Out of Time's Abyss Read online

  Chapter 4

  The farther the group progressed, the more barbaric and the moresumptuous became the decorations. Hides of leopard and tigerpredominated, apparently because of their more beautiful markings, anddecorative skulls became more and more numerous. Many of the latterwere mounted in precious metals and set with colored stones andpriceless gems, while thick upon the hides that covered the walls weregolden ornaments similar to those worn by the girl and those which hadfilled the chests he had examined in the storeroom of Fosh-bal-soj,leading the Englishman to the conviction that all such were spoils ofwar or theft, since each piece seemed made for personal adornment,while in so far as he had seen, no Wieroo wore ornaments of any sort.

  And also as they advanced the more numerous became the Wieroos movinghither and thither within the temple. Many now were the solid redrobes and those that were slashed with blue--a veritable hive ofmurderers.

  At last the party halted in a room in which were many Wieroos whogathered about Bradley questioning his captors and examining him andhis apparel. One of the party accompanying the Englishman spoke to aWieroo that stood beside a door leading from the room. "Tell Him WhoSpeaks for Luata," he said, "that Fosh-bal-soj we could not find; butthat in returning we found this creature within the temple, hiding. Itmust be the same that Fosh-bal-soj captured in the Sto-lu countryduring the last darkness. Doubtless He Who Speaks for Luata would wishto see and question this strange thing."

  The creature addressed turned and slipped through the doorway, closingthe door after it, but first depositing its curved blade upon the floorwithout. Its post was immediately taken by another and Bradley now sawthat at least twenty such guards loitered in the immediate vicinity.The doorkeeper was gone but for a moment, and when he returned, hesignified that Bradley's party was to enter the next chamber; but firsteach of the Wieroos removed his curved weapon and laid it upon thefloor. The door was swung open, and the party, now reduced to Bradleyand five Wieroos, was ushered across the threshold into a large,irregularly shaped room in which a single, giant Wieroo whose robe wassolid blue sat upon a raised dais.

  The creature's face was white with the whiteness of a corpse, its deadeyes entirely expressionless, its cruel, thin lips tight-drawn againstyellow teeth in a perpetual grimace. Upon either side of it lay anenormous, curved sword, similar to those with which some of the otherWieroos had been armed, but larger and heavier. Constantly itsclawlike fingers played with one or the other of these weapons.

  The walls of the chamber as well as the floor were entirely hidden byskins and woven fabrics. Blue predominated in all the colorations.Fastened against the hides were many pairs of Wieroo wings, mounted sothat they resembled long, black shields. Upon the ceiling were paintedin blue characters a bewildering series of hieroglyphics and uponpedestals set against the walls or standing out well within the roomwere many human skulls.

  As the Wieroos approached the figure upon the dais, they leaned farforward, raising their wings above their heads and stretching theirnecks as though offering them to the sharp swords of the grim andhideous creature.

  "O Thou Who Speakest for Luata!" exclaimed one of the party. "We bringyou the strange creature that Fosh-bal-soj captured and brought thitherat thy command."

  So this then was the godlike figure that spoke for divinity! Thisarch-murderer was the Caspakian representative of God on Earth! Hisblue robe announced him the one and the seeming humility of his minionsthe other. For a long minute he glared at Bradley. Then he began toquestion him--from whence he came and how, the name and description ofhis native country, and a hundred other queries.

  "Are you cos-ata-lu?" the creature asked.

  Bradley replied that he was and that all his kind were, as well asevery living thing in his part of the world.

  "Can you tell me the secret?" asked the creature.

  Bradley hesitated and then, thinking to gain time, replied in theaffirmative.

  "What is it?" demanded the Wieroo, leaning far forward and exhibitingevery evidence of excited interest.

  Bradley leaned forward and whispered: "It is for your ears alone; Iwill not divulge it to others, and then only on condition that youcarry me and the girl I saw in the place of the yellow door near tothat of Fosh-bal-soj back to her own country."

  The thing rose in wrath, holding one of its swords above its head.

  "Who are you to make terms for Him Who Speaks for Luata?" it shrilled."Tell me the secret or die where you stand!"

