CHAPTER VIII

Pellicudar

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER VIII, PELLICUDAR by Edgar R. Burroughs
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CAPTIVE

When Goork and his people saw that I had no token
they commenced to taunt me.

"You do not come from Kolk, but from the Sly One!"
they cried. "He has sent you from the island to spy upon
us. Go away, or we will set upon you and kill you."

I explained that all my belongings had been stolen
from me, and that the robber must have taken the token
too; but they didn't believe me. As proof that I was
one of Hooja's people, they pointed to my weapons,
which they said were ornamented like those of the is-
land clan. Further, they said that no good man went in
company with a jalok--and that by this line of reason-
ing I certainly was a bad man.

I saw that they were not naturally a war-like tribe,
for they preferred that I leave in peace rather than
force them to attack me, whereas the Sarians would
have killed a suspicious stranger first and inquired into
his purposes later.

I think Raja sensed their antagonism, for he kept tug-
ging at his leash and growling ominously. They were a
bit in awe of him, and kept at a safe distance. It was
evident that they could not comprehend why it was
that this savage brute did not turn upon me and rend
me.

I wasted a long time there trying to persuade Goork
to accept me at my own valuation, but he was too
canny. The best he would do was to give us food, which
he did, and direct me as to the safest portion of the is-
land upon which to attempt a landing, though even as
he told me I am sure that he thought my request for
information but a blind to deceive him as to my true
knowledge of the insular stronghold.

At last I turned away from them--rather disheart-
ened, for I had hoped to be able to enlist a considerable
force of them in an attempt to rush Hooja's horde and
rescue Dian. Back along the beach toward the hidden
canoe we made our way.

By the time we came to the cairn I was dog-tired.
Throwing myself upon the sand I soon slept, and
with Raja stretched out beside me I felt a far greater
security than I had enjoyed for a long time.

I awoke much refreshed to find Raja's eyes glued
upon me. The moment I opened mine he rose, stretched
himself, and without a backward glance plunged into
the jungle. For several minutes I could hear him crash-
ing through the brush. Then all was silent.

I wondered if he had left me to return to his fierce
pack. A feeling of loneliness overwhelmed me. With a
sigh I turned to the work of dragging the canoe down to
the sea. As I entered the jungle where the dugout lay a
hare darted from beneath the boat's side, and a well-
aimed cast of my javelin brought it down. I was hungry
--I had not realized it before--so I sat upon the edge
of the canoe and devoured my repast. The last remnants
gone, I again busied myself with preparations for my
expedition to the island.

I did not know for certain that Dian was there; but
I surmised as much. Nor could I guess what obstacles
might confront me in an effort to rescue her. For a time
I loitered about after I had the canoe at the water's
edge, hoping against hope that Raja would return; but
be did not, so I shoved the awkward craft through the
surf and leaped into it.

I was still a little downcast by the desertion of my
new-found friend, though I tried to assure myself that it
was nothing but what I might have expected.

The savage brute had served me well in the short
time that we had been together, and had repaid his debt
of gratitude to me, since he had saved my life, or at
least my liberty, no less certainly than I had saved his
life when he was injured and drowning.

The trip across the water to the island was unevent-
ful. I was mighty glad to be in the sunshine again when
I passed out of the shadow of the dead world about
half-way between the mainland and the island. The hot
rays of the noonday sun did a great deal toward raising
my spirits, and dispelling the mental gloom in which I
had been shrouded almost continually since entering
the Land of Awful Shadow. There is nothing more dis-
piriting to me than absence of sunshine.

I had paddled to the southwestern point, which
Goork said he believed to be the least frequented por-
tion of the island, as he had never seen boats put off
from there. I found a shallow reef running far out into
the sea and rather precipitous cliffs running almost to
the surf. It was a nasty place to land, and I realized now
why it was not used by the natives; but at last I man-
aged, after a good wetting, to beach my canoe and
scale the cliffs.

The country beyond them appeared more open and
park-like than I had anticipated, since from the main-
land the entire coast that is visible seems densely
clothed with tropical jungle. This jungle, as I could
see from the vantage-point of the cliff-top, formed
but a relatively narrow strip between the sea and the
more open forest and meadow of the interior. Farther
back there was a range of low but apparently very rocky
hills, and here and there all about were visible flat-
topped masses of rock--small mountains, in fact--which
reminded me of pictures I had seen of landscapes in
New Mexico. Altogether, the country was very much
broken and very beautiful. From where I stood I counted
no less than a dozen streams winding down from among
the table-buttes and emptying into a pretty river which
flowed away in a northeasterly direction toward the op-
posite end of the island.

As I let my eyes roam over the scene I suddenly be-
came aware of figures moving upon the flat top of a
far-distant butte. Whether they were beast or human,
though, I could not make out; but at least they were
alive, so I determined to prosecute my search for Hooja's
stronghold in the general direction of this butte.

