A FIGHT AND A CHANCE
After occupying the new village, Orthis and I were separated, he
being assigned a hut close to Ga-va-go, while I was placed in another
section of the village. If I could have been said to have been on
good terms with any of the terrible creatures of the tribe, it was
with the woman who had taught me the language of the Va-gas, and it
was from her that I learned why Orthis was treated with such marked
distinction by Ga-va-go, whom, it seemed, he had promised to lead to
the land of our origin, where, he had assured the savage chieftain,
he would find flesh in abundance.
Nah-ee-lah was confined in still another part of the village, and I
only saw her occasionally, for it was evident that Ga-va-go wished to
keep the prisoners separated. Upon one occasion when I met her at the
shore of the lake I asked her why it was that they had not slain and
eaten her, and she told me that when Ga-va-go had discovered her
identity, and that her father was a Jemadar, a ruler of a great city,
he had sent messengers with an offer to return Nah-ee-lah for a
ransom of one hundred young women of the city of Laythe.
“Do you think your father will send the ransom?” I asked.
“I do not know,” she replied. “I do not see how they are going to get
a message to him, for ordinarily, my race kills the Va-gas on sight.
They may succeed, however, but even so, it is possible that my father
will not send the ransom. I would not wish him to. The daughters of
my father’s people are as dear to them, as am I to him. It would be
wrong to give a hundred of the daughters of Laythe in return for one,
even though she be the daughter of the Jemadar.”
We had drunk, and were returning toward our huts when, wishing to
prolong our conversation and to be with this pleasant companion while
I might, I suggested that we walk farther into the woods and gather
fruit. Nah-ee-lah signified her willingness, and together we strolled
out of the village into the denser woods at its rear, where we found
a particularly delicious fruit growing in abundance. I gathered some
and offered it to her, but she refused, thanking me, saying that she
had but just eaten.
“Do they bring the fruit to you,” I asked, “or do you have to come
and gather it yourself?”
“What fruit I get I gather,” she replied, “but they bring me flesh.
It is of that which I have just eaten, and so I do not care for fruit
now.”
“Flesh!” I exclaimed. “What kind of flesh?”
“The flesh of the Va-gas, of course,” she replied. “What other flesh
might a U-ga eat?”
I fear that I ill-concealed my surprise and disgust at the thought
that the beautiful Nah-ee-lah ate of the flesh of the Va-gas.
“You, too, eat of the flesh of these creatures?” I demanded.
“Why not?” she asked. “You eat flesh, do you not, in your own
country. You have told me that you raise beasts solely for their
flesh.”
“Yes,” I replied, “that is true, but we eat only the flesh of lower
orders; we do not eat the flesh of humans.”
“You mean that you do not eat the flesh of your own species,” she
said.
“Yes,” I replied, “that is what I mean.”
“Neither do I,” she said. “The Va-gas are not of the same species as
the U-ga. They are a lower order, just as are the creatures whose
flesh you eat in your own country. You have told me of beef, and of
mutton, and of pork, which you have described as creatures that run
about on four legs, like the Va-gas. What is the difference, then,
between the eating of the flesh of pork and beef or mutton, and the
eating of Va-gas, who are low creatures also?”
“But they have human faces!” I cried, “and a spoken language.”
“You had better learn to eat them,” she said, “otherwise you will eat
no flesh in Va-nah.”
The more I thought about it the more reason I saw in her point of
view. She was right. She was no more transgressing any natural law in
eating the flesh of the Va-gas than do we, eating the flesh of
cattle. To her the Va-gas were less than cattle. They were dangerous
and hated enemies. The more I analyzed the thing, the more it seemed
to me that we humans of the earth were more surely transgressing a
natural law by devouring our domestic animals, many of which we
learned to love, than were the U-ga of Va-nah in devouring the flesh
of their four-footed foes, the Va-gas. Upon our earthly farms we
raise calves and sheep and little pigs, and oftentimes we become
greatly attached to individuals and they to us. We gain their
confidence, and they have implicit trust in us, and yet, when they
are of the right age, we slay and devour them. Presently it did not
seem either wrong or unnatural that Nah-ee-lah should eat the flesh
of the Va-gas, but as for myself, I could never do it, nor ever did.