  "And if I die now, the secret goes with me," Bradley reminded him."Never again will you get the opportunity to question another of mykind who knows the secret." Anything to gain time, to get the rest ofthe Wieroos from the room, that he might plan some scheme for escapeand put it into effect.

  The creature turned upon the leader of the party that had broughtBradley.

  "Is the thing with weapons?" it asked.

  "No," was the response.

  "Then go; but tell the guard to remain close by," commanded the highone.

  The Wieroos salaamed and withdrew, closing the door behind them. HeWho Speaks for Luata grasped a sword nervously in his right hand. Athis left side lay the second weapon. It was evident that he lived inconstant dread of being assassinated. The fact that he permitted nonewith weapons within his presence and that he always kept two swords athis side pointed to this.

  Bradley was racking his brain to find some suggestion of a plan wherebyhe might turn the situation to his own account. His eyes wandered pastthe weird figure before him; they played about the walls of theapartment as though hoping to draw inspiration from the dead skulls andthe hides and the wings, and then they came back to the face of theWieroo god, now working in anger.

  "Quick!" screamed the thing. "The secret!"

  "Will you give me and the girl our freedom?" insisted Bradley.

  For an instant the thing hesitated, and then it grumbled "Yes." At thesame instant Bradley saw two hides upon the wall directly back of thedais separate and a face appear in the opening. No change ofexpression upon the Englishman's countenance betrayed that he had seenaught to surprise him, though surprised he was for the face in theaperture was that of the girl he had but just left hidden beneath thehides in another chamber. A white and shapely arm now pushed past theface into the room, and in the hand, tightly clutched, was the curvedblade, smeared with blood, that Bradley had dropped beneath the hidesat the moment he had been discovered and drawn from his concealment.

  "Listen, then," said Bradley in a low voice to the Wieroo. "You shallknow the secret of cos-ata-lu as well as do I; but none other may hearit. Lean close--I will whisper it into your ear."

  He moved forward and stepped upon the dais. The creature raised itssword ready to strike at the first indication of treachery, and Bradleystooped 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 sideof the Wieroo's body, his right hand upon the hilt of the spare swordlying at the left of Him Who Speaks for Luata.

  "This then is the secret of both life and death," he whispered, and atthe same instant he grasped the Wieroo by the right wrist and with hisown right hand swung the extra blade in a sudden vicious blow againstthe creature's neck before the thing could give even a single cry ofalarm; then without waiting an instant Bradley leaped past the dead godand vanished behind the hides that had hidden the girl.

  Wide-eyed and panting the girl seized his arm. "Oh, what have youdone?" she cried. "He Who Speaks for Luata will be avenged by Luata.Now indeed must you die. There is no escape, for even though wereached my own country Luata can find you out."

  "Bosh!" exclaimed Bradley, and then: "But you were going to knife himyourself."

  "Then I alone should have died," she replied.

  Bradley scratched his head. "Neither of us is going to die," he said;"at least not at the hands of any god. If we don't get out of herethough, we'll die right enough. Can you find your way back to the roomwhere I first came upon you i
n the temple?"

  "I know the way," replied the girl; "but I doubt if we can go backwithout being seen. I came hither because I only met Wieroos who knewthat I am supposed now to be in the temple; but you could go elsewherewithout being discovered."

  Bradley's ingenuity had come up against a stone wall. There seemed nopossibility of escape. He looked about him. They were in a small roomwhere lay a litter of rubbish--torn bits of cloth, old hides, pieces offiber rope. In the center of the room was a cylindrical shaft with anopening in its face. Bradley knew it for what it was. Here thearch-fiend dragged his victims and cast their bodies into the river ofdeath far below. The floor about the opening in the shaft and thesides of the shaft were clotted thick with a dried, dark brownsubstance that the Englishman knew had once been blood. The place hadthe appearance of having been a veritable shambles. An odor ofdecaying flesh permeated the air.

  The Englishman crossed to the shaft and peered into the opening. Allbelow was dark as pitch; but at the bottom he knew was the river.Suddenly an inspiration and a bold scheme leaped to his mind. Turningquickly he hunted about the room until he found what he sought--aquantity of the rope that lay strewn here and there. With rapidfingers he unsnarled the different lengths, the girl helping him, andthen he tied the ends together until he had three ropes aboutseventy-five feet in length. He fastened these together at each endand without a word secured one of the ends about the girl's bodybeneath her arms.

