Children of Legend
"But my Lord Sugriva," argued Ramey desperately, "I see no reason
why you should leave Earth _now_. Our battle is won. Ravana is dead,
Vibhishana sits on the throne of Lanka and henceforth there will be
peace between Gaanelians, Videlians, and the children of this planet.
Your guidance and advice are needed if Earth's civilization is ever to
attain great heights. Earth has need of you--"
But the blue-skinned Gaanelian shook his head sadly.
"No, Ramaíya. Earth needs no tutelage from an outside source.
Vibhishana and I have pondered deeply, and our decisions agree. Our
two planets established colonies here with the intention of sparing
your young world the woes and hardships through which our civilizations
passed.
"But our experiment was a failure--nor was this the fault of Earthmen,
but ourselves. I was a weakling and a dreamer; one ambassador from
Videlia proved himself a power-lusting tyrant. It was an evil example
we set those whom we presumed to instruct. Therefore, we shall return
to our own worlds, leaving Earth's children to work out their own
destinies. With me shall go the 'new men,' for now, too late, I realize
it was a dreadful wrong I did them when I made them neither man nor
beast, but part one, part the other."
Vibhishana said soberly, "Sugriva speaks truly, my son. What great Plan
governs the actions of all intelligent beings, I do not know. But this
much is certain: that no one race should presume to set up rulership
over all others. I am a son of cloud-cloaked Videlia, Sugriva of the
desert world. To these planets, when the next spacevessel arrives some
months hence, we shall return--forever. Nor shall men of our planets
ever again set conquesting foot on Earth. That we pledge.
"Perhaps not again shall children of our three worlds meet until,
in future ages, Earthmen have developed a culture equal to ours.
Then, not as rulers and serfs but as equals all shall we form a solar
trinity."
Ramey said, "It is not mine to argue with you. But what is your plan
for us?"
"The decision is yours to make. You may stay here, if you so desire, or
return to the future era whence you came. The time-machine waits below.
You know the method of its operation."
Ramey stared at the huge idol standing on the dais before them. The
great altar of Chitrakuta seemed to await his decision breathlessly,
as did the girl whose hand touched his own. Ramey turned to Sheila.
"Well?" he asked.
"We return," she said simply. "Isn't that what you want, Ramey?"
Ramey nodded. It was his own desire. To return to the world he knew
best. He grinned and turned to the others.
"Well--that's it, then. All aboard, gang. Time-machine leaves on Track
3 in five minutes."
* * * * *
But curiously none stepped forward to join him and Sheila. Red stared
at his companions impatiently.
"Well, what's the matter? Doc, are you ready?"
Dr. Aiken coughed apologetically.
"Sheila, my dear," he said to his daughter, "I--I am not returning with
you. I am an old man. There is not a great deal of time remaining in
the hourglass of my years. I would spend those last remaining sands
seeing new things, learning secrets all men have longed to know.
Sugriva has said I may return with him to Gaanelia. It is a temptation
too great to resist. You--you understand, my dear?"
Sheila cried, "But if you don't return, daddy, then neither will we.
Ramey and I will remain with you--"
"No!" the archeologist's voice was firm. "No, you _must_ return!
Someone must carry back to the Twentieth Century a knowledge of what
we have seen and done here in a forgotten age. You bear precious
knowledge, vital information, to Earth's scientists. You alone can read
the cipher of Angkor Vat, tell men whence it came and why, and where
vanished its once mighty populace."
Ramey said, "We alone? But you speak as if Sheila and I were the only
ones returning!"
Syd O'Brien spoke for the twins. He said, "I can't take Lake back to
our time now, Ramey. The machine would set us in a desolate spot,
perhaps in danger. And he is blind. Here he can receive medical care.
Perhaps, later on, after Sugriva has lifted the veil from Lake's
eyes--as he has said he can and will--we will join you again. But for
the time being--Well, you see how it is."
"Then you, Red? You're surely coming with us?"
Red Barrett shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.
"Well, keed--I think maybe I'd better not. I asked Sugriva about Toots,
here. He tells me she couldn't take a ride in the time-machine without
being--well, without having happen to her what happened to Rudra. You
see, she wouldn't have no true existence in the future. So--so I think
I'll just stick around for a while. Me and Evavne is going back to
Britain, where she come from. Maybe I can be some help to them folks
of her'n. Like--" he grinned suddenly--"like teaching 'em to talk good
English instead of that stuff they talk now."
"And you, Sheng-ti?"
The _bonze_ said quietly, "When Sugriva leaves, Ramey Winters, departs
from Earth for many centuries the light of wisdom, peace and truth.
