CHAPTER IX
I landed, stiff enough as you will guess, but pleased to be on shoreagain. It was a melancholy neighbourhood of low islands, overgrownwith rank grass and bushes, salt water encircling them, and insidesandy dunes and hummocks with shallow pools, gleaming ghostly in theretreating daylight, while beyond these rose the black bosses of whatlooked like a forest. Thither I made my way, plunging uncomfortablythrough shallows, and tripping over blackened branches which, lyingjust below the surface, quivered like snakes as the evening breezeruffled each surface, until the ground hardened under foot, andpresently I was standing, hungry and faint but safe, on dry land again.
The forest was so close to the sea, one could not advance withoutentering it, and once within its dark arcades every way looked equallygloomy and hopeless. I struggled through tangles night made more andmore impenetrable each minute, until presently I could go no further,and where a dense canopy of trees overhead gave out for a minute on theedge of a swampy hollow, I determined to wait for daylight.
Never was there a more wet or weary traveller, or one more desperatelylonely than he who wrapped himself up in the miserable insufficiency ofhis wet rags, and without fire or supper crept amongst the exposedroots of a tree growing out of a bank, and prepared to hope grimly formorning.
Round and round meanwhile was drawn the close screen of night, till theclearing in front was blotted out, and only the tree-tops, black asrugged hills one behind the other, stood out against the heavy purpleof the circlet of sky above. As the evening deepened the quaintestnoises began on every hand--noises so strange and bewildering that as Icowered down with my teeth chattering, and stared hard into theimpenetrable, they could be likened to nothing but the crying of allthe souls of dead things since the beginning. Never was there such aninfernal chorus as that which played up the Martian stars. Down therein front, where hummock grass was growing, some beast squeakedcontinuously, till I shouted at him, then he stopped a minute, andbegan again in entirely another note. Away on the hills two rivalmonsters were calling to each other in tones so hollow they seemed as Ilistened to penetrate through me, and echo out of my heart again. Faroverhead, gigantic bats were flitting, the shadow of their wingsdimming a dozen universes at once, and crying to each other in shrilltones that rent the air like tearing silk.
As I listened to those vampires discussing their infernal loves underthe stars, from a branch right overhead broke such a deathly howl fromthe throat of a wandering forest cat that everything else was hushedfor a moment. All about a myriad insects were making night giddy withtheir ghostly fires, while underground and from the labyrinths ofmatted roots came quaint sounds of rustling snakes and forest pigs, andall the lesser things that dig and scratch and growl.
Yet I was desperately sleepy, my sword hung heavy as lead at my side,my eyelids drooped, and so at last I dozed uneasily for an hour or two.Then, all on a sudden, I came wide awake with a shock. The night wasquieter now; away in the forest depth strange noises still arose, butclose at hand was a strange hush, like the hush of expectation, and,listening wonderingly, I was aware of slow, heavy footsteps coming upfrom the river, now two or three steps together, then a pause, thenanother step or two, and as I bent towards the approaching thing,staring into the darkness, my strained senses were conscious of anotherapproach, as like as could be, coming from behind me. On they came,making the very ground quake with their weight, till I judged that bothwere about on the edge of the clearing, two vast rat-like shadows, butas big as elephants, and bringing a most intolerable smell of sourslime with them. There, on the edge of the amphitheatre, each for thefirst time appeared to become aware of the other's presence--thefootsteps stopped dead. I could hear the water dripping from the fur ofthose giant brutes amongst the shadows and the deep breathing of theone nearest me, a scanty ten paces off, but not another sound in thestillness.
