area of the circumscribed vision of the dweller upon the outer

crust!

I was lost. Though I wandered ceaselessly throughout a lifetime,

I might never discover the whereabouts of my former friends of this

strange and savage world. Never again might I see dear old Perry,

nor Ghak the Hairy One, nor Dacor the Strong One, nor that other

infinitely precious one--my sweet and noble mate, Dian the Beautiful!

But even so I was glad to tread once more the surface of Pellucidar.

Mysterious and terrible, grotesque and savage though she is in many

of her aspects, I can not but love her. Her very savagery appealed

to me, for it is the savagery of unspoiled Nature.

The magnificence of her tropic beauties enthralled me. Her mighty

land areas breathed unfettered free-dom.

Her untracked oceans, whispering of virgin wonders unsullied by

the eye of man, beckoned me out upon their restless bosoms.

Not for an instant did I regret the world of my nativity. I was

in Pellucidar. I was home. And I was content.

As I stood dreaming beside the giant thing that had brought

me safely through the earth's crust, my travel-ing companion, the

hideous Mahar, emerged from the interior of the prospector and

stood beside me. For a long time she remained motionless.

What thoughts were passing through the convolutions of her reptilian

brain?

I do not know.

She was a member of the dominant race of Pel-lucidar. By a strange

freak of evolution her kind had first developed the power of reason

in that world of anomalies.

To her, creatures such as I were of a lower order. As Perry had

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