CHAPTER VII
FROM PLIGHT TO PLIGHT
I have never been much of a runner; I hate running. But if ever asprinter broke into smithereens all world's records it was I that daywhen I fled before those hideous beasts along the narrow spit of rockycliff between two narrow fiords toward the Sojar Az. Just as I reachedthe verge of the cliff the foremost of the brutes was upon me. Heleaped and closed his massive jaws upon my shoulder.
The momentum of his flying body, added to that of my own, carried thetwo of us over the cliff. It was a hideous fall. The cliff was almostperpendicular. At its foot broke the sea against a solid wall of rock.
We struck the cliff-face once in our descent and then plunged into thesalt sea. With the impact with the water the hyaenodon released hishold upon my shoulder.
As I came sputtering to the surface I looked about for some tiny foot-or hand-hold where I might cling for a moment of rest and recuperation.The cliff itself offered me nothing, so I swam toward the mouth of thefiord.
At the far end I could see that erosion from above had washed downsufficient rubble to form a narrow ribbon of beach. Toward this I swamwith all my strength. Not once did I look behind me, since everyunnecessary movement in swimming detracts so much from one's enduranceand speed. Not until I had drawn myself safely out upon the beach did Iturn my eyes back toward the sea for the hyaenodon. He was swimmingslowly and apparently painfully toward the beach upon which I stood.
I watched him for a long time, wondering why it was that such adoglike animal was not a better swimmer. As he neared me I realizedthat he was weakening rapidly. I had gathered a handful of stones tobe ready for his assault when he landed, but in a moment I let themfall from my hands. It was evident that the brute either was noswimmer or else was severely injured, for by now he was makingpractically no headway. Indeed, it was with quite apparent difficultythat he kept his nose above the surface of the sea.
He was not more than fifty yards from shore when he went under. Iwatched the spot where he had disappeared, and in a moment I saw hishead reappear. The look of dumb misery in his eyes struck a chord inmy breast, for I love dogs. I forgot that he was a vicious, primordialwolf-thing--a man-eater, a scourge, and a terror. I saw only the sadeyes that looked like the eyes of Raja, my dead collie of the outerworld.
I did not stop to weigh and consider. In other words, I did not stopto think, which I believe must be the way of men who do things--incontradistinction to those who think much and do nothing. Instead, Ileaped back into the water and swam out toward the drowning beast. Atfirst he showed his teeth at my approach, but just before I reached himhe went under for the second time, so that I had to dive to get him.
I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and though he weighed as muchas a Shetland pony, I managed to drag him to shore and well up upon thebeach. Here I found that one of his forelegs was broken--the crashagainst the cliff-face must have done it.
By this time all the fight was out of him, so that when I had gathereda few tiny branches from some of the stunted trees that grew in thecrevices of the cliff, and returned to him he permitted me to set hisbroken leg and bind it in splints. I had to tear part of my shirt intobits to obtain a bandage, but at last the job was done. Then I satstroking the savage head and talking to the beast in the man-dog talkwith which you are familiar, if you ever owned and loved a dog.
When he is well, I thought, he probably will turn upon me and attemptto devour me, and against that eventuality I gathered together a pileof rocks and set to work to fashion a stone-knife. We were bottled upat the head of the fiord as completely as if we had been behind prisonbars. Before us spread the Sojar Az, and elsewhere about us roseunscalable cliffs.
Fortunately a little rivulet trickled down the side of the rocky wall,giving us ample supply of fresh water--some of which I kept constantlybeside the hyaenodon in a huge, bowl-shaped shell, of which there werecountless numbers among the rubble of the beach.
For food we subsisted upon shellfish and an occasional bird that Isucceeded in knocking over with a rock, for long practice as a pitcheron prep-school and varsity nines had made me an excellent shot with ahand-thrown missile.
It was not long before the hyaenodon's leg was sufficiently mended topermit him to rise and hobble about on three legs. I shall neverforget with what intent interest I watched his first attempt. Close atmy hand lay my pile of rocks. Slowly the beast came to his three goodfeet. He stretched himself, lowered his head, and lapped water fromthe drinking-shell at his side, turned and looked at me, and thenhobbled off toward the cliffs.
Thrice he traversed the entire extent of our prison, seeking, Iimagine, a loop-hole for escape, but finding none he returned in mydirection. Slowly he came quite close to me, sniffed at my shoes, myputtees, my hands, and then limped off a few feet and lay down again.
