to turn the prospector back toward Pellucidar; but, as on that other
occasion, I could not budge the thing a hair.

It is needless to recount the horrors or the monotony of that journey.
It varied but little from the former one which had brought us from the
outer to the inner world. Because of the angle at which we had entered
the ground the trip required nearly a day longer, and brought me out
here upon the sand of the Sahara instead of in the United States as I
had hoped.

For months I have been waiting here for a white man to come. I dared
not leave the prospector for fear I should never be able to find it
again--the shifting sands of the desert would soon cover it, and then
my only hope of returning to my Dian and her Pellucidar would be gone
forever.

That I ever shall see her again seems but remotely possible, for how
may I know upon what part of Pellucidar my return journey may
terminate--and how, without a north or south or an east or a west may I
hope ever to find my way across that vast world to the tiny spot where
my lost love lies grieving for me?

That is the story as David Innes told it to me in the goat-skin tent
upon the rim of the great Sahara Desert. The next day he took me out
to see the prospector--it was precisely as he had described it. So
huge was it that it could have been brought to this inaccessible part
of the world by no means of transportation that existed there--it could
only have come in the way that David Innes said it came--up through the
crust of the earth from the inner world of Pellucidar.

I spent a week with him, and then, abandoned my lion hunt, returned
directly to the coast and hurried to London where I purchased a great
quantity of stuff which he wished to take back to Pellucidar with him.
There were books, rifles, revolvers, ammunition, cameras, chemicals,
telephones, telegraph instruments, wire, tool and more books--books
upon every subject under the sun. He said he wanted a library with
which they could reproduce the wonders of the twentieth century in the
Stone Age and if quantity counts for anything I got it for him.

I took the things back to Algeria myself, and accompanied them to the
end of the railroad; but from here I was recalled to America upon
important business. However, I was able to employ a very trustworthy
man to take charge of the caravan--the same guide, in fact, who had
accompanied me on the previous trip into the Sahara--and after writing
a