Brood of the Dark Moon

by Charles Willard Diffin

  CHAPTER XIII

  _Happy Valley_

  "Towahg!" Chet marveled; "you little devil! It's you who has beenfollowing us all this time!"

  "I wish he hadn't been so bashful," Harkness added. "If he had come outand showed himself he would have saved us a lot of trouble." ButHarkness stepped forward and patted the black shoulder that quiveredwith joy beneath his touch. "Good boy, Towahg!" he told the grinningape-man.

  Monkey-like, Towahg had to imitate, and this time he gave a reproductionof his own acts. He wriggled toward the entrance of the passage, peeredaround the edge, and seemed to see something that made him draw back.Then he fitted an arrow to his bow and springing upright, let it fly.

  So realistic was the performance that Chet actually expected to seeanother enemy transfixed, but the squat figure of Towahg was doing adance of victory beside the prostrate figure of the first and onlyvictim. Chet reached out with one long arm and swung the exulting savageabout. He heard Herr Kreiss expressing his opinion in accents ofdisgust.

  "Ugly little beast!" Kreiss was saying. "And murderous!"

  There was no time to lose: the sound of scrambling bodies was comingnearer from the dark pit beyond. Yet, even then, Chet found an instantto defend the black.

  "Damned lucky for us that he is a murderer!" he told Kreiss. Then toTowahg:

  "Listen, you little imp of hell! You don't know more than ten words, butget this!"

  Chet was standing where the Earth-light struck upon him; he pointed intothe dark where the sounds of pursuit grew loud, and he shook his headand screwed his features into an expression that was supposed to depictfear. "No! No!" he said.

  He dragged the savage forward and pointed cautiously to the millinghorde below, and repeated, "No! No!" Then he included them all in a waveof his hand and pointed back and out into the night. And Towahg'sunlovely features were again twisted into what was for him a smile, ashe grunted some unintelligible syllables and motioned them to follow.

  * * * * *

  It had taken but an instant. Towahg was scurrying in advance; he spedlike a shadow of a passing cloud, and behind him the others followed,crouching low in the shelter of the deep-cut step. No figures were belowthem at the rear of the pyramid, and Chet reached for one of Diane'sarms, while Harkness took the other. Between them they held her fromfalling while they followed the dark blur that was Towahg leapingnoiselessly down the long slope.

  No time for caution now. The savage ahead of them leaped silently; hisflying feet hardly disturbed a stone. But beneath them, Chet felt asmall landslide of rubble that came with them in their flight. And abovethe noise of their going came a sound that sped them on--the risingshout of wonder from the unseen multitude in front, and a chorus ofanimal cries from the pyramid's top.

  Chet saw a blot of black figures at the top of the slope just as theyfelt firm ground beneath their feet. They followed where Towahg led in aswift race across the open arena toward the great steps at the rear.Black and white in strongly contrasting bands, the rock reared itself ina barrier that, to Chet, seemed hopelessly unsurmountable. He felt thatthey had come to the end of their tether.

  "Trapped!" he told himself, and wondered at Towahg's leading them intosuch a cul-de-sac, even while he knew that retreat in other directionswas cut off. The pursuit was gaining on them; savages from beyond thepyramid had sighted them now in the full light of Earth, and theiryelping cry came mingled with hoarse growls as the full pack took thetrail. Ahead of them, Towahg, reaching the base of the first white step,was dancing with excitement beside a narrow cleft in the rocks. He ledthe way through the small passage. And Harkness, bringing up the rear,took the detonite pistol in his hand.

  "One shell! We'll have to waste it!" he said, and raised the weapon.

  Its own explosion was slight, but the sound of the bursting cartridgewhen its grain of detonite struck the rocks made a thunderous noise asit echoed between the narrow walls.

  "That will check the pursuit," Harkness exulted; "that will make themstop and think it over."

  * * * * *

  It was another hour before Towahg slackened his pace. He had led themthrough jungle that to them seemed impassable; had shown them the hiddentrails and warned them against spiked plants whose darts were needlesharp. At last he led them to a splashing stream where they followed himthrough the trackless water for a mile or more.

  The mountain with the white scar was their beacon. Harkness pointed itout to their guide and made him understand that that was where theywould go.

