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Out of Time's Abyss · Out of Time's Abyss

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  Chapter one. This is the tale of Bradley. After he left Fort Dinosaur,
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  upon the west coast of the Great Lake that is in the center of
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  the island. Upon the fourth day of September nineteen sixteen, he set out
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  with four companions, Sinclair, Brady, James and Tippett, to search along
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  the base of the Barrier cliffs for a point at which they might be scaled
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  through the heavy Caspakian air beneath the swollen sun. The five men marched northwest
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  from Fort Dinosaur, now waist deep in lush jungle grasses, starred with myriad
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  gorgeous blooms, now across open meadow land and park like expanses, and again
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  plunging into dense forests of Eucalyptus s andicacia and giant Arboreus ferns, with feathered
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  fronds waving gently a hundred feet above their heads. About them. Upon the
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  ground, among the trees and in the air over them, moved and swampung
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  and swored the countless forms of cast Back's teeming life. Always were they menaced
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  by some frightful thing, and seldom were their rifles cool. Yet even in
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  the brief time they had dwelt upon Caprona. They had become callous to danger,
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  so that they swung along, laughing and chatting like soldiers on a summer
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  high. This reminds me of South Clark Street, remarked Brady, who had
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  once served on the traffic squad in Chicago, and as no one asked him
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  why he volunteered. That it was because it's no place for an irishman.
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  South Clark Street and Heaven have something in common, then, suggested Sinclair.
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  James and Tippett laughed, and then a hideous growl broke from a dense thicket
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  ahead and diverted their attention to other matters, one of them behemous av ole
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  eret, muttered Tippett. As they came to a halt, and with guns
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  ready, awaited the almost inevitable charge. Hungry lot of beggars, these,
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  said Bradley, always tried to eat everything they see. For a moment,
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  no further sound came from the thicket. He may be feeding, now,
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  suggested Bradley. We'll try to go around him. Contwaiste, ammunition won't last
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  forever. Follow me, and he set off at right angles to their former
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  course, hoping to avert a charge. They had taken a dozen steps perhaps,
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  when the thicket moved to the advance of the thing within it. The
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  leafy branches parted, and the hideous head of a gigantic bear emerged. Pick
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  your trees, whispered Bradley, kant waste ammunition. The men looked about them.
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  The bear took a couple of steps forward, still growling menacingly, he
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  was exposed to the shoulders. Now Tippet took one look at the monster and
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  bolted for the nearest tree. And then the bear charges. He charged straight
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  for Tippet. The other men scattered for the various trees they had selected,
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  all except Bradley. He stood watching Tippet and the bear. The man had
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  a good start, and the tree was not far away, but the speed
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  of the enormous creature behind him was something to marvel at. Yet Tippet was
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  in a fair way to make his sanctuary when his foot caught in a tangle
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  of roots, and down he went, his rifle flying from his hand and
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  falling several yards away. Instantly Bradley's piece was at his shoulder. There was
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  a sharp report, answered by a roar of mingled rage and pain from the
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  carnivore. Tippet attempted to scramble to his feet, lie still, shouted Bradley,
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  contwaist ammunition. The bear halted in its tracks, wheeled toward Bradley,
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  and then back again toward Tippet. Again. The former's rifle spit angrily,
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  and the bear turned again in his direction. Bradley shouted loudly, come on,
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  you, Behemeth of Holy writ. He cried, come on, you'd
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  duffer contwate ammunition. And as he saw the bear apparently upon the verge of
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  deciding to charge him, he encouraged the idea by backing rapidly away, knowing
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  that an angry beast will more often charge one who moves than one who lies
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  still. And the bear did charge. Like a bolt of lightning. He
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  flashed down upon the Englishman, Now run, Bradley called a tippet and himself
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  turned in flight toward a near by tree. The other men, now safely
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  asconced upon various branches, watched the race with breathless interest. Would Bradley make
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  it? It seemed scarce possible. And if he didn't, James gasped at
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  the thought. Six feet at the shoulders stood the frightful mountain of blood,
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  mad flesh and bone and sinew that was bearing down with the speed of an
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  express train upon the seemingly slow moving man. It all happened in a few
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  seconds, but they were seconds that seemed like hours to the men who watched.
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  They saw Tippet leap to his feet at Bradley's shouted warning. They saw
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  him run, stooping to recover his rifle as he passed the spot where it
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  had fallen. They saw him glance back toward Bradley, and then they saw
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  him stop short of the tree that might have given him safety, and turned
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  back in the direction of the bear, firing as he ran. Tippet raced
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  after the great cave bear, the monstrous thing that should have been extinct ages
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  before, ran for it, and fired. Even as the beast was almost
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  upon Bradley. The men in the trees scarcely breathed. It seemed to them
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  such a futile thing for Tippet to do, And Tippet, of all men,
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  they had never looked upon Tippet as a coward. There seemed to be
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  no cowards among that strangely assorted company that fate had gathered together from the four
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  corners of the earth. But Tippet was considered a cautious man. Over cautious,
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  some thought him, how futile he and his little pop gun appeared as
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  he dashed after that living engine of destruction. But oh, how glorious it
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  was some such thought as this that ran through Brady's mind. Though articulated,
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  it might have been expressed otherwise, albeit more forcefully. Just then it occurred
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  to Brady to fire, and he too, opened upon the bear. But
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  at the same instant the animals stumbled and fell forward, though still growling most
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  fearsomely. Tippet never stopped running or firing until he stood within a foot of
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  the brute, which lay almost touching Bradley and was already struggling to regain its
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  feet. Placing the muzzle of the gun against the bear's ear, Tippet pulled
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  the trigger. The creature sank limply to the ground, and Bradley scrambled to
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  his feet. Good work, Tippet, he said, mightily obliged to you.
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  Awful waste of ammunition, really, And then they resumed the march,
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  and in fifteen minutes the encounter had ceased even to be a topic of conversation.
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  For two days they continued upon their perilous way. All the cliffs loomed
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  high and forbidding close ahead without sign of break, to encourage hope that somewhere
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  they might be scaled. Late in the afternoon, the party crossed a small
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  stream of warm water, upon the sluggishly moving surface of which floated countless millions
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  of tiny green eggs, surrounded by a light scum of the same color,
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  though of a darker shade. Their past experience of cast Pack had taught them
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  that they might expect to come upon a stagnant pool of warm water if they
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  followed the stream to its source, But there they were almost certain to find
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  some of Castpack's grotesque manlike creatures already, since they had disembarked from the U
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  thirty three after its perilous trip through the subterranean channel beneath the barrier cliffs had
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  brought them into the inland sea of Castpack, had they encountered what had appeared
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  to be three distinct types of these creatures. There had been the pure apes,
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  huge guerrilla like beasts, and those who walked a trifle more erect and
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  had features with just a shade more of the human caste about them. Then
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  there were men like Alm, whom they had captured and confined at the Fort
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  Olm. The clubman, well known clubman Tyler had called him Alm. And
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  his people had knowledge of speech. They had a language in which they were
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  unlike the race, just inferior to them, and they walked much more erect
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  and were less hairy. But it was principally the fact that they possessed a
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  spoken language and carried a weapon that differentiated them from the others. All of
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  these peoples had proven belligerent in the extreme, in common with the rest of
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  the fauna of Caprona. The first law of nature, as they seemed to
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  understand it, was to kill, kill, kill, And so it was
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  that Bradley had no desire to follow up the little stream toward the pool,
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  near which were sure to be the caves of some savage tribe. But fortune
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  played him an unkind trick, for the pool was much closer than he imagined,
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  its southern end, reaching fully a mile south of the point at which
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  they crossed the stream. And so it was that, after forcing their way
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  through a tangle of jungle vegetation, they came out upon the edge of the
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  pool, which they had wished to avoid. Almost simultaneously, there appeared south
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  of them a party of naked men armed with clubs and hatchets. Both parties
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  halted as they caught sight of one another. The men from the fort saw
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  before them a hunting party, evidently returning to its caves or billies laden with
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  meat. They were large men, with features closely resembling those of the African
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  Negro. Though their skins were white, Short hair grew upon a large portion
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  of their limbs and bodies, which still retained a considerable trace of Apish progenitors.
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  They were, however, a distinctly higher type than the Bolu or club.
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  Bradley would have been glad to have averted a meeting, but as he
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  desired to lead his party south round the end of the pool, and as
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  it was hemmed in by the jungle on one side and the water on the
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  other, there seemed no escape from an encounter. On the chance that he
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  might avoid a clash, Bradley stepped forward with upraised hand. We are friends,
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  he called, in the tongue of Aum, the Buloo, who had
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  been held prisoner at the fort. Permit us to pass in peace. We
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  will not harm you at this The hatchetman set up a great jabbering with much
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  laughter. Loud and boisterous no shouted one. You will not harm us,
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  for we shall kill you. Come we kill, we kill, And with
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  hideous shouts, they charged down upon the Europeans. Sinclair, you may fire,
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  said Bradley, quietly. Pick off the leader contwaist ammunition. The Englishman
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  raised his piece to his shoulder and took quick aim at the breast of the
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  yelling savage leaping toward them. Directly behind the leader came another hatchet man,
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  and with the report of Sinclair's rifle, both warriors lunged forward in the tall
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  grasp, pierced by the same bullet. The effect upon the rest of the
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  band was electrical. As one man, they came to a sudden halt,
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  wheeled to the east, and dashed into the jungle, where the men could
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  hear them, forcing their way in an effort to put as much distance as
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  possible between themselves and the authors of this new and frightful noise that killed warriors
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  at a great distance. Both the savages were dead when Bradley approached to examine
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  them, and as the Europeans gathered round, other eyes were bent upon them.
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  With greater curiosity than they displayed for the victim of Sinclair's bullet. When
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  the party again took up the march around the southern end of the pool,
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  the owner of the eyes followed them, large round eyes, almost expressionless except
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  for a certain cold cruelty which glinted malignly from under their pale gray irises,
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  all unconscious of the soccer. The men came laid in the afternoon to a
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  spot which seemed favorable as a camp site. A cold spring bubbled from the
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  base of a rocky formation which overhung and partially encircled a small enclosure. At
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  Bradley's command, the men took up the duties assigned them, gathering wood,
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  building a cook fire, and preparing the evening meal. It was while they
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  were thus engaged that Brady's attention was attracted by the dismal flapping of huge wings.
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  He glanced up, expecting to see one of the great flying reptiles of
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  a by gone age. His rifle ready in his hand. Brady was a
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  brave man. He had groped his way up narrow tenement stairs and taken an
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  armed maniac from a dark room without turning a hair, But now as he
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  looked up, he went white and staggered back. God, he almost screamed,
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  what is it? Attracted by Brady's cry, the others seized their rifles
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  as they followed his wide eyed, frozen gaze. Nor was there one of
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  them that was not moved by some species of terror or awe. Then Brady
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  spoke again, in an almost inaudible voice, Holy Mother, protect us.
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  It's a banshee. Bradley, always cool almost to indifference in the face of
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  danger, felt a strange, creeping sensation run over his flesh. As slowly,
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  not a hundred feet above them, the thing flapped itself across the sky,
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  its huge round eyes glaring down upon them, and until it disappeared over
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  the tops of the trees of a nearby wood. The five men stood as
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  though paralyzed, their eyes never leaving the weird shape, nor never one of
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  them appearing to recall that he grasped a loaded rifle in his hands. With
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  the passing of the thing came the reaction. Tippett sank to the ground and
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  buried his face in his hands. Oh, Gord, he moaned, take
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  me away from this. Order for police. Brady, who recovered from the
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  first shot, swore loud and luridly. He called upon all the saints to
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  witness that he was unafraid, and that anybody with half an eye could have
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  seen that the creature was nothing more than one of the em flyin alligaters,
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  that they all were familiar with. Yes, said Sinclair, with fine sarcasm.
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  We've saw so many of them with white shrouds on him. Shut up,
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  you fool, growled Brady. If you know so much, tell us
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  what it was after beyond them. Then he turned toward Bradley. What was
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  it, sir, do you think, he asked? Bradley shook his head.
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  I don't know, he said. It looked like a winged human being
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  clothed in a flowing white robe. Its face was more human than otherwise.
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  That is the way it looked to me. But what it really was I
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  can't even guess, for such a creature is as far beyond my experience or
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  knowledge as it is beyond yours. All that I am sure of is that,
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  whatever else it may have been, it was quite material. It was
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  no ghost, rather just another of the strange forms of life which we have
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  met here, and with which we should be accustomed by this time. Tippet
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  looked up, his face still ashy. You can't tell me, he cried.
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  I seen it, blimey, II seen it. It was how dead
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  man flying through the hair. Didn't I see his eyes? Oh, girld,
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  didn't I see him? It didn't look like any beast or reptile to
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  me, spoke up Sinclair. It was looking right down at me when I
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  looked up, and I saw its face plain as I see yours. It
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  had big browned eyes that looked all cold and dead, and its cheeks were
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  sunken in deep, and I could see its yellow teeth behind thin, tight
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  drawn lips, like a man who had been dead a long while, sir,
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  he added, turning toward Bradley. Yes, James had not spoken since
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  the apparition had passed over them, and now it was scarce speech, which
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  he uttered rather a series of articulate gasps. Yes, dead a long while.
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  It du means something. It come for some one, for one of
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  us. One of us is gone to die. I'm going to die,
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  he ended in a wail. Come, come, snapped Bradley. Won't do
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  won't do it all, Get to work, all of you. Waste of
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  time. Cant waste time, his authoritative tones brought them all up standing,
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  and presently each was occupied with his own duties. But each worked in silence,
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  and there was no singing and no bantering, such as had marked the
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  making of previous cams. Not until they had eaten, and to each had
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  been issued the little ration of smoking tobacco aloud after each evening meal did any
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  sign of a relaxation of taut nerves appear. It was Brady who showed the
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  first signs of returning good spirits. He commenced humming It's a long way to
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  Tipperary, and presently to boist the words. But he was well into his
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  third song before anyone joined him, and even then there seemed a dismal note
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  in even the gayest of tunes. A huge fire blazed in the opening of
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  their rocky shelter, that the prowling carnivora might be kept at bay, and
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  always one man stood on guard, watchfully alert against a sudden rush by some
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  maddened beast of the jungle. Beyond the fire, yellow green spots of flame
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  appeared, moved restlessly about, disappeared, and reappeared, accompanied by a hideous
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  chorus of screams and growls and roars, as the hungry meaty hunting through the
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  night were attracted by the light or the scent of possible prey. But to
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  such sights and sounds as these, the five men had become callous. They
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  sang or talked as unconcernedly as they might have done in the bar room of
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  some public house. At home. Sinclair was standing guard. The others were
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  listening to Brady's description of traffic congestion at the rough Street bridge during the rush
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  hour at night. The fire crackled cheerily. The owners of the Yellow Green
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  Eyes raised their frightful chorus to the heavens. Conditions seemed again to have returned
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  to normal, and then, as though the hand of death had reached out
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  and touched them, all, the five men tensed into sudden rigidity. Above
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  the nocturnal diapason of the teeming jungle sounded a dismal flapping of wings, and
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  overhead, through the thick night, a shadowy form passed across the diffused light
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  of the flaring camp fire. Sinclair raised his rifle and fired. An eerie
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  wail floated down from above, and the apparition, whatever it might have been,
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  was swallowed by the darkness. For several seconds, the listening men heard
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  the sound of those dismally flapping wings lessening in the distance until they could no
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  longer be heard. Bradley was the first to speak. Shouldn't have fired,
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  Sinclair, he said, can't waste ammunition. But there was no note of
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  censure in his tone. It was as though he understood the nervous reaction that
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  had compelled the other's act. I couldn't help it, sir, said Sinclair.
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  Lord it would take an iron man to keep from shootin at that awful
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  thing you believe in gosts Sir, No, replied Bradley, No such things.
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  I don't know about that, said Brady. There was a woman murdered
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  over on the prairie near Brighton. Her throat was cut from ear to ear.
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  Shut up, snapped Bradley. My granddaddy used to live down Coppington,
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  Why, said Tibbett. They were old ruined castle on Eel near by hun
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  At midnight they used to see pile of blue lights through the windows and air.
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  Will you close your hatch, demanded Bradley, You fools will have yourselves
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  scared to death in a minute. Now go to sleep. But there was
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  little sleep in camp that night until utter exhaustion overtook the harassed men toward morning.
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  Nor was there any return of the weird creature that had set the nerves
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  of each of them on edge. The following forenoon, the party reached the
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  base of the Barrier Cliffs and for two days marched northward in an effort to
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  discover a break in the frowning abutment that raised its rocky face almost perpendicularly above
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  them. Yet nowhere was there the slightest indication that the cliffs were scalable.
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  Disheartened, Bradley determined to turn and back toward the fort, as he already
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  had exceeded the time decided upon by Bowen, Tyler and himself for the expedition.
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  The cliffs, for many miles had been trending in a northeasterly direction,
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  indicating to Bradley that they were approaching the northern extremity of the island. According
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  to the best of his calculations, they had made sufficient easting during the past
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  two days to have brought them to a point almost directly north of Fort Dinosaur,
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  and as nothing could be gained by retracing their steps along the base of
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  the cliffs. He decided to strike due south through the unexpored country between them
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  and the fort. That night, September ninth, nineteen sixteen, they made
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  camp a short distance from the cliffs, beside one of the numerous cool springs
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  that are to be found within cast Back, oftentimes close beside the still more
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  numerous warm and hot springs which feed the many pools. After supper, the
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  men lay smoking and chatting among themselves. Tippet was on guard. Fewer night
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  prowlers threatened them, and the men were commenting upon the fact that the farther
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  north they had traveled, the smaller the number of all species of animals became,
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  though it was still present in what would have seemed appalling plenitude in any
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  other part of the world. The diminution in reptilian life was the most noticeable
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  change in the fauna of northern cast Back. Here, however, were forms
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  they had not met elsewhere, several of which were of gigantic proportions according to
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  their custom, All, with the exception of the man on guard, sought
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  sleep early, nor once disposed upon the ground for slumber, were they long
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  in finding it. It seemed to Bradley that he had scarcely closed his eyes
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  when he was brought to his feet, wide awake by a piercing scream,
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  which was punctuated by the sharp report of a rifle from the direction of the
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  fire where tip But stood guard. As he ran toward the man, Bradley
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  heard above him the same uncanny wail that had set every nerve on edge several
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  nights before, and the dismal flapping of huge wings. He did not need
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  to look up at the white shrouded figure winging slowly away into the night to
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  know that their grim visitor had returned. The muscles of his arm, reacting
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  to the sight and sound of the menacing form, carried his hand to the
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  butt of his pistol. But after he had drawn the weapon, he immediately
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  returned it to its holster with a shrug. What for, he muttered,
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  cauntwaist ammunition. Then he walked quickly to where Tippet lay sprawled upon his face.
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  By this time, James Brady and Sinclair were at his heels, eat
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  with his rifle in readiness. Is he dead, sir? Whispered James.
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  As Bradley kneeled beside the prostrate form. Bradley turned Tippet over on his back
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  and pressed an ear close to the other's heart. In a moment, he
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  raised his head fainted. He announced, get water, hurry. Then he
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  loosened Tippet's shirt at the throat, and when the water was brought through a
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  cupful in the man's face. Slowly Tippet regained consciousness and sat up. At
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  first he looked curiously into the faces of the men about him. Then an
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  expression of terror overspread his features. He shot a startled glance up into the
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  black void above, and then, burying his face in his arms, began
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  to sob like a child. What's wrong, man demanded Bradley. Buck up,
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  cont play, cry baby, waste of energy? What oppened? What
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  happened? Sir, wailed Tibbett. Oh gird, sir, He came back.
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  It came for me, sir, right it did, sir, straight
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  hot me, sir, and with long white hands, and he clawed for
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  me. Oh gird, it almost caught me, sir. A'm as good
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  as dead. I'm a markman, That's what I am. It was a
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  golden for the Keremie wharf, sir. Stuff and nonsense, snapped Bradley.
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  Did you get a good look at it. Tippett said that he did a
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  much better look than he wanted. The thing had almost clutched him, and
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  he had looked straight into its eyes, dead eyes, in a dead defrice.
