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September 24, 2025 • 25 mins
Dive into a thrilling adventure as David Innes, a mining heir, funds the creation of the iron mole, an innovative excavating vehicle crafted by his brilliant yet aging friend Abner Perry. During a daring test run, the vehicle goes awry, drilling 500 miles into the Earths crust and emerging into the mysterious inner world of Pellucidar. In this captivating realm, the Earth functions as a hollow shell, with Pellucidar as its vibrant internal surface, teeming with prehistoric creatures from every geological era. Here, the intelligent yet malevolent Mahars, a species of flying reptile, dominate the landscape, enslaving the primitive humans who inhabit it. Captured by the Mahars fierce Sagoth servants, Innes and Perry find themselves amidst other human captives, including the valiant Ghak, the clever Hooja, and the enchanting Dian. Join them on an exhilarating journey through a world of danger, intrigue, and unexpected alliances.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter ten of At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. At the
Earth's Core, Chapter ten Phutra. Again, I hastened to the
cliff edge above Jaw and helped him to a secure footing.

(00:20):
He would not listen to any thanks for his attempt
to save me, which had come so near miscarrying. I
had given you up for lost when you tumbled into
the mahar temple, he said, for not even I could
save you from their clutches. And you may imagine my
surprise when, on seeing a canoe dragged up upon the
beach of the mainland, I discovered your own footprints in

(00:42):
the sand beside it. I immediately set out in search of you,
knowing as I did, that you must be entirely unarmed
and defenseless against the many dangers which look upon the mainland,
both in the form of savage beasts and reptiles and
men as well. I had no difficulty in tracking you
to this point. It is well that I arrived when

(01:02):
I did. But why did you do it? I asked,
puzzled at his show of friendship on the part of
a man of another world. In a different race and color.
You saved my life, he replied. From that moment it
became my duty to protect and befriend you. I would
have been no true mezop had I evaded my plain duty.

(01:24):
But it was a pleasure in this instance, for I
like you. I wish that you would come and live
with me. You shall become a member of my tribe.
Among us there is the best of hunting and fishing,
and you shall have to choose a mate from the
most beautiful girls of Pellucidar. Will you come? I told
him about Perry then and Dian the beautiful, and how

(01:45):
my duty was to them first. Afterward I should return
and visit him if I could ever find his island.
Oh that is easy, my friend, he said. You need
merely to come to the foot of the highest peak
of the mountains of the Clouds. There you will find
a river that flows into the lurrel As. Directly opposite
the mouth of the river, you will see three large islands,

(02:07):
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 Anorok, where I rule
the tribe of Aniok. But how am I to find
the mountains of the clouds, I asked, Men say that
they are visible from half Pellucidar. He replied. How large

(02:29):
is Pellucidar, I asked, wondering what sort of theory these
primitive men had concerning the form and substance of their world.
The Mahars say it is round, like the inside of
a tolashell, he answered, But that is ridiculous, since were
it true, we should fall back, were we to travel
far in any direction, and all the waters of Pellucidar

(02:52):
would run to one spot and drowness. No, Pellucidar is
quite flat and extends no man knows how far in
all directions. At the edges, so my ancestors have reported
and handed down to me, is a great wall that
prevents the earth and waters from escaping over into the
burning sea whereon Pellucidar floats. But I never have been

(03:13):
so far from Anorak as to have seen this wall
with my own eyes. However, it is quite reasonable to
believe that this is true, whereas there is no reason
at all in the foolish belief of the Mahars. According
to them, Pellucidarians who live upon the opposite side walk
always with their heads pointed downward, and joh laughed uproariously

(03:34):
at the very thought. It was plain to see that
the human folk of this inner world had not advanced
far in learning, and the thought that the ugly Mahars
had so outstripped them was a very pathetic one. Indeed,
I wondered how many ages it would take to lift
these people out of their ignorance, even were it given
to Perry and me to attempt it. Possibly we would

(03:57):
be killed for our pains, as were those men of
the outer world who dared challenge the dense ignorance and
superstitions of the Earth's younger days. But it was worth
the effort if the opportunity ever presented itself. And then
it occurred to me that here was an opportunity that
I might make a small beginning upon Jaw, who was

