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@@ -0,0 +1,4154 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Out of Time's Abyss, by Edgar Rice Burroughs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Out of Time's Abyss + +Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs + +Posting Date: July 30, 2008 [EBook #553] +Release Date: June, 1996 +[Last updated: November 24, 2012] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUT OF TIME'S ABYSS *** + + + + +Produced by Judith Boss. + + + + + + + + +Out of Time's Abyss + + +By + +Edgar Rice Burroughs + + + + +Chapter I + +This is the tale of Bradley after he left Fort Dinosaur upon the west +coast of the great lake that is in the center of the island. + +Upon the fourth day of September, 1916, he set out with four +companions, Sinclair, Brady, James, and Tippet, to search along the +base of the barrier cliffs for a point at which they might be scaled. + +Through the heavy Caspakian air, beneath the swollen sun, the five men +marched northwest from Fort Dinosaur, now waist-deep in lush, jungle +grasses starred with myriad gorgeous blooms, now across open +meadow-land and parklike expanses and again plunging into dense forests +of eucalyptus and acacia and giant arboreous ferns with feathered +fronds waving gently a hundred feet above their heads. + +About them upon the ground, among the trees and in the air over them +moved and swung and soared the countless forms of Caspak's teeming +life. Always were they menaced by some frightful thing and seldom were +their rifles cool, yet even in the brief time they had dwelt upon +Caprona they had become callous to danger, so that they swung along +laughing and chatting like soldiers on a summer hike. + +"This reminds me of South Clark Street," remarked Brady, who had once +served on the traffic squad in Chicago; and as no one asked him why, he +volunteered that it was "because it's no place for an Irishman." + +"South Clark Street and heaven have something in common, then," +suggested Sinclair. James and Tippet laughed, and then a hideous growl +broke from a dense thicket ahead and diverted their attention to other +matters. + +"One of them behemoths of 'Oly Writ," muttered Tippet as they came to a +halt and with guns ready awaited the almost inevitable charge. + +"Hungry lot o' beggars, these," said Bradley; "always trying to eat +everything they see." + +For a moment no further sound came from the thicket. "He may be +feeding now," suggested Bradley. "We'll try to go around him. Can't +waste ammunition. Won't last forever. Follow me." And he set off at +right angles to their former course, hoping to avert a charge. They +had taken a dozen steps, perhaps, when the thicket moved to the advance +of the thing within it, the leafy branches parted, and the hideous head +of a gigantic bear emerged. + +"Pick your trees," whispered Bradley. "Can't waste ammunition." + +The men looked about them. The bear took a couple of steps forward, +still growling menacingly. He was exposed to the shoulders now. +Tippet took one look at the monster and bolted for the nearest tree; +and then the bear charged. He charged straight for Tippet. The other +men scattered for the various trees they had selected--all except +Bradley. He stood watching Tippet and the bear. The man had a good +start and the tree was not far away; but the speed of the enormous +creature behind him was something to marvel at, yet Tippet was in a +fair way to make his sanctuary when his foot caught in a tangle of +roots and down he went, his rifle flying from his hand and falling +several yards away. Instantly Bradley's piece was at his shoulder, +there was a sharp report answered by a roar of mingled rage and pain +from the carnivore. Tippet attempted to scramble to his feet. + +"Lie still!" shouted Bradley. "Can't waste ammunition." + +The bear halted in its tracks, wheeled toward Bradley and then back +again toward Tippet. Again the former's rifle spit angrily, and the +bear turned again in his direction. Bradley shouted loudly. "Come on, +you behemoth of Holy Writ!" he cried. "Come on, you duffer! Can't +waste ammunition." And as he saw the bear apparently upon the verge of +deciding to charge him, he encouraged the idea by backing rapidly away, +knowing that an angry beast will more often charge one who moves than +one who lies still. + +And the bear did charge. Like a bolt of lightning he flashed down upon +the Englishman. "Now run!" Bradley called to Tippet and himself +turned in flight toward a nearby tree. The other men, now safely +ensconced upon various branches, watched the race with breathless +interest. Would Bradley make it? It seemed scarce possible. And if +he didn't! James gasped at the thought. Six feet at the shoulder +stood the frightful mountain of blood-mad flesh and bone and sinew that +was bearing down with the speed of an express train upon the seemingly +slow-moving man. + +It all happened in a few seconds; but they were seconds that seemed +like hours to the men who watched. They saw Tippet leap to his feet at +Bradley's shouted warning. They saw him run, stooping to recover his +rifle as he passed the spot where it had fallen. They saw him glance +back toward Bradley, and then they saw him stop short of the tree that +might have given him safety and turn back in the direction of the bear. +Firing as he ran, Tippet raced after the great cave bear--the monstrous +thing that should have been extinct ages before--ran for it and fired +even as the beast was almost upon Bradley. The men in the trees +scarcely breathed. It seemed to them such a futile thing for Tippet to +do, and Tippet of all men! They had never looked upon Tippet as a +coward--there seemed to be no cowards among that strangely assorted +company that Fate had gathered together from the four corners of the +earth--but Tippet was considered a cautious man. Overcautious, some +thought him. How futile he and his little pop-gun appeared as he +dashed after that living engine of destruction! But, oh, how glorious! +It was some such thought as this that ran through Brady's mind, though +articulated it might have been expressed otherwise, albeit more +forcefully. + +Just then it occurred to Brady to fire and he, too, opened upon the +bear, but at the same instant the animal stumbled and fell forward, +though still growling most fearsomely. Tippet never stopped running or +firing until he stood within a foot of the brute, which lay almost +touching Bradley and was already struggling to regain its feet. +Placing the muzzle of his gun against the bear's ear, Tippet pulled the +trigger. The creature sank limply to the ground and Bradley scrambled +to his feet. + +"Good work, Tippet," he said. "Mightily obliged to you--awful waste of +ammunition, really." + +And then they resumed the march and in fifteen minutes the encounter +had ceased even to be a topic of conversation. + +For two days they continued upon their perilous way. Already the +cliffs loomed high and forbidding close ahead without sign of break to +encourage hope that somewhere they might be scaled. Late in the +afternoon the party crossed a small stream of warm water upon the +sluggishly moving surface of which floated countless millions of tiny +green eggs surrounded by a light scum of the same color, though of a +darker shade. Their past experience of Caspak had taught them that +they might expect to come upon a stagnant pool of warm water if they +followed the stream to its source; but there they were almost certain +to find some of Caspak's grotesque, manlike creatures. Already since +they had disembarked from the U-33 after its perilous trip through the +subterranean channel beneath the barrier cliffs had brought them into +the inland sea of Caspak, had they encountered what had appeared to be +three distinct types of these creatures. There had been the pure +apes--huge, gorillalike beasts--and those who walked, a trifle more +erect and had features with just a shade more of the human cast about +them. Then there were men like Ahm, whom they had captured and +confined at the fort--Ahm, the club-man. "Well-known club-man," Tyler +had called him. Ahm and his people had knowledge of a speech. They +had a language, in which they were unlike the race just inferior to +them, and they walked much more erect and were less hairy: but it was +principally the fact that they possessed a spoken language and carried +a weapon that differentiated them from the others. + +All of these peoples had proven belligerent in the extreme. In common +with the rest of the fauna of Caprona the first law of nature as they +seemed to understand it was to kill--kill--kill. And so it was that +Bradley had no desire to follow up the little stream toward the pool +near which were sure to be the caves of some savage tribe, but fortune +played him an unkind trick, for the pool was much closer than he +imagined, its southern end reaching fully a mile south of the point at +which they crossed the stream, and so it was that after forcing their +way through a tangle of jungle vegetation they came out upon the edge +of the pool which they had wished to avoid. + +Almost simultaneously there appeared south of them a party of naked men +armed with clubs and hatchets. Both parties halted as they caught +sight of one another. The men from the fort saw before them a hunting +party evidently returning to its caves or village laden with meat. +They were large men with features closely resembling those of the +African Negro though their skins were white. Short hair grew upon a +large portion of their limbs and bodies, which still retained a +considerable trace of apish progenitors. They were, however, a +distinctly higher type than the Bo-lu, or club-men. + +Bradley would have been glad to have averted a meeting; but as he +desired to lead his party south around the end of the pool, and as it +was hemmed in by the jungle on one side and the water on the other, +there seemed no escape from an encounter. + +On the chance that he might avoid a clash, Bradley stepped forward with +upraised hand. "We are friends," he called in the tongue of Ahm, the +Bo-lu, who had been held a prisoner at the fort; "permit us to pass in +peace. We will not harm you." + +At this the hatchet-men set up a great jabbering with much laughter, +loud and boisterous. "No," shouted one, "you will not harm us, for we +shall kill you. Come! We kill! We kill!" And with hideous shouts +they charged down upon the Europeans. + +"Sinclair, you may fire," said Bradley quietly. "Pick off the leader. +Can't waste ammunition." + +The Englishman raised his piece to his shoulder and took quick aim at +the breast of the yelling savage leaping toward them. Directly behind +the leader came another hatchet-man, and with the report of Sinclair's +rifle both warriors lunged forward in the tall grass, pierced by the +same bullet. The effect upon the rest of the band was electrical. As +one man they came to a sudden halt, wheeled to the east and dashed into +the jungle, where the men could hear them forcing their way in an +effort to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the +authors of this new and frightful noise that killed warriors at a great +distance. + +Both the savages were dead when Bradley approached to examine them, and +as the Europeans gathered around, other eyes were bent upon them with +greater curiosity than they displayed for the victim of Sinclair's +bullet. When the party again took up the march around the southern end +of the pool the owner of the eyes followed them--large, round eyes, +almost expressionless except for a certain cold cruelty which glinted +malignly from under their pale gray irises. + +All unconscious of the stalker, the men came, late in the afternoon, to +a spot which seemed favorable as a campsite. A cold spring bubbled +from the base of a rocky formation which overhung and partially +encircled a small inclosure. At Bradley's command, the men took up the +duties assigned them--gathering wood, building a cook-fire and +preparing the evening meal. It was while they were thus engaged that +Brady's attention was attracted by the dismal flapping of huge wings. +He glanced up, expecting to see one of the great flying reptiles of a +bygone age, his rifle ready in his hand. Brady was a brave man. He +had groped his way up narrow tenement stairs and taken an armed maniac +from a dark room without turning a hair; but now as he looked up, he +went white and staggered back. + +"Gawd!" he almost screamed. "What is it?" + +Attracted by Brady's cry the others seized their rifles as they +followed his wide-eyed, frozen gaze, nor was there one of them that was +not moved by some species of terror or awe. Then Brady spoke again in +an almost inaudible voice. "Holy Mother protect us--it's a banshee!" + +Bradley, always cool almost to indifference in the face of danger, felt +a strange, creeping sensation run over his flesh, as slowly, not a +hundred feet above them, the thing flapped itself across the sky, its +huge, round eyes glaring down upon them. And until it disappeared over +the tops of the trees of a near-by wood the five men stood as though +paralyzed, their eyes never leaving the weird shape; nor never one of +them appearing to recall that he grasped a loaded rifle in his hands. + +With the passing of the thing, came the reaction. Tippet sank to the +ground and buried his face in his hands. "Oh, Gord," he moaned. "Tyke +me awy from this orful plice." Brady, recovered from the first shock, +swore loud and luridly. He called upon all the saints to witness that +he was unafraid and that anybody with half an eye could have seen that +the creature was nothing more than "one av thim flyin' alligators" that +they all were familiar with. + +"Yes," said Sinclair with fine sarcasm, "we've saw so many of them with +white shrouds on 'em." + +"Shut up, you fool!" growled Brady. "If you know so much, tell us what +it was after bein' then." + +Then he turned toward Bradley. "What was it, sir, do you think?" he +asked. + +Bradley shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "It looked like a +winged human being clothed in a flowing white robe. Its face was more +human than otherwise. That is the way it looked to me; but what it +really was I can't even guess, for such a creature is as far beyond my +experience or knowledge as it is beyond yours. All that I am sure of +is that whatever else it may have been, it was quite material--it was +no ghost; rather just another of the strange forms of life which we +have met here and with which we should be accustomed by this time." + +Tippet looked up. His face was still ashy. "Yer cawn't tell me," he +cried. "Hi seen hit. Blime, Hi seen hit. Hit was ha dead man flyin' +through the hair. Didn't Hi see 'is heyes? Oh, Gord! Didn't Hi see +'em?" + +"It didn't look like any beast or reptile to me," spoke up Sinclair. +"It was lookin' right down at me when I looked up and I saw its face +plain as I see yours. It had big round eyes that looked all cold and +dead, and its cheeks were sunken in deep, and I could see its yellow +teeth behind thin, tight-drawn lips--like a man who had been dead a +long while, sir," he added, turning toward Bradley. + +"Yes!" James had not spoken since the apparition had passed over them, +and now it was scarce speech which he uttered--rather a series of +articulate gasps. "Yes--dead--a--long--while. It--means something. +It--come--for some--one. For one--of us. One--of us is goin'--to die. +I'm goin' to die!" he ended in a wail. + +"Come! Come!" snapped Bradley. "Won't do. Won't do at all. Get to +work, all of you. Waste of time. Can't waste time." + +His authoritative tones brought them all up standing, and presently +each was occupied with his own duties; but each worked in silence and +there was no singing and no bantering such as had marked the making of +previous camps. Not until they had eaten and to each had been issued +the little ration of smoking tobacco allowed after each evening meal +did any sign of a relaxation of taut nerves appear. It was Brady who +showed the first signs of returning good spirits. He commenced humming +"It's a Long Way to Tipperary" and presently to voice the words, but he +was well into his third song before anyone joined him, and even then +there seemed a dismal note in even the gayest of tunes. + +A huge fire blazed in the opening of their rocky shelter that the +prowling carnivora might be kept at bay; and always one man stood on +guard, watchfully alert against a sudden rush by some maddened beast of +the jungle. Beyond the fire, yellow-green spots of flame appeared, +moved restlessly about, disappeared and reappeared, accompanied by a +hideous chorus of screams and growls and roars as the hungry +meat-eaters hunting through the night were attracted by the light or +the scent of possible prey. + +But to such sights and sounds as these the five men had become callous. +They sang or talked as unconcernedly as they might have done in the +bar-room of some publichouse at home. + +Sinclair was standing guard. The others were listening to Brady's +description of traffic congestion at the Rush Street bridge during the +rush hour at night. The fire crackled cheerily. The owners of the +yellow-green eyes raised their frightful chorus to the heavens. +Conditions seemed again to have returned to normal. And then, as +though the hand of Death had reached out and touched them all, the five +men tensed into sudden rigidity. + +Above the nocturnal diapason of the teeming jungle sounded a dismal +flapping of wings and over head, through the thick night, a shadowy +form passed across the diffused light of the flaring camp-fire. +Sinclair raised his rifle and fired. An eerie wail floated down from +above and the apparition, whatever it might have been, was swallowed by +the darkness. For several seconds the listening men heard the sound of +those dismally flapping wings lessening in the distance until they +could no longer be heard. + +Bradley was the first to speak. "Shouldn't have fired, Sinclair," he +said; "can't waste ammunition." But there was no note of censure in +his tone. It was as though he understood the nervous reaction that had +compelled the other's act. + +"I couldn't help it, sir," said Sinclair. "Lord, it would take an iron +man to keep from shootin' at that awful thing. Do you believe in +ghosts, sir?" + +"No," replied Bradley. "No such things." + +"I don't know about that," said Brady. "There was a woman murdered +over on the prairie near Brighton--her throat was cut from ear to ear, +and--" + +"Shut up," snapped Bradley. + +"My grandaddy used to live down Coppington wy," said Tippet. "They +were a hold ruined castle on a 'ill near by, hand at midnight they used +to see pale blue lights through the windows an 'ear--" + +"Will you close your hatch!" demanded Bradley. "You fools will have +yourselves scared to death in a minute. Now go to sleep." + +But there was little sleep in camp that night until utter exhaustion +overtook the harassed men toward morning; nor was there any return of +the weird creature that had set the nerves of each of them on edge. + +The following forenoon the party reached the base of the barrier cliffs +and for two days marched northward in an effort to discover a break in +the frowning abutment that raised its rocky face almost perpendicularly +above them, yet nowhere was there the slightest indication that the +cliffs were scalable. + +Disheartened, Bradley determined to turn back toward the fort, as he +already had exceeded the time decided upon by Bowen Tyler and himself +for the expedition. The cliffs for many miles had been trending in a +northeasterly direction, indicating to Bradley that they were +approaching the northern extremity of the island. According to the +best of his calculations they had made sufficient easting during the +past two days to have brought them to a point almost directly north of +Fort Dinosaur and as nothing could be gained by retracing their steps +along the base of the cliffs he decided to strike due south through the +unexplored country between them and the fort. + +That night (September 9, 1916), they made camp a short distance from +the cliffs beside one of the numerous cool springs that are to be found +within Caspak, oftentimes close beside the still more numerous warm and +hot springs which feed the many pools. After supper the men lay +smoking and chatting among themselves. Tippet was on guard. Fewer +night prowlers threatened them, and the men were commenting upon the +fact that the farther north they had traveled the smaller the number of +all species of animals became, though it was still present in what +would have seemed appalling plenitude in any other part of the world. +The diminution in reptilian life was the most noticeable change in the +fauna of northern Caspak. Here, however, were forms they had not met +elsewhere, several of which were of gigantic proportions. + +According to their custom all, with the exception of the man on guard, +sought sleep early, nor, once disposed upon the ground for slumber, +were they long in finding it. It seemed to Bradley that he had +scarcely closed his eyes when he was brought to his feet, wide awake, +by a piercing scream which was punctuated by the sharp report of a +rifle from the direction of the fire where Tippet stood guard. As he +ran toward the man, Bradley heard above him the same uncanny wail that +had set every nerve on edge several nights before, and the dismal +flapping of huge wings. He did not need to look up at the +white-shrouded figure winging slowly away into the night to know that +their grim visitor had returned. + +The muscles of his arm, reacting to the sight and sound of the menacing +form, carried his hand to the butt of his pistol; but after he had +drawn the weapon, he immediately returned it to its holster with a +shrug. + +"What for?" he muttered. "Can't waste ammunition." Then he walked +quickly to where Tippet lay sprawled upon his face. By this time +James, Brady and Sinclair were at his heels, each with his rifle in +readiness. + +"Is he dead, sir?" whispered James as Bradley kneeled beside the +prostrate form. + +Bradley turned Tippet over on his back and pressed an ear close to the +other's heart. In a moment he raised his head. "Fainted," he +announced. "Get water. Hurry!" Then he loosened Tippet's shirt at +the throat and when the water was brought, threw a cupful in the man's +face. Slowly Tippet regained consciousness and sat up. At first he +looked curiously into the faces of the men about him; then an +expression of terror overspread his features. He shot a startled +glance up into the black void above and then burying his face in his +arms began to sob like a child. + +"What's wrong, man?" demanded Bradley. "Buck up! Can't play cry-baby. +Waste of energy. What happened?" + +"Wot 'appened, sir!" wailed Tippet. "Oh, Gord, sir! Hit came back. +Hit came for me, sir. Right hit did, sir; strite hat me, sir; hand +with long w'ite 'ands it clawed for me. Oh, Gord! Hit almost caught +me, sir. Hi'm has good as dead; Hi'm a marked man; that's wot Hi ham. +Hit was a-goin' for to carry me horf, sir." + +"Stuff and nonsense," snapped Bradley. "Did you get a good look at it?" + +Tippet said that he did--a much better look than he wanted. The thing +had almost clutched him, and he had looked straight into its +eyes--"dead heyes in a dead face," he had described them. + +"Wot was it after bein', do you think?" inquired Brady. + +"Hit was Death," moaned Tippet, shuddering, and again a pall of gloom +fell upon the little party. + +The following day Tippet walked as one in a trance. He never spoke +except in reply to a direct question, which more often than not had to +be repeated before it could attract his attention. He insisted that he +was already a dead man, for if the thing didn't come for him during the +day he would never live through another night of agonized apprehension, +waiting for the frightful end that he was positive was in store for +him. "I'll see to that," he said, and they all knew that Tippet meant +to take his own life before darkness set in. + +Bradley tried to reason with him, in his short, crisp way, but soon saw +the futility of it; nor could he take the man's weapons from him +without subjecting him to almost certain death from any of the +numberless dangers that beset their way. + +The entire party was moody and glum. There was none of the bantering +that had marked their intercourse before, even in the face of blighting +hardships and hideous danger. This was a new menace that threatened +them, something that they couldn't explain; and so, naturally, it +aroused within them superstitious fear which Tippet's attitude only +tended to augment. To add further to their gloom, their way led +through a dense forest, where, on account of the underbrush, it was +difficult to make even a mile an hour. Constant watchfulness was +required to avoid the many snakes of various degrees of repulsiveness +and enormity that infested the wood; and the only ray of hope they had +to cling to was that the forest would, like the majority of Caspakian +forests, prove to be of no considerable extent. + +Bradley was in the lead when he came suddenly upon a grotesque creature +of Titanic proportions. Crouching among the trees, which here +commenced to thin out slightly, Bradley saw what appeared to be an +enormous dragon devouring the carcass of a mammoth. From frightful +jaws to the tip of its long tail it was fully forty feet in length. +Its body was covered with plates of thick skin which bore a striking +resemblance to armor-plate. The creature saw Bradley almost at the +same instant that he saw it and reared up on its enormous hind legs +until its head towered a full twenty-five feet above the ground. From +the cavernous jaws issued a hissing sound of a volume equal to the +escaping steam from the safety-valves of half a dozen locomotives, and +then the creature came for the man. + +"Scatter!" shouted Bradley to those behind him; and all but Tippet +heeded the warning. The man stood as though dazed, and when Bradley +saw the other's danger, he too stopped and wheeling about sent a bullet +into the massive body forcing its way through the trees toward him. +The shot struck the creature in the belly where there was no protecting +armor, eliciting a new note which rose in a shrill whistle and ended in +a wail. It was then that Tippet appeared to come out of his trance, +for with a cry of terror he turned and fled to the left. Bradley, +seeing that he had as good an opportunity as the others to escape, now +turned his attention to extricating himself; and as the woods seemed +dense on the right, he ran in that direction, hoping that the close-set +boles would prevent pursuit on the part of the great reptile. The +dragon paid no further attention to him, however, for Tippet's sudden +break for liberty had attracted its attention; and after Tippet it +went, bowling over small trees, uprooting underbrush and leaving a wake +behind it like that of a small tornado. + +Bradley, the moment he had discovered the thing was pursuing Tippet, +had followed it. He was afraid to fire for fear of hitting the man, +and so it was that he came upon them at the very moment that the +monster lunged its great weight forward upon the doomed man. The +sharp, three-toed talons of the forelimbs seized poor Tippet, and +Bradley saw the unfortunate fellow lifted high above the ground as the +creature again reared up on its hind legs, immediately transferring +Tippet's body to its gaping jaws, which closed with a sickening, +crunching sound as Tippet's bones cracked beneath the great teeth. + +Bradley half raised his rifle to fire again and then lowered it with a +shake of his head. Tippet was beyond succor--why waste a bullet that +Caspak could never replace? If he could now escape the further notice +of the monster it would be a wiser act than to throw his life away in +futile revenge. He saw that the reptile was not looking in his +direction, and so he slipped noiselessly behind the bole of a large +tree and thence quietly faded away in the direction he believed the +others to have taken. At what he considered a safe distance he halted +and looked back. Half hidden by the intervening trees he still could +see the huge head and the massive jaws from which protruded the limp +legs of the dead man. Then, as though struck by the hammer of Thor, +the creature collapsed and crumpled to the ground. Bradley's single +bullet, penetrating the body through the soft skin of the belly, had +slain the Titan. + +A few minutes later, Bradley found the others of the party. The four +returned cautiously to the spot where the creature lay and after +convincing themselves that it was quite dead, came close to it. It was +an arduous and gruesome job extricating Tippet's mangled remains from +the powerful jaws, the men working for the most part silently. + +"It was the work of the banshee all right," muttered Brady. "It warned +poor Tippet, it did." + +"Hit killed him, that's wot hit did, hand hit'll kill some more of us," +said James, his lower lip trembling. + +"If it was a ghost," interjected Sinclair, "and I don't say as it was; +but if it was, why, it could take on any form it wanted to. It might +have turned itself into this thing, which ain't no natural thing at +all, just to get poor Tippet. If it had of been a lion or something +else humanlike it wouldn't look so strange; but this here thing ain't +humanlike. There ain't no such thing an' never was." + +"Bullets don't kill ghosts," said Bradley, "so this couldn't have been +a ghost. Furthermore, there are no such things. I've been trying to +place this creature. Just succeeded. It's a tyrannosaurus. Saw +picture of skeleton in magazine. There's one in New York Natural +History Museum. Seems to me it said it was found in place called Hell +Creek somewhere in western North America. Supposed to have lived about +six million years ago." + +"Hell Creek's in Montana," said Sinclair. "I used to punch cows in +Wyoming, an' I've heard of Hell Creek. Do you s'pose that there +thing's six million years old?" His tone was skeptical. + +"No," replied Bradley; "But it would indicate that the island of +Caprona has stood almost without change for more than six million +years." + +The conversation and Bradley's assurance that the creature was not of +supernatural origin helped to raise a trifle the spirits of the men; +and then came another diversion in the form of ravenous meat-eaters +attracted to the spot by the uncanny sense of smell which had apprised +them of the presence of flesh, killed and ready for the eating. + +It was a constant battle while they dug a grave and consigned all that +was mortal of John Tippet to his last, lonely resting-place. Nor would +they leave then; but remained to fashion a rude headstone from a +crumbling out-cropping of sandstone and to gather a mass of the +gorgeous flowers growing in such great profusion around them and heap +the new-made grave with bright blooms. Upon the headstone Sinclair +scratched in rude characters the words: + + HERE LIES JOHN TIPPET + ENGLISHMAN + KILLED BY TYRANNOSAURUS + 10 SEPT. A.D. 1916 + R.I.P. + +and Bradley repeated a short prayer before they left their comrade +forever. + +For three days the party marched due south through forests and +meadow-land and great park-like areas where countless herbivorous +animals grazed--deer and antelope and bos and the little ecca, the +smallest species of Caspakian horse, about the size of a rabbit. There +were other horses too; but all were small, the largest being not above +eight hands in height. Preying continually upon the herbivora were the +meat-eaters, large and small--wolves, hyaenodons, panthers, lions, +tigers, and bears as well as several large and ferocious species of +reptilian life. + +On September twelfth the party scaled a line of sandstone cliffs which +crossed their route toward the south; but they crossed them only after +an encounter with the tribe that inhabited the numerous caves which +pitted the face of the escarpment. That night they camped upon a rocky +plateau which was sparsely wooded with jarrah, and here once again they +were visited by the weird, nocturnal apparition that had already filled +them with a nameless terror. + +As on the night of September ninth the first warning came from the +sentinel standing guard over his sleeping companions. A +terror-stricken cry punctuated by the crack of a rifle brought Bradley, +Sinclair and Brady to their feet in time to see James, with clubbed +rifle, battling with a white-robed figure that hovered on widespread +wings on a level with the Englishman's head. As they ran, shouting, +forward, it was obvious to them that the weird and terrible apparition +was attempting to seize James; but when it saw the others coming to his +rescue, it desisted, flapping rapidly upward and away, its long, ragged +wings giving forth the peculiarly dismal notes which always +characterized the sound of its flying. + +Bradley fired at the vanishing menacer of their peace and safety; but +whether he scored a hit or not, none could tell, though, following the +shot, there was wafted back to them the same piercing wail that had on +other occasions frozen their marrow. + +Then they turned toward James, who lay face downward upon the ground, +trembling as with ague. For a time he could not even speak, but at +last regained sufficient composure to tell them how the thing must have +swooped silently upon him from above and behind as the first +premonition of danger he had received was when the long, clawlike +fingers had clutched him beneath either arm. In the melee his rifle +had been discharged and he had broken away at the same instant and +turned to defend himself with the butt. The rest they had seen. + +From that instant James was an absolutely broken man. He maintained +with shaking lips that his doom was sealed, that the thing had marked +him for its own, and that he was as good as dead, nor could any amount +of argument or raillery convince him to the contrary. He had seen +Tippet marked and claimed and now he had been marked. Nor were his +constant reiterations of this belief without effect upon the rest of +the party. Even Bradley felt depressed, though for the sake of the +others he managed to hide it beneath a show of confidence he was far +from feeling. + +And on the following day William James was killed by a saber-tooth +tiger--September 13, 1916. Beneath a jarrah tree on the stony plateau +on the northern edge of the Sto-lu country in the land that Time +forgot, he lies in a lonely grave marked by a rough headstone. + +Southward from his grave marched three grim and silent men. To the +best of Bradley's reckoning they were some twenty-five miles north of +Fort Dinosaur, and that they might reach the fort on the following day, +they plodded on until darkness overtook them. With comparative safety +fifteen miles away, they made camp at last; but there was no singing +now and no joking. In the bottom of his heart each prayed that they +might come safely through just this night, for they knew that during +the morrow they would make the final stretch, yet the nerves of each +were taut with strained anticipation of what gruesome thing might flap +down upon them from the black sky, marking another for its own. Who +would be the next? + +As was their custom, they took turns at guard, each man doing two hours +and then arousing the next. Brady had gone on from eight to ten, +followed by Sinclair from ten to twelve, then Bradley had been +awakened. Brady would stand the last guard from two to four, as they +had determined to start the moment that it became light enough to +insure comparative safety upon the trail. + +The snapping of a twig aroused Brady out of a dead sleep, and as he +opened his eyes, he saw that it was broad daylight and that at twenty +paces from him stood a huge lion. As the man sprang to his feet, his +rifle ready in his hand, Sinclair awoke and took in the scene in a +single swift glance. The fire was out and Bradley was nowhere in +sight. For a long moment the lion and the men eyed one another. The +latter had no mind to fire if the beast minded its own affairs--they +were only too glad to let it go its way if it would; but the lion was +of a different mind. + +Suddenly the long tail snapped stiffly erect, and as though it had been +attached to two trigger fingers the two rifles spoke in unison, for +both men knew this signal only too well--the immediate forerunner of a +deadly charge. As the brute's head had been raised, his spine had not +been visible; and so they did what they had learned by long experience +was best to do. Each covered a front leg, and as the tail snapped +aloft, fired. With a hideous roar the mighty flesh-eater lurched +forward to the ground with both front legs broken. It was an easy +accomplishment in the instant before the beast charged--after, it would +have been well-nigh an impossible feat. Brady stepped close in and +finished him with a shot in the base of the brain lest his terrific +roarings should attract his mate or others of their kind. + +Then the two men turned and looked at one another. "Where is +Lieutenant Bradley?" asked Sinclair. They walked to the fire. Only a +few smoking embers remained. A few feet away lay Bradley's rifle. +There was no evidence of a struggle. The two men circled about the +camp twice and on the last lap Brady stooped and picked up an object +which had lain about ten yards beyond the fire--it was Bradley's cap. +Again the two looked questioningly at one another, and then, +simultaneously, both pairs of eyes swung upward and searched the sky. +A moment later Brady was examining the ground about the spot where +Bradley's cap had lain. It was one of those little barren, sandy +stretches that they had found only upon this stony plateau. Brady's +own footsteps showed as plainly as black ink upon white paper; but his +was the only foot that had marred the smooth, windswept surface--there +was no sign that Bradley had crossed the spot upon the surface of the +ground, and yet his cap lay well toward the center of it. + +Breakfastless and with shaken nerves the two survivors plunged madly +into the long day's march. Both were strong, courageous, resourceful +men; but each had reached the limit of human nerve endurance and each +felt that he would rather die than spend another night in the hideous +open of that frightful land. Vivid in the mind of each was a picture +of Bradley's end, for though neither had witnessed the tragedy, both +could imagine almost precisely what had occurred. They did not discuss +it--they did not even mention it--yet all day long the thing was +uppermost in the mind of each and mingled with it a similar picture +with himself as victim should they fail to make Fort Dinosaur before +dark. + +And so they plunged forward at reckless speed, their clothes, their +hands, their faces torn by the retarding underbrush that reached forth +to hinder them. Again and again they fell; but be it to their credit +that the one always waited and helped the other and that into the mind +of neither entered the thought or the temptation to desert his +companion--they would reach the fort together if both survived, or +neither would reach it. + +They encountered the usual number of savage beasts and reptiles; but +they met them with a courageous recklessness born of desperation, and +by virtue of the very madness of the chances they took, they came +through unscathed and with the minimum of delay. + +Shortly after noon they reached the end of the plateau. Before them +was a drop of two hundred feet to the valley beneath. To the left, in +the distance, they could see the waters of the great inland sea that +covers a considerable portion of the area of the crater island of +Caprona and at a little lesser distance to the south of the cliffs they +saw a thin spiral of smoke arising above the tree-tops. + +The landscape was familiar--each recognized it immediately and knew +that that smoky column marked the spot where Dinosaur had stood. Was +the fort still there, or did the smoke arise from the smoldering embers +of the building they had helped to fashion for the housing of their +party? Who could say! + +Thirty precious minutes that seemed as many hours to the impatient men +were consumed in locating a precarious way from the summit to the base +of the cliffs that bounded the plateau upon the south, and then once +again they struck off upon level ground toward their goal. The closer +they approached the fort the greater became their apprehension that all +would not be well. They pictured the barracks deserted or the small +company massacred and the buildings in ashes. It was almost in a +frenzy of fear that they broke through the final fringe of jungle and +stood at last upon the verge of the open meadow a half-mile from Fort +Dinosaur. + +"Lord!" ejaculated Sinclair. "They are still there!" And he fell to +his knees, sobbing. + +Brady trembled like a leaf as he crossed himself and gave silent +thanks, for there before them stood the sturdy ramparts of Dinosaur and +from inside the inclosure rose a thin spiral of smoke that marked the +location of the cook-house. All was well, then, and their comrades +were preparing the evening meal! + +Across the clearing they raced as though they had not already covered +in a single day a trackless, primeval country that might easily have +required two days by fresh and untired men. Within hailing distance +they set up such a loud shouting that presently heads appeared above +the top of the parapet and soon answering shouts were rising from +within Fort Dinosaur. A moment later three men issued from the +inclosure and came forward to meet the survivors and listen to the +hurried story of the eleven eventful days since they had set out upon +their expedition to the barrier cliffs. They heard of the deaths of +Tippet and James and of the disappearance of Lieutenant Bradley, and a +new terror settled upon Dinosaur. + +Olson, the Irish engineer, with Whitely and Wilson constituted the +remnants of Dinosaur's defenders, and to Brady and Sinclair they +narrated the salient events that had transpired since Bradley and his +party had marched away on September 4th. They told them of the +infamous act of Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts and his German crew who +had stolen the U-33, breaking their parole, and steaming away toward +the subterranean opening through the barrier cliffs that carried the +waters of the inland sea into the open Pacific beyond; and of the +cowardly shelling of the fort. + +They told of the disappearance of Miss La Rue in the night of September +11th, and of the departure of Bowen Tyler in search of her, accompanied +only by his Airedale, Nobs. Thus of the original party of eleven +Allies and nine Germans that had constituted the company of the U-33 +when she left English waters after her capture by the crew of the +English tug there were but five now to be accounted for at Fort +Dinosaur. Benson, Tippet, James, and one of the Germans were known to +be dead. It was assumed that Bradley, Tyler and the girl had already +succumbed to some of the savage denizens of Caspak, while the fate of +the Germans was equally unknown, though it might readily be believed +that they had made good their escape. They had had ample time to +provision the ship and the refining of the crude oil they had +discovered north of the fort could have insured them an ample supply to +carry them back to Germany. + + + +Chapter 2 + +When Bradley went on guard at midnight, September 14th, his thoughts +were largely occupied with rejoicing that the night was almost spent +without serious mishap and that the morrow would doubtless see them all +safely returned to Fort Dinosaur. The hopefulness of his mood was +tinged with sorrow by recollection of the two members of his party who +lay back there in the savage wilderness and for whom there would never +again be a homecoming. + +No premonition of impending ill cast gloom over his anticipations for +the coming day, for Bradley was a man who, while taking every +precaution against possible danger, permitted no gloomy forebodings to +weigh down his spirit. When danger threatened, he was prepared; but he +was not forever courting disaster, and so it was that when about one +o'clock in the morning of the fifteenth, he heard the dismal flapping +of giant wings overhead, he was neither surprised nor frightened but +idly prepared for an attack he had known might reasonably be expected. + +The sound seemed to come from the south, and presently, low above the +trees in that direction, the man made out a dim, shadowy form circling +slowly about. Bradley was a brave man, yet so keen was the feeling of +revulsion engendered by the sight and sound of that grim, uncanny shape +that he distinctly felt the gooseflesh rise over the surface of his +body, and it was with difficulty that he refrained from following an +instinctive urge to fire upon the nocturnal intruder. Better, far +better would it have been had he given in to the insistent demand of +his subconscious mentor; but his almost fanatical obsession to save +ammunition proved now his undoing, for while his attention was riveted +upon the thing circling before him and while his ears were filled with +the beating of its wings, there swooped silently out of the black night +behind him another weird and ghostly shape. With its huge wings partly +closed for the dive and its white robe fluttering in its wake, the +apparition swooped down upon the Englishman. + +So great was the force of the impact when the thing struck Bradley +between the shoulders that the man was half stunned. His rifle flew +from his grasp; he felt clawlike talons of great strength seize him +beneath his arms and sweep him off his feet; and then the thing rose +swiftly with him, so swiftly that his cap was blown from his head by +the rush of air as he was borne rapidly upward into the inky sky and +the cry of warning to his companions was forced back into his lungs. + +The creature wheeled immediately toward the east and was at once joined +by its fellow, who circled them once and then fell in behind them. +Bradley now realized the strategy that the pair had used to capture him +and at once concluded that he was in the power of reasoning beings +closely related to the human race if not actually of it. + +Past experience suggested that the great wings were a part of some +ingenious mechanical device, for the limitations of the human mind, +which is always loath to accept aught beyond its own little experience, +would not permit him to entertain the idea that the creatures might be +naturally winged and at the same time of human origin. From his +position Bradley could not see the wings of his captor, nor in the +darkness had he been able to examine those of the second creature +closely when it circled before him. He listened for the puff of a +motor or some other telltale sound that would prove the correctness of +his theory. However, he was rewarded with nothing more than the +constant flap-flap. + +Presently, far below and ahead, he saw the waters of the inland sea, +and a moment later he was borne over them. Then his captor did that +which proved beyond doubt to Bradley that he was in the hands of human +beings who had devised an almost perfect scheme of duplicating, +mechanically, the wings of a bird--the thing spoke to its companion and +in a language that Bradley partially understood, since he recognized +words that he had learned from the savage races of Caspak. From this +he judged that they were human, and being human, he knew that they +could have no natural wings--for who had ever seen a human being so +adorned! Therefore their wings must be mechanical. Thus Bradley +reasoned--thus most of us reason; not by what might be possible; but by +what has fallen within the range of our experience. + +What he heard them say was to the effect that having covered half the +distance the burden would now be transferred from one to the other. +Bradley wondered how the exchange was to be accomplished. He knew that +those giant wings would not permit the creatures to approach one +another closely enough to effect the transfer in this manner; but he +was soon to discover that they had other means of doing it. + +He felt the thing that carried him rise to a greater altitude, and +below he glimpsed momentarily the second white-robed figure; then the +creature above sounded a low call, it was answered from below, and +instantly Bradley felt the clutching talons release him; gasping for +breath, he hurtled downward through space. + +For a terrifying instant, pregnant with horror, Bradley fell; then +something swooped for him from behind, another pair of talons clutched +him beneath the arms, his downward rush was checked, within another +hundred feet, and close to the surface of the sea he was again borne +upward. As a hawk dives for a songbird on the wing, so this great, +human bird dived for Bradley. It was a harrowing experience, but soon +over, and once again the captive was being carried swiftly toward the +east and what fate he could not even guess. + +It was immediately following his transfer in mid-air that Bradley made +out the shadowy form of a large island far ahead, and not long after, +he realized that this must be the intended destination of his captors. +Nor was he mistaken. Three quarters of an hour from the time of his +seizure his captors dropped gently to earth in the strangest city that +human eye had ever rested upon. Just a brief glimpse of his immediate +surroundings vouchsafed Bradley before he was whisked into the interior +of one of the buildings; but in that momentary glance he saw strange +piles of stone and wood and mud fashioned into buildings of all +conceivable sizes and shapes, sometimes piled high on top of one +another, sometimes standing alone in an open court-way, but usually +crowded and jammed together, so that there were no streets or alleys +between them other than a few which ended almost as soon as they began. +The principal doorways appeared to be in the roofs, and it was through +one of these that Bradley was inducted into the dark interior of a +low-ceiled room. Here he was pushed roughly into a corner where he +tripped over a thick mat, and there his captors left him. He heard +them moving about in the darkness for a moment, and several times he +saw their large luminous eyes glowing in the dark. Finally, these +disappeared and silence reigned, broken only by the breathing of the +creature which indicated