The stocky, blond warriors of Elija, the son of Noah, quickly
surrounded and seized Lafayette Smith and his two companions. Elija
picked up Smith's pistol and examined it with interest; then he dropped
it into a goat skin pouch that was suspended from the girdle that held
his single garment about him.
"This one," said Eshbaal, pointing to Jezebel, "is mine."
"Why?" asked Elija, the son of Noah.
"I saw her first," replied Eshbaal.
"Did you hear what he said?" demanded Jezebel of Lady Barbara.
The English girl nodded apathetically. Her brain was numb with the
disappointment and the horror of the situation, for in some respects
their fate might be worse with these men than with those of South
Midian. These were lusty, primitive warriors, not half-witted creatures
whose natural passions had been weakened by generations of hereditary
disease of nerve and brain.
"He wants me," said Jezebel. "Is he not beautiful?"
Lady Barbara turned upon the girl almost angrily, and then suddenly
she remembered that Jezebel was little more than a child in experience
and that she had no conception of the fate that might await her at the
hands of the North Midians.
In their narrow religious fanaticism the South Midians denied even the
most obvious phases of procreation. The subject was absolutely taboo
and so hideous had ages of training and custom made it appear to them
that mothers often killed their first born rather than exhibit these
badges of sin.
"Poor little Jezebel," said Lady Barbara.
"What do you mean, Barbara?" asked the girl. "Are you not happy that
the beautiful man wants me?"
"Listen, Jezebel," said Lady Barbara. "You know I am your friend, do
you not?"
"My only friend," replied the girl. "The only person I ever loved."
"Then believe me when I say that you must kill yourself, as I shall
kill myself, if we are unable to escape from these creatures."
"Why?" demanded Jezebel. "Are they not more beautiful than the South
Midians?"
"Forget their fatal beauty," replied Lady Barbara, "but never forget
what I have told you."
"Now I am afraid," said Jezebel.
"Thank God for that," exclaimed the English girl.
The North Midians marched loosely and without discipline. They seemed
a garrulous race, and their arguments and speeches were numerous
and lengthy. Sometimes, so intent did they become on some point at
argument, or in listening to a long winded oration by one of their
fellows, that they quite forgot their prisoners, who were sometimes
amongst them, sometimes in advance and once behind them.
It was what Lady Barbara had been awaiting and what she had to some
extent engineered.
"Now!" she whispered. "They are not looking." She halted and turned
back. They were among the trees of the forest where some concealment
might be found.
Smith and Jezebel had stopped at Lady Barbara's direction; and for an
instant the three paused, breathless, watching the retreating figures
of their captors.
"Now run!" whispered Lady Barbara. "We'll scatter and meet again at the
foot of the cliff."
Just what prompted Lady Barbara to suggest that they separate Lafayette
Smith did not understand. To him it seemed a foolish and unnecessary
decision; but as he had a great deal more confidence in Lady Barbara's
judgment in practical matters than in his own he did not voice his
doubts, though he accepted her plan with certain mental reservations,
which guided his subsequent acts.
The English girl ran in a southeasterly direction, while Jezebel,
obeying the commands of her friend, scurried off toward the southwest.
Smith, glancing to the rear, discovered no indication that their
captors had, as yet, missed them. For a moment he was hesitant as to
what course to pursue. The conviction still gripped him that he was
the natural protector of both girls, notwithstanding the unfortunate
circumstances that had nullified his efforts to function successfully
in that role; but he saw that it was going to be still more difficult
to protect them both now that they had elected to run in different
directions.
However, his decision was soon made, difficult though it was. Jezebel
was in her own world; contemplation of capture by the North Midians
had, so far from alarming her, appeared rather to have met with
enthusiastic anticipation on her part; she could not be worse off with
them than with the only other people she knew.
Lady Barbara, on the other hand, was of another world--his own
world--and he had heard her say that death would be preferable to
captivity among these semi-savages. His duty, therefore, was to
follow and protect Lady Barbara; and so he let Jezebel take her way
unprotected back toward the cliff, while he pursued the English girl in
the direction of Chinnereth.