  "Don't be frightened," he said at length, as he led her toward theopening in the shaft. "I'm going to lower you to the river, and thenI'm coming down after you. When you are safe below, give two quickjerks upon the rope. If there is danger there and you want me to drawyou up into the shaft, jerk once. Don't be afraid--it is the only way."

  "I am not afraid," replied the girl, rather haughtily Bradley thought,and herself climbed through the aperture and hung by her hands waitingfor Bradley to lower her.

  As rapidly as was consistent with safety, the man paid out the rope.When it was about half out, he heard loud cries and wails suddenlyarise within the room they had just quitted. The slaying of their godhad been discovered by the Wieroos. A search for the slayer wouldbegin at once.

  Lord! Would the girl never reach the river? At last, just as he waspositive that searchers were already entering the room behind him,there came two quick tugs at the rope. Instantly Bradley made the restof the strands fast about the shaft, slipped into the black tube andbegan a hurried descent toward the river. An instant later he stoodwaist deep in water beside the girl. Impulsively she reached towardhim and grasped his arm. A strange thrill ran through him at thecontact; but he only cut the rope from about her body and lifted her tothe little shelf at the river's side.

  "How can we leave here?" she asked.

  "By the river," he replied; "but first I must go back to the Blue Placeof Seven Skulls and get the poor devil I left there. I'll have to waituntil after dark, though, as I cannot pass through the open stretch ofriver in the temple gardens by day."

  "There is another way," said the girl. "I have never seen it; butoften I have heard them speak of it--a corridor that runs beside theriver from one end of the city to the other. Through the gardens it isbelow ground. If we could find an entrance to it, we could leave hereat once. It is not safe here, for they will search every inch of thetemple and the grounds."

  "Come," said Bradley. "We'll have a look for it, anyway." And sosaying he approached one of the doors that opened onto the skull-pavedshelf.

  They found the corridor easily, for it paralleled the river, separatedfrom it only by a single wall. It took them beneath the gardens andthe city, always through inky darkness. After they had reached theother side of the gardens, Bradley counted his steps until he hadretraced as many as he had taken coming down the stream; but thoughthey had to grope their way along, it was a much more rapid trip thanthe former.

  When he thought he was about opposite the point at which he haddescended from the Blue Place of Seven Skulls, he sought and found adoorway leading out onto the river; and then, still in the blackestdarkness, he lowered himself into the stream and felt up and down uponthe opposite side for the little shelf and the ladder. Ten yards fromwhere he had emerged he found them, while the girl waited upon theopposite side.

  To ascend to the secret panel was the work of but a minute. Here hepaused and listened lest a Wieroo might be visiting the prison insearch of him or the other inmate; but no sound came from the gloomyinterior. Bradley could not but muse upon the joy of the man on theopposite side when he should drop down to him with food and a new hopefor escape. Then he opened the panel and looked into the room. Thefaint light from the grating above revealed the pile of rags in onecorner; but the man lay beneath them, he made no response to Bradley'slow greeting.

  The Englishman lowered himself to the floor of the room and approachedthe rags. Stooping he lifted a corner of them. Yes, there was the manasleep. Bradley shook him--there was no response. He stooped lowerand in the dim light examined An-Tak; then he stood up with a sigh. Arat leaped from beneath the coverings and scurried away. "Poor devil!"muttered Bradley.

  He crossed the room to swing himself to the perch preparatory toquitting the Blue Place of Seven Skulls forever. Beneath the perch hepaused. "I'll not give them the satisfaction," he growled. "Let thembelieve that he escaped."

  Returning to the pile of rags he gathered the man into his arms. Itwas difficult work raising him to the high perch and dragging himthrough the small opening and thus down the ladder; but presently itwas done, and Bradley had lowered the body into the river and cast itoff. "Good-bye, old top!" he whispered.

  A moment later he had rejoined the girl and hand in hand they werefollowing the dark corridor upstream toward the farther end of thecity. She told him that the Wieroos seldom frequented these lowerpassages, as the air here was too chill for them; but occasionally theycame, and as they could see quite as well by night as by day, theywould be sure to discover Bradley and the girl.

