XIV
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
With no heavenly guide, it is little wonder that I became confused andlost in the labyrinthine maze of those mighty hills. What, in reality,I did was to pass entirely through them and come out above the valleyupon the farther side. I know that I wandered for a long time, untiltired and hungry I came upon a small cave in the face of the limestoneformation which had taken the place of the granite farther back.
The cave which took my fancy lay halfway up the precipitous side of alofty cliff. The way to it was such that I knew no extremelyformidable beast could frequent it, nor was it large enough to make acomfortable habitat for any but the smaller mammals or reptiles. Yetit was with the utmost caution that I crawled within its dark interior.
Here I found a rather large chamber, lighted by a narrow cleft in therock above which let the sunlight filter in in sufficient quantitiespartially to dispel the utter darkness which I had expected. The cavewas entirely empty, nor were there any signs of its having beenrecently occupied. The opening was comparatively small, so that afterconsiderable effort I was able to lug up a bowlder from the valleybelow which entirely blocked it.
Then I returned again to the valley for an armful of grasses and onthis trip was fortunate enough to knock over an orthopi, the diminutivehorse of Pellucidar, a little animal about the size of a fox terrier,which abounds in all parts of the inner world. Thus, with food andbedding I returned to my lair, where after a meal of raw meat, to whichI had now become quite accustomed, I dragged the bowlder before theentrance and curled myself upon a bed of grasses--a naked, primeval,cave man, as savagely primitive as my prehistoric progenitors.
I awoke rested but hungry, and pushing the bowlder aside crawled outupon the little rocky shelf which was my front porch. Before me spreada small but beautiful valley, through the center of which a clear andsparkling river wound its way down to an inland sea, the blue waters ofwhich were just visible between the two mountain ranges which embracedthis little paradise. The sides of the opposite hills were green withverdure, for a great forest clothed them to the foot of the red andyellow and copper green of the towering crags which formed theirsummit. The valley itself was carpeted with a luxuriant grass, whilehere and there patches of wild flowers made great splashes of vividcolor against the prevailing green.
Dotted over the face of the valley were little clusters of palmliketrees--three or four together as a rule. Beneath these stood antelope,while others grazed in the open, or wandered gracefully to a nearbyford to drink. There were several species of this beautiful animal,the most magnificent somewhat resembling the giant eland of Africa,except that their spiral horns form a complete curve backward overtheir ears and then forward again beneath them, ending in sharp andformidable points some two feet before the face and above the eyes. Insize they remind one of a pure bred Hereford bull, yet they are veryagile and fast. The broad yellow bands that stripe the dark roan oftheir coats made me take them for zebra when I first saw them. All inall they are handsome animals, and added the finishing touch to thestrange and lovely landscape that spread before my new home.
I had determined to make the cave my headquarters, and with it as abase make a systematic exploration of the surrounding country in searchof the land of Sari. First I devoured the remainder of the carcass ofthe orthopi I had killed before my last sleep. Then I hid the GreatSecret in a deep niche at the back of my cave, rolled the bowlderbefore my front door, and with bow, arrows, sword, and shield scrambleddown into the peaceful valley.
The grazing herds moved to one side as I passed through them, thelittle orthopi evincing the greatest wariness and galloping to safestdistances. All the animals stopped feeding as I approached, and aftermoving to what they considered a safe distance stood contemplating mewith serious eyes and up-cocked ears. Once one of the old bullantelopes of the striped species lowered his head and bellowedangrily--even taking a few steps in my direction, so that I thought hemeant to charge; but after I had passed, he resumed feeding as thoughnothing had disturbed him.
Near the lower end of the valley I passed a number of tapirs, andacross the river saw a great sadok, the enormous double-hornedprogenitor of the modern rhinoceros. At the valley's end the cliffsupon the left ran out into the sea, so that to pass around them as Idesired to do it was necessary to scale them in search of a ledge alongwhich I might continue my journey. Some fifty feet from the base Icame upon a projection which formed a natural path along the face ofthe cliff, and this I followed out over the sea toward the cliff's end.
Here the ledge inclined rapidly upward toward the top of thecliffs--the stratum which formed it evidently having been forced up atthis steep angle when the mountains behind it were born. As I climbedcarefully up the ascent my attention suddenly was attracted aloft bythe sound of strange hissing, and what resembled the flapping of wings.
