nts
had no fixed habits of sleep. Why, I am sure that some of the Mahars
never sleep, while others may, at long intervals, crawl into the dark
recesses beneath their dwellings and curl up in protracted slumber.
Perry says that if a Mahar stays awake for three years he will make up
all his lost sleep in a long year's snooze. That may be all true, but
I never saw but three of them asleep, and it was the sight of these
three that gave me a suggestion for our means of escape.

I had been searching about far below the levels that we slaves were
supposed to frequent--possibly fifty feet beneath the main floor of the
building--among a network of corridors and apartments, when I came
suddenly upon three Mahars curled up upon a bed of skins. At first I
thought they were dead, but later their regular breathing convinced me
of my error. Like a flash the thought came to me of the marvelous
opportunity these sleeping reptiles offered as a means of eluding the
watchfulness of our captors and the Sagoth guards.

Hastening back to Perry where he pored over a musty pile of, to me,
meaningless hieroglyphics, I explained my plan to him. To my surprise
he was horrified.

"It would be murder, David," he cried.

"Murder to kill a reptilian monster?" I asked in astonishment.

"Here they are not monsters, David," he replied. "Here they are the
dominant race--we are the 'monsters'--the lower orders. In Pellucidar
evolution has progressed along different lines than upon the outer
earth. These terrible convulsions of nature time and time again wiped
out the existing species--but for this fact some monster of the
Saurozoic epoch might rule today upon our own world. We see here what
might well have occurred in our own history had conditions been what
they have been here.

"Life within Pellucidar is far younger than upon the outer crust. Here
man has but reached a stage analogous to the Stone Age of our own
world's history, but for countless millions of years these reptiles
have been progressing. Possibly it is the sixth sense which I am sure
they possess that has given them an advantage over the other and more
frightfully armed of their fellows; but this we may never know. They
look upon us as we look upon the beasts of our fields, and I learn from
their written records that other races of Mahars feed upon men--they
keep them in great droves, as we keep cattle. They breed them most
carefully, and when they are quite fat, they ki