CHAPTER VIII
CAPTIVE
When Goork and his people saw that I had no token they commenced totaunt me.
"You do not come from Kolk, but from the Sly One!" they cried. "He hassent you from the island to spy upon us. Go away, or we will set uponyou and kill you."
I explained that all my belongings had been stolen from me, and thatthe robber must have taken the token too; but they didn't believe me.As proof that I was one of Hooja's people, they pointed to my weapons,which they said were ornamented like those of the island clan.Further, they said that no good man went in company with a jalok--andthat by this line of reasoning I certainly was a bad man.
I saw that they were not naturally a war-like tribe, for they preferredthat I leave in peace rather than force them to attack me, whereas theSarians would have killed a suspicious stranger first and inquired intohis purposes later.
I think Raja sensed their antagonism, for he kept tugging at his leashand growling ominously. They were a bit in awe of him, and kept at asafe distance. It was evident that they could not comprehend why itwas that this savage brute did not turn upon me and rend me.
I wasted a long time there trying to persuade Goork to accept me at myown valuation, but he was too canny. The best he would do was to giveus food, which he did, and direct me as to the safest portion of theisland upon which to attempt a landing, though even as he told me I amsure that he thought my request for information but a blind to deceivehim as to my true knowledge of the insular stronghold.
At last I turned away from them--rather disheartened, for I had hopedto be able to enlist a considerable force of them in an attempt to rushHooja's horde and rescue Dian. Back along the beach toward the hiddencanoe we made our way.
By the time we came to the cairn I was dog-tired. Throwing myself uponthe sand I soon slept, and with Raja stretched out beside me I felt afar greater security than I had enjoyed for a long time.
I awoke much refreshed to find Raja's eyes glued upon me. The moment Iopened mine he rose, stretched himself, and without a backward glanceplunged into the jungle. For several minutes I could hear him crashingthrough the brush. Then all was silent.
I wondered if he had left me to return to his fierce pack. A feelingof loneliness overwhelmed me. With a sigh I turned to the work ofdragging the canoe down to the sea. As I entered the jungle where thedugout lay a hare darted from beneath the boat's side, and a well-aimedcast of my javelin brought it down. I was hungry--I had not realizedit before--so I sat upon the edge of the canoe and devoured my repast.The last remnants gone, I again busied myself with preparations for myexpedition to the island.
I did not know for certain that Dian was there; but I surmised as much.Nor could I guess what obstacles might confront me in an effort torescue her. For a time I loitered about after I had the canoe at thewater's edge, hoping against hope that Raja would return; but he didnot, so I shoved the awkward craft through the surf and leaped into it.
I was still a little downcast by the desertion of my new-found friend,though I tried to assure myself that it was nothing but what I mighthave expected.
The savage brute had served me well in the short time that we had beentogether, and had repaid his debt of gratitude to me, since he hadsaved my life, or at least my liberty, no less certainly than I hadsaved his life when he was injured and drowning.
The trip across the water to the island was uneventful. I was mightyglad to be in the sunshine again when I passed out of the shadow of thedead world about half-way between the mainland and the island. The hotrays of the noonday sun did a great deal toward raising my spirits, anddispelling the mental gloom in which I had been shrouded almostcontinually since entering the Land of Awful Shadow. There is nothingmore dispiriting to me than absence of sunshine.
I had paddled to the southwestern point, which Goork said he believedto be the least frequented portion of the island, as he had never seenboats put off from there. I found a shallow reef running far out intothe sea and rather precipitous cliffs running almost to the surf. Itwas a nasty place to land, and I realized now why it was not used bythe natives; but at last I managed, after a good wetting, to beach mycanoe and scale the cliffs.
The country beyond them appeared more open and park-like than I hadanticipated, since from the mainland the entire coast that is visibleseems densely clothed with tropical jungle. This jungle, as I couldsee from the vantage-point of the cliff-top, formed but a relativelynarrow strip between the sea and the more open forest and meadow of theinterior. Farther back there was a range of low but apparently veryrocky hills, and here and there all about were visible flat-toppedmasses of rock--small mountains, in fact--which reminded me of picturesI had seen of landscapes in New Mexico. Altogether, the country wasvery much broken and very beautiful. From where I stood I counted noless than a dozen streams winding down from among the table-buttes andemptying into a pretty river which flowed away in a northeasterlydirection toward the op-posite end of the island.
As I let my eyes roam over the scene I suddenly became aware of figuresmoving upon the flat top of a far-distant butte. Whether they werebeast or human, though, I could not make out; but at least they werealive, so I determined to prosecute my search for Hooja's stronghold inthe general direction of this butte.