(04:17):
my friend, and thus note the effect of my teaching
upon a Pellucidarian. Jaw, I said, what would you say,
were I to tell you that, in so far as
the Mahars theory of the shape of Pellucidar is concerned,
it is correct, I would say. He replied that either
you are a fool or took me for one But JA,

(04:39):
I insisted, if their theory is incorrect, how do you
account for the fact that I was able to pass
through the earth from the outer crust to Pellucidar. If
your theory is correct, all is a sea of flame
beneath us, wherein no people's could exist. And yet I
come from a great world that is covered with human
beings and beasts, and birds and fishes in mighty oceans.

(05:03):
You live upon the under side of Pellucidar and walk
always with their head pointed downward. He scoffed, And were
I to believe that, my friend I should indeed be mad.
I attempted to explain the force of gravity to him,
and by the means of the dropped fruit, to illustrate
how impossible it would be for a body to fall
off the earth under any circumstances. He listened so intently

(05:27):
that I thought I had made an impression and started
the train of thought that would lead him to a
partial understanding of the truth. But I was mistaken. Your
own illustration, he said, finally proves the falsity of your theory.
He dropped a fruit from his hand to the ground. See,
he said, without support, even this tiny fruit falls until

(05:50):
it strikes something that stops it. If Pellucidar were not
supported upon the flaming sea, it too would fall as
the fruit falls. You have proven it yourself, he had
me that time. You could see it in his eye.
It seemed a hopeless job, and I gave it up temporarily,
at least, for when I contemplated the necessity explanation of

(06:12):
our solar system and the universe, I realized how futile
it would be to attempt to picture to Ja or
any other Pellucidarian the Sun, the Moon, the planets, and
the countless stars. Those born within the inner world could
no more conceive of such things than we can of
the outer crust, reduced to factors appreciable to our finite minds,

(06:33):
such terms as space and eternity. Well, Ja, I laughed,
Whether we be walking with our feet up or down?
Here we are, and the question of greatest importance is
not so much where we came from as where we
are going. Now. For my part, I wish that you
could guide me to Phutra, where I may give myself

(06:53):
up to the Mahars once more, that my friends and
I may work out the plan of escape which the
Sagoths interrupted when they get gathered us together and drove
us to the arena to witness the punishment of the
slaves who killed the guardsman. I wish now that I
had not left the arena, for by this time my
friends and I might have made good our escape, Whereas
this delay may mean the wrecking of all our plans,

(07:16):
which depended for their consummation upon the continued sleep of
the three Mahars, who lay in the pit beneath the
building in which we were confined. You would return to captivity,
cried Jah. My friends are there, I replied, the only
friends I have in Pellucidar, except yourself. What else may
I do under the circumstances, He thought for a moment

(07:40):
in silence. Then he shook his head sorrowfully. It is
what a brave man and a good friend should do,
he said, Yet it seems most foolish, for the Mahars
will most certainly condemn you to death for running away,
and so you will be accomplishing nothing for your friends
by returning. Never in all my life have I heard

(08:01):
of a prisoner returning to the Mahars of his own
free will. There are but few who escape them, though
some do, and these would rather die than be recaptured.
I see no other way, Ja, I said, though I
can assure you that I would rather go to shiol
after Perry than to Phutra. However, Parry is much too

(08:22):
pious to make the probability at all great that I
should ever be called upon to rescue him from the
former locality. JA asked me what Shiole was, and when
I explained as best I could, he said, you were
speaking of molop As, the flaming sea upon which Pellucidar floats.
All the dead who are buried in the ground go there.

(08:44):
Piece by piece. They are carried down to molop As
by the little demons who dwell there. We know this
because when graves are opened, we find that the bodies
have been partially or entirely borne off. That is why
we of Anorok place our dead in height trees, where
the birds may find them and bear them bit by
bit to the dead world above the land of awful Shadow.

