RACING FOR LIFE
At last the sea subsided, and we were able to a view of the of small in our wake. There must have been two hundred of them. Juag said that he had so many in all his life. Where had they come from? Juag was to a guess.
"Hooja," he said, "was many to his to the great river and up it toward Sari. He was them with almost all his and many upon the Island of Trees. No one else in all the history of Pellucidar has so many as they told me Hooja was building. These must be Hooja's boats."
"And they were out to sea by the great just as we were," Dian.
"There can be no of them," I agreed.
"What shall we do?" asked Juag.
"Suppose we make sure that they are Hooja's people," Dian. "It may be that they are not, and that if we away from them we learn definitely who they are, we shall be away from a to live and the mainland. They may be a people of we have heard, and if so we can ask them to help us—if they know the way to the mainland."
"Which they will not,' Juag.
"Well," I said, "it can't make our any more trying to wait until we out who they are. They are for us now. Evidently they have our sail, and that we do not to their fleet."
"They want to ask the way to the themselves," said Juag, who was nothing if not a pessimist.
"If they want to catch us, they can do it if they can than we can sail," I said. "If we let them come close to their identity, and can then sail than they can paddle, we can away from them anyway, so we might as well wait."
And wait we did.
The sea rapidly, so that by the time the had come five hundred yards of us we see them all plainly. Every one was for us. The dugouts, which were of length, were by twenty paddlers, ten to a side. Besides the there were twenty-five or more in each boat.
When the leader was a hundred yards from us Dian called our attention to the that of her were Sagoths. That us that the was Hooja's. I told Juag to them and what he could, while I in the of our as much out of as possible. Dian at full length in the bottom; I did not want them to see and her if they were in truth Hooja's people.
"Who are you?" Juag, up in the and making a of his palms.
A in the of the leading canoe—a that I was sure I he spoke.
"I am Hooja!" the man, in answer to Juag.
For some he did not his and slave—possibly he had so many of them.
"I come from the Island of Trees," he continued. "A hundred of my were in the great and all their drowned. Where is the land? What are you, and what thing is that which from the little tree in the of your canoe?"
He to our sail, in the wind.
"We, too, are lost," Juag. "We know not where the land is. We are going to look for it now."
So saying he to the canoe's nose the wind, while I fast the that our sail. We it time to be going.
There wasn't much wind at the time, and the heavy, was slow in under way. I it would any momentum. And all the while Hooja's was nearer, by the arms of his twenty paddlers. Of course, their was much larger than ours, and, consequently, and more cumbersome; nevertheless, it was along at a clip, and ours was yet but moving. Dian and I out of as much as possible, for the two were now well bow-shot of one another, and I that Hooja had archers.
Hooja called to Juag to stop when he saw that our was moving. He was much in the sail, and not a little awed, as I tell by his and questions. Raising my head, I saw him plainly. He would have an excellent for one of my guns, and I had been that I had them.
We were now up speed a trifle, and he was not upon us so fast as at first. In consequence, his that we stop to as he aware that we were trying to him.
"Come back!" he shouted. "Come back, or I'll fire!"
I use the word fire it more nearly into English the Pellucidarian word trag, which the of any missile.
But Juag only his more tightly—the that answered the purpose of rudder, and to the wind by strokes. Then Hooja gave the to some of his to fire upon us. I couldn't in the of the boat, Juag alone to the shafts, so I and, another paddle, set to work to help him. Dian joined me, though I did my best to her to sheltered; but being a woman, she must have her own way.
The that Hooja saw us he us. The of he how he was that we were about to into his hands. A of about us. Then Hooja his men to firing—he wanted us alive. None of the us, for Hooja's were not nearly the that are my Sarians and Amozites.
We had now to our own on about terms with Hooja's paddlers. We did not to be gaining, though; and neither did they. How long this nerve-racking I cannot guess, though we had nearly our supply of when the wind up a and we to away.
Not once yet had we land, I it, since so many of the I had were with islands. Our was anything but pleasant, yet I think that Hooja and his were off than we, for they had no food water at all.
