CHAPTER XXXII
HOW OTTER FOUGHT THE WATER DWELLER
Keeping himself carefully under the overshadowing edge of the rock-bank,and holding his double-bladed knife ready in one hand, Otter swam to themouth of the Snake's den. As he approached it he perceived by the greatupward force of the water that the real body of the stream enteredthe pool from below, the hole where the crocodile lived being but asupplementary exit, which doubtless the river followed in times offlood.
Otter reached the mouth of the tunnel without any great difficulty, and,watching his chance, he lifted himself on his hands and slipped throughit quickly, for he did not desire to be seen by those who were gatheredabove. Nor indeed was he seen, for his red head-dress and the goat-skincloak had been washed away or cast off in the pool, and in that lighthis black body made little show against the black rock beneath.
Now he was inside the hole, and found himself crouching upon a bed ofsand, or rather disintegrated rock, brought down by the waters. Thegloom of the place was great, but the light of the white dawn, which hadturned to red, was gathering swiftly on the surface of the pool withoutas the mist melted, and thence was reflected into the tunnel. So itcame about that very soon Otter, who had the gift, not uncommon amongsavages, of seeing in anything short of absolute darkness, was able tomake out his surroundings with tolerable accuracy. The place in a cornerof which he squatted was a cave of no great height or width, hollowed inthe solid rock by the force of water, as smoothly as though it had beenhewn by the hand of man: in short, an enormous natural drain-pipe, butconstructed of stone instead of earthenware.
In the bottom of this drain trickled a stream of water nowhere more thansix inches in depth, on either side of which, for ten feet or more, laya thick bed of debris ground small. How far the cave stretched of coursehe could not see, nor as yet could he discover the whereabouts of itshideous occupant, though traces of its presence were plentiful, for thesandy floor was marked with its huge footprints, and the air reeked withan abominable stink.
"Where has this evil spirit gone to?" thought Otter; "he must be near,and yet I can see nothing of him. Perhaps he lives further up the cave";and he crept a pace or two forward and again peered into the gloom.
Now he perceived what had hitherto escaped him, namely, that some eightyards from the mouth of the tunnel a table-shaped fragment of stone rosefrom its floor to within six feet of the roof, having on the hither sidea sloping plane that connected its summit with the stream-bed beneath.Doubtless this fragment or boulder, being of some harder material thanthe surrounding rock, had resisted the wear of the rushing river; thetop of it, as was shown by the high-water marks on the sides of thecave, being above the level of the torrent, which, although it was nowrepresented only by a rivulet, evidently at certain seasons of the yearpoured down with great force and volume.
"Here is a bed on which a crocodile might sleep," reflected Otter,creeping a little further forward and staring at the mass of rock, andmore especially at a triangular-shaped object that was poised on the topof the sloping plane, and on something which lay beneath it.
"Now, if that thing be another stone," thought Otter again, "how comesit that it does not slip into the water as it should do, and what isthat upon which it rests?" and he took a step to one side to prevent hisbody from intercepting any portion of the ray of light that momentarilyshone clearer and pierced the darkness of the cave to a greaterdistance.
Then he looked again and almost fell in his horror, for now he could seeall. The thing that he had taken for a stone set upon the rock-tablewas the head of the Dweller in the Waters, for there in it, as the lightstruck on them, two dreadful eyes gleamed with a dull and changing fire.Moreover, he discovered what was the object which lay under the throatof the reptile. It was the body of that priest whom Otter had takenwith him in his leap from the statue, for he could see the dead faceprojecting on one side.
"Perhaps if I wait awhile he will begin to eat him," reflected thedwarf, remembering the habits of crocodiles, "and then I can attack himwhen he rests and sleeps afterwards"; and, acting on this idea, he stoodstill, watching the green fire as it throbbed and quivered, waxed andwaned in the monster's eyes.
How long he remained thus Otter never knew; but after a time he becameconscious that these eyes had taken hold of him and were drawing himtowards them, though whether the reptile saw him or not he could nottell. For a space he struggled against this unholy fascination; then,overcome by dread, he strove to fly, back to the pool or anywhere outof reach of those devilish orbs. Alas! it was too late: no step could hemove backwards, no, not to save his life.
