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<p>The Project Gutenberg Etext of Out of Time's Abyss by
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<p>Out of Time's Abyss<br>
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by Edgar Rice Burroughs <br>
<p>June, 1996 [Etext #553]<br>
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<br><br><br>
<h1>Out of Time's Abyss</h1>

<br><br>
<h2>by Edgar Rice Burroughs </h2>
<br><br><br>

<br>
<h1 id="ref_1">Chapter I</h1>

<br>
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.
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

"One of them behemoths of 'Oly Writ," muttered Tippet as they
came to a halt and with guns ready awaited the almost inevitable
charge. <br>
<p>"Hungry lot o' beggars, these," said Bradley; "always trying
to eat everything they see."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"Pick your trees," whispered Bradley. "Can't waste
ammunition."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"Lie still!" shouted Bradley. "Can't waste ammunition."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"Good work, Tippet," he said. "Mightily obliged to you--awful
waste of ammunition, really." <br>
<p>And then they resumed the march and in fifteen minutes the
encounter had ceased even to be a topic of conversation.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"Sinclair, you may fire," said Bradley quietly." Pick off the
leader. Can't waste ammunition." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"Gawd!" he almost screamed. "What is it?" <br>
<p>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!"<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"Yes," said Sinclair with fine sarcasm, "we've saw so many of
them with white shrouds on 'em." <br>
<p>"Shut up, you fool!" growled Brady. "If you know so much, tell
us what it was after bein' then."<br>
</p>

Then he turned toward Bradley. "What was it, sor, do you think?"
he asked. <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

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?" <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

"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. <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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.
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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?" <br>
<p>"No," replied Bradley. "No such things."<br>
</p>

"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--" <br>
<p>"Shut up," snapped Bradley.<br>
</p>

"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--" <br>
<p>"Will you close your hatch!" demanded Bradley. "You fools will
have yourselves scared to death in a minute. Now go to
sleep."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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. <br>
<p>"Is he dead, sir?" whispered James as Bradley kneeled beside
the prostrate form.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"What's wrong, man?" demanded Bradley. "Buck up! Can't play
cry-baby. Waste of energy. What happened?"<br>
</p>

"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."
<br>
<p>"Stuff and nonsense," snapped Bradley. "Did you get a good
look at it?"<br>
</p>

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.
<br>
<p>"Wot was it after bein', do you think?" inquired Brady.<br>
</p>

"Hit was Death," moaned Tippet, shuddering, and again a pall of
gloom fell upon the little party. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"It was the work of the banshee all right," muttered Brady.
"It warned poor Tippet, it did."<br>
</p>

"Hit killed him, that's wot hit did, hand hit'll kill some more
of us," said James, his lower lip trembling. <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

"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."
<br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

"No," replied Bradley; "But it would indicate that the island of
Caprona has stood almost without change for more than six million
years." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

It was a constant battle while they dug a grave and consigned all
that was mortal of John Tippet to his last, lonely resting-place.
Nor would they leave then; but remained to fashion a rude
headstone from a crumbling out-cropping of sandstone and to
gather a mass of the gorgeous flowers growing in such great
profusion around them and heap the new-made grave with bright
blooms. Upon the headstone Sinclair scratched in rude characters
the words: <br>
<p>HERE LIES JOHN TIPPET ENGLISHMAN KILLED BY TYRANNOSAURUS 10
SEPT. A.D. 1916 R.I.P.<br>
</p>

and Bradley repeated a short prayer before they left their
comrade forever. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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.
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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.
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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? <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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!<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"Lord!" ejaculated Sinclair. "They are still there!" And he
fell to his knees, sobbing.<br>
</p>

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! <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

<br>
<h1 id="ref_2">Chapter 2</h1>

<br>
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.
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>After eyeing Bradley for a moment the thing approached him.
"Where from?" it asked.<br>
</p>

"England," replied Bradley, as briefly. <br>
<p>"Where is England and what?" pursued the questioner.<br>
</p>

"It is a country far from here," answered the Englishman. <br>
<p>"Are your people cor-sva-jo or cos-ata-lu?"<br>
</p>

"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?" <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

"And if I am not cos--whatever you call the bloomin' beast-what
of it?" <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

"I'm hungry," snapped Bradley. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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?"<br>
</p>

"Fosh-bal-soj sent me here to eat," replied Bradley. <br>
<p>"Do you belong to Fosh-bal-soj?" asked the other.<br>
</p>

"That appears to be what he thinks," answered the Englishman.
<br>
<p>"Are you cos-ata-lu?" demanded the Wieroo.<br>
</p>

"Give me something to eat or I'll be all of that," replied
Bradley. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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! <br>
<p>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?<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

