Returning early from a successful hunt, Che approached the clearing.
He, too, moved silently, for thus he always moved through the jungle.
Along a forest aisle he could see the clearing before he reached it. He
saw Uda digging among the dry leaves, which made a rustling sound that
would have drowned the noise of the approach of even a less careful
jungle animal than Che. The father smiled as his eyes rested upon his
first-born, but in the same instant the smile froze to an expression of
horror as he saw a panther leap into the clearing.
Kangrey, emerging at that moment from their gloomy dwelling, saw it
too, and screamed as she rushed forward barehanded, impelled by the
mother instinct to protect its young. And then, all in the same brief
instant, Che saw a heavy javelin streak lightning-like from the jungle.
He saw the panther crumple in its charge, and as he ran forward he saw
the pale one leap into the clearing and snatch Uda into his arms.
Che, realising, as had King, the fury of a wounded panther, rushed upon
the scene with ready spear as the pale one tossed Uda to Kangrey and
turned again to face the great cat. But there was no necessity for the
vicious thrust with which Che drove his spear into the carcass of the
beast, for the panther was already dead.
For a moment they stood in silence, looking down upon the kill--four
primitive jungle people, naked but for sampots. It was King's first
experience of a thrill of the primitive hunter. He trembled a little,
but that was reaction to the fear that he had felt for the life of
little Uda.
"It is a large panther," said Che simply.
"Only a strong man could have slain it thus," said Kangrey. "Only Che
could thus have slain with a single cast so great a panther."
"It was not the spear of Che. It was the spear of the pale one that
laid low the prince of darkness," said Che.
Kangrey looked her astonishment and would not be convinced until she
had examined the spear that protruded from beneath the left shoulder of
the great cat. "This, then, is the reward that Vay Thon said would be
ours if we befriended the pale one," she declared.
Uda said nothing, but, squirming from his mother's arms, he ran to the
side of the dead panther and belaboured it with his little stick.
The next day Che invited King to accompany him upon his hunt. When
after a hard day they returned empty-handed, King was convinced that
in the search for small game a lone hunter would have greater chances
for success. In the morning, therefore, he announced that he would hunt
alone in another part of the jungle, and Che agreed with him that this
plan would be better.
Marking his trail as he had before, King hunted an unfamiliar
territory. The forest appeared more open. There was less underbrush;
and he had discovered what appeared to be a broad elephant trail,
along which he moved with far greater speed than he had ever been able
to attain before in his wanderings through this empire of trees and
underbrush.
He had no luck in his hunting; and when he had about determined that it
was time to turn back, his ears caught an unfamiliar sound. What it was
he did not know. There was a peculiar metallic ring and other sounds
that might have been human voices at a distance.
"Perhaps," soliloquised King, "I am about to see the Nagas or the
Yeacks."
The sound was steadily approaching; and as he had learned enough from
his intercourse with Che and Kangrey to know that no friendly creatures
might be encountered in the jungle, he drew to one side of the elephant
trail and concealed himself behind some shrubbery.
He had not waited long when he saw the authors of the sounds
approaching. Suddenly he felt his head. It did not seem over-hot.
As he had upon other similar occasions, he closed his eyes tightly
and then opened them again, but still the vision persisted--a vision
of brown-skinned soldiers in burnished brass cuirasses over leather
jerkins that fell midway between their hips and their knees, with heavy
sandals on their feet, strange helmets on their heads, and armed with
swords and spears and bows and arrows.
They came on talking among themselves, and as they passed close to King
he discovered that they spoke the same language that he had learned
from Che and Kangrey. Evidently the men were arguing with their leader,
who wanted to go on, while the majority of his followers seemed in
favour of turning back.
"We shall have to spend the night in the jungle as it is," said one.
"If we go on much farther, we shall have to spend two nights in the
jungle. Only a fool would choose to lair with My Lord the Tiger."
They had stopped now almost opposite King, so that he could clearly
overhear all that passed between them. The man in charge appeared to
be a petty officer with little real authority, for instead of issuing
orders he argued and pleaded.
"It is well enough for you to insist upon turning back," he said,
"since if we return to the city without the apsaras you expect that I
alone shall be punished; but let me tell you that, if you force me to
turn back, the entire truth will be made known and you will share in
any punishment that may be inflicted upon me."
"If we cannot find her, we cannot find her," grumbled one of the men.
"Are we to remain in the jungle the rest of our lives searching for a
runaway apsaras?"
"I would as lief face My Lord the Tiger in the jungle for the rest of
my life," replied the petty officer, "as face Lodivarman if we return
without the girl."
