Brood of the Dark Moon
nearer from the dark pit beyond. Yet, even then, Chet found an instant
to defend the black.
"Damned lucky for us that he is a murderer!" he told Kreiss. Then to
Towahg:
"Listen, you little imp of hell! You don't know more than ten words, but
get this!"
Chet was standing where the Earth-light struck upon him; he pointed into
the dark where the sounds of pursuit grew loud, and he shook his head
and screwed his features into an expression that was supposed to depict
fear. "No! No!" he said.
He dragged the savage forward and pointed cautiously to the milling
horde below, and repeated, "No! No!" Then he included them all in a wave
of his hand and pointed back and out into the night. And Towahg's
unlovely features were again twisted into what was for him a smile, as
he grunted some unintelligible syllables and motioned them to follow.
* * * * *
It had taken but an instant. Towahg was scurrying in advance; he sped
like a shadow of a passing cloud, and behind him the others followed,
crouching low in the shelter of the deep-cut step. No figures were below
them at the rear of the pyramid, and Chet reached for one of Diane's
arms, while Harkness took the other. Between them they held her from
falling while they followed the dark blur that was Towahg leaping
noiselessly down the long slope.
No time for caution now. The savage ahead of them leaped silently; his
flying feet hardly disturbed a stone. But beneath them, Chet felt a
small landslide of rubble that came with them in their flight. And above
the noise of their going came a sound that sped them on--the rising
shout of wonder from the unseen multitude in front, and a chorus of
animal cries from the pyramid's top.
Chet saw a blot of black figures at the top of the slope just as they
felt firm ground beneath their feet. They followed where Towahg led in a
swift race across the open arena toward the great steps at the rear.
Black and white in strongly contrasting bands, the rock reared itself in
a barrier that, to Chet, seemed hopelessly unsurmountable. He felt that
they had come to the end of their tether.
"Trapped!" he told himself, and wondered at Towahg's leading them into
such a cul-de-sac, even while he knew that retreat in other directions
was cut off. The pursuit was gaining on them; savages from beyond the
pyramid had sighted them now in the full light of Earth, and their
yelping cry came mingled with hoarse growls as the full pack took the
trail. Ahead of them, Towahg, reaching the base of the first white step,
was dancing with excitement beside a narrow cleft in the rocks. He led
the way through the small passage. And Harkness, bringing up the rear,
took the detonite pistol in his hand.
"One shell! We'll have to waste it!" he said, and raised the weapon.
Its own explosion was slight, but the sound of the bursting cartridge
when its grain of detonite struck the rocks made a thunderous noise as
it echoed between the narrow walls.
"That will check the pursuit," Harkness exulted; "that will make them
stop and think it over."
* * * * *
It was another hour before Towahg slackened his pace. He had led them
through jungle that to them seemed impassable; had shown them the hidden
trails and warned them against spiked plants whose darts were needle
sharp. At last he led them to a splashing stream where they followed him
through the trackless water for a mile or more.
The mountain with the white scar was their beacon. Harkness pointed it
out to their guide and made him understand that that was where they
would go.
And, when night was gone, and the first rays of the rising sun made a
quickly changing kaleidoscope of the colorful east, they came at last to
a barren height. Behind them was a maze of valleys and rolling hills;
beyond these was a place of smoke, where red fires shone pale in the
early light, and set off at one side was a shape whose cylindrical
outline could be plainly seen. It caught the first light of the sun to
reflect it in sparkling lines and glittering points, and every
reflection came back to them tinged with pale green, by which they knew
that the gas was still there.
Chet turned from a prospect that could only be depressing. His muscles
were heavy with the poisons of utter fatigue; the others must be the
same, but for the present they were safe, and they could find some
position that they could defend. Towahg would be a valuable ally. And
now their lives were ahead of them--lives of loneliness, of exile.
* * * * *
Harkness, too, had been staring back toward that ship that was their
only link with their lost world; his eyes met Chet's in an exchange of
glances that showed how similar were their thoughts. And then, at sound
of a glad laugh from Diane, their looks of despair gave place to
something more like shame, and Chet shifted his own eyes quickly away.
"It is beautiful, Walter," Diane was saying: "the lovely valley, the
lake, the three mountain peaks like sentinels. It is marvelous. And we
will be happy there, all of us, I know it.... Happy Valley. There--I've
named it! Do you like the name, Walter?"
And Chet saw Harkness' reply in a quick pressure of his hand on one of
Diane's. And he knew why Walt looked suddenly away without giving her an
answer in words.
"Happy Valley!" Diane of all the four had shown the ability to rise
above desperate physical weariness, above a despondent mood, to dare
look ahead instead of backward and to find hope for happiness in the
prospect.
