Palos of the Dog Star Pack

Its waters glinted in therays of the rising sun. Its banks were lined with patches of what heknew from their appearance were cultivated fields. Beyond them was adun track, reminding him of the arid stretches of a desert, reachingout as far as his vision could plumb the distance.

  He turned his eyes and followed the course of the river. By stages ofswift interest he traced it to a point where it disappeared beneathwhat seemed the dull red walls of a mighty city. They were huge walls,high and broad, bastioned and towered, flung across the course of theriver, which ran on through the city itself, passed beyond a fartherwall, and--beyond that again there was the glint of silver and blue inCroft's eyes--the shimmer of a vast body of water--whether lake orocean he did not know then.

  The call of a bird brought his attention back. Life was waking in themountain forest where he stood. Gay-plumaged creatures, not unlikeearthly parrots, were fluttering from tree to tree. The sound of agrunting came toward him. He swung about. His eyes encountered thoseof other life. A creature such as he had never seen was coming out ofa quivering mass of sturdy fern. It had small, beady eyes and a snoutlike a pig. Two tusks sprouted from its jaws like the tusks of a boar.But the rest of the body, although something like that of a hog, wascovered with a long wool-like hair, fine and seemingly almost silkensoft.

  This, as he was to learn later, was the tabur, an animal still wild onPalos, though domesticated and raised both for its hair, which waswoven into fabrics, and for its flesh, which was valued as food. WhileCroft watched, it began rooting about the foot of a tree on one sideof the small glade where he stood. Plainly it was hunting forsomething to eat.

  Once more he turned to the plain and stood lost in something new.Across the dun reaches of the desert, beyond the green region of theriver, was moving a long dark string of figures, headed toward thecity he had seen. It was like a caravan, Croft thought, in itsarrangement, save that the moving objects which he deemed animals ofsome sort, belonged in no picture of a caravan such as he had everseen.

  Swiftly he willed himself toward them and moved along by their side.Something like amazement filled his being. These beasts were suchcreatures as might have peopled the earth in the Silurian age. Theywere huge, twice the size of an earthly elephant. They moved in amajestic fashion, yet with a surprising speed. Their bodies werecovered with a hairless skin, reddish pink in color, wrinkled andwarted and plainly extremely thick. It slipped and slid over themuscles beneath it as they swung forward on their four massive legs,each one of which ended in a five-toed foot armed with short heavyclaws.

  But it was the head and neck and tail of the things which gave Croftpause. The head was more that of a sea-serpent or a monster lizardthan anything else. The neck was long and flexible and curved likethat of a camel. The tail was heavy where it joined the main spine,but thinned rapidly to a point. And the crest of head and neck, theback of each creature, so far as he could see, was covered with a sortof heavy scale, an armor devised by nature for the thing's protection,as it appeared. Yet he could not see very well, since each Sarpelca,as he was to learn their Palosian name, was loaded heavily withbundles and bales of what might be valuable merchandise.

  And on each sat a man. Croft hesitated not at all to give them thattitle, since they were strikingly like the men of earth in so far ashe could see. They had heads and arms and legs and a body, and theirfaces were white. Their features departed in no particular, so far ashe could see, from the faces of earth, save that all were smooth, withno evidence of hair on upper lip or cheek or chin.

  They were clad in loose cloak-like garments and a hooded cap or cowl.They sat the Sarpelcas just back of the juncture of the body and neck,and guided the strange-appearing monsters by means of slender reinsaffixed to two of the fleshy tentacles which sprouted about thebeasts' almost snakelike mouths.

  That this strange cortege was a caravan Croft was now assured. Hedecided to follow it to the city and inspect that as well. Whereforehe kept on beside it down the valley, along what he now saw was awell-defined and carefully constructed road, built of stone, cut to anice approximation, along which the unwieldy procession made goodtime. The road showed no small knowledge of engineering. It was likethe roads of Ancient Rome, Croft thought with quickened interest. Itwas in a perfect state of preservation and showed signs of recentmending here and there. While he was feeling a quickened interest inthis the caravan entered the cultivated region along the river, andCroft gave his attention to the fields.