"What Vama says is true," said another. "Lodivarman, the King, will
not be interested in our reason for returning empty-handed. Should we
return to the city to-morrow without the girl and Vama charged that
we had forced him to turn back, Lodivarman, if he were in ill-humour,
as he usually is, would have us all put to death; but if we remain
away for many days and then return with a story of many hardships and
dangers he will know that we did all that might be expected of brave
warriors, and thus the anger of Lodivarman might be assuaged."
"At last," commented Vama, "you are commencing to talk like intelligent
and civilised men. Come, now, and let us resume the search."
As they moved away King heard one of the men suggest that they find a
safe and comfortable camp site where they might remain for a sufficient
length of time to impress upon the King the verity of the story
that they would relate to him. He waited only until they were out
of sight before he arose from his place of concealment, for he was
much concerned with the fact that they were proceeding in the general
direction of the dwelling of Che and Kangrey. King was much mystified
by what he had seen. He knew that these soldiers were no children
of a fevered brain. They were flesh and blood warriors and for that
reason a far greater mystery than any of the creatures he had seen in
his delirium, since they could not be accounted for by any process
of intelligent reasoning. His judgment told him that there were no
warriors in this uninhabited jungle and certainly none with the archaic
accoutrements and weapons that he had seen. It might be reasonable to
expect to meet such types in an extravaganza of the stage or screen;
and, doubtless, centuries ago warriors such as these patrolled this
very spot which the jungle and the tiger and the elephant had long
since reclaimed.
He recalled the stories that his guide had told him of the ghosts of
the ancient Khmers, which roamed through the sombre aisles of the
forest. He remembered the other soldiers that he had seen and the girl
with the frightened eyes that rode upon the great elephant, and the
final result was a questioning of his own sanity. Since he knew that a
fever, such as the one through which he had passed, might easily affect
one's brain either temporarily or permanently, he was troubled and not
a little frightened as he made his way in the direction of the dwelling
of Che and Kangrey. But the fact that he took a circuitous route that
he might avoid the warriors indicated that either he was quite crazy
or, at least, that he was temporising with his madness.
"'Weeping queens on misty elephants!'" he soliloquised. "'Warriors in
brass.' 'A mystery of the Orient.' Perhaps after all there are ghosts.
There has been enough evidence accumulated during historic times to
prove that the materialisation of disembodied spirits may have occurred
upon countless occasions. That I never saw a ghost is not necessarily
conclusive evidence that they do not exist. There are many strange
things in the Orient that the western mind cannot grasp. Perhaps, after
all, I have seen ghosts; but if so, they certainly were thoroughly
materialised, even to the dirt on their legs and the sweat on their
faces. I suppose I shall have to admit that they are ghosts, since I
know that no soldiers like them exist in the flesh anywhere in the
world."
As King moved silently through the jungle, he presented an even more
anachronistic figure than had the soldiers in brass; for they, at
least, personified an era of civilisation and advancement, while
King, to all outward appearances, was almost at the dawn of human
evolution--a primitive hunter, naked but for a sampot of leopard skin
and rude sandals fashioned by Kangrey because the soles of his feet,
innocent of the callouses that shod hers and Che's, had rendered him
almost helpless in the jungle without this protection. His skin was
brown from exposure to the sun, and his hair had grown thick and
shaggy. That he was smooth-shaven was the result of chance. He had
always made it a habit, since he had taken up the study of medicine
and surgery, to carry a safety razor blade with him, for what possible
emergency he could not himself have explained. It was merely an
idiosyncrasy, and it had so chanced that among several other things
that the monkeys had dropped from his pockets and scattered in the
jungle the razor blade had been recovered by little Uda along with a
silver pencil and a handful of French francs.
He moved through the jungle with all the assurance of a man who
has known no other life, so quickly does humankind adapt itself to
environment. Already his ears and his nostrils had become inured to
their surroundings to such an extent, at least, as to permit them to
identify and classify easily and quickly the more familiar sounds and
odors of the jungle. Familiarity had induced increasing self-assurance,
which had now reached a point that made him feel he might soon safely
set out in search of civilization. However, to-day his mind was not on
this thing; it was still engaged in an endeavor to solve the puzzle of
the brass-bound warriors. But presently the baffling contemplation of
this matter was rudely interrupted by a patch of buff coat and black
stripes of which he caught a momentary, fleeting glimpse between the
boles of two trees ahead of him.
A species of unreasoning terror that had formerly seized him each time
that he had glimpsed the terrifying lord of the jungle had gradually
passed away as he had come to recognize the fact that every tiger that
he saw was not bent upon his destruction and that nine times out of
ten it would try to get out of his way. Of course, it is the tenth
tiger that one must always reckon with; but where trees are numerous
and a man's eyes and ears and nose are alert, even the tenth tiger may
usually be circumvented.