We had left the forest, and were returning to the village to our huts
when, near the large hut occupied by Ga-va-go, we came suddenly upon
Orthis. At the sight of us together he scowled.
“If I were you,” he said to me, “I would not associate with her too
much. It may arouse the displeasure of Ga-va-go.”
It was the first time that Orthis had spoken to me since we had
occupied this village. I did not like his tone or his manner.
“You will please to mind your own business, Orthis,” I said to him,
and continued on with Nah-ee-lah. I saw the man’s eyes narrow
malignantly, and then he turned, and entered the hut of Ga-va-go, the
chief of the No-vans.
Every time I went to the river, I had to pass in the vicinity of Nah-
ee-lah’s hut. It was a little out of my way, but I always made the
slight detour in the hope of meeting her, though I had never entered
her hut nor called for her, since she had never invited me and
realizing her position, I did not wish to intrude. I was of course
ignorant of the social customs of her people, and feared offending
her accidentally.
It chanced that the next time that I walked down to the lake shore,
following our stroll in the woods, I made my usual detour that I
might pass by the hut of Nah-ee-lah. As I came near I heard voices,
one of which I recognized as that of Nah-ee-lah, and the other, a
man’s voice. The girl’s tones were angry and imperious.
“Leave my presence, creature!” were the first words that I could
distinguish, and then the man’s voice.
“Come,” he said, ingratiatingly. “Let us be friends. Come to my hut,
and you will be safe, for Ga-va-go is my friend.” The voice was the
voice of Orthis.
“Go!” she ordered him again. “I would as soon lie with Ga-va-go as
with you.”
“Know then,” cried Orthis, angrily, “that you will go, whether you
wish it or not, for Ga-va-go has given you to me. Come!” and then he
must have seized her, for I heard her cry out, “How dare you lay
hands upon me, Nah-ee-lah, princess of Laythe!”
I was close beside the entrance to the hut now, and I did not wait to
hear any more, but thrusting the hanging aside entered. There they
were, in the center of the single room, Orthis struggling to drag the
girl toward the opening while she resisted and struck at him. Orthis’
back was toward me and he did not know that there was another in the
hut until I had stepped up behind him and grasping him roughly by the
shoulder, had jerked him from the girl and swung him about facing me.
“You cad,” I said, “get out of here before I kick you out, and don’t
ever let me hear of you molesting this girl again.” His eyes
narrowed, and he looked at me with an ugly light in them. “Since
boyhood, you have cheated me out of all that I wished. You ruined my
life on Earth, but now, conditions are reversed. The tables are
turned. Believe me, then, when I tell you that if you interfere with
me you sign your own death warrant. It is only by my favor that you
live at all. If I gave the word Ga-va-go would destroy you at once.
Go then to your hut and stop your meddling in the affairs of others—a
habit that you developed in a most flagrant degree on Earth, but
which will avail you nothing here within the Moon. The woman is mine.
Ga-va-go has given her to me. Even if her father should fail to send
the ransom her life shall be spared as long as I desire her. Your
interference then can only result in your death, and do her no good,
for provided you are successful in keeping me from her, you would be
but condemning her to death in the event that her father does not
send the ransom, and Ga-va-go has told me that there is little
likelihood of that, since it is scarcely possible that his messengers
will be able to deliver Ga-va-go’s demands to Sagroth.”
“You have heard him,” I said, turning to the girl. “What are your
wishes in the matter. Perhaps he speaks the truth.”
“I have no doubt but that he speaks the truth,” she replied, “but
know, strangers, that the honor of a princess of Laythe is dearer
than her life.”
“Very well, Orthis,” I said to the man. “You have heard her. Now get
out.”
He was almost white with anger, and for a moment I thought that he
was going to attack me, but he was ever a coward, and contenting
himself with giving me a venomous look, he walked from the hut
without another word.
