ld.

"We know that the crust of the globe is 500 miles in thickness; then
the inside diameter of Pellucidar must be 7,000 miles, and the
superficial area 165,480,000 square miles. Three-fourths of this is
land. Think of it! A land area of 124,110,000 square miles! Our own
world contains but 53,000,000 square miles of land, the balance of its
surface being covered by water. Just as we often compare nations by
their relative land areas, so if we compare these two worlds in the
same way we have the strange anomaly of a larger world within a smaller
one!

"Where within vast Pellucidar would you search for your Dian? Without
stars, or moon, or changing sun how could you find her even though you
knew where she might be found?"

The proposition was a corker. It quite took my breath away; but I
found that it left me all the more determined to attempt it.

"If Ghak will accompany us we may be able to do it," I suggested.

Perry and I sought him out and put the question straight to him.

"Ghak," I said, "we are determined to escape from this bondage. Will
you accompany us?"

"They will set the thipdars upon us," he said, "and then we shall be
killed; but--" he hesitated--"I would take the chance if I thought that
I might possibly escape and return to my own people."

"Could you find your way back to your own land?" asked Perry. "And
could you aid David in his search for Dian?"

"Yes."

"But how," persisted Perry, "could you travel to strange country
without heavenly bodies or a compass to guide you?"

Ghak didn't know what Perry meant by heavenly bodies or a compass, but
he assured us that you might blindfold any man of Pellucidar and carry
him to the farthermost corner of the world, yet he would be able to
come directly to his own home again by the shortest route. He seemed
surprised to think that we found anything wonderful in it. Perry said
it must be some sort of homing instinct such as is possessed by certain
breeds of earthly pigeons. I didn't know, of course, but it gave me an
idea.

"Then Dian could have found her way directly to her own people?" I
asked.

"Surely," replied Ghak, "unless some mighty beast of prey killed her."

I was for making the attempted escape at once, but both Perry and Ghak
counseled waiting for some propitious accident which would insure us
some small degree of success. I didn't see what accident could befall
a whole community in a land of perpetual day-light where th