir verrouillé la porte dans la coque extérieure du prospecteur, je me suis lancé dans ma quête. Due south I traveled, across lovely valleys thick-dotted with grazing herds. Plein sud, j'ai voyagé, à travers de belles vallées parsemées de troupeaux de pâturage.

Through dense primeval forests I forced my way and up the slopes of mighty mountains searching for a pass to their farther sides. À travers des forêts vierges denses, je me suis frayé un chemin et j'ai escaladé les pentes de puissantes montagnes à la recherche d'un passage vers leurs côtés les plus éloignés.

Ibex and musk-sheep fell before my good old revolver, so that I lacked not for food in the higher altitudes. Des bouquetins et des moutons musqués sont tombés devant mon bon vieux revolver, de sorte que je n'ai pas manqué de nourriture dans les altitudes plus élevées. The forests and the plains gave plentifully of fruits and wild birds, antelope, aurochsen, and elk. Les forêts et les plaines produisaient abondamment de fruits et d'oiseaux sauvages, d'antilopes, d'aurochsen et d'élans.

Occasionally, for the larger game animals and the gigantic beasts of prey, I used my express rifle, but for the most part the revolver filled all my needs. Occasionnellement, pour les plus gros gibiers et les gigantesques bêtes de proie, j'utilisais mon fusil express, mais le revolver comblait le plus souvent tous mes besoins.

There were times, too, when faced by a mighty cave bear, a saber-toothed tiger, or huge felis spelaea, black-maned and terrible, even my powerful rifle seemed pitifully inadequate—but fortune favored me so that I passed unscathed through adventures that even the recollection of causes the short hairs to bristle at the nape of my neck. Il y avait aussi des moments où, face à un puissant ours des cavernes, un tigre à dents de sabre ou un énorme felis spelaea, à la crinière noire et terrible, même mon puissant fusil semblait pitoyablement inadéquat - mais la fortune m'a favorisé de sorte que je suis passé indemne à travers des aventures que même le souvenir de fait hérisser les poils courts de ma nuque.

How long I wandered toward the south I do not know, for shortly after I left the prospector something went wrong with my watch, and I was again at the mercy of the baffling timelessness of Pellucidar, forging steadily ahead beneath the great, motionless sun which hangs eternally at noon. Combien de temps ai-je erré vers le sud, je ne sais pas, car peu de temps après avoir quitté le prospecteur, quelque chose a mal tourné avec ma montre, et j'étais de nouveau à la merci de l'intemporalité déroutante de Pellucidar, allant de l'avant sous le grand soleil immobile qui pend éternellement à midi.

I ate many times, however, so that days must have elapsed, possibly months with no familiar landscape rewarding my eager eyes. J'ai mangé plusieurs fois, cependant, de sorte que des jours ont dû s'écouler, peut-être des mois, sans qu'aucun paysage familier ne récompense mes yeux avides.

I saw no men nor signs of men. Nor is this strange, for Pellucidar, in its land area, is immense, while the human race there is very young and consequently far from numerous. Ce n'est pas non plus étrange, car Pellucidar, dans son territoire, est immense, alors que la race humaine y est très jeune et par conséquent peu nombreuse.

Doubtless upon that long search mine was the first human foot to touch the soil in many places—mine the first human eye to rest upon the gorgeous wonders of the landscape. Sans aucun doute, au cours de cette longue recherche, la mine a été le premier pied humain à toucher le sol en de nombreux endroits - le mien le premier œil humain à se poser sur les magnifiques merveilles du paysage.

It was a staggering thought. C'était une pensée stupéfiante. I could not but dwell upon it often as I made my lonely way through this virgin world. Je ne pouvais pas m'empêcher de m'y attarder souvent alors que je cheminais seul dans ce monde vierge. Then, quite suddenly, one day I stepped out of the peace of manless primality into the presence of man—and peace was gone. Entonces, de repente, un día salí de la paz de la primacía sin hombre para entrar en la presencia del hombre, y la paz desapareció. Puis, tout à coup, un jour, je suis sorti de la paix de la primauté sans homme pour entrer dans la présence de l'homme – et la paix avait disparu.