to the Englishman that they were sleeping +somewhere in the same apartment. + +It was now evident that the mat upon the floor was intended for +sleeping purposes and that the rough shove that had sent him to it had +been a rude invitation to repose. After taking stock of himself and +finding that he still had his pistol and ammunition, some matches, a +little tobacco, a canteen full of water and a razor, Bradley made +himself comfortable upon the mat and was soon asleep, knowing that an +attempted escape in the darkness without knowledge of his surroundings +would be predoomed to failure. + +When he awoke, it was broad daylight, and the sight that met his eyes +made him rub them again and again to assure himself that they were +really open and that he was not dreaming. A broad shaft of morning +light poured through the open doorway in the ceiling of the room which +was about thirty feet square, or roughly square, being irregular in +shape, one side curving outward, another being indented by what might +have been the corner of another building jutting into it, another +alcoved by three sides of an octagon, while the fourth was serpentine +in contour. Two windows let in more daylight, while two doors +evidently gave ingress to other rooms. The walls were partially ceiled +with thin strips of wood, nicely fitted and finished, partially +plastered and the rest covered with a fine, woven cloth. Figures of +reptiles and beasts were painted without regard to any uniform scheme +here and there upon the walls. A striking feature of the decorations +consisted of several engaged columns set into the walls at no regular +intervals, the capitals of each supporting a human skull the cranium of +which touched the ceiling, as though the latter was supported by these +grim reminders either of departed relatives or of some hideous tribal +rite--Bradley could not but wonder which. + +Yet it was none of these things that filled him with greatest +wonder--no, it was the figures of the two creatures that had captured +him and brought him hither. At one end of the room a stout pole about +two inches in diameter ran horizontally from wall to wall some six or +seven feet from the floor, its ends securely set in two of the columns. +Hanging by their knees from this perch, their heads downward and their +bodies wrapped in their huge wings, slept the creatures of the night +before--like two great, horrid bats they hung, asleep. + +As Bradley gazed upon them in wide-eyed astonishment, he saw plainly +that all his intelligence, all his acquired knowledge through years of +observation and experience were set at naught by the simple evidence of +the fact that stood out glaringly before his eyes--the creatures' wings +were not mechanical devices but as natural appendages, growing from +their shoulderblades, as were their arms and legs. He saw, too, that +except for their wings the pair bore a strong resemblance to human +beings, though fashioned in a most grotesque mold. + +As he sat gazing at them, one of the two awoke, separated his wings to +release his arms that had been folded across his breast, placed his +hands upon the floor, dropped his feet and stood erect. For a moment +he stretched his great wings slowly, solemnly blinking his large round +eyes. Then his gaze fell upon Bradley. The thin lips drew back +tightly against yellow teeth in a grimace that was nothing but hideous. +It could not have been termed a smile, and what emotion it registered +the Englishman was at a loss to guess. No expression whatever altered +the steady gaze of those large, round eyes; there was no color upon the +pasty, sunken cheeks. A death's head grimaced as though a man long +dead raised his parchment-covered skull from an old grave. + +The creature stood about the height of an average man but appeared much +taller from the fact that the joints of his long wings rose fully a +foot above his hairless head. The bare arms were long and sinewy, +ending in strong, bony hands with clawlike fingers--almost talonlike in +their suggestiveness. The white robe was separated in front, revealing +skinny legs and the further fact that the thing wore but the single +garment, which was of fine, woven cloth. From crown to sole the +portions of the body exposed were entirely hairless, and as he noted +this, Bradley also noted for the first time the cause of much of the +seeming expressionlessness of the creature's countenance--it had +neither eye-brows or lashes. The ears were small and rested flat +against the skull, which was noticeably round, though the face was +quite flat. The creature had small feet, beautifully arched and plump, +but so out of keeping with every other physical attribute it possessed +as to appear ridiculous. + +After eyeing Bradley for a moment the thing approached him. "Where +from?" it asked. + +"England," replied Bradley, as briefly. + +"Where is England and what?" pursued the questioner. + +"It is a country far from here," answered the Englishman. + +"Are your people cor-sva-jo or cos-ata-lu?" + +"I do not understand you," said Bradley; "and now suppose you answer a +few questions. Who are you? What country is this? Why did you bring +me here?" + +Again the sepulchral grimace. "We are Wieroos--Luata is our father. +Caspak is ours. This, our country, is called Oo-oh. We brought you +here for (literally) Him Who Speaks for Luata to gaze upon and +question. He would know from whence you came and why; but principally +if you be cos-ata-lu." + +"And if I am not cos--whatever you call the bloomin' beast--what of it?" + +The Wieroo raised his wings in a very human shrug and waved his bony +claws toward the human skulls supporting the ceiling. His gesture was +eloquent; but he embellished it by remarking, "And possibly if you are." + +"I'm hungry," snapped Bradley. + +The Wieroo motioned him to one of the doors which he threw open, +permitting Bradley to pass out onto another roof on a level lower than +that upon which they had landed earlier in the morning. By daylight +the city appeared even more remarkable than in the moonlight, though +less weird and unreal. The houses of all shapes and sizes were piled +about as a child might pile blocks of various forms and colors. He saw +now that there were what might be called streets or alleys, but they +ran in baffling turns and twists, nor ever reached a destination, +always ending in a dead wall where some Wieroo had built a house across +them. + +Upon each house was a slender column supporting a human skull. +Sometimes the columns were at one corner of the roof, sometimes at +another, or again they rose from the center or near the center, and the +columns were of varying heights, from that of a man to those which rose +twenty feet above their roofs. The skulls were, as a rule, +painted--blue or white, or in combinations of both colors. The most +effective were painted blue with the teeth white and the eye-sockets +rimmed with white. + +There were other skulls--thousands of them--tens, hundreds of +thousands. They rimmed the eaves of every house, they were set in the +plaster of the outer walls and at no great distance from where Bradley +stood rose a round tower built entirely of human skulls. And the city +extended in every direction as far as the Englishman could see. + +All about him Wieroos were moving across the roofs or winging through +the air. The sad sound of their flapping wings rose and fell like a +solemn dirge. Most of them were appareled all in white, like his +captors; but others had markings of red or blue or yellow slashed +across the front of their robes. + +His guide pointed toward a doorway in an alley below them. "Go there +and eat," he commanded, "and then come back. You cannot escape. If +any question you, say that you belong to Fosh-bal-soj. There is the +way." And this time he pointed to the top of a ladder which protruded +above the eaves of the roof near-by. Then he turned and reentered the +house. + +Bradley looked about him. No, he could not escape--that seemed +evident. The city appeared interminable, and beyond the city, if not a +savage wilderness filled with wild beasts, there was the broad inland +sea infested with horrid monsters. No wonder his captor felt safe in +turning him loose in Oo-oh--he wondered if that was the name of the +country or the city and if there were other cities like this upon the +island. + +Slowly he descended the ladder to the seemingly deserted alley which +was paved with what appeared to be large, round cobblestones. He +looked again at the smooth, worn pavement, and a rueful grin crossed +his features--the alley was paved with skulls. "The City of Human +Skulls," mused Bradley. "They must have been collectin' 'em since +Adam," he thought, and then he crossed and entered the building through +the doorway that had been pointed out to him. + +Inside he found a large room in which were many Wieroos seated before +pedestals the tops of which were hollowed out so that they resembled +the ordinary bird drinking- and bathing-fonts so commonly seen on +suburban lawns. A seat protruded from each of the four sides of the +pedestals--just a flat board with a support running from its outer end +diagonally to the base of the pedestal. + +As Bradley entered, some of the Wieroos espied him, and a dismal wail +arose. Whether it was a greeting or a threat, Bradley did not know. +Suddenly from a dark alcove another Wieroo rushed out toward him. "Who +are you?" he cried. "What do you want?" + +"Fosh-bal-soj sent me here to eat," replied Bradley. + +"Do you belong to Fosh-bal-soj?" asked the other. + +"That appears to be what he thinks," answered the Englishman. + +"Are you cos-ata-lu?" demanded the Wieroo. + +"Give me something to eat or I'll be all of that," replied Bradley. + +The Wieroo looked puzzled. "Sit here, jaal-lu," he snapped, and +Bradley sat down unconscious of the fact that he had been insulted by +being called a hyena-man, an appellation of contempt in Caspak. + +The Wieroo had seated him at a pedestal by himself, and as he sat +waiting for what was next to transpire, he looked about him at the +Wieroo in his immediate vicinity. He saw that in each font was a +quantity of food, and that each Wieroo was armed with a wooden skewer, +sharpened at one end; with which they carried solid portions of food to +their mouths. At the other end of the skewer was fastened a small +clam-shell. This was used to scoop up the smaller and softer portions +of the repast into which all four of the occupants of each table dipped +impartially. The Wieroo leaned far over their food, scooping it up +rapidly and with much noise, and so great was their haste that a part +of each mouthful always fell back into the common dish; and when they +choked, by reason of the rapidity with which they attempted to bolt +their food, they often lost it all. Bradley was glad that he had a +pedestal all to himself. + +Soon the keeper of the place returned with a wooden bowl filled with +food. This he dumped into Bradley's "trough," as he already thought of +it. The Englishman was glad that he could not see into the dark alcove +or know what were all the ingredients that constituted the mess before +him, for he was very hungry. + +After the first mouthful he cared even less to investigate the +antecedents of the dish, for he found it peculiarly palatable. It +seemed to consist of a combination of meat, fruits, vegetables, small +fish and other undistinguishable articles of food all seasoned to +produce a gastronomic effect that was at once baffling and delicious. + +When he had finished, his trough was empty, and then he commenced to +wonder who was to settle for his meal. As he waited for the proprietor +to return, he fell to examining the dish from which he had eaten and +the pedestal upon which it rested. The font was of stone worn smooth +by long-continued use, the four outer edges hollowed and polished by +the contact of the countless Wieroo bodies that had leaned against them +for how long a period of time Bradley could not even guess. Everything +about the place carried the impression of hoary age. The carved +pedestals were black with use, the wooden seats were worn hollow, the +floor of stone slabs was polished by the contact of possibly millions +of naked feet and worn away in the aisles between the pedestals so that +the latter rested upon little mounds of stone several inches above the +general level of the floor. + +Finally, seeing that no one came to collect, Bradley arose and started +for the doorway. He had covered half the distance when he heard the +voice of mine host calling to him: "Come back, jaal-lu," screamed the +Wieroo; and Bradley did as he was bid. As he approached the creature +which stood now behind a large, flat-topped pedestal beside the alcove, +he saw lying upon the smooth surface something that almost elicited a +gasp of astonishment from him--a simple, common thing it was, or would +have been almost anywhere in the world but Caspak--a square bit of +paper! + +And on it, in a fine hand, written compactly, were many strange +hieroglyphics! These remarkable creatures, then, had a written as well +as a spoken language and besides the art of weaving cloth possessed +that of paper-making. Could it be that such grotesque beings +represented the high culture of the human race within the boundaries of +Caspak? Had natural selection produced during the countless ages of +Caspakian life a winged monstrosity that represented the earthly +pinnacle of man's evolution? + +Bradley had noted something of the obvious indications of a gradual +evolution from ape to spearman as exemplified by the several +overlapping races of Alalus, club-men and hatchet-men that formed the +connecting links between the two extremes with which he, had come in +contact. He had heard of the Krolus and the Galus--reputed to be still +higher in the plane of evolution--and now he had indisputable evidence +of a race possessing refinements of civilization eons in advance of the +spear-men. The conjectures awakened by even a momentary consideration +of the possibilities involved became at once as wildly bizarre as the +insane imaginings of a drug addict. + +As these thoughts flashed through his mind, the Wieroo held out a pen +of bone fixed to a wooden holder and at the same time made a sign that +Bradley was to write upon the paper. It was difficult to judge from +the expressionless features of the Wieroo what was passing in the +creature's mind, but Bradley could not but feel that the thing cast a +supercilious glance upon him as much as to say, "Of course you do not +know how to write, you poor, low creature; but you can make your mark." + +Bradley seized the pen and in a clear, bold hand wrote: "John Bradley, +England." The Wieroo showed evidences of consternation as it seized +the piece of paper and examined the writing with every mark of +incredulity and surprise. Of course it could make nothing of the +strange characters; but it evidently accepted them as proof that +Bradley possessed knowledge of a written language of his own, for +following the Englishman's entry it made a few characters of its own. + +"You will come here again just before Lua hides his face behind the +great cliff," announced the creature, "unless before that you are +summoned by Him Who Speaks for Luata, in which case you will not have +to eat any more." + +"Reassuring cuss," thought Bradley as he turned and left the building. + +Outside were several Wieroos that had been eating at the pedestals +within. They immediately surrounded him, asking all sorts of +questions, plucking at his garments, his ammunition-belt and his +pistol. Their demeanor was entirely different from what it had been +within the eating-place and Bradley was to learn that a house of food +was sanctuary for him, since the stern laws of the Wieroos forbade +altercations within such walls. Now they were rough and threatening, +as with wings half spread they hovered about him in menacing attitudes, +barring his way to the ladder leading to the roof from whence he had +descended; but the Englishman was not one to brook interference for +long. He attempted at first to push his way past them, and then when +one seized his arm and jerked him roughly back, Bradley swung upon the +creature and with a heavy blow to the jaw felled it. + +Instantly pandemonium reigned. Loud wails arose, great wings opened +and closed with a loud, beating noise and many clawlike hands reached +forth to clutch him. Bradley struck to right and left. He dared not +use his pistol for fear that once they discovered its power he would be +overcome by weight of numbers and relieved of possession of what he +considered his trump card, to be reserved until the last moment that it +might be used to aid in his escape, for already the Englishman was +planning, though almost hopelessly, such an attempt. + +A few blows convinced Bradley that the Wieroos were arrant cowards and +that they bore no weapons, for after two or three had fallen beneath +his fists the others formed a circle about him, but at a safe distance +and contented themselves with threatening and blustering, while those +whom he had felled lay upon the pavement without trying to arise, the +while they moaned and wailed in lugubrious chorus. + +Again Bradley strode toward the ladder, and this time the circle parted +before him; but no sooner had he ascended a few rungs than he was +seized by one foot and an effort made to drag him down. With a quick +backward glance the Englishman, clinging firmly to the ladder with both +hands, drew up his free foot and with all the strength of a powerful +leg, planted a heavy shoe squarely in the flat face of the Wieroo that +held him. Shrieking horribly, the creature clapped both hands to its +face and sank to the ground while Bradley clambered quickly the +remaining distance to the roof, though no sooner did he reach the top +of the ladder than a great flapping of wings beneath him warned him +that the Wieroos were rising after him. A moment later they swarmed +about his head as he ran for the apartment in which he had spent the +early hours of the morning after his arrival. + +It was but a short distance from the top of the ladder to the doorway, +and Bradley had almost reached his goal when the door flew open and +Fosh-bal-soj stepped out. Immediately the pursuing Wieroos demanded +punishment of the jaal-lu who had so grievously maltreated them. +Fosh-bal-soj listened to their complaints and then with a sudden sweep +of his right hand seized Bradley by the scruff of the neck and hurled +him sprawling through the doorway upon the floor of the chamber. + +So sudden was the assault and so surprising the strength of the Wieroo +that the Englishman was taken completely off his guard. When he arose, +the door was closed, and Fosh-bal-soj was standing over him, his +hideous face contorted into an expression of rage and hatred. + +"Hyena, snake, lizard!" he screamed. "You would dare lay your low, +vile, profaning hands upon even the lowliest of the Wieroos--the sacred +chosen of Luata!" + +Bradley was mad, and so he spoke in a very low, calm voice while a +half-smile played across his lips but his cold, gray eyes were +unsmiling. + +"What you did to me just now," he said, "--I am going to kill you for +that," and even as he spoke, he launched himself at the throat of +Fosh-bal-soj. The other Wieroo that had been asleep when Bradley left +the chamber had departed, and the two were alone. Fosh-bal-soj +displayed little of the cowardice of those that had attacked Bradley in +the alleyway, but that may have been because he had so slight +opportunity, for Bradley had him by the throat before he could utter a +cry and with his right hand struck him heavily and repeatedly upon his +face and over his heart--ugly, smashing, short-arm jabs of the sort +that take the fight out of a man in quick time. + +But Fosh-bal-soj was of no mind to die passively. He clawed and struck +at Bradley while with his great wings he attempted to shield himself +from the merciless rain of blows, at the same time searching for a hold +upon his antagonist's throat. Presently he succeeded in tripping the +Englishman, and together the two fell heavily to the floor, Bradley +underneath, and at the same instant the Wieroo fastened his long talons +about the other's windpipe. + +Fosh-bal-soj was possessed of enormous strength and he was fighting for +his life. The Englishman soon realized that the battle was going +against him. Already his lungs were pounding painfully for air as he +reached for his pistol. It was with difficulty that he drew it from +its holster, and even then, with death staring him in the face, he +thought of his precious ammunition. "Can't waste it," he thought; and +slipping his fingers to the barrel he raised the weapon and struck +Fosh-bal-soj a terrific blow between the eyes. Instantly the clawlike +fingers released their hold, and the creature sank limply to the floor +beside Bradley, who lay for several minutes gasping painfully in an +effort to regain his breath. + +When he was able, he rose, and leaned close over the Wieroo, lying +silent and motionless, his wings drooping limply and his great, round +eyes staring blankly toward the ceiling. A brief examination convinced +Bradley that the thing was dead, and with the conviction came an +overwhelming sense of the dangers which must now confront him; but how +was he to escape? + +His first thought was to find some means for concealing the evidence of +his deed and then to make a bold effort to escape. Stepping to the +second door he pushed it gently open and peered in upon what seemed to +be a store room. In it was a litter of cloth such as the Wieroos' +robes were fashioned from, a number of chests painted blue and white, +with white hieroglyphics painted in bold strokes upon the blue and blue +hieroglyphics upon the white. In one corner was a pile of human skulls +reaching almost to the ceiling and in another a stack of dried Wieroo +wings. The chamber was as irregularly shaped as the other and had but +a single window and a second door at the further end, but was without +the exit through the roof and, most important of all, there was no +creature of any sort in it. + +As quickly as possible Bradley dragged the dead Wieroo through the +doorway and closed the door; then he looked about for a place to +conceal the corpse. One of the chests was large enough to hold the +body if the knees were bent well up, and with this idea in view Bradley +approached the chest to open it. The lid was made in two pieces, each +being hinged at an opposite end of the chest and joining nicely where +they met in the center of the chest, making a snug, well-fitting joint. +There was no lock. Bradley raised one half the cover and looked in. +With a smothered "By Jove!" he bent closer to examine the contents--the +chest was about half filled with an assortment of golden trinkets. +There were what appeared to be bracelets, anklets and brooches of +virgin gold. + +Realizing that there was no room in the chest for the body of the +Wieroo, Bradley turned to seek another means of concealing the evidence +of his crime. There was a space between the chests and the wall, and +into this he forced the corpse, piling the discarded robes upon it +until it was entirely hidden from sight; but now how was he to make +good his escape in the bright glare of that early Spring day? + +He walked to the door at the far end of the apartment and cautiously +opened it an inch. Before him and about two feet away was the blank +wall of another building. Bradley opened the door a little farther and +looked in both directions. There was no one in sight to the left over +a considerable expanse of roof-top, and to the right another building +shut off his line of vision at about twenty feet. Slipping out, he +turned to the right and in a few steps found a narrow passageway +between two buildings. Turning into this he passed about half its +length when he saw a Wieroo appear at the opposite end and halt. The +creature was not looking down the passageway; but at any moment it +might turn its eyes toward him, when he would be immediately discovered. + +To Bradley's left was a triangular niche in the wall of one of the +houses and into this he dodged, thus concealing himself from the sight +of the Wieroo. Beside him was a door painted a vivid yellow and +constructed after the same fashion as the other Wieroo doors he had +seen, being made up of countless narrow strips of wood from four to six +inches in length laid on in patches of about the same width, the strips +in adjacent patches never running in the same direction. The result +bore some resemblance to a crazy patchwork quilt, which was heightened +when, as in one of the doors he had seen, contiguous patches were +painted different colors. The strips appeared to have been bound +together and to the underlying framework of the door with gut or fiber +and also glued, after which a thick coating of paint had been applied. +One edge of the door was formed of a straight, round pole about two +inches in diameter that protruded at top and bottom, the projections +setting in round holes in both lintel and sill forming the axis upon +which the door swung. An eccentric disk upon the inside face of the +door engaged a slot in the frame when it was desired to secure the door +against intruders. + +As Bradley stood flattened against the wall waiting for the Wieroo to +move on, he heard the creature's wings brushing against the sides of +the buildings as it made its way down the narrow passage in his +direction. As the yellow door offered the only means of escape without +detection, the Englishman decided to risk whatever might lie beyond it, +and so, boldly pushing it in, he crossed the threshold and entered a +small apartment. + +As he did so, he heard a muffled ejaculation of surprise, and turning +his eyes in the direction from whence the sound had come, he beheld a +wide-eyed girl standing flattened against the opposite wall, an +expression of incredulity upon her face. At a glance he saw that she +was of no race of humans that he had come in contact with since his +arrival upon Caprona--there was no trace about her form or features of +any relationship to those low orders of men, nor was she appareled as +they--or, rather, she did not entirely lack apparel as did most of them. + +A soft hide fell from her left shoulder to just below her left hip on +one side and almost to her right knee on the other, a loose girdle was +about her waist, and golden ornaments such as he had seen in the +blue-and-white chest encircled her arms and legs, while a golden fillet +with a triangular diadem bound her heavy hair above her brows. Her +skin was white as from long confinement within doors; but it was clear +and fine. Her figure, but partially concealed by the soft deerskin, +was all curves of symmetry and youthful grace, while her features might +easily have been the envy of the most feted of Continental beauties. + +If the girl was surprised by the sudden appearance of Bradley, the +latter was absolutely astounded to discover so wondrous a creature +among the hideous inhabitants of the City of Human Skulls. For a +moment the two looked at one another in unconcealed consternation, and +then Bradley spoke, using to the best of his poor ability, the common +tongue of Caspak. + +"Who are you," he asked, "and from where do you come? Do not tell me +that you are a Wieroo." + +"No," she replied, "I am no Wieroo." And she shuddered slightly as she +pronounced the word. "I am a Galu; but who and what are you? I am +sure that you are no Galu, from your garments; but you are like the +Galus in other respects. I know that you are not of this frightful +city, for I have been here for almost ten moons, and never have I seen +a male Galu brought hither before, nor are there such as you and I, +other than prisoners in the land of Oo-oh, and these are all females. +Are you a prisoner, then?" + +He told her briefly who and what he was, though he doubted if she +understood, and from her he learned that she had been a prisoner there +for many months; but for what purpose he did not then learn, as in the +midst of their conversation the yellow door swung open and a Wieroo +with a robe slashed with yellow entered. + +At sight of Bradley the creature became furious. "Whence came this +reptile?" it demanded of the girl. "How long has it been here with +you?" + +"It came through the doorway just ahead of you," Bradley answered for +the girl. + +The Wieroo looked relieved. "It is well for the girl that this is so," +it said, "for now only you will have to die." And stepping to the door +the creature raised its voice in one of those uncanny, depressing wails. + +The Englishman looked toward the girl. "Shall I kill it?" he asked, +half drawing his pistol. "What is best to do?