CHAPTER XVI
A RESPITE FROM TOIL
The bright beam of the flash-lamp in his face roused Allan to aconsciousness that he was bruised and suffering, and that his left armached with dull insistence. Dazed, he brought it up and saw his sleeveof dull brown stuff was dripping red.
Beside him, in the trampled grass, he vaguely made out a hairy bulk,motionless and huge. Bremilu was kneeling beside his master, withwords of cheer.
"It is dead, O Kromno! The man-beast is dead! My stone ax broke itsskull. See, now it lies here harmless!"
The currents of thought began to flow once more. Allan struggled up,unmindful of his wounds.
"Beatrice! _Where is the girl?_" he gasped.
As though by way of answer, the tall growths swayed and crackled, andthrough them a dim figure loomed--a man with something in his arms.
"Zangamon!" panted Allan, springing toward him. "Have you got her? Thegirl--is she alive?"
"She lives, master!" replied a voice. "But as yet she remains withoutknowledge of aught."
"Wounded? Is she wounded?"
Already he had reached Zangamon, and, injured though he was, had takenthe beloved form in his arms.
"Beatrice! Beatrice!" he called, pressing kisses to her brow, hereyes, her mouth--still warm, thank God!
He sank down among the underbrush and gathered her to his breast,cradling her, cherishing her to him as though to bring back life andconsciousness.
To her heart he laid his ear. It beat! She breathed!
"The light, here! Quick!"
By its clear ray he saw her hair disheveled; her coarse mantle ofbrown stuff ripped and torn, and on her throat long scratches.
Bruises showed on her hands and arms, as from a terrible fight she hadput up against the monster. And his heart bled; and to his lips roseexecrations, mingled with the tenderest words of pity and love.
"We must get her back to the cave at once!" he exclaimed. "Quick!Break branches. Make a litter--a bed--to carry her on! Everythingdepends on getting her to shelter now!"
But the two Merucaans did not understand. All this was beyond theirknowledge. Ignoring his hurts, Allan laid the girl down very gently,and with them set to work, directing the making of the litter.
They obeyed eagerly. In a few minutes the litter was ready-made offern-tree branches thickly covered with leaves and odorous grasses.
On this he placed the girl.
"You, Zangamon, take these boughs here. Bremilu, those others. Now Iwill hold the light. Back to the cave, now--quick!"
"We need not the light, master. We see better without it. It dazzlesour eyes. Use it for yourself. We need it not!" exclaimed Bremilu,stooping above the body of the dead monster to recover his ax.
Involuntarily Allan turned the beam upon the horrible creature. Therestood Bremilu, his foot upon the hairy shoulder, tugging hard at theax-handle. Thrice he had to pull with all his might to loosen theblade which had buried itself deep in the shattered skull.
"A giant gorilla, so help me!" he cried, shuddering. "My God,Beatrice--what a ghastly terror you've been through!"
Still grinning ferociously, in death, with blood-smeared face andglazed, staring eyes, the creature shocked and horrified even Allan'ssteady nerves. He gazed upon it only a moment, then turned away.
"Enough!" said he. "To the cave!"
A quarter-hour had passed before they reached shelter again. Allanbade the Merucaans heap dry wood on the embers in the cavern, while hehimself laid Beatrice upon the bed.
With a piece of their brown cloth dipped in one of the water-jars hebathed her face and bruised throat.
"Fresh water! Fetch a jar of fresh water from the river below!" hecommanded Zangamon.
But even as the white barbarian started to obey, the girl stirred,raised a hand, and feebly spoke.
"Allan--oh--are you here again? Allan--my love!"
He strained her to his breast and kissed her; and his eyes grew hotwith tears.
"Beatrice!"
Her arms were round his neck, and their lips clung.
"Hurt? Are you hurt?" he cried. "Tell me--how--"
"Allen! The monster--is he dead?" she shivered, sitting up and staringwildly round at the cave walls on which the fresh-built fire wasbeginning to throw dancing lights.
"Dead, yes. But hush, Beta! Don't think of that now. Everything's allright--you're safe! I'm here!"
"Those men--"
"Two of our own Folk. I brought them back with me--just in time,darling. Without them--"
He broke short off. Not for worlds would he have told her how near theborderland she had been.
