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The People That Time Forgot
By
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Contents
I am forced to ad=
mit
that even though I had traveled a long distance to place Bowen Tyler's
manuscript in the hands of his father, I was still a trifle skeptical as to=
its
sincerity, since I could not but recall that it had not been many years sin=
ce
Bowen had been one of the most notorious practical jokers of his alma
mater. The truth was that as I sat=
in
the Tyler library at Santa Monica I commenced to feel a trifle foolish and =
to
wish that I had merely forwarded the manuscript by express instead of beari=
ng
it personally, for I confess that I do not enjoy being laughed at. I have a well-developed sense of humor-=
-when the
joke is not on me.
Mr. Tyler, Sr., w=
as
expected almost hourly. The last s=
teamer
in from Honolulu had brought information of the date of the expected sailin=
g of
his yacht Toreador, which was now twenty-four hours overdue. Mr. Tyler's assistant secretary, who ha=
d been
left at home, assured me that there was no doubt but that the Toreador had
sailed as promised, since he knew his employer well enough to be positive t=
hat
nothing short of an act of God would prevent his doing what he had planned =
to
do. I was also aware of the fact t=
hat
the sending apparatus of the Toreador's wireless equipment was sealed, and =
that
it would only be used in event of dire necessity. There was, therefore, nothing to do but=
wait,
and we waited.
We discussed the
manuscript and hazarded guesses concerning it and the strange events it
narrated. The torpedoing of the li=
ner
upon which Bowen J. Tyler, Jr., had taken passage for France to join the
American Ambulance was a well-known fact, and I had further substantiated b=
y wire
to the New York office of the owners, that a Miss La Rue had been booked for
passage. Further, neither she nor =
Bowen
had been mentioned among the list of survivors; nor had the body of either =
of
them been recovered.
Their rescue by t=
he
English tug was entirely probable; the capture of the enemy U-33 by the tug=
's
crew was not beyond the range of possibility; and their adventures during t=
he
perilous cruise which the treachery and deceit of Benson extended until they
found themselves in the waters of the far South Pacific with depleted stores
and poisoned water-casks, while bordering upon the fantastic, appeared logi=
cal enough
as narrated, event by event, in the manuscript.
Caprona has always
been considered a more or less mythical land, though it is vouched for by an
eminent navigator of the eighteenth century; but Bowen's narrative made it =
seem
very real, however many miles of trackless ocean lay between us and it. Yes, the narrative had us guessing. We were agreed that it was most improba=
ble;
but neither of us could say that anything which it contained was beyond the
range of possibility. The weird fl=
ora
and fauna of Caspak were as possible under the thick, warm atmospheric
conditions of the super-heated crater as they were in the Mesozoic era under
almost exactly similar conditions, which were then probably world-wide. The assistant secretary had heard of Ca=
proni
and his discoveries, but admitted that he never had taken much stock in the=
one
nor the other. We were agreed that=
the
one statement most difficult of explanation was that which reported the ent=
ire
absence of human young among the various tribes which Tyler had had
intercourse. This was the one
irreconcilable statement of the manuscript.
A world of adults! It was
impossible.
We speculated upon
the probable fate of Bradley and his party of English sailors. Tyler had found the graves of two of th=
em;
how many more might have perished! And
Miss La Rue--could a young girl long have survived the horrors of Caspak af=
ter
having been separated from all of her own kind?
The assistant secretary wondered if Nobs still was with her, and the=
n we
both smiled at this tacit acceptance of the truth of the whole uncanny tale=
:
"I suppose I=
'm a
fool," remarked the assistant secretary; "but by George, I can't =
help
believing it, and I can see that girl now, with the big Airedale at her side
protecting her from the terrors of a million years ago. I can visualize the entire scene--the a=
pelike
Grimaldi men huddled in their filthy caves; the huge pterodactyls soaring
through the heavy air upon their bat-like wings; the mighty dinosaurs moving
their clumsy hulks beneath the dark shadows of preglacial forests--the drag=
ons
which we considered myths until science taught us that they were the true
recollections of the first man, handed down through countless ages by word =
of
mouth from father to son out of the unrecorded dawn of humanity."
"It is
stupendous--if true," I replied.
"And to think that possibly they are still there--Tyler and Mis=
s La
Rue--surrounded by hideous dangers, and that possibly Bradley still lives, =
and
some of his party! I can't help hoping all the time that Bowen and the girl
have found the others; the last Bowen knew of them, there were six left, all
told--the mate Bradley, the engineer Olson, and Wilson, Whitely, Brady and =
Sinclair. There might be some hope for them if th=
ey
could join forces; but separated, I'm afraid they couldn't last long."=
"If only they
hadn't let the German prisoners capture the U-33! Bowen should have had better judgment t=
han to
have trusted them at all. The chan=
ces
are von Schoenvorts succeeded in getting safely back to Kiel and is strutti=
ng
around with an Iron Cross this very minute.
With a large supply of oil from the wells they discovered in Caspak,
with plenty of water and ample provisions, there is no reason why they coul=
dn't
have negotiated the submerged tunnel beneath the barrier cliffs and made go=
od
their escape."
"I don't like
'em," said the assistant secretary; "but sometimes you got to han=
d it
to 'em."
"Yes," I
growled, "and there's nothing I'd enjoy more than handing it to
them!" And then the telephone-bell rang.
The assistant
secretary answered, and as I watched him, I saw his jaw drop and his face go
white. "My God!" he excl=
aimed
as he hung up the receiver as one in a trance.
"It can't be!"
"What?"=
I
asked.
"Mr. Tyler is
dead," he answered in a dull voice.
"He died at sea, suddenly, yesterday."
The next ten days
were occupied in burying Mr. Bowen J. Tyler, Sr., and arranging plans for t=
he
succor of his son. Mr. Tom Billing=
s, the
late Mr. Tyler's secretary, did it all.
He is force, energy, initiative and good judgment combined and
personified. I never have beheld a=
more dynamic
young man. He handled lawyers, cou=
rts
and executors as a sculptor handles his modeling clay. He formed, fashioned and forced them to=
his
will. He had been a classmate of B=
owen
Tyler at college, and a fraternity brother, and before, that he had been an
impoverished and improvident cow-puncher on one of the great Tyler
ranches. Tyler, Sr., had picked hi=
m out
of thousands of employees and made him; or rather Tyler had given him the
opportunity, and then Billings had made himself. Tyler, Jr., as good a judge of men as h=
is
father, had taken him into his friendship, and between the two of them they=
had
turned out a man who would have died for a Tyler as quickly as he would hav=
e for
his flag. Yet there was none of the
sycophant or fawner in Billings; ordinarily I do not wax enthusiastic about
men, but this man Billings comes as close to my conception of what a regular
man should be as any I have ever met. I
venture to say that before Bowen J. Tyler sent him to college he had never
heard the word ethics, and yet I am equally sure that in all his life he ne=
ver
has transgressed a single tenet of the code of ethics of an American gentle=
man.
Ten days after th=
ey
brought Mr. Tyler's body off the Toreador, we steamed out into the Pacific =
in
search of Caprona. There were fort=
y in the
party, including the master and crew of the Toreador; and Billings the
indomitable was in command. We had=
a
long and uninteresting search for Caprona, for the old map upon which the
assistant secretary had finally located it was most inaccurate. When its grim walls finally rose out of=
the
ocean's mists before us, we were so far south that it was a question as to
whether we were in the South Pacific or the Antarctic. Bergs were numerous, and it was very co=
ld.
All during the tr=
ip
Billings had steadfastly evaded questions as to how we were to enter Caspak
after we had found Caprona. Bowen
Tyler's manuscript had made it perfectly evident to all that the subterrane=
an outlet
of the Caspakian River was the only means of ingress or egress to the crater
world beyond the impregnable cliffs.
Tyler's party had been able to navigate this channel because their c=
raft
had been a submarine; but the Toreador could as easily have flown over the
cliffs as sailed under them. Jimmy
Hollis and Colin Short whiled away many an hour inventing schemes for
surmounting the obstacle presented by the barrier cliffs, and making ridicu=
lous
wagers as to which one Tom Billings had in mind; but immediately we were all
assured that we had raised Caprona, Billings called us together.
"There was no
use in talking about these things," he said, "until we found the
island. At best it can be but conj=
ecture
on our part until we have been able to scrutinize the coast closely. Each of us has formed a mental picture =
of the
Capronian seacoast from Bowen's manuscript, and it is not likely that any t=
wo
of these pictures resemble each other, or that any of them resemble the coa=
st
as we shall presently find it. I h=
ave in
view three plans for scaling the cliffs, and the means for carrying out eac=
h is
in the hold. There is an electric =
drill
with plenty of waterproof cable to reach from the ship's dynamos to the
cliff-top when the Toreador is anchored at a safe distance from shore, and
there is sufficient half-inch iron rod to build a ladder from the base to t=
he
top of the cliff. It would be a lo=
ng,
arduous and dangerous work to bore the holes and insert the rungs of the la=
dder
from the bottom upward; yet it can be done.
"I also have=
a
life-saving mortar with which we might be able to throw a line over the sum=
mit
of the cliffs; but this plan would necessitate one of us climbing to the top
with the chances more than even that the line would cut at the summit, or t=
he
hooks at the upper end would slip.
"My third pl=
an
seems to me the most feasible. You=
all
saw a number of large, heavy boxes lowered into the hold before we sailed.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> I know you did, because you asked me wh=
at
they contained and commented upon the large letter 'H' which was painted up=
on
each box. These boxes contain the
various parts of a hydro-aeroplane. I
purpose assembling this upon the strip of beach described in Bowen's
manuscript--the beach where he found the dead body of the apelike man--prov=
ided
there is sufficient space above high water; otherwise we shall have to asse=
mble
it on deck and lower it over the side.
After it is assembled, I shall carry tackle and ropes to the cliff-t=
op,
and then it will be comparatively simple to hoist the search-party and its
supplies in safety. Or I can make a
sufficient number of trips to land the entire party in the valley beyond the
barrier; all will depend, of course, upon what my first reconnaissance
reveals."
That afternoon we
steamed slowly along the face of Caprona's towering barrier.
"You see
now," remarked Billings as we craned our necks to scan the summit
thousands of feet above us, "how futile it would have been to waste our
time in working out details of a plan to surmount those." And he jerked
his thumb toward the cliffs. "=
;It
would take weeks, possibly months, to construct a ladder to the top. I had no conception of their formidable
height. Our mortar would not carry=
a
line halfway to the crest of the lowest point.
There is no use discussing any plan other than the hydro-aeroplane.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> We'll find the beach and get busy."=
;
Late the following
morning the lookout announced that he could discern surf about a mile ahead;
and as we approached, we all saw the line of breakers broken by a long swee=
p of
rolling surf upon a narrow beach. The launch was lowered, and five of us ma=
de a
landing, getting a good ducking in the ice-cold waters in the doing of it; =
but
we were rewarded by the finding of the clean-picked bones of what might have
been the skeleton of a high order of ape or a very low order of man, lying
close to the base of the cliff. Bi=
llings
was satisfied, as were the rest of us, that this was the beach mentioned by
Bowen, and we further found that there was ample room to assemble the
sea-plane.
Billings, having
arrived at a decision, lost no time in acting, with the result that before
mid-afternoon we had landed all the large boxes marked "H" upon t=
he
beach, and were busily engaged in opening them. Two days later the plane was
assembled and tuned. We loaded tac=
kles and
ropes, water, food and ammunition in it, and then we each implored Billings=
to
let us be the one to accompany him. But
he would take no one. That was Bil=
lings;
if there was any especially difficult or dangerous work to be done, that one
man could do, Billings always did it himself.
If he needed assistance, he
never called for volunteers--just selected the man o=
r men
he considered best qualified for the duty.
He said that he considered the principles underlying all volunteer
service fundamentally wrong, and that it seemed to him that calling for
volunteers reflected upon the courage and loyalty of the entire command.
We rolled the pla=
ne
down to the water's edge, and Billings mounted the pilot's seat. There was a moment's delay as he assured
himself that he had everything necessary.
Jimmy Hollis went over his armament and ammunition to see that nothi=
ng
had been omitted. Besides pistol a=
nd rifle,
there was the machine-gun mounted in front of him on the plane, and ammunit=
ion
for all three. Bowen's account of =
the
terrors of Caspak had impressed us all with the necessity for proper means =
of
defense.
At last all was
ready. The motor was started, and =
we
pushed the plane out into the surf. A
moment later, and she was skimming seaward. Gently she rose from the surfac=
e of
the water, executed a wide spiral as she mounted rapidly, circled once far
above us and then disappeared over the crest of the cliffs. We all stood silent and expectant, our =
eyes
glued upon the towering summit above us.
Hollis, who was now in command, consulted his wrist-watch at frequent
intervals.
"Gad,"
exclaimed Short, "we ought to be hearing from him pretty soon!"
Hollis laughed
nervously. "He's been gone on=
ly ten
minutes," he announced.
"Seems like =
an
hour," snapped Short. "W=
hat's
that? Did you hear that? He's
firing! It's the machine-gun! Oh, Lord; and here we are as helpless a=
s a
lot of old ladies ten thousand miles away!
We can't do a thing. We don=
't
know what's happening. Why didn't =
he let
one of us go with him?"
Yes, it was the
machine-gun. We would hear it dist=
inctly
for at least a minute. Then came s=
ilence. That was two weeks ago. We have had no sign nor signal from Tom
Billings since.
I'll never forget=
my
first impressions of Caspak as I circled in, high over the surrounding
cliffs. From the plane I looked do=
wn
through a mist upon the blurred landscape beneath me. The hot, humid atmosphere of Caspak con=
denses
as it is fanned by the cold Antarctic air-currents which sweep across the
crater's top, sending a tenuous ribbon of vapor far out across the
Pacific. Through this the picture =
gave
one the suggestion of a colossal impressionistic canvas in greens and brown=
s and
scarlets and yellows surrounding the deep blue of the inland sea--just blob=
s of
color taking form through the tumbling mist.
I dived close to =
the
cliffs and skirted them for several miles without finding the least indicat=
ion
of a suitable landing-place; and then I swung back at a lower level, looking
for a clearing close to the bottom of the mighty escarpment; but I could fi=
nd
none of sufficient area to insure safety.
I was flying pretty low by this time, not only looking for landing
places but watching the myriad life beneath me.
I was down pretty well toward the south end of the island, where an =
arm
of the lake reaches far inland, and I could see the surface of the water li=
terally
black with creatures of some sort. I was
too far up to recognize individuals, but the general impression was of a va=
st
army of amphibious monsters. The l=
and
was almost equally alive with crawling, leaping, running, flying things.
The first intimat=
ion
I had of it was the sudden blotting out of the sunlight from above, and as I
glanced quickly up, I saw a most terrific creature swooping down upon me. It must have been fully eighty feet lon=
g from
the end of its long, hideous beak to the tip of its thick, short tail, with=
an
equal spread of wings. It was comi=
ng
straight for me and hissing frightfully--I could hear it above the whir of =
the propeller. It was coming straight down toward the =
muzzle
of the machine-gun and I let it have it right in the breast; but still it c=
ame for
me, so that I had to dive and turn, though I was dangerously close to earth=
.
The thing didn't =
miss
me by a dozen feet, and when I rose, it wheeled and followed me, but only to
the cooler air close to the level of the cliff-tops; there it turned again =
and
dropped. Something--man's natural =
love
of battle and the chase, I presume--impelled me to pursue it, and so I too =
circled
and dived. The moment I came down =
into
the warm atmosphere of Caspak, the creature came for me again, rising above=
me
so that it might swoop down upon me.
Nothing could better have suited my armament, since my machine-gun w=
as
pointed upward at an angle of about 45 degrees
and could not be either depressed or elevated by the pilot. If I had brought someone along with me,=
we
could have raked the great reptile from almost any position, but as the
creature's mode of attack was always from above, he always found me ready w=
ith
a hail of bullets. The battle must=
have
lasted a minute or more before the thing suddenly turned completely over in=
the
air and fell to the ground.
Bowen and I roomed
together at college, and I learned a lot from him outside my regular
course. He was a pretty good schol=
ar
despite his love of fun, and his particular hobby was paleontology. He used to tell me about the various fo=
rms of
animal and vegetable life which had covered the globe during former eras, a=
nd
so I was pretty well acquainted with the fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and
mammals of paleolithic times. I kn=
ew
that the thing that had attacked me was some sort of pterodactyl which shou=
ld
have been extinct millions of years ago.
It was all that I needed to realize that Bowen had exaggerated nothi=
ng
in his manuscript.
Having disposed o=
f my
first foe, I set myself once more to search for a landing-place near to the
base of the cliffs beyond which my party awaited me. I knew how anxious they would be for wo=
rd
from me, and I was equally anxious to relieve their minds and also to get t=
hem
and our supplies well within Caspak, so that we might set off about our bus=
iness
of finding and rescuing Bowen Tyler; but the pterodactyl's carcass had scar=
cely
fallen before I was surrounded by at least a dozen of the hideous things, s=
ome
large, some small, but all bent upon my destruction. I could not cope with them all, and so =
I rose
rapidly from among them to the cooler strata wherein they dared not follow;=
and
then I recalled that Bowen's narrative distinctly indicated that the farther
north one traveled in Caspak, the fewer were the terrible reptiles which
rendered human life impossible at the southern end of the island.
There seemed noth=
ing
now but to search out a more northerly landing-place and then return to the
Toreador and transport my companions, two by two, over the cliffs and depos=
it
them at the rendezvous. As I flew =
north,
the temptation to explore overcame me. =
span>I
knew that I could easily cover Caspak and return to the beach with less pet=
rol
than I had in my tanks; and there was the hope, too, that I might find Bowe=
n or
some of his party. The broad expan=
se of
the inland sea lured me out over its waters, and as I crossed, I saw at eit=
her extremity
of the great body of water an island--one to the south and one to the north;
but I did not alter my course to examine either closely, leaving that to a
later time.
The further shore=
of
the sea revealed a much narrower strip of land between the cliffs and the w=
ater
than upon the western side; but it was a hillier and more open country. There were splendid landing-places, and=
in
the distance, toward the north, I thought I descried a village; but of that=
I
was not positive. However, as I
approached the land, I saw a number of human figures apparently pursuing one
who fled across a broad expanse of meadow.
As I dropped lower to have a better look at these people, they caught
the whirring of my propellers and looked aloft.
They paused an instant--pursuers and pursued; and then they broke and
raced for the shelter of the nearest wood.
Almost instantaneously a huge bulk swooped down upon me, and as I lo=
oked
up, I realized that there were flying reptiles even in this part of Caspak.=
The
creature dived for my right wing so quickly that nothing but a sheer drop c=
ould
have saved me. I was already close=
to
the ground, so that my maneuver was extremely dangerous; but I was in a fair
way of making it successfully when I saw that I was too closely approaching=
a large
tree. My effort to dodge the tree =
and
the pterodactyl at the same time resulted disastrously. One wing touched an upper branch; the p=
lane
tipped and swung around, and then, out of control, dashed into the branches=
of
the tree, where it came to rest, battered and torn, forty feet above the
ground.
Hissing loudly, t=
he
huge reptile swept close above the tree in which my plane had lodged, circl=
ed
twice over me and then flapped away toward the south. As I guessed then and was to learn late=
r,
forests are the surest sanctuary from these hideous creatures, which, with
their enormous spread of wing and their great weight, are as much out of pl=
ace
among trees as is a seaplane.
For a minute or s=
o I
clung there to my battered flyer, now useless beyond redemption, my brain
numbed by the frightful catastrophe that had befallen me. All my plans for the succor of Bowen an=
d Miss
La Rue had depended upon this craft, and in a few brief minutes my own self=
ish love
of adventure had wrecked their hopes and mine.
And what effect it might have upon the future of the balance of the
rescuing expedition I could not even guess.
Their lives, too, might be sacrificed to my suicidal foolishness.
Beyond the barrier
cliffs my party was even now nervously awaiting my return. Presently apprehension and fear would c=
laim
them--and they would never know! T=
hey
would attempt to scale the cliffs--of that I was sure; but I was not so
positive that they would succeed; and after a while they would turn back, w=
hat
there were left of them, and go sadly and mournfully upon their return jour=
ney
to home. Home! I set my jaws and tried to forget the w=
ord,
for I knew that I should never again see home.
And what of Bowen=
and
his girl? I had doomed them too. They would never even know that an atte=
mpt
had been made to rescue them. If t=
hey still
lived, they might some day come upon the ruined remnants of this great plane
hanging in its lofty sepulcher and hazard vain guesses and be filled with
wonder; but they would never know; and I could not but be glad that they wo=
uld
not know that Tom Billings had sealed their death-warrants by his criminal
selfishness.
All these useless
regrets were getting me in a bad way; but at last I shook myself and tried =
to
put such things out of my mind and take hold of conditions as they existed =
and
do my level best to wrest victory from defeat.
I was badly shaken up and bruised, but considered myself mighty luck=
y to
escape with my life. The plane hun=
g at a
precarious angle, so that it was with difficulty and considerable danger th=
at I
climbed from it into the tree and then to the ground.
My predicament was
grave. Between me and my friends l=
ay an
inland sea fully sixty miles wide at this point and an estimated land-dista=
nce
of some three hundred miles around the northern end of the sea, through such
hideous dangers as I am perfectly free to admit had me pretty well buffaloe=
d. I had seen quite enough of Caspak this =
day to
assure me that Bowen had in no way exaggerated its perils. As a matter of fact, I am inclined to b=
elieve
that he had become so accustomed to them before he started upon his manuscr=
ipt
that he rather slighted them. As I=
stood
there beneath that tree--a tree which should have been part of a coal-bed
countless ages since--and looked out across a sea teeming with frightful
life--life which should have been fossil before God conceived of Adam--I wo=
uld
not have given a minim of stale beer for my chances of ever seeing my frien=
ds
or the outside world again; yet then and there I swore to fight my way as f=
ar
through this hideous land as circumstances would permit. I had plenty of ammunition, an automati=
c pistol
and a heavy rifle--the latter one of twenty added to our equipment on the
strength of Bowen's description of the huge beasts of prey which ravaged
Caspak. My greatest danger lay in =
the
hideous reptilia whose low nervous organizations permitted their carnivorou=
s instincts
to function for several minutes after they had ceased to live.
