They must have carried me, still under the influence of wine fumes, to
the chamber where I slept that night, for when I woke the following
morning my surroundings were familiar enough, though a glorious maze of
uncertainties rocked to and fro in my mind.
Was it a real feast we had shared in overnight, or only a quaint dream?
Was Heru real or only a lovely fancy? And those hairy ruffians of whom
a horrible vision danced before my waking eyes, were they fancy too?
No, my wrists still ached with the strain of the tussle, the quaint,
sad wine taste was still on my lips--it was all real enough, I decided,
starting up in bed; and if it was real where was the little princess?
What had they done with her? Surely they had not given her to the
ape-men--cowards though they were they could not have been cowards
enough for that. And as I wondered a keen, bright picture of the
hapless maid as I saw her last blossomed before my mind's eye, the
ambassadors on either side holding her wrists, and she shrinking from
them in horror while her poor, white face turned to me for rescue in
desperate pleading--oh! I must find her at all costs; and leaping from
bed I snatched up those trousers without which the best of heroes is
nothing, and had hardly got into them when there came the patter of
light feet without and a Martian, in a hurry for once, with half a
dozen others behind him, swept aside the curtains of my doorway.
They peeped and peered all about the room, then one said, "Is Princess
Heru with you, sir?"
"No," I answered roughly. "Saints alive, man, do you think I would
have you tumbling in here over each other's heels if she were?"
"Then it must indeed have been Heru," he said, speaking in an awed
voice to his fellows, "whom we saw carried down to the harbour at
daybreak by yonder woodmen," and the pink upon their pretty cheeks
faded to nothing at the suggestion.
"What!" I roared, "Heru taken from the palace by a handful of men and
none of you infernal rascals--none of you white-livered abortions
lifted a hand to save her--curse on you a thousand times. Out of my
way, you churls!" And snatching up coat and hat and sword I rushed
furiously down the long, marble stairs just as the short Martian night
was giving place to lavender-coloured light of morning. I found my way
somehow down the deserted corridors where the air was heavy with
aromatic vapours; I flew by curtained niches and chambers where amongst
mounds of half-withered flowers the Martian lovers were slowly waking.
Down into the banquethall I sped, and there in the twilight was the
litter of the feast still about--gold cups and silver, broken bread and
meat, the convolvulus flowers all turning their pallid faces to the
rosy daylight, making pools of brightness between the shadows. Amongst
the litter little sapphire-coloured finches were feeding, twittering
merrily to themselves as they hopped about, and here and there down the
long tables lay asprawl a belated reveller, his empty oblivion-phial
before him, his curly head upon his arms, dreaming perhaps of last
night's feast and a neglected bride dozing dispassionate in some
distant chamber. But Heru was not there and little I cared for
twittering finches or sighing damsels. With hasty feet I rushed down
the hall out into the cool, sweet air of the planet morning.
There I met one whom I knew, and he told me he had been among the crowd
and had heard the woodmen had gone no farther than the river gate, that
Heru was with them beyond a doubt. I would not listen to more. "Good!"
I shouted. "Get me a horse and just a handful of your sleek kindred
and we will pull the prize from the bear's paw even yet! Surely," I
said, turning to a knot of Martian youths who stood listening a few
steps away, "surely some of you will come with me at this pinch? The
big bullies are very few; the sea runs behind them; the maid in their
clutch is worth fighting for; it needs but one good onset, five
minutes' gallantry, and she is ours again. Think how fine it will look
to bring her back before yon sleepy fellows have found their weapons.
You, there, with the blue tunic! you look a proper fellow, and
something of a heart should beat under such gay wrappings, will you
come with me?"
But blue-mantle, biting his thumbs, murmured he had not breakfasted yet
and edged away behind his companions. Wherever I looked eyes dropped
and timid hands fidgeted as their owners backed off from my dangerous
enthusiasm. There was obviously no help to be had from them, and
meantime the precious moments were flying, so with a disdainful glance
I turned on my heels and set off alone as hard as I could go for the
harbour.
But it was too late. I rushed through the marketplace where all was
silent and deserted; I ran on to the wharves beyond and they were empty
save for the litter and embers of the fires Ar-hap's men had made
during their stay; I dashed out to the landing-place, and there at the
hythe the last boat-loads of the villains were just embarking, two
boatloads of them twenty yards from shore, and another still upon the
beach. This latter was careening over as a dusky group of men lifted
aboard to a heap of tumbled silks and stuffs in the stern such a sweet
piece of insensible merchandise as no man, I at least of all, could
mistake. It was Heru herself, and the rogues were ladling her on board
like so much sandal-wood or cotton sheeting. I did not wait for more,
but out came my sword, and yielding to a reckless impulse, for which
perhaps last night's wine was as much to blame as anything, I sprang
down the steps and leapt aboard of the boat just as it was pushed off
upon the swift tide. Full of Bersark rage, I cut one brawny
copper-coloured thief down, and struck another with my fist between the
eyes so that he went headlong into the water, sinking like lead, and
deep into the great target of his neighbour's chest I drove my blade.
