Sword in Sheath

by Andre Norton

  Kane clamped his teeth on a laugh. In place of van Bleeker's round chin and stubby nose he had, for an instant, seen the irregular angularity of Ironjaw's long face. At least their thoughts of battle were very, very similar.

  “It only remains for us to decide when.” Lorens rolled up the map. “Tomorrow — before dawn — ”

  “Giving the inhabitants of this fair isle all night to set booby traps where they'll do the most good?” inquired Sam.

  “It is not the easiest thing in the world to cross unknown territory at night, especially since we are not pushed for time — ”

  “Van Norreys is right,” Kane said crisply. “And they can't be sure of our next move anyway. If they've been watching us, they know that we sent one party up the mountain and the other along the reef and shore. All right. How can they know that we plan now to march to the south? If their force is small they'll spread out so thin trying to cover every possible approach that they'll simply wrap themselves up in tissue paper and be a regular gift as far as we're concerned. And I don't fancy plowing through jungle in the dark when we've had no briefing about the route. I vote for a morning try.”

  “Okay, okay.” Sam waved his hand in amiable agreement “I'm no owl either. Morning it is then.”

  “And you, Captain?” Lorens turned to van Bleeker with that shade of deference he had always displayed toward the captain of the Sumba.

  “Right enough. Before dawn it is. And who will go?”

  “I think it is more a question of who won't,” said Kane. And van Bleeker laughed for the first time.

  “True enough. And, just in case there is a reason for these gloomy forebodings which seem to hang above our heads, I shall wireless to Besi the details of our proposed exploit That will give de Wolfe something with which to occupy his idle moments. It may be that we have even discovered the headquarters of his pirates.” The frown of concentration was back between the captain's sun-faded eyebrows again. “Which gives me to think — ”

  “What if this is the raiders’ hideout and their ship or ships are at sea? Suppose that fleet comes in and bottles up the Sumba? That would not be good — not good at all!”

  “How about asking the turtle hunter a few pointed questions?” Kane suggested.

  “Yes, the turtle hunter.” Lorens stopped making pleats in the edge of the map. “What has he to say about this island?”

  But Fortnight was already on his way in quest of his prisoner. Van Bleeker appropriated one of Lorens’ pencils and began composing a message designed to arouse and irritate the distant Lt de Wolfe.

  “How about it?” Kane asked Lorens. “Does this seem like a pirate stronghold to you? Not much activity to be seen — ”

  “There would not be — except when one of their ships was in” Lorens was drawing the outline of a prau on the pad of notepaper. “One of these now with the proper arms would be able to take almost anything now sailing in these waters — except, naturally, a regular war vessel. But, yes, perhaps we would see more signs of life were this a pirate port. I think that not even yet have we guessed right concerning this island — ”

  “But you did find pearls?” prodded Sam.

  “We found pearl oysters, or rather, we saw them,” corrected Lorens. “That may mean nothing. And on this side of the lagoon there is no trace of pearl diving. The answer to all our riddles must lie here.” He unrolled the map and dug the soft lead of his pencil point into the location of the cave dwellers.

  Van Bleeker poked the bell button on the wall at his elbow. And when the steward padded in the captain tossed a piece of much marked-over paper to him. “This to Jan and tell him it is for the Dutch commandant at Besi. There is no need to put it in code. And — here you are, Fortnight — does he wish to speak yet?”

  Propelled by the Samoan's hand at the nape of his neck, with Fortnight's other set of fingers gripping the waistband of his sarong, the turtle hunter entered the cabin with a total lack of ceremony and a semblance of haste he did not appear to find comfortable.

  “He has not yet found his tongue. But I think that he will If he does not, why should you keep a useless mouth aboard, captain? We can easily set him ashore — “ began the Samoan.

  The captive gave a broken wailing cry and grabbed for van Bleeker's hand. Missing aim, his fists fell to the table, and he gripped the edge of the board with a force that seemed likely to imbed his fingers in the wood itself.

