CHAPTER XIV
Those Were the Real Conquests
We had imagined that our pursuers, the ape-men, knew nothing of ourbrush-wood hiding-place, but we were soon to find out our mistake.There was no sound in the woods--not a leaf moved upon the trees, andall was peace around us--but we should have been warned by our firstexperience how cunningly and how patiently these creatures can watchand wait until their chance comes. Whatever fate may be mine throughlife, I am very sure that I shall never be nearer death than I was thatmorning. But I will tell you the thing in its due order.
We all awoke exhausted after the terrific emotions and scanty food ofyesterday. Summerlee was still so weak that it was an effort for himto stand; but the old man was full of a sort of surly courage whichwould never admit defeat. A council was held, and it was agreed thatwe should wait quietly for an hour or two where we were, have ourmuch-needed breakfast, and then make our way across the plateau andround the central lake to the caves where my observations had shownthat the Indians lived. We relied upon the fact that we could countupon the good word of those whom we had rescued to ensure a warmwelcome from their fellows. Then, with our mission accomplished andpossessing a fuller knowledge of the secrets of Maple White Land, weshould turn our whole thoughts to the vital problem of our escape andreturn. Even Challenger was ready to admit that we should then havedone all for which we had come, and that our first duty from that timeonwards was to carry back to civilization the amazing discoveries wehad made.
We were able now to take a more leisurely view of the Indians whom wehad rescued. They were small men, wiry, active, and well-built, withlank black hair tied up in a bunch behind their heads with a leathernthong, and leathern also were their loin-clothes. Their faces werehairless, well formed, and good-humored. The lobes of their ears,hanging ragged and bloody, showed that they had been pierced for someornaments which their captors had torn out. Their speech, thoughunintelligible to us, was fluent among themselves, and as they pointedto each other and uttered the word Accala many times over, wegathered that this was the name of the nation. Occasionally, withfaces which were convulsed with fear and hatred, they shook theirclenched hands at the woods round and cried: Doda! Doda! which wassurely their term for their enemies.
What do you make of them, Challenger? asked Lord John. One thing isvery clear to me, and that is that the little chap with the front ofhis head shaved is a chief among them.
It was indeed evident that this man stood apart from the others, andthat they never ventured to address him without every sign of deeprespect. He seemed to be the youngest of them all, and yet, so proudand high was his spirit that, upon Challenger laying his great handupon his head, he started like a spurred horse and, with a quick flashof his dark eyes, moved further away from the Professor. Then, placinghis hand upon his breast and holding himself with great dignity, heuttered the word Maretas several times. The Professor, unabashed,seized the nearest Indian by the shoulder and proceeded to lecture uponhim as if he were a potted specimen in a class-room.
The type of these people, said he in his sonorous fashion, whetherjudged by cranial capacity, facial angle, or any other test, cannot beregarded as a low one; on the contrary, we must place it asconsiderably higher in the scale than many South American tribes whichI can mention. On no possible supposition can we explain the evolutionof such a race in this place. For that matter, so great a gapseparates these ape-men from the primitive animals which have survivedupon this plateau, that it is inadmissible to think that they couldhave developed where we find them.
Then where the dooce did they drop from? asked Lord John.
A question which will, no doubt, be eagerly discussed in everyscientific society in Europe and America, the Professor answered. Myown reading of the situation for what it is worth-- he inflated hischest enormously and looked insolently around him at the words--isthat evolution has advanced under the peculiar conditions of thiscountry up to the vertebrate stage, the old types surviving and livingon in company with the newer ones. Thus we find such modern creaturesas the tapir--an animal with quite a respectable length ofpedigree--the great deer, and the ant-eater in the companionship ofreptilian forms of jurassic type. So much is clear. And now come theape-men and the Indian. What is the scientific mind to think of theirpresence? I can only account for it by an invasion from outside. Itis probable that there existed an anthropoid ape in South America, whoin past ages found his way to this place, and that he developed intothe creatures we have seen, some of which--here he looked hard atme--were of an appearance and shape which, if it had been accompaniedby corresponding intelligence, would, I do not hesitate to say, havereflected credit upon any living race. As to the Indians I cannotdoubt that they are more recent immigrants from below. Under thestress of famine or of conquest they have made their way up here.Faced by ferocious creatures which they had never before seen, theytook refuge in the caves which our young friend has described, but theyhave no doubt had a bitter fight to hold their own against wild beasts,and especially against the ape-men who would regard them as intruders,and wage a merciless war upon them with a cunning which the largerbeasts would lack. Hence the fact that their numbers appear to belimited. Well, gentlemen, have I read you the riddle aright, or isthere any point which you would query?
