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Utterly at a loss though he was, incapable of seeing any clue to the tremendous riddle, he still retained enough wit to hail the column, now passing down the slope some three or four hundred yards to westward. "Ohe, Merucaan v'yolku!" he shouted between hollowed palms. "Yomnu! Troin iska ieri!"
Only the dimmest glow penetrated even at high noon. Here they stowed the freight, built a rock fireplace, and threw down quantities of the long, fragrant grass for bedding. They returned to their own cave, bade the colonists once more cover their heads, and entered, carefully closing the doorway after them. All four dined together, in true Merucaan style, on the familiar food of the Abyss.
"It's spreading growing now, at the very minute when I should have help, faith and cooperation! "Open! Open, in the name of the law that has been given you our law!" she cried loudly in the Merucaan tongue. No answer. She snatched out a pistol, and with the butt loudly smote the planks of palm-wood. Within, the echoes rumbled dully, but no human voice replied. "Traitors!
Now that writing had been lost, nothing retarded changes; and Stern realized that here were he a trained philologist lay a task incomparably interesting and difficult, to learn this Merucaan speech and trace its development from his own tongue. But Stern's skill was all in other lines.
As he ran he shouted in Merucaan: "Out, my people! Out with you! Out to battle! Out to war!" Half way upward down to Cliff Villa he met Frumuos toiling upward. Him he greeted and quickly informed of the situation. "The bridge is down!" he panted. "I cut it! The further shore is swarming with enemies. Two have reached this side!"
The Merucaan, now aided by Bremilu, who had recovered his wits, scouted ahead like a blood-hound on the spoor of a fugitive. One gripped his stone ax, the other a javelin. Bent half double, scrutinizing in the dark the stony path which Allan followed behind them only by the aid of his flash, they proceeded cautiously up toward the brow of the cliff again.
With some degree of fluency for in the months Beatrice and he had spent in the Abyss they had acquired much of the Merucaan tongue he said: "I greet you, Vreenya. I greet my people, all. Harken. I have made a long journey to return to you. I am tired and would rest. There be many things to tell you, but not now. I would sleep and eat. Is my house in readiness?"
Afar, on the other side of the thicket, they heard a singular commotion, cries, shouts, and the vigorous beating of the fern-trees. "The thing has turned, master!" the Merucaan exclaimed, at Allan's side. "Now throw the fire-death! Etvur! Quickly, throw!" Stern swept the thicket with his beam. "Ah! There there!"
"The light, master it is like knives to me! Like spears to my eyes, master! I cannot bear it!" whispered the Merucaan, pointing to where, around the interstices of the doorway, bright white gleams were streaming in. Allan considered with perplexity. "It hurts, you say?" "Yes, Kromno! Once or twice I have tried to watch that strange fire, but I cannot. The pain is very great!"
Allan felt confident of ultimate success along this line. "We must teach the children, above all," he said to her one day. "English must come to be a secondary tongue to them, familiar as Merucaan. The next generation will speak English from birth and gradually the other language will decay and perish save as we record it for the sake of history. "It can't be otherwise, Beatrice.
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