Books: Pellucidar

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As the attackers came on they paused occasionally wherever a
projection gave them sufficient foothold and launched arrows and
spears at the defenders above them. During the entire battle both
sides hurled taunts and insults at one another--the human beings
naturally excelling the brutes in the coarseness and vileness of
their vilification and invective.

The "firing-line" of the brute-men wielded no weapon other than
their long fiber nooses. When a foeman came within range of them
a noose would settle unerringly about him and be would be dragged,
fighting and yell-ing, to the cliff-top, unless, as occasionally
occurred, he was quick enough to draw his knife and cut the rope
above him, in which event he usually plunged down-ward to a no less
certain death than that which awaited him above.

Those who were hauled up within reach of the power-ful clutches of
the defenders had the nooses snatched from them and were catapulted
back through the first line to the second, where they were seized
and killed by the simple expedient of a single powerful closing of
mighty fangs upon the backs of their necks.

But the arrows of the invaders were taking a much heavier toll
than the nooses of the defenders and I fore-saw that it was but a
matter of time before Hooja's forces must conquer unless the brute-men
changed their tactics, or the cave men tired of the battle.

Gr-gr-gr was standing in the center of the first line. All about
him were boulders and large fragments of broken rock. I approached
him and without a word toppled a large mass of rock over the edge
of the cliff. It fell directly upon the head of an archer, crush-ing
him to instant death and carrying his mangled corpse with it to
the bottom of the declivity, and on its way brushing three more of
the attackers into the here-after.

Gr-gr-gr turned toward me in surprise. For an in-stant he appeared
to doubt the sincerity of my motives. I felt that perhaps my time
had come when he reached for me with one of his giant paws; but I
dodged him, and running a few paces to the right hurled down another
missile. It, too, did its allotted work of destruc-tion. Then I
picked up smaller fragments and with all the control and accuracy
for which I had earned justly deserved fame in my collegiate days
I rained down a hail of death upon those beneath me.

Gr-gr-gr was coming toward me again. I pointed to the litter of
rubble upon the cliff-top.

"Hurl these down upon the enemy!" I cried to him. "Tell your
warriors to throw rocks down upon them!"

At my words the others of the first line, who had been interested
spectators of my tactics, seized upon great boulders or bits of
rock, whichever came first to their hands, and, without, waiting
for a command from Gr-gr-gr, deluged the terrified cave men with
a perfect avalanche of stone. In less than no time the cliff-face
was stripped of enemies and the village of Gr-gr-gr was saved.

Gr-gr-gr was standing beside me when the last of the cave men
disappeared in rapid flight down the valley. He was looking at me
intently.

"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
you that I hate Hooja and his tribe as much as you do? Will you
believe me when 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. Evidently
it was no less difficult for him to readjust his preconceived
conclusions than it is for most human beings; but finally the
idea percolated--which it might never have done had he been a man,
or I might qualify that statement by saying had he been some men.
Finally he spoke.

"Gilak," he said, "you have made Gr-gr-gr ashamed. He would have
killed 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
may stay with us. If you go you may always return. We are your
friends."

Naturally, I elected to go. I explained all over again to Gr-gr-gr
the nature of my mission. He listened atten-tively; after I had
done he offered to send some of his people with me to guide me to
Hooja's village. I was not slow in accepting his offer.

First, however, we must eat. The hunters upon whom Hooja's men had
fallen had brought back the meat of a great thag. There would be
a feast to commemorate the victory--a feast and dancing.

I had never witnessed a tribal function of the brute-folk, though
I had often heard strange sounds coming from the village, where I
had not been allowed since my capture. Now I took part in one of
their orgies.

It will live forever in my memory. The combination of bestiality
and humanity was oftentimes pathetic, and again grotesque or horrible.
Beneath the glaring noonday sun, in the sweltering heat of the
mesa-top, the huge, hairy creatures leaped in a great circle. They
coiled and threw their fiber-ropes; they hurled taunts and insults
at an imaginary foe; they fell upon the carcass of the thag and
literally tore it to pieces; and they ceased only when, gorged,
they could no longer move.

