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+***The Project Gutenberg Etext of The People That Time Forgot***
+#13 in our series by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+Also known as "People Out of Time"
+#2 in the Lost Continent series
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+The People That Time Forgot
+[Also known as "People Out of Time"]
+
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+
+June, 1996  [Etext #552]
+
+
+**The Project Gutenberg Etext of The People That Time Forgot**
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+
+
+
+The People That Time Forgot
+
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+I am forced to admit 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
+since 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 bearing 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., was expected almost hourly.  The last steamer
+in from Honolulu had brought information of the date of the
+expected sailing of his yacht Toreador, which was now
+twenty-four hours overdue.  Mr. Tyler's assistant secretary,
+who had 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 that nothing short of
+an act of God would prevent his doing what he had planned to do. 
+I was also aware of the fact that 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
+liner 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 by 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 the 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 the
+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 logical 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 improbable; but neither of us could say that anything which
+it contained was beyond the range of possibility.  The weird
+flora 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 Caproni 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 entire 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 them;
+how many more might have perished!  And Miss La Rue--could a
+young girl long have survived the horrors of Caspak after
+having been separated from all of her own kind?  The assistant
+secretary wondered if Nobs still was with her, and then 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 apelike 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 dragons
+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 Miss 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 they 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 than to have trusted them
+at all.  The chances are von Schoenvorts succeeded in getting
+safely back to Kiel and is strutting 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 couldn't have
+negotiated the submerged tunnel beneath the barrier cliffs
+and made good their escape."
+
+"I don't like 'em," said the assistant secretary; "but
+sometimes you got to hand 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 exclaimed 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 the succor of his son.  Mr. Tom Billings,
+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, courts
+and executors as a sculptor handles his modeling clay.  He formed,
+fashioned and forced them to his will.  He had been a classmate
+of Bowen 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 him
+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 his 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
+have 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 never has transgressed a single tenet of the
+code of ethics of an American gentleman.
+
+Ten days after they brought Mr. Tyler's body off the Toreador,
+we steamed out into the Pacific in search of Caprona.  There were
+forty 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 cold.
+
+All during the trip 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 subterranean 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 craft 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 ridiculous 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 conjecture 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 two of
+these pictures resemble each other, or that any of them resemble
+the coast as we shall presently find it.  I have in view three
+plans for scaling the cliffs, and the means for carrying out
+each 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 the top of the cliff.  It would be a
+long, arduous and dangerous work to bore the holes and insert
+the rungs of the ladder 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 summit 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 the hooks at the upper end would slip.
+
+"My third plan seems to me the most feasible.  You all saw a
+number of large, heavy boxes lowered into the hold before
+we sailed.  I know you did, because you asked me what they
+contained and commented upon the large letter 'H' which was
+painted upon 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--provided there is
+sufficient space above high water; otherwise we shall have to
+assemble it on deck and lower it over the side.  After it is
+assembled, I shall carry tackle and ropes to the cliff-top, 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.  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 sweep of rolling surf
+upon a narrow beach.  The launch was lowered, and five of us
+made 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.  Billings 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 the beach, and were busily
+engaged in opening them.  Two days later the plane was
+assembled and tuned.  We loaded tackles 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 Billings; 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 or 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 plane 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 nothing had
+been omitted.  Besides pistol and rifle, there was the
+machine-gun mounted in front of him on the plane, and
+ammunition 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 surface 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 only ten minutes,"
+he announced.
+
+"Seems like an hour," snapped Short.  "What's that?  Did you
+hear that?  He's firing!  It's the machine-gun!  Oh, Lord; and
+here we are as helpless as 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 distinctly for
+at least a minute.  Then came silence.  That was two weeks ago. 
+We have had no sign nor signal from Tom Billings since.
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+I'll never forget my first impressions of Caspak as I circled
+in, high over the surrounding cliffs.  From the plane I looked
+down through a mist upon the blurred landscape beneath me. 
+The hot, humid atmosphere of Caspak condenses 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 browns and
+scarlets and yellows surrounding the deep blue of the inland
+sea--just blobs of color taking form through the tumbling mist.
+
+I dived close to the cliffs and skirted them for several miles
+without finding the least indication 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 find
+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 literally
+black with creatures of some sort.  I was too far up to recognize
+individuals, but the general impression was of a vast army of
+amphibious monsters.  The land was almost equally alive with
+crawling, leaping, running, flying things.  It was one of the
+latter which nearly did for me while my attention was fixed
+upon the weird scene below.
+
+The first intimation 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 long from the end of its long, hideous
+beak to the tip of its thick, short tail, with an equal spread
+of wings.  It was coming 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 came 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 was pointed upward at an angle of about 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
+with 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
+scholar despite his love of fun, and his particular hobby
+was paleontology.  He used to tell me about the various forms
+of animal and vegetable life which had covered the globe during
+former eras, and so I was pretty well acquainted with the
+fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals of paleolithic times. 
+I knew that the thing that had attacked me was some sort of
+pterodactyl which should have been extinct millions of years ago. 
+It was all that I needed to realize that Bowen had exaggerated
+nothing in his manuscript.
+
+Having disposed of 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 word from me, and I was equally anxious to relieve
+their minds and also to get them and our supplies well within
+Caspak, so that we might set off about our business of finding
+and rescuing Bowen Tyler; but the pterodactyl's carcass had
+scarcely fallen before I was surrounded by at least a dozen of
+the hideous things, some 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 nothing 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 deposit them at
+the rendezvous.  As I flew north, the temptation to explore
+overcame me.  I knew that I could easily cover Caspak and
+return to the beach with less petrol than I had in my tanks;
+and there was the hope, too, that I might find Bowen or some of
+his party.  The broad expanse of the inland sea lured me out
+over its waters, and as I crossed, I saw at either 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 water 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 looked 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 could 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 plane 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, the huge reptile swept close above the tree in
+which my plane had lodged, circled twice over me and then
+flapped away toward the south.  As I guessed then and was to
+learn later, 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 place among trees
+as is a seaplane.
+
+For a minute or so 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 and Miss La Rue had depended upon this craft, and in a
+few brief minutes my own selfish 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.  That I was doomed seemed inevitable; but
+I can honestly say that the fate of my friends concerned me
+more greatly than did my own.
+
+Beyond the barrier cliffs my party was even now nervously
+awaiting my return.  Presently apprehension and fear would
+claim them--and they would never know!  They 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, what there were left of them, and go sadly and mournfully
+upon their return journey to home.  Home!  I set my jaws and
+tried to forget the word, 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 attempt had been made to rescue them. 
+If they 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 would 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 lucky to escape with my life. 
+The plane hung at a precarious angle, so that it was with
+difficulty and considerable danger that I climbed from it into
+the tree and then to the ground.
+
+My predicament was grave.  Between me and my friends lay an
+inland sea fully sixty miles wide at this point and an
+estimated land-distance 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 buffaloed.  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 believe that he had become so accustomed to them
+before he started upon his manuscript 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 would not have given a
+minim of stale beer for my chances of ever seeing my friends or
+the outside world again; yet then and there I swore to fight my
+way as far through this hideous land as circumstances would permit. 
+I had plenty of ammunition, an automatic 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 carnivorous instincts to function
+for several minutes after they had ceased to live.
+
+But to these things I gave less thought than to the sudden
+frustration of all our plans.  With the bitterest of thoughts I
+condemned 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
+totally eliminated from further search for Bowen, since, as I
+estimated it, the three hundred miles of Caspakian territory I
+must traverse to reach the base of the cliffs beyond which my
+party awaited me were practically impassable for a single
+individual unaccustomed to Caspakian life and ignorant of all
+that lay before 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 north.
+
+The country through 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 even such added to the
+charm and romance of the landscape as the giant cacti render
+weirdly beautiful the waste spots of the sad Mohave.  And over
+all the sun shone 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 sluggish 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 ceaseless
+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 sensation that unseen eyes were watching
+me, that soundless feet dogged my trail.  I am neither nervous
+nor highstrung; but the burden of responsibility upon me
+weighed heavily, so that I was more cautious 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 that among the many creatures dimly perceived amidst
+the shadows of the wood I saw 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 forbidding 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 the uncouth sounds and the vague
+glimpses of moving things within the forest, of the menace of
+strange beasts and possibly still stranger men, that I always
+breathed more 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 being stalked by some creature which
+kept always hidden among the trees and shrubbery 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 running 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 thing thrashed through the leafy jungle.  Evidently 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 lowered my rifle and
+gazed incredulous at the lithe figure of the girl speeding
+swiftly in my direction.  But I did not have long to stand thus
+with lowered weapon, for as she came, I saw her cast an
+affrighted glance over her shoulder, and at the same moment
+there broke from the jungle at the same spot at which I had
+seen her, the hugest cat I had ever looked upon.
+
+At first I took the 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, though quite
+formidable enough to satisfy the most fastidious thrill-hunter. 
+On it came, grim and terrible, its baleful 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 impetuous 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 strange 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 free from any suggestion of panic.
+
+Facing the huge cat, 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 trigger, hoping
+against hope that the soft-nosed bullet and the heavy charge of
+powder would have sufficient stopping effect to give me time to
+place a second shot.
+
+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 it 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 bullet 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 away, and yet it had lived to
+charge ferociously upon me, and but for my third shot 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 not 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 charms her
+apparel hid, it quite effectively succeeded in accentuating. 
+A bit of soft, undressed leather was caught 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 covered her left
+forearm from elbow to wrist.  These, I learned later, answered
+the purpose of a shield against knife attack when the left arm
+is raised in guard across the breast or face.
+
+Her masses of heavy 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, inlaid in intricate design with bits of
+mother-of-pearl and tiny pieces of stone of various colors. 
+From the left shoulder depended a leopard's tail, while her
+feet were shod with sturdy little sandals.  The knife was her
+only weapon.  Its blade was of iron, the grip was wound 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 garment 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 equally so, her face.  Were I one of these writer-fellows,
+I should probably say that her features were Grecian, but being
+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 looking 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 that 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 catechism, if I could judge by her inflection, for I
+certainly understood no word of what she said.  All the time
+the girl kept glancing toward the forest, and at last she
+touched my arm and pointed in that 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 their 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 Bowen's adventures so often that I knew them
+almost by heart, and so now I knew that 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
+noises, 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 smile and stepping closer, caressed the barrel
+of my automatic.  As she did so, her fingers came in contact
+with mine, and a sudden thrill ran through me, which I
+attributed to the fact that it had been so long since I had
+seen a woman of any sort or kind.
+
+She said something 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 north 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 merrily when I in turn essayed to speak to her, as though
+my language was the quaintest thing she ever had heard. 
+Often after fruitless attempts to make me understand she would
+hold her palm toward me, saying, "Galu!" and then touch my
+breast or arm and cry, "Alu, 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 claimed, 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
+her 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 various 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 that her intelligence told her that I was neither
+Ho-lu nor Alu, neither anthropoid 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, and during my college days and
+since have made various friends among the sex.  I think that I
+rather appeal to a certain 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--dancing, 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 that it was difficult to say what color it
+originally had been.  But if she was outwardly uncouth, her
+clear eyes and strong white, even teeth, her silvery laugh and
+her queenly carriage, 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 journey so far had been beset with constant danger, as is
+every journey in this frightful 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 and ferns and grasses. 
+I knew the words 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 repeated the action a dozen times.
+
+"Tom," she said finally in that clear, sweet, liquid voice.  "Tom!"
+
+I had never thought much of my name before; but when she spoke
+it, it sounded to me for the first time in my life like a
+mighty nice name, and then she brightened suddenly and 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 cliffs beside the little river where it empties
+into the bay with the great inland sea beyond.  The cliffs were
+weather-worn and rotted, and in one place a deep hollow ran
+back beneath the overhanging stone 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 understand 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 the river.  At the bank
+she paused, removed her belt and dagger, dropping them to the
+ground at her side; then unfastening the lower edge of her
+garment from the metal leg-band to which it was attached,
+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. 
+For five or ten minutes she splashed about, and when she
+emerged her glistening skin was smooth and white and beautiful. 
+Without means of drying herself, she simply ignored what to me
+would have seemed a necessity, and in a moment was arrayed in
+her simple though effective costume.
+
+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 horses a short
+time before.  Here I brought down a young buck, the report of my
+rifle sending the balance of the herd scampering 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-knife I removed a hind-quarter, and then we
+returned to camp.  Here I gathered a great quantity of wood
+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 forget 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. 
+It was evident that Ajor was quite unfamiliar with modern
+methods of fire-making.  She had thought my rifle and pistol
+wonderful; but these tiny slivers of wood which from a magic
+rub brought flame to the camp hearth were indeed miracles to her.
+
+As the meat roasted above the fire, Ajor and I tried once again
+to talk; but though copiously filled with incentive, gestures
+and sounds, the conversation did not flourish 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 difficult, and even
+though it was a great handicap upon my instructor that she could
+not speak my language, she did remarkably well and demonstrated
+that she possessed ingenuity and intelligence of a high order.
+
+After we had eaten, 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 voice 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 girl 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 faculty of perception.  The firelight shone upon 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 occupied 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 thought 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 tongue 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 gestures; 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
+conversation, 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 engrossed--so much so that we were giving no heed to what
+went on beyond our cave--when Ajor 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 toward the entrance to the cave, I turned quickly--
+to see a hideous face at the small 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 judged 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 that 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 did 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 nocturnal 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, which was now low, owing to the
+fact that I had been so occupied with my lesson and 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 should
+the bear make a determined effort to get at us, the rocks I had
+piled as a barrier would come tumbling down about his giant
+shoulders like a house of cards, and 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 chance 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, and listening to the ever-increasing
+volume of those seismic growls which seemed 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 that 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 yawned its fanged yawn directly within
+the barrier's opening.  It stood thus a moment, and then the
+head was withdrawn.  I breathed a sigh of relief, 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 great 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 shoulder 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
+reassurance 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.  My only hope was to get as
+many shots into the creature as I could before it was upon me. 