Minute after minute passed, yet neither moved. A half-hour grew to afull hour, and that hour lengthened amid the keenest tension till myears ached with listening, and my eyes were sore with straining intothe blackness. At last I began to wonder whether those earth-shakingbeasts had not been an evil dream, and was just venturing to stretchout a cramped leg, and rally myself upon my cowardice, when, withoutwarning, at my elbow rose the most ear-piercing scream of rage thatever came from a living throat. There was a sweeping rush in thedarkness which I could feel but not see, and with a shock the twogladiators met in the midst of the arena. Over and over they wentscreaming and struggling, and slipping and plunging. I could hear themtearing at each other, and the sharp cries of pain, first one and thenanother gave as claw or tooth got home, and all the time, though theground was quaking under their struggles and the air full of horribleuproar, not a thing was to be seen. I did not even know what manner ofbeasts they were who rocked and rolled and tore at each other'sthroats, but I heard their teeth snapping, and their fierce breath inthe pauses of the struggle, and could but wait in a huddle amongst theroots until it was over. To and fro they went, now at the far side ofthe dark clearing, now so close that hot drops of blood from their jawsfell on my face like rain in the darkness. It seemed as though thefight would never end, but presently there was more of worrying in itand less of snapping; it was clear one or the other had had enough andas I marked this those black shadows came gasping and strugglingtowards me. There was a sudden sharp cry, a desperate finaltussle--before which strong trees snapped and bushes were flattened outlike grass, not twenty yards away--and then for a minute all was silent.
One of them had killed, and as I sat rooted to the spot I was forced tolisten while his enemy tore him up and ate him. Many a banquet have Ibeen at, but never an uglier one than that. I sat in the darknesswhile the unknown thing at my feet ripped the flesh from his half-deadrival in strips, and across the damp night wind came the reek of thatabominable feast--the reek of blood and spilt entrails--until I turnedaway my face in loathing, and was nearly starting to my feet to venturea rush into the forest shadows. But I was spellbound, and remainedlistening to the heavy munch of blood-stained jaws until presently Iwas aware other and lesser feasters were coming. There was a twinkleof hungry eyes all about the limits of the area, the shine of greenpoints of envious fire that circled round in decreasing orbits, as thelittle foxes and jackals came crowding in. One fellow took me for arock, so still I sat, putting his hot, soft paws upon my knee for aspace, and others passed me so near I could all but touch them.
The big beast had taken himself off by this time, and there must havebeen several hundreds of these newcomers. A merry time they had of it;the whole place was full of the green, hurrying eyes, and amidst thesnap of teeth and yapping and quarrelling I could hear the flesh beingtorn from the red bones in every direction. One wolf-like individualbrought a mass of hot liver to eat between my feet, but I gave him akick, and sent him away much to his surprise. Gradually, however, thesound of this unholy feast died away, and, though you may hardlybelieve it, I fell off into a doze. It was not sleep, but it servedthe purpose, and when in an hour or two a draught of cool air rousedme, I awoke, feeling more myself again.
Slowly morning came, and the black wall of forest around became full ofpurple interstices as the east brightened. Those glimmers of lightbetween bough and trunk turned to yellow and red, the day-shinepresently stretched like a canopy from point to point of the treetopson either side of my sleeping-place, and I arose.
All my limbs were stiff with cold, my veins emptied by hunger andwounds, and for a space I had not even strength to move. But a littlerubbing softened my cramped muscles presently and limping painfullydown to the place of combat, I surveyed the traces of that midnightfight. I will not dwell upon it. It was ugly and grim; the trampledgrass, the giant footmarks, each enringing its pool of curdled blood;the broken bushes, the grooved mud-slides where the unknown brutes hadslid in deadly embrace; the hollows, the splintered boughs, theirragged points tufted with skin and hair--all was sickening to me. Yetso hungry was I that when I turned to
wards the odious remnants of thevanquished--a shapeless mass of abomination--my thoughts flew at onceto breakfasting! I went down and inspected the victim cautiously--ahuge rat-like beast as far as might be judged from the bare uprisingribs--all that was left of him looking like the framework of a schooneryacht. His heart lay amongst the offal, and my knife came out to cut ameal from it, but I could not do it. Three times I essayed the task,hunger and disgust contending for mastery; three times turned back inloathing. At last I could stand the sight no more, and, slamming theknife up again, turned on my heels, and fairly ran for fresh air andthe shore, where the sea was beginning to glimmer in the light a fewscore yards through the forest stems. There, once more out on theopen, on a pebbly beach, I stripped, spreading my things out to dry onthe stones, and laying myself down with the lapping of the waves in myears, and the first yellow sunshine thawing my limbs, tried to piecetogether the hurrying events of the last few days.
