'About that. It may be more, it may be less.'
'If it were seven hundred miles by sea and five thousand by land,' spoke up another warrior, 'and I had to fight for every mile, I'd choose to go by land.'
As one man, the two hundred cheered and that settled the matter.
'Well, dod-burn my hide!' grumbled Ah-gilak. 'Of all the gol-durned idjits I almost nearly ever seen! 'Druther hoof it fer seven hundred miles than ride home in style an' comfort on the sweetest ship ever sailed these do blasted seas. Ain't got no more sense 'n a white pine dog with a poplar tail. Howsumever, good riddance says I. There'll be more victuals for the rest of us, an' plenty water.'
'Then everybody's happy,' said David, smiling.
At the point they chose to land the Sarian warriors, there was a narrow beach at the foot of cliffs which extended in both directions as far as they could see. The lead showed no bottom at sixteen fathoms four hundred yards off shore. Closer than that Ah-gilak would not take his ship.
'Too gol-durned close now,' he said, 'but what wind there is is right.'
Standing on and off a light breeze and a calm sea, the boats were lowered and the first contingent was put ashore. David, Abner Perry, Ghak, and O-aa were standing together watching the warriors disembark.
'You will accompany them, Ghak?' asked David.
'I will do whatever you wish,' replied the king of Sari.
'Your place is with them,' said David; 'and if you go with them, you'll be back in Sari much sooner than we shall by sea.'
'Why don't we all go with them, then?' suggested Perry.
'I have been thinking the same thing,' said David, 'but for myself. Not you. It would be too tough a trek for you, Abner. Don't forget that you must be well over ninety by this time.'
Perry bridled. 'Stuff and nonsense!' he exclaimed. 'I can keep up with the best of you. And don't you forget, David, that if I am over ninety, you are over fifty. I'm going along, and that settles it. I must get back to Sari. I have important things to do.'
'You will be much more comfortable aboard the John Tyler,' coaxed David. 'And what have you so important to do, that can't wait in a world where time stands eternally still?'
'I have in mind to invent a steam locomotive and build a railway,' said Perry. 'I also wish to invent a camera. There is much to be done, David.'
'Why a camera?' asked David. 'You can't kill anyone with a camera.'
Perry looked hurt. The man who had brought gunpowder, muskets, cannon, and steel for swords and spears and knives to this Stone Age world was inherently the sweetest and kindest of men. But he just couldn't help 'inventing.'
'Be that as it may, David,' he said with dignity, 'I am going with Ghak,' and David knew that that was that.
'How about you, O-aa?' asked David. 'With two hundred warriors fully armed with Perry's appurtenances of civilization, I am sure that we can make the journey with safety; and you can be back in Kali with your own people far sooner than by making the long trip by sea.'
'Hodon is somewhere on the Korsar Az searching for me, I am sure,' replied O-aa; 'so I shall stay with the John Tyler. I should much rather go with you than remain with the little old man whose name is not Dolly Dorcas and whom I do not like, but by so doing I might miss Hodon.'
'Why do you call him the little man whose name is not Dolly Dorcas, and why do you dislike him?' asked Perry.
'He has forgotten his own name. He had none. So I called him Dolly Dorcas. I thought that was his name, but it was the name of the ship he was on that was wrecked. So he was always saying, 'my name is not Dolly Dorcas', until we gave him the name Ah-gilak. And I do not like him, because he eats people. He wanted to eat me. He ate the men who were ship-wrecked with him. He was even going to start eating himself. He has told us these things. He is an evil old man. But I shall go with him, because I wish to find my Hodon.'
'Gracious me!' exclaimed Perry. 'I had no idea Ah-gilak was such a terrible person.'
'He is,' said O-aa, 'but he had better leave me alone, or my thirteen brothers will kill him.'
II
AS THE JOHN TYLER drew away from shore, little O-aa leaned on the rail and watched the last of the Sari warriors clamber up the cliff and disappear in the junglelike growth which surmounted it. A moment later she heard savage cries floating out over the water, and then the loud reports of muskets and the screams of wounded men.
'Men do not have to wait long for trouble on land,' said Ko, the Mezop Third Mate, who leaned against the rail at her side. 'It is well that you decided to return by sea, little one.'
O-aa shot a quick glance at him. She did not like the tone of his voice when he called her little one. 'My people can take care of themselves,' she said. 'If necessary they will kill all the men between here and Sari. And I can take care of myself, too,' she added.
'You will not have to take care of yourself,' said Ko. 'I will take care of you.'
'You will mind your own business,' snapped O-aa.
Ko grinned. Like nearly all the red Mezops he was handsome, and like all handsome men he thought that he had a way with the women and was irresistible. 'It is a long way to Sari,' he said, 'and we shall be much together; so let us be friends, little one.'
'We shall not be much together, we shall not be friends, and don't call me little one. I do not like you, red man.' Little O-aa's eyes snapped.
Ko continued to grin. 'You will learn to like me-little one,' he said. O-aa slapped him full in the face. Ko's grin vanished, to be replaced by an ugly snarl. 'I'll teach you,' he growled, reaching for her.
O-aa drew the long, slim steel dagger David had given her after she came aboard the John Tyler; and then a thin, cracked voice cried, 'Avast there, you swabs! What goes on?' It was Ah-gilak the skipper.
'This she-tarag was going to knife me,' said Ko.
'That's only part of it,' said O-aa. 'If he ever lays a hand on me I'll carve his heart out.'
Ja, attracted by the controversy, crossed the deck to them in time to hear Ah-gilak say, 'She is a bad one. She needs a lesson.'
'You had better not try to give me a lesson, eater of men,' snapped O-aa, 'unless you want your old belly ripped open.'
'What is this all about, O-aa?' asked Ja.
'This,' said O-aa, pointing at Ko, 'spoke to me as no one but Hodon may speak to me. And he called me little one-me, the daughter of Oose, King of Kali. And when I slapped him, he would have seized me-had I not had my knife.'
Ja turned on Ko. 'You will leave the girl alone,' he said. Ko scowled but said nothing, for Ja is king of the Mezops of Anoroc Island, one whom it is well to obey. Ko turned and walked away.
'Dod-burn it!' exclaimed Ah-gilak. 'They's always trouble when you got a woman aboard. I never did like shippin' a woman. I got me a good mind to set her ashore.'
'You'll do nothing of the sort,' said Ja.
'I'm skipper of this here ship,' retorted Ah-gilak. 'I can put her ashore if I've a mind to.'
'You talk too much, old man,' said Ja, and, walked away.
'You gol-durned red Indian,' grumbled Ah-gilak. 'That's insubordination. Tarnation! It's mutiny, by gum. I'll clap you in irons the fust thing you know,' but he was careful to see that Ja was out of earshot before he voiced his anger and made his threats, for now, except for himself, all the officers and crew of the John Tyler were Mezops and Ja was their king.
The John Tyler beat back along the coast toward the nameless strait; and every waking moment O-aa scanned the surface of the great sea that curved upward, horizonless, to merge in the distant haze with the vault of the heavens. But no sign of another ship rewarded her ceaseless vigil. There was life, the terrible marine life of this