To descend to the valley required no great effort. As I swung alongthrough the lush grass and the fragrant flowers, my cudgel swinging inmy hand and my javelin looped across my shoulders with its aurochs-hidestrap, I felt equal to any emergency, ready for any danger.
I had covered quite a little distance, and I was passing through astrip of wood which lay at the foot of one of the flat-topped hills,when I became conscious of the sensation of being watched. My lifewithin Pellucidar has rather quickened my senses of sight, hearing, andsmell, and, too, certain primitive intuitive or instinctive qualitiesthat seem blunted in civilized man. But, though I was positive thateyes were upon me, I could see no sign of any living thing within thewood other than the many, gay-plumaged birds and little monkeys whichfilled the trees with life, color, and action.
To you it may seem that my conviction was the result of an overwroughtimagination, or to the actual reality of the prying eyes of the littlemonkeys or the curious ones of the birds; but there is a differencewhich I cannot explain between the sensation of casual observation andstudied espionage. A sheep might gaze at you without transmitting awarning through your subjective mind, because you are in no danger froma sheep. But let a tiger gaze fixedly at you from ambush, and unlessyour primitive instincts are completely calloused you will presentlycommence to glance furtively about and be filled with vague,unreasoning terror.
Thus was it with me then. I grasped my cudgel more firmly and unslungmy javelin, carrying it in my left hand. I peered to left and right,but I saw nothing. Then, all quite suddenly, there fell about my neckand shoulders, around my arms and body, a number of pliant fiber ropes.
In a jiffy I was trussed up as neatly as you might wish. One of thenooses dropped to my ankles and was jerked up with a suddenness thatbrought me to my face upon the ground. Then something heavy and hairysprang upon my back. I fought to draw my knife, but hairy handsgrasped my wrists and, dragging them behind my back, bound themsecurely.
Next my feet were bound. Then I was turned over upon my back to lookup into the faces of my captors.
And what faces! Imagine if you can a cross between a sheep and agorilla, and you will have some conception of the physiognomy of thecreature that bent close above me, and of those of the half-dozenothers that clustered about. There was the facial length and greateyes of the sheep, and the bull-neck and hideous fangs of the gorilla.The bodies and limbs were both man and gorilla-like.
As they bent over me they conversed in a mono-syllabic tongue that wasperfectly intelligible to me. It was something of a simplifiedlanguage that had no need for aught but nouns and verbs, but such wordsas it included were the same as those of the human beings ofPellucidar. It was am
plified by many gestures which filled in thespeech-gaps.
I asked them what they intended doing with me; but, like our own NorthAmerican Indians when questioned by a white man, they pretended not tounderstand me. One of them swung me to his shoulder as lightly as if Ihad been a shoat. He was a huge creature, as were his fellows,standing fully seven feet upon his short legs and weighing considerablymore than a quarter of a ton.
Two went ahead of my bearer and three behind. In this order we cut tothe right through the forest to the foot of the hill where precipitouscliffs appeared to bar our farther progress in this direction. But myescort never paused. Like ants upon a wall, they scaled that seeminglyunscalable barrier, clinging, Heaven knows how, to its raggedperpendicular face. During most of the short journey to the summit Imust admit that my hair stood on end. Presently, however, we toppedthe thing and stood upon the level mesa which crowned it.
Immediately from all about, out of burrows and rough, rocky lairs,poured a perfect torrent of beasts similar to my captors. Theyclustered about, jabbering at my guards and attempting to get theirhands upon me, whether from curiosity or a desire to do me bodily harmI did not know, since my escort with bared fangs and heavy blows keptthem off.
Across the mesa we went, to stop at last before a large pile of rocksin which an opening appeared. Here my guards set me upon my feet andcalled out a word which sounded like "Gr-gr-gr!" and which I laterlearned was the name of their king.
Presently there emerged from the cavernous depths of the lair amonstrous creature, scarred from a hundred battles, almost hairless andwith an empty socket where one eye had been. The other eye, sheeplikein its mildness, gave the most startling appearance to the beast, whichbut for that single timid orb was the most fearsome thing that onecould imagine.
I had encountered the black, hairless, long-tailed ape--things of themainland--the creatures which Perry thought might constitute the linkbetween the higher orders of apes and man--but these brute-men ofGr-gr-gr seemed to set that theory back to zero, for there was lesssimilarity between the black ape-men and these creatures than there wasbetween the latter and man, while both had many human attributes, someof which were better developed in one species and some in the other.
The black apes were hairless and built thatched huts in their arborealretreats; they kept domesticated dogs and ruminants, in which respectthey were farther advanced than the human beings of Pellucidar; butthey appeared to have only a meager language, and sported long, apeliketails.
