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Chapter 9: The Fight · The Eternal Savage

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  Section twenty two of The Eternal Savage by Edgar Riceboroughs. This LibriVox recording is
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  in the public domain. Chapter nine the fight. After Nu, the son
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  of Nu had left his father and his father's people to go in search of
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  Natoul and Hud, the warrior chief had sat in silence for many minutes.
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  Beside him sat Tha, father of Nadoul, and roundabout squatted the other members
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  of the tribe. All were silent in the face of the sorrow that had
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  overtaken their chief and its principal lieutenant. Nu and Natoul were great favorites among
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  their savage fellows. Not so, however, Hud, and anger against him
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  was bitter. Presently knew the chief spoke, We cannot go in search of
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  a new home, he said, leaving two of our children behind. His
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  listeners knew that he ignored Hud, that Hud, in bringing this sorrow upon
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  the tribe, had forfeited his rights among them. They were satisfied that it
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  should be so. A young warrior stood up with his spear. He drew
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  a line upon the ground from east to west, lying just north of him.
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  Nu the son of Nu passed through the ordeals with me. We became
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  men and warriors upon the same day. Together we hunted our first lion.
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  He paused, and then, pointing to the line he had drawn upon the
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  ground, continued, never shall I cross this line until I have found Nu,
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  the son of Nu. As he ceased speaking, he drew himself to
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  his full height, and, with arms folded across his broad chest, turned
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  to face his chief. From the tribe came grunts of approval. All eyes
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  turned toward Nu. What would he do? The young warrior's act was nothing
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  short of rebellion. Suddenly, out brother of Natul sprang to his feet and
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  stood beside the defiant warrior. He said nothing. His act proclaimed his intention.
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  Knew The chief looked at the two young men from beneath his shaggy brows.
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  The watchers were almost certain that a half smile played grimly about his grim
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  countenance. He too arose. He walked to where the two stood, and
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  ranged himself beside them. Thal was the first to guess the significance of the
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  act, and the instant that he did so, he leaped a new side.
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  Then the others understood, and a moment later the whole tribe was ranged
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  with their backs to Dag's line facing toward the south. They were dancing and
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  shouting. Now. The men waved their stone axes or threw their long spears
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  high in air. The women beat their palms together, and the little children
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  ran skipping about, getting in everyone's way. After a few minutes of this,
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  New started off toward the side, telling off a score of men to
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  remain with the women and children, who were to follow slowly back toward their
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  former dwellings, while the chief, with the balance of the fighting men,
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  searched rapidly ahead for signs of New and nott Ull. First they came upon
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  the dead body of Hut within the cave and the face of the barren cliffs.
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  From there they discovered new spoor and faint traces of the older spoor of
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  the girl, showing that Nu had not overtaken her. At this point on
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  they went along the beach toward their old caves, where everywhere the signs of
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  one or the other of those they followed were distinguishable. It was dark when
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  they reached the caves, and the following morning they had difficulty in again picking
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  up the spore because of the fact that the tide had obliterated it where it
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  had touched the sandy beach at low tide. Now Nu separated his warriors into
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  three parties. One with which he remained, was to keep south along the
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  beach. The second was to work into the jungle for a mile and then
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  turned south, while the third was to search straight inland toward the west.
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  In this way, one of them must come upon those they sought, or
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  some sign of them. Tha was in command of the central party, and
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  At was with him. Dag was withnew the chief. They beat rapidly along
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  the beach and spread out across it from the water to the jungle, that
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  nothing might escape their observation. Several times they followed false leads into the jungle,
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  so that they lost much time, with the result that darkness came upon
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  them without their having discovered the two they sought. They camped upon the sand
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  just outside the jungle, building a ring of fires about them to keep off
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  the wild beasts. Then they lay down to sleep, all but two,
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  who kept watch and tended the fires. Dag was one of the watchers.
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  As the night grew darker, he became aware of a glow in the south.
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  He called his companion's attention to it. There are men there, he
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  said, that is the light from beast fires. Listen, savage yells rose
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  faintly from the distance and in the direction of the lights. Dag was on
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  the point of arousing new when his keen eyes detected something moving rarely between the
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  jungle and the camp. Evidently it had but just crept out of the dense
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  vegetation. Ordinarily, Dag might have thought it a beast of prey, but
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  with the discovery of the nearness of a camp of men, he was not
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  so sure. True men seldom crept through the jungle after darkness had fallen,
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  but there was something about the movements of this creature that suggested the crawling of
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  a man. On all fours. Dag circled the camp, apparently oblivious of
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  the presence of the intruder. He threw a stick upon a blaze. Here
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  and there he stamped out some smoking faggots that had fallen in so the ring.
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  But all the while he watched the movements of the thing that crept through
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  the outer darkness toward the camp. He could see it more distinctly now and
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  was aware that from time to time it cast a backward glance over its shoulder.