To descend to the valley required no great effort. As
I swung along through the lush grass and the fragrant
flowers, my cudgel swinging in my hand and my javelin
looped across my shoulders with its aurochs-hide strap, I
felt equal to any emergency, ready for any danger.

I had covered quite a little distance, and I was pass-
ing through a strip of wood which lay at the foot of one
of the flat-topped hills, when I became conscious of the
sensation of being watched. My life within Pellucidar
has rather quickened my senses of sight, hearing, and
smell, and, too, certain primitive intuitive or instinctive
qualities that seem blunted in civilized man. But, though
I was positive that eyes were upon me, I could see no
sign of any living thing within the wood other than the
many, gay-plumaged birds and little monkeys which
filled the trees with life, color, and action.

To you it may seem that my conviction was the re-
sult of an overwrought imagination, or to the actual
reality of the prying eyes of the little monkeys or the
curious ones of the birds; but there is a difference
which I cannot explain between the sensation of casual
observation and studied espionage. A sheep might gaze
at you without transmitting a warning through your sub-
jective mind, because you are in no danger from a
sheep. But let a tiger gaze fixedly at you from ambush,
and unless your primitive instincts are completely cal-
loused you will presently commence to glance furtively
about and be filled with vague, unreasoning terror.

Thus was it with me then. I grasped my cudgel more
firmly and unslung my javelin, carrying it in my left
hand. I peered to left and right, but I saw nothing.
Then, all quite suddenly, there fell about my neck and
shoulders, around my arms and body, a number of
pliant fiber ropes.

In a jiffy I was trussed up as neatly as you might
wish. One of the nooses dropped to my ankles and was
jerked up with a suddenness that brought me to my
face upon the ground. Then something heavy and hairy
sprang upon my back. I fought to draw my knife, but
hairy hands grasped my wrists and, dragging them be-
hind my back, bound them securely.

Next my feet were bound. Then I was turned over
upon my back to look up into the faces of my captors.

And what faces! Imagine if you can a cross between
a sheep and a gorilla, and you will have some concep-
tion of the physiognomy of the creature that bent
close above me, and of those of the half-dozen others
that clustered about. There was the facial length and
great eyes of the sheep, and the bull-neck and hideous
fangs of the gorilla. The bodies and limbs were both
man and gorilla-like.

As they bent over me they conversed in a mono-
syllabic tongue that was perfectly intelligible to me. It
was something of a simplified language that had no
need for aught but nouns and verbs, but such words as
it included were the same as those of the human beings
of Pellucidar. It was amplified by many gestures which
filled in the speech-gaps.

I asked them what they intended doing with me; but,
like our own North American Indians when questioned
by a white man, they pretended not to understand me.
One of them swung me to his shoulder as lightly as if I
had been a shoat. He was a huge creature, as were his
fellows, standing fully seven feet upon his short legs and
weighing considerably more than a quarter of a ton.

Two went ahead of my bearer and three behind. In
this order we cut to the right through the forest to the
foot of the hill where precipitous cliffs appeared to bar
our farther progress in this direction. But my escort
never paused. Like ants upon a wall, they scaled that
seemingly unscalable barrier, clinging, Heaven knows
how, to its ragged perpendicular face. During most of
the short journey to the summit I must admit that my
hair stood on end. Presently, however, we topped the
thing and stood upon the level mesa which crowned it.

Immediately from all about, out of burrows and
rough, rocky lairs, poured a perfect torrent of beasts
similar to my captors. They clustered about, jabber-
ing at my guards and attempting to get their hands
upon me, whether from curiosity or a desire to do me
bodily harm I did not know, since my escort with
bared fangs and heavy blows kept them off.

Across the mesa we went, to stop at last before a large
pile of rocks in which an opening appeared. Here my
guards set me upon my feet and called out a word
which sounded like "Gr-gr-gr!" and which I later
learned was the name of their king.

Presently there emerged from the cavernous depths
of the lair a monstrous creature, scarred from a hundred
battles, almost hairless and with an empty socket where
one eye had been. The other eye, sheeplike in its
mildness, gave the most startling appearance to the
beast, which but for that single timid orb was the most
fearsome thing that one could imagine.

I had encountered the black, hairless, long-tailed ape--
things of the mainland--the creatures which Perry
thought might constitute the link between the higher
orders of apes and man--but these brute-men of Gr-gr-
gr seemed to set that theory back to zero, for there was
less similarity between the black ape-men and these
creatures than there was between the latter and man,
while both had many human attributes, some of which
were better developed in one species and some in the
other.

The black apes were hairless and built thatched
huts in their arboreal retreats; they kept domesticated
dogs and ruminants, in which respect they were farther
advanced than the human beings of Pellucidar; but they
appeared to have only a meager language, and sported
long, apelike tails.

