CHAPTER V
SURPRISES
But at last the allotted moment arrived--the moment for which I hadbeen trying to prepare myself, for how long I could not even guess. Agreat Sagoth came and spoke some words of command to those who watchedover me. I was jerked roughly to my feet and with little considerationhustled upward toward the higher levels.
Out into the broad avenue they conducted me, where, amid huge throngsof Mahars, Sagoths, and heavily guarded slaves, I was led, or, rather,pushed and shoved roughly, along in the same direction that the mobmoved. I had seen such a concourse of people once before in theburied city of Phutra; I guessed, and rightly, that we were bound forthe great arena where slaves who are condemned to death meet their end.
Into the vast amphitheater they took me, stationing me at the extremeend of the arena. The queen came, with her slimy, sickening retinue.The seats were filled. The show was about to commence.
Then, from a little doorway in the opposite end of the structure, agirl was led into the arena. She was at a considerable distance fromme. I could not see her features.
I wondered what fate awaited this other poor victim and myself, and whythey had chosen to have us die together. My own fate, or rather, mythought of it, was submerged in the natural pity I felt for this lonegirl, doomed to die horribly beneath the cold, cruel eyes of her awfulcaptors. Of what crime could she be guilty that she must expiate it inthe dreaded arena?
As I stood thus thinking, another door, this time at one of the longsides of the arena, was thrown open, and into the theater of deathslunk a mighty tarag, the huge cave tiger of the Stone Age. At mysides were my revolvers. My captors had not taken them from me,because they did not yet realize their nature. Doubtless they thoughtthem some strange manner of war-club, and as those who are condemned tothe arena are permitted weapons of defense, they let me keep them.
The girl they had armed with a javelin. A brass pin would have beenalmost as effective against the ferocious monster they had loosed uponher.
The tarag stood for a moment looking about him--first up at the vastaudience and then about the arena. He did not seem to see me at all,but his eyes fell presently upon the girl. A hideous roar broke fromhis titanic lungs--a roar which ended in a long-drawn scream that ismore human than the death-cry of a tortured woman--more human but moreawesome. I could scarce restrain a shudder.
Slowly the beast turned and moved toward the girl. Then it was that Icame to myself and to a realization of my duty. Quickly and asnoiselessly as possible I ran down the arena in pursuit of the grimcreature. As I ran I drew one of my pitifully futile weapons. Ah!Could I but have had my lost express-gun in my hands at that moment! Asingle well-placed shot would have crumbled even this great monster.The best I could hope to accomplish was to divert the thing from thegirl to myself and then to place as many bullets as possible in itbefore it reached and mauled me into insensibility and death.
There is a certain unwritten law of the arena that vouchsafes freedomand immunity to the victor, be he beast or human being--both of whom,by the way, are all the same to the Mahar. That is, they wereaccustomed to look upon man as a lower animal before Perry and I brokethrough the Pellucidarian crust, but I imagine that they were beginningto alter their views a trifle and to realize that in the gilak--theirword for human being--they had a highly organized, reasoning being tocontend with.
Be that as it may, the chances were that the tarag alone would profitby the law of the arena. A few more of his long strides, a prodigiousleap, and he would be upon the girl. I raised a revolver and fired.The bullet struck him in the left hind leg. It couldn't have damagedhim much; but the report of the shot brought him around, facing me.
I think the snarling visage of a huge, enraged, saber-toothed tiger isone of the most terrible sights in the world. Especially if he besnarling at you and there be nothing between the two of you but baresand.
Even as he faced me a little cry from the girl carried my eyes beyondthe brute to her face. Hers was fastened upon me with an expression ofincredulity that baffles description. There was both hope and horrorin them, too.
"Dian!" I cried. "My Heavens, Dian!"
I saw her lips form the name David, as with raised javelin she rushedforward upon the tarag. She was a tigress then--a primitive savagefemale defending her loved one. Before she could reach the beast withher puny weapon, I fired again at the point where the tarag's neck methis left shoulder. If I could get a bullet through there it mightreach his heart. The bullet didn't reach his heart, but it stopped himfor an instant.