Now he must go on. It was as though the Water Dweller had read his mind,and drew its foe towards itself to put the matter to the test. Ottertook one step forward--rather would he have sprung again off the head ofthe colossus--and the eyes glowed more dreadfully than ever, as thoughin triumph.
Then in despair he sank to the ground, hiding his face in his hands andgroaning in his heart.
"This is a devil that I have come to fight, a devil with magic in hiseyes," he thought. "And how can I, who am but a common Knobnose dwarf,do battle against the king of evil spirits, clothed in the shape of acrocodile?"
Even now, when he could not see them, he felt the eyes drawing him. Yet,as they were no longer visible, his courage and power of mind came backto him sufficiently to enable him to think again.
"Otter," he said to himself, "if you stay thus, soon the magic will doits work. Your sense will leave you, and that devil will eat you up as acobra devours a meer-cat. Yes, he will swallow you, and his inside willbe your grave, and that is no end for one who has been called a god!Men, let alone gods, should die fighting, whether it be with othermen, with wild beasts, with snakes, or with devils. Think now, if yourmaster, the Deliverer, saw you crouch thus like a toad before an adder,how he would laugh and say, 'Ho! I thought this man brave. Ho! he talkedvery loud about fighting the Water Dweller, he who came of a line ofwarriors; but now I laugh at him, for I see that he is but a cross-bredcur and a coward.'
"Yes, yes, you can hear his words, Otter. Say now, will you bear theirshame and sit here until you are snapped up and swallowed?"
Thus the dwarf addressed himself, and it seemed to his bewildered brainthat the words which he had imagined were true, and that Leonard reallystood by and mocked him.
At last he sprang to his feet, and crying, "Never, Baas!" so loudly thatthe cave rang with the echoes of his shout, he rushed straight at thefoe, holding the two-bladed knife in his right hand.
The crocodile, that was waiting for him to fall insensible, as hadever been the custom of the living victims on whom it fixed its banefulglare, heard his cry and awoke from its seeming torpor. It lifted itshead, fire seemed to flash from its dull eyes, its vast length began tostir. Higher and higher it reared its head, then of a sudden it leapedfrom the slope of rock, as alligators when disturbed leap from a riverbank into the water, coming so heavily to the ground that the shockcaused the cave to tremble, and stood before the dwarf with its tailarched upwards over its back.
Again Otter shouted, half in rage and half in terror, and the soundseemed to make the brute more furious.
It opened its huge mouth as though to seize him and waddled a few pacesforward, halting within six feet of him. Now the dwarf's chance hadcome and he knew it, for with the opportunity all his courage and skillreturned to him. It was he who sprang and not the crocodile. He sprang,he thrust his arm and the double knife far into the yawning mouth, andfor a second held it there, one end pointing upwards to the brain andone to the tongue beneath. He felt the jaws close, but their rows ofyellow fangs never touched his arm, for there was that between themwhich held them some little space apart. Then he cast himself on oneside and to the ground, leaving the weapon in the reptile's throat.
For a few moments it shook its horrible head, while Otter watchedgasping, for the reek of the brute's breath almost overpowered him.Twice it opened its great jaws and spat, and twice it strove to close
them. Oh! what if it should rid itself of the knife, or drive it throughthe soft flesh of the throat? Then he was lost indeed! But this it mightnot do, for the lower blade caught upon the jawbone, and at each effortit drove the sharp point of the upper knife deeper towards its brain.Moreover, so good was the steel, and so firm were the hide bindings ofthe handles, shrunken as they were with the wet, that nothing broke orgave.
"Now he will trample me or dash me to pieces with his tail," said Otter;but as yet the Snake had no such mind--indeed, in its agony it seemed tohave forgotten the presence of its foe. It writhed upon the floor of thecave, lashing the rock with its tail, and gasping horribly the while.Then suddenly it started forward past him, and the tough hide rope aboutOtter's middle ran out like the line from the bow of a whale-boat whenthe harpoon has gone home in the quarry.
