Gardella 9

9   "Are those Mongols?" I whispered to Scotty.  "Aye."   He said it without moving his lips.  "Then how come the red hair?"  "There are all kinds of Mongols."  If he was trying to get me to shut up it was for some reason I didn't understand.   "All the Chinese--" I persisted.  "Mongols are not Chinese.  I'll tell you about it later."   Then I saw the Dragon Lady who said, "We go with them."  Pointing to another group of big men leading extra mounts, she added, "We ride."  This time, thinking ahead, I took off the loose skin jacket I'd been given at the caves & put my feet into its sleeves, as if it had been an extra pair of pants to keep my legs from chafing.  The man who came riding up to us now was even bigger than the others with a voice like a bear growling.  There was even something bearlike in the way he looked--huge, powerful & hairy.  Neither he nor any of the others had the yellowish skin of a Chinese.  Some like him were dark, others were as fair as any white man though nearly all had high cheekbones.  & they all wore clothing made of animal skins.   "All right, lad," Scotty said.  "Move lively now."   I took the reins of an animal near me.  As I climbed onto its back I saw the huge Mongol looking at me, laughing & pointing.  "It's the way you're wearing your jacket," Scotty said.  "He thinks it's funny.  Easy there, lad," he added--though I knew better than to start anything just then & anyhow there wasn't time because we were already moving.   At first there was no trail.  We were heading through rough country over a series of ridges that gave way to gentler slopes & then narrowed into canyons.  We did finally come across a trail of sorts which took us over a slope.  On the other side nestled among the mountains was the Mongol camp.  Looking down on it I guessed there were two or three hundred inhabitants.  When we came to the center of it the big bearlike man spoke to the Dragon Lady who turned & motioned for us to dismount.   The Dragon Lady still sat on her horse face to face with the Mongol leader.  they dismounted simultaneously & walked toward each other until they were no more than inches apart.  He must have been a foot & a half taller than she was & probably weighed more than twice as much.  What he said to her sounded ferocious.  She stood her ground & responded in her high thin voice, pointing to him, then to the sky, then in the direction we'd come from.  It was as though they were carrying on a kind of duel.  They went through the whole thing all over again & then he took a step back & began to laugh, shaking his head up & down.  She yelled something & as he stared at her I could feel those black eyes burning into me.  For a moment I actually caught his eye & I glared right back.  Nobody was going to stare me down!   He spoke again to the Dragon Lady in the same laughing half growl, & she pointed to Scotty, Gunny & me as she answered.  Finally he motioned for her to sit down & they went on talking in lower tones.   Looking around the camp I asked Scotty about the huts the Mongols lived in.  "What are they made of?  Looks like corn husks to me."  "Aye, lad, it's something of the sort.  Here they call it kaoliang & it has many uses.  They build their houses from the husks; they make wine & porridge from it, they use it for fuel & they feed it to the animals."   "They sure don't waste anything, do they?"  "That's right, lad.  There's not much out here for anyone to waste."   I spotted some children clustered together off to one side of the camp & looked toward Charlie.  "Mongol custom," he told me.  "When men do business, women & children keep back."   After awhile I felt secure enough to drift away from the group & head toward the children.  Near them a group of women were silently huddled together.  I was within a few yards of the children when I heard a screech behind me, whipped around & saw a huge form coming at me.  Without thinking, as a kind of reflex, I swung & caught him right on the jaw--& as any boxer can tell you, that's the worst place to get hit.  There he lay, flat on his back, looking like a fallen tree, & in another second or two I was surrounded by Mongols.  Then the one I'd hit was on his feet coming at me again & making threatening noises.  It dawned on me what I'd done & how it might affect all of us.  While I tried hard not to show my fear, I heard screaming & yelling from the center of the pack of Mongols.  It was the Dragon Lady making her way toward me.  Her air of command must have been what got her through to the center of the circle.  With the Mongol chief just behind her she came striding up & stood beside me.   She shook her head & said, sounding almost amused, "You hit his lieutenant!  That is not good in this camp."  "I thought he was going to attack me."   "I understand.  Still it is not good."  For a moment she seemed to be thinking.  Then with a look straight at the chief she pointed to me & said "Khan!"  The chief seemed surprised.  He looked at me & then back at her.  "Khan!" she repeated, louder than before.   Again those menacing black eyes of his took me in.  This time he strode toward me & brought down his face over mine until we were almost touching.  