It was then that a strange thing happened. I heard a great hissingfrom the stands occupied by the Mahars, and as I glanced toward them Isaw three mighty thipdars--the winged dragons that guard the queen, or,as Perry calls them, pterodactyls--rise swiftly from their rocks anddart lightning-like, toward the center of the arena. They are huge,powerful reptiles. One of them, with the advantage which his wingsmight give him, would easily be a match for a cave bear or a tarag.
These three, to my consternation, swooped down upon the tarag as he wasgathering himself for a final charge upon me. They buried their talonsin his back and lifted him bodily from the arena as if he had been achicken in the clutches of a hawk.
What could it mean?
I was baffled for an explanation; but with the tarag gone I lost notime in hastening to Dian's side. With a little cry of delight shethrew herself into my arms. So lost were we in the ecstasy of reunionthat neither of us--to this day--can tell what became of the tarag.
The first thing we were aware of was the presence of a body of Sagothsabout us. Gruffly they commanded us to follow them. They led us fromthe arena and back through the streets of Phutra to the audiencechamber in which I had been tried and sentenced. Here we foundourselves facing the same cold, cruel tribunal.
Again a Sagoth acted as interpreter. He explained that our lives hadbeen spared because at the last moment Tu-al-sa had returned to Phutra,and seeing me in the arena had prevailed upon the queen to spare mylife.
"Who is Tu-al-sa?" I asked.
"A Mahar whose last male ancestor was--ages ago--the last of the malerulers among the Mahars," he replied.
"Why should she wish to have my life spared?"
He shrugged his shoulders and then repeated my question to the Maharspokesman. When the latter had explained in the strange sign-languagethat passes for speech between the Mahars and their fighting men theSagoth turned again to me:
"For a long time you had Tu-al-sa in your power," he explained. "Youmight easily have killed her or abandoned her in a strange world--butyou did neither. You did not harm her, and you brought her back withyou to Pellucidar and set her free to return to Phutra. This is yourreward."
Now I understood. The Mahar who had been my involuntary companion uponmy return to the outer world was Tu-al-sa. This was the first timethat I had learned the lady's name. I thanked fate that I had not lefther upon the sands of the Sahara--or put a bullet in her, as I had beentempted to do. I was surprised to discover that gratitude was acharacteristic of the dominant race of Pellucidar. I could never thinkof them as aught but cold-blooded, brainless reptiles, though Perry haddevoted much time in explaining to me that owing to a strange freak ofevolution among all the genera of the inner world, this species of thereptilia had advanced to a position quite analogous to that which manholds upon the outer crust.
He had often told me that there was every reason to believe from theirwritings, which he had learned to read while we were incarcerated inPhutra, that they were a just race, and that in certain branches ofscience and arts they were quite well advanced, especially in geneticsand metaphysics, engineering and architecture.
While it had always been difficult for me to look upon these things asother than slimy, winged crocodiles--which, by the way, they do not atall resemble--I was now forced to a realization of the fact that I wasin the hands of enlightened creatures--for justice and gratitude arecertain hallmarks o
f rationality and culture.
But what they purposed for us further was of most imminent interest tome. They might save us from the tarag and yet not free us. Theylooked upon us yet, to some extent, I knew, as creatures of a lowerorder, and so as we are unable to place ourselves in the position ofthe brutes we enslave--thinking that they are happier in bondage thanin the free fulfilment of the purposes for which nature intendedthem--the Mahars, too, might consider our welfare better conserved incaptivity than among the dangers of the savage freedom we craved.Naturally, I was next impelled to inquire their further intent.
To my question, put through the Sagoth interpreter, I received thereply that having spared my life they considered that Tu-al-sa's debtof gratitude was canceled. They still had against me, however, thecrime of which I had been guilty--the unforgivable crime of stealingthe great secret. They, therefore, intended holding Dian and meprisoners until the manuscript was returned to them.
They would, they said, send an escort of Sagoths with me to fetch theprecious document from its hiding-place, keeping Dian at Phutra as ahostage and releasing us both the moment that the document was safelyrestored to their queen.
