[Illustration]
The disappearance of Sosee without anybody knowing it was a new puzzle to
the Ammi. Was she spirited away by some supernatural power? or did she
simply drop out of line into the bushes? These were among the questions
asked.
“She is a spy,” persisted Pounder, “having first become a traitor.”
“If her story be true,” observed Abroo, “she thinks more of her people
than of her lover, and is a great heroine to thus sacrifice her love to
save her race.”
“Whatever be the facts,” said Koree, not appreciating this kind of
unselfishness, “let us search for her. If she be a spy she should not
return to the enemy, and if she be a heroine she should not be lost to
us.”
“In either case,” said Pounder, “you want to get her for yourself, and do
not care what becomes of the war.”
“Let us first make ourselves safe,” said Abroo, “and then talk of finding
her. In this great Swamp with its endless entanglement of bushes, we
could not find her any sooner than the Lali can find us; whereas if we
save ourselves from the danger she describes, we must retreat farther at
once.”
“I shall search for Sosee,” said Koree, “and will return to you only when
I find her.”
So saying Koree left the rest of the Ammi and started back to find his
beloved, taking several friends with him.
They were soon lost in the wilderness; but by the position of the sun
they kept their steps bent in the direction of the Lali.
“There is only one course that she could take,” said he; “whether she go
as a spy or to a lover, she will seek the Lali by the most direct route,
and in either case I want her, and want her soon; so let us head her off.”
Swift then through the wilds they pressed back, pushing aside the bushes,
wading in the marshes, jumping over fallen trees, and picking out a
possible route through an almost impassable country. When they came to
an open place, they reconnoitred. Now and then they met a serpent or
alligator, and continually they feared more savage beasts, whose cries
were heard around them.
“This is a terrible wilderness for Sosee to pass through,” observed
Koree, “but if she is going to meet a rival, or betray the Ammi, I don’t
know whether I want her to get through.”
“We will at least reach the Lali first,” said one of his companions.
“I am not sure of that,” replied Koree. “Sosee is swift of foot, and
finds her way better than anyone I know.”
Soon they came upon some straggling apes, but as these differed somewhat
from the Lali they paid little attention to them, thinking they were
chance hunters in the thickets.
These apes, however, were soon met so frequently, and finally became so
numerous, that Koree remarked:
“I wonder if they are not some of the new comers of which Sosee spoke.”
Presently he climbed a tree, from which he looked beyond the confines of
the Swamp, where he saw an innumerable swarm of apes, filling all the
country about the habitations of the Lali. So many animals he had never
before seen together. His worst suspicions were, therefore, confirmed.
“Sosee has, indeed, reported the truth,” he said; “such a multitude would
have overwhelmed the Ammi in one attack, and left nothing remaining of
the human race.”
Hurrying down, therefore, from the tree, he called on his comrades to
turn back to the Ammi.
“Let us return and take precautions for our safety,” he said; “soon those
apes will scatter, or kill one another off; no country can long support
such a number.”
“But what about Sosee?” asked his companions.
“We cannot find her in this Swamp,” replied Koree; “and, as her story of
the reinforcements of the Apes is true, the rest is not incredible, so
that her return to them may be necessary for our safety.”
Now, therefore, for the first time, did Koree appreciate the heroism of
Sosee; and the sacrifice of her lover seemed magnanimous when it was
clear that it was not for another lover.
They retraced their steps, therefore, and before night were again with
the main body of the Ammi, to whom they related what they had seen.
“Where is Sosee,” asked one.
“We have not seen her,” replied Koree, “but we found her true, which
is more important;” for Koree before his search had begun to doubt the
faithfulness of his beloved, which he was now glad to establish, even at
the expense of her possession.
As night settled down on the Ammi in the Swamp a great light appeared in
the north, an object of beauty and terror to them. The sky was illumined
with brilliant and changing rays, like a sunrise at midnight. The heavens
seemed to be on fire, and the conflagration to be approaching the earth.
It was one of those gigantic electric storms which swept over the ancient
world and vied with the earthquakes, mountain upheavals, and deluges of
the period, when the Earth still acted as a whole. Night and Day were
apparently in conflict, mixing great fields of light with alternate
streaks of darkness, and chasing each other over the whole heavens.
“What can this mean?” asked several at once.
“The Fire-monster is sweeping down upon us, as well as the Monkeys,”
answered one; “he has already seized the heavens.”
“It don’t mean any good,” said Gimbo; “Shoozoo is angry, and has sent his
winged Alligator to destroy us. I will get the dragon-fly which cured us
of the colic.”
Wearied, however, they soon sank to rest, and lying under an open sky,
which seemed all on fire, they slept, and their dreams that night were
disturbed equally by fears of the Aurora and of monkeys.