The world below
opposite side) until we were at the edge of the forest, which we were
then approaching, and there to rest, and await the order to undertake
the more arduous part of the journey, which must be accomplished while
the daylight lasted.
Meanwhile all minds were to be concentrated upon the object of the
expedition, which I now learnt was their method of sleeping, the mind
being rested upon one thought only for a previously-decided period, a
method surely superior to our own, in which it wanders blindly through
disjointed recollections, and in vain conceptions of foolish or
repugnant things.
A number were, however, directed to remain alert and wakeful, and to
watch for any menace which might appear from the open country before us,
from which only (it was assumed) could any danger threaten.
Being now on the extreme left of the line which the last movement had
extended in echelon along the edges of an out-jutting spur of the
forest, with our Leaders at its advanced point, I was asked whether I
were able to assist in this manner, and was directed to watch as long as
I could do so without exhaustion, and then to arouse my companion.
The halt would continue until the sun had reached its meridian. The mind
of one of the Leaders would remain receptive to any report I might send
it.
Even if I had not undertaken this duty, and recognised its importance in
a land which was as potentially hostile to my companions as to myself,
and which was even stranger in some of its aspects to themselves than to
me, I could hardly have failed, for a time at least, to remain awake and
aware of the strange beauty of the scene which was extended beneath me.
My companion sank at once oblivious in the deep moss, which yielded to
our weight when we halted, and in which I took a sitting position,
enabling me to look out from beneath the boughs which spread low
overhead, and were sufficient to screen me from the outside observation
of anything which did not approach very closely.
The ground before me sloped gently down to a deep and very wide valley.
Far to the left were low hills; to the right front was a distance of
wilder mountains, with snowy sides, height beyond height, with a
suggestion of the foothills of the Himalayas. The valley undulated, and
was heavily wooded in some places. It had wide plains, but without sign
of cultivation, or of moving life.
The sky above us was the unclouded blue I had seen previously, very deep
now in the strong sunlight. Far off,--and sight went far in the clear
air, across the lower land,--there was a wide low forest with a silver
hint of lake beyond it.
In colour, the whole scene gave me a first impression of a splendour of
gold and blue, with dark hills around, and snowy mountains above them,
but as I looked more closely I saw that there was an undertone of green,
as in the old familiar landscapes, but with this difference, that where
I had been used to the dark blue-green of trees and hedges breaking the
yellow-green of the corn and grass-lands, here yellow-green, deepening
to many shades of gold, was the prevailing tone of the woodlands, while
open slopes and plains were covered with a blue-green verdure, in some
places with no more hint of blue than in the leaves of a rhododendron,
at others brighter than a peacock’s neck.
This was the general impression of a wide stretch of country, which
might show differently at a closer view, or with a change of season.
When I looked immediately in front of me I saw that the moss extended
for two or three feet only from the forest-shade, and beyond this was a
blue-green growth, of an orchis-like kind, which covered the ground
where it sloped gently before me. Here and there, other plants struggled
for existence among it, including one of a trailing habit which I
noticed for a very fragile and beautiful flower shaped like a campanula,
and approaching a very deep orange shade, but different from anything I
had seen, and I have therefore no word by which to describe it.
Last, and nearest, I noticed, a bare yard to my left, where a low branch
shaded the moss a little in advance of the trees around it, a
ground-nest of beaten moss, of the size of a hand-bowl, and in it three
small black puppy-like creatures, curled close, and sleeping in the
shaded warmth of the morning.
Surely there was little change in the new world from the world behind
me!
Here I watched for many hours, as the sun rose slowly. Once a huge bird
crossed the sky, coming from the lower hills and disappearing at last
over the distant heights of snow. It was many times larger than those
which I had seen previously. It flew with strong steady strokes, but was
too distant for more detailed observation.
Then I noticed a dark object moving slowly up the slope toward me, and
grazing as it came.
Its body was of a dull blue colour, and was of the size of a sheep, or
somewhat larger, but as round as an orange. It walked on two legs only,
and there was no sign of forelimbs. But for the absence of any head I
might have imagined it to be some kind of chicken, and looked round for
the apparition of a monstrous hen.
There was a face set in the front of the round body, consisting of two
eyes which surveyed the world with a twinkling and mischievous humour,
and a mouth, of which the upper lip was elongated, like an elephant’s
trunk, but to somewhat different purpose, and proportionately longer.
Hard and thin and snake-like, it had the under side serrated with sharp
bony ridges.
With this trunk it felt doubtfully over the surface of the herbage on
which it fed. Then, finding a patch that grew to its liking, it pushed
its trunk into the close growth, which appeared to resist its passage,
with a rasping, tearing sound, till it was curled round the selected
tuft, and then it pulled, and the sharp edges cut and tore the fibrous
growth from the resisting roots, till the trunk turned inwards, to push
its sheaf into the gap of the wide slit mouth, that was scarcely large
enough to receive it, till the trunk had pressed and packed it in. And
like a thrush that has won his worm after much pulling, the mischievous
eyes twinkled with a humorous satisfaction.