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  Had it a companion or companions, was something following it. Dagg scrutinized
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  the black face of the jungle beyond the creeping thing. Ah, so that
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  was it. A dark shadow had stepped from the somber wood upon the trail
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  of the creature that was now half way across the open space between the jungle
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  and the camp. Dag needed no second glance to attest the identity of the
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  newcomer. The lithe body, the black mass that marked the bristling mane,
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  the crouching pose, the two angry splotches of yellow green fire. No doubt
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  here it was Zor, the lion stalking his prey. Dag whispered a word
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  to his companion, who came to his side. The two stood looking straight
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  toward the nearer creature, with no attempt to disguise the fact that they had
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  discovered it. It is a man, whispered Dagg's companion, And then with
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  a frightful roar, Zor charged, and the creature before it rose upon two
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  feet fold in the light of the nearer blaze, with a cry that aroused
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  the whole camp. Dag leapt beyond the flaming circle, his spear hand back
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  thrown the stone head laboriously chipped to a sharp point directed at the charging Zor.
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  The weapon passed a scarce hand's breadth from the shoulder of Zor's prey and
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  buried itself in the breast of the beast. At the same instant, Dag
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  leaped past the fugitive, placing himself directly in the path of the lion,
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  with only an axe and knife of stone to combat the fury of the raging,
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  wounded demon of destruction. Over his shoulder, he threw a word to
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  the one he had leapt forth to succor run within them. The beast fires
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  natould. He cried, Zor's mate is coming to his aid, and sure
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  enough, springing lightly across the sands, came a fierce lioness maned like her
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  lord. Now Dag's fellow warrior had sprung to his side, and from the
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  camp were running the balance of the savage spearmen. Zor, rearing upon his
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  hind feet, was striking at Dag, who leapt nimbly from side to side,
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  dodging the terrific blows of the mighty taloned paws and striking the beast's head
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  repeatedly with his heavy axe. The other warrior met the charge of the infuriated
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  lioness with his spear straight into the broad breast ran the sharp point, while
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  the man clung tenaciously to the haft, whipped hither and thither as the beast
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  reared and wheeled and struck at him with her claws. Now knew the chief
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  and his fellows arrived upon the scene. A score of spears bristled from the
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  bodies of Zor and his mate, axes fell upon their heads, and knew
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  the Mighty leaped upon Zor's back with only his stone knife. There he clung
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  to the thick mane, driving the puny weapon time and again into back and
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  side, until at last the roaring, screaming beast rolled over upon its side
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  to rise no more. The lioness proved more tenacious of life than her lord,
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  and though bristling with spears and cut to ribbons with the knives of her
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  antagonists, she charged into close quarters with a sudden rush that found one of
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  the cavemen a fraction of a second too slow. The strong claws raked him
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  from neck to groin, and as he fell, the mighty jaws closed with
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  a sickening crunch upon his skull at bay over her victim. The lioness stood
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  growling and threatening, while the wild warriors danced in a circle about her,
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  awaiting the chance to rush in and avenge their comrade. Within the circle of
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  fires, Natoul replenished the blaze, keeping the whole scene brilliantly lighted. For
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  the warriors that she had stumbled upon, men of her own tribe, so
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  unexpectedly seemed a little short of miraculous. She could scarce wait for the battle
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  with the lions to be concluded. So urgent was the business that filled her
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  thoughts. But at last Zora's savage mate lay dead, and as knew,
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  the chief returned to the camp, Natoul leaped forward to meet him. Quick
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  She cried, they are killing Nu, thy son, and she pointed toward
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  the south, in the direction of the glare that was now plainly visible through
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  the darkness. Nu did not wait to ask questions. Then he called his
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  warriors about him. Natoul says that they slay Knu, the son of Nu.
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  There, he said, pointing toward the distant fire glow. Come.
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  As Nadoul led them along the beach and through the jungle, she told Nu,
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  the chief, all that had transpired since Hud had stolen her away.
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  She told of her wanderings and of the boat builders, of how one had
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  chased her, and of the terrible creature that had seized and carried her to
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  its nest. She told of the strange creature that crawled into the shelter where
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  she was confined, leaping upon the back of tur and of how she slipped
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  out of the shelter as the two battled, and escaped into the jungle,
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  wriggling her hands from their bonds as she ran. She shuddered as she told
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  new of the gauntlet of savage beasts she had been forced to run between the
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  beast fires of the boat builders and the safety of the jungle trees. I
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  rested for the balance of the night in a great tree close beside the village
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  of the Strangers, she said. Early the next morning, I set out
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  in search of food, intending to travel northward until I came to our old
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  dwellings, where I could live in comparative safety. But all the time I
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  kept wondering what it might have been that leapt upon turns back in the shelter
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  the night before. And the more I thought about it, the more apparent,
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  it became that it might have been a man. That it must have
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  been a man, for what animal could pass through the beast fires unseen?
