Darkness and Dawn (75 page)

"Some good items and some bad, you see, in this trial balance," he
commented as he checked up the items. "It means a fresh start in some
ways, and no end of work. But, after all, the damage isn't fatal, as
it might easily have been. We're about a thousand times better off
than there was any hope for."

"You haven't counted in your own wounds just healing, or the terrific
time you had with the Horde," suggested Beatrice. "How in this world
you ever got through I don't see."

"I don't either. It was a miracle, that's all. From the place where I
descended for a little repair work, and where they suddenly attacked
us, to the colony, can't be less than one hundred and fifty miles. And
such hills, valleys, jungles! Perfectly unimaginable difficulties,
Beta! Now that I look back on it myself, I don't see how I ever got
here."

"They killed both the men you had with you?"

"Yes; but one of them not till the second day. You see, the carburetor
got clogged and wouldn't spray properly. I realized I could never
reach Settlement Cliffs without overhauling it. So I scouted for a
likely place to land, far from any sign of the cursed signal-fires.

"Well, we hadn't been on the ground fifteen minutes before I'm blest
if one of my men didn't hear the brushwood crackling to eastward.

"'O Kromno, master!' said he, clutching my arm, 'there come
creatures—many creatures—through the forest! Let us go!'

"I listened and heard it, too; and somehow—subconsciously, I guess—I
knew an advance-guard of the Horde was on us!

"It was night, of course. My search-light was still burning, throwing
a powerful white glare into the thicket about a quarter-mile away,
beyond the sand-barren where I had taken earth. I turned it off, for I
remembered how much better the Folk could see without artificial light
in our night atmosphere.

"'Tell me, do you see anything?' I whispered.

"The other fellow pointed.

"'There, there!' he exclaimed. 'Little people! Many little people
coming through the trees!'

"For a moment I was paralyzed. What to do? There was no time now for a
getaway, even if the machine hadn't been out of order. My mind was in
a whirl, a rout, an utter panic. I confess, Beatrice, for once I was
scared absolutely blue—"

"No wonder! Who could have helped being?"

"Because you see, there was no way out. Lord knew how many of the
little fiends were closing in on us; they might be on all sides. The
country was much broken and absolutely new to me. I had no defenses to
fight from, and it was night. Could anything have been worse?"

"Go on, dear! What next?"

"Well, the Horde was coming on fast, and the darts beginning to patter
in, so I saw we couldn't stay there. I had some vague idea of
stratagem, I remember—some notion of leading the devils away on a
long chase, outdistancing them and then swinging round to the machine
again by daylight, and possibly fixing it up in time to skip out for
home. But—"

"But it didn't work out that way?"

"Hardly! I emptied my automatics into the brown of the advancing pack,
and then retreated, flanked by my two men. They were keen to fight,
the Merucaans were—always ready for a mix—but I knew too much about
the poisoned arrows to let 'em. We stumbled off through the woods at a
good gait, crashing away like elephants, while always, apelike,
creeping and hideous, the little hairy beast-people stole and
slithered among the palms."

Beatrice shuddered.

"Heavens!" she exclaimed. "I—I'd have died of sheer fright!"

"I didn't feel like dying of fright, but I infernally near died of
rage when in about five minutes I saw a flicker of flame through the
jungle, and then a brighter glare."

"They burned the Pauillac?"

"I guess so. I never went back to see. They probably burned the
planes, and tried to batter up the rest of it with rocks and things.
They wrecked it all right enough, I guess.
That
was for the attack
we made on 'em from its safe elevation at the bungalow. Well—"

"What then?"

"I can hardly remember. We trekked south, as near as I could reckon
it, or south by east, with New Hope River as our objective-point. Oh,
what's the use trying to tell it all? You know the jungle at night?"

"Wild beasts, you mean?"

"And snakes, Beta!
Some
sensation to step on a copperhead and then
leap off just in time to miss the snap of the fangs, eh?"

"Oh, don't Allan! Don't!"

"All right; I'll skip that part. Anyhow, we hiked till daybreak, when
my men began to complain of severe pain in the eyes. I had to stop and
rig up some shields for them, and smear their hands and faces with mud
to keep off the sun. Well, we managed to eat a little fruit and get a
drink of water; but as for rest, there was none. For inside an hour,
hanged if the darts didn't begin dropping again!"

"They'd come up with you!"

"Maybe. Or else it was another group of 'em. No telling. The whole
country seemed to swarm with the devils. Anyhow, we had to mosey
again. But—well—one of the darts got home on my best fighter.
And—h-m!—he didn't last five minutes. He turned a kind of
bluish-green, too. And swelled a good bit. I'll spare you the details,
Beta. At any rate, we had to leave him. So there were only two of us
now, and God knew where home was, or how many thousand of the hairy
devils were lying in ambush on the way. So then—"

"What did you do?" she asked, shuddering.

"We hiked, and kept on hiking! All day we beat and trampled through
the forest, and toward night there was no more go in us. So we decided
to make a stand. Pretty objects we were, too, torn and bruised, mired
from swamps clear to our waists, and a mass of scratches and bruises!
Well, we hadn't long to wait when the attack was on again.

"I gave my one remaining man the spare automatic, and showed him how
to handle it; and for about an hour we stood off the devils. But they
flanked us, and all at once my man grunted and pitched forward. I'm
damned if they hadn't driven a spear clean through his lungs!

