SLAVE OF THE SABITS.
Grandon fought desperately but unavailingly as he was dragged into the
dark burrow. Stabbing again and again with his sword, he at length
found a crevice in the armor of his captor, whereupon it stopped and
shook him until his head reeled and the weapon dropped from his hand.
Then the sabit carried him, limp and only half conscious, to the great
central room, in which were the king and queen sabits of the white
community.
As soon as he was dropped to the floor, the king sabit leaped on him
and, cutting his belt with sharp mandibles, removed his tork and knife.
Thus, stripped of his weapons, bruised and bleeding, he sat up weakly
and looked at the three repulsive creatures.
That they possessed no inconsiderable degree of intelligence he did
not doubt. The removal of his weapons proved that. But whether or not
the quality of mercy was an attribute of that intelligence he could
not even guess, nor could he yet guess the fact that they looked down
on him as an inferior creature, lower in the scale of creation than
themselves.
After looking at him fixedly for some time the queen sabit summoned
two workers by vibrating her antennæ, and he was conducted through a
series of runways and tunnels to a great, light chamber, where hundreds
of naked, hairy men were engaged in the task of receiving sacks filled
with a sticky white mixture from men who brought them to the doorway.
They then fed the contents to thousands of fat, white, grublike
creatures that varied in size from two to eight feet in length. He saw
one of the larger grubs near him bite a mouthful of flesh from the
shoulder of its screaming tender, and a little farther away two men
held a huge grub while a third endeavored to reach its swaying head
with a sacksful of sticky food.
His conductors piloted him among the swaying, wriggling grubs and
scurrying men to where a single individual taller than his fellows
and much more ferocious of mien than most stood with folded arms,
apparently supervising the work. One of the sabits vibrated its
antennæ, this time creating a series of musical tones. The man turned,
replied with three musical notes, and took Grandon by the arm,
whereupon the two sabits left him.
"A new slave, eh?" he said gruffly. "Don't stand there staring like
a stupid ptang. You have eyes to see the nature of the task before
you. Begin it quickly, before you have painful cause to regret your
slowness."
Grandon coolly surveyed the great brute before him. Without doubt he
would make a formidable and merciless antagonist. His abnormally low
forehead was crossed by a livid scar just above the beetling brows,
from beneath which his small, beady eyes glared malevolently. His
right ear had been completely torn away, and with it a portion of the
surrounding scalp.
As he stood with arms folded over his hairy chest and feet wide apart,
a bulging, menacing mountain of muscle and bone, the Earth-man did
not wonder that slaves cringed at his glance, and that he apparently
expected this new arrival to do like-wise.
"I have eyes to see and ears to hear that which pleases me not,"
Grandon replied boldly. "You accuse me of the stupidity of a ptang, but
I must needs have the stupidity of a thousand ptangs to obey this thing
miscalled a man which stands before me."
* * * * *
The overseer's thick lips drew back in a brutelike snarl, revealing
huge yellow teeth. With lightninglike quickness he directed a blow at
Grandon's head. By ducking swiftly the Earth-man avoided the full force
of the blow which would have crushed in the side of his face had it
landed squarely and which, glancing though it was, sent him reeling to
the floor a full twenty feet away.
"You would insult Od, would you?" the overseer snarled. "You would
refuse to feed the fantas. Miserable, misbegotten offspring of
misguided parents, then shall your torn body feed them, and that
speedily."
He sprang to the side of the prostrate man and lifted his heavy foot
for a vicious kick, but it never landed, for Grandon executed a quick
scissors movement with his legs, an old wrestling trick, and his
assailant fell sprawling.
Both men leaped to their feet in an instant. As they faced each
other, the slaves abandoned their wriggling fanta charges and formed
an excited ring about the pair. They saw that which they had never
previously beheld--brute strength pitted against the science of the
trained boxer.
The giant Od was first annoyed, then amazed, at his inability to strike
his opponent, while blows rained incessantly against his unguarded chin
and solar plexus. At length, weakened by the drubbing he was receiving,
he abandoned all thought of striking his elusive antagonist and leaped
blindly forward to clutch him in his mighty arms.
It was the opening for which Grandon had been waiting. Stepping lightly
to one side, he planted a terrific blow behind the ragged ear. Od
reeled blindly for a moment, then fell prone upon his hideous face,
where he lay limp and still.
A shout of approval went up from the group of spectators, for Od was a
hated bully, and many of them had felt the weight of his heavy hand or
seen comrades go down before his blows, never to rise again. A warning
cry from a man near the door checked their cheering.
"To your tasks, quickly! The sabits are coming!"