It happened thus:

I had been following a ravine downward out of a chain of lofty hills and had paused at its mouth to view the lovely little valley that lay before me. J'avais suivi un ravin vers le bas d'une chaîne de hautes collines et m'étais arrêté à son embouchure pour voir la ravissante petite vallée qui s'étendait devant moi. At one side was tangled wood, while straight ahead a river wound peacefully along parallel to the cliffs in which the hills terminated at the valley's edge. D'un côté s'enchevêtraient des bois, tandis que droit devant une rivière serpentait paisiblement parallèlement aux falaises où les collines se terminaient au bord de la vallée. Presently, as I stood enjoying the lovely scene, as insatiate for Nature's wonders as if I had not looked upon similar landscapes countless times, a sound of shouting broke from the direction of the woods. Bientôt, alors que je profitais de la belle scène, aussi insatiable des merveilles de la nature que si je n'avais pas contemplé d'innombrables fois des paysages similaires, un son de cris se fit entendre en direction des bois. That the harsh, discordant notes rose from the throats of men I could not doubt. Que des notes dures et discordantes sortent de la gorge des hommes, je ne pouvais en douter.

I slipped behind a large boulder near the mouth of the ravine and waited. I could hear the crashing of underbrush in the forest, and I guessed that whoever came came quickly—pursued and pursuers, doubtless. J'entendais le fracas des broussailles dans la forêt, et je devinais que celui qui venait arrivait vite, poursuivi et poursuivant sans doute.

In a short time some hunted animal would break into view, and a moment later a score of half-naked savages would come leaping after with spears or club or great stone-knives. En peu de temps, un animal chassé apparaîtrait, et un instant plus tard, une vingtaine de sauvages à moitié nus viendraient bondir après avec des lances ou des gourdins ou de grands couteaux de pierre.

I had seen the thing so many times during my life within Pellucidar that I felt that I could anticipate to a nicety precisely what I was about to witness. J'avais vu la chose tellement de fois au cours de ma vie à Pellucidar que je sentais que je pouvais anticiper avec précision ce dont j'allais être témoin. I hoped that the hunters would prove friendly and be able to direct me toward Sari.

Even as I was thinking these thoughts the quarry emerged from the forest. Alors même que je réfléchissais à ces pensées, la proie émergea de la forêt. But it was no terrified four-footed beast. Mais ce n'était pas une bête à quatre pattes terrifiée. Instead, what I saw was an old man—a terrified old man!

Staggering feebly and hopelessly from what must have been some very terrible fate, if one could judge from the horrified expressions he continually cast behind him toward the wood, he came stumbling on in my direction. Chancelant faiblement et désespérément de ce qui devait être un destin très terrible, si l'on pouvait en juger par les expressions horrifiées qu'il jetait continuellement derrière lui vers le bois, il trébucha dans ma direction.

He had covered but a short distance from the forest when I beheld the first of his pursuers—a Sagoth, one of those grim and terrible gorilla-men who guard the mighty Mahars in their buried cities, faring forth from time to time upon slave-raiding or punitive expeditions against the human race of Pellucidar, of whom the dominant race of the inner world think as we think of the bison or the wild sheep of our own world. Il n'avait couvert qu'une courte distance de la forêt lorsque je vis le premier de ses poursuivants - un Sagoth, l'un de ces hommes-gorilles sinistres et terribles qui gardent les puissants Mahars dans leurs villes enterrées, s'avançant de temps en temps sur des esclaves - raids ou expéditions punitives contre la race humaine de Pellucidar, dont la race dominante du monde intérieur pense comme nous pensons aux bisons ou aux moutons sauvages de notre propre monde.

Close behind the foremost Sagoth came others until a full dozen raced, shouting after the terror-stricken old man. Juste derrière le premier Sagoth vinrent d'autres jusqu'à ce qu'une douzaine complète courut, criant après le vieil homme terrorisé. They would be upon him shortly, that was plain.

One of them was rapidly overhauling him, his back-thrown spear-arm testifying to his purpose. Uno de ellos le alcanzaba rápidamente, y su lanza-brazo lanzada hacia atrás daba fe de su propósito. L'un d'eux était en train de le remettre rapidement en état, son bras lancé en arrière témoignant de son intention.

And then, quite with the suddenness of an unexpected blow, I realized a past familiarity with the gait and carriage of the fugitive. Et puis, tout à fait avec la soudaineté d'un coup inattendu, je me suis rendu compte d'une familiarité passée avec la démarche et l'allure du fugitif.