So now King did not alter his course, though he had seen the tiger
directly ahead of him. It would be time enough to think of retreat when
he found that the temper and intentions of the tiger warranted it,
and, further, it was better to keep the brute in sight than to feel
that perhaps he had circled and was creeping up behind one. It was,
therefore, because of this that King pushed on a little more rapidly;
and soon he was rewarded by another glimpse of the great carnivore and
of something else, which presented a tableau that froze his blood.
Beyond the tiger and facing it stood a girl. Her wide eyes were glassy
with terror. She stood as one in a trance, frozen to the spot, while
toward her the great cat crept. She was a slender girl, garbed as
fantastically as had been the soldiers that had passed him in the
jungle shortly before; but her gorgeous garments were soiled and torn,
and even at a distance King could see that her face and arms were
scratched and bleeding. In the instant that his eyes alighted upon her
he sensed something strangely familiar about her. It was a sudden,
wholly unaccountable impression that somewhere he had seen this girl
before; but it was only a passing impression, for his whole mind now
was occupied with her terrifying predicament.
To save her from the terrible death creeping slowly upon her seemed
beyond the realms of possibility, and yet King knew that he must
make the attempt. He recognized instantly that his only hope lay in
distracting the attention of the tiger. If he could center the interest
of the brute upon himself, perhaps the girl might escape.
He shouted, and the tiger wheeled about. "Run!" he cried to the girl.
"Quick! Make for a tree!"
As he spoke, King was running forward. His heavy spear was ready in his
hand, but yet it was a mad chance to take. Perhaps he forgot himself
and his own danger, thinking only of the girl. The tiger glanced back
at the girl, who, obeying King's direction, had run quickly to a nearby
tree into which she was trying to scramble, badly hampered by the long
skirt that enveloped her.
For only an instant did the tiger hesitate. His short and ugly temper
was fully aroused now in the face of this rude interruption of his
plan. With a savage snarl and then the short coughing roars with which
King was all too familiar, he wheeled and sprang toward the man in
long, easy bounds. Twelve to fifteen feet he covered in a single leap.
Flight was futile. There was nothing that King could do but stand his
ground and pit his puny spear against this awful engine of destruction.
In that brief instant there was pictured upon the screen of his
memory a tree-girt athletic field. He saw young men in shirts and
shorts throwing javelins. He saw himself among them. It was his turn
now. His arm went back. He recalled how he had put every ounce of
muscle, weight, and science into that throw. He recalled the friendly
congratulations that followed it, for every one knew without waiting
for the official verdict that he had broken a world's record.
Again his arm flew back. To-day there was more at stake than a world's
record, but the man did not lose his nerve. Timed to the fraction of an
instant, backed by the last ounce of his weight and his skill and his
great strength, the spear met the tiger in mid-leap; full in the chest
it struck him. King leaped to one side and ran for a tree, his single,
frail hope lying in the possibility that the great beast might be even
momentarily disabled.
He did not waste the energy or the time even to glance behind him. If
the tiger were able to overtake him, it must be totally a matter of
indifference to King whether the great brute seized him from behind or
in front--he had led his ace and he did not have another.
No fangs or talons rent his flesh as King scrambled to the safety of
the nearest tree. It was not without a sense of considerable surprise
that he found himself safely ensconced in his leafy sanctuary, for from
the instant that the tiger had turned upon him in its venomous charge
he had counted himself already as good as dead.
Now that he had an opportunity to look about him, he saw the tiger
struggling in its death throes upon the very spot where it had
anticipated wreaking its vengeance upon the rash man-thing that had
dared to question its right to the possession of its intended prey;
and a little to the right of the dying beast the American saw the girl
crouching in the branches of a tree. Together they watched the death
throes of the great cat; and when at last the man was convinced that
the beast was dead, he leaped lightly to the ground and approached the
tree among the branches of which the girl had sought safety.
That she was still filled with terror was apparent in the strained
and frightened expression upon her face. "Go away!" she cried. "The
soldiers of Lodivarman, the King, are here; and if you harm me they
will kill you."
King smiled. "You are inconsistent," he said, "in invoking the
protection of the soldiers from whom you are trying to escape; but you
need not fear me. I shall not harm you."
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"I am a hunter who dwells in the jungle," replied King. "I am the
protector of high priests and weeping queens, or so, at least, I seem
to be."
"High priests? Weeping queens? What do you mean?"
"I have saved Vay Thon, the high priest, from My Lord the Tiger,"
replied King; "and now I have saved you."
"But I am no queen and I am not weeping," replied the girl.
"Do not disillusion me," insisted King. "I contend that you are a
queen, whether you weep or smile. I should not be surprised to learn
that you are the queen of the Nagas. Nothing would surprise me in this
jungle of anachronism, hallucination, and impossibility."
"Help me down from the tree," said the girl. "Perhaps you are mad, but
you seem quite harmless."