Thrice the dwarf spun round violently, then he felt himself dragged ingreat jerks along the rocky floor, which, happily for him, was smooth.A fourth jerk, and once more he was in the waters of the pool, ay, andbeing carried to its remotest depths.
"Now, he is mad," thought Otter, "who ties himself to such a fish asthis, for it will drown me ere it dies."
Had Otter been any other man, doubtless this would have been so. Buthe was as nearly amphibious as a human being can be, and could dive andswim and hold his breath, yes, and see beneath the surface as well asthe animal from which he took his name. Never did such gifts stand theirowner in better stead than during the minutes of this strange duel.
Twice the tortured reptile sank to the bottom of the pool--and its depthwas great--dragging the dwarf after it, though, as it chanced, betweendives it rose to the surface, giving him time to breathe. A third timeit dived, and Otter must follow it--on this occasion to the mouth of oneof the subterranean exits of the water, into which the dwarf was sucked.Then the brute turned, heading up the pool with the speed of a hookedsalmon, and Otter, who had prayed that the line would break, now prayedthat it might hold, for he knew that even he could never hope to swimagainst that undertow.
It held, and once more they rose to the surface, where the reptilelay lashing the waters in its pain, blood pouring from its mouth andnostrils. Very glad was Otter to be able to breathe again, for duringthat last rush he had gone near to suffocation. He lifted his head,inhaling the air with great gulps, and saw that the banks of thepool were lined with spectators who shouted and surged in their madexcitement. After that he did not see much more for a while, since justthen it seemed to occur to the crocodile for the first time that the manalongside of him was the cause of his suffering; at least it wallowedround, causing the waters to boil about its horny sides, and chargedhim. With its fangs it could not bite, therefore it struck at him withits tail.
Twice Otter dived, avoiding the blows, but the third time he was not sosuccessful, for the reptile followed him into the deep water and dealthim a fearful stroke before he could either sink or rise. He felt therough scales cut into his flesh and a sensation as though every bone inhis body was breaking and his eyes were starting from his head. Faintlyand more faintly he struggled, but in vain, for now life and sense wereleaving him together, and everything grew black.
But suddenly there came a change, and Otter knew vaguely that again hewas being dragged through the water and over rock. Then darkness tookhim, and he remembered no more.
When the dwarf awoke it was to find himself lying on the floor of thecave, but not alone, for by his side, twisted into a last and hideouscontortion, lay the Snake god--dead! The upper part of the double knifehad worked itself into its brain, and, with a dying effort, it soughtthe den where it had lived for centuries, dragging Otter with it, andthere expired, how or when he knew not. But the dwarf had triumphed.Before him was stretched the ancient terror of the People of the Mist,the symbol and, indeed, the object of their worship, slain by his skilland valour.
Otter saw, and, bruised and shaken as he was, his heart swelled withpride, for had he not done a deed single-handed such as was not told ofin the stories of his land?
"Oh! that the Baas were here to see this sight!" he said, as he crawledalong the length of his dead enemy, and seated himself upon its flatand loathsome snout. "Alas! he cannot," he added, "but I pray that mywatching spirit may spare my life, that I may live to sing the song ofthe slaying of the Devil of the People of the Mist. _Wow!_ that was afight. When shall a man see another? And lo! save for many bruises andthe cutting of the rope about my middle, I am not greatly hurt, for thewater broke the weight of his tail when he smote me with it. After all,it is well that the line held, for it served to drag me from the pool asit had dragged me into it, otherwise I had surely drowned there.
"See, though, it is nearly done with," and grasping that end of the cordwhich hung from the jaws of the crocodile, he broke it with a jerk, for,with the exception of half a strand, it was frayed through by the wornfangs.
