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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter fourteen of At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burrough's.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. At the
Earth's Core, Chapter fourteen, The Garden of Eden. With no
Heavenly guide. It is little wonder that I became confused
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and lost in the labyrinthine maze of those mighty hills.
What in reality I did was to pass entirely through
them and come out above the valley upon the farther side.
I know that I wanted for a long time, until
tired and hungry, I came upon a small cave in
the face of the limestone formation, which had taken the
place of a granite farther back. The cave which took
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my fancy lay half way up the precipitous side of
a lofty cliff. The way to it was such that
I knew no extremely formidable beast could frequent it, nor
was it large enough to make a comfortable habitat for
any but the smaller mammals or reptiles. Yet it was
with the utmost caution that I crawled within its dark interior.
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Here I found a rather large chamber, lighted by a
narrow cleft in the rock, above which let the sunlight
filter in in sufficient quantities, partially to dispel the utter
darkness which I had expected. The cave was entirely empty,
nor were there any signs of its having been recently occupied.
The opening was comparatively small, so that, after considerable effort,
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I was able to lug up a boulder from the
valley below, which entirely blocked it. Then I returned again
to the valley for an armful of grasses, and on
this trip was fortunate enough to knock over an ORTHOPI
the diminutive horse of Pellucidar, a little animal about the
size of a fox terrier, which abounds in all parts
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of the inner world. Thus with food and bedding, I
returned to my lair, where after a meal of raw
meat to which I had now become quite accustomed, I
dragged the bullet before the entrance and curled myself upon
a bed of grasses. A naked primeval cave man as
savagely primitive as my prehistoric progenitors, I awoke, rested but hungry, and,
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pushing the boulder aside, crawled out upon the little rocky
shelf which was my front porch. Before me spread a
small but beautiful valley, through the center of which a
clear and sparkling river wound its way down to an
inland sea, the blue waters of which were just visible
between two mountain ranges which embraced this little paradise. The
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sides of the opposite hills were green with verdure, for
a great forest clothed them, to the foot of the
red and yellow and copper green of the towering crags
which formed their summit. The valley itself was carpeted with
a luxuriant grass, while here and there patches of wild
flowers made great splashes of vivid color against the prevailing green.
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Dotted over the face of the valley were little clusters
of palm like trees, three or four together as a rule.
Beneath these stood antelope, while others grazed in the open,
or wandered gracefully to a nearby fur to drink. There
were several species of this beautiful animal, the most magnificent,
somewhat resembling the giant eland of Africa, except that their
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spiral horns form a complete curve backward over their ears,
and then forward again beneath them, ending in sharp and
formidable points some two feet before the face and above
the eyes. In size, they remind one of a pure
bred Hereford bull. Yet they are very agile and fast.
The broad yellow bands that stripe the dark rone of
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their coats made me take them for a zebra when
I first saw them. All in all, they are handsome
animals and added the finishing touch to the strange and
lovely landscape that spread before my new home. I had
determined to make my cave my headquarters, and with it
as a base, make a systematic exploration of the surrounding
country in search of the land of Sari. First I
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devoured the remainder of the carcass of the ORTHOPI I
had killed before my last sleep. Then I hid the
great secret in a deep niche at the back of
the cave, rolled the boulder before my front door, and
with bow, arrows, sword and shield, scrambled down into the
peaceful valley. The grazing hers moved to one side as
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I passed through them, the little ORTHOPI evincing the greatest
wariness and galloping to safest distances. All the animals stopped
feeding as I approached, and after moving to what they
considered a safe distance, stood contemplating me with serious eyes
and upcocked ears. Once one of the old bull antelopes
of the striped species lowered his head and bellowed angrily,
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even after taking a few steps in my direction, so
that I thought he met to charge, But after I
had passed, he resumed feeding as though nothing had disturbed him.
