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Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs, CHAPTER II. TRAVELING WITH TERROR

CHAPTER II. TRAVELING WITH TERROR

We made camp there beside the peaceful river. There Perry told me all that had befallen him since I had departed for the outer crust.

It seemed that Hooja had made it appear that I had intentionally left Dian behind, and that I did not purpose ever returning to Pellucidar. He told them that I was of another world and that I had tired of this and of its inhabitants.

To Dian he had explained that I had a mate in the world to which I was returning; that I had never intended taking Dian the Beautiful back with me; and that she had seen the last of me.

Shortly afterward Dian had disappeared from the camp, nor had Perry seen or heard aught of her since.

He had no conception of the time that had elapsed since I had departed, but guessed that many years had dragged their slow way into the past.

Hooja, too, had disappeared very soon after Dian had left. The Sarians, under Ghak the Hairy One, and the Amozites under Dacor the Strong One, Dian's brother, had fallen out over my supposed defection, for Ghak would not believe that I had thus treacherously deceived and deserted them. The result had been that these two powerful tribes had fallen upon one another with the new weapons that Perry and I had taught them to make and to use. Other tribes of the new federation took sides with the original disputants or set up petty revolutions of their own.

The result was the total demolition of the work we had so well started.

Taking advantage of the tribal war, the Mahars had gathered their Sagoths in force and fallen upon one tribe after another in rapid succession, wreaking awful havoc among them and reducing them for the most part to as pitiable a state of terror as that from which we had raised them.

Alone of all the once-mighty federation the Sarians and the Amozites with a few other tribes continued to maintain their defiance of the Mahars; but these tribes were still divided among themselves, nor had it seemed at all probable to Perry when he had last been among them that any attempt at re-amalgamation would be made.

"And thus, your majesty," he concluded, "has faded back into the oblivion of the Stone Age our wondrous dream and with it has gone the First Empire of Pellucidar." We both had to smile at the use of my royal title, yet I was indeed still "Emperor of Pellucidar," and some day I meant to rebuild what the vile act of the treacherous Hooja had torn down. But first I would find my empress. To me she was worth forty empires.

"Have you no clue as to the whereabouts of Dian?" I asked.

"None whatever," replied Perry. "It was in search of her that I came to the pretty pass in which you discovered me, and from which, David, you saved me. "I knew perfectly well that you had not intentionally deserted either Dian or Pellucidar. I guessed that in some way Hooja the Sly One was at the bottom of the matter, and I determined to go to Amoz, where I guessed that Dian might come to the protection of her brother, and do my utmost to convince her, and through her Dacor the Strong One, that we had all been victims of a treacherous plot to which you were no party.

"I came to Amoz after a most trying and terrible journey, only to find that Dian was not among her brother's people and that they knew naught of her whereabouts. "Dacor, I am sure, wanted to be fair and just, but so great were his grief and anger over the disappearance of his sister that he could not listen to reason, but kept repeating time and again that only your return to Pellucidar could prove the honesty of your intentions. "Then came a stranger from another tribe, sent I am sure at the instigation of Hooja. He so turned the Amozites against me that I was forced to flee their country to escape assassination.

"In attempting to return to Sari I became lost, and then the Sagoths discovered me. For a long time I eluded them, hiding in caves and wading in rivers to throw them off my trail.

"I lived on nuts and fruits and the edible roots that chance threw in my way. "I traveled on and on, in what directions I could not even guess; and at last I could elude them no longer and the end came as I had long foreseen that it would come, except that I had not foreseen that you would be there to save me." We rested in our camp until Perry had regained sufficient strength to travel again. We planned much, rebuilding all our shattered air-castles; but above all we planned most to find Dian.

I could not believe that she was dead, yet where she might be in this savage world, and under what frightful conditions she might be living, I could not guess.

When Perry was rested we returned to the prospector, where he fitted himself out fully like a civilized human being—under-clothing, socks, shoes, khaki jacket and breeches and good, substantial puttees.

When I had come upon him he was clothed in rough sadak sandals, a gee-string and a tunic fashioned from the shaggy hide of a thag. Now he wore real clothing again for the first time since the ape-folk had stripped us of our apparel that long-gone day that had witnessed our advent within Pellucidar.

With a bandoleer of cartridges across his shoulder, two six-shooters at his hips, and a rifle in his hand he was a much rejuvenated Perry.

Indeed he was quite a different person altogether from the rather shaky old man who had entered the prospector with me ten or eleven years before, for the trial trip that had plunged us into such wondrous adventures and into such a strange and hitherto un-dreamed-of-world.

Now he was straight and active. His muscles, almost atrophied from disuse in his former life, had filled out.

He was still an old man of course, but instead of appearing ten years older than he really was, as he had when we left the outer world, he now appeared about ten years younger. The wild, free life of Pellucidar had worked wonders for him.

Well, it must need have done so or killed him, for a man of Perry's former physical condition could not long have survived the dangers and rigors of the primi-tive life of the inner world. Perry had been greatly interested in my map and in the "royal observatory" at Greenwich. By use of the pedometers we had retraced our way to the prospector with ease and accuracy.

Now that we were ready to set out again we decided to follow a different route on the chance that it might lead us into more familiar territory.

I shall not weary you with a repetition of the count-less adventures of our long search. Encounters with wild beasts of gigantic size were of almost daily occurrence; but with our deadly express rifles we ran comparatively little risk when one recalls that previously we had both traversed this world of frightful dangers inadequately armed with crude, primitive weapons and all but naked.

We ate and slept many times—so many that we lost count—and so I do not know how long we roamed, though our map shows the distances and directions quite accurately. We must have covered a great many thousand square miles of territory, and yet we had seen nothing in the way of a familiar landmark, when from the heights of a mountain-range we were crossing I descried far in the distance great masses of billowing clouds.

