CHAPTER IX
HOOJA'S CUTTHROATS APPEAR
I had built a little shelter of rocks and brush where I might crawl inand sleep out of the perpetual light and heat of the noonday sun. WhenI was tired or hungry I retired to my humble cot.
My masters never interposed the slightest objection. As a matter offact, they were very good to me, nor did I see aught while I was amongthem to indicate that they are ever else than a simple, kindly folkwhen left to themselves. Their awe-inspiring size, terrific strength,mighty fighting-fangs, and hideous appearance are but the attributesnecessary to the successful waging of their constant battle forsurvival, and well do they employ them when the need arises. The onlyflesh they eat is that of herbivorous animals and birds. When theyhunt the mighty thag, the prehistoric bos of the outer crust, a singlemale, with his fiber rope, will catch and kill the greatest of thebulls.
Well, as I was about to say, I had this little shelter at the edge ofmy melon-patch. Here I was resting from my labors on a certainoccasion when I heard a great hub-bub in the village, which lay about aquarter of a mile away.
Presently a male came racing toward the field, shouting excitedly. Ashe approached I came from my shelter to learn what all the commotionmight be about, for the monotony of my existence in the melon-patchmust have fostered that trait of my curiosity from which it had alwaysbeen my secret boast I am peculiarly free.
The other workers also ran forward to meet the messenger, who quicklyunburdened himself of his information, and as quickly turned andscampered back toward the village. When running these beast-men oftengo upon all fours. Thus they leap over obstacles that would slow up ahuman being, and upon the level attain a speed that would make athoroughbred look to his laurels. The result in this instance was thatbefore I had more than assimilated the gist of the word which had beenbrought to the fields, I was alone, watching my co-workers speedingvillageward.
I was alone! It was the first time since my capture that no beast-manhad been within sight of me. I was alone! And all my captors were inthe village at the op-posite edge of the mesa repelling an attack ofHooja's horde!
It seemed from the messenger's tale that two of Gr-gr-gr's great maleshad been set upon by a half-dozen of Hooja's cutthroats while theformer were peaceably returning from the thag hunt. The two hadreturned to the village unscratched, while but a single one of Hooja'shalf-dozen had escaped to report the outcome of the battle to theirleader. Now Hooja was coming to punish Gr-gr-gr's people. With hislarge force, armed with the bows and arrows that Hooja had learned fromme to make, with long lances and sharp knives, I feared that even themighty strength of the beastmen could avail them but little.
At last had come the opportunity for which I waited! I was free tomake for the far end of the mesa, find my way to the valley below, andwhile the two forces were engaged in their struggle, continue my searchfor Hooja's village, which I had learned from the beast-men lay fartheron down the river that I had been following when taken prisoner.
As I turned to make for the mesa's rim the sounds of battle cameplainly to my ears--the hoarse shouts of men mingled with thehalf-beastly roars and growls of the brute-folk.
Did I take advantage of my opportunity?
I did not. Instead, lured by the din of strife and by the desire todeliver a stroke, however feeble, against hated Hooja, I wheeled andran directly toward the village.
When I reached the edge of the plateau such a scene met my astonishedgaze as never before had startled it, for the unique battle-methods ofthe half-brutes were rather the most remarkable I had ever witnessed.Along the very edge of the cliff-top stood a thin line of mightymales--the best rope-throwers of the tribe. A few feet behind thesethe rest of the males, with the exception of about twenty, formed asecond line. Still farther in the rear all the women and youngchildren were clustered into a single group under the protection ofthe remaining twenty fighting males and all the old males.
But it was the work of the first two lines that interested me. Theforces of Hooja--a great horde of savage Sagoths and primeval cavemen--were working their way up the steep cliff-face, their agility butslightly less than that of my captors who had clambered so nimblyaloft--even he who was burdened by my weight.