And at the first glance there broke upon my horrified vision the mostfrightful thing I had seen even within Pellucidar. It was a giantdragon such as is pictured in the legends and fairy tales of earthfolk. Its huge body must have measured forty feet in length, while thebat-like wings that supported it in midair had a spread of fullythirty. Its gaping jaws were armed with long, sharp teeth, and itsclaw equipped with horrible talons.
The hissing noise which had first attracted my attention was issuingfrom its throat, and seemed to be directed at something beyond andbelow me which I could not see. The ledge upon which I stoodterminated abruptly a few paces farther on, and as I reached the end Isaw the cause of the reptile's agitation.
Some time in past ages an earthquake had produced a fault at thispoint, so that beyond the spot where I stood the strata had slippeddown a matter of twenty feet. The result was that the continuation ofmy ledge lay twenty feet below me, where it ended as abruptly as didthe end upon which I stood.
And here, evidently halted in flight by this insurmountable break inthe ledge, stood the object of the creature's attack--a girl coweringupon the narrow platform, her face buried in her arms, as though toshut out the sight of the frightful death which hovered just above her.
The dragon was circling lower, and seemed about to dart in upon itsprey. There was no time to be lost, scarce an instant in which toweigh the possible chances that I had against the awfully armedcreature; but the sight of that frightened girl below me called out toall that was best in me, and the instinct for protection of the othersex, which nearly must have equaled the instinct of self-preservationin primeval man, drew me to the girl's side like an irresistible magnet.
Almost thoughtless of the consequences, I leaped from the end of theledge upon which I stood, for the tiny shelf twenty feet below. At thesame instant the dragon darted in toward the girl, but my sudden adventupon the scene must have startled him for he veered to one side, andthen rose above us once more.
The noise I made as I landed beside her convinced the girl that the endhad come, for she thought I was the dragon; but finally when no cruelfangs closed upon her she raised her eyes in astonishment. As theyfell upon me the expression that came into them would be difficult todescribe; but her feelings could scarcely have been one whit morecomplicated than my own--for the wide eyes that looked into mine werethose of Dian the Beautiful.
"Dian!" I cried. "Dian! Thank God that I came in time."
"You?" she whispered, and then she hid her face again; nor could I tellwhether she were glad or angry that I had come.
Once more the dragon was sweeping toward us, and so rapidly that I hadno time to unsling my bow. All that I could do was to snatch up arock, and hurl it at the thing's hideous face. Again my aim was true,and with a hiss of pain and rage the reptile wheeled once more andsoared away.
Quickly I fitted an arrow now that I might be ready at the next attack,and as I did so I looked down at the girl, so that I surprised her in asurreptitious glance which she was stealing at me; but immediately, sheagain covered her face with her hands.
"Look at me, Dian," I pleaded. "Are y
ou not glad to see me?"
She looked straight into my eyes.
"I hate you," she said, and then, as I was about to beg for a fairhearing she pointed over my shoulder. "The thipdar comes," she said,and I turned again to meet the reptile.
So this was a thipdar. I might have known it. The cruel bloodhound ofthe Mahars. The long-extinct pterodactyl of the outer world. But thistime I met it with a weapon it never had faced before. I had selectedmy longest arrow, and with all my strength had bent the bow until thevery tip of the shaft rested upon the thumb of my left hand, and thenas the great creature darted toward us I let drive straight for thattough breast.
Hissing like the escape valve of a steam engine, the mighty creaturefell turning and twisting into the sea below, my arrow buriedcompletely in its carcass. I turned toward the girl. She was lookingpast me. It was evident that she had seen the thipdar die.
"Dian," I said, "won't you tell me that you are not sorry that I havefound you?"
"I hate you," was her only reply; but I imagined that there was lessvehemence in it than before--yet it might have been but my imagination.
"Why do you hate me, Dian?" I asked, but she did not answer me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, "and what has happened to you sinceHooja freed you from the Sagoths?"
At first I thought that she was going to ignore me entirely, butfinally she thought better of it.
"I was again running away from Jubal the Ugly One," she said. "After Iescaped from the Sagoths I made my way alone back to my own land; buton account of Jubal I did not dare enter the villages or let any of myfriends know that I had returned for fear that Jubal might find out.By watching for a long time I found that my brother had not yetreturned, and so I continued to live in a cave beside a valley which myrace seldom frequents, awaiting the time that he should come back andfree me from Jubal.