  "If they come close enough," she said, "we can see their eyes shiningin the dark--they resemble dull splotches of light. They glow, but donot blaze like the eyes of the tiger or the lion."

  The man could not but note the very evident horror with which shementioned the creatures. To him they were uncanny; but she had beenused to them for a year almost, and probably all her life she hadeither seen or heard of them constantly.

  "Why do you fear them so?" he asked. "It seems more than any ordinaryfear of the harm they can do you."

  She tried to explain; but the nearest he could gather was that shelooked upon the Wieroo almost as supernatural beings. "There is alegend current among my people that once the Wieroo were unlike us onlyin that they possessed rudimentary wings. They lived in villages inthe Galu country, and while the two peoples often warred, they held nohatred for one another. In those days each race came up from thebeginning and there was great rivalry as to which was the higher in thescale of evolution. The Wieroo developed the first cos-ata-lu but theywere always male--never could they reproduce woman. Slowly theycommenced to develop certain attributes of the mind which, theyconsidered, placed them upon a still higher level and which gave themmany advantages over us, seeing which they thought only of mentaldevelopment--their minds became like stars and the rivers, movingalways in the same manner, never varying. They called this tas-ad,which means doing everything the right way, or, in other words, theWieroo way. If foe or friend, right or wrong, stood in the way oftas-ad, then it must be crushed.

  "Soon the Galus and the lesser races of men came to hate and fear them.It was then that the Wieroos decided to carry tas-ad into every part ofthe world. They were very warlike and very numerous, although they hadlong since adopted the policy of slaying all those among them whosewings did not show advanced development.

  "It took ages for all this to happen--very slowly came the differentchanges; but at last the Wieroos had wings they could use. But byreason of alw
ays making war upon their neighbors they were hated byevery creature of Caspak, for no one wanted their tas-ad, and so theyused their wings to fly to this island when the other races turnedagainst them and threatened to kill them all. So cruel had they becomeand so bloodthirsty that they no longer had hearts that beat with loveor sympathy; but their very cruelty and wickedness kept them fromconquering the other races, since they were also cruel and wicked toone another, so that no Wieroo trusted another.

  "Always were they slaying those above them that they might rise inpower and possessions, until at last came the more powerful than theothers with a tas-ad all his own. He gathered about him a few of themost terrible Wieroos, and among them they made laws which took fromall but these few Wieroos every weapon they possessed.

  "Now their tas-ad has reached a high plane among them. They make manywonderful things that we cannot make. They think great thoughts, nodoubt, and still dream of greatness to come, but their thoughts andtheir acts are regulated by ages of custom--they are all alike--andthey are most unhappy."

  As the girl talked, the two moved steadily along the dark passagewaybeside the river. They had advanced a considerable distance when theresounded faintly from far ahead the muffled roar of falling water, whichincreased in volume as they moved forward until at last it filled thecorridor with a deafening sound. Then the corridor ended in a blankwall; but in a niche to the right was a ladder leading aloft, and tothe left was a door opening onto the river. Bradley tried the latterfirst and as he opened it, felt a heavy spray against his face. Thelittle shelf outside the doorway was wet and slippery, the roaring ofthe water tremendous. There could be but one explanation--they hadreached a waterfall in the river, and if the corridor actuallyterminated here, their escape was effectually cut off, since it wasquite evidently impossible to follow the bed of the river and ascendthe falls.

  As the ladder was the only alternative, the two turned toward it and,the man first, began the ascent, which was through a well similar tothat which had led him to the upper floors of the temple. As heclimbed, Bradley felt for openings in the sides of the shaft; but hediscovered none below fifty feet. The first he came to was ajar,letting a faint light into the well. As he paused, the girl climbed tohis side, and together they looked through the crack into a low-ceiledchamber in which were several Galu women and an equal number of hideouslittle replicas of the full-grown Wieroos with which Bradley was notquite familiar.

  He could feel the body of the girl pressed close to his tremble as hereyes rested upon the inmates of the room, and involuntarily his armencircled her shoulders as though to protect her from some danger whichhe sensed without recognizing.