+Already it had torn away a second rock and was in the very act
+of forcing its huge bulk through the opening it had now made.
+
+So now I took careful aim between its eyes; my right fingers
+closed firmly and evenly upon the small 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 full
+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.
+
+Almost simultaneously I heard from without a perfectly hellish
+roar; the bear gave voice to a series 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 what had happened to
+cause this sudden retreat when his prey was practically within
+his clutches.  The idea that the harmless 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 attacked in the rear
+by some other mighty beast, and the two were now locked in a
+titanic struggle for supremacy.  With brief respites, during
+which we could hear the labored breathing of the contestants,
+the battle continued for the better part of an hour until the
+sounds of combat grew gradually less and finally ceased entirely.
+
+At Ajor's suggestion, 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.
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+When I awoke, it was daylight, and I found Ajor squatting
+before a fine bed of coals roasting a large piece of
+antelope-meat.  Believe me, the sight of the new day and the
+delicious odor of the cooking meat filled 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 picture
+that I had ever seen.  I recall that 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 flesh torn to
+ribbons, lying dead a few paces from our cave, and beside it,
+equally 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 before my eyes.
+
+So enormous are the 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 reptiles make, ordinarily, two kills a day--one in
+the morning and one after night.  They immediately devour the
+entire carcass, 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 persist, for even in the season of love the
+great males often turn upon their own mates 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 Ajor 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 scale than the Alus.  Ajor told
+me they were Bo-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 examining us most closely.  They called out to us,
+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
+and with a single shot dropped the creature in its tracks. 
+The effect upon the Bo-lu was electrical.  Immediately they
+abandoned all thoughts of war, and turning, scampered for the
+forest which fringed our path.
+
+That night we spent beside a little stream in the Sto-lu country. 
+We found a tiny cave in the rock bank, so hidden away that
+only chance could direct a beast of prey to it, and after
+we had eaten of the deer-meat and some 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 inside 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 that we could not stand up, and the floor so narrow
+that it was with difficulty that we both wedged into it
+together; but we were very tired, and so we made the most of
+it; and so great was the feeling of security that I am sure I
+fell asleep 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
+entire three days.  The country was hideously 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 quantity 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 edge of the
+great sea.  It stood well over twelve feet high at the rump,
+its highest point, and with its enormously long 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 Caspakian 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 brush which offered
+concealment; but Ajor only laughed, and picking up a stick, ran
+toward the great thing, shouting.  The little head was raised
+high upon the long neck as the animal stupidly looked 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 submerged.
+
+As I slowly recalled 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
+crude 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
+the 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 feared as the huge beasts that roamed
+the surface of the earth.
+
+At the close of the 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 preservation 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 myself.
+
+I enjoyed immensely 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 barriers of
+Caspak; not once did she seem to doubt me, however marvelous my
+statements 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 she knew.
+
+Artless though many of her questions were, they evidenced a
+keen intellect and a shrewdness which 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 proved so baffling to Bowen
+Tyler--the total absence of young among the ape, the semihuman
+and the human races with which both he and I had come in
+contact upon opposite shores of the inland sea.  Ajor tried to
+explain the matter to me, though it was apparent that she could
+not conceive 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 phrase, she would wave
+a broad gesture toward the south.
+
+"For long," she explained, leaning very close to me and
+whispering the words into my ear while she cast apprehensive
+glances about and mostly skyward, "for long my mother kept me
+hidden lest the Wieroo, passing through the air by night,
+should 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 carried off only female babes and
+occasionally women of the Galus who had "come 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 gods of her race, omniscient and omnipresent.  This led
+me to assume that the Galus had a religious sense, and further
+questioning brought out the fact that such was the case. 
+Ajor spoke in tones of reverence of Luata, the god of heat
+and life.  The word is derived from two others:  Lua,
+meaning 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 forefinger an isosceles triangle,
+and that she did the same in the morning when she first viewed
+the sun.  At first I had not connected her act with anything in
+particular, but after we learned to converse and she had
+explained a little of her religious superstitions, I realized
+that she was making the sign of the triangle as a Roman Catholic
+makes the sign of the cross.  Always the short side of the triangle
+was uppermost.  As she explained 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
+above 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 once 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 them, all right!  We had left
+the Sto-lu country and literally fought our way through cordons
+of wild beasts for two days when 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 ideal 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 lighted a faggot and looked about;
+but as far as I could see, the chamber ran back into the cliff.
+
+Laying aside my rifle, pistol and heavy ammunition-belt, I
+left Ajor in the cave while I went down to gather firewood. 
+We already had meat and fruits which we had gathered just
+before reaching the cliffs, and my canteen was filled with
+fresh water.  Therefore, all we required was fuel, and as I always
+saved Ajor's strength when I could, 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, and 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 together 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 wood 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
+truth 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 likely pieces of firewood, my head bowed and my eyes upon
+the ground, I suddenly felt a great weight hurl itself upon me.
+I struggled 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
+fro, I was slowly gaining advantage of him, when a score of his
+fellows came running up and overpowered me.
+
+They bound my hands 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 they
+questioned me; but it was evident that they did not believe my
+story, for they scoffed and laughed.
+
+"The Galus have 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 have 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 lofty 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 entrances, 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 Caspakian man the female breast is
+but a rudimentary organ, barely suggested in the apes and Alus,
+and only a little more defined in the Bo-lu and Sto-lu, though
+always increasingly so until it is found about half developed
+in the females of the spear-men; yet never was there an
+indication that the females had suckled young; nor were there any
+young among them.  Some of the Band-lu women were quite comely. 
+The figures of all, both men and women, were symmetrical though
+heavy, and though there were some who verged strongly upon the
+Sto-lu type, there were others who were positively 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, including the bones of many
+animals, and the atmosphere reeked with the stench of human
+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 meat suggested them most nauseatingly.
+
+The meal completed, 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 four
+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.  But they
+all showed a rather remarkable aptitude for delineation which
+further fortified Bowen's comparisons between these people and
+the extinct Cro-Magnons whose ancient art is still preserved
+in the caverns of Niaux and Le Portel.  The Band-lu, however,
+did not have the bow and arrow, and in this respect they differ
+from their extinct progenitors, or descendants, of Western Europe.
+
+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
+those things which interested me particularly at the time. 
+I have no desire that the general public 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 apologize for my philosophizing, I humbly explain that
+they are witnessing the groupings 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 tongues of Caspak
+enabled us to understand each other perfectly, even though they
+were 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
+lair 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 moment,
+some silent-footed beast of prey might catch my scent where it
+laired in some contiguous passage, and might creep stealthily
+upon me.  I craned my neck about, and stared through the inky
+darkness for the twin spots of blazing hate which I knew would
+herald 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 period of eternity many events of my life passed
+before my mental vision, a vast parade of friends and
+occurrences which would be blotted out forever on the morrow. 
+I cursed myself for the foolish 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?  I felt that the latter would be the truth, for
+the party was not made up of men easily turned from a purpose. 
+Quite probable it was that they were already searching for me;
+but that they would ever find a trace of me I doubted.  Long since,
+had I come to the conclusion that it was beyond human prowess
+to circle the shores of the inland sea of Caspak in the face
+of the myriad menaces which lurked in every shadow by day and
+by night.  Long since, had I given up any hope of reaching
+the point where I had made my entry into the country, and so I
+was now equally convinced that our entire expedition had been
+worse than futile before ever it was conceived, since Bowen J.
+Tyler and his wife could not by any possibility have survived
+during all these long months; no more could Bradley and his
+party of seamen be yet in existence.  If the superior force and
+equipment of my party enabled them to circle the north end of
+the sea, they might some day come upon the broken wreck of my
+plane hanging in the great tree to the south; but long before
+that, my bones would be added to the litter upon the floor of
+this mighty cavern.
+
+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 supple,
+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 whom, I had convinced
+myself many a time, I felt no greater sentiment than passing
+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 with bonds in vain endeavor to free myself; as
+much, however, that I might hasten to her protection as that I
+might escape the fate which had been planned for me.  And while
+I was thus engaged and had for the moment forgotten my
+apprehensions concerning prowling beasts, I was startled 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 moving stealthily in my direction.
+
+I believe that never 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 yet 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 air
+teem with it, and always it is being devoured by some other
+form of life.  Life is the cheapest thing in Caspak, as it
+is the cheapest thing on earth and, doubtless, the cheapest
+cosmic production.  No, I was not afraid to 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.  Then 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:  "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!" 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 into the cave,
+which she had seen was upon the opposite side of the cliff in
+which 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,
+after 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 have made their kills, and then
+attempt to reach the cave in which I was imprisoned and rescue me. 
+She explained that with my rifle and pistol--both of which
+she assured me she could use, having watched 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 willingly to save me.  But some time after she reached
+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 Band-lu occupied upon the other face of
+the cliff.  Then she had set out through those 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 abyss in
+the darkness and in truth she had thrice come upon sheer drops
+and had been forced to take the most frightful risks to pass them. 
+I shudder even now as I contemplate what 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 kissed; 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 seize 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 be 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 there was such a thing as a mother in
+Caspak, a mother such as we know.  From the Bo-lu to the Kro-lu
+there is no word which corresponds with our word mother. 
+They speak of ata and cor sva jo, meaning 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 steps 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 without compass or guide.
+
+Hand in hand we crept 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 cliff, 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 keep 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 other sign that man had penetrated this far within
+the cliff, nor any spoor of animals of other kinds.
+
+It would be difficult to guess at the time we spent wandering
+through those black corridors, climbing 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 haunted
+by the ever-present terror of death by starvation and thirst. 
+As difficult as it was, I still realized 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, and 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 hunger, 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
+been kind to her.  I can take oath to the fact that I did not
+think it was anything more.
+
+Whether we had been imprisoned in the cliff for a day or a week
+I could not say; nor even now do I know.  We became very tired
+and hungry; the hours dragged; we slept at least twice, and then
+we rose and stumbled on, always weaker and weaker.  There were
+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.  We stumbled
+and fell; we sank through pure physical inability to retain our
+feet; but always we managed to rise at last and go on.  At first,
+wherever it had been possible, we had walked hand in hand lest
+we become separated, and later, when I saw that Ajor was
+weakening rapidly, we went side by side, I supporting her with
+an arm about her waist.  I still retained the heavy burden of
+my armament; but with the rifle slung to my back, my hands
+were free.  When I too showed 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 wayto 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 knew, 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 take 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 force
+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 came that I could no longer rise, but could only crawl
+along a few inches at a time, dragging Ajor beside me.  Her sweet
+voice, now almost inaudible from weakness, implored me to
+abandon her and save 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 to 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, and Ajor
+was leaning against me, her head on my breast.  I could feel
+her press closer to me, and one hand stroked my arm in a weak
+caress; but she didn't say anything, nor were words necessary.
+
+After a few minutes' 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."
+
+She crept close to 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 little depression in which
+it chanced that Ajor and I lay.  I turned my eyes quickly upon
+Ajor, fearful 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 bend in the corridor just ahead of us and at the top of
+a steep incline; and instantly I realized that Ajor and I had
+stumbled by night almost to the portal of salvation.  Had chance
+taken us a few yards further, up either of the corridors which
+diverged from ours just ahead 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 tasted the water and was
+further refreshed.  I shook Ajor gently by the shoulder; but
+she did not open her eyes, and then I gathered 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.  "Where are we?"
+
+"We are at the end of the corridor," I replied, and daylight is
+coming in from the outside world just ahead.  We are saved, Ajor!"
+
+She sat up then and looked about, and then, quite womanlike,
+she burst into tears.  It was the reaction, of course; and then
+too, she was very weak.  I took her in my 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 meat 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.  However, there were trees, and among them we soon
+descried edible fruits with which we broke our long fast.
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+We spent two days upon the cliff-top, resting and recuperating. 
+There was some small game which gave us meat, and the little
+pools of 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 the Band-lu lying in the shallow waters,
+while beyond and close to the base of the mighty 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
+west, we could see the farther shore of the inland sea, and
+southwest the large southern island loomed distinctly before us. 
+A little east of north was the northern island, which Ajor,
+shuddering, whispered 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 elevation, and in a clearer atmosphere, it would have
+stood out distinctly; but the air of Caspak is heavy with
+moisture, with the result that distant objects are blurred
+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 certainly have given a lot
+for my plane at that moment, for with it, twenty minutes would
+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 which seemed to give evidence of
+being something of a game-path to the valley, though 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 catch and steady me, I made it
+all right, and then we set off down the trail toward the valley. 
+There were two or three 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 should be set upon by some member of the tribe.
+
+We must have passed 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 been captured.  From me his gaze
+went to Ajor.  He was a fine-looking man with clear, intelligent
+eyes, a good forehead and superb physique--by far the highest
+type of Caspakian I had yet seen, barring Ajor, of course.
+
+"You are a true Galu," he said to Ajor, "but this man is of a
+different mold.  He has the face of a Galu, but his weapons 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 spear 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 might 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 going 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 to my pistol.
+
+"They are weapons," I replied, "weapons which kill at a
+great distance." I pointed to the women in the pool beneath us. 
+"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 tiny figures of the hunters far to the north.
+
+The fellow laughed.  "Do it," he cried derisively, "and then it
+may be that I shall believe the balance of your strange story."
+
+"But I do not wish to kill any of them," I replied.  "Why should I?"
+
+"Why not?" 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 they would eat you into the bargain. 
