CHAPTER XXI
EVE BECOMES AN AMAZON
Stern laid a hand on her shoulder, striving to draw her away.This spectacle, it seemed to him, was no fit sight for her to gaze on.But she shrugged her shoulders as if to say: "I'm not a child! I'myour equal, now, and I must see!" So the engineer desisted. And he,too, set his eye to the twisting aperture.
At sight of the narrow segment of forest visible through it, and ofthe several members of the Horde, a strong revulsion came upon him.
Up welled a deep-seated love for the memory of the race of men andwomen as they once had been--the people of the other days. Sternalmost seemed to behold them again, those tall, athletic,straight-limbed men; those lithe, deep-breasted women, fair-skinnedand with luxuriant hair; all alike now plunged for a thousand years inthe abyss of death and of eternal oblivion.
Never before had the engineer realized how dear, how infinitely closeto him his own race had been. Never had he so admired its diversetypes of force and beauty, as now, now when all were but a dream.
"Ugh!" thought he, disgusted beyond measure at the sight before him."And all _these_ things are just as much alike as so many ants in ahill! I question if they've got the reason and the socializedintelligence of ants!"
He heard the girl breathe quick, as she, too, watched what was goingon outside. A certain change had taken place there. The mist hadsomewhat thinned away, blown by the freshening breeze through MadisonForest and by the higher-rising sun. Both watchers could new seefurther into the woods; and both perceived that the Horde was for themost part disposing itself to sleep.
Only a few vague, uncertain figures were now moving about, with astrangely unsteady gait, weak-kneed and simian.
In the nearest group, which Stern had already had a chance to study,all save one of the creatures had lain down. The man and woman couldquite plainly hear the raucous and bestial snoring of some half-dozenof the gorged Things.
"Come away, you've seen enough, more than enough!" he whispered in thegirl's ear.
She shook her head.
"No, no!" she answered, under her breath. "How horrible--and yet, howwonderful!"
Then a misfortune happened; trivial yet how direly pregnant!
For Stern, trying to readjust his position, laid his right hand on thewall above his head.
A little fragment of loose marble, long since ready to fall, dislodgeditself and bounced with a sharp click against the steel I-beam overwhich they were both peeking.
The sound, perhaps, was no greater than you would make in snapping anordinary lead-pencil in your fingers; yet on the instant three of theThings raised their bulbous and exaggerated heads in an attitude ofintense, suspicious listening. Plain to see that their senses, atleast, excelled those of the human being, even as a dog's might.
The individual which, alone of them all, had been standing, wheeledsuddenly round and made a step or two toward the building. Bothwatchers saw him with terrible distinctness, there among the sumacsand birches, with the beauty of which he made a shocking contrast.
Plain now was the simian aspect, plain the sidelong and uncertaingait, bent back and crooked legs, the long, pendulous arms and dullyferocious face.
And as the Thing listened, its hair bristling, it thrust itsvillainous, apelike head well forward. Open fell the mouth, revealingthe dog-teeth and the blue, shriveled-looking gums.
A wrinkle creased the low, dull brow. Watching with horrifiedfascination, Stern and Beatrice beheld--and heard--the creature sniffthe air, as though taking up some scent of danger or of the hunt.
Then up came the right arm; they saw the claw-hand with a spear, poiseitself a moment. From the open mouth burst with astounding force andsuddenness a snarling yowl, inarticulate, shrill, horrible beyond allthinking.
An instant agitation took place all through the forest. The watcherscould see only a small, fan-like space of it--and even this, only afew rods from the building--yet by the confused, vague noise thatbegan, they knew the alarm had been given to the whole Horde.
Here, there, the cry was repeated. A shifting, moving sound began. Inthe visible group, the Things were getting to their handlike feet,standing unsteadily on their loose-skinned, scaly legs, gawping aboutthem, whining and clicking with disgusting sounds.
Sudden, numbing fear seized Beatrice. Now for the first time sherealized the imminent peril; now she regretted her insistence onseeing the Horde at close range.
She turned, pale and shaken; and her trembling hand sought theengineer's.
He still, for a moment, kept his eye to the crack, fascinated by thevery horror of the sight. Then all at once another figure shambledinto view.
"A female one!" he realized, shuddering. Too monstrously hideous, thissight, to be endured. With a gasp, the man turned back.
About Beatrice he drew his arm. Together, almost as soundlessly aswraiths, they stole away, out through the office, out to the hallway,into the dim light of the arcade once more.
Here, for a few moments, they knew that they were safe. Retreatthrough the Marble Court and up the stairs was fairly clear. There wasbut one entrance open into the arcade, the one through Pine Tree Gate;and this was blocked so narrowly by the giant bole that Stern knewthere could be no general mob-rush through it--no attack which hecould not for a while hold back, so long as his ammunition and thegirl's should last.
Thus they breathed more freely now. Most of the tumult outside hadbeen cut off from their hearing, by the retirement into the arcade.They paused, to plan their course.
At Stern the girl looked eagerly.
"Oh, oh, Allan--how horrible!" she whispered. "It was all my fault forhaving been so headstrong, for having insisted on a look at them!Forgive me!"
"S-h!" he cautioned again. "No matter about that. The main thing, now,is whether we attack or wait?"
"Attack? Now?"
"I don't think much of going up-stairs without that pail of water.We'll have a frightful time with thirst, to say nothing of not beingable to make the Pulverite. Water we must have! If it weren't for yourbeing here, I'd mighty soon wade into that bunch and see who wins!But--well, I haven't any right to endanger--"
Beatrice seized his hand and pulled him toward the doorway.
"Come on!" cried she. "If you and I aren't a match for _them_, wedon't deserve to live, that's all. You know how I can shoot now! Comealong!"
Her eyes gleamed with the light of battle, battle for liberty, forlife; her cheeks glowed with the tides of generous blood that coursedbeneath the skin. Never had Stern beheld her half so beautiful, soregal in that clinging, barbaric Bengal robe of black and yellow,caught at the throat with the clasp of raw gold.
A sudden impulse seized him, dominant, resistless. For a brief momenthe detained her; he held her back; about her supple body his armtightened.
She raised her face in wonder. He bent, a little, and on the brow hekissed her rapturously.
"Thank God for such a comrade and a--friend!" said he.
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