CHAPTER XIII

Pellicudar

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER XIII, PELLICUDAR by Edgar R. Burroughs
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RACING FOR LIFE

At last the sea subsided, and we were able to get
a better view of the armada of small boats in our
wake. There must have been two hundred of them.
Juag said that he had never seen so many boats before
in all his life. Where had they come from? Juag was
first to hazard a guess.

"Hooja," he said, "was building many boats to carry
his warriors to the great river and up it toward Sari.
He was building them with almost all his warriors and
many slaves upon the Island of Trees. No one else in
all the history of Pellucidar has ever built so many
boats as they told me Hooja was building. These must
be Hooja's boats."

"And they were blown out to sea by the great storm
just as we were," suggested Dian.

"There can be no better explanation of them," I
agreed.

"What shall we do?" asked Juag.

"Suppose we make sure that they are really Hooja's
people," suggested Dian. "It may be that they are not,
and that if we run away from them before we learn
definitely who they are, we shall be running away from
a chance to live and find the mainland. They may be
a people of whom we have never even heard, and if so
we can ask them to help us--if they know the way
to the mainland."

"Which they will not,' interposed Juag.

"Well," I said, "it can't make our predicament any
more trying to wait until we find out who they are.
They are heading for us now. Evidently they have
spied our sail, and guess that we do not belong to
their fleet."

"They probably want to ask the way to the mainland
themselves," said Juag, who was nothing if not a pes-
simist.

"If they want to catch us, they can do it if they
can paddle faster than we can sail," I said. "If we
let them come close enough to discover their identity,
and can then sail faster than they can paddle, we can
get away from them anyway, so we might as well
wait."

And wait we did.

The sea calmed rapidly, so that by the time the
foremost canoe had come within five hundred yards
of us we could see them all plainly. Every one was
headed for us. The dugouts, which were of unusual
length, were manned by twenty paddlers, ten to a side.
Besides the paddlers there were twenty-five or more
warriors in each boat.

When the leader was a hundred yards from us Dian
called our attention to the fact that several of her
crew were Sagoths. That convinced us that the flotilla
was indeed Hooja's. I told Juag to hail them and get
what information he could, while I remained in the
bottom of our canoe as much out of sight as possible.
Dian lay down at full length in the bottom; I did not
want them to see and recognize her if they were in
truth Hooja's people.

"Who are you?" shouted Juag, standing up in the
boat and making a megaphone of his palms.

A figure arose in the bow of the leading canoe--
a figure that I was sure I recognized even before he
spoke.

"I am Hooja!" cried the man, in answer to Juag.

For some reason he did not recognize his former
prisoner and slave--possibly because he had so many
of them.

"I come from the Island of Trees," he continued. "A
hundred of my boats were lost in the great storm and
all their crews drowned. Where is the land? What are
you, and what strange thing is that which flutters from
the little tree in the front of your canoe?"

He referred to our sail, flapping idly in the wind.

"We, too, are lost," replied Juag. "We know not where
the land is. We are going back to look for it now."

So saying he commenced to scull the canoe's nose
before the wind, while I made fast the primitive sheets
that held our crude sail. We thought it time to be
going.

There wasn't much wind at the time, and the heavy,
lumbering dugout was slow in getting under way. I
thought it never would gain any momentum. And all
the while Hooja's canoe was drawing rapidly nearer,
propelled by the strong arms of his twenty paddlers.
Of course, their dugout was much larger than ours,
and, consequently, infinitely heavier and more cum-
bersome; nevertheless, it was coming along at quite
a clip, and ours was yet but barely moving. Dian and
I remained out of sight as much as possible, for the
two craft were now well within bow-shot of one an-
other, and I knew that Hooja had archers.

Hooja called to Juag to stop when he saw that our
craft was moving. He was much interested in the sail,
and not a little awed, as I could tell by his shouted
remarks and questions. Raising my head, I saw him
plainly. He would have made an excellent target for
one of my guns, and I had never been sorrier that
I had lost them.