I felt his rotten breath as he growled out something meaningless to me except that the word Khan was in it.  I stood my ground.  Part of it was bravado, part of it was feeling the honor of the Marine Corps at stake.  The chief reached out his right hand to grab my shoulder.  I brushed his hand away.  While he glared at me the Dragon Lady smiled, which made me feel a little surer of myself.  When he reached out with both hands I thought he was going for my throat & I put my arms between his & knocked them to the side.  From his puzzled look this must not have been what he expected.  Then his lieutenant came over, said a word or two, pulled out his knife & pointed it at me.  The chief turned with a growl to the Dragon Lady, looking first at me & then at his lieutenant.  Then he began to walk away, with the lieutenant reluctantly following.   By this time Nancy, Gunny, Charlie & Scotty had worked their way through the circle.  As the Dragon Lady looked first at them & then at me, she wasn't smiling any more.  She said, "You have to fight the lieutenant."  I would have my choice of weapons, she went on--either a sword or a bow & arrow.   Trying to keep my voice cool, I said, "I've never used a sword or shot a bow & arrow in my life.  Scotty broke in, "Tell them you'll use a machine gun."  "No guns," the Dragon Lady said.   Then Charlie was explaining, "The Mongols love to wrestle.  It is one of their favorite sports."  I looked over to Gunny who said, "For Christ's sake, knock it off, Rick."  Scotty was looking angry too.   "Hell," I said to both of them, "all I did was to go over toward the kids!"  "The Mongols have their own rules, very strict rules," the Dragon Lady said emphatically.   I said I was sorry I'd broken their rules & asked when the fight was supposed to take place.  "When the sun is high," the Dragon Lady said.  Nancy had come & taken hold of my arm.  But the Dragon Lady said to her & the others, "Now I talk to the Khan alone, please."   As the four of them walked away she looked me straight in the eye.  "These are hard people.  They are part of the Tungus tribe.  Most of them live in Siberia, but a few small groups stay here in Mongolia.  They are the best hunters in the world."   I understood her to mean that I could never win with a bow & arrow.  I said, "What if you told them no weapons, just hands?"  "I shall see what he says."   She walked off toward the Mongols who had moved to a distance of maybe a hundred yards.  While I waited, trying not to think at all, I saw a little girl standing no more than ten yards from me.  No telling where she had come from or how she got there.  Finally, not knowing what to do, I said "Hi."  She didn't answer me, but went on staring & gnawing her knuckle.  When I held out my hands to her, she started to reach out but then drew back.  I took a few steps toward her & knelt down.  "What's your name?" I asked, hoping she would hear the friendly tone in my voice.   The Dragon Lady had come back.  Now she said, "This is my sister."  I stood up.  "Your sister?"  "Yes, my small sister, her name is Kim, she is twelve years old."   I knelt down again & said, "Hi, Kim."  The Dragon Lady said something in chinese.  Kim took the knuckle out of her mouth, put her hands behind her back & smiled.  I put out my hands again & this time, after hesitating, she reached out to catch hold of them.  I moved a little closer to her.  "Hi, Kim," I said again.  She looked up at her sister & then smiled again.  But she was still too shy to speak.   "Didn't you teach her any English?" I asked the Dragon Lady, who said something to her sister.  Then Kim pointed at me & said, "Hi, Khan."   Now from the Dragon Lady's change of expression I knew it was time to talk business.  "Soon the sun will be high," she said.  "We have to make our plans.  You must be careful, for the lieutenant is very strong."  "Have they agreed to hands, no weapons?" I asked.   "Yes.  I made them understand that bow & arrow or sword would be unfair."  I thanked her but her face remained dark.  "Do not thank me.  He says he will eat you up like a deer."  I glowered at that, & she said, "Now you must listen"--& she told me how to fight.  I never doubted for a moment that she knew exactly what I had to do.  "You understand?" she said finally.  "I understand."   There was shouting, & I turned to see the lieutenant storming toward us, followed by what seemed to be everybody in the whole Mongol camp.  The lieutenant halted at about thirty yards, & the crowd halted too.  He yelled something that ended in a growl, & the Dragon Lady made me understand that he was challenging me.  "Now you go to him."   "Okay," I said, & while she followed I walked half of the way toward him.  Stopping short I said, "Now you tell him to come the rest of the way to me.  Or...or...I' ll think he's a woman."  "Shall I tell him that?"   "Yeah," I said, surprised to find myself giving her an order.  "Tell him that."  & she must have done it, because when she had spoken the lieutenant, who'd been standing there with his arms folded, suddenly grew furious.  Dropping his arms he went into a crouch & started toward me, circling to my left.  