Fiction,- The Boats of the Glen Carrig: Chapter 13

♥¸.•°*"˜˜"*°•. ♥ XIII
THE WEED MEN
NOW, ON THAT night, when I came to my watch, I discovered that there
was no moon, and,save for such light as the fire threw, the hill-top
was in darkness; yet this was no great matter to trouble me; for we
had been unmolested since the burning of the fungi in the valley, and
thus I had lost much of the haunting fear which hadbeset me upon the
deathof Job. Yet, though I was not so much afraid as I had been, I
took all precautions that suggested themselves to me, and built up the
fire to a goodly height, after which I took my cut-and-thrust, and
made the round of the camping place. At the edges of thecliffs which
protected us on three sides, I made some pause, staring down into the
darkness, and listening; though this latter was of but small use
because of the strength of the wind which roared continuallyin my
ears. Yet though I neither saw nor heard anything, I was
presentlypossessed of a strange uneasiness, which made me return twice
or thriceto the edge of the cliffs; but always without seeing or
hearing anything to justify my superstitions. And so, presently, being
determined to give way to no fancifulness, I avoided the boundary
ofcliffs, and kept more to that part which commanded the slope, up and
down which we made our journeys to and from the island below.
Then, it would be near half way through my time of watching, there
came to me out of the immensity of weed that lay to leeward, a far
distant sound that grew upon my ear, rising and rising into a fearsome
screaming and shrieking,and then dying away into the distance in queer
sobs, and so at lastto a note below that of the wind's. At this, as
might be supposed, I was somewhat shaken inmyself to hear so dread
anoise coming out of all that desolation, and then, suddenly, the
thought came to me thatthe screaming was from the ship to leeward of
us, and I ran immediatelyto the edge of the cliff overlooking the
weed, and stared into the darkness; but now I perceived, by a light
which burned in the hulk, that the screaming had come from some place
a great distance to the right of her, and more, as my sense assured
me, it could by no means have been possible for those in her to have
sent their voices to me against such a breeze as blew at that time.
And so, for a space, I stood nervously pondering, and peering away
into the blackness of the night; thus, in a little, I perceived a dull
glow upon the horizon, and, presently, there rose into view the upper
edge of the moon, and a very welcome sight it was to me; for I had
been upon the point of calling the bo'sun to inform him regarding the
sound which I had heard; but I had hesitated, being afraid to seem
foolish if nothing should befall. Then, even as I stood watching the
moon rise into view, there came again to me the beginning of that
screaming, somewhat like to the sound of a woman sobbing with a
giant's voice, and it grewand strengthened until itpierced through the
roarof the wind with an amazing clearness, and then slowly, and
seeming to echo and echo, it sank away into the distance, and there
was again in my ears no sound beyond that of the wind.
At this, having looked fixedly in the direction from which the sound
had proceeded, I ran straightway to the tent and roused the bo'sun;
for I had no knowledge of what the noise might portend, and this
secondcry had shaken from me all my bashfulness. Now the bo'sun was
upon his feet almost before I had made an end of shaking him, and
catching up his great cutlass which he kept always by his side, he
followed me swiftly out on to the hill-top. Here, I explained to him
that I had heard a very fearsome sound which had appeared to proceed
out of the vastness of the weed-continent, and that, upon a repetition
of the noise, I had decided to call him; for I knew not but that it
might signal to us of some coming danger. At that, the bo'sun
commended me; though chiding me in that I had hesitated to call him at
the first occurrence of the crying, and then, following me to the edge
of the leeward cliff,he stood there with me, waiting and listening,
perchance there might come again a recurrenceof the noise.
