CHAPTER XXXII
THE MEETING OF THE BANDS
Convinced though Stern now was of the reality of the amazingsight he had just witnessed through his binoculars, yet for a longmoment he remained silent and staring, utterly at a loss for anyrational explanation of the remarkable apparition.
Exhausted in body and confused in mind, he could hit upon no answer tothe riddle.
Might these be some detached and belated members of the Horde? No; fortheir figures and their gait, as he now for the third time studiedthem through the glass, were unmistakably human.
But if not Anthropoids, then what? Enemies? Potential friends? Somenew and strange race, until now undiscovered?
A score of possible explanations struggled in his mind, only to berejected. But this was now no time for questions, analysis, orthought. For, even as he looked, the end of the line came to view,then vanished down the blackened hillside.
Invisible, now that they no longer stood silhouetted against thesky-line, the strange company had disappeared as though swallowed upby the earth. Yet Stern well knew that they were coming almostdirectly down upon him and his little party. Already there waspressing need for swift decision.
What should he do? Advance to meet these strangers? Risk all on a merechance? Or turn, retreat and hide? Or ambush them, and kill?
He found himself, for the moment, unable to make up his mind. Yet,should a pinch arise and the last contingency become necessary, hefelt a powerful advantage. He was positive his little band, armed asthey were, could easily wipe out this column. But, after all, must hefight?
His questions all unsettled and his mind confused from the terribleexhaustions of the march, he waited. He surveyed the neighborhood,with a view to possible battle.
On his left rose a ridge that swung to northward between the advancingcolumn and his own position. On his right an arroyo or gully, chokedwith fallen tree-trunks and burned forest wreckage, descended in aneasterly direction toward a rather deep valley. In this gully he sawwas ample hiding-place for his whole force.
"Men!" he addressed them; "it is strange to tell, but there be otherswho come against us there!" He pointed at the far crest of the sawlikehighlands, where now he thought to see a hazy, floating pall of dust.
"Until we know their purpose and their temper we must have care. Wemust hide ourselves and wait. Come, then, quickly! And prepare yourguns against the need of battle!"
His words aroused and heartened his exhausted men. The prospect evenof war was welcome--anything in place of this unending trek throughthe burned wilderness.
Zangamon cried: "Where be those that come, O Kromno? And what mannerof men?"
"Yonder," indicated Stern. "I know not who, save that they be men.Wait but a little and you shall know. Now to the ravine!"
All got up, and with more energy than they had shown for some time,they trailed to the gully. Here they were soon well entrenched, withweapons ready. Stern now felt confident of the situation, however itmight turn.
They waited. Some little talk trickled up and down the line, but forthe most part the men kept quiet, watching eagerly.
Now already the dust of the advancing column had grown unmistakablyvisible, drifting downwind in a thin haze that ever advanced more andmore to the southeast, came nearer always, and rose higher in theirview.
"Be ready, men," cautioned Stern. "In a few minutes, now, the foremostwill pass over that blackened hilltop there ahead of us!"
Higher and thicker grew the dust. A far, shrill cry sounded; and someminutes later the breaking of wood became audible as the column cutthrough a charred barrier.
Stern was half standing, half lying in the arroyo, only his headprojecting over a charcoal mass that once had been a date-palm.
His weapon hung, well balanced, in his hand. All along the edge of thegully other pistol and rifle barrels were poked through debris.Forgotten now were sore and wounded feet, thirst, hunger, ophthalmia,discouragement--everything. This new excitement had wiped all painaway.
Suddenly Allan started, and a little nervous thrill ran down hisspine. Over the top of the hill they all were watching a moving objecthad suddenly become visible--a head!
Another followed, and then a third, and many more; and now theshoulders and the bodies had begun to show; and now the whole advanceguard of the mysterious marching column was plainly to be seen, notmore than a quarter-mile away.
Allan jerked the binoculars to his eyes, and for a long moment peeredthrough them.
His eyes widened. An expression of blank amazement, supreme wonder andvast incredulity overspread his face.
"_What?_" he exclaimed. "But--it's impossible! I--it _can't_ be--"
Again he looked, and this time was forced to believe what seemed tohim beyond all bounds of possibility.
"_Our own people! The Folk!_" he cried in a loud voice. And before hismen could sense it he was out of the ravine.
His first thought was a relief expedition from Settlement Cliffs; buthow could there be so many? Those who had remained at the colony wereonly twenty-five, all told, and in this long line that still at a goodpace was defiling down the hillside already more than fifty had cometo view, with more and ever more still topping the rise.
Utterly at a loss though he was, incapable of seeing any clue to thetremendous riddle, he still retained enough wit to hail the column,now passing down the slope some three or four hundred yards towestward.
"Ohe, Merucaan v'yolku!" he shouted between hollowed palms. "Yomnu!Troin iska ieri!"
Already his men had scrambled from concealment, and were waving handsand weapons, cloaks, burned brush wood, anything they could lay handson, to attract attention. Their shouts and hails drowned out themaster's.
But the meaning of the words mattered little. For the column on thehillside, understanding, had stopped short in its tracks.
Then suddenly, with yells, it dissolved into confusion of itscomponent parts; and at a run the People of the Abyss swarmed to thegreeting of their kinsmen and their own, the colonists.
Barbarians as the folk still were, they met with a vociferousaffection. A regular tangi, or joy-wailing, followed, and allcrowded vociferously about Stern, with hails of "Kromno! Long liveour Kromno, our great chief!" in their own speech.
But Allan, dumfounded by this incredible happening, broke the ceremonyas short as possible. The sight of these unexpected reenforcementsdazed him. He managed to keep some coherence of thought, however, andflung rapid questions, to which he got scant answers.