(09:07):
If we kill an enemy, we place his body in
the ground, that it may go to molop As. As
we talked, we had been walking up the canyon down
which I had come to the great Ocean, and the
scythic Ja did his best to dissuade me from returning
to Futra, but when he saw that I was determined
to do so, he consented to guide me to a

(09:27):
point from which I could see the plain where lay
the city. To my surprise, the distance was but short
from the beach where I had again met Jaw. It
was evident that I had spent much time following the
windings of a tortuous canyon, while just beyond the ridge
lay the city of Phutra, near to which I must
have come several times. As we topped the ridge and

(09:50):
saw the granite gate towers dotting the flowering plain at
our feet, Jah made a final effort to persuade me
to abandon my mad purpose and return with him to Anory,
But I was firm in my resolve, and at last
he bid me good bye, assured in his own mind
that he was looking upon me for the last time.
I was sorry to part with Jaw, for I had

(10:12):
come to like him very much. Indeed, with his hidden
city upon the island of Anoroc as a base and
his savage warriors as escort, Perry and I could have
accomplished much in the line of exploration, and I hoped
that we were successful in our effort to escape. We
might return to Anioch later. There was, however, one great

(10:33):
thing to be accomplished first. At least it was the
great thing to me, the finding of Dian the Beautiful.
I wanted to make amends for the affront I had
put upon her in my ignorance, and I wanted to well.
I wanted to see her again and to be with her.
Down the hillside, I made my way into the gorgeous

(10:54):
field of flowers, and then across the rolling land toward
the shadowless columns that guard the buried Phutra. At a
quarter mile from the nearest entrance, I was discovered by
the Sagoth guard, and in an instant four of the
guerrilla men were dashing toward me. Though they brandished their
long spears and yelled like wild comanches, I paid not

(11:16):
the slightest attention to them, walking quietly toward them, as
though unaware of their existence. My manner had the effect
upon them that I had hoped, and as we came
quite near together, they ceased their savage shouting. It was
evident that they had expected me to turn and flee
at sight of them, thus presenting that which they most enjoyed,

(11:37):
a moving human target at which to cast their spears.
What do you hear? Shouted one and then as he
recognized me, ho, it is the slave who claims to
be from another world, he who escaped when the thag
ran amok within the amphitheater. But why do you return
having once made good your escape? I did not escape,

(12:01):
I replied, I but ran away to avoid the thag,
as did others, and coming into a long passage, I
became confused and lost my way in the foothills beyond Phutra.
Only now have I found my way back, and you come,
of your free will back to Futra, exclaimed one of
the guardsmen. Where else might I go? I asked? I

(12:24):
am a stranger within Pellucidar and know no other where
than Phutra. Why should I not desire to be in Putra?
Am I not well fed and well treated? Am I
not happy? What better luck could man desire? The Sagoths
scratched their heads. This was a new one on them,
and so, being stupid brutes, they took me to their masters,

(12:46):
whom they felt would be better fitted to solve the
riddle of my return. For riddle. They still considered it
I had spoken to the Sagoths as I had, for
the purpose of throwing them off the scent of my
purposed attempt at escape. If they thought that I was
so satisfied with my lot within Putra that I would
voluntarily return when I had once had so excellent an

(13:08):
opportunity to escape, they would never for an instant imagine
that I could be occupied in arranging another escape immediately
upon my return to the city. So they led me
before a slimy mahar who clung to a slimy rock
within the large room that was the Thing's office. With
cold reptilian eyes, the creature seemed to bore through the

(13:28):
thin veneer of my deceit and read my inmost thoughts.
It heeded the story which the Sagoths told of my
return to Futra, watching the guerrilla men's lips and fingers
during the recital. Then it questioned me, through one of
the Sagoths, you say that you return to Futra of
your own free will because you think yourself better off

(13:50):
here than elsewhere. Do you not know that you may
be the next chosen to give up your life in
the interests of the wonderful scientific investigations that our learned
ones are continued occupied with. I hadn't heard of anything
of that nature, but I thought best not to admit it.
I could be in no more danger here, I said,
than naked and unarmed in the savage jungles or upon

(14:13):
the lonely plains of Pellucidar. I was fortunate, I think,
to return to Phutra at all. As it was, I
barely escaped death within the jaws of a huge scythec No.
I am sure that I am safer in the hands
of intelligent creatures such as rule Phutra. At least such
would be the case in my own world, where human
beings like myself rule supreme. There, the higher races of

