CHAPTER XVI
_Through Air and Water_
It was midday when they approached the heights they had reached on theirflight from Fire Valley. Off to one side must lie the arena with thepyramid within. And within the pyramid--! Chet took his thoughts quicklyaway from that. Or perhaps it was the shrieking chatter from ahead thatgave him other things to think of.
Towahg had heard them before, but Chet had not understood his signs. Andnow the chorus of an approaching pack of ape-men was louder with eachpassing minute. That they were coming along the same trail seemedcertain.
Towahg sprang into the air; his gnarled hands closed on a heavy vine: hewent up this hand over hand, ready to move off to one side through theleafy roof with never a sign of his going. He waited impatiently forChet to join him, and the pilot, regarding the incredible leap of thatsquat ape-man body, shook his head in despair.
"Grab a loose end," he told Towahg. "Lower a rope--a vine. Get it downwhere I can reach it!" And he raved inwardly at the blank look on thesavage face while he held himself in check and made signs over and overin an effort to get the idea across.
Towahg got it at last. He lowered a vine and hauled Chet up with jerksthat almost tore the pilot's hands from their hold on the rough bark.Then off to one side! And they waited in the shelter of concealingleaves while the yelling pack drew near and a hundred or more of themraced by along the trail below.
Invisible to Chet was the marked trail where Kreiss had gone, but thesesavage things ran at top speed and read it as they ran.
Were they puzzled by the sudden increase in markings? Did they sensethat some were more recent than those they had followed? Chet could notsay. But he saw the pack return, staring curiously about until theyswung off and vanished through the trees toward the west. And in thatdirection lay the arena and the haunt of a horror unknown.
Yet Chet lowered himself to the ground with steady hands and motionedTowahg where the yelling mob had gone.
"We'll go that way," he said; "we'll follow them up. And perhaps, if Ican only get the idea into your thick head, we can learn what theirplans are: find out if Kreiss has really thrown us in their hands--ledthem as straight as a pack of wolves could run to the quiet peace ofHappy Valley."
* * * * *
Chet might have followed them into the arena itself: he felt so keenlythat he must know with certainty whether or not the pack would continuetheir pursuit. And why had they turned back? he asked himself. Had theyreturned to acquaint their horrible god and his hypnotised slaves withwhat they had learned?
But the trail turned off from the rocky waste where the arena lay; ittook them west and south for another mile, until again to Chet's earscame the chattering bedlam of monkey-talk that was almost human. And nowthey moved more cautiously from rock to tree and through the concealingshadows until they could look into a shallow valley ahead. But beforeChet looked he was prepared for a surprising scene. For over and abovethe raucous calling of the ape-folk had come another deeper tone.
"_Gott im Himmel!_" the deep voice said. "One at a time, you _verdammt_beasts. Beat them on the head, Max; make them shut up!"
And the big bulk of Schwartzmann, when Chet first saw him, was seated ona high rock that was like a barbaric throne in a valley of green. Abouthim the ape-men leaped and grimaced and made futile animal efforts totell him of their discovery.
"They've found something, Max," Schwartzmann said to his pilot. "Get theother two men. We'll go with the dirty brutes. And if they've got windof those others--" His remarks concluded with a sputtering of profanitywhose nature was not obscured by its being given in another language.And Chet knew that the obscenities were intended for his companions andhimself.
Schwartzmann's booming voice came plainly even above the chorus ofcoughing growls and shriller chatter. Chet saw him showing his detonitepistol in a half-threatening motion, and the ape-men cringed away infear.
"Not so well trained an army, Max, that I am general of, but if we findthat man, Harkness, and his pilot and that traitor Kreiss, we will letthese soldiers of mine tear them to little bits. Now, we go!"
Max's call had brought the other two men of Schwartzmann's party, andthe black horde of ape-men broke into a wild run across the grass towardthe place where Chet and Towahg lay. The two slipped hurriedly into theconcealment of denser growth, then ran at top speed down a jungle trailthat led off to one side.
* * * * *
They were bedded down for the night on the edge of the white forest; nopersuasion of Schwartzmann's would have driven the ape-men into thedarkness of the black trees and their flashing, luminous worm-beasts.Chet and Towahg came within hearing of their encampment just at dusk,and a late-rising moon broke through the gaps in the leafy roof to makesplotched islands of gold in the velvet dark where Chet and Towahgfought the jungle so they might swing around and past the camp.Occasional grunts and scufflings showed that the ape-men were restless,and the two knew that every step must be taken in silence and everyobstructing leaf moved with no rasping friction on other leaves orbranches. But they came again to the trail, and now they were ahead ofthe pack, as the first gray light of dawn was stealing through theghostly white of the trees.