But to these thin=
gs I
gave less thought than to the sudden frustration of all our plans. With the bitterest of thoughts I condem=
ned
myself for the foolish weakness that had permitted me to be drawn from the =
main
object of my flight into premature and useless exploration. It seemed to me then that I must be tot=
ally
eliminated from further search for Bowen, since, as I estimated it, the thr=
ee
hundred miles of Caspakian territory I must traverse to reach the base of t=
he
cliffs beyond which my party awaited me were practically impassable for a s=
ingle
individual unaccustomed to Caspakian life and ignorant of all that lay befo=
re
him. Yet I could not give up hope
entirely. My duty lay clear before=
me; I
must follow it while life remained to me, and so I set forth toward the nor=
th.
The country throu=
gh
which I took my way was as lovely as it was unusual--I had almost said
unearthly, for the plants, the trees, the blooms were not of the earth that=
I
knew. They were larger, the colors=
more
brilliant and the shapes startling, some almost to grotesqueness, though ev=
en
such added to the charm and romance of the landscape as the giant cacti ren=
der
weirdly beautiful the waste spots of the sad Mohave. And over all the sun s=
hone
huge and round and red, a monster sun above a monstrous world, its light
dispersed by the humid air of Caspak--the warm, moist air which lies sluggi=
sh
upon the breast of this great mother of life, Nature's mightiest incubator.=
All about me, in
every direction, was life. It moved
through the tree-tops and among the boles; it displayed itself in widening =
and intermingling
circles upon the bosom of the sea; it leaped from the depths; I could hear =
it
in a dense wood at my right, the murmur of it rising and falling in ceasele=
ss
volumes of sound, riven at intervals by a horrid scream or a thunderous roar
which shook the earth; and always I was haunted by that inexplicable sensat=
ion
that unseen eyes were watching me, that soundless feet dogged my trail. I am neither nervous nor highstrung; bu=
t the
burden of responsibility upon me weighed heavily, so that I was more cautio=
us
than is my wont. I turned often to=
right
and left and rear lest I be surprised, and I carried my rifle at the ready =
in
my hand. Once I could have sworn t=
hat
among the many creatures dimly perceived amidst the shadows of the wood I s=
aw a
human figure dart from one cover to another, but I could not be sure.
For the most part=
I
skirted the wood, making occasional detours rather than enter those forbidd=
ing
depths of gloom, though many times I was forced to pass through arms of the
forest which extended to the very shore of the inland sea. There was so sinister a suggestion in t=
he uncouth
sounds and the vague glimpses of moving things within the forest, of the me=
nace
of strange beasts and possibly still stranger men, that I always breathed m=
ore
freely when I had passed once more into open country.
I had traveled
northward for perhaps an hour, still haunted by the conviction that I was b=
eing
stalked by some creature which kept always hidden among the trees and shrub=
bery
to my right and a little to my rear, when for the hundredth time I was
attracted by a sound from that direction, and turning, saw some animal runn=
ing
rapidly through the forest toward me.
There was no longer any effort on its part at concealment; it came on
through the underbrush swiftly, and I was confident that whatever it was, it
had finally gathered the courage to charge me boldly. Before it finally broke into plain view=
, I
became aware that it was not alone, for a few yards in its rear a second th=
ing thrashed
through the leafy jungle. Evidentl=
y I
was to be attacked in force by a pair of hunting beasts or men.
And then through =
the
last clump of waving ferns broke the figure of the foremost creature, which
came leaping toward me on light feet as I stood with my rifle to my shoulder
covering the point at which I had expected it would emerge. I must have looked foolish indeed if my=
surprise
and consternation were in any way reflected upon my countenance as I lowere=
d my
rifle and gazed incredulous at the lithe figure of the girl speeding swiftl=
y in
my direction. But I did not have l=
ong to
stand thus with lowered weapon, for as she came, I saw her cast an affright=
ed
glance over her shoulder, and at the same moment there broke from the jungl=
e at
the same spot at which I had seen her, the hugest cat I had ever looked upo=
n.
At first I took t=
he
beast for a saber-tooth tiger, as it was quite the most fearsome-appearing
beast one could imagine; but it was not that dread monster of the past, tho=
ugh
quite formidable enough to satisfy the most fastidious thrill-hunter. On it came, grim and terrible, its bale=
ful
eyes glaring above its distended jaws, its lips curled in a frightful snarl
which exposed a whole mouthful of formidable teeth. At sight of me it had abandoned its imp=
etuous
rush and was now sneaking slowly toward us; while the girl, a long knife in=
her
hand, took her stand bravely at my left and a little to my rear. She had called something to me in a str=
ange tongue
as she raced toward me, and now she spoke again; but what she said I could =
not
then, of course, know--only that her tones were sweet, well modulated and f=
ree
from any suggestion of panic.
Facing the huge c=
at,
which I now saw was an enormous panther, I waited until I could place a shot
where I felt it would do the most good, for at best a frontal shot at any of
the large carnivora is a ticklish matter.
I had some advantage in that the beast was not charging; its head was
held low and its back exposed; and so at forty yards I took careful aim at =
its
spine at the junction of neck and shoulders.
But at the same instant, as though sensing my intention, the great
creature lifted its head and leaped forward in full charge. To fire at that sloping forehead I knew=
would
be worse than useless, and so I quickly shifted my aim and pulled the trigg=
er,
hoping against hope that the soft-nosed bullet and the heavy charge of powd=
er
would have sufficient stopping effect to give me time to place a second sho=
t.
In answer to the
report of the rifle I had the satisfaction of seeing the brute spring into =
the
air, turning a complete somersault; but it was up again almost instantly,
though in the brief second that it took it to scramble to its feet and get =
its
bearings, it exposed its left side fully toward me, and a second bullet went
crashing through its heart. Down i=
t went
for the second time--and then up and at me.
The vitality of these creatures of Caspak is one of the marvelous
features of this strange world and bespeaks the low nervous organization of=
the
old paleolithic life which has been so long extinct in other portions of the
world.
I put a third bul=
let
into the beast at three paces, and then I thought that I was done for; but =
it
rolled over and stopped at my feet, stone dead.
I found that my second bullet had torn its heart almost completely a=
way,
and yet it had lived to charge ferociously upon me, and but for my third sh=
ot
would doubtless have slain me before it finally expired--or as Bowen Tyler =
so
quaintly puts it, before it knew that it was dead.
With the panther
quite evidently conscious of the fact that dissolution had overtaken it, I
turned toward the girl, who was regarding me with evident admiration and no=
t a
little awe, though I must admit that my rifle claimed quite as much of her
attention as did I. She was quite =
the
most wonderful animal that I have ever looked upon, and what few of her cha=
rms
her apparel hid, it quite effectively succeeded in accentuating. A bit of soft, undressed leather was ca=
ught
over her left shoulder and beneath her right breast, falling upon her left =
side
to her hip and upon the right to a metal band which encircled her leg above=
the
knee and to which the lowest point of the hide was attached. About her waist
was a loose leather belt, to the center of which was attached the scabbard
belonging to her knife. There was a
single armlet between her right shoulder and elbow, and a series of them co=
vered
her left forearm from elbow to wrist.
These, I learned later, answered the purpose of a shield against kni=
fe
attack when the left arm is raised in guard across the breast or face.
Her masses of hea=
vy
hair were held in place by a broad metal band which bore a large triangular
ornament directly in the center of her forehead. This ornament appeared to be a huge
turquoise, while the metal of all her ornaments was beaten, virgin gold, in=
laid
in intricate design with bits of mother-of-pearl and tiny pieces of stone of
various colors. From the left shou=
lder
depended a leopard's tail, while her feet were shod with sturdy little
sandals. The knife was her only we=
apon. Its blade was of iron, the grip was wou=
nd
with hide and protected by a guard of three out-bowing strips of flat iron,=
and
upon the top of the hilt was a knob of gold.
I took in much of
this in the few seconds during which we stood facing each other, and I also
observed another salient feature of her appearance: she was frightfully
dirty! Her face and limbs and garm=
ent were
streaked with mud and perspiration, and yet even so, I felt that I had never
looked upon so perfect and beautiful a creature as she. Her figure beggars description, and equ=
ally
so, her face. Were I one of these
writer-fellows, I should probably say that her features were Grecian, but b=
eing
neither a writer nor a poet I can do her greater justice by saying that she
combined all of the finest lines that one sees in the typical American girl=
's
face rather than the pronounced sheeplike physiognomy of the Greek
goddess. No, even the dirt couldn'=
t hide
that fact; she was beautiful beyond compare.
As we stood looki=
ng
at each other, a slow smile came to her face, parting her symmetrical lips =
and
disclosing a row of strong white teeth.
"Galu?"=
she
asked with rising inflection.
And remembering t=
hat
I read in Bowen's manuscript that Galu seemed to indicate a higher type of =
man,
I answered by pointing to myself and repeating the word. Then she started off on a regular catec=
hism,
if I could judge by her inflection, for I certainly understood no word of w=
hat
she said. All the time the girl ke=
pt
glancing toward the forest, and at last she touched my arm and pointed in t=
hat
direction.
Turning, I saw a
hairy figure of a manlike thing standing watching us, and presently another=
and
another emerged from the jungle and joined the leader until there must have
been at least twenty of them. They=
were
entirely naked. Their bodies were
covered with hair, and though they stood upon their feet without touching t=
heir
hands to the ground, they had a very ape-like appearance, since they stooped
forward and had very long arms and quite apish features. They were not pretty to look upon with =
their
close-set eyes, flat noses, long upper lips and protruding yellow fangs.
"Alus!"
said the girl.
I had reread Bowe=
n's
adventures so often that I knew them almost by heart, and so now I knew tha=
t I
was looking upon the last remnant of that ancient man-race--the Alus of a
forgotten period--the speechless man of antiquity.
"Kazor!"
cried the girl, and at the same moment the Alus came jabbering toward us. They made strange growling, barking noi=
ses,
as with much baring of fangs they advanced upon us. They were armed only with nature's
weapons--powerful muscles and giant fangs; yet I knew that these were quite
sufficient to overcome us had we nothing better to offer in defense, and so=
I
drew my pistol and fired at the leader.
He dropped like a stone, and the others turned and fled. Once again the girl smiled her slow smi=
le and
stepping closer, caressed the barrel of my automatic. As she did so, her fingers came in cont=
act
with mine, and a sudden thrill ran through me, which I attributed to the fa=
ct
that it had been so long since I had seen a woman of any sort or kind.
She said somethin=
g to
me in her low, liquid tones; but I could not understand her, and then she
pointed toward the north and started away. I followed her, for my way was n=
orth
too; but had it been south I still should have followed, so hungry was I for
human companionship in this world of beasts and reptiles and half-men.
We walked along, =
the
girl talking a great deal and seeming mystified that I could not understand
her. Her silvery laugh rang merril=
y when
I in turn essayed to speak to her, as though my language was the quaintest
thing she ever had heard. Often af=
ter
fruitless attempts to make me understand she would hold her palm toward me,
saying, "Galu!" and then touch my breast or arm and cry, "Al=
u,
alu!" I knew what she meant, for I had learned from Bowen's narrative =
the
negative gesture and the two words which she repeated. She meant that I was no Galu, as I clai=
med,
but an Alu, or speechless one. Yet=
every
time she said this she laughed again, and so infectious were her tones that=
I
could only join her. It was only
natural, too, that she should be mystified by my inability to comprehend he=
r or
to make her comprehend me, for from the club-men, the lowest human type in
Caspak to have speech, to the golden race of Galus, the tongues of the vari=
ous
tribes are identical--except for amplifications in the rising scale of
evolution. She, who is a Galu, can
understand one of the Bo-lu and make herself understood to him, or to a
hatchet-man, a spear-man or an archer.
The Ho-lus, or apes, the Alus and myself were the only creatures of
human semblance with which she could hold no converse; yet it was evident t=
hat
her intelligence told her that I was neither Ho-lu nor Alu, neither anthrop=
oid
ape nor speechless man.
Yet she did not
despair, but set out to teach me her language; and had it not been that I
worried so greatly over the fate of Bowen and my companions of the Toreador=
, I
could have wished the period of instruction prolonged.
I never have been
what one might call a ladies' man, though I like their company immensely, a=
nd
during my college days and since have made various friends among the sex. I think that I rather appeal to a certa=
in
type of girl for the reason that I never make love to them; I leave that to=
the
numerous others who do it infinitely better than I could hope to, and take =
my
pleasure out of girls' society in what seem to be more rational ways--danci=
ng,
golfing, boating, riding, tennis, and the like.
Yet in the company of this half-naked little savage I found a new
pleasure that was entirely distinct from any that I ever had experienced. When she touched me, I thrilled as I had
never before thrilled in contact with another woman. I could not quite understand it, for I =
am
sufficiently sophisticated to know that this is a symptom of love and I
certainly did not love this filthy little barbarian with her broken, unkempt
nails and her skin so besmeared with mud and the green of crushed foliage t=
hat
it was difficult to say what color it originally had been. But if she was outwardly uncouth, her c=
lear
eyes and strong white, even teeth, her silvery laugh and her queenly carria=
ge,
bespoke an innate fineness which dirt could not quite successfully conceal.=
The sun was low in
the heavens when we came upon a little river which emptied into a large bay=
at
the foot of low cliffs. Our journe=
y so
far had been beset with constant danger, as is every journey in this fright=
ful
land. I have not bored you with a
recital of the wearying successions of attacks by the multitude of creatures
which were constantly crossing our path or deliberately stalking us. We were always upon the alert; for here=
, to
paraphrase, eternal vigilance is indeed the price of life.
I had managed to
progress a little in the acquisition of a knowledge of her tongue, so that I
knew many of the animals and reptiles by their Caspakian names, and trees a=
nd
ferns and grasses. I knew the word=
s for sea
and river and cliff, for sky and sun and cloud.
Yes, I was getting along finely, and then it occurred to me that I
didn't know my companion's name; so I pointed to myself and said,
"Tom," and to her and raised my eyebrows in interrogation. The girl ran her fingers into that mass=
of
hair and looked puzzled. I repeate=
d the
action a dozen times.
"Tom," =
she
said finally in that clear, sweet, liquid voice. "Tom!"
I had never thoug=
ht
much of my name before; but when she spoke it, it sounded to me for the fir=
st
time in my life like a mighty nice name, and then she brightened suddenly a=
nd
tapped her own breast and said: "Ajor!"
"Ajor!"=
I
repeated, and she laughed and struck her palms together.
Well, we knew each
other's names now, and that was some satisfaction. I rather liked
hers--Ajor! And she seemed to like=
mine,
for she repeated it.
We came to the cl=
iffs
beside the little river where it empties into the bay with the great inland=
sea
beyond. The cliffs were weather-wo=
rn and
rotted, and in one place a deep hollow ran back beneath the overhanging sto=
ne
for several feet, suggesting shelter for the night. There were loose rocks strewn all about=
with
which I might build a barricade across the entrance to the cave, and so I
halted there and pointed out the place to Ajor, trying to make her understa=
nd
that we would spend the night there.
As soon as she
grasped my meaning, she assented with the Caspakian equivalent of an
affirmative nod, and then touching my rifle, motioned me to follow her to t=
he
river. At the bank she paused, rem=
oved
her belt and dagger, dropping them to the ground at her side; then unfasten=
ing
the lower edge of her garment from the metal leg-band to which it was attac=
hed,
slipped it off her left shoulder and let it drop to the ground around her
feet. It was done so naturally, so
simply and so quickly that it left me gasping like a fish out of water. Turning, she flashed a smile at me and =
then
dived into the river, and there she bathed while I stood guard over her.
It was now within=
an
hour of darkness, and as I was nearly famished, I led the way back about a
quarter of a mile to a low meadow where we had seen antelope and small hors=
es a
short time before. Here I brought =
down a
young buck, the report of my rifle sending the balance of the herd scamperi=
ng
for the woods, where they were met by a chorus of hideous roars as the
carnivora took advantage of their panic and leaped among them.
With my hunting-k=
nife
I removed a hind-quarter, and then we returned to camp. Here I gathered a great quantity of woo=
d from
fallen trees, Ajor helping me; but before I built a fire, I also gathered
sufficient loose rock to build my barricade against the frightful terrors of
the night to come.
I shall never for=
get
the expression upon Ajor's face as she saw me strike a match and light the
kindling beneath our camp-fire. It=
was such
an expression as might transform a mortal face with awe as its owner beheld=
the
mysterious workings of divinity. I=
t was
evident that Ajor was quite unfamiliar with modern methods of fire-making.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> She had thought my rifle and pistol
wonderful; but these tiny slivers of wood which from a magic rub brought fl=
ame
to the camp hearth were indeed miracles to her.
As the meat roast=
ed
above the fire, Ajor and I tried once again to talk; but though copiously
filled with incentive, gestures and sounds, the conversation did not flouri=
sh
notably. And then Ajor took up in =
earnest
the task of teaching me her language.
She commenced, as I later learned, with the simplest form of speech
known to Caspak or for that matter to the world--that employed by the
Bo-lu. I found it far from difficu=
lt,
and even though it was a great handicap upon my instructor that she could n=
ot
speak my language, she did remarkably well and demonstrated that she posses=
sed
ingenuity and intelligence of a high order.
After we had eate=
n, I
added to the pile of firewood so that I could replenish the fire before the
entrance to our barricade, believing this as good a protection against the
carnivora as we could have; and then Ajor and I sat down before it, and the
lesson proceeded, while from all about us came the weird and awesome noises=
of
the Caspakian night--the moaning and the coughing and roaring of the tigers,
the panthers and the lions, the barking and the dismal howling of a wolf,
jackal and hyaenadon, the shrill shrieks of stricken prey and the hissing of
the great reptiles; the voice of man alone was silent.
But though the vo=
ice
of this choir-terrible rose and fell from far and near in all directions,
reaching at time such a tremendous volume of sound that the earth shook to =
it,
yet so engrossed was I in my lesson and in my teacher that often I was deaf=
to
what at another time would have filled me with awe. The face and voice of the beautiful gir=
l who leaned
so eagerly toward me as she tried to explain the meaning of some word or
correct my pronunciation of another quite entirely occupied my every facult=
y of
perception. The firelight shone up=
on her
animated features and sparkling eyes; it accentuated the graceful motions of
her gesturing arms and hands; it sparkled from her white teeth and from her=
golden
ornaments, and glistened on the smooth firmness of her perfect skin. I am afraid that often I was more occup=
ied
with admiration of this beautiful animal than with a desire for knowledge; =
but
be that as it may, I nevertheless learned much that evening, though part of
what I learned had naught to do with any new language.
Ajor seemed
determined that I should speak Caspakian as quickly as possible, and I thou=
ght
I saw in her desire a little of that all-feminine trait which has come down
through all the ages from the first lady of the world--curiosity. Ajor desired that I should speak her to=
ngue
in order that she might satisfy a curiosity concerning me that was filling =
her
to a point where she was in danger of bursting; of that I was positive. She was a regular little animated
question-mark. She bubbled over with interrogations which were never to be
satisfied unless I learned to speak her tongue.
Her eyes sparkled with excitement; her hand flew in expressive gestu=
res;
her little tongue raced with time; yet all to no avail. I could say man and tree and cliff and =
lion
and a number of other words in perfect Caspakian; but such a vocabulary was
only tantalizing; it did not lend itself well to a very general conversatio=
n,
and the result was that Ajor would wax so wroth that she would clench her
little fists and beat me on the breast as hard as ever she could, and then =
she
would sink back laughing as the humor of the situation captured her.
She was trying to
teach me some verbs by going through the actions herself as she repeated the
proper word. We were very much eng=
rossed--so
much so that we were giving no heed to what went on beyond our cave--when A=
jor
stopped very suddenly, crying:
"Kazor!" Now she had been trying to teach me that ju meant
stop; so when she cried kazor and at the same time stopped, I thought for a
moment that this was part of my lesson--for the moment I forgot that kazor
means beware. I therefore repeated the word after her; but when I saw the
expression in her eyes as they were directed past me and saw her point towa=
rd
the entrance to the cave, I turned quickly--to see a hideous face at the sm=
all
aperture leading out into the night. It
was the fierce and snarling countenance of a gigantic bear. I have hunted silvertips in the White
Mountains of Arizona and thought them quite the largest and most formidable=
of
big game; but from the appearance of the head of this awful creature I judg=
ed
that the largest grizzly I had ever seen would shrink by comparison to the
dimensions of a Newfoundland dog.
Our fire was just
within the cave, the smoke rising through the apertures between the rocks t=
hat
I had piled in such a way that they arched inward toward the cliff at the
top. The opening by means of which=
we
were to reach the outside was barricaded with a few large fragments which d=
id
not by any means close it entirely; but through the apertures thus left no
large animal could gain ingress. I=
had
depended most, however, upon our fire, feeling that none of the dangerous n=
octurnal
beasts of prey would venture close to the flames. In this, however, I was quite evidently=
in
error, for the great bear stood with his nose not a foot from the blaze, wh=
ich
was now low, owing to the fact that I had been so occupied with my lesson a=
nd
my teacher that I had neglected to replenish it.
Ajor whipped out =
her
futile little knife and pointed to my rifle.
At the same time she spoke in a quite level voice entirely devoid of=
nervousness
or any evidence of fear or panic. =
I knew
she was exhorting me to fire upon the beast; but this I did not wish to do
other than as a last resort, for I was quite sure that even my heavy bullets
would not more than further enrage him--in which case he might easily force=
an
entrance to our cave.
Instead of firing=
, I
piled some more wood upon the fire, and as the smoke and blaze arose in the
beast's face, it backed away, growling most frightfully; but I still could =
see
two ugly points of light blazing in the outer darkness and hear its growls
rumbling terrifically without. For=
some
time the creature stood there watching the entrance to our frail sanctuary
while I racked my brains in futile endeavor to plan some method of defense =
or
escape. I knew full well that shou=
ld the
bear make a determined effort to get at us, the rocks I had piled as a barr=
ier
would come tumbling down about his giant shoulders like a house of cards, a=
nd
that he would walk directly in upon us.
Ajor, having less
knowledge of the effectiveness of firearms than I, and therefore greater
confidence in them, entreated me to shoot the beast; but I knew that the ch=
ance
that I could stop it with a single shot was most remote, while that I should
but infuriate it was real and present; and so I waited for what seemed an
eternity, watching those devilish points of fire glaring balefully at us, a=
nd
listening to the ever-increasing volume of those seismic growls which seeme=
d to
rumble upward from the bowels of the earth, shaking the very cliffs beneath=
which
we cowered, until at last I saw that the brute was again approaching the
aperture. It availed me nothing th=
at I
piled the blaze high with firewood, until Ajor and I were near to roasting;=
on
came that mighty engine of destruction until once again the hideous face ya=
wned
its fanged yawn directly within the barrier's opening. It stood thus a moment, and then the he=
ad was
withdrawn. I breathed a sigh of re=
lief,
the thing had altered its intention and was going on in search of other and
more easily procurable prey; the fire had been too much for it.