We were now picking up speed a trifle, and he was
not gaining upon us so fast as at first. In consequence,
his requests that we stop suddenly changed to com-
mands as he became aware that we were trying to
escape him.

"Come back!" he shouted. "Come back, or I'll fire!"

I use the word fire because it more nearly translates
into English the Pellucidarian word trag, which covers
the launching of any deadly missile.

But Juag only seized his paddle more tightly--the
paddle that answered the purpose of rudder, and com-
menced to assist the wind by vigorous strokes. Then
Hooja gave the command to some of his archers to
fire upon us. I couldn't lie hidden in the bottom of the
boat, leaving Juag alone exposed to the deadly shafts,
so I arose and, seizing another paddle, set to work to
help him. Dian joined me, though I did my best to
persuade her to remain sheltered; but being a woman,
she must have her own way.

The instant that Hooja saw us he recognized us. The
whoop of triumph he raised indicated how certain he
was that we were about to fall into his hands. A shower
of arrows fell about us. Then Hooja caused his men
to cease firing--he wanted us alive. None of the mis-
siles struck us, for Hooja's archers were not nearly the
marksmen that are my Sarians and Amozites.

We had now gained sufficient headway to hold our
own on about even terms with Hooja's paddlers. We
did not seem to be gaining, though; and neither did
they. How long this nerve-racking experience lasted
I cannot guess, though we had pretty nearly finished
our meager supply of provisions when the wind picked
up a bit and we commenced to draw away.

Not once yet had we sighted land, nor could I
understand it, since so many of the seas I had seen
before were thickly dotted with islands. Our plight was
anything but pleasant, yet I think that Hooja and his
forces were even worse off than we, for they had no
food nor water at all.

Far out behind us in a long line that curved upward
in the distance, to be lost in the haze, strung Hooja's
two hundred boats. But one would have been enough
to have taken us could it have come alongside. We
had drawn some fifty yards ahead of Hooja--there
had been times when we were scarce ten yards in
advance-and were feeling considerably safer from
capture. Hooja's men, working in relays, were com-
mencing to show the effects of the strain under which
they had been forced to work without food or water,
and I think their weakening aided us almost as much
as the slight freshening of the wind.

Hooja must have commenced to realize that he was
going to lose us, for he again gave orders that we be
fired upon. Volley after volley of arrows struck about
us. The distance was so great by this time that most
of the arrows fell short, while those that reached us
were sufficiently spent to allow us to ward them off
with our paddles. However, it was a most exciting
ordeal.

Hooja stood in the bow of his boat, alternately urging
his men to greater speed and shouting epithets at me.
But we continued to draw away from him. At last
the wind rose to a fair gale, and we simply raced away
from our pursuers as if they were standing still. Juag
was so tickled that he forgot all about his hunger and
thirst. I think that he had never been entirely recon-
ciled to the heathenish invention which I called a
sail, and that down in the bottom of his heart he
believed that the paddlers would eventually overhaul
us; but now he couldn't praise it enough.

We had a strong gale for a considerable time, and
eventually dropped Hooja's fleet so far astern that we
could no longer discern them. And then--ah, I shall
never forget that moment--Dian sprang to her feet
with a cry of "Land!"

Sure enough, dead ahead, a long, low coast stretched
across our bow. It was still a long way off, and we
couldn't make out whether it was island or mainland;
but at least it was land. If ever shipwrecked mariners
were grateful, we were then. Raja and Ranee were
commencing to suffer for lack of food, and I could
swear that the latter often cast hungry glances upon
us, though I am equally sure that no such hideous
thoughts ever entered the head of her mate. We
watched them both most closely, however. Once while
stroking Ranee I managed to get a rope around her
neck and make her fast to the side of the boat. Then
I felt a bit safer for Dian. It was pretty close quarters
in that little dugout for three human beings and two
practically wild, man-eating dogs; but we had to make
the best of it, since I would not listen to Juag's sug-
gestion that we kill and eat Raja and Ranee.

