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is no sunshine upon Venus. The relative proximity of the sun lights up
the inner cloud envelope brilliantly, but it is a diffused light that casts
no well defined shadows nor produces contrasting highlights. There is
an all pervading glow from above that blends with the perpetual light
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emanations from the soil, and the resultant scene is that of a soft and
beautiful pastel.
Our captors conducted us into the forest for a considerable distance;
we marched practically all day. They spoke but seldom and then
usually in monosyllables. They did not laugh again, and for that I was
thankful. One can scarcely imagine a more disagreeable sound.
We had an opportunity to study them during this long march, and
there is a question if either of us was quite sure in his own mind as to
whether they were beast-like men or man-like beasts. Their bodies
were entirely covered with hair; their feet were large and flat, and
their toes were armed, like the fingers, with thick, heavy, pointed
nails that resembled talons. They were large and heavy, with
tremendous shoulders and necks.
Their eyes were extremely close set in a baboon-like face; so that in
some respects their heads bore a more striking similarity to the heads
of dogs than to men. There was no remarkable dissimilarity between
the males and the females, several of which were in the party; and the
latter deported themselves the same as the bulls and appeared to be
upon a plane of equality with these, carrying bows and arrows and
slings for hurling rocks, a small supply of which they carried in skin
pouches slung across their shoulders.
At last we reached an open space beside a small river where there
stood a collection of the rudest and most primitive of shelters. These
were constructed of branches of all sizes and shapes thrown together
without symmetry and covered with a thatch of leaves and grasses. At
the bottom of each was a single aperture through which one might
crawl on hands and knees. They reminded me of the nests of pack rats
built upon a Gargantuan scale.
Here were other members of the tribe, including several young, and
at sight of us they rushed forward with excited cries. It was with
difficulty that the jong and other members of the returning party kept
them from tearing us to pieces.
The former hustled us into one of their evil smelling nests and placed
a guard before the entrance, more to protect us from his fellows, I
suspect, than to prevent our escape.
The hut in which we were was filthy beyond words, but in the dim
light of the interior I found a short stick with which I scraped aside
the foul litter that covered the floor until I had uncovered a space
large enough for us to lie down on the relatively clean earth.
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We lay with our heads close to the entrance that we might get the
benefit of whatever fresh air should find its way within. Beyond the
entrance we could see a number of the savages digging two parallel
trenches in the soft earth; each was about seven feet long and two feet
wide.
"Why are they doing that, do you suppose?" asked Duare.
"I do not know," I replied, although I had my suspicions; they looked
remarkably like graves.
Perhaps we can escape after they have gone to sleep tonight,"
suggested Duare.
"We shall certainly take advantage of the first opportunity," I replied,
but there was no hope within me. I had a premonition that we should
not be alive when the nobargans slept next.
"Look what they're doing said Duare, presently; "they're filling the
trenches with wood and dry leaves. You don't suppose--?" she
exclaimed, and caught her breath with a lithe gasp.
I placed a hand on one of hers and pressed it. "We must not conjure
unnecessary horrors in our imaginations," but I feared what she had
guessed what I had already surmised--that my graves had become pits
for cooking fires.
In silence we watched the creatures working about the two trenches.
They built up walls of stone and earth about a foot high along each of
the long sides of each pit; When they laid poles at intervals of a few
inches across the tops of each pair of walls. Slowly before our eyes we
saw two grilles take shape.
"It is horrible," whispered Duare.
Night came before the preparations were completed; then the savage
jong came to our prison and commanded us to come forth. As we did
so we were seized by several shes and bulls who carried the long
stems of tough jungle vines.
They drew us down and wound the vines about us. They were very
clumsy and inept, not having sufficient intelligence to tie knots; but
they accomplished their purpose in binding us by wrapping these
fiber ropes around and around us until it seemed that it would be
impossible to extricate ourselves even were we given the opportunity.
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They bound me more securely than they did Duare, but even so the
job was a clumsy one. Yet I guessed that it would be adequate to their
purpose as they lifted us and laid us on the two parallel grilles.
This done, they comenced to move slowly about us in a rude circle,
while near us, and also inside the circle, squatted a bull that was
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