Professor Summerlee for once was too depressed to argue, though heshook his head violently as a token of general disagreement. Lord Johnmerely scratched his scanty locks with the remark that he couldn't putup a fight as he wasn't in the same weight or class. For my own part Iperformed my usual role of bringing things down to a strictly prosaicand practical level by the remark that one of the Indians was missing.
He has gone to fetch some water, said Lord Roxton. We fitted him upwith an empty beef tin and he is off.
To the old camp? I asked.
No, to the brook. It's among the trees there. It can't be more thana couple of hundred yards. But the beggar is certainly taking histime.
I'll go and look after him, said I. I picked up my rifle andstrolled in the direction of the brook, leaving my friends to lay outthe scanty breakfast. It may seem to you rash that even for so short adistance I should quit the shelter of our friendly thicket, but youwill remember that we were many miles from Ape-town, that so far as weknew the creatures had not discovered our retreat, and that in any casewith a rifle in my hands I had no fear of them. I had not yet learnedtheir cunning or their strength.
I could hear the murmur of our brook somewhere ahead of me, but therewas a tangle of trees and brushwood between me and it. I was making myway through this at a point which was just out of sight of mycompanions, when, under one of the trees, I noticed something redhuddled among the bushes. As I approached it, I was shocked to seethat it was the dead body of the missing Indian. He lay upon his side,his limbs drawn up, and his head screwed round at a most unnaturalangle, so that he seemed to be looking straight over his own shoulder.I gave a cry to warn my friends that something was amiss, and runningforwards I stooped over the body. Surely my guardian angel was verynear me then, for some instinct of fear, or it may have been some faintrustle of leaves, made me glance upwards. Out of the thick greenfoliage which hung low over my head, two long muscular arms coveredwith reddish hair were slowly descending. Another instant and thegreat stealthy hands would have been round my throat. I sprangbackwards, but quick as I was, those hands were quicker still. Throughmy sudden spring they missed a fatal grip, but one of them caught theback of my neck and the other one my face. I threw my hands up toprotect my throat, and the next moment the huge paw had slid down myface and closed over them. I was lifted lightly from the ground, and Ifelt an intolerable pressure forcing my head back and back until thestrain upon the cervical spine was more than I could bear. My sensesswam, but I still tore at the hand and forced it out from my chin.Looking up I saw a frightful face with cold inexorable light blue eyeslooking down into mine. There was something hypnotic in those terribleeyes. I could struggle no longer. As the creature felt me grow limpin his grasp, two white canines gleamed for a moment at each side ofthe vile mouth, and the grip tightened still more upon my chin, forcingit always upwards and back. A thin, oval-tinted mist formed before myeyes and little silvery bells tinkled in my ears. Dully and far off Iheard the crack of a rifle and was feebly aware of the shock as I wasdropped to the earth, where I lay without sense or motion.
I awoke to find myself on my back upon the grass in our lair within thethicket. Someone had brought the water from the brook, and Lord Johnwas sprinkling my head with it, while Challenger and Summerlee werepropping me up, with concern in their faces. For a moment I had aglimpse of the human spirits behind their scientific masks. It wasreally shock, rather than any injury, which had prostrated me, and inhalf-an-hour, in spite of aching head and stiff neck, I was sitting upand ready for anything.
