Across the Zodiac

by Percy Greg

  CHAPTER XV - FUR-HUNTING.

  Ergimo landed to make arrangements for the chase, to witness which wasthe principal object of this deviation from what would otherwise havebeen our most convenient course. Not only would it be possible to takepart in the pursuit of the wild fauna of the continent, but I alsohoped to share in a novel sport, not unlike a whale-hunt in Baffin'sBay. A large inland sea, occupying no inconsiderable part of the areaof this belt, lay immediately to the northward, and one wide armthereof extended within a few miles of Askirita, a distance which,notwithstanding the interposition of a mountain range, might becrossed in a couple of hours. One or two days at most would sufficefor both adventures. I had not yet mentioned my intention to Eveena.During the voyage I had been much alone with her, and it was then onlythat our real acquaintance began. Till then, however close ourattachment, we were, in knowledge of each other's character andthought, almost as strangers. While her painful timidity had in somedegree worn off, her anxious and watchful deference was even moremarked than before. True to the strange ideas derived chiefly from hertraining, partly from her own natural character, she was the morecareful to avoid giving the slightest pain or displeasure, as sheceased to fear that either would be immediately and intentionallyvisited upon herself. She evidently thought that on this account therewas the greater danger lest a series of trivial annoyances, unnoticedat the time, might cool the affection she valued so highly. Diffidentof her own charms, she knew how little hold the women of her racegenerally have on the hearts of men after the first fever of passionhas cooled. It was difficult for her to realise that her thoughts orwishes could truly interest me, that compliance with her inclinationscould be an object, or that I could be seriously bent on teaching herto speak frankly and openly. But as this new idea became credible andfamiliar, her unaffected desire to comply with all that was expectedfrom her drew out her hitherto undeveloped powers of conversation, andenabled me day by day to appreciate more thoroughly the realintelligence and soundness of judgment concealed at first by hershyness, and still somewhat obscured by her childlike simplicity andabsolute inexperience. In the latter respect, however, she was, ofcourse, at the less disadvantage with a stranger to the manners andlife of her world. A more perfectly charming companion it would havebeen difficult to desire and impossible to find. If at first I hadbeen secretly inclined to reproach her with exaggerated timidity, itbecame more and more evident that her personal fears were due simplyto that nervous susceptibility which even men of reputed courage haveoften displayed in situations of sudden and wholly unfamiliar peril.Her tendency to overrate all dangers, not merely as they affectedherself, but as they might involve others, and above all her husband,I ascribed to the ideas and habits of thought now for so manycenturies hereditary among a people in whom the fear ofannihilation--and the absence of all the motives that impel men onearth to face danger and death with calmness, or even to enjoy theexcitement of deadly peril--have extinguished manhood itself.

  I could not, however, conceal from Eveena that I was about to leaveher for an adventure which could not but seem to her foolhardy andmotiveless. She was more than terrified when she understood that Ireally intended to join the professional hunters in an enterprisewhich, even on their part, is regarded by their countrymen with amixture of admiration and contempt, as one wherein only the hope oflarge remuneration would induce any sensible man to share; and which,from my utter ignorance of its conditions, must be obviously stillmore dangerous to me. The confidence she was slowly learning from whatseemed to her extravagant indulgence, to me simply the considerationdue to a rational being, wife or comrade, slave or free, first foundexpression in the freedom of her loving though provokingexpostulations.

  "You must be tired of me," she said at last, "if you are so ready torun the risk of parting out of mere curiosity."

  "Sheer petulance!" I answered. "You know well that you are dearer tome every day as I learn to understand you better; but a man cannotafford to play the coward because marriage has given new value tolife. And you might remember that I have threefold the strength whichemboldens your hunters to incur all the dangers that seem to yourfancy so terrible."

  That no shade of mere cowardice or feminine affectation influenced herremonstrance was evident from her next words.

  "Well, then, if you will go, however improper and outrageous the thingmay be, let me go with you. I cannot bear to wait alone, fancying atevery moment what may be happening to you, and fearing to see themcarry you back wounded or killed."

