Pellucidar

r at last I had my plans almost perfected for a return to my old stamping-grounds in north

agging hours that must pass before the beginning of “long vacation” released him to the delirio

started me for Africa twel

s ever fresh. I opened this particular letter with all the zest of pleasurable anticipation with which I had opened so many others. The post-mark (Algiers) had aroused my

ons and lion-hunting had fled my thoughts, and I w

too, do not find food for frantic conjecture,

e i

of the most remarkable coincidences in modern

on the face of the earth. I have n

ancestors lust to roam. I have combined the two a

d abiding wonder that people should be paid real money for writing such impossible trash. You will pardon my candor, but it

ies of antelope that is to be found only occasionally within a limited area

p at the edge of a little cluster of date-palms that surround an ancient well in the midst of the arid, shif

intermitte

familiar reproduces any such notes. I

ter of me. I arose, lighted my l

. The noise appeared to be coming from beneath the rug. I raise

w inches below the surface of the sand I encountered a solid

ll wooden box. From this receptacle is

it com

id it

ed that it seemed to be held fast by means of a very small

I thought better of this and fell to examining the box. I soon saw that it wa

ver, when, to my utter astonishment, I discovered an

” thought I, “is th

there didn’t seem much likelihood that this was the correct explanatio

ght, trying to convey some message which I was unable to interpret, my eyes fell upon a bit of paper lying in th

.

ing to me then.

instrument, I moved the sending-key up and down a few times.

— but time had obliterated it from my memory. I became almost frantic as I let my imagi

dire need of succor. The very franticness of the inst

less to interpret, and

flash there leaped to my mind the closing paragrap

som of the broad Sahara, at the ends of t

ed to assure me that there could be no slightest grain of truth

RE the other end

g away here in the great Sahara —

in it had I not seen

— D. I. — upon

ls were these

ere was an inner world and that these wires led downward thro

know that the instrument had been discovered. In the morning, after carefully returning the box to its hole and covering it over wi

ng you this letter I feel that

no Davi

o Dian the

world with

realm of your imagin

U

trument upon the lonely Sahara is little short of uncann

nces in modern fiction. I called it literature befor

why am I w

thomable enigma out there in the vast silences of the Sahara has so

to the south, all alone beneath the sands, it

madd

— I want you to r

that there was no basis of fact f

pectfull

ON N

d ——

gi

1st

g this letter I had cabl

e. Await

y destination. For all those dragging days my mind was a

nes had driven Perry’s iron mole back through the earth’s crust to the burie

te, safe among his friends, or had Hooja the Sly On

able old inventor and pa

ing the mighty Mahars, the dominant race of reptilian monster

d —— Club, in Algiers, and inquired for Mr. Nestor. A moment later I was ushered into his pres

. I liked him immensely from the first, and I hope that after our three months together in the desert country — three months not

ents in advance, guessing, as he naturally did, that I could be coming to Africa for but a sin

d Frank Downes. Nothing of interest enlivened our journey by rail and caravan till w

ment no sign of it remained now. Had it not been for the chance that caused Cogdon Nestor to throw down his sleeping

the other end of the line. After several days of futile endeavor to raise Pellucidar, we had begun to despair. I was as positive that the other end of that little cable pro

s. He didn’t need to be told what caused my excitement, for the instant he was awake he, t

three of us huddled about that little box as if

with his sending-key. The noise

is, Downes,”

glishman’s translation of the reply, I

es,” said Downes. “He w

t to know how he is — and all that h

I took notes. From these, arranged in chronological order, I have set down the following account of th