"Reassuring cuss," thought Bradley as he turned and left the
building. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"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!"<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

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.
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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? <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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?<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"Who are you," he asked, "and from where do you come? Do not tell
me that you are a Wieroo." <br>
<p>"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?"<br>
</p>

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.
<br>
<p>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?"<br>
</p>

"It came through the doorway just ahead of you," Bradley answered
for the girl. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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." <br>
<p>The Wieroo backed toward the door. "Defiler!" it screamed.
"You dare to threaten one of the sacred chosen of Luata!"<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"And what of you?" asked Bradley.<br>
</p>

"I am already doomed," replied the girl; "I am cos-ata-lo." <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

"Do you mean they will kill you?" asked Bradley. <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>The girl shuddered and cast a sorrowful glance toward Bradley.
"Ah," she sighed, "if I could but see my beloved country once
again!"<br>
</p>

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."
<br>
<p>"And what is beyond the city, if we could leave it?" pursued
Bradley.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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.
<br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

<br>
<h1 id="ref_3">Chapter 3</h1>

<br>
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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

It crawled toward Bradley. "Food! Food!" it screamed. "There is a
way out! There is a way out!" <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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? <br>
<p>"Who are you and how long have you been here?" Bradley
suddenly demanded.<br>
</p>

For a moment the man upon the floor made no response, then
mumblingly came the words: "Food! Food!" <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

Bradley repeated his questions sharply. <br>
<p>"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?<br>
</p>

"What is cos-ata-lu?" demanded Bradley. <br>
<p>"Food! Food! There is a way out!" mumbled the Galu.<br>
</p>

Bradley strode across the floor, seized the man by his shoulders
and shook him. <br>
<p>"Tell me," he cried, "what is cos-ata-lu?"<br>
</p>

"Food!" whimpered An-Tak. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"What is cos-ata-lu?" insisted Bradley again. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"What do you mean by saying there is a way out?" he asked. <br>
<p>"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!"<br>
</p>

"They do not feed you here?" asked Bradley. <br>
<p>"No, they give me water once a day--that is all."<br>
</p>

"But how have you lived, then?" <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"What is that noise?" he asked. "That sounds like water
running through a narrow channel."<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"Do the reptiles come up the river into the city?" asked
Bradley.<br>
</p>

"The water is too cold--they never leave the warm water of the
great pool," replied An-Tak. <br>
<p>"Let us search for the way out," suggested Bradley.<br>
</p>

An-Tak shook his head. "I have searched for it all these moons,"
he said. "If I could not find it, how would you?" <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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!" <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

"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."
<br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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.
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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 righthand 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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

"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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"Luata!" she exclaimed. "How came you here?" <br>
<p>Bradley shrugged. "Here I am," he said; "but the thing now is
to get out of here--both of us."<br>
</p>

The girl shook her head. "It cannot be," she stated sadly. <br>
<p>"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!"<br>
</p>

"But how can he smile?" questioned the girl, a half-puzzled,
half-frightened look upon her face. "He is dead." <br>
<p>"That's so," admitted Bradley, "and I suppose he does feel a
bit cut up about it."<br>
</p>

The girl shook her head and edged away from the man--toward the
door. <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

The girl still eyed him askance. "But how could he smile when he
was dead?" <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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?" <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

The girl followed him; but at the doorway both drew back, for
from below came the sound of some one ascending. <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"What's that go to do with it?" demanded the Englishman.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"But there is blue on the outside of every house I have seen,"
said Bradley.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"And the skulls with blue upon them?" inquired Bradley. "Did
they belong to murderers?"<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p><br>
</p>

<h1 id="ref_4">Chapter 4</h1>

<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"Are you cos-ata-lu?" the creature asked. <br>
<p>Bradley replied that he was and that all his kind were, as
well as every living thing in his part of the world.<br>
</p>

"Can you tell me the secret?" asked the creature. <br>
<p>Bradley hesitated and then, thinking to gain time, replied in
the affirmative.<br>
</p>

"What is it?" demanded the Wieroo, leaning far forward and
exhibiting every evidence of excited interest. <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

The thing rose in wrath, holding one of its swords above its
head. <br>
<p>"Who are you to make terms for Him Who Speaks for Luata?" it
shrilled. "Tell me the secret or die where you stand!"<br>
</p>

"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. <br>
<p>The creature turned upon the leader of the party that had
brought Bradley.<br>
</p>

"Is the thing with weapons?" it asked. <br>
<p>"No," was the response.<br>
</p>

"Then go; but tell the guard to remain close by," commanded the
high one. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"Quick!" screamed the thing. "The secret!"<br>
</p>

"Will you give me and the girl our freedom?" insisted Bradley.
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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."
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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. <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

