Authors: George England
"Master!" said Zangamon, arising and coming toward him.
"Well, what is it now?"
"You are wounded, O Kromno! Your arm still bleeds. Let us bind it."
"It is nothing—only a scratch!"
But Zangamon insisted.
"Master," said he, "in this we cannot obey you. See? While you and the
woman talked I fetched water, as you commanded. Now I must wash your
hurts and bind them."
Allan had to accede. Together the two Merucaans examined the injuries
with words of commiseration. The "scratch" turned out to be three
severe lacerations of the forearm. The gorilla's teeth had missed the
radial artery only by a fluke of fortune.
They bathed away the clotted blood and bandaged the arm not
unskilfully. Allan pressed the hand of Zangamon, then that of his
companion.
"No thanks of mine can tell you what I feel!" he exclaimed straight
from the heart. "Only for you to guide me, to drive the man-brute, to
strike it down when it was just about to throttle me—only for you,
both
she
and
I
—"
He could not finish. The words choked him. He felt, as never before, a
sudden, warm, human touch of kinship with the Merucaans—a strong,
nascent affection. Till now they had been savages to him—inferiors.
Now he perceived their inner worth—the strong and manly stamina of
soul and body; and through him thrilled a love for these strange men,
his saviors and the girl's.
Once more he seemed to see a vision of the future—a world peopled by
the descendants of this hardy and resourceful folk, "without disease
of flesh or brain, shapely and fair, the married harmony of form and
function"—and, as with a gesture, he dismissed them wondering, not
understanding in the least why he should thank them, he knew the world
already had begun once more to come back under the hand, under the
strong control of man.
"Sleep now, master," Bremilu entreated. "We who are new to this
strange world will sit outside the door upon the rock and watch those
fires so far above that you call stars. And the big sun-fire that is
coming, too—we would see that!"
"No, not yet!" Stern commanded. "You cannot bear it for a while. Stay
within and roll the rock against the door and sleep. The great fire
might injure you or even kill you, as it did the—"
He checked himself just in time, for "the patriarch" had all but
escaped him. Zangamon, with sudden understanding, once more advanced
toward him as he sat there by the girl.
"O master! You mean the ancient man? He is dead?"
Stern nodded.
"Yes," he answered. "He was so old and weak, the touch of the fire in
the sky—he could not bear it. But his death was happy, for at least
he felt its warmth upon his brow!"
The Merucaans kept silence for a moment, then Stern heard them
murmuring together, and a vague uneasiness crept over him.
He strove, however, to put it away; though in his heart the shame of
the lie he had been forced to tell would not be quieted.
The colonists, however, made no further speech, but presently rolled
the rock in front of the cave entrance, then wrapped themselves in
their long cloaks and lay down by the fire.
Soon, like the healthy savages they were, they were fast asleep, with
vigorous snorings.
Thus the night passed, while Stern kept watch over the girl; and
another day crept slowly up the sky, and in the cave now rested four
human beings—the vanguard of the coming nation.
Stern never knew when he, too, drifted off to sleep; but he
awoke to find Zangamon sitting beside him, with his cloak drawn over
his head, while Beatrice and Bremilu still slept.
"The light, master—it is like knives to me! Like spears to my eyes,
master! I cannot bear it!" whispered the Merucaan, pointing to where,
around the interstices of the doorway, bright white gleams were
streaming in.
Allan considered with perplexity.
"It hurts, you say?"
"Yes, Kromno! Once or twice I have tried to watch that strange fire,
but I cannot. The pain is very great!"
"Humph!" thought Allan. "This may be a more serious factor than I've
reckoned on. These people are albinos. White hair and pink eyes—not a
particle of protecting pigmentation. For thirty or so generations
they've been subjected to nothing but torchlight. The actinic rays of
the sun are infinitely more penetrating than anything they've ever
known. It may take months, years even, to accustom them to sunlight!"
And disquieting situations presented themselves to his mind. True, if
it were necessary, the Folk could work and take the air only at night.