Near the lower end of the valley, I passed a
number of tapirs, and across the river saw a great saddoc,
the enormous double horned progenitor of the modern rhinoceros. At
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the valley's end, the cliffs upon the left ran out
into the sea, so that to pass around them, as
I desired to do, it was necessary to scale them
in search of a ledge along which I might continue
my journey. Some fifty feet from the base, I came
upon a projection which formed a natural path along the
face of the cliff, and this I followed out over
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the sea toward the cliff's end. Here the ledge inclined
rapidly upward toward the top of the cliffs, the stratum
which formed it, evidently having been forced up at this
steep angle when the mountains behind it were borne. As
I climbed carefully up the ascent. My attention suddenly was
attracted aloft by the sound of strange hissing and what
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resembled the flapping of wings, And at the first glance
that broke upon my horrified vision the most frightful thing
I had ever seen within Pellucidar. It was a giant dragon,
such as is pictured in the legends and fairy tales
of earth folk. Its huge body must have measured forty
feet in length, while the bat like wings that supported
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it in mid air had a spread of fully thirty.
Its gaping jaws were armed with long, sharp teeth, and
its claw equipped with horrible talons. The hissing noise which
had first attracted my attention was issuing from its throat.
It seemed to be directed at something beyond and below me,
which I could not see. The ledge upon which I
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stood terminated abruptly a few paces farther on, and as
I reached the end, I saw the cause of the
reptile's agitation. In some time in past ages, an earthquake
had produced a fault at this point, so that beyond
the spot where I stood, the strata had slipped down
a matter of twenty feet. The result was that the
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continue suation of my ledge lay twenty feet below me,
where it ended as abruptly as did the end upon
which I stood, And here, evidently halted in flight by
this insurmountable break in the ledge, stood the object of
the creature's attack, a girl cowering upon the narrow platform,
her face buried in her arms, as though to shut
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out the sight of the frightful death which hovered just
above her. The dragon was circling lower and seemed about
to dart in upon its prey. There was no time
to be lost, scarce an instant in which to weigh
the possible chances that I had against the awfully armed creature.
But the sight of that frightened girl below me called
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out to all that was best in me, and the
instinct for a protection of the other sex, which nearly
must have equaled the instinct of self preservation in primeval man,
drew me to the girl's side like an irresistible magnet.
Almost thoughtless of the consequences, I leaped from the edge
of the ledge upon which I stood for the tiny
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shelf twenty feet below. At the same instant the dragon
darted in toward the girl, but my sudden advent upon
the scene must have startled him, for he veered to
one side and then rose above us once more. The
noise I made as I landed beside her convinced the
girl that the end had come, for she thought I
was the dragon. But finally, when no cruel fangs closed
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upon her, she raised her eyes in astonishment as they
fell upon me. The expression that came into them would
be difficult to describe, but her feelings could scarcely have
been one whit more complicated than my own, for the
wide eyes that looked into mine were those of Dian,
the beautiful Dion. I cried, Dion, thank God that I
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came in time. You, she whispered, and then she hid
her face again. Nor could I tell whether she were
glad or angry that I had come. Once more, the
dragon was sweeping toward us, and so rapidly that I
had no time to unsling my bow. All that I
could do was to snatch up a rock and hurl
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it at the thing's hideous face. Again, my aim was true,
and with a hiss of pain and rage, the reptile
wheeled once more and soared away. Quickly I fitted an arrow,
now that I might be ready at the next attack.
And as I did so, I looked down at the girl,
so that I surprised her in a surreptitious glance which
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she was stealing at me. But immediately she again covered
her face with her hands. Look at me, Dian, I pleaded,
Are you not glad to see me? She looked straight
into my eyes. I hate you, she said, And then
as I was about to beg for a fair hearing,
she pointed over my shoulder. The thyptar comes, she said,
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And I turned again to meet the reptile. So this
was a thiptar. I might have known it, the cruel
bloodhound of the Mahars, the long extinct pterodactyl of the
outer world. But this time I met it with a
weapon it never had faced before. I had selected my
longest arrow, and with all my strength had bent the
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bow until the very tip of the shaft rested upon
the thumb of my left hand. And then, as the
great creature darted toward us, I let it drive straight
for that tough breast, hissing like the escape valve of
a steam engine. The mighty creature fell, turning and twisting
into the sea below. My arrow buried completely in its
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carcass I turned toward the girl. She was looking past me.
