IX
THE FACE OF DEATH
I must have fallen asleep from exhaustion. When I awoke I was very
hungry, and after busying myself searching for fruit for a while,
I set off through the jungle to find the beach. I knew that the
island was not so large but that I could easily find the sea if I
did but move in a straight line, but there came the difficulty as
there was no way in which I could direct my course and hold it,
the sun, of course, being always directly above my head, and the
trees so thickly set that I could see no distant object which might
serve to guide me in a straight line.
As it was I must have walked for a great distance since I ate four
times and slept twice before I reached the sea, but at last I did
so, and my pleasure at the sight of it was greatly enhanced by the
chance discovery of a hidden canoe among the bushes through which
I had stumbled just prior to coming upon the beach.
I can tell you that it did not take me long to pull that awkward craft
down to the water and shove it far out from shore. My experience
with Ja had taught me that if I were to steal another canoe I must
be quick about it and get far beyond the owner's reach as soon as
possible.
I must have come out upon the opposite side of the island from that
at which Ja and I had entered it, for the mainland was nowhere in
sight. For a long time I paddled around the shore, though well
out, before I saw the mainland in the distance. At the sight of
it I lost no time in directing my course toward it, for I had long
since made up my mind to return to Phutra and give myself up that
I might be once more with Perry and Ghak the Hairy One.
I felt that I was a fool ever to have attempted to escape alone,
especially in view of the fact that our plans were already well
formulated to make a break for freedom together. Of course I
realized that the chances of the success of our proposed venture
were slim indeed, but I knew that I never could enjoy freedom
without Perry so long as the old man lived, and I had learned that
the probability that I might find him was less than slight.
Had Perry been dead, I should gladly have pitted my strength and
wit against the savage and primordial world in which I found myself.
I could have lived in seclusion within some rocky cave until I
had found the means to outfit myself with the crude weapons of the
Stone Age, and then set out in search of her whose image had now
become the constant companion of my waking hours, and the central
and beloved figure of my dreams.
But, to the best of my knowledge, Perry still lived and it was my
duty and wish to be again with him, that we might share the dangers
and vicissitudes of the strange world we had discovered. And Ghak,
too; the great, shaggy man had found a place in the hearts of us
both, for he was indeed every inch a man and king. Uncouth, perhaps,
and brutal, too, if judged too harshly by the standards of effete
twentieth-century civilization, but withal noble, dignified,
chivalrous, and loveable.
Chance carried me to the very beach upon which I had discovered
Ja's canoe, and a short time later I was scrambling up the steep
bank to retrace my steps from the plain of Phutra. But my troubles
came when I entered the canyon beyond the summit, for here I found
that several of them centered at the point where I crossed the
divide, and which one I had traversed to reach the pass I could
not for the life of me remember.
It was all a matter of chance and so I set off down that which
seemed the easiest going, and in this I made the same mistake that
many of us do in selecting the path along which we shall follow out
the course of our lives, and again learned that it is not always
best to follow the line of least resistance.
By the time I had eaten eight meals and slept twice I was convinced
that I was upon the wrong trail, for between Phutra and the inland
sea I had not slept at all, and had eaten but once. To retrace
my steps to the summit of the divide and explore another canyon
seemed the only solution of my problem, but a sudden widening and
levelness of the canyon just before me seemed to suggest that it was
about to open into a level country, and with the lure of discovery
strong upon me I decided to proceed but a short distance farther
before I turned back.
The next turn of the canyon brought me to its mouth, and before
me I saw a narrow plain leading down to an ocean. At my right the
side of the canyon continued to the water's edge, the valley lying
to my left, and the foot of it running gradually into the sea,
where it formed a broad level beach.
Clumps of strange trees dotted the landscape here and there almost
to the water, and rank grass and ferns grew between. From the
nature of the vegetation I was convinced that the land between the
ocean and the foothills was swampy, though directly before me it
seemed dry enough all the way to the sandy strip along which the
restless waters advanced and retreated.
Curiosity prompted me to walk down to the beach, for the scene
was very beautiful. As I passed along beside the deep and tangled
vegetation of the swamp I thought that I saw a movement of the
ferns at my left, but though I stopped a moment to look it was not
repeated, and if anything lay hid there my eyes could not penetrate
the dense foliage to discern it.
Presently I stood upon the beach looking out over the wide and
lonely sea across whose forbidding bosom no human being had yet
ventured, to discover what strange and mysterious lands lay beyond,
or what its invisible islands held of riches, wonders, or adventure.
What savage faces, what fierce and formidable beasts were this very
instant watching the lapping of the waves upon its farther shore!
How far did it extend? Perry had told me that the seas of Pellucidar
were small in comparison with those of the outer crust, but even
so this great ocean might stretch its broad expanse for thousands
of miles. For countless ages it had rolled up and down its countless
miles of shore, and yet today it remained all unknown beyond the
tiny strip that was visible from its beaches.
The fascination of speculation was strong upon me. It was as
though I had been carried back to the birth time of our own outer
world to look upon its lands and seas ages before man had traversed
either. Here was a new world, all untouched. It called to me to
explore it. I was dreaming of the excitement and adventure which
lay before us could Perry and I but escape the Mahars, when something,
a slight noise I imagine, drew my attention behind me.
As I turned, romance, adventure, and discovery in the abstract took
wing before the terrible embodiment of all three in concrete form
that I beheld advancing upon me.
A huge, slimy amphibian it was, with toad-like body and the mighty
jaws of an alligator. Its immense carcass must have weighed tons,
and yet it moved swiftly and silently toward me. Upon one hand
was the bluff that ran from the canyon to the sea, on the other the
fearsome swamp from which the creature had sneaked upon me, behind
lay the mighty untracked sea, and before me in the center of the
narrow way that led to safety stood this huge mountain of terrible
and menacing flesh.