They scattered in an instant, and when four soldier sabits arrived
all but Grandon and Od were busily tending their fractious charges.
The sabits spied Grandon, standing with heaving breast beside his
prostrate foe, and ran quickly to where he stood. One of them looked
inquiringly at him, and vibrated its antennæ, producing a confusing
series of tones. When it received no reply it brought a slave from near
by and repeated the vibrations. The slave replied, using his voice to
produce various tones, and Grandon judged from his gestures that he was
describing the combat.
Immediately one of the sabits made for the door, and shortly returned
with the winged king. Then there was a further vibratory conversation,
this time among the sabits. Grandon noticed that when they communicated
with each other the vibrations were noiseless, and that the sounds were
produced only when they conversed with men.
Momentarily expecting to be punished with death for his rash deed,
Grandon was amazed when the four soldier sabits suddenly leaped to the
prostrate man and tore him to pieces. These pieces were distributed
among the near-by sabit grubs, or fantas, as they were called.
Then the king sabit again vibrated his antennæ, this time producing
musical tones, and the slave who had described the duel translated for
Grandon.
* * * * *
"By order of the king sabit you are to assume immediately the duties of
the man you just defeated. Only the strongest and bravest of the slaves
may become feeders of the fantas, and by vanquishing Od, greatest of
all of us in the community, you have demonstrated your eligibility for
the office."
"But I know nothing of these duties," remonstrated Grandon.
"It does not matter. The men know what is to be done. You are simply to
maintain order and see that there is no idling. A soldier sabit will
remain with you for a few days to teach you the tone language so that
thereafter you may receive your orders direct from the sabits and not
through an interpreter."
As Grandon took up the work of the dead Od, his thoughts reverted to
Vernia, awaiting his coming in the airship. He resolved to escape at
the first opportunity and return to her, but at that moment escape was
out of the question and resistance was suicidal.
The working day of the sabits and their slaves began at dawn and
continued until darkness. The slaves were fed twice daily, once upon
rising and once when the day's work was completed. The diet was always
the same--a mixture of the sweet, sticky stuff and edible fungi.
With the coming of darkness all members of the community were herded
within the conical clay houses and the burrows which connected them.
A sleeping room with bare dirt floors was set aside for the men and
carefully guarded by soldier sabits. A separate dormitory for the women
and children was similarly guarded. Men and women were not allowed to
mingle during the day, but were kept at separate tasks, and though they
might see each other from a distance seldom had opportunities even for
conversation.
Grandon watched carefully for an opportunity to escape and return to
Vernia, but it seemed that his every movement was anticipated by the
watchful sabits. Again and again he tried, growing more reckless and
desperate as the days passed, but all in vain.
He learned the tone language readily, and after several weeks had
elapsed, became fairly familiar with his surroundings and the mode of
life of the strange creatures who had captured him. His instructor told
him how the little sabits or fantas were hatched from the eggs laid
by the roga. They were tended and fed by women and girls until they
reached a size that made it necessary for the men to take charge of
them. When they had, while still in the fanta stage, grown larger than
adults, they were taken to a dark room deep under the ground, where
they spun great, tough cocoons that completely surrounded them, and lay
dormant in these for a long period, finally emerging as full-fledged
adult sabits.
Many days passed before Grandon was even permitted out of doors. Then,
one morning, he was placed in charge of a crew of food carriers, and
the white soldier sabits taking their "cattle," the green creatures to
their leafy pastures, led the way directly to the tree in which the
airship was jammed.
With wildly beating heart, Grandon climbed the tree soon after his men
had mounted to gather the sweet torlage. After a tedious climb he saw
the craft directly above him. Slaves, sabits and the green "cattle"
swarmed all about it without paying it the slightest attention.
Apparently it was a familiar object to them.
Grandon moved cautiously toward the forked limb on which it rested in
order that he might not betray his interest, and peered cautiously
within the cab. It was empty, and apparently undisturbed. One of the
drawers stood open, and he selected a knife and a small flash light
from the miscellaneous articles it contained, secreting them beneath
his clothing.
As there were no signs of a struggle he assumed that Vernia had left
voluntarily, but he was equally certain that she could not have gone
far without being captured and enslaved by the sabits.
Having by this time become familiar with the fate of female slaves of
marriageable age, Grandon resolved that she must be rescued speedily,
if at all, for he knew that she would take her own life rather than
submit to the dictates of such a system.
There were hundreds of sabit communities in the valley, in any one of
which she might be a prisoner, and he was not without realization of
the stupendous task before him, for he must first find a way to escape
from his own community, then spy on all the others in turn until he
found her.
That night when the men had been quartered in their dormitory he
thought of a plan, and set about at once to put it into execution.