the people busy in the shipyards and the factories that Perry had

established. I discovered something, too, that he had not told

me of--something that seemed infinitely more promising than the

powder-factory or the arsenal. It was a young man poring over

one of the books I had brought back from the outer world! He was

sitting in the log cabin that Perry had had built to serve as his

sleeping quarters and office. So absorbed was he that he did not

notice our entrance. Perry saw the look of as-tonishment in my

eyes and smiled.

"I started teaching him the alphabet when we first reached the

prospector, and were taking out its con-tents," he explained. "He

was much mystified by the books and anxious to know of what use

they were. When I explained he asked me to teach him to read, and

so I worked with him whenever I could. He is very in-telligent and

learns quickly. Before I left he had made great progress, and as

soon as he is qualified he is going to teach others to read. It

was mighty hard work getting started, though, for everything had

to be translated into Pellucidarian.

"It will take a long time to solve this problem, but I think that

by teaching a number of them to read and write English we shall

then be able more quickly to give them a written language of their

own."

And this was the nucleus about which we were to build our great

system of schools and colleges--this almost naked red warrior,

sitting in Perry's little cabin upon the island of Anoroc, picking

out words letter by letter from a work on intensive farming. Now

we have--

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