They could fish, hunt and till the soil by star and moonlight, and
sleep by day; but this was by no means the veritable reestablishment
of a real, human civilization.
Then an idea struck him.
"The very thing!" cried he. "Once I can put it into effect, it will
solve the question. And the second generation, at the outside, will be
normal. They'll 'throw back' to remote ancestry under changed
conditions. In time, even if only a long time, all will yet be well!"
But now immediate labors and difficult problems were pressing. The
future would have to look out for itself.
Stern felt positive that to let the Merucaans out of the cave would
not only blind them, but might also kill them outright as well.
Their unprotected skins would inevitably burn to a blister under the
rays of the sun, and they would in all probability die. So said he:
"Listen, Zangamon! You must stay here till the dark comes again, which
will not be very long. The woman and I will prepare another cave for
your dwelling. When it is dark you can fish in the flowing water
beneath. In the mean time we will bring you your accustomed food and
your nets from the flying boat.
"You must be patient. In a short time all things shall be as you wish,
and you shall see the wonderful and beautiful world up into which I
have brought you!"
The man nodded, yet Stern clearly saw his face betrayed uneasiness,
distrust and pain. In all fairness, the Merucaans' first experience of
the upper world had been enough to shake the faith even of a
philosopher—how much more so that of simple and untaught barbarians!
Terror, violence, slaughter and insecurity—these all had greeted the
colonists; and now, in addition, they found the patriarch was dead.
Above all, they were virtually prisoners in this gloomy cavern of the
rock.
But Stern was very wise. He by no means thought of commiserating or
excusing. His only course was to make light of trials and hardships,
and, if need were, to command.
He arose, carefully stopped up the chinks around the rock at the
doorway, and bade Zangamon replenish the fire with dry sticks. Then,
Bremilu awakening, they prepared food.
Now Beatrice, too, awoke. Allan took her in his arms, unmindful of the
newcomers, and there were words of love and joy, and self-reproaches,
and a new faith plighted between them once again.
She was unharmed, except for a few bruises and scratches. Her nerves
had already recovered something of their usual strength. But at sight
of Allan's bandaged arni she turned pale, and not even his assurances
could comfort her.
They talked of the terrible adventure.
"It was all my fault, Allan—every bit my fault!" she exclaimed
remorsefully. "It all came from my not obeying orders. You see, I was
expecting you last night. Instead of staying in the cave, with the
door barricaded, I lingered on the terrace, after having piled the
signal-fire high with wood.
"I sat down and watched the sky, and listened to the river down below,
and thought of you. I must have dozed a little, for all of a sudden I
came wide-awake, shuddering with a terror I couldn't understand. Then
I heard something moving down the path—something that grunted and
snuffled savagely.
"I started up, ran for the cave, and just got inside when the brute
reached it. I rolled the stone in place, Allan, but before I could
brace it with the pole it was hurled back, and in crawled the gorilla,
roaring and snapping like a demon!"
She hid her face in both hands, shuddering at the terrible memory.
But, forcing herself to be calm, she went on again:
"I snatched up the pistol and fired. Then—"
"You hit him?"
"I must have, for he screeched most horribly and pawed at his
breast—"
"So, then, that explains the blood-marks on the floor and the great
hand-print on the wall?"
"Hand-print? Was there one?"
"Yes; but no matter now. Go on!"
"After that—oh, it was too ghastly! He seized me and I fought—I
struggled against that huge, hairy chest; he gripped me like iron. My
blows were no more than so many pats to him.
"I tried to fire again, but he wrenched the pistol away, and bent it
in his huge teeth and flung it down. But, though he was raging, he
didn't wound me—didn't try to kill me, or anything. He seemed to want
to capture me alive—"
Allan shuddered. Only too well he understood. Gorilla nature had not
changed in fifteen hundred years.
"After that?" he questioned eagerly.
"Oh, after that I don't remember much. I must have fainted. Next thing
I knew, everything was dark and the forest was all about. I screamed
and then again I knew nothing. Once more I seemed to sense things, and
once more all grew black. And after that—"
"Well?"