+But 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 all 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" (unpeopled 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 belong to one's own people.  This morning I hid 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 reason I know that you speak lies when you say that
+your weapons will kill at a great distance.  Would they, you
+would long since have killed me.  Come!  I have no more time to
+waste in words.  I will spare the woman and take her with 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 take a human life.  I could
+feel no enmity toward this savage barbarian who acted almost as
+wholly upon instinct as might a wild beast, and to the last moment
+I was determined to seek some way to avoid what 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 the 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 there 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 never come to me among the
+Kro-lu, or ever thereafter.  It is useless!  No warrior lives
+who could hurl a weapon so great a distance."
+
+But even as he spoke, I was leveling my rifle upon the great
+brute below; and as he ceased speaking, 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 the 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 whom 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 have 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 admitted, "for no
+Caspakian would have permitted such an opportunity to escape him." 
+This, however, I found later to be an exaggeration, as the tribes
+of the west coast and even the Kro-lu of the east coast are far
+less bloodthirsty than he would have had me believe.  "And your
+weapon!" he continued.  "You spoke true words when I thought you
+spoke lies."  And then, suddenly:  "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 north together," continued the warrior.  "I will
+fight for you, and you can fight for me.  Until death will I
+serve you, for you have 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 toward Ajor, who
+explained as best she could that this was the form of the
+Caspakian oath of allegiance.  "You need never fear him after
+this," she concluded.
+
+"What should I do?" I asked.
+
+"Take his hands 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.  They told me that had I walked away, the moment
+that I was out of sight of the warrior we would have become
+deadly enemies again.  "But I could so easily have killed him
+as he stood there defenseless!" I exclaimed.
+
+"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 loyalty of my new friend.  I was glad
+to have him with us, for he knew the country and was evidently
+a fearless warrior.  I wished 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 and were
+almost certain to set upon Ajor.  So we hastened down the
+narrow path, reaching the foot of the cliffs but a short
+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 when we stopped and looked around,
+we saw a woman running rapidly toward us.  As she approached
+nearer I could see that 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.  "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 not know that it had come to you.  I can 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
+slowly 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 that 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 began to accept each other under
+something of an armed truce, and later became fast friends. 
+So-al was a mighty fine-looking girl, built like a tigress as
+to strength and sinuosity, but withal sweet and womanly. 
+Ajor and I came to be very 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, Ajor 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 themselves 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 practically passed, and that I had accomplished
+fully one-half of my long journey.  In view of what I had
+passed through, I often wondered what chance I had to complete
+that journey in search of my friends.  The further south I
+should travel on the west side of the island, the more
+frightful would the dangers become as I neared the stamping-
+grounds of the more hideous 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 whether they would or not, and
+even provided that they would, could I retrace my steps 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 Ajor, 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 world.
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+We were sitting before a little fire inside a safe grotto one
+night shortly after we had quit the cliff-dwellings of the
+Band-lu, when So-al raised a question which it had 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 heard 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 Caspakian.
+
+"I am a cos-ata-lo," commenced Ajor, and then she turned
+toward me.  "A cos-ata-lo, my Tom, is a woman" (lo)
+"who did not come from an egg and thus on up from the beginning." 
+(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 mother hid me until I had attained such size
+that the Wieroo could not readily distinguish 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 mother came up
+from the beginning; but one of them, probably my mother, had
+completed 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 in
+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.  He has a
+large following of the newer Galus, those most recently come up
+from the Kro-lu, and as this class is usually much more
+powerful numerically than the older Galus, and as Du-seen's
+ambition knows no bounds, we have for a long time been
+expecting him to find some excuse for 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, saying
+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-seen.  The first was that I go to
+Du-seen as his 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 reasons for this:  One is that from
+the beginning of time jealousy had existed between the Wieroo
+and the Galus as to which would 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 only
+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 both male and female; but so
+carefully do the Wieroo watch us that few of the males ever
+grow to manhood, while even fewer are the females that are not
+stolen away.  It is indeed a strange condition, 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 could we once get a start, I am sure that when all
+were true cos-ata-lo there would 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 grasp 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 night 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
+other 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
+shining brightly, illumining the entrance, against which I saw
+silhouetted the dread figure of a Wieroo.  There was no escape. 
+The cave was shallow, the entrance narrow.  I lay very still,
+hoping against 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 those eyes were
+directed upon me, for the Wieroo can see in the darkness better
+than even the lion or the tiger.  But a few feet separated us
+when I sprang to my feet and dashed madly toward my menacer 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 the duel his long,
+white robe was nearly torn from him, and he became very angry,
+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
+of the cave, lifted me in his arms, spread his great wings and
+leaping into the air, flapped dismally through the night. 
+I saw the moonlit landscape sliding away beneath me, and then
+we were out above the sea 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 Wieroo and
+I glanced up simultaneously, to see a pair of huge jo-oos"
+(flying reptiles--pterodactyls) "swooping down upon us.  The Wieroo
+wheeled and dropped almost to sea-level, and then raced southward
+in an effort to outdistance our pursuers.  The great 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 through 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 realized that the
+Wieroo was weakening.  One of the jo-oos gained on us and
+succeeded in heading us, so that my captor had to turn in
+toward the coast.  Further and further they forced him to the
+left; lower and lower he sank.  More labored was his breathing,
+and weaker 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.  Like a frightened ecca I
+leaped to my feet 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 far I was from
+the country of the Galus I could not guess; nor did it seem
+probable 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 different from those of my northern world, and presently
+there appeared before me a creature fully as hideous as the
+Wieroo--a hairy manthing that barely walked erect.  I shuddered,
+and then I fled.  Through the hideous dangers that my forebears
+had endured in the earlier stages of their human evolution I
+fled; and always 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. 
+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. 
+I was very much interested in her account of the Wieroo, which
+up to this time 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 chance 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 should
+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 nervous
+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
+received 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 southern end of the island fairly swarms with the
+Ho-lu, or apes; next above these are 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
+explained 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 are 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 toll 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
+Caspakian 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 countless 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 that as we traveled northward from the Alus'
+country the land had gradually risen until 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 kinds 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.  I saw a greater number of small lions
+and tigers, though many of the huge ones still persisted,
+while the woolly mammoth 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
+the Kro-lu and Galu countries, though fortunately they are rare. 
+I rather imagine that they are a very early 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-afternoon when To-mar and So-al bade us good-bye. 
+We were not far from Kro-lu village; in fact, we had approached
+it much closer than we had intended, and now Ajor and I were to
+make a detour toward the sea while our companions went directly
+in search of the Kro-lu chief.
+
+Ajor and I had gone 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 nudged me.  "They have a prisoner," she whispered. 
+"He is a Kro-lu."
+
+And then I saw him, 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 fellow; but this Kro-lu showed plainly in
+his every physical attribute a higher plane of evolution. 
+While To-mar was just entering the Kro-lu sphere, this man,
+it seemed to me, must be close indeed to the next stage of
+his development, which would see him an envied Galu.
+
+"They will kill him?" I whispered to Ajor.
+
+"The dance of death," she replied, and I shuddered, so recently
+had I escaped the same 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 took 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 some of the lower orders of Caspakians at the sound
+of the rifle.  Instead, the moment they saw me, they let 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 his 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 close to my left shoulder, and another of
+them stumbled and rolled over and over upon the ground. 
+Plucky little Ajor!  She had never fired a shot before in all
+her life, though I had taught her to sight and aim and how to
+squeeze the trigger instead of pulling it.  She had practiced
+these new accomplishments often, but little had I thought they
+would make a marksman of her so quickly.
+
+With six of their fellows put out of the fight so easily, the
+remaining six sought cover behind 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 gained an upright position when the weapon was half-way
+upon its journey, speeding like 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 rose 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 smile 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 knife.  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 home, if you wish."
+
+"Why don't you 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; but 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 warrior 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 have no wish to be an enemy of any man
+in Caspak, with the possible exception of the Galu warrior Du-seen."
+
+"Du-seen!" he exclaimed.  "You are an enemy of Du-seen?  And why?"
+
+"Because he would harm Ajor," I replied.  "You know him?"
+
+"He cannot know him," said Ajor.  "Du-seen 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 there 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-seen would be chief of the
+Galus, and he has come to the Kro-lu for help.
+
+Ajor was aghast.  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 Kro-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
+though they occupy the land of the Galu and wear the skins and
+ornaments of the golden people, still they will not be Galus
+till the time arrives that they are ripe to rise.  We also tell
+them that even then they will never become a true Galu race,
+since there will still be those 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, " replied the man. 
+
+"You are chief 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?"
+
+"Unfortunately 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
+themselves 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."
+
+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 every stage to that of Galu.  Some never progress
+beyond the Alu stage; others stop 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 be of the sixth generation.
+
+It was not entirely plain to me even with this explanation,
+since I couldn't understand how there could be different
+generations of peoples who apparently had no offspring.  Yet I
+was commencing to get a slight glimmer 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 with the
+Caspakian scheme of evolution, and that the daily immersion of
+the females in the greenish slimy water was in response to some
+natural law, since neither pleasure nor cleanliness could be
+derived from what seemed almost a religious 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.
+
+As we stood talking, 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 appeared in a
+rough circle about us.  They greeted 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 perfectly 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 hear 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 then
+Ajor came to my defense.
+
+"I saw it with 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 this 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 for several minutes and then turned to me. 
+"Can you keep her?" he asked, just the tinge of a sneer upon
+his face.
+
+I laid my palm upon 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.  Then he
+turned and raising his great bow, fitted an arrow and drew the
+shaft far back.  His warriors, supercilious smiles upon their
+faces, stood silently watching him.  His bow was the longest
+and the heaviest among them all.  A mighty man indeed must he
+be to bend it; yet Al-tan drew the shaft back until the stone
+point touched his left forefinger, and he did it with
+consummate ease.  Then he raised the shaft to the level of
+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 me 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,
+swinging his great arms and his bulky shoulders for all the
+world like a drunken prize-fighter at a beach dancehall.
+
+I saw that some reply 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, the 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 their chief was gone, and through the
+bole was a little round hole marking the path 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 wonder,
+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 with
+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 has served you by saving one of your
+warriors from the enemy--saving him from the 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 the 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 anyway I knew that if Al-tan
+intended treachery I would be no more in his power in the
+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 entertain 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 customs.  He seemed
+much mystified by the fact that we could walk abroad by day or
+night without fear of being devoured by wild beasts or savage
+reptiles, and when I told him of the great armies which we
+maintained, 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 savage peoples.  Here, in Caspak, men fight 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 and
+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 the Kro-lu village we were continually stalked
+by innumerable beasts of prey, and 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 though no interruption had occurred.  Twice were
+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
+stripped of his belongings and left where he had died; the
+carnivora would take care of his burial.  The trophies that
+these Kro-lu left to the meat-eaters would have turned an
+English big-game hunter green with envy.  They did, it is true,
+cut all the edible parts from the rhino and carry them home;
+but already they were pretty well weighted down with the spoils
+of the chase, and only the fact that they are particularly fond
+of rhino-meat caused them to do so.
+
+They left the hide on the pieces they selected, as they use it
+for sandals, shield-covers, the hilts 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-tooth tiger. 
+The huge creature had charged us without warning from a clump of
+dense bushes where it was lying up after eating.  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 with pain and rage, bore down upon Chal-az
+while I stood helpless with my rifle for fear of hitting one of
+the warriors who were closing in upon it.  But Chal-az was ready. 
+Throwing aside his bow, he crouched behind his large oval shield,
+in the center of which was a hole about six inches in diameter. 
+The shield was held by tight 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 down
+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 vitals
+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 arose, he glanced at the sky and remarked that it
+looked like rain.  The others already had resumed the march
+toward the village.  The incident was closed.  For some
+unaccountable reason the whole thing reminded me of a friend
+who once shot a cat in his backyard.  For three weeks he talked
+of nothing else.
+
+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 where grouped were joined so that they resembled the
+cells of a bee-hive.  One hut meant a warrior and his mate, and
+each additional hut in a group indicated an additional female. 
+The palisade which surrounded the village 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 supporting 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 high, which was closed
+from the inside by logs about six feet long laid horizontally,
+one upon another, between the inside face of the palisade and
+two other braced 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, seemingly jealous of the attentions heaped
+upon us because we had served Chal-az.
+
+At last we reached 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 had in Caspak--and
+cheese from the milk of wild goats, with honey and thin bread
+made from wheat flour of their own grinding, and grapes and the
+fermented juice of grapes.  It was quite the most wonderful
+meal I had eaten since I quit the Toreador and Bowen J.
+Tyler's colored chef, who could make pork-chops taste like
+chicken, and chicken taste like heaven.
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+After dinner I rolled a cigaret and stretched myself at ease
+upon a pile of furs before the doorway, 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 sought mine and drew them to her lips, and then
+I gathered her in my arms and crushed 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 beyond 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 village swarmed
+with them, gaunt, wolflike creatures that guarded the herd by
+day when it grazed without the palisade, ten dogs to a cow. 
+By night the cows were herded in an outer inclosure roofed
+against the onslaughts of the carnivorous cats; and the dogs,
+with the exception of a few, were brought into the village;
+these few well-tested brutes remained with the herd.  During 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 manner 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 had 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-knives the men of Kro-lu bore no weapons about
+the village streets.  There was an atmosphere of peace and
+security within that village that I had not hoped to experience
+within Caspak, and after what I had passed through, it must have
+cast a numbing spell over my faculties of judgment and reason. 
+I had eaten of the lotus-flower of safety; dangers no longer
+threatened for they had ceased 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 were 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 race, 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 then 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 inflammable wood and
+grasses of which the hut was composed from being ignited by
+the flames.  Lying about among the warriors 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 sniffing at my heels, and of a sudden a great brute leaped
+upon my back.  As I turned to thrust it aside before its fangs
+found a hold upon me, I beheld a huge Airedale leaping
+frantically about me.  The grinning jaws, the half-closed 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 with joy.  It was Nobs, dear
+old Nobs.  Bowen 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," he said.  "He came to me
+cor-sva-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 whom Ajor had fled. 
