Edgar Rice Burroughs

Pellucidar Edgar Rice Burroughs

We made camp there beside the peaceful river. There Perry told me all that had befallen himsince I had departed for the outer crust. It seemed that Hooja had made it appear that I had intentionally left Dian behind, and that I didnot purpose ever returning to Pellucidar. He told them that I was of another world and that I hadtired of this and of its inhabitants. To Dian he had explained that I had a mate in the world to which I was returning; that I hadnever intended taking Dian the Beautiful back with me; and that she had seen the last of me. Shortly afterward Dian had disappeared from the camp, nor had Perry seen or heard aught ofher since. He had no conception of the time that had elapsed since I had departed, but guessed that manyyears had dragged their slow way into the past. Hooja, too, had disappeared very soon after Dian had left. The Sarians, under Ghak the HairyOne, and the Amozites under Dacor the Strong One, Dian's brother, had fallen out over mysupposed defection, for Ghak would not believe that I had thus treacherously deceived and desertedthem. The result had been that these two powerful tribes had fallen upon one another with the newweapons that Perry and I had taught them to make and to use. Other tribes of the new federationtook sides with the original disputants or set up petty revolutions of their own. The result was the total demolition of the work we had so well started. Taking advantage of the tribal war, the Mahars had gathered their Sagoths in force and fallenupon one tribe after another in rapid succession, wreaking awful havoc among them and reducingthem for the most part to as pitiable a state of terror as that from which we had raised them.