"Why—I was here on the bed, and you were beside me, Allan—and these
men of our Folk were here! But how it all happened, God knows!"
"I'll tell you some time. You shall have the story from our side some
day, but not now. Only one thing—if it hadn't been for Zangamon here
and Bremilu—well—"
"You mean they helped rescue me?"
He nodded.
"Without them I'd have been helpless as a child. They traced you in
the dark, for they could see as plainly as we see by day. It was a
blow from Bremilu's stone ax that killed the brute.
They
saved you,
Beatrice! Not I!"
She kept a little silence, then said thoughtfully:
"How can I ever thank them, Allan? How can I thank them best?"
"You can't thank them. There's no way. I tried it, but they didn't
understand. They only did what seemed natural to them. They're
savages, remember; not civilized men. It's impossible to thank them!
The only thing you can do, or I can do, is work for them now. The
greatest efforts and sacrifices for these men will be small payment
for their deed. And if—as I believe—the whole race is dowered with
the same spirit and indomitable courage—the courage we certainly did
see in the Battle of the Wall—then we need have no fear of our
transplanted nation dying out!"
Much more there might have been to say, but now the meal was ready,
and hunger spoke in no uncertain tones. All four of the adventurers
ate in silence, thoughtful and grave, cross-legged, about the meat and
drink, which lay on palm-leaves or in clay bowls hard-burned and red.
A kind of embarrassment seemed to rest on all, for this was the first
time they had eaten together—these barbarians with the two folk of
the upper world.
But the meal was soon at an end, and the prospect of labors to be
undertaken cheered Allan's spirit. Despite his stiff and painful arm,
he felt courage and energy throbbing in his veins, and longed to be at
work.
"The very first thing we must do," said he, "is fix up a place for our
guests. They've got to stay here, out of the light, till nightfall.
That will give us plenty of time. I want to get them settled in their
own quarters, and bring them into some regular routine of life and
labor, before they have a chance to get homesick and dejected."
He warned the Merucaans to cover their heads with their cloaks while
Beatrice and he opened the doorway.
He closed it then, with other rocks outside, and covered it with his
own outer cloak; then, wearing only his belted tunic, he rejoined
Beatrice half-way up the path to the cliff-top. Both were armed; he
with his own automatic, she with the one they had found in the crypt.
"Our first move," said he, "will be to transport the various things
from the aeroplane. It will be something of a task, but I don't dare
leave them out there on the barrens till night, when the men
themselves could bring them in. The sooner we get things to rights the
better."
She agreed, and together they took the path toward the landing-place,
which they had christened Newport Heights. Stern felt grateful that
his right arm, his gun arm, was uninjured. The other mattered little
for the present.
An idea crossed his mind to seek out the dead gorilla and make a
trophy of the pelt; but he dismissed it at once. The beast was so
repellent that the very thought of it fair sickened him.
They reached the plane in some few minutes, found everything
uninjured, and loaded themselves with the Merucaans' goods and
chattels. Stern took the bags of edible seaweed and the metal crate of
fowl; she draped the big net over her shoulders, and together, not
without difficulty, they returned to Settlement Cliffs.
Pass, now, all the minute details of the installation. By noon they
had prepared a habitation for the newcomers, deep in a far recess of a
winding gallery which thoroughly excluded all direct sunlight.
Only the dimmest glow penetrated even at high noon. Here they stowed
the freight, built a rock fireplace, and threw down quantities of the
long, fragrant grass for bedding.
They returned to their own cave, bade the colonists once more cover
their heads, and entered, carefully closing the doorway after them.
All four dined together, in true Merucaan style, on the familiar food
of the Abyss. The colonists seemed a little more reassured, but talk
languished none the less.
The afternoon was spent in preparing a second cave; for, in spite of
all the girl's entreaties, Allan was determined to make another visit
to the village of the Lost Folk as soon as his arm should permit.