  Touched by the unselfishness of her terror, and feeling that there wassome truth in her representation of the state of mind in which shewould spend the hours of my absence, I tried to quiet her by caressesand soft words. But these she received as symptoms of yielding on mypart; and her persistence brought upon her at last the resolute andsomewhat sharp rebuke with which men think it natural and right torepress the excesses of feminine fear.

  "This is nonsense, Eveena. You cannot accompany me; and, if you could,your presence would multiply tenfold the danger to me, and utterlyunnerve me if any real difficulty should call for presence of mind.You must be content to leave me in the hands of Providence, and allowme to judge what becomes a man, and what results are worth the risksthey may involve. I hear Ergimo's step on deck, and I must go andlearn from him what arrangements he has been able to make forto-morrow."

  My escort had found no difficulty in providing for the fulfilment ofboth my wishes. We were to beat the forests which covered the southernseabord in the neighbourhood, driving our game out upon the openground, where alone we should have a chance of securing it. By noon wemight hope to have seen enough of this sport, and to find ourselves atno great distance from that part of the inland sea where a yet moreexciting chase was to employ the rest of the day. Failing to bringboth adventures within the sixteen hours of light which at this seasonand in this latitude we should enjoy, we were to bivouac for the nighton the northern sea-coast and pursue our aquatic game in the morningof the morrow, returning before dark to our vessel.

  Ergimo, however, was more of Eveena's mind than of mine. "I havecomplied," he said, "with your wishes, as the Campta ordered me to do.But I am equally bound, by his orders and by my duty, to tell you thatin my opinion you are running risks altogether out of proportion toany object our adventure can serve. Scarcely any of the creatures weshall hunt are other than very formidable. Eyen the therne, with thespikes on its fore-limbs, can inflict painful if not dangerous wounds,and its bite is said to be not unfrequently venomous. You are not usedto our methods of hunting, to the management of the _caldecta_, or tothe use of our weapons. I can conceive no reason why you should incurwhat is at any rate a considerable chance, not merely of death, but ofdefeating the whole purpose of your extraordinary journey, simply todo or to see the work on which we peril only the least valuable livesamong us."

  I was about to answer him even more decidedly than I had replied toEveena, when a pressure on my arm drew my eyes in the other direction;and, to my extreme mortification, I perceived that Eveena herself, inall-absorbing eagerness to learn the opinion of an intelligent andexperienced hunter, had stolen on deck and had heard all that hadpassed. I was too much vexed to make any other reply to Ergimo'sargument than the single word, "I shall go." Really angry with her forthe first and last time, but not choosing to express my displeasure inthe presence of a third person, I hurried Eveena down the ladder intoour cabin.

  "Tell me," I said, "what, according to your own rules of femininereserve and obedience, you deserve? What would one of your people sayto a wife who followed him without leave into the company of astranger, to listen to that which she knew she was not meant to hear?"

  She answered by throwing off her veil and head-dress, and standing upsilent before me.

  "Answer me, child," I repeated, more than half appeased by the muteappeal of her half-raised eyes and submissive attitude. "I know youwill not tell me that you have not broken all the restraints of yourown laws and customs. What would your father, for inst
ance, say tosuch an escapade?"

  She was silent, till the touch of my hand, contradicting perhaps theharshness of my words, encouraged her to lift her eyes, full of tears,to mine.

  "Nothing," was her very unexpected reply.

  "Nothing?" I rejoined. "If you can tell me that you have not donewrong, I shall be sorry to have reproved you so sharply."

  "I shall tell you no such lie!" she answered almost indignantly. "Youasked what would be _said_."

  I was fairly at a loss. The figure which Martial grammarians call "thesuppressed alternative" is a great favourite, and derives peculiarforce from the varied emphasis their syntax allows. But, resolved notto understand a meaning much more distinctly conveyed in her wordsthan in my translation, I replied, "_I_ shall say nothing then,except--don't do it again;" and I extricated myself promptly ifignominiously from the dilemma, by leaving the cabin and closing thedoor, so sharply and decidedly as to convey a distinct intimation thatit was not again to be opened.