But my joy was
short-lived, and my heart sank once again as a moment later I saw a mighty =
paw
insinuated into the opening--a paw as large around as a large dishpan. Very gently the paw toyed with the grea=
t rock
that partly closed the entrance, pushed and pulled upon it and then very
deliberately drew it outward and to one side.
Again came the head, and this time much farther into the cavern; but
still the great shoulders would not pass through the opening. Ajor moved closer to me until her shoul=
der
touched my side, and I thought I felt a slight tremor run through her body,=
but
otherwise she gave no indication of fear.
Involuntarily I threw my left arm about her and drew her to me for an
instant. It was an act of reassura=
nce
rather than a caress, though I must admit that again and even in the face of
death I thrilled at the contact with her; and then I released her and threw=
my
rifle to my shoulder, for at last I had reached the conclusion that nothing
more could be gained by waiting. M=
y only
hope was to get as many shots into the creature as I could before it was up=
on
me. Already it had torn away a sec=
ond
rock and was in the very act of forcing its huge bulk through the opening it
had now made.
So now I took car= eful aim between its eyes; my right fingers closed firmly and evenly upon the sm= all of the stock, drawing back my trigger-finger by the muscular action of the hand. The bullet could not fail to= hit its mark! I held my breath lest I = swerve the muzzle a hair by my breathing. I was as steady and cool as I ever had been upon a target-range, and I had the fu= ll consciousness of a perfect hit in anticipation; I knew that I could not miss. And then, as the bear surged forward toward me, the hammer fell--futilely, upon an imperfect cartridge.<= o:p>
Almost simultaneo=
usly
I heard from without a perfectly hellish roar; the bear gave voice to a ser=
ies
of growls far transcending in volume and ferocity anything that he had yet
essayed and at the same time backed quickly from the cave. For an instant I couldn't understand wh=
at had
happened to cause this sudden retreat when his prey was practically within =
his
clutches. The idea that the harmle=
ss
clicking of the hammer had frightened him was too ridiculous to entertain. =
However,
we had not long to wait before we could at least guess at the cause of the
diversion, for from without came mingled growls and roars and the sound of
great bodies thrashing about until the earth shook. The bear had been attac=
ked
in the rear by some other mighty beast, and the two were now locked in a
titanic struggle for supremacy. Wi=
th brief
respites, during which we could hear the labored breathing of the contestan=
ts,
the battle continued for the better part of an hour until the sounds of com=
bat
grew gradually less and finally ceased entirely.
At Ajor's suggest=
ion,
made by signs and a few of the words we knew in common, I moved the fire
directly to the entrance to the cave so that a beast would have to pass
directly through the flames to reach us, and then we sat and waited for the
victor of the battle to come and claim his reward; but though we sat for a =
long
time with our eyes glued to the opening, we saw no sign of any beast.
At last I signed =
to Ajor
to lie down, for I knew that she must have sleep, and I sat on guard until
nearly morning, when the girl awoke and insisted that I take some rest; nor
would she be denied, but dragged me down as she laughingly menaced me with =
her
knife.
When I awoke, it =
was
daylight, and I found Ajor squatting before a fine bed of coals roasting a
large piece of antelope-meat. Beli=
eve
me, the sight of the new day and the delicious odor of the cooking meat fil=
led me
with renewed happiness and hope that had been all but expunged by the
experience of the previous night; and perhaps the slender figure of the
bright-faced girl proved also a potent restorative. She looked up and smiled at me, showing=
those
perfect teeth, and dimpling with evident happiness--the most adorable pictu=
re
that I had ever seen. I recall tha=
t it
was then I first regretted that she was only a little untutored savage and =
so
far beneath me in the scale of evolution.
Her first act was=
to
beckon me to follow her outside, and there she pointed to the explanation of
our rescue from the bear--a huge saber-tooth tiger, its fine coat and its f=
lesh
torn to ribbons, lying dead a few paces from our cave, and beside it, equal=
ly
mangled, and disemboweled, was the carcass of a huge cave-bear. To have had one's life saved by a saber=
-tooth
tiger, and in the twentieth century into the bargain, was an experience that
was to say the least unique; but it had happened--I had the proof of it bef=
ore
my eyes.
So enormous are t=
he
great carnivora of Caspak that they must feed perpetually to support their
giant thews, and the result is that they will eat the meat of any other
creature and will attack anything that comes within their ken, no matter how
formidable the quarry. From later
observation--I mention this as worthy the attention of paleontologists and
naturalists--I came to the conclusion that such creatures as the cave-bear,=
the
cave-lion and the saber-tooth tiger, as well as the larger carnivorous rept=
iles
make, ordinarily, two kills a day--one in the morning and one after night.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> They immediately devour the entire carc=
ass,
after which they lie up and sleep for a few hours. Fortunately their numbers
are comparatively few; otherwise there would be no other life within
Caspak. It is their very voracity =
that
keeps their numbers down to a point which permits other forms of life to pe=
rsist,
for even in the season of love the great males often turn upon their own ma=
tes
and devour them, while both males and females occasionally devour their
young. How the human and semihuman=
races
have managed to survive during all the countless ages that these conditions
must have existed here is quite beyond me.
After breakfast A=
jor
and I set out once more upon our northward journey. We had gone but a little distance when =
we
were attacked by a number of apelike creatures armed with clubs. They seemed a little higher in the scal=
e than
the Alus. Ajor told me they were B=
o-lu,
or clubmen. A revolver-shot killed=
one
and scattered the others; but several times later during the day we were
menaced by them, until we had left their country and entered that of the
Sto-lu, or hatchet-men. These people were less hairy and more man-like; nor=
did
they appear so anxious to destroy us.
Rather they were curious, and followed us for some distance examinin=
g us
most closely. They called out to u=
s, and
Ajor answered them; but her replies did not seem to satisfy them, for they
gradually became threatening, and I think they were preparing to attack us =
when
a small deer that had been hiding in some low brush suddenly broke cover and
dashed across our front. We needed=
meat,
for it was near one o'clock and I was getting hungry; so I drew my pistol a=
nd
with a single shot dropped the creature in its tracks. The effect upon the Bo-lu was
electrical. Immediately they aband=
oned
all thoughts of war, and turning, scampered for the forest which fringed our
path.
That night we spe=
nt
beside a little stream in the Sto-lu country.
We found a tiny cave in the rock bank, so hidden away that only chan=
ce could
direct a beast of prey to it, and after we had eaten of the deer-meat and s=
ome
fruit which Ajor gathered, we crawled into the little hole, and with sticks=
and
stones which I had gathered for the purpose I erected a strong barricade in=
side
the entrance. Nothing could reach =
us
without swimming and wading through the stream, and I felt quite secure from
attack. Our quarters were rather
cramped. The ceiling was so low th=
at we
could not stand up, and the floor so narrow that it was with difficulty tha=
t we
both wedged into it together; but we were very tired, and so we made the mo=
st
of it; and so great was the feeling of security that I am sure I fell aslee=
p as
soon as I had stretched myself beside Ajor.
During the three =
days
which followed, our progress was exasperatingly slow. I doubt if we made ten miles in the ent=
ire
three days. The country was hideou=
sly
savage, so that we were forced to spend hours at a time in hiding from one =
or
another of the great beasts which menaced us continually. There were fewer reptiles; but the quan=
tity
of carnivora seemed to have increased, and the reptiles that we did see were
perfectly gigantic. I shall never =
forget
one enormous specimen which we came upon browsing upon water-reeds at the e=
dge
of the great sea. It stood well ov=
er
twelve feet high at the rump, its highest point, and with its enormously lo=
ng
tail and neck it was somewhere between seventy-five and a hundred feet in
length. Its head was ridiculously =
small;
its body was unarmored, but its great bulk gave it a most formidable
appearance. My experience of Caspa=
kian
life led me to believe that the gigantic creature would but have to see us =
to attack
us, and so I raised my rifle and at the same time drew away toward some bru=
sh
which offered concealment; but Ajor only laughed, and picking up a stick, r=
an
toward the great thing, shouting. =
The
little head was raised high upon the long neck as the animal stupidly looke=
d here
and there in search of the author of the disturbance. At last its eyes discovered tiny little=
Ajor,
and then she hurled the stick at the diminutive head. With a cry that sounded not unlike the =
bleat
of a sheep, the colossal creature shuffled into the water and was soon subm=
erged.
As I slowly recal=
led
my collegiate studies and paleontological readings in Bowen's textbooks, I
realized that I had looked upon nothing less than a diplodocus of the Upper
Jurassic; but how infinitely different was the true, live thing from the cr=
ude
restorations of Hatcher and Holland! I
had had the idea that the diplodocus was a land-animal, but evidently it is
partially amphibious. I have seen
several since my first encounter, and in each case the creature took to the=
sea
for concealment as soon as it was disturbed.
With the exception of its gigantic tail, it has no weapon of defense;
but with this appendage it can lash so terrific a blow as to lay low even a
giant cave-bear, stunned and broken. It
is a stupid, simple, gentle beast--one of the few within Caspak which such a
description might even remotely fit.
For three nights =
we
slept in trees, finding no caves or other places of concealment. Here we were free from the attacks of t=
he
large land carnivora; but the smaller flying reptiles, the snakes, leopards,
and panthers were a constant menace, though by no means as much to be feare=
d as
the huge beasts that roamed the surface of the earth.
At the close of t=
he
third day Ajor and I were able to converse with considerable fluency, and it
was a great relief to both of us, especially to Ajor. She now did nothing but ask questions
whenever I would let her, which could not be all the time, as our preservat=
ion depended
largely upon the rapidity with which I could gain knowledge of the geography
and customs of Caspak, and accordingly I had to ask numerous questions myse=
lf.
I enjoyed immense=
ly
hearing and answering her, so naive were many of her queries and so filled =
with
wonder was she at the things I told her of the world beyond the lofty barri=
ers
of Caspak; not once did she seem to doubt me, however marvelous my statemen=
ts
must have seemed; and doubtless they were the cause of marvel to Ajor, who
before had never dreamed that any life existed beyond Caspak and the life s=
he
knew.
Artless though ma=
ny
of her questions were, they evidenced a keen intellect and a shrewdness whi=
ch
seemed far beyond her years of her experience.
Altogether I was finding my little savage a mighty interesting and
companionable person, and I often thanked the kind fate that directed the
crossing of our paths. From her I
learned much of Caspak, but there still remained the mystery that had prove=
d so
baffling to Bowen Tyler--the total absence of young among the ape, the semi=
human
and the human races with which both he and I had come in contact upon oppos=
ite
shores of the inland sea. Ajor tri=
ed to
explain the matter to me, though it was apparent that she could not conceiv=
e how
so natural a condition should demand explanation. She told me that among the Galus there =
were a
few babies, that she had once been a baby but that most of her people
"came up," as he put it, "cor sva jo," or literally,
"from the beginning"; and as they all did when they used that phr=
ase,
she would wave a broad gesture toward the south.
"For long,&q=
uot;
she explained, leaning very close to me and whispering the words into my ear
while she cast apprehensive glances about and mostly skyward, "for lon=
g my
mother kept me hidden lest the Wieroo, passing through the air by night, sh=
ould
come and take me away to Oo-oh."
And the child shuddered as she voiced the word. I tried to get her to tell me more; but=
her
terror was so real when she spoke of the Wieroo and the land of Oo-oh where
they dwell that I at last desisted, though I did learn that the Wieroo carr=
ied
off only female babes and occasionally women of the Galus who had "com=
e up
from the beginning." It was all very mysterious and unfathomable, but I
got the idea that the Wieroo were creatures of imagination--the demons or g=
ods
of her race, omniscient and omnipresent.
This led me to assume that the Galus had a religious sense, and furt=
her
questioning brought out the fact that such was the case. Ajor spoke in tones of reverence of Lua=
ta,
the god of heat and life. The word=
is
derived from two others: Lua, mean=
ing
sun, and ata, meaning variously eggs, life, young, and reproduction. She told me that they worshiped Luata in
several forms, as fire, the sun, eggs and other material objects which
suggested heat and reproduction.
I had noticed that
whenever I built a fire, Ajor outlined in the air before her with a forefin=
ger
an isosceles triangle, and that she did the same in the morning when she fi=
rst
viewed the sun. At first I had not
connected her act with anything in particular, but after we learned to conv=
erse
and she had explained a little of her religious superstitions, I realized t=
hat
she was making the sign of the triangle as a Roman Catholic makes the sign =
of
the cross. Always the short side o=
f the
triangle was uppermost. As she exp=
lained
all this to me, she pointed to the decorations on her golden armlets, upon =
the
knob of her dagger-hilt and upon the band which encircled her right leg abo=
ve
the knee--always was the design partly made up of isosceles triangles, and =
when
she explained the significance of this particular geometric figure, I at on=
ce
grasped its appropriateness.
We were now in the
country of the Band-lu, the spearmen of Caspak. Bowen had remarked in his
narrative that these people were analogous to the so-called Cro-Magnon race=
of
the Upper Paleolithic, and I was therefore very anxious to see them. Nor was I to be disappointed; I saw the=
m, all
right! We had left the Sto-lu coun=
try
and literally fought our way through cordons of wild beasts for two days wh=
en
we decided to make camp a little earlier than usual, owing to the fact that=
we
had reached a line of cliffs running east and west in which were numerous
likely cave-lodgings. We were both=
very
tired, and the sight of these caverns, several of which could be easily
barricaded, decided us to halt until the following morning. It took but a few minutes' exploration =
to
discover one particular cavern high up the face of the cliff which seemed i=
deal
for our purpose. It opened upon a =
narrow
ledge where we could build our cook-fire; the opening was so small that we =
had
to lie flat and wriggle through it to gain ingress, while the interior was
high-ceiled and spacious. I lighte=
d a
faggot and looked about; but as far as I could see, the chamber ran back in=
to the
cliff.
Laying aside my
rifle, pistol and heavy ammunition-belt, I left Ajor in the cave while I we=
nt
down to gather firewood. We alread=
y had
meat and fruits which we had gathered just before reaching the cliffs, and =
my canteen
was filled with fresh water. There=
fore,
all we required was fuel, and as I always saved Ajor's strength when I coul=
d, I
would not permit her to accompany me.
The poor girl was very tired; but she would have gone with me until =
she
dropped, I know, so loyal was she. She was the best comrade in the world, a=
nd
sometimes I regretted and sometimes I was glad that she was not of my own
caste, for had she been, I should unquestionably have fallen in love with
her. As it was, we traveled togeth=
er
like two boys, with huge respect for each other but no softer sentiment.
There was little
timber close to the base of the cliffs, and so I was forced to enter the wo=
od
some two hundred yards distant. I
realize now how foolhardy was my act in such a land as Caspak, teeming with
danger and with death; but there is a certain amount of fool in every man; =
and whatever
proportion of it I own must have been in the ascendant that day, for the tr=
uth
of the matter is that I went down into those woods absolutely defenseless; =
and
I paid the price, as people usually do for their indiscretions. As I searched around in the brush for l=
ikely pieces
of firewood, my head bowed and my eyes upon the ground, I suddenly felt a g=
reat
weight hurl itself upon me. I stru=
ggled
to my knees and seized my assailant, a huge, naked man--naked except for a =
breechcloth
of snakeskin, the head hanging down to the knees. The fellow was armed with a stone-shod =
spear,
a stone knife and a hatchet. In his black hair were several gay-colored
feathers. As we struggled to and f=
ro, I
was slowly gaining advantage of him, when a score of his fellows came runni=
ng
up and overpowered me.
They bound my han=
ds
behind me with long rawhide thongs and then surveyed me critically. I found them fine-looking specimens of =
manhood,
for the most part. There were some=
among
them who bore a resemblance to the Sto-lu and were hairy; but the majority =
had
massive heads and not unlovely features.
There was little about them to suggest the ape, as in the Sto-lu, Bo=
-lu
and Alus. I expected them to kill =
me at
once, but they did not. Instead th=
ey
questioned me; but it was evident that they did not believe my story, for t=
hey
scoffed and laughed.
"The Galus h=
ave
turned you out," they cried.
"If you go back to them, you will die. If you remain here, you will die. We shall kill you; but first we shall h=
ave a
dance and you shall dance with us--the dance of death."
It sounded quite
reassuring! But I knew that I was =
not to
be killed immediately, and so I took heart.
They led me toward the cliffs, and as we approached them, I glanced =
up
and was sure that I saw Ajor's bright eyes peering down upon us from our lo=
fty
cave; but she gave no sign if she saw me; and we passed on, rounded the end=
of
the cliffs and proceeded along the opposite face of them until we came to a
section literally honeycombed with caves.
All about, upon the ground and swarming the ledges before the entran=
ces,
were hundreds of members of the tribe.
There were many women but no babes or children, though I noticed that
the females had better developed breasts than any that I had seen among the
hatchet-men, the club-men, the Alus or the apes. In fact, among the lower orders of Casp=
akian
man the female breast is but a rudimentary organ, barely suggested in the a=
pes
and Alus, and only a little more defined in the Bo-lu and Sto-lu, though al=
ways
increasingly so until it is found about half developed in the females of th=
e spear-men;
yet never was there an indication that the females had suckled young; nor w=
ere
there any young among them. Some o=
f the Band-lu
women were quite comely. The figur=
es of
all, both men and women, were symmetrical though heavy, and though there we=
re
some who verged strongly upon the Sto-lu type, there were others who were p=
ositively
handsome and whose bodies were quite hairless.
The Alus are all bearded, but among the Bo-lu the beard disappears in
the women. The Sto-lu men show a sparse beard, the Band-lu none; and there =
is little
hair upon the bodies of their women.
The members of the
tribe showed great interest in me, especially in my clothing, the like of
which, of course, they never had seen.
They pulled and hauled upon me, and some of them struck me; but for =
the
most part they were not inclined to brutality.
It was only the hairier ones, who most closely resembled the Sto-lu,=
who
maltreated me. At last my captors =
led me
into a great cave in the mouth of which a fire was burning. The floor was littered with filth, incl=
uding
the bones of many animals, and the atmosphere reeked with the stench of hum=
an
bodies and putrefying flesh. Here =
they
fed me, releasing my arms, and I ate of half-cooked aurochs steak and a stew
which may have been made of snakes, for many of the long, round pieces of m=
eat
suggested them most nauseatingly.
The meal complete=
d,
they led me well within the cavern, which they lighted with torches stuck in
various crevices in the light of which I saw, to my astonishment, that the
walls were covered with paintings and etchings.
There were aurochs, red deer, saber-tooth tiger, cave-bear, hyaenadon
and many other examples of the fauna of Caspak done in colors, usually of f=
our
shades of brown, or scratched upon the surface of the rock. Often they were super-imposed upon each=
other
until it required careful examination to trace out the various outlines.
Should any of my
friends chance to read the story of my adventures upon Caprona, I hope they
will not be bored by these diversions, and if they are, I can only say that=
I
am writing my memoirs for my own edification and therefore setting down tho=
se
things which interested me particularly at the time. I have no desire that the general publi=
c should
ever have access to these pages; but it is possible that my friends may, and
also certain savants who are interested; and to them, while I do not apolog=
ize
for my philosophizing, I humbly explain that they are witnessing the groupi=
ngs
of a finite mind after the infinite, the search for explanations of the
inexplicable.
In a far recess of
the cavern my captors bade me halt.
Again my hands were secured, and this time my feet as well. During the operation they questioned me=
, and
I was mighty glad that the marked similarity between the various tribal ton=
gues
of Caspak enabled us to understand each other perfectly, even though they w=
ere
unable to believe or even to comprehend the truth of my origin and the
circumstances of my advent in Caspak; and finally they left me saying that =
they
would come for me before the dance of death upon the morrow. Before they departed with their torches=
, I
saw that I had not been conducted to the farthest extremity of the cavern, =
for
a dark and gloomy corridor led beyond my prison room into the heart of the
cliff.
I could not but
marvel at the immensity of this great underground grotto. Already I had traversed several hundred=
yards
of it, from many points of which other corridors diverged. The whole cliff must be honeycombed with
apartments and passages of which this community occupied but a comparatively
small part, so that the possibility of the more remote passages being the l=
air
of savage beasts that have other means of ingress and egress than that used=
by
the Band-lu filled me with dire forebodings.
I believe that I =
am
not ordinarily hysterically apprehensive; yet I must confess that under the
conditions with which I was confronted, I felt my nerves to be somewhat
shaken. On the morrow I was to die=
some sort
of nameless death for the diversion of a savage horde, but the morrow held
fewer terrors for me than the present, and I submit to any fair-minded man =
if
it is not a terrifying thing to lie bound hand and foot in the Stygian
blackness of an immense cave peopled by unknown dangers in a land overrun by
hideous beasts and reptiles of the greatest ferocity. At any moment, perhaps at this very mom=
ent,
some silent-footed beast of prey might catch my scent where it laired in so=
me
contiguous passage, and might creep stealthily upon me. I craned my neck about, and stared thro=
ugh
the inky darkness for the twin spots of blazing hate which I knew would her=
ald
the coming of my executioner. So real were the imaginings of my overwrought
brain that I broke into a cold sweat in absolute conviction that some beast=
was
close before me; yet the hours dragged, and no sound broke the grave-like
stillness of the cavern.
During that perio=
d of
eternity many events of my life passed before my mental vision, a vast para=
de
of friends and occurrences which would be blotted out forever on the
morrow. I cursed myself for the fo=
olish
act which had taken me from the search-party that so depended upon me, and I
wondered what progress, if any, they had made.
Were they still beyond the barrier cliffs, awaiting my return? Or had they found a way into Caspak?
And through all my
thoughts, real and fanciful, moved the image of a perfect girl, clear-eyed =
and
strong and straight and beautiful, with the carriage of a queen and the sup=
ple,
undulating grace of a leopard. Though I loved my friends, their fate seemed=
of
less importance to me than the fate of this little barbarian stranger for w=
hom,
I had convinced myself many a time, I felt no greater sentiment than passin=
g friendship
for a fellow-wayfarer in this land of horrors.