As the attackers came on they paused occasionally wherever a projectiongave them sufficient foothold and launched arrows and spears at thedefenders above them. During the entire battle both sides hurledtaunts and insults at one another--the human beings naturally excellingthe brutes in the coarseness and vileness of their vilification andinvective.
The "firing-line" of the brute-men wielded no weapon other than theirlong fiber nooses. When a foeman came within range of them a noosewould settle unerringly about him and he would be dragged, fighting andyelling, to the cliff-top, unless, as occasionally occurred, he wasquick enough to draw his knife and cut the rope above him, in whichevent he usually plunged down-ward to a no less certain death than thatwhich awaited him above.
Those who were hauled up within reach of the powerful clutches of thedefenders had the nooses snatched from them and were catapulted backthrough the first line to the second, where they were seized and killedby the simple expedient of a single powerful closing of mighty fangsupon the backs of their necks.
But the arrows of the invaders were taking a much heavier toll than thenooses of the defenders and I foresaw that it was but a matter of timebefore Hooja's forces must conquer unless the brute-men changed theirtactics, or the cave men tired of the battle.
Gr-gr-gr was standing in the center of the first line. All about himwere boulders and large fragments of broken rock. I approached him andwithout a word toppled a large mass of rock over the edge of the cliff.It fell directly upon the head of an archer, crushing him to instantdeath and carrying his mangled corpse with it to the bottom of thedeclivity, and on its way brushing three more of the attackers into thehereafter.
Gr-gr-gr turned toward me in surprise. For an instant he appeared todoubt the sincerity of my motives. I felt that perhaps my time hadcome when he reached for me with one of his giant paws; but I dodgedhim, and running a few paces to the right hurled down another missile.It, too, did its allotted work of destruction. Then I picked upsmaller fragments and with all the control and accuracy for which I hadearned justly deserved fame in my collegiate days I rained down a hailof death upon those beneath me.
Gr-gr-gr was coming toward me again. I pointed to the litter of rubbleupon the cliff-top.
"Hurl these down upon the enemy!" I cried to him. "Tell your warriorsto throw rocks down upon them!"
At my words the others of the first line, who had been interestedspectators of my tactics, seized upon great boulders or bits of rock,whichever came first to their hands, and, without waiting for acommand from Gr-gr-gr, deluged the terrified cave men with a perfectavalanche of stone. In less than no time the cliff-face was strippedof enemies and the village of Gr-gr-gr was saved.
Gr-gr-gr was standing beside me when the last of the cave mendisappeared in rapid flight down the valley. He was looking at meintently.
"Those were your people," he said. "Why did you kill them?"
"They were not my people," I returned. "I have told you that before,but you would not believe me. Will you believe me now when I tell youthat I hate Hooja and his tribe as much as you do? Will you believe mewhen I tell you that I wish to be the friend of Gr-gr-gr?"
For some time he stood there beside me, scratching his head. Evidentlyit was no less difficult for him to readjust his preconceivedconclusions than it is for most human beings; but finally the ideapercolated--which it might never have done had he been a man, or Imight qualify that statement by saying had he been some men. Finallyhe spoke.
"Gilak," he said, "you have made Gr-gr-gr ashamed. He would havekilled you. How can he reward you?"
"Set me free," I replied quickly.
"You are free," he said. "You may go down when you wish, or you maystay with us. If you go you may always return. W
e are your friends."
Naturally, I elected to go. I explained all over again to Gr-gr-gr thenature of my mission. He listened attentively; after I had done heoffered to send some of his people with me to guide me to Hooja'svillage. I was not slow in accepting his offer.
First, however, we must eat. The hunters upon whom Hooja's men hadfallen had brought back the meat of a great thag. There would be afeast to commemorate the victory--a feast and dancing.
I had never witnessed a tribal function of the brute-folk, though I hadoften heard strange sounds coming from the village, where I had notbeen allowed since my capture. Now I took part in one of their orgies.
