CHAPTER VIII
They must have carried me, still under the influence of wine fumes, tothe chamber where I slept that night, for when I woke the followingmorning my surroundings were familiar enough, though a glorious maze ofuncertainties rocked to and fro in my mind.
Was it a real feast we had shared in overnight, or only a quaint dream?Was Heru real or only a lovely fancy? And those hairy ruffians of whoma horrible vision danced before my waking eyes, were they fancy too?No, my wrists still ached with the strain of the tussle, the quaint,sad wine taste was still on my lips--it was all real enough, I decided,starting up in bed; and if it was real where was the little princess?What had they done with her? Surely they had not given her to theape-men--cowards though they were they could not have been cowardsenough for that. And as I wondered a keen, bright picture of thehapless maid as I saw her last blossomed before my mind's eye, theambassadors on either side holding her wrists, and she shrinking fromthem in horror while her poor, white face turned to me for rescue indesperate pleading--oh! I must find her at all costs; and leaping frombed I snatched up those trousers without which the best of heroes isnothing, and had hardly got into them when there came the patter oflight feet without and a Martian, in a hurry for once, with half adozen others behind him, swept aside the curtains of my doorway.
They peeped and peered all about the room, then one said, "Is PrincessHeru with you, sir?"
"No," I answered roughly. "Saints alive, man, do you think I wouldhave you tumbling in here over each other's heels if she were?"
"Then it must indeed have been Heru," he said, speaking in an awedvoice to his fellows, "whom we saw carried down to the harbour atdaybreak by yonder woodmen," and the pink upon their pretty cheeksfaded to nothing at the suggestion.
"What!" I roared, "Heru taken from the palace by a handful of men andnone of you infernal rascals--none of you white-livered abortionslifted a hand to save her--curse on you a thousand times. Out of myway, you churls!" And snatching up coat and hat and sword I rushedfuriously down the long, marble stairs just as the short Martian nightwas giving place to lavender-coloured light of morning. I found my waysomehow down the deserted corridors where the air was heavy witharomatic vapours; I flew by curtained niches and chambers where amongstmounds of half-withered flowers the Martian lovers were slowly waking.Down into the banquethall I sped, and there in the twilight was thelitter of the feast still about--gold cups and silver, broken bread andmeat, the convolvulus flowers all turning their pallid faces to therosy daylight, making pools of brightness between the shadows. Amongstthe litter little sapphire-coloured finches were feeding, twitteringmerrily to themselves as they hopped about, and here and there down thelong tables lay asprawl a belated reveller, his empty oblivion-phialbefore him, his curly head upon his arms, dreaming perhaps of lastnight's feast and a neglected bride dozing dispassionate in somedistant chamber. But Heru was not there and little I cared fortwittering finches or sighing damsels. With hasty feet I rushed downthe hall out into the cool, sweet air of the planet morning.
There I met one whom I knew, and he told me he had been among the crowdand had heard the woodmen had gone no farther than the river gate, thatHeru was with them beyond a doubt. I would not listen to more. "Good!"I shouted. "Get me a horse and just a handful of your sleek kindredand we will pull the prize from the bear's paw even yet! Surely," Isaid, turning to a knot of Martian youths who stood listening a fewsteps away, "surely some of you will come with me at this pinch? Thebig bullies are very few; the sea runs behind them; the maid in theirclutch is worth fighting for; it needs but one good onset, fiveminutes' gallantry, and she is ours again. Think how fine it will lookto bring her back before yon sleepy fellows have found their weapons.You, there, with the blue tunic! you look a proper fellow, andsomething of a heart should beat under such gay wrappings, will youcome with me?"
But blue-mantle, biting his thumbs, murmured he had not breakfasted yetand edged away behind his companions. Wherever I looked eyes droppedand timid hands fidgeted as their owners backed off from my dangerousenthusiasm. There was obviously no help to be had from them, andmeantime the precious moments were flying, so with a disdainful glanceI turned on my heels and set off alone as hard as I could go for theharbour.
But it was too late. I rushed through the marketplace where all wassilent and deserted; I ran on to the wharves beyond and they were emptysave for the litter and embers of the fires Ar-hap's men had madeduring their stay; I dashed out to the landing-place, and there at thehythe the last boat-loads of the villains were just embarking, twoboatloads of them twenty yards from shore, and another still upon thebeach. This latter was careening over as a dusky group of men liftedaboard to a heap of tumbled silks and stuffs in the stern such a sweetpiece of insensible merchandise as no man, I at least of all, couldmistake. It was Heru herself, and the rogues were ladling her on boardlike so much sandal-wood or cotton sheeting. I did not wait for more,but out came my sword, and yielding to a reckless impulse, for whichperhaps last night's wine was as much to blame as anything, I sprangdown the steps and leapt aboard of the boat just as it was pushed offupon the swift tide. Full of Bersark rage, I cut one brawnycopper-coloured thief down, and struck another with my fist between theeyes so that he went headlong into the water, sinking like lead, anddeep into the great target of his neighbour's chest I drove my blade.Had there been a man beside me, had there been but two or three of allthose silken triflers, too late come on the terraces above to watch, wemight have won. But all alone what could I do? That last red beastturned on my blade, and as he fell dragged me half down with him. Istaggered up, and tugging the metal from him turned on the next.
