THE PYTHON’S COILS
Despite the relief the coolness and clear air in the cave afforded, it
was evident that the tree people were badly frightened at being inside
the great cave that had been the home of the formidable sabre-toothed
tiger. They cringed and whimpered and huddled in little frightened groups
as Og led them forward through narrow passages, and they peered into the
gloom ahead with frightened eyes. Og felt the same terror clutching at
his stout heart. But the wolf cubs went bravely on ahead, and this, added
to the fact that he had assumed the leadership and the responsibility
of taking the tree people to safety, keyed up his courage to a certain
extent and made him at least appear bolder than he really was.
Deeper and deeper he led them into the hollow in the mountain. It was
a long, narrow cave in the beginning, hardly more than a passageway
at some points, and long pendant stalactites hung from the roof while
needle-like stalagmites protruded from the floor and in some places
almost barred passage, or narrowed the cave so that Og and his horde of
followers had sometimes to crawl under them or work their way around
them. But they kept on because slowly smoke from the great forest fire
was being drawn into the passage by draughts, and Og and the tree people
wanted to get beyond the point where there was any smoke at all. Another
reason why the hairy boy led on was because the wolf cubs continued to
trot ahead of him and he felt that so long as they went on and exhibited
no signs of fear whatever, it was safe for him to proceed with his
followers.
It was a strange and weird procession they made as they traveled through
the cave, with the hairy boy ahead carrying his torch with its feeble
rays only partly dispelling the gloom and throwing a weird light on the
tribe of tree people strung out behind him, chattering to each other and
looking about in the darkness with fear in their eyes. In that procession
were old ape men and young ape men and mothers with their babies clinging
to their breasts, and all of them were trusting to the hairy boy to take
them to safety.
And Og felt that trust, and somehow, in a way that he could not
understand, it gave him faith and confidence in himself, and strength to
go on, even though it was all as much of an ordeal to him as it was to
the tree people.
They moved forward for some little time, when suddenly the passageway
ended in a huge-vaulted cavern; a tremendous room large enough to
accommodate them all with plenty of space to spare.
Coming out into this suddenly, Og stopped and so did the tree people. It
was so large, and so filled with the gloom of night that it frightened
all of them and they cowered and huddled together in a panicky mass and
chattered softly to themselves as their eyes roved about trying to pierce
the heavy enveloping blackness. But gradually, with the help of Og’s
torch, their eyes became accustomed to the darkness and they could see
from one end of the cavern to the other, and to its great dome-like roof
from which hung stalactites of tremendous length. It was a weird cave,
indeed, and the presence of great bats, almost as big as Og himself, that
swept and soared in and out among the pillar-like pendants that reached
downward from the ceiling, only added to its dreadfulness.
[Illustration: Great bats, almost as big as Og himself]
The bats were like great black-robed spirits that flitted softly about,
or hung from convenient crevices and glared at them with eyes that showed
green fire in the darkness. Some of the largest of them, as if resentful
of this invasion, even swooped toward them and clicked long and ugly
teeth, and uttered shrill squeaks. Mostly they made for Og, singling him
out no doubt because of the flickering torch he held. They did not know
what this sparkling thing was and they dived at it repeatedly until Og,
with a yell of triumph that echoed and reechoed from wall to wall of
the cavern, brought one of them down with a lightning-like swing of his
stone hammer and crushed out its life before it could struggle up from
the stone floor. After that the great black bats soared and swooped at a
safer distance.
Og threw off the fear of the great cavern first and while the tree folk
huddled in a mass in the center of the cave and clung to each other for
protection, staring about them fearfully, the hairy boy with his torch
and the wolf cubs at his heels, began to explore the great room.
It was soon apparent to him that the cave was the center of a number of
small caves that seemed to reach out in all directions, like legs from
the body of a giant spider. Og wondered where these other caves led to,
and as he came to the entrance of each of them he stopped and peered into
them, but even he was not bold enough to attempt to explore them.
Presently he came to one about the entrance of which there lingered a
dreadful, sickening odor that suddenly filled Og’s soul with terror, and
made the wolf cubs growl, while the hair on their shoulders bristled and
their tails, instead of stiffening with the desire to fight, dropped
between their legs. Og was on the point of running away, but, with an
effort, he mastered himself and, hiding behind a cone-shaped stalagmite,
he peered into the black entrance, holding his torch so that it would
send its light rays as far as possible down the passage.
He could see nothing, but on the cool draught that came down the passage
way he got a stronger scent of the dreadful odor. It was familiar. He
had smelled it before and it had terrorized him then, yet for the moment
he could not identify it. What could it be? He asked the question over
and over again. Then he stopped to listen. Down the passageway came a
peculiar scraping sound, as if some long slender body were dragging its
full length along the rock floor. Suddenly Og knew what the hideous thing
was, and he went cold as he realized the menace that was approaching.