  “Not ashore — “ he screamed, thrusting his dirty head forward, terror showing in his eyes while a thin drool of saliva twisted down his unshaven chin. “Not ashore, Tuan Besar, Noble Captain, Master of the Winds — Not ashore!”

  Van Bleeker's lips curved happily. “Now I wonder why?” he inquired of the company at large. “Fortnight, you are right about useless mouths. We can do well without them — ”

  The man sank rather than wriggled out of the Samoan's hold. Still gripping the table, as if he were clinging to the one stable thing in a fearsome world, he collapsed to his knees. He wasn't even trying to deny Fate now, but he shook his head from side to side. A tear slipped down along his thick nose. Kane's stomach rebelled. It wasn't good to witness such fear.

  “Why don't you want to go ashore?” the American demanded abruptly, for no other reason than to break through that curtain of abject, piteous terror.

  But the turtle hunter was too deep in his personal hell — words couldn't reach him now. Kane moved, he wanted to stand up, to get around the table and shake that gibbering man into rational sanity again. A hand imprisoned his wrist in a steel grasp which held him in his place.

  “We can get nothing from him now.” Lorens’ quiet emotionless words cut across the soft moaning cry of the native. “I have seen this before — he is mad with fear.” Without raising his voice or changing tone from the same quiet pitch the Netherlander leaned toward the man and, releasing his hold on Kane, reached out his hands to put them over those fingers still biting into the wood.

  “You are not going ashore, you are not going ashore. You are safe, entirely safe. You do not have to go ashore — “ The sing-song of Coast Malay words made a pattern. Kane felt his own tenseness ebb away as he listened. “You are safe — you need not go ashore.” The repetition was still quietly spoken, without color. But the head of the turtle hunter had ceased to sway in its horrible gesture of negation. His half-open mouth eased shut. Now Lorens’ hands were moving, trying to straighten those cramped fingers, to loosen the man's grip. “You do not have to go ashore — ”

  The native's eyes fell to his hands and those others over them, then he looked up into Lorens’ face. His mouth closed, he swallowed twice, then sniffed. Lorens spoke to the captaia

  “Give him a drink. I think he will be all right now. But we had better not try that again. He was very close to the edge — ”

  Van Bleeker filled a glass and pushed it hastily in the general direction of the kneeling native and Lorens released the man's wrists. He looked to the Netherlander before he took up the gin and waited for Lorens’ nod of permission before he downed the fiery stuff.

  “Golly — “ whispered Sam. “What in blazes is on shore anyway! That guy certainly had the wind up!”

  “I think we had better find out,” returned Lorens.

  “I do not go ashore — “ It was only a thread of whisper.

  “You do not go ashore, you are safe,” reassured Lorens again.

  The fellow actually smiled, grinned at them all, even at Fortnight who still blocked the exit from the cabin.

  “Ask him what's ashore, maybe he'll tell you,” Sam urged the young Netherlander.

  But Lorens hesitated, almost as if he feared to hear what that answer might be.

  “Do so.” Van Bleeker's agreement had the force of an order. “We should know why this creature becomes a gibbering idiot when. going ashore is mentioned. I have little liking for this — ”

  “Nor have I” Lorens’ fingers were twitching a little. “He was mad with terror. If I should bring on such an
attack again — ”

  “At the same time we don't want to walk into anything,” Kane pointed out “This may mean our lives.”

  “Or his reason.” For the first time Lorens was bitter. “Very well” He began to speak in Coast Malay.

  “Tell me — What danger lives ashore?”

  The native was staring with a dog's intentness into the Netherlander's eyes.

  “Danger ashore — “ He repeated the words as if they had no meaning for him. Then a spark of intelligence flamed in his dark eyes, was alive behind his ugly face.

  “Danger, much danger, Tuan This is the Forbidden Place!”

  13

  SWEET POTATO DEDUCTION

  “The Forbidden Place!”

  “You still thinking about that?” demanded Sam from the upper berth. He might have meant his question jestingly, but the tone which echoed back from the roof of the cabin had something of annoyance in it

  “Just as much as you are, son,” Kane returned cheerfully. “That's the umpteenth time you've turned.”