"Bosh!" exclaimed Bradley, and then: "But you were going to knife
him yourself." <br>
<p>"Then I alone should have died," she replied.<br>
</p>

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?" <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"How can we leave here?" she asked. <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"Why do you fear them so?" he asked. "It seems more than any
ordinary fear of the harm they can do you."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

"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. <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

"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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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.
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

"And will they find us?" <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

"But they will not kill you," said Bradley. "You did not slay
him." <br>
<p>"It will make no difference," she insisted. "If they find us
together they will slay us both."<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

"An-Tak!" Bradley repeated. "You loved a man called An-Tak?" <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

Bradley remained silent. So she loved An-Tak. He hadn't the heart
to tell her that An-Tak had died, or how. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>Bradley shook his head. "If there is any way, we will find
it," he said.<br>
</p>

"There is no way," replied the girl. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"As it will us," suggested Bradley.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"If this wood was only at the edge of the water," he sighed. <br>
<p>"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?"<br>
</p>

"But I thought you wanted to get back to your own country!" he
exclaimed. <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"You are not happy," she said once. <br>
<p>"I should be over there with my men," he replied. "I do not
know what may have happened to them."<br>
</p>

"I want you to be happy," she said quite simply; "but I should be
very lonely if you went away and left me here." <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

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." <br>
<p>He looked down into her face for a moment and then: "Who was
An-Tak? " he asked.<br>
</p>

"My brother," she replied. "Why?" <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

She drew away. "I already have a brother," she said, "and I do
not want another." <br>
<p><br>
</p>

<h1 id="ref_5">Chapter 5</h1>

<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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!" <br>
<p>The Wieroos stopped and faced him. "What do you want of us?"
asked one.<br>
</p>

"Throw aside your weapons," Bradley commanded. After a moment's
hesitation they obeyed. <br>
<p>"Now approach!" A great plan--the only plan--had suddenly come
to him like an inspiration.<br>
</p>

The Wieroos came closer and halted at his command. Bradley turned
to the girl. "There is rope in the shelter," he said. "Fetch it!"
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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?" <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"And you?" asked the girl.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"What you wish, I wish," said the girl. <br>
<p>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?"<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"What is it?" she asked.<br>
</p>

"It is the most frightful reptile that the waters of the world
have ever known," he replied. "It is a German U-boat!" <br>
<p>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!"<br>
</p>

"It is," replied Bradley. <br>
<p>"Then why do you hide from it?" asked the girl. "You said that
now it belonged to your friends."<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>The Germans hesitated for a moment, looking first toward von
Schoenvorts and then to Schwartz, who was evidently second in
command, for orders.<br>
</p>

"It's the English pig, Bradley," shouted the latter, "and he's
alone--go and get him!" <br>
<p>"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!"<br>
</p>

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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

"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."
<br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>"And you?" Bradley turned to the other survivors of the
original crew of the U-33. Each promised obedience.<br>
</p>

The two dead Germans were buried in a single grave, and then the
party boarded the submarine and stowed away the oil. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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?" <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"Oh, look!" she cried. "The Galu country! The Galu country! It is
my country that I never thought to see again." <br>
<p>"You are glad to come again, Co-Tan?" asked Bradley.<br>
</p>

"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?" <br>
<p>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?"<br>
</p>

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?" <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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.
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>"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.<br>
</p>

"Stand still now," she cautioned, "and fold your arms. They will
not harm us then." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"Oh, Tan!" she exclaimed. "Do you not know your little Co-Tan?"
<br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"Who is this man?" he demanded in cold tones. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"And who is Brad-lee?" demanded the warrior. <br>
<p>"He is my man," replied Co-Tan simply.<br>
</p>

"By what right?" insisted Tan. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"You are satisfied with him?" asked Tan. <br>
<p>"Yes," replied the girl proudly.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"England," replied Bradley. <br>
<p>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."<br>
</p>

"How did you get here?" asked Bradley. "I thought ours was the
only party of men from the outer world ever to enter Caprona."
<br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

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." <br>
<p>"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!"<br>
</p>

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." <br>
<p>Ajor, quick to understand, turned toward Co-Tan. "You are
going back with him to his country?" she asked. Co-Tan admitted
it.<br>
</p>

"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!" <br>
<p>Bradley bent and whispered in her ear. "Say the word and you
may both go with us."<br>
</p>

Billings heard and speaking in English, asked Ajor if she would
go. <br>
<p>"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."<br>
</p>

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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

"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." <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

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. <br>
<p>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.<br>
</p>

The end of Project Gutenberg etext of "Out of Time's Abyss" <br>
<p>I have made the following changes to the text:<br>
</p>

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 <br>
<p>The end of Project Gutenberg etext of "Out of Time's
Abyss"<br>
</p>
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