“It must seem good,” I said, “to travel again this familiar tunnel of your native city. I know how happy I should be were I thus approaching my own birthplace.”
“I am glad to be returning to Laythe,” she said, “for many reasons, but for one I am sorry, and as for this passageway it is scarcely more familiar to me than to you, since I have traversed it but once before in my life and that when I was a little girl and came here with my father and his court upon the occasion of his periodical inspection10 of the passageway, which is now practically never used.”
“If you are not familiar with the tunnel,” I asked, “are you sure that there is no danger of our going astray at some fork or branch?”
“And how long is the tunnel?” I asked. “Will we soon enter the city?”
“No,” she replied, “it is a great distance from the crater to Laythe.”
We had covered some little distance at this time, possibly five or six miles, and she had scarcely ceased speaking when a turn in the passageway led us into a cave of larger proportions than any through which we had previously12 passed and from the opposite side of which two passageways diverged13.
“I thought there were no branches,” I remarked.
“I do not understand it,” she said. “There is no branch from the tunnel of Laythe.”
“Could it be possible that we are in the wrong tunnel?” I asked, “and that this does not lead to Laythe?”
“A moment before I should have been sure that we were in the right tunnel,” she replied, “but now, Julian, I do not know, for never had I heard of any branch of our own tunnel.”
“Which one shall we take?” I asked, but again she shook her head.
“I do not know,” she replied.
“Listen!” I cautioned her. “What was that?” For I was sure that I had heard a sound issuing from one of the tunnels. We stood peering into an aperture15 which revealed about a hundred yards of the passageway before an abrupt16 turn hid the continuation of it from our view. We could hear what now resolved itself into the faint sound of voices approaching us along the corridor, and then quite suddenly the figure of a man appeared around the corner of the turn. Nah-ee-lah leaped to one side out of sight, drawing me with her.
“A Kalkar!” she whispered. “Oh, Julian, if they find us we are lost.”
“If there is only one of them I can take care of him,” I said.
“There will be more than one,” she replied; “there will be many.”
“Then, let us return the way we came and make our way to the top of the crater’s rim17 before they discover us. We can throw their hooked poles into the crater, including the one which we use to ascend18 from the mouth of the tunnel, thus effectually preventing any pursuit.”
“We cannot cross this room again to the tunnel upon the opposite side without being apprehended,” she replied. “Our only hope is in hiding in this other tunnel until they have passed and trusting to chance that we meet no one within it.”
“Come, then,” I said. “I dislike the idea of flying like a scared rabbit, but neither would there be any great wisdom in facing armed men without a single weapon of defense19.”
Even as we had whispered thus briefly20 together, we found the voices from the other tunnel had increased and I thought that I noted21 a tone of excitement in them, though the speakers were still too far away for us to understand their words. We moved swiftly up the branch tunnel, Nah-ee-lah in the lead, and after passing the first turn we both felt comparatively safe, for Nah-ee-lah was sure that the men who had interrupted our journey were a party of hunters on their way to the outer world by means of the crater through which we had entered the tunnel and that they would not come up the branch in which we were hiding. Thus believing, we halted after we were safely out of sight and hearing of the large cave we had just left.
“That man was a Kalkar,” said Nah-ee-lah, “which means that we are in the wrong tunnel and that we must retrace22 our steps and continue our search for Laythe upon the surface of the ground.” Her voice sounded tired and listless, as though hope had suddenly deserted23 her brave heart. We were standing shoulder to shoulder in the narrow corridor and I could not resist the impulse to place an arm about her and comfort her.
“Do not despair, Nah-ee-lah,” I begged her; “we are no worse off than we have been and much better off than before we escaped the Va-gas of Ga-va-go. Then do you not recall that you mentioned one drawback to your return to Laythe—that you might be as well off here as there? What was the reason, Nah-ee-lah?”
“Ko-tah wants me in marriage,” she replied. “Ko-tah is very powerful. He expects one day to be Jemadar of Laythe. This he cannot be while I live unless he marries me.”
“Do you wish to marry him?” I asked.
“No,” she said; “not now. Before—” she hesitated—“before I left Laythe I did not care so very much; but now I know that I cannot wed24 with Ko-tah.”
“And your father,” I continued, “what of him—will he insist that you marry Ko-tah?”
“He cannot do otherwise,” replied Nah-ee-lah, “for Ko-tah is very powerful. If my father refuses to permit me to marry him Ko-tah may overthrow25 him, and when my father is dead, should I still refuse to marry Ko-tah he may slay26 me, also, and then become Jemadar easily, for the blood of Jemadars flows in his veins27.”
“It appears to me, Nah-ee-lah, that you will be about as badly off at home as anywhere else in Va-nah. It is too bad that I cannot take you to my own Earth, where you would be quite safe, and I am sure, happy.”
“I wish that you might, Julian,” she replied simply.
I was about to reply when she placed slim fingers upon my lips. “Hush, Julian!” she whispered, “they are following us up this corridor. Come quickly, we must escape before they overtake us,” and so saying, she turned and ran quickly along the corridor which led neither of us knew whither.