I had to wait until the processes of digestion had re-leased my
escort from its torpor. Some had eaten until their abdomens were
so distended that I thought they must burst, for beside the thag
there had been fully a hundred antelopes of various sizes and varied
degrees of decomposition, which they had unearthed from bur-ial
beneath the floors of their lairs to grace the banquet-board.

But at last we were started--six great males and myself. Gr-gr-gr
had returned my weapons to me, and at last I was once more upon
my oft-interrupted way toward my goal. Whether I should find Dian
at the end of my journey or no I could not even surmise; but I was
none the less impatient to be off, for if only the worst lay in
store for me I wished to know even the worst at once.

I could scarce believe that my proud mate would still be alive in
the power of Hooja; but time upon Pellucidar is so strange a thing
that I realized that to her or to him only a few minutes might have
elapsed since his subtle trickery had enabled him to steal her away
from Phutra. Or she might have found the means either to repel
his advances or escape him.

As we descended the cliff we disturbed a great pack of large hyena-like
beasts--hyaena spelaeus, Perry calls them--who were busy among the
corpses of the cave men fallen in battle. The ugly creatures were
far from the cowardly things that our own hyenas are reputed to
be; they stood their ground with bared fangs as we approached them.
But, as I was later to learn, so for-midable are the brute-folk
that there are few even of the larger carnivora that will not make
way for them when they go 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 beau-tiful river which
flows the length of the island, coming at last to a wood rather
denser than any that I had be-fore encountered in this country.
Well within this 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
steep hill. Toward this I made my way. The forest ran to the very
base of a cliff, in the face of which were the mouths of many
caves. They appeared untenanted; but I decided to watch for a
while before venturing farther. A large tree, densely foliaged,
offered a splendid vantage-point from which to spy upon the cliff,
so I clambered among its branches where, securely hidden, I could
watch what transpired about the caves.

It seemed that I had scarcely settled myself in a comfortable
position before a party of cave men emerged from one of the smaller
apertures in the cliff-face, about fifty feet from the base. They
descended into the forest and disappeared. Soon after came sev-eral
others from the same cave, and after them, at a short interval, a
score of women and children, who came into the wood to gather fruit.
There were several war-riors with them--a guard, I presume.

After this came other parties, and two or three groups who passed
out of the forest and up the cliff-face to enter the same cave.
I could not understand it. All who came out had emerged from the
same cave. All who returned reentered it. No other cave gave
evidence of habitation, and no cave but one of extraordinary size
could have accommodated all the people whom I had seen pass in and
out of its mouth.

For a long time I sat and watched the coming and going of great
numbers of the cave-folk. Not once did one leave the cliff by
any other opening save that from which I had seen the first party
come, nor did any re-enter the cliff through another aperture.

What a cave it must be, I thought, that houses an en-tire tribe!
But dissatisfied of the truth of my surmise, I climbed higher among
the branches of the tree that I might get a better view of other
portions of the cliff. High above the ground I reached a point
whence I could see the summit of the hill. Evidently it was
a flat-topped butte similar 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
that of a young girl in whose hair was a gorgeous bloom plucked from
some flowering tree of the forest. I had seen her pass beneath me
but a short while before and enter the small cave that had swallowed
all of the returning tribesmen.

The mystery was solved. The cave was but the mouth of a passage
that led upward through the cliff to the summit of the hill. It
served merely as an avenue from their lofty citadel to the valley
below.

No sooner had the truth flashed upon me than the realization came
that I must seek some other means of reaching the village, for to
pass unobserved through this well-traveled thoroughfare would be
impossible. At the moment there was no one in sight below me, so
I slid quickly from my arboreal watch-tower to the ground and moved
rapidly away to the right with the intention of circling the hill
if necessary until I had found an un-watched spot where I might
have some slight chance of scaling the heights and reaching the
top unseen.

