Animals -- Juvenile fiction; Fantasy literature; Human-animal communication -- Juvenile fiction; Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction
The gloomy black mouth of a tunnel, full twenty feet high, was
revealed. In the centre of this opening stood an enormous red Indian,
seven feet tall, handsome, muscular, slim and naked—but for a beaded
cloth about his middle and an eagle’s feather in his hair. He held one
hand across his face to shield his eyes from the blinding sun which he
had not seen in many days.
“It is he!” I heard the Doctor whisper at my elbow. “I know him by his
great height and the scar upon his chin.”
And he stepped forward slowly across the fallen stone with his hand
outstretched to the red man.
Presently the Indian uncovered his eyes. And I saw that they had a
curious piercing gleam in them—like the eyes of an eagle, but kinder
and more gentle. He slowly raised his right arm, the rest of him still
and motionless like a statue, and took the Doctor’s hand in his. It was
a great moment. Polynesia nodded to me in a knowing, satisfied kind of
way. And I heard old Bumpo sniffle sentimentally.
Then the Doctor tried to speak to Long Arrow. But the Indian knew
no English of course, and the Doctor knew no Indian. Presently, to my
surprise, I heard the Doctor trying him in different animal languages.
[Illustration: “It was a great moment”]
“How do you do?” he said in dog-talk; “I am glad to see you,” in
horse-signs; “How long have you been buried?” in deer-language.
Still the Indian made no move but stood there, straight and stiff,
understanding not a word.
The Doctor tried again, in several other animal dialects. But with no
result.
Till at last he came to the language of eagles.
“Great Red-Skin,” he said in the fierce screams and short grunts that
the big birds use, “never have I been so glad in all my life as I am
to-day to find you still alive.”
In a flash Long Arrow’s stony face lit up with a smile of
understanding; and back came the answer in eagle-tongue,
“Mighty White Man, I owe my life to you. For the remainder of my days I
am your servant to command.”
Afterwards Long Arrow told us that this was the only bird or animal
language that he had ever been able to learn. But that he had not
spoken it in a long time, for no eagles ever came to this island.
Then the Doctor signaled to Bumpo who came forward with the nuts and
water. But Long Arrow neither ate nor drank. Taking the supplies with
a nod of thanks, he turned and carried them into the inner dimness of
the cave. We followed him.
Inside we found nine other Indians, men, women and boys, lying on the
rock floor in a dreadful state of thinness and exhaustion.
Some had their eyes closed, as if dead. Quickly the Doctor went round
them all and listened to their hearts. They were all alive; but one
woman was too weak even to stand upon her feet.
At a word from the Doctor, Chee-Chee and Polynesia sped off into the
jungles after more fruit and water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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