"They may be undeveloped types," said he, stroking his beard andlooking round at them, "but their deportment in the presence of theirsuperiors might be a lesson to some of our more advanced Europeans.Strange how correct are the instincts of the natural man!"
It was clear that the natives had come out upon the war-path, for everyman carried his spear--a long bamboo tipped with bone--his bow andarrows, and some sort of club or stone battle-axe slung at his side.Their dark, angry glances at the woods from which we had come, and thefrequent repetition of the word "Doda," made it clear enough that thiswas a rescue party who had set forth to save or revenge the old chief'sson, for such we gathered that the youth must be. A council was nowheld by the whole tribe squatting in a circle, whilst we sat near on aslab of basalt and watched their proceedings. Two or three warriorsspoke, and finally our young friend made a spirited harangue with sucheloquent features and gestures that we could understand it all asclearly as if we had known his language.
"What is the use of returning?" he said. "Sooner or later the thingmust be done. Your comrades have been murdered. What if I havereturned safe? These others have been done to death. There is nosafety for any of us. We are assembled now and ready." Then he pointedto us. "These strange men are our friends. They are great fighters,and they hate the ape-men even as we do. They command," here hepointed up to heaven, "the thunder and the lightning. When shall wehave such a chance again? Let us go forward, and either die now orlive for the future in safety. How else shall we go back unashamed toour women?"
The little red warriors hung upon the words of the speaker, and when hehad finished they burst into a roar of applause, waving their rudeweapons in the air. The old chief stepped forward to us, and asked ussome questions, pointing at the same time to the woods. Lord John madea sign to him that he should wait for an answer and then he turned tous.
"Well, it's up to you to say what you will do," said he; "for my part Ihave a score to settle with these monkey-folk, and if it ends by wipingthem off the face of the earth I don't see that the earth need fretabout it. I'm goin' with our little red pals and I mean to see themthrough the scrap. What do you say, young fellah?"
"O
f course I will come."
"And you, Challenger?"
"I will assuredly co-operate."
"And you, Summerlee?"
"We seem to be drifting very far from the object of this expedition,Lord John. I assure you that I little thought when I left myprofessional chair in London that it was for the purpose of heading araid of savages upon a colony of anthropoid apes."
"To such base uses do we come," said Lord John, smiling. "But we areup against it, so what's the decision?"
"It seems a most questionable step," said Summerlee, argumentative tothe last, "but if you are all going, I hardly see how I can remainbehind."
"Then it is settled," said Lord John, and turning to the chief henodded and slapped his rifle.
The old fellow clasped our hands, each in turn, while his men cheeredlouder than ever. It was too late to advance that night, so theIndians settled down into a rude bivouac. On all sides their firesbegan to glimmer and smoke. Some of them who had disappeared into thejungle came back presently driving a young iguanodon before them. Likethe others, it had a daub of asphalt upon its shoulder, and it was onlywhen we saw one of the natives step forward with the air of an ownerand give his consent to the beast's slaughter that we understood atlast that these great creatures were as much private property as a herdof cattle, and that these symbols which had so perplexed us werenothing more than the marks of the owner. Helpless, torpid, andvegetarian, with great limbs but a minute brain, they could be roundedup and driven by a child. In a few minutes the huge beast had been cutup and slabs of him were hanging over a dozen camp fires, together withgreat scaly ganoid fish which had been speared in the lake.
Summerlee had lain down and slept upon the sand, but we others roamedround the edge of the water, seeking to learn something more of thisstrange country. Twice we found pits of blue clay, such as we hadalready seen in the swamp of the pterodactyls. These were old volcanicvents, and for some reason excited the greatest interest in Lord John.What attracted Challenger, on the other hand, was a bubbling, gurglingmud geyser, where some strange gas formed great bursting bubbles uponthe surface. He thrust a hollow reed into it and cried out withdelight like a schoolboy then he was able, on touching it with alighted match, to cause a sharp explosion and a blue flame at the farend of the tube. Still more pleased was he when, inverting a leathernpouch over the end of the reed, and so filling it with the gas, he wasable to send it soaring up into the air.
"An inflammable gas, and one markedly lighter than the atmosphere. Ishould say beyond doubt that it contained a considerable proportion offree hydrogen. The resources of G. E. C. are not yet exhausted, myyoung friend. I may yet show you how a great mind molds all Nature toits use." He swelled with some secret purpose, but would say no more.
There was nothing which we could see upon the shore which seemed to meso wonderful as the great sheet of water before us. Our numbers andour noise had frightened all living creatures away, and save for a fewpterodactyls, which soared round high above our heads while they waitedfor the carrion, all was still around the camp. But it was differentout upon the rose-tinted waters of the central lake. It boiled andheaved with strange life. Great slate-colored backs and high serrateddorsal fins shot up with a fringe of silver, and then rolled down intothe depths again. The sand-banks far out were spotted with uncouthcrawling forms, huge turtles, strange saurians, and one great flatcreature like a writhing, palpitating mat of black greasy leather,which flopped its way slowly to the lake. Here and there high serpentheads projected out of the water, cutting swiftly through it with alittle collar of foam in front, and a long swirling wake behind, risingand falling in graceful, swan-like undulations as they went. It wasnot until one of these creatures wriggled on to a sand-bank within afew hundred yards of us, and exposed a barrel-shaped body and hugeflippers behind the long serpent neck, that Challenger, and Summerlee,who had joined us, broke out into their duet of wonder and admiration.
"Plesiosaurus! A fresh-water plesiosaurus!" cried Summerlee. "That Ishould have lived to see such a sight! We are blessed, my dearChallenger, above all zoologists since the world began!"
It was not until the night had fallen, and the fires of our savageallies glowed red in the shadows, that our two men of science could bedragged away from the fascinations of that primeval lake. Even in thedarkness as we lay upon the strand, we heard from time to time thesnort and plunge of the huge creatures who lived therein.
At earliest dawn our camp was astir and an hour later we had startedupon our memorable expedition. Often in my dreams have I thought thatI might live to be a war correspondent. In what wildest one could Ihave conceived the nature of the campaign which it should be my lot toreport! Here then is my first despatch from a field of battle:
Our numbers had been reinforced during the night by a fresh batch ofnatives from the caves, and we may have been four or five hundredstrong when we made our advance. A fringe of scouts was thrown out infront, and behind them the whole force in a solid column made their wayup the long slope of the bush country until we were near the edge ofthe forest. Here they spread out into a long straggling line ofspearmen and bowmen. Roxton and Summerlee took their position upon theright flank, while Challenger and I were on the left. It was a host ofthe stone age that we were accompanying to battle--we with the lastword of the gunsmith's art from St. James' Street and the Strand.
We had not long to wait for our enemy. A wild shrill clamor rose fromthe edge of the wood and suddenly a body of ape-men rushed out withclubs and stones, and made for the center of the Indian line. It was avaliant move but a foolish one, for the great bandy-legged creatureswere slow of foot, while their opponents were as active as cats. Itwas horrible to see the fierce brutes with foaming mouths and glaringeyes, rushing and grasping, but forever missing their elusive enemies,while arrow after arrow buried itself in their hides. One great fellowran past me roaring with pain, with a dozen darts sticking from hischest and ribs. In mercy I put a bullet through his skull, and he fellsprawling among the aloes. But this was the only shot fired, for theattack had been on the center of the line, and the Indians there hadneeded no help of ours in repulsing it. Of all the ape-men who hadrushed out into the open, I do not think that one got back to cover.
But the matter was more deadly when we came among the trees. For anhour or more after we entered the wood, there was a desperate strugglein which for a time we hardly held our own. Springing out from amongthe scrub the ape-men with huge clubs broke in upon the Indians andoften felled three or four of them before they could be speared. Theirfrightful blows shattered everything upon which they fell. One of themknocked Summerlee's rifle to matchwood and the next would have crushedhis skull had an Indian not stabbed the beast to the heart. Otherape-men in the trees above us hurled down stones and logs of wood,occasionally dropping bodily on to our ranks and fighting furiouslyuntil they were felled. Once our allies broke under the pressure, andhad it not been for the execution done by our rifles they wouldcertainly have taken to their heels. But they were gallantly ralliedby their old chief and came on with such a rush that the ape-men beganin turn to give way. Summerlee was weaponless, but I was emptying mymagazine as quick as I could fire, and on the further flank we heardthe continuous cracking of our companion's rifles.
Then in a moment came the panic and the collapse. Screaming andhowling, the great creatures rushed away in all directions through thebrushwood, while our allies yelled in their savage delight, followingswiftly after their flying enemies. All the feuds of countlessgenerations, all the hatreds and cruelties of their narrow history, allthe memories of ill-usage and persecution were to be purged that day.At last man was to be supreme and the man-beast to find forever hisallotted place. Fly as they would the fugitives were too slow toescape from the active savages, and from every side in the tangledwoods we heard the exultant yells, the twanging of bows, and the crashand thud as ape-men were brought down from their hiding-places in thetrees.
I was follow
ing the others, when I found that Lord John and Challengerhad come across to join us.
"It's over," said Lord John. "I think we can leave the tidying up tothem. Perhaps the less we see of it the better we shall sleep."
Challenger's eyes were shining with the lust of slaughter.
"We have been privileged," he cried, strutting about like a gamecock,"to be present at one of the typical decisive battles of history--thebattles which have determined the fate of the world. What, my friends,is the conquest of one nation by another? It is meaningless. Eachproduces the same result. But those fierce fights, when in the dawn ofthe ages the cave-dwellers held their own against the tiger folk, orthe elephants first found that they had a master, those were the realconquests--the victories that count. By this strange turn of fate wehave seen and helped to decide even such a contest. Now upon thisplateau the future must ever be for man."