The people behind him let out a kind of gasp & then screamed.  The lieutenant had come within ten yards & was still circling, getting no closer.  As he finished one whole loop around me, the Dragon Lady shouted, "Remember the plan!"   Suddenly he lunged.  Remembering, I dropped to the ground, bracing my weight on my left arm & kicking out with both feet.  I caught him on the shin & kneecap, feeling the impact all the way up to my hip, & saw him fall.  Jumping up, I pounced on him & put my right elbow into his throat.  I could tell that he was in pain.  Then I was in pain myself for one excruciating instant before I blacked out completely.   My next memory is of waking up in a hut somewhere with the worst headache I ever had.  Once I got my eyes to focus I recognized Nancy & then the Dragon Lady, both smiling down at me, then Gunny, Scotty--& the Mongol chief.  "My head, I said, "God, but my head hurts."  Nancy, kneeling beside me, laid her hand on my forehead.  "It's all right, Ricky, you be well."  I lay there not saying anything, trying to smile, & after a few minutes things began to be a little less confusing.  I discovered that my clothes had been changed & that I was now dressed in skins just as the Mongols were.   "Who put me into these?" I asked, & Scotty looking toward the two women answered, "They did."  "What?" I stared at them & it seemed to me that they both blushed.  then I asked, "Whatever hit me?"   Gunny said, "Two buddies of that bastard!  When you decked him one of them came at you with a club."   Whether it was a coincidence or not, just then the chief said something angry to the Dragon Lady, who sounded angry too, & they both went outside.  In a moment she was back.  "You come," she said to me.  "But my head hurts so--"  She broke in, "Khan, you must come quickly!"   The throbbing in my head seemed to explode when I moved, & for a bit I just stood there waiting for it to ease before I got through the doorway.   Outside I saw that it was dark.  Several fires were burning & gathered around them were what once again seemed to be everybody in the village.  In front of me stood the chief, with his lieutenant & two other men behind him.  "Those are the two guys that hit you," Gunny told me.  From the size of them one would have been more than enough.  But I could see now that they weren't about to start a fight.  The chief spoke to them & they dropped to their knees.  Next the chief spoke to the Dragon Lady & pulled the sword from the scabbard at his waist.  the Dragon Lady said, "Now you shall deal out punishment."  "What does he want me to do," I asked, "cut off their heads?"  & I very nearly laughed.  "Yes," she replied, "if you wish."   As though to prove he wasn't kidding, the chief walked up & held out the sword with its handle toward me.  "Take it!" the Dragon Lady said in a loud whisper, as I hesitated.  "Don't wait!  Take it!"  I reached out & gripped it in one hand.  When the chief let go, I had to grab with my other hand to keep from dropping the thing.  "What do I do now?" I asked.  "You are to deal out the punishment," she said again.   I turned to Scotty & Gunny who were no help & then glanced at the chief.  His black eyes blazed as though there were fires inside them, but he stood silently waiting for what I would do.   "Holy Mother of God," I said softly to myself & took another look at the Dragon Lady & then at Nancy standing near her.  Neither gave me any sign.  Turning back, I held the sword with both hands & slowly raised it above my head.   The lieutenant & his guards still did not move.  Very slowly I brought the sword down, point first, & drove it into the ground.  Then I turned to the chief.  "No," I said, "they live."   The chief did not move.  While he stood looking at me I walked over to the three kneeling men, bent over each one & helped him to his feet.  I touched each one on the shoulder in turn & then walked up to the chief.  When my face was a foot from his, I said, "Friends, friends!"  I touched my own chest, pointed to our group & to the three men & repeated "Friends, friends!"   Then the Dragon Lady was speaking to the chief while he stared into my eyes as though he might burn holes in them.  Finally he turned to his people & growled something that ended in a shout of "Khan!" as he pointed to me.   The people all cheered & waved their arms.  The chief walked over to where I had driven the sword into the ground.  He drew it out with one hand, lifted it over his head & called out, "Khan, Khan, Khan!" while the people went on cheering & waving.  I saw the Dragon Lady & all the others cheering too.   Scotty came over to me & said, "Well, lad, I guess you have them on your side now."  & there were a few good-natured digs from Gunny.  While the cheering died down the chief was speaking again to the Dragon Lady.  Now she told us that he wanted us to sit at the fire with him & share his food.  When we'd walked over to the fire & I'd started to sit with the others, the Dragon Lady said, "No, do not sit here."  She pointed to the chief.  "You are to sit there.  The lieutenant sits on one side of him.  He wants you to sit on the other side."  "You see, lad," Scotty said, 'you're royalty now."