Amazed, he stared at the newcomers, now shouting with their relativesfrom the colony in wild abandon. To his vast astonishment he saw thatthey had contrived eye-shields similar to those of his own party, andthat they had likewise painted their faces.
They had supplies as well-dried fish, seaweed, crated waterfowl, andeven fresh game. Allan's astonishment knew no bounds.
He laid a compelling hand on the shoulder of one, Rigvin, whom heremembered as a mighty caster of the nets on the Great Sunken Sea.
"Oh, Rigvin!" he commanded. "Come aside with me. I must have speech atonce!"
"I come, O Kromno. Speak, and I make answer!"
"How came ye here without the flying boat? How did ye escape from theAbyss? Whither went ye? Tell me all!"
"We waited, Kromno, but you came not. Did you forget your people inthe darkness?"
"No, Rigvin. There has been great distress in Settlement Cliffs. Theflying boat is lost. Even now we seek it. Enemies attacked. Wedestroyed them, but had to sweep the world with fire, as ye see. Manythings have happened to keep me from my people. But how came ye here?How have ye done this strange thing, always deemed impossible?"
"Harken, master, that I may tell it in few words! Later, when we reachthe colony whereof you have spoken, we can make all things clear; butnow is no time for a great talking."
"Go on quickly!"
"Yea, I speak. We waited for you many days, O Kromno; but you came notagain. Days on days we waited, as you measure time. Sleepings and
wakings we waited eagerly, but no sign of you was seen. Thenuneasiness and fear and sorrow fell upon us all."
"What then?"
"We held a great charweg there at the Place of Bones, near theBlazing Well, to take thought what was best to do. For you were ourchief; and our very ancient law commands that if any chief be indistress, or deemed lost, the Folk must risk all, even life, to saveand bring him once more to his own.
"For many hours our wisest men spoke. Some declared you had desertedus, but them the Folk cried down; and barely they escaped the boilingvat. We agreed some calamity had befallen. Then we swore to go torescue you!"
"Ye did?" exclaimed Stern, much moved. "Gods, what devotion! But--howdid ye ever get out of the Abyss? How find your way so straight towardSettlement Cliffs?"
"That is a strange story, and very long, O Kromno! All our elders tookthought of what ye had told us so often, and they made a picture ofthe way. We fashioned protections for the eyes and skin, as ye hadsaid.
"Then the wise men recalled all the ancient traditions, which we hadlong deemed myths. They looked, also, upon certain records graven inthe rock beyond the walls, past the place of burial. They decided theway might still be open past the Great Vortex and through the longcleft, whereby our distant fathers came.
"But they said it might mean death to try to pass the Vortex. Theyforced none to go. Only such as would need try."
"A volunteer expedition, eh?" thought Allan. "And look at the size ofit, will you? These people are without even the slightestunderstanding of fear!"
"Thus it was arranged, master," continued Rigvin. "Eight score andmore of us offered to go. All things were quickly made ready, and muchfood was packed, and many weapons. In fifteen long canoes we started,after a great singing. Men went in each canoe to bring back theboats--"
"They didn't even wait for you? But if ye had been lost, and sought toreturn, what then?"
"There was to be no return, master. All swore either to find you ordie!"
"Go on!" exclaimed Allan, deeply moved.
"We sailed across the Sunken Sea, O Kromno, and reached the islands ofthe Lanskaarn. There we had to fight and thirty were killed. But wekept on, and in two days, watching for the quiet time between thegreat tempests, entered the Vortex."
"You all got through?"
"No master. There was not time. Many were lost; but still we kept on.Then on the fourth day we reached the great cleft, even as ourtraditions said. And here we camped, and sang again, and once moreswore to find you. Then the boats all returned, and we pushed forward,upward, through the cleft."
"And then?"
Rigvin shook his head and sighed.
"O Kromno," he answered, "the story is too long! We be weary, andwould reach the place whereof ye have told us. Later there will betime for talk. But now we cannot tell it all!"
"Ye speak truth, Rigvin!" he exclaimed. "I, too, have many things totell. It cannot be this day. We will lead ye to the colony. We, too,need rest. My men are in sore straits, as ye see!"
He gestured at the groups gathered along the edge of the ravine. Agreat noise of talking rose against the heated air; and food andwater, too, were being given to the Settlement men by the newcomers.
Stern knew the day was saved. Deep gratitude upwelled in his heart.
"Nothing that I can ever do will repay men like these!" thought he.Then, all at once, a sudden hope thrilled him, and he cried:
"Oh, Rigvin, one thing more! Tell me, in your long journey from thebrink, have ye chanced to see a cleft mountain with two peaks oneither hand?"
"You mean, master--"
"A mountain; a high jut of land, with two tops, side by side--like twograve-mounds?"
Rigvin stood a moment in thought, his soot-smeared brows wrinkled withthe effort of trying to remember. Then all at once he looked upquickly with a smile.
"Yea, master!" he cried. "We saw such!"
"Where, where? For God's sake, where was it?" ejaculated Stern,gripping him by the arm with a hand that shook with sudden keenemotion.
"Where was it, master? Thus one day's marching."
Rigvin wheeled and pointed to northwestward.
"And ye can find it again?"
"Truly, yes. Why, master?"
"There, near that mountain, lies the wreck of the vlyn b'hotu, theflying boat, Rigvin! Lead us thither! We must find it. And thenSettlement Cliffs!"
Through all his exhaustion and his pain he knew that now the goal wasclose at hand. And beyond toil, suffering and hardship once morebeckoned prosperity and peace and love.