  And, when night was gone, and the first rays of the rising sun made aquickly changing kaleidoscope of the colorful east, they came at last toa barren height. Behind them was a maze of valleys and rolling hills;beyond these was a place of smoke, where red fires shone pale in theearly light, and set off at one side was a shape whose cylindricaloutline could be plainly seen. It caught the first light of the sun toreflect it in sparkling lines and glittering points, and everyreflection came back to them tinged with pale green, by which they knewthat the gas was still there.

  Chet turned from a prospect that could only be depressing. His muscleswere heavy with the poisons of utter fatigue; the others must be thesame, but for the present they were safe, and they could find someposition that they could defend. Towahg would be a valuable ally. Andnow their lives were ahead of them--lives of loneliness, of exile.

  * * * * *

  Harkness, too, had been staring back toward that ship that was theironly link with their lost world; his eyes met Chet's in an exchange ofglances that showed how similar were their thoughts. And then, at soundof a glad laugh from Diane, their looks of despair gave place tosomething more like shame, and Chet shifted his own eyes quickly away.

  "It is beautiful, Walter," Diane was saying: "the lovely valley, thelake, the three mountain peaks like sentinels. It is marvelous. And wewill be happy there, all of us, I know it.... Happy Valley. There--I'venamed it! Do you like the name, Walter?"

  And Chet saw Harkness' reply in a quick pressure of his hand on one ofDiane's. And he knew why Walt looked suddenly away without giving her ananswer in words.

  "Happy Valley!" Diane of all the four had shown the ability to riseabove desperate physical weariness, above a despondent mood, to darelook ahead instead of backward and to find hope for happiness in theprospect.

  Off at one side, Chet saw Kreiss; the scientist's weariness wasforgotten while he ran like a puppy after a bird, in pursuit of afloating butterfly that drifted like a wind-blown flower. And Harkness,unspeaking, was still clinging to Diane's firm hand.... Yes, thoughtChet, there was happiness to be found here. For himself, it would bemore than a little lonesome. But, he reflected, what happiness was therein any place or thing more than the happiness we put there forourselves?... Happy Valley--and why not? He dared to meet the girl'seyes now, and the smile on his lips spread to his own eyes, as he echoedhis thoughts:

  "Why not?" he asked. "Happy Valley it is; we just didn't recognize it atfirst."

  * * * * *

  They came to the lake at last; its sparkling blue had drawn them fromafar off: it was still lovelier as they came near. Here was the samesteady west wind that had driven the gas upon their ship. But here itruffled the velvet of waving grasses that swept down to the margin ofthe lake. There was a higher knoll that rose sharply from the shore, andback of all were forests of white-trunked trees.

  Chet had seen none of the crimson buds, nor threatening tendrils sinceentering the valley. And Towahg confirmed his estimate of the valley'ssafety. He waved one naked arm in an all-inclusive gesture, and he drewupon his limited vocabulary to tell them of this place.

  "Good!" he said, and waved his arm again. "Good! Good!"

  "Towahg, you're a silver-tongued orator," Chet told him: "no one couldhave described it better. You're darned right; it's good."

  He raised his head to take a deep breath of the fragrant air; it wa
sintoxicating with its blending of spicy odors. At his feet the watermade emerald waves, where the clear, deep blue of the reflected skymerged with yellow sand. Fish darted through the deeper pools where thebeach shelved off, and above them the air held flashing colorful thingsthat circled and skimmed above the waves.

  The rippling grass was so green, the sky and lake so intense a blue, andone mountainous mass of cloud shone in a white too blinding to be borne.And over it all flowed the warm, soft air that seemed vibrant with alife-force pulsing strongly through this virgin world.

  Diane called from where she and Harkness had wandered through the lushgrass. Kreiss had thrown himself upon a strip of warm sand and wasoblivious to the beauties that surrounded him. Towahg was squatted likea half-human frog, binding new heads on his arrows.

  "Chet," she called, "come over here and help me to exclaim over thisbeautiful place. Walter talks only of building a house and arranging aplace that we can defend. He is so very practical."