For perhaps something over an hour we stood there very silent and
listening; but there cameto us no sound beyond the continuous noise of
the wind, and so, by thattime, having grown somewhat impatient of
waiting, and the moon being well risen, the bo'sun beckoned to me to
make the round of thecamp with him. Now, just as I turned away,
chancing to look downward at the clear water directly below, I was
amazed to see that an innumerable multitude of great fish, like unto
those which I had seen on the previousnight, were swimming from the
weed-continenttowards the island. At that, I stepped nearer the edge;
for they came so directly towards the island that I expected to see
them close inshore; yet I could not perceive one; for they seemed all
of them to vanish at a point some thirty yards distant from the beach,
and at that, being amazed both by the numbers of the fish and their
strangeness, and the way in which they came on continually, yet never
reached the shore,I called to the bo'sun to come and see; for he
hadgone on a few paces. Upon hearing my call, he came running back;
whereat I pointed into the sea below. At that, hestooped forward and
peered very intently, andI with him; yet neither one of us could
discover the meaning of so curious an exhibition, and so for a while
we watched, the bo'sun being quite so much interested as I.
Presently, however, he turned away, saying thatwe did foolishly to
stand here peering at every curious sight, when we should be looking
to the welfare of the camp, andso we began to go the round of the
hill-top. Now, whilst we had been watching and listening, we had
suffered the fire to die down to a most unwise lowness, and
consequently, though the moon was rising, there was by no means the
same brightness that should have made the camp light. On perceiving
this, I went forward to throw some fuel on to the fire, and then, even
as I moved, it seemed to me that I saw something stir in the shadow of
the tent. And at that, I ran towards theplace, uttering a shout, and
waving my cut-and-thrust; yet I found nothing, and so, feeling
somewhat foolish, I turned to make up the fire, as had been my
intention, and whilst I was thus busied, the bo'sun came running over
to me to know what I had seen, and in the same instant there ran three
of the men out of the tent, all of them waked by my sudden cry.But I
had naught to tell them, save that my fancy had played me a trick, and
had shown me something where my eyes could find nothing, and at that,
two of the men went back to resume their sleep; but the third, the big
fellow to whom the bo'sun had given the other cutlass, came with us,
bringing his weapon; and, thoughhe kept silent, it seemed to me that
he had gathered something of our uneasiness; and for my part I was not
sorry to have his company.
Presently, we came to that portion of the hill which overhung the
valley, and I went to the edge of the cliff, intending to peer over;
for the valley had a very unholy fascination for me. Yet, no sooner
had I glanced down than I started, and ran back to the bo'sun and
plucked him by the sleeve, and atthat, perceiving my agitation, he
came with me in silence to see whatmatter had caused me somuch quiet
excitement. Now, when he looked over, he also was astounded, and drew
back instantly; then, using great caution, he bent forward once
more,and stared down, and, atthat, the big seaman came up behind,
walking upon his toes, and stooped to see what manner of thing we had
discovered. Thus we each of us stated down upon a most unearthly
sight; for the valley all beneath us was a-swarmwith moving creatures,
white and unwholesomein the moonlight, and their movements were
somewhat like the movements of monstrousslugs, though the things
themselves had no resemblance to such in their contours; but minded me
of naked humans, very fleshy and crawling upon their stomachs; yet
their movements lacked not a surprising rapidity. And now, looking a
little overthe bo'sun's shoulder, I discovered that these hideous
things were coming up out from the pit-like pool in the bottom of the
valley, and, suddenly, I was minded of the multitudes of strange fish
which we had seen swimming towards the island; but which had all
disappeared before reaching the shore, and Ihad no doubt but that they
entered the pit through some natural passage known to them beneath the
water. And now I was made to understand my thought of the previous
night, that I had seen the flicker of tentacles; for these things
below us had each two short and stumpy arms; but the ends appeared
divided into hateful and wriggling masses of small tentacles, which
slid hither and thither as the creatures moved about the bottom of the
valley, and at their hinder ends, where they should have grown feet,
there seemed other flickering bunches; but itmust not be supposed that
we saw these thingsclearly.
