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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