Now clouds are practically unknown in the skies of Pellucidar. The moment that my eyes rested upon them my heart leaped. I seized Perry's arm and, point-ing toward the horizonless distance, shouted: "The Mountains of the Clouds!" "They lie close to Phutra, and the country of our worst enemies, the Mahars," Perry remonstrated. "I know it," I replied, "but they give us a starting-point from which to prosecute our search intelligently. They are at least a familiar landmark.

"They tell us that we are upon the right trail and not wandering far in the wrong direction. "Furthermore, close to the Mountains of the Clouds dwells a good friend, Ja the Mezop. You did not know him, but you know all that he did for me and all that he will gladly do to aid me.

"At least he can direct us upon the right direction toward Sari." "The Mountains of the Clouds constitute a mighty range," replied Perry. "They must cover an enormous territory. How are you to find your friend in all the great country that is visible from their rugged flanks?" "Easily," I answered him, "for Ja gave me minute directions. I recall almost his exact words:

"'You need merely come to the foot of the highest peak of the Mountains of the Clouds. There you will find a river that flows into the Lural Az.

"'Directly opposite the mouth of the river you will see three large islands far out—so far that they are barely discernible. The one to the extreme left as you face them from the mouth of the river is Anoroc, where I rule the tribe of Anoroc.'" And so we hastened onward toward the great cloud-mass that was to be our guide for several weary marches. At last we came close to the towering crags, Alp-like in their grandeur.

Rising nobly among its noble fellows, one stupendous peak reared its giant head thousands of feet above the others. It was he whom we sought; but at its foot no river wound down toward any sea.

"It must rise from the opposite side," suggested Perry, casting a rueful glance at the forbidding heights that barred our further progress. "We cannot endure the arctic cold of those high flung passes, and to traverse the endless miles about this interminable range might require a year or more. The land we seek must lie upon the opposite side of the mountains." "Then we must cross them," I insisted. Perry shrugged.

"We can't do it, David," he repeated, "We are dressed for the tropics. We should freeze to death among the snows and glaciers long before we had discovered a pass to the opposite side." "We must cross them," I reiterated. "We will cross them." I had a plan, and that plan we carried out. It took some time.

First we made a permanent camp part way up the slopes where there was good water. Then we set out in search of the great, shaggy cave bear of the higher altitudes.

He is a mighty animal—a terrible animal. He is but little larger than his cousin of the lesser, lower hills; but he makes up for it in the awfulness of his ferocity and in the length and thickness of his shaggy coat. It was his coat that we were after.

We came upon him quite unexpectedly. I was trudging in advance along a rocky trail worn smooth by the padded feet of countless ages of wild beasts. At a shoul-der of the mountain around which the path ran I came face to face with the Titan.

I was going up for a fur coat. He was coming down for breakfast. Each realized that here was the very thing he sought.

With a horrid roar the beast charged me.

At my right the cliff rose straight upward for thou-sands of feet.

At my left it dropped into a dim, abysmal canon.

In front of me was the bear.

Behind me was Perry.

I shouted to him in warning, and then I raised my rifle and fired into the broad breast of the creature. There was no time to take aim; the thing was too close upon me.

But that my bullet took effect was evident from the howl of rage and pain that broke from the frothing jowls. It didn't stop him, though. I fired again, and then he was upon me. Down I went beneath his ton of maddened, clawing flesh and bone and sinew.

I thought my time had come. I remember feeling sorry for poor old Perry, left all alone in this inhospitable, savage world.

And then of a sudden I realized that the bear was gone and that I was quite unharmed. I leaped to my feet, my rifle still clutched in my hand, and looked about for my antagonist.

I thought that I should find him farther down the trail, probably finishing Perry, and so I leaped in the direction I supposed him to be, to find Perry perched upon a projecting rock several feet above the trail. My cry of warn-ing had given him time to reach this point of safety.

There he squatted, his eyes wide and his mouth ajar, the picture of abject terror and consternation.

"Where is he?" he cried when he saw me. "Where is he?" "Didn't he come this way?" I asked,

"Nothing came this way," replied the old man. "But I heard his roars—he must have been as large as an elephant." "He was," I admitted; "but where in the world do you suppose he disappeared to?" Then came a possible explanation to my mind. I returned to the point at which the bear had hurled me down and peered over the edge of the cliff into the abyss below.

Far, far down I saw a small brown blotch near the bottom of the canon. It was the bear.

My second shot must have killed him, and so his dead body, after hurling me to the path, had toppled over into the abyss. I shivered at the thought of how close I, too, must have been to going over with him.

It took us a long time to reach the carcass, and arduous labor to remove the great pelt. But at last the thing was accomplished, and we returned to camp dragging the heavy trophy behind us.

Here we devoted another considerable period to scraping and curing it. When this was done to our satisfaction we made heavy boots, trousers, and coats of the shaggy skin, turning the fur in.

From the scraps we fashioned caps that came down around our ears, with flaps that fell about our shoulders and breasts. We were now fairly well equipped for our search for a pass to the opposite side of the Mountains of the Clouds.

Our first step now was to move our camp upward to the very edge of the perpetual snows which cap this lofty range. Here we built a snug, secure little hut, which we provisioned and stored with fuel for its diminutive fireplace.

With our hut as a base we sallied forth in search of a pass across the range.

Our every move was carefully noted upon our maps which we now kept in duplicate. By this means we were saved tedious and unnecessary retracing of ways already explored.

Systematically we worked upward in both directions from our base, and when we had at last discovered what seemed might prove a feasible pass we moved our be-longings to a new hut farther up.

It was hard work—cold, bitter, cruel work. Not a step did we take in advance but the grim reaper strode silently in our tracks.

