Savage Pellucidar p-7

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  The man thought this over. "I believe that you are telling the truth at last," he said; "because had you killed my brother, his jalok would have killed you."

  "Now will you go away and leave me alone?" demanded O-aa.

  "Then what will you do?"

  "I shall return to Kali."

  "Do you know how far it is to Kali?"

  "No. Kali is not far from the shore of the Lural Az. Do you know how far it is to the Lural Az?"

  "I never heard of the Lural Az," said the man.

  "You are a very ignorant person," said O-aa.

  "Not as ignorant as you, if you think you can reach Kali by going in the direction you pointed. In that direction there is a range of mountains that you cannot cross."

  "I can go around it," said O-aa.

  "You are a very brave girl," said the man. "Let us be friends. Come with me to my village. Perhaps we can help you on your way to Kali. At least, warriors can go with you as far as the mountains, beyond which none of our people have ever gone."

  "How do I know that you will not harm me?" asked O-aa.

  The man threw down all his weapons and came toward her with his hands raised. Then she knew that he would not harm her. "We will be friends," she said. "What is your name?"

  "I am Utan of the tribe of Zurts." He turned and spoke to his jalok, saying, " Padang ."

  "Tell your jalok that we are friends," he said to O-aa.

  " Padang , Rahna," said O-aa. Padang is Pellucidarian for friend or friends.

  The two jaloks approached one another a little stiff-legged; but when they had sniffed about each other, they relaxed and wagged their tails, for they had been raised together in the village of Zurts . But there was no playful bouncing, as there might have been between domesticated beasts dogs. These were savage wild beasts with all the majesty and dignity that is inherent in their kind. Adult wild beasts have far more dignity than man. When people say in disgust that a person acts like a beast, they really mean that he acts like a man.

  "You can handle a paddle?" Utan asked O-aa.

  "I have paddled all over the seas of Pellucidar," said O-aa.

  "There you go again! Well, I suppose that I shall have to get used to it. Anyway, you can help me paddle my brother's canoe to a safe place."

  "It is my canoe," said O-aa.

  Utan grinned. "And I suppose that you are going to paddle it across the mountains to Kali?"

  "I could if I wanted to," said O-aa.

  "The better I know you," said Utan, "the less I doubt it. If there are other girls like you in Kali, I think I shall go with you and take one of them for my mate."

  "They wouldn't have you," said O-aa. "You are too short. You can't be much more than six feet tall. All our men are seven feet-except those who are eight feet."

  "Come on, little liar," said Utan, "and we will get the canoe."

  Together they dragged the outrigger into the water. O-aa climbed into the bow, the two jaloks leaped in, and just at the right moment Utan gave the craft a shove and jumped in himself.

  "Paddle now!" he said. "And paddle hard."

  The canoe rose to the crest of a roller and slid down the other side. The two paddled furiously until, they were beyond the heavy rollers; then they paralleled the shore until they came to the mouth of a small river, up which Utan turned.

  It was a pretty little river overhung by trees and full of crocodiles. They paddled up it for about a mile until they came to rapids. Here, Utan turned in to the bank on their right; and together, they dragged the canoe up among the lush verdure, where it was well hidden.

  "Your canoe will be quite safe here," said Utan, "until you are ready to paddle it over the mountains to Kali. Now we will go to my village."

  VIII

  HODON, RAJ, DIAN, AND GAMBA were standing on the quarterdeck of the Lo-har; and, as always, Hodon was searching the surface of the sea for the little speck that, in his heart of hearts, he knew he would never see-the little speck that would be the Sari in which O-aa had been carried away by winds and currents on the Sojar AZ and, doubtless, through the nameless strait into the Korsar Az. The little lateen rigged Lo-har had been beset by fog and calm, but now the weather had cleared and a fair wind filled the single sail.

  Hodon shook his head sadly. "I am afraid it is hopeless, Dian," he said. Dian the Beautiful nodded in acquiescence.

  "My men are becoming restless," said Raj. "They have been away from home for many, many sleeps. They want to get back to their women."

  "All right," said Hodon. "Turn back for Sari."

  As the little ship came about, Gamba pointed. "What is that?" he asked.