Off at one side, Chet saw Kreiss; the scientist's weariness was
forgotten while he ran like a puppy after a bird, in pursuit of a
floating butterfly that drifted like a wind-blown flower. And Harkness,
unspeaking, was still clinging to Diane's firm hand.... Yes, thought
Chet, there was happiness to be found here. For himself, it would be
more than a little lonesome. But, he reflected, what happiness was there
in any place or thing more than the happiness we put there for
ourselves?... Happy Valley--and why not? He dared to meet the girl's
eyes now, and the smile on his lips spread to his own eyes, as he echoed
his thoughts:
"Why not?" he asked. "Happy Valley it is; we just didn't recognize it at
first."
* * * * *
They came to the lake at last; its sparkling blue had drawn them from
afar off: it was still lovelier as they came near. Here was the same
steady west wind that had driven the gas upon their ship. But here it
ruffled the velvet of waving grasses that swept down to the margin of
the lake. There was a higher knoll that rose sharply from the shore, and
back of all were forests of white-trunked trees.
Chet had seen none of the crimson buds, nor threatening tendrils since
entering the valley. And Towahg confirmed his estimate of the valley's
safety. He waved one naked arm in an all-inclusive gesture, and he drew
upon his limited vocabulary to tell them of this place.
"Good!" he said, and waved his arm again. "Good! Good!"
"Towahg, you're a silver-tongued orator," Chet told him: "no one could
have described it better. You're darned right; it's good."
He raised his head to take a deep breath of the fragrant air; it was
intoxicating with its blending of spicy odors. At his feet the water
made emerald waves, where the clear, deep blue of the reflected sky
merged with yellow sand. Fish darted through the deeper pools where the
beach shelved off, and above them the air held flashing colorful things
that circled and skimmed above the waves.
The rippling grass was so green, the sky and lake so intense a blue, and
one mountainous mass of cloud shone in a white too blinding to be borne.
And over it all flowed the warm, soft air that seemed vibrant with a
life-force pulsing strongly through this virgin world.
Diane called from where she and Harkness had wandered through the lush
grass. Kreiss had thrown himself upon a strip of warm sand and was
oblivious to the beauties that surrounded him. Towahg was squatted like
a half-human frog, binding new heads on his arrows.
"Chet," she called, "come over here and help me to exclaim over this
beautiful place. Walter talks only of building a house and arranging a
place that we can defend. He is so very practical."
"Practical!" exclaimed Chet. "Why, Walt's a dreamer and a poet compared
to me. I'm thinking of food. Hey, Towahg," he called to the black,
"let's eat!" He amplified this with unmistakable pointings at his mouth
and suggestive rubbing of his stomach, and Towahg started off at a run
toward trees that were heavy with strange fruit.
* * * * *
By night there were unmistakable signs that the hand of man had been at
work. A band of savages would have accepted the place as they found it;
for them the shelter of a rock would have sufficed. They would have
passed on to other hunting grounds and only a handful of ashes and a
broken branch, perhaps, would have marked where they had been. But your
civilized man is never satisfied.
Along the mile of shore was open ground. Here the trees approached the
water: again their solid rampart of ghostly trunks was held back some
hundreds of yards. And the open ground was vividly green where the soft
grass waved; and it was matted, too, with crimson and gold of countless
flowers. A beautiful carpet, flung down by the edge of a crystal lake,
and the flowered covering swept up and over the one high knoll that
touched the shore.... And on the knoll, near an outcrop of limestone
rocks, was a house.
"Not exactly pretentious," Chet had admitted, "but we'll do better later
on."
"It will keep Diane under cover," argued Harkness; "these leaves are
like leather."
He helped Diane put another strip of leaf in place on the roof; a twist
of green vine tied around the stem held it loosely.
The leaves were huge, as much as ten feet in diameter: great circles of
leathery green that they cut with a pocket knife and "tailored" as Diane
called it to fit the rough framework of the hut. Towahg had found them
and had given them a name that they did not trouble to learn. "Towahg's
grunts sound so much alike," Diane complained smilingly. "He seems to
know his natural history, but he is difficult to understand."
* * * * *
But Towahg proved a valuable man. He cracked two round stones together,
and cleaved off one to a rounded edge. He bound this with withes to a
short stick and in a few minutes had a serviceable stone ax that bit
into slender saplings that were needed for a framework.
Chet nodded his head to call Kreiss' attention to that. "Herr Doktor,"
he said, "it isn't every scientist who has the chance to see a close-up
of the stone age."
But Herr Kreiss, as Chet told Harkness later, did not seem to "snuggle
up nice and friendly" to the grinning savage. "He is armed better than
we," Kreiss complained. "I do not trust him. It is an impossible
situation, this, that civilized men should be dependent upon one so
savage. For what is our _kultur_, our great advancement in all lines of
mental endeavor, if at the last, when tested by nature, we must rely
upon such assistance?"
Chet saw Herr Doktor Kreiss draw himself aloof with meticulous care as
Towahg dashed by, and it occurred to him that perhaps it was as well for
Kreiss that the black one knew so little of what was said.
But aloud he merely said: "You'll have lots of chances to use that
mental endeavor stuff later on, Doctor. But right now what we need to
know is how to get by without any of your laboratories, without text
books or tools, with just our bare hands and with brains that are geared
up to the civilization you mention and don't do us a whole lot of good