Chapter 9
As I stood looking down upon that sad and lonely mound, wrapped in themost dismal of reflections and premonitions, I was suddenly seized frombehind and thrown to earth. As I fell, a warm body fell on top of me,and hands grasped my arms and legs. When I could look up, I saw anumber of giant figures pinioning me down, while others stood aboutsurveying me. Here again was a new type of man--a higher type than theprimitive tribe I had just quitted. They were a taller people, too,with better-shaped skulls and more intelligent faces. There were lessof the ape characteristics about their features, and less of thenegroid, too. They carried weapons, stone-shod spears, stone knives,and hatchets--and they wore ornaments and breech-cloths--the former offeathers worn in their hair and the latter made of a single snake-skincured with the head on, the head depending to their knees.
Of course I did not take in all these details upon the instant of mycapture, for I was busy with other matters. Three of the warriors weresitting upon me, trying to hold me down by main strength andawkwardness, and they were having their hands full in the doing, I cantell you. I don't like to appear conceited, but I may as well admitthat I am proud of my strength and the science that I have acquired anddeveloped in the directing of it--that and my horsemanship I alwayshave been proud of. And now, that day, all the long hours that I hadput into careful study, practice and training brought me in two orthree minutes a full return upon my investment. Californians, as arule, are familiar with ju-jutsu, and I especially had made a study ofit for several years, both at school and in the gym of the Los AngelesAthletic Club, while recently I had had, in my employ, a Jap who was awonder at the art.
It took me just about thirty seconds to break the elbow of one of myassailants, trip another and send him stumbling backward among hisfellows, and throw the third completely over my head in such a way thatwhen he fell his neck was broken. In the instant that the others ofthe party stood in mute and inactive surprise, I unslung myrifle--which, carelessly, I had been carrying across my back; and whenthey charged, as I felt they would, I put a bullet in the forehead ofone of them. This stopped them all temporarily--not the death of theirfellow, but the report of the rifle, the first they had ever heard.Before they were ready to attack me again, one of them spoke in acommanding tone to his fellows, and in a language similar but stillmore comprehensive than that of the tribe to the south, as theirs wasmore complete than Ahm's. He commanded them to stand back and then headvanced and addressed me.
He asked me who I was, from whence I came and what my intentions were.I replied that I was a stranger in Caspak, that I was lost and that myonly desire was to find my way back to my companions. He asked wherethey were and I told him toward the south somewhere, using theCaspakian phrase which, literally translated, means "toward thebeginning." His surprise showed upon his face before he voiced it inwords. "There are no Galus there," he said.
"I tell you," I said angrily, "that I am from another country, far fromCaspak, far beyond the high cliffs. I do not know who the Galus maybe; I have never seen them. This is the farthest north I have been.Look at me--look at my clothing and my weapons. Have you ever seen aGalu or any other creature in Caspak who possessed such things?"
He had to admit that he had not, and also that he was much interestedin me, my rifle and the way I had handled his three warriors. Finallyhe became half convinced that I was telling him the truth and offeredto aid me if I would show him how I had thrown the man over my head andalso make him a present of the "bang-spear," as he called it. Irefused to give him my rifle, but promised to show him the trick hewished to learn if he would guide me in the right direction. He toldme that he would do so tomorrow, that it was too late today and that Imight come to their village and spend the night with them. I was loathto lose so much time; but the fellow was obdurate, and so I accompaniedthem. The two dead men they left where they had fallen, nor gave thema second glance--thus cheap is life upon Caspak.
These people also were cave-dwellers, but their caves showed the resultof a higher intelligence that brought them a step nearer to civilizedman than the tribe next "toward the beginning." The interiors of theircaverns were cleared of rubbish, though still far from clean, and theyhad pallets of dried grasses covered with the skins of leopard, lynx,and bear, while before the entrances were barriers of stone and small,rudely circular stone ovens. The walls of the cavern to which I wasconducted were covered with drawings scratched upon the sandstone.There were the outlines of the giant red-deer, of mammoths, of tigersand other beasts. Here, as in the last tribe, there were no childrenor any old people. The men of this tribe had two names, or rathernames of two syllables, and their language contained words of twosyllables; whereas in the tribe of Tsa the words were all of a singlesyllable, with the exception of a very few like Atis and Galus. Thechief's name was To-jo, and his household consisted of seven femalesand himself. These women were much more comely, or rather less hideousthan those of Tsa's people; one of them, even, was almost pretty, beingless hairy and having a rather nice skin, with high coloring.