I kept close to the edge of the forest, in the very midst of which
the hill seemed to rise. Though I carefully scanned the cliff as
I traversed its base, I saw no sign of any other entrance than that
to which my guides had led me.

After some little time the roar of the sea broke upon my ears.
Shortly after I came upon the broad ocean which breaks at this
point at the very foot of the great hill where Hooja had found safe
refuge for himself and his villains.

I was just about to clamber along the jagged rocks which lie at
the base of the cliff next to the sea, in search of some foothold
to the top, when I chanced to see a canoe rounding the end of the
island. I threw my-self down behind a large boulder where I could
watch the dugout and its occupants without myself being seen.

They paddled toward me for a while and then, about a hundred yards
from me, 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
perpen-dicular rock-face appeared to offer only death to any one
who might venture within their relentless clutch.

A mass of rock would soon hide them from my view; but so keen was
the excitement of the instant that I could not refrain from crawling
forward to a point whence I could watch the dashing of the small
craft to pieces on the jagged rocks that loomed before her, al-though
I risked discovery from above to accomplish my design.

When I had reached a point where I could again see the dugout, I was
just in time to see it glide un-harmed between two needle-pointed
sentinels of granite and float quietly upon the unruffled bosom of
a tiny 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 was tied to the boat, was made fast about a projection of
the cliff face.

Then the two men commenced the ascent of the almost perpendicular
wall toward the summit several hundred feet above. I looked on in
amazement, for, splendid climbers though the cave men of Pellucidar
are, I never before had seen so remarkable a feat per-formed.
Upwardly they moved without a pause, to dis-appear at last over
the summit.

When I felt reasonably sure that they had gone for a while at least
I crawled from my hiding-place and at the risk of a broken neck
leaped and scrambled to the spot where their canoe was moored.

If they had scaled that cliff I could, and if I couldn't I should
die in the attempt.

But when I turned to the accomplishment of the task I found it easier
than I had imagined it would be, since I immediately discovered
that shallow 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
I raised my head until my eyes were above the cliff-crest. Before
me spread a rough mesa, liberally sprinkled with large boulders.
There was no village in sight nor any living creature.

I drew myself to level ground and stood erect. A few trees grew
among the boulders. Very carefully I ad-vanced from tree to tree
and boulder to boulder toward the inland end of the mesa. I stopped
often to listen and look cautiously about me in every direction.

How I wished that I had my revolvers and rifle! I would not have
to worm my way like a scared cat toward Hooja's village, nor did I
relish doing so now; but Dian's life might hinge upon the success
of my venture, and so I could not afford to take chances. To
have met suddenly with discovery and had a score or more of armed
warriors upon me might have been very grand and heroic; but it would
have immediately put an end to all my earthly activities, nor have
accomplished aught in the service of Dian.

Well, I must have traveled nearly a mile across that mesa without
seeing a sign of anyone, when all of a sud-den, as I crept around
the edge of a boulder, I ran plump into a man, down on all fours
like myself, crawl-ing toward me.

CHAPTER X

THE RAID ON THE CAVE-PRISON

His head was turned over his shoulder as I first saw him--he was
looking back toward the village. As I leaped for him his eyes
fell upon me. Never in my life have I seen a more surprised mortal
than this poor cave man. Before he could utter a single scream
of warning or alarm I had my fingers on his throat and had dragged
him behind the boulder, where I proceeded to sit upon him, while
I figured out what I had best do with him.

He struggled a little at first, but finally lay still, and so I
released the pressure of my fingers at his windpipe, for which I
imagine he was quite thankful--I know that I should have been.

I hated to kill him in cold blood; but what else I was to do with
him I could not see, for to turn him loose would have been merely
to have the entire village aroused and down upon me in a moment.
The fellow lay looking up at me with the surprise still deeply
writ-ten on his countenance. At last, all of a sudden, a look of
recognition entered his eyes.

"I have seen you before," he said. "I saw you in the arena at the
Mahars' city of Phutra when the thipdars dragged the tarag from
you and your mate. I never understood that. Afterward they put
me in the arena with two warriors from Gombul."