"After that, good God! it was just a man-hunt, endless and horrible,
through trackless wilds, over hills and mountains, through valleys,
across rivers, Heaven knows where! But I always tried to keep my wits
and beat to southward, hoping, ever hoping I might reach the New Hope.
Well—now and then I could get far enough ahead to snatch a bite or a
drink. Twice I slept—twice, in about a week; think of that, will you?
Once in a hollow tree, and once under a rock-ledge. Only a few hours
in all. But it helped. Without that I couldn't have got through."

She took his hand, and kissed and caressed it.

"My Allan!" she whispered, while in her eyes the tears started hot.
"You suffered all that just to come home again?"

"What else was there to do? The last few days I hardly knew anything
at all. It was a daze, a dream, a nightmare. There was so much pain in
every part that no one part could hurt very much. The bushes pretty
nearly stripped every rag of clothes off me—and the skin, as well. My
sandals went all to pieces. I lost my sense of direction a hundred
times, and must have often doubled on my tracks. I ate and drank what
I could get, like an animal. Once, in a period of lucidity, I remember
finding a nest of fledgling birds. I crunched them down alive,
pin-feathers and all! Well—"

"My boy! My poor, lost, tortured boy!"

"When they wounded me I never even knew. All I know is that the spear
wasn't one of the poisoned ones. Otherwise—"

"There, there! Don't think about it any more, darling! Don't tell me
any more. I know enough. It's too awful! Let's both try to forget!"

"I guess that's the best way, after all," he answered. "I found the
river somehow, after a thousand or two eternities. Instinct must have
guided me, for I turned upstream in the right direction. And after
that, all I remember is seeing the bridge across to Settlement
Cliffs."

"And so you came home to us again, darling?"

"So I came home. Love led me, Beatrice. It was my chart and compass
through the wilderness. Not even pain and hunger could confuse them.
Nothing but death could ever blot them out!"

"And after all you'd been through, dear, you did what you did for us?
Without resting? Without delay or respite?"

"That's life," he answered simply. "That's the price of the new world.
He who would build must suffer!"

Her arms embraced him, her breath was warm upon his face, and in the
kiss that burned itself upon his eager lips he knew some measure of
the sweetness of reward.

Less than three weeks after the extermination of the Horde,
Stern had already completed important measures looking toward the
rehabilitation of the colony.

The damage had been largely repaired. Now only some half-dozen
convalescent cases still remained on the sick-list. What the colony
had lost in numbers it had gained in solidarity and a truer loyalty
than ever before felt there.

All the survivors, now vastly more faithful to the common cause than
in the beginning, showed an eager longing to lay hold of the impending
problems with Stern, and to labor faithfully for the future of the
great undertaking.

The fishing, hunting and domestication of wild animals all were
resumed, and again the sound of hammers and anvils clanked through the
caves.

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 bridge
cables.

Stern shot a thin line over to them by means of a bow and arrow. With
this 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 damage
had 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 the
broken terrace. Work was begun on new cave dwellings, with great care
not to weaken the strata and so invite another disaster.

Stern, very wise by now in gauging the barbarian mentality, undertook
no direct punishment of such as had been led away by H'yemba. But he
gathered all the Folk together in the palisade, and there—close to
the mutely eloquent object-lesson of the little cemetery—he made them
a 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. The
landslide smote ye, and enemies came enemies far more terrible than
the dreaded Lanskaarn ye fought in the Abyss! But a little more and ye
had all died with battle and disaster. Only my hand alone saved
ye—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 ye
saw hurled, bleeding, from the parapet! That was my answer to his
insolence! And if not he, then who can ever stand against me?"

He paused, and swept them with his glance, letting the lesson sink
deep home. Before him their eyes were lowered; their heads bowed; and
through them all ran murmurs of fear and supplication.

"My Folk! Rightly might I be angered with you, and require sacrifice
and still more blood; but I am merciful. I shall not punish; I shall
only teach, and guide, and help! For my heart is your heart, and ye
are precious in my eyes.

"But, hark ye now, and think, and judge for yourselves! If any ever
speak again of rebellion, or of treason, and seek to break the Law, on
his head shall be the blood of all. For surely woe shall come again on
us. In your own behalf I warn you, and ye shall be the judges. Now
answer me, O my Folk, what shall be done unto any who rebels?"

"He shall die!" boomed the voice of Zangamon. The loyal fighter, now
lean and gaunt with great labors, but still powerful, raised his
corded 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 death
in 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 be
written as a Law. From Execution Rock shall all conspirators be cast.
Now go!"

He dismissed them. While they departed and filed down the terraces to
their own homes, he stood there with folded arms, watching them very
gravely. The last one vanished. He nodded.

"They'll do now!" said he to himself. "No more trouble from that
source! Another milestone passed along the road of self-control,
self-government and communal spirit. Ah, but the road's a long one
yet—a long and hard and stony road to follow!"

Next day Stern began making his plans for the recovery of the lost
aeroplane.

"This is by far the most important matter now before the colony," he
told 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 open
with the mother-country of the Folk, so to call it, and with the
city-ruins that supply us with so many necessary articles. No other
form of transportation will do. At all hazards we
must
have an
aeroplane—one at least, more later, if possible."

"Of course," she answered; "but why not make one here? Down there in
your workshop—"

"I haven't the equipment yet," he interrupted; "nor yet the necessary
metal, the wire, a hundred things. All that will come in time when we
get some mines to work and start a few blast-furnaces. But for the
present, the best and quickest thing to do will be to look up the old
machine again."