Savages of Gor

10 I See Dust Behind Us

"You are aware, are you not," I asked Grunt, "That we are being followed?"

"Yes," he said.

It was toward the noon of our second day in the Barrens.

"I trust that their intentions are peaceful," I said.

"That is unlikely," he smiled.

"Are we not yet in the country of the Dust Legs?" I inquired. This was aperimeter tribe, which, on the whole, was favorably disposed towards whites.

Most trading was done with Dust Legs. Indeed, it was through the Dust Legs thatmost of the goods of the interior might reach civilization, the Dust Legs, ineffect, acting as agents, and intermediaries. Many tribes, apparently, would notdeal on a face-to-face basis with whites. This had to do with the hatred andsuspicion fostered by that tradition called the Memory. Too, it was oftendifficult to control their young men. Although small trading groups werewelcomed in the country of the Dust Legs, such groups seldom penetrated the moreinterior territories. Too many of them had failed to return. Grunt was unusualin having traded as far east as the country of the Fleer and the Yellow Knives.

Too, he had entered, at least once, the country of the Sleen and the Kaiila.

Some of these territories, apparently, had scarcely been penetrated since thedays of the first white explorers of the Barrens, men such as Boswell, Diaz,Bento, Hastings and Hogarthe.

"Yes," said Grunt.

"Why, then, do you conjecture that their intentions may be hostile?" I asked.

"They are not Dust Legs," he said.

We wheeled our kaiila about, and the coffle stopped. The girls put down theirburdens, gratefully. We observed the dust in the distance, some pasangs acrossthe prairie.

"They are, then," I speculated, "Fleer or Yellow Knives."

"No," he said.

"I do not understand," I said.

"Observe the dust," he said. "Its front is narrow, and it does not behave asthough raised by the wind."

"The wind direction, too," I said, "would be incorrect."

"Accordingly," said Grunt, "you conjecture that the dust is raised by the pawsof running kaiila."

"Yes," I said.

"In that you are correct," he said. "What else do you note?" he asked.

"I do not understand," I said. I was growing apprehensive. It was early in theday. I had little doubt but what the distant riders could overtake us, andeasily, before nightfall.

"It is so obvious," said Grant, "that you have noted it, but have not consideredits significance."

"What?" I asked.

"You can detect that dust," he said.

"Yes," I said, "of course."

"Does that not seem to you of interest?" he asked.

"I do not understand," I said.

"To raise dust like that, in this terrain," said Grunt, "you must ride acrossdraws, rather than avoid them, and you must ride in a cluster, where the dustwill rise, cloudlike, rather than rise and fall, in a narrow line, swiftlydissipated by the wind."

"What are you telling me?" I asked.

Grunt grinned. "If we were being followed by red savages," he said, "I do notthink that you, with your present level of skills, would be aware of it"

"I do not understand," I said.

"That dust," he said, "does not rise from the paws of the kaiila of Dust Legs,nor of Yellow Knives nor Fleer. It is not raised, at all, by the kaiila of redsavages. They would not ride so openly, so carelessly, so stupidly. They wouldavoid, where possible, grassless, dry areas, and they would ride at intervals,in single file. This arrangement not only obscures their numbers but lowers andnarrows the dust line."

"White men, then, follow us," I said.

"I thought they would," said Grunt.

"They cannot be white men," I said. "Observe the front of dust. That must beraised by fifteen or twenty kaiila."

"True," smiled Grunt. "They are fools."

I swallowed, hard. A law, imposed on white men entering their lands by redsavages, had been violated.

"Who are they?" I asked.

"I have had trouble with them before," smiled Grunt. "I have been waiting forthem."

"Who are they?" I asked.

"They want you," he said. "I thought they would follow this time. You are thebait."

"I? ' I asked.

"You came with me of your own free will, did you not?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, irritably.

"Accordingly," he grinned, "you cannot blame me."

"I am not interested in blaming anyone," I said. "I would just like to know whatis going on."

"They will also be interested in the second and third girls," he said.

I looked to Ginger and Evelyn, lying in the grass, exhausted, their burdensbeside them.

"They are the Hobarts," I said, "and the men from the Bar Ina.

"Yes' said Grunt.

"You said they would not make pleasant enemies," I said.

"They will not," he said.

"We cannot outrun them with the girls," I said. "We must make a stand." I lookedabout, swiftly, for high ground or shelter.

"No," said Grunt.

"What, then, are we to do? ' I asked.

"We shall continue on, as we were," said Grunt. "We shall not even suggest, byour behavior, that we are aware of their approach."

"I do not understand," I said.

"To be sure," said Grunt, "we should waste little time." He then rode his kaiilaabout the coffle of girls, cracking his whip, viciously. Several cried out infear. They had already felt that whip, through the thin brown cloth of theirslave tunics or across the backs of their legs. "Hei! Hei!" called Grunt. "Onyour feet, you stupid sluts, you luscious beasts! Up! Up! Burdens up! Burdensup! Have we all day to dally? No, my luscious beasts, no! Burdens up! Burdensup!" The girls scrambled to their feet, struggling to lift their burdens. Thewhip cracked again and a girl cried out with pain, one more tardy than the rest.

Then she, too, gasping, tears in her eyes, stood ready in the coffle, the burdenbalanced on her head. "On!" said Grunt, with a gesture of his whip, wheelingabout on his kaiila. "On!" With the sound of chains and collars, and somefrightened sobbing, the neck-shackled beauties again took up the march.

I drew my kaiila alongside that of Grunt. "I think we must either run," I said,"abandoning the girls and the goods, or stop, and make a stand."

"I do not think we should make a stand," said Grunt. "We could kill the kaiilaand use them, in effect, as a fort and shelter, but, even so, we would beseverely outnumbered."

I said nothing. I feared his assessment of the situation was only too sound.

"If we were red savages," said Grunt, "we would run. Then, hopefully, when thepursuers were strung out, over pasangs, we would turn back on them and, two toone, one engaging, the other striking, finish them off. If this did not seempractical we might separate, dividing our pursuers, and meet later at aprearranged rendezvous, thence to return under the cover of darkness to recover,if possible, what we had lost."

"That is interesting," I said. "Indeed, that seems a sensible plan. Let us putit immediately into effect.

"No," said Grunt.

"Why not?" I asked.

"It is pointless," he said.

"Why is it pointless?" I asked.

"It is pointless," he said, "because we are in no danger."

I looked back at the approaching dust. "We are not in danger?" I asked.

"No," said Grunt, not looking back. "It is they, rather who are in danger, gravedanger."

"I think," I said, angrily, "that we are fools."

"No," said Grunt, quietly. "It is they who are the fools."