--I do not wish to +endanger you." + +The Wieroo backed toward the door. "Defiler!" it screamed. "You dare +to threaten one of the sacred chosen of Luata!" + +"Do not kill him," cried the girl, "for then there could be no hope for +you. That you are here, alive, shows that they may not intend to kill +you at all, and so there is a chance for you if you do not anger them; +but touch him in violence and your bleached skull will top the loftiest +pedestal of Oo-oh." + +"And what of you?" asked Bradley. + +"I am already doomed," replied the girl; "I am cos-ata-lo." + +"Cos-ata-lo! cos-ata-lu!" What did these phrases mean that they were +so oft repeated by the denizens of Oo-oh? Lu and lo, Bradley knew to +mean man and woman; ata; was employed variously to indicate life, eggs, +young, reproduction and kindred subjects; cos was a negative; but in +combination they were meaningless to the European. + +"Do you mean they will kill you?" asked Bradley. + +"I but wish that they would," replied the girl. "My fate is to be +worse than death--in just a few nights more, with the coming of the new +moon." + +"Poor she-snake!" snapped the Wieroo. "You are to become sacred above +all other shes. He Who Speaks for Luata has chosen you for himself. +Today you go to his temple--" the Wieroo used a phrase meaning +literally High Place--"where you will receive the sacred commands." + +The girl shuddered and cast a sorrowful glance toward Bradley. "Ah," +she sighed, "if I could but see my beloved country once again!" + +The man stepped suddenly close to her side before the Wieroo could +interpose and in a low voice asked her if there was no way by which he +might encompass her escape. She shook her head sorrowfully. "Even if +we escaped the city," she replied, "there is the big water between the +island of Oo-oh and the Galu shore." + +"And what is beyond the city, if we could leave it?" pursued Bradley. + +"I may only guess from what I have heard since I was brought here," +she answered; "but by reports and chance remarks I take it to be a +beautiful land in which there are but few wild beasts and no men, for +only the Wieroos live upon this island and they dwell always in cities +of which there are three, this being the largest. The others are at +the far end of the island, which is about three marches from end to end +and at its widest point about one march." + +From his own experience and from what the natives on the mainland had +told him, Bradley knew that ten miles was a good day's march in Caspak, +owing to the fact that at most points it was a trackless wilderness and +at all times travelers were beset by hideous beasts and reptiles that +greatly impeded rapid progress. + +The two had spoken rapidly but were now interrupted by the advent +through the opening in the roof of several Wieroos who had come in +answer to the alarm it of the yellow slashing had uttered. + +"This jaal-lu," cried the offended one, "has threatened me. Take its +hatchet from it and make it fast where it can do no harm until He Who +Speaks for Luata has said what shall be done with it. It is one of +those strange creatures that Fosh-bal-soj discovered first above the +Band-lu country and followed back toward the beginning. He Who Speaks +for Luata sent Fosh-bal-soj to fetch him one of the creatures, and here +it is. It is hoped that it may be from another world and hold the +secret of the cos-ata-lus." + +The Wieroos approached boldly to take Bradley's "hatchet" from him, +their leader having indicated the pistol hanging in its holster at the +Englishman's hip, but the first one went reeling backward against his +fellows from the blow to the chin which Bradley followed up with a rush +and the intention to clean up the room in record time; but he had +reckoned without the opening in the roof. Two were down and a great +wailing and moaning was arising when reinforcements appeared from +above. Bradley did not see them; but the girl did, and though she +cried out a warning, it came too late for him to avoid a large Wieroo +who dived headforemost for him, striking him between the shoulders and +bearing him to the floor. Instantly a dozen more were piling on top of +him. His pistol was wrenched from its holster and he was securely +pinioned down by the weight of numbers. + +At a word from the Wieroo of the yellow slashing who evidently was a +person of authority, one left and presently returned with fiber ropes +with which Bradley was tightly bound. + +"Now bear him to the Blue Place of Seven Skulls," directed the chief +Wieroo, "and one take the word of all that has passed to Him Who Speaks +for Luata." + +Each of the creatures raised a hand, the back against its face, as +though in salute. One seized Bradley and carried him through the +yellow doorway to the roof from whence it rose upon its wide-spread +wings and flapped off across the roof-tops of Oo-oh with its heavy +burden clutched in its long talons. + +Below him Bradley could see the city stretching away to a distance on +every hand. It was not as large as he had imagined, though he judged +that it was at least three miles square. The houses were piled in +indescribable heaps, sometimes to a height of a hundred feet. The +streets and alleys were short and crooked and there were many areas +where buildings had been wedged in so closely that no light could +possibly reach the lowest tiers, the entire surface of the ground being +packed solidly with them. + +The colors were varied and startling, the architecture amazing. Many +roofs were cup or saucer-shaped with a small hole in the center of +each, as though they had been constructed to catch rain-water and +conduct it to a reservoir beneath; but nearly all the others had the +large opening in the top that Bradley had seen used by these flying men +in lieu of doorways. At all levels were the myriad poles surmounted by +grinning skulls; but the two most prominent features of the city were +the round tower of human skulls that Bradley had noted earlier in the +day and another and much larger edifice near the center of the city. +As they approached it, Bradley saw that it was a huge building rising a +hundred feet in height from the ground and that it stood alone in the +center of what might have been called a plaza in some other part of the +world. Its various parts, however, were set together with the same +strange irregularity that marked the architecture of the city as a +whole; and it was capped by an enormous saucer-shaped roof which +projected far beyond the eaves, having the appearance of a colossal +Chinese coolie hat, inverted. + +The Wieroo bearing Bradley passed over one corner of the open space +about the large building, revealing to the Englishman grass and trees +and running water beneath. They passed the building and about five +hundred yards beyond the creature alighted on the roof of a square, +blue building surmounted by seven poles bearing seven skulls. This +then, thought Bradley, is the Blue Place of Seven Skulls. + +Over the opening in the roof was a grated covering, and this the Wieroo +removed. The thing then tied a piece of fiber rope to one of Bradley's +ankles and rolled him over the edge of the opening. All was dark below +and for an instant the Englishman came as near to experiencing real +terror as he had ever come in his life before. As he rolled off into +the black abyss he felt the rope tighten about his ankle and an instant +later he was stopped with a sudden jerk to swing pendulumlike, head +downward. Then the creature lowered away until Bradley's head came in +sudden and painful contact with the floor below, after which the Wieroo +let loose of the rope entirely and the Englishman's body crashed to the +wooden planking. He felt the free end of the rope dropped upon him and +heard the grating being slid into place above him. + + + +Chapter 3 + +Half-stunned, Bradley lay for a minute as he had fallen and then slowly +and painfully wriggled into a less uncomfortable position. He could +see nothing of his surroundings in the gloom about him until after a +few minutes his eyes became accustomed to the dark interior when he +rolled them from side to side in survey of his prison. + +He discovered himself to be in a bare room which was windowless, nor +could he see any other opening than that through which he had been +lowered. In one corner was a huddled mass that might have been almost +anything from a bundle of rags to a dead body. + +Almost immediately after he had taken his bearings Bradley commenced +working with his bonds. He was a man of powerful physique, and as from +the first he had been imbued with a belief that the fiber ropes were +too weak to hold him, he worked on with a firm conviction that sooner +or later they would part to his strainings. After a matter of five +minutes he was positive that the strands about his wrists were +beginning to give; but he was compelled to rest then from exhaustion. + +As he lay, his eyes rested upon the bundle in the corner, and presently +he could have sworn that the thing moved. With eyes straining through +the gloom the man lay watching the grim and sinister thing in the +corner. Perhaps his overwrought nerves were playing a sorry joke upon +him. He thought of this and also that his condition of utter +helplessness might still further have stimulated his imagination. He +closed his eyes and sought to relax his muscles and his nerves; but +when he looked again, he knew that he had not been mistaken--the thing +had moved; now it lay in a slightly altered form and farther from the +wall. It was nearer him. + +With renewed strength Bradley strained at his bonds, his fascinated +gaze still glued upon the shapeless bundle. No longer was there any +doubt that it moved--he saw it rise in the center several inches and +then creep closer to him. It sank and arose again--a headless, +hideous, monstrous thing of menace. Its very silence rendered it the +more terrible. + +Bradley was a brave man; ordinarily his nerves were of steel; but to be +at the mercy of some unknown and nameless horror, to be unable to +defend himself--it was these things that almost unstrung him, for at +best he was only human. To stand in the open, even with the odds all +against him; to be able to use his fists, to put up some sort of +defense, to inflict punishment upon his adversary--then he could face +death with a smile. It was not death that he feared now--it was that +horror of the unknown that is part of the fiber of every son of woman. + +Closer and closer came the shapeless mass. Bradley lay motionless and +listened. What was that he heard! Breathing? He could not be +mistaken--and then from out of the bundle of rags issued a hollow +groan. Bradley felt his hair rise upon his head. He struggled with +the slowly parting strands that held him. The thing beside him rose up +higher than before and the Englishman could have sworn that he saw a +single eye peering at him from among the tumbled cloth. For a moment +the bundle remained motionless--only the sound of breathing issued from +it, then there broke from it a maniacal laugh. + +Cold sweat stood upon Bradley's brow as he tugged for liberation. He +saw the rags rise higher and higher above him until at last they +tumbled upon the floor from the body of a naked man--a thin, a bony, a +hideous caricature of man, that mouthed and mummed and, wabbling upon +its weak and shaking legs, crumpled to the floor again, still +laughing--laughing horribly. + +It crawled toward Bradley. "Food! Food!" it screamed. "There is a +way out! There is a way out!" + +Dragging itself to his side the creature slumped upon the Englishman's +breast. "Food!" it shrilled as with its bony fingers and its teeth, it +sought the man's bare throat. + +"Food! There is a way out!" Bradley felt teeth upon his jugular. He +turned and twisted, shaking himself free for an instant; but once more +with hideous persistence the thing fastened itself upon him. The weak +jaws were unable to send the dull teeth through the victim's flesh; but +Bradley felt it pawing, pawing, pawing, like a monstrous rat, seeking +his life's blood. + +The skinny arms now embraced his neck, holding the teeth to his throat +against all his efforts to dislodge the thing. Weak as it was it had +strength enough for this in its mad efforts to eat. Mumbling as it +worked, it repeated again and again, "Food! Food! There is a way +out!" until Bradley thought those two expressions alone would drive him +mad. + +And all but mad he was as with a final effort backed by almost maniacal +strength he tore his wrists from the confining bonds and grasping the +repulsive thing upon his breast hurled it halfway across the room. +Panting like a spent hound Bradley worked at the thongs about his +ankles while the maniac lay quivering and mumbling where it had fallen. +Presently the Englishman leaped to his feet--freer than he had ever +before felt in all his life, though he was still hopelessly a prisoner +in the Blue Place of Seven Skulls. + +With his back against the wall for support, so weak the reaction left +him, Bradley stood watching the creature upon the floor. He saw it +move and slowly raise itself to its hands and knees, where it swayed to +and fro as its eyes roved about in search of him; and when at last they +found him, there broke from the drawn lips the mumbled words: "Food! +Food! There is a way out!" The pitiful supplication in the tones +touched the Englishman's heart. He knew that this could be no Wieroo, +but possibly once a man like himself who had been cast into this pit of +solitary confinement with this hideous result that might in time be his +fate, also. + +And then, too, there was the suggestion of hope held out by the +constant reiteration of the phrase, "There is a way out." Was there a +way out? What did this poor thing know? + +"Who are you and how long have you been here?" Bradley suddenly +demanded. + +For a moment the man upon the floor made no response, then mumblingly +came the words: "Food! Food!" + +"Stop!" commanded the Englishman--the injunction might have been barked +from the muzzle of a pistol. It brought the man to a sitting posture, +his hands off the ground. He stopped swaying to and fro and appeared +to be startled into an attempt to master his faculties of concentration +and thought. + +Bradley repeated his questions sharply. + +"I am An-Tak, the Galu," replied the man. "Luata alone knows how long +I have been here--maybe ten moons, maybe ten moons three times"--it was +the Caspakian equivalent of thirty. "I was young and strong when they +brought me here. Now I am old and very weak. I am cos-ata-lu--that is +why they have not killed me. If I tell them the secret of becoming +cos-ata-lu they will take me out; but how can I tell them that which +Luata alone knows? + +"What is cos-ata-lu?" demanded Bradley. + +"Food! Food! There is a way out!" mumbled the Galu. + +Bradley strode across the floor, seized the man by his shoulders and +shook him. + +"Tell me," he cried, "what is cos-ata-lu?" + +"Food!" whimpered An-Tak. + +Bradley bethought himself. His haversack had not been taken from him. +In it besides his razor and knife were odds and ends of equipment and a +small quantity of dried meat. He tossed a small strip of the latter to +the starving Galu. An-Tak seized upon it and devoured it ravenously. +It instilled new life in the man. + +"What is cos-ata-lu?" insisted Bradley again. + +An-Tak tried to explain. His narrative was often broken by lapses of +concentration during which he reverted to his plaintive mumbling for +food and recurrence to the statement that there was a way out; but by +firmness and patience the Englishman drew out piece-meal a more or less +lucid exposition of the remarkable scheme of evolution that rules in +Caspak. In it he found explanations of the hitherto inexplicable. He +discovered why he had seen no babes or children among the Caspakian +tribes with which he had come in contact; why each more northerly tribe +evinced a higher state of development than those south of them; why +each tribe included individuals ranging in physical and mental +characteristics from the highest of the next lower race to the lowest +of the next higher, and why the women of each tribe immersed themselves +each morning for an hour or more in the warm pools near which the +habitations of their people always were located; and, too, he +discovered why those pools were almost immune from the attacks of +carnivorous animals and reptiles. + +He learned that all but those who were cos-ata-lu came up cor-sva-jo, +or from the beginning. The egg from which they first developed into +tadpole form was deposited, with millions of others, in one of the warm +pools and with it a poisonous serum that the carnivora instinctively +shunned. Down the warm stream from the pool floated the countless +billions of eggs and tadpoles, developing as they drifted slowly toward +the sea. Some became tadpoles in the pool, some in the sluggish stream +and some not until they reached the great inland sea. In the next +stage they became fishes or reptiles, An-Tak was not positive which, +and in this form, always developing, they swam far to the south, where, +amid the rank and teeming jungles, some of them evolved into +amphibians. Always there were those whose development stopped at the +first stage, others whose development ceased when they became reptiles, +while by far the greater proportion formed the food supply of the +ravenous creatures of the deep. + +Few indeed were those that eventually developed into baboons and then +apes, which was considered by Caspakians the real beginning of +evolution. From the egg, then, the individual developed slowly into a +higher form, just as the frog's egg develops through various stages +from a fish with gills to a frog with lungs. With that thought in mind +Bradley discovered that it was not difficult to believe in the +possibility of such a scheme--there was nothing new in it. + +From the ape the individual, if it survived, slowly developed into the +lowest order of man--the Alu--and then by degrees to Bo-lu, Sto-lu, +Band-lu, Kro-lu and finally Galu. And in each stage countless millions +of other eggs were deposited in the warm pools of the various races and +floated down to the great sea to go through a similar process of +evolution outside the womb as develops our own young within; but in +Caspak the scheme is much more inclusive, for it combines not only +individual development but the evolution of species and genera. If an +egg survives it goes through all the stages of development that man has +passed through during the unthinkable eons since life first moved upon +the earth's face. + +The final stage--that which the Galus have almost attained and for +which all hope--is cos-ata-lu, which literally, means no-egg-man, or +one who is born directly as are the young of the outer world of +mammals. Some of the Galus produce cos-ata-lu and cos-ata-lo both; the +Wieroos only cos-ata-lu--in other words all Wieroos are born male, and +so they prey upon the Galus for their women and sometimes capture and +torture the Galu men who are cos-ata-lu in an endeavor to learn the +secret which they believe will give them unlimited power over all other +denizens of Caspak. + +No Wieroos come up from the beginning--all are born of the Wieroo +fathers and Galu mothers who are cos-ata-lo, and there are very few of +the latter owing to the long and precarious stages of development. +Seven generations of the same ancestor must come up from the beginning +before a cos-ata-lu child may be born; and when one considers the +frightful dangers that surround the vital spark from the moment it +leaves the warm pool where it has been deposited to float down to the +sea amid the voracious creatures that swarm the surface and the deeps +and the almost equally unthinkable trials of its effort to survive +after it once becomes a land animal and starts northward through the +horrors of the Caspakian jungles and forests, it is plainly a wonder +that even a single babe has ever been born to a Galu woman. + +Seven cycles it requires before the seventh Galu can complete the +seventh danger-infested circle since its first Galu ancestor achieved +the state of Galu. For ages before, the ancestors of this first Galu +may have developed from a Band-lu or Bo-lu egg without ever once +completing the whole circle--that is from a Galu egg, back to a fully +developed Galu. + +Bradley's head was whirling before he even commenced to grasp the +complexities of Caspakian evolution; but as the truth slowly filtered +into his understanding--as gradually it became possible for him to +visualize the scheme, it appeared simpler. In fact, it seemed even +less difficult of comprehension than that with which he was familiar. + +For several minutes after An-Tak ceased speaking, his voice having +trailed off weakly into silence, neither spoke again. Then the Galu +recommenced his, "Food! Food! There is a way out!" Bradley tossed him +another bit of dried meat, waiting patiently until he had eaten it, +this time more slowly. + +"What do you mean by saying there is a way out?" he asked. + +"He who died here just after I came, told me," replied An-Tak. "He +said there was a way out, that he had discovered it but was too weak to +use his knowledge. He was trying to tell me how to find it when he +died. Oh, Luata, if he had lived but a moment more!" + +"They do not feed you here?" asked Bradley. + +"No, they give me water once a day--that is all." + +"But how have you lived, then?" + +"The lizards and the rats," replied An-Tak. "The lizards are not so +bad; but the rats are foul to taste. However, I must eat them or they +would eat me, and they are better than nothing; but of late they do not +come so often, and I have not had a lizard for a long time. I shall +eat though," he mumbled. "I shall eat now, for