It was evident that she had seen the thip dar
Dye Dian, I said, won't you tell me that you
are not sorry that I have found you? I hate you,
was her only reply, but I imagined that there was
less vehemence in it than before. Yet it might have
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been but my imagination. Why do you hate me, Dian,
I asked, but she did not answer me. What are
you doing here, I asked? And what has happened to
you since Hooja freed you from the Sagoths. At first
I thought that she was going to ignore me entirely,
but finally she thought better of it. I was again
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running away from Jubal, the ugly one, she said. After
I escaped from the Sagoths, I made my way alone
back to my own land, but on account of Jubal,
I did not dare enter the villages or let any
of my friends know that I had returned, for fear
that Jubal might find out. By watching for a long time,
I found that my brother had not yet returned, and
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so I continued to live in a cave beside a
valley which my race seldom frequents, awaiting the time that
he should come back and free me from Juwbal. But
at last one of Jubal's hunters saw me as I
was creeping toward my father's cave to see if my
brother had yet returned, and he gave the alarm, and
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Jubal set out after me. He has been pursuing me
across many lands. He cannot be far behind me. Now
when he comes, he will kill you and carry me
back to his cave. He is a terrible man. I
have gone as far as I can go, and there
is no escape. And she looked hopelessly up at the
continuation of the ledge twenty feet above us. But he
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shall not have me, she suddenly cried, with great vehemence.
The sea is there, she pointed, over the edge of
the cliff, and the sea shall have me rather than Jubal.
But I have you now, Dion, I cried, Nor shall
Jubal nor any other have you, for you are mine.
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And I seized her hand. Nor did I lift it
above her head and let it fall in token of release.
She had risen to her feet and was looking straight
into my eyes with level gaze. I do not believe you,
she said, for if you meant it, you would have
done this when the others were present to witness it,
then I should truly have been your mate. Now there
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is no one to see you do it, for you
know that without witnesses, your act does not bind you
to me. And she withdrew her hand from mine and
turned away. I tried to convince her that I was sincere,
but she simply couldn't forget the humiliation that I had
put upon her on that other occasion. If you meant
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all that you say, you will have ample chance to
prove it, she said. If Jubal does not catch you
and kill you, I am in your power, and the
treatment you accord me will be the best proof of
your intentions toward me. I am not your mate. And
again I tell you that I hate you, and that
I should be glad if I never saw you again.
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Dian certainly was candid. There was no gainsaying that. In fact,
I found candor and directness to be quite a marked
characteristic of the cave men of Pellucidar. Finally, I suggested
that we make some attempt to gain my cave, where
we might escape the searching for Jubal, For I am
free to admit that I had no considerable desire to
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meet the formidable and ferocious creature of whose mighty prowess
Dion had told me when I first met her. He
it was who, armed with a puny knife, had met
and killed a cave bear in a hand to hand struggle.
It was Jubal who could cast his spear entirely through
the armed carcass of the saddock at fifty paces. It
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was he who had crushed the skull of a charging
direth with a single blow of his war club. No,
I was not pining to meet the Ugly One, and
it was quite certain that I should not go out
and hunt for him. But the matter was taken out
of my hands very quickly, as is often the way,
and I did meet Jubal the Ugly One, face to face.
