第11章

Pan-at-lee

NIGHT had fallen upon unchartered Pal-ul-don.A slender moon, low in the west, bathed the white faces of the chalk cliffs presented to her, in a mellow, unearthly glow.Black were the shadows in Kor-ul-ja, Gorge-of-lions, where dwelt the tribe of the same name under Es-sat, their chief.From an aperture near the summit of the lofty escarpment a hairy figure emerged--the head and shoulders first--and fierce eyes scanned the cliff side in every direction.

It was Es-sat, the chief.To right and left and below he looked as though to assure himself that he was unobserved, but no other figure moved upon the cliff face, nor did another hairy body protrude from any of the numerous cave mouths from the high-flung abode of the chief to the habitations of the more lowly members of the tribe nearer the cliff's base.Then he moved outward upon the sheer face of the white chalk wall.In the half-light of the baby moon it appeared that the heavy, shaggy black figure moved across the face of the perpendicular wall in some miraculous manner, but closer examination would have revealed stout pegs, as large around as a man's wrist protruding from holes in the cliff into which they were driven.Es-sat's four handlike members and his long, sinuous tail permitted him to move with consummate ease whither he chose--a gigantic rat upon a mighty wall.As he progressed upon his way he avoided the cave mouths, passing either above or below those that lay in his path.

The outward appearance of these caves was similar.An opening from eight to as much as twenty feet long by eight high and four to six feet deep was cut into the chalklike rock of the cliff, in the back of this large opening, which formed what might be described as the front veranda of the home, was an opening about three feet wide and six feet high, evidently forming the doorway to the interior apartment or apartments.On either side of this doorway were smaller openings which it were easy to assume were windows through which light and air might find their way to the inhabitants.Similar windows were also dotted over the cliff face between the entrance porches, suggesting that the entire face of the cliff was honeycombed with apartments.From many of these smaller apertures small streams of water trickled down the escarpment, and the walls above others was blackened as by smoke.

Where the water ran the wall was eroded to a depth of from a few inches to as much as a foot, suggesting that some of the tiny streams had been trickling downward to the green carpet of vegetation below for ages.

In this primeval setting the great pithecanthropus aroused no jarring discord for he was as much a part of it as the trees that grew upon the summit of the cliff or those that hid their feet among the dank ferns in the bottom of the gorge.

Now he paused before an entrance-way and listened and then, noiselessly as the moonlight upon the trickling waters, he merged with the shadows of the outer porch.At the doorway leading into the interior he paused again, listening, and then quietly pushing aside the heavy skin that covered the aperture he passed within a large chamber hewn from the living rock.From the far end, through another doorway, shone a light, dimly.Toward this he crept with utmost stealth, his naked feet giving forth no sound.

The knotted club that had been hanging at his back from a thong about his neck he now removed and carried in his left hand.

Beyond the second doorway was a corridor running parallel with the cliff face.In this corridor were three more doorways, one at each end and a third almost opposite that in which Es-sat stood.

The light was coming from an apartment at the end of the corridor at his left.A sputtering flame rose and fell in a small stone receptacle that stood upon a table or bench of the same material, a monolithic bench fashioned at the time the room was excavated, rising massively from the floor, of which it was a part.

In one corner of the room beyond the table had been left a dais of stone about four feet wide and eight feet long.Upon this were piled a foot or so of softly tanned pelts from which the fur had not been removed.Upon the edge of this dais sat a young female Waz-don.In one hand she held a thin piece of metal, apparently of hammered gold, with serrated edges, and in the other a short, stiff brush.With these she was occupied in going over her smooth, glossy coat which bore a remarkable resemblance to plucked sealskin.Her loin cloth of yellow and black striped jato-skin lay on the couch beside her with the circular breastplates of beaten gold, revealing the symmetrical lines of her nude figure in all its beauty and harmony of contour, for even though the creature was jet black and entirely covered with hair yet she was undeniably beautiful.

That she was beautiful in the eyes of Es-sat, the chief, was evidenced by the gloating expression upon his fierce countenance and the increased rapidity of his breathing.Moving quickly forward he entered the room and as he did so the young she looked up.Instantly her eyes filled with terror and as quickly she seized the loin cloth and with a few deft movements adjusted it about her.As she gathered up her breastplates Es-sat rounded the table and moved quickly toward her.

"What do you want?" she whispered, though she knew full well.

"Pan-at-lee," he said, "your chief has come for you."

"It was for this that you sent away my father and my brothers to spy upon the Kor-ul-lul? I will not have you.Leave the cave of my ancestors!"

Es-sat smiled.It was the smile of a strong and wicked man who knows his power--not a pleasant smile at all."I will leave, Pan-at-lee," he said; "but you shall go with me--to the cave of Es-sat, the chief, to be the envied of the shes of Kor-ul-ja.

Come!"

"Never!" cried Pan-at-lee."I hate you.Sooner would I mate with a Ho-don than with you, beater of women, murderer of babes."

A frightful scowl distorted the features of the chief."She-jato!"