CHAPTER XXIV
THE LAND OF THE MERUCAANS
"I'll remember," she answered simply, and for a little space therecame silence between them.
A vast longing possessed the man to take her in his arms and hold hertight, tight to his fast-throbbing heart. But he lay bound andhelpless. All he could do was call to her again, as the two canoes nowdrew on, side by side and as still others, joining them, made a littlefleet of strange, flare-lighted craft.
"Beatrice!"
"Yes--what is it?"
"Don't worry, whatever happens. Maybe there's no great harm done,after all. We're still alive and sound--that's ninety-nine per cent ofthe battle."
"How _could_ we have fallen like that and not been killed? A miracle!"
"The machine must have struck the surface on one of its long slants.If it had plunged straight down--well, we shouldn't be here, that'sall. These infernal pirates, whoever they are, must have been closeby, in their boats, and cut us loose from our straps before themachine sank, and got us into their canoes. But--"
"Without the machine, how are we ever going to get out of here again?"
"Don't bother about that now! We've got other more important things tothink of. It's all a vast and complex problem, but we'll meet it,never fear. You and I, together, are going to win! We've got to--forthe sake of the world!"
"Oh, if they'd only take us for gods, as the Horde did!"
"Gods nothing! They're as white as we are--whiter, even. People thatcan make boats like these, out of iron bars covered with pitchedfabric, and weave cloth like this they're wearing, and use oil-flaresin metal baskets, aren't mistaking us for gods. The way they'vehandled me proves it. Might be a good thing if they weren't sodevilish intelligent!"
He relapsed into silence, and for a while there came no sound but thecadenced dipping of many paddles as the boats, now perhaps a score innumber, all slowly moved across the unfathomed black as though towardsome objective common point. Each craft bore at its bow a fire-basketfilled with some spongy substance, which, oil-soaked, blazed smokilywith that peculiar blue-green light so ghostly in its waveringreflections.
Many of the folk sat in these boats, among their brown fiber nets andlong, iron-tipped lances. All alike were pale and anemic-looking,though well-muscled and of vigorous build. Even the youngest werewhite-haired. All wore their hair twisted in a knot upon the crown ofthe head; none boasted anything even suggesting a hat or cap.
By contrast with their chalky skins, white eyebrows and lashes, theirpinkish eyes--for all the world like those of an albino--blinked oddlyas they squinted ahead, as though to catch some sign of land. Everyone wore a kind of cassock of the brown coarse material; a few weregirdled with belts of skin, having well-wrought metal buckles. Theirpaddles were not of wood. Not one trace of wood, in fact, was anywhereto be seen. Light metal blades, well-shaped and riveted to ironhandles, served for propulsion.
Stern lay back, still faint and sick with the shock of the fall andwith the pain, humiliation and excitement of the capture. Yet throughit all he rejoiced that the girl and he had escaped with life and wereboth still sound of limb and faculty.
Even the loss of the machine could not destroy all his naturalenthusiasm, or kill his satisfaction in this great adventuring, hisjoy at having found after all, a remnant of the human race once more.
"Men, by the Almighty!" thought he, peering keenly at such as he couldsee through the coiling, spiraling wreaths of mist that arose from theblack water into the dun air. "Men! _White_ men, too! Given such stockto work with--provided I get the chance--who shall say anything'simpossible? If only there's some way out of this infernal hole, whatmay not happen?"
And, as he watched, he thrilled with nascent pride, with consciousnessof a tremendous mission to perform; a sense that here--here in theactual living flesh--dwelt the potentialities of all his dreams, ofall the many deep and noble plans which he and Beatrice had laid for aregenerated world!
Men they certainly were, white men, Caucasians, even like himself.Despite all changes of superficial character, their build and cast offeatures bore witness that these incredible folk, dwellers upon thatnameless and buried sea, were the long-distant descendants ofAmericans!
"Americans, so help me!" he pondered as the boats drew onward towardwhat goal he knew not. "Barbarians, yet Americans, still. And withhalf a chance at them, God! we'll work miracles yet, she and I!"
Again he raised his voice, calling to Beatrice:
"Don't be afraid, little girl! They're our own people, afterall--Americans!"
At sound of that word a startled cry broke from the lips of Stern'selder boatman, a cry which, taken up from boat to boat, drifted dullythrough the fog, traversed the whole fleet of strange, slow-movingcraft, and lost itself in the vague gloom.
"Merucaans! Merucaans!" the shout arose, with other words whereofStern knew not the meaning; and closer pressed the outlying boats. Theengineer felt a thrill run through the strange, mysterious folk.