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This is how it happened. I had led Dian back
along the ledge the way she had come, searching for
a path that would lead us to the top of
the cliff, for I knew that we could then cross
over to the edge of my own little valley, where
I felt certain we should find a means of ingress
from the cliff. Top. As we proceeded along the ledge,
I gave Dian minute directions for finding my cave against
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the chance of something happening to me. I knew that
she would be quite safely hidden away from pursuit once
she gained the shelter of my lair, and the valley
would afford her ample means of sustenance. Also, I was
very much piqued by her treatment of me. My heart
was sad and heavy, and I wanted to make her
feel badly by suggesting that something terrible might happen to me,
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that I might in fact be killed. But it didn't
work where the scent, at least as far as I
could perceive, Dian simply shrugged those magnificent shoulders of hers
and murmured something to the effect that one was not
rid of trouble so easily as that for a while
I kept still. I was utterly squelched, and to think
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that I had twice protected her from attack, the last
time risking my life to save hers. It was incredible
that even a daughter of the Stone Age could be
so ungrateful, so heartless. But maybe her heart partook of
the qualities of her epoch. Presently we found a rift
in the cliff which had been widened and extended by
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the action of the water draining through it from the
plateau above. It gave us a rather rough climb to
the summit, But finally we stood upon the level Mesa,
which stretched back for several miles to the mountain range.
Behind us lay the broad inland sea, curving upward in
the horizonless distance to merge into the blue of the sky,
so that for all the world it looked as though
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the sea leapt back to arch completely over us and
disappear beyond the distant mountains. At our backs the weird
and uncanny aspect of the sea scapes of Pellucidar balk Description.
At our right lay a dense forest, but to the
left the country was open and clear to the plateau's
farther verge. It was in this direction that our way led,
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and we had turned to resume our journey when Dion
touched my arm. I turned to her, thinking that she
was about to make peace overtures. But I was mistaken. Jubal,
she said, and nodded toward the forest. I looked, and there,
emerging from the dense wood, came a perfect wail of
a man. He must have been seven feet tall and proportioned. Accordingly,
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he was still too far off to distinguish his features.
Run I said to Dion, I can engage him until
you get a good start. Maybe I can hold him
until you have gotten entirely away. And then, without a
backward glance, I advanced to meet the ugly One. I
had hoped that Dion would have a kind word to
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say to me before she went, for she must have
known that I was going to my death for her sake.
But she never even so much as bid me good bye.
And it was with a heavy heart that I strode
through the flower bespangled grass to my doom. When I
had come close enough to Jubal to distinguish his features,
I understood how it was that he had earned the
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sobriquet of ugly one. Apparently, some fearful beast had ripped
away one entire side of his face. The eye was gone,
the nose, and all the flesh, so that his jaws
and all his teeth were exposed, and grinning through the
horrible scar. Formerly, he may have been as good to
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look upon as the others of his handsome race. And
it may be that the terrible result of this encounter
had tended to sour an already strong and brutal character.
However this may be, it is quite certain that he
was not a pretty sight, and now that his features,
or what remained of them, were distorted in rage at
the sight of Dion with another male, he was indeed
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most terrible to see, and much more terrible to meet.
He had broken into a run now, and as he
advanced he raised his mighty spear, while I halted, and,
fitting an arrow to my bow, took as steady aim
as I could. I was somewhat longer than usual, for
I must confess that the sight of this awful man
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had wrought upon my nerves to such an extent that
my knaves were anything but steady. What chance had I
against this mighty warrior, for whom even the fiercest cave
bear had no terrors? Could I hope to best one
who slaughtered the Saddoc and Dereth single handed? I shuddered,
but in fairness to myself, my fear was more for
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dim than for my own fate. And then the great
brute launched his massive, stone tipped spear, and I raised
my shield to break the force of its terrific velocity.