Yet I so worried and fretted about her and her future that at last I
quite forgot my own predicament, though I still struggled intermittently wi=
th bonds
in vain endeavor to free myself; as much, however, that I might hasten to h=
er
protection as that I might escape the fate which had been planned for me. And while I was thus engaged and had fo=
r the
moment forgotten my apprehensions concerning prowling beasts, I was startle=
d into
tense silence by a distinct and unmistakable sound coming from the dark
corridor farther toward the heart of the cliff--the sound of padded feet mo=
ving
stealthily in my direction.
I believe that ne=
ver
before in all my life, even amidst the terrors of childhood nights, have I
suffered such a sensation of extreme horror as I did that moment in which I
realized that I must lie bound and helpless while some horrid beast of prey
crept upon me to devour me in that utter darkness of the Bandlu pits of
Caspak. I reeked with cold sweat, =
and my
flesh crawled--I could feel it crawl. If
ever I came nearer to abject cowardice, I do not recall the instance; and y=
et
it was not that I was afraid to die, for I had long since given myself up as
lost--a few days of Caspak must impress anyone with the utter nothingness of
life. The waters, the land, the ai=
r teem
with it, and always it is being devoured by some other form of life. Life is the cheapest thing in Caspak, a=
s it
is the cheapest thing on earth and, doubtless, the cheapest cosmic
production. No, I was not afraid t=
o die;
in fact, I prayed for death, that I might be relieved of the frightfulness =
of
the interval of life which remained to me--the waiting, the awful waiting, =
for
that fearsome beast to reach me and to strike.
Presently it was =
so
close that I could hear its breathing, and then it touched me and leaped
quickly back as though it had come upon me unexpectedly. For long moments no sound broke the
sepulchral silence of the cave. Th=
en I
heard a movement on the part of the creature near me, and again it touched =
me,
and I felt something like a hairless hand pass over my face and down until =
it
touched the collar of my flannel shirt.
And then, subdued, but filled with pent emotion, a voice cried: &quo=
t;Tom!"
I think I nearly
fainted, so great was the reaction.
"Ajor!" I managed=
to
say. "Ajor, my girl, can it be
you?"
"Oh, Tom!&qu=
ot;
she cried again in a trembly little voice and flung herself upon me, sobbing
softly. I had not known that Ajor =
could
cry.
As she cut away my
bonds, she told me that from the entrance to our cave she had seen the Band=
-lu
coming out of the forest with me, and she had followed until they took me i=
nto
the cave, which she had seen was upon the opposite side of the cliff in whi=
ch
ours was located; and then, knowing that she could do nothing for me until
after the Band-lu slept, she had hastened to return to our cave. With difficulty she had reached it, aft=
er
having been stalked by a cave-lion and almost seized. I trembled at the risk
she had run.
It had been her
intention to wait until after midnight, when most of the carnivora would ha=
ve
made their kills, and then attempt to reach the cave in which I was impriso=
ned
and rescue me. She explained that =
with
my rifle and pistol--both of which she assured me she could use, having wat=
ched
me so many times--she planned upon frightening the Band-lu and forcing them=
to
give me up. Brave little girl! She would have risked her life willingl=
y to
save me. But some time after she r=
eached
our cave she heard voices from the far recesses within, and immediately
concluded that we had but found another entrance to the caves which the Ban=
d-lu
occupied upon the other face of the cliff. Then she had set out through tho=
se
winding passages and in total darkness had groped her way, guided solely by=
a
marvelous sense of direction, to where I lay.
She had had to proceed with utmost caution lest she fall into some a=
byss
in the darkness and in truth she had thrice come upon sheer drops and had b=
een
forced to take the most frightful risks to pass them. I shudder even now as I contemplate wha=
t this
girl passed through for my sake and how she enhanced her peril in loading
herself down with the weight of my arms and ammunition and the awkwardness =
of
the long rifle which she was unaccustomed to bearing.
I could have knelt
and kissed her hand in reverence and gratitude; nor am I ashamed to say that
that is precisely what I did after I had been freed from my bonds and heard=
the
story of her trials. Brave little =
Ajor! Wonder-girl out of the dim, unthinkable
past! Never before had she been ki=
ssed;
but she seemed to sense something of the meaning of the new caress, for she
leaned forward in the dark and pressed her own lips to my forehead. A sudden urge surged through me to seiz=
e her
and strain her to my bosom and cover her hot young lips with the kisses of a
real love, but I did not do so, for I knew that I did not love her; and to =
have
kissed her thus, with passion, would have been to inflict a great wrong upon
her who had offered her life for mine.
No, Ajor should b=
e as
safe with me as with her own mother, if she had one, which I was inclined to
doubt, even though she told me that she had once been a babe and hidden by =
her
mother. I had come to doubt if the=
re was
such a thing as a mother in Caspak, a mother such as we know. From the Bo-l=
u to
the Kro-lu there is no word which corresponds with our word mother. They speak of ata and cor sva jo:, mean=
ing reproduction
and from the beginning, and point toward the south; but no one has a mother=
.
After considerable
difficulty we gained what we thought was our cave, only to find that it was
not, and then we realized that we were lost in the labyrinthine mazes of the
great cavern. We retraced our step=
s and sought
the point from which we had started, but only succeeded in losing ourselves=
the
more. Ajor was aghast--not so much=
from
fear of our predicament; but that she should have failed in the functioning=
of that
wonderful sense she possessed in common with most other creatures Caspakian,
which makes it possible for them to move unerringly from place to place wit=
hout
compass or guide.
Hand in hand we c=
rept
along, searching for an opening into the outer world, yet realizing that at
each step we might be burrowing more deeply into the heart of the great cli=
ff,
or circling futilely in the vague wandering that could end only in death. And the darkness! It was almost palpable, and utterly
depressing. I had matches, and in =
some
of the more difficult places I struck one; but we couldn't afford to waste
them, and so we groped our way slowly along, doing the best we could to kee=
p to
one general direction in the hope that it would eventually lead us to an
opening into the outer world. When=
I
struck matches, I noticed that the walls bore no paintings; nor was there o=
ther
sign that man had penetrated this far within the cliff, nor any spoor of
animals of other kinds.
It would be diffi=
cult
to guess at the time we spent wandering through those black corridors, clim=
bing
steep ascents, feeling our way along the edges of bottomless pits, never
knowing at what moment we might be plunged into some abyss and always haunt=
ed
by the ever-present terror of death by starvation and thirst. As difficult as it was, I still realize=
d that
it might have been infinitely worse had I had another companion than
Ajor--courageous, uncomplaining, loyal little Ajor! She was tired and hungry and thirsty, a=
nd she
must have been discouraged; but she never faltered in her cheerfulness. I asked her if she was afraid, and she
replied that here the Wieroo could not get her, and that if she died of hun=
ger,
she would at least die with me and she was quite content that such should be
her end. At the time I attributed =
her
attitude to something akin to a doglike devotion to a new master who had be=
en
kind to her. I can take oath to th=
e fact
that I did not think it was anything more.
Whether we had be=
en
imprisoned in the cliff for a day or a week I could not say; nor even now d=
o I
know. We became very tired and hun=
gry;
the hours dragged; we slept at least twice, and then we rose and stumbled o=
n,
always weaker and weaker. There we=
re
ages during which the trend of the corridors was always upward. It was heartbreaking work for people in=
the
state of exhaustion in which we then were, but we clung tenaciously to it.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> We stumbled and fell; we sank through p=
ure
physical inability to retain our feet; but always we managed to rise at last
and go on. At first, wherever it h=
ad
been possible, we had walked hand in hand lest we become separated, and lat=
er,
when I saw that Ajor was weakening rapidly, we went side by side, I support=
ing
her with an arm about her waist. I=
still
retained the heavy burden of my armament; but with the rifle slung to my ba=
ck,
my hands were free. When I too sho=
wed indisputable
evidences of exhaustion, Ajor suggested that I lay aside my arms and
ammunition; but I told her that as it would mean certain death for me to
traverse Caspak without them, I might as well take the chance of dying here=
in
the cave with them, for there was the other chance that we might find our w=
ay
to liberty.
There came a time
when Ajor could no longer walk, and then it was that I picked her up in my =
arms
and carried her. She begged me to =
leave her,
saying that after I found an exit, I could come back and get her; but she k=
new,
and she knew that I knew, that if ever I did leave her, I could never find =
her
again. Yet she insisted. Barely had I sufficient strength to tak=
e a
score of steps at a time; then I would have to sink down and rest for five =
to
ten minutes. I don't know what for=
ce
urged me on and kept me going in the face of an absolute conviction that my=
efforts
were utterly futile. I counted us
already as good as dead; but still I dragged myself along until the time ca=
me
that I could no longer rise, but could only crawl along a few inches at a t=
ime,
dragging Ajor beside me. Her sweet
voice, now almost inaudible from weakness, implored me to abandon her and s=
ave
myself--she seemed to think only of me.
Of course I couldn't have left her there alone, no matter how much I
might have desired to do so; but the fact of the matter was that I didn't
desire to leave her. What I said t=
o her
then came very simply and naturally to my lips.
It couldn't very well have been otherwise, I imagine, for with death=
so
close, I doubt if people are much inclined to heroics. "I would rather not get out at all,
Ajor," I said to her, "than to get out without you." We were resting against a rocky wall, a=
nd
Ajor was leaning against me, her head on my breast. I could feel her press closer to me, an=
d one
hand stroked my arm in a weak caress; but she didn't say anything, nor were
words necessary.
After a few minut=
es'
more rest, we started on again upon our utterly hopeless way; but I soon
realized that I was weakening rapidly, and presently I was forced to admit =
that
I was through. "It's no use, =
Ajor,"
I said, "I've come as far as I can.
It may be that if I sleep, I can go on again after," but I knew
that that was not true, and that the end was near. "Yes, sleep," said Ajor. "We will sleep together--forever.&=
quot;
She crept close t=
o me
as I lay on the hard floor and pillowed her head upon my arm. With the little strength which remained=
to
me, I drew her up until our lips touched, and, then I whispered:
"Good-bye!" I must have =
lost
consciousness almost immediately, for I recall nothing more until I suddenly
awoke out of a troubled sleep, during which I dreamed that I was drowning, =
to
find the cave lighted by what appeared to be diffused daylight, and a tiny
trickle of water running down the corridor and forming a puddle in the litt=
le
depression in which it chanced that Ajor and I lay. I turned my eyes quickly upon Ajor, fea=
rful
for what the light might disclose; but she still breathed, though very
faintly. Then I searched about for=
an
explanation of the light, and soon discovered that it came from about a ben=
d in
the corridor just ahead of us and at the top of a steep incline; and instan=
tly
I realized that Ajor and I had stumbled by night almost to the portal of
salvation. Had chance taken us a f=
ew
yards further, up either of the corridors which diverged from ours just ahe=
ad
of us, we might have been irrevocably lost; we might still be lost; but at
least we could die in the light of day, out of the horrid blackness of this=
terrible
cave.
I tried to rise, =
and
found that sleep had given me back a portion of my strength; and then I tas=
ted
the water and was further refreshed. I shook
Ajor gently by the shoulder; but she did not open her eyes, and then I gath=
ered
a few drops of water in my cupped palm and let them trickle between her
lips. This revived her so that she
raised her lids, and when she saw me, she smiled.
"What
happened?" she asked. "W=
here
are we?"
"We are at t=
he
end of the corridor," I replied, "and daylight is coming in from =
the
outside world just ahead. We are s=
aved,
Ajor!"
She sat up then a=
nd
looked about, and then, quite womanlike, she burst into tears. It was the reaction, of course; and the=
n too,
she was very weak. I took her in m=
y arms
and quieted her as best I could, and finally, with my help, she got to her
feet; for she, as well as I, had found some slight recuperation in sleep. Together we staggered upward toward the
light, and at the first turn we saw an opening a few yards ahead of us and a
leaden sky beyond--a leaden sky from which was falling a drizzling rain, the
author of our little, trickling stream which had given us drink when we were
most in need of it.
The cave had been
damp and cold; but as we crawled through the aperture, the muggy warmth of =
the
Caspakian air caressed and confronted us; even the rain was warmer than the
atmosphere of those dark corridors. We
had water now, and warmth, and I was sure that Caspak would soon offer us m=
eat
or fruit; but as we came to where we could look about, we saw that we were =
upon
the summit of the cliffs, where there seemed little reason to expect game.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> However, there were trees, and among th=
em we
soon descried edible fruits with which we broke our long fast.
We spent two days
upon the cliff-top, resting and recuperating.
There was some small game which gave us meat, and the little pools o=
f rainwater
were sufficient to quench our thirst.
The sun came out a few hours after we emerged from the cave, and in =
its
warmth we soon cast off the gloom which our recent experiences had saddled =
upon
us.
Upon the morning =
of
the third day we set out to search for a path down to the valley. Below us, to the north, we saw a large =
pool
lying at the foot of the cliffs, and in it we could discern the women of th=
e Band-lu
lying in the shallow waters, while beyond and close to the base of the migh=
ty
barrier-cliffs there was a large party of Band-lu warriors going north to
hunt. We had a splendid view from =
our
lofty cliff-top. Dimly, to the wes=
t, we
could see the farther shore of the inland sea, and southwest the large sout=
hern
island loomed distinctly before us. A
little east of north was the northern island, which Ajor, shuddering, whisp=
ered
was the home of the Wieroo--the land of Oo-oh. It lay at the far end of the
lake and was barely visible to us, being fully sixty miles away.
From our elevatio=
n,
and in a clearer atmosphere, it would have stood out distinctly; but the ai=
r of
Caspak is heavy with moisture, with the result that distant objects are blu=
rred
and indistinct. Ajor also told me =
that
the mainland east of Oo-oh was her land--the land of the Galu. She pointed =
out
the cliffs at its southern boundary, which mark the frontier, south of which
lies the country of Kro-lu--the archers.
We now had but to pass through the balance of the Band-lu territory =
and that
of the Kro-lu to be within the confines of her own land; but that meant
traversing thirty-five miles of hostile country filled with every imaginable
terror, and possibly many beyond the powers of imagination. I would certain=
ly
have given a lot for my plane at that moment, for with it, twenty minutes w=
ould
have landed us within the confines of Ajor's country.
We finally found a
place where we could slip over the edge of the cliff onto a narrow ledge wh=
ich
seemed to give evidence of being something of a game-path to the valley, th=
ough
it apparently had not been used for some time.
I lowered Ajor at the end of my rifle and then slid over myself, and=
I
am free to admit that my hair stood on end during the process, for the drop=
was
considerable and the ledge appallingly narrow, with a frightful drop sheer
below down to the rocks at the base of the cliff; but with Ajor there to ca=
tch
and steady me, I made it all right, and then we set off down the trail towa=
rd
the valley. There were two or thre=
e more
bad places, but for the most part it was an easy descent, and we came to the
highest of the Band-lu caves without further trouble. Here we went more slowly, lest we shoul=
d be
set upon by some member of the tribe.
We must have pass=
ed
about half the Band-lu cave-levels before we were accosted, and then a huge
fellow stepped out in front of me, barring our further progress.
"Who are
you?" he asked; and he recognized me and I him, for he had been one of
those who had led me back into the cave and bound me the night that I had b=
een
captured. From me his gaze went to
Ajor. He was a fine-looking man wi=
th clear,
intelligent eyes, a good forehead and superb physique--by far the highest t=
ype
of Caspakian I had yet seen, barring Ajor, of course.
"You are a t=
rue
Galu," he said to Ajor, "but this man is of a different mold. He has the face of a Galu, but his weap=
ons
and the strange skins he wears upon his body are not of the Galus nor of
Caspak. Who is he?"
"He is
Tom," replied Ajor succinctly.
"There is no
such people," asserted the Band-lu quite truthfully, toying with his s=
pear
in a most suggestive manner.
"My name is
Tom," I explained, "and I am from a country beyond Caspak." I
thought it best to propitiate him if possible, because of the necessity of
conserving ammunition as well as to avoid the loud alarm of a shot which mi=
ght
bring other Band-lu warriors upon us.
"I am from America, a land of which you never heard, and I am
seeking others of my countrymen who are in Caspak and from whom I am lost. I
have no quarrel with you or your people.
Let us go our way in peace."
"You are goi=
ng
there?" he asked, and pointed toward the north.
"I am,"=
I
replied.
He was silent for
several minutes, apparently weighing some thought in his mind. At last he spoke. "What is that?" he asked. "And what is that?" He pointed first at my rifle and then t=
o my
pistol.
"They are we=
apons,"
I replied, "weapons which kill at a great distance." I pointed to=
the
women in the pool beneath us. &quo=
t;With
this," I said, tapping my pistol, "I could kill as many of those
women as I cared to, without moving a step from where we now stand."
He looked his
incredulity, but I went on. "=
And
with this"--I weighed my rifle at the balance in the palm of my right
hand--"I could slay one of those distant warriors." And I waved my left hand toward the tin=
y figures
of the hunters far to the north.
The fellow
laughed. "Do it," he cri=
ed
derisively, "and then it may be that I shall believe the balance of yo=
ur
strange story."
"But I do not
wish to kill any of them," I replied.
"Why should I?"
"Why not?&qu=
ot;
he insisted. "They would have
killed you when they had you prisoner.
They would kill you now if they could get their hands on you, and th=
ey
would eat you into the bargain. Bu=
t I
know why you do not try it--it is because you have spoken lies; your weapon
will not kill at a great distance. It is
only a queerly wrought club. For a=
ll I
know, you are nothing more than a lowly Bo-lu."
"Why should =
you
wish me to kill your own people?" I asked.
"They are no
longer my people," he replied proudly.
"Last night, in the very middle of the night, the call came to
me. Like that it came into my
head"--and he struck his hands together smartly once--"that I had
risen. I have been waiting for it =
and
expecting it for a long time; today I am a Krolu. Today I go into the coslupak" (unp=
eopled
country, or literally, no man's land) "between the Band-lu and the Kro=
-lu,
and there I fashion my bow and my arrows and my shield; there I hunt the red
deer for the leathern jerkin which is the badge of my new estate. When these things are done, I can go to=
the
chief of the Kro-lu, and he dare not refuse me.
That is why you may kill those low Band-lu if you wish to live, for =
I am
in a hurry.
"But why do =
you
wish to kill me?" I asked.
He looked puzzled=
and
finally gave it up. "I do not
know," he admitted. "It =
is the
way in Caspak. If we do not kill, =
we
shall be killed, therefore it is wise to kill first whomever does not belon=
g to
one's own people. This morning I h=
id in
my cave till the others were gone upon the hunt, for I knew that they would
know at once that I had become a Kro-lu and would kill me. They will kill me if they find me in the
coslupak; so will the Kro-lu if they come upon me before I have won my Kro-=
lu
weapons and jerkin. You would kill=
me if
you could, and
that is the reaso=
n I
know that you speak lies when you say that your weapons will kill at a great
distance. Would they, you would lo=
ng since
have killed me. Come! I have no more time to waste in words.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> I will spare the woman and take her wit=
h me
to the Kro-lu, for she is comely."
And with that he advanced upon me with raised spear.
My rifle was at my
hip at the ready. He was so close =
that I
did not need to raise it to my shoulder, having but to pull the trigger to =
send
him into Kingdom Come whenever I chose; but yet I hesitated. It was difficult to bring myself to tak=
e a
human life. I could feel no enmity=
toward
this savage barbarian who acted almost as wholly upon instinct as might a w=
ild
beast, and to the last moment I was determined to seek some way to avoid wh=
at
now seemed inevitable. Ajor stood =
at my shoulder,
her knife ready in her hand and a sneer on her lips at his suggestion that =
he
would take her with him.
Just as I thought=
I
should have to fire, a chorus of screams broke from the women beneath us. I saw the man halt and glance downward,=
and following
his example my eyes took in the panic and its cause. The women had, evidently, been quitting=
the
pool and slowly returning toward the caves, when they were confronted by a
monstrous cave-lion which stood directly between them and their cliffs in t=
he
center of the narrow path that led down to the pool among the tumbled rocks=
. Screaming,
the women were rushing madly back to the pool.
"It will do =
them
no good," remarked the man, a trace of excitement in his voice. "It will do them no good, for the =
lion
will wait until they come out and take as many as he can carry away; and th=
ere
is one there," he added, a trace of sadness in his tone, "whom I
hoped would soon follow me to the Kro-lu.
Together have we come up from the beginning." He raised his spear above his head and =
poised
it ready to hurl downward at the lion.
"She is nearest to him," he muttered. "He will get her and she will neve=
r come
to me among the Kro-lu, or ever thereafter.
It is useless! No warrior l=
ives
who could hurl a weapon so great a distance."
But even as he sp=
oke,
I was leveling my rifle upon the great brute below; and as he ceased speaki=
ng,
I squeezed the trigger. My bullet =
must
have struck to a hair the point at which I had aimed, for it smashed the
brute's spine back of his shoulders and tore on through his heart, dropping=
him
dead in his tracks. For a moment t=
he
women were as terrified by the report of the rifle as they had been by the
menace of the lion; but when they saw that the loud noise had evidently
destroyed their enemy, they came creeping cautiously back to examine the
carcass.
The man, toward w=
hom
I had immediately turned after firing, lest he should pursue his threatened
attack, stood staring at me in amazement and admiration.
"Why," =
he
asked, "if you could do that, did you not kill me long before?"
"I told
you," I replied, "that I had no quarrel with you. I do not care to kill men with whom I h=
ave no
quarrel."
But he could not =
seem
to get the idea through his head.
"I can believe now that you are not of Caspak," he admitte=
d,
"for no Caspakian would have permitted such an opportunity to escape
him." This, however, I found later to be an exaggeration, as the tribe=
s of
the west coast and even the Kro-lu of the east coast are far less bloodthir=
sty
than he would have had me believe.
"And your weapon!" he continued. "You spoke true words when I thoug=
ht you
spoke lies." And then, sudden=
ly: "Let
us be friends!"
I turned to
Ajor. "Can I trust him?"=
I
asked.
"Yes," =
she
replied. "Why not? Has he not asked to be friends?"
I was not at the =
time
well enough acquainted with Caspakian ways to know that truthfulness and
loyalty are two of the strongest characteristics of these primitive
people. They are not sufficiently =
cultured
to have become adept in hypocrisy, treason and dissimulation. There are, of
course, a few exceptions.
"We can go n=
orth
together," continued the warrior.
"I will fight for you, and you can fight for me. Until death will I serve you, for you h=
ave
saved So-al, whom I had given up as dead."
