CHAPTER XIII
RACING FOR LIFE
At last the sea subsided, and we were able to get a better view of thearmada of small boats in our wake. There must have been two hundred ofthem. Juag said that he had never seen so many boats before in all hislife. Where had they come from? Juag was first to hazard a guess.
"Hooja," he said, "was building many boats to carry his warriors to thegreat river and up it toward Sari. He was building them with almostall his warriors and many slaves upon the Island of Trees. No one elsein all the history of Pellucidar has ever built so many boats as theytold me Hooja was building. These must be Hooja's boats."
"And they were blown out to sea by the great storm just as we were,"suggested Dian.
"There can be no better explanation of them," I agreed.
"What shall we do?" asked Juag.
"Suppose we make sure that they are really Hooja's people," suggestedDian. "It may be that they are not, and that if we run away from thembefore we learn definitely who they are, we shall be running away froma chance to live and find the mainland. They may be a people of whomwe have never even heard, and if so we can ask them to help us--if theyknow the way to the mainland."
"Which they will not,' interposed Juag.
"Well," I said, "it can't make our predicament any more trying to waituntil we find out who they are. They are heading for us now.Evidently they have spied our sail, and guess that we do not belong totheir fleet."
"They probably want to ask the way to the mainland themselves," saidJuag, who was nothing if not a pessimist.
"If they want to catch us, they can do it if they can paddle fasterthan we can sail," I said. "If we let them come close enough todiscover their identity, and can then sail faster than they can paddle,we can get away from them anyway, so we might as well wait."
And wait we did.
The sea calmed rapidly, so that by the time the foremost canoe had comewithin five hundred yards of us we could see them all plainly. Everyone was headed for us. The dugouts, which were of unusual length, weremanned by twenty paddlers, ten to a side. Besides the paddlers therewere twenty-five or more warriors in each boat.
When the leader was a hundred yards from us Dian called our attentionto the fact that several of her crew were Sagoths. That convinced usthat the flotilla was indeed Hooja's. I told Juag to hail them and getwhat information he could, while I remained in the bottom of our canoeas much out of sight as possible. Dian lay down at full length in thebottom; I did not want them to see and recognize her if they were intruth Hooja's people.
"Who are you?" shouted Juag, standing up in the boat and making amegaphone of his palms.
A figure arose in the bow of the leading canoe--a figure that I wassure I recognized even before he spoke.
"I am Hooja!" cried the man, in answer to Juag.
For some reason he did not recognize his former prisoner andslave--possibly because he had so many of them.
"I come from the Island of Trees," he continued. "A hundred of myboats were lost in the great storm and all their crews drowned. Whereis the land? What are you, and what strange thing is that whichflutters from the little tree in the front of your canoe?"
He referred to our sail, flapping idly in the wind.
"We, too, are lost," replied Juag. "We know not where the land is. Weare going back to look for it now."
So saying he commenced to scull the canoe's nose before the wind, whileI made fast the primitive sheets that held our crude sail. We thoughtit time to be going.
There wasn't much wind at the time, and the heavy, lumbering dugout wasslow in getting under way. I thought it never would gain any momentum.And all the while Hooja's canoe was drawing rapidly nearer, propelledby the strong arms of his twenty paddlers. Of course, their dugout wasmuch larger than ours, and, consequently, infinitely heavier and morecumbersome; nevertheless, it was coming along at quite a clip, and ourswas yet but barely moving. Dian and I remained out of sight as much aspossible, for the two craft were now well within bow-shot of oneanother, and I knew that Hooja had archers.
Hooja called to Juag to stop when he saw that our craft was moving. Hewas much interested in the sail, and not a little awed, as I could tellby his shouted remarks and questions. Raising my head, I saw himplainly. He would have made an excellent target for one of my guns,and I had never been sorrier that I had lost them.
We were now picking up speed a trifle, and he was not gaining upon usso fast as at first. In consequence, his requests that we stopsuddenly changed to commands as he became aware that we were trying toescape him.
"Come back!" he shouted. "Come back, or I'll fire!"
I use the word fire because it more nearly translates into English thePellucidarian word trag, which covers the launching of any deadlymissile.
But Juag only seized his paddle more tightly--the paddle that answeredthe purpose of rudder, and commenced to assist the wind by vigorousstrokes. Then Hooja gave the command to some of his archers to fireupon us. I couldn't lie hidden in the bottom of the boat, leaving Juagalone exposed to the deadly shafts, so I arose and, seizing anotherpaddle, set to work to help him. Dian joined me, though I did my bestto persuade her to remain sheltered; but being a woman, she must haveher own way.
The instant that Hooja saw us he recognized us. The whoop of triumphhe raised indicated how certain he was that we were about to fall intohis hands. A shower of arrows fell about us. Then Hooja caused hismen to cease firing--he wanted us alive. None of the missiles struckus, for Hooja's archers were not nearly the marksmen that are mySarians and Amozites.
We had now gained sufficient headway to hold our own on about eventerms with Hooja's paddlers. We did not seem to be gaining, though;and neither did they. How long this nerve-racking experience lasted Icannot guess, though we had pretty nearly finished our meager supply ofprovisions when the wind picked up a bit and we commenced to draw away.
Not once yet had we sighted land, nor could I understand it, since somany of the seas I had seen before were thickly dotted with islands.Our plight was anything but pleasant, yet I think that Hooja and hisforces were even worse off than we, for they had no food nor water atall.
Far out behind us in a long line that curved upward in the distance, tobe lost in the haze, strung Hooja's two hundred boats. But one wouldhave been enough to have taken us could it have come alongside. We haddrawn some fifty yards ahead of Hooja--there had been times when wewere scarce ten yards in advance-and were feeling considerably saferfrom capture. Hooja's men, working in relays, were commencing to showthe effects of the strain under which they had been forced to workwithout food or water, and I think their weakening aided us almost asmuch as the slight freshening of the wind.