+I wondered if he knew that she was here.  I wondered if they
+had sent 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 had come, my journey to Caspak and my intentions now
+that I had arrived.  I answered them frankly as I had nothing
+to conceal and assured them that my only wish was to find my
+friends and return to my own country.  In the Galu Du-seen 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.  They were a very imposing set of
+men--tall and straight and handsome.  About their 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 which 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
+incrusted 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 quietly 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 his
+master is found."  And I turned again to resume my way.  I had
+taken but a few steps when I heard 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 yours nor mine," I replied, "and I am not stealing him. 
+If he wishes to follow you, he may; I will 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.  With a savage growl
+Nobs turned like lightning upon the Galu, wrenched loose from
+his hold and leaped for his throat.  The 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 voice I called him to heel. 
+For just an instant he hesitated, standing there trembling and
+with bared fangs, glaring at his foe; but he was well trained
+and had been out with me quite as much as he had with Bowen--in
+fact, I had had most to do with 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 upon
+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 paused 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 understand 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
+those 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 she 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 state,
+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 entered the
+doorway, I called her name aloud.  There was no response. 
+I drew 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 leaped upon me, an angry growl burst from
+behind them.  I had forgotten Nobs.  Like a demon of hate he
+sprang among those Kro-lu fighting-men, tearing, rending, ripping
+with his long tusks and his mighty jaws.  They had me down in an
+instant, and it goes without saying that the six of them could
+have kept me there had it not been for Nobs; but while I was
+struggling to throw them off, Nobs was springing 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 belly, after which it took but an instant to get my
+feet under me and rise suddenly.
+
+As I did so, I kept a grip upon the man's arm, carrying it over
+one shoulder.  Then I leaned suddenly forward and hurled my
+antagonist over my head to a hasty fall at the opposite side of
+the hut.  In the dim light of the interior I saw that Nobs had
+already accounted for one of the others--one who lay very quiet
+upon the floor--while the four remaining upon their feet were
+striking at him with knives and hatchets.
+
+Running to one side of the man I had just put out of the
+fighting, I seized his hatchet and knife, and in another moment
+was in the thick of the argument.  I was no match for these
+savage warriors with their own weapons and would soon have gone
+down to ignominious defeat and death had it not been for Nobs,
+who alone was a match for the four of them.  I never 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 latter as the former which contributed to the
+undoing of our enemies, who, accustomed 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 were 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 stone hatchet
+from the other.
+
+As the last man went down, I heard the running of many feet
+approaching us from the direction of the plaza.  To be captured
+now would mean 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 not 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, bloody but
+happy, following at heel, I turned down the first alley and
+slunk away in the direction of the northern end of the village.
+
+Friendless and alone, 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 that 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, Bowen J. Tyler, Jr., I never yet had experienced
+the almost paralyzing fear for the 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 fate 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 dethroned by some mad sentiment which I steadfastly
+refused to believe was love?  I had never been in love.  I was
+not in love 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 foremost 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 could
+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 came 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 moment in which
+we had clung to one another, lips smothering lips, as I left
+her to 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 that 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 voices 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 recollections and my hopes entwined themselves
+was that of Ajor--beloved barbarian!  My reveries were broken in
+upon by a hoarse 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, recalled his attitude of a few minutes before; and
+as though he had read my thoughts, he said quickly:  "I could
+not speak 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 into 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 hole in the roof permitted the smoke
+from burning oil egress; yet the atmosphere was far from lucid. 
+Here Chal-az motioned me to a seat upon a furry hide spread
+upon the earthen floor.
+
+"I am your friend," he said.  "You saved 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 safe, too," he answered.  "We learned 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 after 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 bearing 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 immediately and accompanied
+the warriors to your hut while I remained to watch what went
+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 not 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 to go to the doorway of his
+dwelling, which consisted of many huts joined together, 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
+ceased, and I was becoming uneasy because of his protracted
+absence when I heard him 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 they found Ajor?"
+
+"No," he replied; "but Ajor has gone.  She learned that you
+had escaped them and was told that you had left the village,
+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."
+
+"Then I must go," I said, rising.  Nobs rose and shook himself. 
+He had been dead asleep 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." He leaned
+close to my ear and whispered:  "There are many to follow and
+help you.  Al-tan has agreed to aid Du-seen against 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 has ordained that we shall rise, and only thus.  No batu
+may win to the estate of a Galu by treachery and force of arms
+while Chal-az lives and may wield a heavy blow and a sharp spear
+with true Kro-lus 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 forth 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, or 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 will 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 their trappings."
+
+I saw the wisdom of his suggestion, and as my clothes were by
+now so ragged as to but half conceal 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, spear, bow and arrow and the long rope
+which I learned now for the first time is the 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 is 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 hunting 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 for 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 concerned, 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 outfitted 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.  By reaching my right
+hand over my left shoulder, I could seize the spear or arrows;
+my left hand could find my bow over my right shoulder, while a
+veritable contortionist-act was necessary to place my shield in
+front of me and upon my left arm.  The shield, long and oval,
+is utilized more as back-armor than as a defense against
+frontal attack, for the close-set armlets of gold upon the left
+forearm are principally depended upon to ward off knife, spear,
+hatchet, or arrow from in front; but against the greater
+carnivora and the attacks of several human antagonists, the
+shield is utilized to its best advantage and carried by loops
+upon the left arm.
+
+Fully equipped, except for a blanket, I followed Chal-az from
+his domicile into the dark and 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 thanked 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.
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+To run up the inclined 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 after we reached
+the top, lift him over the sharpened stakes and lower him upon
+the outside.  To find Ajor in the unknown country to the north
+seemed rather hopeless; yet I could do no less than try,
+praying in the meanwhile that she would come through unscathed
+and in safety to her father.
+
+As Nobs and I swung along in the growing light of the coming
+day, I was impressed by the lessening 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 changes 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 small band of the latter of about the size of those of
+our old Western plains--such as the Indians bred in former days
+and to a lesser extent even now.  They were fat and sleek, and
+I looked upon 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, scarce
+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 firearms, 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 snapping 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. 
+He would dart in and away so quickly that not even the
+lightning-like movements of the great cats could reach him. 
+I have seen him tantalize them thus until they fairly screamed
+in rage.
+
+The greatest inconvenience the hunters caused me was the delay,
+for they have a nasty habit 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 altitude of
+some two hundred feet, sheer and precipitous, without a break
+that the eye could perceive.  How I was to find a crossing I
+could not guess.  Whether 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 made 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
+appealed 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 intelligent 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' jaws 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 base of the cliffs for a considerable distance. 
+The ground was rolling and tree-dotted and covered with grazing
+animals, alone, in pairs and in herds--a motley aggregation of
+the modern and extinct herbivore of the world.  A huge woolly
+mastodon stood swaying to and fro in the shade of a giant
+fern--a mighty bull with enormous upcurving tusks.  Near him
+grazed an aurochs bull with a cow and a calf, close beside a
+lone rhinoceros asleep in a dust-hole.  Deer, antelope, 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 none of them attacked us.  As we
+were topping a rise in the middle of the afternoon, I saw
+something that brought me to a sudden stop.  Calling Nobs in a
+whisper, I cautioned him to silence and kept him at heel while
+I threw myself flat and 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 pass 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 cliffs from the west.  Into the
+defile formed 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 had passed from
+sight, I rose and bent my steps in the direction of the
+pass--the same pass toward which Nobs had evidently been
+leading me.  I went warily as I approached it, for fear 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 wished 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 unguarded.
+
+The Galus might be a great people in Caspak; but they were
+pitifully inefficient in even the simpler forms of military tactics. 
+I was surprised 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 passed 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 that 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 followed 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 the 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 and the shrubs were of a hardier type, and I
+realized that at night the Galu blanket might be almost
+a necessity.  Acacia 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 enormous trees.  From the summit of the cliff I could see
+forests rising hundreds of feet above the level upon which I
+stood, and even at the distance they were from me I realized
+that the boles were of gigantic size.
+
+At last I had come to the Galu country.  Though not conceived
+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, and I could not but feel
+something of the elation and pride which had filled To-mar and
+So-al when they realized that the call had come to them and
+they were about 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
+the 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-deer, 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 cover, 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 then
+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 poised for a cast.  The balance of the herd sprang
+quickly away; but the hurt doe lagged, and in a moment Nobs was
+beside 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 going 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 barrier 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 some 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 thus 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 that Ajor had
+not quitted the Kro-lu village; but if not, what had brought
+Du-seen forth without her?  There was a puzzler, 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 horses 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 almost 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 colts and half-grown horses.  Their markings
+were almost identical, indicating a purity of strain that might
+have persisted since long ages ago.  If I had coveted one of
+the little ponies of the Kro-lu country, imagine my state of
+mind when 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 brush 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 called 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 noose, spreading it flat and open
+upon the ground.
+
+To step to one side 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 doubtless 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.  At last it became evident that he
+was doing so, when apparently without cause, the filly raised
+her head, neighed and started off at a trot in the opposite
+direction, immediately followed, of course, by the colts and
+my stallion.  It looked 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 farther on. 
+This time there was no bush within fifty feet of them, and I
+was at a loss as to how to get within safe roping-distance. 
+Anywhere under forty feet I am an excellent 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 debating the question in my mind, I was almost upon
+the point of making the attempt at the long throw.  I had
+plenty of rope, 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 that 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 more 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 directly 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 that 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 them, he proceeded at a walk.  The splendid 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 angles.
+
+And now the fun and 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 the 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 the Kro-lu country.  I must
+admit that my thoughts were not pleasant ones, verging almost
+upon cowardice, until I chanced to think of little Ajor alone
+in this same land and armed only with a knife!  I was
+immediately filled with 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 broad daylight garbed in a bit of
+red-deer skin in inadequate length, you can have 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 attacked me, though I saw several menacing forms
+passing through the dark aisles of the forest.  At last I
+commenced to worry over Nobs' protracted absence and to fear
+that something had befallen him.  I was coiling my rope to
+start out in search of him, when I saw the stallion leap into
+view at almost the same spot behind which he had disappeared,
+and at his heels ran Nobs.  Neither was running so fast or
+furiously 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 task, 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 this gait that he passed me; my rope-hand
+flew forward; the honda, well down, held the noose open,
+and the beautiful bay fairly ran his head into it.
+
+Instantly he wheeled to dash off at right angles.  I braced
+myself with the rope around my hip and brought him to a
+sudden stand.  Rearing and struggling, he fought for his liberty
+while Nobs, panting and with lolling tongue, came and threw
+himself down near me.  He seemed to know that 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 to a degree, and of such remarkable intelligence that
+he soon discovered that I had no intention of harming him. 
+After that, 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 die 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 education was rapid.  No horse ever learned more 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 French 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 riding 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 Caspak 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 rode 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
+fifth day as I emerged from a forest, I saw some distance ahead
+of me a single small figure pursued by many others.  Instantly I
+recognized the quarry as Ajor.  The 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 pressure 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 discovered us and set up such a
+howl as I never before have heard.  They were all Galus, and I
+soon recognized the foremost as Du-seen.  He was almost 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 speed,
+and most nobly did the wondrous creature respond to my demands. 
+If ever a four-footed creature approximated flying, it was Ace
+that day.
+
+Du-seen, intent upon 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 up 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 knife to stab me, thinking that I was some
+new enemy, when her eyes found my face and she recognized me. 
+With a little sob 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 his 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 effectually hid its treacherous identity.  It is 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 was no escape.  It was evident that we
+were doomed.
+
+"Slay me!" begged Ajor.  "Let me die at thy loved hands rather
+than beneath the knife of this hateful thing, for he will kill me. 
+He has sworn to kill me.  Last night he captured me, and when
+later 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.  Today they
+searched for me and found me; and as I fled, Du-seen ran after
+me crying that he would slay me.  Kill me, my Tom, and then fall
+upon thine own spear, for they will kill you horribly if they
+take you alive."
+
+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-seen
+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 against Jor the chief had, therefore, been
+consummated, and this horde was already marching upon the
+Galu city.  I sighed as I thought how close I had been to saving
+not only Ajor but her father and his 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 miles 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 could not reach us with their
+hands; but at a command from Du-seen they fitted arrows 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 to 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 wood 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 who held those rifles were the men of my own party; and when,
+a few minutes later, 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 ahead of the others came two men in the garb
+of Galus.  Each was tall and straight and wonderfully muscled;
+yet they differed as Ace might differ from a perfect specimen
+of another species.  As they approached the mire, Ajor held forth
+her arms and cried, "Jor, my chief!  My father!" and the elder
+of the two 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 man we had searched a new world to find.  They cut
+saplings from the forest and laid a road into the swamp before
+they could 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
+hours a day in three eight-hour shifts with two reliefs to each
+shift alternating half-hourly.  Two men with electric drills
+driven from the dynamos aboard the Toreador drilled two
+holes four feet apart in the face of 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 summit 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 between 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 city, Lys La Rue was waiting to welcome us. 
+She was Mrs. Tyler now, as the master of the Toreador had
+married them the very day that the search-party had found them,
+though neither Lys nor Bowen 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 they 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 listen 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 upon my heart and wondered how
+I should get along without her.  As I held her in my arms that
+last night, 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 with 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 ever 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 of a last farewell. 
+The party formed for the march, an escort of Galu warriors
+ready to accompany us.  I could not even bear 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 two 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 clearing 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 to 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."
+
+He looked at me in surprise.  "Good-bye, old man," he said, and
+grasped my hand.  "I thought you'd do it in the end."
+
+And then I went back 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.
