XI
FOUR DEAD MAHARS
A moment later I was standing before a dozen Mahars--the social investigators
of Phutra. They asked me many questions, through a Sagoth interpreter. I
answered them all truthfully. They seemed particularly interested in my account
of the outer earth and the strange vehicle which had brought Perry and me to
Pellucidar. I thought that I had convinced them, and after they had sat in
silence for a long time following my examination, I expected to be ordered
returned to my quarters.
During this apparent silence they were debating through the medium of
strange, unspoken language the merits of my tale. At last the head of the
tribunal communicated the result of their conference to the officer in charge of
the Sagoth guard.
"Come," he said to me, "you are sentenced to the experimental
pits for having dared to insult the intelligence of the mighty ones with the
ridiculous tale you have had the temerity to unfold to them."
"Do you mean that they do not believe me?" I asked, totally
astonished.
"Believe you!" he laughed. "Do you mean to say that you
expected any one to believe so impossible a lie?"
It was hopeless, and so I walked in silence beside my guard down through the
dark corridors and runways toward my awful doom. At a low level we came upon a
number of lighted chambers in which we saw many Mahars engaged in various
occupations. To one of these chambers my guard escorted me, and before leaving
they chained me to a side wall. There were other humans similarly chained. Upon
a long table lay a victim even as I was ushered into the room. Several Mahars
stood about the poor creature holding him down so that he could not move.
Another, grasping a sharp knife with her three-toed fore foot, was laying open
the victim's chest and abdomen. No anesthetic had been administered and the
shrieks and groans of the tortured man were terrible to hear. This, indeed, was
vivisection with a vengeance. Cold sweat broke out upon me as I realized that
soon my turn would come. And to think that where there was no such thing as time
I might easily imagine that my suffering was enduring for months before death
finally released me!
The Mahars had paid not the slightest attention to me as I had been brought
into the room. So deeply immersed were they in their work that I am sure they
did not even know that the Sagoths had entered with me. The door was close by.
Would that I could reach it! But those heavy chains precluded any such
possibility. I looked about for some means of escape from my bonds. Upon the
floor between me and the Mahars lay a tiny surgical instrument which one of them
must have dropped. It looked not unlike a button-hook, but was much smaller, and
its point was sharpened. A hundred times in my boyhood days had I picked locks
with a buttonhook. Could I but reach that little bit of polished steel I might
yet effect at least a temporary escape.
Crawling to the limit of my chain, I found that by reaching one hand as far
out as I could my fingers still fell an inch short of the coveted instrument. It
was tantalizing! Stretch every fiber of my being as I would, I could not quite
make it.
At last I turned about and extended one foot toward the object. My heart came
to my throat! I could just touch the thing! But suppose that in my effort to
drag it toward me I should accidentally shove it still farther away and thus
entirely out of reach! Cold sweat broke out upon me from every pore. Slowly and
cautiously I made the effort. My toes dropped upon the cold metal. Gradually I
worked it toward me until I felt that it was within reach of my hand and a
moment later I had turned about and the precious thing was in my grasp.
Assiduously I fell to work upon the Mahar lock that held my chain. It was
pitifully simple. A child might have picked it, and a moment later I was free.
The Mahars were now evidently completing their work at the table. One already
turned away and was examining other victims, evidently with the intention of
selecting the next subject.
Those at the table had their backs toward me. But for the creature walking
toward us I might have escaped that moment. Slowly the thing approached me, when
its attention was attracted by a huge slave chained a few yards to my right.
Here the reptile stopped and commenced to go over the poor devil carefully, and
as it did so its back turned toward me for an instant, and in that instant I
gave two mighty leaps that carried me out of the chamber into the corridor
beyond, down which I raced with all the speed I could command.
Where I was, or whither I was going, I knew not. My only thought was to place
as much distance as possible between me and that frightful chamber of torture.
Presently I reduced my speed to a brisk walk, and later realizing the danger
of running into some new predicament, were I not careful, I moved still more
slowly and cautiously. After a time I came to a passage that seemed in some
mysterious way familiar to me, and presently, chancing to glance within a
chamber which led from the corridor I saw three Mahars curled up in slumber upon
a bed of skins. I could have shouted aloud in joy and relief. It was the same
corridor and the same Mahars that I had intended to have lead so important a
role in our escape from Phutra. Providence had indeed been kind to me, for the
reptiles still slept.
My one great danger now lay in returning to the upper levels in search of
Perry and Ghak, but there was nothing else to be done, and so I hastened upward.
When I came to the frequented portions of the building, I found a large burden
of skins in a corner and these I lifted to my head, carrying them in such a way
that ends and corners fell down about my shoulders completely hiding my face.
Thus disguised I found Perry and Ghak together in the chamber where we had been
wont to eat and sleep.