But you've had the escape of your life, young fellah my lad, saidLord Roxton. When I heard your cry and ran forward, and saw your headtwisted half-off and your stohwassers kickin' in the air, I thought wewere one short. I missed the beast in my flurry, but he dropped youall right and was off like a streak. By George! I wish I had fiftymen with rifles. I'd clear out the whole infernal gang of them andleave this country a bit cleaner than we found it.
It was clear now that the ape-men had in some way marked us down, andthat we were watched on every side. We had not so much to fear fromthem during the day, but they would be very likely to rush us by night;so the sooner we got away from their neighborhood the better. On threesides of us was absolute forest, and there we might find ourselves inan ambush. But on the fourth side--that which sloped down in thedirection of the lake--there was only low scrub, with scattered treesand occasional open glades. It was, in fact, the route which I hadmyself taken in my solitary journey, and it led us straight for theIndian caves. This then must for every reason be our road.
One great regret we had, and that was to leave our old camp behind us,not only for the sake of the stores which remained there, but even morebecause we were losing touch with Zambo, our link with the outsideworld. However, we had a fair supply of cartridges and all our guns,so, for a time at least, we could look after ourselves, and we hopedsoon to have a chance of returning and restoring our communicationswith our negro. He had faithfully promised to stay where he was, andwe had not a doubt that he would be as good as his word.
It was in the early afternoon that we started upon our journey. Theyoung chief walked at our head as our guide, but refused indignantly tocarry any burden. Behind him came the two surviving Indians with ourscanty possessions upon their backs. We four white men walked in therear with rifles loaded and ready. As we started there broke from thethick silent woods behind us a sudden great ululation of the ape-men,which may have been a cheer of triumph at our departure or a jeer ofcontempt at our flight. Looking back we saw only the dense screen oftrees, but that long-drawn yell told us how many of our enemies lurkedamong them. We saw no sign of pursuit, however, and soon we had gotinto more open country and beyond their power.
As I tramped along, the rearmost of the four, I could not help smilingat the appearance of my three companions in front. Was this theluxurious Lord John Roxton who had sat that evening in the Albanyamidst his Persian rugs and his pictures in the pink radiance of thetinted lights? And was this the imposing Professor who had swelledbehind the great desk in his massive study at Enmore Park? And,finally, could this be the austere and prim figure which had risenbefore the meeting at the Zoological Institute? No three tramps thatone could have met in a Surrey lane could have looked more hopeless andbedraggled. We had, it is true, been only a week or so upon the top ofthe plateau, but all our spare clothing was in our camp below, and theone week had been a severe one upon us all, though least to me who hadnot to endure the handling of the ape-men. My three friends had alllost their hats, and had now bound handkerchiefs round their heads,their clothes hung in ribbons about them, and their unshaven grimyfaces were hardly to be recognized. Both Summerlee and Challenger werelimping heavily, while I still dragged my feet from weakness after theshock of the morning, and my neck was as stiff as a board from themurderous grip that held it. We were indeed a sorry crew, and I didnot wonder to see our Indian companions glance back at us occasionallywith horror and amazement on their faces.
In the late afternoon we reached the margin of the lake, and as weemerged from the bush and saw the sheet of water stretching before usour native friends set up a shrill cry of joy and pointed eagerly infront of them. It was indeed a wonderful sight which lay before us.Sweeping over the glassy surface was a great flotilla of canoes comingstraight for the shore upon which we stood. They were some miles outwhen we first saw them, but they shot forward with great swiftness, andwere soon so near that the rowers could distinguish our persons.Instantly a thunderous shout of delight burst from them, and we sawthem rise from their seats, waving their paddles and spears madly inthe air. Then bending to their work once more, they flew across theintervening water, beached their boats upon the sloping sand, andrushed up to us, prostrating themselves with loud cries of greetingbefore the young chief. Finally one of them, an elderly man, with anecklace and bracelet of great lustrous glass beads and the skin ofsome beautiful mottled amber-colored animal slung over his shoulders,ran forward and embraced most tenderly the youth whom we had saved. Hethen looked at us and asked some questions, after which he stepped upwith much dignity and embraced us also each in turn. Then, at hisorder, the whole tribe lay down upon the ground before us in homage.Personally I felt shy and uncomfortable at this obsequious adoration,and I read the same feeling in the faces of Roxton and Summerlee, butChallenger expanded like a flower in the sun.
