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diff --git a/old/ootma11.txt b/old/ootma11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed889e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ootma11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4353 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Out of Time's Abyss +by Edgar Rice Burroughs +(#3 in The Land that Time Forgot Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END* + + + + + + + + + + + +Created by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska + + + + + +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 Bolu, 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, sor, 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 protrude 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 head- +stone 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, hyaenadons, +panthers, lions, tigers, and bear 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 imagings 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 dropping 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 subject; 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 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 Weiroos 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 +vaguelydiscernible. 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 Lu-ata 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 trig 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. + + + + + + +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 The Project Gutenberg Etext of Out of Time's Abyss +by Edgar Rice Burroughs + |