Devil's Prize

by Samuel Edwards

  "We're here, Ethan!" Jed's voice came from somewhere ahead in the darkness.

  "Stay close to Prudence. Follow her bearers and you'll be all right. Try not to make any more noise than you can help. And don't fire your muskets—no matter what happens. We have our own way of dealing with Boline's swine."

  They penetrated deeper into the tropical forest, and behind them they heard the thunder of muskets as the soldiers, not sure were their quarry had gone, fired anywhere and everywhere, indiscriminately. Ordinarily the Caribs would have outdistanced uniformed men unaccustomed to the jungle, but the men who were carrying Prudence were handicapped and could maintain no more than a moderate speed. Therefore the troops stayed on the heels of the fleeing Indians, and Ethan knew that orders had been given to track down the fugitives at all costs. The abduction of two young women on two successive nights was an intolerable plow to the prestige and pride of the garrison, and unless the commander of the Imperial compound could demonstrate positive results, he would probably pay for his inefficiency with his own head when Boline returned to Dominica the following day.

  There was only one way to halt the pursuit, and Ethan signalled to his braves with a short, shrill call that sounded like the cry of the West Indian owl. The warriors responded by hiding behind trees, and when a squad of troops approached, they unleashed a barrage of poisoned arrows. Out of a group of twenty-four soldiers there were not more than five or six survivors, and they, seeing their brothers in arms fall mysteriously and silently, abandoned the chase.

  Ethan and the Caribs easily caught up with Prudence's bearers, and after another quarter of an hour they suspected that they had won, for the shots being fired in other sectors of the jungle sounded only infrequently now. And after another twenty or thirty minutes the silence became complete. There was no sound but the footsteps of Jed and David and the labored breathing of the bearers.

  Poda moved forward and assigned another team to carry Prudence for a time, and the march continued for another hour or more at the same rate. Then Ethan concluded that every conceivable danger was gone, and he left his place at the rear of the column. As he pushed ahead he paused to congratulate each of the warriors, and all of them answered that Santro-kri had unquestionably favored their enterprise, for fourteen sons of the Carib nation had left the village of Dama and fourteen were returning.

  At last Ethan came upon Jed and Stanley. Although they were toughened by their hard labor, their uniforms were perspiration-soaked. Both were eager to talk, and they had so much to say that they scarcely knew where to begin. Ethan chuckled, punched them affectionately and told them to save their breath. There would be plenty of time later for them to bring him up to date and to hear his news, too.

  Prudence was no more than six feet ahead of him now, and he hesitated for a moment before joining her. The two men who were carrying her had made a chair with their hands, and she sat in the cradle of their arms, staring straight ahead into the wild jungle. Taking a deep breath, Ethan came up close behind her, but he did not speak and neither did she. He waited until they crossed a mountain stream and came at last to a clump of fruit-bearing sapodilla trees. Then, finally, he ordered the party to halt.

  The Caribs promptly sat down and rested, and Jed and David drew apart to give Ethan a chance to speak privately to Prudence. Everyone pretended to be busy with his own thoughts. The man and the girl who had been separated for so long looked at each other, and the moonlight softened the lines of exhaustion in Prudence's face. Ethan was struck anew by the bizarre boldness of her appearance, and now that he had a chance to study her, he thought that if he had not known her, he would have sworn that she was a different sort of woman.

  The cosmetics that had been applied to her face made her resemble the haughty strumpets of St. Pierre, and her clothes were unlike any she had ever worn before. The bodice of her dress consisted only of a black velvet corselet which barely covered her breasts; the material did not quite meet in the front, and the half-inch wide opening, which exposed her bare flesh to the waist, was held together by thin black laces. Her full skirt of pale green silk clung to her thighs and legs when she moved, and it was plain that she had been given no petticoats to wear with the costume. Any man, seeing her for the first time, would have been certain that she fitted the description applied to her by the colonel in the Imperial compound—she looked like a trollop.