(14:37):
man extend protection and hospitality to the stranger within their gates,
and being a stranger here I naturally assumed that a
like courtesy would be accorded me. The Mahar looked at
me in silence for some time after I ceased speaking,
and the Sagoth had translated my words to his master.
The creature seemed deep in thought. Presently he communicated some

(15:00):
message to the Sagoth. The latter turned and motioning me
to follow him. Left the presence of the reptile behind.
On either side of me marched the balance of the guard.
What are they going to do with me? I asked
a fellow at my right. You are to appear before
the learned ones, who will question you regarding this strange
world from which you say you come. After a moment's silence,

(15:24):
he turned to me again. Do you happen to know?
He asked, what the Mahars do to slaves who lie
to them? No, I replied, nor does it interest me,
as I have no intention of lying to the Mahars.
Then be careful that you don't repeat the impossible tale
you told sol Toto. Just now another world, indeed, where

(15:47):
human beings rule, he concluded, in fine scorn, but it
is the truth, I insisted. From where else then did
I come? I am not of Pellucidar. Any one with
half an eye I could see that it is your misfortune.
Then he remarked dryly that you may not be judged
by one with but half an eye. What will they

(16:09):
do with me? I asked? If they do not have
a mind to believe me, you may be sentenced to
the arena, or go to the pits to be used
in research work by the learned ones, he replied, And
what will they do with me in there? I persisted.
No one knows except the Mahars and those who go
to the pits with them. But as the latter never return,

(16:31):
their knowledge does them but little good. It is said
that the learned ones cut up their subjects while they
are still alive, thus learning many useful things. However, I
should not imagine that it would prove very useful to
him who was being cut up. But of course this
is all but conjecture. The chances are that ere long

(16:51):
you will know much more about it than I. And
he grinned as he spoke. The Sagoths have a well
developed sense of humor, And suppose it is the arena?
I continued, What then, you saw the two who met
the Tarag and the Thag the time that you escaped.
He said, Yes, your end in the arena would be

(17:12):
similar to what was intended for them. He explained, though
of course the same kinds of animals might not be employed.
It is sure death in either event. I asked, what
becomes of those who go below with the learned ones?
I do not know, nor does any other, he replied,
But those who go to the arena may come out

(17:33):
alive and thus regain their liberty, as did the two
whom you saw they gain their liberty. And how it
is the custom of the Mahars to liberate those who
remain alive within the arena after the beasts depart or
are killed. Thus it has happened that several mighty warriors
from far distant lands, whom we have captured on our

(17:55):
slave raids, have battled the brutes, turned in upon them,
and slain them, thereby winning their freedom. In the instance
which you witnessed, the beasts killed each other, but the
result was the same. The man and the woman were liberated,
furnished with weapons, and started on their homeward journey. Upon
the left shoulder of each a mark was burned, the

(18:17):
mark of the Mahars, which will forever protect those two
from slaving parties. There is a slender chance for me, then,
if I be sent to the arena, and none at
all if the learned ones dragged me to the pits.
You are quite right, he replied, But do not felicitate
yourself too quickly should you be sent to the arena,

(18:38):
for there is scarce one in a thousand who comes
out alive. To my surprise, they returned me to the
same building in which I had been confined with Perry
and Ghak before my escape. At the doorway, I was
turned over to the guards. There he will doubtless be
called before the investigator, shortly said he who had brought

(18:59):
me back, So have him in readiness. The guards in
whose hands I now found myself, upon hearing that I
had returned of my own volition to Phutra, evidently felt
that it would be safe to give me liberty within
the building, as had been the custom before I had escaped,
and so I was told to return to whatever duty
had been mine formerly. My first act was to hunt

(19:21):
up Perry, whom I found pouring, as usual over the
great tomes that he was supposed to be merely dusting
and rearranging upon new shelves. As I entered the room,
he glanced up and nodded pleasantly to me, only to
resume his work as though I had never been away
at all. I was both astonished and hurt at his indifference,