There was no doubt but that they had the upper hand. However, therewas so much more at stake than the liberty or even the lives of Dianand myself, that I did not deem it expedient to accept their offerwithout giving the matter careful thought.
Without the great secret this maleless race must eventually becomeextinct. For ages they had fertilized their eggs by an artificialprocess, the secret of which lay hidden in the little cave of a far-offvalley where Dian and I had spent our honeymoon. I was none too surethat I could find the valley again, nor that I cared to. So long asthe powerful reptilian race of Pellucidar continued to propagate, justso long would the position of man within the inner world bejeopardized. There could not be two dominant races.
I said as much to Dian.
"You used to tell me," she replied, "of the wonderful things you couldaccomplish with the inventions of your own world. Now you havereturned with all that is necessary to place this great power in thehands of the men of Pellucidar.
"You told me of great engines of destruction which would cast abursting ball of metal among our enemies, killing hundreds of them atone time.
"You told me of mighty fortresses of stone which a thousand men armedwith big and little engines such as these could hold forever against amillion Sagoths.
"You told me of great canoes which moved across the water withoutpaddles, and which spat death from holes in their sides.
"All these may now belong to the men of Pellucidar. Why should we fearthe Mahars?
"Let them breed! Let their numbers increase by thousands. They willbe helpless before the power of the Emperor of Pellucidar.
"But if you remain a prisoner in Phutra, what may we accomplish?
"What could the men of Pellucidar do without you to lead them?
"They would fight among themselves, and while they fought the Maharswould fall upon them, and even though the Mahar race should die out, ofwhat value would the emancipation of the human race be to them withoutthe knowledge, which you alone may wield, to guide them toward thewonderful civilization of which you have told me so much that I longfor its comforts and luxuries as I never before longed for anything.
"No, David; the Mahars cannot harm us if you are at liberty. Let themhave their secret that you and I may return to our people, and leadthem to the conquest of all Pellucidar."
It was plain that Dian was ambitious, and that her ambition had notdulled her reasoning faculties. She was right. Nothing could begained by remaining bottled up in Phutra for the rest of our lives.
It was true that Perry might do much with the contents of theprospector, or iron mole, in which I had brought down the implements ofouter-world civilization; but Perry was a man of peace. He could neverweld the warring factions of the disrupted federation. He could neverwin new tribes to the empire. He would fiddle around manufacturinggun-powder and trying to improve upon it until some one blew him upwith his own invention. He wasn't practical. He never would getanywhere without a balance-wheel--without some one to direct hisenergies.
Perry needed me and I needed him. If we were going to do anything forPellucidar we must be free to do it together.
The outcome of it all was that I agreed to the Mahars' proposition.They promised that Dian would be well treated and protected from everyindignity during my absence. So I set out with a hundred Sagoths insearch of the little valley which I had stumbled upon by accident, andwhich I might and might not find again.
We traveled directly toward Sari. Stopping at the camp where I hadbeen captured I recovered my express rifle, for which I was verythankful. I found it lying where I had left it when I had beenoverpowered in my sleep by the Sagoths who had captured me and slain myMezop companions.
On the way I added materially to my map, an occupation which did notelicit from the Sagoths even a shadow of interest. I felt that thehuman race of Pellucidar had little to fear from these gorilla-men.They were fighters--that was all. We might even use them laterourselves in this same capacity. They had not sufficient brain powerto constitute a menace to the advancement of the human race.
As we neared the spot where I hoped to find the little valley I becamemore and more confident of success. Every landmark was familiar to me,and I was sure now that I knew the exact location of the cave.
It was at about this time that I sighted a number of the half-nakedwarriors of the human race of Pellucidar. They were marching acrossour front. At sight of us they halted; that there would be a fight Icould not doubt. These Sagoths would never permit an opportunity forthe capture of slaves for their Mahar masters to escape them.
I saw that the men were armed with bows and arrows, long lances andswords, so I guessed that they must have been members of thefederation, for only my people had been thus equipped. Before Perryand I came the men of Pellucidar had only the crudest weapons wherewithto slay one another.
The Sagoths, too, were evidently expecting battle. With savage shoutsthey rushed forward toward the human warriors.