you cannot remain awake +forever." He laughed, a cackling, dry laugh. "When you sleep, An-Tak +will eat." + +It was horrible. Bradley shuddered. For a long time each sat in +silence. The Englishman could guess why the other made no sound--he +awaited the moment that sleep should overcome his victim. In the long +silence there was born upon Bradley's ears a faint, monotonous sound as +of running water. He listened intently. It seemed to come from far +beneath the floor. + +"What is that noise?" he asked. "That sounds like water running +through a narrow channel." + +"It is the river," replied An-Tak. "Why do you not go to sleep? It +passes directly beneath the Blue Place of Seven Skulls. It runs +through the temple grounds, beneath the temple and under the city. +When we die, they will cut off our heads and throw our bodies into the +river. At the mouth of the river await many large reptiles. Thus do +they feed. The Wieroos do likewise with their own dead, keeping only +the skulls and the wings. Come, let us sleep." + +"Do the reptiles come up the river into the city?" asked Bradley. + +"The water is too cold--they never leave the warm water of the great +pool," replied An-Tak. + +"Let us search for the way out," suggested Bradley. + +An-Tak shook his head. "I have searched for it all these moons," he +said. "If I could not find it, how would you?" + +Bradley made no reply but commenced a diligent examination of the walls +and floor of the room, pressing over each square foot and tapping with +his knuckles. About six feet from the floor he discovered a +sleeping-perch near one end of the apartment. He asked An-Tak about +it, but the Galu said that no Weiroo had occupied the place since he +had been incarcerated there. Again and again Bradley went over the +floor and walls as high up as he could reach. Finally he swung himself +to the perch, that he might examine at least one end of the room all +the way to the ceiling. + +In the center of the wall close to the top, an area about three feet +square gave forth a hollow sound when he rapped upon it. Bradley felt +over every square inch of that area with the tips of his fingers. Near +the top he found a small round hole a trifle larger in diameter than +his forefinger, which he immediately stuck into it. The panel, if such +it was, seemed about an inch thick, and beyond it his finger +encountered nothing. Bradley crooked his finger upon the opposite side +of the panel and pulled toward him, steadily but with considerable +force. Suddenly the panel flew inward, nearly precipitating the man to +the floor. It was hinged at the bottom, and when lowered the outer +edge rested upon the perch, making a little platform parallel with the +floor of the room. + +Beyond the opening was an utterly dark void. The Englishman leaned +through it and reached his arm as far as possible into the blackness +but touched nothing. Then he fumbled in his haversack for a match, a +few of which remained to him. When he struck it, An-Tak gave a cry of +terror. Bradley held the light far into the opening before him and in +its flickering rays saw the top of a ladder descending into a black +abyss below. How far down it extended he could not guess; but that he +should soon know definitely he was positive. + +"You have found it! You have found the way out!" screamed An-Tak. +"Oh, Luata! And now I am too weak to go. Take me with you! Take me +with you!" + +"Shut up!" admonished Bradley. "You will have the whole flock of birds +around our heads in a minute, and neither of us will escape. Be quiet, +and I'll go ahead. If I find a way out, I'll come back and help you, +if you'll promise not to try to eat me up again." + +"I promise," cried An-Tak. "Oh, Luata! How could you blame me? I am +half crazed of hunger and long confinement and the horror of the +lizards and the rats and the constant waiting for death." + +"I know," said Bradley simply. "I'm sorry for you, old top. Keep a +stiff upper lip." And he slipped through the opening, found the ladder +with his feet, closed the panel behind him, and started downward into +the darkness. + +Below him rose more and more distinctly the sound of running water. +The air felt damp and cool. He could see nothing of his surroundings +and felt nothing but the smooth, worn sides and rungs of the ladder +down which he felt his way cautiously lest a broken rung or a misstep +should hurl him downward. + +As he descended thus slowly, the ladder seemed interminable and the pit +bottomless, yet he realized when at last he reached the bottom that he +could not have descended more than fifty feet. The bottom of the +ladder rested on a narrow ledge paved with what felt like large round +stones, but what he knew from experience to be human skulls. He could +not but marvel as to where so many countless thousands of the things +had come from, until he paused to consider that the infancy of Caspak +dated doubtlessly back into remote ages, far beyond what the outer +world considered the beginning of earthly time. For all these eons the +Wieroos might have been collecting human skulls from their enemies and +their own dead--enough to have built an entire city of them. + +Feeling his way along the narrow ledge, Bradley came presently to a +blank wall that stretched out over the water swirling beneath him, as +far as he could reach. Stooping, he groped about with one hand, +reaching down toward the surface of the water, and discovered that the +bottom of the wall arched above the stream. How much space there was +between the water and the arch he could not tell, nor how deep the +former. There was only one way in which he might learn these things, +and that was to lower himself into the stream. For only an instant he +hesitated weighing his chances. Behind him lay almost certainly the +horrid fate of An-Tak; before him nothing worse than a comparatively +painless death by drowning. Holding his haversack above his head with +one hand he lowered his feet slowly over the edge of the narrow +platform. Almost immediately he felt the swirling of cold water about +his ankles, and then with a silent prayer he let himself drop gently +into the stream. + +Great was Bradley's relief when he found the water no more than waist +deep and beneath his feet a firm, gravel bottom. Feeling his way +cautiously he moved downward with the current, which was not so strong +as he had imagined from the noise of the running water. + +Beneath the first arch he made his way, following the winding +curvatures of the right-hand wall. After a few yards of progress his +hand came suddenly in contact with a slimy thing clinging to the +wall--a thing that hissed and scuttled out of reach. What it was, the +man could not know; but almost instantly there was a splash in the +water just ahead of him and then another. + +On he went, passing beneath other arches at varying distances, and +always in utter darkness. Unseen denizens of this great sewer, +disturbed by the intruder, splashed into the water ahead of him and +wriggled away. Time and again his hand touched them and never for an +instant could he be sure that at the next step some gruesome thing +might not attack him. He had strapped his haversack about his neck, +well above the surface of the water, and in his left hand he carried +his knife. Other precautions there were none to take. + +The monotony of the blind trail was increased by the fact that from the +moment he had started from the foot of the ladder he had counted his +every step. He had promised to return for An-Tak if it proved humanly +possible to do so, and he knew that in the blackness of the tunnel he +could locate the foot of the ladder in no other way. + +He had taken two hundred and sixty-nine steps--afterward he knew that +he should never forget that number--when something bumped gently +against him from behind. Instantly he wheeled about and with knife +ready to defend himself stretched forth his right hand to push away the +object that now had lodged against his body. His fingers feeling +through the darkness came in contact with something cold and +clammy--they passed to and fro over the thing until Bradley knew that +it was the face of a dead man floating upon the surface of the stream. +With an oath he pushed his gruesome companion out into mid-stream to +float on down toward the great pool and the awaiting scavengers of the +deep. + +At his four hundred and thirteenth step another corpse bumped against +him--how many had passed him without touching he could not guess; but +suddenly he experienced the sensation of being surrounded by dead faces +floating along with him, all set in hideous grimaces, their dead eyes +glaring at this profaning alien who dared intrude upon the waters of +this river of the dead--a horrid escort, pregnant with dire forebodings +and with menace. + +Though he advanced very slowly, he tried always to take steps of about +the same length; so that he knew that though considerable time had +elapsed, yet he had really advanced no more than four hundred yards +when ahead he saw a lessening of the pitch-darkness, and at the next +turn of the stream his surroundings became vaguely discernible. Above +him was an arched roof and on either hand walls pierced at intervals by +apertures covered with wooden doors. Just ahead of him in the roof of +the aqueduct was a round, black hole about thirty inches in diameter. +His eyes still rested upon the opening when there shot downward from it +to the water below the naked body of a human being which almost +immediately rose to the surface again and floated off down the stream. +In the dim light Bradley saw that it was a dead Wieroo from which the +wings and head had been removed. A moment later another headless body +floated past, recalling what An-Tak had told him of the +skull-collecting customs of the Wieroo. Bradley wondered how it +happened that the first corpse he had encountered in the stream had not +been similarly mutilated. + +The farther he advanced now, the lighter it became. The number of +corpses was much smaller than he had imagined, only two more passing +him before, at six hundred steps, or about five hundred yards, from the +point he had taken to the stream, he came to the end of the tunnel and +looked out upon sunlit water, running between grassy banks. + +One of the last corpses to pass him was still clothed in the white robe +of a Wieroo, blood-stained over the headless neck that it concealed. + +Drawing closer to the opening leading into the bright daylight, Bradley +surveyed what lay beyond. A short distance before him a large building +stood in the center of several acres of grass and tree-covered ground, +spanning the stream which disappeared through an opening in its +foundation wall. From the large saucer-shaped roof and the vivid +colorings of the various heterogeneous parts of the structure he +recognized it as the temple past which he had been borne to the Blue +Place of Seven Skulls. + +To and fro flew Wieroos, going to and from the temple. Others passed +on foot across the open grounds, assisting themselves with their great +wings, so that they barely skimmed the earth. To leave the mouth of +the tunnel would have been to court instant discovery and capture; but +by what other avenue he might escape, Bradley could not guess, unless +he retraced his steps up the stream and sought egress from the other +end of the city. The thought of traversing that dark and horror-ridden +tunnel for perhaps miles he could not entertain--there must be some +other way. Perhaps after dark he could steal through the temple +grounds and continue on downstream until he had come beyond the city; +and so he stood and waited until his limbs became almost paralyzed with +cold, and he knew that he must find some other plan for escape. + +A half-formed decision to risk an attempt to swim under water to the +temple was crystallizing in spite of the fact that any chance Wieroo +flying above the stream might easily see him, when again a floating +object bumped against him from behind and lodged across his back. +Turning quickly he saw that the thing was what he had immediately +guessed it to be--a headless and wingless Wieroo corpse. With a grunt +of disgust he was about to push it from him when the white garment +enshrouding it suggested a bold plan to his resourceful brain. +Grasping the corpse by an arm he tore the garment from it and then let +the body float downward toward the temple. With great care he draped +the robe about him; the bloody blotch that had covered the severed neck +he arranged about his own head. His haversack he rolled as tightly as +possible and stuffed beneath his coat over his breast. Then he fell +gently to the surface of the stream and lying upon his back floated +downward with the current and out into the open sunlight. + +Through the weave of the cloth he could distinguish large objects. He +saw a Wieroo flap dismally above him; he saw the banks of the stream +float slowly past; he heard a sudden wail upon the right-hand shore, +and his heart stood still lest his ruse had been discovered; but never +by a move of a muscle did he betray that aught but a cold lump of clay +floated there upon the bosom of the water, and soon, though it seemed +an eternity to him, the direct sunlight was blotted out, and he knew +that he had entered beneath the temple. + +Quickly he felt for bottom with his feet and as quickly stood erect, +snatching the bloody, clammy cloth from his face. On both sides were +blank walls and before him the river turned a sharp corner and +disappeared. Feeling his way cautiously forward he approached the turn +and looked around the corner. To his left was a low platform about a +foot above the level of the stream, and onto this he lost no time in +climbing, for he was soaked from head to foot, cold and almost +exhausted. + +As he lay resting on the skull-paved shelf, he saw in the center of the +vault above the river another of those sinister round holes through +which he momentarily expected to see a headless corpse shoot downward +in its last plunge to a watery grave. A few feet along the platform a +closed door broke the blankness of the wall. As he lay looking at it +and wondering what lay behind, his mind filled with fragments of many +wild schemes of escape, it opened and a white robed Wieroo stepped out +upon the platform. The creature carried a large wooden basin filled +with rubbish. Its eyes were not upon Bradley, who drew himself to a +squatting position and crouched as far back in the corner of the niche +in which the platform was set as he could force himself. The Wieroo +stepped to the edge of the platform and dumped the rubbish into the +stream. If it turned away from him as it started to retrace its steps +to the doorway, there was a small chance that it might not see him; but +if it turned toward him there was none at all. Bradley held his breath. + +The Wieroo paused a moment, gazing down into the water, then it +straightened up and turned toward the Englishman. Bradley did not +move. The Wieroo stopped and stared intently at him. It approached +him questioningly. Still Bradley remained as though carved of stone. +The creature was directly in front of him. It stopped. There was no +chance on earth that it would not discover what he was. + +With the quickness of a cat, Bradley sprang to his feet and with all +his great strength, backed by his heavy weight, struck the Wieroo upon +the point of the chin. Without a sound the thing crumpled to the +platform, while Bradley, acting almost instinctively to the urge of the +first law of nature, rolled the inanimate body over the edge into the +river. + +Then he looked at the open doorway, crossed the platform and peered +within the apartment beyond. What he saw was a large room, dimly +lighted, and about the side rows of wooden vessels stacked one upon +another. There was no Wieroo in sight, so the Englishman entered. At +the far end of the room was another door, and as he crossed toward it, +he glanced into some of the vessels, which he found were filled with +dried fruits, vegetables and fish. Without more ado he stuffed his +pockets and his haversack full, thinking of the poor creature awaiting +his return in the gloom of the Place of Seven Skulls. + +When night came, he would return and fetch An-Tak this far at least; +but in the meantime it was his intention to reconnoiter in the hope +that he might discover some easier way out of the city than that +offered by the chill, black channel of the ghastly river of corpses. + +Beyond the farther door stretched a long passageway from which closed +doorways led into other parts of the cellars of the temple. A few +yards from the storeroom a ladder rose from the corridor through an +aperture in the ceiling. Bradley paused at the foot of it, debating +the wisdom of further investigation against a return to the river; but +strong within him was the spirit of exploration that has scattered his +race to the four corners of the earth. What new mysteries lay hidden +in the chambers above? The urge to know was strong upon him though his +better judgment warned him that the safer course lay in retreat. For a +moment he stood thus, running his fingers through his hair; then he +cast discretion to the winds and began the ascent. + +In conformity with such Wieroo architecture as he had already observed, +the well through which the ladder rose continually canted at an angle +from the perpendicular. At more or less regular stages it was pierced +by apertures closed by doors, none of which he could open until he had +climbed fully fifty feet from the river level. Here he discovered a +door already ajar opening into a large, circular chamber, the walls and +floors of which were covered with the skins of wild beasts and with +rugs of many colors; but what interested him most was the occupants of +the room--a Wieroo, and a girl of human proportions. She was standing +with her back against a column which rose from the center of the +apartment from floor to ceiling--a hollow column about forty inches in +diameter in which he could see an opening some thirty inches across. +The girl's side was toward Bradley, and her face averted, for she was +watching the Wieroo, who was now advancing slowly toward her, talking +as he came. + +Bradley could distinctly hear the words of the creature, who was urging +the girl to accompany him to another Wieroo city. "Come with me," he +said, "and you shall have your life; remain here and He Who Speaks for +Luata will claim you for his own; and when he is done with you, your +skull will bleach at the top of a tall staff while your body feeds the +reptiles at the mouth of the River of Death. Even though you bring +into the world a female Wieroo, your fate will be the same if you do +not escape him, while with me you shall have life and food and none +shall harm you." + +He was quite close to the girl when she replied by striking him in the +face with all her strength. "Until I am slain," she cried, "I shall +fight against you all." From the throat of the Wieroo issued that +dismal wail that Bradley had heard so often in the past--it was like a +scream of pain smothered to a groan--and then the thing leaped upon the +girl, its face working in hideous grimaces as it clawed and beat at her +to force her to the floor. + +The Englishman was upon the point of entering to defend her when a door +at the opposite side of the chamber opened to admit a huge Wieroo +clothed entirely in red. At sight of the two struggling upon the floor +the newcomer raised his voice in a shriek of rage. Instantly the +Wieroo who was attacking the girl leaped to his feet and faced the +other. + +"I heard," screamed he who had just entered the room. "I heard, and +when He Who Speaks for young, reproduction and kindred subjects shall have heard--" He paused and made a +suggestive movement of a finger across his throat. + +"He shall not hear," returned the first Wieroo as, with a powerful +motion of his great wings, he launched himself upon the red-robed +figure. The latter dodged the first charge, drew a wicked-looking +curved blade from beneath its red robe, spread its wings and dived for +its antagonist. Beating their wings, wailing and groaning, the two +hideous things sparred for position. The white-robed one being unarmed +sought to grasp the other by the wrist of its knife-hand and by the +throat, while the latter hopped around on its dainty white feet, +seeking an opening for a mortal blow. Once it struck and missed, and +then the other rushed in and clinched, at the same time securing both +the holds it sought. Immediately the two commenced beating at each +other's heads with the joints of their wings, kicking with their soft, +puny feet and biting, each at the other's face. + +In the meantime the girl moved about the room, keeping out of the way +of the duelists, and as she did so, Bradley caught a glimpse of her +full face and immediately recognized her as the girl of the place of +the yellow door. He did not dare intervene now until one of the Wieroo +had overcome the other, lest the two should turn upon him at once, when +the chances were fair that he would be defeated in so unequal a battle +as the curved blade of the red Wieroo would render it, and so he +waited, watching the white-robed figure slowly choking the life from +him of the red robe. The protruding tongue and the popping eyes +proclaimed that the end was near and a moment later the red robe sank +to the floor of the room, the curved blade slipping from nerveless +fingers. For an instant longer the victor clung to the throat of his +defeated antagonist and then he rose, dragging the body after him, and +approached the central column. Here he raised the body and thrust it +into the aperture where Bradley saw it drop suddenly from sight. +Instantly there flashed into his memory the circular openings in the +roof of the river vault and the corpses he had seen drop from them to +the water beneath. + +As the body disappeared, the Wieroo turned and cast about the room for +the girl. For a moment he stood eying her. "You saw," he muttered, +"and if you tell them, He Who Speaks for Luata will have my wings +severed while still I live and my head will be severed and I shall be +cast into the River of Death, for thus it happens even to the highest +who slay one of the red robe. You saw, and you must die!" he ended +with a scream as he rushed upon the girl. + +Bradley waited no longer. Leaping into the room he ran for the Wieroo, +who had already seized the girl, and as he ran, he stooped and picked +up the curved blade. The creature's back was toward him as, with his +left hand, he seized it by the neck. Like a flash the great wings beat +backward as the creature turned, and Bradley was swept from his feet, +though he still retained his hold upon the blade. Instantly the Wieroo +was upon him. Bradley lay slightly raised upon his left elbow, his +right arm free, and as the thing came close, he cut at the hideous face +with all the strength that lay within him. The blade struck at the +junction of the neck and torso and with such force as to completely +decapitate the Wieroo, the hideous head dropping to the floor and the +body falling forward upon the Englishman. Pushing it from him he rose +to his feet and faced the wide-eyed girl. + +"Luata!" she exclaimed. "How came you here?" + +Bradley shrugged. "Here I am," he said; "but the thing now is to get +out of here--both of us." + +The girl shook her head. "It cannot be," she stated sadly. + +"That is what I thought when they dropped me into the Blue Place of +Seven Skulls," replied Bradley. "Can't be done. I did it.