  They all looked. In the haze of the distance there was a white speck on the surface of the sea. "It is a sail," said Raj.

  "O-aa!" exclaimed Hodon.

  The wind was blowing directly from the direction in which the sail lay; so the Lo-har had to tack first one way and then another. But it was soon apparent that the strange ship was sailing before the wind directly toward them, and so the distance between was constantly growing shorter.

  "That is not the Sari," said Raj. "That is a big ship with more sail than I have ever seen before."

  "It must be a Korsar," said Dian. "If it is, we are lost."

  "We have cannon," said Hodon, "and men to fight them."

  "Turn around," said Gamba, "and go the other way. Maybe they have not seen us."

  "You always want to run away," said Dian, contemptuously. "We shall hold our course and fight them."

  "Turn around!" screamed Gamba. "It is a command! I am king!"

  "Shut up!" said Raj. "Mezops do not run away."

  "Nor Sarians," said Dian.

  THE VILLAGE OF THE Zurts, to which Utan led O-aa, lay in a lovely valley through which a little river wandered. It was not a village of caves such as O-aa was accustomed to in Kali. The houses here were of bamboo thatched with grass, and they stood on posts some ten feet above the ground. Crude ladders led up to their doorways.

  There were many of these houses; and in the doorways, or on the ground below them, were many warriors and women and children and almost as many jaloks as there were people.

  As Utan and O-aa approached, the jaloks of the village froze into immobility, the hair along their backbones erect. Utan shouted, " Padang !" And when they recognized him, some of the warriors shouted, " Padang !" Then the jaloks relaxed and Utan and O-aa entered the village in safety; but there had to be much sniffing and smelling on the part of the jaloks before an entente cordiale was established.

  Warriors and women gathered around Utan and O-aa, asking many questions. O-aa was a curiosity here, for she was very blonde, while the Zurts had hair of raven black. They had never seen a blonde before.

  Utan told them all that he knew about O-aa, and asked Jalu the chief if she might remain in the village. "She is from a country called Kali which lies the other side of the Terrible Mountains . She is going to try to cross them, and from what I have seen of her she will cross them if any one can."

  "No one can," said Jalu, "and she may remain-for thirty sleeps," he added. "If one of our warriors has taken her for a mate in the meantime, she may remain always."

  "None of your warriors will take me for a mate," said O-aa, "and I will leave long before I have slept thirty times."

  "What makes you think none of my warriors will take you for a mate?" demanded Jalu.

  "Because I wouldn't have one of them."

  Jalu laughed. "If a warrior wanted you he would not ask you, He would take you."

  It was O-aa's turn to laugh. "He would get a knife in his belly," she said. "I have killed many men. Furthermore, I have a mate. If I am harmed, he would come and my eleven brothers and my father, the king; and they would kill you all. They are very fierce men. They are nine feet tall. My mate is Hodon the Fleet One. He is a Sarian. The Sarians are very fierce people. But if you are kind to me, no harm will befall you. While I am here, Rahna and I will hunt for you. I am a wonderful hunter. I am probably
the best hunter in all Pellucidar."

  "I think you are probably the best liar," said Jalu. "Who is Rahna?"

  "My jalok," said O-aa, laying her hand on the head of the beast standing beside her.

  "Women do not hunt, nor do they have jaloks," said Jalu.

  "I do," said O-aa.

  A half smile curved the lip of Jalu. He found himself admiring this yellow haired stranger, girl. She had courage, and that was a quality that Jalu the chief understood and admired. He had never seen so much of it in a woman before.

  A warrior stepped forward. "I will take her as my mate," he said, "and teach her a woman's place. What she needs is a beating."

  O-aa's lip curved in scorn. "Try it, bowlegs," she said.

  The warrior flushed, for he was very bowlegged and was sensitive about it. He took another step toward O-aa, threateningly.

  "Stop, Zurk!" commanded Jalu. "The girl may remain here for thirty sleeps without mating. If she stays longer, you may take her-if you can. But I think she will kill you."

  Zurk stood glaring at O-aa. "When you are mine," he snarled, "the first thing I will do is beat you to death."

  Jalu turned to one of the women. "Hala," he directed, "show this woman a house in which she may sleep."