Had there been a man beside me, had there been but two or three of all
those silken triflers, too late come on the terraces above to watch, we
might have won. But all alone what could I do? That last red beast
turned on my blade, and as he fell dragged me half down with him. I
staggered up, and tugging the metal from him turned on the next.
At that moment the cause of all the turmoil, roused by the fighting,
came to herself, and sitting up on the piled plunder in the boat stared
round for a moment with a childish horror at the barbarians whose prize
she was, then at me, then at the dead man at my feet whose blood was
welling in a red tide from the wound in his breast. As the full
meaning of the scene dawned upon her she started to her feet, looking
wonderfully beautiful amongst those dusky forms, and extending her
hands to me began to cry in the most piteous way. I sprang forward,
and as I did so saw an ape-man clap his hairy paw over her mouth and
face--it was like an eclipse of the moon by a red earth-shadow, I
thought at the moment--and drag her roughly back, but that was about
the last I remembered. As I turned to hit him standing on the slippery
thwart, another rogue crept up behind and let drive with a club he had
in hand. The cudgel caught me sideways on the head, a glancing shot.
I can recall a blaze of light, a strange medley of sounds in my ears,
and then, clutching at a pile of stuffs as I fell, a tall bower of
spray rising on either hand, and the cool shock of the blue sea as I
plunged headlong in--but nothing after that!
How long after I know not, but presently a tissue of daylight crept
into my eyes, and I awoke again. It was better than nothing perhaps,
yet it was a poor awakening. The big sun lay low down, and the day was
all but done; so much I guessed as I rocked in that light with an
undulating movement, and then as my senses returned more fully,
recognised with a start of wonder that I was still in the water,
floating on a swift current into the unknown on an air-filled pile of
silken stuffs which had been pulled down with me from the boat when I
got my ganging from yonder rascal's mace. It was a wet couch, sodden
and chilly, but as the freshening evening wind blew on my face and the
darkening water lapped against my forehead I revived more fully.
Where had we come to? I turned an aching neck, and all along on both
sides seemed to stretch steep, straight coasts about a mile or so
apart, in the shadow of the setting sun black as ebony. Between the
two the hampered water ran quickly, with, away on the right, some
shallow sandy spits and islands covered with dwarf bushes--chilly,
inhospitable-looking places they seemed as I turned my eyes upon them;
but he who rides helpless down an evening tide stands out for no great
niceties of landing-place; could I but reach them they would make at
least a drier bed than this of mine, and at that thought, turning over,
I found all my muscles as stiff as iron, the sinews of my neck and
forearms a mass of agonies and no more fit to swim me to those reedy
swamps, which now, as pain and hunger began to tell, seemed to wear the
aspects of paradise.
With a groan I dropped back upon my raft and watched the islands
slipping by, while over my feet the southern sky darkened to purple.
There was no help there, but glancing round away on the left and a few
furlongs from me, I noticed on the surface of the water two converging
strands of brightness, an angle the point of which seemed to be coming
towards me. Nearer it came and nearer, right across my road, until I
could see a black dot at the point, a head presently developed, then as
we approached the ears and antlers of a swimming stag. It was a huge
beast as it loomed up against the glow, bigger than any mortal stag
ever was--the kind of fellow-traveller no one would willingly accost,
but even if I had wished to get out of its path I had no power to do so.
Closer and closer we came, one of us drifting helplessly, and the other
swimming strongly for the islands. When we were about a furlong apart
the great beast seemed to change its course, mayhap it took the
wreckage on which I floated for an outlying shoal, something on which
it could rest a space in that long swim. Be this as it may, the beast
came hurtling down on me lip deep in the waves, a mighty brown head
with pricked ears that flicked the water from them now and then, small
bright eyes set far back, and wide palmated antlers on a mighty
forehead, like the dead branches of a tree. What that Martian mountain
elk had hoped for can only be guessed, what he met with was a tangle of
floating finery carrying a numbed traveller on it, and with a snort of
disappointment he turned again.
It was a poor chance, but better than nothing, and as he turned I tried
to throw a strand of silk I had unwound from the sodden mass over his
branching tines. Quick as thought the beast twisted his head aside and
tossed his antlers so that the try was fruitless. But was I to lose my
only chance of shore? With all my strength I hurled myself upon him,
missing my clutch again by a hair's-breadth and going headlong into the
salt furrow his chest was turning up. Happily I kept hold of the web,
for the great elk then turned back, passing between me and the ruck of
stuff and getting thereby the silk under his chin, and as I came
gasping to the top once more round came that dainty wreckage over his
back, and I clutched it, and sooner than it takes to tell I was towing
to the shore as perhaps no one was ever towed before.
The big beast dragged the ruck like withered weed behind him, bellowing
all the time with a voice which made the hills echo all round; and
then, when he got his feet upon the shallows, rose dripping and
mountainous, a very cliff of black hide and limb against the night
shine, and with a single sweep of his antlers tore the webbing from me,
who lay prone and breathless in the mud, and, thinking it was his
enemy, hurled the limp bundle on the beach, and then, having pounded it
with his cloven feet into formless shreds, bellowed again victoriously
and went off into the darkness of the forests.