There were the great cave bears in the timber, and gaunt, lean wolves—huge creatures twice the size of our Canadian timber-wolves. Farther up we were assailed by enormous white bears—hungry, devilish fellows, who came roaring across the rough glacier tops at the first glimpse of us, or stalked us stealthily by scent when they had not yet seen us.

It is one of the peculiarities of life within Pellucidar that man is more often the hunted than the hunter. Myriad are the huge-bellied carnivora of this primitive world. Never, from birth to death, are those great bellies sufficiently filled, so always are their mighty owners prowling about in search of meat.

Terribly armed for battle as they are, man presents to them in his primal state an easy prey, slow of foot, puny of strength, ill-equipped by nature with natural weapons of defense.

The bears looked upon us as easy meat. Only our heavy rifles saved us from prompt extinction. Poor Perry never was a raging lion at heart, and I am convinced that the terrors of that awful period must have caused him poignant mental anguish.

When we were abroad pushing our trail farther and farther toward the distant break which, we assumed, marked a feasible way across the range, we never knew at what second some great engine of clawed and fanged destruction might rush upon us from behind, or lie in wait for us beyond an ice-hummock or a jutting shoulder of the craggy steeps.

The roar of our rifles was constantly shattering the world-old silence of stupendous canons upon which the eye of man had never before gazed. And when in the comparative safety of our hut we lay down to sleep the great beasts roared and fought without the walls, clawed and battered at the door, or rushed their colossal frames headlong against the hut's sides until it rocked and trembled to the impact. Yes, it was a gay life.

Perry had got to taking stock of our ammunition each time we returned to the hut. It became something of an obsession with him.

He'd count our cartridges one by one and then try to figure how long it would be before the last was expended and we must either remain in the hut until we starved to death or venture forth, empty, to fill the belly of some hungry bear. I must admit that I, too, felt worried, for our progress was indeed snail-like, and our ammunition could not last forever. In discussing the problem, finally we came to the decision to burn our bridges behind us and make one last supreme effort to cross the divide.

It would mean that we must go without sleep for a long period, and with the further chance that when the time came that sleep could no longer be denied we might still be high in the frozen regions of perpetual snow and ice, where sleep would mean certain death, exposed as we would be to the attacks of wild beasts and without shelter from the hideous cold.

But we decided that we must take these chances and so at last we set forth from our hut for the last time, carrying such necessities as we felt we could least afford to do without. The bears seemed unusually troublesome and determined that time, and as we clambered slowly upward beyond the highest point to which we had previously attained, the cold became infinitely more intense.

Presently, with two great bears dogging our footsteps we entered a dense fog.

We had reached the heights that are so often cloud-wrapped for long periods. We could see nothing a few paces beyond our noses.

We dared not turn back into the teeth of the bears which we could hear grunting behind us. To meet them in this bewildering fog would have been to court instant death.

Perry was almost overcome by the hopelessness of our situation. He flopped down on his knees and began to pray.

It was the first time I had heard him at his old habit since my return to Pellucidar, and I had thought that he had given up his little idiosyncrasy; but he hadn't. Far from it.

I let him pray for a short time undisturbed, and then as I was about to suggest that we had better be pushing along one of the bears in our rear let out a roar that made the earth fairly tremble beneath our feet.

It brought Perry to his feet as if he had been stung by a wasp, and sent him racing ahead through the blind-ing fog at a gait that I knew must soon end in disaster were it not checked.

Crevasses in the glacier-ice were far too frequent to permit of reckless speed even in a clear atmosphere, and then there were hideous precipices along the edges of which our way often led us. I shivered as I thought of the poor old fellow's peril. At the top of my lungs I called to him to stop, but he did not answer me. And then I hurried on in the direction he had gone, faster by far than safety dictated.

For a while I thought I heard him ahead of me, but at last, though I paused often to listen and to call to him, I heard nothing more, not even the grunting of the bears that had been behind us. All was deathly silence—the silence of the tomb. About me lay the thick, impenetrable fog.

I was alone. Perry was gone—gone forever, I had not the slightest doubt.

Somewhere near by lay the mouth of a treacherous fissure, and far down at its icy bottom lay all that was mortal of my old friend, Abner Perry. There would his body be preserved in its icy sepulcher for countless ages, until on some far distant day the slow-moving river of ice had wound its snail-like way down to the warmer level, there to disgorge its grisly evidence of grim tragedy, and what in that far future age, might mean baffling mystery.


CHAPTER II. TRAVELING WITH TERROR KAPITEL II. REISE MIT TERROR CAPÍTULO II. VIAJANDO CON EL TERROR CAPÍTULO II. VIAJAR COM O TERROR

We made camp there beside the peaceful river. Nous y campâmes au bord de la paisible rivière. There Perry told me all that had befallen him since I had departed for the outer crust.

It seemed that Hooja had made it appear that I had intentionally left Dian behind, and that I did not purpose ever returning to Pellucidar. Il semblait que Hooja avait fait croire que j'avais intentionnellement laissé Dian derrière moi et que je n'avais pas l'intention de retourner un jour à Pellucidar. He told them that I was of another world and that I had tired of this and of its inhabitants.

To Dian he had explained that I had a mate in the world to which I was returning; that I had never intended taking Dian the Beautiful back with me; and that she had seen the last of me.

Shortly afterward Dian had disappeared from the camp, nor had Perry seen or heard aught of her since. Peu de temps après, Dian avait disparu du camp, et Perry n'avait plus rien vu ni entendu d'elle depuis.

He had no conception of the time that had elapsed since I had departed, but guessed that many years had dragged their slow way into the past. Il n'avait aucune idée du temps qui s'était écoulé depuis mon départ, mais devinait que de nombreuses années s'étaient lentement glissées dans le passé.

