CHAPTER XXX
INTO THE FIRE-SWEPT WILDERNESS
Less than three weeks after the extermination of the Horde,Stern had already completed important measures looking toward therehabilitation of the colony.
The damage had been largely repaired. Now only some half-dozenconvalescent cases still remained on the sick-list. What the colonyhad lost in numbers it had gained in solidarity and a truer loyaltythan ever before felt there.
All the survivors, now vastly more faithful to the common cause thanin the beginning, showed an eager longing to lay hold of the impendingproblems with Stern, and to labor faithfully for the future of thegreat undertaking.
The fishing, hunting and domestication of wild animals all wereresumed, and again the sound of hammers and anvils clanked through thecaves.
Under Stern's direction, half a dozen men crossed the pools in boats,descended the north bank of the river, and got hold of the cut bridgecables.
Stern shot a thin line over to them by means of a bow and arrow. Withthis they pulled a stouter cord across, and finally a strong cable.All hands together soon brought the bridge once more up the cliff,where it was lashed to its old moorings.
Barring a few broken floor-planks, easily replaced, only slight damagehad been done. One day's labor sufficed to put it in repair again.
The parapet was rebuilt and a wall constructed across the end of thebroken terrace. Work was begun on new cave dwellings, with great carenot to weaken the strata and so invite another disaster.
Stern, very wise by now in gauging the barbarian mentality, undertookno direct punishment of such as had been led away by H'yemba. But hegathered all the Folk together in the palisade, and there--close tothe mutely eloquent object-lesson of the little cemetery--he made thema charweg, a talk in their own speech.
"My people!" cried he, erect and strong before them all, "listen now,for this thing ye must know!
"The evil of your hearts, thinking to prevail against me and the Law,hath brought ye misery and death! Ye have rebelled against the Law,and behold, many are now dead--innocent as well as guilty. Thelandslide smote ye, and enemies came enemies far more terrible thanthe dreaded Lanskaarn ye fought in the Abyss! But a little more and yehad all died with battle and disaster. Only my hand alone savedye--all who still live to breathe this upper air.
"Men! Ye beheld my doing with the earthquake and the Horde! Ye beheld,too, my answer to H'yemba, the evil man, the rebel and traitor. Him yesaw hurled, bleeding, from the parapet! That was my answer to hisinsolence! And if not he, then who can ever stand against me?"
He paused, and swept them with his glance, letting the lesson sinkdeep home. Before him their eyes were lowered; their heads bowed; andthrough them all ran murmurs of fear and supplication.
"My Folk! Rightly might I be angered with you, and require sacrificeand still more blood; but I am merciful. I shall not punish; I shallonly teach, and guide, and help! For my heart is your heart, and yeare precious in my eyes.
"But, hark ye now, and think, and judge for yourselves! If any everspeak again of rebellion, or of treason, and seek to break the Law, onhis head shall be the blood of all. For surely woe shall come again onus. In your own behalf I warn you, and ye shall be the judges. Nowanswer me, O my Folk, what shall be done unto any who rebels?"
"He shall die!" boomed the voice of Zangamon. The loyal fighter, nowlean and gaunt with great labors, but still powerful, raised hiscorded hand on high. "Of a truth, that man shall die!"
"What death?" cried Stern.
"Even the death of H'yemba! Let him be cast from the parapet to deathin the white rushing river far below!"
All echoed the cry: "Death to all traitors, from the rock!"
"So be it, then," Stern concluded. "Ye have spoken, and it shall bewritten as a Law. From Execution Rock shall all conspirators be cast.Now go!"
He dismissed them. While they departed and filed down the terraces totheir own homes, he stood there with folded arms, watching them verygravely. The last one vanished. He nodded.
"They'll do now!" said he to himself. "No more trouble from thatsource! Another milestone passed along the road of self-control,self-government and communal spirit. Ah, but the road's a long oneyet--a long and hard and stony road to follow!"
Next day Stern began making his plans for the recovery of the lostaeroplane.
"This is by far the most important matter now before the colony," hetold Beatrice, watching her nurse the boy as they sat by the fire,while outside the rain drummed over cliff and canyon, hill and plain."Our very life depends on keeping a free means of communication openwith the mother-country of the Folk, so to call it, and with thecity-ruins that supply us with so many necessary articles. No otherform of transportation will do. At all hazards we _must_ have anaeroplane--one at least, more later, if possible."