--Here! +You're mussing up the floor something awful, you." This last to the +dead Wieroo as he stooped and dragged the corpse to the central shaft, +where he raised it to the aperture and let it slip into the tube. Then +he picked up the head and tossed it after the body. "Don't be so +glum," he admonished the former as he carried it toward the well; +"smile!" + +"But how can he smile?" questioned the girl, a half-puzzled, +half-frightened look upon her face. "He is dead." + +"That's so," admitted Bradley, "and I suppose he does feel a bit cut up +about it." + +The girl shook her head and edged away from the man--toward the door. + +"Come!" said the Englishman. "We've got to get out of here. If you +don't know a better way than the river, it's the river then." + +The girl still eyed him askance. "But how could he smile when he was +dead?" + +Bradley laughed aloud. "I thought we English were supposed to have the +least sense of humor of any people in the world," he cried; "but now +I've found one human being who hasn't any. Of course you don't know +half I'm saying; but don't worry, little girl; I'm not going to hurt +you, and if I can get you out of here, I'll do it." + +Even if she did not understand all he said, she at least read something +in his smiling countenance--something which reassured her. "I do not +fear you," she said; "though I do not understand all that you say even +though you speak my own tongue and use words that I know. But as for +escaping"--she sighed--"alas, how can it be done?" + +"I escaped from the Blue Place of Seven Skulls," Bradley reminded her. +"Come!" And he turned toward the shaft and the ladder that he had +ascended from the river. "We cannot waste time here." + +The girl followed him; but at the doorway both drew back, for from +below came the sound of some one ascending. + +Bradley tiptoed to the door and peered cautiously into the well; then +he stepped back beside the girl. "There are half a dozen of them +coming up; but possibly they will pass this room." + +"No," she said, "they will pass directly through this room--they are on +their way to Him Who Speaks for Luata. We may be able to hide in the +next room--there are skins there beneath which we may crawl. They will +not stop in that room; but they may stop in this one for a short +time--the other room is blue." + +"What's that go to do with it?" demanded the Englishman. + +"They fear blue," she replied. "In every room where murder has been +done you will find blue--a certain amount for each murder. When the +room is all blue, they shun it. This room has much blue; but evidently +they kill mostly in the next room, which is now all blue." + +"But there is blue on the outside of every house I have seen," said +Bradley. + +"Yes," assented the girl, "and there are blue rooms in each of those +houses--when all the rooms are blue then the whole outside of the house +will be blue as is the Blue Place of Seven Skulls. There are many such +here." + +"And the skulls with blue upon them?" inquired Bradley. "Did they +belong to murderers?" + +"They were murdered--some of them; those with only a small amount of +blue were murderers--known murderers. All Wieroos are murderers. When +they have committed a certain number of murders without being caught at +it, they confess to Him Who Speaks for Luata and are advanced, after +which they wear robes with a slash of some color--I think yellow comes +first. When they reach a point where the entire robe is of yellow, +they discard it for a white robe with a red slash; and when one wins a +complete red robe, he carries such a long, curved knife as you have in +your hand; after that comes the blue slash on a white robe, and then, I +suppose, an all blue robe. I have never seen such a one." + +As they talked in low tones they had moved from the room of the death +shaft into an all blue room adjoining, where they sat down together in +a corner with their backs against a wall and drew a pile of hides over +themselves. A moment later they heard a number of Wieroos enter the +chamber. They were talking together as they crossed the floor, or the +two could not have heard them. Halfway across the chamber they halted +as the door toward which they were advancing opened and a dozen others +of their kind entered the apartment. + +Bradley could guess all this by the increased volume of sound and the +dismal greetings; but the sudden silence that almost immediately ensued +he could not fathom, for he could not know that from beneath one of the +hides that covered him protruded one of his heavy army shoes, or that +some eighteen large Wieroos with robes either solid red or slashed with +red or blue were standing gazing at it. Nor could he hear their +stealthy approach. + +The first intimation he had that he had been discovered was when his +foot was suddenly seized, and he was yanked violently from beneath the +hides to find himself surrounded by menacing blades. They would have +slain him on the spot had not one clothed all in red held them back, +saying that He Who Speaks for Luata desired to see this strange +creature. + +As they led Bradley away, he caught an opportunity to glance back +toward the hides to see what had become of the girl, and, to his +gratification, he discovered that she still lay concealed beneath the +hides. He wondered if she would have the nerve to attempt the river +trip alone and regretted that now he could not accompany her. He felt +rather all in, himself, more so than he had at any time since he had +been captured by the Wieroo, for there appeared not the slightest cause +for hope in his present predicament. He had dropped the curved blade +beneath the hides when he had been jerked so violently from their +fancied security. It was almost in a spirit of resigned hopelessness +that he quietly accompanied his captors through various chambers and +corridors toward the heart of the temple. + + + +Chapter 4 + +The farther the group progressed, the more barbaric and the more +sumptuous became the decorations. Hides of leopard and tiger +predominated, apparently because of their more beautiful markings, and +decorative skulls became more and more numerous. Many of the latter +were mounted in precious metals and set with colored stones and +priceless gems, while thick upon the hides that covered the walls were +golden ornaments similar to those worn by the girl and those which had +filled the chests he had examined in the storeroom of Fosh-bal-soj, +leading the Englishman to the conviction that all such were spoils of +war or theft, since each piece seemed made for personal adornment, +while in so far as he had seen, no Wieroo wore ornaments of any sort. + +And also as they advanced the more numerous became the Wieroos moving +hither and thither within the temple. Many now were the solid red +robes and those that were slashed with blue--a veritable hive of +murderers. + +At last the party halted in a room in which were many Wieroos who +gathered about Bradley questioning his captors and examining him and +his apparel. One of the party accompanying the Englishman spoke to a +Wieroo that stood beside a door leading from the room. "Tell Him Who +Speaks for Luata," he said, "that Fosh-bal-soj we could not find; but +that in returning we found this creature within the temple, hiding. It +must be the same that Fosh-bal-soj captured in the Sto-lu country +during the last darkness. Doubtless He Who Speaks for Luata would wish +to see and question this strange thing." + +The creature addressed turned and slipped through the doorway, closing +the door after it, but first depositing its curved blade upon the floor +without. Its post was immediately taken by another and Bradley now saw +that at least twenty such guards loitered in the immediate vicinity. +The doorkeeper was gone but for a moment, and when he returned, he +signified that Bradley's party was to enter the next chamber; but first +each of the Wieroos removed his curved weapon and laid it upon the +floor. The door was swung open, and the party, now reduced to Bradley +and five Wieroos, was ushered across the threshold into a large, +irregularly shaped room in which a single, giant Wieroo whose robe was +solid blue sat upon a raised dais. + +The creature's face was white with the whiteness of a corpse, its dead +eyes entirely expressionless, its cruel, thin lips tight-drawn against +yellow teeth in a perpetual grimace. Upon either side of it lay an +enormous, curved sword, similar to those with which some of the other +Wieroos had been armed, but larger and heavier. Constantly its +clawlike fingers played with one or the other of these weapons. + +The walls of the chamber as well as the floor were entirely hidden by +skins and woven fabrics. Blue predominated in all the colorations. +Fastened against the hides were many pairs of Wieroo wings, mounted so +that they resembled long, black shields. Upon the ceiling were painted +in blue characters a bewildering series of hieroglyphics and upon +pedestals set against the walls or standing out well within the room +were many human skulls. + +As the Wieroos approached the figure upon the dais, they leaned far +forward, raising their wings above their heads and stretching their +necks as though offering them to the sharp swords of the grim and +hideous creature. + +"O Thou Who Speakest for Luata!" exclaimed one of the party. "We bring +you the strange creature that Fosh-bal-soj captured and brought thither +at thy command." + +So this then was the godlike figure that spoke for divinity! This +arch-murderer was the Caspakian representative of God on Earth! His +blue robe announced him the one and the seeming humility of his minions +the other. For a long minute he glared at Bradley. Then he began to +question him--from whence he came and how, the name and description of +his native country, and a hundred other queries. + +"Are you cos-ata-lu?" the creature asked. + +Bradley replied that he was and that all his kind were, as well as +every living thing in his part of the world. + +"Can you tell me the secret?" asked the creature. + +Bradley hesitated and then, thinking to gain time, replied in the +affirmative. + +"What is it?" demanded the Wieroo, leaning far forward and exhibiting +every evidence of excited interest. + +Bradley leaned forward and whispered: "It is for your ears alone; I +will not divulge it to others, and then only on condition that you +carry me and the girl I saw in the place of the yellow door near to +that of Fosh-bal-soj back to her own country." + +The thing rose in wrath, holding one of its swords above its head. + +"Who are you to make terms for Him Who Speaks for Luata?" it shrilled. +"Tell me the secret or die where you stand!" + +"And if I die now, the secret goes with me," Bradley reminded him. +"Never again will you get the opportunity to question another of my +kind who knows the secret." Anything to gain time, to get the rest of +the Wieroos from the room, that he might plan some scheme for escape +and put it into effect. + +The creature turned upon the leader of the party that had brought +Bradley. + +"Is the thing with weapons?" it asked. + +"No," was the response. + +"Then go; but tell the guard to remain close by," commanded the high +one. + +The Wieroos salaamed and withdrew, closing the door behind them. He +Who Speaks for Luata grasped a sword nervously in his right hand. At +his left side lay the second weapon. It was evident that he lived in +constant dread of being assassinated. The fact that he permitted none +with weapons within his presence and that he always kept two swords at +his side pointed to this. + +Bradley was racking his brain to find some suggestion of a plan whereby +he might turn the situation to his own account. His eyes wandered past +the weird figure before him; they played about the walls of the +apartment as though hoping to draw inspiration from the dead skulls and +the hides and the wings, and then they came back to the face of the +Wieroo god, now working in anger. + +"Quick!" screamed the thing. "The secret!" + +"Will you give me and the girl our freedom?" insisted Bradley. + +For an instant the thing hesitated, and then it grumbled "Yes." At the +same instant Bradley saw two hides upon the wall directly back of the +dais separate and a face appear in the opening. No change of +expression upon the Englishman's countenance betrayed that he had seen +aught to surprise him, though surprised he was for the face in the +aperture was that of the girl he had but just left hidden beneath the +hides in another chamber. A white and shapely arm now pushed past the +face into the room, and in the hand, tightly clutched, was the curved +blade, smeared with blood, that Bradley had dropped beneath the hides +at the moment he had been discovered and drawn from his concealment. + +"Listen, then," said Bradley in a low voice to the Wieroo. "You shall +know the secret of cos-ata-lu as well as do I; but none other may hear +it. Lean close--I will whisper it into your ear." + +He moved forward and stepped upon the dais. The creature raised its +sword ready to strike at the first indication of treachery, and Bradley +stooped beneath the blade and put his ear close to the gruesome face. +As he did so, he rested his weight upon his hands, one upon either side +of the Wieroo's body, his right hand upon the hilt of the spare sword +lying at the left of Him Who Speaks for Luata. + +"This then is the secret of both life and death," he whispered, and at +the same instant he grasped the Wieroo by the right wrist and with his +own right hand swung the extra blade in a sudden vicious blow against +the creature's neck before the thing could give even a single cry of +alarm; then without waiting an instant Bradley leaped past the dead god +and vanished behind the hides that had hidden the girl. + +Wide-eyed and panting the girl seized his arm. "Oh, what have you +done?" she cried. "He Who Speaks for Luata will be avenged by Luata. +Now indeed must you die. There is no escape, for even though we +reached my own country Luata can find you out." + +"Bosh!" exclaimed Bradley, and then: "But you were going to knife him +yourself." + +"Then I alone should have died," she replied. + +Bradley scratched his head. "Neither of us is going to die," he said; +"at least not at the hands of any god. If we don't get out of here +though, we'll die right enough. Can you find your way back to the room +where I first came upon you in the temple?" + +"I know the way," replied the girl; "but I doubt if we can go back +without being seen. I came hither because I only met Wieroos who knew +that I am supposed now to be in the temple; but you could go elsewhere +without being discovered." + +Bradley's ingenuity had come up against a stone wall. There seemed no +possibility of escape. He looked about him. They were in a small room +where lay a litter of rubbish--torn bits of cloth, old hides, pieces of +fiber rope. In the center of the room was a cylindrical shaft with an +opening in its face. Bradley knew it for what it was. Here the +arch-fiend dragged his victims and cast their bodies into the river of +death far below. The floor about the opening in the shaft and the +sides of the shaft were clotted thick with a dried, dark brown +substance that the Englishman knew had once been blood. The place had +the appearance of having been a veritable shambles. An odor of +decaying flesh permeated the air. + +The Englishman crossed to the shaft and peered into the opening. All +below was dark as pitch; but at the bottom he knew was the river. +Suddenly an inspiration and a bold scheme leaped to his mind. Turning +quickly he hunted about the room until he found what he sought--a +quantity of the rope that lay strewn here and there. With rapid +fingers he unsnarled the different lengths, the girl helping him, and +then he tied the ends together until he had three ropes about +seventy-five feet in length. He fastened these together at each end +and without a word secured one of the ends about the girl's body +beneath her arms. + +"Don't be frightened," he said at length, as he led her toward the +opening in the shaft. "I'm going to lower you to the river, and then +I'm coming down after you. When you are safe below, give two quick +jerks upon the rope. If there is danger there and you want me to draw +you up into the shaft, jerk once. Don't be afraid--it is the only way." + +"I am not afraid," replied the girl, rather haughtily Bradley thought, +and herself climbed through the aperture and hung by her hands waiting +for Bradley to lower her. + +As rapidly as was consistent with safety, the man paid out the rope. +When it was about half out, he heard loud cries and wails suddenly +arise within the room they had just quitted. The slaying of their god +had been discovered by the Wieroos. A search for the slayer would +begin at once. + +Lord! Would the girl never reach the river? At last, just as he was +positive that searchers were already entering the room behind him, +there came two quick tugs at the rope. Instantly Bradley made the rest +of the strands fast about the shaft, slipped into the black tube and +began a hurried descent toward the river. An instant later he stood +waist deep in water beside the girl. Impulsively she reached toward +him and grasped his arm. A strange thrill ran through him at the +contact; but he only cut the rope from about her body and lifted her to +the little shelf at the river's side. + +"How can we leave here?" she asked. + +"By the river," he replied; "but first I must go back to the Blue Place +of Seven Skulls and get the poor devil I left there. I'll have to wait +until after dark, though, as I cannot pass through the open stretch of +river in the temple gardens by day." + +"There is another way," said the girl. "I have never seen it; but +often I have heard them speak of it--a corridor that runs beside the +river from one end of the city to the other. Through the gardens it is +below ground. If we could find an entrance to it, we could leave here +at once. It is not safe here, for they will search every inch of the +temple and the grounds." + +"Come," said Bradley. "We'll have a look for it, anyway." And so +saying he approached one of the doors that opened onto the skull-paved +shelf. + +They found the corridor easily, for it paralleled the river, separated +from it only by a single wall. It took them beneath the gardens and +the city, always through inky darkness. After they had reached the +other side of the gardens, Bradley counted his steps until he had +retraced as many as he had taken coming down the stream; but though +they had to grope their way along, it was a much more rapid trip than +the former. + +When he thought he was about opposite the point at which he had +descended from the Blue Place of Seven Skulls, he sought and found a +doorway leading out onto the river; and then, still in the blackest +darkness, he lowered himself into the stream and felt up and down upon +the opposite side for the little shelf and the ladder. Ten yards from +where he had emerged he found them, while the girl waited upon the +opposite side. + +To ascend to the secret panel was the work of but a minute. Here he +paused and listened lest a Wieroo might be visiting the prison in +search of him or the other inmate; but no sound came from the gloomy +interior. Bradley could not but muse upon the joy of the man on the +opposite side when he should drop down to him with food and a new hope +for escape. Then he opened the panel and looked into the room. The +faint light from the grating above revealed the pile of rags in one +corner; but the man lay beneath them, he made no response to Bradley's +low greeting. + +The Englishman lowered himself to the floor of the room and approached +the rags. Stooping he lifted a corner of them. Yes, there was the man +asleep. Bradley shook him--there was no response. He stooped lower +and in the dim light examined An-Tak; then he stood up with a sigh. A +rat leaped from beneath the coverings and scurried away. "Poor devil!" +muttered Bradley. + +He crossed the room to swing himself to the perch preparatory to +quitting the Blue Place of Seven Skulls forever. Beneath the perch he +paused. "I'll not give them the satisfaction," he growled. "Let them +believe that he escaped." + +Returning to the pile of rags he gathered the man into his arms. It +was difficult work raising him to the high perch and dragging him +through the small opening and thus down the ladder; but presently it +was done, and Bradley had lowered the body into the river and cast it +off. "Good-bye, old top!" he whispered. + +A moment later he had rejoined the girl and hand in hand they were +following the dark corridor upstream toward the farther end of the +city. She told him that the Wieroos seldom frequented these lower +passages, as the air here was too chill for them; but occasionally they +came, and as they could see quite as well by night as by day, they +would be sure to discover Bradley and the girl. + +"If they come close enough," she said, "we can see their eyes shining +in the dark--they resemble dull splotches of light. They glow, but do +not blaze like the eyes of the tiger or the lion." + +The man could not but note the very evident horror with which she +mentioned the creatures. To him they were uncanny; but she had been +used to them for a year almost, and probably all her life she had +either seen or heard of them constantly. + +"Why do you fear them so?" he asked. "It seems more than any ordinary +fear of the harm they can do you." + +She tried to explain; but the nearest he could gather was that she +looked upon the Wieroo almost as supernatural beings. "There is a +legend current among my people that once the Wieroo were unlike us only +in that they possessed rudimentary wings. They lived in villages in +the Galu country, and while the two peoples often warred, they held no +hatred for one another. In those days each race came up from the +beginning and there was great rivalry as to which was the higher in the +scale of evolution. The Wieroo developed the first cos-ata-lu but they +were always male--never could they reproduce woman. Slowly they +commenced to develop certain attributes of the mind which, they +considered, placed them upon a still higher level and which gave them +many advantages over us, seeing which they thought only of mental +development--their minds became like stars and the rivers, moving +always in the same manner, never varying. They called this tas-ad, +which means doing everything the right way, or, in other words, the +Wieroo way. If foe or friend, right or wrong, stood in the way of +tas-ad, then it must be crushed. + +"Soon the Galus and the lesser races of men came to hate and fear them. +It was then that the Wieroos decided to carry tas-ad into every part of +the world. They were very warlike and very numerous, although they had +long since adopted the policy of slaying all those among them whose +wings did not show advanced development. + +"It took ages for all this to happen--very slowly came the different +changes; but at last the Wieroos had wings they could use. But by +reason of always making war upon their neighbors they were hated by +every creature of Caspak, for no one wanted their tas-ad, and so they +used their wings to fly to this island when the other races turned +against them and threatened to kill them all. So cruel had they become +and so bloodthirsty that they no longer had hearts that beat with love +or sympathy; but their very cruelty and wickedness kept them from +conquering the other races, since they were also cruel and wicked to +one another, so that no Wieroo trusted another. + +"Always were they slaying those above them that they might rise in +power and possessions, until at last came the more powerful than the +others with a tas-ad all his own. He gathered about him a few of the +most terrible Wieroos, and among them they made laws which took from +all but these few Wieroos every weapon they possessed. + +"Now their tas-ad has reached a high plane among them. They make many +wonderful things that we cannot make. They think great thoughts, no +doubt, and still dream of greatness to come, but their thoughts and +their acts are regulated by ages of custom--they are all alike--and +they are most unhappy." + +As the girl talked, the two moved steadily along the dark passageway +beside the river. They had advanced a considerable distance when there +sounded faintly from far ahead the muffled roar of falling water, which +increased in volume as they moved forward until at last it filled the +corridor with a deafening sound. Then the corridor ended in a blank +wall; but in a niche to the right was a ladder leading aloft, and to +the left was a door opening onto the river. Bradley tried the latter +first and as he opened it, felt a heavy spray against his face. The +little shelf outside the doorway was wet and slippery, the roaring of +the water tremendous. There could be but one explanation--they had +reached a waterfall in the river, and if the corridor actually +terminated here, their escape was effectually cut off, since it was +quite evidently impossible to follow the bed of the river and ascend +the falls. + +As the ladder was the only alternative, the two turned toward it and, +the man first, began the ascent, which was through a well similar to +that which had led him to the upper floors of the temple. As he +climbed, Bradley felt for openings in the sides of the shaft; but he +discovered none below fifty feet. The first he came to was ajar, +letting a faint light into the well. As he paused, the girl climbed to +his side, and together they looked through the crack into a low-ceiled +chamber in which were several Galu women and an equal number of hideous +little replicas of the full-grown Wieroos with which Bradley was not +quite familiar. + +He could feel the body of the girl pressed close to his tremble as her +eyes rested upon the inmates of the room, and involuntarily his arm +encircled her shoulders as though to protect her from some danger which +he sensed without recognizing. + +"Poor things," she whispered. "This is their horrible fate--to be +imprisoned here beneath the surface of the city with their hideous +offspring whom they hate as they hate their fathers. A Wieroo keeps +his children thus hidden until they are full-grown lest they be +murdered by their fellows. The lower rooms of the city are filled with +many such as these." + +Several feet above was a second door beyond which they found a small +room stored with food in wooden vessels. A grated window in one wall +opened above an alley, and through it they could see that they were +just below the roof of the building. Darkness was coming, and at +Bradley's suggestion they decided to remain hidden here until after +dark and then to ascend to the roof and reconnoiter. + +Shortly after they had settled themselves they heard something +descending the ladder from above. They hoped that it would continue on +down the well and fairly held