  "Poor things," she whispered. "This is their horrible fate--to beimprisoned here beneath the surface of the city with their hideousoffspring whom they hate as they hate their fathers. A Wieroo keepshis children thus hidden until they are full-grown lest they bemurdered by their fellows. The lower rooms of the city are filled withmany such as these."

  Several feet above was a second door beyond which they found a smallroom stored with food in wooden vessels. A grated window in one wallopened above an alley, and through it they could see that they werejust below the roof of the building. Darkness was coming, and atBradley's suggestion they decided to remain hidden here until afterdark and then to ascend to the roof and reconnoiter.

  Shortly after they had settled themselves they heard somethingdescending the ladder from above. They hoped that it would continue ondown the well and fairly held their breath as the sound approached thedoor to the storeroom. Their hearts sank as they heard the door openand from between cracks in the vessels behind which they hid saw ayellow-slashed Wieroo enter the room. Each recognized him immediately,the girl indicating the fact of her own recognition by a suddenpressure of her fingers on Bradley's arm. It was the Wieroo of theyellow slashing whose abode was the place of the yellow door in whichBradley had first seen the girl.

  The creature carried a wooden bowl which it filled with dried food fromseveral of the vessels; then it turned and quit the room. Bradleycould see through the partially open doorway that it descended theladder. The girl told him that it was taking the food to the women andthe young below, and that while it might return immediately, thechances were that it would remain for some time.

  "We are just below the place of the yellow door," she said. "It is farfrom the edge of the city; so far that we may not hope to escape if weascend to the roofs here."

  "I think," replied the man, "that of all the places in Oo-oh this willbe the easiest to escape from. Anyway, I want to return to the placeof the yellow door and get my pistol if it is there."

  "It is still there," replied, the girl. "I saw it placed in a chestwhere he keeps the things he takes from his prisoners and victims."

  "Good!" exclaimed Bradley. "Now come, quickly." And the two crossedthe room to the well and ascended the ladder a short distance to itstop where they found another door that opened into a vacant room--thesame in which Bradley had first met the girl. To find the pistol was amatter of but a moment's search on the part of Bradley's companion; andthen, at the Englishman's signal, she followed him to the yellow door.

  It was quite dark without as the two entered the narrow passage betweentwo buildings. A few steps brought them undiscovered to the doorway ofthe storeroom where lay the body of Fosh-bal-soj. In the distance,toward the temple, they could hear sounds as of a great gathering ofWieroos--the peculiar, uncanny wailing rising above the dismal flappingof countless wings.

  "They have heard of the killing of Him Who Speaks for Luata," whisperedthe girl. "Soon they will spread in all directions searching for us."

  "And will they find us?"

  "As surely as Lua gives light by day," she replied; "and when they findus, they will tear us to pieces, for only the Wieroos may murder--onlythey may practice tas-ad."

  "But they will not kill you," said Bradley. "You did not slay him."

  "It will make no difference," she insisted. "If they find us togetherthey will slay us both."

  "Then they won't find us together," announced Bradley decisively. "Youstay right here--you won't be any worse off than before I came--andI'll get as far as I can and account for as many of the beggars aspossible before they get me. Good-bye! You're a mighty decent littlegirl. I wish that I might have helped you."

  "No," she cried. "Do not leave me. I would rather die. I had hopedand hoped to find some way to return to my own country. I wanted to goback to An-Tak, who must be very lonely without me; but I know that itcan never be. It is difficult to kill hope, though mine is nearlydead. Do not leave me."

  "An-Tak!" Bradley repeated. "You loved a man called An-Tak?"

  "Yes," replied the girl. "An-Tak was away, hunting, when the Wieroocaught me. How he must have grieved for me! He also was cos-ata-lu,twelve moons older than I, and all our lives we have been together."

  Bradley remained silent. So she loved An-Tak. He hadn't the heart totell her that An-Tak had died, or how.

  At the door of Fosh-bal-soj's storeroom they halted to listen. Nosound came from within, and gently Bradley pushed open the door. Allwas inky darkness as they entered; but presently their eyes becameaccustomed to the gloom that was partially relieved by the softstarlight without. The Englishman searched and found those things forwhich he had come--two robes, two pairs of dead wings and severallengths of fiber rope. One pair of the wings he adjusted to the girl'sshoulders by means of the rope. Then he draped the robe about her,carrying the cowl over her head.