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  He had described them, what was it aft to be? And do
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  you think? Inquired Brady. It was death, moaned Tippet, shuddering,
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  and again a pall of gloom fell upon the little party. The following day,
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  Tippet walked as one in a trance. He never spoke except in reply
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  to a direct question, which more often than not had to be repeated before
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  it could attract his attention. He insisted that he was already a dead man,
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  for if the thing didn't come for him during the day, he would
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  never live through another night of agonized apprehension waiting for the frightful end that he
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  was positive was in store for him. Oiler see to that, he said,
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  and they all knew that Tippett meant to take his own life before darkness
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  set in. Bradley tried to reason with him in any short, crisp way,
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  but soon saw the futility of it. Nor could he take the man's
• 26:18
  weapons from him without subjecting him to almost certain death from any of the numberless
• 26:23
  dangers that beset their way. The entire party was moody and glum. There
• 26:29
  was none of the bantering that had marked their intercourse before, even in the
• 26:33
  face of blighting, hardships, and hideous danger. This was a new menace
• 26:37
  that threatened them, something that they couldn't explain, and so naturally it aroused
• 26:42
  within them superstitious fear, which Tippett's attitude only tended to augment. To add
• 26:48
  further to their gloom. Their way led through a dense forest, where,
• 26:52
  on account of the underbrush, it was difficult to make even a mile an
• 26:56
  hour. Constant watchfulness was reached required to avoid the many snakes of various degrees
• 27:03
  of repulsiveness and enormity that infested the wood, and the only ray of hope
• 27:07
  they had to cling to was that the forest wood, like the majority of
• 27:11
  Caspakian forests, proved to be of no considerable extent. Bradley was in the
• 27:18
  lead when he came suddenly upon a grotesque creature of titanic proportions crouching among the
• 27:25
  trees, which here commenced to thin out slightly. Bradley saw what appeared to
• 27:30
  be an enormous dragon devouring the carcass of a mammoth from frightful jaws to the
• 27:36
  tip of its long tail. It was fully forty feet in length. Its
• 27:41
  body was covered with plates of thick skin which bore a striking resemblance to armor
• 27:47
  plate. The creature saw Bradley almost at the same instant that he saw it,
• 27:52
  and reared up on its enormous hind legs until its head towered a full
• 27:56
  twenty five feet above the ground. From the cavernous jaws issued a hissing sound
• 28:03
  of a volume equal to the escaping steam from the safety valves of half a
• 28:07
  dozen locomotives, and then the creature came for the man. Scatter shouted Bradley
• 28:14
  to those behind him, and all but Tippet heeded the warning. The man
• 28:18
  stood as though dazed, and when Bradley saw the other's danger, he too
• 28:22
  stopped, and, wheeling about, sent a bullet into the massy body,
• 28:26
  forcing its way through the trees toward him. The shot struck the creature in
• 28:30
  the belly, where there was no protecting armor, eliciting a new note,
• 28:36
  which rose in a shrill whistle and ended in a wail. It was then
• 28:40
  that Tippett appeared to come out of his trance, for with a cry of
• 28:44
  terror, he turned and fled to the left. Bradley, seeing that he
• 28:48
  had as good an opportunity as the others to escape, now turned his attention
• 28:52
  to extricating himself, and as the woods seemed dense on the right, he
• 28:57
  ran in that direction, hoping that the close set bowls would prevent pursuit on
• 29:03
  the part of the great reptile. The dragon paid no further attention to him,
• 29:07
  however, for Tippet's sudden break for liberty had attracted its attention, and
• 29:12
  after Tippet, it went bowling over small trees, uprooting underbrush, and leaving
• 29:18
  a weight behind it like that of a small tornado. Bradley, the moment
• 29:23
  he had discovered the thing was pursuing Tippet, had followed it. He was
• 29:27
  afraid to fire for fear of hitting the man, and so it was that
• 29:32
  he came upon them at the very moment that the monster lunsed its great weight
• 29:36
  forward upon the doomed man. The sharp three toad talons of the forelimb seized
• 29:41
  poor Tippet, and Bradley saw the unfortunate fellow lifted high above the ground as
• 29:48
  the creature again reared up on its hind legs, immediately transferring Tippet's body to
• 29:52
  its gaping jaws, which closed with a sickening crunching sound. As Tippet's bone
• 30:00
  cracked beneath the great teeth. Bradley half raised his rifle to fire again,
• 30:06
  and then lowered it with a shake of his head. Tippet was beyond succor.
• 30:11
  Why waist a bullet that cast back could never replace. If he could
• 30:15
  now escape the further notice of the monster, it would be a wiser act
• 30:18
  than to throw his life away in futile revenge. He saw that the reptile
• 30:25
  was not looking in his direction, and so he slipped noiselessly behind the bowl
• 30:30
  of a large tree, and thence quietly faded away in the direction he believed
• 30:34
  the others to have taken. At what he considered a safe distance, he
• 30:38
  halted and looked back. Half hidden by the intervening trees, he still could
• 30:45
  see the huge head and the massive jaws from which protruded the limp legs of
• 30:49
  the dead man. Then, as though struck by the hammer of thor,
• 30:55
  the creature collapsed and crumpled to the ground. Bradley's single bullet, penetrating the
• 31:00
  body through the soft skin of the belly, had slain the titan. A
• 31:04
  few minutes later, Bradley found the others of the party. The four returned
• 31:10
  cautiously to the spot where the creature lay, and, after convincing themselves that
• 31:15
  it was quite dead, came close to it. It was an arduous and
• 31:18
  gruesome jaw, extricating Tippet's mangled remains from the powerful jaws the men working,
• 31:26
  for the most part silently. It was the work of a banshy. All
• 31:30
  right, muttered Brady, It warned poor Tippet. It did. It killed
• 31:36
  him, That's what it did, and it'll kill some more of us,
• 31:40
  said James, his lower lip trembling. If it was a ghost, interjected
• 31:44
  Sinclair. And I don't say as it was. But if it was,
• 31:48
  why it could take on any form it wanted to. It might have turned
• 31:52
  itself into this thing, which ain't no natural thing at all, just to
• 31:56
  get poor Tippet. If it had been a lion or something else human like,
• 32:00
  it wouldn't look so strange. But this here thing ain't human like.
• 32:05
  There ain't no such thing, and never was. Bullets don't kill ghosts,
• 32:09
  said Bradley, so this couldn't have been a ghost. Furthermore, there are
• 32:15
  no such things. I've been trying to place this creature just succeeded. It's
• 32:21
  a Tyrannosaurus. Saw a picture of skeleton in magazine. There's one in New
• 32:25
  York Natural History Museum. Seems to me it's said it was found in place
• 32:31
  called Hell Creek, somewhere in western North America, supposed to have lived about
• 32:37
  six million years ago. Hell Creek's in Montana, said Sinclair. I used
• 32:43
  to punch cows in Wyoming, and I've heard of Hell Creek. Do you
• 32:46
  suppose that there are things six million years old? His tone was skeptical.
• 32:52
  No, replied Bradley, but it would indicate that the island of Kokrona has
• 32:58
  stood almost without change for more than six million years. The conversation, in
• 33:05
  Bradley's assurance that the creature was not of supernatural origin, helped to raise a
• 33:09
  trifle the spirits of the men, and then came another diversion in the form
• 33:15
  of ravenous meat eaters, attracted to the spot by the uncanny sense of smell
• 33:20
  which had apprised them of the presence of flesh killed and ready for the eating.
• 33:25
  It was a constant battle while they dug a grave and consigned all that
• 33:30
  was mortal of John Tippett to his last lonely resting place. Nor would they
• 33:35
  leave then, but remain to fashion a rude headstone from a crumbling outcropping of
• 33:40
  sandstone, and to gather a mass of the gorgeous flowers growing in such a
• 33:45
  great profusion round them, and heap the new made grave with bright blooms upon
• 33:51
  the headstone. Sinclair scratched in rude characters, the words here lies John Tippett,
• 33:57
  Englishmen killed by Tyrannus Tsaurus ten September a d. Nineteen sixteen. R.
• 34:05
  I. P. And Bradley repeated a short prayer before they left their
• 34:09
  comrade forever. For three days the party marched due south through forests and meadowland
• 34:16
  and great park like areas. Were countless herbivorous animals grazed, deer and antelope,
• 34:23
  and bows, and the little ecca, the smallest species of Caspakian horse,
• 34:29
  about the size of a rabbit. There were other horses too, but
• 34:32
  all were small, the largest being not above eight hands in height, preying
• 34:37
  continually upon the herbivora were the meat eaters, large and small wolves, hyenodons,
• 34:44
  panthers, lions, tigers, and bear, as well as several large
• 34:49
  and ferocious species of reptilian life. On September twelfth, the party scale a
• 34:54
  line of sandstone cliffs which crossed their route towards the south, but they crossed
• 35:00
  them only after an encounter with the tribe that inhabited the numerous caves which pitted
• 35:06
  the face of the escarpment. That night, they camped upon a rocky plateau
• 35:10
  which was sparsely wooded with jarra, and here once again they were visited by
• 35:15
  the weird nocturnal apparition that had already filled them with a nameless terror. As
• 35:22
  on the night of September ninth, the first warning came from the sentinel standing
• 35:27
  guard over his sleeping companions. A terror stricken cry punctuated by the crack of
• 35:32
  a rifle brought Bradley, Sinclair and Brady to their feet in time to see
• 35:37
  James with clubbed rifle, battling with a white robed figure that hovered on widespread
• 35:43
  wings on a level with the Englishman's head. As they ran, shouting forward,
• 35:47
  it was obvious to them that the weird and terrible apparition was attempting to
• 35:52
  seize James, but when it saw the others coming to his rescue, it
• 35:57
  desisted, flapping rapidly upward and away, its long ragged wings, giving forth
• 36:01
  the peculiarly dismal notes which always characterized the sound of its flying. Bradley fired
• 36:08
  at the vanishing menacer of their peace and safety, but whether he scored ahead
• 36:13
  or not none could tell, though following the shot there was wafted back to
• 36:17
  them the same piercing wail that had on other occasions frozen their marrow. Then
• 36:23
  they turned toward James, who lay face downward upon the ground, trembling as
• 36:28
  with agu But for a time he could not even speak, but at last
• 36:32
  regained sufficient composure to tell them how the thing must have swooped silently upon him
• 36:37
  from above and behind, as the first premonition of danger he had received was
• 36:43
  when the long clawlike fingers had clutched him beneath either arm in the melee.
• 36:49
  His rifle had been discharged, and he had broken away at the same instant
• 36:53
  and turned to defend himself with the butt. The rest they had seen from
• 36:59
  that instant, James was an absolutely broken man. He maintained, with shaking
• 37:05
  lips that his doom was sealed, that the thing had marked him for its
• 37:08
  own, and that he was as good as dead. Nor could any amount
• 37:13
  of argument or raillery convince him to the contrary. He had seen Tippet marked
• 37:17
  and claimed, and now he had been marked. Nor were his constant reiterations
• 37:23
  of this belief without effect upon the rest of the party. Even Bradley felt
• 37:29
  depressed, though for the sake of the others he managed to hide it beneath
• 37:32
  a show of confidence. He was far from feeling, and on the following
• 37:37
  day William James was killed by a saber tooth tiger September thirteenth, nineteen sixteen,
• 37:45
  beneath a jar tree on the stony plateau, on the northern edge of
• 37:49
  the Stolough Country, in the land that time forgot. He lies in a
• 37:53
  lonely grave marked by a rough headstone. Southward from his grave three grim and
• 38:00
  silent men. To the best of Bradley's reckoning, they were some twenty five
• 38:06
  miles north of Fort Dinosaur, and that they might reach the fort on the
• 38:09
  following day. They plodded on until darkness overtook them. With comparative safety.
• 38:15
  Fifteen miles away, they made camp at last, but there was no singing
• 38:21
  now, and no joking. In the bottom of his heart, each prayed
• 38:24
  that they might come safely through just this night, for they knew that during
• 38:30
  the morrow they would make the final stretch. Yet the nerves of each were
• 38:34
  taut with strained anticipation of what gruesome thing might flap down upon them from the
• 38:39
  black sky. Marking another for its own, who would be the next?
• 38:45
  As was their custom, they took turns at guard, each man doing two
• 38:50
  hours and then rousing the next. Brady had gone on from eight to ten,
• 38:55
  followed by Sinclair from ten to twelve. Then Bradley had been awakened.
• 39:00
  Brady would stand the last guard from two to four, as they had determined
• 39:06
  to start the moment that it became light enough to insure comparative safety upon the
• 39:09
  trail. The snapping of a twig aroused Brady out of a dead sleep,
• 39:15
  and as he opened his eyes he saw that it was broad daylight, and
• 39:20
  that at twenty paces from him stood a huge lion. As the man sprang
• 39:24
  to his feet, his rifle ready in his hand, Sinclair awoke and took
• 39:30
  in the scene in a single swift glance, the fire was out and Bradley
• 39:34
  was nowhere in sight. For a long moment, the lion and the men
• 39:37
  eyed one another. The latter had no mind to fire if the beast minded
• 39:43
  its own affairs. They were only too glad to let it go its way
• 39:45
  if it would. But the lion was of a different mind. Suddenly,
• 39:51
  the long tail snapped, stiffly erect, and as though it had been attached
• 39:55
  to two trigger fingers, the two rifles spoke in unison. For both men
• 40:00
  knew this signal only too well, the immediate forerunner of a deadly charge.
• 40:05
  As the brute's head had been raised, his spine had not been visible,
• 40:08
  and so they did what they had learned by long experience was best to do.
• 40:14
  Each covered a front leg, and as the tail snapped, Aloft fired
• 40:17
  with a hideous roar. The mighty flesh eater lurched forward to the ground with
• 40:22
  both front legs broken. It was an easy accomplishment in the instant before the
• 40:27
  beast charged, after it would have been well nigh and impossible feet Brady stepped
• 40:32
  close in and finished him with a shot in the base of the brain.
• 40:37
  Lest his terrific roaring should attract his mate or others of their kind. Then
• 40:42
  the two men turned and looked at one another. Where is Lieutenant Bradley,
• 40:46
  asked Sinclair. They walked to the fire. Only a few smoking embers remained.
• 40:52
  A few feet away lay Bradley's rifle. There was no evidence of a
• 40:57
  struggle. The two men circled about the camp twise, and on the last
• 41:00
  lap, Brady stooped and picked up an object which had lain about ten yards
• 41:05
  beyond the fire. It was Bradley's cap. Again, the two looked questioningly
• 41:10
  at one another, and then simultaneously both pairs of eyes swung upward and searched
• 41:15
  the sky. A moment later, Brady was examining the ground about the spot
• 41:21
  where Bradley's cap had lain. It was one of those little barren sandy stretches
• 41:25
  that they had found only upon this stony plateau. Brady's own footsteps showed as
• 41:31
  plainly as black ink upon white paper, but his was the only foot that
• 41:37
  had marred the smooth, wind swept surface. There was no sign that Bradley
• 41:42
  had crossed the spot upon the surface of the ground, and yet his cap
• 41:45
  lay well toward the center of it. Breakfastless and with shaken nerves, the
• 41:52
  two survivors plunged madly into the long day's march. Both were strong, courageous,
• 41:58
  resourceful men, but each had reached the limit of human nerve endurance,
• 42:02
  and each felt that he would rather die than spend another night in the hideous
• 42:07
  open of that frightful land. Vivid in the mind of each was a picture
• 42:12
  of Bradley's end, For though neither had witnessed the tragedy, both could imagine
• 42:16
  almost precisely what had occurred. They did not discuss it, they did not
• 42:22
  even mention it. Yet all day long the thing was uppermost in the mind
• 42:25
  of each, and mingled with it a similar picture with himself as victims should
• 42:30
  they fail to make Fort Dinosaur before dark. And so they plunged forward at
• 42:37
  reckless speed, their clothes their hands, their faces torn by the retarding underbrush
• 42:43
  that reached forth to hinder them. Again and again they fell. But be
• 42:46
  it to their credit that the one always waited and helped the other, and
• 42:51
  that into the mind of neither entered the thought or the temptation to desert his
• 42:54
  companion. They would reach the fort together if both survived, or neither would
• 43:00
  reach it. They encountered the usual number of savage beasts and reptiles, but
• 43:06
  they met them with a courageous recklessness born of desperation, and by virtue of
• 43:10
  the very madness of the chances they took. They came through unscathed and with
• 43:15
  the minimum of delay. Shortly after noon they reached the end of the plateau.
• 43:21
  Before them was a drop of two hundred feet to the valley beneath to
• 43:24
  the left. In the distance they could see the waters of the Great Inland
• 43:29
  Sea that covers a considerable portion of the area of the crater island of Caprona,
• 43:34
  and at a little lesser distance to the south of the cliffs, they
• 43:37
  saw a thin spiral of smoke arising above the tree tops. The landscape was
• 43:43
  familiar. Each recognized it immediately and knew that that smoky column marked the spot
• 43:49
  where dinosaur had stood. Was the fort still there or did the smoke arise
• 43:53
  from the smoldering embers of the building They had helped a fashion for the housing
• 43:58
  of their party. Who could say thirty precious minutes that seemed as many hours
• 44:04
  to the impatient men were consumed in locating a precarious way from the summit to
• 44:08
  the base of the cliffs that bounded the plateau upon the south, and then
• 44:13
  once again they struck off upon level ground toward their goal. The closer they
• 44:17
  approached the fort, the greater became their apprehension that all would not be well.
• 44:22
  They pictured the barracks deserted, or the small company massacred, and the
• 44:25
  buildings in ashes. It was almost in a frenzy of fear that they broke
• 44:30
  through the final fringe of jungle and stood at last upon the verge of the
• 44:35
  open meadow a half mile from Fort Dinosaur. Lord ejaculated Sinclair, they are
• 44:42
  still there, and he fell to his knees sobbing. Brady trembled like a
• 44:46
  leaf as he crossed himself and gave silent thanks for There before them stood the
• 44:52
  sturdy ramparts of Dinosaur, and from inside the enclosure rose a thin spiral of
• 44:58
  smoke that marked the location of the cook house. All was well then,
• 45:02
  and their comrades were preparing the evening meal. Across the clearing they raced,
• 45:07
  as though they had not already covered in a single day, attractless primeval country
• 45:12
  that might easily have required two days. By fresh and untired men withinhaling distance.
• 45:17
  They set up such a loud shouting that presently had disappeared above the top
• 45:22
  of the parapet, and soon answering shouts were rising from within Fort Dinosaur.
• 45:28
  A moment later three men issued from the enclosure and came forward to meet the
• 45:32
  survivors and listened to the hurried story of the eleven eventful days since they had
• 45:38
  set out upon their expedition to the Barrier Cliffs. They heard of the deaths
• 45:43
  of Tippet and James, and of the disappearance of Lieutenant Bradley, and a
• 45:47
  new terror settled upon Dinosaur. Olson, the Irish engineer, with Whiteley and
• 45:53
  Wilson, constituted the remnants of Dinosaur's defenders, and to Brady and Sinclair they
• 46:00
  narrated the salient events that had transpired since Bradley and his party had marched away
• 46:05
  on September fourth. They told them of the infamous act of Baron Friedrich Bonschuenbortz
• 46:12
  and his German crew, who had stolen the U thirty three, breaking their
• 46:15
  parole and steaming away towards the subterranean opening through the Barrier Cliffs that carried the
• 46:21
  waters of the Inland Sea. Into the open Pacific beyond, and of the
• 46:25
  cowardly shelling of the fort. They told of the disappearance of Miss LaRue in
• 46:30
  the night of September eleventh, and of the departure of Bolan Tyler in search
• 46:36
  of her, accompanied only by his Airdale Knobs. Thus, of the original
• 46:40
  party of eleven Allies and nine Germans that had constituted the company of the U
• 46:45
  thirty three when she left English Waters after her capture by the crew of the
• 46:50
  English tug, there were but five now to be accounted for at Fort Dinosaur.
• 46:55
  Benson, Tippett, James, and one of the Germans were known to
• 46:59
  be dead. It was assumed that Bradley, Tyler and the girl had already
• 47:02
  succumbed some of the savage denizens of cast Back, while the fate of the
• 47:07
  Germans was equally unknown. Though it might readily be believed that they had made
• 47:12
  good their escape, they had had ample time to provision the ship, and
• 47:16
  the refining of the crude oil they had discovered north of the fort could have
• 47:21
  insured them an ample supply to carry them back to Germany. End of Chapter
• 47:25
  one, Chapter two, when Bradley went on guard at midnight, September fourteenth.
• 47:32
  His thoughts were largely occupied with rejoicing that the night was almost spent without
• 47:37
  serious mishap, and that the Morl would doubtless see them all safely returned to
• 47:43
  Fort Dinosaur. The hopefulness of his mood was tinged with sorrow by recollection of
• 47:50
  the two members of his party who lay back there in the savage wilderness,
• 47:53
  and for whom there would never again be a home coming. No premonition of
• 47:58
  impending ill gloom over his anticipations for the coming day. For Bradley was a
• 48:04
  man who, while taking every precaution against possible danger, permitted no gloomy forebodings
• 48:09
  to weigh down his spirit. When danger threatened, he was prepared, but
• 48:15
  he was not forever courting disaster. And so it was that, when about
• 48:19
  one o'clock in the morning of the fifteenth he heard the dismal flapping of giant
• 48:22
  wings overhead, he was neither surprised nor frightened, but idly prepared for an
• 48:28
  attack he had known might reasonably be expected. The sound seemed to come from
• 48:32
  the south, and presently low above the trees in that direction. The man
• 48:37
  made out a dim, shadowy form circling slowly about. Bradley was a brave
• 48:44
  man, yet so keen was the feeling of revulsion engendered by the sight and
• 48:49
  sound of that grim, uncanny shape, that he distinctly felt the goose flesh
• 48:53
  rise over the surface of his body. And it was with difficulty that he
• 48:58
  refrained from following and instinctive urge to fire upon the nocturnal intruder. Better,
• 49:04
  far better, would it have been had he given in to the insistent demand
• 49:07
  of his sub conscious mentor But his almost fanatical obsession to save ammunition proved now
• 49:15
  his undoing. For while his attention was riveted upon the thing circling before him,
• 49:21
  and while his ears were filled with the beating of its wings, there
• 49:23
  swooped silently out of the black night behind him, another weird and ghostly shape,
• 49:30
  with its huge wings partly closed for the dive, and its white robe
• 49:34
  fluttering in its wake. The apparition swooped down upon the Englishman. So great
• 49:39
  was the force of the impact when the thing struck badly between the shoulders that
• 49:44
  the man was half stunned. His rifle flew from his grasp. He felt
• 49:49
  claw like talons of great strength seize him beneath his arms and sweep him off
• 49:53
  his feet. And then the thing rose swiftly with him, so swiftly that
• 49:58
  his cap was blown from his had by the rush of air as he was
• 50:00
  borne rapidly upward into the inky sky, and the cry of warning to his
• 50:06
  companions was forced back into his lungs. The creature wheeled immediately toward the east,
• 50:13
  and was at once joined by its fellow, who circled them once and
• 50:16
  then fell in behind them. Bradley now realized the strategy that the pair had
• 50:22
  used to capture him, and at once concluded that he was in the power
• 50:25
  of reasoning beings closely related to the human race, if not actually of it.
• 50:31
  Past experience suggested that the great wings were a part of some ingenious mechanical
• 50:37
  device for the limitations of the human mind, which is always low to accept
• 50:42
  pot beyond its own. Little experience would not permit him to entertain the idea
• 50:46
  that the creatures might be naturally winged and at the same time of human origin.
• 50:52
  From his position, Bradley could not see the wings of his captor,
• 50:57
  nor in the darkness, had he been able to examine those of the second
• 51:00
  creature closely. When it circled before him. He listened for the puff of
• 51:04
  a motor or some other tail tale sound that would prove the correctness of his
• 51:08
  theory. However, he was rewarded with nothing more than the constant flap flap.
