At the Earth's Core Read online

  III

  A CHANGE OF MASTERS

  We must have traveled several miles through the dark and dismal woodwhen we came suddenly upon a dense village built high among thebranches of the trees. As we approached it my escort broke into wildshouting which was immediately answered from within, and a moment latera swarm of creatures of the same strange race as those who had capturedme poured out to meet us. Again I was the center of a wildlychattering horde. I was pulled this way and that. Pinched, pounded,and thumped until I was black and blue, yet I do not think that theirtreatment was dictated by either cruelty or malice--I was a curiosity,a freak, a new plaything, and their childish minds required the addedevidence of all their senses to back up the testimony of their eyes.

  Presently they dragged me within the village, which consisted ofseveral hundred rude shelters of boughs and leaves supported upon thebranches of the trees.

  Between the huts, which sometimes formed crooked streets, were deadbranches and the trunks of small trees which connected the huts uponone tree to those within adjoining trees; the whole network of huts andpathways forming an almost solid flooring a good fifty feet above theground.

  I wondered why these agile creatures required connecting bridgesbetween the trees, but later when I saw the motley aggregation ofhalf-savage beasts which they kept within their village I realized thenecessity for the pathways. There were a number of the same viciouswolf-dogs which we had left worrying the dyryth, and many goatlikeanimals whose distended udders explained the reasons for their presence.

  My guard halted before one of the huts into which I was pushed; thentwo of the creatures squatted down before the entrance--to prevent myescape, doubtless. Though where I should have escaped to I certainlyhad not the remotest conception. I had no more than entered the darkshadows of the interior than there fell upon my ears the tones of afamiliar voice, in prayer.

  "Perry!" I cried. "Dear old Perry! Thank the Lord you are safe."

  "David! Can it be possible that you escaped?" And the old man stumbledtoward me and threw his arms about me.

  He had seen me fall before the dyryth, and then he had been seized by anumber of the ape-creatures and borne through the tree tops to theirvillage. His captors had been as inquisitive as to his strangeclothing as had mine, with the same result. As we looked at each otherwe could not help but laugh.

  "With a tail, David," remarked Perry, "you would make a very handsomeape."

  "Maybe we can borrow a couple," I rejoined. "They seem to be quite thething this season. I wonder what the creatures intend doing with us,Perry. They don't seem really savage. What do you suppose they canbe? You were about to tell me where we are when that great hairyfrigate bore down upon us--have you really any idea at all?"

  "Yes, David," he replied, "I know precisely where we are. We have madea magnificent discovery, my boy! We have proved that the earth ishollow. We have passed entirely through its crust to the inner world."

  "Perry, you are mad!"

  "Not at all, David. For two hundred and fifty miles our prospectorbore us through the crust beneath our outer world. At that point itreached the center of gravity of the five-hundred-mile-thick crust. Upto that point we had been descending--direction is, of course, merelyrelative. Then at the moment that our seats revolved--the thing thatmade you believe that we had turned about and were speeding upward--wepassed the center of gravity and, though we did not alter the directionof our progress, yet we were in reality moving upward--toward thesurface of the inner world. Does not the strange fauna and flora whichwe have seen convince you that you are not in the world of your birth?And the horizon--could it present the strange aspects which we bothnoted unless we were indeed standing upon the inside surface of asphere?"

  "But the sun, Perry!" I urged. "How in the world can the sun shinethrough five hundred miles of solid crust?"

  "It is not the sun of the outer world that we see here. It is anothersun--an entirely different sun--that casts its eternal noondayeffulgence upon the face of the inner world. Look at it now, David--ifyou can see it from the doorway of this hut--and you will see that itis still in the exact center of the heavens. We have been here formany hours--yet it is still noon.

  "And withal it is very simple, David. The earth was once a nebulousmass. It cooled, and as it cooled it shrank. At length a thin crustof solid matter formed upon its outer surface--a sort of shell; butwithin it was partially molten matter and highly expanded gases. As itcontinued to cool, what happened? Centrifugal force burled theparticles of the nebulous center toward the crust as rapidly as theyapproached a solid state. You have seen the same principle practicallyapplied in the modern cream separator. Presently there was only asmall super-heated core of gaseous matter remaining within a hugevacant interior left by the contraction of the cooling gases. Theequal attraction of the solid crust from all directions maintained thisluminous core in the exact center of the hollow globe. What remains ofit is the sun you saw today--a relatively tiny thing at the exactcenter of the earth. Equally to every part of this inner world itdiffuses its perpetual noonday light and torrid heat.

  "This inner world must have cooled sufficiently to support animal lifelong ages after life appeared upon the outer crust, but that the sameagencies were at work here is evident from the similar forms of bothanimal and vegetable creation which we have already seen. Take thegreat beast which attacked us, for example. Unquestionably acounterpart of the Megatherium of the post-Pliocene period of the outercrust, whose fossilized skeleton has been found in South America."

  "But the grotesque inhabitants of this forest?" I urged. "Surely theyhave no counterpart in the earth's history."

  "Who can tell?" he rejoined. "They may constitute the link between apeand man, all traces of which have been swallowed by the countlessconvulsions which have racked the outer crust, or they may be merelythe result of evolution along slightly different lines--either is quitepossible."

  Further speculation was interrupted by the appearance of several of ourcaptors before the entrance of the hut. Two of them entered anddragged us forth. The perilous pathways and the surrounding trees werefilled with the black ape-men, their females, and their young. Therewas not an ornament, a weapon, or a garment among the lot.

  "Quite low in the scale of creation," commented Perry.

  "Quite high enough to play the deuce with us, though," I replied. "Nowwhat do you suppose they intend doing with us?"

  We were not long in learning. As on the occasion of our trip to thevillage we were seized by a couple of the powerful creatures andwhirled away through the tree tops, while about us and in our wakeraced a chattering, jabbering, grinning horde of sleek, blackape-things.

  Twice my bearers missed their footing, and my heart ceased beating aswe plunged toward instant death among the tangled deadwood beneath.But on both occasions those lithe, powerful tails reached out and foundsustaining branches, nor did either of the creatures loosen their graspupon me. In fact, it seemed that the incidents were of no greatermoment to them than would be the stubbing of one's toe at a streetcrossing in the outer world--they but laughed uproariously and sped onwith me.

  For some time they continued through the forest--how long I could notguess for I was learning, what was later borne very forcefully to mymind, that time ceases to be a factor the moment means for measuring itcease to exist. Our watches were gone, and we were living beneath astationary sun. Already I was puzzled to compute the period of timewhich had elapsed since we broke through the crust of the inner world.It might be hours, or it might be days--who in the world could tellwhere it was always noon! By the sun, no time had elapsed--but myjudgment told me that we must have been several hours in this strangeworld.

  Presently the forest terminated, and we came out upon a level plain. Ashort distance before us rose a few low, rocky hills. Toward these ourcaptors urged us, and after a short time led us through a narrow passinto a tiny, circular valley. Here they got down to work, and we we
resoon convinced that if we were not to die to make a Roman holiday, wewere to die for some other purpose. The attitude of our captorsaltered immediately as they entered the natural arena within the rockyhills. Their laughter ceased. Grim ferocity marked their bestialfaces--bared fangs menaced us.

  We were placed in the center of the amphitheater--the thousandcreatures forming a great ring about us. Then a wolf-dog wasbrought--hyaenodon Perry called it--and turned loose with us inside thecircle. The thing's body was as large as that of a full-grown mastiff,its legs were short and powerful, and its jaws broad and strong. Dark,shaggy hair covered its back and sides, while its breast and belly werequite white. As it slunk toward us it presented a most formidableaspect with its upcurled lips baring its mighty fangs.

  Perry was on his knees, praying. I stooped and picked up a smallstone. At my movement the beast veered off a bit and commencedcircling us. Evidently it had been a target for stones before. Theape-things were dancing up and down urging the brute on with savagecries, until at last, seeing that I did not throw, he charged us.

  At Andover, and later at Yale, I had pitched on winning ball teams. Myspeed and control must both have been above the ordinary, for I madesuch a record during my senior year at college that overtures were madeto me in behalf of one of the great major-league teams; but in thetightest pitch that ever had confronted me in the past I had never beenin such need for control as now.

  As I wound up for the delivery, I held my nerves and muscles underabsolute command, though the grinning jaws were hurtling toward me atterrific speed. And then I let go, with every ounce of my weight andmuscle and science in back of that throw. The stone caught thehyaenodon full upon the end of the nose, and sent him bowling over uponhis back.

  At the same instant a chorus of shrieks and howls arose from the circleof spectators, so that for a moment I thought that the upsetting oftheir champion was the cause; but in this I soon saw that I wasmistaken. As I looked, the ape-things broke in all directions towardthe surrounding hills, and then I distinguished the real cause of theirperturbation. Behind them, streaming through the pass which leads intothe valley, came a swarm of hairy men--gorilla-like creatures armedwith spears and hatchets, and bearing long, oval shields. Like demonsthey set upon the ape-things, and before them the hyaenodon, which hadnow regained its senses and its feet, fled howling with fright. Pastus swept the pursued and the pursuers, nor did the hairy ones accord usmore than a passing glance until the arena had been emptied of itsformer occupants. Then they returned to us, and one who seemed to haveauthority among them directed that we be brought with them.

  When we had passed out of the amphitheater onto the great plain we sawa caravan of men and women--human beings like ourselves--and for thefirst time hope and relief filled my heart, until I could have criedout in the exuberance of my happiness. It is true that they were ahalf-naked, wild-appearing aggregation; but they at least werefashioned along the same lines as ourselves--there was nothinggrotesque or horrible about them as about the other creatures in thisstrange, weird world.

  But as we came closer, our hearts sank once more, for we discoveredthat the poor wretches were chained neck to neck in a long line, andthat the gorilla-men were their guards. With little ceremony Perry andI were chained at the end of the line, and without further ado theinterrupted march was resumed.

  Up to this time the excitement had kept us both up; but now thetiresome monotony of the long march across the sun-baked plain broughton all the agonies consequent to a long-denied sleep. On and on westumbled beneath that hateful noonday sun. If we fell we were proddedwith a sharp point. Our companions in chains did not stumble. Theystrode along proudly erect. Occasionally they would exchange wordswith one another in a monosyllabic language. They were anoble-appearing race with well-formed heads and perfect physiques. Themen were heavily bearded, tall and muscular; the women, smaller andmore gracefully molded, with great masses of raven hair caught intoloose knots upon their heads. The features of both sexes were wellproportioned--there was not a face among them that would have beencalled even plain if judged by earthly standards. They wore noornaments; but this I later learned was due to the fact that theircaptors had stripped them of everything of value. As garmenture thewomen possessed a single robe of some light-colored, spotted hide,rather similar in appearance to a leopard's skin. This they woreeither supported entirely about the waist by a leathern thong, so thatit hung partially below the knee on one side, or possibly loopedgracefully across one shoulder. Their feet were shod with skinsandals. The men wore loin cloths of the hide of some shaggy beast,long ends of which depended before and behind nearly to the ground. Insome instances these ends were finished with the strong talons of thebeast from which the hides had been taken.

  Our guards, whom I already have described as gorilla-like men, wererather lighter in build than a gorilla, but even so they were indeedmighty creatures. Their arms and legs were proportioned more inconformity with human standards, but their entire bodies were coveredwith shaggy, brown hair, and their faces were quite as brutal as thoseof the few stuffed specimens of the gorilla which I had seen in themuseums at home.

  Their only redeeming feature lay in the development of the head aboveand back of the ears. In this respect they were not one whit lesshuman than we. They were clothed in a sort of tunic of light clothwhich reached to the knees. Beneath this they wore only a loin clothof the same material, while their feet were shod with thick hide ofsome mammoth creature of this inner world.

  Their arms and necks were encircled by many ornaments of metal--silverpredominating--and on their tunics were sewn the heads of tiny reptilesin odd and rather artistic designs. They talked among themselves asthey marched along on either side of us, but in a language which Iperceived differed from that employed by our fellow prisoners. Whenthey addressed the latter they used what appeared to be a thirdlanguage, and which I later learned is a mongrel tongue ratheranalogous to the Pidgin-English of the Chinese coolie.

  How far we marched I have no conception, nor has Perry. Both of uswere asleep much of the time for hours before a halt was called--thenwe dropped in our tracks. I say "for hours," but how may one measuretime where time does not exist! When our march commenced the sun stoodat zenith. When we halted our shadows still pointed toward nadir.Whether an instant or an eternity of earthly time elapsed who may say.That march may have occupied nine years and eleven months of the tenyears that I spent in the inner world, or it may have been accomplishedin the fraction of a second--I cannot tell. But this I do know thatsince you have told me that ten years have elapsed since I departedfrom this earth I have lost all respect for time--I am commencing todoubt that such a thing exists other than in the weak, finite mind ofman.