+
+
+The end of Project Gutenberg etext of "The People That Time Forgot"
+
+
+I have made the following changes to the text:
+
+PAGE  LINE        ORIGINAL          CHANGED TO
+
+  75    15        later             latter
+ 108    14        in                is
+ 123    24        the               he
+ 131    13        plans             planes
+ 131    28        new               few
+ 132    24        Donosaur          Dinosaur
+
+
+The end of Project Gutenberg etext of "The People That Time Forgot"
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of People Out Of Time
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+(#2 in The Land That Time Forgot Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs)
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+Title: People Out Of Time
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+Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of People Out Of Time
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Created by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska
+
+
+
+
+
+The People That Time Forgot
+
+By Edgar Rice Burroughs
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 1
+
+
+
+
+I am forced to admit 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 since 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 bearing 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., was expected almost hourly.  The last steamer in
+from Honolulu had brought information of the date of the expected
+sailing of his yacht Toreador, which was now twenty-four hours
+overdue.  Mr. Tyler's assistant secretary, who had 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 that nothing short of an act of God would prevent his
+doing what he had planned to do.  I was also aware of the fact
+that 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 liner 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 by 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 the 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 the 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 logical 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 improbable; but
+neither of us could say that anything which it contained was beyond
+the range of possibility.  The weird flora 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 Caproni 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 entire 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 them; how
+many more might have perished!  And Miss La Rue--could a young
+girl long have survived the horrors of Caspak after having been
+separated from all of her own kind?  The assistant secretary wondered
+if Nobs still was with her, and then 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 apelike
+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 dragons 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 Miss 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 they 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 than to have trusted them at
+all.  The chances are von Schoenvorts succeeded in getting safely
+back to Kiel and is strutting 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 couldn't have negotiated the submerged tunnel
+beneath the barrier cliffs and made good their escape."
+
+"I don't like 'em," said the assistant secretary; "but sometimes
+you got to hand 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 exclaimed 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 the succor of his son.  Mr. Tom Billings,
+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, courts
+and executors as a sculptor handles his modeling clay.  He formed,
+fashioned and forced them to his will.  He had been a classmate of
+Bowen 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 him 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 his 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 have 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 never has transgressed a single
+tenet of the code of ethics of an American gentleman.
+
+Ten days after they brought Mr. Tyler's body off the Toreador,
+we steamed out into the Pacific in search of Caprona.  There were
+forty 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 cold.
+
+All during the trip 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
+subterranean 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
+craft 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 ridiculous
+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 conjecture 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 two of these
+pictures resemble each other, or that any of them resemble the
+coast as we shall presently find it.  I have in view three plans
+for scaling the cliffs, and the means for carrying out each 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
+the top of the cliff.  It would be a long, arduous and dangerous
+work to bore the holes and insert the rungs of the ladder 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 summit 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 the hooks at
+the upper end would slip.
+
+"My third plan seems to me the most feasible.  You all saw a number
+of large, heavy boxes lowered into the hold before we sailed.  I
+know you did, because you asked me what they contained and commented
+upon the large letter 'H' which was painted upon 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--provided there is sufficient space above high water; otherwise
+we shall have to assemble it on deck and lower it over the side.
+After it is assembled, I shall carry tackle and ropes to the
+cliff-top, 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.  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 sweep of rolling surf upon
+a narrow beach.  The launch was lowered, and five of us made 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.
+Billings 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 the beach, and were busily engaged in
+opening them.  Two days later the plane was assembled and tuned.
+We loaded tackles 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 Billings; 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 or 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 plane 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 nothing had been omitted.
+Besides pistol and rifle, there was the machine-gun mounted in
+front of him on the plane, and ammunition 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 surface 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 only ten minutes," he
+announced.
+
+"Seems like an hour," snapped Short.  "What's that?  Did you hear
+that?  He's firing!  It's the machine-gun!  Oh, Lord; and here we
+are as helpless as 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 distinctly for at
+least a minute.  Then came silence.  That was two weeks ago.  We
+have had no sign nor signal from Tom Billings since.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+
+
+
+I'll never forget my first impressions of Caspak as I circled in,
+high over the surrounding cliffs.  From the plane I looked down
+through a mist upon the blurred landscape beneath me.  The hot,
+humid atmosphere of Caspak condenses 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 browns and scarlets and yellows surrounding
+the deep blue of the inland sea--just blobs of color taking form
+through the tumbling mist.
+
+I dived close to the cliffs and skirted them for several miles
+without finding the least indication 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 find 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 literally black with creatures
+of some sort.  I was too far up to recognize individuals, but the
+general impression was of a vast army of amphibious monsters.  The
+land was almost equally alive with crawling, leaping, running,
+flying things.  It was one of the latter which nearly did for me
+while my attention was fixed upon the weird scene below.
+
+The first intimation 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 long from the end of its long, hideous beak to the tip
+of its thick, short tail, with an equal spread of wings.  It was
+coming 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 came 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 was pointed
+upward at an angle of about 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 with 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 scholar despite
+his love of fun, and his particular hobby was paleontology.  He
+used to tell me about the various forms of animal and vegetable life
+which had covered the globe during former eras, and so I was pretty
+well acquainted with the fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals
+of paleolithic times.  I knew that the thing that had attacked me
+was some sort of pterodactyl which should have been extinct millions
+of years ago.  It was all that I needed to realize that Bowen had
+exaggerated nothing in his manuscript.
+
+Having disposed of 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 word from
+me, and I was equally anxious to relieve their minds and also to
+get them and our supplies well within Caspak, so that we might set
+off about our business of finding and rescuing Bowen Tyler; but the
+pterodactyl's carcass had scarcely fallen before I was surrounded
+by at least a dozen of the hideous things, some 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 nothing 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 deposit them at the
+rendezvous.  As I flew north, the temptation to explore overcame
+me.  I knew that I could easily cover Caspak and return to the
+beach with less petrol than I had in my tanks; and there was the
+hope, too, that I might find Bowen or some of his party.  The broad
+expanse of the inland sea lured me out over its waters, and as I
+crossed, I saw at either 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 water 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 looked 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
+could 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 plane 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, the huge reptile swept close above the tree in
+which my plane had lodged, circled twice over me and then flapped
+away toward the south.  As I guessed then and was to learn later,
+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 place among trees as is a seaplane.
+
+For a minute or so 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 and
+Miss La Rue had depended upon this craft, and in a few brief minutes
+my own selfish 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.  That I was doomed
+seemed inevitable; but I can honestly say that the fate of my
+friends concerned me more greatly than did my own.
+
+Beyond the barrier cliffs my party was even now nervously awaiting
+my return.  Presently apprehension and fear would claim them--and
+they would never know!  They 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, what there were left of them,
+and go sadly and mournfully upon their return journey to home.
+Home!  I set my jaws and tried to forget the word, 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 attempt had been made to rescue them.  If
+they 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 would 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 lucky to escape with my life.  The plane
+hung at a precarious angle, so that it was with difficulty and
+considerable danger that I climbed from it into the tree and then
+to the ground.
+
+My predicament was grave.  Between me and my friends lay an
+inland sea fully sixty miles wide at this point and an estimated
+land-distance 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 buffaloed.  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 believe that
+he had become so accustomed to them before he started upon his
+manuscript 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 would not have given a minim of stale beer for my chances
+of ever seeing my friends or the outside world again; yet then
+and there I swore to fight my way as far through this hideous land
+as circumstances would permit.  I had plenty of ammunition, an
+automatic 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 carnivorous instincts to function for several minutes after
+they had ceased to live.
+
+But to these things I gave less thought than to the sudden frustration of
+all our plans.  With the bitterest of thoughts I condemned 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 totally eliminated from further
+search for Bowen, since, as I estimated it, the three hundred miles
+of Caspakian territory I must traverse to reach the base of the
+cliffs beyond which my party awaited me were practically impassable
+for a single individual unaccustomed to Caspakian life and ignorant
+of all that lay before 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 north.
+
+The country through 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 even such added to the charm and romance of
+the landscape as the giant cacti render weirdly beautiful the waste
+spots of the sad Mohave.  And over all the sun shone 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 sluggish
+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 ceaseless 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 sensation that
+unseen eyes were watching me, that soundless feet dogged my trail.
+I am neither nervous nor highstrung; but the burden of responsibility
+upon me weighed heavily, so that I was more cautious 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 that among the many creatures dimly perceived amidst the
+shadows of the wood I saw 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 forbidding 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 the uncouth sounds and the vague glimpses of moving
+things within the forest, of the menace of strange beasts and possibly
+still stranger men, that I always breathed more 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 being stalked by some creature which kept
+always hidden among the trees and shrubbery 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 running
+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 thing thrashed through the leafy jungle.
+Evidently 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 lowered my rifle and gazed incredulous at the
+lithe figure of the girl speeding swiftly in my direction.  But
+I did not have long to stand thus with lowered weapon, for as she
+came, I saw her cast an affrighted glance over her shoulder, and
+at the same moment there broke from the jungle at the same spot at
+which I had seen her, the hugest cat I had ever looked upon.
+
+At first I took the 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, though quite formidable enough to
+satisfy the most fastidious thrill-hunter.  On it came, grim and
+terrible, its baleful 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 impetuous
+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 strange 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 free from any suggestion of panic.
+
+Facing the huge cat, 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
+trigger, hoping against hope that the soft-nosed bullet and the
+heavy charge of powder would have sufficient stopping effect to
+give me time to place a second shot.
+
+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 it 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 bullet 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 away, and yet it had lived to charge ferociously
+upon me, and but for my third shot 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 not 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 charms her apparel hid, it quite effectively
+succeeded in accentuating.  A bit of soft, undressed leather was
+caught 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 covered her left forearm from elbow
+to wrist.  These, I learned later, answered the purpose of a shield
+against knife attack when the left arm is raised in guard across
+the breast or face.
+
+Her masses of heavy 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, inlaid in
+intricate design with bits of mother-of-pearl and tiny pieces of
+stone of various colors.  From the left shoulder depended a leopard's
+tail, while her feet were shod with sturdy little sandals.  The
+knife was her only weapon.  Its blade was of iron, the grip was
+wound 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
+garment 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 equally so,
+her face.  Were I one of these writer-fellows, I should probably
+say that her features were Grecian, but being 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 looking 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 that 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 catechism,
+if I could judge by her inflection, for I certainly understood no
+word of what she said.  All the time the girl kept glancing toward
+the forest, and at last she touched my arm and pointed in that
+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 their
+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 Bowen's adventures so often that I knew them almost by
+heart, and so now I knew that 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 noises,
+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 smile and stepping
+closer, caressed the barrel of my automatic.  As she did so, her
+fingers came in contact with mine, and a sudden thrill ran through
+me, which I attributed to the fact that it had been so long since
+I had seen a woman of any sort or kind.
+
+She said something 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 north 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 merrily
+when I in turn essayed to speak to her, as though my language was
+the quaintest thing she ever had heard.  Often after fruitless
+attempts to make me understand she would hold her palm toward me,
+saying, "Galu!" and then touch my breast or arm and cry, "Alu, 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 claimed, 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
+her 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 various 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
+that her intelligence told her that I was neither Ho-lu nor Alu,
+neither anthropoid 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, and during my college days and since have
+made various friends among the sex.  I think that I rather appeal
+to a certain 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--dancing, 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 that it was difficult to say what color it originally had
+been.  But if she was outwardly uncouth, her clear eyes and strong
+white, even teeth, her silvery laugh and her queenly carriage,
+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
+journey so far had been beset with constant danger, as is every
+journey in this frightful 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 and ferns and grasses.  I knew
+the words 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
+repeated the action a dozen times.
+
+"Tom," she said finally in that clear, sweet, liquid voice.  "Tom!"
+
+I had never thought much of my name before; but when she spoke it,
+it sounded to me for the first time in my life like a mighty nice
+name, and then she brightened suddenly and 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 cliffs beside the little river where it empties
+into the bay with the great inland sea beyond.  The cliffs were
+weather-worn and rotted, and in one place a deep hollow ran back
+beneath the overhanging stone 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 understand 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 the river.  At the bank she paused,
+removed her belt and dagger, dropping them to the ground at her
+side; then unfastening the lower edge of her garment from the metal
+leg-band to which it was attached, 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.  For five or ten minutes she splashed about, and when
+she emerged her glistening skin was smooth and white and beautiful.
+Without means of drying herself, she simply ignored what to me
+would have seemed a necessity, and in a moment was arrayed in her
+simple though effective costume.
+
+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 horses a short time before.  Here
+I brought down a young buck, the report of my rifle sending the
+balance of the herd scampering 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-knife I removed a hind-quarter, and then we returned
+to camp.  Here I gathered a great quantity of wood 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 forget 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.  It
+was evident that Ajor was quite unfamiliar with modern methods of
+fire-making.  She had thought my rifle and pistol wonderful; but
+these tiny slivers of wood which from a magic rub brought flame to
+the camp hearth were indeed miracles to her.
+
+As the meat roasted above the fire, Ajor and I tried once again
+to talk; but though copiously filled with incentive, gestures and
+sounds, the conversation did not flourish 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 difficult, and even though it was
+a great handicap upon my instructor that she could not speak my
+language, she did remarkably well and demonstrated that she possessed
+ingenuity and intelligence of a high order.
+
+After we had eaten, 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 voice 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 girl 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 faculty of perception.
+The firelight shone upon 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 occupied 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 thought 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 tongue 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 gestures;
+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 conversation, 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
+engrossed--so much so that we were giving no heed to what went on
+beyond our cave--when Ajor 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 toward the entrance to the cave, I turned quickly--to
+see a hideous face at the small 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 judged 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 that 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 did 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 nocturnal 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, which was now low, owing to the fact that I had been
+so occupied with my lesson and 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 should the bear make a determined effort to get at us,
+the rocks I had piled as a barrier would come tumbling down about
+his giant shoulders like a house of cards, and 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 chance 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, and
+listening to the ever-increasing volume of those seismic growls which
+seemed 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
+that 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 yawned its fanged yawn directly within
+the barrier's opening.  It stood thus a moment, and then the head
+was withdrawn.  I breathed a sigh of relief, 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 great 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 shoulder 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
+reassurance 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.  My only hope was to get as many shots into the creature
+as I could before it was upon me.  Already it had torn away a second
+rock and was in the very act of forcing its huge bulk through the
+opening it had now made.
