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Updated: June 3, 2025
Stern felt positive that to let the Merucaans out of the cave would not only blind them, but might also kill them outright as well. Their unprotected skins would inevitably burn to a blister under the rays of the sun, and they would in all probability die. So said he: "Listen, Zangamon! You must stay here till the dark comes again, which will not be very long.
They were keen to fight, the Merucaans were always ready for a mix but I knew too much about the poisoned arrows to let 'em. We stumbled off through the woods at a good gait, crashing away like elephants, while always, apelike, creeping and hideous, the little hairy beast-people stole and slithered among the palms." Beatrice shuddered. "Heavens!" she exclaimed. "I I'd have died of sheer fright!"
"What does all this mean?" he exclaimed in a kind of passionate outburst. "Where are we? How did you get here? Can't you understand me? We're Americans, I tell you Americans! For God's sake, can't you understand?" Once more the word "Merucaans" passed round from mouth to mouth; but beyond this Stern got no sign of comprehension. "Village! Houses!" shouted he. "Shelter! Rest, eat, sleep!"
The man nodded, yet Stern clearly saw his face betrayed uneasiness, distrust and pain. In all fairness, the Merucaans' first experience of the upper world had been enough to shake the faith even of a philosopher how much more so that of simple and untaught barbarians!
A quarter-hour had passed before they reached shelter again. Allan bade the Merucaans heap dry wood on the embers in the cavern, while he himself laid Beatrice upon the bed. With a piece of their brown cloth dipped in one of the water-jars he bathed her face and bruised throat. "Fresh water! Fetch a jar of fresh water from the river below!" he commanded Zangamon.
Not more than twenty minutes later, followed by Bremilu and Zangamon, Stern was making way through the thick-laced wood and jungle. Awed, terrified by their first sight of trees and by the upper world which to them was naught but marvel and danger, the two Merucaans followed close behind their guide.
Long before daybreak that morning, the thriving village of Settlement Cliffs, capital and market-town of the New Hope Colony, was awake and astir. For the great festival day was at hand, the fifth anniversary of the founding of the colony, to be celebrated by the arrival of the last Merucaans from the depths of the Abyss.
"Thus do I consecrate and give him to you, O my Folk! And from this hour of his naming I give you, too, a name. No longer shall you be Merucaans, but now Americans again. The ancient name shall live once more. He, an American, salutes you, Americans! You are his elder brothers, and between you the bond shall never loosen till the end. "I have spoken unto you. This is the Law!"
The other mattered little for the present. An idea crossed his mind to seek out the dead gorilla and make a trophy of the pelt; but he dismissed it at once. The beast was so repellent that the very thought of it fair sickened him. They reached the plane in some few minutes, found everything uninjured, and loaded themselves with the Merucaans' goods and chattels.
Almost at once, the old man abandoned the native cookery and grew devoted to hers. Anything that told him of the other and better times, the days about which he dreamed continually in his blindness, was very dear to him. The Merucaans were, truly, barbarously dull about their ways of preparing food. Day after day they never varied. The menu was limited in the extreme.
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