A single glance at the thing was sufficient to assure me that I
was facing one of those long-extinct, prehistoric creatures whose
fossilized remains are found within the outer crust as far back
as the Triassic formation, a gigantic labyrinthodon. And there I
was, unarmed, and, with the exception of a loin cloth, as naked as
I had come into the world. I could imagine how my first ancestor
felt that distant, prehistoric morn that he encountered for the first
time the terrifying progenitor of the thing that had me cornered
now beside the restless, mysterious sea.
Unquestionably he had escaped, or I should not have been within
Pellucidar or elsewhere, and I wished at that moment that he had
handed down to me with the various attributes that I presumed I
have inherited from him, the specific application of the instinct
of self-preservation which saved him from the fate which loomed so
close before me today.
To seek escape in the swamp or in the ocean would have been similar
to jumping into a den of lions to escape one upon the outside.
The sea and swamp both were doubtless alive with these mighty,
carnivorous amphibians, and if not, the individual that menaced me
would pursue me into either the sea or the swamp with equal facility.
There seemed nothing to do but stand supinely and await my end.
I thought of Perry--how he would wonder what had become of me. I
thought of my friends of the outer world, and of how they all
would go on living their lives in total ignorance of the strange
and terrible fate that had overtaken me, or unguessing the weird
surroundings which had witnessed the last frightful agony of
my extinction. And with these thoughts came a realization of how
unimportant to the life and happiness of the world is the existence
of any one of us. We may be snuffed out without an instant's
warning, and for a brief day our friends speak of us with subdued
voices. The following morning, while the first worm is busily
engaged in testing the construction of our coffin, they are teeing
up for the first hole to suffer more acute sorrow over a sliced ball
than they did over our, to us, untimely demise. The labyrinthodon
was coming more slowly now. He seemed to realize that escape for
me was impossible, and I could have sworn that his huge, fanged
jaws grinned in pleasurable appreciation of my predicament, or was
it in anticipation of the juicy morsel which would so soon be pulp
between those formidable teeth?
He was about fifty feet from me when I heard a voice calling to
me from the direction of the bluff at my left. I looked and could
have shouted in delight at the sight that met my eyes, for there
stood Ja, waving frantically to me, and urging me to run for it to
the cliff's base.
I had no idea that I should escape the monster that had marked
me for his breakfast, but at least I should not die alone. Human
eyes would watch me end. It was cold comfort I presume, but yet
I derived some slight peace of mind from the contemplation of it.
To run seemed ridiculous, especially toward that steep and unscalable
cliff, and yet I did so, and as I ran I saw Ja, agile as a monkey,
crawl down the precipitous face of the rocks, clinging to small
projections, and the tough creepers that had found root-hold here
and there.
The labyrinthodon evidently thought that Ja was coming to double
his portion of human flesh, so he was in no haste to pursue me to
the cliff and frighten away this other tidbit. Instead he merely
trotted along behind me.
As I approached the foot of the cliff I saw what Ja intended doing,
but I doubted if the thing would prove successful. He had come
down to within twenty feet of the bottom, and there, clinging with
one hand to a small ledge, and with his feet resting, precariously
upon tiny bushes that grew from the solid face of the rock, he
lowered the point of his long spear until it hung some six feet
above the ground.
To clamber up that slim shaft without dragging Ja down and
precipitating both to the same doom from which the copper-colored
one was attempting to save me seemed utterly impossible, and as I
came near the spear I told Ja so, and that I could not risk him to
try to save myself.
But he insisted that he knew what he was doing and was in no danger
himself.
"The danger is still yours," he called, "for unless you move much
more rapidly than you are now, the sithic will be upon you and drag
you back before ever you are halfway up the spear--he can rear up
and reach you with ease anywhere below where I stand."
Well, Ja should know his own business, I thought, and so I grasped
the spear and clambered up toward the red man as rapidly as I
could--being so far removed from my simian ancestors as I am. I
imagine the slow-witted sithic, as Ja called him, suddenly realized
our intentions and that he was quite likely to lose all his meal
instead of having it doubled as he had hoped.
When he saw me clambering up that spear he let out a hiss that
fairly shook the ground, and came charging after me at a terrific
rate. I had reached the top of the spear by this time, or almost;
another six inches would give me a hold on Ja's hand, when I felt
a sudden wrench from below and glancing fearfully downward saw the
mighty jaws of the monster close on the sharp point of the weapon.
I made a frantic effort to reach Ja's hand, the sithic gave a
tremendous tug that came near to jerking Ja from his frail hold on
the surface of the rock, the spear slipped from his fingers, and
still clinging to it I plunged feet foremost toward my executioner.
At the instant that he felt the spear come away from Ja's hand
the creature must have opened his huge jaws to catch me, for when
I came down, still clinging to the butt end of the weapon, the point
yet rested in his mouth and the result was that the sharpened end
transfixed his lower jaw.
With the pain he snapped his mouth closed. I fell upon his snout,
lost my hold upon the spear, rolled the length of his face and
head, across his short neck onto his broad back and from there to
the ground.
Scarce had I touched the earth than I was upon my feet, dashing
madly for the path by which I had entered this horrible valley. A
glance over my shoulder showed me the sithic engaged in pawing at
the spear stuck through his lower jaw, and so busily engaged did
he remain in this occupation that I had gained the safety of the
cliff top before he was ready to take up the pursuit. When he did
not discover me in sight within the valley he dashed, hissing into
the rank vegetation of the swamp and that was the last I saw of
him.
