Of course, the four still had the ability to communicate with each
other while in the trance state; they had developed this power to a
fair degree while investigating Capellette. However, each was so
deeply interested in what he or she was seeing during the first hour
of their Sanusian experiences that neither thought to discuss the
matter until afterward.
When the doctor first made connection with the eyes of his agent, he
instinctively concluded that he, at least, had got in touch with a
being more or less like himself. The whole thing was so natural; he
was surveying a sunny, brush-covered landscape from eyes whose
height from the ground, and other details, were decidedly those of a
human.
For a moment there was comparative silence. Then his unknown agent
swiftly raised something--a hand, presumably--to a mouth, and gave
out a piercing cry. Whereupon the doctor learned something that
jarred him a trifle. His agent was--a woman!
He had time to congratulate himself upon the fact that he was (1) a
doctor, (2) a married man, (3) the father of a daughter or two,
before his agent repeated her cry. Almost immediately it was
answered by another exactly like it, from an unseen point not far
away. The Sanusian plainly chuckled to herself with satisfaction.
A moment later there came, rather faintly, two more calls, each from
a different direction in the dun-colored brush. Still without moving
from the spot, the doctor's agent replied two or three times,
meanwhile watching her surroundings very closely. Within half a
minute the first of her friends came in sight.
It was a young woman. At a distance of about twenty yards she
appeared to be about five feet tall and sturdily built. She was
dressed in a single garment, made of the skin of some yellow,
short-haired animal. It may have been a lion cub. Around her waist
was a strip of hide, which served as a belt, and held a small,
stone-headed tomahawk. One shoulder and both legs were left quite
bare, revealing a complexion so deeply tanned that the doctor
instantly thought: "Spanish!"
In a way, the girl's face gave the same impression. Large,
dark-brown eyes, full lips and a healthy glow beneath her tan, all
made it possible for her to pass as a Spaniard. However, there was
nothing in the least coquettish about her; she had a remarkably
independent manner, and a gaze as frank and direct as it was pure
and untroubled.
In one hand she carried a branch from some large-leafed shrub. The
eyes which Kinney was using became fixed upon this branch; and even
as the newcomer cried out in joyous response to the other's
greeting, her expression changed and she turned and fled, laughing,
as the doctor's agent darted toward her. She did not get away, and
immediately the two were struggling over the possession of the
branch.
In the midst of the tussle another figure made its appearance.
"Look out! Here comes Dulnop!" [Footnote: It made no difference
whatever as to what language was used. The telepathic process
employed enabled the investigators to know all that their agents'
subconscious minds took in. The brains of the four automatically
translated these thought-images into their own language. However,
this method did not enable them to learn what their agents were
thinking, but only what they said, heard, and saw.] cried Kinney's
agent; at the same time she made a special effort, and succeeded in
breaking off a good half of the branch.
Instantly she darted to one side, where she calmly began to pluck
some small, hard-shelled nuts from the branch, and proceeded to
crack them, with entire ease, using a set of teeth which must have
been absolutely perfect.
She gave the latest comer only a glance or two. He--for it certainly
was a man--was nearly a half a foot taller than the girl already
described; but he was plainly not much older or younger, and in
build and color much the same. He was clothed neither more nor less
than she, the only difference being that some leopardlike animal had
contributed the material. In his belt was tucked a primitive stone
hammer, also a stone knife. His face was longer than hers, his eyes
darker; but he was manifestly still very boyish. Dulnop, they had
called him.
"Hail, Cunora!" he called to the girl who had brought the nuts;
then, to her who was watching: "Rolla! Where got ye the nuts?"
Rolla didn't answer; she couldn't use her mouth just then; it was
too full of nuts. She merely nodded in the direction of Cunora.
"Give me some, Cunora!"
The younger girl gave no reply, but backed away from him as he
approached; her eyes sparkled mischievously and, the doctor thought,
somewhat affectionately. Dulnop made a sudden darting move toward
her branch, and she as swiftly whirled in her tracks, so that he
missed. However, he instantly changed his mind and grasped the girl
instead. Like a flash he drew her to him and kissed her noisily.
Next second he was staggering backward under the weight of her hard
brown fist. "Do that again, and I'll have the hair out of thy head!"
the girl screamed, her face flaming. Yet Kinney saw that the man was
laughing joyously even as he rubbed the spot where her blow had
landed, while the expression of her eyes quite belied what she had
said.
Not until then did the doctor's agent say anything. When she spoke
it was in a deep, contralto voice which gave the impression of riper
years than either of the other two. Afterward Kinney learned that
Rolla was nearly ten years their senior, a somewhat more lithe
specimen of the same type, clad in the skin of what was once a
magnificent goat. She carried only a single small knife in her belt.
As seen reflected in pools of water, her complexion was slightly
paler and her whole expression a little less self-assertive and
distinctively philosophical. To those who admire serious, thoughtful
women of regular feature and different manner, Rolla would have
seemed downright beautiful.
"Dulnop," said she, with a laugh in her voice, "ye will do well to
seek the nut tree, first as last." She nonchalantly crushed another
shell in her mouth. "Neither Cunora nor I can spare good food to a
kiss-hungry lout like thee!"
He only laughed again and made as though to come toward her. She
stood ready to dodge, chuckling excitedly, and he evidently gave it
up as a bad job. "Tell me whence cameth the nuts, Cunora!" he
begged; but the girl pretended to be cross, and shut her mouth as
firmly as its contents would allow.