They were all much interested in me and examined my clothing andequipment carefully, handling and feeling and smelling of each article.I learned from them that their people were known as Band-lu, orspear-men; Tsa's race was called Sto-lu--hatchet-men. Below these inthe scale of evolution came the Bo-lu, or club-men, and then the Alus,who had no weapons and no language. In that word I recognized what tome seemed the most remarkable discovery I had made upon Caprona, forunless it were mere coincidence, I had come upon a word that had beenhanded down from the beginning of spoken language upon earth, beenhanded down for millions of years, perhaps, with little change. It wasthe sole remaining thread of the ancient woof of a dawning culturewhich had been woven when Caprona was a fiery mount upon a greatland-mass teeming with life. It linked the unfathomable then to theeternal now. And yet it may have been pure coincidence; my betterjudgment tells me that it is coincidence that in Caspak the term forspeechless man is Alus, and in the outer world of our own day it isAlalus.
The comely woman of whom I spoke was called So-ta, and she took such alively interest in me that To-jo finally objected to her attentions,emphasizing his displeasure by knocking her down and kicking her into acorner of the cavern. I leaped between them while he was still kickingher, and obtaining a quick hold upon him, dragged him screaming withpain from the cave. Then I made him promise not to hurt the she again,upon pain of worse punishment. So-ta gave me a grateful look; but To-joand the balance of his women were sullen and ominous.
Later in the evening So-ta confided to me that she was soon to leavethe tribe.
"So-ta soon to be Kro-lu," she confided in a low whisper. I asked herwhat a Kro-lu might be, and she tried to explain, but I do not yet knowif I understood her. From her gestures I deduced that the Kro-lus werea people who were armed with bows and arrows, had vessels in which tocook their food and huts of some sort in which they lived, and wereaccompanied by animals. It was all very fragmentary and vague, but theidea seemed to be that the Kro-lus were a more advanced people than theBand-lus. I pondered a long time upon all that I had heard, beforesleep came to me. I tried to find some connection between thesevarious races that would explain the universal hope which each of themharbored that some day they would become Galus. So-ta had given me asuggestion; but the resulting idea was so weird that I could scarceeven entertain it; yet it coincided with Ahm's expressed hope, with thevarious steps in evolution I had noted in the several tribes I hadencountered and with the range of type represented in each tribe. Forexample, among the Band-lu were such types as So-ta, who seemed to meto be the highest in the scale of evolution, and To-jo, who was just ashade nearer the ape, while there were others who had flatter noses,more prognathous faces and hairier bodies. The question puzzled me.Possibly in the outer world the answer to it is locked in the bosom ofthe Sphinx. Who knows? I do not.
Thinking the thoughts of a lunatic or a dope-fiend, I fell asleep; andwhen I awoke, my hands
and feet were securely tied and my weapons hadbeen taken from me. How they did it without awakening me I cannot tellyou. It was humiliating, but it was true. To-jo stood above me. Theearly light of morning was dimly filtering into the cave.
"Tell me," he demanded, "how to throw a man over my head and break hisneck, for I am going to kill you, and I wish to know this thing beforeyou die."
Of all the ingenuous declarations I have ever heard, this one coppedthe proverbial bun. It struck me as so funny that, even in the face ofdeath, I laughed. Death, I may remark here, had, however, lost much ofhis terror for me. I had become a disciple of Lys' fleeting philosophyof the valuelessness of human life. I realized that she was quiteright--that we were but comic figures hopping from the cradle to thegrave, of interest to practically no other created thing than ourselvesand our few intimates.
Behind To-jo stood So-ta. She raised one hand with the palm towardme--the Caspakian equivalent of a negative shake of the head.
"Let me think about it," I parried, and To-jo said that he would waituntil night. He would give me a day to think it over; then he left,and the women left--the men for the hunt, and the women, as I laterlearned from So-ta, for the warm pool where they immersed their bodiesas did the shes of the Sto-lu. "Ata," explained So-ta, when Iquestioned her as to the purpose of this matutinal rite; but that waslater.
I must have lain there bound and uncomfortable for two or three hourswhen at last So-ta entered the cave. She carried a sharp knife--mine,in fact, and with it she cut my bonds.
"Come!" she said. "So-ta will go with you back to the Galus. It istime that So-ta left the Band-lu. Together we will go to the Kro-lu,and after that the Galus. To-jo will kill you tonight. He will killSo-ta if he knows that So-ta aided you. We will go together."
"I will go with you to the Kro-lu," I replied, "but then I must returnto my own people `toward the beginning.'"