Now that he was able to get around, I was a little uncertain as to thewisdom of my impulsive mercy.
How could I sleep with that ferocious thing prowling about the narrowconfines of our prison?
Should I close my eyes it might be to open them again to the feel ofthose mighty jaws at my throat. To say the least, I was uncomfortable.
I have had too much experience with dumb animals to bank very stronglyon any sense of gratitude which may be attributed to them byinexperienced sentimentalists. I believe that some animals love theirmasters, but I doubt very much if their affection is the outcome ofgratitude--a characteristic that is so rare as to be only occasionallytraceable in the seemingly unselfish acts of man himself.
But finally I was forced to sleep. Tired nature would be put off nolonger. I simply fell asleep, willy nilly, as I sat looking out tosea. I had been very uncomfortable since my ducking in the ocean, forthough I could see the sunlight on the water half-way toward the islandand upon the island itself, no ray of it fell upon us. We were wellwithin the Land of Awful Shadow. A perpetual half-warmth pervaded theatmosphere, but clothing was slow in drying, and so from loss of sleepand great physical discomfort, I at last gave way to nature's demandsand sank into profound slumber.
When I awoke it was with a start, for a heavy body was upon me. Myfirst thought was that the hyaenodon had at last attacked me, but as myeyes opened and I struggled to rise, I saw that a man was astride meand three others bending close above him.
I am no weakling--and never have been. My experience in the hard lifeof the inner world has turned my thews to steel. Even such giants asGhak the Hairy One have praised my strength; but to it is added anotherquality which they lack--science.
The man upon me held me down awkwardly, leaving me many openings--oneof which I was not slow in taking advantage of, so that almost beforethe fellow knew that I was awake I was upon my feet with my arms overhis shoulders and about his waist and had hurled him heavily over myhead to the hard rubble of the beach, where he lay quite still.
In the instant that I arose I had seen the hyaenodon lying asleepbeside a boulder a few yards away. So nearly was he the color of therock that he was scarcely discernible. Evidently the newcomers had notseen him.
I had not more than freed myself from one of my antagonists before theother three were upon me. They did not work silently now, but chargedme with savage cries--a mistake upon their part. The fact that theydid not draw their weapons against me convinced me that they desired totake me alive; but I fought as desperately as if death loomed immediateand sure.
The battle was short, for scarce had their first wild whoopreverberated through the rocky fiord, and they had closed upon me, thana hairy mass of demoniacal rage hurtled among us.
It was the hyaenodon!
In an instant he had pulled down one of the men, and with a singleshake, terrier-like, had broken his neck. Then he was upon another.In their efforts to vanquish the wolf-dog the savages forgot all aboutme, thus giving me an instant in which to snatch a knife from theloin-string of him who had first fallen and account for another ofthem. Almost simultaneously the hyaenodon p
ulled down the remainingenemy, crushing his skull with a single bite of those fearsome jaws.
The battle was over--unless the beast considered me fair prey, too. Iwaited, ready for him with knife and bludgeon--also filched from a deadfoeman; but he paid no attention to me, falling to work instead todevour one of the corpses.
The beast bad been handicapped but little by his splinted leg; buthaving eaten he lay down and commenced to gnaw at the bandage. I wassitting some little distance away devouring shellfish, of which, by theway, I was becoming exceedingly tired.
Presently, the hyaenodon arose and came toward me. I did not move. Hestopped in front of me and deliberately raised his bandaged leg andpawed my knee. His act was as intelligible as words--he wished thebandage removed.
I took the great paw in one hand and with the other hand untied andunwound the bandage, removed the splints and felt of the injuredmember. As far as I could judge the bone was completely knit. Thejoint was stiff; when I bent it a little the brute winced--but heneither growled nor tried to pull away. Very slowly and gently Irubbed the joint and applied pressure to it for a few moments.
Then I set it down upon the ground. The hyaenodon walked around me afew times, and then lay down at my side, his body touching mine. Ilaid my hand upon his head. He did not move. Slowly, I scratchedabout his ears and neck and down beneath the fierce jaws. The onlysign he gave was to raise his chin a trifle that I might better caresshim.
That was enough! From that moment I have never again felt suspicion ofRaja, as I immediately named him. Somehow all sense of lonelinessvanished, too--I had a dog! I had never guessed precisely what it wasthat was lacking to life in Pellucidar, but now I knew it was the totalabsence of domestic animals.
