CHAPTER IV.
ON THE TRAIL.
As the night wore on, and the gnawing of the invisible brutes below him continued, Grandon tried to formulate some plan of escape. He was without a weapon of any kind, and could not hope, barehanded, to withstand the attack of a dozen furious beasts, even though he should alight unhurt, when the tree should fall.
A rift in the clouds overhead gave him his first glimpse of the starry firmament as seen by the Zarovians. For a minute he was puzzled by the unfamiliar presence of an exceptionally brilliant heavenly body, attended by a smaller one, very faint. Then the significance of what he saw dawned on him. It was the planet Earth with her satellite, the moon. There, above him, across millions of miles of trackless ether, were his home, his loving aunt, his friends. Below him awaited a horrible death.
A cracking sound and an inclination of the tree warmed him that the end was near, as it told that hungry horde below, who redoubled their hideous cries in anticipation of the feast which had long been patiently awaited. Then the tree crashed to the ground. As he felt his perch going from under him, Grandon made a wild leap in the opposite direction from that in which it fell.
He hoped to alight on the ground, and, if his legs were not broken by the fall, climb another tree-fern before the beasts apprehended him. To his surprise and delight, however, he landed in the middle of a leaf crown similar to the one he had just vacated, but about ten feet nearer the ground.
The cries of the baffled brutes were terrible to hear when they learned that their intended victim was not among the branches of the fallen tree. In a few minutes, however, they located him again, by scent, no doubt, and the sounds which floated up told him they were once more cutting a tree from under him. If there were only a little moonlight so he could see the trees about him, he felt that he might make another leap with a reasonable chance of safety, but he knew he could not expect to find a leaf crown under him every time he leaped blindly into the darkness, for it was by sheer good luck that he had alighted on this one, and luck often changes unexpectedly.
A quick gust of wind came up, shaking the branches violently, and Grandon almost fell from his perch. As he recovered his balance something struck him sharply in the face. He reached up and grasped an object that felt like a coarse, thick rope, but which he recognized as the stem of one of the large climbing ferns he had seen that day.
He eased his weight onto it, found it firm, and then began silently to ascend, hand over hand. After climbing a distance of what he judged to be about thirty feet, he came to a leaf crown which was apparently twice as large as the one he had just vacated. He smiled grimly as he thought of the beasts gnawing futilely at the base of the smaller tree. Feeling secure for the time being, he fell asleep, exhausted.
Some time during the night he was partially awakened by the crash of the second tree-fern and the howls of rage that followed it, but full consciousness did not come to him until morning. For a moment he could not realize where he was. Then he remembered, and looked downward.
On the ground beneath his leafy dormitory he beheld twelve of the most fearsome creatures he had ever seen. In form they were something like hyenas, but twice as large as any hyena that ever walked the earth, and much more hideous. In lieu of hair, their bodies were covered with thick scales, and were black mottled with spots of deep, golden orange. Each beast had three horns, one projecting from either temple and one sprouting out between the eyes.
Six of them were tearing at the base of the tree with their sharp teeth while the other six lay on the ground, their tongues lolling from their mouths much after the manner of a pack of hounds that has just returned from the chase. No doubt they were working shifts, he thought, and to some purpose, too, for the tree was already deeply incised on all sides.
* * * * *
While looking about for the most likely tree for his next leap, which he knew must come soon, Grandon was surprised to see a man about two hundred yards away, walking with his eyes on the ground as if following a trail. The newcomer was armed with a scarbo, tork and knife, and carried a long bundle strapped to his back.
"I suppose he was sent to bring me back, dead or alive," thought Grandon. "He's a good trailer, all right, but I am afraid he will bump up against something he doesn't expect and soon, too. Wait until he mixes it with those horned hyenas."
He had not long to wait, for the next minute one of the beasts scented the stranger and gave vent to one of the unearthly laughs with which Grandon had now become familiar. Immediately the animals at the base of the tree ceased their gnawing, and the pack charged the stranger.
He did not seem alarmed in the least, although he stopped and awaited the oncoming beasts with the muzzle of his tork in position.
Grandon had expected to witness a bloody, hand-to-hand fight, but what he actually did see was a demonstration of the efficacy of a tork, in skilled hands.
The leader of the pack fell a full fifty feet from its intended victim, seven more met a similar fate in as many seconds, and the rest turned and fled. The man then drew his knife and coolly and deliberately cut the throat of each animal. He glanced at the two fallen trees, then walked over to the one in which Grandon was perched.
"Come down, Robert Grandon," he said, in English.
Grandon was so surprised he nearly fell out of the tree.
"Who are you," he asked, "and where did you learn my language?"
"Come down and I will explain."
"You might come up," suggested Grandon. "I don't fancy the climate down there--too damp and muggy. I suppose you have instructions to bring me back dead or alive. I am frank in telling you that I won't go back alive."
"You are mistaken, Robert Grandon. I am not of Reabon or of Uxpo. I am friendly to you and have come to your aid. To prove this, I need only mention that I have communicated with Dr. Morgan of your planet for several years. Now will you come?"
Grandon slid down the rough tree-trunk. When he reached the ground, the stranger advanced.
"Permit me to introduce myself," he said, pleasantly, "I am Vorn Vangal, and my home is in the distant country of Olba."
"How do you do, Mr. Vangal," replied Grandon, extending his hand.
Vorn Vangal looked puzzled.
"What is it you wish?" he asked, indicating Grandon's extended hand.
"Why--nothing at all. I forgot that our earthly custom of shaking hands might be unknown here."
"I have never heard of it," said Vangal. "I hope you will pardon the ignorance which kept me from returning your proffered salute. Show me how you do it, please."
Grandon explained, and for the first time in the history of that planet, two men shook hands on Zarovia.
"A very pretty custom," Vangal said. "I shall introduce it in Olba on my return. I will explain the various forms of salutes used on Zarovia. When one is presented to a stranger he merely bows slightly and acknowledges with words. Two intimate friends on meeting sometimes press their foreheads together. Then there are the military salutes, the salutes to royalty, et cetera. For instance, the reigning Torrogina of Reabon, or princess as you would call her, would be saluted thus." He made a low bow and extended his hand as Grandon had seen the slaves do the day before in front of the shrine.
* * * * *
"In company with my fellow slaves, I bowed thus before a picture of a beautiful young woman yesterday," said Grandon. "Can it be that this is the Amazon princess of whom Dr. Morgan spoke?"
"She can be none other than the beautiful and terrible Vernia, Princess of Reabon, who has ruled that country since the death of her father, Emperor Margo, greatest of all rulers, and the leader who made Reabon the largest and mightiest empire in all Zarovia."
"I should like to meet her," said Grandon.
"To say that you should like to meet her is equivalent to saying that you should like to die; for if you are apprehended by the Reabonians, you will most certainly be executed. Thaddor, Prince of Uxpo, whose body you now inhabit on Zarovia, was under the displeasure of her imperial majesty because he had the temerity to make violent love to her, and narrowly escaped death in consequence. She sentenced him to work in the quarries for life; and to run away after such sentence has been passed is equivalent to signing your own death warrant, in Reabon."
"Nevertheless," persisted Grandon, "I hope some day to meet her. By the way, friend Vangal, I suspect that you have food and drink in that long bundle you are carrying, and I have tasted neither since yesterday morning."
"Can it be possible?" ejaculated the surprised Vangal. "But of course! You are not familiar with the fern forests of Zarovia. No one carries food or drink in these forests, for both are about him in abundance."
He drew his knife and cut a branch from the bush-fern under which they were standing.