Now it is scarcely possible to convey the extraordinary disgust which
the sight of these human slugs bred in me; nor, could I, do I think I
would; for were I successful, then would others be like to retch even
as I did, the spasm coming on without premonition, and born of very
horror. And then, suddenly, even as I stared, sick with loathingand
apprehension, therecame into view, not a fathom below my feet, a face
like to the face which had peered up into my own on that night, as we
drifted beside the weed-continent. At that, I could have screamed, had
I been in less terror; for the great eyes, so bigas crown pieces, the
bill like to an inverted parrot's, and the slug-like undulating of its
white and slimy body,bred in me the dumbness of one mortally stricken.
And, even as I stayed there, my helpless body bent and rigid, the
bo'sun spat a mighty curse into my ear, and, leaning forward, smote at
the thing with his cutlass; forin the instant that I had seen it, it
had advanced upward by so much as a yard. Now, at this action of the
bo'sun's, I came suddenly into possessionof myself, and thrust
downward with so muchvigour that I was like to have followed the
brute's carcass; for I overbalanced, and danced giddily for a moment
upon the edge of eternity; and then the bo'sun had me by the
waistband, and I was back in safety; but in that instant through which
I had struggled for my balance, I had discovered that the face of the
cliff was near hid with the number of the things which were making up
to us, and I turned to the bo'sun, crying out to him that there were
thousands of them swarming up to us.Yet, he was gone alreadyfrom me,
running towards the fire, and shouting to the men in the tent to haste
to our help for their very lives, and then he came racingback with a
great armful of the weed, and after him came the big seaman, carrying
a burning tuft from the camp fire, and so in a few moments we had a
blaze, and the men were bringing more weed; forwe had a very good
stock upon the hill-top; for which the Almighty be thanked.
Now, scarce had we lit one fire, when the bo'sun cried out to the big
seaman to make another, further along the edge of the cliff, and,in
the same instant, I shouted, and ran over to that part of the hill
which lay towards the open sea; for I had seen a number of moving
things about the edge ofthe seaward cliff. Now here there was a deal
of shadow; for there were scattered certain large masses of rock about
thispart of the hill, and theseheld off both the light of the moon,
and that from the fires. Here, I came abruptly upon three great shapes
moving with stealthiness towards the camp, and, behind these, I saw
dimly that there were others. Then, with a loudcry for help, I made at
the three, and, as I charged, they rose up onend at me, and I found
that they overtopped me, and their vile tentacles were reached out at
me. Then I was smiting, and gasping, sick with a sudden stench, the
stench of the creatures which I had come already to know. And then
something clutched at me, something slimy and vile,and great mandibles
champed in my face; but I stabbed upward, and the thing fell from me,
leaving me dazed and sick, and smiting weakly.Then there came a rush
of feet behind, and a sudden blaze, and the bo'sun crying out
encouragement, and, directly, he and the big seaman thrust themselves
in front of me, hurling from them great masses of burning weed, which
they had borne, each of them, up a long reed. And immediately the
things were gone, slithering hastily down over the cliff edge.
And so, presently, I was more my own man, and made to wipe from my
throat the slime left by the clutch of the monster: and afterwards I
ran from fire to fire with weed, feeding them, and so a space passed,
during which wehad safety; for by that time we had fires all about the
top of the hill, and the monsters were in mortal dread of fire, else
had we been dead, all of us, that night.
Now, a while before the dawn, we discovered, for the second time
sincewe had been upon the island, that our fuel could not last us the
night at the rate at which we were compelled to burn it, andso the
bo'sun told the men to let out every second fire, and thus we staved
off for a while thetime when we should have to face a spell of
darkness, and the things which, at present, the fires held off from
us. And so at last, we came to the end of the weed and the reeds, and
the bo'sun called out to us towatch the cliff edges very carefully,
and smite on the instant that any thing showed; but that, should he
call, all were to gather by the central fire for a last stand. And,
after that, he blasted the moon which had passed behind a great bank
of cloud. And thus matters were, and the gloom deepened as the fires
sank lower and lower. Then I heard a man curse, on that part of
thehill which lay towards the weed-continent, his cry coming up to me
against the wind, and the bo'sun shouted to us to all have a care, and
directly afterwards I smote at something that rose silently above the
edge of the cliff oppositeto where I watched.