"They knew their name, anyhow! Hurrah!" he exulted. "God! If we hadthe Stars and Stripes here, I wager a million they'd go mad about it!Remember? You bet they'll remember, when I learn their lingo and tellthem a few things! Just wait till I get a chance at 'em, that's all!"
Forgotten now his bonds and all his pain. Forgotten even the periloussituation. Stern's great vision of a reborn race had swallowed minorevils. And with a sudden glow of pride that some of his own race hadstill survived the vast world catastrophe, he cheered again, eager asany schoolboy.
Suddenly he heard the girl's voice calling to him:
"Something ahead, Allan--land, maybe. A big light through the mist!"
He wrenched his head a trifle up and now perceived that through thevapors a dim yet steady glow was beginning to shine, and on each sideof it there stretched a line of other, smaller, blue-green lights.These, haloed by the vapor with the most beautiful prismatic rings,extended in an irregular row high above water level.
Lower down other lights were moving slowly to and fro, gathering forthe most part at a point toward which the boats were headed.
"A settlement, Beatrice! A town, maybe! At last--men, _men!_" hecried.
Forward the boats moved, faster now, as the rowers bent to theirtasks; and all at once, spontaneously, a song rose up. First from oneboat, then another, that weird, strange melody drifted through thedark air. It blended into a spectral chorus, a vague, tremulous, eeriechant, ghostlike and awful, as though on the black stream of Acheronthe lost souls of a better world had joined in song.
Nothing could Stern catch of the words; but like some faint and farre-echoing of a half-heard melody, dream-music perhaps, a vaguelyreminiscent undertone struck to his heart with an irresistible,melancholy, penetrant appeal.
"That tune! I know it--if I could only think!" the engineer exclaimed."Those words! I almost seem to know them!"
Then, with the suddenness characteristic of all that drew near in thefog, the shore-lights grew rapidly bigger and more bright.
The rowers lay back on their paddles at a sharp word of command fromone of the oarsmen in Stern's boat.
Came a grating, a sliding of keels on pebbles. The boat stopped.Others came up to land. From them men began clambering.
The song died. A sound of many voices rose, as the boatmen mingledwith those who, bearing torches, now began gathering about the twocanoes where Stern and Beatrice still were.
"Well, we're here, anyhow, wherever _here_ is!" exclaimed theengineer. "Hey, you fellows, let me loose, will you? What kind of away is this to treat a stranger, I'd like to know?"
Two of the men waded through the water, tepid as new milk, to whereStern lay fast-bound, lifted him easily and carried him ashore. Blackthough the water was, Stern saw that it was clear. As the torch-lightstruck down through it, he could distinguish the clean and sandybottom shining with metallic luster.
A strange hissing sound pervaded all the air, now sinking to a dullroar, now rising shrill as a vast jet of escaping steam.
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As the tone lowered, darkness seemed to gain, through the mists; itsrising brought a clearer light. But what the phenomenon was, Sterncould not tell. For the source of the faint, diffused illuminationthat verberated through the vapor was hidden; it seemed to be a hugeand fluctuating glow, off there somewhere beyond the fog-curtain thatveiled whatever land this strange weird place might be.
Vague, silent, dim, the wraithlike men stood by, peering with bentbrows, just as Dante described the lost souls in Hell peering atVirgil in the eternal night. A dream-crew they seemed. Even thoughStern felt the vigorous muscles of the pair who now had borne him upto land, he could scarce realize their living entity.
"Beatrice! Beatrice!" he called. "Are you all right? Don't mind aboutme--just look out for yourself! If they hurt you in any way, shoot!"
"I'm all right, I'm coming!" He heard her voice, and then he saw thegirl herself. Unaided she had clambered from her boat; and now,breaking through the throng, she sought to reach him. But hands heldher back, and words of hard command rose from a score of lips.
Stern had only time to see that she was as yet unharmed when with aquick slash of a blade somebody cut the thongs that bound his feet.
Then he was pushed forward, away from the dim and ghostly sea up anacclivity of smooth black pebbles all wet with mist.
Limping stiffly, by reason of his cramped muscles, he stumbled onward,while all about him and behind him--as about the girl, whofollowed--came the throng of these strange people.
Their squinting, pinkish eyes and pallid faces showed ghastly by thetorch-glare, as, murmuring among themselves in their incomprehensibleyet strangely familiar tongue, they climbed the slope.
Even then, even there on that unknown beach beside an uncharted sea atthe bottom of the fathomless abyss, Stern thought with joy of hisrevolver which still swung on his hip.
"God knows how we're going to talk to these people," reflected he, "orwhat sort of trouble they've got ready to hand out to us. But, once Iget my right hand free--I'm ready for whatever comes!"