He threw down his spear and covered both his eyes with the palms of =
his
two hands. I looked inquiringly to=
ward
Ajor, who explained as best she could that this was the form of the Caspaki=
an
oath of allegiance. "You need=
never
fear him after this," she concluded.
"What should=
I
do?" I asked.
"Take his ha=
nds
down from before his eyes and return his spear to him," she explained.=
I did as she bade,
and the man seemed very pleased. I=
then
asked what I should have done had I not wished to accept his friendship.
"Yes,"
replied the warrior, "but no man with good sense blinds his eyes before
one whom he does not trust."
It was rather a
decent compliment, and it taught me just how much I might rely on the loyal=
ty
of my new friend. I was glad to ha=
ve him
with us, for he knew the country and was evidently a fearless warrior. I wi=
shed
that I might have recruited a battalion like him.
As the women were=
now
approaching the cliffs, Tomar the warrior suggested that we make our way to=
the
valley before they could intercept us, as they might attempt to detain us a=
nd
were almost certain to set upon Ajor. So
we hastened down the narrow path, reaching the foot of the cliffs but a sho=
rt
distance ahead of the women. They =
called
after us to stop; but we kept on at a rapid walk, not wishing to have any
trouble with them, which could only result in the death of some of them.
We had proceeded
about a mile when we heard some one behind us calling To-mar by name, and w=
hen
we stopped and looked around, we saw a woman running rapidly toward us. As she approached nearer I could see th=
at she
was a very comely creature, and like all her sex that I had seen in Caspak,
apparently young.
"It is
So-al!" exclaimed To-mar. &qu=
ot;Is
she mad that she follows me thus?"
In another moment=
the
young woman stopped, panting, before us.
She paid not the slightest attention to Ajor or me; but devouring To=
-mar
with her sparkling eyes, she cried:
"I have risen! I have
risen!"
"So-al!"
was all that the man could say.
"Yes," =
she
went on, "the call came to me just before I quit the pool; but I did n=
ot
know that it had come to you. I ca=
n see
it in your eyes, To-mar, my To-mar! We
shall go on together!" And she
threw herself into his arms.
It was a very
affecting sight, for it was evident that these two had been mates for a long
time and that they had each thought that they were about to be separated by
that strange law of evolution which holds good in Caspak and which was slow=
ly
unfolding before my incredulous mind. I
did not then comprehend even a tithe of the wondrous process, which goes on
eternally within the confines of Caprona's barrier cliffs nor am I any too =
sure
that I do even now.
To-mar explained =
to
So-al that it was I who had killed the cave-lion and saved her life, and th=
at
Ajor was my woman and thus entitled to the same loyalty which was my due.
At first Ajor and
So-al were like a couple of stranger cats on a back fence but soon they beg=
an
to accept each other under something of an armed truce, and later became fa=
st
friends. So-al was a mighty fine-l=
ooking
girl, built like a tigress as to strength and sinuosity, but withal sweet a=
nd
womanly. Ajor and I came to be ver=
y fond
of her, and she was, I think, equally fond of us. To-mar was very much of a man--a savage=
, if
you will, but none the less a man.
Finding that
traveling in company with To-mar made our journey both easier and safer, Aj=
or
and I did not continue on our way alone while the novitiates delayed their
approach to the Kro-lu country in order that they might properly fit themse=
lves
in the matter of arms and apparel, but remained with them. Thus we became well acquainted--to such=
an
extent that we looked forward with regret to the day when they took their
places among their new comrades and we should be forced to continue upon our
way alone. It was a matter of much
concern to To-mar that the Krolu would undoubtedly not receive Ajor and me =
in a
friendly manner, and that consequently we should have to avoid these people=
.
It would have been
very helpful to us could we have made friends with them, as their country
abutted directly upon that of the Galus.
Their friendship would have meant that Ajor's dangers were practical=
ly passed,
and that I had accomplished fully one-half of my long journey. In view of w=
hat
I had passed through, I often wondered what chance I had to complete that
journey in search of my friends. T=
he
further south I should travel on the west side of the island, the more frig=
htful
would the dangers become as I neared the stamping-grounds of the more hideo=
us
reptilia and the haunts of the Alus and the Ho-lu, all of which were at the
southern half of the island; and then if I should not find the members of my
party, what was to become of me? I=
could
not live for long in any portion of Caspak with which I was familiar; the
moment my ammunition was exhausted, I should be as good as dead.
There was a chance
that the Galus would receive me; but even Ajor could not say definitely whe=
ther
they would or not, and even provided that they would, could I retrace my st=
eps
from the beginning, after failing to find my own people, and return to the =
far
northern land of Galus? I doubted
it. However, I was learning from A=
jor,
who was more or less of a fatalist, a philosophy which was as necessary in
Caspak to peace of mind as is faith to the devout Christian of the outer wo=
rld.
We were sitting
before a little fire inside a safe grotto one night shortly after we had qu=
it
the cliff-dwellings of the Band-lu, when So-al raised a question which it h=
ad
never occurred to me to propound to Ajor.
She asked her why she had left her own people and how she had come so
far south as the country of the Alus, where I had found her.
At first Ajor
hesitated to explain; but at last she consented, and for the first time I h=
eard
the complete story of her origin and experiences. For my benefit she entered into greater
detail of explanation than would have been necessary had I been a native Ca=
spakian.
"I am a
cos-ata-lo," commenced Ajor, and then she turned toward me. "A cos-ata-lo, my Tom, is a woman&=
quot;
(lo) "who did not come from an egg and thus on up from the beginning.&=
quot; (Cor sva jo.)
"I was a babe at my mother's breast. Only among the Galus are such, and then=
but infrequently. The Wieroo get most of us; but my mothe=
r hid
me until I had attained such size that the Wieroo could not readily disting=
uish
me from one who had come up from the beginning.
I knew both my mother and my father, as only such as I may. My father is high chief among the Galus=
. His name is Jor, and both he and my mot=
her
came up from the beginning; but one of them, probably my mother, had comple=
ted
the seven cycles" (approximately seven hundred years), "with the
result that their offspring might be cos-ata-lo, or born as are all the
children of your race, my Tom, as you tell me is the fact. I was therefore apart from my fellows i=
n that
my children would probably be as I, of a higher state of evolution, and so I
was sought by the men of my people; but none of them appealed to me. I cared for none. The most persistent was Du-seen, a huge
warrior of whom my father stood in considerable fear, since it was quite
possible that Du-seen could wrest from him his chieftainship of the Galus.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He has a large following of the newer G=
alus,
those most recently come up from the Kro-lu, and as this class is usually m=
uch
more powerful numerically than the older Galus, and as Du-seen's ambition k=
nows
no bounds, we have for a long time been expecting him to find some excuse f=
or a
break with Jor the High Chief, my father.
"A further
complication lay in the fact that Duseen wanted me, while I would have none=
of
him, and then came evidence to my father's ears that he was in league with =
the
Wieroo; a hunter, returning late at night, came trembling to my father, say=
ing
that he had seen Du-seen talking with a Wieroo in a lonely spot far from the
village, and that plainly he had heard the words: 'If you will help me, I will help you--=
I will
deliver into your hands all cos-ata-lo among the Galus, now and hereafter; =
but
for that service you must slay Jor the High Chief and bring terror and
confusion to his followers.'
"Now, when my
father heard this, he was angry; but he was also afraid--afraid for me, who=
am
cosata-lo. He called me to him and=
told me
what he had heard, pointing out two ways in which we might frustrate Du-see=
n. The first was that I go to Du-seen as h=
is mate,
after which he would be loath to give me into the hands of the Wieroo or to
further abide by the wicked compact he had made--a compact which would doom=
his
own offspring, who would doubtless be as am I, their mother. The alternative was flight until Du-seen
should have been overcome and punished.
I chose the latter and fled toward the south. Beyond the confines of the Galu country=
is
little danger from the Wieroo, who seek ordinarily only Galus of the highest
orders. There are two excellent re=
asons
for this: One is that from the beg=
inning
of time jealousy had existed between the Wieroo and the Galus as to which w=
ould
eventually dominate the world. It =
seems
generally conceded that that race which first reaches a point of evolution
which permits them to produce young of their own species and of both sexes =
must
dominate all other creatures. The =
Wieroo
first began to produce their own kind--after which evolution from Galu to
Wieroo ceased gradually until now it is unknown; but the Wieroo produce onl=
y males--which
is why they steal our female young, and by stealing cos-ata-lo they increase
their own chances of eventually reproducing both sexes and at the same time=
lessen
ours. Already the Galus produce bo=
th
male and female; but so carefully do the Wieroo watch us that few of the ma=
les
ever grow to manhood, while even fewer are the females that are not stolen
away. It is indeed a strange condi=
tion,
for while our greatest enemies hate and fear us, they dare not exterminate =
us,
knowing that they too would become extinct but for us.
"Ah, but cou=
ld
we once get a start, I am sure that when all were true cos-ata-lo there wou=
ld
have been evolved at last the true dominant race before which all the world
would be forced to bow."
Ajor always spoke=
of
the world as though nothing existed beyond Caspak. She could not seem to gr=
asp
the truth of my origin or the fact that there were countless other peoples
outside her stern barrier-cliffs. She apparently felt that I came from an
entirely different world. Where it was and how I came to Caspak from it were
matters quite beyond her with which she refused to trouble her pretty head.=
"Well,"=
she
continued, "and so I ran away to hide, intending to pass the cliffs to=
the
south of Galu and find a retreat in the Kro-lu country. It would be dangerous, but there seemed=
no
other way.
"The third n=
ight
I took refuge in a large cave in the cliffs at the edge of my own country; =
upon
the following day I would cross over into the Kro-lu country, where I felt =
that
I should be reasonably safe from the Wieroo, though menaced by countless ot=
her
dangers. However, to a cos-ata-lo =
any
fate is preferable to that of falling into the clutches of the frightful
Wieroo, from whose land none returns.
"I had been
sleeping peacefully for several hours when I was awakened by a slight noise
within the cavern. The moon was sh=
ining
brightly, illumining the entrance, against which I saw silhouetted the drea=
d figure
of a Wieroo. There was no escape.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> The cave was shallow, the entrance
narrow. I lay very still, hoping a=
gainst
hope, that the creature had but paused here to rest and might soon depart
without discovering me; yet all the while I knew that he came seeking me.
"I waited,
scarce breathing, watching the thing creep stealthily toward me, its great =
eyes
luminous in the darkness of the cave's interior, and at last I knew that th=
ose
eyes were directed upon me, for the Wieroo can see in the darkness better t=
han
even the lion or the tiger. But a =
few
feet separated us when I sprang to my feet and dashed madly toward my menac=
er
in a vain effort to dodge past him and reach the outside world. It was madness of course, for even had I
succeeded temporarily, the Wieroo would have but followed and swooped down =
upon
me from above. As it was, he reached forth and seized me, and though I
struggled, he overpowered me. In t=
he
duel his long, white robe was nearly torn from him, and he became very angr=
y,
so that he trembled and beat his wings together in his rage.
"He asked me=
my
name; but I would not answer him, and that angered him still more. At last he dragged me to the entrance o=
f the
cave, lifted me in his arms, spread his great wings and leaping into the ai=
r, flapped
dismally through the night. I saw =
the
moonlit landscape sliding away beneath me, and then we were out above the s=
ea
and on our way to Oo-oh, the country of the Wieroo.
"The dim
outlines of Oo-oh were unfolding below us when there came from above a loud
whirring of giant wings. The Wiero=
o and
I glanced up simultaneously, to see a pair of huge jo-oos" (flying rep=
tiles--pterodactyls)
"swooping down upon us. The W=
ieroo
wheeled and dropped almost to sea-level, and then raced southward in an eff=
ort
to outdistance our pursuers. The g=
reat
creatures, notwithstanding their enormous weight, are swift on their wings;=
but
the Wieroo are swifter. Even with my added weight, the creature that bore me
maintained his lead, though he could not increase it. Faster than the fastest wind we raced t=
hrough
the night, southward along the coast.
Sometimes we rose to great heights, where the air was chill and the
world below but a blur of dim outlines; but always the jo-oos stuck behind =
us.
"I knew that=
we
had covered a great distance, for the rush of the wind by my face attested =
the
speed of our progress, but I had no idea where we were when at last I reali=
zed
that the Wieroo was weakening. One=
of the
jo-oos gained on us and succeeded in heading us, so that my captor had to t=
urn
in toward the coast. Further and f=
urther
they forced him to the left; lower and lower he sank. More labored was his breathing, and wea=
ker
the stroke of his once powerful wings.
We were not ten feet above the ground when they overtook us, and at =
the
edge of a forest. One of them seized the Wieroo by his right wing, and in an
effort to free himself, he loosed his grasp upon me, dropping me to earth.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Like a frightened ecca I leaped to my f=
eet
and raced for the sheltering sanctuary of the forest, where I knew neither
could follow or seize me. Then I turned and looked back to see two great
reptiles tear my abductor asunder and devour him on the spot.
"I was saved;
yet I felt that I was lost. How fa=
r I
was from the country of the Galus I could not guess; nor did it seem probab=
le
that I ever could make my way in safety to my native land.
"Day was
breaking; soon the carnivora would stalk forth for their first kill; I was
armed only with my knife. About me=
was a
strange landscape--the flowers, the trees, the grasses, even, were differen=
t from
those of my northern world, and presently there appeared before me a creatu=
re
fully as hideous as the Wieroo--a hairy manthing that barely walked erect.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> I shuddered, and then I fled. Through the hideous dangers that my for=
ebears
had endured in the earlier stages of their human evolution I fled; and alwa=
ys
pursuing was the hairy monster that had discovered me. Later he was joined by others of his
kind. They were the speechless men=
, the
Alus, from whom you rescued me, my Tom. From then on, you know the story of=
my
adventures, and from the first, I would endure them all again because they =
led
me to you!"
It was very nice =
of
her to say that, and I appreciated it. =
span>I
felt that she was a mighty nice little girl whose friendship anyone might be
glad to have; but I wished that when she touched me, those peculiar thrills=
would
not run through me. It was most
discomforting, because it reminded me of love; and I knew that I never could
love this half-baked little barbarian. =
span>I
was very much interested in her account of the Wieroo, which up to this tim=
e I
had considered a purely mythological creature; but Ajor shuddered so at even
the veriest mention of the name that I was loath to press the subject upon =
her,
and so the Wieroo still remained a mystery to me.
While the Wieroo
interested me greatly, I had little time to think about them, as our waking
hours were filled with the necessities of existence--the constant battle for
survival which is the chief occupation of Caspakians. To-mar and So-al were now about fitted =
for their
advent into Kro-lu society and must therefore leave us, as we could not
accompany them without incurring great danger ourselves and running the cha=
nce
of endangering them; but each swore to be always our friend and assured us =
that
should we need their aid at any time we had but to ask it; nor could I doubt
their sincerity, since we had been so instrumental in bringing them safely =
upon
their journey toward the Kro-lu village.
This was our last=
day
together. In the afternoon we shou=
ld
separate, To-mar and So-al going directly to the Kro-lu village, while Ajor=
and
I made a detour to avoid a conflict with the archers. The former both showed evidence of nerv=
ous
apprehension as the time approached for them to make their entry into the
village of their new people, and yet both were very proud and happy. They told us that they would be well re=
ceived
as additions to a tribe always are welcomed, and the more so as the distance
from the beginning increased, the higher tribes or races being far weaker
numerically than the lower. The so=
uthern
end of the island fairly swarms with the Ho-lu, or apes; next above these a=
re the
Alus, who are slightly fewer in number than the Ho-lu; and again there are
fewer Bolu than Alus, and fewer Sto-lu than Bo-lu. Thus it goes until the Kro-lu are fewer=
in
number than any of the others; and here the law reverses, for the Galus
outnumber the Kro-lu. As Ajor expl=
ained
it to me, the reason for this is that as evolution practically ceases with =
the
Galus, there is no less among them on this score, for even the cos-ata-lo a=
re
still considered Galus and remain with them.
And Galus come up both from the west and east coasts. There are, too,
fewer carnivorous reptiles at the north end of the island, and not so many =
of
the great and ferocious members of the cat family as take their hideous tol=
l of
life among the races further south.
By now I was
obtaining some idea of the Caspakian scheme of evolution, which partly
accounted for the lack of young among the races I had so far seen. Coming up from the beginning, the Caspa=
kian
passes, during a single existence, through the various stages of evolution,=
or
at least many of them, through which the human race has passed during the c=
ountless
ages since life first stirred upon a new world; but the question which
continued to puzzle me was: What creates life at the beginning, cor sva jo?=
I had noticed tha=
t as
we traveled northward from the Alus' country the land had gradually risen u=
ntil
we were now several hundred feet above the level of the inland sea. Ajor told me that the Galus country was=
still
higher and considerably colder, which accounted for the scarcity of
reptiles. The change in form and k=
inds
of the lower animals was even more marked than the evolutionary stages of
man. The diminutive ecca, or small
horse, became a rough-coated and sturdy little pony in the Kro-lu country.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> I saw a greater number of small lions a=
nd
tigers, though many of the huge ones still persisted, while the woolly mamm=
oth was
more in evidence, as were several varieties of the Labyrinthadonta. These
creatures, from which God save me, I should have expected to find further
south; but for some unaccountable reason they gain their greatest bulk in t=
he
Kro-lu and Galu countries, though fortunately they are rare. I rather imagine that they are a very e=
arly
life which is rapidly nearing extinction in Caspak, though wherever they are
found, they constitute a menace to all forms of life.
It was mid-aftern=
oon
when To-mar and So-al bade us good-bye.
We were not far from Kro-lu village; in fact, we had approached it m=
uch
closer than we had intended, and now Ajor and I were to make a detour towar=
d the
sea while our companions went directly in search of the Kro-lu chief.
Ajor and I had go=
ne
perhaps a mile or two and were just about to emerge from a dense wood when I
saw that ahead of us which caused me to draw back into concealment, at the =
same
time pushing Ajor behind me. What =
I saw
was a party of Band-lu warriors--large, fierce-appearing men. From the direction of their march I saw=
that
they were returning to their caves, and that if we remained where we were, =
they
would pass without discovering us.
Presently Ajor nu=
dged
me. "They have a prisoner,&qu=
ot;
she whispered. "He is a
Kro-lu."
And then I saw hi=
m,
the first fully developed Krolu I had seen.
He was a fine-looking savage, tall and straight with a regal
carriage. To-mar was a handsome fe=
llow;
but this Kro-lu showed plainly in his every physical attribute a higher pla=
ne
of evolution. While To-mar was jus=
t entering
the Kro-lu sphere, this man, it seemed to me, must be close indeed to the n=
ext
stage of his development, which would see him an envied Galu.
"They will k=
ill
him?" I whispered to Ajor.
"The dance of
death," she replied, and I shuddered, so recently had I escaped the sa=
me
fate. It seemed cruel that one who=
must
have passed safely up through all the frightful stages of human evolution
within Caspak, should die at the very foot of his goal. I raised my rifle to my shoulder and to=
ok
careful aim at one of the Band-lu. If I
hit him, I would hit two, for another was directly behind the first.
Ajor touched my
arm. "What would you do?"=
; she
asked. "They are all our
enemies."
"I am going =
to
save him from the dance of death," I replied, "enemy or no
enemy," and I squeezed the trigger.
At the report, the two Band-lu lunged forward upon their faces. I handed my rifle to Ajor, and drawing =
my
pistol, stepped out in full view of the startled party. The Band-lu did not run away as had som=
e of
the lower orders of Caspakians at the sound of the rifle. Instead, the moment they saw me, they l=
et out
a series of demoniac war-cries, and raising their spears above their heads,
charged me.
The Kro-lu stood
silent and statuesque, watching the proceedings. He made no attempt to escape, though hi=
s feet
were not bound and none of the warriors remained to guard him. There were ten of the Band-lu coming for
me. I dropped three of them with my
pistol as rapidly as a man might count by three, and then my rifle spoke cl=
ose
to my left shoulder, and another of them stumbled and rolled over and over =
upon
the ground. Plucky little Ajor!
With six of their
fellows put out of the fight so easily, the remaining six sought cover behi=
nd
some low bushes and commenced a council of war. I wished that they would go
away, as I had no ammunition to waste, and I was fearful that should they
institute another charge, some of them would reach us, for they were already
quite close. Suddenly one of them =
rose
and launched his spear. It was the=
most
marvelous exhibition of speed I have ever witnessed. It seemed to me that he had scarce gain=
ed an
upright position when the weapon was half-way upon its journey, speeding li=
ke
an arrow toward Ajor. And then it =
was,
with that little life in danger, that I made the best shot I have ever made=
in
my life! I took no conscious aim; =
it was
as though my subconscious mind, impelled by a stronger power even than that=
of
self-preservation, directed my hand.
Ajor was in danger!
Simultaneously with the thought my pistol flew to position, a streak=
of
incandescent powder marked the path of the bullet from its muzzle; and the
spear, its point shattered, was deflected from its path. With a howl of dismay the six Band-lu r=
ose
from their shelter and raced away toward the south.
I turned toward
Ajor. She was very white and wide-=
eyed,
for the clutching fingers of death had all but seized her; but a little smi=
le came
to her lips and an expression of great pride to her eyes. "My Tom!" she said, and took =
my
hand in hers. That was all--"=
My
Tom!" and a pressure of the hand.
Her Tom! Something stirred =
within
my bosom. Was it exaltation or was it consternation? Impossible!
I turned away almost brusquely.
"Come!"=
I
said, and strode off toward the Kro-lu prisoner.
The Kro-lu stood
watching us with stolid indifference. I
presume that he expected to be killed; but if he did, he showed no outward =
sign
of fear. His eyes, indicating his
greatest interest, were fixed upon my pistol or the rifle which Ajor still
carried. I cut his bonds with my k=
nife. As I did so, an expression of surprise =
tinged
and animated the haughty reserve of his countenance. He eyed me quizzically.
"What are you
going to do with me?" he asked.
"You are
free," I replied. "Go ho=
me, if
you wish."
"Why don't y=
ou
kill me?" he inquired. "=
I am
defenseless."
"Why should I
kill you? I have risked my life and that of this young lady to save your
life. Why, therefore should I now =
take
it?" Of course, I didn't say
"young lady" as there is no Caspakian equivalent for that term; b=
ut I
have to allow myself considerable latitude in the translation of Caspakian
conversations. To speak always of a
beautiful young girl as a "she" may be literal; but it seems far =
from
gallant.