He smiled in recollection.

"It would have been the same had there been ten warriors from
Gombul. I slew them, winning my free-dom. Look!"

He half turned his left shoulder toward me, exhibiting the newly
healed scar of the Mahars' branded mark.

"Then," he continued, "as I was returning to my peo-ple I met some
of them fleeing. They told me that one called Hooja the Sly One
had come and seized our village, putting our people into slavery.
So I hurried hither to learn the truth, and, sure enough, here I
found Hooja and his wicked men living in my village, and my father's
people but slaves among them.

"I was discovered and captured, but Hooja did not kill me. I am
the chief's son, and through me he hoped to win my father's warriors
back to the village to help him in a great war he says that he will
soon commence.

"Among his prisoners is Dian the Beautiful One, whose brother, Dacor
the Strong One, chief of Amoz, once saved my life when he came to
Thuria to steal a mate. I helped him capture her, and we are good
friends. So when I learned that Dian the Beautiful One was Hooja's
prisoner, I told him that I would not aid him if he harmed her.

"Recently one of Hooja's warriors overheard me talk-ing with
another prisoner. We were planning to combine all the prisoners,
seize weapons, and when most of Hooja's warriors were away, slay
the rest and retake our hilltop. Had we done so we could have held
it, for there are only two entrances--the narrow tunnel at one end
and the steep path up the cliffs at the other.

"But when Hooja heard what we had planned he was very angry, and
ordered that I die. They bound me hand and foot and placed me in
a cave until all the warriors should return to witness my death;
but while they were away I heard someone calling me in a muffled
voice which seemed to come from the wall of the cave. When I replied
the voice, which was a woman's, told me that she had overheard all
that had passed between me and those who had brought me thither,
and that she was Dacor's sister and would find a way to help me.

"Presently a little hole appeared in the wall at the point from which
the voice had come. After a time I saw a woman's hand digging with
a bit of stone. Dacor's sister made a hole in the wall between
the cave where I lay bound and that in which she had been confined,
and soon she was by my side and had cut my bonds.

"We talked then, and I offered to make the attempt to take her away
and back to the land of Sari, where she told me she would be able
to learn the whereabouts of her mate. Just now I was going to the
other end of the island to see if a boat lay there, and if the way
was clear for our escape. Most of the boats are always away now,
for a great many of Hooja's men and nearly all the slaves are upon
the Island of Trees, where Hooja is hav-ing many boats built to
carry his warriors across the water to the mouth of a great river
which he discovered while he was returning from Phutra--a vast
river that empties into the sea there."

The speaker pointed toward the northeast. "It is wide and smooth
and slow-running almost to the land of Sari," he added.

"And where is Dian the Beautiful One now?" I asked.

I had released my prisoner as soon as I found that he was Hooja's
enemy, and now the pair of us were squat-ting beside the boulder
while he told his story.

"She returned to the cave where she had been im-prisoned," he
replied, "and is awaiting me there."

"There is no danger that Hooja will come while you are away?"

"Hooja is upon the Island of Trees," he replied.

"Can you direct me to the cave so that I can find it alone?" I
asked.

He said he could, and in the strange yet explicit fash-ion of the
Pellucidarians he explained minutely how I might reach the cave
where he had been imprisoned, and through the hole in its wall
reach Dian.

I thought it best for but one of us to return, since two could
accomplish but little more than one and would double the risk of
discovery. In the meantime he could make his way to the sea and
guard the boat, which I told him lay there at the foot of the cliff.

I told him to await us at the cliff-top, and if Dian came alone to
do his best to get away with her and take her to Sari, as I thought
it quite possible that, in case of detection and pursuit, it might
be necessary for me to hold off Hooja's people while Dian made her
way alone to where my new friend was to await her. I impressed
upon him the fact that he might have to resort to trick-ery or even
to force to get Dian to leave me; but I made him promise that he
would sacrifice everything, even his life, in an attempt to rescue
Dacor's sister.