  "Come," said Hala to O-aa.

  She took her to a house at the far end of the village. "No one lives here now," she said. "The man and the woman who lived here were killed by a tarag not long ago."

  O-aa looked at the ladder and up at the doorway. "How can my jalok get up there?" she asked.

  Hala looked at her in surprise. "Jaloks do not come into the houses," she explained. "They lie at the foot of the ladders to warn their owners of danger and to protect them. Did you not know this?"

  "We do not have tame jaloks in my country," said O-aa.

  "You are lucky that you have one here, now that you have made an enemy of Zurk. He is a bad man; not at all like Jalu, his father."

  So, thought O-aa, I have made an enemy of the chief's son. She shrugged her square little shoulders.

  Ah-gilak had bowled along in a southwesterly direction for some time before a good wind. Then the wind died. Ah-gilak cursed. He cursed many things, but principally he cursed O-aa, who had brought all his misfortunes upon him, according to his superstition.

  When the wind sprang up again, it blew in the opposite direction from that in which it had been blowing before the calm. Ah-gilak danced up and down in rage. But he could do nothing about it. He could sail in only one way, and that was with the wind. So he sailed back in a north-easterly direction. He lashed the wheel and went below to eat and sleep.

  IX

  AS THE LO-HAR and John Tyler approached one another, the former made no effort to avoid the larger ship. Her guns were loaded and manned, and she was prepared to fight.

  It was Raj who first noticed something peculiar about the strange ship. "There is no one on deck," he said. "There is no one at the wheel. She is a fine ship," he added half to himself. Then an idea popped into his head. "Let's capture her," he said.

  "No! No!" cried Gamba. "They haven't seen us. Sail away as fast as, you can."

  "Can you bring the Lo-har alongside her?" asked Dian.

  "Yes," said Jav. He summoned his men from below and gave them their orders.

  The Lo-har came about ahead of the John Tyler which was making far better headway than the smaller vessel. As the John Tyler overhauled her, Jav drew in closer to the other ship. As their sides touched, the agile Mezops swarmed aboard the John Tyler with lines and made the Lo-har fast to her.

  The impact of the two ships as they came together awoke Ah-gilak. "Dod-burn it! what now?" he cried, as he scrambled up the ladder to the main deck. "Tarnation!" he exclaimed as he saw the score of Mezops facing him. "I've gone plumb looney after all." He shut his eyes and turned his head away. Then he peeked from a corner of one eye. The copper colored men were still there.

  "It's the little Ah-gilak," said one of the Mezops. "He eats people."

  Now Ah-gilak saw more people coming over the side of his ship, and saw the sail of the little Lo-har. He saw Raj and Hodon, and a beautiful girl whom he had never seen before. With them was a yellow man. But now Ah-gilak realized what had happened and the great good luck that had overtaken him at the very moment when there seemed not a ray of hope in all the future.

  "Gad and Gabriel!" he exclaimed. "It never rains but they's a silver lining, as the feller said. Now I got a crew. Now we can get the hell out o' this here Korsar Az an' back to Sari."

  "Who else is aboard?" asked Hodon.

  "Not a livin' soul but me." He thought quickly and decided that perhaps he had better not tell all the truth. "You see we had a little bad luck-run ashore in a storm. When the crew abandoned ship, I guess they plumb forgot me; and before I could get ashore, the wind changed and the tide came in an', by all tarnation, the first thing I knew I was a-sailed off all by myself."

  "Who else was aboard?" insisted Hodon.

  "Well, they was Ja, and Jav, and Ko, an' a bunch of other Mezops. They was the ones that abandoned ship. But before that O-aa got a yen to go ashore-"

  "O-aa?" cried Hodon. "She was aboard this ship? Where is she?"

  "I was just a'tellin you. She got a yen to go ashore, and jumped overboard."

  "Jumped overboard?" Hodon's voice rang with incredulity. "I think you are lying, old man," he said.

  "Cross my heart, hope to die," said Ah-gilak.

  "How did she get aboard this ship?" continued Hodon.

  "Why, we picked her up out of a canoe in the nameless strait; and she told us where David was, an' we went back an' rescued him."

  "David?" exclaimed Dian. "Where is he?"