  If Prudence was embarrassed she gave no sign of it, and her eyes were grave as she returned Ethan's scrutiny.

  He tried to relieve the awful tension of the moment and smiled slightly as he said, "Well, Prue, we've come a long way from home."

  "I must thank you," she replied, her tone formal but sincere, "for delivering me from Jacques Gomez and the prospect of a thoroughly distasteful future with the one they call the Emperor. You and all these other brave men risked your lives for me, and I shall always be grateful to you." She inclined her head stiffly, and then fell silent.

  "Is that all you have to say to me? Prue, I love you. I've always loved you. I've never stopped—"

  "Please," she cried, and her voice was anguished. "You have no right to talk to me like that, and I have no right to Listen. I didn't believe Gomez when he told me in St Pierre that you were married. I still thought he was lying when he brought me here to Dominica—and the only reason I came with him is because he said he could offer me proof. Then I met Melanie, or I suppose I should call her Mistress Wade. I didn't believe her, either. I couldn't."

  "Prue, I—"

  "Yesterday, after Jed was assigned as one of my guards, we had an opportunity to talk for a little while. And when he admitted you had—slept with her, and then married her—I was forced to accept the truth."

  "I'm not trying to deny your charges." Ethan faced her squarely and with dignity. "But I do have the right to ask you to listen to my explanation. I earned that right tonight."

  "Sometime, perhaps. My hurt is so new, and so much has happened that I can't think straight. All I really want is to go home, and to forget everything about this experience—including you, if I can."

  It was hopeless to continue the discussion now, Ethan realized. Prudence was so overwrought that she was on the verge of hysteria, and he would have to wait until a better time to tell her the full story. "If it's possible to return you to New York, I will. I can't promise, but I'll do my best." Turning away from her, he called out to the Carib. "We march again!"

  Ethan took the lead and set a rapid pace through the rest of the night as he led the column through the jungle.

  Jed and David, overjoyed at being reunited with him, walked with him. They told him in detail how they had progressed from slavery to the ranks of army recruits and then had been transferred to a unit that performed guard duty. Both had believed that Ethan was dead, and had first suspected the contrary when Melanie had been spirited out of the compound. Ethan sketched in the outlines of the activities that had kept him busy. Both of his friends were eager to join him in his projected campaign against Boline, and they prophesied that whole companies and battalions would desert the Emperor at the first opportunity. Boline's system, they declared, produced trained soldiers, but they were ruled by fear, and vast numbers felt no enthusiasm for his cause.

  At dawn Ethan slowed the tempo of the march out of consideration for Prudence, whose fatigue was becoming increasingly marked, and the sun was climbing steadily by the time the column arrived at the village of Dama. Word spread quickly through the community that the mission had been successful, and several hundred Carib gathered to cheer and embrace the tired warriors. Dama was waiting near Ethan's hut, and after greeting each of the sons of the nation in turn, he extended a welcome to Prudence and to Jed and David.

  He assigned sleeping quarters to the two soldier-refugees in a large hut that housed a number of young bachelor warriors, and then he turned in some embarrassment to Prudence. This, he knew, was Ethan's woman, but there were complications with which he was unable to cope, and the cause for his perplexity beca
me evident when Melanie appeared in the entrance to Ethan's hut.

  She had apparently bartered some of her belongings for Carib attire, and she looked barbarously abandoned as she leaned with lazy voluptuousness against the doorframe, a provocative and knowing smile on her lips. The costume that seemed right and natural on Carib women became wicked when worn by Melanie, and she obviously gloried in the effect she created. A small triangle of soft kidskin was knotted on her right shoulder and was draped carelessly across her breasts; a rectangle of the same pliable, tanned leather was wrapped around her hips and tied low on one side, forming a tiny, straight skirt which barely covered the upper portion of her thighs and was open below the knot. Large silver hoops swung from her ear lobes, and high on her bare left upper arm were four beaten silver bracelets.