They may be undeveloped types, said he, stroking his beard andlooking round at them, but their deportment in the presence of theirsuperiors might be a lesson to some of our more advanced Europeans.Strange how correct are the instincts of the natural man!
It was clear that the natives had come out upon the war-path, for everyman carried his spear--a long bamboo tipped with bone--his bow andarrows, and some sort of club or stone battle-axe slung at his side.Their dark, angry glances at the woods from which we had come, and thefrequent repetition of the word Doda, made it clear enough that thiswas a rescue party who had set forth to save or revenge the old chief'sson, for such we gathered that the youth must be. A council was nowheld by the whole tribe squatting in a circle, whilst we sat near on aslab of basalt and watched their proceedings. Two or three warriorsspoke, and finally our young friend made a spirited harangue with sucheloquent features and gestures that we could understand it all asclearly as if we had known his language.
What is the use of returning? he said. Sooner or later the thingmust be done. Your comrades have been murdered. What if I havereturned safe? These others have been done to death. There is nosafety for any of us. We are assembled now and ready. Then he pointedto us. These strange men are our friends. They are great fighters,and they hate the ape-men even as we do. They command, here hepointed up to heaven, the thunder and the lightning. When shall wehave such a chance again? Let us go forward, and either die now orlive for the future in safety. How else shall we go back unashamed toour women?
The little red warriors hung upon the words of the speaker, and when hehad finished they burst into a roar of applause, waving their rudeweapons in the air. The old chief stepped forward to us, and asked ussome questions, pointing at the same time to the woods. Lord John madea sign to him that he should wait for an answer and then he turned tous.
Well, it's up to you to say what you will do, said he; for my part Ihave a score to settle with these monkey-folk, and if it ends by wipingthem off the face of the earth I don't see that the earth need fretabout it. I'm goin' with our little red pals and I mean to see themthrough the scrap. What do you say, young fellah?
Of course I will come.
And you, Challenger?
I will assuredly co-operate.
And you, Summerlee?
We seem to be drifting very far from the object of this expedition,Lord John. I assure you that I little thought when I left myprofessional chair in London that it was for the purpose of heading araid of savages upon a colony of anthropoid apes.
To such base uses do we come, said Lord John, smiling. But we areup against it, so what's the decision?
It seems a most questionable step, said Summerlee, argumentative tothe last, but if you are all going, I hardly see how I can remainbehind.
Then it is settled, said Lord John, and turning to the chief henodded and slapped his rifle.
The old fellow clasped our hands, each in turn, while his men cheeredlouder than ever. It was too late to advance that night, so theIndians settled down into a rude bivouac. On all sides their firesbegan to glimmer and smoke. Some of them who had disappeared into thejungle came back presently driving a young iguanodon before them. Likethe others, it had a daub of asphalt upon its shoulder, and it was onlywhen we saw one of the natives step forward with the air of an ownerand give his consent to the beast's slaughter that we understood atlast that these great creatures were as much private property as a herdof cattle, and that these symbols which had so perplexed us werenothing more than the marks of the owner. Helpless, torpid, andvegetarian, with great limbs but a minute brain, they could be roundedup and driven by a child. In a few minutes the huge beast had been cutup and slabs of him were hanging over a dozen camp fires, together withgreat scaly ganoid fish which had been speared in the lake.