It was a python; a giant snake, ancestor of the present day constrictor
of the southern jungles. It had been driven by the forest fire to take
refuge in a cavern in the mountains, and as Og and the tree people had
wandered down one of the passages to the great central cavern, it was
doing likewise.
Og could hardly repress a cry of fear as he realized that all too soon
the great reptile would slide its terrible length into the central
cavern. Then woe to him and the tree people. These ape men were the
natural prey of the python, who would lie in wait among the matted
branches of the forest and throw coils about the unfortunate tree man who
ventured near his lair. When the python found this huddled mass of ape
folk in the central cavern, Og knew that the result would be terrible to
witness. He turned away from his hiding place to hurry back to spread
a warning. But even as he left the shelter of the cone-like stalagmite
a great, ugly, flat head, with cold green eyes, terrifically powerful
jaws and a darting tongue, appeared in the entrance of the cavern, and
a moment later the giant python began to slide its great shining body
into the central cave, working its serpentine way among the stalagmites
swiftly and softly, save for the peculiar scraping sound that its heavy
body made as it slid its length across the limestone floor.
The hairy boy had hardly time to dodge behind another sheltering pinnacle
when the huge serpent raised its head and shining neck aloft and glared
about the cavern. Og knew instantly that the snake had discovered the
tree folk, for like a flash its head came down, then with surprising
speed it began to slip across the cavern, sliding so close to the hiding
Og that he could have touched the shining coils as they glided by.
Og, valiant despite his own fears, wanted to rush forward and warn the
tree folk, scatter them, and tell them to take refuge wherever they
could, but the great snake had glided between and cut him off from them.
[Illustration: The huge serpent raised its head and shining neck aloft
and glared about the cavern]
On moved the big snake, and Og, cold with fear himself, hardly knew
what to do. For a moment he was afraid to cry out for fear the serpent
would turn on him. But only for a moment did the cowardice overcome him.
Disregarding danger to himself he voiced a ringing shout of warning and
with stone hammer in one hand and torch in the other, he dashed headlong
across the cave, trying his best to turn the huge snake’s attention from
the tree folk long enough for them to get away.
They heard his shout of warning and it spread consternation among them.
They saw the peril that was traveling swiftly toward them, but so
frightened were they and so slow to act, that the python was full upon
them before the great mass scattered and started for one of the many
hall-like caves that opened into the cavern. Like a cyclone then the
snake descended upon them, literally hurling his long shining body among
them. Og saw it all with a shudder.
The shrieks that followed were deafening as they echoed and reechoed
against the walls of the cavern, and the writhing of the big snake tossed
tree folk right and left as they strove to get out of his way. Coil after
coil the snake threw among them and Og knew that the fate of some of his
recent companions was sealed.
But when the ape men moved they moved fast. With terrific speed the mass
dispersed, and in a twinkling they were all gone, the last of them
disappearing through the dark mouth of one of the smaller caves; the last
but two, and Og.
These two Og saw struggling in the folds of the great snake. They were
big, strong, powerful ape men; some of the warriors that Scar Face had
led, yet their struggles were puny indeed against the folds of the big
python’s body. They screamed, and thrashed with their arms and bit with
vicious teeth, but to no avail. Suddenly the great snake contracted the
coils it had looped about them, and Og with a sickening sensation saw the
two big ape men go limp. He could hear the dull sound of breaking bones,
and when the snake slowly uncoiled they dropped to the floor lifeless and
almost without form, so terribly crushed were they.
It was a hideous, terrifying sight, but for some strange reason that Og
could not understand it did not frighten him as much as it angered him.
A sense of pity for those two poor mutilated forms that a moment before
had been alive welled up in him, and he was consumed with hate for the
horrible reptile. Indeed, he was moved to attack it and with a war cry
ringing on his lips he started to advance upon it. Like a flash the snake
turned and faced him, and in the cold, merciless green eyes that Og
looked into, the hairy boy saw no hopes for victory. He knew that he was
doing a foolish, though valiant thing, and discretion made him stop in
his tracks.
The next instant, the snake, with a hiss that was blood chilling, drew
back its terrible head and struck at him with lightning swiftness. But
as quick as the snake was, Og was quicker. Like a flash he leapt aside,
and with a cry of terror he fled across the cavern, not stopping even to
look behind him until he had gained the entrance to one of the passage
ways out of the cave, into which he plunged, the wolf cubs following him
closely.