  Aware that every eye was on her, but not bothering to glance in the direction of Prudence, Melanie sauntered up to Ethan and slowly encircled his neck with her arms. "Welcome back, darling," she said, speaking softly but with sufficient clarity for all of the others to hear. "I should have known you'd be all right, but Til never let you do anything that worries me so much again." She paused and bestowed a smile of tender, wifely concern on him. "Now you need sleep, and then I'll prepare a wonderful dinner for you. I'm proud of you, darling— and I intend to show you just how happy I am. You deserve—every reward."

  Fifteen

  IN HIS HUT Ethan lay awake thinking of Prudence. Repeatedly he saw the pain that had appeared in her eyes when Melanie had taken his hand and drawn him toward the hut. He had broken free and had protested vigorously, of course, but the damage had been done. Ethan had stumbled off to his pallet in despair; it was supremely ironical to have found the girl he loved and to have rescued her, only to have lost her for all time. At last exhaustion forced the bitter picture from his mind and he slept.

  In mid-afternoon he was aroused by the sound of voices at the entrance to the hut. He lifted himself to one elbow, blinked and saw that Poda was trying to gain admission but that Melanie, still dressed in her sultry Carib garb, was blocking his way. They were both excited, and Ethan could not make out a word, for she was speaking alternately in French and English, and the Indian was shouting in his own tongue.

  "What is all this?" Ethan's voice, still thick with sleep, was irritable.

  Melanie swung at the sound. "I won't let him disturb you. I keep trying to tell him that today belongs to us, but he won't listen to me!"

  Poda slid past her, his eyes glittering. "Four warriors who are the eyes and ears of Ethan have come to the village of Dama! All bring the same word. The chief of the devil-men has returned to the island, and the devil-men have gathered together all their arms. Even now they are marching against the people of the Carib!"

  Instantly awake, Ethan jumped to his feet. "Have you notified the other villages?"

  "Dama has sent word to all, and already the warriors of the Carib are gathering."

  Ethan picked up the pouch containing his blowgun, and filled it with arrows. "This may be the best thing that could have happened to us, Poda," he said as he donned his belt and slid his knife into it. "We've been wondering how to make our men more war-like. Maybe now, with their homes and their families threatened, they'll feel more like fighting."

  "The spirit of Santro-kri has entered the warriors of the Carib," the Indian said solemnly. "The god has opened their eyes to the danger, and they will fight."

  Melanie, who had not understood more than a few words, kept looking from one to the other, and when she finally saw that Ethan was about to go out, she clutched his arm. "You can't go now!" she declared. "What about the meal I've been fixing?" With her other hand she pointed to the kettle that sat over a fire in the center of the hut.

  Ethan grinned at her mirthlessly. "You'll have to eat it alone, I'm afraid. It looks like I've really stung your friend Boline. He's attacking us with his whole army."

  "Then we've got to hide. If there's only some place where we really can be safe on this infernal island!" Her fingers dug into his arm frantically.

  He freed himself gently. "We're going to fight."

  "But that's sheer suicide. His army is magnificent. These stupid savages—"

  "It remains to be seen whether they're stupid or not. I happen to think they aren't, but we'll soon find out. And Melanie, don't get any ideas into your head about rejoining Boline. It's too late for that now. The Caribs might not come up to your standards, but they're intelligent enough to kill anyone who tries to carry information to the enemy."

  She saw it would be useless to argue with him or attempt to dissuade him. "All right, darling. I'll do as you say." She approached him, intending to kiss him goodbye, but he was either unaware of her intent or else he chose to ignore it. He left quickly with Poda.

  Several young warriors, all of them men whom Ethan had been training in leadership, were gathered outside the hut, and as he and Poda came into the open they started forward, their serious faces reflecting their determination. Ethan hurriedly issued a series of commands—the braves of Dama's village were to assemble at a clearing half a mile distant, where he would join them shortly. The men of the other Carib communities were to gather at battle stations that had previously been designated. And, he said, any messenger who came with word of the enemy's movements was to be brought to him at once.

