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Chapter 5: Nu's First Voyage · The Eternal Savage

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  Section eighteen of The Eternal Savage by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This LibriVox recording is
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  in the public domain. Chapter five news first Voyage. Presently all the boats
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  were completed, and the men dragged them one by one down close to the
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  water. In them, they placed their paddles, their axes, and their
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  harpoons, just as tur had before he departed. New watched them with feverish
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  interest. At last all had been launched and are being paddled vigorously beyond the
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  surf in the comparatively smoother water. The boats turned toward the north and south,
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  scattering. Evidently they are not bound for the distant islands. Noos is
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  a warrior rise suddenly in the bow of one of the boats and hurl his
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  spear quickly into the water. Immediately there is a great commotion in the boat
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  and in the water beside it. There are three men in each boat.
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  Two in the boat knew as watching paddle frantically away from the thing that lashes
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  the sea beside them. Knew guessed what had occurred. The spearmen had buried
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  his weapon in some huge creature of the deep, and the battle was on.
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  They were too far out for new to see the details of the conflict,
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  but he saw the boat towed swiftly by the wounded creature as it raced
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  toward the open sea. He saw the boat pulled closer alongside, and another
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  spear hurled into the fleeing thing. He understood now why these men tied their
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  spearheads to long ropes. He saw the sudden commotion in the dugout as the
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  hunted turned upon the hunters. He saw the swift stroke of a mighty flipper
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  as it rose from the water and fell with awful fury across the boat.
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  He saw the other boats hurrying toward the scene of battle, but before they
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  reached the spot, all was quiet, save for two pieces of bobbing tree
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  trunk and the head and shoulders of a sea who clung to one of them.
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  A few minutes later he was dragged into another boat, and the fleet
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  dispersed again to search out other prey. Soon all were out of sight beyond
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  a promontory, except a single craft, which fished before the village. These
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  men evidently sought less formidable game, and knew could see that from the teeming
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  sea they were dragging in great fish almost as rapidly as they could hurl their
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  weapons. Soon the boat was completely filled, and with their great load,
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  the men paddled slowly inshore. As they came, a sudden resolution formed in
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  news mind. The sight of the dangerous sport upon the waters had filled him
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  with a strong desire to emulate these strangers. But greater than that was the
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  power of another suggestion, which the idea held forth. As the men dragged
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  the boat upon the beach, the women came down to meet them, carrying
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  great bags of bull hide sewn with blat sinew. Into these they gathered the
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  fish and dragged their loads over the ground toward their camp. The men,
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  their day's work evidently finished, stretched out beneath the shade of trees to sleep.
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  This was the time Nue moved stealthily to his hands and knees. He
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  grasped his long spear and his stone axe tightly in his hands. The boat
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  lay upon the open beach. There was no near point where he might reach
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  it, undetected by the women. The alternative rather appealed to news warlike nature.
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  It was nothing less than rushing directly through the village. He came to
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  his feet and advanced lightly among the shelters, no need to give the alarm
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  before he was detected. He was directly behind the young woman who scraped the
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  arax skin. She did not hear his light footfall. The baby, now
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  sitting by her side, playing with the arax's tail, looked up to see
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  the stranger close upon him. He lunged toward his mother with a lusty shriek.
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  Instantly the camp was in commotion, no need now for stealth. With
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  a war whoop that might have sprung from a score of lusty lungs, New
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  leaped from the village among the frightened women and the startled men, awakened rudely
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  from their sleep. Straight toward the boat, ran New, and upon his
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  heels raced the three warriors. One was coming toward him from the side.
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  He was quite close, so close that he came upon New at the same
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  instant that the latter reached the boat. The two fell upon one another with
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  their great axes, but knew the son of Neu was a mighty warrior.