Far out us in a long line that in the distance, to be in the haze, Hooja's two hundred boats. But one would have been to have taken us it have come alongside. We had some fifty yards ahead of Hooja—there had been times when we were ten yards in advance-and were from capture. Hooja's men, in relays, were to the of the under which they had been to work without food or water, and I think their us almost as much as the of the wind.
Hooja must have to that he was going to us, for he again gave orders that we be upon. Volley after of about us. The was so great by this time that most of the short, while those that us were to allow us to them off with our paddles. However, it was a most ordeal.
Hooja in the of his boat, alternately his men to speed and at me. But we to away from him. At last the wind rose to a gale, and we away from our as if they were still. Juag was so that he all about his and thirst. I think that he had been to the which I called a sail, and that in the of his he that the would us; but now he couldn't it enough.
We had a for a time, and Hooja's so that we no longer them. And then—ah, I shall that moment—Dian to her with a of "Land!"
Sure enough, ahead, a long, low across our bow. It was still a long way off, and we couldn't make out it was or mainland; but at least it was land. If were grateful, we were then. Raja and Ranee were to for of food, and I that the often upon us, though I am sure that no such entered the of her mate. We them most closely, however. Once while Ranee I managed to a rope around her and make her fast to the of the boat. Then I a for Dian. It was close in that little for three beings and two wild, man-eating dogs; but we had to make the best of it, since I would not to Juag's that we kill and eat Raja and Ranee.
We good time to a miles of the shore. Then the wind died out. We were all of us up to such a of that the was hard to bear. And it was a blow, too, since we not tell in what the wind might again; but Juag and I set to work to the distance.
Almost the wind rose again from the opposite direction from which it had blown, so that it was hard work making progress against it. Next it again so that we had to turn and with it to the to keep from being in the of the seas.
And while we were all these Hooja's appeared in the distance!
They had gone to the left of our course, for they were now almost us as we ran to the coast; but we were not much of being overtaken in the wind that was blowing. The on increasing, but it was fitful, upon us in great and then going almost for an instant. It was after one of these that the occurred. Our sail and our when of a a particularly us. Before I cut the the had at the in which it was stepped.
The had happened; Juag and I and the with the wind; but that was the of the gale, which died out after, us free to make for the shore, which we no time in attempting. But Hooja had closer in toward than we, so it looked as if he might us off we land. However, we did our best to him, Dian taking a with us.
We were in a way to succeed when there appeared, from among the trees the beach, a of yelling, painted savages, all of devilish-looking weapons. So was their that we at once the of attempting to land among them.
Hooja was closer to us. There was no wind. We not to him. And with our sail gone, no wind would help us, though, as if in at our plight, a was now blowing. But we had no of while our us, so we to our and, with the coast, did our best to away from our pursuers.
It was a experience. We were by of food. We were the of thirst. Capture and death were close at hand. Yet I think that we gave a good account of ourselves in our final to escape. Our was so much smaller and than any of Hooja's that the three of us it ahead almost as as his larger go under their twenty paddles.
As we along the for one of those that may hours into where the labor is soul-searing and there is no way to measure time, I saw what I took for the opening to a or the mouth of a great river a ahead of us. I that we might make for it; but with the of Hooja close and the who along the to us, I not attempt it.
We were not from in that from death. Even as I I opportunity to occasionally toward the natives. They were white, but painted. From their and I took them to be a most race. I was that we had not succeeded in landing among them.
Hooja's had been in much more when we them this time than on the occasion the tempest. Now they were moving in of us, all well the of a mile. Five of them were leading, all abreast, and were two hundred yards from us. When I over my I see that the had already to their in to fire upon us the moment that they should range.
Hope was low in my breast. I not see the of them, for they were us now, since they were able to work their in relays, while we three were the that had been put upon us.
It was then that Juag called my attention to the in the shore-line which I had either a or the mouth of a great river. There I saw moving slowly out into the sea that which my with wonder.
