The planet of peril
would make a formidable and merciless antagonist. His abnormally low
forehead was crossed by a livid scar just above the beetling brows,
from beneath which his small, beady eyes glared malevolently. His
right ear had been completely torn away, and with it a portion of the
surrounding scalp.
As he stood with arms folded over his hairy chest and feet wide apart,
a bulging, menacing mountain of muscle and bone, the Earth-man did
not wonder that slaves cringed at his glance, and that he apparently
expected this new arrival to do like-wise.
"I have eyes to see and ears to hear that which pleases me not,"
Grandon replied boldly. "You accuse me of the stupidity of a ptang, but
I must needs have the stupidity of a thousand ptangs to obey this thing
miscalled a man which stands before me."
* * * * *
The overseer's thick lips drew back in a brutelike snarl, revealing
huge yellow teeth. With lightninglike quickness he directed a blow at
Grandon's head. By ducking swiftly the Earth-man avoided the full force
of the blow which would have crushed in the side of his face had it
landed squarely and which, glancing though it was, sent him reeling to
the floor a full twenty feet away.
"You would insult Od, would you?" the overseer snarled. "You would
refuse to feed the fantas. Miserable, misbegotten offspring of
misguided parents, then shall your torn body feed them, and that
speedily."
He sprang to the side of the prostrate man and lifted his heavy foot
for a vicious kick, but it never landed, for Grandon executed a quick
scissors movement with his legs, an old wrestling trick, and his
assailant fell sprawling.
Both men leaped to their feet in an instant. As they faced each
other, the slaves abandoned their wriggling fanta charges and formed
an excited ring about the pair. They saw that which they had never
previously beheld--brute strength pitted against the science of the
trained boxer.
The giant Od was first annoyed, then amazed, at his inability to strike
his opponent, while blows rained incessantly against his unguarded chin
and solar plexus. At length, weakened by the drubbing he was receiving,
he abandoned all thought of striking his elusive antagonist and leaped
blindly forward to clutch him in his mighty arms.
It was the opening for which Grandon had been waiting. Stepping lightly
to one side, he planted a terrific blow behind the ragged ear. Od
reeled blindly for a moment, then fell prone upon his hideous face,
where he lay limp and still.
A shout of approval went up from the group of spectators, for Od was a
hated bully, and many of them had felt the weight of his heavy hand or
seen comrades go down before his blows, never to rise again. A warning
cry from a man near the door checked their cheering.
"To your tasks, quickly! The sabits are coming!"
They scattered in an instant, and when four soldier sabits arrived
all but Grandon and Od were busily tending their fractious charges.
The sabits spied Grandon, standing with heaving breast beside his
prostrate foe, and ran quickly to where he stood. One of them looked
inquiringly at him, and vibrated its antennæ, producing a confusing
series of tones. When it received no reply it brought a slave from near
by and repeated the vibrations. The slave replied, using his voice to
produce various tones, and Grandon judged from his gestures that he was
describing the combat.
Immediately one of the sabits made for the door, and shortly returned
with the winged king. Then there was a further vibratory conversation,
this time among the sabits. Grandon noticed that when they communicated
with each other the vibrations were noiseless, and that the sounds were
produced only when they conversed with men.
Momentarily expecting to be punished with death for his rash deed,
Grandon was amazed when the four soldier sabits suddenly leaped to the
prostrate man and tore him to pieces. These pieces were distributed
among the near-by sabit grubs, or fantas, as they were called.
Then the king sabit again vibrated his antennæ, this time producing
musical tones, and the slave who had described the duel translated for
Grandon.
* * * * *
"By order of the king sabit you are to assume immediately the duties of
the man you just defeated. Only the strongest and bravest of the slaves
may become feeders of the fantas, and by vanquishing Od, greatest of
all of us in the community, you have demonstrated your eligibility for
the office."
"But I know nothing of these duties," remonstrated Grandon.
"It does not matter. The men know what is to be done. You are simply to
maintain order and see that there is no idling. A soldier sabit will
remain with you for a few days to teach you the tone language so that
thereafter you may receive your orders direct from the sabits and not
through an interpreter."
As Grandon took up the work of the dead Od, his thoughts reverted to
Vernia, awaiting his coming in the airship. He resolved to escape at
the first opportunity and return to her, but at that moment escape was
out of the question and resistance was suicidal.
The working day of the sabits and their slaves began at dawn and
continued until darkness. The slaves were fed twice daily, once upon
rising and once when the day's work was completed. The diet was always
the same--a mixture of the sweet, sticky stuff and edible fungi.
With the coming of darkness all members of the community were herded
within the conical clay houses and the burrows which connected them.
A sleeping room with bare dirt floors was set aside for the men and
carefully guarded by soldier sabits. A separate dormitory for the women
and children was similarly guarded. Men and women were not allowed to
mingle during the day, but were kept at separate tasks, and though they
might see each other from a distance seldom had opportunities even for
conversation.