I turned to Nah-ee-lah, after the hanging had dropped behind Orthis.
“It is too bad,” I said, “that with all your suffering at the hands
of the Va-gas, you should also be annoyed by one who is practically
of your own species.”
“Your kindness more than compensates,” she replied graciously. “You
are a brave man, and I am afraid that you are going to suffer for
your protection of me. This man is powerful. He has made wonderful
promises to Ga-va-go. He is going to teach him how to use the strange
weapons that you brought from your own world. The woman who brings me
my meat told me of all this, and that the tribe is much excited by
the promises that your friend has made to Ga-va-go. He will teach
them to make the weapons, such as you slew their warriors with, so
that they will be invincible, and may go abroad in Va-nah slaying all
who oppose them and even raiding the cities of the U-ga. He has told
them that he will lead them to the strange thing which brought you
from your world to Va-nah, and that there they will find other
weapons, like those that you carried, and having the noise which they
make, and the things with which they kill. All these he says they may
have, and that later he will build other things, such as brought you
from your world to Va-nah, and he will take Ga-va-go and all the No-
vans to what you call Earth.”
“If there is any man in the universe who might do it, it is he,” I
replied, “but there is little likelihood that he can do it. He is
merely deceiving Ga-va-go in the hope of prolonging his own life,
against the possibility that an opportunity to escape will develop,
in which event he will return to our ship and our friends. He is a
bad man though, Nah-ee-lah, and you must be careful of him. There is
a vacant hut near yours, and I will come and live in it. There is no
use in asking Ga-va-go, for if he is friendly with Orthis, he will
not permit me to make the change. If you ever need me, call ‘Julian’
as loud as you can, and I will come.”
“You are very good,” she said. “You are like the better men of
Laythe, the high nobles of the court of the Jemadar, Sagroth, my
father. They too are honorable men, to whom a woman may look for
protection, but there are no others in all Va-nah since the Kalkars
arose thousands of kelds ago, and destroyed the power of the nobles
and the Jemadars, and all the civilization that was Va-nah’s. Only in
Laythe, have we preserved a semblance of the old order. I wish I
might take you to Laythe, for there you would be safe and happy. You
are a brave man. It is strange that you are not married.”
I was upon the point of making some reply, when the hangings at the
doorway parted, and a No-van warrior entered. Behind him were three
others. They were walking erect, with drawn spears.
“Here he is,” said the leader, and then, addressing me, “Come!”
“Why?” I asked. “What do you want of me?”
“Is it for you to question,” he demanded, “when Ga-va-go commands?”
“He has sent for me?” I asked.
“Come!” repeated the leader, and an instant later they had hooked
their spears about my arms and neck and none too gently they dragged
me from the hut. I had something of a presentiment that this was to
be the end. At the doorway I half turned to glance back at the girl.
She was standing wide-eyed and tense, watching them drag me away.
“Good-bye—Julian,” she said. “We shall never meet again for there is
none to carry our souls to a new incarnation.”
“We are not dead yet,” I called back, “and remember if you need me
call me,” and then the hanging dropped behind us, and she was shut
off from my vision.
They did not take me to my own hut, but to another, not far distant
from Nah-ee-lah’s, and there they bound my hands and feet with strips
of leather and threw me upon the ground. Afterwards they left me,
dropping the hanging before the entrance. I did not think that they
would eat me, for Orthis had joined with me in explaining to Ga-va-go
and the others that our flesh was poisonous, and though they may have
questioned the veracity of our statements, nevertheless I was quite
sure that they would not risk the chance of our having told the
truth.
The Va-gas obtain their leather by curing the hides of their dead.
The better portions they use for their trappings and harness. The
other portions they cut into thin strips, which they use in lieu of
rope. Most of this is very strong, but some of it is not, especially
that which is improperly cured.