their breath as the sound approached the +door to the storeroom. Their hearts sank as they heard the door open +and from between cracks in the vessels behind which they hid saw a +yellow-slashed Wieroo enter the room. Each recognized him immediately, +the girl indicating the fact of her own recognition by a sudden +pressure of her fingers on Bradley's arm. It was the Wieroo of the +yellow slashing whose abode was the place of the yellow door in which +Bradley had first seen the girl. + +The creature carried a wooden bowl which it filled with dried food from +several of the vessels; then it turned and quit the room. Bradley +could see through the partially open doorway that it descended the +ladder. The girl told him that it was taking the food to the women and +the young below, and that while it might return immediately, the +chances were that it would remain for some time. + +"We are just below the place of the yellow door," she said. "It is far +from the edge of the city; so far that we may not hope to escape if we +ascend to the roofs here." + +"I think," replied the man, "that of all the places in Oo-oh this will +be the easiest to escape from. Anyway, I want to return to the place +of the yellow door and get my pistol if it is there." + +"It is still there," replied, the girl. "I saw it placed in a chest +where he keeps the things he takes from his prisoners and victims." + +"Good!" exclaimed Bradley. "Now come, quickly." And the two crossed +the room to the well and ascended the ladder a short distance to its +top where they found another door that opened into a vacant room--the +same in which Bradley had first met the girl. To find the pistol was a +matter of but a moment's search on the part of Bradley's companion; and +then, at the Englishman's signal, she followed him to the yellow door. + +It was quite dark without as the two entered the narrow passage between +two buildings. A few steps brought them undiscovered to the doorway of +the storeroom where lay the body of Fosh-bal-soj. In the distance, +toward the temple, they could hear sounds as of a great gathering of +Wieroos--the peculiar, uncanny wailing rising above the dismal flapping +of countless wings. + +"They have heard of the killing of Him Who Speaks for Luata," whispered +the girl. "Soon they will spread in all directions searching for us." + +"And will they find us?" + +"As surely as Lua gives light by day," she replied; "and when they find +us, they will tear us to pieces, for only the Wieroos may murder--only +they may practice tas-ad." + +"But they will not kill you," said Bradley. "You did not slay him." + +"It will make no difference," she insisted. "If they find us together +they will slay us both." + +"Then they won't find us together," announced Bradley decisively. "You +stay right here--you won't be any worse off than before I came--and +I'll get as far as I can and account for as many of the beggars as +possible before they get me. Good-bye! You're a mighty decent little +girl. I wish that I might have helped you." + +"No," she cried. "Do not leave me. I would rather die. I had hoped +and hoped to find some way to return to my own country. I wanted to go +back to An-Tak, who must be very lonely without me; but I know that it +can never be. It is difficult to kill hope, though mine is nearly +dead. Do not leave me." + +"An-Tak!" Bradley repeated. "You loved a man called An-Tak?" + +"Yes," replied the girl. "An-Tak was away, hunting, when the Wieroo +caught me. How he must have grieved for me! He also was cos-ata-lu, +twelve moons older than I, and all our lives we have been together." + +Bradley remained silent. So she loved An-Tak. He hadn't the heart to +tell her that An-Tak had died, or how. + +At the door of Fosh-bal-soj's storeroom they halted to listen. No +sound came from within, and gently Bradley pushed open the door. All +was inky darkness as they entered; but presently their eyes became +accustomed to the gloom that was partially relieved by the soft +starlight without. The Englishman searched and found those things for +which he had come--two robes, two pairs of dead wings and several +lengths of fiber rope. One pair of the wings he adjusted to the girl's +shoulders by means of the rope. Then he draped the robe about her, +carrying the cowl over her head. + +He heard her gasp of astonishment when she realized the ingenuity and +boldness of his plan; then he directed her to adjust the other pair of +wings and the robe upon him. Working with strong, deft fingers she +soon had the work completed, and the two stepped out upon the roof, to +all intent and purpose genuine Wieroos. Besides his pistol Bradley +carried the sword of the slain Wieroo prophet, while the girl was armed +with the small blade of the red Wieroo. + +Side by side they walked slowly across the roofs toward the north edge +of the city. Wieroos flapped above them and several times they passed +others walking or sitting upon the roofs. From the temple still rose +the sounds of commotion, now pierced by occasional shrill screams. + +"The murderers are abroad," whispered the girl. "Thus will another +become the tongue of Luata. It is well for us, since it keeps them too +busy to give the time for searching for us. They think that we cannot +escape the city, and they know that we cannot leave the island--and so +do I." + +Bradley shook his head. "If there is any way, we will find it," he +said. + +"There is no way," replied the girl. + +Bradley made no response, and in silence they continued until the outer +edge of roofs was visible before them. "We are almost there," he +whispered. + +The girl felt for his fingers and pressed them. He could feel hers +trembling as he returned the pressure, nor did he relinquish her hand; +and thus they came to the edge of the last roof. + +Here they halted and looked about them. To be seen attempting to +descend to the ground below would be to betray the fact that they were +not Wieroos. Bradley wished that their wings were attached to their +bodies by sinew and muscle rather than by ropes of fiber. A Wieroo was +flapping far overhead. Two more stood near a door a few yards distant. +Standing between these and one of the outer pedestals that supported +one of the numerous skulls Bradley made one end of a piece of rope fast +about the pedestal and dropped the other end to the ground outside the +city. Then they waited. + +It was an hour before the coast was entirely clear and then a moment +came when no Wieroo was in sight. "Now!" whispered Bradley; and the +girl grasped the rope and slid over the edge of the roof into the +darkness below. A moment later Bradley felt two quick pulls upon the +rope and immediately followed to the girl's side. + +Across a narrow clearing they made their way and into a wood beyond. +All night they walked, following the river upward toward its source, +and at dawn they took shelter in a thicket beside the stream. At no +time did they hear the cry of a carnivore, and though many startled +animals fled as they approached, they were not once menaced by a wild +beast. When Bradley expressed surprise at the absence of the fiercest +beasts that are so numerous upon the mainland of Caprona, the girl +explained the reason that is contained in one of their ancient legends. + +"When the Wieroos first developed wings upon which they could fly, they +found this island devoid of any life other than a few reptiles that +live either upon land or in the water and these only close to the +coast. Requiring meat for food the Wieroos carried to the island such +animals as they wished for that purpose. They still occasionally bring +them, and this with the natural increase keeps them provided with +flesh." + +"As it will us," suggested Bradley. + +The first day they remained in hiding, eating only the dried food that +Bradley had brought with him from the temple storeroom, and the next +night they set out again up the river, continuing steadily on until +almost dawn, when they came to low hills where the river wound through +a gorge--it was little more than rivulet now, the water clear and cold +and filled with fish similar to brook trout though much larger. Not +wishing to leave the stream the two waded along its bed to a spot where +the gorge widened between perpendicular bluffs to a wooded acre of +level land. Here they stopped, for here also the stream ended. They +had reached its source--many cold springs bubbling up from the center +of a little natural amphitheater in the hills and forming a clear and +beautiful pool overshadowed by trees upon one side and bounded by a +little clearing upon the other. + +With the coming of the sun they saw they had stumbled upon a place +where they might remain hidden from the Wieroos for a long time and +also one that they could defend against these winged creatures, since +the trees would shield them from an attack from above and also hamper +the movements of the creatures should they attempt to follow them into +the wood. + +For three days they rested here before trying to explore the +neighboring country. On the fourth, Bradley stated that he was going +to scale the bluffs and learn what lay beyond. He told the girl that +she should remain in hiding; but she refused to be left, saying that +whatever fate was to be his, she intended to share it, so that he was +at last forced to permit her to come with him. Through woods at the +summit of the bluff they made their way toward the north and had gone +but a short distance when the wood ended and before them they saw the +waters of the inland sea and dimly in the distance the coveted shore. + +The beach lay some two hundred yards from the foot of the hill on which +they stood, nor was there a tree nor any other form of shelter between +them and the water as far up and down the coast as they could see. +Among other plans Bradley had thought of constructing a covered raft +upon which they might drift to the mainland; but as such a contrivance +would necessarily be of considerable weight, it must be built in the +water of the sea, since they could not hope to move it even a short +distance overland. + +"If this wood was only at the edge of the water," he sighed. + +"But it is not," the girl reminded him, and then: "Let us make the +best of it. We have escaped from death for a time at least. We have +food and good water and peace and each other. What more could we have +upon the mainland?" + +"But I thought you wanted to get back to your own country!" he +exclaimed. + +She cast her eyes upon the ground and half turned away. "I do," she +said, "yet I am happy here. I could be little happier there." + +Bradley stood in silent thought. "`We have food and good water and +peace and each other!'" he repeated to himself. He turned then and +looked at the girl, and it was as though in the days that they had been +together this was the first time that he had really seen her. The +circumstances that had thrown them together, the dangers through which +they had passed, all the weird and horrible surroundings that had +formed the background of his knowledge of her had had their effect--she +had been but the companion of an adventure; her self-reliance, her +endurance, her loyalty, had been only what one man might expect of +another, and he saw that he had unconsciously assumed an attitude +toward her that he might have assumed toward a man. Yet there had been +a difference--he recalled now the strange sensation of elation that had +thrilled him upon the occasions when the girl had pressed his hand in +hers, and the depression that had followed her announcement of her love +for An-Tak. + +He took a step toward her. A fierce yearning to seize her and crush +her in his arms, swept over him, and then there flashed upon the screen +of recollection the picture of a stately hall set amidst broad gardens +and ancient trees and of a proud old man with beetling brows--an old +man who held his head very high--and Bradley shook his head and turned +away again. + +They went back then to their little acre, and the days came and went, +and the man fashioned spear and bow and arrows and hunted with them +that they might have meat, and he made hooks of fishbone and caught +fishes with wondrous flies of his own invention; and the girl gathered +fruits and cooked the flesh and the fish and made beds of branches and +soft grasses. She cured the hides of the animals he killed and made +them soft by much pounding. She made sandals for herself and for the +man and fashioned a hide after the manner of those worn by the warriors +of her tribe and made the man wear it, for his own garments were in +rags. + +She was always the same--sweet and kind and helpful--but always there +was about her manner and her expression just a trace of wistfulness, +and often she sat and looked at the man when he did not know it, her +brows puckered in thought as though she were trying to fathom and to +understand him. + +In the face of the cliff, Bradley scooped a cave from the rotted +granite of which the hill was composed, making a shelter for them +against the rains. He brought wood for their cook-fire which they used +only in the middle of the day--a time when there was little likelihood +of Wieroos being in the air so far from their city--and then he learned +to bank it with earth in such a way that the embers held until the +following noon without giving off smoke. + +Always he was planning on reaching the mainland, and never a day passed +that he did not go to the top of the hill and look out across the sea +toward the dark, distant line that meant for him comparative freedom +and possibly reunion with his comrades. The girl always went with him, +standing at his side and watching the stern expression on his face with +just a tinge of sadness on her own. + +"You are not happy," she said once. + +"I should be over there with my men," he replied. "I do not know what +may have happened to them." + +"I want you to be happy," she said quite simply; "but I should be very +lonely if you went away and left me here." + +He put his hand on her shoulder. "I would not do that, little girl," +he said gently. "If you cannot go with me, I shall not go. If either +of us must go alone, it will be you." + +Her face lighted to a wondrous smile. "Then we shall not be +separated," she said, "for I shall never leave you as long as we both +live." + +He looked down into her face for a moment and then: "Who was An-Tak?" +he asked. + +"My brother," she replied. "Why?" + +And then, even less than before, could he tell her. It was then that +he did something he had never done before--he put his arms about her +and stooping, kissed her forehead. "Until you find An-Tak," he said, +"I will be your brother." + +She drew away. "I already have a brother," she said, "and I do not +want another." + + + +Chapter 5 + +Days became weeks, and weeks became months, and the months followed one +another in a lazy procession of hot, humid days and warm, humid nights. +The fugitives saw never a Wieroo by day though often at night they +heard the melancholy flapping of giant wings far above them. + +Each day was much like its predecessor. Bradley splashed about for a +few minutes in the cold pool early each morning and after a time the +girl tried it and liked it. Toward the center it was deep enough for +swimming, and so he taught her to swim--she was probably the first +human being in all Caspak's long ages who had done this thing. And +then while she prepared breakfast, the man shaved--this he never +neglected. At first it was a source of wonderment to the girl, for the +Galu men are beardless. + +When they needed meat, he hunted, otherwise he busied himself in +improving their shelter, making new and better weapons, perfecting his +knowledge of the girl's language and teaching her to speak and to write +English--anything that would keep them both occupied. He still sought +new plans for escape, but with ever-lessening enthusiasm, since each +new scheme presented some insurmountable obstacle. + +And then one day as a bolt out of a clear sky came that which blasted +the peace and security of their sanctuary forever. Bradley was just +emerging from the water after his morning plunge when from overhead +came the sound of flapping wings. Glancing quickly up the man saw a +white-robed Wieroo circling slowly above him. That he had been +discovered he could not doubt since the creature even dropped to a +lower altitude as though to assure itself that what it saw was a man. +Then it rose rapidly and winged away toward the city. + +For two days Bradley and the girl lived in a constant state of +apprehension, awaiting the moment when the hunters would come for them; +but nothing happened until just after dawn of the third day, when the +flapping of wings apprised them of the approach of Wieroos. Together +they went to the edge of the wood and looked up to see five red-robed +creatures dropping slowly in ever-lessening spirals toward their little +amphitheater. With no attempt at concealment they came, sure of their +ability to overwhelm these two fugitives, and with the fullest measure +of self-confidence they landed in the clearing but a few yards from the +man and the girl. + +Following a plan already discussed Bradley and the girl retreated +slowly into the woods. The Wieroos advanced, calling upon them to give +themselves up; but the quarry made no reply. Farther and farther into +the little wood Bradley led the hunters, permitting them to approach +ever closer; then he circled back again toward the clearing, evidently +to the great delight of the Wieroos, who now followed more leisurely, +awaiting the moment when they should be beyond the trees and able to +use their wings. They had opened into semicircular formation now with +the evident intention of cutting the two off from returning into the +wood. Each Wieroo advanced with his curved blade ready in his hand, +each hideous face blank and expressionless. + +It was then that Bradley opened fire with his pistol--three shots, +aimed with careful deliberation, for it had been long since he had used +the weapon, and he could not afford to chance wasting ammunition on +misses. At each shot a Wieroo dropped; and then the remaining two +sought escape by flight, screaming and wailing after the manner of +their kind. When a Wieroo runs, his wings spread almost without any +volition upon his part, since from time immemorial he has always used +them to balance himself and accelerate his running speed so that in the +open they appear to skim the surface of the ground when in the act of +running. But here in the woods, among the close-set boles, the +spreading of their wings proved their undoing--it hindered and stopped +them and threw them to the ground, and then Bradley was upon them +threatening them with instant death if they did not +surrender--promising them their freedom if they did his bidding. + +"As you have seen," he cried, "I can kill you when I wish and at a +distance. You cannot escape me. Your only hope of life lies in +obedience. Quick, or I kill!" + +The Wieroos stopped and faced him. "What do you want of us?" asked one. + +"Throw aside your weapons," Bradley commanded. After a moment's +hesitation they obeyed. + +"Now approach!" A great plan--the only plan--had suddenly come to him +like an inspiration. + +The Wieroos came closer and halted at his command. Bradley turned to +the girl. "There is rope in the shelter," he said. "Fetch it!" + +She did as he bid, and then he directed her to fasten one end of a +fifty-foot length to the ankle of one of the Wieroos and the opposite +end to the second. The creatures gave evidence of great fear, but they +dared not attempt to prevent the act. + +"Now go out into the clearing," said Bradley, "and remember that I am +walking close behind and that I will shoot the nearer one should either +attempt to escape--that will hold the other until I can kill him as +well." + +In the open he halted them. "The girl will get upon the back of the +one in front," announced the Englishman. "I will mount the other. She +carries a sharp blade, and I carry this weapon that you know kills +easily at a distance. If you disobey in the slightest, the +instructions that I am about to give you, you shall both die. That we +must die with you, will not deter us. If you obey, I promise to set +you free without harming you. + +"You will carry us due west, depositing us upon the shore of the +mainland--that is all. It is the price of your lives. Do you agree?" + +Sullenly the Wieroos acquiesced. Bradley examined the knots that held +the rope to their ankles, and feeling them secure directed the girl to +mount the back of the leading Wieroo, himself upon the other. Then he +gave the signal for the two to rise together. With loud flapping of +the powerful wings the creatures took to the air, circling once before +they topped the trees upon the hill and then taking a course due west +out over the waters of the sea. + +Nowhere about them could Bradley see signs of other Wieroos, nor of +those other menaces which he had feared might bring disaster to his +plans for escape--the huge, winged reptilia that are so numerous above +the southern areas of Caspak and which are often seen, though in lesser +numbers, farther north. + +Nearer and nearer loomed the mainland--a broad, parklike expanse +stretching inland to the foot of a low plateau spread out before them. +The little dots in the foreground became grazing herds of deer and +antelope and bos; a huge woolly rhinoceros wallowed in a mudhole to the +right, and beyond, a mighty mammoth culled the tender shoots from a +tall tree. The roars and screams and growls of giant carnivora came +faintly to their ears. Ah, this was Caspak. With all of its dangers +and its primal savagery it brought a fullness to the throat of the +Englishman as to one who sees and hears the familiar sights and sounds +of home after a long absence. Then the Wieroos dropped swiftly +downward to the flower-starred turf that grew almost to the water's +edge, the fugitives slipped from their backs, and Bradley told the +red-robed creatures they were free to go. + +When he had cut the ropes from their ankles they rose with that uncanny +wailing upon their lips that always brought a shudder to the +Englishman, and upon dismal wings they flapped away toward frightful +Oo-oh. + +When the creatures had gone, the girl turned toward Bradley. "Why did +you have them bring us here?" she asked. "Now we are far from my +country. We may never live to reach it, as we are among enemies who, +while not so horrible will kill us just as surely as would the Wieroos +should they capture us, and we have before us many marches through +lands filled with savage beasts." + +"There were two reasons," replied Bradley. "You told me that there are +two Wieroo cities at the eastern end of the island. To have passed +near either of them might have been to have brought about our heads +hundreds of the creatures from whom we could not possibly have escaped. +Again, my friends must be near this spot--it cannot be over two marches +to the fort of which I have told you. It is my duty to return to them. +If they still live we shall find a way to return you to your people." + +"And you?" asked the girl. + +"I escaped from Oo-oh," replied Bradley. "I have accomplished the +impossible once, and so I shall accomplish it again--I shall escape +from Caspak." + +He was not looking at her face as he answered her, and so he did not +see the shadow of sorrow that crossed her countenance. When he raised +his eyes again, she was smiling. + +"What you wish, I wish," said the girl. + +Southward along the coast they made their way following the beach, +where the walking was best, but always keeping close enough to trees to +insure sanctuary from the beasts and reptiles that so often menaced +them. It was late in the afternoon when the girl suddenly seized +Bradley's arm and pointed straight ahead along the shore. "What is +that?" she whispered. "What strange reptile is it?" + +Bradley looked in the direction her slim forefinger indicated. He +rubbed his eyes and looked again, and then he seized her wrist and drew +her quickly behind a clump of bushes. + +"What is it?" she asked. + +"It is the most frightful reptile that the waters of the world have +ever known," he replied. "It is a German U-boat!" + +An expression of amazement and understanding lighted her features. "It +is the thing of which you told me," she exclaimed, "--the thing that +swims under the water and carries men in its belly!" + +"It is," replied Bradley. + +"Then why do you hide from it?" asked the girl. "You said that now it +belonged to your friends." + +"Many months have passed since I knew what was going on among my +friends," he replied. "I cannot know what has befallen them. They +should have been gone from here in this vessel long since, and so I +cannot understand why it is still here. I am going to investigate +first before I show myself. When I left, there were more Germans on +the U-33 than there were men of my own party at the fort, and I have +had sufficient experience of Germans to know that they will bear +watching--if they have not been properly watched since I left." + +Making their way through a fringe of wood that grew a few yards inland +the two crept unseen toward the U-boat which lay moored to the shore at +a point which