The impact hurled me to my knees, but the shield
had deflected the missile, and I was unscathed. Jubal was
rushing upon me now with the only remaining weapon that
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he carried, a murderous looking knife. He was too close
for a careful bow shot, but I let drive at
him as he came without taking aim. My arrow pierced
the fleshy part of his thigh, inflicting a painful but
not disabling wound, and then he was upon me. My
agility saved me for the instant. I ducked beneath his
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raised arm, and when he wheeled to come at me again,
he found a sword's point in his face, and a
moment later he felt an inch or two of it
in the muscles of his knife arm, so that thereafter
he went more warily. It was a duel of strategy, now,
the great hairy man maneuvering to get inside my guard,
where he could bring those giant thews to play, while
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my wits were directed to the task of keeping him
at arm's length. Thrice he rushed me, and thrice I
caught his knife blow upon my shield. Each time my
sword found his body once penetrating to his lung. He
was covered with blood by this time, and the internal
hemorrhage induced paroxysms of coughing that brought the red stream
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through the hideous mouth and nose, covering his face and
breast with bloody froth. He was a most unlovely spectacle,
but he was far from dead. As the duel continued,
I began to gain confidence, for, to be perfectly candid,
I had not expected to survive the first rush of
that monstrous engine of ungoverned rage and hatred. And I
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think that Jubal, from utter contempt of me, began to
change to a feeling of respect. And then in his
primitive mind there evidently loomed the thought that perhaps at
last he had met his master and was facing his end.
At any rate. It is only upon this hypothesis that
I can account for his next act, which was in
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the nature of a last resort, a sort of forlorn hope,
which could only have been born of the belief that
if he did not kill me quickly, I should kill him.
It happened on the occasion of his fourth charge, when
instead of striking at me with his knife, he dropped
that weapon, and, seizing my sword blade in both his hands,
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wrenched the weapon from my grasp as easily as from
a babe, flinging it far to one side. He stood
motionless for just an instant, glaring into my face with
such a horrid leer of malignant triumph as to almost
unnerve me. Then he sprang for me with his bare hands.
But it was Jubal's day to learn new methods of warfare.
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For the first time he had seen a bow and arrows.
Never before that duel had he beheld a sword. And
now he learned what a man who knows may do
with his bare fists. As he came for me like
a great bear, I ducked again beneath his outstretched arm,
and as I came up, planted as clean a blow
upon his jaw as ever you have seen. Down with
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that great mountain of flesh sprawling upon the ground. He
was so surprised and dazed that he lay there for
several seconds before he made any attempt to rise, And
I stood over him with another dose, ready when he
should gain his knees up. He came at last, almost
roaring in his rage and mortification. But he didn't stay up.
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I let him have a left fair on the point
of the jaw that sent him tumbling over his back.
By this time I think Jewbal had gone mad with hate,
for no sane man would have come back for more
as many times as he did. Time after time I
bowled him over as fast as he could stagger up,
until toward the last he lay longer on the ground
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between blows, and each time came up weaker than before.
He was bleeding very profusely now from the wound in
his lungs, and presently a terrific blow over his heart
sent him reeling heavily to the ground, where he lay
very still. And somehow I knew at once that Jubal,
the ugly One, would never get up again. But even
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as I looked upon that massive body lying there, so
grim and terrible in death, I could not believe that
I single handed had bested this slayer of fearful beasts,
this gigantic ogre of the stone Age. Picking up my sword,
I leaned upon it, looking down on the dead body
of my foemen. And as I thought of the battle
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I had just fought and won, a great idea was
born in my brain. The outcome of this and the
suggestion that Perry had made within the city of Phutra.
If skill and science could render a comparative Pigmy the
master of this mighty brute, what could not the brute's
fellows accomplish with the same skill in science? Why all
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Pellucidar would be at their feet, and I would be
their king, and Dian their queen. Dian, A little wave
of doubts swept over me. It was quite within the
possibilities of Dion to look down upon me, even were
I a king. She was quite the most superior person
I had ever met, with the most convincing way of
letting you know that she was superior. Well, I could
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go to the cave and tell her that I had
killed Jwbal, and then she might feel more kindly toward me,
since I had freed her of her tormentor. I hoped
that she had found the cave easily. It would be
terrible had I lost her again, and I turned to
gather up my shield and bow to hurry after her,
when to my astonishment I found her standing not ten
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paces behind me. Girl, I cried, what are you doing here?