  We breakfasted earlier than usual. My gentle bride had been subduedinto a silence, not sullen, but so sad that when her wistful eyesfollowed my every movement as I prepared to start, I could willingly,to bring back their brightness, have renounced the promise of the day.But this must not be; and turning to take leave on the threshold, Isaid--

  "Be sure I shall come to no harm; and if I did, the worst pang ofdeath would be the memory of the first sharp words I have spoken toyou, and which, I confess, were an ill return for the inconvenientexpression of your affectionate anxiety."

  "Do not speak so," she half whispered. "I deserved any mark of yourdispleasure; I only wish I could persuade you that the sharpest stinglies in the lips we love. Do remember, since you would not let me runthe slightest risk of harm, that if you come to hurt you will havekilled me."

  "Rest assured I shall come to no serious ill. I hope this evening tolaugh with you at your alarms; and so long as you do not see me eitherin the flesh or in the spirit, you may know that I am safe. I _couldnot_ leave you for ever without meeting you again."

  This speech, which I should have ventured in no other presence, wouldhardly have established my lunacy more decisively in Martial eyes thanin those of Terrestrial common sense. It conveyed, however, a real ifnot sufficient consolation to Eveena; the idea it implied being notwholly unfamiliar to a daughter of the Star. I was surprised that,almost shrinking from my last embrace, Eveena suddenly dropped herveil around her; till, turning, I saw that Ergimo was standing at thetop of the ladder leading to the deck, and just in sight.

  "I will send word," he said, addressing himself to me, but speakingfor her ears, "of your safety at noon and at night. So far as myutmost efforts can ensure it you will be safe; an obligation higher,and enforced by sanctions graver, than even the Campta's commandforbids me to lead a _brother_ into peril, and fail to bring him outof it."

  The significant word was spoken in so low a tone that it could notpossibly reach the ears of our companions of the chase, who hadmustered on shore within a few feet of the vessel. But Eveenaevidently caught both the sound and the meaning, and I was glad thatthey should convey to her a confidence which seemed to myself nobetter founded than her alarms. To me its only value lay in thefriendly relation it established with one I had begun greatly to like.I relied on my own strength and nerve for all that human exertioncould do in such peril as we might encounter; and, in a case in whichthese might fail me, I doubted whether even the one tie that hasbinding force on Mars would avail me much.