On the other hand, Gr-gr-gr's people were, for the
most part, quite hairy, but they were tailless and had a
language similar to that of the human race of Pellucidar;
nor were they arboreal. Their skins, where skin showed,
were white.

From the foregoing facts and others that I have
noted during my long life within Pellucidar, which is
now passing through an age analogous to some pre-
glacial age of the outer crust, I am constrained to the
belief that evolution is not so much a gradual transition
from one form to another as it is an accident of breeding,
either by crossing or the hazards of birth. In other
words, it is my belief that the first man was a freak of
nature--nor would one have to draw over-strongly
upon his credulity to be convinced that Gr-gr-gr and his
tribe were also freaks.

The great man-brute seated himself upon a flat rock--
his throne, I imagine--just before the entrance to his
lair. With elbows on knees and chin in palms he re-
garded me intently through his lone sheep-eye while
one of my captors told of my taking.

When all had been related Gr-gr-gr questioned me. I
shall not attempt to quote these people in their own ab-
breviated tongue--you would have even greater diffi-
culty in interpreting them than did I. Instead, I shall
put the words into their mouths which will carry to you
the ideas which they intended to convey.

"You are an enemy," was Gr-gr-gr's initial declaration.
"You belong to the tribe of Hooja."

Ah! So they knew Hooja and he was their enemy!
Good!

"I am an enemy of Hooja," I replied. "He has stolen
my mate and I have come here to take her away from
him and punish Hooja."

"How could you do that alone?"

"I do not know," I answered, "but I should have tried
had you not captured me. What do you intend to do
with me?"

"You shall work for us."

"You will not kill me?" I asked.

"We do not kill except in self-defense," he replied;
"self-defense and punishment. Those who would kill us
and those who do wrong we kill. If we knew you were
one of Hooja's people we might kill you, for all Hooja's
people are bad people; but you say you are an enemy of
Hooja. You may not speak the truth, but until we learn
that you have lied we shall not kill you. You shall work."

"If you hate Hooja," I suggested, "why not let me,
who hate him, too, go and punish him?"

For some time Gr-gr-gr sat in thought. Then he raised
his head and addressed my guard.

"Take him to his work," he ordered.

His tone was final. As if to emphasize it he turned
and entered his burrow. My guard conducted me far-
ther into the mesa, where we came presently to a tiny
depression or valley, at one end of which gushed a
warm spring.

The view that opened before me was the most sur-
prising that I have ever seen. In the hollow, which must
have covered several hundred acres, were numerous
fields of growing things, and working all about with
crude implements or with no implements at all other
than their bare hands were many of the brute-men en-
gaged in the first agriculture that I had seen within
Pellucidar.

They put me to work cultivating in a patch of melons.

I never was a farmer nor particularly keen for this sort
of work, and I am free to confess that time never had
dragged so heavily as it did during the hour or the year
I spent there at that work. How long it really was I do
not know, of course; but it was all too long.

The creatures that worked about me were quite sim-
ple and friendly. One of them proved to be a son of
Gr-gr-gr. He had broken some minor tribal law, and was
working out his sentence in the fields. He told me that
his tribe had lived upon this hilltop always, and that
there were other tribes like them dwelling upon other
hilltops. They had no wars and had always lived in
peace and harmony, menaced only by the larger carniv-
ora of the island, until my kind had come under a crea-
ture called Hooja, and attacked and killed them when
they chanced to descend from their natural fortresses
to visit their fellows upon other lofty mesas.

Now they were afraid; but some day they would go
in a body and fall upon Hooja and his people and slay
them all. I explained to him that I was Hooja's enemy,
and asked, when they were ready to go, that I be al-
lowed to go with them, or, better still, that they let
me go ahead and learn all that I could about the village
where Hooja dwelt so that they might attack it with
the best chance of success.

Gr-gr-gr's son seemed much impressed by my sug-
gestion. He said that when he was through in the
fields he would speak to his father about the matter.

Some time after this Gr-gr-gr came through the fields
where we were, and his son spoke to him upon the sub-
ject, but the old gentleman was evidently in anything
but a good humor, for he cuffed the youngster and,
turning upon me, informed me that he was convinced
that I had lied to him, and that I was one of Hooja's peo-
ple.

"Wherefore," he concluded, "we shall slay you as soon
as the melons are cultivated. Hasten, therefore."

And hasten I did. I hastened to cultivate the weeds
which grew among the melon-vines. Where there had
been one sickly weed before, I nourished two healthy
ones. When I found a particularly promising variety of
weed growing elsewhere than among my melons,
I forthwith dug it up and transplanted it among my
charges.

My masters did not seem to realize my perfidy. They
saw me always laboring diligently in the melon-patch,
and as time enters not into the reckoning of Pellucidar-
ians--even of human beings and much less of brutes
and half brutes--I might have lived on indefinitely
through this subterfuge had not that occurred which
took me out of the melon-patch for good and all.