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  He dodged the blow of the other's axe, and before his adversary could recover
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  himself to deliver a second news weapon, fell upon his skull, crushing it
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  as if it had been an egg shell. Now Nu seized the boat and
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  dragged it toward the water, as he had seen the strangers do. But
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  he had taken but a half dozen steps when he was forced to turn and
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  defend himself against the remaining warriors. With savage howls, they were upon him,
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  their women huddled upon the beach behind them, shouting wild cries of encouragement
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  to their men and defiance to the enemy. Nu abandoned the boat and rushed
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  to meet his antagonists, his long spear thrown with the power of the foremost
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  boat builder, who was upon the point of hurling his stout harpoon at Now
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  down went the harpooner. Up rose a chorus of howls and lamentations from the
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  women. Now the third warrior closed upon the troglodite. It was too close
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  for spear work, and so the fellow dropped his heavy weapon and leaped to
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  close quarters. With his knife down, the two men went into the knee
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  deep water, striking at one another with their knives. As they sought death
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  holes with their free hands. A great roller rumbled in upon them, turning
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  them over and over as it carried them up the beach. Still, they
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  fought, sputtering and choking in the salty brine, But when the wave receded,
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  it left a corpse behind it. Upon the beach, stabbed through and
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  through the great hairy chest by the long, keen knife of Nu, the
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  son of Nu. The caveman rose, dripping to his feet, and turned
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  his back toward the sea. The roller had carried the boat out with it.
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  The women, furious now at the death of their three men, rushed
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  forward to drag down the victor. Savage creatures. They were but little less
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  sinister than their mails. Their long hair streamed in the wind, their faces
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  were distorted by rage and hatred. They screamed aloud their taunts and insults and
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  challenges. But Nu did not wait to battle with them. Instead, he
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  dove into the surf and struck out for the drifting boat. His spear was
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  lost, but he clung to his axe, his knife he had returned to
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  his g string. They ran into the water to their wastes, but knew
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  was beyond their reach. In a moment more, he had come to the
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  side of the boat. Tossing in his axe, he clambered over the side,
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  scarce, escaping overturning the hollowed log. Once safely within, he took
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  up the paddle, an unaccustomed implement, and fashioning his strokes after those of
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  the men he had watched, he made headway from the shore. The tide
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  in the wind helped him, but he found too that he quickly mastered the
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  art of paddling. First, he discovered that when he paddled exclusively upon the
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  side of his spear hand, the boat turned in the opposite direction, and
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  so he understood why the boatmen had paddled alternately upon one side and the other.
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  When he did this, the craft kept a straighter course in the direction
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  he wished to go, the distant land of mystery. Half Way across the
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  water that spread between the mainland and the nearest island, a monstrous shape loomed
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  suddenly close to the boat's side. A long neck surmounted by a huge reptilian
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  head shot above the surface, and wide, gaping jaws opened to seize the
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  paddler. Protruding eyes glared down upon him, and then the thing struck.
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  Nude dodged to one side and struck back with his knife. With a hiss
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  and scream, The creature dove beneath the surface, only to reappear a moment
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  later upon the opposite side of the boat. Blood flowed from the knife wound
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  in its neck. Again, it snapped at the man again, the knife
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  found its neck as New crouched to one side to elude the gaping jaws.
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  Once more, the thing dove, and almost simultaneously, a mighty tail rose
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  high out of the water above the man's head. Nu seized the paddle and
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  drove the boat forward, just as that terrific engine of destruction fell with a
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  mighty whack upon the very spot the boat had quit. The blow, had
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  it touched the craft, would have splittered it into firewood. For a few
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  minutes, the sea was churned to white crimson, stained by the creature's blood
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  as it thrashed about in impotent fury. Then, as New paddled away,
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  the raging ceased, and the gray carcass floated upon its side. On went
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  New, paddling with redoubled energy toward the distant goal. What he expected to
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  find at his journey's end he could not believe. Yet what else was drawing
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  him through countless dangers across the face of the terrible waters. The man tur
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  had come hither he it was who had pursued not Ull? Was he still
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  pursuing her? That he was following some woman knew was positive from the fragments
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  of conversation he had overheard. And yet though try as he would to believe
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  it, he could not make his judgment accept as a possibility the chance that
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  it was really not Ull whom the men expected to find upon this distant land.