The warriors who had been sent to seize me had scarcely left the hut
before I commenced working with my bonds in an attempt to loosen or
break them. I exerted all my strength in the effort, until I became
sure that those which held my hands were stretching. The effort,
however, was very tiring, and I had to stop often and rest. I do not
know how long I worked at them, but it must have been a very long
time before I became convinced that however much they gave they were
not going to break. Just what I intended to do with my freedom I do
not know, since there was little or no chance that I might escape
from the village. Perpetual daylight has its disadvantages, and this
was one of them, that there was no concealing nocturnal darkness
during which I might sneak away from the village unseen.
As I lay resting after my exertions, I suddenly became aware of a
strange, moaning sound from without, and then the hut shook, and I
realized that another storm had come. Soon after I heard the beat of
rain drops on the roof, and then a staggering, deafening peal of
lunar thunder. As the storm waxed in violence, I could imagine the
terror of the No-vans, nor even in my plight could I resist the
desire to smile at their discomfiture. I knew that they must all be
hiding in their huts, and again I renewed my efforts to break the
bonds at my wrists, but all to no avail; and then suddenly, above the
moaning of the wind and the beating of the rain, there came
distinctly to my ears in a clear, full voice, a single word:
“Julian!”
“Nah-ee-lah,” I thought. “She needs me. What are they doing to her?”
There flashed quickly before my mental vision a dozen scenes, in each
of which I saw the divine figure of the Moon Maid, the victim of some
fiendish brutality. Now she was being devoured by Ga-va-go; now some
of the females were tearing her to pieces, and again the warriors
were piercing that beautiful skin with their cruel spears; or it was
Orthis, come to claim Ga-va-go’s gift. It was this last thought, I
think, which turned me almost mad, giving to my muscles the strength
of a dozen men. I have always been accounted a powerful man, but in
the instant that that sweet voice came across the storm to find me,
and my imagination pictured her in the clutches of Orthis, something
within moved me to Herculean efforts far transcending aught that I
had previously achieved. As though they had been cotton twine now,
the leather bonds at my wrists snapped asunder, and an instant later
those at my ankles were torn away, and I was upon my feet. I sprang
to the door and into the open, where I found myself in a maelstrom of
wind and rain. In two bounds I had cleared the space between the hut
in which I had been confined and that occupied by Nah-ee-lah, had
torn the hanging aside, and had sprung into the interior; and there I
beheld the materialization of my last vision—there was Orthis, one
arm about the slender body of the girl pinning her arms close to her
side, while his other hand was at her throat, choking her and
pressing her slowly backward across his knees toward the ground.
He was facing the door this time, and saw me enter, and as he
realized who it was, he hurled the girl roughly from him and rose to
meet me. For once in his life he seemed to know no fear, and I think
that what with his passion for the girl, and the hatred he felt for
me, and the rage that my interference must have engendered, he was
momentarily insane, for he suddenly leaped upon me like a madman, and
for an instant I came near going down beneath his blows—but only for
an instant, and then I caught him heavily upon the chin with my left
fist, and again, full in the face with my right, and though he was a
splendid boxer, he was helpless in my hands. Neither of us had a
weapon, or one of us certainly would have been killed in short order.
As it was I tried to kill him with my bare fists, and at last, when
he had fallen for the dozenth time, and I had picked him up and held
him upon his feet and struck him repeatedly again and again, he no
longer moved. I was sure that he was dead, and it was with a feeling
of relief and of satisfaction in a duty well performed that I looked
down upon his lifeless body. Then I turned to Nah-ee-lah.
“Come,” I said, “there has been given to us this chance for escape.
Never again may such a fortuitous combination of circumstances arise.
The Va-gas will be hiding in their huts, crouching in terror of the
storm. I do not know whither we may fly, but wherever it be, we can
be in no greater danger than we are here.”
She shuddered a little at the thought of going out into the terrors
of the storm. Though not so fearful of it as the ignorant Va-gas, she
still feared the wrath of the elements, as do all the inhabitants of
Va-nah, but she did not hesitate, and as I stretched out a hand, she
placed one of hers within it, and together we stepped out into the
swirling rain and wind.