Chapter XXV: Sure-Dart Finds New Enemies

As soon as Sure-dart got righted and his head out of water, he looked around. He knew what must have happened, which was that the chief’s spear had broken and so upset his balance and the equilibrium of the canoe. Sure-dart now saw that Big-axe was already afloat, and was half turned about, as if to make sure that his companion was safe. As Sure-dart spat out some water, and began to use his arms and legs, the chief swung about, and with powerful strokes made for Long-spear’s canoe.

Sure-dart looked after him in surprise and trouble. The weapons had all been spilled out when the canoe canted, and though the bows and arrows were doubtless afloat, their whereabouts at the moment was uncertain. Yet Big-axe was not stopping on that account, but was going straight on, as if nothing had happened. It was a strangely reckless piece of business for him, and it seemed as if his desire to avenge his son’s death had overcome his usual patience and prudence.

The boy did not know exactly what to do. He wanted to help the chief, but for the instant could not see how he was seasonably to do it. He glanced around, but there was no other canoe very close, and a man in one some little distance away was having all he could do to keep off a swimmer and two waders. The swimmer was trying to come up behind, and upset the canoe, and the two waders were standing shoulders deep, and throwing darts. The man in the canoe was doing his best to cover himself with his shield, while at the same time threatening his foes with his spear. His arrows seemed to be gone.

There was clearly nothing to hope for there, and Sure-dart next thought of the dugout. To be sure, he had no means of putting it in motion, but if he could find one of the bows, and even a few of the arrows, he might perhaps bring about something. At least, it was all he could think of just now, and time was everything if he was to help the chief.

The canoe, righted again, was not far behind him, but blowing steadily, though slowly, down the lake. Short as the distance was, it looked almost hopeless to chase it, and then expect to accomplish anything. On the other hand, it seemed more than ever the one thing to try, and that on his own account, as well as the chief’s. He appeared to have no other haven of refuge. Unfortunately, he was not much of a swimmer.

The dugout, with a sluggish hatefulness, as it almost seemed, dipped along just fast enough to let him gain, but not to make a quick finish, and it was a woful number of lengths clear of all the boats and fighters before he finally came up with it. He scrambled aboard, blowing for wind, and well-nigh discouraged. As far as the chief was concerned, he felt that it was almost certainly too late to do anything. He righted himself in the boat, and looked back. To his great joy Big-axe was still there, but in another direction from Long-spear’s canoe, for he had veered out, as if to circle around, and come up on the other side. Long-spear, on the other hand, as if in doubt, had kept the canoe where it was, but seemed to be keeping a close watch on the swimmer.

This, though puzzling, appeared to put another face on the matter. If Big-axe had really lost his head, he seemed to have recovered it again, and might now be counted on to keep Long-spear and the other warrior extremely busy. Forgetting his own situation for the moment, Sure-dart continued to watch, though now his canoe was feeling the wind more, and the distance was perceptibly increasing.

After all, it did not take long to bring this stage of the business to an end. Big-axe continued to swim in a circle, though Sure-dart, had he been nearer, would have seen that he gradually widened it a little. Soon he was on the shore side. All at once he stood up. He was now in no more than five feet of water. Long-spear seemed to think that it was time to wind up matters, for here the canoe shot forward. Big-axe raised his hands, and by his attitude was ready to throw himself upon the canoe. It would appear that he hoped to seize it and overturn it.

Just then Big-axe ducked; evidently the second warrior had thrown a dart. But the chief shot in sight again, and apparently unharmed. It was not easy, of course, to cast a dart very swiftly, and at the same time with good aim, while sitting in the bottom of a cranky canoe.

Now, certainly, Long-spear must get in his work. The canoe looked to be pretty close. Yes, the Fisher chief stands up. He is not trusting to darts; he is swinging back his spear. Oh, Rock chief, death must be a near neighbor to you now! Poor Sure-dart scarcely breathed.

And then the finish came. Big-axe threw up one arm, as if for a shield, and crouched. His other arm was drawn a little back. The spear never came down. Big-axe, instead of parrying, or punching, like a prize fighter, suddenly, and with wonderful quickness, stooped and shot under the water. He did not come up where he could be seen, but at once he made himself felt. The canoe rose at the bow, canted, and overboard, scrambling and clawing, went the two Fishers!

Sure-dart sent up a yell and a laugh combined. He was fairly on his toes, now, and staring, and snapping wide his eyes, in his efforts to follow the dimming scene. He could not certainly tell what happened next. He saw the water fly, and was pretty sure that one man got some sort of blow, and dropped back out of the fight. The splashing went on, and so the man could not be Big-axe, for that would have ended the fight. Big-axe, then, appeared to be having it out with Long-spear. Sure-dart laughed again. If but his leader’s mighty arms closed once around the Fisher there could be little more to tell. He had heard of the great strength of Long-spear, and to be sure, the Fisher was a large man, but--

In his excitement he had nearly upset the dugout. He got a steadier position, and again looked. In vain this time, for now things there were running together, and no manner of staring could bring them out. There were still the vague shapes of the boats and even, in the nearest, the black figures of men, but the little details were swallowed up and lost. In a night like this a certain distance seems almost at once to run things into vagueness.