Perhaps a minute passed, and then there came shouts from all parts of
the hill-top, and I knew that the weed men were upon us, and in the
same instant therecame two above the edge near me, rising with a
ghostly quietness,yet moving lithely. Now the first, I pierced
somewhere in the throat, and it fell backward; but the second, though
I thrust itthrough, caught my blade with a bunch of itstentacles, and
was like tohave snatched it from me; but that I kicked it inthe face,
and at that, being, I believe, more astonished than hurt, it loosed my
sword, and immediately fell away out of sight. Now this had taken, in
all, no more than some ten seconds; yet already I perceived so many as
four others coming into view a little to my right, and at that it
seemed to me that our deaths must be very near, for I knew not how we
were to cope with the creatures, coming as they were so boldly and
with such rapidity. Yet, I hesitated not, but ran at them, andnow I
thrust not; but cut at their faces, and found this to be very
effectual; for in this wise disposed I of three in as many strokes;
but the fourth had come right over the cliff edge, and rose up atme
upon its hinder parts,as had done those otherswhen the bo'sun had
succoured me. At that, I gave way, having a very lively dread; but,
hearingall about me the cries of conflict, and knowing that I could
expect no help, I made at the brute:then as it stooped and reached out
one of its bunches of tentacles, I sprang back, and slashedat them,
and immediately I followed this up by a thrust in the stomach, and at
that it collapsed into a writhingwhite ball, that rolled this way and
that, and so, in its agony, coming to the edge of the cliff, itfell
over, and I was left, sick and near helpless with the hateful stench
of the brutes.
Now by this time all the fires about the edges of the hill were sunken
intodull glowing mounds of embers; though that which burnt near to the
entrance of the tent was still of a good brightness;yet this helped us
but little, for we fought too far beyond the immediate circle of its
beams to have benefit ofit. And still the moon, at which now I threw a
despairing glance, was no more than a ghostly shape behind the great
bank of cloud which waspassing over it, Then, even as I looked
upward,glancing as it might be over my left shoulder, I saw, with a
sudden horror, that something had come anigh me, and upon the instant,
I caught the reek of the thing, and leapt fearfullyto one side,
turning as I sprang. Thus was I saved in the very moment of my
destruction; for the creature's tentacles smeared the back of my neck
as I leapt, and then I had smitten, once and again, and conquered.
Immediately after this, I discovered something to be crossing the dark
space that lay between the dull mound of the nearest fire, and that
which lay further along the hill-top, and so, wasting no moment of
time, I ran towards the thing, and cut it twice across the head before
ever it could get upon itshind parts, in which position I had learned
greatly to dread them. Yet, no sooner had I slainthis one, than there
came a rush of maybe a dozen upon me; these having climbed silently
over the cliff edge in the meanwhile. At this, I dodged, and ran madly
towards the glowing mound of the nearest fire, the brutes followingme
almost so quick as I could run; but I came to the fire the first, and
then, a sudden thought coming to me, I thrust the point of my
cut-and-thrust among the embersand switched a great shower of them at
the creatures, and at that I had a momentary clear vision of many
white, hideous faces stretched out towards me, and brown, champing
mandibles which had theupper beak shutting intothe lower; and the
clumped, wriggling tentacles were all a-flutter. Then the gloomcame
again; but immediately, I switched another and yet another shower of
the burning embers towards them, and so, directly, I saw them give
back, and then they were gone. At this, all about the edges of the
hill-top, I saw the fires being scattered in like manner; for others
had adopted this device to help them in their sore straits.