It will live forever in my memory. The combination of bestiality andhumanity was oftentimes pathetic, and again grotesque or horrible.Beneath the glaring noonday sun, in the sweltering heat of themesa-top, the huge, hairy creatures leaped in a great circle. Theycoiled and threw their fiber-ropes; they hurled taunts and insults atan imaginary foe; they fell upon the carcass of the thag and literallytore it to pieces; and they ceased only when, gorged, they could nolonger move.
I had to wait until the processes of digestion had released my escortfrom its torpor. Some had eaten until their abdomens were so distendedthat I thought they must burst, for beside the thag there had beenfully a hundred antelopes of various sizes and varied degrees ofdecomposition, which they had unearthed from burial beneath the floorsof their lairs to grace the banquet-board.
But at last we were started--six great males and myself. Gr-gr-gr hadreturned my weapons to me, and at last I was once more upon myoft-interrupted way toward my goal. Whether I should find Dian at theend of my journey or no I could not even surmise; but I was none theless impatient to be off, for if only the worst lay in store for me Iwished to know even the worst at once.
I could scarce believe that my proud mate would still be alive in thepower of Hooja; but time upon Pellucidar is so strange a thing that Irealized that to her or to him only a few minutes might have elapsedsince his subtle trickery had enabled him to steal her away fromPhutra. Or she might have found the means either to repel his advancesor escape him.
As we descended the cliff we disturbed a great pack of large hyena-likebeasts--hyaena spelaeus, Perry calls them--who were busy among thecorpses of the cave men fallen in battle. The ugly creatures were farfrom the cowardly things that our own hyenas are reputed to be; theystood their ground with bared fangs as we approached them. But, as Iwas later to learn, so formidable are the brute-folk that there are feweven of the larger carnivora that will not make way for them when theygo abroad. So the hyenas moved a little from our line of march,closing in again upon their feasts when we had passed.
We made our way steadily down the rim of the beautiful river whichflows the length of the island, coming at last to a wood rather denserthan any that I had before encountered in this country. Well withinthis forest my escort halted.
"There!" they said, and pointed ahead. "We are to go no farther."
Thus having guided me to my destination they left me. Ahead of me,through the trees, I could see what appeared to be the foot of a steephill. Toward this I made my way. The forest ran to the very base of acliff, in the face of which were the mouths of many caves. Theyappeared untenanted; but I decided to watch for a while beforeventuring farther. A large tree, densely foliaged, offered a splendidvantage-point from which to spy upon the cliff, so I clambered amongits branches where, securely hidden, I could watch what transpiredabout the caves.
It seemed that I had scarcely settled myself in a comfortable positionbefore a party of cave men emerged from one of the smaller apertures inthe cliff-face, about fifty feet from the base. They descended intothe forest and disappeared. Soon after came several others from thesame cave, and after them, at a short interval, a score of women andchildren, who came into the wood to gather fruit. There were severalwarriors with them--a guard, I presume.
After this came other parties, and two or three groups who passed outof the forest and up the cliff-face to enter the same cave. I couldnot understand it. All who came out had emerged from the same cave.All who returned reentered it. No other cave gave evidence ofhabitation, and no cave but one of extraordinary size could haveaccommodated all the people whom I had seen pass in and out of itsmouth.
For a long time I sat and watched the coming and going of great numbersof the cave-folk. Not once did one leave the cliff by any otheropening save that from which I had seen the first party come, nor didany reenter the cliff through another aperture.
What a cave it must be, I thought, that houses an entire tribe! Butdissatisfied of the truth of my surmise, I climbed higher among thebranches of the tree that I might get a better view of other portionsof the cliff. High above the ground I reached a point whence I couldsee the summit of the hill. Evidently it was a flat-topped buttesimilar to that on which dwelt the tribe of Gr-gr-gr.
As I sat gazing at it a figure appeared at the very edge. It was thatof a young girl in whose hair was a gorgeous bloom plucked from someflowering tree of the forest. I had seen her pass beneath me but ashort while before and enter the small cave that had swallowed all ofthe returning tribesmen.
