Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 14, 2025
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.
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.
As he wallowed Juag returned, and the two of us leaped in when an opening afforded the opportunity and snatched our javelins from his side. Then we danced about him, more like two savages than anything else, until we got the opening we were looking for, when simultaneously, our javelins pierced his wild heart, stilling it forever.
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.
Then we busied ourselves stepping a mast and rigging a small sail Juag and I, that is while Dian cut the thag meat into long strips for drying when we should be out in the sunlight once more. At last all was done. We were ready to embark.
"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.
I now think that his seeming desertion of me had been but due to a desire to search out his ferocious mate and bring her, too, to live with me. When Juag saw me fondling the great beast he was filled with consternation, but I did not have much time to spare to Raja while my mind was filled with the grief of my new loss.
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.
It was evident that he realized from my actions that I was attempting to persuade Dian to descend, and that grave danger threatened us from above. "Dive!" he cried. "Dive!" I looked at Dian and then down at the abyss below us. The cove appeared no larger than a saucer. How Juag ever had hit it I could not guess. "Dive!" cried Juag. "It is the only way there is no time to climb down."
When at last I dared curve my hands upward and divert my progress toward the sur-face, I thought that I should explode for air before I ever saw the sun again except through a swirl of water. But at last my bead popped above the waves, and I filled my lungs with air. Before me was the boat, from which Juag and Dian were clambering.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking