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    At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
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    At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

    By Edgar Rice Burroughs

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    This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs’.

    Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Burroughs includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

    eBook features:
    * The complete unabridged text of ‘At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’
    * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Burroughs’s works
    * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
    * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPublishdrive
    Release dateJul 17, 2017
    ISBN9781788775564
    At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    Author

    Edgar Rice Burroughs

    Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) is the creator of Tarzan, one of the most popular fictional characters of all time, and John Carter, hero of the Barsoom science fiction series. Burroughs was a prolific author, writing almost 70 books before his death in 1950, and was one of the first authors to popularize a character across multiple media, as he did with Tarzan’s appearance in comic strips, movies, and merchandise. Residing in Hawaii at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, Burroughs was drawn into the Second World War and became one of the oldest war correspondents at the time. Edgar Rice Burroughs’s popularity continues to be memorialized through the community of Tarzana, California, which is named after the ranch he owned in the area, and through the Burrough crater on Mars, which was named in his honour.

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      Book preview

      At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) - Edgar Rice Burroughs

      The Complete Works of

      EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

      VOLUME 36 OF 73

      At the Earth’s Core

      Parts Edition

      By Delphi Classics, 2014

      Version 1

      COPYRIGHT

      ‘At the Earth’s Core’

      Edgar Rice Burroughs: Parts Edition (in 73 parts)

      First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

      © Delphi Classics, 2017.

      All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

      ISBN: 978 1 78877 556 4

      Delphi Classics

      is an imprint of

      Delphi Publishing Ltd

      Hastings, East Sussex

      United Kingdom

      Contact: sales@delphiclassics.com

      www.delphiclassics.com

      Edgar Rice Burroughs: Parts Edition

      This eBook is Part 36 of the Delphi Classics edition of Edgar Rice Burroughs in 73 Parts. It features the unabridged text of At the Earth’s Core from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

      Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Edgar Rice Burroughs or the Complete Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs in a single eBook.

      Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

      EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

      IN 73 VOLUMES

      Parts Edition Contents

      The Tarzan Series

      1, Tarzan of the Apes

      2, The Return of Tarzan

      3, The Beasts of Tarzan

      4, The Son of Tarzan

      5, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

      6, Jungle Tales of Tarzan

      7, Tarzan the Untamed

      8, Tarzan the Terrible

      9, Tarzan and the Golden Lion

      10, Tarzan and the Ant Men

      11, Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins

      12, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle

      13, Tarzan and the Lost Empire

      14, Tarzan at the Earth’s Core

      15, Tarzan the Invincible

      16, Tarzan and the City of Gold

      17, Tarzan and the Lion Man

      18, Tarzan and the Leopard Men

      19, Tarzan’s Quest

      20, Tarzan the Magnificent

      21, Tarzan and the Forbidden City

      22, Tarzan and the Castaways

      23, Tarzan and the Foreign Legion

      The Barsoom Series

      24, A Princess of Mars

      25, The Gods of Mars

      26, The Warlord of Mars

      27, Thuvia, Maid of Mars

      28, The Chessmen of Mars

      29, The Master Mind of Mars

      30, A Fighting Man of Mars

      31, Swords of Mars

      32, Synthetic Men of Mars

      33, Llana of Gathol

      34, John Carter and the Giant of Mars

      35, Skeleton Men of Jupiter

      The Pellucidar Series

      36, At the Earth’s Core

      37, Pellucidar

      38, Tanar of Pellucidar

      39, Back to the Stone Age

      40, Savage Pellucidar

      41, Land of Terror

      The Mucker Series

      42, The Mucker

      43, The Return of the Mucker

      44, The Oakdale Affair

      The Jungle Adventures

      45, The Cave Girl

      46, The Eternal Lover

      47, Jungle Girl

      48, The Lad and the Lion

      The Caspak Series

      49, The Land that Time Forgot

      50, The People that Time Forgot

      51, Out of Time’s Abyss

      The Moon Series

      52, Part I: The Moon Maid

      53, Part II: The Moon Men

      54, Part  III: The Red Hawk

      The Western Novels

      55, The Bandit of Hell’s Bend

      56, The War Chief

      57, Apache Devil

      58, The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County

      The Venus Series

      59, Pirates of Venus

      60, Lost on Venus

      61, Carson of Venus

      62, Escape on Venus

      The Other Novels

      63, The Lost Continent

      64, The Girl from Farris’s

      65, H. R. H. the Rider

      66, The Efficiency Expert

      67, The Girl from Hollywood

      68, The Mad King

      69, The Outlaw of Torn

      70, The Monster Men

      71, The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw

      72, Beyond the Farthest Star

      Contextual Pieces

      73, Reviews and Articles

      www.delphiclassics.com

      At the Earth’s Core

      CONTENTS

      PROLOGUE

      I. TOWARD THE ETERNAL FIRES

      II. A STRANGE WORLD

      III. A CHANGE OF MASTERS

      IV. DIAN THE BEAUTIFUL

      V. SLAVES

      VI. THE BEGINNING OF HORROR

      VII. FREEDOM

      VIII. THE MAHAR TEMPLE

      IX. THE FACE OF DEATH

      X. PHUTRA AGAIN

      XI. FOUR DEAD MAHARS

      XII. PURSUIT

      XIII. THE SLY ONE

      XIV. THE GARDEN OF EDEN

      XV. BACK TO EARTH

      PROLOGUE

      In the first place please bear in mind that I do not expect you to believe this story. Nor could you wonder had you witnessed a recent experience of mine when, in the armor of blissful and stupendous ignorance, I gaily narrated the gist of it to a Fellow of the Royal Geological Society on the occasion of my last trip to London.

      You would surely have thought that I had been detected in no less a heinous crime than the purloining of the Crown Jewels from the Tower, or putting poison in the coffee of His Majesty the King.

      The erudite gentleman in whom I confided congealed before I was half through! — it is all that saved him from exploding — and my dreams of an Honorary Fellowship, gold medals, and a niche in the Hall of Fame faded into the thin, cold air of his arctic atmosphere.

      But I believe the story, and so would you, and so would the learned Fellow of the Royal Geological Society, had you and he heard it from the lips of the man who told it to me. Had you seen, as I did, the fire of truth in those gray eyes; had you felt the ring of sincerity in that quiet voice; had you realized the pathos of it all — you, too, would believe. You would not have needed the final ocular proof that I had — the weird rhamphorhynchus-like creature which he had brought back with him from the inner world.

      I came upon him quite suddenly, and no less unexpectedly, upon the rim of the great Sahara Desert. He was standing before a goat-skin tent amidst a clump of date palms within a tiny oasis. Close by was an Arab douar of some eight or ten tents.

      I had come down from the north to hunt lion. My party consisted of a dozen children of the desert — I was the only white man. As we approached the little clump of verdure I saw the man come from his tent and with hand-shaded eyes peer intently at us. At sight of me he advanced rapidly to meet us.

      A white man! he cried. May the good Lord be praised! I have been watching you for hours, hoping against hope that THIS time there would be a white man. Tell me the date. What year is it?

      And when I had told him he staggered as though he had been struck full in the face, so that he was compelled to grasp my stirrup leather for support.

      It cannot be! he cried after a moment. It cannot be! Tell me that you are mistaken, or that you are but joking.

      I am telling you the truth, my friend, I replied. Why should I deceive a stranger, or attempt to, in so simple a matter as the date?

      For some time he stood in silence, with bowed head.

      Ten years! he murmured, at last. Ten years, and I thought that at the most it could be scarce more than one! That night he told me his story — the story that I give you here as nearly in his own words as I can recall them.

      I. TOWARD THE ETERNAL FIRES

      I was born in Connecticut about thirty years ago. My name is David Innes. My father was a wealthy mine owner. When I was nineteen he died. All his property was to be mine when I had attained my majority — provided that I had devoted the two years intervening in close application to the great business I was to inherit.

      I did my best to fulfil the last wishes of my parent — not because of the inheritance, but because I loved and honored my father. For six months I toiled in the mines and in the counting-rooms, for I wished to know every minute detail of the business.

      Then Perry interested me in his invention. He was an old fellow who had devoted the better part of a long life to the perfection of a mechanical subterranean prospector. As relaxation he studied paleontology. I looked over his plans, listened to his arguments, inspected his working model — and then, convinced, I advanced the funds necessary to construct a full-sized, practical prospector.