(19:43):
and to think that I was risking death to return
to him purely from a sense of duty and affection.
Why Perry I exclaimed, haven't you a word for me?
After my long absence? Long absence, he repeated, in evident astonishment,
What do you mean? Are you crazy? Perry? Do you

(20:04):
mean to say that you have not missed me since
that time we were separated by the charging thag within
the arena that time? He repeated? Why, Man, I have
but just returned from the arena. You reached here almost
as soon as I had. You been much later. I
should indeed have been worried, and as it is, I
had intended asking you about how you escaped the beast

(20:27):
as soon as I had completed the translation of this
most interesting passage. Parry, you are mad, I exclaimed, why.
The Lord only knows how long I have been away.
I have been to other lands, discovered a new race
of humans within Pellucidar, seen the Mahars at their worship
in their hidden temple, and barely escaped with my life

(20:48):
from them and from a great Labyrinthidon that I met afterward.
Following my long and tedious wanderings across an unknown world,
I must have been away for months, Parry, and now
you barely look up from your work when I return
and insist that we have been separated. But a moment
is that any way to treat a friend. I am
surprised at you, Perry, and if I thought for a

(21:10):
moment that you cared no more for me than this,
I should not have returned to chance death at the
hands of the Mahars for your sake. The old man
looked at me for a long time before he spoke.
There was a puzzled expression upon his wrinkled face and
a look of hurt sorrow in his eyes. David, my boy,
he said, how could you for a moment doubt my

(21:32):
love for you? There is something strange here that I
cannot understand. I know that I am not mad, and
I am equally sure that you are not. But how
in the world are we to account for the strange
hallucinations that each of us seems to harbor. Relative to
the passage of time since last we saw each other.

(21:52):
You are positive that months have gone by, while to
me it seems equally certain that not more than an
hour ago I sat beside you in the amphitheater. Can
it be that both of us are right and at
the same time both are wrong? First tell me what
time it is, and then maybe I can solve our problem.

(22:13):
Do you catch my meaning? I didn't and said so, Yes,
continued the old man, We are both right to me
bent over my book. Here there has been no lapse
of time. I have done little or nothing to waste
my energies, and so have required neither food nor sleep.
But you, on the contrary, have walked and fought and

(22:36):
wasted strength and tissue which must needs be rebuilt by
nutriment and food. And so, having eaten and slept many
times since you last saw me, you naturally measure the
lapse of time largely by these acts. As a matter
of fact, David, I am rapidly coming to the conviction
that there is no such thing as time. Surely there

(22:57):
could be no time here within Pellucidar, where there are
no means for measuring or recording time. Why the Mahars
themselves take no account of such a thing as time.
I find here in all their literary works but a
single tense, the present. There seems to be neither past
nor future with them. Of course, it is impossible for

(23:19):
our outer earthly minds to grasp such a condition, but
our recent experiences seemed to demonstrate its existence. It was
too big a subject for me, and I said so,
but Perry seemed to enjoy nothing better than speculating upon it,
And after listening with interest to my account of the
adventures to which I had passed, he returned once more

(23:41):
to the subject, which he was enlarging upon with considerable fluency.
When he was interrupted by the entrance of a sagoth
come commanded the intruder, beckoning to me, the investigators would
speak with you. Good Bye, Perry, I said, clasping the
old man's hand. There may be nothing but the pre
and no such thing as time, But I feel that

(24:03):
I am about to take a trip into the hereafter,
from which I shall never return. If you and Ghak
should manage to escape, I want you to promise me
that you will find d in the beautiful and tell
her that with my last words, I asked her forgiveness
for the unintentional affront I put upon her, and that
my one wish was to be spared long enough to

(24:24):
right the wrong that I had done. Her tears came
to Perry's eyes. I cannot believe but that you will return, David,
he said. It would be awful to think of living
out the balance of my life without you. Among these
hateful and repulsive creatures. If you are taken away, I
shall never escape, for I feel that I am as

(24:47):
well off here as I should be anywhere within this
buried world. Goodbye, my boy, good bye. And then his
old voice faltered and broke, and as he hid his
face in his hands, the sad Goth guardsmen grasped me
roughly by the shoulder and hustled me from the chamber.
End of Chapter ten.
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