Summerlee had lain down and slept upon the sand, but we others roamedround the edge of the water, seeking to learn something more of thisstrange country. Twice we found pits of blue clay, such as we hadalready seen in the swamp of the pterodactyls. These were old volcanicvents, and for some reason excited the greatest interest in Lord John.What attracted Challenger, on the other hand, was a bubbling, gurglingmud geyser, where some strange gas formed great bursting bubbles uponthe surface. He thrust a hollow reed into it and cried out withdelight like a schoolboy then he was able, on touching it with alighted match, to cause a sharp explosion and a blue flame at the farend of the tube. Still more pleased was he when, inverting a leathernpouch over the end of the reed, and so filling it with the gas, he wasable to send it soaring up into the air.
An inflammable gas, and one markedly lighter than the atmosphere. Ishould say beyond doubt that it contained a considerable proportion offree hydrogen. The resources of G. E. C. are not yet exhausted, myyoung friend. I may yet show you how a great mind molds all Nature toits use. He swelled with some secret purpose, but would say no more.
There was nothing which we could see upon the shore which seemed to meso wonderful as the great sheet of water before us. Our numbers andour noise had frightened all living creatures away, and save for a fewpterodactyls, which soared round high above our heads while they waitedfor the carrion, all was still around the camp. But it was differentout upon the rose-tinted waters of the central lake. It boiled andheaved with strange life. Great slate-colored backs and high serrateddorsal fins shot up with a fringe of silver, and then rolled down intothe depths again. The sand-banks far out were spotted with uncouthcrawling forms, huge turtles, strange saurians, and one great flatcreature like a writhing, palpitating mat of black greasy leather,which flopped its way slowly to the lake. Here and there high serpentheads projected out of the water, cutting swiftly through it with alittle collar of foam in front, and a long swirling wake behind, risingand falling in graceful, swan-like undulations as they went. It wasnot until one of these creatures wriggled on to a sand-bank within afew hundred yards of us, and exposed a barrel-shaped body and hugeflippers behind the long serpent neck, that Challenger, and Summerlee,who had joined us, broke out into their duet of wonder and admiration.
Plesiosaurus! A fresh-water plesiosaurus! cried Summerlee. That Ishould have lived to see such a sight! We are blessed, my dearChallenger, above all zoologists since the world began!
It was not until the night had fallen, and the fires of our savageallies glowed red in the shadows, that our two men of science could bedragged away from the fascinations of that primeval lake. Even in thedarkness as we lay upon the strand, we heard from time to time thesnort and plunge of the huge creatures who lived therein.
At earliest dawn our camp was astir and an hour later we had startedupon our memorable expedition. Often in my dreams have I thought thatI might live to be a war correspondent. In what wildest one could Ihave conceived the nature of the campaign which it should be my lot toreport! Here then is my first despatch from a field of battle:
Our numbers had been reinforced during the night by a fresh batch ofnatives from the caves, and we may have been four or five hundredstrong when we made our advance. A fringe of scouts was thrown out infront, and behind them the whole force in a solid column made their wayup the long slope of the bush country until we were near the edge ofthe forest. Here they spread out into a long straggling line ofspearmen and bowmen. Roxton and Summerlee took their position upon theright flank, while Challenger and I were on the left. It was a host ofthe stone age that we were accompanying to battle--we with the lastword of the gunsmith's art from St. James' Street and the Strand.
We had not long to wait for our enemy. A wild shrill clamor rose fromthe edge of the wood and suddenly a body of ape-men rushed out withclubs and stones, and made for the center of the Indian line. It was avaliant move but a foolish one, for the great bandy-legged creatureswere slow of foot, while their opponents were as active as cats. Itwas horrible to see the fierce brutes with foaming mouths and glaringeyes, rushing and grasping, but forever missing their elusive enemies,while arrow after arrow buried itself in their hides. One great fellowran past me roaring with pain, with a dozen darts sticking from hischest and ribs. In mercy I put a bullet through his skull, and he fellsprawling among the aloes. But this was the only shot fired, for theattack had been on the center of the line, and the Indians there hadneeded no help of ours in repulsing it. Of all the ape-men who hadrushed out into the open, I do not think that one got back to cover.