"But at last one of Jubal's hunters saw me as I was creeping toward myfather's cave to see if my brother had yet returned and he gave thealarm and Jubal set out after me. He has been pursuing me across manylands. He cannot be far behind me now. When he comes he will kill youand carry me back to his cave. He is a terrible man. I have gone asfar as I can go, and there is no escape," and she looked hopelessly upat the continuation of the ledge twenty feet above us.
"But he shall not have me," she suddenly cried, with great vehemence."The sea is there"--she pointed over the edge of the cliff--"and thesea shall have me rather than Jubal."
"But I have you now Dian," I cried; "nor shall Jubal, nor any otherhave you, for you are mine," and I seized her hand, nor did I lift itabove her head and let it fall in token of release.
She had risen to her feet, and was looking straight into my eyes withlevel gaze.
"I do not believe you," she said, "for if you meant it you would havedone this when the others were present to witness it--then I shouldtruly have been your mate; now there is no one to see you do it, foryou know that without witnesses your act does not bind you to me," andshe withdrew her hand from mine and turned away.
I tried to convince her that I was sincere, but she simply couldn'tforget the humiliation that I had put upon her on that other occasion.
"If you mean all that you say you will have ample chance to prove it,"she said, "if Jubal does not catch and kill you. I am in your power,and the treatment you accord me will be the best proof of yourintentions toward me. I am not your mate, and again I tell you that Ihate you, and that I should be glad if I never saw you again."
Dian certainly was candid. There was no gainsaying that. In fact Ifound candor and directness to be quite a marked characteristic of thecave men of Pellucidar. Finally I suggested that we make some attemptto gain my cave, where we might escape the searching Jubal, for I amfree to admit that I had no considerable desire to meet the formidableand ferocious creature, of whose mighty prowess Dian had told me when Ifirst met her. He it was who, armed with a puny knife, had met andkilled a cave bear in a hand-to-hand struggle. It was Jubal who couldcast his spear entirely through the armored carcass of the sadok atfifty paces. It was he who had crushed the skull of a charging dyrythwith a single blow of his war club. No, I was not pining to meet theUgly One-and it was quite certain that I should not go out and hunt forhim; but the matter was taken out of my hands very quickly, as is oftenthe way, and I did meet Jubal the Ugly One face to face.
This is how it happened. I had led Dian back along the ledge the wayshe had come, searching for a path that would lead us to the top of thecliff, for I knew that we could then cross over to the edge of my ownlittle valley, where I felt certain we should find a means of ingressfrom the cliff top. As we proceeded along the ledge I gave Dian minutedirections for finding my cave against the chance of somethinghappening to me. I knew that she would be quite safely hidden awayfrom pursuit once she gained the shelter of my lair, and the valleywould afford her ample means of sustenance.
Also, I was very much piqued by her treatment of me. My heart was sadand heavy, and I wanted to make her feel badly by suggesting thatsomething terrible might happen to me--that I might, in fact, bekilled. But it didn't work worth a cent, at least as far as I couldperceive. Dian simply shrugged those magnificent shoulders of hers,and murmured something to the effect that one was not rid of trouble soeasily as that.
For a while I kept still. I was utterly squelched. And to think thatI had twice protected her from attack--the last time risking my life tosave hers. It was incredible that even a daughter of the Stone Agecould be so ungrateful--so heartless; but maybe her heart partook ofthe qualities of her epoch.
Presently we found a rift in the cliff which had been widened andextended by the action of the water draining through it from theplateau above. It gave us a rather rough climb to the summit, butfinally we stood upon the level mesa which stretched back for severalmiles to the mountain range. Behind us lay the broad inland sea,curving upward in the horizonless distance to merge into the blue ofthe sky, so that for all the world it looked as though the sea lappedback to arch completely over us and disappear beyond the distantmountains at our backs--the weird and uncanny aspect of the seascapesof Pellucidar balk description.
At our right lay a dense forest, but to the left the country was openand clear to the plateau's farther verge. It was in this directionthat our way led, and we had turned to resume our journey when Diantouched my arm. I turned to her, thinking that she was about to makepeace overtures; but I was mistaken.
"Jubal," she said, and nodded toward the forest.
I looked, and there, emerging from the dense wood, came a perfect whaleof a man. He must have been seven feet tall, and proportionedaccordingly. He still was too far off to distinguish his features.