The Kro-lu
concentrated his steady, level gaze upon me for at least a full minute. Then he spoke again.
"Who are you,
man of strange skins?" he asked.
"Your she is Galu; but you are neither Galu nor Krolu nor Band-=
lu,
nor any other sort of man which I have seen before. Tell me from whence comes so mighty a w=
arrior
and so generous a foe."
"It is a long
story," I replied, "but suffice it to say that I am not of
Caspak. I am a stranger here, and-=
-let
this sink in--I am not a foe. I ha=
ve no
wish to be an enemy of any man in Caspak, with the possible exception of the
Galu warrior Du-seen."
"Du-seen!&qu=
ot;
he exclaimed. "You are an ene=
my of
Du-seen? And why?"
"Because he
would harm Ajor," I replied.
"You know him?"
"He cannot k=
now
him," said Ajor. "Du-see=
n rose
from the Kro-lu long ago, taking a new name, as all do when they enter a new
sphere. He cannot know him, as the=
re is
no intercourse between the Kro-lu and the Galu."
The warrior smiled. "Du-seen rose not so = long ago," he said, "that I do not recall him well, and recently he has taken it upon himself to abrogate the ancient laws of Caspak; he had had intercourse with the Kro-lu. Du-se= en would be chief of the Galus, and he has come to the Kro-lu for help."<= o:p>
Ajor was aghast.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> The thing was incredible. Never had Kro-lu and Galu had friendly
relations; by the savage laws of Caspak they were deadly enemies, for only =
so can
the several races maintain their individuality.
"Will the Kr=
o-lu
join him?" asked Ajor. "=
Will
they invade the country of Jor my father?"
"The younger
Kro-lu favor the plan," replied the warrior, "since they believe =
they
will thus become Galus immediately. They
hope to span the long years of change through which they must pass in the
ordinary course of events and at a single stride become Galus. We of the older Kro-lu tell them that t=
hough
they occupy the land of the Galu and wear the skins and ornaments of the go=
lden
people, still they will not be Galus till the time arrives that they are ri=
pe
to rise. We also tell them that ev=
en
then they will never become a true Galu race, since there will still be tho=
se
among them who can never rise. It =
is all
right to raid the Galu country occasionally for plunder, as our people do; =
but
to attempt to conquer it and hold it is madness. For my part, I have been content to wait
until the call came to me. I feel =
that
it cannot now be long."
"What is your
name?" asked Ajor.
"Chal-az,&qu=
ot;
replied the man.
"You are chi=
ef
of the Kro-lu?" Ajor continued.
"No, it is
Al-tan who is chief of the Kro-lu of the east," answered Chal-az.
"And he is
against this plan to invade my father's country?"
"Unfortunate= ly he is rather in favor of it," replied the man, "since he has about come to the conclusion that he is batu. He has been chief ever since, before I came up from the Band-lu, and= I can see no change in him in all those years. In fact, he still appears to be more Band-lu than Kro-lu. However, he is a good chief and a mighty warrior, and if Du-seen persuades him to his cause, the Galus may find them= selves under a Kro-lu chieftain before long--Du-seen as well as the others, for Al= -tan would never consent to occupy a subordinate position, and once he plants a victorious foot in Galu, he will not withdraw it without a struggle."<= o:p>
I asked them what
batu meant, as I had not before heard the word. Literally translated, it is
equivalent to through, finished, done-for, as applied to an individual's
evolutionary progress in Caspak, and with this information was developed the
interesting fact that not every individual is capable of rising through eve=
ry
stage to that of Galu. Some never progress beyond the Alu stage; others sto=
p as
Bo-lu, as Sto-lu, as Bandlu or as Kro-lu.
The Ho-lu of the first generation may rise to become Alus; the Alus =
of
the second generation may become Bo-lu, while it requires three generations=
of
Bo-lu to become Band-lu, and so on until Kro-lu's parent on one side must b=
e of
the sixth generation.
It was not entire= ly plain to me even with this explanation, since I couldn't understand how the= re could be different generations of peoples who apparently had no offspring.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Yet I was commencing to get a slight gl= immer of the strange laws which govern propagation and evolution in this weird land. Already I knew that the warm= pools which always lie close to every tribal abiding-place were closely linked wi= th the Caspakian scheme of evolution, and that the daily immersion of the fema= les in the greenish slimy water was in response to some natural law, since neit= her pleasure nor cleanliness could be derived from what seemed almost a religio= us rite. Yet I was still at sea; nor,= seemingly, could Ajor enlighten me, since she was compelled to use words which I could= not understand and which it was impossible for her to explain the meanings of.<= o:p>
As we stood talki=
ng,
we were suddenly startled by a commotion in the bushes and among the boles =
of
the trees surrounding us, and simultaneously a hundred Kro-lu warriors appe=
ared
in a rough circle about us. They g=
reeted
Chal-az with a volley of questions as they approached slowly from all sides,
their heavy bows fitted with long, sharp arrows. Upon Ajor and me they looked with
covetousness in the one instance and suspicion in the other; but after they=
had
heard Chal-az's story, their attitude was more friendly. A huge savage did all the talking. He was a mountain of a man, yet perfect=
ly proportioned.
"This is Al-=
tan
the chief," said Chal-az by way of introduction. Then he told something of my story, and
Al-tan asked me many questions of the land from which I came. The warriors crowded around close to he=
ar my
replies, and there were many expressions of incredulity as I spoke of what =
was
to them another world, of the yacht which had brought me over vast waters, =
and
of the plane that had borne me Jo-oo-like over the summit of the
barrier-cliffs. It was the mention=
of
the hydroaeroplane which precipitated the first outspoken skepticism, and t=
hen
Ajor came to my defense.
"I saw it wi=
th
my own eyes!" she exclaimed.
"I saw him flying through the air in battle with a Jo-oo. The Alus were chasing me, and they saw =
and
ran away."
"Whose is th=
is
she?" demanded Al-tan suddenly, his eyes fixed fiercely upon Ajor.
For a moment there
was silence. Ajor looked up at me,=
a
hurt and questioning expression on her face.
"Whose she is this?" repeated Al-tan.
"She is
mine," I replied, though what force it was that impelled me to say it I
could not have told; but an instant later I was glad that I had spoken the
words, for the reward of Ajor's proud and happy face was reward indeed.
Al-tan eyed her f=
or
several minutes and then turned to me.
"Can you keep her?" he asked, just the tinge of a sneer up=
on
his face.
I laid my palm up=
on
the grip of my pistol and answered that I could. He saw the move, glanced at
the butt of the automatic where it protruded from its holster, and smiled.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Then he turned and raising his great bo=
w,
fitted an arrow and drew the shaft far back.
His warriors, supercilious smiles upon their faces, stood silently
watching him. His bow was the long=
est
and the heaviest among them all. A
mighty man indeed must he be to bend it; yet Al-tan drew the shaft back unt=
il
the stone point touched his left forefinger, and he did it with consummate =
ease. Then he raised the shaft to the level o=
f his
right eye, held it there for an instant and released it. When the arrow stopped, half its length
protruded from the opposite side of a six-inch tree fifty feet away. Al-tan and his warriors turned toward m=
e with
expressions of immense satisfaction upon their faces, and then, apparently =
for
Ajor's benefit, the chieftain swaggered to and fro a couple of times, swing=
ing his
great arms and his bulky shoulders for all the world like a drunken prize-f=
ighter
at a beach dancehall.
I saw that some r=
eply
was necessary, and so in a single motion, I drew my gun, dropped it on the
still quivering arrow and pulled the trigger. At the sound of the report, t=
he
Kro-lu leaped back and raised their weapons; but as I was smiling, they took
heart and lowered them again, following my eyes to the tree; the shaft of t=
heir
chief was gone, and through the bole was a little round hole marking the pa=
th
of my bullet. It was a good shot if I do say it myself, "as
shouldn't" but necessity must have guided that bullet; I simply had to
make a good shot, that I might immediately establish my position among those
savage and warlike Caspakians of the sixth sphere. That it had its effect was immediately =
noticeable,
but I am none too sure that it helped my cause with Al-tan. Whereas he might
have condescended to tolerate me as a harmless and interesting curiosity, he
now, by the change in his expression, appeared to consider me in a new and
unfavorable light. Nor can I wonde=
r,
knowing this type as I did, for had I not made him ridiculous in the eyes of
his warriors, beating him at his own game?
What king, savage or civilized, could condone such impudence? Seeing his black scowls, I deemed it
expedient, especially on Ajor's account, to terminate the interview and
continue upon our way; but when I would have done so, Al-tan detained us wi=
th a
gesture, and his warriors pressed around us.
"What is the
meaning of this?" I demanded, and before Al-tan could reply, Chal-az
raised his voice in our behalf.
"Is this the
gratitude of a Kro-lu chieftain, Al-tan," he asked, "to one who h=
as
served you by saving one of your warriors from the enemy--saving him from t=
he
death dance of the Band-lu?"
Al-tan was silent=
for
a moment, and then his brow cleared, and the faint imitation of a pleasant
expression struggled for existence as he said:
"The stranger will not be harmed.
I wished only to detain him that he may be feasted tonight in the
village of Al-tan the Kro-lu. In t=
he
morning he may go his way. Al-tan =
will
not hinder him."
I was not entirely
reassured; but I wanted to see the interior of the Kro-lu village, and anyw=
ay I
knew that if Al-tan intended treachery I would be no more in his power in t=
he
morning than I now was--in fact, during the night I might find opportunity =
to
escape with Ajor, while at the instant neither of us could hope to escape
unscathed from the encircling warriors.
Therefore, in order to disarm him of any thought that I might entert=
ain
suspicion as to his sincerity, I promptly and courteously accepted his
invitation. His satisfaction was
evident, and as we set off toward his village, he walked beside me, asking =
many
questions as to the country from which I came, its peoples and their custom=
s. He seemed much mystified by the fact th=
at we
could walk abroad by day or night without fear of being devoured by wild be=
asts
or savage reptiles, and when I told him of the great armies which we mainta=
ined,
his simple mind could not grasp the fact that they existed solely for the
slaughtering of human beings.
"I am
glad," he said, "that I do not dwell in your country among such s=
avage
peoples. Here, in Caspak, men figh=
t with
men when they meet--men of different races--but their weapons are first for=
the
slaying of beasts in the chase and in defense.
We do not fashion weapons solely for the killing of man as do your
peoples. Your country must indeed =
be a
savage country, from which you are fortunate to have escaped to the peace a=
nd
security of Caspak."
Here was a new and
refreshing viewpoint; nor could I take exception to it after what I had told
Altan of the great war which had been raging in Europe for over two years
before I left home.
On the march to t=
he
Kro-lu village we were continually stalked by innumerable beasts of prey, a=
nd
three times we were attacked by frightful creatures; but Altan took it all =
as a
matter of course, rushing forward with raised spear or sending a heavy shaft
into the body of the attacker and then returning to our conversation as tho=
ugh no
interruption had occurred. Twice w=
ere
members of his band mauled, and one was killed by a huge and bellicose
rhinoceros; but the instant the action was over, it was as though it never =
had
occurred. The dead man was strippe=
d of
his belongings and left where he had died; the carnivora would take care of=
his
burial. The trophies that these Kr=
o-lu
left to the meat-eaters would have turned an English big-game hunter green =
with
envy. They did, it is true, cut al=
l the
edible parts from the rhino and carry them home; but already they were pret=
ty
well weighted down with the spoils of the chase, and only the fact that the=
y are
particularly fond of rhino-meat caused them to do so.
They left the hid=
e on
the pieces they selected, as they use it for sandals, shield-covers, the hi=
lts
of their knives and various other purposes where tough hide is desirable. I was much interested in their shields,
especially after I saw one used in defense against the attack of a saber-to=
oth
tiger. The huge creature had charg=
ed us
without warning from a clump of dense bushes where it was lying up after ea=
ting. It was met with an avalanche of spears,=
some
of which passed entirely through its body, with such force were they
hurled. The charge was from a very=
short
distance, requiring the use of the spear rather than the bow and arrow; but
after the launching of the spears, the men not directly in the path of the
charge sent bolt after bolt into the great carcass with almost incredible
rapidity. The beast, screaming wit=
h pain
and rage, bore down upon Chal-az while I stood helpless with my rifle for f=
ear
of hitting one of the warriors who were closing in upon it. But Chal-az was ready. Throwing aside his bow, he crouched beh=
ind
his large oval shield, in the center of which was a hole about six inches in
diameter. The shield was held by t=
ight
loops to his left arm, while in his right hand he grasped his heavy knife. =
Bristling
with spears and arrows, the great cat hurled itself upon the shield, and do=
wn
went Chal-az upon his back with the shield entirely covering him. The tiger clawed and bit at the heavy
rhinoceros hide with which the shield was faced, while Chal-az, through the
round hole in the shield's center, plunged his blade repeatedly into the vi=
tals
of the savage animal. Doubtless the
battle would have gone to Chal-az even though I had not interfered; but the
moment that I saw a clean opening, with no Kro-lu beyond, I raised my rifle=
and
killed the beast.
When Chal-az aros=
e,
he glanced at the sky and remarked that it looked like rain. The others already had resumed the march
toward the village. The incident w=
as
closed. For some unaccountable rea=
son
the whole thing reminded me of a friend who once shot a cat in his backyard=
. For three weeks he talked of nothing el=
se.
It was almost dark
when we reached the village--a large palisaded enclosure of several hundred
leaf-thatched huts set in groups of from two to seven. The huts were hexagonal in form, and wh=
ere
grouped were joined so that they resembled the cells of a bee-hive. One hut meant a warrior and his mate, a=
nd
each additional hut in a group indicated an additional female. The palisade which surrounded the villa=
ge was
of logs set close together and woven into a solid wall with tough creepers =
which
were planted at their base and trained to weave in and out to bind the logs
together. The logs slanted outward=
at an
angle of about thirty degrees, in which position they were held by shorter =
logs
embedded in the ground at right angles to them and with their upper ends su=
pporting
the longer pieces a trifle above their centers of equilibrium. Along the top of the palisade sharpened
stakes had been driven at all sorts of angles.
The only opening =
into
the inclosure was through a small aperture three feet wide and three feet h=
igh,
which was closed from the inside by logs about six feet long laid horizonta=
lly,
one upon another, between the inside face of the palisade and two other bra=
ced
logs which paralleled the face of the wall upon the inside.
As we entered the
village, we were greeted by a not unfriendly crowd of curious warriors and
women, to whom Chal-az generously explained the service we had rendered him,
whereupon they showered us with the most well-meant attentions, for Chal-az=
, it
seemed, was a most popular member of the tribe.
Necklaces of lion and tiger-teeth, bits of dried meat, finely tanned
hides and earthen pots, beautifully decorated, they thrust upon us until we
were loaded down, and all the while Al-tan glared balefully upon us, seemin=
gly
jealous of the attentions heaped upon us because we had served Chal-az.
At last we reache=
d a
hut that they set apart for us, and there we cooked our meat and some
vegetables the women brought us, and had milk from cows--the first I had ha=
d in
Caspak--and cheese from the milk of wild goats, with honey and thin bread m=
ade
from wheat flour of their own grinding, and grapes and the fermented juice =
of
grapes. It was quite the most wond=
erful
meal I had eaten since I quit the Toreador and Bowen J. Tyler's colored chef, who could make po=
rk-chops
taste like chicken, and chicken taste like heaven.
After dinner I ro=
lled
a cigaret and stretched myself at ease upon a pile of furs before the doorw=
ay,
with Ajor's head pillowed in my lap and a feeling of great content pervading
me. It was the first time since my=
plane
had topped the barrier-cliffs of Caspak that I had felt any sense of peace =
or
security. My hand wandered to the =
velvet
cheek of the girl I had claimed as mine, and to her luxuriant hair and the =
golden
fillet which bound it close to her shapely head. Her slender fingers groping upward soug=
ht
mine and drew them to her lips, and then I gathered her in my arms and crus=
hed
her to me, smothering her mouth with a long, long kiss. It was the first time that passion had =
tinged
my intercourse with Ajor. We were =
alone,
and the hut was ours until morning.
But now from beyo=
nd
the palisade in the direction of the main gate came the hallooing of men and
the answering calls and queries of the guard. We listened. Returning hunters, no doubt. We heard them enter the village amidst =
the
barking dogs. I have forgotten to
mention the dogs of Kro-lu. The vi=
llage
swarmed with them, gaunt, wolflike creatures that guarded the herd by day w=
hen
it grazed without the palisade, ten dogs to a cow. By night the cows were herded in an out=
er
inclosure roofed against the onslaughts of the carnivorous cats; and the do=
gs, with
the exception of a few, were brought into the village; these few well-tested
brutes remained with the herd. Dur=
ing
the day they fed plentifully upon the beasts of prey which they killed in
protection of the herd, so that their keep amounted to nothing at all.
Shortly after the
commotion at the gate had subsided, Ajor and I arose to enter the hut, and =
at
the same time a warrior appeared from one of the twisted alleys which, lying
between the irregularly placed huts and groups of huts, form the streets of=
the
Kro-lu village. The fellow halted =
before
us and addressed me, saying that Al-tan desired my presence at his hut. The wording of the invitation and the m=
anner
of the messenger threw me entirely off my guard, so cordial was the one and
respectful the other, and the result was that I went willingly, telling Ajor
that I would return presently. I h=
ad
laid my arms and ammunition aside as soon as we had taken over the hut, and=
I
left them with Ajor now, as I had noticed that aside from their hunting-kni=
ves the
men of Kro-lu bore no weapons about the village streets. There was an atmosphere of peace and se=
curity
within that village that I had not hoped to experience within Caspak, and a=
fter
what I had passed through, it must have cast a numbing spell over my facult=
ies
of judgment and reason. I had eate=
n of
the lotus-flower of safety; dangers no longer threatened for they had cease=
d to
be.
The messenger led=
me
through the labyrinthine alleys to an open plaza near the center of the
village. At one end of this plaza =
was a
long hut, much the largest that I had yet seen, before the door of which we=
re
many warriors. I could see that the
interior was lighted and that a great number of men were gathered within. The dogs about the plaza were as thick =
as
fleas, and those I approached closely evinced a strong desire to devour me,
their noses evidently apprising them of the fact that I was of an alien rac=
e,
since they paid no attention whatever to my companion. Once inside the council-hut, for such it
appeared to be, I found a large concourse of warriors seated, or rather
squatted, around the floor. At one=
end
of the oval space which the warriors left down the center of the room stood
Al-tan and another warrior whom I immediately recognized as a Galu, and the=
n I
saw that there were many Galus present.
About the walls were a number of flaming torches stuck in holes in a
clay plaster which evidently served the purpose of preventing the inflammab=
le
wood and grasses of which the hut was composed from being ignited by the
flames. Lying about among the warr=
iors
or wandering restlessly to and fro were a number of savage dogs.
The warriors eyed=
me
curiously as I entered, especially the Galus, and then I was conducted into=
the
center of the group and led forward toward Al-tan. As I advanced I felt one of the dogs sn=
iffing
at my heels, and of a sudden a great brute leaped upon my back. As I turned to thrust it aside before i=
ts
fangs found a hold upon me, I beheld a huge Airedale leaping frantically ab=
out
me. The grinning jaws, the half-cl=
osed
eyes, the back-laid ears spoke to me louder than might the words of man that
here was no savage enemy but a joyous friend, and then I recognized him, and
fell to one knee and put my arms about his neck while he whined and cried w=
ith
joy. It was Nobs, dear old Nobs. B=
owen
Tyler's Nobs, who had loved me next to his master.
"Where is the
master of this dog?" I asked, turning toward Al-tan.
The chieftain
inclined his head toward the Galu standing at his side. "He belongs to
Du-seen the Galu," he replied.
"He belongs =
to
Bowen J. Tyler, Jr., of Santa Monica," I retorted, "and I want to
know where his master is."
The Galu
shrugged. "The dog is mine,&q=
uot;
he said. "He came to me cor-s=
va-jo,
and he is unlike any dog in Caspak, being kind and docile and yet a killer =
when
aroused. I would not part with him=
. I do not know the man of whom you
speak."
So this was
Du-seen! This was the man from who=
m Ajor
had fled. I wondered if he knew th=
at she
was here. I wondered if they had s=
ent
for me because of her; but after they had commenced to question me, my mind=
was
relieved; they did not mention Ajor.
Their interest seemed centered upon the strange world from which I h=
ad
come, my journey to Caspak and my intentions now that I had arrived. I answered them frankly as I had nothin=
g to
conceal and assured them that my only wish was to find my friends and retur=
n to
my own country. In the Galu Du-see=
n and
his warriors I saw something of the explanation of the term "golden
race" which is applied to them, for their ornaments and weapons were
either wholly of beaten gold or heavily decorated with the precious metal.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> They were a very imposing set of men--t=
all
and straight and handsome. About t=
heir
heads were bands of gold like that which Ajor wore, and from their left
shoulders depended the leopard-tails of the Galus. In addition to the deer-skin tunic whic=
h constituted
the major portion of their apparel, each carried a light blanket of barbaric
yet beautiful design--the first evidence of weaving I had seen in Caspak. Ajor had had no blanket, having lost it
during her flight from the attentions of Du-seen; nor was she so heavily in=
crusted
with gold as these male members of her tribe.
The audience must
have lasted fully an hour when Al-tan signified that I might return to my
hut. All the time Nobs had lain qu=
ietly
at my feet; but the instant that I turned to leave, he was up and after me.=
Duseen
called to him; but the terrier never even so much as looked in his
direction. I had almost reached the
doorway leading from the council-hall when Al-tan rose and called after
me. "Stop!" he shouted. =
"Stop,
stranger! The beast of Du-seen the Galu follows you."
"The dog is =
not
Du-seen's," I replied. "=
He
belongs to my friend, as I told you, and he prefers to stay with me until h=
is
master is found." And I turned again to resume my way. I had taken but a few steps when I hear=
d a
commotion behind me, and at the same moment a man leaned close and whispered
"Kazar!" close to my ear--kazar, the Caspakian equivalent of
beware. It was To-mar. As he spoke, he turned quickly away as =
though
loath to have others see that he knew me, and at the same instant I wheeled=
to
discover Du-seen striding rapidly after me. Al-tan followed him, and it was
evident that both were angry.
Du-seen, a weapon
half drawn, approached truculently.
"The beast is mine," he reiterated. "Would you steal him?"