For a little after this, I had a short breathing space, the brutes
seeming to have taken fright; yet I was full of trembling, and I
glanced hither and thither, not knowing when some one or more of them
would come upon me. And ever I glanced towards the moon, and prayed
the Almighty thatthe clouds would pass quickly, else should we be all
dead men; and then, as I prayed, there rose a sudden very terrible
scream from oneof the men, and in the same moment there came something
over the edge of the cliff fronting me; but I cleft it or ever it
could rise higher, and in my ears there echoed still the sudden scream
which had come from that part of the hill which lay to the left of me:
yet I darednot to leave my station; for to have done so would have
been to have risked all, and so I stayed, tortured by the strain of
ignorance, and my own terror.
Again, I had a little spell in which I was free from molestation;
nothing coming into sight so far as I could see to right or left of
me; though otherswere less fortunate, as the curses and sounds of
blows told to me, and then, abruptly, there came another cry of pain,
and I looked up again to the moon, and prayed aloud that it might come
out to show some light before we were all destroyed; but itremained
hid. Then a sudden thought came into my brain, and I shouted at the
top of my voice to the bo'sun to setthe great cross-bow upon the
central fire; for thus we should have a big blaze--the wood being very
nice and dry. Twice I shouted to him, saying:--"Burn the bow! Burn the
bow!" And immediately he replied, shouting to all the men to run to
him and carry itto the fire; and this we did and bore it to the centre
fire, and then ran back with all speed to our places. Thus in a minute
we had some light, and the light grew as the fire took hold of the
great log, the wind fanning it to a blaze. Andso I faced outwards,
looking to see if any vile face showed above the edge before me, or to
my right or left. Yet, I saw nothing, save, as it seemed to me, once a
fluttering tentacle came up, a little to my right; but nothing else
for a space.
Perhaps it was near five minutes later, that there came another
attack, and, in this, I came near to losing my life, throughmy folly
in venturing too near to the edge of the cliff; for, suddenly, there
shot up out from the darkness below, a clump of tentacles, and caught
me about the left ankle, and immediately I was pulled to a sitting
posture, so that both my feet were over the edge of the precipice, and
it was only by the mercy ofGod that I had not plunged head foremost
into the valley. Yet, as it was, I suffered a mighty peril; for the
brute that had my foot, put a vast strain upon it, trying to pull me
down; but I resisted, using my hands and seat to sustain me, and so,
discovering that it could not compass my end in this wise, it slacked
somewhat of thestress, and bit at my boot, shearing through the hard
leather, and nigh destroying my smalltoe; but now, being no longer
compelled to use both hands to retain my position, I slashed down with
great fury, being maddened by the pain and the mortal fear which the
creature had put upon me; yet I was not immediately free of the brute;
for it caught my sword blade; but I snatched it away before it could
take a proper hold, mayhaps cutting itsfeelers somewhat thereby;
though of this I cannot be sure, for they seemed not to grip around a
thing, but to suck to it; then, in a moment, by a lucky blow, I maimed
it, so that it loosed me, and I was able to get back intosome
condition of security.
And from this onwards, we were free from molestation; though we had no
knowledge but that the quietness of the weed men did but portend a
fresh attack, and so, at last, it came to the dawn; and in all this
time the moon came not to our help, being quite hid by the clouds
which now covered the whole arc of the sky, making the dawn of a very
desolate aspect.
And so soon as there wasa sufficiency of light, we examined the
valley; but there were nowhere anyof the weed men, no! nor even any of
their dead for it seemed that they had carried off all such and their
wounded,and so we had no opportunity to make an examination of the
monsters by daylight. Yet, though we could notcome upon their dead,
all about the edges of the cliffs was blood and slime, and from the
latterthere came ever the hideous stench which marked the brutes; but
from this we suffered little, the wind carrying it far away to
leeward, and filling our lungs with sweet and wholesome air.
Presently, seeing that thedanger was past, the bo'sun called us to the
centre fire, on which burnt still the remnants of the great bow, and
here we discovered for the first time that one of the men was gone
from us. At that, we made search about the hill-top,and afterwards in
the valley and about the island; but found him not. [ tobe
continued....]