"Run," I said to Dian. "I can engage him until you get a good start.Maybe I can hold him until you have gotten entirely away," and then,without a backward glance, I advanced to meet the Ugly One. I hadhoped that Dian would have a kind word to say to me before she went,for she must have known that I was going to my death for her sake; butshe never even so much as bid me good-bye, and it was with a heavyheart that I strode through the flower-bespangled grass to my doom.
When I had come close enough to Jubal to distinguish his features Iunderstood how it was that he had earned the sobriquet of Ugly One.Apparently some fearful beast had ripped away one entire side of hisface. The eye was gone, the nose, and all the flesh, so that his jawsand all his teeth were exposed and grinning through the horrible scar.
Formerly he may have been as good to look upon as the others of hishandsome race, and it may be that the terrible result of this encounterhad tended to sour an already strong and brutal character. Howeverthis may be it is quite certain that he was not a pretty sight, and nowthat his features, or what remained of them, were distorted in rage atthe sight of Dian with another male, he was indeed most terrible tosee--and much more terrible to meet.
He had broken into a run now, and as he advanced he raised his mightyspear, while I halted a
nd fitting an arrow to my bow took as steady aimas I could. I was somewhat longer than usual, for I must confess thatthe sight of this awful man had wrought upon my nerves to such anextent that my knees were anything but steady. What chance had Iagainst this mighty warrior for whom even the fiercest cave bear had noterrors! Could I hope to best one who slaughtered the sadok and dyrythsingle-handed! I shuddered; but, in fairness to myself, my fear wasmore for Dian than for my own fate.
And then the great brute launched his massive stone-tipped spear, and Iraised my shield to break the force of its terrific velocity. Theimpact hurled me to my knees, but the shield had deflected the missileand I was unscathed. Jubal was rushing upon me now with the onlyremaining weapon that he carried--a murderous-looking knife. He wastoo close for a careful bowshot, but I let drive at him as he came,without taking aim. My arrow pierced the fleshy part of his thigh,inflicting a painful but not disabling wound. And then he was upon me.
My agility saved me for the instant. I ducked beneath his raised arm,and when he wheeled to come at me again he found a sword's point in hisface. And a moment later he felt an inch or two of it in the musclesof his knife arm, so that thereafter he went more warily.
It was a duel of strategy now--the great, hairy man maneuvering to getinside my guard where he could bring those giant thews to play, whilemy wits were directed to the task of keeping him at arm's length.Thrice he rushed me, and thrice I caught his knife blow upon my shield.Each time my sword found his body--once penetrating to his lung. Hewas covered with blood by this time, and the internal hemorrhageinduced paroxysms of coughing that brought the red stream through thehideous mouth and nose, covering his face and breast with bloody froth.He was a most unlovely spectacle, but he was far from dead.
As the duel continued I began to gain confidence, for, to be perfectlycandid, I had not expected to survive the first rush of that monstrousengine of ungoverned rage and hatred. And I think that Jubal, fromutter contempt of me, began to change to a feeling of respect, and thenin his primitive mind there evidently loomed the thought that perhapsat last he had met his master, and was facing his end.
At any rate it is only upon this hypothesis that I can account for hisnext act, which was in the nature of a last resort--a sort of forlornhope, which could only have been born of the belief that if he did notkill me quickly I should kill him. It happened on the occasion of hisfourth charge, when, instead of striking at me with his knife, hedropped that weapon, and seizing my sword blade in both his handswrenched the weapon from my grasp as easily as from a babe.
Flinging it far to one side he stood motionless for just an instantglaring into my face with such a horrid leer of malignant triumph as toalmost unnerve me--then he sprang for me with his bare hands. But itwas Jubal's day to learn new methods of warfare. For the first time hehad seen a bow and arrows, never before that duel had he beheld asword, and now he learned what a man who knows may do with his barefists.
As he came for me, like a great bear, I ducked again beneath hisoutstretched arm, and as I came up planted as clean a blow upon his jawas ever you have seen. Down went that great mountain of fleshsprawling upon the ground. He was so surprised and dazed that he laythere for several seconds before he made any attempt to rise, and Istood over him with another dose ready when he should gain his knees.
Up he came at last, almost roaring in his rage and mortification; buthe didn't stay up--I let him have a left fair on the point of the jawthat sent him tumbling over on his back. By this time I think Jubalhad gone mad with hate, for no sane man would have come back for moreas many times as he did. Time after time I bowled him over as fast ashe could stagger up, until toward the last he lay longer on the groundbetween blows, and each time came up weaker than before.