  “All right, all right! So I can't get to sleep. Well, I've heard you counting sheep also.”

  Kane folded his hands behind his head on the thin pillow and stared into the dark.

  “Looks as if we can't take it any more,” he challenged. “I don't recall these hysterics in the old days. D’you suppose we're getting old?”

  There was a smother of relaxed laughter from above. “That may be it, at that You know this has all the good old melodramatic ingredients of a pulp adventure story — a lost island with a ruined temple, that queer old god up in Siva's house, the mysterious bomber in the lagoon and the cave dwellers — All we need now is a bunch of bloodthirsty cannibals and the Marine Corps to arrive in the nick of time before we go into the pot. It's so much of an adventure story that it's funny.”

  “Yeah, only once in a while we run into real life. The turtle hunter wasn't amused by it all. That guy had it — bad.”

  There was a long moment of silence before Sam answered Kane shifted on the tangled web of sheet and pillowcase. He didn't want to see etched across the darkness that terror-stricken face.

  “His story was lame — even when van Norreys pried it out of him,” Sam's words came at last “All that stuff about camping out here, trading with two natives for pearls and then finding one of the fellows dead in the morning — ”

  “ ‘Torn, Tuan, as if some beast had been at him. But here, Tuan, I swear it to you — there is no beast of claws, no tiger — as all men know!’ “ Kane quoted.

  “No four-legged ones, maybe,” Sam corrected. “At any rate, he had the wind up — but good.”

  “You know — we may be talking ourselves into somewhat of the same state of mind right now,” Kane said slowly.

  “What!” But Sam's explosion was followed by sober agreement “Telling ghost stories in the dark so we'll jump when the wind slams the door. I get it, partner. Okay — so long until tomorrow.”

  And the night hours were long. Kane sweated miserably in the dark. He set himself the old exercise of building words, a trick which had carried him through those bad hours before jumps, before attacks. One began with a noun and added certain adjectives and a verb until one had a sentence — each word must be seen in the mind, spelled out — defined —

  “Up with you, sleeping beauty!”

  Kane opened smarting eyes. It was a stinging slap which had brought him awake. Sam was thrashing about in the dusk, going through the movements of a contortionist while in the process of donning his clothes. Kane yawned and rolled over the side of the bunk, reaching for his slacks as he went.

  “What kind of a day is it?”

  “A fine frosty morning!” caroled Sam. “Just the type on which you'd choose to be shot. Come on, no need to beautify yourself today. We're businessmen, remember?”

  “As if you'd let me forget. Do we get fed before this bold rally?”

  “Always thinking of your stomach.” Sam clawed impatiently at the cabin door.

  “I'm part of an army, aren't I?” returned his companion reasonably. “And that's what an army travels on — its stomach. Sounds as if we were snakes or something of a like nature — ”

  Luckily van Bleeker and the Samba’s commisssary were equal to the occasion There were mugs of coffee flanked by well-filled plates on the mess table, and it did not take long to slide into one's seat and get to work.

  “Van Norreys, Kane, Marusaki, Fortnight, Ali, Chang, and myself to go, Chief,” van Bleeker was telling Bridger. “Shen and Felder will stay aboard.”

  “An’ me?” The chief might be a plump middle-aged man in oily dungarees, but he was also loading a forty-five with a skilled touch. “Suppose th’ boat sorta cruises around while you fellas go ashore? You might need some support — ”

  Both Lorens and van Bleeker reached for the map, but the captain got it first And Bridger used the nose of the forty-five to make clear his suggestion.

  “See, here's where you're goin’ ashore, ain't it? All right — suppose I take Kanake, Red an Bert an’ ferry you over. Then we coast around this here point an’ paddle along th’ shore a ways. If you’re goin’ across clear ground like you say, then we can keep an eye on you — ”

  Van Bleeker consulted the map. “It is a good idea. What do you think?” he asked the others.