• 51:15
  Presently far below and ahead he saw the waters of the Inland Sea,
• 51:21
  and a moment later he was borne over them. Then his captor did that
• 51:24
  which proved beyond doubt to Bradley that he was in the hands of human beings
• 51:29
  who had devised an almost perfect scheme of duplicating mechanically the wings of a bird.
• 51:36
  The thing spoke to its companion, and in a language that Bradley partially
• 51:39
  understood, since he recognized words that he had learned from the savage races of
• 51:45
  cash Pack. From this he judged that they were human, And being human,
• 51:50
  he knew that they could have no natural wings, for who had ever
• 51:52
  seen a human being so adored? Therefore, their wings must be mechanical.
• 51:59
  Thus, Bradley reasoned, thus, most of us reason not by what might
• 52:02
  be possible, but by what has fallen within the range of our experience.
• 52:08
  What he heard them say was to the effect that having covered half the distance,
• 52:13
  the burden would now be transferred from one to the other. Bradley wondered
• 52:17
  how the exchange was to be accomplished. He knew that those giant wings would
• 52:22
  not permit the creatures to approach one another closely enough to effect the transfer in
• 52:27
  this manner, but he was soon to discover that they had other means of
• 52:30
  doing it. He felt the thing that carried him rise to a great altitude,
• 52:36
  and below he glimpsed momentarily the second white robed figure. Then the creature
• 52:42
  above sounded a low call. It was answered from below, and instantly Bradley
• 52:46
  felt the clutching talons release him. Gasping for breath, he hurdled downward through
• 52:52
  space for a terrifying instant. Pregnant with horror, Bradley fell. Then something
• 52:59
  swooped for him from behind. Another pair of talons clutched him beneath the arms.
• 53:04
  His downward rush was checked. Within another hundred feet and close to the
• 53:08
  surface of the sea, he was again borne upward. As a hawk dives
• 53:14
  for a song bird on the wing, so this great human bird dived for
• 53:17
  Bradley. It was a harrowing experience, but soon over and once again the
• 53:23
  captive was being carried swiftly toward the east, and what fate he could not
• 53:28
  even guess. It was immediately following his transfer in mid air that Bradley made
• 53:34
  out the shadowy form of a large island far ahead, and not long after
• 53:39
  he realized that this must be the intended destination of his captors, Nor was
• 53:45
  he mistaken. Three quarters of an hour from the time of his seizure,
• 53:49
  his captors dropped gently to earth in the strangest city that human eye had ever
• 53:53
  rested upon. Just a brief glimpse of his immediate surroundings bouchsafed Bradley before he
• 54:00
  was whisked into the interior of one of the buildings, But in that momentary
• 54:04
  glance he saw strange piles of stone and wood and mud fashioned into buildings of
• 54:09
  all conceivable sizes and shapes, sometimes piled high on top of one another,
• 54:15
  sometimes standing alone in an open courtway, but usually crowded and jammed together,
• 54:22
  so that there were no streets or alleys between them, other than a few
• 54:24
  which ended almost as soon as they began. The principal doorways appeared to be
• 54:30
  in the roofs, and it was through one of these that Bradley was inducted
• 54:34
  into the dark interior of a low sealed roof. Here he was pushed roughly
• 54:38
  into a corner, where he tripped over a thick mat, and there his
• 54:43
  captors left him. He heard them moving about in the darkness for a moment,
• 54:47
  and several times he saw their large, luminous eyes glowing in the dark.
• 54:52
  Finally these disappeared, and silence reigned, broken only by the breathing of
• 54:57
  the creature, which indicated to the England that they were sleeping somewhere in the
• 55:01
  same apartment. It was now evident that the mat upon the floor was intended
• 55:07
  for sleeping purposes, and that the rough shove that had sent him to it
• 55:12
  had been a rude invitation to repose. After taking stock of himself and finding
• 55:17
  that he still had his pistol and ammunition, some matches, a little tobacco,
• 55:22
  a canteen full of water, and a razor, Bradley made himself comfortable
• 55:28
  upon the mat, and was soon asleep, knowing that an attempt to escape
• 55:31
  in the darkness without knowledge of his surroundings would be predoomed to failure. When
• 55:37
  he awoke, it was broad daylight, and the sight that met his eyes
• 55:42
  made him rub them again and again to assure himself that they were really open
• 55:46
  and that he was not dreaming. A broad shaft of morning light poured through
• 55:51
  the open doorway in the ceiling of the room, which was about thirty feet
• 55:54
  square or roughly square, being irregular in shape, one side curving outward,
• 56:00
  another being indented by what might have been the corner of another building, jotting
• 56:06
  into it another alcove by three sides of an octagon, while the fourth was
• 56:10
  serpentine in contour. Two windows let in more daylight, while two doors evidently
• 56:16
  gave ingress to other rooms. The walls were partially sealed with thin strips of
• 56:22
  wood, nicely fitted and finished, partially plastered, and the rest covered with
• 56:28
  a fine woven cloth. Figures of beasts and reptiles were painted without regard to
• 56:32
  any uniform scheme here and there upon the walls. A striking feature of the
• 56:37
  decorations consisted of several engaged columns set into the walls at no regular intervals,
• 56:45
  the capitals of each supporting a human skull, the cranium of which touched the
• 56:50
  ceiling, as though the latter was supported by These grim reminders either of departed
• 56:54
  relatives or of some hideous tribal right, Bradley could not but wondered which.
• 57:00
  Yet it was none of these things that filled him with greatest wonder No,
• 57:05
  it was the figures of the two creatures that had captured him and brought him
• 57:08
  hither. At one end of the room, a stout pole about two inches
• 57:13
  in diameter, ran horizontally from wall to wall, some six or seven feet
• 57:17
  from the floor, its ends securely set in two of the columns. Hanging
• 57:22
  by their knees from this perch, their heads downward and their bodies wrapped in
• 57:28
  their huge wings, slept the creatures of the night before, like two great
• 57:32
  horrid bats. They hung asleep. As Bradley gazed upon them in wide eyed
• 57:37
  astonishment, he saw plainly that all his intelligence, all his acquired knowledge through
• 57:43
  the years of observation and experience, were set at naught by the simple evidence
• 57:49
  of the fact that stood out glaringly before his eyes. The creature's wings were
• 57:53
  not mechanical devices, but as natural appendages, growing from their shoulder blades,
• 58:00
  as were their arms and legs. He saw too, that except for their
• 58:04
  wings, the pair bore a strong resemblance to human beings, though fashioned in
• 58:08
  a most grotesque mold. As he sat gazing at them. One of the
• 58:14
  two awoke, separated his wings to release his arms that had been folded across
• 58:19
  his breast, placed his hands upon the floor, dropped his feet, and
• 58:22
  stood erect for a moment. He stretched his great wings slowly, solemnly,
• 58:28
  blinking his large round eyes. Then his gaze fell upon Bradley. The thin
• 58:34
  lips drew back tightly against yellow teeth in a grimace that was nothing but hideous.
• 58:39
  It could not have been termed a smile. And what emotion it registered
• 58:44
  the Englishman was a lost to gas. No expression whatever altered the steady gaze
• 58:49
  of those large round eyes. There was no color upon the pasty, sunken
• 58:53
  cheeks. A death's head grimaced, as though a man long dead raised his
• 58:59
  parchment covered skull from an old grave. The creature stood about the height of
• 59:04
  an average man, but appeared much taller from the fact that the joints of
• 59:07
  his long wings rose fully a foot above his hairless head. The bare arms
• 59:14
  were long and sinewy, ending in strong bony hands with claw like fingers,
• 59:19
  almost talon like in their suggestiveness. The white robe was separated in front,
• 59:24
  revealing skinny legs, and the further fact that the thing wore but the single
• 59:29
  garment, which was of fine woven cloth from crown to soul. The portions
• 59:34
  of the body exposed were entirely hairless, and as he noted this, Bradley
• 59:38
  also noted for the first time the cause of much of the seeming expressionlessness of
• 59:44
  the creature's countenance. It had neither eyebrows or lashes. The ears were small
• 59:51
  and rested flat against the skull, which was noticeably round, though the face
• 59:55
  was quite flat. The creature had small feet, beautifully arched and plump,
• 1:00:00
  but so out of keeping with every other physical attribute it possessed as to appear
• 1:00:05
  ridiculous. After eyeing Bradley for a moment, the thing approached him. Where
• 1:00:10
  are from it asked England, replied Bradley, as briefly, where is England?
• 1:00:16
  And what? Pursued the Questioner? It is a country far from here,
• 1:00:21
  answered the Englishman. Are your people corsvajo or Cossantloo? I do not
• 1:00:27
  understand you, said Bradley, And now suppose you answer a few questions.
• 1:00:31
  Who are you? What country is this? Why did you bring me here?
• 1:00:36
  Again? The Separacharl Grimace, We are weerus Louata is our father,
• 1:00:42
  pass back is ours. This our country is called uh oh. We brought
• 1:00:46
  you here for him who speaks for Luata to gaze upon and question. He
• 1:00:52
  would know from whence you came and why. But principally, if you be
• 1:00:55
  cossantlou and if I am not caused whatever you call the bloomin beast, what
• 1:01:01
  of it? The Wiiru raised his wings in a very human shrug and waved
• 1:01:06
  his bony claws towards the human skulls supporting the ceiling. His gesture was eloquent,
• 1:01:12
  but he embellished it by remarking, and possibly, if you are,
• 1:01:15
  I'm hungry, snapped Bradley. The Wiirrou motioned him to one of the doors,
• 1:01:20
  which he threw open, permitting Bradley to pass out on to another roof
• 1:01:24
  on a level lower than that upon which they had landed early in the morning.
• 1:01:29
  By daylight, the city appeared even more remarkable than in the moonlight,
• 1:01:32
  though less weird and unreal. The houses of all shapes and sizes were piled
• 1:01:37
  about as a child might pile blocks of various forms and collars. He saw
• 1:01:43
  now that there were what might be called streets or alleys, but they ran
• 1:01:46
  in baffling turns and twists, nor ever reached a destination, always ending in
• 1:01:52
  a dead wall, where some wiru had built a house across them. Upon
• 1:01:57
  each house was a slender column supporting a human's skull. Sometimes the columns were
• 1:02:01
  at one corner of the roof, sometimes at another, or again they rose
• 1:02:07
  from the center or near the center, and the columns were of barying heights,
• 1:02:10
  from that of a man to those which rose twenty feet above their roofs.
• 1:02:15
  The skulls were, as a rule, painted blue or white, or
• 1:02:19
  in combinations of both colors. The most effective were painted blue, with the
• 1:02:22
  teeth white, and the eye sockets rimmed with white. There were other skulls,
• 1:02:28
  thousands of them, tens, hundreds of thousands. They rimmed the eaves
• 1:02:32
  of every house. They were set in the plaster of the outer walls,
• 1:02:37
  and at no great distance from where Bradley stood rose a round tower built entirely
• 1:02:40
  of human skulls, And the city extended in every direction as far as the
• 1:02:45
  Englishman could see. All about him, weirus were moving across the roofs or
• 1:02:51
  winging through the air. The sad sound of their flapping wings rose and fell
• 1:02:55
  like a solemn dirge. Most of them were appareled all in white, like
• 1:03:00
  his captors, but others had markings of red or blue or yellow slashed across
• 1:03:06
  the front of their robes. His guide pointed toward a doorway in an alley
• 1:03:10
  below them. Go there and eat, he commanded, and then come back.
• 1:03:15
  You cannot escape. If any question you say that you belonged to foche
• 1:03:21
  Balsage, there is the way. And this time he pointed to the top
• 1:03:24
  of a ladder which protruded above the eaves of the roof near by. Then
• 1:03:30
  he turned and re entered the house. Bradley looked about him. No,
• 1:03:34
  he could not escape, that seemed evident. The city appeared interminable, and
• 1:03:38
  beyond the city, if not a savage wilderness filled with wild beasts, there
• 1:03:44
  was the broad inland Sea, infested with horrid monsters. No wonder his captor
• 1:03:49
  felt safe in turning him loose in ooh oh. He wondered if that was
• 1:03:52
  the name of the country or the city, and if there were other cities
• 1:03:57
  like this upon the island. Slowly he descended the ladder to the seemingly deserted
• 1:04:01
  alley, which was paved with what appeared to be large round cobblestones. He
• 1:04:06
  looked again at the smooth worn pavement, and a rueful grin crossed his features.
• 1:04:12
  The alley was paved with skulls. The city of human skulls, mused
• 1:04:17
  Bradley. They must have been collecting them since Adam, he thought. And
• 1:04:21
  then he crossed and entered the building through the doorway that had been pointed out
• 1:04:26
  to him. Inside he found a large room in which were many weirus seated
• 1:04:30
  before pedestals, the tops of which were hollowed out so that they resembled the
• 1:04:35
  ordinary bird drinking and bathing fonts so commonly seen on suburban lawns. A seat
• 1:04:42
  protruded from each of the four sides of the pedestals, just a flat board
• 1:04:46
  with a support running from its outer end diagonally to the base of the pedestal.
• 1:04:51
  As Bradley entered, some of the weirrous espied him, and a dismal
• 1:04:56
  wail arose. Whether it was a greeting or a threat, Bradley he did
• 1:05:00
  not know. Suddenly, from a dark alcove, another waaroo rushed out toward
• 1:05:03
  him. Who are you, he cried? What do you want? Fosh
• 1:05:09
  Balsage sent me here to eat, replied Bradley. Do you belong to fashe
• 1:05:14
  Balsag asked the other? That appears to be what he thinks, answered the
• 1:05:17
  Englishman. Are you cause ataloo? Demanded the Weirrou. Give me something to
• 1:05:23
  eat, or I'll be all of that, replied Bradley. The Wirrou looked
• 1:05:27
  puzzled. Sit here, Jaulu, he snapped, and Bradley sat down,
• 1:05:31
  unconscious of the fact that he had been insulted by being called a hyena man,
• 1:05:35
  an appellation of contempt in Caspack. The wiiru had seated him at a
• 1:05:41
  pedestal by himself, and as he sat waiting for what was next to transpire,
• 1:05:46
  he looked about him at the wiru in his immediate vicinity. He saw
• 1:05:50
  that in each font was a quantity of food, and that each wiru was
• 1:05:55
  armed with a wooden skewer sharpened at one end, with which they carried said
• 1:06:00
  portions of food to their mouths. At the other end of the skewer was
• 1:06:03
  fastened a small clam shell. This was used to scoop up the smaller and
• 1:06:09
  softer portions of the repast, into which all four of the occupants of each
• 1:06:13
  table dipped impartially. The wearoo leaned far over their food scooping it up rapidly
• 1:06:18
  and with much noise, And so great was their haste that a part of
• 1:06:23
  each mouthful always fell back into the common dish. And when they choked,
• 1:06:28
  by reason of the rapidity with which they attempted to bolt their food, they
• 1:06:31
  often lost it all. Bradley was glad that he had a pedestal all to
• 1:06:36
  himself. Soon the keeper of the place returned with a wooden bowl filled with
• 1:06:42
  food. This he dumped into Bradley's trough as he already thought of it.
• 1:06:46
  The Englishman was glad that he could not see into the dark alcove or know
• 1:06:50
  what were all the ingredients that constituted the mess before him, for he was
• 1:06:56
  very hungry after the first mouthful. He cared even less to investigate the antecedents
• 1:07:00
  of the dish, for he found it peculiarly palatable. It seemed to consist
• 1:07:05
  of a combination of meat, fruits, vegetables, small fish, and other
• 1:07:11
  undistinguishable articles of food, all seasoned to produce a gastronomic effect that was at
• 1:07:15
  once baffling and delicious. When he had finished, his trough was empty,
• 1:07:21
  and then he commenced to wonder who was to settle for his meal. As
• 1:07:26
  he waited for the proprietor to return, he fell to examining the dish from
• 1:07:30
  which he had eaten and the pedestal upon which it rested. The font was
• 1:07:34
  of stone, worn smooth by long continued use, the four outer edges hollowed
• 1:07:40
  and polished by the contact of the countless warroo bodies that had leaned against them
• 1:07:45
  for how long a period of time Bradley could not even guess. Everything about
• 1:07:49
  the place carried the impression of hoary age. The carved pedestals were black with
• 1:07:55
  use, The wooden seats were worn hollow. The floor of stone slabs was
• 1:07:59
  polys by the contact of possibly millions of naked feet, and worn away in
• 1:08:03
  the aisles between the pedestals, so that the latter rested upon little mounds of
• 1:08:09
  stone several inches above the general level of the floor. Finally, seeing that
• 1:08:15
  no one came to collect, Bradley arose and started for the doorway. He
• 1:08:19
  had covered half the distance when he heard the voice of mine host calling to
• 1:08:23
  him come back. Jay e Lu screamed the Weiru and Bradley did as he
• 1:08:28
  was bid. As he approached the creature, which stood now behind a large,
• 1:08:31
  flat topped pedestal beside the alcohol, he saw lying upon the smooth surface
• 1:08:36
  something that almost elicited a gasp of astonishment from him. A simple common thing
• 1:08:43
  it was, or would have been, almost anywhere in the world. But
• 1:08:45
  cast back a square bit of paper, and on it, in a fine
• 1:08:50
  hand written compactly were many strange hieroglyphics. These remarkable creatures then had a written
• 1:08:58
  as well as a spoken langug which, and besides the art of weaving cloth,
• 1:09:02
  possessed that of paper making. Could it be that such grotesque beings represented
• 1:09:08
  the high culture of the human race within the boundaries of Caspack. Had natural
• 1:09:13
  selection produced during the countless ages of Caspackian life a winged monstrosity that represented the
• 1:09:20
  earthly pinnacle of man's evolution. Bradley had noted something of the obvious indications of
• 1:09:28
  a gradual evolution from ape to spear man, as exemplified by the several overlapping
• 1:09:32
  races of Alalus club men and hatchetmen that formed the connecting links between the two
• 1:09:40
  extremes with which he had come in contact. He had heard of the Crowlews
• 1:09:45
  and the Gallows, reputed to be still higher in the plane of evolution,
• 1:09:49
  and now he had indisputable evidence of a race possessing refinements of civilization eons in
• 1:09:56
  advance of the spearman. The conjectures of awakened by even a momentary consideration of
• 1:10:01
  the possibilities involved, became at once as wildly bizarre as the insane imagings of
• 1:10:09
  a drug addict. As these thoughts flashed through his mind, the Wiiru held
• 1:10:14
  out a pen of bone fixed to a wooden holder. At the same time
• 1:10:17
  made a sign that Bradley was to write upon the paper. It was difficult
• 1:10:23
  to judge from the expressionless features of the Weiru what was passing in the creature's
• 1:10:28
  mind, but Bradley could not but feel that the thing cast a supercilious glance
• 1:10:32
  upon him, as much as to say, of course, you do not
• 1:10:36
  know how to write, you poor little creature, but you can make your
• 1:10:41
  mark. Bradley seized the pen and in a clear, bold hand, wrote
• 1:10:46
  John Bradley, England. The weirrou showed evidences of consternation as it seized the
• 1:10:53
  piece of paper and examined the writing with every mark of incredulity and surprise.
• 1:10:59
  Of course, could make nothing of the strange characters, but it evidently accepted
• 1:11:03
  them as proof that Bradley possessed knowledge of a written language of his own.
• 1:11:09
  For following the englishman's entry, it made a few characters of its own.
• 1:11:14
  You will come here again just before lua hides his face behind the great cliff,
• 1:11:18
  announced the creature, unless before that you are summoned by him who speaks
• 1:11:24
  for Luata, in which case you will not have to eat any more.
• 1:11:29
  Reassuring cus thought Bradley as he turned and left the building. Outside were several
• 1:11:34
  wiirus that had been eating at the pedestals within. They immediately surrounded him,
• 1:11:41
  asking all sorts of questions, plucking at his garments, his ammunition belt,
• 1:11:45
  and his pistol. Their demeanor was entirely different from what it had been within
• 1:11:49
  the eating place, and Bradley was to learn that a house of food was
• 1:11:55
  sanctuary for him, since the stern laws of the wirus forbade altercation within such
• 1:12:00
  walls. Now they were rough and threatening, as with wings half spread,
• 1:12:05
  they hovered about him in menacing attitudes, barring his way to the ladder leading
• 1:12:10
  to the roof. From whence he had descended. But the Englishman was not
• 1:12:14
  one to brook interference for long. He attempted at first to push his way
• 1:12:18
  past them, and then, when one seized his arm and jerked him roughly
• 1:12:23
  back, Bradley swung upon the creature, and, with a heavy bloat at
• 1:12:27
  the jaw, felled it instantly. Pandemonium rained, loud wails arose, great
• 1:12:32
  wings opened and clothed with a loud beating noise, and many claw like hands
• 1:12:38
  reached forth to clutch him. Bradley struck to right and left. He dared
• 1:12:43
  not use his pistol for fear that once they discovered its power, he would
• 1:12:46
  be overcome by weight of numbers and relieved of possession of what he considered his
• 1:12:50
  trump card, to be reserved until the last moment, that it might be
• 1:12:55
  used to aid in his escape, for already the Englishman was planning, though
• 1:13:00
  almost hopelessly, such an attempt. A few blows convinced Bradley that the Weirus
• 1:13:05
  were errant cowards, and that they bore no weapons. For after two or
• 1:13:11
  three had fallen beneath his fists, the others formed a circle about him,
• 1:13:15
  but at a safe distance, and contented themselves with threatening and blustering, while
• 1:13:20
  those whom he had felled lay upon the pavement without trying to arise, the
• 1:13:26
  while they moaned and wailed in lugubrious chorus. Again, Bradley strode toward the
• 1:13:31
  latter, and this time the circle parted before him. But no sooner had
• 1:13:35
  he ascended a few rungs than he was seized by one foot, and an
• 1:13:40
  effort made to drag him down with a quick backward glance. The Englishman,
• 1:13:45
  clinging firmly to the latter with both hands, drew up his free foot and
• 1:13:49
  with all the strength of a powerful leg, planted a heavy shoe squarely in
• 1:13:54
  the flat face of the whiru that held him. Shrieking horribly, the creature
• 1:13:59
  clapped both hands to its face and sank to the ground, while Bradley clamored
• 1:14:02
  quickly the remaining distance to the roof, though no sooner did he reach the
• 1:14:08
  top of the ladder than a great flapping of wings beneath him warned him that
• 1:14:12
  the weirus were rising after him. A moment later they swarmed about his head
• 1:14:17
  as he ran for the apartment in which he had spent the early hours of
• 1:14:20
  the morning after his arrival. It was but a short distance from the top
• 1:14:26
  of the ladder to the doorway, and Bradley had almost reached his goal when
• 1:14:30
  the door flew open and foss Balsage stepped out. Immediately, the pursuing weirus
• 1:14:35
  demanded punishment of the Jelup who had so grievously maltreated them. Boss Balsage listened
• 1:14:43
  to their complaints, and then, with a sudden sweep of his right hand,
• 1:14:46
  seized Bradley by the scruff of the neck and hurled him sprawling through the
• 1:14:50
  doorway upon the floor of the chamber. So sudden was the assault, and
• 1:14:56
  so surprising the strength of the Wiru, that the English and was taken completely
• 1:15:00
  off his guard. When he arose, the door was closed and fosh Balsage
• 1:15:05
  was standing over him. His hideous face contorted into an expression of rage and
• 1:15:10
  hatred. Hyena snake lizard, he screamed, you would dare lay your low,
• 1:15:16
  vile, profaning hands upon even the lowliest of the weirus, the sacred
• 1:15:21
  chosen of Luata. Bradley was mad, and so he spoke in a very
• 1:15:27
  low, calm voice, while a half smile played across his lips, but
• 1:15:31
  his cold gray eyes were unsmiling. What you did to me just now?
