aid to us--his attitude was
of one who waits for the miracle to come to him.

At my suggestion Perry and I fashioned some swords of scraps of iron
which we discovered among some rubbish in the cells where we slept, for
we were permitted almost unrestrained freedom of action within the
limits of the building to which we had been assigned. So great were
the number of slaves who waited upon the inhabitants of Phutra that
none of us was apt to be overburdened with work, nor were our masters
unkind to us.

We hid our new weapons beneath the skins which formed our beds, and
then Perry conceived the idea of making bows and arrows--weapons
apparently unknown within Pellucidar. Next came shields; but these I
found it easier to steal from the walls of the outer guardroom of the
building.

We had completed these arrangements for our protection after leaving
Phutra when the Sagoths who had been sent to recapture the escaped
prisoners returned with four of them, of whom Hooja was one. Dian and
two others had eluded them. It so happened that Hooja was confined in
the same building with us. He told Ghak that he had not seen Dian or
the others after releasing them within the dark grotto. What had
become of them he had not the faintest conception--they might be
wandering yet, lost within the labyrinthine tunnel, if not dead from
starvation.

I was now still further apprehensive as to the fate of Dian, and at
this time, I imagine, came the first realization that my affection for
the girl might be prompted by more than friendship. During my waking
hours she was constantly the subject of my thoughts, and when I slept
her dear face haunted my dreams. More than ever was I determined to
escape the Mahars.

"Perry," I confided to the old man, "if I have to search every inch of
this diminutive world I am going to find Dian the Beautiful and right
the wrong I unintentionally did her." That was the excuse I made for
Perry's benefit.

"Diminutive world!" he scoffed. "You don't know what you are talking
about, my boy," and then he showed me a map of Pellucidar which he had
recently discovered among the manuscript he was arranging.

"Look," he cried, pointing to it, "this is evidently water, and all
this land. Do you notice the general configuration of the two areas?
Where the oceans are upon the outer crust, is land here. These
relatively small areas of ocean follow the general lines of the
continents of the outer world.

"W