Chapter 3

“You slept very long,” her thought continued, “and I considered these
things, after my own method. I first collected in my mind all that I
have known of the Dwellers from the beginning, and of the things you
have told me. I added that which I know of your own character and
capacities. From these facts I endeavored to deduce a method by which
we could succeed in our objects, if we be not already too late. I made
little progress, for the facts are few and insufficient. But I made
progress to this extent, that I realized that we are supposing some
things which we do not know.

“In particular, you have shown me your mind, and I have seen that you
visualize an end to these tunnels which opens into a hall, a chamber,
or a large passage, or at least some public space, populated by the
Dwellers, and where concealment for ourselves would be difficult, if
not impossible. Your imagination may be correct, and it is a
possibility for which we must be prepared. But in your mind it is less
a possibility than an expectation, for which there is no sufficient
ground whatever. Yet you had imagined it so confidently that I had
difficulty in separating it from the facts you had shown me.

“I thought of this very long, and I see that your life is so brief, and
so confusingly occupied, that you are obliged to proceed through a
labyrinth of assumptions by which you hope to reach the thing you wish
more rapidly than would otherwise be possible. But in this case, I
cannot see that the assumption has any basis of probability.

“I know, from what you have shown me already, that you come of a race
which has lived only on the earth’s surface, and any cave or tunnel by
which you enter it implies the approach to a confined and narrow space,
so that when you attempt to visualize the condition of a race which
lives under the surface, your imagination is of a cave, and not of a
country.

“Now if the interior of the earth be completely solid, or nearly so,
this imagination may be quite accurate. But is it? Neither of us
knows. We do know from your own experience that the tunnels go down
for many miles, though we do not know their ultimate depth. That
suggests that there must be some reason for so deep a penetration. To
make such tunnels must have been a great labor. To descend and ascend
them continually must be an unceasing toil. There must be some
compensating advantage in the depth which is reached. The hollowness
of the interior would supply it. But there might be quite different
reasons. We know that there are areas of great heat that lie closely
under the surface. There are parts of the ocean floor where this heat
causes eruptions. Such areas may be of great extent. They may render
it difficult or impossible to live under the surface till a greater
depth is reached. True, the tunnels must penetrate this region, on
this supposition, and it must therefore have been found possible to
render them heat-proof.

“We have one other fact. The Dwellers reach the surface at very
distant points. But this has no certain significance.”

I answered, “I see the point you make, and I agree that I was inclined
to a too-hasty assumption. Also, it enters my mind that if the earth
be indeed hollow at a depth of a few hundred miles, and an inner
surface be land only, it must be of far greater extent, not merely than
this continent, but than the whole of the solid land of the earth’s
surface as I knew it, and as it appears to be today. It is also
possible to imagine tiers of hollowed space in which such areas might
be many times repeated, but the artificial creation of such tiers would
require an amount of labor which appears stupendous and the dumping on
the earth’s surface of excavated material to an incredible volume.”

She responded, “All that you think appears reasonable, and part is new
to my mind. It would help us greatly if we knew whether the Dwellers
are a numerous race, but of this I am able to tell you little.

“Before the time of the Great War, we believe that they dwelt on the
surface only, or, at least, until a comparatively short period before
it. Up to that time, for reasons into which I must not now enter,
being irrelevant, we knew little of them, or they of us. That was
about eleven thousand years ago.

“We know that they are bisexual, like the race from which you come. We
suspect that their bodies age and decay, and are replaced by others,
but of this we have no certain knowledge.

“In all the time I mention I cannot recall having seen more than two
hundred of their men and three of their women. We do not suppose that
they exist in these proportions. Our observation of the sea-creatures
is that they cannot dwell in peace together unless their females are at
least equally numerous, but we have seen those only who first
negotiated the treaty with our Leaders, of which you have been told,
and such as have been in attendance at the fish-tanks. Of these I
mention, I cannot recall that more than thirty have been seen at any
one period. As the centuries have passed, there has been a gradual
change. But this might only mean that they have exchanged to other
duties. I have never seen one that showed signs of age, nor that was
less than full-grown. The eight which we saw last night I had not seen
previously.”

I answered, “But, even in the absence of more direct evidence, the
works which we have seen suggest that they are a numerous race.

“The protective belt which surrounds the continent cannot be less than
five thousand miles in length, and it was twelve miles in breadth at
the point at which we crossed it. Even for giants such as they, it
would be an impossible task for a small community. Then we see that
they patrol the coast, which must be the work of many.”

She replied, “That is also probable, though not certain. We do not
know that they patrol the whole coast. This region may be their
headquarters, as I believe it to be. The work you mention is great,
but so are their skill and knowledge. Their methods may be beyond our
imagination. Or they may have worked through the agency of subject
creatures.

“It seems that we have little certainty. Our safety must be in
assuming nothing, so that we may understand the true significance of
the facts that meet us.

“But our first purpose must be to gain the entrance of the tunnel by
which we propose to descend. To do this we may retrace the path we
came. But is this necessary?

“Our Leaders wished to recover the body which we are now seeking, and
for that reason they had to go as far north as the second tunnel.