CAPTIVE
When Goork and his people saw that I had no they to me.
"You do not come from Kolk, but from the Sly One!" they cried. "He has sent you from the to upon us. Go away, or we will set upon you and kill you."
I that all my had been from me, and that the must have taken the too; but they didn't me. As proof that I was one of Hooja's people, they pointed to my weapons, which they said were like those of the clan. Further, they said that no good man in company with a jalok—and that by this line of I was a man.
I saw that they were not naturally a war-like tribe, for they that I in peace than them to attack me, the Sarians would have killed a and into his purposes later.
I think Raja their antagonism, for he at his and ominously. They were a in of him, and at a safe distance. It was that they not why it was that this did not turn upon me and me.
I a long time there trying to Goork to accept me at my own valuation, but he was too canny. The best he would do was to give us food, which he did, and direct me as to the of the upon which to attempt a landing, though as he told me I am sure that he my for but a to him as to my true knowledge of the stronghold.
At last I away from them—rather disheartened, for I had to be able to a of them in an attempt to Hooja's and Dian. Back along the beach toward the we our way.
By the time we came to the I was dog-tired. Throwing myself upon the I soon slept, and with Raja out me I a security than I had for a long time.
I much to Raja's upon me. The moment I opened mine he rose, himself, and without a into the jungle. For minutes I him through the brush. Then all was silent.
I if he had left me to return to his pack. A of me. With a I to the work of the to the sea. As I entered the where the a from the boat's side, and a well-aimed of my it down. I was hungry—I had not it before—so I sat upon the of the and my repast. The last gone, I again myself with for my to the island.
I did not know for that Dian was there; but I as much. Nor I what might me in an to her. For a time I about after I had the at the water's edge, against that Raja would return; but he did not, so I the through the and into it.
I was still a little by the of my new-found friend, though I to myself that it was nothing but what I might have expected.
The had me well in the time that we had been together, and had his of to me, since he had saved my life, or at least my liberty, no less than I had saved his life when he was and drowning.
The across the water to the was uneventful. I was to be in the again when I passed out of the of the world about half-way the and the island. The of the sun did a great toward my spirits, and the in which I had been almost since entering the Land of Awful Shadow. There is nothing more to me than of sunshine.
I had to the point, which Goork said he to be the least of the island, as he had put off from there. I a out into the sea and almost to the surf. It was a place to land, and I now why it was not used by the natives; but at last I managed, after a good wetting, to beach my and the cliffs.
The country them appeared more open and park-like than I had anticipated, since from the the entire that is visible with jungle. This jungle, as I see from the vantage-point of the cliff-top, but a narrow the sea and the more open and of the interior. Farther there was a range of low but very hills, and here and there all about were visible flat-topped of rock—small mountains, in fact—which me of pictures I had of in New Mexico. Altogether, the country was very much and very beautiful. From where I I no less than a dozen from among the table-buttes and into a river which away in a direction toward the op-posite end of the island.
As I let my over the I aware of moving upon the top of a far-distant butte. Whether they were or human, though, I not make out; but at least they were alive, so I to my search for Hooja's in the direction of this butte.
To to the no great effort. As I along through the and the flowers, my in my hand and my across my with its aurochs-hide strap, I equal to any emergency, for any danger.
I had a little distance, and I was through a of which at the of one of the flat-topped hills, when I of the of being watched. My life Pellucidar has my of sight, hearing, and smell, and, too, or that in man. But, though I was positive that were upon me, I see no of any thing the other than the many, gay-plumaged and little monkeys which the trees with life, color, and action.
To you it may that my was the result of an imagination, or to the of the of the little monkeys or the ones of the birds; but there is a which I cannot the of and espionage. A sheep might at you without a through your mind, you are in no from a sheep. But let a tiger at you from ambush, and unless your are you will presently to about and be with vague, terror.
Thus was it with me then. I my more and my javelin, it in my left hand. I to left and right, but I saw nothing. Then, all suddenly, there about my and shoulders, around my arms and body, a number of ropes.
In a I was up as as you might wish. One of the to my and was up with a that me to my upon the ground. Then something and upon my back. I to my knife, but hands my and, them my back, them securely.
Next my were bound. Then I was over upon my to look up into the of my captors.
And what faces! Imagine if you can a a sheep and a gorilla, and you will have some of the of the that close above me, and of those of the half-dozen others that about. There was the length and great of the sheep, and the bull-neck and of the gorilla. The and were man and gorilla-like.
As they over me they in a mono-syllabic that was perfectly to me. It was something of a language that had no need for but and verbs, but such as it were the same as those of the beings of Pellucidar. It was by many which in the speech-gaps.
I asked them what they doing with me; but, like our own North American Indians when questioned by a white man, they not to me. One of them me to his as as if I had been a shoat. He was a creature, as were his fellows, seven upon his and more than a of a ton.
