our prisoners would be increased by one.'
As Tanar arose to his feet, after his bonds were severed, he was pushed roughly toward the other inmates of the room, who, he soon was to discover, were prisoners, like himself, and quite naturally the first to approach him was the other human captive.
'Another,' said the stranger. 'Our numbers increase but slowly, yet each one brings us closer to our inevitable doom and so I do not know whether I am sorry to see you here or glad because of the human company that I shall now have. I have eaten and slept many times since I was thrown into this accursed place and always nothing but these hideous, mumbling things for company. God, how I hate and loathe them, yet they are in the same predicament as we for they, too, are doomed to the same fate.'
'And what may that be?' asked Tanar.
'You do not know?'
'I may only guess,' replied the Sarian.
'These creatures seldom get flesh with warm blood in it. They subsist mostly upon the fish in their underground rivers and upon the toads and lizards that inhabit their caves. Their expeditions to the surface ordinarily yield nothing more than the carcasses of dead beasts, yet they crave flesh and warm blood. Heretofore they had killed their condemned prisoners one by one as they were available, but this plan gave only a mouthful of flesh to a very few Coripies. Recently Xax hit upon the plan of preserving his own condemned and the prisoners from the outer world until he had accumulated a sufficient number to feast the entire population of the cavern of which he is chief. I do not know how many that will be, but steadily the numbers grow and perhaps it will not be long now before there are enough of us to fill the bellies of Xax's tribe.'
'Xax!' repeated Tanar. 'Was he the creature sitting in the niche in the great cavern to which I was first taken?'
'That was Xax. He is ruler of that cavern. In the underground world of the Buried People there are many tribes, each of which occupies a large cavern similar to that in which you saw Xax. These tribes are not always friendly and the most of the prisoners that you see in this cavern are members of other tribes, though there are a few from the tribe of Xax who have been condemned to death for one reason or another.'
'And there is no escape?' asked Tanar.
'None,' replied the other. 'Absolutely none; but tell me who are you and from what country? I cannot believe that you are a native of Amiocap, for what Amiocapian is there who would need ask questions about the Buried People?'
'I am not of Amiocap,' replied Tanar. 'I am from Sari, upon the far distant mainland.'
'Sari! I never heard of such a country,' said the other. 'What is your name?'
'Tanar, and yours?'
'I am Jude of Hime,' replied the man. 'Hime is an island not far from Amiocap. Perhaps you have heard of it.'
'No,' said Tanar.
'I was fishing in my canoe, off the coast of Hime,' continued Jude, 'when a great storm arose which blew me across the waters and hurled me upon the coast of Amiocap . I had gone into the forest to hunt for food when three of these creatures fell upon me and dragged me into their underworld.'
'And you think that there is no escape?' demanded
Tanar.
'None—absolutely none,' replied Jude.
VIII MOW
IMPRISONMENT in the dark, illy lighted, poorly ventilated cavern weighed heavily upon Tanar of Pellucidar, and he knew that it was long for he had eaten and slept many times and though other Coripi prisoners were brought from time to time there seemed not to be enough to satisfy Xax's bloody craving for flesh.
Tanar had been glad of the companionship of Jude, though he never thoroughly understood the man, whose sour and unhappy disposition was so unlike his own. Jude apparently hated and mistrusted everyone, for even in speaking of the people of his own island he mentioned no one except in terms of bitterness and hatred, but this attitude Tanar generously attributed to the effect upon the mind of the Himean of his long and terrible incarceration among the creatures of the underworld, an experience which he was fully convinced might easily affect and unbalance a weak mind.
Even in the breasts of some of the Coripi prisoners Tanar managed to arouse sentiments somewhat analogous to friendship.
Among the latter was a young Coripi named Mow from the grotto of Ictl, who hated all the Coripies from the grotto of Xax and seemed suspicious of those from other grottoes.
Though the creatures seemed endowed with few human attributes or characteristics, yet it was apparent to Tanar that they set a certain value upon companionship, and being denied this among the creatures of his own kind Mow gradually turned to Tanar, whose courageous and happy spirit had not been entirely dampened by his lot.
Jude would have nothing to do with Mow or any other of the Coripies and he reproached Tanar for treating them in a friendly manner.
'We are all prisoners together,' Tanar reminded him, 'and they will suffer the same fate as we. It will neither lessen our danger nor add to our peace of mind to quarrel with our fellow prisoners, and I, for my part, find it interesting to talk with them about this strange world which they inhabit.'
And, indeed, Tanar had learned many interesting things about the Coripies. Through his association with Mow he had discovered that the creatures were color blind, seeing everything in blacks and whites and grays through the skin that covered their great eyeballs. He learned also that owing to the restricted amount of food at their command it had been necessary to restrict their number, and to this end it had become customary to destroy women who gave birth to too many children, the third child being equivalent to a death sentence for the mother.
He learned also that among these unhappy Coripies there were no diversions and no aim in life other than eating. So eager and unvaried was their diet of fish and toads and lizards that the promise of warm flesh was the only great event in the tiresome monotony of their deadly existence.
Although Mow had no words for love and no conception of its significance, Tanar was able to gather from his remarks that this sentiment did not exist among the Buried People. A mother looked upon each child as a threat to her existence and a prophecy of death, with the result that she loathed children from birth; nor is this strange when the fact is considered that the men chose as the mothers of their children the women whom they particularly loathed and hated, since the custom of destroying a woman who had borne three children deterred them from mating with any female for whom they might have entertained any degree of liking.
When not hunting or fishing the creatures squatted around upon their haunches staring stupidly and sullenly at the floor of their cavern.
'I should think,' said Tanar to Mow, 'that, confronted by such a life, you would welcome death in any form.' The Coripi shook his head. 'I do not want to die,' He said.
'Why?' demanded Tanar.
'I do not know,' replied Mow. 'I simply wish to live.'
'Then I take it that you would like to escape from this cavern, if you could,' suggested Tanar.
'Of course I should like to escape,' said Mow, 'but if I try to escape and they catch me they will kill me.'
'They are going to kill you anyway,' Tanar reminded him.
'Yes, I never thought of that,' said Mow. 'That is quite true; they are going to kill me anyhow.'
'Could you escape?' asked Tanar.
'I could if I had someone to help me,' said Mow.
'This cavern is filled with men who will help you,' said Tanar.
'The Coripies from the grotto of Xax will not help me,' said Mow, 'because if they escape there is no place where they may go in safety. If Xax recaptures them they will be killed, and the same is true if the ruler of any other grotto captures them.'