But we were soon to find out, for we had gone but a short distance when we came to the tunnel’s end in a large circular chamber28, at one end of which was a rostrum upon which were a massive, elaborately carved desk and a chair of similar design. Below the rostrum were arranged other chairs in rows, with a broad aisle29 down the center. The furniture, though of peculiar30 design and elaborately carved with strange figures of unearthly beasts and reptiles31, was not, for all of that, markedly dissimilar to articles of the same purpose fabricated upon Earth. The chairs had four legs, high backs and broad arms, seeming to have been designed equally for durability32, service, and comfort.
I glanced quickly around the apartment, as we first entered, only taking in the details later, but I saw that there was no other opening than the one through which we had entered.
“We will have to wait here, Nah-ee-lah,” I said. “Perhaps, though, all will be well—the Kalkars may prove friendly.”
She shook her head negatively. “No,” she said, “they will not be friendly.”
“What will they do to us?” I asked.
“They will make slaves of us,” she replied, “and we shall spend the balance of our lives working almost continuously until we drop with fatigue33 under the cruelest of taskmakers, for the Kalkars hate us of Laythe and will hesitate at nothing that will humiliate34 or injure us.”
She had scarcely ceased speaking when there appeared in the entrance of the cave the figure of a man about my own height dressed in a tunic35 similar to Nah-ee-lah’s but evidently made of leather. He carried a knife slung36 in a scabbard depending from a shoulder belt, and in his right hand he grasped a slender lance. His eyes were close set upon either side of a prominent, hooked nose. They were watery37, fishy38, blue eyes, and the hair growing profusely39 above his low forehead was flaxen in color. His physique was admirable, except for a noticeable stoop. His feet were very large and his gait awkward when he moved. Behind him I could see the heads and shoulders of others. They stood there grinning at us for a moment, most malevolently40, it seemed to me, and then they entered the cave—a full dozen of them. There were several types, with eyes and hair of different colors, the former ranging from blue to brown, the latter from light blond to almost black.
As they emerged from the mouth of the tunnel they spread out and advanced slowly toward us. We were cornered like rats in a trap. How I longed for the feel of my automatic at my hip41! I envied them their slender spears and their daggers42. If I could have but these I might have a chance at least to take Nah-ee-lah out of their clutches and save her from the hideous43 fate of slavery among the Kalkars, for I had guessed what such slavery would mean to her from the little that she had told me, and I had guessed, too, that she would rather die than submit to it. For my own part, life held little for me; I had long since definitely given up any hope of ever returning to my own world, or of finding the ship and being re-united with West and Jay and Norton. There came upon me at that moment, however, a sense of appreciation44 of the fact that since we had left the village of the No-vans I had been far from unhappy, nor could I attribute this to aught else than the companionship of Nah-ee-lah—a realization45 that convinced me that I should be utterly46 miserable47 were she to be taken from me now. Was I to submit supinely then, to capture and slavery for myself and worse than death for Nah-ee-lah, with the assurance of consequent separation from her? No. I held up my hand as a signal for the advancing Kalkars to halt.
“Stop!” I commanded. “Before you advance farther I wish to know your intentions toward us. We entered this tunnel, mistaking it for that which led to the city of my companion. Permit us to depart in peace and all will be well.”
“All will be well, anyway,” replied the leader of the Kalkars. “You are a strange creature, such as I have never before seen in Va-nah. Of you we know nothing except that you are not of the Kalkars, and therefore an enemy of the Kalkars, but this other is from Laythe.”
“You will not permit us to go in peace, then?” I demanded.
He laughed sneeringly48. “Nor in any other way,” he said.
I had been standing in the aisle, with my hand upon one of the chairs near the rostrum and now I turned to Nah-ee-lah who was standing close beside me.
“Come,” I said to her, “follow me; stay close behind me.” Several of the Kalkars were coming down the main aisle toward us, and as I turned toward them from speaking to Nah-ee-lah, I raised the chair which my hand had been resting upon, and swinging it quickly around my head hurled49 it full in the face of the leader. As he went down Nah-ee-lah and I ran forward, gaining a little toward the opening of the tunnel, and then without pausing I hurled another chair and a third and a fourth, in rapid succession. The Kalkars tried to bring us down with their lances, but they were so busy dodging50 chairs that they could not cast their weapons accurately51, and even those few which might otherwise have struck us were warded52 off by my rather remarkable engines of defense.
There had been four Kalkars advancing toward us down the center aisle. The balance of the party had divided, half of it circling the cave to the left and the other half to the right, with the evident intention of coming up the center aisle from behind us. This maneuver53 had started just before I commenced hurling54 chairs at the four directly in front of us, and now when those who had intended to take us from the rear discovered that we were likely to make our way through to the tunnel’s entrance, some of them sprang toward us along the passageways between the chairs, which necessitated55 my turning and devoting a moment’s attention to them. One huge fellow was in the lead, coming across the backs of the chairs leaping from seat to seat; and being the closest to me, he was naturally my first target. The chairs were rather heavy and the one that I let drive at him caught him full in the chest with an impact that brought a howl from him and toppled him over across the backs of the chairs behind him, where he hung limp and motionless. Then I turned my attention again to those before us, all of whom had fallen before my massive ammunition56. Three of them lay still, but one of them had scrambled57 to his feet and was in the very act of casting his lance as I looked. I stopped the weapon with a chair and as the fellow went down I caught a glimpse of Nah-ee-lah from the corners of my eyes as she snatched the lance from the first Kalkar who had fallen and hurled it at someone behind me. I heard a scream of rage and pain and then I turned in time to see another of the Kalkars fall almost at my feet, the lance imbedded in his heart.