  He heard her gasp of astonishment when she realized the ingenuity andboldness of his plan; then he directed her to adjust the other pair ofwings and the robe upon him. Working with strong, deft fingers shesoon had the work completed, and the two stepped out upon the roof, toall intent and purpose genuine Wieroos. Besides his pistol Bradleycarried the sword of the slain Wieroo prophet, while the girl was armedwith the small blade of the red Wieroo.

  Side by side t
hey walked slowly across the roofs toward the north edgeof the city. Wieroos flapped above them and several times they passedothers walking or sitting upon the roofs. From the temple still rosethe sounds of commotion, now pierced by occasional shrill screams.

  "The murderers are abroad," whispered the girl. "Thus will anotherbecome the tongue of Luata. It is well for us, since it keeps them toobusy to give the time for searching for us. They think that we cannotescape the city, and they know that we cannot leave the island--and sodo I."

  Bradley shook his head. "If there is any way, we will find it," hesaid.

  "There is no way," replied the girl.

  Bradley made no response, and in silence they continued until the outeredge of roofs was visible before them. "We are almost there," hewhispered.

  The girl felt for his fingers and pressed them. He could feel herstrembling as he returned the pressure, nor did he relinquish her hand;and thus they came to the edge of the last roof.

  Here they halted and looked about them. To be seen attempting todescend to the ground below would be to betray the fact that they werenot Wieroos. Bradley wished that their wings were attached to theirbodies by sinew and muscle rather than by ropes of fiber. A Wieroo wasflapping far overhead. Two more stood near a door a few yards distant.Standing between these and one of the outer pedestals that supportedone of the numerous skulls Bradley made one end of a piece of rope fastabout the pedestal and dropped the other end to the ground outside thecity. Then they waited.

  It was an hour before the coast was entirely clear and then a momentcame when no Wieroo was in sight. "Now!" whispered Bradley; and thegirl grasped the rope and slid over the edge of the roof into thedarkness below. A moment later Bradley felt two quick pulls upon therope and immediately followed to the girl's side.

  Across a narrow clearing they made their way and into a wood beyond.All night they walked, following the river upward toward its source,and at dawn they took shelter in a thicket beside the stream. At notime did they hear the cry of a carnivore, and though many startledanimals fled as they approached, they were not once menaced by a wildbeast. When Bradley expressed surprise at the absence of the fiercestbeasts that are so numerous upon the mainland of Caprona, the girlexplained the reason that is contained in one of their ancient legends.

  "When the Wieroos first developed wings upon which they could fly, theyfound this island devoid of any life other than a few reptiles thatlive either upon land or in the water and these only close to thecoast. Requiring meat for food the Wieroos carried to the island suchanimals as they wished for that purpose. They still occasionally bringthem, and this with the natural increase keeps them provided withflesh."

  "As it will us," suggested Bradley.

  The first day they remained in hiding, eating only the dried food thatBradley had brought with him from the temple storeroom, and the nextnight they set out again up the river, continuing steadily on untilalmost dawn, when they came to low hills where the river wound througha gorge--it was little more than rivulet now, the water clear and coldand filled with fish similar to brook trout though much larger. Notwishing to leave the stream the two waded along its bed to a spot wherethe gorge widened between perpendicular bluffs to a wooded acre oflevel land. Here they stopped, for here also the stream ended. Theyhad reached its source--many cold springs bubbling up from the centerof a little natural amphitheater in the hills and forming a clear andbeautiful pool overshadowed by trees upon one side and bounded by alittle clearing upon the other.

  With the coming of the sun they saw they had stumbled upon a placewhere they might remain hidden from the Wieroos for a long time andalso one that they could defend against these winged creatures, sincethe trees would shield them from an attack from above and also hamperthe movements of the creatures should they attempt to follow them intothe wood.