"Be assured, your majesty, that I shall not harm you," replied King,
"for presently I am sure there will emerge from nowhere ten thousand
elephants and a hundred thousand warriors in shining brass to succour
and defend you. Nothing seems impossible after what I have witnessed;
but come, let me touch you; let me assure myself that I am not again
the victim of a pernicious fever."
"May Siva, who protected me from My Lord the Tiger a moment ago,
protect me also from this madman!"
"Pardon me," said King, "I did not catch what you said."
"I am afraid," said the girl.
"You need not be afraid of me," King assured her; "and if you want
your soldiers I believe that I can find them for you; but if I am not
mistaken, I believe that you are more afraid of them than you are of
me."
"What do you know of that?" demanded she.
"I overheard their conversation while they halted near me," replied the
American, "and I learned that they are hunting for you to take you back
to someone from whom you escaped. Come, I will help you down. You may
trust me."
He raised his hand toward her, and after a moment's hesitation she
slipped into his arms and he lowered her to the ground.
"I must trust you," she said. "There is no other way, for I could not
remain for ever in the tree; and then, too, even though you seem mad
there is something about you that makes me feel that I am safe with
you."
As he felt her soft, lithe body momentarily in his arms, King knew that
this was no tenuous spirit of a dream. For an instant her small hand
touched his shoulder, her warm breath fanned his cheek, and her firm,
young breasts were pressed against his naked body. Then she stepped
back and surveyed him.
"What manner of man are you?" she demanded. "You are neither Khmer nor
slave. Your colour is not the colour of any man that I have ever seen,
nor are your features those of the people of my race. Perhaps you are
a reincarnation of one of those ancients of whom our legends tell us;
or perhaps you are a Naga who has taken the form of man for some dire
purpose of your own."
"Perhaps I am a Yeack," suggested King.
"No," she said quite seriously, "I am sure you are not a Yeack, for it
is reported that they are most hideous, while you, though not like any
man I have ever seen, are handsome."
"I am neither Yeack nor Naga," replied King.
"Then perhaps you are from Lodidhapura--one of the creatures of
Lodivarman."
"No," replied the man. "I have never been to Lodidhapura. I have never
seen the King, Lodivarman, and, as a matter of fact, I have always
doubted their existence."
The girl's dark eyes regarded him steadily. "I cannot believe that,"
she said, "for it is unconceivable that there should be anyone in the
world who has not heard of Lodidhapura and Lodivarman."
"I come from a far country," explained King, "where there are millions
of people who never heard of the Khmers."
"Impossible!" she cried.
"But nevertheless quite true," he insisted.
"From what country do you come?" she asked.
"From America."
"I never heard of such a country."
"Then you should be able to understand that I may never have heard of
Lodidhapura," said the man.
For a moment the girl was silent, evidently pondering the logic of his
statement. "Perhaps you are right," she said finally. "It may be that
there are other cities within the jungle of which we have never heard.
But tell me--you risked your life to save mine--why did you do that?"
"What else might I have done?" he asked.
"You might have run away and saved yourself."
King smiled, but he made no reply. He was wondering if there existed
any man who could have run away and left one so beautiful and so
helpless to the mercies of My Lord the Tiger.
"You are very brave," she continued presently. "What is your name?"
"Gordon King."
"Gordon King," she repeated in a soft, caressing voice. "That is a
nice name, but it is not like any name that I have heard before."
"And what is your name?" asked King.
"I am called Fou-tan," she said, and she eyed him intently, as though
she would note if the name made any impression upon him.
King thought Fou-Tan a pretty name, but it seemed banal to say so. He
was appraising her small, delicate features, her beautiful eyes and
her soft brown skin. They recalled to him the weeping queen upon the
misty elephant that he had seen in his delirium, and once again there
arose within him doubts as to his sanity. "Tell me," he said suddenly.
"Did you ever ride through the jungle on a great elephant escorted by
soldiers in brass?"
"Yes," she said.
"And you say that you are from Lodidhapura?" he continued.
"I have just come from there," she replied.
"Did you ever hear of a priest called Vay Thon?"
"He is the high priest of Siva in the city of Lodidhapura," she replied.
King shook his head in perplexity. "It is hard to know," he murmured,
"where dreams end and reality begins."
"I do not understand you," she said, her brows knit in perplexity.
"Perhaps I do not understand myself," he admitted.
"You are a strange man," said Fou-tan. "I do not know whether to fear
you or trust you. You are not like any other man I have ever known.
What do you intend to do with me?"
"Perhaps I had better take you back to the dwelling of Che and
Kangrey," he said, "and then to-morrow Che can guide you back to
Lodidhapura."
"But I do not wish to return to Lodidhapura," said the girl.
"Why not?" demanded King.
"Listen, Gordon King, and I shall tell you," said Fou-tan.
V