Bradley now recognized as being near the oil-pool north +of Dinosaur. As close as possible to the vessel they halted, crouching +low among the dense vegetation, and watched the boat for signs of human +life about it. The hatches were closed--no one could be seen or heard. +For five minutes Bradley watched, and then he determined to board the +submarine and investigate. He had risen to carry his decision into +effect when there suddenly broke upon his ear, uttered in loud and +menacing tones, a volley of German oaths and expletives among which he +heard Englische schweinhunde repeated several times. The voice did not +come from the direction of the U-boat; but from inland. Creeping +forward Bradley reached a spot where, through the creepers hanging from +the trees, he could see a party of men coming down toward the shore. + +He saw Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts and six of his men--all +armed--while marching in a little knot among them were Olson, Brady, +Sinclair, Wilson, and Whitely. + +Bradley knew nothing of the disappearance of Bowen Tyler and Miss La +Rue, nor of the perfidy of the Germans in shelling the fort and +attempting to escape in the U-33; but he was in no way surprised at +what he saw before him. + +The little party came slowly onward, the prisoners staggering beneath +heavy cans of oil, while Schwartz, one of the German noncommissioned +officers cursed and beat them with a stick of wood, impartially. Von +Schoenvorts walked in the rear of the column, encouraging Schwartz and +laughing at the discomfiture of the Britishers. Dietz, Heinz, and +Klatz also seemed to enjoy the entertainment immensely; but two of the +men--Plesser and Hindle--marched with eyes straight to the front and +with scowling faces. + +Bradley felt his blood boil at sight of the cowardly indignities being +heaped upon his men, and in the brief span of time occupied by the +column to come abreast of where he lay hidden he made his plans, +foolhardy though he knew them. Then he drew the girl close to him. +"Stay here," he whispered. "I am going out to fight those beasts; but +I shall be killed. Do not let them see you. Do not let them take you +alive. They are more cruel, more cowardly, more bestial than the +Wieroos." + +The girl pressed close to him, her face very white. "Go, if that is +right," she whispered; "but if you die, I shall die, for I cannot live +without you." He looked sharply into her eyes. "Oh!" he ejaculated. +"What an idiot I have been! Nor could I live without you, little +girl." And he drew her very close and kissed her lips. "Good-bye." +He disengaged himself from her arms and looked again in time to see +that the rear of the column had just passed him. Then he rose and +leaped quickly and silently from the jungle. + +Suddenly von Schoenvorts felt an arm thrown about his neck and his +pistol jerked from its holster. He gave a cry of fright and warning, +and his men turned to see a half-naked white man holding their leader +securely from behind and aiming a pistol at them over his shoulder. + +"Drop those guns!" came in short, sharp syllables and perfect German +from the lips of the newcomer. "Drop them or I'll put a bullet through +the back of von Schoenvorts' head." + +The Germans hesitated for a moment, looking first toward von +Schoenvorts and then to Schwartz, who was evidently second in command, +for orders. + +"It's the English pig, Bradley," shouted the latter, "and he's +alone--go and get him!" + +"Go yourself," growled Plesser. Hindle moved close to the side of +Plesser and whispered something to him. The latter nodded. Suddenly +von Schoenvorts wheeled about and seized Bradley's pistol arm with both +hands, "Now!" he shouted. "Come and take him, quick!" + +Schwartz and three others leaped forward; but Plesser and Hindle held +back, looking questioningly toward the English prisoners. Then Plesser +spoke. "Now is your chance, Englander," he called in low tones. +"Seize Hindle and me and take our guns from us--we will not fight hard." + +Olson and Brady were not long in acting upon the suggestion. They had +seen enough of the brutal treatment von Schoenvorts accorded his men +and the especially venomous attentions he had taken great enjoyment in +according Plesser and Hindle to understand that these two might be +sincere in a desire for revenge. In another moment the two Germans +were unarmed and Olson and Brady were running to the support of +Bradley; but already it seemed too late. + +Von Schoenvorts had managed to drag the Englishman around so that his +back was toward Schwartz and the other advancing Germans. Schwartz was +almost upon Bradley with gun clubbed and ready to smash down upon the +Englishman's skull. Brady and Olson were charging the Germans in the +rear with Wilson, Whitely, and Sinclair supporting them with bare +fists. It seemed that Bradley was doomed when, apparently out of +space, an arrow whizzed, striking Schwartz in the side, passing +half-way through his body to crumple him to earth. With a shriek the +man fell, and at the same time Olson and Brady saw the slim figure of a +young girl standing at the edge of the jungle coolly fitting another +arrow to her bow. + +Bradley had now succeeded in wrestling his arm free from von +Schoenvorts' grip and in dropping the latter with a blow from the butt +of his pistol. The rest of the English and Germans were engaged in a +hand-to-hand encounter, Plesser and Hindle standing aside from the +melee and urging their comrades to surrender and join with the English +against the tyranny of von Schoenvorts. Heinz and Klatz, possibly +influenced by their exhortation, were putting up but a half-hearted +resistance; but Dietz, a huge, bearded, bull-necked Prussian, yelling +like a maniac, sought to exterminate the Englische schweinhunde with +his bayonet, fearing to fire his piece lest he kill some of his +comrades. + +It was Olson who engaged him, and though unused to the long German +rifle and bayonet, he met the bull-rush of the Hun with the cold, cruel +precision and science of English bayonet-fighting. There was no +feinting, no retiring and no parrying that was not also an attack. +Bayonet-fighting today is not a pretty thing to see--it is not an +artistic fencing-match in which men give and take--it is slaughter +inevitable and quickly over. + +Dietz lunged once madly at Olson's throat. A short point, with just a +twist of the bayonet to the left sent the sharp blade over the +Englishman's left shoulder. Instantly he stepped close in, dropped his +rifle through his hands and grasped it with both hands close below the +muzzle and with a short, sharp jab sent his blade up beneath Dietz's +chin to the brain. So quickly was the thing done and so quick the +withdrawal that Olson had wheeled to take on another adversary before +the German's corpse had toppled to the ground. + +But there were no more adversaries to take on. Heinz and Klatz had +thrown down their rifles and with hands above their heads were crying +"Kamerad! Kamerad!" at the tops of their voices. Von Schoenvorts +still lay where he had fallen. Plesser and Hindle were explaining to +Bradley that they were glad of the outcome of the fight, as they could +no longer endure the brutality of the U-boat commander. + +The remainder of the men were looking at the girl who now advanced +slowly, her bow ready, when Bradley turned toward her and held out his +hand. + +"Co-Tan," he said, "unstring your bow--these are my friends, and +yours." And to the Englishmen: "This is Co-Tan. You who saw her save +me from Schwartz know a part of what I owe her." + +The rough men gathered about the girl, and when she spoke to them in +broken English, with a smile upon her lips enhancing the charm of her +irresistible accent, each and every one of them promptly fell in love +with her and constituted himself henceforth her guardian and her slave. + +A moment later the attention of each was called to Plesser by a volley +of invective. They turned in time to see the man running toward von +Schoenvorts who was just rising from the ground. Plesser carried a +rifle with bayonet fixed, that he had snatched from the side of Dietz's +corpse. Von Schoenvorts' face was livid with fear, his jaws working as +though he would call for help; but no sound came from his blue lips. + +"You struck me," shrieked Plesser. "Once, twice, three times, you +struck me, pig. You murdered Schwerke--you drove him insane by your +cruelty until he took his own life. You are only one of your +kind--they are all like you from the Kaiser down. I wish that you were +the Kaiser. Thus would I do!" And he lunged his bayonet through von +Schoenvorts' chest. Then he let his rifle fall with the dying man and +wheeled toward Bradley. "Here I am," he said. "Do with me as you +like. All my life I have been kicked and cuffed by such as that, and +yet always have I gone out when they commanded, singing, to give up my +life if need be to keep them in power. Only lately have I come to know +what a fool I have been. But now I am no longer a fool, and besides, I +am avenged and Schwerke is avenged, so you can kill me if you wish. +Here I am." + +"If I was after bein' the king," said Olson, "I'd pin the V.C. on your +noble chist; but bein' only an Irishman with a Swede name, for which +God forgive me, the bist I can do is shake your hand." + +"You will not be punished," said Bradley. "There are four of you +left--if you four want to come along and work with us, we will take +you; but you will come as prisoners." + +"It suits me," said Plesser. "Now that the captain-lieutenant is dead +you need not fear us. All our lives we have known nothing but to obey +his class. If I had not killed him, I suppose I would be fool enough +to obey him again; but he is dead. Now we will obey you--we must obey +some one." + +"And you?" Bradley turned to the other survivors of the original crew +of the U-33. Each promised obedience. + +The two dead Germans were buried in a single grave, and then the party +boarded the submarine and stowed away the oil. + +Here Bradley told the men what had befallen him since the night of +September 14th when he had disappeared so mysteriously from the camp +upon the plateau. Now he learned for the first time that Bowen J. +Tyler, Jr., and Miss La Rue had been missing even longer than he and +that no faintest trace of them had been discovered. + +Olson told him of how the Germans had returned and waited in ambush for +them outside the fort, capturing them that they might be used to assist +in the work of refining the oil and later in manning the U-33, and +Plesser told briefly of the experiences of the German crew under von +Schoenvorts since they had escaped from Caspak months before--of how +they lost their bearings after having been shelled by ships they had +attempted to sneak farther north and how at last with provisions gone +and fuel almost exhausted they had sought and at last found, more by +accident than design, the mysterious island they had once been so glad +to leave behind. + +"Now," announced Bradley, "we'll plan for the future. The boat has +fuel, provisions and water for a month, I believe you said, Plesser; +there are ten of us to man it. We have a last sad duty here--we must +search for Miss La Rue and Mr. Tyler. I say a sad duty because we know +that we shall not find them; but it is none the less our duty to comb +the shoreline, firing signal shells at intervals, that we at least may +leave at last with full knowledge that we have done all that men might +do to locate them." + +None dissented from this conviction, nor was there a voice raised in +protest against the plan to at least make assurance doubly sure before +quitting Caspak forever. + +And so they started, cruising slowly up the coast and firing an +occasional shot from the gun. Often the vessel was brought to a stop, +and always there were anxious eyes scanning the shore for an answering +signal. Late in the afternoon they caught sight of a number of Band-lu +warriors; but when the vessel approached the shore and the natives +realized that human beings stood upon the back of the strange monster +of the sea, they fled in terror before Bradley could come within +hailing distance. + +That night they dropped anchor at the mouth of a sluggish stream whose +warm waters swarmed with millions of tiny tadpolelike organisms--minute +human spawn starting on their precarious journey from some inland pool +toward "the beginning"--a journey which one in millions, perhaps, might +survive to complete. Already almost at the inception of life they were +being greeted by thousands of voracious mouths as fish and reptiles of +many kinds fought to devour them, the while other and larger creatures +pursued the devourers, to be, in turn, preyed upon by some other of the +countless forms that inhabit the deeps of Caprona's frightful sea. + +The second day was practically a repetition of the first. They moved +very slowly with frequent stops and once they landed in the Kro-lu +country to hunt. Here they were attacked by the bow-and-arrow men, +whom they could not persuade to palaver with them. So belligerent were +the natives that it became necessary to fire into them in order to +escape their persistent and ferocious attentions. + +"What chance," asked Bradley, as they were returning to the boat with +their game, "could Tyler and Miss La Rue have had among such as these?" + +But they continued on their fruitless quest, and the third day, after +cruising along the shore of a deep inlet, they passed a line of lofty +cliffs that formed the southern shore of the inlet and rounded a sharp +promontory about noon. Co-Tan and Bradley were on deck alone, and as +the new shoreline appeared beyond the point, the girl gave an +exclamation of joy and seized the man's hand in hers. + +"Oh, look!" she cried. "The Galu country! The Galu country! It is my +country that I never thought to see again." + +"You are glad to come again, Co-Tan?" asked Bradley. + +"Oh, so glad!" she cried. "And you will come with me to my people? We +may live here among them, and you will be a great warrior--oh, when Jor +dies you may even be chief, for there is none so mighty as my warrior. +You will come?" + +Bradley shook his head. "I cannot, little Co-Tan," he answered. "My +country needs me, and I must go back. Maybe someday I shall return. +You will not forget me, Co-Tan?" + +She looked at him in wide-eyed wonder. "You are going away from me?" +she asked in a very small voice. "You are going away from Co-Tan?" + +Bradley looked down upon the little bowed head. He felt the soft cheek +against his bare arm; and he felt something else there too--hot drops +of moisture that ran down to his very finger-tips and splashed, but +each one wrung from a woman's heart. + +He bent low and raised the tear-stained face to his own. "No, Co-Tan," +he said, "I am not going away from you--for you are going with me. You +are going back to my own country to be my wife. Tell me that you will, +Co-Tan." And he bent still lower yet from his height and kissed her +lips. Nor did he need more than the wonderful new light in her eyes to +tell him that she would go to the end of the world with him if he would +but take her. And then the gun-crew came up from below again to fire a +signal shot, and the two were brought down from the high heaven of +their new happiness to the scarred and weather-beaten deck of the U-33. + +An hour later the vessel was running close in by a shore of wondrous +beauty beside a parklike meadow that stretched back a mile inland to +the foot of a plateau when Whitely called attention to a score of +figures clambering downward from the elevation to the lowland below. +The engines were reversed and the boat brought to a stop while all +hands gathered on deck to watch the little party coming toward them +across the meadow. + +"They are Galus," cried Co-Tan; "they are my own people. Let me speak +to them lest they think we come to fight them. Put me ashore, my man, +and I will go meet them." + +The nose of the U-boat was run close in to the steep bank; but when +Co-Tan would have run forward alone, Bradley seized her hand and held +her back. "I will go with you, Co-Tan," he said; and together they +advanced to meet the oncoming party. + +There were about twenty warriors moving forward in a thin line, as our +infantry advance as skirmishers. Bradley could not but notice the +marked difference between this formation and the moblike methods of the +lower tribes he had come in contact with, and he commented upon it to +Co-Tan. + +"Galu warriors always advance into battle thus," she said. "The lesser +people remain in a huddled group where they can scarce use their +weapons the while they present so big a mark to us that our spears and +arrows cannot miss them; but when they hurl theirs at our warriors, if +they miss the first man, there is no chance that they will kill some +one behind him. + +"Stand still now," she cautioned, "and fold your arms. They will not +harm us then." + +Bradley did as he was bid, and the two stood with arms folded as the +line of warriors approached. When they had come within some fifty +yards, they halted and one spoke. "Who are you and from whence do you +come?" he asked; and then Co-Tan gave a little, glad cry and sprang +forward with out-stretched arms. + +"Oh, Tan!" she exclaimed. "Do you not know your little Co-Tan?" + +The warrior stared, incredulous, for a moment, and then he, too, ran +forward and when they met, took the girl in his arms. It was then that +Bradley experienced to the full a sensation that was new to him--a +sudden hatred for the strange warrior before him and a desire to kill +without knowing why he would kill. He moved quickly to the girl's side +and grasped her wrist. + +"Who is this man?" he demanded in cold tones. + +Co-Tan turned a surprised face toward the Englishman and then of a +sudden broke forth into a merry peal of laughter. "This is my father, +Brad-lee," she cried. + +"And who is Brad-lee?" demanded the warrior. + +"He is my man," replied Co-Tan simply. + +"By what right?" insisted Tan. + +And then she told him briefly of all that she had passed through since +the Wieroos had stolen her and of how Bradley had rescued her and +sought to rescue An-Tak, her brother. + +"You are satisfied with him?" asked Tan. + +"Yes," replied the girl proudly. + +It was then that Bradley's attention was attracted to the edge of the +plateau by a movement there, and looking closely he saw a horse bearing +two figures sliding down the steep declivity. Once at the bottom, the +animal came charging across the meadowland at a rapid run. It was a +magnificent animal--a great bay stallion with a white-blazed face and +white forelegs to the knees, its barrel encircled by a broad surcingle +of white; and as it came to a sudden stop beside Tan, the Englishman +saw that it bore a man and a girl--a tall man and a girl as beautiful +as Co-Tan. When the girl espied the latter, she slid from the horse +and ran toward her, fairly screaming for joy. + +The man dismounted and stood beside Tan. Like Bradley he was garbed +after the fashion of the surrounding warriors; but there was a subtle +difference between him and his companion. Possibly he detected a +similar difference in Bradley, for his first question was, "From what +country?" and though he spoke in Galu Bradley thought he detected an +accent. + +"England," replied Bradley. + +A broad smile lighted the newcomer's face as he held out his hand. "I +am Tom Billings of Santa Monica, California," he said. "I know all +about you, and I'm mighty glad to find you alive." + +"How did you get here?" asked Bradley. "I thought ours was the only +party of men from the outer world ever to enter Caprona." + +"It was, until we came in search of Bowen J. Tyler, Jr.," replied +Billings. "We found him and sent him home with his bride; but I was +kept a prisoner here." + +Bradley's face darkened--then they were not among friends after all. +"There are ten of us down there on a German sub with small-arms and a +gun," he said quickly in English. "It will be no trick to get away +from these people." + +"You don't know my jailer," replied Billings, "or you'd not be so sure. +Wait, I'll introduce you." And then turning to the girl who had +accompanied him he called her by name. "Ajor," he said, "permit me to +introduce Lieutenant Bradley; Lieutenant, Mrs. Billings--my jailer!" + +The Englishman laughed as he shook hands with the girl. "You are not +as good a soldier as I," he said to Billings. "Instead of being taken +prisoner myself I have taken one--Mrs. Bradley, this is Mr. Billings." + +Ajor, quick to understand, turned toward Co-Tan. "You are going back +with him to his country?" she asked. Co-Tan admitted it. + +"You dare?" asked Ajor. "But your father will not permit it--Jor, my +father, High Chief of the Galus, will not permit it, for like me you +are cos-ata-lo. Oh, Co-Tan, if we but could! How I would love to see +all the strange and wonderful things of which my Tom tells me!" + +Bradley bent and whispered in her ear. "Say the word and you may both +go with us." + +Billings heard and speaking in English, asked Ajor if she would go. + +"Yes," she answered, "If you wish it; but you know, my Tom, that if Jor +captures us, both you and Co-Tan's man will pay the penalty with your +lives--not even his love for me nor his admiration for you can save +you." + +Bradley noticed that she spoke in English--broken English like Co-Tan's +but equally appealing. "We can easily get you aboard the ship," he +said, "on some pretext or other, and then we can steam away. They can +neither harm nor detain us, nor will we have to fire a shot at them." + +And so it was done, Bradley and Co-Tan taking Ajor and Billings aboard +to "show" them the vessel, which almost immediately raised anchor and +moved slowly out into the sea. + +"I hate to do it," said Billings. "They have been fine to me. Jor and +Tan are splendid men and they will think me an ingrate; but I can't +waste my life here when there is so much to be done in the outer world." + +As they steamed down the inland sea past the island of Oo-oh, the +stories of their adventures were retold, and Bradley learned that Bowen +Tyler and his bride had left the Galu country but a fortnight before +and that there was every reason to believe that the Toreador might +still be lying in the Pacific not far off the subterranean mouth of the +river which emitted Caprona's heated waters into the ocean. + +Late in the second day, after running through swarms of hideous +reptiles, they submerged at the point where the river entered beneath +the cliffs and shortly after rose to the sunlit surface of the Pacific; +but nowhere as far as they could see was sign of another craft. Down +the coast they steamed toward the beach where Billings had made his +crossing in the hydro-aeroplane and just at dusk the lookout announced +a light dead ahead. It proved to be aboard the Toreador, and a +half-hour later there was such a reunion on the deck of the trim little +yacht as no one there had ever dreamed might be possible. Of the +Allies there were only Tippet and James to be mourned, and no one +mourned any of the Germans dead nor Benson, the traitor, whose ugly +story was first told in Bowen Tyler's manuscript. + +Tyler and the rescue party had but just reached the yacht that +afternoon. They had heard, faintly, the signal shots fired by the U-33 +but had been unable to locate their direction and so had assumed that +they had come from the guns of the Toreador. + +It was a happy party that sailed north toward sunny, southern +California, the old U-33 trailing in the wake of the Toreador and +flying with the latter the glorious Stars and Stripes beneath which she +had been born in the shipyard at Santa Monica. Three newly married +couples, their bonds now duly solemnized by the master of the ship, +joyed in the peace and security of the untracked waters of the south +Pacific and the unique honeymoon which, had it not been for stern duty +ahead, they could have wished protracted till the end of time. + +And so they came one day to dock at the shipyard which Bowen Tyler now +controlled, and here the U-33 still lies while those who passed so many +eventful days within and because of her, have gone their various ways. + + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: I have made the following changes to the text: + + PAGE LINE ORIGINAL CHANGED TO + 10 12 of or + 14 19 of animals life of animals + 31 26 is arms his arms + 37 14 above this above his + 37 23 Bradley, Bradley + 54 18 man man + 57 14 and of Oo-oh of Oo-oh + 62 18 spend spent + 63 31 and mumbled the mumbled + 64 9 things thing + 80 30 east cast + 104 16 proaching proached + 106 30 cos-at-lu cos-ata-lu + 126 17 not artistic not an artistic + 126 25 close below hands close below + 130 1 internals intervals + 132 9 than that + 132 10 splashes splashed + 134 3 know know not know] + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Out of Time's Abyss, by Edgar Rice Burroughs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUT OF TIME'S ABYSS *** + +***** This file should be named 553.txt or 553.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/553/ + +Produced by Judith Boss. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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