Two ahead of my and three behind. In this order we cut to the right through the to the of the hill where appeared to our progress in this direction. But my paused. Like upon a wall, they that barrier, clinging, Heaven how, to its face. During most of the to the I must admit that my on end. Presently, however, we the thing and upon the level which it.
Immediately from all about, out of and rough, lairs, a perfect of to my captors. They about, at my and attempting to their hands upon me, from or a to do me I did not know, since my with and them off.
Across the we went, to stop at last a large of in which an opening appeared. Here my set me upon my and called out a word which like "Gr-gr-gr!" and which I later learned was the name of their king.
Presently there from the of the a creature, from a hundred battles, almost and with an empty where one had been. The other eye, in its mildness, gave the most to the beast, which but for that single was the most thing that one imagine.
I had the black, hairless, long-tailed ape—things of the mainland—the which Perry might the link the higher orders of and man—but these brute-men of Gr-gr-gr to set that to zero, for there was less the black ape-men and these than there was the and man, while had many attributes, some of which were in one and some in the other.
The black were and in their retreats; they dogs and ruminants, in which respect they were than the beings of Pellucidar; but they appeared to have only a language, and long, tails.
On the other hand, Gr-gr-gr's people were, for the most part, hairy, but they were and had a language to that of the of Pellucidar; were they arboreal. Their skins, where skin showed, were white.
From the and others that I have noted my long life Pellucidar, which is now through an age to some pre-glacial age of the crust, I am to the that is not so much a from one to another as it is an accident of breeding, either by or the of birth. In other words, it is my that the man was a of nature—nor would one have to upon his to be that Gr-gr-gr and his were also freaks.
The great man-brute seated himself upon a rock—his throne, I imagine—just the entrance to his lair. With on and in he me through his sheep-eye while one of my told of my taking.
When all had been related Gr-gr-gr questioned me. I shall not attempt to these people in their own tongue—you would have in them than did I. Instead, I shall put the into their mouths which will to you the ideas which they to convey.
"You are an enemy," was Gr-gr-gr's declaration. "You to the of Hooja."
Ah! So they Hooja and he was their enemy! Good!
"I am an enemy of Hooja," I replied. "He has my and I have come here to take her away from him and Hooja."
"How you do that alone?"
"I do not know," I answered, "but I should have had you not me. What do you to do with me?"
"You shall work for us."
"You will not kill me?" I asked.
"We do not kill in self-defense," he replied; "self-defense and punishment. Those who would kill us and those who do we kill. If we you were one of Hooja's people we might kill you, for all Hooja's people are people; but you say you are an enemy of Hooja. You may not speak the truth, but until we learn that you have we shall not kill you. You shall work."
"If you Hooja," I suggested, "why not let me, who him, too, go and him?"
For some time Gr-gr-gr sat in thought. Then he his and my guard.
"Take him to his work," he ordered.
His was final. As if to it he and entered his burrow. My me into the mesa, where we came presently to a or valley, at one end of which a warm spring.
The view that opened me was the most that I have seen. In the hollow, which must have hundred acres, were of things, and all about with or with no at all other than their hands were many of the brute-men in the that I had Pellucidar.
They put me to work in a of melons.
I was a farmer particularly for this of work, and I am free to that time had so as it did the hour or the year I there at that work. How long it was I do not know, of course; but it was all too long.
The that about me were and friendly. One of them proved to be a son of Gr-gr-gr. He had some minor law, and was out his in the fields. He told me that his had upon this always, and that there were other like them upon other hilltops. They had no and had always in peace and harmony, only by the larger of the island, until my had come under a called Hooja, and and killed them when they to from their natural to visit their upon other mesas.
Now they were afraid; but some day they would go in a and upon Hooja and his people and them all. I to him that I was Hooja's enemy, and asked, when they were to go, that I be allowed to go with them, or, still, that they let me go ahead and learn all that I about the village where Hooja so that they might attack it with the best of success.
Gr-gr-gr's son much by my suggestion. He said that when he was through in the he would speak to his father about the matter.
Some time after this Gr-gr-gr came through the where we were, and his son spoke to him upon the subject, but the old was in anything but a good humor, for he the and, upon me, me that he was that I had to him, and that I was one of Hooja's people.
"Wherefore," he concluded, "we shall you as soon as the are cultivated. Hasten, therefore."
And I did. I to the which among the melon-vines. Where there had been one before, I two healthy ones. When I a particularly promising of than among my melons, I it up and it among my charges.
My masters did not to my perfidy. They saw me always in the melon-patch, and as time enters not into the of Pellucidarians—even of beings and much less of and brutes—I might have on through this had not that which took me out of the melon-patch for good and all.
