VIII – THE FOREST OF DEATH
DANGAR LOOKED at von Horst with surprise as the latter announced that he was going with La-ja. 'Why?' he asked.
Von Horst shook his head. 'I do not know,' he replied. 'I have one excellent reason, and that is that I could not see a girl go alone through this savage country, into that beastly-looking forest; but I know that there is something else, much deeper, that impels me; something as inexplicable and inescapable as instinct.'
'I will come with you,' said Dangar.
Von Horst shook his head. 'No. Go on to Sari. If I live, I'll follow you later.'
'You could never find Sari.'
'With your help, I can.'
'How can I help you if I am not with you?' demanded Dangar.
'You can blaze the trail. Put marks on trees. Place stones upon the ground, like this, showing the direction you are going.' He placed some stones in a row pointing in the direction they had been going, forming an arrow. 'Mostly you follow animal trails; so you will have only to indicate the places that you branch off from the main trails. If you will do these things, I can follow you. I shall blaze my trail from here to wherever I go; so that I can find my way back.'
'I do not like to leave you,' said Dangar.
'It is best,' replied von Horst. 'There is a girl waiting for you in Sari. There is no one waiting for me anywhere. We do not know how far it is to La-ja's country. We might never reach it; we might never return if we did. It is best that you go on to Sari.'
'Very well,' said Dangar. 'I shall be expecting you there. Good-by.' He turned and started off down the little valley.
Von Horst watched him for a moment, thinking of the strange circumstances that had brought them together across five hundred thousand years; thinking also of the even more remarkable fact that they had found so much in common upon which to build an enduring friendship. He sighed and turned in the direction that La-ja had gone.
The girl was half way to the forest, swinging along easily with her chin up and never looking back. She looked so little against the background of that mighty forest, and so brave. Something very much like tears momentarily dimmed the man's eyes as he watched her; then he set out after her.
Something of what he was doing he realized, but not all. He knew that it was quite likely that he was following the girl into an untracked wilderness from which neither of them would ever emerge; and that he was cutting himself off, doubtlessly forever, from his only friend in all this savage world, from the chance to go to a country where he might live in comparative security and make new friends—and all this for a girl who shunned and snubbed him. But what he did not know was that Jason Gridley would eventually decide to remain in the inner world, when the rest of the expedition sailed for the north polar opening and the outer crust, and proceed to Sari, there to form an expedition to search for him. He did not know that he was quite probably throwing away this one chance for succor; but if he had known it, there is little likelihood that it would have altered his decision.
He overtook La-ja just at the edge of the forest. She had heard his footsteps behind her and had turned to see who or what was following her. She did not seem greatly surprised. In fact, it seemed to von Horst that nothing could surprise La-ja.
'What do you want?' she inquired.
'I am going with you to Lo-har,' he replied.
'The warriors of Lo-har will probably kill you when you get there,' she prophesied cheerfully.
'I am going with you just the same,' insisted von Horst.
'I did not ask you to come. You had better go back and go to Sari with Dangar.'
'Listen to me, La-ja,' he begged. 'I cannot let you go alone, knowing the dangers you may have to face—wild beasts and savage men. I must go with you as long as there is no one else to go; so why can't we be friends? Why do you dislike me so? What have I done?'
'If you come with me it will have to be as though we were friends—just friends—whether we are friends or not,' she replied, ignoring his last two queries. 'Do you understand that—just as friends?'
'I understand,' he said. 'Have I ever asked more of you?'
'No.' She rather snapped the word.
'Nor shall I. My only thought is for your safety. When you are among your own people, I shall leave you.'
'If they don't kill you before you can escape,' she reminded him.
'Why should they wish to kill me?' he demanded.
'You are a stranger; and we always kill strangers, so that they will not kill us—or nearly always. Sometimes, if we have reason to like them very much we let them live; but Gaz will not like you. He will kill you if the others don't.'
'Who is Gaz? Why should he wish to kill me?'
'Gaz is a great warrior, a mighty hunter; single-handed he has killed a ryth.'
'I am not a ryth; so I still don't see why he should wish to kill me,' insisted von Horst.
'He will not like it when he learns that we have been together for so many sleeps. He is a very jealous man.'
'What is he to you?' demanded von Horst.
'He hoped to mate with me before I was captured by the Bastian. If he has not taken another mate, he will still wish to. Gaz has a very quick temper and a very bad one. He has killed many men. Often he kills them first and then inquires about them later. Thus has he killed many men whom he would not have killed had he taken the time to discover that they had not harmed him.'
'Do you wish to mate with him?' asked von Horst.
She shrugged her shapely shoulders. 'I must mate with some one, for I must bear sons that Lo-har may have a chief when my father dies; and La-ja would mate only with a mighty man. Gaz is a mighty man.'
'I asked you if you wished to mate with him—do you love him, La-ja?'
'I do not love any one,' she replied; 'and, furthermore, it is none of your affair. You are always meddling and asking questions that do not concern you. Come, if you are coming with me. We cannot get to Lo-har by standing still talking nonsense.'
'You will have to lead the way,' he said. 'I do not know where Lo-har lies.'
They started on. 'Where is your country?' she asked. 'Perhaps it lies beyond Lo-har in the same direction. That would be fine for you, provided, of course, that you got out of Lo-har alive.'
'I do not know where my country is,' he admitted.
She knitted her brows and looked at him in astonishment. 'You mean that you could not find your way home?' she demanded.
'Just that. I wouldn't have the faintest idea even in which direction to start.'
'How strange,' she commented. 'I have never heard of any so stupid as that, other than the poor creatures whose heads are sick. They know nothing at all. I have seen a few such. They get that way from blows on the head. Once a boy I knew fell out of a tree and landed on his head. He was never right again. He used to think he was a tarag and go roaring and growling about on his hands and knees, but one day his father got tired of listening to him and killed him.'
'Do you think I am like that boy?' asked von Horst.
'I have never seen you act like a tarag,' she admitted; 'but you do have very peculiar ways, and in many things you are very stupid.'
Von Horst could not repress a smile, and the girl saw him. She appeared nettled. 'Do you think it anything to laugh about?' she demanded. 'Say, what are you doing? Why do you chop at so many trees with your knife? That is enough to make one think that there may be something the matter with your head.'
'I am marking the trail that we pass,' he explained, 'so that I can find my way back after I leave you.'
She seemed very interested. 'Perhaps your head is not so sick after all,' she said. 'Even my father never thought of anything like that.'
'He wouldn't have to if he can find his way about as easily as you Pellucidarians can,' von Horst reminded
