I had come to the surface,
then, beyond the city, and my chances for escape seemed much
enhanced.
My first impulse was to await darkness before attempting to cross
the plain, so deeply implanted are habits of thought; but of a
sudden I recollected the perpetual noonday brilliance which envelopes
Pellucidar, and with a smile I stepped forth into the daylight.
Rank grass, waist high, grows upon the plain of Phutra--the gorgeous
flowering grass of the inner world, each particular blade of which
is tipped with a tiny, five-pointed blossom--brilliant little stars
of varying colors that twinkle in the green foliage to add still
another charm to the weird, yet lovely, landscape.
But then the only aspect which attracted me was the distant hills
in which I hoped to find sanctuary, and so I hastened on, trampling
the myriad beauties beneath my hurrying feet. Perry says that the
force of gravity is less upon the surface of the inner world than
upon that of the outer. He explained it all to me once, but I
was never particularly brilliant in such matters and so most of it
has escaped me. As I recall it the difference is due in some part
to the counter-attraction of that portion of the earth's crust
directly opposite the spot upon the face of Pellucidar at which
one's calculations are being made. Be that as it may, it always
seemed to me that I moved with greater speed and agility within
Pellucidar than upon the outer surface--there was a certain airy
lightness of step that was most pleasing, and a feeling of bodily
detachment which I can only compare with that occasionally experienced
in dreams.
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