  Sam shrugged, the rest nodded, without caring much one way or the other. It was Kane’s guess that Bridger merely wanted to get in on the excitement and knew that cross-country travel was no longer for him. If it made the chief happy —

  So now the scow which set them ashore in the dawn was crowded. They had pulled well away from the Sumba when Kane felt the soft touch of smooth and well-cared-for fur against his arm. A round head with pricked ears was silhouetted against the water. For some reason known only to herself the Sumbd’s cat had selected to join the party. And when they reached the island she made the shore in a leap which her shipmates, splashing through water, might well have envied. Then she was gone into the high grass before she was seen by any except Kane.

  Bridger and his men pushed the scow out again, and the shore party gathered in a sort of order. Almost instinctively they fanned out as they moved inland, keeping good space between each man

  The open land was not as easy to cross as it had looked to be from the mountain. In the first place it was overgrown with a tough and wiry grass, calf, thigh, and waist high, the blades of which had edges that could slash like bolos. So in no time at all they wore smarting scratches across hands and arms.

  There were inhabitants in this grassy world, small things which squeaked and scuttled away from the invaders. And there were winged things which stung and bit impartially. As it grew light the party from the Sumba cut away from the open to strike for the cover of the trees which grew along the thin backbone of the highland to the east. And here the flies came down upon them, flies whose bite seemed every bit as bad as a wasp’s sting.

  “Anoa country,” commented van Bleeker. “The black apes like this sort of territory too. Only the island is small for anoa.”

  “But you are wrong, Captain!” With his rifle Lorens swept back a tangle of grass. “Look here.”

  Clean and white, polished by the beaks of carrion eaters and the jaws of insects, was a huddle of bones. From their midst the young Netherlander picked up a horned skull.

  “Anoa,” agreed the captain.

  But Kane was more intereted in the hole in that skull. Lorens thrust a finger through it.

  “Rifle,” he commented. “And recent too. Someone was hunting for the pot and did their butchering on the spot — ”

  “How long ago, do you think?” the American wanted to know.

  “In this climate — who can tell? Perhaps not more than a week.”

  Fortnight had pushed past them, nosing into the bushes ahead as if he were a hound trying to pick up a scent. Van Bleeker called to him.

  “Any sign?”

  The big Samoan shook his head. “Not here
, Captain. But it would be well to advance cautiously. Shall I try for a trail?”

  It was Kane who answered first “Look here, if this is hunting ground I don’t think there will be many trails. As you say, Captain, the island is so small it cannot support much in the way of animal life. Suppose that the cave dwellers, whoever they are, have realized that. Won’t they be keeping their hunting to a minimum? And that would mean they would stay pretty much to the other side of the river. I don’t think we’ll find a path until we get over there.”

  Kane’s deduction must have been the correct one, for, after they left the body of the anoa, they came across no other evidence that anyone had skirted these trees or plowed through the tough grass before them. While they were still some distance from the river they came to a clump of trees whose bright green trunks towered into the sky. And beneath the circle of leaves which topped them almost fity feet above were pods, thick and brownish green.

  “Kapok!” Van Bleeker circled the largest of the trees, his head back at an awkward angle as he tried to count the pods. “That’s sure proof of cultivation — those aren’t native to islands this far north. They’ve been planted here — ”

  But he could arouse little interest in kapok. Sam, Kane, and Fortnight were thrusting on toward the river, with Lorens hovering impatiently for the captain to catch up.

  “It just occurs to me” — Sam was lying full length behind a bush, peering down into the channel of the stream — “that it might be well for us to avoid the paths after all — remember Burma?”

  Kane nipped his lower lip between his teeth. “D’you suppose I could forget it in a hurry? But planting those path traps is a dacoit trick — these natives may not know it —”

  “Sharp bamboo is not hard to find hereabouts. Anyway I’d watch where I was putting my feet Better pass that warning along. Shall we try getting across now?”

  While one kept guard on the bank Fortnight and Sam decided between them which was to make the first break. The Samoan won and slipped down the bank to plunge thigh deep through the stream and scramble up the opposite side without waste of time or motion. So one by one they crossed over into the land of the caves.