  Immediately outside the town were waiting, saddled but not bridled,some score of the extraordinary riding-birds Eveena had described. Theseat of the rider is on the back, between the wings; but the saddleconsists only of a sort of girth immediately in front, to which a pairof stirrups, resembling that of a lady's side-saddle, were attached.The creature that was to carry my unusual weight was the most powerfulof all, but I felt some doubt whether even his strength might notbreak down. One of the hunters had charge of a carriage on which wasfixed a cage containing two dozen birds of a dark greenish grey, aboutthe size of a crow, and with the slender form, piercing eyes, andpowerful beak of the falcon. They were not intended, however, tostrike the prey, but simply to do the part of dogs in tracing out thegame, and driving it from the woods into the open ground. Our birds,rising at once into the air, carried us some fifty feet above the topsof the trees. Here the chief huntsman took the guidance of the party,keeping in front of the line in which we were ranged, and watchingthrough a pair of what might be called spectacles, save that a veryshort tube with double lenses was substituted for the single glass,the movement of the hawks, which had been released in the wood belowus. These at first dispersed in every direction, extending atintervals from end to end of a line some three miles in length, andmoving slowly forwards, followed by the hunters. A sharp call from onebird on the left gathered the rest around him, and in a few momentsthe rustling and rushing of an invisible flock through the glades ofthe forest apprised us that we had started, though we could not see,the prey. Ergimo, who kept close beside me, and who had oftenwitnessed the sport before, kept me informed of what was proceedingunderneath us, of which I could see but little. Glimpses here andthere showed that we were pursuing a numerous flock of largewhite-plumed or white-haired creatures, standing at most some fourfeet in height; but what they were, even whether birds or quadrupeds,their movements left me in absolute uncertainty. Worried andfrightened by the falcons, which, however, never ventured to closeupon them, they were gradually driven in the direction intended by thehuntsman towards the open plain, which bordered the forest at adistance of about six miles to the northward. In half-an-hour afterthe "find," the leader of the flock broke out of the wood two or threehundred yards ahead of us, and was closely followed by his companions.I then recognised in the objects of the chase the strange _thernee_described by Eveena, whose long soft down furnished the cloak she woreon our visit to the Astronaut. Their general form, and especially thelength and graceful curve of the neck, led one instinctively to regardthem as birds; but the fore-limbs, drawn up as they ran, but now andthen outstretched with a sweep to strike at a falcon that venturedimprudently near, had, in the distance, much more resemblance to thearm of a baboon than to the limb of any other creature, and bore nolikeness whatever to the wing even of the bat. The object of thehunters was not to strike these creatures from a distance, but to runthem down and capture them by sheer exhaustion. This the greatwing-power of the _caldectaa_ enabled us to do, though by the time wehad driven the thernee to bay my own Pegasus was fairly tired. Thehunters, separating and spreading out in the form of a semicircle,assisted the movements of the hawks, driving the prey gradually into anarrow defile among the hills bordering the plain to thenorth-eastward, whose steep upward slope greatly hindered and fatiguedcreatures whose natural habitat consists of level plains or seabordforests. At last, under a steep half-precipitous rock which defendedthem in rear, and between clumps of trees which guarded eitherflank--protected by both overhead--the flock, at the call of theirleader, took up a position which displayed an instinctive strategy,whereof an Indian or African chief might have been proud. The_caldectaa_, however, well knew the vast superiority of their ownstrength and of their formidable beaks, and did not hesitate to carryus close to but somewhat above the thernee, as these stood ranged inline with extended fore-limbs and snouts; the latter armed with teethabout an inch and a half in length tapering singly to a sharp point,the former with spikes stronger, longer, and sharper than those of theporcupine; but, as I satisfied myself by a subsequent inspection,formed by rudimentary, or, more properly speaking, transformed ordegenerated quills. The bite was easily avoided. It was not so easy tokeep out of reach of the powerful fore-limb while endeavouring tostrike a fatal blow at the neck with the long rapier-like cuttingweapons carried by the hunters. My own shorter and sharp sword, towhich I had trusted, preferring a familiar weapon to one, howeversuitable, to which I was not accustomed, left me no choice but toabandon the hope of active participation in t
he slaughter, or toventure dangerously near. Choosing the latter alternative, I receivedfrom the arm of the thernee I had singled out a blow which, caughtupon my sword, very nearly smote it from my hand, and certainly wouldhave disarmed at once any of my weaker companions. As it was, thestroke maimed the limb that delivered it; but with its remaining armthe creature maintained a fight so stubborn that, had both beenavailable, the issue could not have been in my favour. This conflictreminded me singularly of an encounter with the mounted swordsmen ofScindiah and the Peishwah; all my experience of sword-play beingcalled into use, and my brute opponent using its natural weapon withan instinctive skill not unworthy of comparison with that of a trainedhorse-soldier; at the same time that it constantly endeavoured toseize with its formidable snout either my own arm or the wing or bodyof the caldecta, which, however, was very well able to take care ofitself. In fact, the prey was secured at last not by my sword but by ablow from the caldecta's beak, which pierced and paralysed the slenderneck of our antagonist. Some twenty thernee formed the booty of achase certainly novel, and possessing perhaps as many elements ofperil and excitement as that finest of Earthly sports which theaffected cynicism of Anglo-Indian speech degrades by the name of"pig-sticking."

