“Think of it!” he cried. “Think of that poor devil buried there in utter darkness, silence, solitude—and with those snakes! God!” he shuddered. “Snakes crawling all over him, winding about his arms and his legs and his body, creeping across his face as he sleeps, and nothing else to break the monotony—no human voice, the song of no bird, no ray of sunlight. Something must be done. He must be saved.” “But who is going to do it?” I asked. “I am!” replied Jason Gridley. * * * * * TANAR OF PELLUCIDAR Pellucidar—the hollow center of the Earth, a land of savage men and prehistoric beasts—is the scene of this exciting novel. In Pellucidar dwell the Buried People; here is the Land of Awful Shadow; here the terrible Korsars terrorize the oceans, while dinosaurs and saber-tooth tigers terrorize the lands. This is the story of Tanar, a young chieftain and the cave girl Stellara, and of their struggle for survival against a myriad dangers. This is an epic of adventure by Tarzan’s creator. * * * * * A CAVEMAN CHIEF IN THE WORLD OF THE EARTH’S CORE When the hard-won peace of the primitive Empire of Pellucidar was shattered by the invasion of the fierce Korsar sea-rovers, David Innes sent his caveman horde to battle. One of the bravest of his club-swinging warriors was Tanar the Fleet One. Despite the strange weapons of the invaders, David and his skin-clad band thrust back the Korsars and forced them to flee in their ships—but with them they took several captives including Tanar. But that bronzed Sarian was no easy prisoner to keep. The story of how he outwitted his captors, kidnapped one of their maidens, and fought to find his way home across unmapped jungles is an adventure novel worthy of Tarzan’s creator. * * * * * EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS (1875-1950) Edgar Rice Burroughs is renowned for his many novels of fantastic adventure. Unquestionably his best known creation is that of the jungle hero, Tarzan the Ape Man, but almost as well known are his stories of other planets and of Pellucidar beneath the Earth's crust. Born in Chicago in 1875, he tried his hand at many businesses without notable success, until at the age of thirty-five, he turned to writing. With the publication of Tarzan of the Apes and A Princess of Mars, his career was assured. The gratitude of a multitude of readers who found in his imagination exactly the kind of escape reading they loved assured him of a well-earned fortune. By the time of his death, in 1950, at his home in a town bearing the name of his brain child, Tarzana, California, his name was a byword in literature. Over 40,000,000 copies of his books have appeared in 58 different languages. * * * * * Transcriber’s Notes