Plot Summary
David Innes and his inventor friend, Abner Perry, set out on a trial run in Perry's invention, the iron mole, with hopes of locating new beds of anthracite coal. Once in motion, however, they are unable to change the prospector's course and travel five hundred miles towards the center of the Earth. Expecting to meet eternal fires, the two instead emerge into a new world. Attacked by a dyryth, carried off by apemen, and then captured by Sagoths, the gorilla-like servants of the Mahars, their weird adventures are nonstop. On the Sagoth slave march, David meets Dian the Beautiful One, Ghak the Hairy One and ruler of Sari, and Hooja the Sly One. David offends Dian through a misunderstanding while defending her from Hooja. Hooja then kidnaps Dian and escapes. David, Ghak, and Perry are taken to the Mahar city of Phutra. The reptilian Mahars are the superior race of Pellucidar. Maleless, they reproduce through artificial means. The Mahars recapture Hooja but Dian is not with him and is apparently still free. David escapes Phutra and rescues Ja, the Mezop and ruler of Anoroc, from a sea serpent. David visits Ja's island and secretly observes atrocities in a Mahar temple. David leaves the island and is attacked by a sithic. Ja saves him and David returns to Phutra to rescue Perry and Ghak. Disguised in Mahar skins, David, Abner, Ghak, and Hooja escape Phutra, stealing the Great Secret of the Mahars, without which, the race is doomed to eventual extinction for The Secret contains the methods for their reproduction. A band of Sagoths pursue the group but are wiped out by a ryth. David becomes lost in the canyons but then locates and saves Dian from a thipdar. David takes Dian for his mate. Later, they meet Dacor and his Thorian mate and make plans for an alliance between Amoz and Sari to annihilate the Mahars and Sagoths. The four journey to Sari where David is rejoined with Abner and Ghak. An alliance is formed and David becomes emperor of Pellucidar. The first battle against the Sagoths and Mahars is fought and won . David and Dian decide to return to the outer world to obtain books by which they can bring that world's technology and advancements to Pellucidar. Hooja steels Dian away at the last moment, substituting a Mahar in her place, and sets David off in the prospector at a wrong angle. David surfaces in the Sahara Desert where he tells this story to the author. ERB sends him supplies, books, and 500 miles of wire to establish a telegraph line to Pellucidar. It is unclear if Innes returns to Pellucidar or is murdered by Arabs.

--von Horst
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