These people, though they were born in a different era, are still my
people. Someone must stay at Chitrakuta to help them re-establish
themselves on a new footing. It is my clear and simple duty to be this
one."
"Were the choice mine, Ramaíya," said Tauthus, "_I_ would visit that
future world of thine. But I cannot. So, like Sheng-ti, I shall go to
my people. Much have I learned here at Chitrakuta; much more will the
Lord Sugriva teach me. Then will I hie westward to bring something of
the Gaanelian culture to my race."
* * * * *
Thus told each member of the party his intentions. Nor would argument
sway any from his decision. And so it was that, some time later, Sheila
and Ramey stood alone beside the trap-way to the time-machine of Rudra.
Their last farewells had been made, the last hand shaken. Unless in
years to come others should make the journey.
"When you return," Dr. Aiken bade them anxiously, "read well and
carefully the wall-graven scripts at Angkor Vat. Before we leave
Chitrakuta we shall see that all this history is carven on the walls.
That and much other knowledge, lest your memories fail you. Remember!"
"We will remember," promised Ramey. Then he handed Sheila into the
metal cube out of which--was it days, weeks or a lifetime ago?--they
had risen into the strange, stirring world of the past. The trapdoor
closed above them with a _clang!_ of finality. Ramey moved to the lever
which hurled the machine through Time ... pressed it....
* * * * *
When the needle had at last traversed the dial, betokening the end of
their journey, Ramey climbed once again to the trapdoor which was the
machine's exit. Cautiously he lifted it an inch ... then a foot ...
then threw it back with a cry of gay relief.
"Empty, Sheila! The Japs have gone. I guess they got tired looking for
us." He chuckled. "No wonder. After all, we were there a couple of
weeks. Coming?"
He helped her from the cubicle. Then, remembering Sugriva's last
instructions, he set the dial of the machine to its return position,
hooked a length of fine wire about the control lever and spun the
length of the wire through the trapdoor into the altar room wherein
they stood.
"This is our key," he said, "to them. And theirs to us. The doorway to
Chitrakuta is always open so long as it remains."
And he pulled the wire. They heard no sound, felt no tremor, but as
if it were a wraith dissolving in weaving mists, the outline of the
time-cube thinned ... wavered ... and disappeared. Only a length of
fine wire, whose dangling end hung curiously taut in midair, lent
reassurance that the way to another world was still open. Ramey coiled
the wire and concealed it beneath the pediment of a statue. Then he
rose, emotions strangely chaotic. A sadness was upon him at leaving
comrades beside whom he had fought and laughed and lived a great
adventure. But he was glad, too, to be back in a world he knew, a world
he could understand....
A call from Sheila roused him from his brief reverie. "See, Ramey? This
was one of the carvings which always puzzled us most. Its meaning was
obscure--then. But now it is simple to read."
And she pointed to one of the huge scenes carven on the temple walls.
The scene of a frightful battle, a battle being waged by apes
strangely garbed in the habiliments of men and towering giants. One
corner of the great stone tapestry showed a fleet of crowded ships
rushing in to a harbor, still another showed an ape-human dying with a
great wound in his breast, while beside him, loosing a lightning bolt
from a gigantic bow, stood a man....
* * * * *
"Then they _did_ carve the record!" said Ramey hallowedly. "It--it
gives me the creeps, Sheila. We just left them. We know they're still
alive, and that this artistry is not yet even planned. But here it
is--and here it has been for five thousand years. The story of the
battle for Lanka."
"And its hero?" queried Sheila oddly. "Ramey--do you know the full
meaning of this story? The earth legend which has grown up about it?"
"Legend? You mean there is a legend about _this_?"
"About _us_!" Comprehension, which had been dawning slowly in Sheila's
eyes, now flamed sudden and complete. "I see it all now! All! But
surely daddy must have--Yes! He did--at the end. That is why he
insisted we must return to our time. To clear up the ancient mystery--"
"What legend?" repeated Ramey perplexedly. "It's all over my head,
Sheila. I don't get it at all."