He was bleeding very profusely now from the wound in his lungs, andpresently a terrific blow over the heart sent him reeling heavily tothe ground, where he lay very still, and somehow I knew at once thatJubal the Ugly One would never get up again. But even as I looked uponthat massive body lying there so grim and terrible in death, I couldnot believe that I, single-handed, had bested this slayer of fearfulbeasts--this gigantic ogre of the Stone Age.
Picking up my sword I leaned upon it, looking down on the dead body ofmy foeman, and as I thought of the battle I had just fought and won agreat idea was born in my brain--the outcome of this and the suggestionthat Perry had made within the city of Phutra. If skill and sciencecould render a comparative pygmy the master of this mighty brute, whatcould not the brute's fellows accomplish with the same skill andscience. Why all Pellucidar would be at their feet--and I would betheir king and Dian their queen.
Dian! A little wave of doubt swept over me. It was quite within thepossibilities of Dian to look down upon me even were I king. She wasquite the most superior person I ever had met--with the most convincingway of letting you know that she was superior. Well, I could go to thecave, and tell her that I had killed Jubal, and then she might feelmore kindly toward me, since I had freed her of her tormentor. I hopedthat she had found the cave easily--it would be terrible had I lost heragain, and I turned to gather up my shield and bow to hurry after her,when to my astonishment I found her standing not ten paces behind me.
"Girl!" I cried, "what are you doing here? I thought that you had goneto the cave, as I told you to do."
Up went her head, and the look that she gave me took all the majestyout of me, and left me feeling more like the palace janitor--if palaceshave janitors.
"As you told me to do!" she cried, stamping her little foot. "I do asI please. I am the daughter of a king, and furthermore, I hate you."
I was dumbfounded--this was my thanks for saving her from Jubal! Iturned and looked at the corpse. "May be that I saved you from a worsefate, old man," I said, but I guess it was lost on Dian, for she neverseemed to notice it at all.
"Let us go to my cave," I said, "I am tired and hungry."
She followed along a pace behind me, neither of us speaking. I was tooangry, and she evidently didn't care to converse with the lower orders.I was mad all the way through, as I had certainly felt that at least aword of thanks should have rewarded me, for I knew that even by her ownstandards, I must have done a very wonderful thing to have killed theredoubtable Jubal in a hand-to-hand encounter.
We had no difficulty in finding my lair, and then I went down into thevalley and bowled over a small antelope, which I dragged up the steepascent to the ledge before the door. Here we ate in silence.Occasionally I glanced at her, thinking that the sight of her tearingat raw flesh with her hands and teeth like some wild animal would causea revulsion of my sentiments toward her; but to my surprise I foundthat she ate quite as daintily as the most civilized woman of myacquaintance, and finally I found myself gazing in foolish rapture atthe beauties of her strong, white teeth. Such is love.
After our repast we went down to the river together and bathed ourhands and faces, and then after drinking our fill went back to thecave. Without a word I crawled into the farthest corner and, curlingup, was soon asleep.
When I awoke I found Dian sitting in the doorway looking out across thevalley. As I came out she moved to one side to let me pass, but shehad no word for me. I wanted to hate her, but I couldn't. Every timeI looked at her something came up in my throat, so that I nearlychoked. I had never been in love before, but I did not need any aid indiagnosing my case--I certainly had it and had it bad. God, how Iloved that beautiful, disdainful, tantalizing, prehistoric girl!
After we had eaten again I asked Dian if she intended returning to hertribe now that Jubal was dead, but she shook her head sadly, and saidthat she did not dare, for there was still Jubal's brother to beconsidered--his oldest brother.
"What has he to do with it?" I asked. "Does he too want you, or hasthe option on you become a family heirloom, to be passed on down fromgeneration to generation?"
She was not quite sure as to what I meant.
"It is probable," she said, "that they all
will want revenge for thedeath of Jubal--there are seven of them--seven terrible men. Someonemay have to kill them all, if I am to return to my people."
It began to look as though I had assumed a contract much too large forme--about seven sizes, in fact.
"Had Jubal any cousins?" I asked. It was just as well to know theworst at once.
"Yes," replied Dian, "but they don't count--they all have mates.Jubal's brothers have no mates because Jubal could get none forhimself. He was so ugly that women ran away from him--some have eventhrown themselves from the cliffs of Amoz into the Darel Az rather thanmate with the Ugly One."