  "Well, before the John Tyler went ashore, David an' Abner Perry an' Ghak an' all his Sarian warriors decided they could get back to Sari quicker across country than they could by sailin' back. Course they was plumb looney, but-"

  "Where did they go ashore?" asked Dian.

  "Gad an' Gabriel! How'd I know? They ain't no charts, they ain't no moon, they ain't no stars, and the dang sun don't never move; so they ain't no time. They might o' went ashore twenty years ago, for all a body can tell."

  "Would you recognize the coast where they landed?" persisted Dian.

  "I might an' I might not. Reckon as how I could though."

  "Could you recognize the spot where O-aa jumped overboard?" asked Hodon.

  "Reckon not. Never seed it. She jumped over in a fog."

  "Haven't you any idea?"

  "Well, now maybe." Ah-gilak being certain that O-aa had drowned or been eaten by one of the reptiles that swarm the Korsar Az, felt that it would he safe to give what information he could. "As a matter of fact," he continued, "'t warn't far from where the John Tyler went ashore."

  "And you would recognize that spot?"

  "I might an' I might not. If I recalls correctly they was an island 'bout a mile off shore near where the John Tyler hit."

  "Well, let's get going," said Hodon.

  "Where?" demanded Ah-gilak.

  "Back along the coast to where O-aa 'Jumped overboard' and to where David Innes went ashore."

  "Now wait, young feller," remonstrated Ah-gilak. "Don't you go forgettin' that I'm skipper o' this ship. It's me as'll give orders aboard this hooker."

  Hodon turned to Raj. "Have your men bring all the water, provisions, ammunition, and personal belongings from the Lo-har; then set her adrift."

  Ah-gilak pointed a finger at Hodon. "Hold on young feller-"

  "Shut up!" snapped Hodon, and then to Raj. "You will captain the John Tyler, Raj."

  "Gad and Gabriel!" screamed Ah-gilak. "I designed her, I named her, an' I been skipper of her ever since she was launched. You can't do this to me."

  "I can, I have, and I'll do more if you give me any trouble," said Hodon. "I'll throw you overboard, you old scoundrel."

  Ah-gilak subsided and went away and sulked. He knew that Hodon's was no idle threat. These men of the Stone Ag
e held life lightly. He set his mind to the task of evolving a plan by which he could be revenged without incriminating himself. Ah-gilak had a shrewd Yankee mind unfettered by any moral principles or conscience.

  He leaned against the rail and glared at Hodon. Then his eyes wandered to Dian, and he glared at her. Another woman! Bad luck! And with this thought the beginnings of a plan commenced to take shape. It was not a wholly satisfactory and devastating plan, but it was better than nothing. And presently he was aided by a contingency which Hodon had not considered.

  With the useful cargo of the Lo-har transferred to the John Tyler and the former set adrift, Raj came to Hodon, a worried expression on his fine face.

  "This," he said, with a wave of a hand which embraced the John Tyler, "is such a ship as I and my men have never seen before. She is a mass of sails and ropes and spars, all unfamiliar to us. We cannot sail her."

  For a moment Hodon was stunned. Being a landsman, such a possibility had never occurred to him. He looked astern at the little Lo-har, from which the larger ship was rapidly drawing away. Hodon realized that he had been a trifle precipitate. While there was yet time, perhaps it would be well to lower the boats and return to the Lo-har. The idea was mortifying.

  Then Raj made a suggestion. "The old man could teach us," he said. "If he will," he added with a note of doubt in his voice.

  "He will," snapped Hodon, and strode over to Ah-gilak. Raj accompanied him.

  "Ah-gilak," he said to the old man, "you will sail the ship, but Raj will still be captain. You will teach him and his men all that is necessary."

  "So you are not going to throw me overboard?" said Ah-gilak with a sneer.

  "Not yet," said Hodon, "but if you do not do as I have said and do it well, I will."

  "You got your nerve, young feller, askin' me, a Yankee skipper to serve as sailin' master under this here gol-durned red Indian."

  Neither Hodon nor Raj had the slightest idea what a red Indian was, but from Ah-gilak's tone of voice they were both sure that the copper colored Mezop had been insulted.