Part 14 (2/2)

Yet deep within him there stirred ancient instincts--racial memories, perhaps. And, as he splashed through the little stream and bent to make his way through strange-leafed vines and leprous-spotted trees, a warning voice spoke inaudibly within his own mind--spoke as it might have whispered to some ancestor scores of centuries dead.

”You are followed!” it told him. ”Listen!--there is one who follows on the trail!”

CHAPTER X

_A Mysterious Rescuer_

Their way led through tangled growths of trees and vines that were like unreal things of a dream. Unreal they were, too, in their strange degree of livingness, for there were snaky tendrils that drew back as if in fear at their approach and stalks that folded great, th.o.r.n.y leaves protectingly about pulpy centers at the first touch of a hand. The world of vegetation seemed strangely sentient and aware of their approach.

Only the leprous-white trees remained motionless; their red-veined trunks towered high in air, and the sun of late afternoon shot slantingly through a leafy roof overhead.

Twice Chet let the others go on ahead while he slipped silently into some rocky concealment and watched with staring, anxious eyes back along their trail. But the little stream's gurgling whisper was the only voice, and in all the weird jungle there was no movement but for the unfolding of the vegetation where they had pa.s.sed.

”Nerves!” he reproached himself. ”You're getting jumpy, and that won't do.” But once more he let the others climb on while he stepped quickly behind a projecting rock over which he could look.

Again there was silence; again the leaves unfolded their th.o.r.n.y wrappings while vermiform tendrils crept across the ground or reached tentatively into the air. And then, while the silence was unbroken, while no evidence came through his feeble, human senses, something approached.

Neither sight nor sound betrayed it--this something, that came noiselessly after--but a tell-tale plant whipped its leaves into their former wrapping; a vine drew its hanging cl.u.s.ters of flowers sharply into the air. The unseeing watchers of the forest had sensed what was unheard and unseen, and Chet knew that his own inner warning had been true.

He waited to see this mysterious pursuer come into view; and after waiting in vain he realized the folly of thinking himself concealed. He glanced about him; every plant was drawn tightly upon itself. With silent voices they were proclaiming his hiding place, warning this other to wait, telling him that someone was hidden here.

Chet's face, despite his apprehension, drew into a whimsical, silent grin. ”No chance to ambush him, whoever he is or whatever it is,” he told himself. ”But that works two ways: he can't jump us when we're prepared; not in daylight, anyway.”

And he asked himself a question he could not answer: ”I wonder,” he whispered softly, ”--I wonder what these plants will do at night!”

Almost they could see the swift descent of the sun. Each flas.h.i.+ng glint of light through the dense growth came from lower down toward the invisible horizon. It shone at last where Chet cast anxious glances about upon a mound of rocks.

Rough blocks of tremendous size had been left here from some seismic disturbance. Like the ruins of a castle they were heaped high in air.

Even the tree growths stopped at their base, and above them was an opening in the roof of tangled branches and leaves--a rough circle of clear, blue sky.

”How about making camp?” Chet asked. ”This place looks good to me. I would just as soon be up off the ground a bit.”

Harkness looked at the pile of rocks; glanced once toward the sun.

”Right!” he agreed. ”This will do for our first camp.”

”You've named it,” Chet told him as he scrambled to the top of a great block. He extended a hand to Diane, standing tired and breathless at its side.

”Welcome to First Camp!” he told her. ”Take this elevator for the first ten floors.”

He drew her up to the top of the block. Harkness joined them, and Diane, though she tried to smile in response to Chet, did not refuse their help in making the ascent; the day's experiences had told on all of them.

Thirty or forty feet above the ground was Chet's estimate. From the top of their little fort they watched the shadows of night sweep swiftly down. Scrub tree growths whose roots had anch.o.r.ed among the rocks gave them shelter, while vines and mosses softened the hard outlines of the labyrinth of stones.

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