"You cannot go back," she said. "It is forbidden. They would killyou. Thus far have you come--there is no returning."
"But I must return," I insisted. "My people are there. I must returnand lead them in this direction."
She insisted, and I insisted; but at last we compromised. I was toescort her as far as the country of the Kro-lu and then I was to goback after my own people and lead them north into a land where thedangers were fewer and the people less murderous. She brought me all mybelongings that had been filched from me--rifle, ammunition, knife, andthermos bottle, and then hand in hand we descended the cliff and setoff toward the north.
For three days we continued upon our way, until we arrived outside avillage of thatched huts just at dusk. So-ta said that she would enteralone; I must not be seen if I did not intend to remain, as it wasforbidden that one should return and live after having advanced thisfar. So she left me. She was a dear girl and a stanch and truecomrade--more like a man than a woman. In her simple barbaric way shewas both refined and chaste. She had been the wife of To-jo. Amongthe Kro-lu she would find another mate after the manner of the strangeCaspakian world; but she told me very frankly that whenever I returned,she would leave her mate and come to me, as she preferred me above allothers. I was becoming a ladies' man after a lifetime of bashfulness!
At the outskirts of the village I left her without even seeing the sortof people who inhabited it, and set off through the growing darknesstoward the south. On the third day I made a detour westward to avoidthe country of the Band-lu, as I did not care to be detained by ameeting with To-jo. On the sixth day I came to the cliffs of theSto-lu, and my heart beat fast as I approached them, for here was Lys.Soon I would hold her tight in my arms again; soon her warm lips wouldmerge with mine. I felt sure that she was still safe among the hatchetpeople, and I was already picturing the joy and the love-light in hereyes when she should see me once more as I emerged from the last clumpof trees and almost ran toward the cliffs.
It was late in the morning. The women must have returned from thepool; yet as I drew near, I saw no sign of life whatever. "They haveremained longer," I thought; but when I was quite close to the base ofthe cliffs, I saw that which dashed my hopes and my happiness to earth.Strewn along the ground were a score of mute and horrible suggestionsof what had taken place during my absence--bones picked clean of flesh,the bones of manlike creatures, the bones of many of the tribe ofSto-lu; nor in any cave was there sign of life.
Closely I examined the ghastly remains fearful each instant that Ishould find the dainty skull that would shatter my happiness for life;but though I searched diligently, picking up every one of thetwenty-odd skulls, I found none that was the skull of a creature butslightly removed from the ape. Hope, then, still lived. For anotherthree days I searched north and south, east and west for the hatchetmenof Caspak; but never a trace of them did I find. It was raining mostof the time now, and the weather was as near cold as it ever seems toget on Caprona.
At last I gave up the search and set off toward Fort Dinosaur. For aweek--a week filled with the terrors and dangers of a primeval world--Ipushed on in the direction I thought was south. The sun never shone;the rain scarcely ever ceased falling. The beasts I met with were fewerin number but infinitely more terrible in temper; yet I lived on untilthere came to me the realization that I was hopelessly lost, that ayear of sunshine would not again give me my bearings; and while I wascast down by this terrifying knowledge, the knowledge that I neveragain could find Lys, I stumbled upon another grave--the grave ofWilliam James, with its little crude headstone and its scrawledcharacters recording that he had died upon the 13th ofSeptember--killed by a saber-tooth tiger.
I think that I almost gave up then. Never in my life have I felt morehopeless or helpless or alone. I was lost. I could not find myfriends. I did not even know that they still lived; in fact, I couldnot bring myself to believe that they did. I was sure that Lys wasdead. I wanted myself to die, and yet I clung to life--useless andhopeless and harrowing a thing as it had become. I clung to lifebecause some ancient, reptilian forbear had clung to life andtransmitted to me through the ages the most powerful motive that guidedhis minute brain--the motive of self-preservation.
At last I came to the great barrier-cliffs; and after three days of madeffort--of maniacal effort--I scaled them. I built crude ladders; Iwedged sticks in narrow fissures; I chopped toe-holds and finger-holdswith my long knife; but at last I scaled them. Near the summit I cameupon a huge cavern. It is the abode of some mighty winged creature ofthe Triassic--or rather it was. Now it is mine. I slew the thing andtook its abode. I reached the summit and looked out upon the broadgray terrible Pacific of the far-southern winter. It was cold upthere. It is cold here today; yet here I sit watching, watching,watching for the thing I know will never come--for a sail.
The Land That Time Forgot Page 9