  "Practical!" exclaimed Chet. "Why, Walt's a dreamer and a poet comparedto me. I'm thinking of food. Hey, Towahg," he called to the black,"let's eat!" He amplified this with unmistakable pointings at his mouthand suggestive rubbing of his stomach, and Towahg started off at a runtoward trees that were heavy with strange fruit.

  * * * * *

  By night there were unmistakable signs that the hand of man had been atwork. A band of savages would have accepted the place as they found it;for them the shelter of a rock would have sufficed. They would havepassed on to other hunting grounds and only a handful of ashes and abroken branch, perhaps, would have marked where they had been. But yourcivilized man is never satisfied.

  Along the mile of shore was open ground. Here the trees approached thewater: again their solid rampart of ghostly trunks was held back somehundreds of yards. And the open ground was vividly green where the softgrass waved; and it was matted, too, with crimson and gold of countlessflowers. A beautiful carpet, flung down by the edge of a crystal lake,and the flowered covering swept up and over the one high knoll thattouched the shore.... And on the knoll, near an outcrop of limestonerocks, was a house.

  "Not exactly pretentious," Chet had admitted, "but we'll do better lateron."

  "It will keep Diane under cover," argued Harkness; "these leaves arelike leather."

  He helped Diane put another strip of leaf in place on the roof; a twistof green vine tied around the stem held it loosely.

  The leaves were huge, as much as ten feet in diameter: great circles ofleathery green that they cut with a pocket knife and "tailored" as Dianecalled it to fit the rough framework of the hut. Towahg had found themand had given them a name that they did not trouble to learn. "Towahg'sgrunts sound so much alike," Diane complained smilingly. "He seems toknow his natural history, but he is difficult to understand."

  * * * * *

  But Towahg proved a valuable man. He cracked two round stones together,and cleaved off one to a rounded edge. He bound this with withes to ashort stick and in a few minutes had a serviceable stone ax that bitinto slender saplings that were needed for a framework.

  Chet nodded his head to call Kreiss' attention to that. "Herr Doktor,"he said, "it isn't every scientist who has the chance to see a close-upof the stone age."

  But Herr Kreiss, as Chet told Harkness later, did not seem to "snuggleup nice and friendly" to the grinning savage. "He is armed better thanwe," Kreiss complained. "I do not trust him. It is an impossiblesituation, this, that civilized men should be dependent upon one sosavage. For what is our _kultur_, our great advancement in all lines ofmental endeavor, if at the last, when tested by nature, we must relyupon such assistance?"

  Chet saw Herr Doktor Kreiss draw himself aloof with meticulous care asTowahg dashed by, and it occurred to him that perhaps it was as well forKreiss that the black one knew so little of what was said.

  But aloud he merely said: "You'll have lots of chances to use thatmental endeavor stuff later on, Doctor. But right now what we need toknow is how to get by without any of your laboratories, without textbooks or tools, with just our bare hands and with brains that are gearedup to the civilization you mention and don't do us a whole lot of goodhere. Better let Towahg show us what he knows."

  But Herr Kreiss only shrugged his thin shoulders and wandered offthrough this research-man's paradise, where every flower and insect andstone were calling to him. Chet envied the equanimity with which the manhad accepted his lot, had come to this place and was prepared to spendhis remaining years collecting scientific data that were to himall-important.

  * * * * *

  Again the sun sank swiftly. But this time, Chet stretched himselfluxuriously upon the matted grass and turned to stare at the little firethat burned before the entrance of Diane's shelter. His pocket fireflashhad kindled some dry sticks that burned without smoke.

  "We will be a little careful about smoke," Harkness had warned them all."No use of broadcasting the news of our being here. We have come a longway and I think there is small chance of Schwartzmann's party or thesavages finding us in this spot."

  Beyond the fire, Harkness raised himself now to sit erect and glanceabout the circle of fire-lit faces. "There's plenty of planning to bedone," he said. "There is the matter of defense; we must build abarricade of some sort. As for shelter, we must remember that we will behere a long time and that we might as well face it. We will need tobuild some serviceable shelters. Then, what about clothes? These we arewearing are none the better for the trip through the jungle: they won'tlast forever. We've got to learn--Lord! we've got to learn so manythings!"

  And the first of many councils was begun.