Care or fear, it seemed, it had none, nor any thought of enmity, as it
came with leisurely steps and jovial roving eyes towards the edge of the
wood where we were lying.
I passed the information to my Leader’s mind, but received no
instructions to do more than observe it. Closer it came, peering beneath
the branches, its trunk moving so near to me that in a sudden panic I
gripped the axe to strike, if it should attempt to molest me. But it
only gazed with eyes in which curiosity appeared to be overcome by
amusement at my comic aspect.
Indeed, it was this derisive glance which first made me realise at all
adequately the appearance I must present in my tattered clothes to these
creatures whose bodies were so much more easily cared for, and
sufficient for their environment.
I thought that I had met with the humorist of the new world, and did not
guess that I was on the threshold of tragedy.
My companions rested undisturbed, and it did not appear even to realise
their presence, at which I was puzzled for a moment, thinking that they
must be as strange to it as myself, and not understanding that the calm
indifference of their minds, and the serene tranquillity of that of the
Leader to whom I had reported its presence, were impregnable bulwarks
against any form of molestation from a single animal of its order of
intelligence.
Its eyes wandered from me, as having exhausted the amusement I offered,
and fell upon the nest beside me. I thought that it surveyed the
sleeping inmates with a greedy but doubtful interest. Right and left,
with swift apprehensive glances, went the twinkling eyes, then a long
trunk thrust in, and one of the sleepers was caught and swept into the
gaping mouth-slit, too quickly for me to have interposed, had I wished
to do so.
I had a thought that it was not its accustomed food, and that it had
acted rather in a spirit of practical joking, amused to imagine the
consternation of the returning parent, and the vain search for the
missing puppy. If that were so, it was a jest of the shortest.
Even as the mouth closed, I had an instant vision of a lithe shape, like
a small black panther, that sprang down from a nearby tree at the wood’s
edge, something in its mouth like a snake curled close, or as a
wire-worm shows when the spade exposes it. Then, on the instant, as it
reached the ground, it saw, and dropped its prey, and leapt, a lightning
bound of twenty feet, for the back of the robber.
Swift as it was, it was too late for its purpose. With the speed of
fear, the jester had rolled on to his back with drawn-up legs, and it
was the long toothed trunk that met the panther with a blow that flung
it sideward.
The foiled beast drew back for a moment, crouching to spring, in its
eyes a ferocity that left no doubt of its purpose, while in the glance
of its opponent there was a consternation that had yet in it something
that was grotesquely comic, like a fat man’s pathos.
Twice the panther leapt in, and was flung back with a reddening line of
torn fur on the glossy back. Again it sprang, and held on for a moment
with tearing teeth, while the trunk slashed it. Then it struggled clear
with a torn side, and a forelimb that dragged awkwardly. But where its
teeth had been in the blue-black skin, a jet of pale red fluid squirted
up in the sunlight.
It was more cautious now, if no less resolute in its purpose. It circled
round, crouching and watchful, but the cunning frightened eyes never
left it, and the back-drawn trunk was ready. When next it sprang, the
wounded limb told, and it fell short, and drew back with a torn ear and
a bleeding jaw. I cannot say whether that gave it the idea, or whether
the chance of battle befriended it. I should not have supposed it likely
to succeed by cunning, when strength and agility had proved unavailing.
But so it was. It leapt, and the trunk shot out to meet it, but the leap
fell short, either through sleight or weakness, so short that it came
down on the very end of the trunk, as it missed the intended stroke, and
the strong jaws snapped upon it. Back the captured trunk wrenched
desperately, and the panther was dragged some distance forward, but by
now the uninjured fore-paw was holding also, and the back legs were
straining to keep their ground, against an opponent which had no grip of
that on which it lay. The serrated teeth were on the underside of the
trunk, and as it slapped down, missing its stroke, it was caught on the
upper surface, which was smooth and soft, so that the teeth sank deeply.
And then, inch by inch, the panther bit upwards, biting till, foot by
foot, she left it limp and useless behind her.
And gradually, as she bit, the struggles weakened. All this time that
thin jet had sprayed upward, and from the appalled eyes the twinkling
intelligence was gone out, as the panther leapt at last on the ball-like
body, and ripped it open with strong claws that found no resistance.
With each tear, the thin blood jetted out like a fountain, till the
round body collapsed like a prickled bladder, in which the victor’s head
was sunk with a growling contentment, so that I thought that,
panther-like, she was already making a meal of her opponent’s body, till
the head emerged again, and in her mouth was the recovered puppy.
Purring gently, she laid it in the nest, licked it all over, still
alive, and seeming none the worse for its first adventure. As she did so
she saw me, and the light of battle glared again in the fierce eyes for
a moment, and then died, and, regarding me no more, she lay down and
licked her wounds, and cleansed her damaged fur to something of the