• 1:15:36
  He said, I am going to kill you for that, and even as
• 1:15:40
  he spoke, he launched himself at the throat of fosh Balsage. The other
• 1:15:45
  Whiru that had been asleep when Bradley left the chamber had departed, and the
• 1:15:48
  two were alone. Fosh Balsage displayed little of the cowardice of those that had
• 1:15:55
  attacked Bradley in the alleyway, but that may have been because he had so
• 1:15:59
  slight uportunity, for Bradley had him by the throat before he could utter a
• 1:16:02
  cry, and with his right hand struck him heavily and repeatedly upon his face
• 1:16:09
  and over his heart, ugly smashing, short arm jabs of the sort that
• 1:16:13
  take the fight out of a man in quick time. But fosh Balsage was
• 1:16:17
  of no mind to die passively. He clawed and struck it Bradley, while
• 1:16:21
  with his great wings he attempted to shield himself from the merciless rain of blows,
• 1:16:28
  at the same time searching for a hold upon his antagonist's throat. Presently,
• 1:16:32
  he succeeded in tripping the Englishman, and together the two fell heavily to
• 1:16:38
  the floor. Bradley underneath, and at the same instant the whirrou fastened his
• 1:16:42
  long talons about the other's windpipe. Fosh Balsage was possessed of enormous strength,
• 1:16:48
  and he was fighting for his life. The Englishman soon realized that the battle
• 1:16:54
  was going against him. Already, his lungs were pounding painfully for air.
• 1:16:58
  As he reached for his pistol. It was with difficulty that he drew it
• 1:17:01
  from its holster, and even then, with death staring him in the face,
• 1:17:06
  he thought of his precious ammunition. Cont waste it, he thought,
• 1:17:11
  and slipping his fingers to the barrel, he raised the weapon and struck fosh
• 1:17:15
  Balsage a terrific blow between the eyes. Instantly, the claw like fingers released
• 1:17:20
  their hold, and the creature sank limply to the floor beside Bradley, who
• 1:17:26
  lay for several minutes, gasping painfully in an effort to regain his breath.
• 1:17:30
  When he was able, he rose and leaned close over the weiru, lying
• 1:17:34
  silent and motionless, his wings dropping limply, and his great round eyes staring
• 1:17:41
  blankly toward the ceiling. A brief examination convinced Bradley that the thing was dead.
• 1:17:46
  And with the conviction came an overwhelming sense of the dangers which must now
• 1:17:51
  confront him. But how was he to escape? His first thought was to
• 1:17:56
  find some means for concealing the evidence of his deed, and then to make
• 1:18:00
  a bold effort to escape. Stepping to the second door, he pushed it
• 1:18:05
  gently open and peered in upon what seemed to be its store room. In
• 1:18:10
  it was a litter of cloth, such as the Wirrou's robes were fashioned from
• 1:18:15
  a number of chests painted blue and white, with white hybridglyphics painted in bold
• 1:18:19
  strokes upon the blue, and blue hieroglyphics upon the white. In one corner
• 1:18:26
  was a pile of human skulls reaching almost to the ceiling, and in another
• 1:18:30
  a stack of dried wiru wings. The chamber was as irregularly shaped as the
• 1:18:35
  other, and had but a single window and a second door at the further
• 1:18:41
  end, but was without the exit through the roof, and most important of
• 1:18:45
  all, there was no creature of any sort in it. As quickly as
• 1:18:49
  possible, Bradley dragged the dead Wairu through the doorway and closed the door.
• 1:18:55
  Then he looked about for a place to conceal the corpse. One of the
• 1:18:59
  chests was large enough to hold the body if the knees were bent well up,
• 1:19:03
  and with this idea in view, Bradley approached the chest to open it.
• 1:19:08
  The lid was made in two pieces, each being hinged at an opposite
• 1:19:12
  end of the chest and joining nicely where they met in the center of the
• 1:19:15
  chest, making a snug, well fitting joint. There was no lock.
• 1:19:20
  Bradley raised one half the cover and looked in with a smothered by jove.
• 1:19:27
  He bent closer to examine the contents. The chest was about half filled with
• 1:19:31
  an assortment of golden trinkets. There were what appeared to be bracelets, anklets,
• 1:19:36
  and brooches of virgin gold. Realizing that there was no room in the
• 1:19:42
  chest for the body of the Whiru, Bradley turned to seek another means of
• 1:19:45
  concealing the evidence of his crime. There was a space between the chests and
• 1:19:50
  the wall, and into this he forced the corpse, piling the discarded robes
• 1:19:56
  upon it until it was entirely hidden from sight. But now how was he
• 1:20:00
  to make good his escape? In the bright glare of that early spring day,
• 1:20:05
  he walked to the door at the far end of the apartment and cautiously
• 1:20:10
  opened it. An inch before him, and about two feet away was the
• 1:20:14
  blank wall of another building. Bradley opened the door a little farther and looked
• 1:20:18
  in both directions. There was no one in sight. To the left over
• 1:20:23
  a considerable expanse of roof top, and to the right another building shut off
• 1:20:28
  his line of vision at about twenty feet. Slipping out, he turned to
• 1:20:31
  the right and in a few steps found a narrow passageway between two buildings.
• 1:20:38
  Turning into this, he passed about half its length when he saw a whirroo
• 1:20:42
  appear at the opposite end and halt. The creature was not looking down the
• 1:20:45
  passageway, but at any moment it might turn its eyes toward him, when
• 1:20:50
  he would be immediately discovered. To Bradley's left was a triangular niche in the
• 1:20:56
  wall of one of the houses, and into this he docked, thus concealing
• 1:21:00
  himself from the sight of the whiru. Beside him was a door painted a
• 1:21:04
  vivid yellow and constructed after the same fashion as the other whiru doors he had
• 1:21:11
  seen, being made up of countless narrow strips of wood from four to six
• 1:21:15
  inches in length, laid on in patches of about the same width, the
• 1:21:19
  strips in adjacent patches never running in the same direction. The result bore some
• 1:21:26
  resemblance to a crazy patchwork quilt, which was heightened when, as in one
• 1:21:30
  of the doors he had seen, contiguous patches were painted different colors. The
• 1:21:35
  strips appeared to have been bound together and to the underlying framework of the door
• 1:21:41
  with gut or fiber, and also glued, after which a thick coating of
• 1:21:45
  paint had been applied. One edge of the door was formed of a straight,
• 1:21:49
  round pole about two inches in diameter that protruded at top and bottom the
• 1:21:56
  projections, setting in round holes in both lintel and sill, forming the axis
• 1:22:01
  upon which the door swung. An eccentric disk upon the inside face of the
• 1:22:06
  door engaged a slot in the frame when it was desired to secure the door
• 1:22:12
  against intruders. As Bradley stood flattened against the wall waiting for the whiru to
• 1:22:17
  move on, he heard the creature's wings brushing against the sides of the buildings
• 1:22:23
  as it made its way down the narrow passage in his direction. As the
• 1:22:28
  yellow door offered the only means of escape without detection, the Englishman decided to
• 1:22:32
  risk whatever might lie beyond it, and so boldly pushing it in, he
• 1:22:38
  crossed the threshold and entered a small apartment. As he did so, he
• 1:22:42
  heard a muffled ejaculation of surprise, and turning his eyes in the direction from
• 1:22:47
  whence the sound had come, he beheld a wide eyed girl standing flattened against
• 1:22:53
  the opposite wall, an expression of incredulity upon her face. At a glance,
• 1:22:58
  he saw that she was of no race of humans that he had come
• 1:23:00
  in contact with since his arrival upon Kaprona. There was no trace about her
• 1:23:05
  form or features of any relationship to those low orders of men, nor was
• 1:23:12
  she apparelled as they, or rather she did not entirely lack apparel as did
• 1:23:15
  most of them. A soft hide felled from her left shoulder to just below
• 1:23:20
  her left hip on one side, and almost to her right knee on the
• 1:23:25
  other. A loose girdle was about her waist, and golden ornaments such as
• 1:23:30
  he had seen in the blue and white chest, encircled her arms and legs,
• 1:23:33
  while a golden filet with a triangular diadem bound her heavy hair above her
• 1:23:39
  brows. Her skin was white, as from long confinement within doors, but
• 1:23:45
  it was clear and fine. Her figure, partially concealed by the soft deer
• 1:23:49
  skin, was all curves of symmetry and youthful grace. While her features might
• 1:23:55
  easily have been the envy of the most feted of continental beauty. If the
• 1:24:00
  girl was surprised by the sudden appearance of Bradley, the latter was absolutely astounded
• 1:24:05
  to discover so wondrous a creature among the hideous inhabitants of the city of human
• 1:24:12
  skulls. For a moment, the two looked at one another in unconcealed consternation,
• 1:24:16
  and then Bradley spoke, using to the best of his poor ability,
• 1:24:20
  the common tongue of cast back. Who are you, he asked, and
• 1:24:26
  from where do you come? Do not tell me that you are a wiru.
• 1:24:30
  No, she replied, I am no wiru, and she shuddered slightly
• 1:24:34
  as she pronounced the word. I am a Galu. But who and what
• 1:24:39
  are you? I am sure that you are no Galu from your garments,
• 1:24:43
  but you are like the galous in other respects. I know that you are
• 1:24:46
  not of this frightful city, for I have been here for almost ten moons
• 1:24:50
  and never have I seen a male galu. Brought hither before. Nor are
• 1:24:56
  there such as you and I other than prisoners in the land of Uo,
• 1:25:00
  And these are all females. Are you a prisoner? Then? He told
• 1:25:04
  her briefly who and what he was, though he doubted if she understood.
• 1:25:09
  And from her he learned that she had been a prisoner there for many months.
• 1:25:13
  But for what purpose he did not then learn. As in the midst
• 1:25:16
  of their conversation, the yellow door swung open, and a wieroo with a
• 1:25:20
  robe slashed with yellow entered at sight of Bradley. The creature became furious whence
• 1:25:28
  came this reptile. It demanded the girl, how long has it been here
• 1:25:31
  with you? It came through the doorway just ahead of you. Bradley answered
• 1:25:36
  for the girl. The weiru looked relieved. It is well for the girl
• 1:25:41
  that this is so, it said, for now only you will have to
• 1:25:45
  die, And stepping to the door, the creature raised its voice in one
• 1:25:48
  of those uncanny, depressing wails. The Englishman looked toward the girl. Shall
• 1:25:55
  I kill it? He asked, half drawing his pistol, What is best
• 1:25:58
  to do? I do not wish to endanger you. The wharoo backed toward
• 1:26:02
  the door defier, it screamed, you dare to threaten one of the sacred
• 1:26:08
  chosen of Luata, Do not kill him, cried the girl, for then
• 1:26:13
  there could be no hope for you. That you are here alive shows that
• 1:26:16
  they may not intend to kill you at all, And so there is a
• 1:26:19
  chance for you if you do not anger them, but touch him in violence,
• 1:26:24
  and your bleat skul will top the loftiest pedestal of u Oh. And
• 1:26:29
  what of you, asked Bradley. I am already doomed, replied the girl.
• 1:26:34
  I am cosatloe, cosatlo, cossatloo. What did these phrases mean that
• 1:26:41
  they were so oft repeated by the denizens of u Oh, lou and lo,
• 1:26:46
  Bradley new to mean man and woman. Ato was employed variously to indicate
• 1:26:51
  live eggs, young reproduction, and kindred subject. Coss was a negative,
• 1:26:58
  but in combination they were meaningless to the European. Do you mean they will
• 1:27:02
  kill you, asked Bradley. I but wish that they would, replied the
• 1:27:06
  girl. My fate is to be worse than death in just a few nights
• 1:27:12
  more, With the coming of the new moon, poor sea snake snapped the
• 1:27:15
  whiru you are to become sacred above all other. Shees he who speaks for
• 1:27:20
  Luata has chosen you for himself. To day you go to his temple.
• 1:27:26
  The Weiru used a phrase meaning literally high place where you will receive the sacred
• 1:27:31
  command. The girl shuddered and cast a sorrowful glance toward Bradley Ah. She
• 1:27:39
  sighed, if I could but see my beloved country once again. The man
• 1:27:44
  stepped suddenly close to her side before the Weiru could interpose, and in a
• 1:27:48
  low voice, asked her if there was no way by which he might encompass
• 1:27:53
  her escape. She shook her head sorrowfully. Even if we escaped the city,
• 1:27:58
  she replied, there is the big water between the island of u Oh
• 1:28:01
  and the galous shore, and what is beyond the city if we could leave
• 1:28:06
  it, pursued Bradley. I may only guess from what I have heard since
• 1:28:11
  I was brought here, she answered, But by reports and chance remarks,
• 1:28:15
  I take it to be a beautiful land in which there are but few wild
• 1:28:18
  beasts and no men, For only the weirus live upon this island, and
• 1:28:24
  they dwell always in cities, of which there are three, this being the
• 1:28:28
  largest, the others are at the far end of the island, which is
• 1:28:31
  about three marches from end to end and at its widest point about one march.
• 1:28:38
  From his own experience and from what the natives on the mainland had told
• 1:28:42
  him, Bradley knew that ten miles was a good day's march in Caspack,
• 1:28:46
  owing to the fact that at most points it was a trackless wilderness, and
• 1:28:50
  at all times travelers were beset by hideous beasts and reptiles that greatly impeded rapid
• 1:28:58
  progress. The two had spoken rapidly, but were now interrupted by the advent
• 1:29:02
  through the opening in the roof of several whirus, who had come in answer
• 1:29:06
  to the alarm it of the yellow slashing had uttered. This jerou cried,
• 1:29:13
  the offended one has threatened me take its hatchet from it and make it fast
• 1:29:17
  where it can do no harm until he who speaks for Loota has said what
• 1:29:21
  shall be done with it. It is one of those strange creatures that fosch
• 1:29:26
  Valsage discovered first above the Bandloo country, and followed back towards the beginning.
• 1:29:31
  He who speaks for Luata sent fosh Valsage to fetch him one of the creatures,
• 1:29:36
  and here it is. It is his hope that it may be from
• 1:29:40
  another world and hold the secrets of the Cosantaloos. The Whirus approached boldly to
• 1:29:46
  take Bradley's hatchet from him, their leader having indicated the pistol hanging in its
• 1:29:51
  holster at the englishman's hip. But the first one went reeling backward against his
• 1:29:57
  fellows from the blow to the chin, which Bradley followed up with a rush
• 1:30:00
  and the intention to clean up the room in record time. But he had
• 1:30:05
  reckoned without the opening in the roof. Two were down, and a great
• 1:30:09
  wailing and moaning was arising when reinforcements appeared from above. Bradley did not see
• 1:30:15
  them, but the girl did, and though she cried out a warning,
• 1:30:18
  it came too late for him to avoid a large Whiru who dived head foremost
• 1:30:24
  for him, striking him between the shoulders and bearing him to the floor.
• 1:30:29
  Instantly a dozen more were piling on top of him. His pistol was wrenched
• 1:30:32
  from its holster, and he was securely pinioned down by the weight of numbers.
• 1:30:39
  At a word from the Weiru of the yellow slashing, who evidently was
• 1:30:42
  a person of authority, one left and presently returned with fiber ropes with which
• 1:30:46
  Bradley was tightly bound. Now bear him to the blue place of seven skulls,
• 1:30:54
  directed the chief whirrou and one take the word of all that had passed
• 1:30:58
  to him, who speaks for Luata. Each of the creatures raised a hand
• 1:31:02
  the back against its face, as though in salute. One seized Bradley and
• 1:31:08
  carried him through the yellow doorway to the roof, from whence it rose upon
• 1:31:12
  its wide spread wings, and flapped off across the rooftops of oo Oh,
• 1:31:15
  with its heavy burden clutched in its long talons. Below him, Bradley could
• 1:31:20
  see the city stretching away to a distance. On every hand, it was
• 1:31:26
  not as large as he had imagined, though he judged that it was at
• 1:31:29
  least three miles square. The houses were piled in indescribable heaps, sometimes to
• 1:31:35
  a height of a hundred feet. The streets and alleys were short and crooked,
• 1:31:41
  and there were many areas where buildings had been wedged in so closely that
• 1:31:45
  no light could possibly reach the lowest tiers, the entire surface of the ground
• 1:31:49
  being packed solidly with them. The colors were varied and startling. The architecture
• 1:31:55
  amazing. Many roofs were cup or saucer shaped, with a small hole in
• 1:32:00
  the center of each, as though they had been constructed to catch rain water
• 1:32:03
  and conduct it to a reservoir beneath, but nearly all the others had the
• 1:32:09
  large opening in the top that Bradley had seen used by these flying men.
• 1:32:13
  In lieu of doorways. At all levels were the myriad poles surmounted by grinning
• 1:32:18
  skulls. But the two most prominent features of the city were the round tower
• 1:32:24
  of human skulls that Bradley had noted earlier in the day, and another and
• 1:32:29
  much larger edifice near the center of the city. As they approached it,
• 1:32:32
  Bradley saw that it was a huge building, rising a hundred feet in height
• 1:32:38
  from the ground, and that it stood alone in the center of what might
• 1:32:41
  have been called a plaza in some other part of the world. Its various
• 1:32:45
  parts, however, were set together with the same strange irregularity that marked the
• 1:32:50
  architecture of the city as a whole, and it was capped by an enormous
• 1:32:55
  saucer shaped roof which projected far beyond the eaves, having the appearance of a
• 1:33:00
  colossal Chinese coolie hat inverted. The Wieru bearing Bradley passed over one corner of
• 1:33:06
  the open space about the large building, revealing to the englishman's grass and trees
• 1:33:12
  and running water beneath. They passed the building, and about five hundred yards
• 1:33:15
  beyond, the creature alighted on the roof of a square blue building surmounted by
• 1:33:20
  seven poles bearing seven skulls. This, then, thought Bradley, is the
• 1:33:26
  blue place of seven skulls. Over the opening in the roof was a grated
• 1:33:31
  covering, and this the Wiiru removed. The thing then tied a piece of
• 1:33:35
  fiber rope to one of Bradley's ankles and rolled him over the edge of the
• 1:33:40
  opening. All was dark below, and for an instant the Englishman came as
• 1:33:45
  near to experiencing real terror as he had ever come in his life before.
• 1:33:50
  As he rolled off into the black abyss, he felt the rope tighten about
• 1:33:55
  his ankle, and an instant later he was stopped with a sudden jerk to
• 1:33:59
  swing pendulum light head downward. Then the creature lowered away until Bradley's head came
• 1:34:04
  in sudden and painful contact with the floor below, after which the Weiru let
• 1:34:10
  loose of the rope entirely, and the Englishman's body crashed to the wooden planking.
• 1:34:15
  He felt the free end of the rope dropped upon him, and heard
• 1:34:18
  the grating being slid into place above him. End of Chapter two, Chapter
• 1:34:26
  three. Half stunned, Bradley lay for a minute as he had fallen,
• 1:34:30
  and then slowly and painfully wriggled into a less uncomfortable position. He could see
• 1:34:36
  nothing of his surroundings in the gloom about him, until after a few minutes
• 1:34:42
  his eyes became accustomed to the dark interior. When he rolled them from side
• 1:34:45
  to side in survey of his prison, he discovered himself to be in a
• 1:34:50
  bare room which was windowless, nor could he see any other opening than that
• 1:34:56
  through which he had been lowered. In one corner was a huddled as that
• 1:35:00
  might have been almost anything from a bundle of rags to a dead body.
• 1:35:04
  Almost immediately after he had taken his bearings, Bradley commenced working with his bonds.
• 1:35:12
  He was a man of powerful physique, and as from the first he
• 1:35:15
  had been imbued with a belief that the fiber ropes were too weak to hold
• 1:35:19
  him, he worked on with firm conviction that sooner or later they would part
• 1:35:25
  to his strainings. After a matter of five minutes, he was positive that
• 1:35:29
  the strands about his wrists were beginning to give, but he was compelled to
• 1:35:33
  rest then from exhaustion. As he lay, his eyes rested upon the bundle
• 1:35:39
  in the corner, and presently he could have sworn that the thing moved.