I thought that you had gone to the cave as
I told you to. Up went her head, and the
look that she gave me took all the majesty out
of me and left me feeling more like the palace janitor,
if pallaces have janitors, as you told me to, she cried,
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stamping her little foot. I do as I please. I
am the daughter of a king, and furthermore, I hate you.
I was dumbfounded. This was my thanks for saving her
from Jewball. I turned and looked at the corpse. May
be that I saved you from a worse fate, old man,
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I said, But I guess it was lost on Dian,
for she never seemed to notice it at all. Let
us go to my cave, I said, I am tired
and hungry. She followed along a pace behind me, neither
of us speaking. I was too angry, and she evidently
didn't care to converse with the lower orders. I was
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mad all the way through, as I had certainly felt
that at least a word of thanks should have rewarded me,
For I knew that, even by her own standards, I
must have done a very wonderful thing to have killed
the redoubtable Jewball in a hand to hand encounterer we
had no difficulty in finding my lair, and then I
went down into the valley and bowled over a small antelope,
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which I dragged up the steep ascent to the ledge
before the door. Here we ate in silence. Occasionally I
glanced at her, thinking that the side of her tearing
it raw flesh with her hands and teeth like some
wild animal would cause a revulsion of my sentiments toward her.
But to my surprise, I found that she ate quite
as daintily as the most civilized woman of my acquaintance.
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And finally I found myself gazing in foolish rapture at
the beauties of her strong white teeth. Such is love.
After our repast, we went down to the river together
and bathed our hands and faces, and then, after drinking
our fill, went back to the cave without a word.
I crawled into the farthest corner, and, curling up, was
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soon asleep. When I awoke, I found Dian sitting in
the doorway, looking out across the valley. As I came out,
she moved to one side to let me pass, but
she had no word for me. I wanted to hate her,
but couldn't. Every time I looked at her. Something came
up in my throat so that I nearly choked. I
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had never been in love before, but I did not
need any aid in diagnosing my case. I certainly had it,
and had it bad. God, how I love that beautiful, disdainful,
tantalizing prehistoric girl. After we had eaten again, I asked
Dian if she intended returning to her tribe now that
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Jewbal was dead. But she shook her head sadly and
said that she did not dare, for there was still
Jubal's brother, to be considered his oldest brother. What is
he to do with it? I asked, Does he too
want you? Or has the option on you become a
family heirloom to be passed on down from generation to generation.
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She was not quite sure as to what I meant.
It is probable, she said, that they all will want
revenge for the death of Jubal. There are seven of them,
seven terrible men. Some one may have to kill them
all if I am to return to my people. It
began to look as though I had assumed a contract
much too large for me, about seven sizes in fact,
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had Jewbal any cousins? I asked it was just as
well to know the worst at once. Yes, replied Dion.
But they don't count they all have mates. Jubal's brothers
have no mates, because Jewbal could get none for himself.
He was so ugly that women ran away from him.
Some have even thrown themselves from the cliffs of Amaz
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into the darrel ass rather than mate with the ugly one.
But what had that to do with his brothers, I asked,
I forget that you are not of Pellucidar, said Dion,
with a look of pity mixed with contempt. And the
contempt seemed to be laid on a little thicker than
the circumstance warranted, as though to make quite certain that
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I shouldn't overlook it. You see, she continued, a younger
brother may not take a mate until all his older
brothers have done so, unless the older brother waves his prerogative,
which Jubal would not do, knowing that as long as
he kept them single, they would be all the keener
in aiding him to secure a mate. Noticing that Dion
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was becoming more communicative, I began to entertain hopes that
she might be warming up toward me a bit, although
upon what slender thread hung my hopes, I soon discovered,
as you dare not return to Amas, I ventured, what
is to become of you? Since you cannot be happy
here with me, hating me as you do, I shall
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have to put up with you, she replied, coldly, until
you see fit to go elsewhere and leave me in peace.
