CHAPTER XIX

"_One for Each of Us_"

For men who had come from a world where wars and warfare were things of

the past, Chet, and Harkness had done effective work in preparing a

defense. The knoll made a height of land that any military man would

have chosen to defend, and the top of the gentle slope was protected by

the barricade.

On each side of the inverted U that ended at the water's edge an opening

had been left, where they passed in and out. But even here the wall had

been doubled and carried past itself: no place was left for an easy

assault, and on the open end the water was their protection.

Within the barricade, at about the center, the top of the knoll showed

an outcrop of rocks that rose high enough to be exposed to fire from

outside, but their little shelters were on nearly level ground at the

base of the rocks. The whole enclosure was some thirty feet in width and

perhaps a hundred feet long. Plenty to protect in case of an attack, as

Chet had remarked, but it could not have been much smaller and have done

its work effectively.

There was no one of the four white persons but gave unspoken thanks for

the barricade of sharp stakes, and even Towahg, although his fangs were

bared in an animal snarl at the sound of Schwartzmann's voice, must have

been glad to keep his bruised body out of sight behind the sheltering

wall.

No one of them replied to Schwartzmann's taunt. Harkness wrinkled his

eyes to stare through the bright sunlight and see the pistol in the

man's belt.

"He still has it," he said, half to himself: "he's got the gun. I was

rather hoping something might have happened to it. Just one gun; but he

has plenty of ammunition--"

"And we haven't--" It was Chet, now, who seemed thinking aloud. "But, I

wonder--can we bluff him a bit?"

* * * * *

He dropped behind the barricade and crawled into one of the huts to come

out with three extra pistols clutched in his hand. Empty, of course, but

they had brought them with them with some faint hope that some day the

ship might be reached and ammunition secured. Chet handed one to Diane

and another to Kreiss; the third weapon he stuck in his own belt where

it would show plainly. Harkness was already armed.

"Now let's get up where they can see us," was Chet's answer to their

wondering looks; "let's show off our armament. How can he know how much

ammunition we have left? For that matter, he may be getting a little

short of shells himself, and he won't know that his solitary pistol is

the thing we are most afraid of."

"Good," Harkness agreed; "we will play a little good old-fashioned poker

with the gentleman, but don't overdo it, just casually let him see the

guns."

Schwartzmann, far across the open ground, must have seen them as plainly

as they saw him as they climbed the little hummock of rocks. He could

not fail to note the pistols in the men's belts, nor overlook the

significance of the weapon that gleamed brightly in the pilot's hand.

Chet saw him return his pistol to his belt as he backed slowly into the

shadows, and he knew that Schwartzmann had no wish for an exchange of

shots, even at long range, with so many guns against him. But from their

slight elevation he saw something else.

The grass was trampled flat all about their enclosure, but, beyond, it

stood half the height of a man; it was a sea of rippling green where the

light wind brushed across it. And throughout that sea that intervened

between them and the jungle Chet saw other ripples forming, little

quiverings of shaken stalks that came here and there until the whole

expanse seemed trembling.

"Down--and get ready for trouble!" he ordered crisply, then added as he

sprang for his own long bow: "Their commanding officer doesn't want to

mix it with us--not just yet--but the rest are coming, and there's a

million of them, it looks like."

* * * * *

The apes broke cover with all the suddenness of a covey of quail, but

they charged like wild, hungry beasts that have sighted prey. Only the

long spears in their bunchy fists and the shorter throwing spears that

came through the air marked them as primitive men.

The standing grass at the end of the clearing beyond their barricade was

abruptly black with naked bodies. To Chet, that charging horde was a

formless dark wave that came rolling up toward them; then, as suddenly

as the black wave had appeared, it ceased to be a mere mass and Chet saw

individual units. A black-haired one was springing in advance. The man

behind the barricade heard the twang of his bow as if it were a sound

from afar off; but he saw the arrow projecting from a barrel-shaped

chest, and the ape-man tottering over.

He loosed his arrows as rapidly as he could draw the bow; he knew that

others were shooting too. Where naked feet were stumbling over prostrate

bodies the black wave broke in confusion and came on unsteadily into the

hail of winged barbs.

But the wave rushed on and up to the barricade in a scattering of

shrieking, leaping ape-man, and Chet spared a second for unspoken thanks

for the height of the barrier. A full six feet it stood from the ground,

and the ends that had been burned, then pointed with a crude ax, were

aimed outward. Inside the enclosure Chet had wanted to throw up a bench

or mound of earth on which they could stand to fire above the high

barrier, but lack of tools had prevented them. Instead they had laid

cribbing of short poles at intervals and on each of these had built a

platform of branches.