Simultaneously there swept over me the staggering fact that the old man was—PERRY! Simultanément, j'ai été submergé par le fait stupéfiant que le vieil homme était… PERRY ! That he was about to die before my very eyes with no hope that I could reach him in time to avert the awful catastrophe—for to me it meant a real catastrophe!

Perry was my best friend.

Dian, of course, I looked upon as more than friend. She was my mate—a part of me.

I had entirely forgotten the rifle in my hand and the revolvers at my belt; one does not readily synchronize his thoughts with the stone age and the twentieth century simultaneously. J'avais complètement oublié le fusil à la main et les revolvers à la ceinture ; on ne synchronise pas facilement ses pensées simultanément avec l'âge de pierre et le XXe siècle.

Now from past habit I still thought in the stone age, and in my thoughts of the stone age there were no thoughts of firearms.

The fellow was almost upon Perry when the feel of the gun in my hand awoke me from the lethargy of terror that had gripped me. Le type était presque sur Perry quand la sensation du pistolet dans ma main m'a réveillé de la léthargie de la terreur qui m'avait saisi. From behind my boulder I threw up the heavy express rifle—a mighty engine of destruction that might bring down a cave bear or a mammoth at a single shot—and let drive at the Sagoth's broad, hairy breast. De derrière mon rocher, j'ai jeté le lourd fusil express - un puissant engin de destruction qui pourrait abattre un ours des cavernes ou un mammouth d'un seul coup - et j'ai tiré sur la large poitrine poilue du Sagoth. At the sound of the shot he stopped stock-still. Au bruit du coup de feu, il s'immobilisa. His spear dropped from his hand.

Then he lunged forward upon his face. Puis il se jeta en avant sur son visage.

The effect upon the others was little less remarkable. Perry alone could have possibly guessed the meaning of the loud report or explained its connection with the sudden collapse of the Sagoth. Perry seul aurait peut-être pu deviner le sens du rapport bruyant ou expliqué son lien avec l'effondrement soudain du Sagoth. The other gorilla-men halted for but an instant. Then with renewed shrieks of rage they sprang forward to finish Perry.

At the same time I stepped from behind my boulder, drawing one of my revolvers that I might conserve the more precious ammunition of the express rifle. En même temps, je sortis de derrière mon rocher, dégainant un de mes revolvers afin de conserver les munitions les plus précieuses du fusil express. Quickly I fired again with the lesser weapon. Rapidement, j'ai tiré à nouveau avec l'arme moindre.

Then it was that all eyes were directed toward me. C'est alors que tous les regards se sont tournés vers moi. Another Sagoth fell to the bullet from the revolver; but it did not stop his companions. They were out for revenge as well as blood now, and they meant to have both. Ils cherchaient aussi bien à se venger qu'à sang maintenant, et ils avaient l'intention d'avoir les deux.

As I ran forward toward Perry I fired four more shots, dropping three of our antagonists. Alors que je courais vers Perry, j'ai tiré quatre autres coups, laissant tomber trois de nos antagonistes. Then at last the remaining seven wavered. Puis enfin les sept autres hésitèrent. It was too much for them, this roaring death that leaped, invisible, upon them from a great distance. C'en était trop pour eux, cette mort rugissante qui bondissait, invisible, sur eux de très loin.

As they hesitated I reached Perry's side. I have never seen such an expression upon any man's face as that upon Perry's when he recognized me. I have no words wherewith to describe it. Je n'ai pas de mots pour le décrire. There was not time to talk then—scarce for a greeting. Il n'y avait pas le temps de parler alors - rare pour une salutation. I thrust the full, loaded revolver into his hand, fired the last shot in my own, and reloaded. J'ai poussé le revolver plein et chargé dans sa main, j'ai tiré le dernier coup dans le mien et j'ai rechargé. There were but six Sagoths left then. Il ne restait alors que six Sagoths.

They started toward us once more, though I could see that they were terrified probably as much by the noise of the guns as by their effects. They never reached us. Half-way the three that remained turned and fled, and we let them go.

The last we saw of them they were disappearing into the tangled undergrowth of the forest. La dernière fois que nous les avons vus, ils disparaissaient dans les sous-bois enchevêtrés de la forêt. And then Perry turned and threw his arms about my neck and, burying his old face upon my shoulder, wept like a child.