  * * * * *

  The first thing he noted here was the fact that all growth was due toirrigation, carried out by means of ditches and laterals very much ason earth at the present time. Here and there as the caravan passeddown the splendid road he found a farmer's hut set in a bower oftrees. For the most part they were built of a tan-colored brick, androofed with a thatching of rushes from the river's bank. He saw thenatives working in the fields, strong-bodied men, clad in what seemeda single short-skirted tunic reaching to the knees, with the arms andlower limbs left bare.

  One or two stopped work and stood to watch the caravan pass, and Croftnoticed that their faces were intelligent, well featured, and theirhair for the most part a sort of rich, almost chestnut brown, wornrather long and wholly uncovered or else caught about the brows by acincture which held a bit of woven fabric draped over the head anddown the neck.

  Travel began to thicken along the road. The natives seemed heading tothe city, to sell the produce of their fields. Croft found himselfdrawing aside in the press as the caravan overtook the others andcrowded past. So real had it become to him that for the time he forgothe was no more than an impalpable, invisible thing these people couldnot contact or see. Then he remembered and gave his attention to whathe might behold once more.

  They had just passed a heavy cart drawn by two odd creatures,resembling deer save that they were larger and possessed of hoofs likethose of earth-born horses, and instead of antlers sported two littlehorns not over six inches long. They were in color almost a creamywhite, and he fancied them among the most beautiful forms of animallife he had ever beheld. On the cart itself were high-piled crates ofsome unknown fowl, as he supposed--some edible bird, with the head ofa goose, the plumage of a pheasant so far as its brilliant coloringwent, long necks and bluish, webbed feet. Past the cart they came upona band of native women carrying baskets and other burdens, strapped totheir shoulders. Croft gave them particular attention, since as yet hehad seen only men.

  The Palosian females were fit mates, he decided, after he had giventhem a comprehensive glance. They were strong limbed and deepbreasted. These peasant folks at least were simply clad. Like the men,they wore but a single garment, falling just over the bend of theknees and caught together over one shoulder with an embossed metalbutton, so far as he could tell. The other arm and shoulder were leftwholly bare, as were their feet and legs, save that they wore coarsesandals of wood, strapped by leather thongs about ankle and calf.Their baskets were piled with vegetables and fruit, and they chatteredand laughed among themselves as they walked.

  And now as the Sarpelcas shuffled past, the highway grew actuallypacked. Also it drew nearer to the river and the city itself. Thecaravan thrust its way through a drove of the taburs--the wooly hogssuch as Croft had seen on the side of the mountain. The hogsherds,rough, powerful, bronzed fellows, clad in hide aprons belted abouttheir waists and nothing else, stalked beside their charges andexchanged heavy banter with the riders of the Sarpelcas as the caravanpassed.

  From behind a sound of shouting reached Croft's ears. He glancedaround. Down the highway, splitting the throng of early market people,came some sort of conveyance, drawn by four of the beautiful creamydeer-like creatures he had seen before. They were harnessed abreastand had nodding plumes fixed to the head bands of their bridles infront of their horns. These plumes were all of a purple color, andfrom the way the crowds gave way before the advance of the equipage,Croft deemed that it bore some one of note. Even the captain of theSarpelca train, noting the advance of the
gorgeous team, drew his hugebeasts to the side of the road and stood up in his seat-like saddle toface inward as it passed.

  * * * * *

  The vehicle came on. Croft watched intently as it approached. Sonearly as he could tell, it was a four-wheeled conveyance somethinglike an old-time chariot in front, where stood the driver of thecream-white steeds, and behind that protected from the sun by anarched cover draped on each side with a substance not unlike heavysilk. These draperies, too, were purple in shade, and the body andwheels of the carriage seemed fashioned from something like burnishedcopper, as it glistened brightly in advance.

  Then it was upon them, and Croft could look squarely into the shadeddepths beneath the cover he now saw to be supported by upright metalrods, save at the back where the body continued straight up in a curveto form the top.

  The curtains were drawn back since the morning air was still fresh,and Jason gained a view of those who rode. He gave them one