Hooja, too, had disappeared very soon after Dian had left. The Sarians, under Ghak the Hairy One, and the Amozites under Dacor the Strong One, Dian's brother, had fallen out over my supposed defection, for Ghak would not believe that I had thus treacherously deceived and deserted them. Les Sariens, sous Ghak le Poilu, et les Amozites sous Dacor le Fort, le frère de Dian, s'étaient disputés à cause de ma supposée défection, car Ghak ne voulait pas croire que je les avais ainsi traîtreusement trompés et abandonnés. The result had been that these two powerful tribes had fallen upon one another with the new weapons that Perry and I had taught them to make and to use. Le résultat avait été que ces deux puissantes tribus s'étaient affrontées avec les nouvelles armes que Perry et moi leur avions appris à fabriquer et à utiliser. Other tribes of the new federation took sides with the original disputants or set up petty revolutions of their own. D'autres tribus de la nouvelle fédération ont pris parti pour les opposants d'origine ou ont organisé leurs propres petites révolutions.

The result was the total demolition of the work we had so well started.

Taking advantage of the tribal war, the Mahars had gathered their Sagoths in force and fallen upon one tribe after another in rapid succession, wreaking awful havoc among them and reducing them for the most part to as pitiable a state of terror as that from which we had raised them. Profitant de la guerre tribale, les Mahars avaient rassemblé leurs Sagoths en force et s'étaient abattus sur une tribu après l'autre en succession rapide, faisant parmi eux d'horribles ravages et les réduisant pour la plupart à un état de terreur aussi pitoyable que celui dont nous les avait élevés.

Alone of all the once-mighty federation the Sarians and the Amozites with a few other tribes continued to maintain their defiance of the Mahars; but these tribes were still divided among themselves, nor had it seemed at all probable to Perry when he had last been among them that any attempt at re-amalgamation would be made. Seuls de toute la fédération autrefois puissante, les Sariens et les Amozites avec quelques autres tribus ont continué à maintenir leur défi aux Mahars; mais ces tribus étaient encore divisées entre elles, et il n'avait pas semblé du tout probable à Perry, la dernière fois qu'il avait été parmi elles, qu'une tentative de ré-amalgamation serait faite.

"And thus, your majesty," he concluded, "has faded back into the oblivion of the Stone Age our wondrous dream and with it has gone the First Empire of Pellucidar." "Et ainsi, votre majesté," conclut-il, "a retombé dans l'oubli de l'âge de pierre notre rêve merveilleux et avec lui est parti le Premier Empire de Pellucidar." We both had to smile at the use of my royal title, yet I was indeed still "Emperor of Pellucidar," and some day I meant to rebuild what the vile act of the treacherous Hooja had torn down. Nous devions tous les deux sourire à l'utilisation de mon titre royal, mais j'étais en effet toujours "Empereur de Pellucidar", et un jour j'avais l'intention de reconstruire ce que l'acte ignoble du traître Hooja avait démoli. But first I would find my empress. To me she was worth forty empires.

"Have you no clue as to the whereabouts of Dian?" « N'avez-vous aucune idée de l'endroit où se trouve Dian ? I asked.

"None whatever," replied Perry. "It was in search of her that I came to the pretty pass in which you discovered me, and from which, David, you saved me. "I knew perfectly well that you had not intentionally deserted either Dian or Pellucidar. I guessed that in some way Hooja the Sly One was at the bottom of the matter, and I determined to go to Amoz, where I guessed that Dian might come to the protection of her brother, and do my utmost to convince her, and through her Dacor the Strong One, that we had all been victims of a treacherous plot to which you were no party. J'ai deviné que d'une certaine manière Hooja the Sly One était au fond de l'affaire, et j'ai décidé d'aller à Amoz, où j'ai deviné que Dian pourrait venir à la protection de son frère, et faire de mon mieux pour la convaincre, et par son Dacor le Fort, que nous avions tous été victimes d'un complot traître auquel vous n'étiez pas partie.

"I came to Amoz after a most trying and terrible journey, only to find that Dian was not among her brother's people and that they knew naught of her whereabouts. "Je suis venu à Amoz après un voyage des plus éprouvants et des plus terribles, seulement pour découvrir que Dian ne faisait pas partie des gens de son frère et qu'ils ne savaient rien de son sort. "Dacor, I am sure, wanted to be fair and just, but so great were his grief and anger over the disappearance of his sister that he could not listen to reason, but kept repeating time and again that only your return to Pellucidar could prove the honesty of your intentions. "Then came a stranger from another tribe, sent I am sure at the instigation of Hooja. He so turned the Amozites against me that I was forced to flee their country to escape assassination. Il a tellement monté les Amozites contre moi que j'ai été forcé de fuir leur pays pour échapper à l'assassinat.

"In attempting to return to Sari I became lost, and then the Sagoths discovered me. For a long time I eluded them, hiding in caves and wading in rivers to throw them off my trail. Pendant longtemps, je leur ai échappé, me cachant dans des grottes et pataugeant dans les rivières pour les écarter de ma piste.

"I lived on nuts and fruits and the edible roots that chance threw in my way. "I traveled on and on, in what directions I could not even guess; and at last I could elude them no longer and the end came as I had long foreseen that it would come, except that I had not foreseen that you would be there to save me." "J'ai voyagé indéfiniment, dans quelles directions je ne pouvais même pas deviner; et enfin je ne pouvais plus leur échapper et la fin est venue comme j'avais prévu depuis longtemps qu'elle viendrait, sauf que je n'avais pas prévu que vous seriez là pour me sauver." We rested in our camp until Perry had regained sufficient strength to travel again. We planned much, rebuilding all our shattered air-castles; but above all we planned most to find Dian. Nous avons planifié beaucoup, reconstruisant tous nos air-châteaux brisés; mais surtout nous avions surtout prévu de retrouver Dian.