      I shall not go into the details of its construction — it lies out there in the desert now — about two miles from here. Tomorrow you may care to ride out and see it. Roughly, it is a steel cylinder a hundred feet long, and jointed so that it may turn and twist through solid rock if need be. At one end is a mighty revolving drill operated by an engine which Perry said generated more power to the cubic inch than any other engine did to the cubic foot. I remember that he used to claim that that invention alone would make us fabulously wealthy — we were going to make the whole thing public after the successful issue of our first secret trial — but Perry never returned from that trial trip, and I only after ten years.

      I recall as it were but yesterday the night of that momentous occasion upon which we were to test the practicality of that wondrous invention. It was near midnight when we repaired to the lofty tower in which Perry had constructed his iron mole as he was wont to call the thing. The great nose rested upon the bare earth of the floor. We passed through the doors into the outer jacket, secured them, and then passing on into the cabin, which contained the controlling mechanism within the inner tube, switched on the electric lights.

      Perry looked to his generator; to the great tanks that held the life-giving chemicals with which he was to manufacture fresh air to replace that which we consumed in breathing; to his instruments for recording temperatures, speed, distance, and for examining the materials through which we were to pass.

      He tested the steering device, and overlooked the mighty cogs which transmitted its marvelous velocity to the giant drill at the nose of his strange craft.

      Our seats, into which we strapped ourselves, were so arranged upon transverse bars that we would be upright whether the craft were ploughing her way downward into the bowels of the earth, or running horizontally along some great seam of coal, or rising vertically toward the surface again.

      At length all was ready. Perry bowed his head in prayer. For a moment we were silent, and then the old man’s hand grasped the starting lever. There was a frightful roaring beneath us — the giant frame trembled and vibrated — there was a rush of sound as the loose earth passed up through the hollow space between the inner and outer jackets to be deposited in our wake. We were off!

      The noise was deafening. The sensation was frightful. For a full minute neither of us could do aught but cling with the proverbial desperation of the drowning man to the handrails of our swinging seats. Then Perry glanced at the thermometer.

      Gad! he cried, it cannot be possible — quick! What does the distance meter read?

      That and the speedometer were both on my side of the cabin, and as I turned to take a reading from the former I could see Perry muttering.

      Ten degrees rise — it cannot be possible! and then I saw him tug frantically upon the steering wheel.

      As I finally found the tiny needle in the dim light I translated Perry’s evident excitement, and my heart sank within me. But when I spoke I hid the fear which haunted me. It will be seven hundred feet, Perry, I said, by the time you can turn her into the horizontal.

      You’d better lend me a hand then, my boy, he replied, for I cannot budge her out of the vertical alone. God give that our combined strength may be equal to the task, for else we are lost.

      I wormed my way to the old man’s side with never a doubt but that the great wheel would yield on the instant to the power of my young and vigorous muscles. Nor was my belief mere vanity, for always had my physique been the envy and despair of my fellows. And for that very reason it had waxed even greater than nature had intended, since my natural pride in my great strength had led me to care for and develop my body and my muscles by every means within my power. What with boxing, football, and baseball, I had been in training since childhood.

      And so it was with the utmost confidence that I laid hold of the huge iron rim; but though I threw every ounce of my strength into it, my best effort was as unavailing as Perry’s had been — the thing would not budge — the grim, insensate, horrible thing that was holding us upon the straight road to death!

      At length I gave up the useless struggle, and without a word returned to my seat. There was no need for words — at least none that I could imagine, unless Perry desired to pray. And I was quite sure that he would, for he never left an opportunity neglected where he might sandwich in a prayer. He prayed when he arose in the morning, he prayed before he ate, he prayed when he had finished eating, and before he went to bed at night he prayed again. In between he often found excuses to pray even when the provocation seemed far-fetched to my worldly eyes — now that he was about to die I felt positive that I should witness a perfect orgy of prayer — if one may allude with such a simile to so solemn an act.

      But to my astonishment I discovered that with death staring him in the face Abner Perry was transformed into a new being. From his lips there flowed — not prayer — but a clear and limpid stream of undiluted profanity, and it was all directed at that quietly stubborn piece of unyielding mechanism.

      I should think, Perry, I chided, that a man of your professed religiousness would rather be at his prayers than cursing in the presence of imminent death.

      Death! he cried. "Death is it that appalls you? That is nothing by comparison with the loss the world must suffer. Why, David within this iron cylinder we have demonstrated possibilities that science has scarce dreamed. We have harnessed a new principle, and with it animated a piece of steel

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