The mystery was solved. The cave was but the mouth of a passage thatled upward through the cliff to the summit of the hill. It servedmerely as an avenue from their lofty citadel to the valley below.
No sooner had the truth flashed upon me than the realization came thatI must seek some other means of reaching the village, for to passunobserved through this well-traveled thoroughfare would be impossible.At the moment there was no one in sight below me, so I slid quicklyfrom my arboreal watch-tower to the ground and moved rapidly away tothe right with the intention of circling the hill if necessary until Ihad found an unwatched spot where I might have some slight chance ofscaling the heights and reaching the top unseen.
I kept close to the edge of the forest, in the very midst of which thehill seemed to rise. Though I carefully scanned the cliff as Itraversed its base, I saw no sign of any other entrance than that towhich my guides had led me.
After some little time the roar of the sea broke upon my ears. Shortlyafter I came upon the broad ocean which breaks at this point at thevery foot of the great hill where Hooja had found safe refuge forhimself and his villains.
I was just about to clamber along the jagged rocks which lie at thebase of the cliff next to the sea, in search of some foothold to thetop, when I chanced to see a canoe rounding the end of the island. Ithrew myself down behind a large boulder where I could watch thedugout and its occupants without myself being seen.
They paddled toward me for a while and then, about a hundred yards fromme, they turned straight in toward the foot of the frowning cliffs.From where I was it seemed that they were bent upon self-destruction,since the roar of the breakers beating upon the perpendicular rock-faceappeared to offer only death to any one who might venture within theirrelentless clutch.
A mass of rock would soon hide them from my view; but so keen was theexcitement of the instant that I could not refrain from crawlingforward to a point whence I could watch the dashing of the small craftto pieces on the jagged rocks that loomed before her, although Irisked discovery from above to accomplish my design.
When I had reached a point where I could again see the dugout, I wasjust in time to see it glide unharmed between two needle-pointedsentinels of granite and float quietly upon the unruffled bosom of atiny cove.
Again I crouched behind a boulder to observe what would next transpire;nor did I have long to wait. The dugout, which contained but two men,was drawn close to the rocky wall. A fiber rope, one end of which wastied to the boat, was made fast about a projection of the cliff face.
Then the two men commenced the ascent of the almost perpendicular walltoward the summit several hundred feet above. I looked on inamazement, for, splendid climbers though the cave men of Pellucidarare, I never before had seen so remarkable a feat performed. Upwardlythey moved without a
pause, to disappear at last over the summit.
When I felt reasonably sure that they had gone for a while at least Icrawled from my hiding-place and at the risk of a broken neck leapedand scrambled to the spot where their canoe was moored.
If they had scaled that cliff I could, and if I couldn't I should diein the attempt.
But when I turned to the accomplishment of the task I found it easierthan I had imagined it would be, since I immediately discovered thatshallow hand and foot-holds had been scooped in the cliff's rocky face,forming a crude ladder from the base to the summit.
At last I reached the top, and very glad I was, too. Cautiously Iraised my head until my eyes were above the cliff-crest. Before mespread a rough mesa, liberally sprinkled with large boulders. Therewas no village in sight nor any living creature.
I drew myself to level ground and stood erect. A few trees grew amongthe boulders. Very carefully I advanced from tree to tree and boulderto boulder toward the inland end of the mesa. I stopped often tolisten and look cautiously about me in every direction.
How I wished that I had my revolvers and rifle! I would not have toworm my way like a scared cat toward Hooja's village, nor did I relishdoing so now; but Dian's life might hinge upon the success of myventure, and so I could not afford to take chances. To have metsuddenly with discovery and had a score or more of armed warriors uponme might have been very grand and heroic; but it would have immediatelyput an end to all my earthly activities, nor have accomplished aught inthe service of Dian.
Well, I must have traveled nearly a mile across that mesa withoutseeing a sign of anyone, when all of a sudden, as I crept around theedge of a boulder, I ran plump into a man, down on all fours likemyself, crawling toward me.