Part 28 (2/2)
Whereupon his questioning ceased, and his mind was clear enough to think of giant creepers that barred his way, of streams to be crossed, and to wonder, at the last, when the valley of the pyramid was in sight and whether the others had reached there before him.
Another day's sun was beating straight down into the arena when again it opened before Chet's eyes. And the bleak horror of this place of black and white that had seemed so incredibly unreal under Earth-lit skies was doubly so in the glare of noon.
They entered through the jagged crack that had been their means of escape. An earthquake, one time, had split the stone, and Chet was more than satisfied to avoid the broad entrance where the rocks made a gateway and where hostile eyes might be watching.
He stood for long minutes in the cleft in the rocks where the hard earth of the arena made a floor before him, where the huge steps of ribboned white and black swung out on either hand, and where, directly ahead, in the same hard, contrasting strata, a pyramid lifted itself to finish in a projecting capstone. And now that he faced it he found himself curiously cool.
He motioned Towahg to his side, and the black came cowering and trembling. He had tried before to ask Towahg about the mystery of the pyramid, but Towahg had never understood, or, as Chet believed, he had pretended not to understand. But now he could no longer feign ignorance of Chet's queries.
Chet pointed to the pyramid with a commanding hand. ”What is there?” he demanded. ”Towahg afraid! What is Towahg afraid of? Ape-men go in there--Gr-r-ranga-men; who sends for them?”
And Towahg, who must know the sense of the questions, even though some words were strange, could not answer. He dropped to his knees there in the narrow, ragged chasm in the rock and clutched at Chet's legs with his two hands while he buried his s.h.a.ggy head in his arms. Then--
”Krargh!” he wailed; ”Krargh there! Krargh send--Gr-r-ranga go.
Gr-r-ranga no come back!”
It was perhaps the longest speech Towahg had ever made, and Chet nodded his understanding. ”Yes,” he agreed; ”that's right. I imagine. When Krargh sends for you, you never come back.”
But more eloquent than the ape-man's halting words was the trembling of his muscle-knotted shoulders in a fear that struck him limp at Chet's feet. And the pilot realized that the fear was inspired in part by the thought in the savage mind that his master might ask him to go closer to the place of dread. He had followed them once and had struck down a messenger, but this was when he was avid with curiosity and half-wors.h.i.+pful of the white men as G.o.ds. Now, to go that dreadful way in full daylight!--it was more than Towahg could face.
Chet patted the cringing shoulder with a kindly hand. ”Get up, Towahg,”
he ordered and pointed back toward the jungle. ”Towahg wait outside; wait today and to-night!” He gave the ape-man's sign of the open and closed hand to signify one day and one night, and Towahg's grunt was half in relief and half in understanding as he slipped back into hiding where the jungle pressed close.
Chet turned again to the pyramid. ”They're down there,” he told himself, ”facing G.o.d knows what. And now it's sink or swim, and I'm almighty afraid I know which it's to be. But we'll take it together: 'When Krargh sends for you, you never come back.'”
No jungle sounds were here in this silent arena, no flas.h.i.+ng of leather-winged birds nor scuttling of little, odd creatures of the ground. It was as if some terror had spread its dark wings above the place, a terror unseen of men. But the little, wild things of earth and air had seen, and they had fled long since from a place unclean and unfit for life.
Chet felt the silence pressing heavily upon him as he took his hand from the rock at his side and stepped out into the arena. And the vast amphitheater seemed peopled with phantom shapes that sat in serried rows and watched him with dead and terrible eyes, while he went the long way to the pyramid's base, and his feet found the rough stone ascent....
CHAPTER XXI
_The Monstrous Something_
The way to the top of the pyramid was long. One look Chet allowed himself out over this world--one slow, sweeping gaze that took in the bare floor at the pyramid's base, a level platform of rock some distance in front of the pyramid, the hard black and white of the walled oval, the sea of waving green that was the jungle beyond, and, beyond that, hills, misty and s.h.i.+mmering in the noonday heat. And nestled there, beyond that last bare ridge, must be the valley of happiness, Diane Delacouer's ”Happy Valley.”
Chet Bullard turned abruptly where the projecting capstone hung heavy above a shadowed entrance. He entered the blackness within, stopped once in choking nausea as the first wave of vile air struck him, then fought his way on till his searching feet found the stairway, and he knew he was descending into a pit that held something inhumanly horrible--an abomination unto all G.o.ds of decency and right.
And still there persisted that abnormal coolness that made him almost light-headed, almost carefree. Even the fetid stench ceased to offend.
His feet moved with never a sound to find the first step--and the next--and the next. He must go cautiously; he must not betray his presence until he was ready to strike.
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