+
+So now I took careful aim between its eyes; my right fingers
+closed firmly and evenly upon the small 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 full 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.
+
+Almost simultaneously I heard from without a perfectly hellish
+roar; the bear gave voice to a series 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 what had happened to cause this sudden retreat when
+his prey was practically within his clutches.  The idea that the
+harmless 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 attacked in the
+rear by some other mighty beast, and the two were now locked in a
+titanic struggle for supremacy.  With brief respites, during which
+we could hear the labored breathing of the contestants, the battle
+continued for the better part of an hour until the sounds of combat
+grew gradually less and finally ceased entirely.
+
+At Ajor's suggestion, 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+
+
+
+When I awoke, it was daylight, and I found Ajor squatting before a
+fine bed of coals roasting a large piece of antelope-meat.  Believe
+me, the sight of the new day and the delicious odor of the cooking
+meat filled 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
+picture that I had ever seen.  I recall that 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 flesh torn to ribbons,
+lying dead a few paces from our cave, and beside it, equally 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 before my
+eyes.
+
+So enormous are the 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 reptiles make, ordinarily,
+two kills a day--one in the morning and one after night.  They
+immediately devour the entire carcass, 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 persist, for even in the season of
+love the great males often turn upon their own mates 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 Ajor 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 scale than the Alus.  Ajor told me they were
+Bo-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 examining us
+most closely.  They called out to us, 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 and with
+a single shot dropped the creature in its tracks.  The effect upon
+the Bo-lu was electrical.  Immediately they abandoned all thoughts
+of war, and turning, scampered for the forest which fringed our
+path.
+
+That night we spent beside a little stream in the Sto-lu country.
+We found a tiny cave in the rock bank, so hidden away that only
+chance could direct a beast of prey to it, and after we had eaten
+of the deer-meat and some 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 inside 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 that we could not stand up,
+and the floor so narrow that it was with difficulty that we both
+wedged into it together; but we were very tired, and so we made
+the most of it; and so great was the feeling of security that I am
+sure I fell asleep 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 entire three days.  The
+country was hideously 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 quantity
+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 edge
+of the great sea.  It stood well over twelve feet high at the rump,
+its highest point, and with its enormously long 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
+Caspakian 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 brush which offered concealment;
+but Ajor only laughed, and picking up a stick, ran toward the great
+thing, shouting.  The little head was raised high upon the long
+neck as the animal stupidly looked 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 submerged.
+
+As I slowly recalled 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 crude 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 the
+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 feared as the huge beasts that roamed the surface of
+the earth.
+
+At the close of the 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 preservation
+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 myself.
+
+I enjoyed immensely 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 barriers of Caspak; not
+once did she seem to doubt me, however marvelous my statements 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 she knew.
+
+Artless though many of her questions were, they evidenced a keen
+intellect and a shrewdness which 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 proved
+so baffling to Bowen Tyler--the total absence of young among the
+ape, the semihuman and the human races with which both he and I
+had come in contact upon opposite shores of the inland sea.  Ajor
+tried to explain the matter to me, though it was apparent that
+she could not conceive 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 phrase, she
+would wave a broad gesture toward the south.
+
+"For long," she explained, leaning very close to me and whispering
+the words into my ear while she cast apprehensive glances about
+and mostly skyward, "for long my mother kept me hidden lest the
+Wieroo, passing through the air by night, should 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 carried off
+only female babes and occasionally women of the Galus who had "come
+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 gods of her race, omniscient and omnipresent.  This led
+me to assume that the Galus had a religious sense, and further
+questioning brought out the fact that such was the case.  Ajor
+spoke in tones of reverence of Luata, the god of heat and life.
+The word is derived from two others:  Lua, meaning 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 forefinger an isosceles triangle, and that
+she did the same in the morning when she first viewed the sun.  At
+first I had not connected her act with anything in particular, but
+after we learned to converse and she had explained a little of her
+religious superstitions, I realized that she was making the sign
+of the triangle as a Roman Catholic makes the sign of the cross.
+Always the short side of the triangle was uppermost.  As she
+explained 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 above 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 once 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 them, all right!  We had left the Sto-lu country and literally
+fought our way through cordons of wild beasts for two days when
+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 ideal 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 lighted a faggot and looked about; but as far as I could see,
+the chamber ran back into the cliff.
+
+Laying aside my rifle, pistol and heavy ammunition-belt, I left
+Ajor in the cave while I went down to gather firewood.  We already
+had meat and fruits which we had gathered just before reaching the
+cliffs, and my canteen was filled with fresh water.  Therefore, all
+we required was fuel, and as I always saved Ajor's strength when I
+could, 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,
+and 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 together 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 wood 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 truth 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 likely pieces of firewood, my
+head bowed and my eyes upon the ground, I suddenly felt a great
+weight hurl itself upon me.  I struggled 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 fro, I was slowly gaining advantage of him, when a score of
+his fellows came running up and overpowered me.
+
+They bound my hands 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 they questioned
+me; but it was evident that they did not believe my story, for they
+scoffed and laughed.
+
+"The Galus have 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 have 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 lofty 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 entrances, 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 Caspakian man the female breast is but a rudimentary
+organ, barely suggested in the apes and Alus, and only a little
+more defined in the Bo-lu and Sto-lu, though always increasingly
+so until it is found about half developed in the females of the
+spear-men; yet never was there an indication that the females had
+suckled young; nor were there any young among them.  Some of the
+Band-lu women were quite comely.  The figures of all, both men and
+women, were symmetrical though heavy, and though there were some
+who verged strongly upon the Sto-lu type, there were others who
+were positively 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,
+including the bones of many animals, and the atmosphere reeked
+with the stench of human 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 meat suggested them most nauseatingly.
+
+The meal completed, 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 four 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.  But they all showed a rather remarkable aptitude
+for delineation which further fortified Bowen's comparisons between
+these people and the extinct Cro-Magnons whose ancient art is still
+preserved in the caverns of Niaux and Le Portel.  The Band-lu,
+however, did not have the bow and arrow, and in this respect they
+differ from their extinct progenitors, or descendants, of Western
+Europe.
+
+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 those things which
+interested me particularly at the time.  I have no desire that
+the general public 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 apologize for my philosophizing,
+I humbly explain that they are witnessing the groupings 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 tongues of Caspak enabled us
+to understand each other perfectly, even though they were 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 lair 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 moment, some silent-footed beast of prey might catch my
+scent where it laired in some contiguous passage, and might creep
+stealthily upon me.  I craned my neck about, and stared through the
+inky darkness for the twin spots of blazing hate which I knew would
+herald 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 period of eternity many events of my life passed before
+my mental vision, a vast parade of friends and occurrences which
+would be blotted out forever on the morrow.  I cursed myself for
+the foolish 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?  I felt that the latter would
+be the truth, for the party was not made up of men easily turned
+from a purpose.  Quite probable it was that they were already
+searching for me; but that they would ever find a trace of me
+I doubted.  Long since, had I come to the conclusion that it was
+beyond human prowess to circle the shores of the inland sea of Caspak
+in the face of the myriad menaces which lurked in every shadow by
+day and by night.  Long since, had I given up any hope of reaching
+the point where I had made my entry into the country, and so I was
+now equally convinced that our entire expedition had been worse
+than futile before ever it was conceived, since Bowen J.  Tyler
+and his wife could not by any possibility have survived during all
+these long months; no more could Bradley and his party of seamen
+be yet in existence.  If the superior force and equipment of my
+party enabled them to circle the north end of the sea, they might
+some day come upon the broken wreck of my plane hanging in the
+great tree to the south; but long before that, my bones would be
+added to the litter upon the floor of this mighty cavern.
+
+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 supple, 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 whom, I had convinced myself many a time, I felt no greater
+sentiment than passing 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 with bonds in vain endeavor to free
+myself; as much, however, that I might hasten to her protection as
+that I might escape the fate which had been planned for me.  And
+while I was thus engaged and had for the moment forgotten my
+apprehensions concerning prowling beasts, I was startled 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 moving stealthily in my direction.
+
+I believe that never 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 yet 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 air teem with it, and always it is being devoured
+by some other form of life.  Life is the cheapest thing in Caspak,
+as it is the cheapest thing on earth and, doubtless, the cheapest
+cosmic production.  No, I was not afraid to 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.  Then 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:  "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!" 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 into the cave, which
+she had seen was upon the opposite side of the cliff in which 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, after 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 have made their kills, and then attempt
+to reach the cave in which I was imprisoned and rescue me.  She
+explained that with my rifle and pistol--both of which she assured
+me she could use, having watched 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 willingly to save me.
+But some time after she reached 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 Band-lu occupied upon
+the other face of the cliff.  Then she had set out through those
+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 abyss
+in the darkness and in truth she had thrice come upon sheer drops
+and had been forced to take the most frightful risks to pass them.
+I shudder even now as I contemplate what 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 kissed; 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 seize 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 be 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 there was such a thing as a mother in Caspak, a mother
+such as we know.  From the Bo-lu to the Kro-lu there is no word
+which corresponds with our word mother.  They speak of ata and
+cor sva jo, meaning 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 steps 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 without compass or
+guide.
+
+Hand in hand we crept 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 cliff, 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 keep 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 other sign that man had penetrated this far within
+the cliff, nor any spoor of animals of other kinds.
+
+It would be difficult to guess at the time we spent wandering
+through those black corridors, climbing 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 haunted
+by the ever-present terror of death by starvation and thirst.  As
+difficult as it was, I still realized 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, and 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
+hunger, 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 been
+kind to her.  I can take oath to the fact that I did not think it
+was anything more.
+
+Whether we had been imprisoned in the cliff for a day or a week I
+could not say; nor even now do I know.  We became very tired and
+hungry; the hours dragged; we slept at least twice, and then we
+rose and stumbled on, always weaker and weaker.  There were 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.  We stumbled and
+fell; we sank through pure physical inability to retain our feet;
+but always we managed to rise at last and go on.  At first, wherever
+it had been possible, we had walked hand in hand lest we become
+separated, and later, when I saw that Ajor was weakening rapidly,
+we went side by side, I supporting her with an arm about her waist.
+I still retained the heavy burden of my armament; but with the
+rifle slung to my back, my hands were free.  When I too showed
+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 wayto 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 knew, 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 take 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 force 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 came that I could no longer rise, but could
+only crawl along a few inches at a time, dragging Ajor beside me.
+Her sweet voice, now almost inaudible from weakness, implored me
+to abandon her and save 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 to 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, and Ajor was leaning against me, her
+head on my breast.  I could feel her press closer to me, and one
+hand stroked my arm in a weak caress; but she didn't say anything,
+nor were words necessary.
+
+After a few minutes' 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."
+
+She crept close to 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 little depression in which it chanced that Ajor and I lay.  I
+turned my eyes quickly upon Ajor, fearful 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 bend in the corridor just ahead of us and
+at the top of a steep incline; and instantly I realized that Ajor
+and I had stumbled by night almost to the portal of salvation.  Had
+chance taken us a few yards further, up either of the corridors
+which diverged from ours just ahead 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 tasted the water and was further refreshed.
+I shook Ajor gently by the shoulder; but she did not open her eyes,
+and then I gathered 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.  "Where are we?"
+
+"We are at the end of the corridor," I replied, "and daylight is
+coming in from the outside world just ahead.  We are saved, Ajor!"
+
+She sat up then and looked about, and then, quite womanlike, she
+burst into tears.  It was the reaction, of course; and then too,
+she was very weak.  I took her in my 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 meat 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.  However, there were
+trees, and among them we soon descried edible fruits with which we
+broke our long fast.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+
+
+
+We spent two days upon the cliff-top, resting and recuperating.
+There was some small game which gave us meat, and the little pools
+of 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 the Band-lu lying in the shallow waters, while beyond and
+close to the base of the mighty 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 west, we could see the
+farther shore of the inland sea, and southwest the large southern
+island loomed distinctly before us.  A little east of north was the
+northern island, which Ajor, shuddering, whispered 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 elevation, and in a clearer atmosphere, it would have stood
+out distinctly; but the air of Caspak is heavy with moisture, with
+the result that distant objects are blurred 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 certainly
+have given a lot for my plane at that moment, for with it, twenty
+minutes would 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 which seemed to give evidence of being
+something of a game-path to the valley, though 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
+catch and steady me, I made it all right, and then we set off down
+the trail toward the valley.  There were two or three 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 should be set upon by some member of
+the tribe.
+
+We must have passed 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 been captured.  From me his gaze went
+to Ajor.  He was a fine-looking man with clear, intelligent eyes,
+a good forehead and superb physique--by far the highest type of
+Caspakian I had yet seen, barring Ajor, of course.
+
+"You are a true Galu," he said to Ajor, "but this man is of
+a different mold.  He has the face of a Galu, but his weapons 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 spear 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 might 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 going 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 to my pistol.
+
+"They are weapons," I replied, "weapons which kill at a great
+distance." I pointed to the women in the pool beneath us.  "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 tiny figures of the hunters far to the north.
+
+The fellow laughed.  "Do it," he cried derisively, "and then it
+may be that I shall believe the balance of your strange story."
+
+"But I do not wish to kill any of them," I replied.  "Why should
+I?"
+
+"Why not?" 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 they would eat you into the bargain.  But 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 all 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" (unpeopled 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
+belong to one's own people.  This morning I hid 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 reason I know that
+you speak lies when you say that your weapons will kill at a great
+distance.  Would they, you would long since have killed me.  Come!