"But what had that to do with his brothers?" I asked.
"I forget that you are not of Pellucidar," said Dian, with a look ofpity mixed with contempt, and the contempt seemed to be laid on alittle thicker than the circumstance warranted--as though to make quitecertain that I shouldn't overlook it. "You see," she continued, "ayounger brother may not take a mate until all his older brothers havedone so, unless the older brother waives his prerogative, which Jubalwould not do, knowing that as long as he kept them single they would beall the keener in aiding him to secure a mate."
Noticing that Dian was becoming more communicative I began to entertainhopes that she might be warming up toward me a bit, although upon whatslender thread I hung my hopes I soon discovered.
"As you dare not return to Amoz," I ventured, "what is to become of yousince you cannot be happy here with me, hating me as you do?"
"I shall have to put up with you," she replied coldly, "until you seefit to go elsewhere and leave me in peace, then I shall get along verywell alone."
I looked at her in utter amazement. It seemed incredible that even aprehistoric woman could be so cold and heartless and ungrateful. ThenI arose.
"I shall leave you NOW," I said haughtily, "I have had quite enough ofyour ingratitude and your insults," and then I turned and strodemajestically down toward the valley. I had taken a hundred steps inabsolute silence, and then Dian spoke.
"I hate you!" she shouted, and her voice broke--in rage, I thought.
I was absolutely miserable, but I hadn't gone too far when I began torealize that I couldn't leave her alone there without protection, tohunt her own food amid the dangers of that savage world. She mighthate me, and revile me, and heap indignity after indignity upon me, asshe already had, until I should have hated her; but the pitiful factremained that I loved her, and I couldn't leave her there alone.
The more I thought about it the madder I got, so that by the time Ireached the valley I was furious, and the result of it was that Iturned right around and went up that cliff again as fast as I had comedown. I saw that Dian had left the ledge and gone within the cave, butI bolted right in after her. She was lying upon her face on the pileof grasses I had gathered for her bed. When she heard me enter shesprang to her feet like a tigress.
"I hate you!" she cried.
Coming from the brilliant light of the noonday sun into thesemidarkness of the cave I could not see her features, and I was ratherglad, for I disliked to think of the hate that I should have read there.
I never said a word to her at first. I just strode across the cave andgrasped her by the wrists, and when she struggled, I put my arm aroundher so as to pinion her hands to her sides. She fought like a tigress,but I took my free hand and pushed her head back--I imagine that I hadsuddenly turned brute, that I had gone back a thousand million years,and was again a veritable cave man taking my mate by force--and then Ikissed that beautiful mouth again and again.
"Dian," I cried, shaking her roughly, "I love you. Can't youunderstand that I love you? That I love you better than all else inthis world or my own? That I am going to have you? That love likemine cannot be denied?"
I noticed that she lay very still in my arms now, and as my eyes becameaccustomed to the light I saw that she was smiling--a very contented,happy smile. I was thunderstruck. Then I realized that, very gently,she was trying to disengage her arms, and I loosened my grip upon themso that she could do so. Slowly they came up and stole about my neck,and then she drew my lips down to hers once more and held them therefor a long time. At last she spoke.
"Why didn't you do this at first, David? I have been waiting so long."
"What!" I cried. "You said that you hated me!"
"Did you expect me to run into your arms, and say that I loved youbefore I knew that you loved me?" she asked.
"But I have told you right along that I love you," I said. "Lovespeaks in acts," she replied. "You could have made your mouth say whatyou wished it to say, but just now when you came and took me in yourarms your heart spoke to mine in the language that a woman's heartunderstands. What a silly man you are, David?"
"Then you haven't hated me at all, Dian?" I asked.
"I have loved you always," she whispered, "from the first moment that Isaw you, although I did not know it until that time you struck downHooja the Sly One, and then spurned me."
"But I didn't spurn you, dear," I cried. "I didn't know your ways--Idoubt if I do now. It seems incredible that you could have reviled meso, and yet have cared for me all the time."
"You might have known," she said, "when I did not run away from youthat it was not hate which chained me to you. While you were battlingwith Jubal, I could have run to the edge of the forest, and when Ilearned the outcome of the combat it would have been a simple thing tohave eluded you and returned to my own people."
"But Jubal's brothers--and cousins--" I reminded her, "how about them?"
She smiled, and hid her face on my shoulder.
