At the Earth’s Core quotes

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.

She looked at me in surprise.

“Why does a woman run away from a man?” she answered my question with another.

“They do not, where I come from,” I replied. “Sometimes they run after them.”

“Why does a woman run away from a man?” she answered my question with another.

“They do not, where I come from,” I replied. “Sometimes they run after them.”

But she could not understand. Nor could I get her to grasp the fact that I was of another world.

“Man of another world,” he said, “I believe you.

Lips may lie, but when the heart speaks through the eyes it tells only the truth.

Your heart has spoken to me. I know now that you meant no affront to Dian the Beautiful. She is not of my tribe; but her mother is my sister.

They beat their great wings up and down, and smote their rocky perches with their mighty tails until the ground shook. Then the band started another piece, and all was again as silent as the grave.

That was one great beauty about Mahar music⁠—if you didn’t happen to like a piece that was being played all you had to do was shut your eyes.

When the band had exhausted its repertory it took wing and settled upon the rocks above and behind the queen. Then the business of the day was on. A man and woman were pushed into the arena by a couple of Sagoth guardsmen.

The case looked more and more hopeless the longer I viewed it, yet with a stubborn persistency I forged ahead toward the foothills. Behind me no sign of pursuit developed, before me I saw no living thing.

It was as though I moved through a dead and forgotten world.

I have no idea, of course, how long it took me to reach the limit of the plain, but at last I entered the foothills, following a pretty little canyon upward toward the mountains.

The poor slaves upon the diminutive islands watched the horrid creatures with wide eyes. The men, for the most part, stood erect and stately with folded arms, awaiting their doom; but the women and children clung to one another, hiding behind the males.

They are a noble-looking race, these cave men of Pellucidar, and if our progenitors were as they, the human race of the outer crust has deteriorated rather than improved with the march of the ages. All they lack is opportunity. We have opportunity, and little else.

Now the queen moved. She raised her ugly head, looking about; then very slowly she crawled to the edge of her throne and slid noiselessly into the water.

I did not. I thought of a beautiful oval face, gazing out of limpid eyes, through a waving mass of jet-black hair.

I thought of red, red lips, God-made for kissing.

And of a sudden, apropos of nothing, standing there alone in the secret chamber of the Mahars of Pellucidar, I realized that I loved Dian the Beautiful.

She looked straight into my eyes.

“I hate you,” she said, and then, as I was about to beg for a fair hearing she pointed over my shoulder.

“The thipdar comes,” she said, and I turned again to meet the reptile.

I am not your mate, and again I tell you that I hate you, and that I should be glad if I never saw you again.”

Dian certainly was candid.

There was no gainsaying that. In fact I found candor and directness to be quite a marked characteristic of the cave men of Pellucidar.

As I came out she moved to one side to let me pass, but she had no word for me. I wanted to hate her, but I couldn’t. Every time I looked at her something came up in my throat, so that I nearly choked.

I had never been in love before, but I did not need any aid in diagnosing my case⁠—I certainly had it and had it bad.

God, how I loved that beautiful, disdainful, tantalizing, prehistoric girl!

“It is probable,” she said, “that they all will want revenge for the death of Jubal—there are seven of them—seven terrible men. Someone may have to kill them all, if I am to return to my people.”

It began to look as though I had assumed a contract much too large for me⁠—about seven sizes, in fact.

“Had Jubal any cousins?” I asked. It was just as well to know the worst at once.

“But I have told you right along that I love you,” I said.

“Love speaks in acts,” she replied.

“You could have made your mouth say what you wished it to say, but just now when you came and took me in your arms your heart spoke to mine in the language that a woman’s heart understands. What a silly man you are, David.”

She smiled, and hid her face on my shoulder.

“I had to tell you something, David,” she whispered. “I must needs have some excuse for remaining near you.”

“You little sinner!” I exclaimed. “And you have caused me all this anguish for nothing!”

I explained the various destructive engines of war which Perry and I could construct after a little experimentation—gunpowder, rifles, cannon, and the like, and Dian would clap her hands, and throw her arms about my neck, and tell me what a wonderful thing I was.

She was beginning to think that I was omnipotent although I really hadn’t done anything but talk⁠—but that is the way with women when they love.

Perry used to say that if a fellow was one-tenth as remarkable as his wife or mother thought him, he would have the world by the tail with a downhill drag.

She was beginning to think that I was omnipotent although I really hadn’t done anything but talk—but that is the way with women when they love.

Perry used to say that if a fellow was one-tenth as remarkable as his wife or mother thought him, he would have the world by the tail with a downhill drag.

The first time we started for Sari I stepped into a nest of poisonous vipers before we reached the valley. A little fellow stung me on the ankle, and Dian made me come back to the cave.