I could not believe that she was dead, yet where she might be in this savage world, and under what frightful conditions she might be living, I could not guess.

When Perry was rested we returned to the prospector, where he fitted himself out fully like a civilized human being—under-clothing, socks, shoes, khaki jacket and breeches and good, substantial puttees. Quand Perry fut reposé, nous retournâmes chez le prospecteur, où il s'équipa complètement comme un être humain civilisé – sous-vêtements, chaussettes, chaussures, veste et culotte kaki et de bons chaussons solides.

When I had come upon him he was clothed in rough sadak sandals, a gee-string and a tunic fashioned from the shaggy hide of a thag. Quand je suis tombé sur lui, il était vêtu de sandales sadak grossières, d'un string et d'une tunique taillée dans la peau hirsute d'un thag. Now he wore real clothing again for the first time since the ape-folk had stripped us of our apparel that long-gone day that had witnessed our advent within Pellucidar. Maintenant, il portait à nouveau de vrais vêtements pour la première fois depuis que les singes nous avaient dépouillés de nos vêtements ce jour révolu qui avait vu notre arrivée à Pellucidar.

With a bandoleer of cartridges across his shoulder, two six-shooters at his hips, and a rifle in his hand he was a much rejuvenated Perry. Avec une bandoulière de cartouches sur l'épaule, deux six coups sur les hanches et un fusil à la main, c'était un Perry bien rajeuni.

Indeed he was quite a different person altogether from the rather shaky old man who had entered the prospector with me ten or eleven years before, for the trial trip that had plunged us into such wondrous adventures and into such a strange and hitherto un-dreamed-of-world. En fait, c'était une personne tout à fait différente du vieil homme plutôt chancelant qui était entré chez le prospecteur avec moi dix ou onze ans auparavant, pour le voyage d'essai qui nous avait plongés dans de si merveilleuses aventures et dans un si étrange et jusque-là inimaginable. du monde.

Now he was straight and active. His muscles, almost atrophied from disuse in his former life, had filled out. Ses muscles, presque atrophiés par désuétude dans son ancienne vie, s'étaient gonflés.

He was still an old man of course, but instead of appearing ten years older than he really was, as he had when we left the outer world, he now appeared about ten years younger. Il était toujours un vieil homme, bien sûr, mais au lieu de paraître dix ans plus âgé qu'il ne l'était réellement, comme il l'avait fait lorsque nous avons quitté le monde extérieur, il paraissait maintenant environ dix ans plus jeune. The wild, free life of Pellucidar had worked wonders for him.

Well, it must need have done so or killed him, for a man of Perry's former physical condition could not long have survived the dangers and rigors of the primi-tive life of the inner world. Eh bien, il a dû le faire ou le tuer, car un homme de l'ancienne condition physique de Perry n'aurait pas pu survivre longtemps aux dangers et aux rigueurs de la vie primitive du monde intérieur. Perry had been greatly interested in my map and in the "royal observatory" at Greenwich. Perry s'était beaucoup intéressé à ma carte et à « l'observatoire royal » de Greenwich. By use of the pedometers we had retraced our way to the prospector with ease and accuracy.

Now that we were ready to set out again we decided to follow a different route on the chance that it might lead us into more familiar territory.

I shall not weary you with a repetition of the count-less adventures of our long search. Je ne vous fatiguerai pas en répétant les innombrables aventures de notre longue recherche. Encounters with wild beasts of gigantic size were of almost daily occurrence; but with our deadly express rifles we ran comparatively little risk when one recalls that previously we had both traversed this world of frightful dangers inadequately armed with crude, primitive weapons and all but naked.

We ate and slept many times—so many that we lost count—and so I do not know how long we roamed, though our map shows the distances and directions quite accurately. We must have covered a great many thousand square miles of territory, and yet we had seen nothing in the way of a familiar landmark, when from the heights of a mountain-range we were crossing I descried far in the distance great masses of billowing clouds. Nous devions avoir couvert un grand nombre de milliers de kilomètres carrés de territoire, et pourtant nous n'avions rien vu de la manière d'un point de repère familier, lorsque des hauteurs d'une chaîne de montagnes que nous traversions, j'ai aperçu au loin de grandes masses de nuages gonflés. .

Now clouds are practically unknown in the skies of Pellucidar. The moment that my eyes rested upon them my heart leaped. I seized Perry's arm and, point-ing toward the horizonless distance, shouted: "The Mountains of the Clouds!" "They lie close to Phutra, and the country of our worst enemies, the Mahars," Perry remonstrated. "I know it," I replied, "but they give us a starting-point from which to prosecute our search intelligently. « Je le sais, répondis-je, mais ils nous donnent un point de départ pour poursuivre intelligemment nos recherches. They are at least a familiar landmark. Ils sont au moins un repère familier.

"They tell us that we are upon the right trail and not wandering far in the wrong direction. "Furthermore, close to the Mountains of the Clouds dwells a good friend, Ja the Mezop. You did not know him, but you know all that he did for me and all that he will gladly do to aid me.

"At least he can direct us upon the right direction toward Sari." "The Mountains of the Clouds constitute a mighty range," replied Perry. "Les Montagnes des Nuages constituent une chaîne puissante", a répondu Perry. "They must cover an enormous territory. How are you to find your friend in all the great country that is visible from their rugged flanks?" Comment allez-vous retrouver votre ami dans tout le grand pays visible de leurs flancs escarpés ?" "Easily," I answered him, "for Ja gave me minute directions. "Facilement," lui répondis-je, "car Ja m'a donné des instructions minutieuses. I recall almost his exact words:

"'You need merely come to the foot of the highest peak of the Mountains of the Clouds. There you will find a river that flows into the Lural Az.