* * * * *

Close to the barricade of poles and vines, these platforms enabled the

defenders to shield themselves from thrown spears and rise as they

wished to fire out and down into the mob. But with the rush of a score

or more of the man-beasts to the barricade itself, Chet suddenly knew

that they were vulnerable to an attack with long lances.

A leaping body was hanging on the barrier; huge hands tore and clawed at

the inner side for a grip. From the platform where Diane stood came an

arrow at the same instant Chet shot. One matched the other for accuracy,

and the clawing figure fell limply from sight. But there were

others--and a lance tipped with the jagged fin, needle-sharp, of a

poison fish was thrusting wickedly toward Diane.

This time Harkness' arrow did the work, but Chet ordered a retreat.

Above the pandemonium of snarling growls, he shouted.

"Back to the rocks, Walt," he ordered; "you and Diane! Quick! The rest

of us will hold 'em till you are ready. Then you keep 'em off until we

come!" And the two obeyed the cool, crisp voice that was interrupted

only when its owner, with the others, had to duck quickly to avoid a

barrage of spears.

* * * * *

Kreiss was wounded. Chet found him dropped beside his firing platform

working methodically to extract the broad blade of a spear from his

shoulder where it was embedded.

Chet's first thought was of poison, and he shouted for Towahg. But the

savage only looked once at the spear, seized it and with one quick jerk

drew the weapon from the wound; then, when the blood flowed freely, he

motioned to Chet that the man was all right.

The savage wadded a handful of leaves into a ball and pressed it against

the wound, and Chet improvised a first-aid bandage from Kreiss' ragged

blouse before they put him from sight in one of the shelters and ran to

rejoin Harkness and Diane on the rocks.

But the first wave was spent. There were no more snarling, white-toothed

faces above the barricade, and in the open space beyond were shambling

forms that hid themselves in the long grass while others dragged

themselves to the same concealment or lay limply inert on the open,

sunlit ground.

And within the enclosure one solitary ape-man forgot his bruised body

while he stamped up and down or whirled absurdly in a dance that

expressed his joy in victory.

"Better come down," said Chet. "Schwartzmann might take a shot at you,

although I think we are out of pistol range. We're lucky that isn't a

service gun he's got, but come down anyway, and we'll see what's next.

This time we've had the breaks, but there's more coming. Schwartzmann

isn't through."

But Schwartzmann was through for the day; Chet was mistaken in expecting

a second assault so soon. He posted Towahg as sentry, and, with Diane

and Harkness, threw himself before the door-flap of the shelter where

Kreiss had been hidden, and was now sitting up, his arm in a sling.

"Either you're a 'mighty hard man to kill,'" he told Kreiss, "or else

Towahg is a powerful medicine man."

"I am still in the fight," the scientist assured him. "I can't do any

more work with bow and arrow, but I can keep the rest of you supplied."

"We'll need you," Chet assured him grimly.

* * * * *

They ate in silence as the afternoon drew on toward evening.

Back by their little fire, with Towahg on guard, Chet shot an

appreciative glance at a white disk in the southern sky. "Still getting

the breaks," he exulted. "The moon is up; it will give us some light

after sunset, and later the Earth will rise and light things up around

here in good shape."

That white disk turned golden as the sun vanished where mountainous

clouds loomed blackly far across the jungle-clad hills. Then the quick

night blanketed everything, and the golden moon made black the fringe of

forest trees while it sent long lines of light through their waving,

sinuous branches, to cast moving shadows that seemed strangely alive on

the open ground. Muffled by the jungle-sea that absorbed the sound

waves, faint grumblings came to them, and at a quiver of light in the

blackness where the clouds had been, Harkness turned to Chet.

"We had all better get on the job," Chet was saying, as he took his bow

and a supply of arrows, "we've got our work cut out for us to-night."

And Harkness nodded grimly as the flickering lightning played fitfully

over far-distant trees. "We crowed a bit too soon," he told Chet;

"there's a big storm coming, and that's a break for Schwartzmann. No

light from either moon or Earth to-night."

The moon-disk, as he spoke, lost its first clear brilliance in the haze

of the expanding clouds.