Grandon watched carefully for an opportunity to escape and return to
Vernia, but it seemed that his every movement was anticipated by the
watchful sabits. Again and again he tried, growing more reckless and
desperate as the days passed, but all in vain.
He learned the tone language readily, and after several weeks had
elapsed, became fairly familiar with his surroundings and the mode of
life of the strange creatures who had captured him. His instructor told
him how the little sabits or fantas were hatched from the eggs laid
by the roga. They were tended and fed by women and girls until they
reached a size that made it necessary for the men to take charge of
them. When they had, while still in the fanta stage, grown larger than
adults, they were taken to a dark room deep under the ground, where
they spun great, tough cocoons that completely surrounded them, and lay
dormant in these for a long period, finally emerging as full-fledged
adult sabits.
Many days passed before Grandon was even permitted out of doors. Then,
one morning, he was placed in charge of a crew of food carriers, and
the white soldier sabits taking their "cattle," the green creatures to
their leafy pastures, led the way directly to the tree in which the
airship was jammed.
With wildly beating heart, Grandon climbed the tree soon after his men
had mounted to gather the sweet torlage. After a tedious climb he saw
the craft directly above him. Slaves, sabits and the green "cattle"
swarmed all about it without paying it the slightest attention.
Apparently it was a familiar object to them.
Grandon moved cautiously toward the forked limb on which it rested in
order that he might not betray his interest, and peered cautiously
within the cab. It was empty, and apparently undisturbed. One of the
drawers stood open, and he selected a knife and a small flash light
from the miscellaneous articles it contained, secreting them beneath
his clothing.
As there were no signs of a struggle he assumed that Vernia had left
voluntarily, but he was equally certain that she could not have gone
far without being captured and enslaved by the sabits.
Having by this time become familiar with the fate of female slaves of
marriageable age, Grandon resolved that she must be rescued speedily,
if at all, for he knew that she would take her own life rather than
submit to the dictates of such a system.
There were hundreds of sabit communities in the valley, in any one of
which she might be a prisoner, and he was not without realization of
the stupendous task before him, for he must first find a way to escape
from his own community, then spy on all the others in turn until he
found her.
That night when the men had been quartered in their dormitory he
thought of a plan, and set about at once to put it into execution.
CHAPTER XVII.
IN THE MATING PENS.
On the evening following her capture, Vernia, driven by the pangs of
hunger to taste the sticky mess which formed the sole ration of the
slaves, was choking down a small portion when she saw Rotha entering
the women's quarters.
The girl ran toward her and buried her face in her bosom, weeping
softly. Vernia noticed several bruises on her shoulders and arms, and
the bluish prints of huge fingers on her neck.
"Poor child." Vernia murmured, stroking the soft, black hair. "They
have abused you shamefully."
The girl looked up into her eyes, and there was a smile on her
quivering lips.
"I weep not with sorrow, Vernia of Reabon," she whispered. "It is
because of my great joy that I cannot control myself. I tremble with
rapture and thrill with the memory of a wonderful experience."
"But you have been choked and beaten. The marks of brutal mistreatment
are on your throat and arms. Can it be that you take kindly to such--"
"You do not understand, Vernia of Reabon. The man who made those marks
is dead."
"Then you were rescued. Tell me of it."
"When I entered the mating pens, Oro, whom I love, met me at the gate
and conducted me to the man for whom I had been destined by the king
sabit. On the way I besought him to take me to an empty room and leave
me there until to-night, but he was inexorable. He said such tactics
would be useless--that we would surely be found out and the sabits
would put us both to death with horrible tortures. When we arrived
at the doorway I made a last appeal, but he only smiled grimly and
remained obdurate.
"When he led me into the room, a great, hairy man leaped up from the
corner and seized me by the arms. I cried out in pain and struggled to
escape him, but he gripped my throat with his huge fingers so that I
could make no sound. Oro had left, but he must have heard my cry, for I
saw him enter the room just as the hairy giant hurled me to the floor.
There was a look of rage on his face that made me tremble with fear,
for I at first thought he was displeased with me for screaming.
"Would that you could have seen my beloved at that moment, my Vernia!
He was magnificent. With blazing eyes and set lips he grasped my
assailant, held him for a moment aloft, and then threw him to the floor
with such violence that I could hear the snapping of his bones. He
stood glowering down at the lifeless form for a moment, then lifted me
tenderly in his arms, and whispered words of comfort, cuddling me as
one would a little child. Presently he set me on my feet and would have
gone away, but I seized his hand and clung to it and pressed it to my
lips, begging him not to leave me.
"He turned with a new look in his eyes--a look that women may see for
the first time yet never misunderstand.
"'Tempt me not, he said, 'lest I further transgress the laws of our
masters, the sabits. Think you that I am fashioned of stone?'
"Then he swept me in his arms, and pressed his lips to mine, while I