  When the falcons had been collected and recaged, and the bodies of thethernee consigned to a carriage brought up for the purpose by asubordinate who had watched the hunters' course, our birds, from whichwe had dismounted, were somewhat rested; and Ergimo informed me thatanother and more formidable, as well as more valuable, prey wasthought to be in sight a few miles off. Mounted on a fresh bird, andresolutely closing my ears to his urgent and reasonable dissuasion, Ijoined the smaller party which was detached for this purpose. As wewere carried slowly at no great distance from the ground, managing ourbirds with ease by a touch on either side of the neck--they arespurred at need by a slight electric shock communicated from the hiltof the sword, and are checked by a forcible pressure on the wings--Iasked Ergimo why the thernee were not rather shot than hunted, sinceutility, not sport, governs the method of capturing the wild beasts ofMars.

  "We have," he replied, "two weapons adapted to strike at a distance.The asphyxiator is too heavy to be carried far or fast, and pieces ofthe shell inflict such injuries upon everything in the immediateneighbourhood of the explosion, as to render it useless where thevalue of the prey depends upon the condition of its skin. Our otherand much more convenient, if less powerful, projective weapon has alsoits own disadvantage. It can be used only at short distances; and atthese it is apt to burn and tear a skin so soft and delicate as thatof the thernee. Moreover, it so terrifies the caldecta as to render itunmanageable; and we are compelled to dismount before using it, as youmay presently see. Four or five of our party are now armed with it,and I wish you had allowed me to furnish you with one."

  "I prefer," I answered, "my own weapon, an air-gun which I can firesixteen times without reloading, and which will kill at a hundredyards' distance. With a weapon unknown to me I might not only failaltogether, but I might not improbably do serious injury, by myclumsiness and inexperience, to my companions."

  "I wish, nevertheless," he said, "that you carried the _mordyta_. Youwill have need of an efficient weapon if you dismount to share theattack we are just about to make. But I entreat you not to do so. Youcan see it all in perfect safety, if only you will keep far enoughaway to avoid danger from the fright of your bird."