Then a strange thing happened. The leader of the human beings steppedforward with upraised hands. The Sagoths ceased their war-cries andadvanced slowly to meet him. There was a long parley during which Icould see that I was often the subject of their discourse. TheSagoths' leader pointed in the direction in which I had told him thevalley lay. Evidently he was explaining the nature of our expeditionto the leader of the warriors. It was all a puzzle to me.
What human being could be upon such excellent terms with thegorilla-men?
I couldn't imagine. I tried to get a good look at the fellow, but theSagoths had left me in the rear with a guard when they had advanced tobattle, and the distance was too great for me to recognize the featuresof any of the human beings.
Finally the parley was concluded and the men continued on their waywhile the Sagoths returned to where I stood with my guard. It was timefor eating, so we stopped where we were and made our meal. The Sagothsdidn't tell me who it was they had met, and I did not ask, though Imust confess that I was quite curious.
They permitted me to sleep at this halt. Afterward we took up the lastleg of our journey. I found the valley without difficulty and led myguard directly to the cave. At its mouth the Sagoths halted and Ientered alone.
I noticed as I felt about the floor in the dim light that there was apile of fresh-turned rubble there. Presently my hands came to the spotwhere the great secret had been buried. There was a cavity where I hadcarefully smoothed the earth over the hiding-place of the document--themanuscript was gone!
Frantically I searched the whole interior of the cave several timesover, but without other result than a complete confirmation of my worstfears. Someone had been here ahead of me and stolen the great secret.
The one thing within Pellucidar which might free Dian and me was gone,nor was it likely that I should ever learn
its whereabouts. If a Maharhad found it, which was quite improbable, the chances were that thedominant race would never divulge the fact that they had recovered theprecious document. If a cave man had happened upon it he would have noconception of its meaning or value, and as a consequence it would belost or destroyed in short order.
With bowed head and broken hopes I came out of the cave and told theSagoth chieftain what I had discovered. It didn't mean much to thefellow, who doubt-less had but little better idea of the contents ofthe document I had been sent to fetch to his masters than would thecave man who in all probability had discovered it.
The Sagoth knew only that I had failed in my mission, so he tookadvantage of the fact to make the return journey to Phutra asdisagreeable as possible. I did not rebel, though I had with me themeans to destroy them all. I did not dare rebel because of theconsequences to Dian. I intended demanding her release on the groundsthat she was in no way guilty of the theft, and that my failure torecover the document had not lessened the value of the good faith I hadhad in offering to do so. The Mahars might keep me in slavery if theychose, but Dian should be returned safely to her people.
I was full of my scheme when we entered Phutra and I was conducteddirectly to the great audience-chamber. The Mahars listened to thereport of the Sagoth chieftain, and so difficult is it to judge theiremotions from their almost expressionless countenance, that I was at aloss to know how terrible might be their wrath as they learned thattheir great secret, upon which rested the fate of their race, might nowbe irretrievably lost.
Presently I could see that she who presided was communicating somethingto the Sagoth interpreter--doubt-less something to be transmitted to mewhich might give me a forewarning of the fate which lay in store forme. One thing I had decided definitely: If they would not free Dian Ishould turn loose upon Phutra with my little arsenal. Alone I mighteven win to freedom, and if I could learn where Dian was imprisoned itwould be worth the attempt to free her. My thoughts were interruptedby the interpreter.
"The mighty Mahars," he said, "are unable to reconcile your statementthat the document is lost with your action in sending it to them by aspecial messenger. They wish to know if you have so soon forgotten thetruth or if you are merely ignoring it."
"I sent them no document," I cried. "Ask them what they mean."
"They say," he went on after conversing with the Mahar for a moment,"that just before your return to Phutra, Hooja the Sly One came,bringing the great secret with him. He said that you had sent himahead with it, asking him to deliver it and return to Sari where youwould await him, bringing the girl with him."
"Dian?" I gasped. "The Mahars have given over Dian into the keeping ofHooja."
"Surely," he replied. "What of it? She is only a gilak," as you or Iwould say, "She is only a cow."