+I have no more time to waste in words.  I will spare the woman and
+take her with 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 take a human life.  I could feel
+no enmity toward this savage barbarian who acted almost as wholly
+upon instinct as might a wild beast, and to the last moment I was
+determined to seek some way to avoid what 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 the 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 there 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 never come to me among
+the Kro-lu, or ever thereafter.  It is useless!  No warrior lives
+who could hurl a weapon so great a distance."
+
+But even as he spoke, I was leveling my rifle upon the great brute
+below; and as he ceased speaking, 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 the 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 whom 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 have 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 admitted, "for no
+Caspakian would have permitted such an opportunity to escape him."
+This, however, I found later to be an exaggeration, as the tribes
+of the west coast and even the Kro-lu of the east coast are far
+less bloodthirsty than he would have had me believe.  "And your
+weapon!" he continued.  "You spoke true words when I thought you
+spoke lies."  And then, suddenly:  "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 north together," continued the warrior.  "I will fight
+for you, and you can fight for me.  Until death will I serve you,
+for you have 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 toward Ajor, who explained as best she
+could that this was the form of the Caspakian oath of allegiance.
+"You need never fear him after this," she concluded.
+
+"What should I do?" I asked.
+
+"Take his hands 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.
+They told me that had I walked away, the moment that I was out
+of sight of the warrior we would have become deadly enemies again.
+"But I could so easily have killed him as he stood there defenseless!"
+I exclaimed.
+
+"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 loyalty of my new friend.  I was glad to have
+him with us, for he knew the country and was evidently a fearless
+warrior.  I wished 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 and were almost
+certain to set upon Ajor.  So we hastened down the narrow path,
+reaching the foot of the cliffs but a short 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 when we stopped and looked around, we
+saw a woman running rapidly toward us.  As she approached nearer
+I could see that 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.  "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 not know that it had come to you.  I can 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 slowly 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 that 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 began to accept each other under something
+of an armed truce, and later became fast friends.  So-al was a
+mighty fine-looking girl, built like a tigress as to strength and
+sinuosity, but withal sweet and womanly.  Ajor and I came to be
+very 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, Ajor 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 themselves 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
+practically passed, and that I had accomplished fully one-half of
+my long journey.  In view of what I had passed through, I often
+wondered what chance I had to complete that journey in search of
+my friends.  The further south I should travel on the west side of
+the island, the more frightful would the dangers become as I neared
+the stamping-grounds of the more hideous 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 whether they would or not, and even provided
+that they would, could I retrace my steps 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 Ajor, 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 world.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+
+
+
+We were sitting before a little fire inside a safe grotto one
+night shortly after we had quit the cliff-dwellings of the Band-lu,
+when So-al raised a question which it had 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 heard 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
+Caspakian.
+
+"I am a cos-ata-lo," commenced Ajor, and then she turned toward
+me.  "A cos-ata-lo, my Tom, is a woman" (lo) "who did not come from
+an egg and thus on up from the beginning."  (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 mother
+hid me until I had attained such size that the Wieroo could not
+readily distinguish 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 mother came up from the beginning; but one of them, probably
+my mother, had completed 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
+in 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.  He has a large following of
+the newer Galus, those most recently come up from the Kro-lu, and
+as this class is usually much more powerful numerically than the
+older Galus, and as Du-seen's ambition knows no bounds, we have
+for a long time been expecting him to find some excuse for 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, saying 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-seen.  The first was that I go to Du-seen as his
+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 reasons for this:  One
+is that from the beginning of time jealousy had existed between
+the Wieroo and the Galus as to which would 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 only 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 both male and
+female; but so carefully do the Wieroo watch us that few of the
+males ever grow to manhood, while even fewer are the females that
+are not stolen away.  It is indeed a strange condition, 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 could we once get a start, I am sure that when all were
+true cos-ata-lo there would 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 grasp 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 night 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 other 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 shining
+brightly, illumining the entrance, against which I saw silhouetted
+the dread figure of a Wieroo.  There was no escape.  The cave was
+shallow, the entrance narrow.  I lay very still, hoping against
+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 those eyes were directed upon me,
+for the Wieroo can see in the darkness better than even the lion
+or the tiger.  But a few feet separated us when I sprang to my feet
+and dashed madly toward my menacer 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 the
+duel his long, white robe was nearly torn from him, and he became
+very angry, 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 of the cave,
+lifted me in his arms, spread his great wings and leaping into
+the air, flapped dismally through the night.  I saw the moonlit
+landscape sliding away beneath me, and then we were out above the
+sea 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 Wieroo and I
+glanced up simultaneously, to see a pair of huge jo-oos" (flying
+reptiles--pterodactyls) "swooping down upon us.  The Wieroo
+wheeled and dropped almost to sea-level, and then raced southward
+in an effort to outdistance our pursuers.  The great 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 through 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 realized that the Wieroo was
+weakening.  One of the jo-oos gained on us and succeeded in heading
+us, so that my captor had to turn in toward the coast.  Further
+and further they forced him to the left; lower and lower he sank.
+More labored was his breathing, and weaker 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.  Like a frightened
+ecca I leaped to my feet 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 far I was from the
+country of the Galus I could not guess; nor did it seem probable
+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 different
+from those of my northern world, and presently there appeared before
+me a creature fully as hideous as the Wieroo--a hairy manthing
+that barely walked erect.  I shuddered, and then I fled.  Through
+the hideous dangers that my forebears had endured in the earlier
+stages of their human evolution I fled; and always 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.  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.  I was very much interested in
+her account of the Wieroo, which up to this time 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 chance 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 should 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 nervous 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 received 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 southern end of the island fairly swarms with
+the Ho-lu, or apes; next above these are 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 explained 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 are 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 toll 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 Caspakian
+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 countless 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 that as we traveled northward from the Alus' country
+the land had gradually risen until 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 kinds 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.  I saw a greater
+number of small lions and tigers, though many of the huge ones still
+persisted, while the woolly mammoth 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
+the Kro-lu and Galu countries, though fortunately they are rare.
+I rather imagine that they are a very early 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-afternoon when To-mar and So-al bade us good-bye.  We
+were not far from Kro-lu village; in fact, we had approached it
+much closer than we had intended, and now Ajor and I were to make
+a detour toward the sea while our companions went directly in search
+of the Kro-lu chief.
+
+Ajor and I had gone 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 nudged me.  "They have a prisoner," she whispered.
+"He is a Kro-lu."
+
+And then I saw him, 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 fellow; but this Kro-lu showed plainly in
+his every physical attribute a higher plane of evolution.  While
+To-mar was just entering the Kro-lu sphere, this man, it seemed
+to me, must be close indeed to the next stage of his development,
+which would see him an envied Galu.
+
+"They will kill him?" I whispered to Ajor.
+
+"The dance of death," she replied, and I shuddered, so recently had
+I escaped the same 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 took 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 some of the lower orders
+of Caspakians at the sound of the rifle.  Instead, the moment they
+saw me, they let 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 his 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
+close to my left shoulder, and another of them stumbled and rolled
+over and over upon the ground.  Plucky little Ajor!  She had never
+fired a shot before in all her life, though I had taught her to
+sight and aim and how to squeeze the trigger instead of pulling it.
+She had practiced these new accomplishments often, but little had
+I thought they would make a marksman of her so quickly.
+
+With six of their fellows put out of the fight so easily, the
+remaining six sought cover behind 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 gained an upright position when
+the weapon was half-way upon its journey, speeding like 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 rose 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
+smile 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 knife.  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 home, if you wish."
+
+"Why don't you 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; but 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 warrior 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 have no wish to be an enemy of any man in Caspak,
+with the possible exception of the Galu warrior Du-seen."
+
+"Du-seen!" he exclaimed.  "You are an enemy of Du-seen?  And why?"
+
+"Because he would harm Ajor," I replied.  "You know him?"
+
+"He cannot know him," said Ajor.  "Du-seen 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 there 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-seen would be chief of the Galus, and he has
+come to the Kro-lu for help."
+
+Ajor was aghast.  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 Kro-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 though they occupy the land
+of the Galu and wear the skins and ornaments of the golden people,
+still they will not be Galus till the time arrives that they are
+ripe to rise.  We also tell them that even then they will never
+become a true Galu race, since there will still be those 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, " replied the man.
+
+"You are chief 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?"
+
+"Unfortunately 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 themselves 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."
+
+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 every
+stage to that of Galu.  Some never progress beyond the Alu stage;
+others stop 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 be of the sixth generation.
+
+It was not entirely plain to me even with this explanation, since
+I couldn't understand how there could be different generations of
+peoples who apparently had no offspring.  Yet I was commencing to
+get a slight glimmer 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 with the Caspakian scheme of evolution, and that the
+daily immersion of the females in the greenish slimy water was in
+response to some natural law, since neither pleasure nor cleanliness
+could be derived from what seemed almost a religious 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.
+
+As we stood talking, 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 appeared in a rough circle
+about us.  They greeted 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
+perfectly 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 hear 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 then Ajor came to my defense.
+
+"I saw it with 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 this 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 for several minutes and then turned to me.  "Can
+you keep her?" he asked, just the tinge of a sneer upon his face.
+
+I laid my palm upon 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.  Then he turned and raising
+his great bow, fitted an arrow and drew the shaft far back.  His
+warriors, supercilious smiles upon their faces, stood silently
+watching him.  His bow was the longest and the heaviest among them
+all.  A mighty man indeed must he be to bend it; yet Al-tan drew
+the shaft back until the stone point touched his left forefinger,
+and he did it with consummate ease.  Then he raised the shaft to the
+level of 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 me 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, swinging his
+great arms and his bulky shoulders for all the world like a drunken
+prize-fighter at a beach dancehall.
+
+I saw that some reply 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, the 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 their chief was gone, and through the bole was a little round
+hole marking the path 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
+wonder, 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 with 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 has served you by saving one of your warriors from the
+enemy--saving him from the 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 the 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 anyway I knew that if Al-tan intended
+treachery I would be no more in his power in the 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 entertain 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 customs.  He seemed much
+mystified by the fact that we could walk abroad by day or night
+without fear of being devoured by wild beasts or savage reptiles,
+and when I told him of the great armies which we maintained, 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 savage peoples.  Here, in Caspak, men fight 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 and 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 the Kro-lu village we were continually stalked by
+innumerable beasts of prey, and 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 though no interruption had occurred.  Twice were 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 stripped of his belongings and left
+where he had died; the carnivora would take care of his burial.
+The trophies that these Kro-lu left to the meat-eaters would have
+turned an English big-game hunter green with envy.  They did, it
+is true, cut all the edible parts from the rhino and carry them
+home; but already they were pretty well weighted down with the
+spoils of the chase, and only the fact that they are particularly
+fond of rhino-meat caused them to do so.
+
+They left the hide on the pieces they selected, as they use it
+for sandals, shield-covers, the hilts 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-tooth tiger.  The huge creature had charged
+us without warning from a clump of dense bushes where it was lying
+up after eating.  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 with pain and rage, bore
+down upon Chal-az while I stood helpless with my rifle for fear
+of hitting one of the warriors who were closing in upon it.  But
+Chal-az was ready.  Throwing aside his bow, he crouched behind
+his large oval shield, in the center of which was a hole about six
+inches in diameter.  The shield was held by tight 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 down 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 vitals
+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 arose, he glanced at the sky and remarked that it
+looked like rain.  The others already had resumed the march toward
+the village.  The incident was closed.  For some unaccountable
+reason the whole thing reminded me of a friend who once shot a cat
+in his backyard.  For three weeks he talked of nothing else.
+
+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 where
+grouped were joined so that they resembled the cells of a bee-hive.
+One hut meant a warrior and his mate, and each additional hut in a
+group indicated an additional female.  The palisade which surrounded
+the village 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 supporting 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 high, which was closed from the inside
+by logs about six feet long laid horizontally, one upon another,
+between the inside face of the palisade and two other braced 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,
+seemingly jealous of the attentions heaped upon us because we had
+served Chal-az.
+
+At last we reached 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 had in Caspak--and cheese from
+the milk of wild goats, with honey and thin bread made from wheat
+flour of their own grinding, and grapes and the fermented juice
+of grapes.  It was quite the most wonderful meal I had eaten since
+I quit the Toreador and Bowen J.  Tyler's colored chef, who could
+make pork-chops taste like chicken, and chicken taste like heaven.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+
+
+
+After dinner I rolled a cigaret and stretched myself at ease upon
+a pile of furs before the doorway, 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 sought mine and drew them
+to her lips, and then I gathered her in my arms and crushed 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 beyond 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 village swarmed with them,
+gaunt, wolflike creatures that guarded the herd by day when it
+grazed without the palisade, ten dogs to a cow.  By night the cows
+were herded in an outer inclosure roofed against the onslaughts of
+the carnivorous cats; and the dogs, with the exception of a few,
+were brought into the village; these few well-tested brutes remained
+with the herd.  During 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 manner 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 had 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-knives the men of Kro-lu
+bore no weapons about the village streets.  There was an atmosphere
+of peace and security within that village that I had not hoped to
+experience within Caspak, and after what I had passed through, it
+must have cast a numbing spell over my faculties of judgment and
+reason.  I had eaten of the lotus-flower of safety; dangers no
+longer threatened for they had ceased 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 were 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 race, 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 then 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 inflammable wood and grasses of which the hut was
+composed from being ignited by the flames.  Lying about among the
+warriors 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 sniffing at
+my heels, and of a sudden a great brute leaped upon my back.  As
+I turned to thrust it aside before its fangs found a hold upon me,
+I beheld a huge Airedale leaping frantically about me.  The grinning
+jaws, the half-closed 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 with joy.