Then I shall get along very well alone. I looked
at her in utter amazement. It seemed incredible that even
a prehistoric woman could be so cold and heartless and ungrateful.
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I arose, I shall leave you now, I said, haughtily.
I have had quite enough of your ingratitude and your insults.
And then I turned and strode majestically down toward the valley.
I had taken a hundred steps in absolute silence, and
then Dion spoke, I hate you, she shouted, and her
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voice broke in rage. I thought I was absolutely miserable,
But I hadn't gone too far. When I began to
realize that I couldn't leave her alone there without protection
to hunt her own food amid the dangers of that
savage world. She might hate me and revile me, and
heap indignity after indignity upon me. As she already had
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until I should have hated her, But the pitiful fact
remained that I loved her, and I couldn't leave her
there alone. The more I thought about it, the matter
I got, so that by the time I reached the
valley I was furious, And the result of it was
that I turned right around and went up that cliff again.
As fast as I had come down, I saw that
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Dion had left the ledge and gone within the cave.
But I bolted right in after her. She was lying
upon her face on the pile of grasses I had
gathered for her bed. When she heard me enter, she
sprang to her feet like a tigress. I hate you,
she cried, coming from the brilliant light of the noonday
sun into the semi darkness of the cave. I could
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not see her features, and I was rather glad, for
I disliked to think of the hate that I should
have read there. I never said a word to her
at first. I just strode across the cave and grasped
her by the wrists, and when she struggled, I put
my arm around her so as to pinion her hands
to her sides. She fought like a tigress but I
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took my free hand and pushed her head back. I
imagined that I had suddenly turned brute, that I had
gone back a thousand million years and was again a
veritable cave man, taking my mate by force. And then
I kissed that beautiful mouth again and again, Dian, I cried,
shaking her roughly. I love you. Can't you understand that
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I love you, That I love you better than all
else in this world or my own, that I am
going to have you, that love like mine cannot be denied.
I noticed that she lay very still in my arms now,
and as my eyes became accustomed to the light, I
saw that she was smiling, a very contented, happy smile.
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I was thunderstruck. Then I realized that very gently she
was trying to disengage her arms, and I loosened my
grip upon them so that she could do so. Slowly,
they came up and stole about my neck, and then
she drew my lips down to hers once more, and
held them there for a long time. At last, she spoke,
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why didn't you do this at first? David? I have
been waiting so long? What I cried? You said that
you hated me? Did you expect me to run into
your arms and say that I loved you before I
knew that you loved me, she asked. But I have
told you right along that I love you, I said.
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Love speaks and acts, she replied. You could have made
your mouth say what you wished it to say. But
just now, when you came and took me in your arms,
your heart spoke to mine in the language that a
woman's heart understands. What a silly man you are, David,
then you haven't hated me at all, Dean, I asked,
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I have loved you always, she whispered, from the first
moment that I saw you, although I did not know
it until that time. You struck down Hooja the sly one,
and then spurned me. But I didn't spurn you, dear,
I cried, I didn't know your ways. I doubt if
I do now. It seems incredible that you could have
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reviled me so and yet have cared for me all
the time. You might have known, she said, when I
did not run away from you, that it was not
hate which chained me to you. While you were battling
with Jewbal, I could have run to the edge of
the forest and when I learned the outcome of the combat,
it would have been a simple thing to have eluded
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you and returned to my own people. But Jewbal's brothers
and cousins, I reminded her, how about them? She smiled
and hid her face on my shoulder. I had to
tell you something, David, she whispered. I must needs have
some excuse for remaining near you, you little sinner, I exclaimed,
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And you have caused me all this anguish for nothing.
I have suffered even more, she answered, simply, for I
thought that you did not love me, and I was helpless.
I couldn't come to you and demand that my love
be returned as you have just come to me just now.
