Presently the light increased and a moment later, to my delight,
I came upon a flight of steps leading upward, at the top of which
the brilliant light of the noonday sun shone through an opening in
the ground.

Cautiously I crept up the stairway to the tunnel's end, and peering
out saw the broad plain of Phutra before me. The numerous lofty,
granite towers which mark the several entrances to the subterranean
city were all in front of me--behind, the plain stretched level
and unbroken to the nearby foothills. 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