Both were glad to see me, it was needless to say, though of course they had
known nothing of the fate that had been meted out to me by my judges. It was
decided that no time should now be lost before attempting to put our plan of
escape to the test, as I could not hope to remain hidden from the Sagoths long,
nor could I forever carry that bale of skins about upon my head without arousing
suspicion. However it seemed likely that it would carry me once more safely
through the crowded passages and chambers of the upper levels, and so I set out
with Perry and Ghak--the stench of the illy cured pelts fairly choking me.
Together we repaired to the first tier of corridors beneath the main floor of
the buildings, and here Perry and Ghak halted to await me. The buildings are cut
out of the solid limestone formation. There is nothing at all remarkable about
their architecture. The rooms are sometimes rectangular, sometimes circular, and
again oval in shape. The corridors which connect them are narrow and not always
straight. The chambers are lighted by diffused sunlight reflected through tubes
similar to those by which the avenues are lighted. The lower the tiers of
chambers, the darker. Most of the corridors are entirely unlighted. The Mahars
can see quite well in semidarkness.
Down to the main floor we encountered many Mahars, Sagoths, and slaves; but
no attention was paid to us as we had become a part of the domestic life of the
building. There was but a single entrance leading from the place into the avenue
and this was well guarded by Sagoths--this doorway alone were we forbidden to
pass. It is true that we were not supposed to enter the deeper corridors and
apartments except on special occasions when we were instructed to do so; but as
we were considered a lower order without intelligence there was little reason to
fear that we could accomplish any harm by so doing, and so we were not hindered
as we entered the corridor which led below.
Wrapped in a skin I carried three swords, and the two bows, and the arrows
which Perry and I had fashioned. As many slaves bore skin-wrapped burdens to and
fro my load attracted no comment. Where I left Ghak and Perry there were no
other creatures in sight, and so I withdrew one sword from the package, and
leaving the balance of the weapons with Perry, started on alone toward the lower
levels.
Having come to the apartment in which the three Mahars slept I entered
silently on tiptoe, forgetting that the creatures were without the sense of
hearing. With a quick thrust through the heart I disposed of the first but my
second thrust was not so fortunate, so that before I could kill the next of my
victims it had hurled itself against the third, who sprang quickly up, facing me
with wide-distended jaws. But fighting is not the occupation which the race of
Mahars loves, and when the thing saw that I already had dispatched two of its
companions, and that my sword was red with their blood, it made a dash to escape
me. But I was too quick for it, and so, half hopping, half flying, it scurried
down another corridor with me close upon its heels.
Its escape meant the utter ruin of our plan, and in all probability my
instant death. This thought lent wings to my feet; but even at my best I could
do no more than hold my own with the leaping thing before me.
Of a sudden it turned into an apartment on the right of the corridor, and an
instant later as I rushed in I found myself facing two of the Mahars. The one
who had been there when we entered had been occupied with a number of metal
vessels, into which had been put powders and liquids as I judged from the array
of flasks standing about upon the bench where it had been working. In an instant
I realized what I had stumbled upon. It was the very room for the finding of
which Perry had given me minute directions. It was the buried chamber in which
was hidden the Great Secret of the race of Mahars. And on the bench beside the
flasks lay the skin-bound book which held the only copy of the thing I was to
have sought, after dispatching the three Mahars in their sleep.
There was no exit from the room other than the doorway in which I now stood
facing the two frightful reptiles. Cornered, I knew that they would fight like
demons, and they were well equipped to fight if fight they must. Together they
launched themselves upon me, and though I ran one of them through the heart on
the instant, the other fastened its gleaming fangs about my sword arm above the
elbow, and then with her sharp talons commenced to rake me about the body,
evidently intent upon disemboweling me. I saw that it was useless to hope that I
might release my arm from that powerful, viselike grip which seemed to be
severing my arm from my body. The pain I suffered was intense, but it only
served to spur me to greater efforts to overcome my antagonist.
Back and forth across the floor we struggled--the Mahar dealing me terrific,
cutting blows with her fore feet, while I attempted to protect my body with my
left hand, at the same time watching for an opportunity to transfer my blade
from my now useless sword hand to its rapidly weakening mate. At last I was
successful, and with what seemed to me my last ounce of strength I ran the blade
through the ugly body of my foe.
Soundless, as it had fought, it died, and though weak from pain and loss of
blood, it was with an emotion of triumphant pride that I stepped across its
convulsively stiffening corpse to snatch up the most potent secret of a world. A
single glance assured me it was the very thing that Perry had described to me.
And as I grasped it did I think of what it meant to the human race of
Pellucidar--did there flash through my mind the thought that countless
generations of my own kind yet unborn would have reason to worship me for the
thing that I had accomplished for them? I did not. I thought of a beautiful oval
face, gazing out of limpid eyes, through a waving mass of jet-black hair. I
thought of red, red lips, God-made for kissing. And of a sudden, apropos of
nothing, standing there alone in the secret chamber of the Mahars of Pellucidar,
I realized that I loved Dian the Beautiful.
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