• 1:35:44
  With eyes straining through the gloom, the man lay watching the grim and sinister
• 1:35:48
  thing in the corner. Perhaps his overwroughten nerves were playing a sorry joke upon
• 1:35:55
  him. He thought of this, and also that his condition of utter helplessness
• 1:35:59
  might still further have stimulated his imagination. He closed his eyes and sought to
• 1:36:04
  relax his muscles and his nerves. But when he looked again, he knew
• 1:36:10
  that he had not been mistaken. The thing had moved. Now it lay
• 1:36:14
  in a slightly altered form, and farther from the wall, it was nearer
• 1:36:18
  him. With renewed strength, Bradley strained at his bonds, his fascinated gaze
• 1:36:25
  still glued upon the shapeless bundle. No longer was there any doubt that it
• 1:36:30
  moved. He saw it rise in the center several inches, and then creep
• 1:36:33
  closer to him, it sank and rose again, a headless, hideous,
• 1:36:39
  monstrous thing of menace. Its very silence rendered it the more terrible. Bradley
• 1:36:45
  was a brave man, ordinarily his nerves were of steel. But to be
• 1:36:49
  at the mercy of some unknown and nameless horror, to be unable to defend
• 1:36:55
  himself, it was these things that almost unstrung him. For best, he
• 1:37:00
  was only human to stand in the open, even with the odds all against
• 1:37:04
  him, to be able to use his fifts, to put up some sort
• 1:37:08
  of defense, to inflict punishment upon his adversary. Then he could face death
• 1:37:14
  with a smile. It was not death that he feared now, it was
• 1:37:17
  that horror of the unknown at his part, of the fiber of every son
• 1:37:21
  of woman. Closer and closer came the shapeless mass. Bradley lay motionless and
• 1:37:28
  listened. What was that he heard breathing? He could not be mistaken,
• 1:37:33
  And then from out of the bundle of rags issued a hollow groan. Bradley
• 1:37:39
  felt his hair rise upon his head. He struggled with the slowly parting strands
• 1:37:45
  that held him. The thing beside him rose up higher than before, and
• 1:37:48
  the Englishman could have sworn that he saw a single eye peering at him from
• 1:37:54
  among the tumbled cloth. For a moment, the bundle remained motionless, only
• 1:37:59
  the sound of breathing issued from it. Then there broke from it a maniacal
• 1:38:03
  laugh. Cold sweat stood upon Bradley's brow. As he tugged for liberation,
• 1:38:10
  he saw the rags rise higher and higher above him, until at last they
• 1:38:14
  tumbled upon the floor from the body of a naked man, A thin,
• 1:38:17
  a bony, a hideous caricature of a man that mouthed and mummed and wobbling
• 1:38:24
  upon its weak and shaking legs, crumpled to the floor again, still laughing,
• 1:38:29
  laughing horribly, it crawled toward Bradley. Food. Food, It screamed,
• 1:38:35
  there is a way out, There is a way out. Dragging itself
• 1:38:40
  to his side, the creature slumped upon the Englishman's breast. Food. It
• 1:38:45
  shrilled as with its bony fingers and its teeth. It sought the man's bare
• 1:38:49
  throat food. There is a way out. Bradley felt teeth upon his jugular.
• 1:38:57
  He turned and twisted, shaking himself free for an instant, but once
• 1:39:01
  more, with hideous persistence, the thing fastened itself upon him. The weak
• 1:39:06
  jaws were unable to send the dull teeth through the victim's flesh, but Bradley
• 1:39:12
  felt it pawing, pawing, pawing, like a monstrous rat seeking his life's
• 1:39:17
  blood. The skinny arms now embraced his neck, holding the teeth to his
• 1:39:23
  throat. Against all his efforts to dislodge the thing. Weak as it was,
• 1:39:28
  it had strength enough for this in its mad efforts to eat. Mumbling
• 1:39:31
  as it worked, it repeated again and again, food, food, There
• 1:39:36
  is a way out. Until Bradley thought those two expressions alone would drive him
• 1:39:42
  mad, and all but mad he was, as with a final effort back
• 1:39:46
  by almost maniacal strength, he tore his wrist from the confining bonds, and,
• 1:39:51
  grasping the repulsive thing upon his breast, hurled it half way across the
• 1:39:56
  room, Panting like a spent hound, madly worked at the thongs about his
• 1:40:00
  ankles, while the maniac lay, quivering and mumbling where it had fallen.
• 1:40:06
  Presently, the Englishman leaped to his feet, freer than he had ever before
• 1:40:11
  felt in all his life, though he was still hopelessly a prisoner in the
• 1:40:15
  blue place of seven skulls, with his back against the wall for support.
• 1:40:20
  So weak the reaction left him. Bradley stood watching the creature upon the floor.
• 1:40:27
  He saw it move and slowly raise itself to its hands and knees,
• 1:40:30
  where it swayed to and fro as its eyes roved about in search of him,
• 1:40:35
  And when at last they found him, there broke from the drawn lips
• 1:40:40
  the mumbled words food, food, there is a way out. The pitiful
• 1:40:45
  supplication in the tones touched the Englishman's heart. He knew that this would be
• 1:40:50
  no weiru, but possibly once a man like himself, who had been cast
• 1:40:56
  into this pit of solitary confinement, with this hidden result that might in time
• 1:41:00
  be his fate also. And then too there was the suggestion of hope,
• 1:41:06
  held out by the constant reiteration of the phrase there is a way out?
• 1:41:13
  Was there a way out? What did this poor thing know? Who are
• 1:41:16
  you? And how long have you been here? Bradley suddenly demanded For a
• 1:41:21
  moment. The man upon the floor made no response, then mumblingly came the
• 1:41:26
  words food, food, Stop, commanded the Englishman. The injunction might have
• 1:41:32
  been barked from the muzzle of a pistol. It brought the man to a
• 1:41:36
  sitting posture, his hands off the ground. He stopped swaying to and fro,
• 1:41:42
  and appeared to be startled into an attempt to master his faculties of concentration
• 1:41:46
  and thought. Bradley repeated his questions sharply. I am Antac, the galoo,
• 1:41:54
  replied the man. Luata alone knows how long I have been here?
• 1:41:59
  May be ten moons, maybe ten moons three times. It was the Caspakian
• 1:42:04
  equivalent of thirty. I was young and strong when they brought me here.
• 1:42:11
  Now I am old and very weak. I am Cossattloo. That is why
• 1:42:15
  they have not killed me. If I tell them the secret of becoming Cossattloo,
• 1:42:20
  they will take me out. But how can I tell them that which
• 1:42:25
  Luata alone knows? What is Cossattaloo, demanded Bradley. Food? Food,
• 1:42:31
  There is a way out, mumbled the gallow. Bradley strode across the floor,
• 1:42:38
  seized the man by his shoulders and shook him. Tell me, he
• 1:42:41
  cried, what is Cossattloo, fold, whimpered Antac. Bradley bethought himself his
• 1:42:49
  haversack had not been taken from him in it besides his razor and knife,
• 1:42:55
  were odds and ends of equipment, and a small quantity of dried meat.
• 1:43:00
  He tossed a small strip of the latter to the starving galu. Antac seized
• 1:43:04
  upon it and devoured it ravenously. It instilled new life in the man.
• 1:43:11
  What is Cossatloo, insisted Bradley. Again. Antac tried to explain. His
• 1:43:16
  narrative was often broken by lapses of concentration, during which he reverted to his
• 1:43:23
  plaintive mumbling for food, and recurrence to the statement that there was a way
• 1:43:28
  out. But by firmness and patience the Englishman drew out, piecemeal a more
• 1:43:33
  or less lucid exposition of the remarkable scheme of evolution that rules in castpack.
• 1:43:40
  In it, he found explanations of the hitherto inexplicable. He discovered why he
• 1:43:45
  had seen no babes or children among the Caspakian tribes with which he had come
• 1:43:50
  in contact, Why each more northerly tribe evinced a higher state of development than
• 1:43:57
  those south of them, why each tribe included individuals ranging in physical and mental
• 1:44:02
  characteristics from the highest of the next lower race to the lowest of the next
• 1:44:08
  higher and why the women of each tribe immersed themselves each morning for an hour
• 1:44:13
  or more in the warm pools near which the habitations of their people always were
• 1:44:17
  located. And two he discovered why those pools were almost immune from the attacks
• 1:44:23
  of carnivorous animals and reptiles. He learned that all but those who were cossatledoo
• 1:44:29
  came up coarse vajo or from the beginning. The egg from which they first
• 1:44:33
  developed into tadpole form, was deposited with millions of others in one of the
• 1:44:39
  warm pools, and with it a poisonous serum that the carnivora instinctively shunned.
• 1:44:45
  Down the warm stream from the pool floated the countless billions of eggs and tadpoles,
• 1:44:51
  developing as they drifted slowly toward the sea. Some became tadpoles in the
• 1:44:57
  pool, some in the sluggish stream, and some not until they reached the
• 1:45:01
  Great Inland Sea. In the next stage, they became fishes or reptiles.
• 1:45:06
  Antac was not positive which, and in this form, always developing, they
• 1:45:13
  swam far to the south, where amid the rank and teeming jungles, some
• 1:45:17
  of them evolved into amphibians. Always there were those whose developments stopped at the
• 1:45:24
  first stage, others whose development ceased when they became reptiles. While by far
• 1:45:30
  the greater proportion formed the food supply of the ravenous creatures of the deep,
• 1:45:34
  few, indeed, were those that eventually developed into baboons and then apes,
• 1:45:41
  which was considered by Castackians the real beginning of evolution. From the egg,
• 1:45:46
  then the individual developed slowly into a higher form, just as the frog's egg
• 1:45:53
  develops through various stages, from a fish with gills to a frog with lungs.
• 1:45:59
  With that thought in mind, Bradley discovered that it was not difficult to
• 1:46:02
  believe in the possibility of such a scheme. There was nothing new in it.
• 1:46:08
  From the eighth the individual, if it survived, slowly developed into the
• 1:46:12
  lowest orderer of man, the Alu, and then by degrees to Bolu,
• 1:46:16
  Stolu, Bandloo, Crowlu, and finally Gallu, and in each stage countless
• 1:46:24
  millions of other eggs were deposited in the warm pools of the various races and
• 1:46:29
  floated down to the Great Sea to go through a similar process of evolution outside
• 1:46:34
  the womb as develops our own young within, but in Caspack. The scheme
• 1:46:40
  is much more inclusive, for it combines not only individual development, but the
• 1:46:45
  evolution of species in genera. If an egg survives, it goes through all
• 1:46:49
  the stages of development that man has passed through during the unthinkable eons since life
• 1:46:56
  first moved upon the Earth's face. The final stage, that which the Galus
• 1:47:01
  have almost attained and for which all hope is cosatlou, which literally means no
• 1:47:09
  egg man, or one who is born directly, as are the young of
• 1:47:13
  the outer world of mammals. Some of the galous produce cosatlou and cosateloe,
• 1:47:18
  both the wirus only cosatloo. In other words, all wirus are born male,
• 1:47:26
  and so they prey upon the Galus for their women, and sometimes capture
• 1:47:30
  and torture the Galu men who are cosatlou, in an endeavor to learn the
• 1:47:34
  secret, which they believe will give them unlimited power over all other denizens of
• 1:47:41
  cast back. No wirus come up from the beginning. All are born of
• 1:47:45
  the Wiru fathers and Galu mothers who are cossatloe, and there are very few
• 1:47:50
  of the latter, owing to the long and precarious stages of development. Seven
• 1:47:57
  generations of the same ancestor must come out up from the beginning before a Cossatalou
• 1:48:01
  child may be borne, and when one considers the frightful dangers that surround the
• 1:48:08
  vital spark from the moment it leaves the warm pool where it has been deposited
• 1:48:13
  to float down to the sea amid the voracious creatures that swarm the surface and
• 1:48:17
  the deeps, and the almost equally unthinkable trials of its effort to survive after
• 1:48:23
  it once becomes a land animal and starts northward through the horrors of the Caspaki
• 1:48:29
  in jungles and forests. It is plainly a wonder that even a single babe
• 1:48:32
  has ever been borne to a galou woman. Seven cycles it requires before the
• 1:48:39
  seventh galu can complete the seventh danger infested circle, since its first gallou ancestor
• 1:48:45
  achieve the state of galu for ages before the ancestors of this first galu may
• 1:48:53
  have developed from a bandloo or bolu egg without ever once completing the whole circle,
• 1:49:00
  that is, from a galow egg back to a fully developed galow.
• 1:49:04
  Bradley's head was whirling before he even commenced to grasp the complexities of Caspackian evolution.
• 1:49:12
  But as the truth slowly filtered into his understanding, as gradually it became
• 1:49:16
  possible for him to visualize the scheme, it appeared simpler. In fact,
• 1:49:21
  it seemed even less difficult of comprehension than that with which he was familiar.
• 1:49:28
  For several minutes after antac cease speaking, his voice having trailed off weakly into
• 1:49:33
  silence, neither spoke again. Then the galou recommenced his food. Food,
• 1:49:41
  there is a way out. Bradley tossed him another bit of dried meat,
• 1:49:45
  waiting patiently until he had eaten it, this time more slowly. What do
• 1:49:50
  you mean by saying there is a way out? He asked, He who
• 1:49:56
  died here just after I came told me, replied Antag. He said there
• 1:50:01
  was a way out, that he had discovered it, but was too weak
• 1:50:05
  to use his knowledge. He was trying to tell me how to find it
• 1:50:10
  when he died old water if he had lived but a moment more. They
• 1:50:15
  do not feed you here, asked Bradley. No, they give me water
• 1:50:19
  once a day, that is all. But how have you lived them?
• 1:50:26
  The lizards and the rats, replied Antag. The lizards are not so bad,
• 1:50:31
  but the rats are foul to taste. However, I must eat them
• 1:50:35
  or they would eat me. And they are better than nothing. But of
• 1:50:40
  late they do not come so often, and I have not had a lizard
• 1:50:44
  for a long time. I shall eat, though, he mumbled, I
• 1:50:47
  shall eat now, for you cannot remain awake forever. He laughed, a
• 1:50:53
  cackling, dry laugh. When you sleep and tak will eat. It was
• 1:50:59
  horrible. Bradley shuddered for a long time. Each sat in silence. The
• 1:51:04
  Englishman could guess why the other made no sound. He awaited the moment that
• 1:51:09
  sleep should overcome his victim. In the long silence, there was borne upon
• 1:51:14
  Bradley's ears a faint, monotonous sound, as of running water. He listened
• 1:51:18
  intently. It seemed to come from far beneath the floor. What is that
• 1:51:25
  noise, he asked, That sounds like water running through a narrow channel.
• 1:51:30
  It is the river, replied Antac. Why do you not go to sleep?
• 1:51:35
  It passes directly beneath the blue Place of seven Skulls. It runs through
• 1:51:41
  the temple grounds, beneath the temple, and under the city. When we
• 1:51:45
  die, they will cut off our heads and throw our bodies into the river.
• 1:51:49
  At the mouth of the river await many large reptiles. Thus do they
• 1:51:54
  feed? The Weearos do likewise with their own dead, keeping only the skulls
• 1:52:00
  and the wings. Come let us sleep. Do the reptiles come up the
• 1:52:06
  river into the city, asked Bradley. The water is too cold. They
• 1:52:12
  never leave the warm water of the great pool, replied an Tack. Let
• 1:52:16
  us search for the way out, suggested Bradley. Antac shook his head.
• 1:52:21
  I have searched for it all these moons, he said. If I could
• 1:52:27
  not find it, how would you. Bradley made no reply, but commenced
• 1:52:32
  a diligent examination of the walls and floor of the room. Pressing over each
• 1:52:38
  square foot and tapping with his knuckles. About six feet from the floor,
• 1:52:43
  he discovered a sleeping perch near one end of the apartment. He asked Dan
• 1:52:47
  Tac about it, but the galop said that no whiru had occupied the place
• 1:52:53
  since he had been incarcerated. There. Again and again, Bradley went over
• 1:52:58
  the floor and walls as high up as he could reach. Finally, he
• 1:53:01
  swung himself to the perch that he might examine at least one end of the
• 1:53:05
  room, all the way to the ceiling. In the center of the wall.
• 1:53:10
  Close to the top, an area of about three feet square, gave
• 1:53:14
  forth a hollow sound when he rapped upon it. Bradley felt over every square
• 1:53:18
  inch of that area with the tips of his fingers. Near the top he
• 1:53:23
  found a small round hole, a trifle larger in diameter than his forefinger,
• 1:53:28
  which he immediately stuck into it. The panel, if such it was,
• 1:53:31
  seemed about an inch thick, and beyond it his finger encountered nothing. Bradley
• 1:53:38
  cooked his finger upon the opposite side of the panel and pulled toward him steadily
• 1:53:43
  but with considerable force. Suddenly the panel flew inward, nearly precipitating the man
• 1:53:48
  to the floor. It was hinged at the bottom, and when lowered,
• 1:53:53
  the outer edge rested upon the perch, making a little platform parallel with the
• 1:53:58
  floor of the room. Beyond the opening was an utterly dark void. The
• 1:54:03
  Englishman leaned through it and reached his arm as far as possible into the blackness,
• 1:54:09
  but touched nothing. Then he fumbled in his haversack for a match,
• 1:54:14
  a few of which remained to him. When he struck it, Antac gave
• 1:54:16
  a cry of terror. Bradley held the light far into the opening before him,
• 1:54:23
  and in its flickering rays saw the top of the ladder descending into a
• 1:54:27
  black abyss below. How far down it extended he could not guess, but
• 1:54:32
  that he should soon know definitely. He was positive. You have found it.
• 1:54:38
  You have found the way out, screamed Antac old Water, and now
• 1:54:43
  I am too weak to go. Take me with you. Take me with
• 1:54:47
  you. Shut up, admonished Bradley. You will have the whole flock of
• 1:54:51
  birds around our heads in a minute, and neither of us will escape.
• 1:54:56
  Be quiet, and I'll go ahead. If I find a way, I'll
• 1:55:00
  come back and help you. If you'll promise not to try to eat me
• 1:55:03
  up again, I promise, cried Antac, Oh the water. How could
• 1:55:09
  you blame me? I am half crazed of hunger and long confinement and the
• 1:55:15
  horror of the lizards and the rats, and the constant waiting for death.
• 1:55:19
  I know, said Bradley, simply, I'm sorry for you, Old Top.
• 1:55:25
  Keep a stiff upper lip, and he slipped through the opening, found
• 1:55:29
  the ladder with his feet closed the panel behind him, and started downward into
• 1:55:33
  the darkness. Below him rose more and more distinctly the sound of running water.
• 1:55:40
  The air felt damp and cool. He could see nothing of his surroundings,
• 1:55:44
  and felt nothing but the smooth, worn sides and rungs of the ladder,
• 1:55:48
  down which he felt his way cautiously, lest a broken rung or a
• 1:55:53
  misstep should hurl him downward. As he descended thus slowly, the ladder seemed
• 1:55:59
  interminable and the pit bottomless. Yet he realized, when at last he reached
• 1:56:03
  the bottom that he could not have descended more than fifty feet. The bottom
• 1:56:09
  of the ladder rested on a narrow ledge, paved with what felt like large
• 1:56:13
  round stones, but what he knew from experience to be human skulls. He
• 1:56:18
  could not but marvel as to where so many, countless thousands of the things
• 1:56:24
  had come from, until he paused to consider that the infancy of castpack dated
• 1:56:30
  doubtlessly back into remote ages, far beyond what the outer world considered the beginning
• 1:56:35
  of earthly time. For all these eons, the weirus might have been collecting
• 1:56:41
  human skulls from their enemies and their own dead, enough to have built an
• 1:56:46
  entire city of them. Feeling his way along the narrow ledge, Bradley came
• 1:56:51
  presently to a blank wall that stretched out over the water swirling beneath him.
• 1:56:57
  As far as he could reach stew he groped about with one hand, reaching
• 1:57:01
  down toward the surface of the water, and discovered that the bottom of the
• 1:57:05
  wall arched above the stream. How much space there was between the water and
• 1:57:12
  the arch, he could not tell, nor how deep the former. There
• 1:57:15
  was only one way in which he might learn these things, and that was
• 1:57:19
  to lure himself into the stream. For only an instant he hesitated, weighing
• 1:57:25
  his chances. Behind him lay almost certainly the horrid fate of Antak before him,
• 1:57:31
  nothing worse than a comparatively painless death by drowning. Holding his haversack above
• 1:57:38
  his head with one hand, he lured his feet slowly over the edge of
• 1:57:42
  the narrow platform. Almost immediately he felt the swirling of cold water about his
• 1:57:46
  ankles, and then, with a silent prayer, he let himself drop gently
• 1:57:51
  into the stream. Great was Bradley's relief when he found the water no more
• 1:57:58
  than waist deep, and beneath his feet a firm gravel bottom. Feeling his
• 1:58:02
  way cautiously, he moved downward with the current, which was not so strong
• 1:58:08
  as he had imagined from the noise of the running water beneath the first arch.
• 1:58:13
  He made his way, following the winding curvatures of the right hand wall.
• 1:58:17
  After a few yards of progress, his hand came suddenly in contact with
• 1:58:23
  a slimy thing clinging to the wall, a thing that hissed and scuttled out
• 1:58:28
  of reach. What it was the man could not know, But almost instantly
• 1:58:32
  there was a splash in the water just ahead of him, and then another.
• 1:58:38
  On he went, passing beneath other arches, at varying distances, and
• 1:58:43
  always in utter darkness. Unseen denizens of this great sewer, disturbed by the
• 1:58:48
  intruder, splashed into the water ahead of him, and wriggled away. Time
• 1:58:53
  and again his hand touched them, and never for an instant could he be
• 1:58:57
  sure that at the next step some gruesome thing might not attack him. He
• 1:59:01
  had strapped his haversack about his neck, well above the surface of the water,
• 1:59:05
  and in his left hand he carried his knife. Other precautions there were
• 1:59:11
  none to take. The monotony of the blind trail was increased by the fact
• 1:59:15
  that from the moment he had started from the foot of the ladder, he
• 1:59:19
  had counted his every step. He had promised to return for antac if it
• 1:59:24
  proved humanly possible to do so, and he knew that in the blackness of
• 1:59:29
  the tunnel he could locate the foot of the ladder in no other way.
• 1:59:32
  He had taken two hundred and sixty nine steps. Afterward he knew that he
• 1:59:38
  should never forget that number. When something bumped gently against him from behind.