"'Directly opposite the mouth of the river you will see three large islands far out—so far that they are barely discernible. "'Juste en face de l'embouchure de la rivière, vous verrez trois grandes îles au loin - si loin qu'elles sont à peine discernables. The one to the extreme left as you face them from the mouth of the river is Anoroc, where I rule the tribe of Anoroc.'" And so we hastened onward toward the great cloud-mass that was to be our guide for several weary marches. Et ainsi nous nous hâtâmes d'avancer vers la grande masse nuageuse qui devait nous guider pendant plusieurs marches laborieuses. At last we came close to the towering crags, Alp-like in their grandeur. Enfin, nous approchâmes des rochers imposants, d'une grandeur alpine.

Rising nobly among its noble fellows, one stupendous peak reared its giant head thousands of feet above the others. S'élevant noblement parmi ses nobles compagnons, un sommet prodigieux dressait sa tête géante à des milliers de pieds au-dessus des autres. It was he whom we sought; but at its foot no river wound down toward any sea. C'est lui que nous cherchions ; mais à son pied aucun fleuve ne descendait vers aucune mer.

"It must rise from the opposite side," suggested Perry, casting a rueful glance at the forbidding heights that barred our further progress. "Il doit s'élever du côté opposé", suggéra Perry, jetant un coup d'œil triste aux hauteurs menaçantes qui nous empêchaient de continuer à progresser. "We cannot endure the arctic cold of those high flung passes, and to traverse the endless miles about this interminable range might require a year or more. "Nous ne pouvons pas supporter le froid arctique de ces hauts cols, et parcourir les kilomètres interminables autour de cette chaîne interminable peut nécessiter un an ou plus. The land we seek must lie upon the opposite side of the mountains." "Then we must cross them," I insisted. Perry shrugged.

"We can't do it, David," he repeated, "We are dressed for the tropics. We should freeze to death among the snows and glaciers long before we had discovered a pass to the opposite side." "We must cross them," I reiterated. "We will cross them." I had a plan, and that plan we carried out. It took some time.

First we made a permanent camp part way up the slopes where there was good water. Nous avons d'abord établi un campement permanent à mi-chemin sur les pentes où il y avait de la bonne eau. Then we set out in search of the great, shaggy cave bear of the higher altitudes. Ensuite, nous sommes partis à la recherche du grand ours des cavernes hirsute des hautes altitudes.

He is a mighty animal—a terrible animal. He is but little larger than his cousin of the lesser, lower hills; but he makes up for it in the awfulness of his ferocity and in the length and thickness of his shaggy coat. Il est à peine plus grand que son cousin des collines inférieures et moindres ; mais il compense cela par l'horreur de sa férocité et par la longueur et l'épaisseur de son pelage hirsute. It was his coat that we were after.

We came upon him quite unexpectedly. I was trudging in advance along a rocky trail worn smooth by the padded feet of countless ages of wild beasts. Je marchais d'avance le long d'un sentier rocheux usé par les pieds rembourrés d'innombrables âges de bêtes sauvages. At a shoul-der of the mountain around which the path ran I came face to face with the Titan. A une épaule de la montagne autour de laquelle le sentier courait, je me trouvai face à face avec le Titan.

I was going up for a fur coat. J'allais chercher un manteau de fourrure. He was coming down for breakfast. Each realized that here was the very thing he sought.

With a horrid roar the beast charged me.

At my right the cliff rose straight upward for thou-sands of feet. À ma droite, la falaise s'est élevée tout droit sur des milliers de pieds.

At my left it dropped into a dim, abysmal canon. À ma gauche, il est tombé dans un canon sombre et abyssal.

In front of me was the bear.

Behind me was Perry.

I shouted to him in warning, and then I raised my rifle and fired into the broad breast of the creature. There was no time to take aim; the thing was too close upon me.

But that my bullet took effect was evident from the howl of rage and pain that broke from the frothing jowls. Mais que ma balle ait fait effet était évident au hurlement de rage et de douleur qui s'échappa des bajoues écumantes. It didn't stop him, though. I fired again, and then he was upon me. Down I went beneath his ton of maddened, clawing flesh and bone and sinew. Je suis descendu sous sa tonne de chair, d'os et de tendons affolés et griffus.

I thought my time had come. I remember feeling sorry for poor old Perry, left all alone in this inhospitable, savage world.

And then of a sudden I realized that the bear was gone and that I was quite unharmed. I leaped to my feet, my rifle still clutched in my hand, and looked about for my antagonist.

I thought that I should find him farther down the trail, probably finishing Perry, and so I leaped in the direction I supposed him to be, to find Perry perched upon a projecting rock several feet above the trail. My cry of warn-ing had given him time to reach this point of safety.

There he squatted, his eyes wide and his mouth ajar, the picture of abject terror and consternation. Là, il était accroupi, les yeux écarquillés et la bouche entrouverte, l'image de la terreur et de la consternation abjectes.

"Where is he?" he cried when he saw me. "Where is he?" "Didn't he come this way?" I asked,

"Nothing came this way," replied the old man. "But I heard his roars—he must have been as large as an elephant." "He was," I admitted; "but where in the world do you suppose he disappeared to?" Then came a possible explanation to my mind. I returned to the point at which the bear had hurled me down and peered over the edge of the cliff into the abyss below. Je suis retourné au point où l'ours m'avait précipité et j'ai regardé par-dessus le bord de la falaise dans l'abîme en contrebas.

Far, far down I saw a small brown blotch near the bottom of the canon. Loin, très bas, j'ai vu une petite tache brune près du bas du canon. It was the bear.