The boy caught a little breath, and looked around. It was fully time that he were thinking about himself. Yes, it was high time. With neither paddle nor weapon, he was drifting out into the wider part of the lake, with its terrible dangers. Here, especially in the night time, lurked shapes of terror. A crew of armed men would hug the shore, and wait for daylight; or, if some urgent occasion did send them out to deep water, they would watch, spear in hand. Tales were told of fishermen who, perhaps reckless from hunger, had gone out in the night to fish in the broad waters. Catching some small fish, they had eaten what they wanted, and thrown the entrails overboard. Shortly little bumps had come against the side of the boats. Big-headed creatures, with mouths somewhat like a tiger’s but far larger, and with stubby, active bodies, were picking up the refuse, and nosing about for more. Then, perhaps, would be the rush of some greater creature, trying for a snap at the tiger-heads. Commotion would follow, the great creature would see the suspended shape of one of the boats, and in curiosity, or anger, would throw himself against it. Then the men in the other boat would hear the water surge and boil, as the giant and tiger-heads forgot their quarrel to get what was going of this new and unexpected feast. Safety for themselves, if that could be had, was all that would be left for the other crew, and they would slip as softly as they could away, afterwards digging in paddles, and driving for the nearest shore. Hours later they would creep into the home cove, with what they had been through written even in their savage faces.

Sure-dart knew about these things, even though the Rock-people themselves seldom went out to the deep waters, and though he himself had never come through such a peril. He was aware that this part of the lake differed from the other, near the home cove, for down there the schools of big-headed fishes, for instance, almost never came; and when they did come, as they got into the shallow water, two or three great fish-snakes were pretty sure to paddle in from outside, and make fierce dabs among them, driving the confused school back to the deeps.

As for another terror of this upper lake region, the monster called by the Rock-people “great killer,” he also was seldom seen below. The reason for this was somewhat of a mystery, for, under ordinary conditions, he should be at least a match for the fish-snake. The real reason probably was that the creature was by nature a salt-water dweller, being one of those left to freshen out, as it were, when the great land upheaval cut off the ocean, and that still chiefly haunted those waters which yet, as we may suppose, kept a tang of the original salt. There may have been, in fact, some small openings to the Atlantic still left, or some manner in which the salt water filtered through, though not enough to affect the lower lake. Be all that as it may, it was well known that this monster and the tiger-headed fish (“spear-tooth,” the Rock-people called him, but we know him--or know his remains--as _portheus-molossus_) were rare at the west end of the lake, and common as one proceeded east. How numerous they would prove, if anybody dared venture beyond the home of the Islanders, there was no saying, for nobody, as far as tradition ran, had gone so far.

With the gist of this disturbing knowledge in his mind, then, Sure-dart saw the fighting ground fading faster and faster into the shadows, and himself, helpless either to fight or to fly, coming into the region of strange and hideous dangers.

Cautiously, lest there should be another upset, he stood up straight, and looked carefully all around. The light was merely strong enough to give things in large masses, and without distinct outlines. There was in the large little more than a dull, faintly gleaming lake, black, wooded shores, and a pale sky. The thin moon had the company of a wide field of far-off stars, and a faint mist hung low down in the east, dimming the stars that were climbing up there, and helping to bring the horizon sky almost to the pitch of black. The breeze had so far raised no more than a little ripple on the water, so that the boat poppled, and thumped gently, as it drifted along, but kept all the time one general course. That was still almost for the middle of the lake.

In his survey Sure-dart had, of course, included the peninsula, but that was now but a part of the general shore boundary. He could still hear some faint sounds from there, but none of which he could make anything definite, or that told how things were going. He next began to guess at the time it would take to drift across the lake, supposing the breeze to hold as it was. He knew it was a considerable distance, and it seemed to him that it would be well into the next day before he could fetch land. He would then, however, be a somewhat shorter distance from the home cove than from there to the peninsula. This was because, though the distance across the lake was greater than that from the cove to the peninsula, yet the wind was somewhat more than an offset, as it blew diagonally rather than exactly down the lake.

Yet when he should have landed, if he should be as lucky as that, he would still be a long distance from the caves, and in a region as wild and dangerous as that he had just left. The ruined and deserted settlement of the Cane-dwellers was the one spot that showed even the marks of any visit of man.

Sure-dart must have looked pretty sober as he turned all this over in his mind. Wonderfully trained though he had been, for almost every sort of physical trial and hazard, yet this was a heaping up of dangers and ultimate troubles that was almost crushing. The perils themselves were very great, but even if he passed through them safe, he knew not what he must still face. Who could say how the fight over there in the shadows was going, and what would happen if his people lost?