Man here had not yet reached the point where he might take the timefrom slaughter and escaping slaughter to make friends with any of thebrute creation. I must qualify this statement a trifle and say thatthis was true of those tribes with which I was most familiar. TheThurians do domesticate the colossal lidi, traversing the great LidiPlains upon the backs of these grotesque and stupendous monsters, andpossibly there may also be other, far-distant peoples within the greatworld, who have tamed others of the wild things of jungle, plain ormountain.
The Thurians practice agriculture in a crude sort of way. It is myopinion that this is one of the earliest steps from savagery tocivilization. The taming of wild beasts and their domesticationfollows.
Perry argues that wild dogs were first domesticated for huntingpurposes; but I do not agree with him. I believe that if theirdomestication were not purely the result of an accident, as, forexample, my taming of the hyaenodon, it came about through the desireof tribes who had previously domesticated flocks and herds to have somestrong, ferocious beast to guard their roaming property. However, Ilean rather more strongly to the theory of accident.
As I sat there upon the beach of the little fiord eating my unpalatableshell-fish, I commenced to wonder how it had been that the four savageshad been able to reach me, though I had been unable to escape from mynatural prison. I glanced about in all directions, searching for anexplanation. At last my eyes fell upon the bow of a small dugoutprotruding scarce a foot from behind a large boulder lying half in thewater at the edge of the beach.
At my discovery I leaped to my feet so suddenly that it brought Raja,growling and bristling, upon all fours in an instant. For the moment Ihad forgotten him. But his savage rumbling did not cause me anyuneasiness. He glanced quickly about in all directions as if searchingfor the cause of my excitement. Then, as I walked rapidly down towardthe dugout, he slunk silently after me.
The dugout was similar in many respects to those which I had seen inuse by the Mezops. In it were four paddles. I was much delighted, asit promptly offered me the escape I had been craving.
I pushed it out into water that would float it, stepped in and calledto Raja to enter. At first he did not seem to understand what I wishedof him, but after I had paddled out a few yards he plunged through thesurf and swam after me. When he had come alongside I grasped thescruff of his neck, and after a considerable struggle, in which Iseveral times came near to overturning the canoe, I managed to draghim aboard, where he shook himself vigorously and squatted down beforeme.
After emerging from the fiord, I paddled southward along the coast,where presently the lofty cliffs gave way to lower and more levelcountry. It was here somewhere that I should come upon the principalvillage of the Thurians. When, after a time, I saw in the distancewhat I took to be huts in a clearing near the shore, I drew quicklyinto land, for though I had been furnished credentials by Kolk, I wasnot sufficiently familiar with the tribal characteristics of thesepeople to know whether I should receive a friendly welcome or not; andin case I should not, I wanted to be sure of having a canoe hiddensafely away so that I might undertake the trip to the island, in anyevent--provided, of course, that I escaped the Thurians should theyprove belligerent.
At the point where I landed the shore was quite low. A forest of pale,scrubby ferns ran down almost to the beach. Here I dragged up thedugout, hiding it well within the vegetation, and with some loose rocksbuilt a cairn upon the beach to mark my cache. Then I turned my stepstoward the Thurian village.
As I proceeded I began to speculate upon the possible actions of Rajawhen we should enter the presence of other men than myself. The brutewas padding softly at my side, his sensitive nose constantly atwitchand his fierce eyes moving restlessly from side to side--nothing wouldever take Raja unawares!
The more I thought upon the matter the greater became my perturbation.I did not want Raja to attack any of the people upon whose friendship Iso greatly depended, nor did I want him injured or slain by them.
I wondered if Raja would stand for a leash. His head as he pacedbeside me was level with my hip. I laid my hand upon it caressingly.As I did so he turned and looked up into my face, his jaws parting andhis red tongue lolling as you have seen your own dog's beneath a lovepat.
"Just been waiting all your life to be tamed and loved, haven't you,old man?" I asked. "You're nothing but a good pup, and the man who putthe hyaeno in your name ought to be sued for libel."
Raja bared his mighty fangs with upcurled, snarling lips and licked myhand.
"You're grinning, you old fraud, you!" I cried. "If you're not, I'lleat you. I'll bet a doughnut you're nothing but some kid's poor oldFido, masquerading around as a real, live man-eater."