"Of course," she answered; "but why not make one here? Down there inyour workshop--"
"I haven't the equipment yet," he interrupted; "nor yet the necessarymetal, the wire, a hundred things. All that will come in time when weget some mines to work and start a few blast-furnaces. But for thepresent, the best and quickest thing to do will be to look up the oldmachine again."
"But," she objected, terrified at thought of losing him again: "but Ithought you said the Horde wrecked it!"
"So they did; but beasts like that probably couldn't destroy the vitalmechanism beyond possibility of repair. That is, not unless theyheaped a lot of wood all over it, and heated it white-hot, which Idon't think they had intelligence enough to do. In any event, what'sleft will serve me as a model, for another machine. I really thinkI'll have to have a try for it."
"Oh, Allan! You aren't going to venture out into the wildernessagain?"
"Why not, dearest? You must remember the forest is all burned now;perhaps for hundreds of miles. And the Horde, the one greatest perilthat has dogged us ever since those days in the tower, has been sweptout with the besom of flame!"
"Which has also surely destroyed the machine, even if _they_ haven't!"she exclaimed, using every possible argument to discourage him.
"I hardly think so," he judged. "You see, I left it in a widesand-barren. I think, on the whole, it will pay me to make theexpedition. Of course I shan't take less than a dozen men to help mebring it back--what's left of it."
"But Allan, can you find your way?"
"I've got to! That machine must positively be recovered! Otherwisewe're totally cut off from the Abyss. Colonizing stops, and all kindsof hell may break loose below ground before I can build anothermachine entire. There are no railroads running now to the brink," headded smiling; "and no elevators to the basement of the world. It'sthe old Pauillac again or nothing!"
The girl exhausted all her arguments and entreaties in vain. OnceAllan's mind was definitely made up along the line of duty, he wentstraight forward, though the heavens fell.
Four days later the expedition set out.
Allan had made adequate preparations in every way. He left a strongand well-armed guard to protect Settlement Cliffs. By careful thoughtand chart-drawing he was able to approximate the probable position ofthe machine. With him he took fifteen men, headed by Zangamon, who nowinsisted he was well enough to go, and ably seconded by Frumuos.
Each man carried an automatic, and six had rifles. They bore anaverage of one hundred cartridges apiece, and in knapsacks ofgoat-leather, dried rations for a week. Each also carried fish hooksand a stout fiber line.
The party counted on being able to supplement their supplies withtrout, bass and pickerel from countless untouched streams. They might,too, come into wooded country, if the fire had left any to northward,and here they knew game would be plentiful.
One thing seemed positive in that new world: starvation could notthreaten.
Cloudy and dull the morning was--yet well-suited to the needs of theFolk--when the expedition left Settlement Cliffs. The convoy, each manprovided with eye-guards and his hands and face well painted withprotecting pigment, waited impatientl
y in the palisade, while Allansaid farewell to Beta and the little chap.
For a long moment he strained them both to his breast, then, thewoman's kiss still hot upon his lips, ran quickly up the path andjoined his picked troop of scouts.
"Forward, men!" cried he, taking the lead with Zangamon.
Some minutes later Beatrice saw them defiling over the long, shakingbridge.
Through her tears she watched them, waving her hand to Allan--evenmaking the baby shake its little hand as well--and throwing kisses tohim, who returned them gaily.
On the far bank the party halted a minute to shout a few last words tothe assembled colonists that lined the parapet of the terrace.
Then they turned, and, striking northwest, plunged boldly into theburned and blackened waste.
Long after the marching column had disappeared over the crest of thesecond hill Beatrice still watched. Up on the cliff-top, with thepowerful telescope at her eye, she followed the faint, drifting lineof dust and ash that marked the line of march.
Only when this, too, had disappeared, merged in the somber gray of thehorizon, did she sadly and very slowly descend the path once more,back to the loneliness of a home where now no husband's presencegreeted her.
Though she tried to smile--tried to believe all would yet be well, oldGesafam, glancing up from her labors at the cooking-hearth, saw tearswere shining in her beautiful gray eyes.
Barbarian though the ancient beldame was, she knew, she understoodthat after all, now as for all time, in every venture and in everytask, the woman's portion was the harder one.
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