My first act was to hunt up Perry; whom I found poring as usual
over the great tomes that he was supposed to be merely dusting and
rearranging upon new shelves.
As I entered the room he glanced up and nodded pleasantly to me,
only to resume his work as though I had never been away at all.
I was both astonished and hurt at his indifference. And to think
that I was risking death to return to him purely from a sense of
duty and affection!
"Why, Perry!" I exclaimed, "haven't you a word for me after my long
absence?"
"Long absence!" he repeated in evident astonishment. "What do you
mean?"
"Are you crazy, Perry? Do you mean to say that you have not missed
me since that time we were separated by the charging thag within
the arena?"
"'That time'," he repeated. "Why man, I have but just returned
from the arena! You reached here almost as soon as I. Had you
been much later I should indeed have been worried, and as it is I
had intended asking you about how you escaped the beast as soon as
I had completed the translation of this most interesting passage."
"Perry, you ARE mad," I exclaimed. "Why, the Lord only knows how
long I have been away. I have been to other lands, discovered
a new race of humans within Pellucidar, seen the Mahars at their
worship in their hidden temple, and barely escaped with my life
from them and from a great labyrinthodon that I met afterward,
following my long and tedious wanderings across an unknown world.
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