+It was Nobs, dear old Nobs.  Bowen 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," he said.  "He came to
+me cor-sva-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 whom Ajor had fled.  I
+wondered if he knew that she was here.  I wondered if they had sent
+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 had come,
+my journey to Caspak and my intentions now that I had arrived.  I
+answered them frankly as I had nothing to conceal and assured
+them that my only wish was to find my friends and return to my own
+country.  In the Galu Du-seen 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.  They were a very
+imposing set of men--tall and straight and handsome.  About their
+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 which 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 incrusted 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 quietly
+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 his master is
+found."  And I turned again to resume my way.  I had taken but a
+few steps when I heard 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 yours nor mine," I replied, "and I am not stealing him.
+If he wishes to follow you, he may; I will 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.  With a savage growl Nobs
+turned like lightning upon the Galu, wrenched loose from his hold
+and leaped for his throat.  The 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 voice
+I called him to heel.  For just an instant he hesitated, standing
+there trembling and with bared fangs, glaring at his foe; but he
+was well trained and had been out with me quite as much as he had
+with Bowen--in fact, I had had most to do with 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 upon 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 paused 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 understand 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 those
+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 she 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 state, 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 entered the doorway, I called her
+name aloud.  There was no response.  I drew 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 leaped upon me, an angry growl burst from behind
+them.  I had forgotten Nobs.  Like a demon of hate he sprang among
+those Kro-lu fighting-men, tearing, rending, ripping with his long
+tusks and his mighty jaws.  They had me down in an instant, and it
+goes without saying that the six of them could have kept me there
+had it not been for Nobs; but while I was struggling to throw them
+off, Nobs was springing 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 belly, after which it took but an
+instant to get my feet under me and rise suddenly.
+
+As I did so, I kept a grip upon the man's arm, carrying it over one
+shoulder.  Then I leaned suddenly forward and hurled my antagonist
+over my head to a hasty fall at the opposite side of the hut.  In
+the dim light of the interior I saw that Nobs had already accounted
+for one of the others--one who lay very quiet upon the floor--while
+the four remaining upon their feet were striking at him with knives
+and hatchets.
+
+Running to one side of the man I had just put out of the fighting,
+I seized his hatchet and knife, and in another moment was in the
+thick of the argument.  I was no match for these savage warriors
+with their own weapons and would soon have gone down to ignominious
+defeat and death had it not been for Nobs, who alone was a match
+for the four of them.  I never 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 latter as the former
+which contributed to the undoing of our enemies, who, accustomed
+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 were 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 stone hatchet
+from the other.
+
+As the last man went down, I heard the running of many feet approaching
+us from the direction of the plaza.  To be captured now would mean
+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 not 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, bloody but happy, following at heel, I turned down
+the first alley and slunk away in the direction of the northern
+end of the village.
+
+Friendless and alone, 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 that 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, Bowen J. Tyler, Jr.,
+I never yet had experienced the almost paralyzing fear for the
+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 fate 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
+dethroned by some mad sentiment which I steadfastly refused to believe
+was love?  I had never been in love.  I was not in love 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
+foremost 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 could 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 came 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 moment in which we had clung
+to one another, lips smothering lips, as I left her to 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 that 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 voices 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 recollections and my hopes entwined themselves was that of
+Ajor--beloved barbarian!  My reveries were broken in upon by a hoarse
+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, recalled his attitude of a few minutes before; and
+as though he had read my thoughts, he said quickly:  "I could not
+speak 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 into 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 hole in the roof permitted the smoke from burning
+oil egress; yet the atmosphere was far from lucid.  Here Chal-az
+motioned me to a seat upon a furry hide spread upon the earthen
+floor.
+
+"I am your friend," he said.  "You saved 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 safe, too," he answered.  "We learned 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 after 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 bearing 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 immediately and accompanied the
+warriors to your hut while I remained to watch what went 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 not 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 to go to the doorway of his dwelling, which consisted of
+many huts joined together, 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 ceased, and
+I was becoming uneasy because of his protracted absence when I
+heard him 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 they found Ajor?"
+
+"No," he replied; "but Ajor has gone.  She learned that you had
+escaped them and was told that you had left the village, 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."
+
+"Then I must go," I said, rising.  Nobs rose and shook himself.
+He had been dead asleep 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." He leaned close
+to my ear and whispered:  "There are many to follow and help you.
+Al-tan has agreed to aid Du-seen against 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 has ordained that we
+shall rise, and only thus.  No batu may win to the estate of a Galu
+by treachery and force of arms while Chal-az lives and may wield
+a heavy blow and a sharp spear with true Kro-lus 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 forth 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, or
+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 will 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 their trappings."
+
+I saw the wisdom of his suggestion, and as my clothes were by now
+so ragged as to but half conceal 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, spear,
+bow and arrow and the long rope which I learned now for the first
+time is the 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 is 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 hunting 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 for 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 concerned, 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 outfitted 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.  By reaching my right hand over my left
+shoulder, I could seize the spear or arrows; my left hand could find
+my bow over my right shoulder, while a veritable contortionist-act
+was necessary to place my shield in front of me and upon my left
+arm.  The shield, long and oval, is utilized more as back-armor than
+as a defense against frontal attack, for the close-set armlets of
+gold upon the left forearm are principally depended upon to ward
+off knife, spear, hatchet, or arrow from in front; but against the
+greater carnivora and the attacks of several human antagonists,
+the shield is utilized to its best advantage and carried by loops
+upon the left arm.
+
+Fully equipped, except for a blanket, I followed Chal-az from his
+domicile into the dark and 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 thanked 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+
+
+
+To run up the inclined 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 after we reached the top,
+lift him over the sharpened stakes and lower him upon the outside.
+To find Ajor in the unknown country to the north seemed rather
+hopeless; yet I could do no less than try, praying in the meanwhile
+that she would come through unscathed and in safety to her father.
+
+As Nobs and I swung along in the growing light of the coming day,
+I was impressed by the lessening 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 changes 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 small band of the latter
+of about the size of those of our old Western plains--such as the
+Indians bred in former days and to a lesser extent even now.  They
+were fat and sleek, and I looked upon 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,
+scarce 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 firearms, 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 snapping
+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.  He would dart in and away so quickly that not even
+the lightning-like movements of the great cats could reach him.
+I have seen him tantalize them thus until they fairly screamed in
+rage.
+
+The greatest inconvenience the hunters caused me was the delay,
+for they have a nasty habit 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 altitude of some two hundred feet, sheer
+and precipitous, without a break that the eye could perceive.  How
+I was to find a crossing I could not guess.  Whether 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 made 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 appealed 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 intelligent 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' jaws 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 base of the cliffs for a considerable distance.
+The ground was rolling and tree-dotted and covered with grazing
+animals, alone, in pairs and in herds--a motley aggregation of the
+modern and extinct herbivore of the world.  A huge woolly mastodon
+stood swaying to and fro in the shade of a giant fern--a mighty
+bull with enormous upcurving tusks.  Near him grazed an aurochs
+bull with a cow and a calf, close beside a lone rhinoceros asleep
+in a dust-hole.  Deer, antelope, 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 none of them attacked us.  As we were topping
+a rise in the middle of the afternoon, I saw something that brought
+me to a sudden stop.  Calling Nobs in a whisper, I cautioned him to
+silence and kept him at heel while I threw myself flat and 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 pass 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 cliffs from the west.  Into the defile
+formed 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 had passed from sight, I rose and bent
+my steps in the direction of the pass--the same pass toward which
+Nobs had evidently been leading me.  I went warily as I approached
+it, for fear 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 wished 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 unguarded.
+
+The Galus might be a great people in Caspak; but they were pitifully
+inefficient in even the simpler forms of military tactics.  I was
+surprised 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 passed
+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 that 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 followed 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 the 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 and the
+shrubs were of a hardier type, and I realized that at night the
+Galu blanket might be almost a necessity.  Acacia 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 enormous trees.  From the summit of the
+cliff I could see forests rising hundreds of feet above the level
+upon which I stood, and even at the distance they were from me I
+realized that the boles were of gigantic size.
+
+At last I had come to the Galu country.  Though not conceived 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, and I could not but feel something of the elation and
+pride which had filled To-mar and So-al when they realized that the
+call had come to them and they were about 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
+the 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-deer, 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 cover, 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 then 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
+poised for a cast.  The balance of the herd sprang quickly away;
+but the hurt doe lagged, and in a moment Nobs was beside 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
+going 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 barrier 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 some 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 thus 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 that Ajor had not quitted the
+Kro-lu village; but if not, what had brought Du-seen forth without
+her?  There was a puzzler, 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 horses 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 almost 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 colts and half-grown
+horses.  Their markings were almost identical, indicating a purity
+of strain that might have persisted since long ages ago.  If I had
+coveted one of the little ponies of the Kro-lu country, imagine
+my state of mind when 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 brush 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 called 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 noose, spreading it flat and open upon
+the ground.
+
+To step to one side 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 doubtless 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.  At last it became evident that he was doing
+so, when apparently without cause, the filly raised her head, neighed
+and started off at a trot in the opposite direction, immediately
+followed, of course, by the colts and my stallion.  It looked 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 farther on.  This time there was no bush within
+fifty feet of them, and I was at a loss as to how to get within
+safe roping-distance.  Anywhere under forty feet I am an excellent
+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 debating the question in my mind, I was almost upon the
+point of making the attempt at the long throw.  I had plenty of
+rope, 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 that 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 more 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 directly 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 that 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 them, he proceeded at a walk.
+The splendid 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 angles.
+
+And now the fun and 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 the 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 the Kro-lu country.  I must admit that my
+thoughts were not pleasant ones, verging almost upon cowardice,
+until I chanced to think of little Ajor alone in this same land
+and armed only with a knife!  I was immediately filled with 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 broad daylight
+garbed in a bit of red-deer skin in inadequate length, you can have
+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 attacked me, though I saw several menacing forms
+passing through the dark aisles of the forest.  At last I commenced
+to worry over Nobs' protracted absence and to fear that something
+had befallen him.  I was coiling my rope to start out in search
+of him, when I saw the stallion leap into view at almost the same
+spot behind which he had disappeared, and at his heels ran Nobs.
+Neither was running so fast or furiously 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 task, 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 this
+gait that he passed me; my rope-hand flew forward; the honda, well
+down, held the noose open, and the beautiful bay fairly ran his
+head into it.
+
+Instantly he wheeled to dash off at right angles.  I braced myself
+with the rope around my hip and brought him to a sudden stand.
+Rearing and struggling, he fought for his liberty while Nobs,
+panting and with lolling tongue, came and threw himself down near
+me.  He seemed to know that 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
+to a degree, and of such remarkable intelligence that he soon
+discovered that I had no intention of harming him.  After that,
+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 die
+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 education was
+rapid.  No horse ever learned more 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
+French 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 riding 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 Caspak 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 rode 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 fifth day as
+I emerged from a forest, I saw some distance ahead of me a single
+small figure pursued by many others.  Instantly I recognized the
+quarry as Ajor.  The 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 pressure 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 discovered us and set up such a howl
+as I never before have heard.  They were all Galus, and I soon
+recognized the foremost as Du-seen.  He was almost 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 speed, and most nobly did the
+wondrous creature respond to my demands.  If ever a four-footed
+creature approximated flying, it was Ace that day.
+
+Du-seen, intent upon 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 up 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 knife to stab me, thinking that I was some new enemy,
+when her eyes found my face and she recognized me.  With a little
+sob 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 his 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 effectually hid its
+treacherous identity.  It is 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 was no escape.  It was evident that we
+were doomed.
+
+"Slay me!" begged Ajor.  "Let me die at thy loved hands rather than
+beneath the knife of this hateful thing, for he will kill me.  He
+has sworn to kill me.  Last night he captured me, and when later
+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.  Today they searched for me and found
+me; and as I fled, Du-seen ran after me crying that he would slay
+me.  Kill me, my Tom, and then fall upon thine own spear, for they
+will kill you horribly if they take you alive."
+
+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-seen 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
+against Jor the chief had, therefore, been consummated, and this
+horde was already marching upon the Galu city.  I sighed as I
+thought how close I had been to saving not only Ajor but her father
+and his 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
+miles 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 could not reach us with their hands; but at a command from
+Du-seen they fitted arrows 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 to 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 wood 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
+who held those rifles were the men of my own party; and when, a
+few minutes later, 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 ahead of the others came two men in the garb of Galus.
+Each was tall and straight and wonderfully muscled; yet they differed
+as Ace might differ from a perfect specimen of another species.
+As they approached the mire, Ajor held forth her arms and cried,
+"Jor, my chief!  My father!" and the elder of the two 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 man we had searched a new world to find.  They cut saplings
+from the forest and laid a road into the swamp before they could
+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 hours a day in
+three eight-hour shifts with two reliefs to each shift alternating
+half-hourly.  Two men with electric drills driven from the dynamos
+aboard the Toreador drilled two holes four feet apart in the face
+of 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 summit 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 between 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 city, Lys La Rue was waiting to welcome us.  She was Mrs.
+Tyler now, as the master of the Toreador had married them the very
+day that the search-party had found them, though neither Lys nor
+Bowen 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 they 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 listen 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 upon my heart and wondered how I should get
+along without her.  As I held her in my arms that last night, 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 with 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
+ever 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 of a last farewell.  The
+party formed for the march, an escort of Galu warriors ready to
+accompany us.  I could not even bear 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 two 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 clearing 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 to 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."
+
+He looked at me in surprise.  "Good-bye, old man," he said, and
+grasped my hand.  "I thought you'd do it in the end."
+
+And then I went back 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+I have made the following changes to the text:
+
+PAGE  LINE        ORIGINAL          CHANGED TO
+
+  75    15        later             latter
+ 108    14        in                is
+ 123    24        the               he
+ 131    13        plans             planes
+ 131    28        new               few
+ 132    24        Donosaur          Dinosaur
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of People Out Of Time
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+
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