"I had to tell you SOMETHING, David," she whispered. "I must needshave SOME excuse for remaining near you."
"You little sinner!" I exclaimed. "And you have caused me all thisanguish for nothing!"
"I have suffered even more," she answered simply, "for I thought thatyou did not love me, and I was helpless. I couldn't come to you anddemand that my love be returned, as you have just come to me. Just nowwhen you went away hope went with you. I was wretched, terrified,miserable, and my heart was breaking. I wept, and I have not done thatbefore since my mother died," and now I saw that there was the moistureof tears about her eyes. It was near to making me cry myself when Ithought of all that poor child had been through. Motherless andunprotected; hunted across a savage, primeval world by that hideousbrute of a man; exposed to the attacks of the countless fearsomedenizens of its mountains, its plains, and its jungles--it was amiracle that she had survived it all.
To me it was a revelation of the things my early forebears must haveendured that the human race of the outer crust might survive. It mademe very proud to think that I had won the love of such a woman. Ofcourse she couldn't read or write; there was nothing cultured orrefined about her as you judge culture and refinement; but she was theessence of all that is best in woman, for she was good, and brave, andnoble, and virtuous. And she was all these things in spite of the factthat their observance entailed suffering and danger and possible death.
How much easier it would have been to have gone to Jubal in the firstplace! She would have been his lawful mate. She would have been queenin her own land--and it meant just as much to the cave woman to be aqueen in the Stone Age as it does to the woman of today to be a queennow; it's all comparative glory any way you look at it, and if therewere only half-naked savages on the outer crust today, you'd find thatit would be considerable glory to be the wife a Dahomey chief.
I couldn't help but compare Dian's action with that of a splendid youngwoman I had known in New York--I mean splendid to look at and to talkto. She had been head over heels in love with a chum of mine--a clean,manly chap--but she had married a broken-down, disreputable olddebauchee because he was a count in some dinky little Europeanprincipality that was not even accorded a distinctive color by RandMcNally.
Yes, I was mighty proud of Dian.
After a time we decided to set out for Sari, as I was anxious to seePerry, and to know that all w
as right with him. I had told Dian aboutour plan of emancipating the human race of Pellucidar, and she wasfairly wild over it. She said that if Dacor, her brother, would onlyreturn he could easily be king of Amoz, and that then he and Ghak couldform an alliance. That would give us a flying start, for the Sariansand the Amozites were both very powerful tribes. Once they had beenarmed with swords, and bows and arrows, and trained in their use wewere confident that they could overcome any tribe that seemeddisinclined to join the great army of federated states with which wewere planning to march upon the Mahars.
I explained the various destructive engines of war which Perry and Icould construct after a little experimentation--gunpowder, rifles,cannon, and the like, and Dian would clap her hands, and throw her armsabout my neck, and tell me what a wonderful thing I was. She wasbeginning to think that I was omnipotent although I really hadn't doneanything but talk--but that is the way with women when they love.Perry used to say that if a fellow was one-tenth as remarkable as hiswife or mother thought him, he would have the world by the tail with adown-hill drag.
The first time we started for Sari I stepped into a nest of poisonousvipers before we reached the valley. A little fellow stung me on theankle, and Dian made me come back to the cave. She said that I mustn'texercise, or it might prove fatal--if it had been a full-grown snakethat struck me she said, I wouldn't have moved a single pace from thenest--I'd have died in my tracks, so virulent is the poison. As it wasI must have been laid up for quite a while, though Dian's poultices ofherbs and leaves finally reduced the swelling and drew out the poison.
The episode proved most fortunate, however, as it gave me an idea whichadded a thousand-fold to the value of my arrows as missiles of offenseand defense. As soon as I was able to be about again, I sought outsome adult vipers of the species which had stung me, and having killedthem, I extracted their virus, smearing it upon the tips of severalarrows. Later I shot a hyaenodon with one of these, and though myarrow inflicted but a superficial flesh wound the beast crumpled indeath almost immediately after he was hit.
We now set out once more for the land of the Sarians, and it was withfeelings of sincere regret that we bade good-bye to our beautifulGarden of Eden, in the comparative peace and harmony of which we hadlived the happiest moments of our lives. How long we had been there Idid not know, for as I have told you, time had ceased to exist for mebeneath that eternal noonday sun--it may have been an hour, or a monthof earthly time; I do not know.
At the Earth's Core Page 14