Raja whined. And so we walked on together toward Thuria--I talking tothe beast at my side, and he seeming to enjoy my company no less than Ienjoyed his. If you don't think it's lonesome wandering all byyourself through savage, unknown Pellucidar, why, just try it, and youwill not wonder that I was glad of the company of this first dog--thisliving replica of the fierce and now extinct hyaenodon of the outercrust that hunted in savage packs the great elk across the snows ofsouthern France, in the days when the mastodon roamed at will over thebroad continent of which the British Isles were then a part, andperchance left his footprints and his bones in the sands of Atlantis aswell.
Thus I dreamed as we moved on toward Thuria. My dreaming was rudelyshattered by a savage growl from Raja. I looked down at him. He hadstopped in his tracks as one turned to stone. A thin ridge of stiffhair bristled along the entire length of his spine. His yellow greeneyes were fastened upon the scrubby jungle at our right.
I fastened my fingers in the bristles at his neck and turned my eyes inthe direction that his pointed. At first I saw nothing. Then a slightmovement of the bushes riveted my attention. I thought it must be somewild beast, and was glad of the primitive weapons I had taken from thebodies of the warriors who had attacked me.
Presently I distinguished two eyes peering at us from the vegetation.I took a step in their direction, and as I did so a youth arose andfled precipitately in the direction we had been going. Raja struggledto be after him, but I held tightly to his neck, an act which he didnot seem to relish, for he turned on me with ba
red fangs.
I determined that now was as good a time as any to discover just howdeep was Raja's affection for me. One of us could be master, andlogically I was the one. He growled at me. I cuffed him sharplyacross the nose. He looked it me for a moment in surprisedbewilderment, and then he growled again. I made another feint at him,expecting that it would bring him at my throat; but instead he wincedand crouched down.
Raja was subdued!
I stooped and patted him. Then I took a piece of the rope thatconstituted a part of my equipment and made a leash for him.
Thus we resumed our journey toward Thuria. The youth who had seen uswas evidently of the Thurians. That he had lost no time in racinghomeward and spreading the word of my coming was evidenced when we hadcome within sight of the clearing, and the village--the first realvillage, by the way, that I had ever seen constructed by humanPellucidarians. There was a rude rectangle walled with logs andboulders, in which were a hundred or more thatched huts of similarconstruction. There was no gate. Ladders that could be removed bynight led over the palisade.
Before the village were assembled a great concourse of warriors.Inside I could see the heads of women and children peering over the topof the wall; and also, farther back, the long necks of lidi, topped bytheir tiny heads. Lidi, by the way, is both the singular and pluralform of the noun that describes the huge beasts of burden of theThurians. They are enormous quadrupeds, eighty or a hundred feet long,with very small heads perched at the top of very long, slender necks.Their heads are quite forty feet from the ground. Their gait is slowand deliberate, but so enormous are their strides that, as a matter offact, they cover the ground quite rapidly.
Perry has told me that they are almost identical with the fossilizedremains of the diplodocus of the outer crust's Jurassic age. I have totake his word for it--and I guess you will, unless you know more ofsuch matters than I.
As we came in sight of the warriors the men set up a great jabbering.Their eyes were wide in astonishment--not only, I presume, because of mystrange garmenture, but as well from the fact that I came in companywith a jalok, which is the Pellucidarian name of the hyaenodon.
Raja tugged at his leash, growling and showing his long white fangs.He would have liked nothing better than to be at the throats of thewhole aggregation; but I held him in with the leash, though it took allmy strength to do it. My free hand I held above my head, palm out, intoken of the peacefulness of my mission.
In the foreground I saw the youth who had discovered us, and I couldtell from the way he carried himself that he was quite overcome by hisown importance. The warriors about him were all fine looking fellows,though shorter and squatter than the Sarians or the Amozites. Theircolor, too, was a bit lighter, owing, no doubt, to the fact that muchof their lives is spent within the shadow of the world that hangsforever above their country.
A little in advance of the others was a bearded fellow tricked out inmany ornaments. I didn't need to ask to know that he was thechieftain--doubtless Goork, father of Kolk. Now to him I addressedmyself.
"I am David," I said, "Emperor of the Federated Kingdoms of Pellucidar.Doubtless you have heard of me?"
He nodded his head affirmatively.
"I come from Sari," I continued, "where I just met Kolk, the son ofGoork. I bear a token from Kolk to his father, which will prove that Iam a friend."
Again the warrior nodded. "I am Goork," he said. "Where is the token?"
"Here," I replied, and fished into the game-bag where I had placed it.
Goork and his people waited in silence. My hand searched the inside ofthe bag.
It was empty!
The token had been stolen with my arms!