"You heard my shouts? You heard our signal?"
"Oh--I don't know Allan. I can't think, yet--it's all so terrible--soconfused--"
"There, there, sweetheart; don't think about it any more. Just liedown and rest. Go to sleep. I'll watch here beside you. You're safe.Nothing can hurt you now!"
She lay back with a sigh, and for a while kept silence while he satbeside her, his uninjured arm beneath her head.
His one ambition, now that he found she was not seriously hurt inbody, was to keep her from talking of the horrible affair--fromexciting herself and rehearsing her terrors. Above all, she must bequieted and kept calm.
At last, in her own natural voice, she spoke again.
"Allan?"
"What is it, sweetheart?"
"I owe you my life once more! If I was yours before, I'm ten timesmore yours now!"
He bent and kissed her, and presently her deepened breathing told himshe had drifted over the borderline into the sleep of exhaustion.
He blessed her strength and courage.
"No futility here," thought he. "No useless questions or hysterics; noscene. Strong! Gad, but she's strong! She realized she was safe and Iwas with her again; that sufficed. Was there ever another woman likeher since the world began?"
Only now that the girl slept did he pay attention to the two Merucaanswho, sitting by the cave door, were regarding him with troubled looks.
"Master!" said Zangamon, arising and coming toward him.
"Well, what is it now?"
"You are wounded, O Kromno! Your arm still bleeds. Let us bind it."
"It is nothing--only a scratch!"
But Zangamon insisted.
"Master," said he, "in this we cannot obey you. See? While you and thewoman talked I fetched water, as you commanded. Now I must wash yourhurts and bind them."
Allan had to accede. Together the two Merucaans examined the injurieswith words of commiseration. The "scratch" turned out to be threesevere lacerations of the forearm. The gorilla's teeth had missed theradial artery only by a fluke of fortune.
They bathed away the clotted blood and bandaged the arm notunskilfully. Allan pressed the hand of Zangamon, then that of hiscompanion.
"No thanks of mine can tell you what I feel!" he exclaimed straightfrom the heart. "Only for you to guide me, to drive the man-brute, tostrike it down when it was just about to throttle me--only for you,both _she_ and _I_--"
He could not finish. The words choked him. He felt, as never before, asudden, warm, human touch of kinship with the Merucaans--a strong,nascent affection. Till now they had been savages to him--inferiors.
Now he perceived their inner worth--the strong and manly stamina ofsoul and body; and through him thrilled a love for these strange men,his saviors and the girl's.
Once more he seemed to see a vision of the future--a world peopled bythe descendants of this hardy and resourceful folk, "without diseaseof flesh or brain, shapely and fair, the married harmony of form andfunction"--and, as with a gesture, he dismissed them wondering, notunderstanding in the least why he should thank them, he knew the worldalready had begun once more to come back under the hand, under thestrong control of man.
"Sleep now, master," Bremilu entreated. "We who are new to thisstrange world will sit outside the door upon the rock and watch thosefires so far above that you call stars. And the big sun-fire that isco
ming, too--we would see that!"
"No, not yet!" Stern commanded. "You cannot bear it for a while. Staywithin and roll the rock against the door and sleep. The great firemight injure you or even kill you, as it did the--"
He checked himself just in time, for "the patriarch" had all butescaped him. Zangamon, with sudden understanding, once more advancedtoward him as he sat there by the girl.
"O master! You mean the ancient man? He is dead?"
Stern nodded.
"Yes," he answered. "He was so old and weak, the touch of the fire inthe sky--he could not bear it. But his death was happy, for at leasthe felt its warmth upon his brow!"
The Merucaans kept silence for a moment, then Stern heard themmurmuring together, and a vague uneasiness crept over him.
He strove, however, to put it away; though in his heart the shame ofthe lie he had been forced to tell would not be quieted.
The colonists, however, made no further speech, but presently rolledthe rock in front of the cave entrance, then wrapped themselves intheir long cloaks and lay down by the fire.
Soon, like the healthy savages they were, they were fast asleep, withvigorous snorings.
Thus the night passed, while Stern kept watch over the girl; andanother day crept slowly up the sky, and in the cave now rested fourhuman beings--the vanguard of the coming nation.
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