But this would not do to dwell on, for it was shaking him, and pulling down his strength, and he stood to need every nerve and muscle, even in his powerful and rubber-like body. He got down into the canoe again, and determinedly steadied himself. He would simply wait, meeting later troubles as they came.

All this while there had been nothing disquieting in his immediate surroundings. Once a small fish of some kind had broken water, giving him a momentary start; and at a distance a few birds, or small bat-lizards, which looked like birds, had skimmed and dipped past; but that was all. If the monsters from the upper waters were cruising down here they had not as yet made any sign.

Just then the breeze came in a little puff, and he raised his head quickly, for it brought a faint new sound with it. With every delicate nerve of his trained hearing at top pitch, he listened. The sound had no individuality--nothing that could be set down as any one note, or that meant anything distinctly. It was not a prolonged sound, like a wail, but was made up of short, jerky notes, almost like the far-off and very faintly heard barking of a dog.

That was what we might compare it to, but at that time there was not a dog in all the world. Sure-dart was puzzled, but he knew that it was a noise made by human beings, and that it came from the scene of the fighting. What could it mean? He could hardly make it into cries of victory, and it was less like the wails and groaning cries of despair and defeat. Once more the wind brought it to him, and it was the same as at first. He could make no more out of it.

The puffs of wind ceased to come. Instead there was almost a calm. The boat, nevertheless, with a little way on before, continued to drift. He listened still, and even put his head over the side, that he might catch the travel of the sound, if it came again, along the surface of the water, but nothing came. Nothing came, either, after he had listened for several minutes more.

He gave it up, but he still puzzled and anxiously wondered. It was almost a torment not to know.

At last, as he could not know, and as he was now feeling all he had been through, he thought he would lie down and get a bit of rest. He would not go to sleep, for then he might stick an arm up in sight, and some prowling monster might see it; or he might even give a sharp roll, and once more upset the cranky boat! no, he would merely stretch out, and ease his hard-worked body and limbs.

He was already sitting, and had merely to tip back and stretch out his legs. He did so, and felt a bit more at ease. Nothing so far had come near to harm him, and, after all, the noises from the fighting might well mean victory for his friends. Perhaps they were yelling in triumph, and the distance had deadened the prolonged part of the notes. He would try to think so, anyway.

Now that he was down in the boat, and everything below the level of the sides shut off, he could not well help noticing the sky. It seemed strangely serene and out of all the dealings of the earth. The moon, too, whatever the strange thing really was, had a quiet, safe, and far-removed look. He began to find it all a little soothing. He was really getting a comfortable rest, and a much better one than he had counted on.

But the woods, strange as it may seem, had crawled up till they were not a great way from the moon. That was queer. The moon had moved a little too, though the other way, and was far up the sky for the time of night, though, to be sure, it was a young moon. But there was another queer thing: the moon was green, instead of pale yellow, and the dead Bull-head’s great war-club was hanging by a thong to one of the horns. Now that was strange, and he was certain that he had never heard of anything like it before.

A few of the stars dropped out of the sky, and made such a commotion in the water that the boat rocked. Now they rolled over and hit against the boat. It jarred. He woke suddenly, and with a start. There was indeed something bumping against the boat. With a leap of the mind back to full consciousness, and a sickening little shock of fear, he quickly, but carefully, sat up. As he did so there came another bump. It was almost under where he sat, and had the sharp, rather than solid, feeling that he thought he had noticed in the last one. He worked over upon his knees, and from there to his feet. He would know, at least, with what he had to deal.

It was no mystery. Flashing dull white and dark gray in the moonlight, a big spear-tooth was rounding up to the top of the water. Just behind him, and under the surface, but all too plain, were five or six others.

He got some of his steadiness back. He had never heard of a charge on a substantial boat by these creatures. It was only if a man fell overboard that the great, tooth-filled mouths meant sure death. Or it was very unwise to put a hand over the rail, or at close range to stick one’s head over. If only, then, no other and bigger monsters felt a call to look the boat over, he should not particularly worry. It made him feel a little cold, and queer, though, when he thought of what he might have done while he was asleep,--what would have happened if he had thrust a hand, or a foot out. He wondered now how he had relaxed to such a pitch that he could sleep.

The fish appeared to see him, for the school increased and crowded closer, and two or three great, terrible heads came almost out of the water. Sure-dart began to feel a little troubled, and all at once concluded that it would be fully as well to give the creatures less of his company. If only they knew their strength, they could easily upset the boat. Yes, it was surely better to sit down and be less of a temptation. He lowered himself to his old position, and finally lay flat. In this way he was the least exposed, and he could the better balance the boat, should there be an earnest bump into it. But though he was lost to sight of the creatures, he was clearly not forgotten, for the bumps came harder and oftener than ever. Something appeared to be working through the thick, fierce heads that a supper was up here, if only they could find a way to reach it.

A most uncomfortable fifteen minutes or so went by. Then his heart gave a little jump, for he thought he heard a heavy, rolling splash. Was a killer, or some other bulky and headstrong monster coming?

As before, he determined to know the worst. He got to his knees and looked.