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  And so, after filling my stomach, I crept back through the trees to
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  the edge of the village, and there I watched the sun then was straight
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  above me. Half the day was gone. I could not reach the caves
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  before darkness if anything occurred to delay me, And as I might at any
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  moment stumble upon some of the strangers or be treed by erb or zor or
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  Ooh, I decided to wait until early tomorrow morning before setting out for the
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  caves. There was something within me that urged me to remain. What it
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  was, I do not know, but it was as though there were two
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  nadules, one wishing to hurry away from the land of the Strangers as rapidly
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  as possible, and the other insisting that it was her duty to remain.
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  At last, I could deny my other self no longer, I must stay.
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  And so I found a comfortable position in a great tree that grows close
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  beside the clearing where the Stranger's village stands, and there I remained until long
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  after darkness came It was then that I saw the thing within the village that
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  set me here. Before I had seen your fires and wondered who it might
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  be that came from the north. I knew that all the strangers had returned
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  in the afternoon, so it could be none of them, And the first
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  tribe to the north I knew was my own, so I hoped, without
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  believing, that it might indeed be some of thy warriors knew, And then
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  I saw that something was going to occur in the village below me. Warriors
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  approached a hut from which they dragged a captive by the legs. They dragged
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  him through the village and about it, and as they did so, the
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  women and children tortured and spat upon the prisoner. At first I could not
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  see the victim plainly, but at last, as they raised him to his
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  feet and bound him to a stake where they were going to roast him alive
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  among slow fires, I saw his face. Oh, Nu, can you
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  not guess who it was that had followed me so far, had overcome such
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  dangers, and fought his way through the awful waters to rescue me. Nu,
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  the son of Nu, said the old warrior, and his chest swelled
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  with pride as he strode through the jungle. In the rear of the village,
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  angry beasts of prey menaced the rescuing party upon every hand. Twice they
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  were attacked and compelled to battle with some fierce primordial brute. But at last
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  they won to the edge of the jungle behind the village. They sought.
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  There. The sight that met their eyes and ears was one of wild confusion.
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  Men and women were running hither and thither, uttering shouts of rage.
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  Beyond them was a circle of flaming brush in the center of this now duel
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  told the rescuers knew the son of New was fast bound to a stake.
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  Slowly he was roasting to death. Possible he was already dead. Nu gathered
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  his warriors about him. Two he commanded to remain always beside nat Ul,
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  then with the others at his heels, his long white feather nodding bravely above
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  his noble head, and the shaggy pelt of r the cave bear falling from
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  his shoulders, knew the chief slunk silently out of the jungle toward the village.
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  Of the excited boat builders. There were forty of them, mighty men
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  mightily muscled in their strong hands. They grasped their formidable spears and heavy axes
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  in their loin claws, rested their stone knives. For the moment when they
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  closed in hand to hand combat with foes. In their savage brains was but
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  a single idea to kill, to kill, to kill. To the outer
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  rim of fires they came, and yet the excited populace within had not discovered
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  them. Then a girl, remembering tardily her duties at the fires, turned
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  to throw more brush upon the blaze and saw them, saw a score of
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  handsome savage faces just beyond the flames. With a scream of terror and warning,
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  she turned and scurried amongst the villagers. For an instant, the hubbub
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  was stilled, only to break out anew at the girl's frightened cry of warriors,
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  warriors. Then Knu and his men were among them. The warriors of
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  the boat builders ran forward to meet the attackers. The women and children fled
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  to the opposite side of the enclosure. Horse shouts and battle cries rang out
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  as the cliff dwutters hurled themselves upon the boat builders. A shower of long,
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  slim spears volleyed from one side, to be answered by the short,
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  stout harpoons of the villagers. Then the warriors rushed to closer conflict with their
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  axes. Never after the first assault was the outcome of the battle in question.
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  The fiercer tribe of Nu, the hunters of beasts of prey, the
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  warrior people, were the masters at every turn back back They forced the wearers
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  of cowskins, until the defenders had been driven across the enclosure upon their women
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  and children. And now the inner circle of fires was surrendered to the invaders.
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  And as Nahdul sprang between the warriors of her people to be first to
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  the side of Nu and cut away his bonds, the last of the boat
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  builders turned and fled into the outer darkness along the beach, to where their
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  boats were drawn up beyond the tide. Nu the Chief leaped through the flames
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  upon the heels of Nahoul in the terrible heat. Within the two came side
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  by side before the stake. The girl gave a single glance at the bare
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  and smoking pole and at the ground around it, before she turned and threw
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  herself into News's arms. Knew the son of Nu was not there, nor
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  was his body within the enclosure end of Section twenty two