Racing For Life

: Pellucidar

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 almos


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 pessimist.



"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

cumbersome; 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

another, 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 commands 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 commenced 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 missiles 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 commencing 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 reconciled 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 suggestion 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 precisely 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 disappointments 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 particularly 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 appeared, pouring from

among the trees beyond the beach, a horde of yelling, painted savages,

brandishing all sorts of devilish-looking primitive weapons. So

menacing 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 seemingly 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 parallel 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 formation 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.



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