"Watch sharp, Towahg!" Chet ordered. And, to the others: "Get this fire

moved away from the huts--here. I'll do that, Walt. You bring a supply

of wood; some of those dried leaves, too. We'll build a big fire, we

have to depend on that for light."

* * * * *

With the skeleton of a huge palm leaf he raked the fire out into an open

space; they had plenty of fuel and they fed the blaze until its mounting

flames lighted the entire enclosure. But outside the barricade were dark

shadows, and Chet saw that this light would only make targets of the

defenders, while the attackers could creep up in safety.

"'Way up," he ordered; "we've got to have the fire on the top of the

rocks." He clambered to the topmost level of the rocky outcrop and

dragged a blazing stick with him. Harkness handed him more; and now the

light struck down and over the stockade and illumined the ground

outside.

"Here's your job, Kreiss," said Chet, "if you're equal to it. You keep

that fire going and have a pile of dried husks handy if I call for a

bright blaze.

"We've got to defend the whole works," he explained. "That bunch today

tried to jump us just from one side, but trust Schwartzmann to divide

his force and hit us from all sides next time.

"But we'll hold the fort," he said and he forced a confidence into his

voice that his inner thoughts did not warrant. To Harkness he whispered

when Diane was away: "Six shells in the gun, Walt; we won't waste them

on the apes. There's one for each of us including Towahg, and one extra

in case you miss. We'll fight as long as we are able; then it's up to

you to shoot quick and straight."

But Walt Harkness felt for the pistol in his belt and handed it to Chet.

"I couldn't," he said, and his voice was harsh and strained, "--not

Diane; you'll have to, Chet." And Chet Bullard dropped his own useless

pistol to the ground while he slipped the other into its holster on the

belt that bound his ragged clothes about him, but he said nothing. He

was facing a situation where words were hardly adequate to express the

surging emotion within.

* * * * *

Diane had returned when he addressed Walt casually. "Wonder why the

beggars didn't attack again," he pondered. "Why has Schwartzmann waited;

why hasn't he or one of his men crept up in the grass for a shot at us?

He's got some deviltry brewing."

"Waiting for night," hazarded Walt. He looked up to see Kreiss who had

joined them.

"If Towahg could tend the fire," suggested the scientist, "I could fire

my little catapult with one hand. I think I could do some damage." But

Chet shook his head and answered gently:

"I'm afraid Towahg's the better man to-night, Kreiss. You can help best

by giving us light. That's the province of science, you know," he added,

and grinned up at the anxious man.

Each moment of this companionship meant much to Chet. It was the last

conference, he knew. They would be swamped, overwhelmed, and then--only

the pistol with its six shells was left. But he drew his thoughts back

to the peaceful quiet of the present moment, though the hush was ominous

with the threat of the approaching storm and of the other assault that

must come in the storm's concealing darkness. He looked at Diane and

Walt--comrades true and tender. The leaping flames from the rocks above

made flickering shadows on their upturned faces.

* * * * *

The moment ended. A growl from where Towahg was on guard brought them

scrambling to their feet. "Gr-r-ranga!" Towahg was warning. "Granga

come!"

They fired from their platforms as before, then raced for the rocks and

the elevation they afforded, for the black bodies had reached the

stockade quickly in the half light. But they came again from one

point--the farthest curve of the U-shaped fence this time--and though a

score of black animal faces showed staring eyes and snarling fangs where

heavy bodies were drawn up on the barricade, no one of them reached the

inside.

"We're holding them!" Chet was shouting. But the easy victory was too

good to believe; he knew there were more to come; this force of some

thirty or forty was not all that Schwartzmann could throw into the

fight. And Schwartzmann, himself! Chet had seen the bronzed faces of Max

and another standing back of the assaulting force, but where was

Schwartzmann?

It was Kreiss who answered the insistent question. From above on the

rocks, where he had kept the fire blazing, Kreiss was calling in a

high-pitched voice.

"The water!" he shouted, "they're attacking from the water!" And Chet

rushed around the broken rock-heap to see a lake like an inky pool,

where the firelight showed faint reflections from black, shining faces;

where rippling lines of phosphorescence marked each swimming savage; and

where larger waves of ghostly light came from a log raft on which was a

familiar figure whose face, through its black beard, showed white in

contrast with the faces of his companions.

* * * * *

Still a hundred feet from the shore, they were approaching steadily,

inexorably; and the storm, at that instant, broke with a ripping flash

of light that tore the heavens apart, and that seared the picture of the

attackers upon the eyeballs of the man who stared down.