What were my gay Martians doing? Lazy dogs to let me, a stranger, bethe only one to draw sword in defence of their own princess! Where waspoor Heru, that sweet maiden wife? The thought of her in the hands ofthe ape-men was odious. And yet was I not mad to try to rescue, oreven to follow her alone? If by any chance I could get off thisbeast-haunted place and catch up with the ravishers, what had I to lookfor from them except speedy extinction, and that likely enough by themost painful process they were acquainted with?
The other alternative of going back empty handed was terriblyignominious. I had lectured the amiable young manhood of Seth sosoundly on the subject of gallantry, and set them such a good exampleon two occasions, that it would be bathos to saunter back, hands inpockets, and confess I knew nothing of the lady's fate and had beendaunted by the first night alone in the forest. Besides, how dull itwould be in that beautiful, tumble-down old city without Heru, with noexpectation day by day of seeing her sylph-like form and hearing themerry tinkle of her fairy laughter as she scoffed at the unknownlearning collected by her ancestors in a thousand laborious years. No!I would go on for certain. I was young, in love, and angry, and beforethose qualifications difficulties became light.
Meanwhile, the first essential was breakfast of some kind. I arose,stretched, put on my half-dried clothes, and mounting a low hummock onthe forest edge looked around. The sun was riding up finely into thesky, and the sea to the eastward shone for leagues and leagues in theloveliest azure. Where it rippled on my own beach and those of the lowislands noted over night, a wonderful fire of blue and red played onthe sands as though the broken water were full of living gems. The skywas full of strange gulls with long, forked tails, and a lovely littleflying lizard with transparent wings of the palest green--like those ofa grasshopper--was flitting about picking up insect stragglers.
All this was very charming, but what I kept saying to myself was"Streaky rashers and hot coffee: rashers and coffee and rolls," and,indeed, had the gates of Paradise themselves opened at that moment Ifear my first look down the celestial streets within would have beenfor a restaurant. They did not, and I was just turning awaydisconsolate when my eye caught, ascending from behind the next bluffdown the beach, a thin strand of smoke rising into the morning air.
It was nothing so much in itself--a thin spiral creeping upwardsmast-high, then flattening out into a mushroom head--but it meanteverything to me. Where there was fire there must be humanity, andwhere there was humanity--ay, to the very outlayers of theuniverse--there must be breakfast. It was a splendid thought; I rusheddown the hillock and went gaily for that blue thread amongst the reeds.It was not two hundred yards away, and soon below me was a tiny baywith bluest water frilling a silver beach, and in the midst of it afire on a hearth dancing round a pot that simmered gloriously. But ofan owner there was nothing to be seen. I peered here and there on theshore, but nothing moved, while out to sea the water was shining likemolten metal with not a dot upon it!--what did it matter? I laughedas, pleased and hungry, I slipped down the bank and strode across thesands; it pleased Fate to play bandy with me, and if it sent mesupperless to bed, why, here was restitution in the way of breakfast.I took up a morsel of the stuff in the kettle on a handy stick andfound it good--indeed, I knew it at once as a very dainty mess madefrom the roots of a herb the Martians greatly liked; An had piled myplatter with it when we supped that night in the market-place of Seth,and the sweet white stuff had melted into my corporal essence, itseemed, without any gross intermediate process of digestion. And hereI was again, hungry, sniffing the fragrant breath of a full meal andnot a soul in sight--I should have been a fool not to have eaten. Sothinking, down I sat, taking the pot from its place, and when it was alittle cool plunging my hands into it and feasting with as good anappetite as ever a man had before.