  The warriors scattered to do his bidding, and he walked rapidly to the house of Dama. Prudence, who was a special guest, had undoubtedly been quartered there, and he was anxious for a final word with her before the battle. A number of the villagers, most of them women and older men, were standing near the home of their chief, conversing in low, worried tones, and not far from them were Jed and David. Ethan had momentarily forgotten their presence, but as they came to him he made up his mind regarding the functions they could best perform during the battle. They would probably object to his decision.

  He would not break the news to them too abruptly, however, and he greeted them jovially, "Well, you look better after a little sleep. Have you heard the news?"

  "Poda told us," Jed replied. "It looks like we burned His Majesty good. Unless he can catch us and boil us in oil, the army will laugh him right off that imaginary throne of his."

  Ethan grinned at them. "I don't intend to let any of us get boiled in oil." He paused and jerked a thumb in the direction of Dama's hut. "Is Prudence in there?"

  "No, they took her to another house down the trail a spell," Jed said. "She was—sort of unhappy at what happened this morning, and she cried for a while, so the head man of the village turned her over to three old women. They're sitting outside the hut where they took her. She's sleeping now, I imagine."

  "That's the house of Dama's sister." Ethan hesitated and struggled with himself briefly. "I'll let her sleep. When she wakes up, tell her I wanted to see her before I left."

  "Tell her!" David said indignantly. "Aren't we going with you?"

  "I want you to find yourselves some Carib breech cloths and change into them as soon as you can," Ethan replied. "Those uniforms you're wearing are going to be unpopular before long, and some of my warriors from the other villages who don't know you are pretty handy with blow-guns. Then I want you to keep watch over Prudence. And over Melanie, too. If the fighting should come close to the village, I'll send word where you're to take them."

  "You can't keep us out of the battle, Ethan!" Jed protested. "We have as big a score to settle with Boline as you have."

  "I know you have, but you'll oblige me by following orders. Don't let either of the girls wander around, and keep them indoors when braves from some of the other communities begin to appear. Men are likely to do strange things when they see a pretty woman during a battle." A drum in the nearby jungle began to beat out a message, and he stopped to listen to it. Poda was sending word to the rest of the nation, telling the warriors to assemble. It was time now for Ethan to take his place in the field.

  "We have our own way of fighting up here, and it's new to you bot
h," he said. "All you need to do to spoil an ambush would be to step on a dead twig or stumble over a root. Try to see this as I do. Remember that I've given you the hardest assignment of all, and no matter what happens, don't let any harm come to Prudence." The drums were louder and more insistent now, and Ethan hurried away.

  Back at his hut Melanie listlessly stirred the contents of the kettle, and then, as a sense of futility and rage overcame her, she hurled the wooden spoon into a corner. If only Ethan had listened to her, they might have escaped somewhere together. After the Imperial army had burned a few villages and returned to the beach garrison, they could have plotted their escape from his island. But the present situation was hopeless. There was no doubt in her mind as to the outcome of the battle, and she was sure that when it was over Ethan would be dead.

  Therefore she had to think of herself, and her position was less than pleasant. There was always the possibility that the Indians would kill her before they were defeated, but even if she survived her prospects were less than bright. Marinus Boline would never believe that she had been taken from the Imperial compound against her will—he would be positive that she had cooperated with her abductors because she had wanted to join Ethan. And Marinus would be quite right. However, if she could somehow make her way to him and could tell him that the Carib were a pitiful lot, armed only with crude weapons, he would be grateful to her, and he might restore her to her position of favor.

  And so, in spite of Ethan's warning, she spent the next quarter of an hour or more trying to work up her courage. Shivering slightly, she rose to her feet. At that moment she thought she saw a face at the window frame. She turned quickly but no one was there. Tension was making her imagine things, she told herself, and the sooner she left, the better she would feel. She started to gather up her few belongings, and then she stopped abruptly when she saw a shadow appear in the door opening. Looking up, she saw a small, fairly attractive native girl, who was looking at her with an expression that she could not define, but that definitely made her uncomfortable.