Dick had thought earlier of making a prisoner of some inhabitant of this Other World, and of forcing him to lead the way to where Nancy might be held captive. But if men were subject to beasts, and accompanied everywhere by the beasts their masters...
Then his mind clicked on the few things it had to work on. He’d seen a man and cart and beast from the top of the Empire State Building. He’d seen a man and cart and beast here. He’d killed the beast and another had come shortly after. That was now dead too. So there might be another man and cart-
He marched savagely along the trail in the direction from which the second beast had come. Cart-tracks showed that it was a frequented highway. Beast-tracks in occasional patches of dust showed plainly, as well as the hoof-prints of horses. He saw tiny pellets of wetness. They would be drops from the wetted pelt of the second dead beast. Dick found himself hurrying a little.
Half a mile, between leaves of unknown species and genera, brushwood which had leaves and no leaves, and berries of very improbable color. Something with a preposterous number of legs slithered across the highway. It saw him and squeaked and insanely whirled and went back across the highway and vanished, having exposed itself twice to danger. A furry biped eight inches tall ran behind a tree trunk and peered at him through large blue eyes which were not in the least human. The bird-notes which filled the air kept on in a constant tide of sound.
Then a stream. It was possibly twenty feet wide and swift-running. The trail led into it and out on the other side. Some thirty feet beyond the water there was a second horse and cart, and a second more than half-naked man. This man sat apathetically in stillness. The horse was still. The man, red-haired and with a monstrous red beard which was utterly untended, waited dully as if in numbed obedience to orders. There was no beast in sight. Dick had killed the beast which should have been here.
He halted on the near side of the stream and lifted an automatic suggestively.
“You!” he said coldly. “I’m going to ask some questions! You’ll answer them! Understand?”
The man raised his eyes. They fixed themselves dully upon Dick. It was seconds before surprise dawned in them. For a time, then, there was merely blank amazement. Then other emotions passed over his features in succession. Hope, and sudden recollected despair, and then a burning fury.
“Where’d you come from?” demanded the red-beard in a croaking voice. “The ruhks ain’t stripped you. Did you—did you come from some’rs by yourself, or—” Then his voice dulled again. “No ... You just busted outa a cage-trap ...”
The fury died in him. He drooped.
“Go on some’rs else,’ he said dully. “I ain’t seen you. The ruhks’ll track you down by smell, an’ they’ll kill you. That’s best anyways. Go on!”
Dick said evenly:
“I’ve just killed two beasts that look like wolves. One was wet, as if he’d forded this stream. Are those beasts ruhks?”
The red-beard’s eyes lighted again, this time in delight.
“Killed two of ‘em? Good! Swell!” He suddenly cursed in a terrible, gleeful passion. “If only every one was dead there’d be some killin’ around here! Fella! You got guns? I hope you kill plenty of ‘em before they get you! I hope you kill thousan’s of ‘em—” Then he said eagerly, “Did y’break outa a trap-cage, or—”
He trembled, unable to express a hope so remote that it could not be imagined.
“I came through a thing one of my friends made,” said Dick. “I was in New York half an hour ago. My friends can get through to here whenever they wish.”
The red-beard blasphemed in fierce joy.
“How about other carts and ruhks coming along?” snapped Dick. “Is it safe to stand and talk?”
The red-beard suddenly grinned. He clucked to his horse. The horse moved forward and went into the stream. It halted in the middle.
“Wade out an’ climb in,” panted the red-headed man. “They’ll track you by smell to this here stream. Then they’ll hunt for where you come out. You ride with me an’ I’ll put you down miles away, ah’ you can get back to your friends. Tell ‘em to fire the palace with gasoline an’ kill them ruhks. We’ll tend to the rest!”
When Dick waded out into the stream and then swung into the vehicle, he saw that the red-beard’s back above his filthy breechclout was scarred in an intricate, crisscross pattern as if by long-healed sores which could only have been made by a lash. And there were other scars, which had been made by the teeth of beasts.
He clucked to the horse again. The animal pulled ahead to shore. Presently they were proceeding at a slow walk along the trail. And the red-headed man, in a hoarse and confidential whisper, spoke of destruction to be wrought upon a palace—which must be the villa on the Brooklyn shore—and then of tortures unspeakable to be inflicted upon overseers.
It was quite impossible, for the moment, to get from him anything but expressions of his hate.
After a time, the red-bearded man grew coherent. He was not actually mad. In the seven-mile ride between monster tree trunks, Dick came to understand that there are experiences one can have, after which self-control and a normal manner would be impossible. Yet too great a change from sane behavior would have a penalty on this Other World, where there were penalties for madness as for illness or crippling injuries or a rebellious spirit or anything which made a slave less than wholly useful.
The picture the red-beard painted was only partly like the pattern Dick had imagined. There were human masters, to be sure. They lived in the palace on the other side of the river. The red-bearded man had been a slave for years, but had never seen a member of the race or family he had been enslaved to serve. He had only rarely seen more than one overseer. Years ago he’d been an electrician in New York, and on his way home one night along Fourth Avenue, he suddenly felt himself falling, and all the world swirled about him and he was in a cage of wooden bars, in a forest like this of monster trees and unfamiliar vegetation. Over his head an object rose, and drew back, and minutes later another man fell into the cage with him. The other man freakishly broke his arm in falling. They did not know where they were, and they did not know what had happened to them. They shouted for help, and some beast snarled horribly, nearby. Then they were silent in terror. And all that night they thought themselves insane, and all night long the beast prowled about outside the cage.
When dawn came, they saw it. It was one of the wolf-like creatures called ruhks. It regarded them with businesslike, icy, intelligent eyes. Presently, in the dawn light, there came others of the animals—a dozen or more. In their midst marched a man with a spear, and with a pistol in a holster about his waist. He wore a long, knee-length robe rather than garments they would recognize. He looked at the two caged men without interest or mercy. The ruhks made whining, barking noises to each other. Their tone was unmistakably conversational. The robed man stood back, and one of the creatures pulled on a leather thong and the cage-door opened. The two captives shivered in horror. They pleaded with the man among the beasts, but he ignored them. Now they shrank back in the cage and he gestured to them to come out. When they did not, he prodded them out with his spear.
Outside, the beasts pushed between them, separated them, and then roughly flung them to the ground. Then, deliberately—and apparently under the orders of one of their own number, who stood back and made noises at the rest—the animals ripped off every article of their clothing. The red-bearded man was numb with horror, but the other man screamed.