Then, having rested himself a little, and washed the worst of his hurtswith water, Otter set himself to consider the position. First, however,he made an utterly ineffectual effort to extract the great knives.Ten men could not have moved them, for the upper blade was driven manyinches deep into the bone and muscles of the reptile's massive head. Butfor this chance it would have soon shaken itself clear of them; but,as it was, every contortion and gnashing of its jaws had only served todrive the steel deeper--up to the hilt, indeed.
Abandoning this attempt, the dwarf crept cautiously to the mouth of thecave and peered at the further banks of the pool, whence he could hearshouts and see men moving to and fro, apparently in a state of greatexcitement.
"Now I am weary of that pool," he said to himself, "and if I am seenin it the Great People will surely shoot at me with arrows and kill me.What shall I do, then? I cannot stay in this place of stinks with thedead devil and the bones of those whom he has devoured, until I die ofhunger. Yet this water must come from somewhere, therefore it seems bestthat I should follow it awhile, searching for the spot where it entersthe cave. It will be dark walking, but the walls and the floor aresmooth, so that I shall not hurt myself, and if I find nothing I canreturn again and strive to escape from the pool by night."
Having decided upon the adventure, Otter began to carry it out withcharacteristic promptness, the more readily, indeed, because his longimmersion the water had chilled him, and he felt a weariness creepingover him as a result of the terrible struggle and emotions that he hadpassed through.
Coiling the hide ripe about his middle, which was sadly cut by itschafing, he started with an uncertain gait, for he was still very weak.A few steps brought him to that rock on which he had discovered thehead of the reptile, and he paused to examine it. Climbing the slopingstone--no easy task, for it was smooth as ice--he came to the table-liketop. On its edge lay the body of that priest who had shared his fallfrom the head of the colossus.
Then he inspected the surface of the rock, and for the first timeunderstood how old that monster must have been which he had conqueredin single combat. For there, where its body had lain from generation togeneration, and perhaps from century to century, the hard material wasworn away to the depth of two feet or more, while at the top of thesloping stone was a still deeper niche, wherein its head reposed as itlay keeping its sleepless watch on the waters of the pool.
Around this depression, and strewn about the floor of the cave itself,were the remains of many victims, a considerable number of whom had notbeen devoured. In every case, however, the larger bones were broken, andfrom this circumstance Otter judged that, although it was the custom ofthis dreadful reptile to crush the life out of all who were thrown to itwith a bite of its fangs, yet, like that of other animals, its appetitewas limited, and it was only occasionally that it consumed what it hadkilled.
The sight of these remains was so unpleasant and suggestive that evenOtter, who certainly could not be called squeamish, hastened to descendthe rock. As he passed round it his attention was attracted by theskeleton of a man who, from various indications, must have been alivewithin the last
few weeks. The bones were clad in a priest's cloak,of which the dwarf, who was trembling with cold, hastened to possesshimself. As he picked up the robe he observed beneath it a bag of tannedox-hide that doubtless had once been carried by the owner of the cloak.
"Perhaps he kept food in this," thought Otter; "though what he who cameto visit the Water Dweller should want with food I cannot guess. Atthe least it will be bad by now, so I will leave it and be gone. Only avulture would stay for long in this house of the dead." Then he startedforward.
For a few yards more he had light to guide his steps, but very soon thedarkness became complete; still the cave was not difficult to travel,for everywhere the rock was smooth and the water shallow. All that heneeded to do was to walk straight on, keeping touch of one side of thetunnel with one hand. Indeed he had but two things to fear, that heshould fall into some pit and that he might suddenly encounter anothercrocodile, "for doubtless," thought Otter, "the devil was married."
But Otter fell into no hole and he saw no crocodile, since, as itchanced, the Water Dweller of the People of the Mist was a bachelor.
When the dwarf had travelled up a steep slope for rather more than halfan hour, to his intense joy he saw light before him and hurried towardsit. Presently he reached the further mouth of the cavern that was almostclosed by blocks of ice, among which a little water trickled. Creepingthrough an aperture he found himself upon the crest of the impassableprecipice at the back of the city, and that before him a vast glacier ofgreen ice stretched upwards, whereon the sun shone gloriously.