  For three days they rested here before trying to explore theneighboring country. On the fourth, Bradley stated that he was goingto scale the bluffs and learn what lay beyond. He told the girl thatshe should remain in hiding; but she refused to be left, saying thatwhatever fate was to be his, she intended to share it, so that he wasat last forced to permit her to come with him. Through woods at thesummit of the bluff they made their way toward the north and had gonebut a short distance when the wood ended and before them they saw thewaters of the inland sea and dimly in the distance the coveted shore.

  The beach lay some two hundred yards from the foot of the hill on whichthey stood, nor was there a tree nor any other form of shelter betweenthem and the water as far up and down the coast as they could see.Among other plans Bradley had thought of constructing a covered raftupon which they might drift to the mainland; but as such a contrivancewould necessarily be of considerable weight, it must be built in thewater of the sea, since they could not hope to move it even a shortdistance overland.

  "If this wood was only at the edge of the water," he sighed.

  "But it is not," the girl reminded him, and then: "Let us make thebest of it. We have escaped from death for a time at least. We havefood and good water and peace and each other. What more could we haveupon the mainland?"

  "But I thought you wanted to get back to your own country!" heexclaimed.

  She cast her eyes upon the ground and half turned away. "I do," shesaid, "yet I am happy here. I could be little happier there."

  Bradley stood in silent thought. "`We have food and good water andpeace and each other!'" he repeated to himself. He turned then andlooked at the girl, and it was as though in the days that they had beentogether this was the first time that he had really seen her. Thecircumstances that had thrown them together, the dangers through whichthey had passed, all the weird and horrible surroundings that hadformed the background of his knowledge of her had had their effect--shehad been but the companion of an adventure; her self-reliance, herendurance, her loyalty, had been only what one man might expect ofanother, and he saw that he had unconsciously assumed an attitudetoward her that he might have assumed toward a man. Yet there had beena difference--he recalled now the strange sensation of elation that hadthrilled him upon the occasions when the girl had pressed his hand inhers, and the depression that had followed her announcement of her lovefor An-Tak.

  He took a step toward her. A fierce yearning to seize her and crushher in his arms, swept over him, and then there flashed upon the screenof recollection the picture of a stately hall set amidst broad gardensand ancient trees and of a proud old man with beetling brows--an oldman who held his head very high--and Bradley shook his head and turnedaway again.

  They went back then to their little acre, and the days came and went,and the man fashioned spear and bow and arrows and hunted with themthat they might have meat, and he made hooks of fishbone and caughtfishes with wondrous flies of his own invention; and the girl gatheredfruits and cooked the flesh and the fish and made beds of branches andsoft grasses. She cured the hides of the animals he killed and madethem soft by much pounding. She made sandals for herself and for theman and fashioned a hide after the manner of those worn by the warriorsof her tribe and made the man wear it, for his own garments were inrags.

  She was always the same--sweet and kind and helpful--but always therewas 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, herbrows puckered in thought as though she were trying to fathom and tounderstand him.

  In the face of the cliff, Bradley scooped a cave from the rottedgranite of which the hill was composed, making a shelter for themagainst the rains. He brought wood for their cook-fire which they usedonly in the middle of the day--a time when there was little likelihoodof Wieroos being in the air so far from their city--and then he learnedto bank it with earth in such a way that the embers held until thefollowing noon without giving off smoke.

  Always he was planning on reaching the mainland, and never a day passedthat he did not go to the top of the hill and look out across the seatoward the dark, d
istant line that meant for him comparative freedomand possibly reunion with his comrades. The girl always went with him,standing at his side and watching the stern expression on his face withjust a tinge of sadness on her own.

  "You are not happy," she said once.

  "I should be over there with my men," he replied. "I do not know whatmay have happened to them."

  "I want you to be happy," she said quite simply; "but I should be verylonely if you went away and left me here."

  He put his hand on her shoulder. "I would not do that, little girl,"he said gently. "If you cannot go with me, I shall not go. If eitherof us must go alone, it will be you."

  Her face lighted to a wondrous smile. "Then we shall not beseparated," she said, "for I shall never leave you as long as we bothlive."

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

  "My brother," she replied. "Why?"

  And then, even less than before, could he tell her. It was then thathe did something he had never done before--he put his arms about herand stooping, kissed her forehead. "Until you find An-Tak," he said,"I will be your brother."

  She drew away. "I already have a brother," she said, "and I do notwant another."