My second shot must have killed him, and so his dead body, after hurling me to the path, had toppled over into the abyss. Mon second coup avait dû le tuer, et son cadavre, après m'avoir jeté dans le sentier, avait basculé dans l'abîme. I shivered at the thought of how close I, too, must have been to going over with him.

It took us a long time to reach the carcass, and arduous labor to remove the great pelt. Il nous a fallu beaucoup de temps pour atteindre la carcasse et un travail ardu pour enlever la grande peau. But at last the thing was accomplished, and we returned to camp dragging the heavy trophy behind us.

Here we devoted another considerable period to scraping and curing it. Ici, nous avons consacré une autre période considérable à le gratter et à le guérir. When this was done to our satisfaction we made heavy boots, trousers, and coats of the shaggy skin, turning the fur in.

From the scraps we fashioned caps that came down around our ears, with flaps that fell about our shoulders and breasts. À partir des chutes, nous fabriquions des bonnets qui descendaient autour de nos oreilles, avec des rabats qui tombaient sur nos épaules et nos seins. We were now fairly well equipped for our search for a pass to the opposite side of the Mountains of the Clouds.

Our first step now was to move our camp upward to the very edge of the perpetual snows which cap this lofty range. Notre première étape était maintenant de déplacer notre camp vers le haut jusqu'au bord même des neiges éternelles qui coiffent cette haute chaîne. Here we built a snug, secure little hut, which we provisioned and stored with fuel for its diminutive fireplace. Ici, nous avons construit une petite cabane confortable et sécurisée, que nous avons approvisionnée et stockée avec du combustible pour sa petite cheminée.

With our hut as a base we sallied forth in search of a pass across the range. Avec notre cabane comme base, nous sommes sortis à la recherche d'un passage à travers la chaîne.

Our every move was carefully noted upon our maps which we now kept in duplicate. Chacun de nos mouvements était soigneusement noté sur nos cartes que nous gardions maintenant en double. By this means we were saved tedious and unnecessary retracing of ways already explored. Par ce moyen nous nous sommes épargnés de retracer fastidieusement et inutilement des voies déjà explorées.

Systematically we worked upward in both directions from our base, and when we had at last discovered what seemed might prove a feasible pass we moved our be-longings to a new hut farther up. Systématiquement, nous avons travaillé vers le haut dans les deux sens à partir de notre base, et quand nous avons enfin découvert ce qui semblait pouvoir s'avérer un passage réalisable, nous avons déplacé nos biens vers une nouvelle hutte plus haut.

It was hard work—cold, bitter, cruel work. C'était un dur labeur, un travail froid, amer, cruel. Not a step did we take in advance but the grim reaper strode silently in our tracks. Nous n'avions pas fait un pas d'avance mais la grande faucheuse marchait silencieusement sur nos traces.

There were the great cave bears in the timber, and gaunt, lean wolves—huge creatures twice the size of our Canadian timber-wolves. Il y avait les grands ours des cavernes dans les bois, et les loups maigres et maigres - des créatures énormes deux fois plus grandes que nos loups des bois canadiens. Farther up we were assailed by enormous white bears—hungry, devilish fellows, who came roaring across the rough glacier tops at the first glimpse of us, or stalked us stealthily by scent when they had not yet seen us. Plus loin, nous avons été assaillis par d'énormes ours blancs - des êtres diaboliques et affamés, qui ont traversé en rugissant les sommets rugueux des glaciers dès que nous nous sommes aperçus, ou nous ont suivis furtivement à l'odeur alors qu'ils ne nous avaient pas encore vus.

It is one of the peculiarities of life within Pellucidar that man is more often the hunted than the hunter. Myriad are the huge-bellied carnivora of this primitive world. Myriad sont les carnivores à ventre énorme de ce monde primitif. Never, from birth to death, are those great bellies sufficiently filled, so always are their mighty owners prowling about in search of meat. Jamais, de la naissance à la mort, ces gros ventres ne sont suffisamment remplis, ainsi toujours leurs puissants propriétaires rôdent à la recherche de viande.

Terribly armed for battle as they are, man presents to them in his primal state an easy prey, slow of foot, puny of strength, ill-equipped by nature with natural weapons of defense. Terriblement armés pour le combat qu'ils sont, l'homme leur présente à l'état primitif une proie facile, de pied lent, de force chétive, mal dotée par nature d'armes naturelles de défense.

The bears looked upon us as easy meat. Only our heavy rifles saved us from prompt extinction. Poor Perry never was a raging lion at heart, and I am convinced that the terrors of that awful period must have caused him poignant mental anguish. Le pauvre Perry n'a jamais été un lion enragé dans l'âme, et je suis convaincu que les terreurs de cette terrible période ont dû lui causer une poignante angoisse mentale.

When we were abroad pushing our trail farther and farther toward the distant break which, we assumed, marked a feasible way across the range, we never knew at what second some great engine of clawed and fanged destruction might rush upon us from behind, or lie in wait for us beyond an ice-hummock or a jutting shoulder of the craggy steeps. Lorsque nous étions à l'étranger, poussant notre piste de plus en plus loin vers la rupture lointaine qui, supposions-nous, marquait un chemin praticable à travers la chaîne, nous ne savions jamais à quelle seconde un grand moteur de destruction à griffes et à crocs pourrait se précipiter sur nous par derrière, ou mentir. nous guette au-delà d'un monticule de glace ou d'un épaulement saillant des pentes escarpées.

The roar of our rifles was constantly shattering the world-old silence of stupendous canons upon which the eye of man had never before gazed. Le rugissement de nos fusils brisait constamment le silence séculaire des canons prodigieux sur lesquels l'œil de l'homme n'avait jamais regardé auparavant. And when in the comparative safety of our hut we lay down to sleep the great beasts roared and fought without the walls, clawed and battered at the door, or rushed their colossal frames headlong against the hut's sides until it rocked and trembled to the impact. Et lorsque, dans la sécurité relative de notre hutte, nous nous couchions pour dormir, les grandes bêtes rugissaient et se battaient hors des murs, griffaient et frappaient la porte, ou précipitaient leurs charpentes colossales tête baissée contre les côtés de la hutte jusqu'à ce qu'elle se balance et tremble à l'impact. Yes, it was a gay life.