On the other hand, Gr-gr-gr's people were, for the most part, quitehairy, but they were tailless and had a language similar to that of thehuman race of Pellucidar; nor were they arboreal. Their skins, whereskin showed, were white.
From the foregoing facts and others that I have noted during my longlife within Pellucidar, which is now passing through an age analogousto some pre-glacial age of the outer crust, I am constrained to thebelief that evolution is not so much a gradual transition from one formto another as it is an accident of breeding, either by crossing or thehazards of birth. In other words, it is my belief that the first manwas a freak of nature--nor would one have to draw overstrongly uponhis credulity to be convinced that Gr-gr-gr and his tribe were alsofreaks.
The great man-brute seated himself upon a flat rock--his throne, Iimagine--just before the entrance to his lair. With elbows on kneesand chin in palms he regarded me intently through his lone sheep-eyewhile one of my captors told of my taking.
When all had been related Gr-gr-gr questioned me. I shall not attemptto quote these people in their own abbreviated tongue--you would haveeven greater difficulty in interpreting them than did I. Instead, Ishall put the words into their mouths which will carry to you the ideaswhich they intended to convey.
"You are an enemy," was Gr-gr-gr's initial declaration. "You belong tothe tribe of Hooja."
Ah! So they knew Hooja and he was their enemy! Good!
"I am an enemy of Hooja," I replied. "He has stolen my mate and I havecome here to take her away from him and punish Hooja."
"How could you do that alone?"
"I do not know," I answered, "but I should have tried had you notcaptured me. What do you intend to do with me?"
"You shall work for us."
"You will not kill me?" I asked.
"We do not kill except in self-defense," he replied; "self-defense andpunishment. Those who would kill us and those who do wrong we kill.If we knew you were one of Hooja's people we might kill you, for allHooja's people are bad people; but you say you are an enemy of Hooja.You may not speak the truth, but until we learn that you have lied weshall not kill you. You shall work."
"If you hate Hooja," I suggested, "why not let me, who hate him, too,go and punish him?"
For some time Gr-gr-gr sat in thought. Then he raised his head andaddressed my guard.
"Take him to his work," he ordered.
His tone was final. As if to emphasize it he turned and entered hisburrow. My guard conducted me farther into the mesa, where we camepresently to a tiny depression or valley, at one end of which gushed awarm spring.
The view that opened before me was the most surprising that I have everseen. In the hollow, which must have covered several hundred acres,were numerous fields of growing things, and working all about withcrude implements or with no implements at all other than their barehands were many of the brute-men engaged in the first agriculture thatI had seen within Pellucidar.
They put me to work cultivating in a patch of melons.
I never was a farmer nor particularly keen for this sort of work, and Iam free to confess that time never had dragged so heavily as it didduring the hour or the year I spent there at that work. How long itreally was I do not know, of course; but it was all too long.
The creatures that worked about me were quite simple and friendly. Oneof them proved to be a son of Gr-gr-gr. He had broken some minortribal law, and was working out his sentence in the fields. He told methat his tribe had lived upon this hilltop always, and that there wereother tribes like them dwelling upon other hilltops. They had no warsand had always lived in peace and harmony, menaced only by the largercarnivora of the island, until my kind had come under a creature calledHooja, and attacked and killed them when they chanced to descend fromtheir natural fortresses to visit their fellows upon other lofty mesas.
Now they were afraid; but some day they would go in a body and fallupon Hooja and his people and slay them all. I explained to him that Iwas Hooja's enemy, and asked, when they were ready to go, that I beallowed to go with them, or, better still, that they let me go aheadand learn all that I could about the village where Hooja dwelt so thatthey might attack it with the best chance of success.
Gr-gr-gr's son seemed much impressed by my suggestion. He said thatwhen he was through in the fields he would speak to his father aboutthe matter.
Some time after this Gr-gr-gr came through the fields where we were,and his son spoke to him upon the subject, but the old gentleman wasevidently in anything but a good humor, for he cuffed the youngsterand, turning upon me, informed me that he was convinced that I had liedto him, and that I was one of Hooja's people.
"Wherefore," he concluded, "we shall slay you as soon as the melons arecultivated. Hasten, therefore."
And hasten I did. I hastened to cultivate the weeds which grew amongthe melon-vines. Where there had been one sickly weed before, Inourished two healthy ones. When I found a particularly promisingvariety of weed growing elsewhere than among my melons, I forthwith dugit up and transplanted it among my charges.
My masters did not seem to realize my perfidy. They saw me alwayslaboring diligently in the melon-patch, and as time enters not into thereckoning of Pellucidarians--even of human beings and much less ofbrutes and half brutes--I might have lived on indefinitely through thissubterfuge had not that occurred which took me out of the melon-patchfor good and all.