CHAPTER XXXI
Larry and the Frog-Men
Long had been her tale in the telling, and too long, perhaps, have Ibeen in the repeating--but not every day are the mists rolled away toreveal undreamed secrets of earth-youth. And I have set it down here,adding nothing, taking nothing from it; translating liberally, it istrue, but constantly striving, while putting it into idea-forms andphraseology to be readily understood by my readers, to keep accuratelyto the spirit. And this, I must repeat, I have done throughout mynarrative, wherever it has been necessary to record conversation withthe Murians.
Rising, I found I was painfully stiff--as muscle-bound as though I hadactually trudged many miles. Larry, imitating me, gave an involuntarygroan.
"Faith, _mavourneen_," he said to Lakla, relapsing unconsciously intoEnglish, "your roads would never wear out shoe-leather, but they'vegot their kick, just the same!"
She understood our plight, if not his words; gave a soft little cry ofmingled pity and self-reproach; forced us back upon the cushions.
"Oh, but I'm sorry!" mourned Lakla, leaning over us. "I hadforgotten--for those new to it the way is a weary one, indeed--"
She ran to the doorway, whistled a clear high note down the passage.Through the hangings came two of the frog-men. She spoke to themrapidly. They crouched toward us, what certainly was meant for anamiable grin wrinkling the grotesque muzzles, baring the glisteningrows of needle-teeth. And while I watched them with the fascinationthat they never lost for me, the monsters calmly swung one arm aroundour knees, lifted us up like babies--and as calmly started to walkaway with us!
"Put me down! Put me down, I say!" The O'Keefe's voice was bothoutraged and angry; squinting around I saw him struggling violently toget to his feet. The _Akka_ only held him tighter, boomingcomfortingly, peering down into his flushed face inquiringly.
"But, Larry--darlin'!"--Lakla's tones were--well, maternallysurprised--"you're stiff and sore, and Kra can carry you quiteeasily."
"I _won't_ be carried!" sputtered the O'Keefe. "Damn it, Goodwin, thereare such things as the unities even here, an' for a lieutenant of theRoyal Air Force to be picked up an' carted around like a--like abundle of rags--it's not discipline! Put me down, ye _omadhaun_, orI'll poke ye in the snout!" he shouted to his bearer--who only boomedgently, and stared at the handmaiden, plainly for furtherinstructions.
"But, Larry--dear!"--Lakla was plainly distressed--"it will _hurt_ youto walk; and I don't _want_ you to hurt, Larry--darlin'!"
"Holy shade of St. Patrick!" moaned Larry; again he made a mightyeffort to tear himself from the frog-man's grip; gave up with a groan."Listen, _alanna_!" he said plaintively. "When we get to Ireland, youand I, we won't have anybody to pick us up and carry us about everytime we get a bit tired. And it's getting me in bad habits you are!"
"Oh, _yes_, we will, Larry!" cried the handmaiden, "because many, oh,many, of my _Akka_ will go with us!"
"Will you tell this--BOOB!--to put me down!" gritted the nowthoroughly aroused O'Keefe. I couldn't help laughing; he glared at me.
"Bo-oo-ob?" exclaimed Lakla.
"Yes, boo-oo-ob!" said O'Keefe, "an' I have no desire to explain theword in my present position, light of my soul!"
The handmaiden sighed, plainly dejected. But she spoke again to the_Akka_, who gently lowered the O'Keefe to the floor.
"I don't understand," she said hopelessly, "if you want to walk, why,of course, you shall, Larry." She turned to me.
"Do you?" she asked.
"I do not," I said firmly.
"Well, then," murmured Lakla, "go you, Larry and Goodwin, with Kra andGulk, and let them minister to you. After, sleep a little--for notsoon will Rador and Olaf return. And let me feel your lips before yougo, Larry--darlin'!" She covered his eyes caressingly with her softlittle palms; pushed him away.
"Now go," said Lakla, "and rest!"
Unashamed I lay back against the horny chest of Gulk; and with a smilenoticed that Larry, even if he had rebelled at being carried, did notdisdain the support of Kra's shining, black-scaled arm which, slippingaround his waist, half-lifted him along.
They parted a hanging and dropped us softly down beside a little pool,sparkling with the clear water that had heretofore been brought us inthe wide basins. Then they began to undress us. And at this point theO'Keefe gave up.
"Whatever they're going to do we can't stop 'em, Doc!" he moaned."Anyway, I feel as though I've been pulled through a knot-hole, and Idon't care--I don't care--as the song says."
When we were stripped we were lowered gently into the water. But notlong did the _Akka_ let us splash about the shallow basin. They liftedus out, and from jars began deftly to anoint and rub us with aromaticunguents.
I think that in all the medley of grotesque, of tragic, of baffling,strange and perilous experiences in that underground world none wasmore bizarre than this--valeting. I began to laugh, Larry joined me,and then Kra and Gulk joined in our merriment with deep batrachiancachinnations and gruntings. Then, having finished apparelling us andstill chuckling, the two touched our arms and led us out, into a roomwhose circular sides were ringed with soft divans. Still smiling, Isank at once into sleep.