• 1:59:44
  Instantly he wheeled about, and, with knife ready to defend himself, stretched
• 1:59:48
  forth his right hand to push away the object that now had lodged against his
• 1:59:54
  body. His fingers, feeling through the darkness, came in contact with something
• 1:59:59
  cold and clam They passed to and fro over the thing, until Bradley knew
• 2:00:03
  that it was the face of a dead man floating upon the surface of the
• 2:00:08
  stream. With an oath, he pushed his gruesome companion out into mid stream
• 2:00:13
  to float on down toward the great pool and the awaiting scavengers of the deep.
• 2:00:18
  At his four hundred and thirteenth step, another corpse bumped against him.
• 2:00:24
  How many had passed him without touching, he could not guess, But suddenly
• 2:00:28
  he experienced the sensation of being surrounded by dead faces floating along with him,
• 2:00:34
  all set in hideous grimaces, their dead eyes glaring at this profaning alien who
• 2:00:40
  dared intrude upon the waters of this river of the Dead, a horrid escort,
• 2:00:45
  pregnant with dire forebodings and with menace. Though he advanced very slowly,
• 2:00:51
  he tried always to take steps of about the same length, so that he
• 2:00:56
  knew that though considerable time had elapsed, yet he had really advanced no more
• 2:01:00
  than four hundred yards. When ahead he saw a lessening of the pitch darkness,
• 2:01:06
  and at the next turn of the stream his surroundings became vaguely discernible.
• 2:01:12
  Above him was an arched roof, and on either hand walls pierced at intervals
• 2:01:15
  by apertures covered with wooden doors. Just ahead of him in the roof of
• 2:01:20
  the aqueduct was a round, black hole about thirty inches in diameter. His
• 2:01:27
  eyes still rested upon the opening when there shot downward from it to the water
• 2:01:30
  below the naked body of a human being, which almost immediately rose to the
• 2:01:35
  surface again and floated off down the stream. In the dim light, Bradley
• 2:01:42
  saw that it was a dead whirrou from which the wings and the head had
• 2:01:45
  been removed. A moment later, another headless body floated past. Recalling what
• 2:01:51
  Antac had told him of the skull collecting customs of the Whiru, Bradley wondered
• 2:01:58
  how it happened that the first corpse he had encountered in the stream had not
• 2:02:01
  been similarly mutilated. The farther he advanced now, the lighter it became,
• 2:02:08
  the number of corpses was much smaller than he had imagined, only two more
• 2:02:13
  passing him before. At six hundred steps, or about five hundred yards from
• 2:02:17
  the point he had taken to the stream, he came to the end of
• 2:02:20
  the tunnel and looked out upon sunlit water running between grassy banks. One of
• 2:02:28
  the last corpses to pass him was still clothed in the white robe of a
• 2:02:32
  Whiru, blood stained over the headless neck that it concealed. Drawing closer to
• 2:02:39
  the opening leading into the bright daylight, Bradley surveyed what lay beyond. A
• 2:02:44
  short distance before him, a large building stood in the center of several acres
• 2:02:48
  of grass and tree covered ground spanning the stream, which disappeared through an opening
• 2:02:55
  in its foundation wall. From the large saucer shaped roof and the vivid colorings
• 2:03:00
  of the various heterogeneous parts of the structure. He recognized it as the temple,
• 2:03:05
  past which he had been borne to, the Blue Place of seven skulls
• 2:03:11
  to and fro flew weirus going to and from the temple. Others passed on
• 2:03:16
  foot across the open grounds, assisting themselves with their great wings so that they
• 2:03:21
  barely skimmed the earth. To leave the mouth of the tunnel would have been
• 2:03:27
  to court instant discovery and capture. But by what other avenue he might escape,
• 2:03:31
  Bradley could not guess unless he retraced his steps up the stream and sought
• 2:03:36
  egress from the other end of the city. The thought of traversing that dark
• 2:03:42
  and horror ridden tunnel for perhaps miles, he could not entertain. There must
• 2:03:45
  be some other way. Perhaps after dark he could steal through the temple grounds
• 2:03:50
  and continue on down stream until he had come beyond the city. And so
• 2:03:56
  he stood and waited until his limbs became almost paralyzed with cold, and he
• 2:04:01
  knew that he must find some other plan for escape. A half formed decision
• 2:04:06
  to risk an attempt to swim under water to the temple was crystallizing, in
• 2:04:12
  spite of the fact that any chance whirroo flying above the stream might easily see
• 2:04:16
  him, when again a floating object bumped against him from behind and lodged across
• 2:04:20
  his back. Turning quickly, he saw that the thing was what he had
• 2:04:25
  immediately guessed it to be a headless and wingless weirroo corpse. With a grunt
• 2:04:30
  of disgust, he was about to push it from him, when the white
• 2:04:33
  garment enshrouding it suggested a bold plan to his resourceful brain. Grasping the corpse
• 2:04:40
  by an arm, he tore the garment from it, and then let the
• 2:04:43
  body float downward toward the temple. With great care, he draped the robe
• 2:04:47
  about him. The bloody blots that had covered the severed neck he arranged about
• 2:04:51
  his own head. His haversack he rolled as tightly as possible, and stuffed
• 2:04:57
  beneath his coat over his breast. Then he fell gently to the surface of
• 2:05:01
  the stream, and, lying upon his back, floated downward with the current
• 2:05:06
  and out into the open sunlight. Through the weave of the cloth, he
• 2:05:11
  could distinguish large objects. He saw weiru flap dismally above him. He saw
• 2:05:16
  the banks of the stream float slowly past. He heard a sudden wail upon
• 2:05:21
  the right hand shore, and his heart stood still lest his ruse had been
• 2:05:26
  discovered. But never by a move of a muscle did he betray that aught.
• 2:05:30
  But a cold lump of clay floated there upon the bosom of the water,
• 2:05:34
  and soon, though it seemed an eternity to him, the direct sunlight
• 2:05:40
  was blotted out, and he knew that he had entered beneath the temple.
• 2:05:44
  Quickly he felt for bottom with his feet, and as quickly stood erect snatching
• 2:05:49
  the bloody clammy cloth from his face. On both sides were blank walls,
• 2:05:55
  and before him the river turned a sharp corner and disappeared. Feeling his way
• 2:06:00
  cautiously forward, he approached the turn and looked around the corner. To his
• 2:06:03
  left was a low platform about a foot above the level of the stream,
• 2:06:09
  and on to this he lost no time in climbing, for he was soaked
• 2:06:13
  from head to foot, cold, and almost exhausted. As he lay resting
• 2:06:18
  on the skull paved shelf, he saw in the center of the vault above
• 2:06:23
  the river another of those sinister round holes through which he momentarily expected to see
• 2:06:29
  a headless corpse shoot downward in its last plunge to a watery grave. A
• 2:06:34
  few feet along the platform. A closed door broke the blankness of the wall.
• 2:06:40
  As he lay looking at it and wondering what lay behind, his mind
• 2:06:44
  filled with fragments of many wild schemes of escape. It opened and a white
• 2:06:49
  robed whiriru stepped out upon the platform. The creature carried a large wooden basin
• 2:06:55
  filled with rubbish. Its eyes were not upon Bradley, who drew himself to
• 2:07:00
  a squatting position and crouched as far back in the corner of the niche in
• 2:07:03
  which the platform was set as he could force himself. The wearrou stepped to
• 2:07:09
  the edge of the platform and dumped the rubbish into the stream. If it
• 2:07:14
  turned away from him, as it started to retrace its steps to the doorway,
• 2:07:17
  there was a small chance that it might not see him, but if
• 2:07:21
  it turned toward him, there was none at all. Bradley held his breath.
• 2:07:28
  The Wearrou paused a moment, gazing down into the water. Then it
• 2:07:31
  straightened up and turned toward the Englishman. Bradley did not move. The Weirrou
• 2:07:38
  stopped and stared intently at him. It approached him questioningly. Still, Bradley
• 2:07:44
  remained as though carved a stone. The creature was directly in front of him.
• 2:07:49
  It stopped. There was no chance on earth that it would not discover
• 2:07:54
  what he was. With the quickness of a cat, Bradley sprang to his
• 2:07:58
  feet, and, with all his strength, back by his heavy weight,
• 2:08:01
  struck the Weirrou upon the point of the chin. Without a sound, the
• 2:08:05
  thing crumpled to the platform, while Bradley, acting almost instinctively to the urge
• 2:08:11
  of the first love of nature, rolled the inanimate body over the edge into
• 2:08:16
  the river. Then he looked at the open doorway, crossed the platform and
• 2:08:22
  peered within the apartment. Beyond what he saw was a large room, dimly
• 2:08:26
  lighted, and about the side rows of wooden vessels stacked one upon another.
• 2:08:31
  There was no Weirrou in sight, so the Englishman entered. At the far
• 2:08:37
  end of the room was another door, and as he crossed toward it,
• 2:08:41
  he glanced into some of the vessels, which he found were filled with dried
• 2:08:43
  fruits, vegetables, and fish. Without more ado, he stuffed his pockets
• 2:08:50
  and his haversack full, thinking of the poor creature awaiting his return in the
• 2:08:54
  gloom of the Place of seven Skulls. When night came, he would return
• 2:08:58
  and fetch an tac this far at least, But in the meantime it was
• 2:09:03
  his intention to reconnoiter, in the hope that he might discover some easier way
• 2:09:09
  out of the city than that offered by the chill black channel of the ghastly
• 2:09:13
  River of Corpses. Beyond the farther door stretched a long passageway, from which
• 2:09:20
  closed doorways led into other parts of the cellars of the temple. A few
• 2:09:24
  yards from the storeroom, a ladder rose from the corridor through an aperture in
• 2:09:28
  the ceiling. Bradley paused at the foot of it, debating the wisdom of
• 2:09:33
  further investigation against a return to the river. But strong within him was the
• 2:09:39
  sphere of expiration that had scattered his race to the four corners of the earth.
• 2:09:43
  What new mysteries lay hidden in the chambers above? The urge to know
• 2:09:48
  was strong upon him, though his better judgment warned him that the safer course
• 2:09:52
  lay in retreat. For a moment he stood thus, running his fingers through
• 2:09:56
  his hair. Then he cast a sh discretion to the winds and began the
• 2:10:01
  ascent in conformity with such weiru architecture as he had already observed. The well
• 2:10:07
  through which the latter rose continually canted at an angle from the perpendicular at more
• 2:10:13
  or less regular stages. It was pierced by apertures closed by doors, none
• 2:10:18
  of which he could open until he had climbed fully fifty feet from the river
• 2:10:22
  level. Here he discovered a door already ajar, opening into a large circular
• 2:10:28
  chamber, the walls and floors of which were covered with the skins of wild
• 2:10:33
  beasts and with rugs of many colors. But what interested him most was the
• 2:10:39
  occupants of the room, a Whiru and a girl of human proportions. She
• 2:10:45
  was standing with her back against a column which rose from the center of the
• 2:10:48
  apartment from floor to ceiling, a hollow column about forty inches in diameter,
• 2:10:54
  in which he could see an opening. Some thirty inches across the girl's side
• 2:10:58
  was Lord Bradley, and her face averted, for she was watching the Weiru,
• 2:11:03
  who was now advancing slowly toward her. Talking as he came. Bradley
• 2:11:09
  could distinctly hear the words of the creature, who was urging the girl to
• 2:11:13
  accompany him to another Weiru city. Come with me, he said, and
• 2:11:18
  you shall have your life. Remain here, And he who speaks for Luata
• 2:11:22
  will claim you for his own, and when he is done with you,
• 2:11:26
  your skull will bleach at the top of a tall staff, while your body
• 2:11:31
  feeds the reptiles at the mouth of the river of death. Even though you
• 2:11:35
  bring into the world a female Weiru, your fate will be the same if
• 2:11:39
  you do not escape him. While with me you shall have life and food,
• 2:11:43
  and none shall harm you. He was quite close to the girl when
• 2:11:48
  she replied by striking him in the face with all her strength until I am
• 2:11:54
  slain. She cried, I shall fight against you all from the throat of
• 2:11:58
  the Waru issue that dismal wail that Bradley had heard so often in the past.
• 2:12:03
  It was like a scream of pain smothered to a groan. And then
• 2:12:07
  the thing leaped upon the girl, its face working in hideous grimaces as it
• 2:12:13
  clawed and beat had heard a force her to the floor. The Englishman was
• 2:12:18
  upon the point of entering to defender when a door at the opposite side of
• 2:12:22
  the chamber opened to admit a huge Waru, clothed entirely in red. At
• 2:12:26
  sight of the two struggling upon the floor, the newcomer raised his voice in
• 2:12:31
  a shriek of rage. Instantly, the whiru who was attacking the girl,
• 2:12:35
  leaped to his feet and faced the other. I heard, screamed he who
• 2:12:41
  had just entered the room. I heard. And when he who speaks for
• 2:12:46
  Luata shall have heard. He paused and made a suggestive movement of a finger
• 2:12:50
  across his throat, he shall not hear. Returned the first wearu as with
• 2:12:56
  a powerful motion of his great wings, he launched himself upon the red robed
• 2:13:01
  figure. The latter dodged the first charge, drew a wicked looking curved blade
• 2:13:05
  from beneath its red robe, spread its wings, and dived for its antagonist.
• 2:13:11
  Beating their wings, wailing and groaning, the two hideous things sparred for
• 2:13:16
  position. The white robed one, being unarmed, sought to grasp the other
• 2:13:20
  by the wrist of its knife hand and by the throat, while the latter
• 2:13:24
  hopped round on its dainty white feet, seeking and opening for a mortal blow.
• 2:13:31
  Once it struck and missed, and then the other rushed in and clinched
• 2:13:35
  at the same time, securing both the holes it sought. Immediately, the
• 2:13:39
  two commenced, beating at each other's heads with the joints of their wings,
• 2:13:43
  kicking with her sock puny feet and biting each at the other's face. In
• 2:13:50
  the meantime, the girl moved about the room, keeping out of the way
• 2:13:52
  of the duellis, and as she did so, Bradley caught a glimpse of
• 2:13:56
  her full face and immediately recogni as the girl of the place of the yellow
• 2:14:01
  door. He did not dare intervene now until one of the weiru had overcome
• 2:14:07
  the other, lest the two should turn upon him at once, when the
• 2:14:11
  chances were fair that he would be defeated in so unequal a battle as the
• 2:14:15
  curb blade of the red Wiru would render it. And so he waited,
• 2:14:20
  watching the white robe figure slowly choking the life from him. Of the red
• 2:14:24
  robe, the protruding tongue and the popping eyes proclaimed that the end was near,
• 2:14:31
  and a moment later, the red robe sank to the floor of the
• 2:14:33
  room, the curved blade slipping from the nerveless fingers. For an instant longer,
• 2:14:39
  the victor clung to the throat of his defeated antagonist, and then he
• 2:14:45
  rose, dragging the body after him, and approached the central column. Here
• 2:14:50
  he raised the body and thrust it into the aperture where Bradley saw it drop
• 2:14:54
  suddenly from sight. Instantly there flashed into his memory the circular openings in the
• 2:15:01
  roof of the river Bault and the corpses he had seen drop from them to
• 2:15:03
  the water beneath. As the body disappeared, the Weirroo turned and cast about
• 2:15:09
  the room for the girl. For a moment he stood eyeing her. You
• 2:15:13
  saw, he muttered, And if you tell them, he who speaks for
• 2:15:18
  Luata, will have my wings severed, while still I live, and my
• 2:15:22
  head will be severed, and I shall be cast into the river of death.
• 2:15:26
  For thus it happens, even to the highest, to slay one of
• 2:15:28
  the red row. You saw, and you must die, he ended with
• 2:15:33
  a scream. As he rushed upon the girl. Bradley waited no longer.
• 2:15:39
  Leaping into the room, he ran for the Weiru, who had already seized
• 2:15:43
  the girl. And as he ran, he stooped and picked up the curved
• 2:15:46
  blade. The creature's back was toward him, as with his left hand he
• 2:15:50
  seized it by the neck. Like a flash. The great wings beat backward
• 2:15:54
  as the creature turned, and Bradley was swept from his feet, though he
• 2:15:58
  still retained his hold upon the blade. Instantly the Whiroo was upon him.
• 2:16:03
  Bradley lay slightly raised upon his left elbow, his right arm free, and
• 2:16:09
  as the thing came close, he cut at the hideous face with all the
• 2:16:13
  strength that lay within him. The blade struck at the junction of the neck
• 2:16:16
  and torsol, and with such force as to completely decapitate the whiru, the
• 2:16:22
  hideous head dropping to the floor, and the body falling forward upon the Englishman.
• 2:16:28
  Pushing it from him. He rose to his feet and faced the wide
• 2:16:31
  eyed girl. Luata. She exclaimed, how came you here? Bradley shrugged.
• 2:16:37
  Here I am, he said, But the thing now is to get
• 2:16:41
  out of here, both of us. The girl shook her head. It
• 2:16:43
  cannot be she stated, sadly. That is what I thought when they dropped
• 2:16:48
  me into the blue Place of seven skulls. Replied Bradley, can't be done.
• 2:16:54
  I did it here. You're mussing up the floor. Something awful you
• 2:16:58
  this last to the day wiru as he stooped and dragged the corpse to the
• 2:17:03
  central shaft, where he raised it to the aperture and let it slip into
• 2:17:05
  the tube. Then he picked up the head and tossed it after the body.
• 2:17:09
  Don't be so glum, he admonished the former as he carried it toward
• 2:17:13
  the well. Smile but how can he smile? Questioned the girl, a
• 2:17:18
  half puzzled, half frightened look upon her face. He is dead, that's
• 2:17:24
  so, admitted Bradley. And I suppose he does feel a bit cut up
• 2:17:28
  about it. The girl shook her head and edged away from the man toward
• 2:17:31
  the door. Come, said the Englishman. We've got to get out of
• 2:17:35
  here. If you don't know a better way than the river, it's the
• 2:17:39
  river. Then the girl still eyed him, askance, but how could he
• 2:17:43
  smile when he was dead? Bradley laughed aloud. I thought we English were
• 2:17:50
  supposed to have the least sense of humor of any people in the world,
• 2:17:52
  he cried. But now I've found one human being who hasn't any of course,
• 2:17:58
  you don't know half I'm saying. But don't worry, little girl.
• 2:18:01
  I'm not going to hurt you, and if I can get you out of
• 2:18:03
  here, I'll do it. Even if she did not understand all he said,
• 2:18:09
  she at least read something in his smiling countenance, something which reassured her.
• 2:18:15
  I do not fear you, she said, though I do not understand
• 2:18:18
  all that you say, even though you speak my own tongue and use words
• 2:18:22
  that I know. But as for escaping, she sighed, alas, how
• 2:18:28
  can it be done? I escape from the blue place of seven skulls.
• 2:18:33
  Bradley reminded her. Come, and he turned toward the shaft and the ladder
• 2:18:37
  that he had ascended from the river. We cannot waste time here. The
• 2:18:41
  girl followed him, but at the doorway both drew back, for from below
• 2:18:46
  came the sound of some one ascending. Bradley tiptoed to the door and peered
• 2:18:52
  cautiously into the well. Then he stepped back beside the girl. There are
• 2:18:56
  half a dozen of them coming up, But possibly they will pass this room.
• 2:19:01
  No, she said, they will pass directly through this room. They
• 2:19:05
  are on their way to him who speaks for Luata. We may be able
• 2:19:09
  to hide in the next room. There are skins there beneath which we may
• 2:19:13
  crawl. They will not stop in that room, but they may stop in
• 2:19:16
  this one for a short time. The other room is blue. What's that
• 2:19:20
  got to do with it? Demanded the Englishman. They fear blue, she
• 2:19:24
  replied, In every room where murder has been done, you will find blue,
• 2:19:30
  a certain amount for each murder. When the room is all blue,
• 2:19:33
  they shun it. This room has much blue, but evidently they kill mostly
• 2:19:37
  in the next room, which is now all blue. But there is blue
• 2:19:43
  on the outside of every house I've seen, said Bradley. Yes, assented
• 2:19:46
  the girl. And there are blue rooms in each of those houses. When
• 2:19:50
  all the rooms are blue, then the whole outside of the house will be
• 2:19:54
  blue, as is the blue place of seven skulls. There are many any
• 2:20:00
  such here, and the skulls with blue upon them, inquired Bradley, did
• 2:20:05
  they belong to murderers? They were murdered, some of them. Those with
• 2:20:09
  only a small amount of blue were murderers, known murderers. All wierus are
• 2:20:15
  murderers. When they have committed a certain number of murders without being caught at
• 2:20:18
  it, they confess to him whose speaks for Luata and are advanced, after
• 2:20:24
  which they wear robes with a slash of some color. I think yellow comes
• 2:20:28
  first. When they reach a point where the entire robe is of yellow,
• 2:20:33
  they discard it for a white robe with a red slash. And when one
• 2:20:37
  wins a complete red robe, he carries such a long curved knife as you
• 2:20:41
  have in your hand. After that comes the blue slash on a white robe.
• 2:20:46
  And then I suppose an all blue robe. I have never seen such
• 2:20:52
  an one. As they talked in low tones, they had moved from the
• 2:20:56
  room of the death shaft into an all blue room adjoining, where they sat
• 2:21:01
  down together in a corner with their backs against the wall, and drew a
• 2:21:03
  pile of hides over themselves. A moment later, they heard a number of
• 2:21:07
  weirus enter the chamber. They were talking together as they crossed the floor,
• 2:21:13
  or the two could not have heard them. Half way across the chamber,
• 2:21:16
  they halted as the door toward which they were advancing opened and a dozen others
• 2:21:22
  of their kind entered the apartment. Bradley could guess all this by the increased
• 2:21:26
  volume of sound and the dismal greetings, But the sudden silence that almost immediately
• 2:21:33
  ensued he could not fathom, for he could not know that from beneath one
• 2:21:37
  of the hides that covered him protruded one of his heavy army shoes, or
• 2:21:41
  that some eighteen large whirrous with robes either solid red or slashed with red or
• 2:21:48
  blue, were standing gazing at it, nor could he hear their stealthy approach.