"He is not y=
ours
nor mine," I replied, "and I am not stealing him. If he wishes to follow you, he may; I w=
ill
not interfere; but if he wishes to follow me, he shall; nor shall you
prevent." I turned to Al-tan. "Is not that fair?" I
demanded. "Let the dog choose=
his
master."
Du-seen, without
waiting for Al-tan's reply, reached for Nobs and grasped him by the scruff =
of
the neck. I did not interfere, for=
I guessed
what would happen; and it did. Wit=
h a
savage growl Nobs turned like lightning upon the Galu, wrenched loose from =
his
hold and leaped for his throat. Th=
e man
stepped back and warded off the first attack with a heavy blow of his fist,
immediately drawing his knife with which to meet the Airedale's return. And Nobs would have returned, all right=
, had
not I spoken to him. In a low voic=
e I
called him to heel. For just an instant he hesitated, standing there trembl=
ing
and with bared fangs, glaring at his foe; but he was well trained and had b=
een out
with me quite as much as he had with Bowen--in fact, I had had most to do w=
ith
his early training; then he walked slowly and very stiff-legged to his place
behind me.
Du-seen, red with
rage, would have had it out with the two of us had not Al-tan drawn him to =
one
side and whispered in his ear--upon which, with a grunt, the Galu walked
straight back to the opposite end of the hall, while Nobs and I continued u=
pon
our way toward the hut and Ajor. As we passed out into the village plaza, I=
saw
Chal-az--we were so close to one another that I could have reached out and
touched him--and our eyes met; but though I greeted him pleasantly and paus=
ed
to speak to him, he brushed past me without a sign of recognition. I was puzzled at his behavior, and then=
I
recalled that To-mar, though he had warned me, had appeared not to wish to =
seem
friendly with me. I could not unde=
rstand
their attitude, and was trying to puzzle out some sort of explanation, when=
the
matter was suddenly driven from my mind by the report of a firearm. Instantly I broke into a run, my brain =
in a
whirl of forebodings, for the only firearms in the Kro-lu country were thos=
e I
had left in the hut with Ajor.
That she was in
danger I could not but fear, as she was now something of an adept in the
handling of both the pistol and rifle, a fact which largely eliminated the
chance that the shot had come from an accidentally discharged firearm. When I left the hut, I had felt that sh=
e and
I were safe among friends; no thought of danger was in my mind; but since my
audience with Al-tan, the presence and bearing of Duseen and the strange
attitude of both To-mar and Chal-az had each contributed toward arousing my
suspicions, and now I ran along the narrow, winding alleys of the Kro-lu
village with my heart fairly in my mouth.
I am endowed with=
an
excellent sense of direction, which has been greatly perfected by the years=
I
have spent in the mountains and upon the plains and deserts of my native st=
ate,
so that it was with little or no difficulty that I found my way back to the=
hut
in which I had left Ajor. As I ent=
ered
the doorway, I called her name aloud.
There was no response. I dr=
ew a
box of matches from my pocket and struck a light and as the flame flared up=
, a
half-dozen brawny warriors leaped upon me from as many directions; but even=
in
the brief instant that the flare lasted, I saw that Ajor was not within the
hut, and that my arms and ammunition had been removed.
As the six men le=
aped
upon me, an angry growl burst from behind them. I had forgotten Nobs. Like a demon of hate he sprang among th=
ose Kro-lu
fighting-men, tearing, rending, ripping with his long tusks and his mighty
jaws. They had me down in an insta=
nt,
and it goes without saying that the six of them could have kept me there ha=
d it
not been for Nobs; but while I was struggling to throw them off, Nobs was s=
pringing
first upon one and then upon another of them until they were so put to it to
preserve their hides and their lives from him that they could give me only a
small part of their attention. One=
of
them was assiduously attempting to strike me on the head with his stone
hatchet; but I caught his arm and at the same time turned over upon my bell=
y, after
which it took but an instant to get my feet under me and rise suddenly.
As I did so, I ke=
pt a
grip upon the man's arm, carrying it over one shoulder. Then I leaned suddenly forward and hurl=
ed my
antagonist over my head to a hasty fall at the opposite side of the hut.
Running to one si=
de
of the man I had just put out of the fighting, I seized his hatchet and kni=
fe,
and in another moment was in the thick of the argument. I was no match for these savage warrior=
s with
their own weapons and would soon have gone down to ignominious defeat and d=
eath
had it not been for Nobs, who alone was a match for the four of them. I nev=
er
saw any creature so quick upon its feet as was that great Airedale, nor such
frightful ferocity as he manifested in his attacks. It was as much the latt=
er
as the former which contributed to the undoing of our enemies, who, accusto=
med
though they were to the ferocity of terrible creatures, seemed awed by the
sight of this strange beast from another world battling at the side of his
equally strange master. Yet they w=
ere no
cowards, and only by teamwork did Nobs and I overcome them at last. We would rush for a man, simultaneously=
, and
as Nobs leaped for him upon one side, I would strike at his head with the s=
tone
hatchet from the other.
As the last man w=
ent
down, I heard the running of many feet approaching us from the direction of=
the
plaza. To be captured now would me=
an death;
yet I could not attempt to leave the village without first ascertaining the
whereabouts of Ajor and releasing her if she were held a captive. That I could escape the village I was n=
ot at
all sure; but of one thing I was positive; that it would do neither Ajor nor
myself any service to remain where I was and be captured; so with Nobs, blo=
ody but
happy, following at heel, I turned down the first alley and slunk away in t=
he
direction of the northern end of the village.
Friendless and al=
one,
hunted through the dark labyrinths of this savage community, I seldom have =
felt
more helpless than at that moment; yet far transcending any fear which I may
have felt for my own safety was my concern for that of Ajor. What fate had befallen her? Where was she, and in whose power? That I should live to learn the answers=
to these
queries I doubted; but that I should face death gladly in the attempt--of t=
hat
I was certain. And why? With all my concern for the welfare of =
my
friends who had accompanied me to Caprona, and of my best friend of all, Bo=
wen
J. Tyler, Jr., I never yet had experienced the almost paralyzing fear for t=
he
safety of any other creature which now threw me alternately into a fever of
despair and into a cold sweat of apprehension as my mind dwelt upon the fat=
e on
one bit of half-savage femininity of whose very existence even I had not
dreamed a few short weeks before.
What was this hold
she had upon me? Was I bewitched, =
that
my mind refused to function sanely, and that judgment and reason were dethr=
oned
by some mad sentiment which I steadfastly refused to believe was love? I had
never been in love. I was not in l=
ove
now--the very thought was preposterous.
How could I, Thomas Billings, the right-hand man of the late Bowen
J. Tyler, Sr., one of America's fo=
remost
captains of industry and the greatest man in California, be in love with
a--a--the word stuck in my throat; yet by my own American standards Ajor co=
uld
be nothing else; at home, for all her beauty, for all her delicately tinted
skin, little Ajor by her apparel, by the habits and customs and manners of =
her
people, by her life, would have been classed a squaw. Tom Billings in love =
with
a squaw! I shuddered at the thought.
And then there ca=
me
to my mind, in a sudden, brilliant flash upon the screen of recollection the
picture of Ajor as I had last seen her, and I lived again the delicious mom=
ent
in which we had clung to one another, lips smothering lips, as I left her t=
o go
to the council hall of Al-tan; and I could have kicked myself for the snob =
and
the cad that my thoughts had proven me--me, who had always prided myself th=
at I
was neither the one nor the other!
These things ran
through my mind as Nobs and I made our way through the dark village, the vo=
ices
and footsteps of those who sought us still in our ears. These and many other things, nor could I
escape the incontrovertible fact that the little figure round which my reco=
llections
and my hopes entwined themselves was that of Ajor--beloved barbarian! My reveries were broken in upon by a ho=
arse whisper
from the black interior of a hut past which we were making our way. My name was called in a low voice, and =
a man
stepped out beside me as I halted with raised knife. It was Chal-az.
"Quick!"=
; he
warned. "In here! It is my hut, and they will not search =
it."
I hesitated, reca=
lled
his attitude of a few minutes before; and as though he had read my thoughts=
, he
said quickly: "I could not sp=
eak to
you in the plaza without danger of arousing suspicions which would prevent =
me
aiding you later, for word had gone out that Al-tan had turned against you =
and
would destroy you--this was after Du-seen the Galu arrived."
I followed him in=
to
the hut, and with Nobs at our heels we passed through several chambers into=
a
remote and windowless apartment where a small lamp sputtered in its unequal
battle with the inky darkness. A h=
ole in
the roof permitted the smoke from burning oil egress; yet the atmosphere was
far from lucid. Here Chal-az motio=
ned me
to a seat upon a furry hide spread upon the earthen floor.
"I am your
friend," he said. "You s=
aved
my life; and I am no ingrate as is the batu Al-tan. I will serve you, and there are others =
here
who will serve you against Al-tan and this renegade Galu, Du-seen."
"But where is
Ajor?" I asked, for I cared little for my own safety while she was in
danger.
"Ajor is saf=
e,
too," he answered. "We l=
earned
the designs of Al-tan and Du-seen. The
latter, learning that Ajor was here, demanded her; and Al-tan promised that=
he
should have her; but when the warriors went to get her To-mar went with
them. Ajor tried to defend herself=
. She killed one of the warriors, and then
To-mar picked her up in his arms when the others had taken her weapons from
her. He told the others to look af=
ter
the wounded man, who was really already dead, and to seize you upon your
return, and that he, To-mar, would bear Ajor to Al-tan; but instead of bear=
ing
her to Al-tan, he took her to his own hut, where she now is with So-al,
To-mar's she. It all happened very
quickly. To-mar and I were in the council-hut when Du-seen attempted to take
the dog from you. I was seeking To=
-mar
for this work. He ran out immediat=
ely
and accompanied the warriors to your hut while I remained to watch what wen=
t on
within the council-hut and to aid you if you needed aid. What has happened since you know."=
I thanked him for=
his
loyalty and then asked him to take me to Ajor; but he said that it could no=
t be
done, as the village streets were filled with searchers. In fact, we could hear them passing to =
and
fro among the huts, making inquiries, and at last Chal-az thought it best t=
o go
to the doorway of his dwelling, which consisted of many huts joined togethe=
r,
lest they enter and search.
Chal-az was absent
for a long time--several hours which seemed an eternity to me. All sounds of pursuit had long since ce=
ased,
and I was becoming uneasy because of his protracted absence when I heard hi=
m returning
through the other apartments of his dwelling.
He was perturbed when he entered that in which I awaited him, and I =
saw
a worried expression upon his face.
"What is
wrong?" I asked. "Have t=
hey
found Ajor?"
"No," he
replied; "but Ajor has gone. =
She
learned that you had escaped them and was told that you had left the villag=
e,
believing that she had escaped too.
So-al could not detain her. She
made her way out over the top of the palisade, armed with only her knife.&q=
uot;
"Then I must
go," I said, rising. Nobs ros=
e and
shook himself. He had been dead as=
leep
when I spoke.
"Yes,"
agreed Chal-az, "you must go at once.
It is almost dawn. Du-seen leaves at daylight to search for her.&quo=
t;
He leaned close to my ear and whispered:
"There are many to follow and help you. Al-tan has agreed to aid Du-seen agains=
t the
Galus of Jor; but there are many of us who have combined to rise against Al=
-tan
and prevent this ruthless desecration of the laws and customs of the Kro-lu=
and
of Caspak. We will rise as Luata h=
as
ordained that we shall rise, and only thus.
No batu may win to the estate of a Galu by treachery and force of ar=
ms while
Chal-az lives and may wield a heavy blow and a sharp spear with true Kro-lu=
s at
his back!"
"I hope that=
I
may live to aid you," I replied.
"If I had my weapons and my ammunition, I could do much. Do you know where they are?"
"No," he said, "they have disappeared." And then:
"Wait! You cannot go f=
orth
half armed, and garbed as you are. You
are going into the Galu country, and you must go as a Galu. Come!"
And without waiting for a reply, he led me into another apartment, o=
r to
be more explicit, another of the several huts which formed his cellular
dwelling.
Here was a pile of
skins, weapons, and ornaments.
"Remove your strange apparel," said Chal-az, "and I w=
ill
fit you out as a true Galu. I have=
slain
several of them in the raids of my early days as a Kro-lu, and here are the=
ir
trappings."
I saw the wisdom =
of
his suggestion, and as my clothes were by now so ragged as to but half conc=
eal
my nakedness, I had no regrets in laying them aside. Stripped to the skin, I donned the
red-deerskin tunic, the leopard-tail, the golden fillet, armlets and
leg-ornaments of a Galu, with the belt, scabbard and knife, the shield, spe=
ar,
bow and arrow and the long rope which I learned now for the first time is t=
he
distinctive weapon of the Galu warrior.
It is a rawhide rope, not dissimilar to those of the Western plains =
and
cow-camps of my youth. The honda i=
s a golden
oval and accurate weight for the throwing of the noose. This heavy honda, Chal-az explained, is=
used
as a weapon, being thrown with great force and accuracy at an enemy and then
coiled in for another cast. In hun=
ting
and in battle, they use both the noose and the honda. If several warriors
surround a single foeman or quarry, they rope it with the noose from several
sides; but a single warrior against a lone antagonist will attempt to brain=
his
foe with the metal oval.
I could not have =
been
more pleased with any weapon, short of a rifle, which he could have found f=
or
me, since I have been adept with the rope from early childhood; but I must
confess that I was less favorably inclined toward my apparel. In so far as the sensation was concerne=
d, I
might as well have been entirely naked, so short and light was the tunic. When I asked Chal-az for the Caspakian =
name
for rope, he told me ga, and for the first time I understood the derivation=
of
the word Galu, which means ropeman.
Entirely outfitte=
d I
would not have known myself, so strange was my garb and my armament. Upon my back were slung my bow, arrows,
shield, and short spear; from the center of my girdle depended my knife; at=
my right
hip was my stone hatchet; and at my left hung the coils of my long rope.
Fully equipped,
except for a blanket, I followed Chal-az from his domicile into the dark an=
d deserted
alleys of Kro-lu. Silently we crept
along, Nobs silent at heel, toward the nearest portion of the palisade. Here Chal-az bade me farewell, telling =
me
that he hoped to see me soon among the Galus, as he felt that "the call
soon would come" to him. I th=
anked
him for his loyal assistance and promised that whether I reached the Galu
country or not, I should always stand ready to repay his kindness to me, and
that he could count on me in the revolution against Al-tan.
To run up the inc=
lined
surface of the palisade and drop to the ground outside was the work of but a
moment, or would have been but for Nobs. I had to put my rope about him aft=
er
we reached the top, lift him over the sharpened stakes and lower him upon t=
he
outside. To find Ajor in the unkno=
wn
country to the north seemed rather hopeless; yet I could do no less than tr=
y,
praying in the meanwhile that she would come through unscathed and in safet=
y to
her father.
As Nobs and I swu=
ng
along in the growing light of the coming day, I was impressed by the lessen=
ing
numbers of savage beasts the farther north I traveled. With the decrease among the carnivora, =
the
herbivora increased in quantity, though anywhere in Caspak they are
sufficiently plentiful to furnish ample food for the meateaters of each
locality. The wild cattle, antelope, deer, and horses I passed showed chang=
es
in evolution from their cousins farther south.
The kine were smaller and less shaggy, the horses larger. North of the Kro-lu village I saw a sma=
ll
band of the latter of about the size of those of our old Western plains--su=
ch
as the Indians bred in former days and to a lesser extent even now. They were fat and sleek, and I looked u=
pon
them with covetous eyes and with thoughts that any old cow-puncher may well=
imagine
I might entertain after having hoofed it for weeks; but they were wary, sca=
rce
permitting me to approach within bow-and-arrow range, much less within
roping-distance; yet I still had hopes which I never discarded.
Twice before noon=
we
were stalked and charged by man-eaters; but even though I was without firea=
rms,
I still had ample protection in Nobs, who evidently had learned something of
Caspakian hunt rules under the tutelage of Du-seen or some other Galu, and =
of
course a great deal more by experience.
He always was on the alert for dangerous foes, invariably warning me=
by
low growls of the approach of a large carnivorous animal long before I could
either see or hear it, and then when the thing appeared, he would run snapp=
ing
at its heels, drawing the charge away from me until I found safety in some
tree; yet never did the wily Nobs take an unnecessary chance of a mauling.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He would dart in and away so quickly th=
at not
even the lightning-like movements of the great cats could reach him. I have seen him tantalize them thus unt=
il
they fairly screamed in rage.
The greatest
inconvenience the hunters caused me was the delay, for they have a nasty ha=
bit
of keeping one treed for an hour or more if balked in their designs; but at
last we came in sight of a line of cliffs running east and west across our =
path
as far as the eye could see in either direction, and I knew that we reached=
the
natural boundary which marks the line between the Kro-lu and Galu countries=
. The
southern face of these cliffs loomed high and forbidding, rising to an alti=
tude
of some two hundred feet, sheer and precipitous, without a break that the e=
ye
could perceive. How I was to find a
crossing I could not guess. Whethe=
r to
search to the east toward the still loftier barrier-cliffs fronting upon the
ocean, or westward in the direction of the inland sea was a question which
baffled me. Were there many passes=
or
only one? I had no way of knowing.=
I could but trust to chance. It never occurred to me that Nobs had m=
ade
the crossing at least once, possibly a greater number of times, and that he=
might
lead me to the pass; and so it was with no idea of assistance that I appeal=
ed
to him as a man alone with a dumb brute so often does.
"Nobs,"=
I
said, "how the devil are we going to cross those cliffs?"
I do not say that=
he
understood me, even though I realize that an Airedale is a mighty intellige=
nt
dog; but I do swear that he seemed to understand me, for he wheeled about,
barking joyously and trotted off toward the west; and when I didn't follow =
him,
he ran back to me barking furiously, and at last taking hold of the calf of=
my
leg in an effort to pull me along in the direction he wished me to go. Now, as my legs were naked and Nobs' ja=
ws are
much more powerful than he realizes, I gave in and followed him, for I knew
that I might as well go west as east, as far as any knowledge I had of the
correct direction went.
We followed the b=
ase
of the cliffs for a considerable distance.
The ground was rolling and tree-dotted and covered with grazing anim=
als,
alone, in pairs and in herds--a motley aggregation of the modern and extinct
herbivore of the world. A huge woo=
lly
mastodon stood swaying to and fro in the shade of a giant fern--a mighty bu=
ll
with enormous upcurving tusks. Nea=
r him
grazed an aurochs bull with a cow and a calf, close beside a lone rhinoceros
asleep in a dust-hole. Deer, antel=
ope,
bison, horses, sheep, and goats were all in sight at the same time, and at a
little distance a great megatherium reared up on its huge tail and massive =
hind
feet to tear the leaves from a tall tree. The forgotten past rubbed flanks =
with
the present--while Tom Billings, modern of the moderns, passed in the garb =
of
pre-Glacial man, and before him trotted a creature of a breed scarce sixty
years old. Nobs was a parvenu; but=
it
failed to worry him.
As we neared the
inland sea we saw more flying reptiles and several great amphibians, but no=
ne
of them attacked us. As we were to=
pping
a rise in the middle of the afternoon, I saw something that brought me to a
sudden stop. Calling Nobs in a whi=
sper,
I cautioned him to silence and kept him at heel while I threw myself flat a=
nd
watched, from behind a sheltering shrub, a body of warriors approaching the
cliff from the south. I could see =
that
they were Galus, and I guessed that Du-seen led them. They had taken a shorter route to the p=
ass
and so had overhauled me. I could =
see
them plainly, for they were no great distance away, and saw with relief that
Ajor was not with them.
The cliffs before
them were broken and ragged, those coming from the east overlapping the cli=
ffs
from the west. Into the defile for=
med by
this overlapping the party filed. I
could see them climbing upward for a few minutes, and then they disappeared
from view. When the last of them h=
ad
passed from sight, I rose and bent my steps in the direction of the pass--t=
he
same pass toward which Nobs had evidently been leading me. I went warily as I approached it, for f=
ear
the party might have halted to rest. If
they hadn't halted, I had no fear of being discovered, for I had seen that =
the
Galus marched without point, flankers or rear guard; and when I reached the
pass and saw a narrow, one-man trail leading upward at a stiff angle, I wis=
hed
that I were chief of the Galus for a few weeks.
A dozen men could hold off forever in that narrow pass all the hordes
which might be brought up from the south; yet there it lay entirely unguard=
ed.
The Galus might b=
e a
great people in Caspak; but they were pitifully inefficient in even the sim=
pler
forms of military tactics. I was s=
urprised
that even a man of the Stone Age should be so lacking in military
perspicacity. Du-seen dropped far =
below
par in my estimation as I saw the slovenly formation of his troop as it pas=
sed
through an enemy country and entered the domain of the chief against whom he
had risen in revolt; but Du-seen must have known Jor the chief and known th=
at
Jor would not be waiting for him at the pass.
Nevertheless he took unwarranted chances. With one squad of a home-guard company =
I could
have conquered Caspak.
Nobs and I follow=
ed
to the summit of the pass, and there we saw the party defiling into the Galu
country, the level of which was not, on an average, over fifty feet below t=
he
summit of the cliffs and about a hundred and fifty feet above the adjacent =
Kro-lu
domain. Immediately the landscape
changed. The trees, the flowers an=
d the
shrubs were of a hardier type, and I realized that at night the Galu blanket
might be almost a necessity. Acaci=
a and
eucalyptus predominated among the trees; yet there were ash and oak and even
pine and fir and hemlock. The tree-life was riotous. The forests were dense and peopled by e=
normous
trees. From the summit of the clif=
f I
could see forests rising hundreds of feet above the level upon which I stoo=
d,
and even at the distance they were from me I realized that the boles were o=
f gigantic
size.
At last I had com=
e to
the Galu country. Though not conce=
ived
in Caspak, I had indeed come up cor-sva jo--from the beginning I had come up
through the hideous horrors of the lower Caspakian spheres of evolution, an=
d I
could not but feel something of the elation and pride which had filled To-m=
ar
and So-al when they realized that the call had come to them and they were a=
bout
to rise from the estate of Band-lus to that of Kro-lus. I was glad that I was not batu.
But where was
Ajor? Though my eyes searched the =
wide
landscape before me, I saw nothing other than the warriors of Du-seen and t=
he
beasts of the fields and the forests.