How long I slumbered I do not know. A low and thunderous boomingcoming through the deep window slit, reverberated through the room andawakened me. Larry yawned; arose briskly.
"Sounds as though the bass drums of every jazz band in New York wereserenading us!" he observed. Simultaneously we sprang to the window;peered through.
We were a little above the level of the bridge, and its full lengthwas plain before us. Thousands upon thousands of the _Akka_ werecrowding upon it, and far away other hordes filled like a glitteringthicket both sides of the cavern ledge's crescent strand. On blackscale and orange scale the crimson light fell, picking them off inlittle flickering points.
Upon the platform from which sprang the smaller span over the abysswere Lakla, Olaf, and Rador; the handmaiden clearly acting asinterpreter between them and the giant she had called Nak, the FrogKing.
"Come on!" shouted Larry.
Out of the open portal we ran; over the World Heart Bridge--andstraight into the group.
"Oh!" cried Lakla, "I didn't want you to wake up so soon,Larry--darlin'!"
"See here, _mavourneen_!" Indignation thrilled in the Irishman'svoice. "I'm not going to be done up with baby-ribbons and laid away ina cradle for safe-keeping while a fight is on; don't think it. Whydidn't you call me?"
"You needed rest!" There was indomitable determination in thehandmaiden's tones, the eternal maternal shining defiant from hereyes. "You were tired and you hurt! You shouldn't have got up!"
"Needed the rest!" groaned Larry. "Look here, Lakla, what do youthink I am?"
"You're all I have," said that maiden firmly, "and I'm going to takecare of you, Larry--darlin'! Don't you ever think anything else."
"Well, pulse of my heart, considering my delicate health and generalfragility, would it hurt me, do you think, to be told what's goingon?" he asked.
"Not at all, Larry!" answered the handmaiden serenely. "Yolara wentthrough the Portal. She was very, _very_ angry--"
"She was all the devil's woman that she is!" rumbled Olaf.
"Rador met the messenger," went on the Golden Girl calmly. "The_ladala_ are ready to rise when Lugur and Yolara lead their hostsagainst us. They will strike at those left behind. And in the meantimewe shall have disposed my _Akka_ to meet Yolara's men. And on thatdisposal we must all take counsel, you, Larry, and Rador, Olaf andGoodwin and Nak, the ruler of the _Akka_."
"Did the messenger give any idea when Yolara expects to make herlittle call?" asked Larry.
"Yes," she answered. "They prepare, and we may expect them in--" Shegave the equivalent of about thirty-six hours of our time.
"But, Lakla," I said, the doubt that I had long been holding findingvoice, "should the Shining One come--with its slaves--are the Threestrong enough to cope with it?"
There was troubled doubt in her o
wn eyes.
"I do not know," she said at last, frankly. "You have heard theirstory. What they promise is that they will help. I do not know--anymore than do you, Goodwin!"
I looked up at the dome beneath which I knew the dread Trinity staredforth; even down upon us. And despite the awe, the assurance, I hadfelt when I stood before them I, too, doubted.
"Well," said Larry, "you and I, uncle," he turned to Rador, "and Olafhere had better decide just what part of the battle we'll lead--"
"Lead!" the handmaiden was appalled. "_You_ lead, Larry? Why you areto stay with Goodwin and with me--up there, there we can watch."
"Heart's beloved," O'Keefe was stern indeed. "A thousand times I'velooked Death straight in the face, peered into his eyes. Yes, and withten thousand feet of space under me an' bursting shells tickling theribs of the boat I was in. An' d'ye think I'll sit now on thegrandstand an' watch while a game like this is being pulled? Ye don'tknow your future husband, soul of my delight!"
And so we started toward the golden opening, squads of the frog-menfollowing us soldierly and disappearing about the huge structure. Nordid we stop until we came to the handmaiden's boudoir. There we seatedourselves.
"Now," said Larry, "two things I want to know. First--how many canYolara muster against us; second, how many of these _Akka_ have we tomeet them?"
Rador gave our equivalent for eighty thousand men as the force Yolaracould muster without stripping her city. Against this force, itappeared, we could count, roughly, upon two hundred thousand of the_Akka_.
"And they're some fighters!" exclaimed Larry. "Hell, with odds likethat what're you worrying about? It's over before it's begun."
"But, _Larree_," objected Rador to this, "you forget that the nobleswill have the _Keth_--and other things; also that the soldiers havefought against the _Akka_ before and will be shielded very well fromtheir spears and clubs--and that their blades and javelins can bitethrough the scales of Nak's warriors. They have many things--"
"Uncle," interjected O'Keefe, "one thing they have is your nerve.Why, we're more than two to one. And take it from me--"
Without warning dropped the tragedy!