Presently, the leader spoke to me, prodding me with the sharp point
of his spear. I took it that he wanted me to arise, and I tried to do
so, but I was pretty much all in and fell back each time I essayed to
obey. Then he spoke to two of his followers, who lifted me and laid
me across the back of a third. There I was fastened in a most
uncomfortable position by means of leather straps which were taken
from various parts of the harnesses of several of the creatures.
Orthis was similarly lashed to another of them, whereupon they moved
slowly back in the direction from which they had come, stopping, as
they went, to collect the bodies of their dead, which were strapped
to the backs of others of their companions. The fellow upon whom I
rode had several well-defined gaits, one of which, a square trot, was
the acme of torture for me, since I was bruised and hurt and had been
placed across him face down, upon my belly; but inasmuch as this gait
must have been hard, too, upon him, while thus saddled with a burden,
he used it but little, for which I was tremendously thankful. When he
changed to a single-foot, which, fortunately for me, he often did, I
was much less uncomfortable.
As we crossed the ford toward the mainland, it was with difficulty
that I kept from being drowned, since my head dragged in the water
for a considerable distance and I was mighty glad when we came out
again on shore. The thing that bore me was consistently inconsiderate
of me, bumping me against others, and against the bodies of their
slain that were strapped to the backs of his fellows. He was
apparently quite tireless, as were the others, and we often moved for
what seemed many miles at a fast run. Of course, my lunar weight was
equivalent to only about thirty pounds on Earth while our captors
seemed fully as well-muscled as a small earthly horse, and as we
later learned, were capable of carrying heavy burdens.
How long we were on the march, I do not know, for where it is always
daylight and there is no sun nor other means of measuring time, one
may only guess at its duration, the result being influenced
considerably by one’s mental and physical sensations during the
period. Judged by these considerations, then, we might have been on
the trail for many hours, for I was not only most uncomfortable in
body, but in mind as well. However that may be, I know only that it
was a terrible journey; that we crossed rivers twice after reaching
the mainland, and came at last to our destination, amid low hills,
where there was a level, park-like space, dotted with weird trees.
Here the straps were loosened, and we were dumped upon the ground,
more dead than alive, and immediately surrounded by great numbers of
creatures who were identical with those who had captured us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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