Next moment there was a shout from the thicket, together with a
crashing sound; and shortly the fourth Sanusian appeared. He was by
far the larger; but his size was a matter of width rather than of
height. An artist would have picked him as a model for Ajax himself.
His muscles fairly strained the huge lion's skin in which he was
clad, and he had twice the weight of Dulnop within the same height.
Also, to the doctor's eye, he was nearer Rolla's age.
His face was strong and handsome in a somewhat fierce, relentless
way; his complexion darker than the rest. He carried a huge club,
such as must have weighed all of forty pounds, while his belt was
jammed full of stone weapons. The doctor classed him and the younger
girl together because of their vigor and independence, while Dulnop
and Rolla seemed to have dispositions very similar in their
comparative gentleness and restraint.
"Hail, all of ye!" shouted this latest arrival in a booming
baritone. He strode forward with scarcely a glance at the two
younger people; his gaze was fixed upon Rolla, his expression
unmistakable. The woman quietly turned upon Dulnop and Cunora.
"Look!" she exclaimed, pointing to a spot back of them. "See the
curious bird!" They wheeled instantly, with the unquestioning faith
of two children; and before they had brought their gazes back again,
the big man had seized Rolla, crushed her to his breast and kissed
her passionately. She responded just as warmly, pushing him away
only in order to avoid being seen by the others. They showed only an
innocent disappointment at having missed seeing the "curious bird."
"A simple-minded people, basically good-humored," was the way the
doctor summed the matter up when reporting what he had seen.
However, it was not so easy to analyze certain things that were said
during the time the four Sanusians spent in each other's company.
For one thing--
"Did They give thee permission to go?" Rolla was asked by the big
man. His name, it seemed, was Corrus.
"Yes, Corrus. They seemed to think it a good idea for us to take a
little recreation to-day. I suppose ye left thy herd with thy
brother?"
He nodded; and the doctor was left to wonder whom "They" might be.
Were They a small group of humans, whose function was to
superintend? Or were They, as the books from Venus seemed to
indicate, another type of creature, entirely different from the
humans, and yet, because of the peculiar Sanusian conditions,
superior to the humans?
"They have decided to move their city a little farther away from the
forest," Rolla overheard Dulnop telling Cunora; which was the first
indication that the planet boasted such a thing as a city.
Otherwise, things appeared to be in a primitive, rather than a
civilized condition.
These four skin-clad savages seemed to be enjoying an aboriginal
picnic. For lunch, they munched on various fruits and nuts picked up
en route, together with handfuls of some wheatlike cereal which the
big man had brought in a goatskin. From time to time they scared out
various animals from the brush, chasing the creatures after the
fashion of dogs and children. Whenever they came to a stream,
invariably all four splashed through it, shouting and laughing with
delight.
However, there were but two of these streams, and both of them quite
small. Their banks indicated that either the season was very far
advanced, or else that the streams were at one time vastly larger.
"A rather significant fact," the doctor afterward commented.
Nevertheless, the most impressive thing about all that the doctor
learned that day was the strange mariner in which the excursion came
to an end. The quartet was at that moment climbing a small hill,
apparently on the edge of an extensive range of mountains. An
occasional tree, something like an oak, broke the monotony of the
brush at this point, and yet it was not until Rolla was quite at the
top of the knoll that Kinney could see surrounding country with any
degree of clearness. Even then he learned little.
The hill was placed on one edge of a valley about forty miles in
width. A good part of it was covered with dusty vegetation,
presumably wild; but the rest was plainly under cultivation. There
were large green areas, such as argued grain fields; elsewhere were
what looked like orchards and vineyards, some of which were in full
bloom--refuting the notion that the season was a late one. Nowhere
was there a spot of land which might be called barren.
Rolla and her three friends stood taking this in, keeping a rather
curious silence meanwhile. At length Cunora gave a deep sigh, which
was almost instantly reproduced by all the rest. Corrus followed his
own sigh with a frank curse.
"By the great god Mownoth!" he swore fiercely. "It be a shame that
we cannot come hence a great deal oftener! Me-thinks They could
allow it!"
"They care not for our longings," spoke Cunora, her eyes flashing as
angrily as his. "They give us enough freedom to make us work the
better--no more! All They care for is thy herd and my crops!"
"And for the labor," reminded the big man, "of such brains as
Rolla's and Dulnop's. It be not right that They should drive us so!"
"Aye," agreed the younger man, with much less enthusiasm. "However,
what can ye do about it, Corrus?"
The big man's face flushed, and he all but snarled. "I tell ye what
I can do I, and ye as well, if ye but will! I can--"
He stopped, one hand upraised in mighty emphasis, and a sudden and
startling change came over him. Downright fear drove the anger from
his face; his massive body suddenly relaxed, and all his power and
vigor seemed to crumble and wilt. His hands shook; his mouth
trembled. At the same time the two women shrank from him, each
giving an inarticulate cry of alarm and distress. Dulnop gave no
sound, but the anger which had left the herdsman seemed to have come
to him; the youngster's eyes flared and his breast heaved. His gaze
was fixed upon Corrus's neck, where the sweat of fear already
glistened.
Suddenly the big man dropped his head, as though in surrender. He
gasped and found voice; this time a voice as shaky and docile as it
had been strong and dominant a moment before.
"Very well," he spoke abjectly. "Very well. I--shall do as you
wish." He seemed to be talking to thin air. "We--will go home at
once."
And instantly all four turned about, and in perfect silence took the
back trail.