• 2:21:52
  The first intimation he had that he had been discovered was when his foot
• 2:21:58
  was suddenly seized and he was thanked violently from beneath the hides to find himself
• 2:22:01
  surrounded by menacing blades. They would have slain him on the spot had not
• 2:22:07
  one clothed. All in Red held them back, saying that he who speaks
• 2:22:11
  for Luata desired to see this strange creature. As they led Bradley away,
• 2:22:18
  he caught an opportunity to glance back toward the hides to see what had become
• 2:22:22
  of the girl, and to his gratification, he discovered that she still lay
• 2:22:26
  concealed beneath the hides. He wondered if she would have the nerve to attempt
• 2:22:31
  the river trip alone, and regretted that now he could not accompany her.
• 2:22:35
  He felt rather all in himself, more so than he had at any time
• 2:22:41
  since he had been captured by the Whiru, for there appeared not the slightest
• 2:22:45
  cause for hope in his present predicament. He had dropped the curved blade beneath
• 2:22:50
  the hides when he had been jerked so violently from their fancied security. It
• 2:22:54
  was almost in a spirit of resigned hopelessness that he quietly accompanied his captors through
• 2:23:01
  various chambers and corridors towards the heart of the temple end of Chapter three,
• 2:23:07
  Chapter four. The farther the group progressed, the more barbaric and the more
• 2:23:13
  sumptuous became the decorations. Hides of leopard and tiger predominated, apparently because of
• 2:23:20
  their more beautiful markings, and decorative skulls became more and more numerous. Many
• 2:23:26
  of the latter were mounted in precious metals and set with colored stones and priceless
• 2:23:31
  gems, while thick upon the hides that covered the walls were golden ornaments,
• 2:23:35
  similar to those worn by the girl and those which had filled the chests he
• 2:23:41
  had examined in the store room of foche Balsage, leading the Englishmen to the
• 2:23:46
  conviction that all such were spoils of war or theft, since each peace seemed
• 2:23:50
  made for personal adornment, while in so far as he had seen, no
• 2:23:54
  weiru wore ornaments of any sort. And also as they advance, the more
• 2:24:00
  numerous became the weirrous. Moving hither and thither within the temple, many now
• 2:24:05
  were the solid red robes and those that were slashed with blue, a veritable
• 2:24:09
  hive of murderers. At last, the party halted in a room in which
• 2:24:15
  were many Weirus who gathered about Bradley, questioning his captors and examining him and
• 2:24:20
  his apparel. One of the party accompanying the Englishmen spoke to a Weiru that
• 2:24:26
  stood beside a door leading from the room. Tell him who speaks for Luata.
• 2:24:31
  He said that foche Balsage we could not find, but in returning we
• 2:24:35
  found this creature within the temple hiding. It must be the same that Fosche
• 2:24:39
  Balsage captured in the Stolou country during the last darkness. Doubtless he who speaks
• 2:24:46
  for Luata would wish to see and question this strange thing. The creature addressed
• 2:24:52
  turned and slipped through the doorway, closing the door after it, but first
• 2:24:56
  depositing its curved blade upon the floor without its post. Was immediately taken by
• 2:25:01
  another, and Bradley now saw that at least twenty such guards loitered in the
• 2:25:05
  immediate vicinity. The door keeper was gone but for a moment, and when
• 2:25:11
  he returned, he signified that Bradley's party was to enter the next chamber,
• 2:25:16
  but first each of the Weirrous removed his curved weapon and laid it upon the
• 2:25:20
  floor. The door was swung open, and the party, now reduced to
• 2:25:24
  Bradley and five Weirus, was ushered across the threshold into a large, irregularly
• 2:25:28
  shaped room in which a single giant Whiru, whose robe was solid blue,
• 2:25:33
  sat upon a raised dais. The creature's face was white, with the whiteness
• 2:25:39
  of a corpse, its dead eyes entirely expressionless, its cruel thin lips tight
• 2:25:45
  drawn against yellow teeth in a perpetual grimace. Upon either side of it lay
• 2:25:50
  an enormous curved sword, similar to those with which some of the other Whirus
• 2:25:54
  had been armed, but larger and heavier. Constantly its claw like fingers played
• 2:26:01
  with one or the other of these weapons. The walls of the chamber,
• 2:26:05
  as well as the floor, were entirely hidden by skins and woven fabrics.
• 2:26:09
  Blue predominated in all the colorations. Fastened against the hides were many pairs of
• 2:26:16
  Weiru wings, mounted so that they resembled long black shields. Upon the ceiling
• 2:26:22
  were painted in blue characters. A bewildering series of hieroglyphics, and upon pedestals.
• 2:26:26
  Set against the walls or standing out well within the room, were many
• 2:26:31
  human skulls. As the Wiirus approached the figure upon the dais, they leaned
• 2:26:37
  far forward, raising their wings above their heads and stretching their necks, as
• 2:26:43
  though offering them to the sharp swords of the grim and hideous creature. All
• 2:26:48
  thou who speakest for the water, exclaimed one of the party. We bring
• 2:26:52
  you the strange creature that Fouchepalsage captured and brought thither at thy command. So
• 2:27:00
  this, then, was the godlike figure that spoke for divinity. This arch
• 2:27:05
  murderer was the Caspakian representative of God on earth. His blue robe announced him
• 2:27:11
  the one, and the seeming humility of his minions the other. For a
• 2:27:15
  long minute he glared at Bradley. Then he began to question him. From
• 2:27:20
  whence he came and howl, the name and description of his native country,
• 2:27:24
  and a hundred other queries. Are you corsacklelo, the creature asked. Bradley
• 2:27:30
  replied that he was, and that all his kind were, as well as
• 2:27:33
  every living thing in his part of the world. Can you tell me the
• 2:27:37
  secret? Asked the creature. Bradley hesitated, and then, thinking to gain
• 2:27:43
  time, replied in the affirmative, what is it? Demanded the weiru,
• 2:27:48
  leaning far forward and exhibiting every evidence of excited interest. Bradley leaned forward and
• 2:27:54
  whispered, it is for your ears alone. I will not divulge it to
• 2:28:00
  others, and then only on condition that you carry me and the girl I
• 2:28:03
  saw in the place of the yellow door near to that of fosse Balsage back
• 2:28:09
  to her own country. The thing rose in wrath, holding one of its
• 2:28:13
  swords above its head. Who are you to make terms for him who speaks
• 2:28:18
  for Latta, it shrilled, Tell me the secret, or die where you
• 2:28:22
  stand, And if I die now, the secret goes with me. Bradley
• 2:28:26
  reminded him. Never again will you get the opportunity to question another of my
• 2:28:31
  kind who knows this secret. Anything to gain time to get the rest of
• 2:28:35
  the wirus from the room, that he might plan some scheme for escape and
• 2:28:39
  put it into effect. The creature turned upon the leader of the party that
• 2:28:43
  had brought Bradley, is the thing with weapons? It asked? No was
• 2:28:50
  the response. Then go, but tell the guard to remain close by,
• 2:28:54
  commanded the high one the wierus salaamed and withdrew close. Seeing the door behind
• 2:29:01
  them. He who speak for Luotte, grasped a sword nervously in his right
• 2:29:05
  hand. At his left side lay the second weapon. It was evident that
• 2:29:09
  he lived in constant dread of being assassinated. The fact that he permitted none
• 2:29:15
  with weapons within his presence, and that he always kept two swords at his
• 2:29:18
  side pointed to this. Bradley was racking his brain to find some suggestion of
• 2:29:24
  a plan whereby he might turn the situation to his own account. His eyes
• 2:29:28
  wandered past the weird figure before him. They played about the walls of the
• 2:29:33
  apartment, as though hoping to draw inspiration from the dead skulls and the hides
• 2:29:39
  and the wings. And then they came back to the face of the Weiroo
• 2:29:43
  god, now working in anger, quick screamed the thing the secret? Will
• 2:29:50
  you give me and the girl our freedom? Insisted Bradley. For an instant
• 2:29:54
  the thing hesitated, and then it grumbled yes. At the same instant Bradley's
• 2:30:00
  saw two hides upon the wall to directly back of the dais separate, and
• 2:30:03
  a face appear in the opening. No change of expression upon the Englishman's countenance,
• 2:30:09
  betrayed that he had seen aught to surprise him. Though surprised he was,
• 2:30:13
  for the face in the aperture was that of the girl he had but
• 2:30:16
  just left hidden beneath the hides in another chamber. A white and shapely arm
• 2:30:22
  now pushed past the face into the room, and in the hand, tightly
• 2:30:26
  clutched, was the curved blade, smeared with blood, that Bradley had dropped
• 2:30:31
  beneath the hides at the moment he had been discovered and drawn from his concealment.
• 2:30:35
  Listen, then, said Bradley, in a low voice to the weareru.
• 2:30:39
  You shall know the secret of Cossattledoo as well as do I, but
• 2:30:45
  none other may hear it? Lean close, I will whisper it into your
• 2:30:48
  ear. He moved forward and stepped upon the dais. The creature raised its
• 2:30:54
  sword, ready to strike at the first indication of treachery, and Bradley stooped
• 2:30:58
  beneath them the blade and put his ear close to the gruesome face. As
• 2:31:03
  he did so, he rested his weight upon his hands, one upon either
• 2:31:07
  side of the weiru's body, his right hand upon the hilt of the spare
• 2:31:11
  sword lying at the left of him who speaks for Luata. This, then,
• 2:31:16
  t is the secret of both life and death, he whispered, And
• 2:31:20
  at the same instant he grasped the whiru by the right wrist, and with
• 2:31:24
  his own right hand, swung the extra blade in a sudden, vicious blow
• 2:31:28
  against the creature's neck, before the thing could give even a single cry of
• 2:31:33
  alarm. Then, without waiting an instant, Bradley leaped past the dead god
• 2:31:37
  and vanished behind the hides that had hidden the girl. Wide eyed and panting,
• 2:31:43
  the girl seized his arm. Oh what have you done, she cried?
• 2:31:46
  He who speaks for Luata will be avenged by Luata. Now, indeed,
• 2:31:50
  must you die? There is no escape, for even though we reached
• 2:31:54
  my own country, Luata can find you out, bah, claim Bradley.
• 2:32:00
  And then, but you were going to knife him yourself, then I alone
• 2:32:05
  should have died, she replied. Bradley scratched his head. Neither of us
• 2:32:09
  is going to die, he said, at least not at the hands of
• 2:32:13
  any god. If we don't get out of here, though, we'll die
• 2:32:16
  right enough. Can you find your way back to the room where I first
• 2:32:20
  came upon you in the temple I know the way, replied the girl,
• 2:32:24
  but I doubt if we can go back without being seen. I came hither
• 2:32:28
  because I only met Gerus, who knew that I am supposed now to be
• 2:32:31
  in the temple. But you could go elsewhere without being discovered. Bradley's ingenuity
• 2:32:37
  had come up against a stone wall. There seemed no possibility of escape.
• 2:32:43
  He looked about him. They were in a small room where lay a litter
• 2:32:46
  of rubbish, torn bits of cloth, old hives, pieces of fiber rope.
• 2:32:52
  In the center of the room was a cylindrical shaft with an opening in
• 2:32:56
  its face. Bradley knew it for what it was. Here the arch fiend
• 2:33:01
  dragged his victims and cast their bodies into the river of death far below.
• 2:33:05
  The floor about the opening in the shaft and the sides of the shaft were
• 2:33:09
  clotted thick with a dried, dark brown substance that the Englishman knew had once
• 2:33:13
  been blood. The place had the appearance of having been a veritable shambles.
• 2:33:18
  An odor of decaying flesh permeated the air. The Englishman crossed to the shaft
• 2:33:24
  and peered into the opening. All below was dark as pitch, but at
• 2:33:30
  the bottom he knew was the river. Suddenly, an inspiration and a bold
• 2:33:35
  scheme leaped to his mind. Turning quickly, he hunted about the room until
• 2:33:39
  he found what he sought, a quantity of the rope that lay strewn here
• 2:33:43
  and there. With rapid fingers, he unsnarled the different lengths, the girl
• 2:33:48
  helping him, and then he tied the ends together until he had three ropes
• 2:33:52
  about seventy five feet in length. He fastened these together at each end,
• 2:33:56
  and without a word, secured one of the ends about the girl's body beneath
• 2:34:01
  her arms. Don't be frightened, he said at length, as he led
• 2:34:05
  her toward the opening in the shaft. I am going to lower you to
• 2:34:09
  the river, and then I'm coming down after you. When you are safe
• 2:34:11
  below. Give two quick jerks upon the rope. If there is danger there
• 2:34:16
  and you want me to draw you up into the shaft, jerk once.
• 2:34:20
  Don't be afraid. It is the only way. I am not afraid,
• 2:34:24
  replied the girl, rather haughtily Bradly thought, and herself climbed through the aperture
• 2:34:30
  and hung by her hands, waiting for Bradley to lower her as rapidly as
• 2:34:35
  was consistent with safety. The man paid out the rope. When it was
• 2:34:39
  about half out, he heard loud cries and wails suddenly arise within the room
• 2:34:43
  they had just quitted. The slaying of their god had been discovered by the
• 2:34:46
  weirus. A search for the slayer would begin at once lord would the girl
• 2:34:52
  never reach the river? At last, just as he was positive that searchers
• 2:34:56
  were already entering the room behind him, there came two quick tugs at the
• 2:35:01
  rope. Instantly, Bradley made the rest of the strands fast about the shaft,
• 2:35:05
  slipped into the black tube, and began a hurried descent toward the river.
• 2:35:11
  An instant later, he stood waist deep in water beside the girl.
• 2:35:15
  Impulsively, she reached toward him and grasped his arm. A strange thrill ran
• 2:35:20
  through him at the contact, but he only cut the rope from about her
• 2:35:22
  body and lifted her to the little shelf at the river's side. How can
• 2:35:28
  we leave here, she asked? By the river, he replied, But
• 2:35:31
  first I must go back to the blue Place of seven Skulls and get the
• 2:35:35
  poor devil I left there. I'll have to wait until after dark, though,
• 2:35:39
  as I cannot pass through the open stretch of river in the temple gardens
• 2:35:43
  by day. There is another way, said the girl. I have never
• 2:35:48
  seen it, but often I have heard them speak of it. A corridor
• 2:35:52
  that runs beside the river from one end of the city to the other,
• 2:35:56
  through the gardens. It is below ground. If we could find an entrance
• 2:36:00
  to it, we could leave here at once. It is not safe here,
• 2:36:03
  for they will search every inch of the temple and the grounds. Come,
• 2:36:07
  said Bradley. We'll have a look for it anyway, And so saying,
• 2:36:11
  he approached one of the doors that opened onto the skull paved shelf.
• 2:36:16
  They found the corridor easily, for it paralleled the river, separated from it
• 2:36:20
  only by a single wall. It took them beneath the gardens and the city,
• 2:36:24
  always through inky darkness. After they had reached the other side of the
• 2:36:28
  gardens, Bradley counted his steps until he had retraced as many as he had
• 2:36:33
  taken coming down the stream. But though they had to grope their way along,
• 2:36:37
  it was a much more rapid trip than the former. When he thought
• 2:36:41
  he was about opposite the point at which he had descended from the Blue Place
• 2:36:46
  of seven Skulls, he sought and found a doorway leading out on to the
• 2:36:50
  river, and then, still in the blackest darkness, he lured himself into
• 2:36:56
  the stream and fell up and down upon the opposite side for the little shelf
• 2:37:00
  and the ladder, ten yards from where he had emerged. He found them,
• 2:37:03
  while the girl waited upon the opposite side to ascend. The secret panel
• 2:37:09
  was the work of but a minute. Here he paused and listened lest the
• 2:37:13
  weirrou might be visiting the prison in search of him or the other inmate.
• 2:37:18
  But no sound came from the gloomy interior. Bradley could not but muse upon
• 2:37:24
  the joy of the man on the opposite side, when he should drop down
• 2:37:28
  to him with food and a new hope for escape. Then he opened the
• 2:37:31
  panel and looked into the room. The faint light from the grating above revealed
• 2:37:37
  the pile of rags in one corner, but the man lay beneath them.
• 2:37:41
  He made no response to Bradley's low greeting. The Englishman lured himself to the
• 2:37:46
  floor of the room and approached the rags. Stooping, he lifted a corner
• 2:37:50
  of them. Yes, there was the man asleep. Bradley shook him.
• 2:37:54
  There was no response. He stooped lore, and in the dim light,
• 2:37:58
  examined that tack. Then he stood up with a sigh. A rat leaped
• 2:38:03
  from beneath the coverings and scurried away. Poor devil, muttered Bradley. He
• 2:38:09
  crossed the room to swing himself to the perch, preparatory to quitting the blue
• 2:38:13
  place of seven skulls forever Beneath the perch, he paused, I'll not give
• 2:38:18
  them the satisfaction, he growled, Let them believe that he escaped. Returning
• 2:38:24
  to the pile of rags, he gathered the man into his arms. It
• 2:38:28
  was difficult work raising him to the high perch and dragging him through the small
• 2:38:31
  opening and thus down the ladder, but presently it was done, and Bradley
• 2:38:37
  had lured the body into the river and cast it off. Good Bye,
• 2:38:41
  old top, he whispered. A moment later he had rejoined the girl,
• 2:38:46
  and hand in hand, they were following the dark corridor up stream toward the
• 2:38:50
  farther end of the city. She told him that the Weirroo seldom frequented these
• 2:38:54
  lower passages, as the air here was too chill for them, But accasionally
• 2:39:00
  they came, and as they could see quite as well by night as by
• 2:39:03
  day. They would be sure to discover Bradley and the girl if they come
• 2:39:09
  close enough. She said, we can see their eyes shining in the dark.
• 2:39:13
  They resemble dull splotches of light. They glow, but do not blaze,
• 2:39:18
  like the eyes of the tiger or the lion. The man could not
• 2:39:22
  but note the very evident horror with which she mentioned the creatures. To him,
• 2:39:26
  they were uncanny, but she had been used to them for a year
• 2:39:30
  almost and probably all her life. She had either seen or heard of them
• 2:39:33
  constantly. Why do you fear them, so he asked, It seems more
• 2:39:39
  than an ordinary fear of the harm they can do you. She tried to
• 2:39:43
  explain, but the nearest he could gather was that she looked upon the weiru
• 2:39:48
  almost as supernatural beings. There is a legend current among my people that once
• 2:39:54
  the Whiru were unlike us, only in that they possessed rudimentary wings. They
• 2:40:00
  ebb in villages in the Galu country, and while the two peoples often warred,
• 2:40:03
  they held no hatred for one another. In those days, each race
• 2:40:07
  came up from the beginning, and there was great rivalry as to which was
• 2:40:11
  the higher in the scale of evolution. The wiru developed the first cosatloo,
• 2:40:18
  but they were always male, never could they reproduce women. Slowly, they
• 2:40:22
  commenced to develop certain attributes of the mind, which they considered placed them upon
• 2:40:28
  a still higher level, and which gave them many advantages over us, seeing
• 2:40:31
  which they thought only of mental development. Their minds became like stars and the
• 2:40:37
  rivers, moving always in the same manner, never varying. They called this
• 2:40:43
  tasad, which means doing everything the right way, or in other words,
• 2:40:48
  the Weiru way. If foe or friend, right or wrong, stood in
• 2:40:52
  the way of Tasad, then it must be crushed. Soon the galous and
• 2:40:56
  the lesser races of men came to hate and fear them. It was them
• 2:41:01
  that the weirus decided to carry Tasad into every part of the world. They
• 2:41:05
  were very warlike and very numerous, although they had long since adopted the policy
• 2:41:11
  of slaying all those among them whose wings did not show advanced development. It
• 2:41:16
  took ages for all this to happen. Very slowly came the different changes,
• 2:41:20
  But at last the weirus had wings they could use. But by reason of
• 2:41:26
  always making war upon their neighbors, they were hated by every creature of cashpack,
• 2:41:31
  for no one wanted their tasad, and so they used their wings to
• 2:41:35
  fly to this island when the other races turned against them and threatened to kill
• 2:41:39
  them all. So cruel had they become, and so bloodthirsty that they no
• 2:41:43
  longer had hearts that beat with love or sympathy. But their very cruelty and
• 2:41:48
  wickedness kept them from conquering the other races, since they were all so cruel
• 2:41:52
  and wicked to one another, so that no weiru trusted another. Always were
• 2:41:58
  they slaying those above them, that they might rise in power and possessions,
• 2:42:03
  Until at last came the more powerful than the others, with a tacit all
• 2:42:07
  his own. He gathered about him a few of the most terrible rearus,
• 2:42:11
  and among them they made laws which took from all but these few weeros every
• 2:42:16
  weapon they possessed. Now their tacad has reached a high plain. Among them
• 2:42:22
  they make many wonderful things that we cannot make. They think great thoughts no
• 2:42:26
  doubt, and still dream of greatness to come. But their thoughts and their
• 2:42:31
  acts are regulated by ages of custom. They are all alike, and they
• 2:42:35
  are most unhappy. As the girl talked, The two moved steadily along the
• 2:42:41
  dark passageway beside the river. They had advanced a considerable distance when there sounded,
• 2:42:46
  faintly from far ahead, the muffled roar of falling water, which increased
• 2:42:50
  in volume as they moved forward, until at last it filled the corridor with
• 2:42:56
  a deafening sound. Then the corridor ended in a blank wall, but in
• 2:43:01
  a niche. To the right was a ladder leading aloft, and to the
• 2:43:03
  left was a door opening on to the river. Bradley tried the ladder first,
• 2:43:09
  and as he opened it felt a heavy spray against his face. The
• 2:43:13
  little shelf outside the doorway was wet and slippery, the roaring of the water
• 2:43:18
  tremendous. There could be but one explanation. They had reached the waterfall in
• 2:43:22
  the river, and if the corridor actually terminated here, their escape was effectually
• 2:43:28
  cut off. Since it was quite evidently impossible to follow the bed of the
• 2:43:31
  river and ascend the falls, as the ladder was the only alternative, the
• 2:43:37
  two turned toward it, and the man first began the ascent, which was
• 2:43:41
  through a well similar to that which had led him to the upper floors of
• 2:43:45
  the temple. As he climbed Bradley felt for openings in the side of the
• 2:43:50
  shaft, but he discovered none below fifty feet. The first he came to
• 2:43:54
  was Ajar, letting a faint light into the well. As he paused,
• 2:43:58
  the girl climed to his side, and together they looked through the crack into
• 2:44:03
  a low sealed chamber, in which were several galoo women and an equal number
• 2:44:07
  of hideous little replicas of the full grown weirus, with which Bradley was not
• 2:44:13
  quite familiar. He could feel the body of the girl pressed close to his
• 2:44:18
  tremble as her eyes rested upon the inmates of the room, and involuntarily his
• 2:44:24
  arm encircled her shoulders, as though to protect her from some danger which he
• 2:44:28
  sensed without recognizing. Poor things, she whispered, this is their horrible fate,
• 2:44:35
  to be imprisoned here beneath the surface of the city, with their hideous
• 2:44:39
  offspring, whom they hate as they hate their fathers. A weiru keeps his
• 2:44:45
  children thus hidden until they are full grown, lest they be murdered by their
• 2:44:50
  fellows. The lower rooms of the city are filled with many such as these.