  As he spoke, we had come into proximity to our new game, a large andvery powerful animal, about four feet high at the shoulders, and aboutsix feet from the head to the root of the tail. The latter carries, asthat of the lion was fabled to do, a final claw, not to lash thecreature into rage, but for the more practical purpose of strikingdown an enemy endeavouring to approach it in flank or rear. Its hide,covered with a long beautifully soft fur, is striped alternately withbrown and yellow, the ground being a sort of silver-grey. The headresembles that of the lion, but without the mane, and is prolongedinto a face and snout more like those of the wild boar. Its limbs areless unlike those of the feline genus than any other Earthly type, buthave three claws and a hard pad in lieu of the soft cushion. The upperjaw is armed with two formidable tusks about twelve inches in length,and projecting directly forwards. A blow from the claw-furnished tailwould plough up the thigh or rip open the abdomen of a man. A strokefrom one of the paws would fracture his skull, while a wound from thetusk in almost any part of the body must prove certainly fatal.Fortunately, the _kargynda_ has not the swiftness of movementbelonging to nearly all our feline races, otherwise its skins, themost valuable prize of the Martial hunter, would yearly be taken at aterrible cost of life. Two of these creatures were said to be reposingin a thick jungle of reeds bordering a narrow stream immediately inour front. The hunters, with Ergimo, now dismounted and advanced sometwo hundred yards in front of their birds, directing the latter toturn their heads in the opposite direction. I found some difficulty inmaking my wish to descend intelligible to the docile creature whichcarried me, and was still in the air when one of the enormouscreatures we were hunting rushed out of its hiding-place. The nearesthunter, raising a shining metal staff about three and a half feet inlength (having a crystal cylinder at the hinder end, about six inchesin circumference, and occupying about one-third the entire length ofthe weapon), levelled it at the beast. A flash as of lightning dartedthrough the air, and the creature rolled over. Another flash from asimilar weapon in the hands of another hunter followed. By this time,however, my bird was entirely unmanageable, and what happened Ilearned afterwards from Ergimo. Neither of the two shots had woundedthe creature, though the near passage of the first had for a momentstunned and overthrown him. His rush among the party dispersed themall, but each being able to send forth from his piece a second flashof lightning, the monster was mortally wounded before they fairlystarted in pursuit of their scared birds, which--their attention beingcalled by the roar of the animal, by the crash accompanying eachflash, and probably above all by the restlessness of my own _caldecta_in their midst--had flown off to some distance. My bird, flounderingforwards, flung me to the ground about two hundred yards from thejungle, fortunately at a greater distance from the dying but not yetutterly disabled prey. Its companion now came forth and stood over thetortured creature, licking its sores till it expired. By this time Ihad recovered the consciousness I had lost with the shock of my fall,and had ascertained that my gun was safe. I had but time to prepareand level it when, leaving its dead companion, the brute turned andcharged me almost as rapidly as an infuriated elephant. I firedseveral times and assured, if only from my skill as a marksman, thatsome of the shots had hit it, was surprised to see that at each it wasonly checked for a moment and then resumed its charge. It was so nearnow that I could aim with some confidence at the eye; and if, as Isuspected, the previous shots had failed to pierce the hide, no otheraim was likely to avail. I levelled, therefore, as steadily as I couldat its blazing eyeballs and fired three or four shots, still withoutdoing more than arrest or rather slacken its charge, each shotprovoking a fearful roar of rage and pain. I fired my last withinabout twenty yards, and then, before I could draw my sword, was dashedto the ground with a violence that utterly stunned me. When Irecovered my senses Ergimo was kneeling beside me pouring down mythroat the contents of a small phial; and as I lifted my head andlooked around, I saw the enormous carcass from under which I had beendragged lying dead almost within reach of my hand. One eye was piercedthrough the very centre, the other seriously injured. But such is thecreature's tenacity of life, that, though three balls were actually inits brain, it had driven home its charge, though far too unconsciousto make more than convulsive and feeble use of any of its formidableweapons. When I fell it stood for perhaps a second, and then droppedsenseless upon my lower limbs, which were not a little bruised by itsweight. That no bone was broken or dislocated by the shock, deadenedthough it must have been by the repeated pauses in the kargynda'scharge and by its final exhaustion, was more than I expected or couldunderstand. Before I
rose to my feet, Ergimo had peremptorily insistedon the abandonment of the further excursion we had intended, declaringthat he could not answer to his Sovereign, after so severe a lesson,for my exposure to any future peril. The Campta had sent him to bringme into his presence for purposes which would not be fulfilled byproducing a lifeless carcass, or a maimed and helpless invalid; andthe discipline of the Court and central Administration allowed noexcuse for disobedience to orders or failure in duty. My protest wasvery quickly silenced. On attempting to stand, I found myself soshaken, torn, and shattered that I could not again mount a _caldecta_or wield a weapon; and was carried back to Askinta on a sort ofinclined litter placed upon the carriage which had conveyed our booty.

  I was mortified, as we approached the place where our vessel lay, toobserve a veiled female figure on the deck. Eveena's quick eye hadnoted our return some minutes before, and inferred from the earlyabandonment of the chase some serious accident. Happily our party wereso disposed that I had time to assume the usual position before shecaught sight of me. I could not, however, deceive her by a desperateeffort to walk steadily and unaided. She stood by quietly and calmlywhile the surgeon of the hunters dressed my hurts, observing exactlyhow the bandages and lotions were applied. Only when we were leftalone did she in any degree give way to an agitation by which shefeared to increase my evident pain and feverishness. It was impossibleto satisfy her that black bruises and broad gashes meant no danger,and would be healed by a few days' rest. But when she saw that I couldtalk and smile as usual, she was unsparing in her attempts to coaxfrom me a pledge that I would never again peril life or limb togratify my curiosity regarding the very few pursuits in which, for thehighest remuneration, Martialists can be induced to incur theprobability of injury and the chance of that death they so abjectlydread. Scarcely less reluctant to repeat the scolding she felt soacutely than to employ the methods of rebuke she deemed less severe, Ihad no little difficulty in evading her entreaties. Only a verydecided request to drop the subject at once and for ever, enforced onher conscience by reminding her that it would be enforced nootherwise, at last obtained me peace without the sacrifice of liberty.