We made good time to within a few miles of the
shore. Then the wind died suddenly out. We were all
of us keyed up to such a pitch of anticipation that the
blow was doubly hard to bear. And it was a blow, too,
since we could not tell in what quarter the wind might
rise again; but Juag and I set to work to paddle the
remaining distance.

Almost immediately the wind rose again from pre-
cisely the opposite direction from which it had formerly
blown, so that it was mighty hard work making progress
against it. Next it veered again so that we had to turn
and run with it parallel to the coast to keep from
being swamped in the trough of the seas.

And while we were suffering all these disappoint-
ments Hooja's fleet appeared in the distance!

They evidently had gone far to the left of our course,
for they were now almost behind us as we ran parallel
to the coast; but we were not much afraid of being
overtaken in the wind that was blowing. The gale kept
on increasing, but it was fitful, swooping down upon
us in great gusts and then going almost calm for an
instant. It was after one of these momentary calms
that the catastrophe occurred. Our sail hung limp and
our momentum decreased when of a sudden a par-
ticularly vicious squall caught us. Before I could cut
the sheets the mast had snapped at the thwart in which
it was stepped.

The worst had happened; Juag and I seized paddles
and kept the canoe with the wind; but that squall was
the parting shot of the gale, which died out immediately
after, leaving us free to make for the shore, which we
lost no time in attempting. But Hooja had drawn closer
in toward shore than we, so it looked as if he might
head us off before we could land. However, we did our
best to distance him, Dian taking a paddle with us.

We were in a fair way to succeed when there ap-
peared, pouring from among the trees beyond the beach,
a horde of yelling, painted savages, brandishing all
sorts of devilish-looking primitive weapons. So menac-
ing was their attitude that we realized at once the
folly of attempting to land among them.

Hooja was drawing closer to us. There was no wind.
We could not hope to outpaddle him. And with our
sail gone, no wind would help us, though, as if in
derision at our plight, a steady breeze was now blowing.
But we had no intention of sitting idle while our fate
overtook us, so we bent to our paddles and, keeping
parallel with the coast, did our best to pull away from
our pursuers.

It was a grueling experience. We were weakened
by lack of food. We were suffering the pangs of thirst.
Capture and death were close at hand. Yet I think that
we gave a good account of ourselves in our final effort
to escape. Our boat was so much smaller and lighter
than any of Hooja's that the three of us forced it ahead
almost as rapidly as his larger craft could go under their
twenty paddles.

As we raced along the coast for one of those seem-
ingly interminable periods that may draw hours into
eternities where the labor is soul-searing and there is
no way to measure time, I saw what I took for the
opening to a bay or the mouth of a great river a short
distance ahead of us. I wished that we might make
for it; but with the menace of Hooja close behind and
the screaming natives who raced along the shore paral-
lel to us, I dared not attempt it.

We were not far from shore in that mad flight from
death. Even as I paddled I found opportunity to glance
occasionally toward the natives. They were white, but
hideously painted. From their gestures and weapons
I took them to be a most ferocious race. I was rather
glad that we had not succeeded in landing among
them.

Hooja's fleet had been in much more compact forma-
tion when we sighted them this time than on the
occasion following the tempest. Now they were moving
rapidly in pursuit of us, all well within the radius
of a mile. Five of them were leading, all abreast, and
were scarce two hundred yards from us. When I glanced
over my shoulder I could see that the archers had
already fitted arrows to their bows in readiness to fire
upon us the moment that they should draw within
range.

Hope was low in my breast. I could not see the
slightest chance of escaping them, for they were over-
hauling us rapidly now, since they were able to work
their paddles in relays, while we three were rapidly
wearying beneath the constant strain that had been
put upon us.

It was then that Juag called my attention to the rift
in the shore-line which I had thought either a bay or
the mouth of a great river. There I saw moving slowly
out into the sea that which filled my soul with wonder.