But the matter was more deadly when we came among the trees. For anhour or more after we entered the wood, there was a desperate strugglein which for a time we hardly held our own. Springing out from amongthe scrub the ape-men with huge clubs broke in upon the Indians andoften felled three or four of them before they could be speared. Theirfrightful blows shattered everything upon which they fell. One of themknocked Summerlee's rifle to matchwood and the next would have crushedhis skull had an Indian not stabbed the beast to the heart. Otherape-men in the trees above us hurled down stones and logs of wood,occasionally dropping bodily on to our ranks and fighting furiouslyuntil they were felled. Once our allies broke under the pressure, andhad it not been for the execution done by our rifles they wouldcertainly have taken to their heels. But they were gallantly ralliedby their old chief and came on with such a rush that the ape-men beganin turn to give way. Summerlee was weaponless, but I was emptying mymagazine as quick as I could fire, and on the further flank we heardthe continuous cracking of our companion's rifles.
Then in a moment came the panic and the collapse. Screaming andhowling, the great creatures rushed away in all directions through thebrushwood, while our allies yelled in their savage delight, followingswiftly after their flying enemies. All the feuds of countlessgenerations, all the hatreds and cruelties of their narrow history, allthe memories of ill-usage and persecution were to be purged that day.At last man was to be supreme and the man-beast to find forever hisallotted place. Fly as they would the fugitives were too slow toescape from the active savages, and from every side in the tangledwoods we heard the exultant yells, the twanging of bows, and the crashand thud as ape-men were brought down from their hiding-places in thetrees.
I was following the others, when I found that Lord John and Challengerhad come across to join us.
It's over, said Lord John. I think we can leave the tidying up tothem. Perhaps the less we see of it the better we shall sleep.
Challenger's eyes were shining with the lust of slaughter.
We have been privileged, he cried, strutting about like a gamecock,to be present at one of the typical decisive battles of history--thebattles which have determined the fate of the world. What, my friends,is the conquest of one nation by another? It is meaningless. Eachproduces the same result. But those fierce fights, when in the dawn ofthe ages the cave-dwellers held their own against the tiger folk, orthe elephants first found that they had a master, those were the realconquests--the victories that count. By this strange turn of fate wehave seen and helped to decide even such a contest. Now upon thisplateau the future must ever be for man.
It needed a robust faith in the end to justify such tragic means. Aswe advanced together through the woods we found the ape-men lyingthick, transfixed with spears or arrows. Here and there a little groupof shattered Indians marked where one of the anthropoids had turned tobay, and sold his life dearly. Always in front of us we heard theyelling and roaring which showed the direction of the pursuit. Theape-men had been driven back to their city, they had made a last standthere, once again they had been broken, and now we were in time to seethe final fearful scene of all. Some eighty or a hundred males, thelast survivors, had been driven across that same little clearing whichled to the edge of the cliff, the scene of our own exploit two daysbefore. As we arrived the Indians, a semicircle of spearmen, hadclosed in on them, and in a minute it was over, Thirty or forty diedwhere they stood. The others, screaming and clawing, were thrust overthe precipice, and went hurtling down, as their prisoners had of old,on to the sharp bamboos six hundred feet below. It was as Challengerhad said, and the reign of man was assured forever in Maple White Land.The males were exterminated, Ape Town was destroyed, the females andyoung were driven away to live in bondage, and the long rivalry ofuntold centuries had reached its bloody end.
For us the victory brought much advantage. Once again we were able tovisit our camp and get at our stores. Once more also we were able tocommunicate with Zambo, who had been terrified by the spectacle fromafar of an avalanche of apes falling from the edge of the cliff.
Come away, Massas, come away! he cried, his eyes starting from hishead. The debbil get you sure if you stay up there.
It is the voice of sanity! said Summerlee with conviction. We havehad adventures enough and they are neither suitable to our character orour position. I hold you to your word, Challenger. From now onwardsyou devote your energies to getting us out of this horrible country andback once more to civilization.