"You'll do now," he said, not unkindly, and helped her to her feet.
"Come on. We haven't any time to waste."
When they reached the surface, Jupiter saw that night had fallen,
and with it a thick fog had rolled in from the _Dra Dur_, choking
the streets solid. It was like wet lamb's wool pressing against his
eyeballs.
They held hands to keep from becoming separated. Voices reached them
out of the fog. Footsteps passed and faded away. At length they found a
stair leading to the top of the sea wall, felt their way upward.
* * * * *
It seemed like hours to Jupiter before they reached the top. He lay
flat on his belly, felt for the edge. He could see nothing below, but a
faint lap-lap of wavelets against the base of the wall came up to him.
"How deep is the water here?"
"D-deep enough," Tabak whispered in a frightened voice.
"All right, we'll jump."
Lete gasped. There was a startled, protesting growl from Reiloc.
"Jump blind, from here--from the top of the wall into the sea?" the
Nehogan said. "Are you mad, Jupiter?"
"Can you think of any other way to escape?"
Tabak said in a queer, strained voice: "I'll jump. I'm not afraid--not
too afraid."
Jupiter heard her move toward the edge of the wall. "No! Wait! I'll go
first--"
But the Caligan girl had already leaped outward into the thick wet
darkness.
Jupiter felt suddenly cold all over. He knew that he would never smell
salt water again without recalling the horrible expectancy of that
moment. Time stood still. Then far below they heard a splash!
"Tabak!" he called softly. He gave her time to rise to the surface.
"Tabak!" He didn't dare lift his voice.
There was no answer. Just the monotonous lap of the water against the
sea wall.
"God!" he thought. "She's hurt herself!" And he sprang outward into the
encompassing blackness.
He seemed to fall for an eternity before he struck. It was like hitting
a plank. The jar ran up his legs. He went down, down, half-dazed. Then
he was clawing frantically to the surface.
He broke water. He could see nothing. It was like the bottom of a well.
"Tabak! Tabak! Where are you?"
His fingers touched something. It was the girl's shoulder. She was
moving feebly, half-conscious. Treading water, he seized her, slid his
arm across her chest, began to tow her away from the wall.
"Jump!" he called to Reiloc. "I've Tabak."
"By the Radiant God!" came the Nehogan's hoarse voice; "here I come!"
There was a splash, followed almost immediately by another, as the cave
girl leaped also. The pair of them came up, blowing, unhurt.
"Which way?" Reiloc gasped.
"Follow the wall." Jupiter was trying to recall Tabak's memory
patterns. "We're near the edge of the city, I think. There should be a
beach just ahead."
They swam on, guiding themselves by the lap of water against the base
of the wall. Jupiter, with his arm across Tabak's shoulder and breast,
felt the girl shudder.
"Jupiter," she said weakly. "Jupiter, is that you?"
"Yes. Are you all right?"
"I--I think so. I can swim now."
All at once, he realized that the lapping of the water had changed to a
faint, shushing sound.
"The beach!" he said.
Reiloc grunted. Lete didn't say anything. The wild girl swam like an
otter, silent and alert. Jupiter touched bottom, helped Tabak up the
beach, where they all flung themselves down in the warm sand.
A breeze had started up and was ripping the fog into wisps. A few stars
glittered from the torn sky. The wall of the city loomed above them
dark and threatening.
Tabak's fingers closed convulsively over Jupiter's hand.
"I'm afraid," she whispered. "It's so big and so empty out here. And
there's no place where we can hide from them. They'll be after us in
the morning with Nehogans and web-birds. They'll never let you go,
Jupiter, never! They're afraid that you'll be able to unite the wild
Kagans--"
"If we can only reach the ship," he muttered, and felt around in his
pack for the metal tentacle that Reiloc had hacked from the Radiant God.
It was safe, thank the Lord, though it was only a fraction of the fuel
he would need. The whole idol, that was what he must have. His eyes
narrowed in the darkness.
The cave girl said in a nervous voice, "We must reach the jungle before
daybreak."
He pulled himself to his feet. Lete took the lead, striking out for the
invisible hills. She seemed to possess an instinct as unerring as a
homing pigeon's. Every step, Jupiter realized, was taking him further
and further from the source of his fuel.
* * * * *
During the next twelve days they dodged about the hills. Time after
time they escaped discovery by the narrowest margin. Parties of
Nehogans combed the jungle, while the web-birds wheeled back and forth
in the sky like observation planes. Nothing but Lete's junglecraft
saved them.
On the thirteenth day they ran into a party of hunters from Lete's
colony. The cave men were strongly thewed brutes, armed with spears and
clubs, dressed in the skins of animals.
They were suspicious at first. But when Lete explained that Jupiter was
the Wanderer-from-Beyond, they grew excited as children.
Jupiter had to demonstrate his lightning stick. That night they had
a feast, and the cave men left at dawn to spread the word that the
Wanderer-from-Beyond had actually appeared.
Two days later they reached the ship.
As Jupiter parted the last screen of leaves and saw the familiar hull
of the Mizar, he had to bottle up his emotions to keep from yelling
and dancing a jig. He ran his hand fondly along the cool metal, caught
Tabak watching him with a twinkle in her blue eyes. He took his hand
away guiltily, started for the port.
It was then that Lete balked. The cave girl refused absolutely to enter
the belly of the monster, as she put it. Nor did Reiloc look overjoyed
at the prospect.
Jupiter was determined to drop like a fiery comet out of the night sky
before the startled cave men. At length he consented to let Reiloc and
Lete go ahead on foot to prepare the wild Kagans for his coming.
He and Tabak watched the pair disappear into the jungle, then he
touched the button activating the lock.
Even as he did so there was a sudden swish overhead, and a shadow raced
across the clearing. The Caligan girl screamed. From the corner of his
eye, Jupiter saw a web-bird dropping out of the sky like a hawk!
He picked up Tabak, tossed her bodily through the port, tumbled in
after her. He kicked the massive door shut not a second too soon.
Racing up the ladder, he searched the sky through the transparent
thermoplas blister.
It was an empty, hot blue bowl cupping the ship, the jungles and
mountains. Then he saw the web-bird rise in sweeping spirals like an
enormous buzzard.
A black speck appeared above the crest of a ridge. It was another of
the ungainly creatures. It joined the first and the pair began to
circle high in the sky above the ship. Three more flapped into his
range of vision. They kept coming until at least fifty of the giant
web-birds hung wheeling and dipping monotonously above the Mizar, but
so far away they were little more than black specks.