Perry had got to taking stock of our ammunition each time we returned to the hut. Perry devait faire le point sur nos munitions chaque fois que nous retournions à la cabane. It became something of an obsession with him.

He'd count our cartridges one by one and then try to figure how long it would be before the last was expended and we must either remain in the hut until we starved to death or venture forth, empty, to fill the belly of some hungry bear. I must admit that I, too, felt worried, for our progress was indeed snail-like, and our ammunition could not last forever. In discussing the problem, finally we came to the decision to burn our bridges behind us and make one last supreme effort to cross the divide. En discutant du problème, nous avons finalement pris la décision de couper les ponts derrière nous et de faire un dernier effort suprême pour franchir le fossé.

It would mean that we must go without sleep for a long period, and with the further chance that when the time came that sleep could no longer be denied we might still be high in the frozen regions of perpetual snow and ice, where sleep would mean certain death, exposed as we would be to the attacks of wild beasts and without shelter from the hideous cold. Cela signifierait que nous devions nous passer de sommeil pendant une longue période, et avec la possibilité supplémentaire que le moment venu où le sommeil ne pourrait plus être refusé, nous pourrions encore être élevés dans les régions gelées de neige et de glace perpétuelles, où le sommeil signifierait une mort certaine, exposés que nous serions aux attaques des bêtes féroces et sans abri du froid hideux.

But we decided that we must take these chances and so at last we set forth from our hut for the last time, carrying such necessities as we felt we could least afford to do without. Mais nous décidâmes que nous devions prendre ces risques et finalement nous quittâmes notre hutte pour la dernière fois, emportant le nécessaire dont nous pensions pouvoir au moins nous passer. The bears seemed unusually troublesome and determined that time, and as we clambered slowly upward beyond the highest point to which we had previously attained, the cold became infinitely more intense. Les ours semblaient exceptionnellement gênants et déterminés cette fois-là, et alors que nous grimpions lentement au-delà du point le plus élevé auquel nous avions précédemment atteint, le froid est devenu infiniment plus intense.

Presently, with two great bears dogging our footsteps we entered a dense fog. Actuellement, avec deux grands ours pourchassant nos pas, nous sommes entrés dans un brouillard épais.

We had reached the heights that are so often cloud-wrapped for long periods. We could see nothing a few paces beyond our noses.

We dared not turn back into the teeth of the bears which we could hear grunting behind us. To meet them in this bewildering fog would have been to court instant death. Les rencontrer dans ce brouillard ahurissant aurait été courtiser la mort instantanée.

Perry was almost overcome by the hopelessness of our situation. He flopped down on his knees and began to pray. Il tomba à genoux et commença à prier.

It was the first time I had heard him at his old habit since my return to Pellucidar, and I had thought that he had given up his little idiosyncrasy; but he hadn't. C'était la première fois que je l'entendais à son ancienne habitude depuis mon retour à Pellucidar, et j'avais pensé qu'il avait renoncé à sa petite idiosyncrasie ; mais il ne l'avait pas fait. Far from it.

I let him pray for a short time undisturbed, and then as I was about to suggest that we had better be pushing along one of the bears in our rear let out a roar that made the earth fairly tremble beneath our feet.

It brought Perry to his feet as if he had been stung by a wasp, and sent him racing ahead through the blind-ing fog at a gait that I knew must soon end in disaster were it not checked. Cela a remis Perry sur ses pieds comme s'il avait été piqué par une guêpe, et l'a envoyé courir à travers le brouillard aveuglant à une allure qui, je le savais, devait bientôt se terminer par un désastre si elle n'était pas contrôlée.

Crevasses in the glacier-ice were far too frequent to permit of reckless speed even in a clear atmosphere, and then there were hideous precipices along the edges of which our way often led us. Les crevasses dans la glace glaciaire étaient beaucoup trop fréquentes pour permettre une vitesse imprudente même dans une atmosphère claire, et puis il y avait des précipices hideux le long des bords desquels notre chemin nous conduisait souvent. I shivered as I thought of the poor old fellow's peril. At the top of my lungs I called to him to stop, but he did not answer me. And then I hurried on in the direction he had gone, faster by far than safety dictated.

For a while I thought I heard him ahead of me, but at last, though I paused often to listen and to call to him, I heard nothing more, not even the grunting of the bears that had been behind us. All was deathly silence—the silence of the tomb. About me lay the thick, impenetrable fog.

I was alone. Perry was gone—gone forever, I had not the slightest doubt.

Somewhere near by lay the mouth of a treacherous fissure, and far down at its icy bottom lay all that was mortal of my old friend, Abner Perry. Quelque part à proximité se trouvait l'embouchure d'une fissure perfide, et tout au fond de son fond glacé gisait tout ce qui était mortel de mon vieil ami, Abner Perry. There would his body be preserved in its icy sepulcher for countless ages, until on some far distant day the slow-moving river of ice had wound its snail-like way down to the warmer level, there to disgorge its grisly evidence of grim tragedy, and what in that far future age, might mean baffling mystery. Là, son corps serait conservé dans son sépulcre de glace pendant d'innombrables âges, jusqu'à ce qu'un jour lointain, la lente rivière de glace descende comme un escargot jusqu'au niveau le plus chaud, pour y dégorger les preuves macabres d'une sinistre tragédie, et ce qui, dans cet âge futur lointain, pourrait signifier un mystère déconcertant.