From behind him came sounds of a renewed attack. He heard Harkness:

"Shoot, Diane! Nail 'em, Towahg! There's a hundred of them!" And the

wind that came with the lightning flash, though it brought no rain,

whipped the black water of the lake to waves that drove the raft and the

swimming savages closer--closer--

Chet glanced above him. "Come down, Kreiss!" he ordered. "Get down here,

quick! This is the finish. We could have licked them on land, but these

others will get us." He stood, dumb with amazement, as he saw the thin

figure of Kreiss leap excitedly from his rocky perch and vanish like a

terrified rabbit into the cave in the rocks.

"I didn't think--" he was telling himself in wondering disbelief at this

cowardice, when Kreiss reappeared. His one hand was white with a rubbery

coating that Chet vaguely knew for latex. He was holding a gray, earthy

mass, and he threw himself forward to the catapult where it stood idly

erect in the wind that beat and whipped at it.

"Help me!" It was Kreiss who ordered, and once more he spoke as if he

were conducting only an interesting experiment. "Pull here! Bend

it--bend it! Now hold steady; this is metallic sodium, a deposit I found

deep in the earth."

The gray mass was in the crude bucket of the machine. Kreiss' knife was

ready. He slashed at the vine that he'd the bent sapling, and a gray

mass whirled out into the dark; out and down--and the inky waters were

in that instant ablaze with fire.

[Illustration: _The inky waters were ablaze with fire._]

Fire that threw itself in flaming balls; that broke into many parts and

each part, like a living thing, darted crazily about; that leaped into

the air to fall again among ape-men who screamed frenziedly in animal

terror.

* * * * *

"It unites with water," Kreiss was saying: "a spontaneous liberation and

ignition of hydrogen." The white-coated hand had dumped another mass

into the primitive engine of war. "Now pull--so--and I cut it!" And the

leaping, flashing fires tore furiously in redoubled madness where a

shrieking mob of terrified beasts, and one white man among them, drove

ashore beyond the end of a barricade.

Chet felt Harkness beside him. "We drove 'em off in back. What the devil

is going on here?" Walt was demanding. But Chet was watching the retreat

of the blacks straight off and down the shore where the sand was smooth

and neither grass nor trees could hinder their wild flight.

"You've got them licked," Harkness was exulting: "and we've cleaned them

up on our side. Just came over to see if you needed help."

"We sure would have," said Chet; "more than you could give if it hadn't

been for Kreiss."

"We've got 'em licked!" Harkness repeated wonderingly; "we've won!" It

was too much to grasp all at once. The victory had been so quick, and he

had already given up hope.

The two had clasped hands; they stood so for silent minutes. Chet had

been nerved to the point of destroying his companions and himself; the

revulsion of feeling that victory brought was more stupefying than the

threat of impending defeat.

* * * * *

Staring out over the black waters, he knew only vaguely when Harkness

left; a moment later he followed him gropingly around the jagged rocks,

while there came to him, blurred by his own mental numbness, a shouted

call.... But a moment elapsed before he was aroused, before he knew it

for Walt's voice. He recognized the agonized tone and sprang forward

into the clearing.

The fire still blazed on the rocky platform above; its uncertain light

reached the figure of a running man who was making madly for the opening

in the wall. As he ran he screamed over and over, in a voice hoarse and

horrible like one seized in the fright of a fearful dream: "Diane!

Diane, wait! For God's sake, Diane, don't go!"

And the driven clouds were torn apart for a space to let through a clear

golden light. The great lantern of Earth was flashing down through space

to light a grassy opening in a jungle of another world, where, stark and

rigid, a girl was walking toward the shadow-world beyond, while before

her went a black shape, huge and powerful, in whose head were eyes like

burning lights, and whose arms were rigidly extended as if to draw the

stricken girl on and on.

The running figure overtook them. Chet saw him checked in mid-spring,

and Harkness, too, stood rigid as if carved from stone, then followed as

did Diane, where the ape-thing led.... From the far side of the

clearing, where Schwartzmann's men had gone, came a great shout of

laughter that jarred Chet from the stupor that bound him.

"The messenger!" he said aloud. "God help them; it's the messenger--and

he's taking them to the pyramid!"

Then the torn clouds closed that the greater darkness might cover those

who vanished in the shadowed fringe of a stormy, wind-whipped jungle....