When you went away, hope went with you. I was wretched, terrified, miserable,
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and my heart was breaking. I wept, and I have
not done that before since my mother died. And now
I saw that there was the moisture of tears about
her eyes. It was near to making me cry myself
when I thought of all that poor child had been through,
motherless and unprotected, hunted across a savage, primeval world by
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that hideous brute of a man, exposed to the attacks
of the countless, fearsome denizens of its mountains, its plains,
and its jungles. It was a miracle that she had
survived at all. To me, it was a revelation of
the things my early forebears must have endured, that the
human race of the outer crust might survive. It made
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me very proud to think that I had won the
love of such a woman. Of course, she couldn't read
or write. There was nothing cultured or refined about her,
as you judge culture and refinement. But she was the
essence of all that is best in woman. For she
was good and brave, and noble and virtuous. And she
was all these things in spite of the fact that
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their observance entailed suffering and danger and possible death. How
much easier it would have been to have gone to
jewbl in the first place. She would have been his
lawful mate. She would have been queen in her own land.
And it meant just as much to the cave woman
to be a queen in the Stone Age as it
does to the woman of to day to be a queen. Now.
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It's all comparative glory any way you look at it.
And if there were only half naked savages on the
outer crust. To day, you'd find that it would be
considerable glory to be the wife of a dahomy chief.
I couldn't help to compare Deon's action with that of
a splendid young woman I had known in New York,
I mean splendid to look at and to talk to.
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She had been head over heels in love with a
chum of mine, a clean, manly chap. But she had
married a broken down DYSREUPI old debauche because he was
a count in some dinky little European principality that was
not even accorded a distinctive color by Ran McNally. Yes,
I was mighty proud of Dian. After a time, we
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decided to set out for Sari, as I was anxious
to see Perry and to know that all was right
with him. I had told Dian about our plan of
emancipating the human race of Pellucidar, and she was fairly
wild over it. She said that if dakhor her brother
would only return, he could easily be king of Amas,
and that then he and Ghak could form an alliance
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that would give us a flying start for the Sarians
and the Amazites were both powerful tribes. Once they had
been armed with swords and bows and arrows and trained
in their use, we were confident that they could overcome
any tribe that seemed disinclined to join the great Army
of Federated States with which we were planning to march
upon the Mahars. I explained the various destructive engines of
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war which Perry and I could construct after a little experimentation, gunpowder, rifles, cannon,
and the like, and Dian would clap her hands and
throw her arms about my neck and tell me what
a wonderful thing I was. She was beginning to think
that I was omnipotent, although I really hadn't done anything
but talk. But that is the way with women when
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they love. Perry used to say that if a fellow
was one tenth as remarkable as his wife or mother
thought him, he would have the world by the tail
with a downhel drag. The first time we started for Sorry,
I stepped into a nest of poisonous vipers. Before we
reached the valley, A little fellow stung me on the ankle,
and Dian made me come back to the cave. She
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said that I mustn't exercise, or it might prove fatal.
If it had been a full grown snake that struck me,
she said, I wouldn't have moved a single pace from
the nest. I'd have died in my tracks. So virulent
is the poison as it was, I must have been
laid up for quite a while, though Dion's poultices of
herbs and leaves finally reduced the swelling and drew out
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the poison. The episode proved most fortunate, however, as it
gave me an idea which added a thousandfold to the
value of my arrows as missiles of offense and defense.
As soon as I was able to be about again,
I sought out some adult vipers of the species which
had stung me, and having killed them, I extracted their virus,
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smearing it upon the tips of several arrows. Later, I
shot a hyenodon with one of these, and though my
arrow inflicted but a superficial flesh wound, the beast crumpled
in death almost immediately after he was hit. We now
set out once more for the land of the Sarians,
and it was with feelings of sincere regret that we
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bade Goodbye to our beautiful garden of Eden, in the
comparative peace and harmony of which we lived the happiest
moments of our lives. How long we had been there,
I did not know, for, as I have told you,
time had ceased to exist for me beneath the eternal
noonday sun. It may have been an hour or a
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month of earthly time. I do not know. End of
Chapter fourteen,