The Metal Monster [11]
truth is I was consumed with curiosity.
"They had got to a point where they were detailing with what pleasure a certain mysterious person whom they seemed to regard with much fear and respect would contemplate her. I was wondering how long my desire to observe--for to the anthropologist they were most fascinating --could hold my hand back from my rifle when Ruth awakened.
"She jumped up like a little fury. Fired a pistol point blank at them. Their amazement was--well--ludicrous. I know it seems incredible, but they seemed to know nothing of firearms--they certainly acted as though they didn't.
"They simply flew into the timber. I took a pistol shot at one but missed. Ruth hadn't though; she had winged her man; he left a red trail behind him.
"We didn't follow the trail. We made for the opposite direction--and as fast as possible.
"Nothing happened that day or night. Next morning, creeping up a slope, we caught sight of a suspicious glitter a mile or two away in the direction we were going. We sought shelter in a small ravine. In a little while, over the hill and half a mile away from us, came about two hundred of these fellows, marching along.
"And they were indeed Darius's men. Men of that Persia which had been dead for millenniums. There was no mistaking them, with their high, covering shields, their great bows, their javelins and armor.
"They passed; we doubled. We built no fires that night --and we ought to have turned the pony loose, but we didn't. It carried my instruments, and ammunition, and I felt we were going to need the latter.
"The next morning we caught sight of another band-- or the same. We turned again. We stole through a tree-covered plain; we struck an ancient road. It led south, into the peaks again. We followed it. It brought us here.
"It isn't, as you observe, the most comfortable of places. We struck across the hollow to the crevice--we knew nothing of the entrance you came through. The hollow was not pleasant, either. But it was penetrable, then.
"We crossed. As we were about to enter the cleft there issued out of it a most unusual and disconcerting chorus of sounds--wailings, crashings, splinterings."
I started, shot a look at Dick; absorbed, he was drinking in Ventnor's every word.
"So unusual, so--well, disconcerting is the best word I can think of, that we were not encouraged to proceed. Also the peculiar unpleasantness of the hollow was increasing rapidly.
"We made the best time we could back to the fortress. And when next we tried to go through the hollow, to search for another outlet--we couldn't. You know why," he ended abruptly.
"But men in ancient armor. Men like those of Darius." Dick broke the silence that had followed this amazing recital. "It's incredible!"
"Yes," agreed Ventnor, "isn't it. But there they were. Of course, I don't maintain that they WERE relics of Darius's armies. They might have been of Xerxes before him--or of Artaxerxes after him. But there they certainly were, Drake, living, breathing replicas of exceedingly ancient Persians.
"Why, they might have been the wall carvings on the tomb of Khosroes come to life. I mention Darius because he fits in with the most plausible hypothesis. When Alexander the Great smashed his empire he did it rather thoroughly. There wasn't much sympathy for the vanquished in those days. And it's entirely conceivable that a city or two in Alexander's way might have gathered up a fleeting regiment or so for protection and have decided not to wait for him, but to hunt for cover.
"Naturally, they would have gone into the almost inaccessible heart of the high ranges. There is nothing impossible in the theory that they found shelter at last up here. As long as history runs this has been a well-nigh unknown land. Penetrating some mountain-guarded, easily defended valley they might have decided to settle down for a time, have rebuilt a city, raised a government; laying low, in a sentence, waiting for the storm to blow over.
"Why did they stay? Well, they might have found the new life more pleasant
"They had got to a point where they were detailing with what pleasure a certain mysterious person whom they seemed to regard with much fear and respect would contemplate her. I was wondering how long my desire to observe--for to the anthropologist they were most fascinating --could hold my hand back from my rifle when Ruth awakened.
"She jumped up like a little fury. Fired a pistol point blank at them. Their amazement was--well--ludicrous. I know it seems incredible, but they seemed to know nothing of firearms--they certainly acted as though they didn't.
"They simply flew into the timber. I took a pistol shot at one but missed. Ruth hadn't though; she had winged her man; he left a red trail behind him.
"We didn't follow the trail. We made for the opposite direction--and as fast as possible.
"Nothing happened that day or night. Next morning, creeping up a slope, we caught sight of a suspicious glitter a mile or two away in the direction we were going. We sought shelter in a small ravine. In a little while, over the hill and half a mile away from us, came about two hundred of these fellows, marching along.
"And they were indeed Darius's men. Men of that Persia which had been dead for millenniums. There was no mistaking them, with their high, covering shields, their great bows, their javelins and armor.
"They passed; we doubled. We built no fires that night --and we ought to have turned the pony loose, but we didn't. It carried my instruments, and ammunition, and I felt we were going to need the latter.
"The next morning we caught sight of another band-- or the same. We turned again. We stole through a tree-covered plain; we struck an ancient road. It led south, into the peaks again. We followed it. It brought us here.
"It isn't, as you observe, the most comfortable of places. We struck across the hollow to the crevice--we knew nothing of the entrance you came through. The hollow was not pleasant, either. But it was penetrable, then.
"We crossed. As we were about to enter the cleft there issued out of it a most unusual and disconcerting chorus of sounds--wailings, crashings, splinterings."
I started, shot a look at Dick; absorbed, he was drinking in Ventnor's every word.
"So unusual, so--well, disconcerting is the best word I can think of, that we were not encouraged to proceed. Also the peculiar unpleasantness of the hollow was increasing rapidly.
"We made the best time we could back to the fortress. And when next we tried to go through the hollow, to search for another outlet--we couldn't. You know why," he ended abruptly.
"But men in ancient armor. Men like those of Darius." Dick broke the silence that had followed this amazing recital. "It's incredible!"
"Yes," agreed Ventnor, "isn't it. But there they were. Of course, I don't maintain that they WERE relics of Darius's armies. They might have been of Xerxes before him--or of Artaxerxes after him. But there they certainly were, Drake, living, breathing replicas of exceedingly ancient Persians.
"Why, they might have been the wall carvings on the tomb of Khosroes come to life. I mention Darius because he fits in with the most plausible hypothesis. When Alexander the Great smashed his empire he did it rather thoroughly. There wasn't much sympathy for the vanquished in those days. And it's entirely conceivable that a city or two in Alexander's way might have gathered up a fleeting regiment or so for protection and have decided not to wait for him, but to hunt for cover.
"Naturally, they would have gone into the almost inaccessible heart of the high ranges. There is nothing impossible in the theory that they found shelter at last up here. As long as history runs this has been a well-nigh unknown land. Penetrating some mountain-guarded, easily defended valley they might have decided to settle down for a time, have rebuilt a city, raised a government; laying low, in a sentence, waiting for the storm to blow over.
"Why did they stay? Well, they might have found the new life more pleasant