At that moment the cause of all the turmoil, roused by the fighting,came to herself, and sitting up on the piled plunder in the boat staredround for a moment with a childish horror at the barbarians whose prizeshe was, then at me, then at the dead man at my feet whose blood waswelling in a red tide from the wound in his breast. As the fullmeaning of the scene dawned upon her she started to her feet, lookingwonderfully beautiful amongst those dusky forms, and extending herhands to me began to cry in the most piteous way. I sprang forward,and as I did so saw an ape-man clap his hairy paw over her mouth andface--it was like an eclipse of the moon by a red earth-shadow, Ithought at the moment--and drag her roughly back, but that was aboutthe last I remembered. As I turned to hit him standing on the slipperythwart, another rogue crept up behind and let drive with a club he hadin hand. The cudgel caught me sideways on the head, a glancing shot.I can recall a blaze of light, a strange medley of sounds in my ears,and then, clutching at a pile of stuffs as I fell, a tall bower ofspray rising on either hand, and the cool shock of the blue sea as Iplunged headlong in--but nothing after that!
How long after I know not, but presently a tissue of daylight creptinto my eyes, and I awoke again. It was better than nothing perhaps,yet it was a poor awakening. The big sun lay low down, and the day wasall but done; so much I guessed as I rocked in that light with anundulating movement, and then as my senses returned more fully,recognised with a start of wonder that I was still in the water,floating on a swift current into the unknown on an air-filled pile ofsilken stuffs which had been pulled down with me from the boat when Igot my ganging from yonder rascal's mace. It was a wet couch, soddenand chilly, but as the freshening evening wind blew on my face and thedarkening water lapped against my forehead I revived more fully.
Where had we come to? I turned an aching neck, and all along on bothsides seemed to stretch steep, straight coasts about a mile or soapart, in the shadow of the setting sun black as ebony. Between thetwo the hampered water ran quickly, with, away on the right, someshallow sandy spits and islands covered with dwarf bushes--chilly,inhospitable-looking places they seemed as I turned my eyes upon them;but he who rides helpless down an evening tide stands out for no greatniceties of landing-place; could I but reach them they would make atleast a drier bed than this of mine, and at that thought, turning over,I found all m
y muscles as stiff as iron, the sinews of my neck andforearms a mass of agonies and no more fit to swim me to those reedyswamps, which now, as pain and hunger began to tell, seemed to wear theaspects of paradise.
With a groan I dropped back upon my raft and watched the islandsslipping by, while over my feet the southern sky darkened to purple.There was no help there, but glancing round away on the left and a fewfurlongs from me, I noticed on the surface of the water two convergingstrands of brightness, an angle the point of which seemed to be comingtowards me. Nearer it came and nearer, right across my road, until Icould see a black dot at the point, a head presently developed, then aswe approached the ears and antlers of a swimming stag. It was a hugebeast as it loomed up against the glow, bigger than any mortal stagever was--the kind of fellow-traveller no one would willingly accost,but even if I had wished to get out of its path I had no power to do so.
Closer and closer we came, one of us drifting helplessly, and the otherswimming strongly for the islands. When we were about a furlong apartthe great beast seemed to change its course, mayhap it took thewreckage on which I floated for an outlying shoal, something on whichit could rest a space in that long swim. Be this as it may, the beastcame hurtling down on me lip deep in the waves, a mighty brown headwith pricked ears that flicked the water from them now and then, smallbright eyes set far back, and wide palmated antlers on a mightyforehead, like the dead branches of a tree. What that Martian mountainelk had hoped for can only be guessed, what he met with was a tangle offloating finery carrying a numbed traveller on it, and with a snort ofdisappointment he turned again.
It was a poor chance, but better than nothing, and as he turned I triedto throw a strand of silk I had unwound from the sodden mass over hisbranching tines. Quick as thought the beast twisted his head aside andtossed his antlers so that the try was fruitless. But was I to lose myonly chance of shore? With all my strength I hurled myself upon him,missing my clutch again by a hair's-breadth and going headlong into thesalt furrow his chest was turning up. Happily I kept hold of the web,for the great elk then turned back, passing between me and the ruck ofstuff and getting thereby the silk under his chin, and as I camegasping to the top once more round came that dainty wreckage over hisback, and I clutched it, and sooner than it takes to tell I was towingto the shore as perhaps no one was ever towed before.
The big beast dragged the ruck like withered weed behind him, bellowingall the time with a voice which made the hills echo all round; andthen, when he got his feet upon the shallows, rose dripping andmountainous, a very cliff of black hide and limb against the nightshine, and with a single sweep of his antlers tore the webbing from me,who lay prone and breathless in the mud, and, thinking it was hisenemy, hurled the limp bundle on the beach, and then, having pounded itwith his cloven feet into formless shreds, bellowed again victoriouslyand went off into the darkness of the forests.
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