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  The wind had risen considerably since Nu set out upon his perilous journey.
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  Already the waves were running high, tipped with white. That the island lay
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  straight before the wind was all that saved the rude craft from instant annihilation.
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  All about him, the sea was alive with praying monsters. Titanic duels were
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  in progress upon every hand, as the ferocious reptilia battled over their kills,
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  or, turning from the chase, fell upon one another in frenzied joy of
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  battle, while their fortunate quarry swam rapidly away through innumerable dangers. Swept the
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  little tree trunk skiff to be deposited at last upon the surf beaten beach of
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  the nearest island. Scarce had new landed and dragged his boat above the rollers.
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  When he descried another boat a short distance from his own, that this
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  belonged to the man tour he had no doubt, and seizing his axe,
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  he hastened to it to pick up and follow the other's spore wherever it might
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  lead. Clean cut and distinct in the sand, new found the impress of
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  terre sandals. Nor did it require a second glance at them to convince the
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  Trogoldite that they had been made by the same feet that had pursued Natoul.
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  Upon the mainland beach, the trail led around a rocky promontory into a deep
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  and somber gorge. Up the center of this it followed the course of a
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  rapid brook, leaping downward toward the sea. From time to time the man
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  had evidently essayed to scale the cliffs, first upon one side and then upon
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  the other, But each time he had abandoned the attempt before the difficulties and
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  dangers of the precipitous crags. To now, the ascent would have proved a
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  simple matter, and so he wondered why the man had turned back each time
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  after clambering but a short distance from the base of the cliffs. But tor
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  was not a cliff dweller. His peoples had come from a great level river
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  valley beside the sea, from a country where cliffs and natural caves were the
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  exception rather than the rule, so he had had but little practice in climbing
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  of that sort. Finally, at the head of the ravine he had been
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  forced to climb or retrace his steps, and here at last he had managed
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  to clamber out upon the table land that stretched beyond the summit. Across this
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  the trail led, turning suddenly toward the west at the edge of another ravine.
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  The abruptness with which the spoor wheeled to the right indicated anew that something
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  had suddenly attracted the man's attention toward the new direction, and that he had
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  proceeded at a rapid run to investigate. Could he here have discovered the woman
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  he sought? Was he already in pursuit of naw duel? If it was
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  indeed she, was he even now in possession of her? Knew too,
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  wheeled to the west and raced rapidly along the well marked trail. Since he
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  had come upon the signs of tour, new speed had been infinitely greater than
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  that of the boat builder. This his Woodcraft told him so he knew that
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  he was constantly gaining upon the man, who was still unconscious of the fact
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  that he was being pursued Down the steep side of the ravine, term must
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  have slid and rolled in a most reckless fashion. At the bottom was a
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  dense forest through which the trail led back toward the sea. After the man
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  had made a series of frantic but futile attempts to scale the opposite heights,
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  what had he seen, or heard or followed that had led him to make
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  such desperate attempts to gain the opposite summit should now follow him down the ravine
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  or clamber to the vantage point the other had been unable to reach. For
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  an instant, the troglodyte hesitated. Then he wheeled toward the cliff, and,
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  with the agility of long practice, backed by ages of cliff dwelling forebears,
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  he clambered rapidly upward. At times he was forced to leave for a
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  projecting rock above his head, dangling out over space, as he drew himself
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  by mighty biceps and forearm to the tiny foothold it afforded again a gnarled root
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  or a small crevice aided him in his ascent, until presently he crawled over
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  the brow and stood erect once more on level ground. Nu looked about warily.
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  There was no sign of the man or the woman. Then he examined
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  the ground in ever enlarging circles, but no spore such as he sought rewarded
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  his eager eyes. He had about decided to return to the bottom of the
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  ravine, and followed Turre's spoor, when clear and shrill from the west there
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  came to his ears the scream of a woman in distress and scarce had its
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  first note risen upon the air. Than knew the son of Nu was dashing
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  madly in the direction of the sound. End of Section eighteen.