Hooja must have commenced to realize that he was going to lose us, forhe again gave orders that we be fired upon. Volley after volley ofarrows struck about us. The distance was so great by this time thatmost of the arrows fell short, while those that reached us weresufficiently spent to allow us to ward them off with our paddles.However, it was a most exciting ordeal.
Hooja stood in the bow of his boat, alternately urging his men togreater speed and shouting epithets at me. But we continued to drawaway from him. At last the wind rose to a fair gale, and we simplyraced away from our pursuers as if they were standing still. Juag wasso tickled that he forgot all about his hunger and thirst. I thinkthat he had never been entirely reconciled to the heathenish inventionwhich I called a sail, and that down in the bottom of his heart hebelieved that the paddlers would eventually overhaul us; but now hecouldn't praise it enough.
We had a strong gale for a considerable time, and eventually droppedHooja's fleet so far astern that we could no longer discern them. Andthen--ah, I shall never forget that moment--Dian sprang to her feetwith a cry of "Land!"
Sure enough, dead ahead, a long, low coast stretched across our bow.It was still a long way off, and we couldn't make out whether it wasisland or mainland; but at least it wa
s land. If ever shipwreckedmariners were grateful, we were then. Raja and Ranee were commencingto suffer for lack of food, and I could swear that the latter oftencast hungry glances upon us, though I am equally sure that no suchhideous thoughts ever entered the head of her mate. We watched themboth most closely, however. Once while stroking Ranee I managed to geta rope around her neck and make her fast to the side of the boat. ThenI felt a bit safer for Dian. It was pretty close quarters in thatlittle dugout for three human beings and two practically wild,man-eating dogs; but we had to make the best of it, since I would notlisten to Juag's suggestion that we kill and eat Raja and Ranee.
We made good time to within a few miles of the shore. Then the winddied suddenly out. We were all of us keyed up to such a pitch ofanticipation that the blow was doubly hard to bear. And it was a blow,too, since we could not tell in what quarter the wind might rise again;but Juag and I set to work to paddle the remaining distance.
Almost immediately the wind rose again from precisely the oppositedirection from which it had formerly blown, so that it was mighty hardwork making progress against it. Next it veered again so that we hadto turn and run with it parallel to the coast to keep from beingswamped in the trough of the seas.
And while we were suffering all these disappointments Hooja's fleetappeared in the distance!
They evidently had gone far to the left of our course, for they werenow almost behind us as we ran parallel to the coast; but we were notmuch afraid of being overtaken in the wind that was blowing. The galekept on increasing, but it was fitful, swooping down upon us in greatgusts and then going almost calm for an instant. It was after one ofthese momentary calms that the catastrophe occurred. Our sail hunglimp and our momentum decreased when of a sudden a particularly vicioussquall caught us. Before I could cut the sheets the mast had snappedat the thwart in which it was stepped.
The worst had happened; Juag and I seized paddles and kept the canoewith the wind; but that squall was the parting shot of the gale, whichdied out immediately after, leaving us free to make for the shore,which we lost no time in attempting. But Hooja had drawn closer intoward shore than we, so it looked as if he might head us off before wecould land. However, we did our best to distance him, Dian taking apaddle with us.
We were in a fair way to succeed when there appeared, pouring fromamong the trees beyond the beach, a horde of yelling, painted savages,brandishing all sorts of devilish-looking primitive weapons. Somenacing was their attitude that we realized at once the folly ofattempting to land among them.
Hooja was drawing closer to us. There was no wind. We could not hopeto outpaddle him. And with our sail gone, no wind would help us,though, as if in derision at our plight, a steady breeze was nowblowing. But we had no intention of sitting idle while our fateovertook us, so we bent to our paddles and, keeping parallel with thecoast, did our best to pull away from our pursuers.
It was a grueling experience. We were weakened by lack of food. Wewere suffering the pangs of thirst. Capture and death were close athand. Yet I think that we gave a good account of ourselves in ourfinal effort to escape. Our boat was so much smaller and lighter thanany of Hooja's that the three of us forced it ahead almost as rapidlyas his larger craft could go under their twenty paddles.
As we raced along the coast for one of those seemingly interminableperiods that may draw hours into eternities where the labor issoul-searing and there is no way to measure time, I saw what I took forthe opening to a bay or the mouth of a great river a short distanceahead of us. I wished that we might make for it; but with the menaceof Hooja close behind and the screaming natives who raced along theshore parallel to us, I dared not attempt it.
We were not far from shore in that mad flight from death. Even as Ipaddled I found opportunity to glance occasionally toward the natives.They were white, but hideously painted. From their gestures andweapons I took them to be a most ferocious race. I was rather gladthat we had not succeeded in landing among them.
Hooja's fleet had been in much more compact formation when we sightedthem this time than on the occasion following the tempest. Now theywere moving rapidly in pursuit of us, all well within the radius of amile. Five of them were leading, all abreast, and were scarce twohundred yards from us. When I glanced over my shoulder I could seethat the archers had already fitted arrows to their bows in readinessto fire upon us the moment that they should draw within range.
Hope was low in my breast. I could not see the slightest chance ofescaping them, for they were overhauling us rapidly now, since theywere able to work their paddles in relays, while we three were rapidlywearying beneath the constant strain that had been put upon us.
It was then that Juag called my attention to the rift in the shore-linewhich I had thought either a bay or the mouth of a great river. ThereI saw moving slowly out into the sea that which filled my soul withwonder.