Lady Barbara Collis ran until she was out of breath. For several
minutes she had distinctly heard the sounds of pursuit behind her--the
heavy footfalls of a man. Frantic from hopelessness, she drew her
pocket knife from a pocket of her jacket and opened the blade as she
ran.
She wondered if she could destroy herself with this inadequate weapon.
She was positive that she could not inflict either fatal or disabling
injuries upon her pursuer with it. Yet the thought of self-destruction
revolted her. The realization was upon her that she had about reached
the limit of her endurance, and that the fatal decision could not be
long averted, when her heritage of English fighting blood decided
the question for her. There was but one thing it would permit--she
must stand and defend herself. She stopped then, suddenly, and wheeled
about, the little knife clutched in her right hand--a tigress at bay.
When she saw Lafayette Smith running toward her she collapsed suddenly
and sank to the ground, where she sat with her back against the bole of
a tree. Lafayette Smith, breathing hard, came and sat down beside her.
Neither had any breath for words.
Lady Barbara was the first to regain her power of speech. "I thought I
said we would scatter," she reminded him.
"I couldn't leave you alone," he replied.
"But how about Jezebel? You left her alone."
"I couldn't go with both of you," he reminded her, "and you know
Jezebel is really at home here. It means much more to you to escape
than it means to her."
She shook her head. "Capture means the same thing to either of us,"
she said, "but of the two I am better able to take care of myself than
Jezebel--she does not understand the nature of her danger."
"Nevertheless," he insisted, "you are the more important. You have
relatives and friends who care for you. Poor little Jezebel has only
one friend, and that is you, unless I may consider myself a friend, as
I should like to do."
"I imagine we three have the unique distinction of being the closest
corporation of friends in the world," she replied, with a wan smile,
"and there doesn't seem to be anyone who wants to buy in."
"The Friendless Friends Corporation, Limited," he suggested.
"Perhaps we'd best hold a directors' meeting and decide what we should
do next to conserve the interests of the stockholders."
"I move we move," he said.
"Seconded." The girl rose to her feet.
"You're terribly tired, aren't you?" he asked. "But I suppose the only
thing we can do is to get as far away from the territory of the North
Midians as possible. It's almost certain they will try to capture us
again as soon as they discover we are missing."
"If we can only find a place to hide until night," she said. "Then we
can go back to the cliffs under the cover of darkness and search for
Jezebel and the place that she and I thought they might be scaled."
"This forest is so open that it doesn't afford any good hiding places,
but at least we can look."
"Perhaps we shall find a place near the lake," said Lady Barbara. "We
ought to come to it soon."
They walked on for a considerable distance without talking, each
occupied with his own thoughts; and as no sign of pursuit developed
their spirits rose.
"Do you know," he said presently, "that I can't help but feel that
we're going to get out of this all right in the end?"
"But what a terrible experience! It doesn't seem possible that such
things could have happened to me. I can't forget Jobab." It was the
first time mention had been made of the tragedy at the southern village.
"You must not give that a thought," he said. "You did the only thing
possible under the circumstances. If you had not done what you did both
you and Jezebel would have been recaptured, and you know what that
would have meant."
"But I've killed a human being," she said. There was an awed tone in
her voice.
"I killed one, too," he reminded her, "but I don't regret it in the
least, notwithstanding the fact that I never killed anyone before. If I
were not such a terrible marksman I should have killed another today,
perhaps several. My regret is that I didn't.
"It's a strange world," he continued after a moment's reflective
silence. "Now, I always considered myself rather well educated and
fitted to meet the emergencies of life; and I suppose I should be, in
the quiet environment of a college town; but what an awful failure I
have proved to be when jolted out of my narrow little rut. I used to
feel sorry for the boys who wasted their time at shooting galleries and
in rabbit hunting. Men who boasted of their marksmanship merited only
my contempt, yet within the last twenty-four hours I would have traded
all my education along other lines for the ability to shoot straight."