The way before us was temporarily open, while the Kalkars behind us had paused, momentarily, at least, in evident consternation58 at the havoc59 I wrought60 with these unseemly weapons against which they had no defense.
“Get two knives and two lances from those who have fallen,” I cried to Nah-ee-lah, “while I hold these others back.” She did as I bade, and slowly we backed toward the mouth of the tunnel. My chairs had accounted for half our enemies when at last we stood in the opening, each armed with a lance and a knife.
“Now run, Nah-ee-lah, as you never ran before,” I whispered to my companion. “I can hold them off until you have reached the mouth of the tunnel and clambered to the rim of the crater. If I am lucky, I will follow you.”
“I will not leave you, Julian,” she replied, “we will go together or not at all.”
“But you must, Nah-ee-lah,” I insisted, “it is for you that I have been fighting them. What difference can it make in my fate where I am when in Va-nah—all here are my enemies.”
She laid her hand gently upon my arm. “I will not leave you, Julian,” she repeated, “and that is final.” The Kalkars within the room were now advancing toward us menacingly.
“Halt!” I cried to them, “you see what fate your companions have met, because you would not let us go in peace. That is all we ask. I am armed now and it will be death to any who follow us.”
They paused and I saw them whispering together as Nah-ee-lah and I backed along the corridor, a turn in which soon shut them from our view. Then we wheeled and ran like deer along the winding61 passageway. I did not feel very safe from capture at any time, but at least I breathed a sigh of relief after we had passed the chamber from which the Kalkars had run us into the cul-de-sac, and we had seen no sign of any other of their kind. We heard no sound of pursuit, but that in itself meant nothing, since the Kalkars are shod with soft leather sandals, the material for which, like all their other leather trappings, is made of the skins of Va-gas and of the prisoners from Laythe.
As we came to the pile of hooked poles which marked the last turn before the entrance of the tunnel I breathed an inward sigh of relief. Stooping, I gathered them all in my arms, and then we ran on to the opening into the crater, where I cast all but one of the poles into the abyss. That which I retained I hooked over the lip of the crater and then, turning to Nah-ee-lah, I bade her ascend.
“You should have saved two of the poles,” she said, “and then we could have ascended62 together; but I will make haste and you can follow me immediately, for we do not know but that they are pursuing us. I cannot imagine that they will let us escape thus easily.”
“Make haste, Nah-ee-lah,” I cried; “they come!”
Climbing a pole is slow work at best, but when one is suspended over the brink64 of a bottomless chasm65 and is none too sure of the security of the hook that is holding the pole above, one must needs move cautiously. Yet, even so, Nah-ee-lah scrambled upward so rapidly as to fill me with apprehension66 for her safety. Nor were my fears entirely67 groundless, for standing in the mouth of the tunnel, where I could keep one eye upon Nah-ee-lah and the other toward the turn around which my pursuers would presently come in view, I saw the girl’s hands grasp the rim of the crater at the very instant that the hook came loose and the pole dropped past me into the abyss. I might have caught it as it fell, but my whole mind was fixed68 upon Nah-ee-lah and her grave danger. Would she be able to draw herself upward, or would she fall? I saw her straining frantically69 to raise her body above the edge of the volcano, and then from up the corridor behind me came an exultant70 cry and I turned to face a brawny71 Kalkar who was racing72 toward me.
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1
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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spherical
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| adj.球形的；球面的 | |
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debris
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| n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片 | |
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utilized
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| v.利用，使用( utilize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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8
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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diverged
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| 分开( diverge的过去式和过去分词 )； 偏离； 分歧； 分道扬镳 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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15
aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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19
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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20
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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retrace
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| v.折回；追溯，探源 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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24
wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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reptiles
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| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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durability
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| n.经久性，耐用性 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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humiliate
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| v.使羞辱，使丢脸[同]disgrace | |
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tunic
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| n.束腰外衣 | |
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slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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fishy
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| adj. 值得怀疑的 | |
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profusely
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| ad.abundantly | |
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malevolently
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hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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42
daggers
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| 匕首，短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
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43
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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46
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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48
sneeringly
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| 嘲笑地，轻蔑地 | |
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49
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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50
dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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51
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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52
warded
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| 有锁孔的，有钥匙榫槽的 | |
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53
maneuver
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| n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略 | |
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54
hurling
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| n.爱尔兰式曲棍球v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的现在分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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55
necessitated
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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57
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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58
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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59
havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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60
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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61
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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62
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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64
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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65
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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66
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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67
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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68
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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69
frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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70
exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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71
brawny
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| adj.强壮的 | |
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72
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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