"Then listen! Does this make sense to you, Ramey? '_And there were in
those days four companions, Rama, Bharata, and the twins, Lakshmana and
Satrughna_--'"
"Hey! Those sound like the whacky handles we were tagged with at
Chitrakuta! They called me 'Ramaíya,' and Lake was 'Lakshmana'--the
smiling one--while Syd was 'Sidrughna'--the frowning one--"
"There would be slight changes," agreed the girl excitedly, "over a
period of centuries. Pronunciation and spelling would change, of
course. The legend goes on: '_Rama, by possession of an enormous Bow,
formerly the dreaded weapon of the god Rudra, wins for a wife Sita,
daughter of Janaka. Rama attracts the attention of a female demon,
Rakshasi, and infuriated by his rejection of her advances, she inspires
her brother Ravana with love for Sita._
"'_In consequence of this, the latter is carried off by him to his
capital, Lanka. Rama sets out with his companions to her rescue. After
numerous adventures they enter into an agreement with Sugriva, king of
the monkeys, and with the monkey-general, 'Anuman_--'"[14]
[Footnote 14: The persistent legend of a monkey-leader named 'Anuman
(or Hanuman) is one of the oldest and best-loved tales of Asiatic
peoples. His name and a record of his deeds may be found in the ancient
records of practically all Oriental sects.--Ed.]
"'Anuman!" repeated Ramey. "_A new man!_ So in the legend his fondest
dream becomes his _name_? But what _is_ this legend, Sheila? An obscure
folk-tale--?"
"It goes on," half-laughed, half-sobbed the girl, "to tell of the
attack on Lanka ... the bridge built by the monkeys ... Ravana's death
at Rama's hands! Everything is in it, Ramey--everything we have known
and lived! An obscure folk-tale! It is anything but that. It is a tale
from the _Ramayana_--one of the Sacred Books of the Hindu religion!
"You are--or were--the prototype of a hero worshipped by a quarter of a
billion humans in our day ... the third greatest religion in the world.
You, Ramey, are the god Rama!"
* * * * *
Ramey stared at her dazedly. "You mean," he said, "that the adventures
through which we have just lived were not of our own making? That they
happened before, ages ago in Man's history?"[15]
[Footnote 15: The reader is recommended to a closer examination of the
_Ramayana_, sacred book of the Hindus, procurable in an inexpensive
edition at almost any well-stocked library. The portion here reduced to
its essentials is but one of many amazingly fascinating sections.
In connection with this, it is interesting to note that the god Rama
is considered to be but one of the seven Avatars (or reincarnations)
of the god Vishnu. Hindu theosophy admits of many things scoffed at
by modern, practical science: reincarnation, demoniac possession and
"invasion of other world creatures" being but a few.--Ed.]
"Yes, Ramey. Don't you see--that adventure has _always_ happened!
This solves the argument daddy and Syd had about the immutability of
Time. What things are, _were_, and always will be. Centuries ago, into
ancient Chitrakuta came seven strangers from a future world. Having
found their way into a Time which was not theirs, it had to be that
when their Time came they must return to fulfill adventures written in
the book of used-to-be.
"Your crashing here at Angkor Vat ... our escape in the
time-machine ... these events had to take place in order that an
ancient legend might be fulfilled. That was our predestined path, and
there was never anything we could have done to change it. It was as
stoppable as a glacier."
"And--and the others? Sheng-ti? Tauthus?"
Sheila's brows congealed. "I do not know--exactly. It is told that an
ancient king of the yellow race, he whose name gave a mighty empire its
name, was called 'Ching-tse.' And Tauthus of Cush--ancient Cush became
Egypt, you know. And the Egyptian records claim their 'light-bringer'
to have been a god named 'Thoth.'..."
* * * * *
But not now, nor soon, nor perhaps ever could these strange wonders be
decided. Nor did this seem to Ramey Winters that they should linger
longer, at this time, in the cold, forsaken walls of Angkor Vat. So
gently he drew the girl from before the panel.
"We must go now, Sheila. There is much we must do here, but now is not
the time to do it. Much may have happened since we left. War threatens
Indo-China; for all we know war may have started since we left. We have
the food and blankets Sugriva gave us. A long journey lies before us to
Thailand. To friends and safety. We'd better get on our way."
So stepped the two from Angkor's lonely halls into the green-veiled
sunlight of the tropics. Gray were the walls and spires they left
behind, but grim no longer, nor menacing to two who knew their story.
Someday, knew Ramey Winters, someday when war's insanity had died
in mankind's bosom, they would return to read more fully the carven
messages of friends they knew and loved. Someday....
But not now. Now they must leave gray Angkor and seek their future
beyond the flaming jungle-lands. Long was the way, and dangerous
perhaps; apes chattered in branches carpeted with moss; marsh and
morass, wild beast and wilder man, these were the hazards they must
pass.
Yet somehow they felt no fear. There was lightness in their hearts and
in their steps as hand-in-hand they stepped forward to meet whatever
fate might bring.