"One should know something of many things to be truly educated," said
the girl, "but I'm afraid you exaggerate the value of marksmanship in
determining one's cultural status."
"Well, there's cooking," he admitted. "A person who cannot cook is
not well educated. I had hoped one day to be an authority on geology;
but with all I know of the subject, which of course isn't so much at
that, I would probably starve to death in a land overrunning with game
because I can neither shoot nor cook."
Lady Barbara laughed. "Don't develop an inferiority complex at this
stage," she cried. "We need every ounce of self-assurance that we
can muster. I think you are top hole. You may not be much of a
marksman--that I'll have to admit, and perhaps you cannot cook; but
you've one thing that covers a multitude of shortcomings in a man--you
are brave."
It was Lafayette Smith's turn to laugh. "That's mighty nice of you,"
he said. "I'd rather you thought that of me than anything else in the
world; and I'd rather you thought it than any one else, because it
would mean so much to you now; but it isn't true. I was scared stiff in
that village last night and when those fellows came at us today, and
that's the truth."
"Which only the more definitely justifies my statement," she replied.
"I don't understand."
"Cultured and intelligent people are more ready to realize and
appreciate the dangers of a critical situation than are ignorant,
unimaginative types. So, when such a person stands his ground
determinedly in the face of danger, or voluntarily walks into a
dangerous situation from a sense of duty, as you did last night, it
evidences a much higher quality of courage than that possessed by the
ignorant, physical lout who hasn't brains enough to visualize the
contingencies that may result from his action."
"Be careful," he warned her, "or you'll make me believe all that--then
I'll be unbearably egotistical. But please don't try to convince me
that my inability to cook is a hallmark of virtue."
"I--listen! What was that?" she halted and turned her eyes toward the
rear.
"They have found us," said Lafayette Smith. "Go on--go as fast as you
can! I'll try to delay them."
"No," she replied, "there is no use. I'll remain with you, whatever
happens."
"Please!" he begged. "Why should I face them if you won't take
advantage of it."
"It wouldn't do any good," she said. "They'd only get me later, and
your sacrifice would be useless. We might as well give ourselves up in
the hope that we can persuade them to free us later, or, perhaps, find
the opportunity to escape after dark."
"You had better run," he said, "because I am going to fight. I am not
going to let them take you without raising a hand in your defense. If
you get away now, perhaps I can get away later. We can meet at the foot
of the cliffs--but don't wait for me if you can find a way out. Now, do
as I tell you!" His tone was peremptory--commanding.
Obediently she continued on toward Chinnereth, but presently she
stopped and turned. Three men were approaching Smith. Suddenly one of
the three swung his club and hurled it at the American, at the same
instant dashing forward with his fellows.
The club fell short of its mark, dropping at Smith's feet. She saw him
stoop and seize it, and then she saw another detachment of the Midians
coming through the woods in the wake of the first three.
Smith's antagonists were upon him as he straightened up with the club
in his hand, and he swung it heavily upon the skull of the man who had
hurled it at him and who had rushed forward in advance of his fellows
with hands out-stretched to seize the stranger.
Like a felled ox the man dropped; and then Lady Barbara saw Smith carry
the unequal battle to the enemy, as swinging the club above his head,
he rushed forward to meet them.
So unexpected was his attack that the men halted and turned to elude
him, but one was too slow and the girl heard the fellow's skull crush
beneath the heavy blow of the bludgeon.
Then the reinforcements, advancing at a run, surrounded and overwhelmed
their lone antagonist, and Smith went down beneath them.
Lady Barbara could not bring herself to desert the man who had thus
bravely, however hopelessly, sought to defend her; and when the North
Midians had disarmed and secured Smith they saw her standing where she
had stood during the brief engagement.
"I couldn't run away and leave you," she explained to Smith, as the two
were being escorted toward the village of the North Midians. "I thought
they were going to kill you, and I couldn't help you--Oh, it was awful.
I couldn't leave you then, could I?"