Surrounded by forests, I could see wide plains dotting the country as
far as the eye could reach; but nowhere was a sign of a small Galu she--the
beloved she whom I would have given my right hand to see.
Nobs and I were
hungry; we had not eaten since the preceding night, and below us was game-d=
eer,
sheep, anything that a hungry hunter might crave; so down the steep trail we
made our way, and then upon my belly with Nobs crouching low behind me, I
crawled toward a small herd of red deer feeding at the edge of a plain close
beside a forest. There was ample c=
over,
what with solitary trees and dotting bushes so that I found no difficulty in
stalking up wind to within fifty feet of my quarry--a large, sleek doe
unaccompanied by a fawn. Greatly t=
hen
did I regret my rifle. Never in my=
life
had I shot an arrow, but I knew how it was done, and fitting the shaft to my
string, I aimed carefully and let drive.
At the same instant I called to Nobs and leaped to me feet.
The arrow caught =
the
doe full in the side, and in the same moment Nobs was after her. She turned to flee with the two of us
pursuing her, Nobs with his great fangs bared and I with my short spear poi=
sed
for a cast. The balance of the herd
sprang quickly away; but the hurt doe lagged, and in a moment Nobs was besi=
de
her and had leaped at her throat. =
He had
her down when I came up, and I finished her with my spear. It didn't take me long to have a fire g=
oing
and a steak broiling, and while I was preparing for my own feast, Nobs was
filling himself with raw venison. =
Never
have I enjoyed a meal so heartily.
For two days I
searched fruitlessly back and forth from the inland sea almost to the barri=
er
cliffs for some trace of Ajor, and always I trended northward; but I saw no
sign of any human being, not even the band of Galu warriors under Du-seen; =
and
then I commenced to have misgivings. Had
Chal-az spoken the truth to me when he said that Ajor had quit the village =
of
the Kro-lu? Might he not have been
acting upon the orders of Al-tan, in whose savage bosom might have lurked s=
ome small
spark of shame that he had attempted to do to death one who had befriended a
Kro-lu warrior--a guest who had brought no harm upon the Kro-lu race--and t=
hus
have sent me out upon a fruitless mission in the hope that the wild beasts
would do what Al-tan hesitated to do? I
did not know; but the more I thought upon it, the more convinced I became t=
hat
Ajor had not quitted the Kro-lu village; but if not, what had brought Du-se=
en
forth without her? There was a puz=
zler,
and once again I was all at sea.
On the second day=
of
my experience of the Galu country I came upon a bunch of as magnificent hor=
ses
as it has ever been my lot to see. They were
dark bays with blazed faces and perfect surcingles of white about their
barrels. Their forelegs were white=
to
the knees. In height they stood al=
most
sixteen hands, the mares being a trifle smaller than the stallions, of which
there were three or four in this band of a hundred, which comprised many co=
lts
and half-grown horses. Their marki=
ngs
were almost identical, indicating a purity of strain that might have persis=
ted
since long ages ago. If I had cove=
ted
one of the little ponies of the Kro-lu country, imagine my state of mind wh=
en I
came upon these magnificent creatures!
No sooner had I espied them than I determined to possess one of them=
; nor
did it take me long to select a beautiful young stallion--a four-year-old, I
guessed him.
The horses were
grazing close to the edge of the forest in which Nobs and I were concealed,
while the ground between us and them was dotted with clumps of flowering br=
ush
which offered perfect concealment. The stallion
of my choice grazed with a filly and two yearlings a little apart from the
balance of the herd and nearest to the forest and to me. At my whispered
"Charge!" Nobs flattened
himself to the ground, and I knew that he would not again move until I call=
ed
him, unless danger threatened me from the rear.
Carefully I crept forward toward my unsuspecting quarry, coming
undetected to the concealment of a bush not more than twenty feet from
him. Here I quietly arranged my no=
ose, spreading
it flat and open upon the ground.
To step to one si=
de
of the bush and throw directly from the ground, which is the style I am best
in, would take but an instant, and in that instant the stallion would doubt=
less
be under way at top speed in the opposite direction. Then he would have to wheel about when I
surprised him, and in doing so, he would most certainly rise slightly upon =
his hind
feet and throw up his head, presenting a perfect target for my noose as he
pivoted.
Yes, I had it
beautifully worked out, and I waited until he should turn in my direction.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> At last it became evident that he was d=
oing
so, when apparently without cause, the filly raised her head, neighed and s=
tarted
off at a trot in the opposite direction, immediately followed, of course, by
the colts and my stallion. It look=
ed for
a moment as though my last hope was blasted; but presently their fright, if
fright it was, passed, and they resumed grazing again a hundred yards farth=
er on. This time there was no bush within fift=
y feet
of them, and I was at a loss as to how to get within safe roping-distance.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Anywhere under forty feet I am an excel=
lent
roper, at fifty feet I am fair; but over that I knew it would be a matter of
luck if I succeeded in getting my noose about that beautiful arched neck.
As I stood debati=
ng
the question in my mind, I was almost upon the point of making the attempt =
at
the long throw. I had plenty of ro=
pe, this
Galu weapon being fully sixty feet long.
How I wished for the collies from the ranch! At a word they would have circled this =
little
bunch and driven it straight down to me; and then it flashed into my mind t=
hat
Nobs had run with those collies all one summer, that he had gone down to the
pasture with them after the cows every evening and done his part in driving
them back to the milking-barn, and had done it intelligently; but Nobs had
never done the thing alone, and it had been a year since he had done it at
all. However, the chances were mor=
e in favor
of my foozling the long throw than that Nobs would fall down in his part if=
I
gave him the chance.
Having come to a
decision, I had to creep back to Nobs and get him, and then with him at my
heels return to a large bush near the four horses. Here we could see direct=
ly
through the bush, and pointing the animals out to Nobs I whispered: "Fetch 'em, boy!"
In an instant he =
was
gone, circling wide toward the rear of the quarry. They caught sight of him
almost immediately and broke into a trot away from him; but when they saw t=
hat
he was apparently giving them a wide berth they stopped again, though they
stood watching him, with high-held heads and quivering nostrils. It was a beautiful sight. And then Nobs turned in behind them and
trotted slowly back toward me. He =
did
not bark, nor come rushing down upon them, and when he had come closer to t=
hem,
he proceeded at a walk. The splend=
id
creatures seemed more curious than fearful, making no effort to escape until
Nobs was quite close to them; then they trotted slowly away, but at right a=
ngles.
And now the fun a=
nd
trouble commenced. Nobs, of course,
attempted to turn them, and he seemed to have selected the stallion to work
upon, for he paid no attention to the others, having intelligence enough to=
know
that a lone dog could run his legs off before he could round up four horses
that didn't wish to be rounded up. The
stallion, however, had notions of his own about being headed, and the result
was as pretty a race as one would care to see.
Gad, how that horse could run! He
seemed to flatten out and shoot through the air with the very minimum of
exertion, and at his forefoot ran Nobs, doing his best to turn him. He was
barking now, and twice he leaped high against the stallion's flank; but this
cost too much effort and always lost him ground, as each time he was hurled
heels over head by the impact; yet before they disappeared over a rise in t=
he
ground I was sure that Nob's persistence was bearing fruit; it seemed to me
that the horse was giving way a trifle to the right. Nobs was between him and the main herd,=
to
which the yearling and filly had already fled.
As I stood waiting
for Nobs' return, I could not but speculate upon my chances should I be
attacked by some formidable beast. I was
some distance from the forest and armed with weapons in the use of which I =
was
quite untrained, though I had practiced some with the spear since leaving t=
he
Kro-lu country. I must admit that =
my
thoughts were not pleasant ones, verging almost upon cowardice, until I cha=
nced
to think of little Ajor alone in this same land and armed only with a
knife! I was immediately filled wi=
th
shame; but in thinking the matter over since, I have come to the conclusion
that my state of mind was influenced largely by my approximate nakedness. If you have never wandered about in bro=
ad
daylight garbed in a bit of red-deer skin in inadequate length, you can hav=
e no
conception of the sensation of futility that overwhelms one. Clothes, to a man accustomed to wearing=
clothes,
impart a certain self-confidence; lack of them induces panic.
But no beast atta=
cked
me, though I saw several menacing forms passing through the dark aisles of =
the
forest. At last I commenced to wor=
ry over
Nobs' protracted absence and to fear that something had befallen him. I was coiling my rope to start out in s=
earch
of him, when I saw the stallion leap into view at almost the same spot behi=
nd
which he had disappeared, and at his heels ran Nobs. Neither was running so fast or furiousl=
y as
when last I had seen them.
The horse, as he
approached me, I could see was laboring hard; yet he kept gamely to his tas=
k,
and Nobs, too. The splendid fellow=
was driving
the quarry straight toward me. I
crouched behind my bush and laid my noose in readiness to throw. As the two approached my hiding-place, =
Nobs
reduced his speed, and the stallion, evidently only too glad of the respite,
dropped into a trot. It was at thi=
s gait
that he passed me; my rope-hand flew forward; the honda, well down, held th=
e noose
open, and the beautiful bay fairly ran his head into it.
Instantly he whee=
led
to dash off at right angles. I bra=
ced
myself with the rope around my hip and brought him to a sudden stand. Rearing and struggling, he fought for h=
is
liberty while Nobs, panting and with lolling tongue, came and threw himself
down near me. He seemed to know th=
at his
work was done and that he had earned his rest.
The stallion was pretty well spent, and after a few minutes of
struggling he stood with feet far spread, nostrils dilated and eyes wide,
watching me as I edged toward him, taking in the slack of the rope as I
advanced. A dozen times he reared =
and
tried to break away; but always I spoke soothingly to him and after an hour=
of
effort I succeeded in reaching his head and stroking his muzzle. Then I gathered a handful of grass and =
offered
it to him, and always I talked to him in a quiet and reassuring voice.
I had expected a
battle royal; but on the contrary I found his taming a matter of comparative
ease. Though wild, he was gentle t=
o a
degree, and of such remarkable intelligence that he soon discovered that I =
had no
intention of harming him. After th=
at,
all was easy. Before that day was =
done,
I had taught him to lead and to stand while I stroked his head and flanks, =
and
to eat from my hand, and had the satisfaction of seeing the light of fear d=
ie
in his large, intelligent eyes.
The following day=
I
fashioned a hackamore from a piece which I cut from the end of my long Galu
rope, and then I mounted him fully prepared for a struggle of titanic
proportions in which I was none too sure that he would not come off victor;=
but
he never made the slightest effort to unseat me, and from then on his educa=
tion
was rapid. No horse ever learned m=
ore
quickly the meaning of the rein and the pressure of the knees. I think he soon learned to love me, and=
I
know that I loved him; while he and Nobs were the best of pals. I called him Ace. I had a friend who was once in the Fren=
ch
flying-corps, and when Ace let himself out, he certainly flew.
I cannot explain =
to
you, nor can you understand, unless you too are a horseman, the exhilarating
feeling of well-being which pervaded me from the moment that I commenced ri=
ding
Ace. I was a new man, imbued with =
a sense
of superiority that led me to feel that I could go forth and conquer all Ca=
spak
single-handed. Now, when I needed =
meat,
I ran it down on Ace and roped it, and when some great beast with which we
could not cope threatened us, we galloped away to safety; but for the most =
part
the creatures we met looked upon us in terror, for Ace and I in combination=
presented
a new and unusual beast beyond their experience and ken.
For five days I r=
ode
back and forth across the southern end of the Galu country without seeing a
human being; yet all the time I was working slowly toward the north, for I =
had
determined to comb the territory thoroughly in search of Ajor; but on the f=
ifth
day as I emerged from a forest, I saw some distance ahead of me a single sm=
all
figure pursued by many others. Ins=
tantly
I recognized the quarry as Ajor. T=
he
entire party was fully a mile away from me, and they were crossing my path =
at right
angles. Ajor a few hundred yards in
advance of those who followed her. One
of her pursuers was far in advance of the others, and was gaining upon her
rapidly. With a word and a pressur=
e of
the knees I sent Ace leaping out into the open, and with Nobs running close=
alongside,
we raced toward her.
At first none of =
them
saw us; but as we neared Ajor, the pack behind the foremost pursuer discove=
red
us and set up such a howl as I never before have heard. They were all Galus, and I soon recogni=
zed
the foremost as Du-seen. He was al=
most
upon Ajor now, and with a sense of terror such as I had never before
experienced, I saw that he ran with his knife in his hand, and that his
intention was to slay rather than capture.
I could not understand it, but I could only urge Ace to greater spee=
d,
and most nobly did the wondrous creature respond to my demands. If ever a four-footed creature approxim=
ated
flying, it was Ace that day.
Du-seen, intent u=
pon
his brutal design, had as yet not noticed us.
He was within a pace of Ajor when Ace and I dashed between them, and=
I, leaning
down to the left, swept my little barbarian into the hollow of an arm and u=
p on
the withers of my glorious Ace. We=
had
snatched her from the very clutches of Du-seen, who halted, mystified and
raging. Ajor, too, was mystified, as we had come up from diagonally behind =
her so
that she had no idea that we were near until she was swung to Ace's back. The little savage turned with drawn kni=
fe to
stab me, thinking that I was some new enemy, when her eyes found my face and
she recognized me. With a little s=
ob she
threw her arms about my neck, gasping:
"My Tom! My Tom!"=
And then Ace sank
suddenly into thick mud to his belly, and Ajor and I were thrown far over h=
is
head. He had run into one of those
numerous springs which cover Caspak.
Sometimes they are little lakes, again but tiny pools, and often mere
quagmires of mud, as was this one overgrown with lush grasses which effectu=
ally
hid its treacherous identity. It i=
s a
wonder that Ace did not break a leg, so fast he was going when he fell; but=
he
didn't, though with four good legs he was unable to wallow from the mire. Ajor and I had sprawled face down in the
covering grasses and so had not sunk deeply; but when we tried to rise, we
found that there was not footing, and presently we saw that Du-seen and his=
followers
were coming down upon us. There wa=
s no
escape. It was evident that we were
doomed.
"Slay me!&qu=
ot;
begged Ajor. "Let me die at t=
hy
loved hands rather than beneath the knife of this hateful thing, for he will
kill me. He has sworn to kill me.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Last night he captured me, and when lat=
er he
would have his way with me, I struck him with my fists and with my knife I =
stabbed
him, and then I escaped, leaving him raging in pain and thwarted desire.
I couldn't kill
her--not at least until the last moment; and I told her so, and that I loved
her, and that until death came, I would live and fight for her.
Nobs had followed=
us
into the bog and had done fairly well at first, but when he neared us he too
sank to his belly and could only flounder about. We were in this predicament when Du-see=
n and
his followers approached the edge of the horrible swamp. I saw that Al-tan was with him and many=
other
Kro-lu warriors. The alliance agai=
nst
Jor the chief had, therefore, been consummated, and this horde was already
marching upon the Galu city. I sig=
hed as
I thought how close I had been to saving not only Ajor but her father and h=
is
people from defeat and death.
Beyond the swamp =
was
a dense wood. Could we have reached
this, we would have been safe; but it might as well have been a hundred mil=
es away
as a hundred yards across that hidden lake of sticky mud. Upon the edge of the swamp Du-seen and =
his
horde halted to revile us. They co=
uld
not reach us with their hands; but at a command from Du-seen they fitted ar=
rows
to their bows, and I saw that the end had come.
Ajor huddled close to me, and I took her in my arms. "I love you, Tom," she said,
"only you." Tears came t=
o my
eyes then, not tears of self-pity for my predicament, but tears from a heart
filled with a great love--a heart that sees the sun of its life and its love
setting even as it rises.
The renegade Galus
and their Kro-lu allies stood waiting for the word from Du-seen that would
launch that barbed avalanche of death upon us, when there broke from the wo=
od
beyond the swamp the sweetest music that ever fell upon the ears of man--the
sharp staccato of at least two score rifles fired rapidly at will. Down went the Galu and Kro-lu warriors =
like
tenpins before that deadly fusillade.
What could it
mean? To me it meant but one thing=
, and
that was that Hollis and Short and the others had scaled the cliffs and made
their way north to the Galu country upon the opposite side of the island in=
time
to save Ajor and me from almost certain death.
I didn't have to have an introduction to them to know that the men w=
ho
held those rifles were the men of my own party; and when, a few minutes lat=
er,
they came forth from their concealment, my eyes verified my hopes. There they were, every man-jack of them=
; and
with them were a thousand straight, sleek warriors of the Galu race; and ah=
ead
of the others came two men in the garb of Galus. Each was tall and straight and wonderfu=
lly muscled;
yet they differed as Ace might differ from a perfect specimen of another
species. As they approached the mi=
re,
Ajor held forth her arms and cried, "Jor, my chief! My father!" and the elder of the t=
wo rushed
in knee-deep to rescue her, and then the other came close and looked into my
face, and his eyes went wide, and mine too, and I cried: "Bowen! For heaven's sake, Bowen Tyler!"
It was he. My search was ended. Around me were all my company and the m=
an we
had searched a new world to find. =
They
cut saplings from the forest and laid a road into the swamp before they cou=
ld
get us all out, and then we marched back to the city of Jor the Galu chief,=
and
there was great rejoicing when Ajor came home again mounted upon the glossy=
back
of the stallion Ace.
Tyler and Hollis =
and
Short and all the rest of us Americans nearly worked our jaws loose on the
march back to the village, and for days afterward we kept it up. They told =
me
how they had crossed the barrier cliffs in five days, working twenty-four h=
ours
a day in three eight-hour shifts with two reliefs to each shift alternating=
half-hourly. Two men with electric drills driven fro=
m the
dynamos aboard the Toreador drilled two holes four feet apart in the face o=
f the
cliff and in the same horizontal planes.
The holes slanted slightly downward.
Into these holes the iron rods brought as a part of our equipment and
for just this purpose were inserted, extending about a foot beyond the face=
of
the rock, across these two rods a plank was laid, and then the next shift,
mounting to the new level, bored two more holes five feet above the new
platform, and so on.
During the nights=
the
searchlights from the Toreador were kept playing upon the cliff at the point
where the drills were working, and at the rate of ten feet an hour the summ=
it
was reached upon the fifth day. Ropes were lowered, blocks lashed to trees =
at
the top, and crude elevators rigged, so that by the night of the fifth day =
the
entire party, with the exception of the few men needed to man the Toreador,=
were
within Caspak with an abundance of arms, ammunition and equipment.
From then on, they
fought their way north in search of me, after a vain and perilous effort to
enter the hideous reptile-infested country to the south. Owing to the number of guns among them,=
they
had not lost a man; but their path was strewn with the dead creatures they =
had
been forced to slay to win their way to the north end of the island, where =
they
had found Bowen and his bride among the Galus of Jor.
The reunion betwe=
en
Bowen and Nobs was marked by a frantic display upon Nobs' part, which almost
stripped Bowen of the scanty attire that the Galu custom had vouchsafed
him. When we arrived at the Galu c=
ity,
Lys La Rue was waiting to welcome us.
She was Mrs. Tyler now, as the master of the Toreador had married th=
em
the very day that the search-party had found them, though neither Lys nor B=
owen
would admit that any civil or religious ceremony could have rendered more
sacred the bonds with which God had united them.
Neither Bowen nor=
the
party from the Toreador had seen any sign of Bradley and his party. They had been so long lost now that any=
hopes
for them must be definitely abandoned.
The Galus had heard rumors of them, as had the Western Kro-lu and
Band-lu; but none had seen aught of them since they had left Fort Dinosaur
months since.
We rested in Jor's
village for a fortnight while we prepared for the southward journey to the
point where the Toreador was to lie off shore in wait for us. During these two weeks Chal-az came up =
from
the Krolu country, now a full-fledged Galu.
He told us that the remnants of Al-tan's party had been slain when t=
hey
attempted to re-enter Kro-lu. Chal-az had been made chief, and when he rose,
had left the tribe under a new leader whom all respected.
Nobs stuck close =
to
Bowen; but Ace and Ajor and I went out upon many long rides through the
beautiful north Galu country. Chal=
-az
had brought my arms and ammunition up from Kro-lu with him; but my clothes =
were
gone; nor did I miss them once I became accustomed to the free attire of the
Galu.
At last came the =
time
for our departure; upon the following morning we were to set out toward the
south and the Toreador and dear old California.
I had asked Ajor to go with us; but Jor her father had refused to li=
sten
to the suggestion. No pleas could =
swerve
him from his decision: Ajor, the
cos-ata-lo, from whom might spring a new and greater Caspakian race, could =
not
be spared. I might have any other =
she
among the Galus; but Ajor--no!
The poor child was
heartbroken; and as for me, I was slowly realizing the hold that Ajor had u=
pon
my heart and wondered how I should get along without her. As I held her in my arms that last nigh=
t, I
tried to imagine what life would be like without her, for at last there had=
come
to me the realization that I loved her--loved my little barbarian; and as I
finally tore myself away and went to my own hut to snatch a few hours' sleep
before we set off upon our long journey on the morrow, I consoled myself wi=
th
the thought that time would heal the wound and that back in my native land I
should find a mate who would be all and more to me than little Ajor could e=
ver
be--a woman of my own race and my own culture.
Morning came more
quickly than I could have wished. =
I rose
and breakfasted, but saw nothing of Ajor.
It was best, I thought, that I go thus without the harrowing pangs o=
f a
last farewell. The party formed fo=
r the
march, an escort of Galu warriors ready to accompany us. I could not even b=
ear
to go to Ace's corral and bid him farewell.
The night before, I had given him to Ajor, and now in my mind the tw=
o seemed
inseparable.
And so we marched
away, down the street flanked with its stone houses and out through the wide
gateway in the stone wall which surrounds the city and on across the cleari=
ng
toward the forest through which we must pass to reach the northern boundary=
of
Galu, beyond which we would turn south.
At the edge of the forest I cast a backward glance at the city which
held my heart, and beside the massive gateway I saw that which brought me t=
o a
sudden halt. It was a little figure
leaning against one of the great upright posts upon which the gates swing--a
crumpled little figure; and even at this distance I could see its shoulders=
heave
to the sobs that racked it. It was=
the
last straw.
Bowen was near me. "Good-bye old man," I said. "I'm going back."<= o:p>
He looked at me in
surprise. "Good-bye, old man,=
"
he said, and grasped my hand. &quo=
t;I
thought you'd do it in the end."
And then I went b=
ack
and took Ajor in my arms and kissed the tears from her eyes and a smile to =
her
lips while together we watched the last of the Americans disappear into the
forest.