Towahg would have curled himself into a sleepy ball a score of times hadChet not driven him on, and now the pilot only allowed a few minutes forfood, where ripe purple fruit hung in clusters on the end of stems thatwere like ropes.
No use to explain to Towahg. Perhaps the ape-man thought they werehurrying to get through the black forest; he might even have thought thematter through to see the necessity for reaching their own valley andwarning the others. Certainly he had no idea of any plans other thanthese, and he must have been puzzled some several hours later when Chethalted where the trail had crossed a barren expanse of rock.
Towahg had stopped there on the way down. Then he had sniffed the air,dropped his head low and circled about, motioning Chet to follow, fromacross the clearing where he had picked up the trail. Chet knew theape-men would do the same unless they were diverted, and he had a plan.To communicate it to his assistant was his greatest problem.
* * * * *
He stopped at the clearing, while Towahg urged him on across the smoothrock. Chet shook his head and pointed away from the direction of the bigdivide, and at last he made him understand. Then Towahg did what Chetnever could have done.
He followed their former trail across the stone, his head close to theground. Now he picked a bruised leaf: again he replaced a turned stonewhose markings showed it had been displaced, and he came back over anarea that even an ape-man would not follow as being a place where menhad gone.
From where they emerged he turned as Chet had pointed, crossed theclearing as clumsily as the German scientist might have done, scuffedhis bare feet in a pocket of gravel, and pointed to soft earth whereChet might walk and leave a mark of shoes. Chet grinned happily whileTowahg did his grotesque dance that indicated satisfaction, though fromafar the first cries of the pack rang in the air.
They could never have outdistanced the apes alone, Chet knew that. Buthe also knew that Schwartzmann and the others would slow them up, and hecounted on the pack staying together on the trail as they traversed thisnew country. He entered the jungle with Towahg where their new trailled, and drove his tired muscles to greater speed while Towahg, alwaysin the lead, motioned him on.
There were stops for food at times until another night came, and Chetthrew himself down on a mat of grass and fell instantly asleep. If therewas danger abroad he neither knew nor cared. He knew only that everymuscle of his body was aching from the forced march, and that Towahg'stwitching ears were on guard.
The following day they went more slowly, stopping at times to wait forthe sounds of pursuit. They were leading the pack on a long journey;Chet wanted to be sure they were following and had not turned back. Heleft a plain mark of his boot from time to time, and knew that this markwould b
e shown to Schwartzmann. With that to lead him there would be nostopping the man: he would drive his army of blacks despite theirsuperstitious fears.
The short days and nights formed an endless succession to Chet. Onlyonce did he see a familiar place, as they passed a valley and he sawwhere their ship had rested on that earlier voyage.
"This is far enough," he told Towahg, and made himself plain with signs."Now we'll lose them; hang them right up in the air and leave themthere."
Another steep climb and a valley beyond, and in the hollow a tumblingstream. There was no need to tell Towahg what to do, for he led straightfor the water, and his thick legs churned through it as he headed downstream; nor did he stop until they had covered many miles.
Chet had wondered how they would leave the water without trace, butagain Towahg was ready. A stone where the water splashed would show nomark of bare feet. From it he leaped into the air toward a swaying vine.He missed, tried again, and finally grasped it. And the rest was arepetition of what had been done before.
* * * * *
He lowered a vine as Chet had taught him, pulled the slim figure of Chetup to the dizzy heights of the jungle trees, then took Chet's one arm ina grip of chilled steel and threw him across his back, while he swungsickeningly from limb to limb, up through the branches of anothergrotesque tree where its queerly distorted limbs sagged and swung themto its fellow some fifty feet away.
It was a wild ride for the pilot. "I've driven everything that's madewith an engine in it," he told himself, "but this one-ape-power crafthas them all stopped for thrills."
And at last when even Towahg's chest that seemed ribbed with steel, wasrising and falling with his great breaths, Chet found himself set downon the ground, and he patted the black on the shoulder in the gesturethat meant approval.
"Water and air," he said; "it'll bother them to trail us over thatroute. Towahg, you're there when it comes to trapeze work. Now, if youcan find the way back again--!"
And Towahg could, as Chet admitted when, after a series of eventlessdays, they came again to the big divide above the reaches of HappyValley.
And the grip of Harkness' hand, and the tears in Diane's eyes brought achoke to his throat until the voluble apologies of a penitent HerrKreiss and the antics of a Towahg, recipient of many approving pats,turned the emotion into the safer channel of laughter.
"But I think we switched them off for good," Chet said, in conclusion ofhis recital; "I believe we are as safe as we ever were. And I've onlyone big regret:
"If I could just have been around somewhere when friend Schwartzmannfound his scouts had led him up a blind alley, it would have been worththe trip. He did pretty well when he started cussing us out before; I'llbet he pumped his vocabulary dry on them this time."