Then we parted--he to take up his position where he could watch the
boat and await Dian, I to crawl cau-tiously on toward the caves.
I had no difficulty in fol-lowing the directions given me by Juag,
the name by which Dacor's friend said he was called. There was the
leaning tree, my first point he told me to look for after rounding
the boulder where we had met. After that I crawled to the balanced
rock, a huge boulder resting upon a tiny base no larger than the
palm of your hand.

From here I had my first view of the village of caves. A low bluff
ran diagonally across one end of the mesa, and in the face of this
bluff were the mouths of many caves. Zig-zag trails led up to them,
and narrow ledges scooped from the face of the soft rock connected
those upon the same level.

The cave in which Juag had been confined was at the extreme end of
the cliff nearest me. By taking advan-tage of the bluff itself,
I could approach within a few feet of the aperture without being
visible from any other cave. There were few people about at the
time; most of these were congregated at the foot of the far end of
the bluff, where they were so engrossed in ex-cited conversation
that I felt but little fear of detection. However I exercised
the greatest care in approaching the cliff. After watching for a
while until I caught an in-stant when every head was turned away
from me, I darted, rabbitlike, into the cave.

Like many of the man-made caves of Pellucidar, this one consisted
of three chambers, one behind another, and all unlit except for what
sunlight filtered in through the external opening. The result was
gradually increas-ing darkness as one passed into each succeeding
cham-ber.

In the last of the three I could just distinguish objects, and that
was all. As I was groping around the walls for the hole that should
lead into the cave where Dian was imprisoned, I heard a man's voice
quite close to me.

The speaker had evidently but just entered, for he spoke in a loud
tone, demanding the whereabouts of one whom he had come in search
of.

"Where are you, woman?" he cried. "Hooja has sent for you."

And then a woman's voice answered him:

"And what does Hooja want of me?"

The voice was Dian's. I groped in the direction of the sounds,
feeling for the hole.

"He wishes you brought to the Island of Trees," replied the man;
"for he is ready to take you as his mate."

"I will not go," said Dian. "I will die first."

"I am sent to bring you, and bring you I shall."

I could hear him crossing the cave toward her.

Frantically I clawed the wall of the cave in which I was in an
effort to find the elusive aperture that would lead me to Dian's
side.

I heard the sound of a scuffle in the next cave. Then my fingers
sank into loose rock and earth in the side of the cave. In an
instant I realized why I had been unable to find the opening while
I had been lightly feeling the surface of the walls--Dian had
blocked up the hole she had made lest it arouse suspicion and lead
to an early discovery of Juag's escape.

Plunging my weight against the crumbling mass, I sent it crashing
into the adjoining cavern. With it came I, David, Emperor of
Pellucidar. I doubt if any other potentate in a world's history
ever made a more un-dignified entrance. I landed head first on
all fours, but I came quickly and was on my feet before the man in
the dark guessed what had happened.

He saw me, though, when I arose and, sensing that no friend came
thus precipitately, turned to meet me even as I charged him. I had
my stone knife in my hand, and he had his. In the darkness of the
cave there was little opportunity for a display of science, though
even at that I venture to say that we fought a very pretty duel.

Before I came to Pellucidar I do not recall that I ever had seen
a stone knife, and I am sure that I never fought with a knife of
any description; but now I do not have to take my hat off to any
of them when it comes to wielding that primitive yet wicked weapon.

I could just see Dian in the darkness, but I knew that she could
not see my features or recognize me; and I enjoyed in anticipation,
even while I was fighting for her life and mine, her dear joy when
she should discover that it was I who was her deliverer.

My opponent was large, but he also was active and no mean knife-man.
He caught me once fairly in the shoulder--I carry the scar yet,
and shall carry it to the grave. And then he did a foolish thing,
for as I leaped back to gain a second in which to calm the shock
of the wound he rushed after me and tried to clinch. He rather
neglected his knife for the moment in his greater desire to get
his hands on me. Seeing the opening, I swung my left fist fairly
to the point of his jaw.

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