It was gloriously ambrosial, and deeper and deeper I went, with thetall stalk of the smoke in front growing from the hearth-stones likesome strange new plant, the pleasant sunshine on my back, and never athought for anything but the task in hand. Deeper and deeper,oblivious of all else, until to get the very last drops I lifted thepipkin up and putting back my head drank in that fashion.
It was only when with a sigh of pleasure I lowered it slowly again thatover the rim as it sank there dawned upon me the vision of a Martianstanding by an empty canoe on the edge of the water and regarding mewith calm amazement. I was, in fact, so astonished that for a minutethe empty pot stood still before my face, and over its edge we staredat each other in mute surprise, then with all the dignity that might beI laid the vessel down between my feet and waited for the newcomer tospeak. She was a girl by her yellow garb, a fisherwoman, it seemed,for in the prow of her craft was piled a net upon which the scales offishes were twinkling--a Martian, obviously, but something more robustthan most of them, a savour of honest work about her sunburnt facewhich my pallid friends away yonder were lacking in, and when we hadstared at each other for a few moments in silence she came forward astep or two and said without a trace of fear or shyness, "Are you aspirit, sir?
"Why," I answered, "about as much, no more and no less, than most ofus."
"Aye," she said. "I thought you were, for none but spirits live hereupon this island; are you for good or evil?"
"Far better for the breakfast of which I fear I have robbed you, butwandering along the shore and finding this pot boiling with no owner, Iventured to sample it, and it was so good my appetite got the better ofmanners."
The girl bowed, and standing at a respectful distance asked if I wouldlike some fish as well; she had some, but not many, and if I would eatshe would cook them for me in a minute--it was not often, she addedlightly, she had met one of my kind before. In fact, it was obviousthat simple person did actually take me for a being of another world,and was it for me to say she was wrong? So adopting a dignity worthyof my reputation I nodded gravely to her offer. She fetched from theboat four little fishes of the daintiest kind imaginable. They wereeach about as big as a hand and pale blue when you looked down uponthem, but so clear against the light that every bone and vein in theirbodies could be traced. These were wrapped just as they were in abroad, green leaf and then the Martian, taking a pointed stick, made ahollow in the white ashes, laid them in side by side, and drew the hotdust over again.
While they cooked we chatted as though the acquaintance were the mostcasual thing in the world, and I found it was indeed an island we wereon and not the mainland, as I had hoped at first. Seth, she told me,was far away to the eastward, and if the woodmen had gone by in theirships they would have passed round to the north-west of where we were.
I spent an hour or two with that amiable individual, and, it is to behoped, sustained the character of a spiritual visitant withconsiderable dignity. In one particular at least, that, namely, ofappetite, I did honour to my supposed source, and as my entertainerwould not hear of payment in material kind, all I could do was to showher some conjuring tricks, which greatly increased her belief in mysupernatural origin, and to teach her some new hitches and knots, usingher fishin
g-line as a means of illustration, a demonstration whichcalled from her the natural observation that we must be good sailors"up aloft" since we knew so much about cordage, then we parted.
She had seen nothing of the woodmen, though she had heard they had beento Seth and thought, from some niceties of geographical calculationwhich I could not follow, they would have crossed to the north, as juststated, of her island. There she told me, with much surprise at mydesire for the information, how I might, by following the forest trackto the westward coast, make my way to a fishing village, where theywould give me a canoe and direct me, since such was my extraordinarywish, to the place where, if anywhere, the wild men had touched ontheir way home.
She filled my wallet with dried honey-cakes and my mouth with sugarplums from her little store, then down on her knees went that poor waifof a worn-out civilisation and kissed my hands in humble farewell, andI, blushing to be so saluted, and after all but a sailor, got her bythe rosy fingers and lifted her up shoulder high, and getting one handunder her chin and the other behind her head kissed her twice upon herpretty cheeks; and so, I say, we parted.
Gulliver of Mars Page 9