• 2:44:54
  Several feet above was a second door, beyond which they found a small
• 2:44:58
  room stillard with food in wooden vessels. A grated window in one wall opened
• 2:45:05
  above an alley, and through it they could see that they were just below
• 2:45:07
  the roof of the building. Darkness was coming, and at Bradley's suggestion,
• 2:45:13
  they decided to remain hidden here until after dark, and then to ascend to
• 2:45:18
  the roof and reconnoiter. Shortly after they had settled themselves, they heard something
• 2:45:24
  descending the ladder from above. They hoped that it would continue on down the
• 2:45:28
  well, and fairly held their breath as the sound approached the door to the
• 2:45:31
  store room. Their hearts sank as they heard the door open, and from
• 2:45:37
  between cracks in the vessels behind which they hid, saw a yellow slashed whiru
• 2:45:41
  enter the room. Each recognized him immediately, the girl indicating the fact of
• 2:45:48
  her own recognition by a sudden pressure of her fingers on Bradley's arm. It
• 2:45:52
  was the Weiru of the yellow slashing, whose abode was the place of the
• 2:45:56
  yellow door in which Bradley had seen the girl. The creature carried a wooden
• 2:46:03
  bowl, which it filled with dried food from several of the vessels. Then
• 2:46:07
  it turned and quit the room. Bradley could see through the partially opened doorway
• 2:46:11
  that it descended the latter. The girl told him that it was taking the
• 2:46:16
  food to the women and the young below, and that while it might return
• 2:46:20
  immediately, the chances were that it would remain for some time. We are
• 2:46:24
  just below the place of the yellow door, she said. It is far
• 2:46:28
  from the edge of the city, so far that we may not hope to
• 2:46:31
  escape if we ascend to the roofs here. I think, replied the man,
• 2:46:37
  that of all the places in u Oh, this will be the easiest
• 2:46:41
  to escape from. Anyway. I want to return to the place of the
• 2:46:45
  yellow door and get my pistol if it is there. It is still there,
• 2:46:50
  replied the girl. I saw it placed in a chest where he keeps
• 2:46:54
  the things he takes from his prisoners and victims. Good, explained Bradley.
• 2:47:00
  I'll come quickly, and the two crossed the room to the well and ascended
• 2:47:03
  the ladder a short distance to its top, where they found another door that
• 2:47:09
  opened into a vacant room, the same in which Bradley had first met the
• 2:47:13
  girl. To find the pistol was a matter of but a moment's search on
• 2:47:16
  the part of Bradley's companion, and then at the englishman's signal, she followed
• 2:47:20
  him to the yellow door. It was quite dark without as the two entered
• 2:47:26
  the narrow passage between two buildings. A few steps brought them undiscovered to the
• 2:47:31
  doorway of the store room, where lay the body of foche Balsage. In
• 2:47:35
  the distance towards the temple, they could hear sounds as of a great gathering
• 2:47:41
  of wearerws, the peculiar, uncanny wailing rising above the dismal flapping of countless
• 2:47:46
  wings. They have heard of the killing of him who speaks for Luata,
• 2:47:52
  whispered the girl. Soon they will spread in all directions searching for us.
• 2:47:58
  And will they find us as surely as Lua gives light by day, she
• 2:48:01
  replied. And when they find us, they will tear us to pieces.
• 2:48:05
  For only the weirus may murder. Only they may practice tasad. But they
• 2:48:11
  will not kill you, said Bradley. You did not slay him. It
• 2:48:16
  will make no difference, she insisted. If they find us together, they
• 2:48:20
  will slay us both. Then they won't find us together, announced Bradley decisively.
• 2:48:26
  You stay right here. You won't be any worse off than before I
• 2:48:28
  came. And I'll get as far as I can and account for as many
• 2:48:33
  of the beggars as possible before they get me. Good Bye. You're a
• 2:48:37
  mighty decent little girl. I wish that I might have helped you. No,
• 2:48:43
  she cried, do not leave me. I would rather die. I
• 2:48:46
  had hoped and hoped to find some way to return to my own country.
• 2:48:50
  I wanted to go back to Antack, who must be very lonely without me.
• 2:48:56
  But I know that it never can be. It is difficult to kill
• 2:49:00
  hope, though mine is nearly dead. Do not leave me, Antac.
• 2:49:05
  Bradley repeated, you loved a man called Antac, Yes, replied the girl.
• 2:49:11
  Antac was away hunting when the Whiru caught me. How he must have
• 2:49:15
  grieved for me. He also was Cossataloup, twelve moons older than I,
• 2:49:20
  and all our lives we have been together. Bradley remained silent. So she
• 2:49:26
  loved Antac. He hadn't the heart to tell her that an Tak had died
• 2:49:31
  or how. At the door of foshe Balsage's store room, they halted to
• 2:49:35
  listen. No sound came from within, and gently Bradley pushed open the door.
• 2:49:41
  All was inky darkness as they entered, but Presently their eyes became accustomed
• 2:49:46
  to the gloom that was partially relieved by the soft starlight. Without the Englishman
• 2:49:52
  searched and found those things for which he had come, two robes, two
• 2:49:56
  pairs of dead wings, and several lengths of fiber rope. One pair of
• 2:50:01
  the wings he adjusted to the girl's shoulders by means of the rope. Then
• 2:50:07
  he draped the robe about her, carrying the cowl over her head. He
• 2:50:11
  heard her gasp of astonishment when she realized the ingenuity and boldness of his plan.
• 2:50:16
  Then he directed her to adjust the other pair of wings and the robe
• 2:50:20
  upon him. Working with strong, deft fingers. She soon had the work
• 2:50:24
  completed, and the two stepped out upon the roof to all intent and purpose,
• 2:50:30
  genuine weirus. Beside his pistol, Bradley carried the sword of the slain
• 2:50:35
  Wiru prophet, while the girl was armed with the small blade of the red
• 2:50:39
  Wairu. Side by side, they walked slowly across the roof toward the north
• 2:50:45
  edge of the city. Wirus flapped above them, and several times they passed
• 2:50:50
  others walking or sitting upon the Roofs from the temples still rose the sounds of
• 2:50:54
  commotion, now pierced by occasional shrill screams. The murderers are abroad, whispered
• 2:51:01
  the girl. Thus will another become the tongue of Luata. It is well
• 2:51:05
  for us, since it keeps them too busy to give the time for searching
• 2:51:09
  for us. They think that we cannot escape the city, and they know
• 2:51:13
  that we cannot leave the island, and so do I. Bradley shook his
• 2:51:18
  head. If there is any way we will find it, he said.
• 2:51:22
  There is no way, replied the girl. Bradley made no response, and
• 2:51:28
  in silence they continued until the outer edge of roofs was visible before them.
• 2:51:33
  We are almost there, he whispered. The girl felt for his fingers and
• 2:51:37
  pressed them. He could feel hers trembling as he returned the pressure. Nor
• 2:51:41
  did he relinquish her hand. And thus they came to the edge of the
• 2:51:46
  last roof. Here they halted and looked about them. To be seen attempting
• 2:51:50
  to descend to the ground below would be to betray the fact that they were
• 2:51:54
  not wearers. Bradley wished that their wings were attached to their bodies by sin
• 2:52:00
  and muscle, rather than by ropes of fiber a wiru was flapping far overhead.
• 2:52:05
  Two more stood near a door a few yards distant. Standing between these
• 2:52:11
  and one of the outer pedestals that supported one of the numerous skulls, Bradley
• 2:52:15
  made one end of a piece of rope fast about the pedestal and dropped the
• 2:52:18
  other end to the ground outside the city. Then they waited. It was
• 2:52:24
  an hour before the coast was entirely clear, and then a moment came when
• 2:52:28
  no whiru was in sight. Now whispered Bradley, and the girl grasped the
• 2:52:35
  rope and slid over the edge of the roof into the darkness below. A
• 2:52:39
  moment later, Bradley felt two quick pulls upon the rope and immediately followed to
• 2:52:43
  the girl's side. Across a narrow clearing, they made their way and into
• 2:52:48
  a wood beyond. All night they walked, following the river upward toward its
• 2:52:52
  source, and at dawn they took shelter in a thicket beside the stream.
• 2:52:58
  At no time did they hear the cross eye of a carnivore, and though
• 2:53:01
  many startled animals fled as they approached, they were not once menaced by a
• 2:53:05
  wild beast. When Bradley expressed surprise at the absence of the fiercest beasts that
• 2:53:11
  are so numerous upon the mainland of Coprona. The girl explained the reason that
• 2:53:16
  is contained in one of their ancient legends. When the rear us first developed
• 2:53:22
  wings upon which they could fly, they found this island devoid of any life
• 2:53:26
  other than a few reptiles that live either upon land or in the water,
• 2:53:31
  and these only close to the coast. Requiring meat for food, the wearerus
• 2:53:35
  carried to the island such animals as they wished for that purpose. They still
• 2:53:41
  occasionally bring them, and this, with the natural increase, keeps them provided
• 2:53:45
  with flesh as it will us suggested Bradley. The first day they remained in
• 2:53:52
  hiding, eating only the dried food that Bradley had brought with him from the
• 2:53:56
  temple's store room, and the next night they set out again on the river,
• 2:54:01
  continuing steadily on until almost dawn, when they came to Low Hills,
• 2:54:05
  where the river wound through a gorge. It was little more than rivulet now,
• 2:54:09
  the water clear and cold and filled with fish similar to brook trout,
• 2:54:15
  though much larger. Not wishing to leave the stream, the two waded along
• 2:54:20
  its bed to a spot where the gorge widened between perpendicular bluffs to a wooded
• 2:54:24
  acre of level land. Here they stopped, for here also the stream ended.
• 2:54:31
  They had reached its source, many cold springs, bubbling up from the
• 2:54:35
  center of a little natural amphitheater in the hills and forming a clear and beautiful
• 2:54:41
  pool, overshadowed by trees upon one side and bounded by a little clearing upon
• 2:54:46
  the other. With the coming of the sun, they saw they had stumbled
• 2:54:50
  upon a place where they might remain hidden from the weirrous for a long time,
• 2:54:56
  and also one that they could defend against these wa creatures, since the
• 2:55:01
  trees would shield them from an attack from above, and also hamper the movements
• 2:55:07
  of the creatures should they attempt to follow them into the wood. For three
• 2:55:11
  days they rested here, before trying to explore the neighboring country. On the
• 2:55:16
  fourth, Bradley stated that he was going to scale the bluffs and learn what
• 2:55:20
  lay beyond. He told the girl that she should remain in hiding, but
• 2:55:24
  she refused to be left, saying that whatever fate was to be his,
• 2:55:30
  she intended to share it, So that he was at last forced to permit
• 2:55:33
  her to come with him through woods. At the summit of the bluff.
• 2:55:37
  They made their way toward the north, and had gone but a short distance
• 2:55:41
  when the wood ended, and before them they saw the waters of the inland
• 2:55:45
  Sea, and dimly in the distance the coveted shore. The beach lay some
• 2:55:50
  two hundred yards from the foot of the hill on which they stood. Nor
• 2:55:54
  was there a tree nor any other form of shelter between them and the water
• 2:55:58
  as far up and down the coast as they could see. Among other plans,
• 2:56:03
  Bradley had thought of constructing a covered raft upon which they might drift to
• 2:56:09
  the mainland. But as such a contrivance would necessarily be of considerable weight,
• 2:56:13
  it must be built in the water of the sea, since they could not
• 2:56:18
  hope to move it even a short distance overland. If this wood was only
• 2:56:22
  at the edge of the water, he sighed. But it is not,
• 2:56:26
  the girl reminded him. And then let us make the best of it.
• 2:56:31
  We have escaped from death for a time. At least we have food and
• 2:56:35
  good water, and peace and each other. What more could we have upon
• 2:56:39
  the mainland. But I thought you wanted to get back to your own country,
• 2:56:43
  he exclaimed. She cast her eyes upon the ground, and half turned
• 2:56:48
  away. I do, she said, Yet I am happy here. I
• 2:56:52
  could be little happier there. Bradley stood in silent thought. We have food
• 2:56:58
  and good water, and peace and each other, he repeated to himself.
• 2:57:03
  He turned then and looked at the girl, and it was as though in
• 2:57:07
  the days that they had been together, this was the first time that he
• 2:57:11
  had really seen her. The circumstances that had thrown them together, the dangers
• 2:57:16
  through which they had passed, all the weird and horrible surroundings that had formed
• 2:57:22
  the background of his knowledge of her, had had their effect. She had
• 2:57:26
  been but the companion of an adventure. Her self, reliance, her endurance,
• 2:57:31
  her loyalty had been only what one man might take spect of another.
• 2:57:37
  And he saw that he had unconsciously assumed an attitude toward her that he might
• 2:57:41
  have assumed toward a man. Yet there had been a difference. He recalled
• 2:57:46
  now, the strange sensation of elation that had thrilled him upon the occasions when
• 2:57:52
  the girl had pressed his hand in hers, and the depression that had followed
• 2:57:56
  her announcement of her love for Antac. He took a step toward her,
• 2:58:01
  a fierce yearning to seize her and crush her in his arms, swept over
• 2:58:05
  him. And then there flashed upon the screen of recollection the picture of a
• 2:58:09
  stately hall set amidst broad gardens and ancient trees, and of a proud old
• 2:58:16
  man with beetling brows, an old man who held his head very high.
• 2:58:20
  And Bradley shook his head and turned away again. They went back then to
• 2:58:26
  their little acre, and the days came and went, And the man fashioned
• 2:58:31
  spear and bow and arrows, and hunted with them that they might have meat.
• 2:58:35
  And he made hooks of fish bone, and caught fishes with wondrous flies
• 2:58:39
  of his own invention. And the girl gathered fruits and cooked the flesh and
• 2:58:45
  the fish, and made beds of branches and soft grasses. She cured the
• 2:58:50
  hides of the animals he killed, and made them soft by much pounding.
• 2:58:54
  She made sandals for herself and for the man, and fashioned a high after
• 2:59:00
  the manner of those worn by the warriors of her tribe, and made the
• 2:59:03
  man wear it, for his own garments were in rags. She was always
• 2:59:09
  the same, sweet and kind and helpful, but always there was about her
• 2:59:13
  manner and her expression just a trace of wistfulness, and often she sat and
• 2:59:20
  looked at the man when he did not know it, her brows puckered in
• 2:59:24
  thought, as though she were trying to fathom and to understand him. In
• 2:59:30
  the face of the cliff, Bradley scooped a cave from the rotted granite of
• 2:59:33
  which the hill was composed, making a shelter for them against the reins.
• 2:59:39
  He brought wood for their cook fire, which they used only in the middle
• 2:59:43
  of the day, a time when there was little likelihood of wearoos being in
• 2:59:48
  the air so far from their city, And then he learned to bank it
• 2:59:50
  with earth in such a way that the embers held until the following noon without
• 2:59:56
  giving off smoke. Always he was planning on reaching the mainland, and never
• 3:00:01
  a day passed that he did not go to the top of the hill and
• 3:00:05
  look out across the sea towards the dark, distant line that meant for him
• 3:00:09
  comparative freedom and possibly reunion with his comrades. The girl always went with him,
• 3:00:16
  standing at his side and watching the stern expression on his face, with
• 3:00:20
  just a tinge of sadness on her own. You are not happy, she
• 3:00:26
  said once. I should be over there with my men. He replied,
• 3:00:30
  I do not know what may have happened to them. I want you to
• 3:00:33
  be happy, she said, quite simply. But I should be very lonely
• 3:00:37
  if you went away and left me here. He put his hand on her
• 3:00:41
  shoulder. I would not do that, little girl, he said gently.
• 3:00:46
  If you cannot go with me, I shall not go. If either of
• 3:00:50
  us must go alone, it will be you. Her face lighted to a
• 3:00:54
  wondrous smile. Then we shall not be separated, she said, for I
• 3:01:01
  shall never leave you as long as we both live. He looked down into
• 3:01:05
  her face for a moment. And then who is Antac? He asked,
• 3:01:11
  my brother? She replied, why? And then, even less than before
• 3:01:16
  could he tell her. It was then that he did something he had never
• 3:01:20
  done before. He put his arms about her, and, stooping, kissed
• 3:01:24
  her forehead. Until you find Antac, he said, I will be your
• 3:01:28
  brother. She drew away. I already have a brother, she said,
• 3:01:35
  and I do not want another. End of Chapter four. Chapter five.
• 3:01:41
  Days became weeks, and weeks became months, and the months followed one another
• 3:01:46
  in a lazy procession of hot, humid days and warm, humid nights.
• 3:01:52
  The fugitives never saw a whiru by day, though often at night they heard
• 3:01:58
  the melancholy flapping of giant wings far above them. Each day was much like
• 3:02:03
  its predecessor. Bradley splashed about for a few minutes in the cold pool early
• 3:02:09
  each morning, and after a time the girl tried it and l liked it.
• 3:02:13
  Toward the center it was deep enough for swimming, and so he taught
• 3:02:16
  her to swim. She was probably the first human being in all cast packs
• 3:02:20
  long ages who had done this thing. And then while she prepared breakfast,
• 3:02:26
  the man shaved. This he never neglected at first. It was a source
• 3:02:31
  of wonderment to the girl, for the Galu men are beardless. When they
• 3:02:35
  needed meat, he hunted. Otherwise, he busied himself in improving their shelter,
• 3:02:41
  making new and better weapons, perfecting his knowledge of the girl's language,
• 3:02:46
  and teaching her to speak and to write English, anything that would keep them
• 3:02:50
  both occupied. He still sought new plans for escape, but with ever lessening
• 3:02:56
  enthusiasm, since each new scheme presented some insurre montable obstacle. And then,
• 3:03:01
  one day, as a bolt out of a clear sky, came that which
• 3:03:05
  blasted the peace and security of their sanctuary forever Bradley was just emerging from the
• 3:03:11
  water after his morning plunge when from overhead came the sound of flapping wings.
• 3:03:18
  Glancing quickly up, the man saw a white robe Whiru, circling slowly above
• 3:03:22
  him. That he had been discovered, he could not doubt, since the
• 3:03:26
  creature even dropped to a lower altitude, as though to assure itself that what
• 3:03:31
  it saw was a man. Then it rose rapidly and winged away toward the
• 3:03:35
  city. For two days, Bradley and the girl lived in a constant state
• 3:03:41
  of apprehension, awaiting the moment when the hunters would come for them. But
• 3:03:46
  nothing happened until just after dawn of the third day, when the flapping of
• 3:03:50
  wings apprised them of the approach of Wiru's Together, they went to the edge
• 3:03:56
  of the wood and looked up to see five red rogue creatures dropping slowly in
• 3:04:00
  ever lessening spirals toward their little amphitheater. With no attempt at concealment. They
• 3:04:05
  came sure of their ability to overwhelm these two fugitives, and with the fullest
• 3:04:11
  measure of self confidence, they landed in the clearing, but a few yards
• 3:04:16
  from the man and the girl. Following a plan already discussed, Bradley and
• 3:04:22
  the girl retreated slowly into the woods. The weirrous advanced, calling upon them
• 3:04:26
  to give themselves up, but the quarry made no reply. Farther and farther
• 3:04:31
  into the little wood, Bradley led the hunters, permitting them to approach even
• 3:04:35
  closer. Then he circled back again toward the clearing, evidently to the great
• 3:04:41
  delight of the weirus, who now followed more leisurely, awaiting the moment when
• 3:04:46
  they should be beyond the trees and able to use their wings. They had
• 3:04:50
  opened into semicircular formation, now with the evident intention of cutting the two off
• 3:04:58
  from returning into the wood. Each Whiru advanced with his curved blade ready in
• 3:05:03
  his hand, each hideous, face blank and expressionless. It was then that
• 3:05:09
  Bradley opened fire with his pistol, three shots, aimed with careful deliberation,
• 3:05:13
  for it had been long since he had used the weapon, and he could
• 3:05:18
  not afford to chance wasting ammunition on missus. At each shot, a weiru
• 3:05:22
  dropped, and then the remaining two sought escape by flight, screaming and wailing
• 3:05:26
  after the manner of their kind. When a weiru runs, his wings spread
• 3:05:31
  almost without anybolition upon his part. Since from time immemorial he has always used
• 3:05:37
  them to balance himself and accelerate his running speed, so that in the open
• 3:05:41
  they appeared to skim the surface of the ground when in the act of running.
• 3:05:46
  But here in the woods, among the close set bowls, the spreading
• 3:05:50
  of their wings proved their undoing. It hindered and stopped them, and threw
• 3:05:54
  them to the ground. And then Bradley was upon them, threatening them with
• 3:05:58
  instant death if they did not surrender, promising them their freedom if they did
• 3:06:03
  his bidding. As you have seen, he cried, I can kill you
• 3:06:07
  when I wish, and at a distance you cannot escape me. Your only
• 3:06:11
  hope of life lies in obedience, quick or I kill. The weirus stopped
• 3:06:18
  and faced him. What do you want of us, asked one, Throw
• 3:06:22
  aside your weapons, Bradley commanded. After a moment's hesitation, they obeyed.
• 3:06:28
  Now approach a great plan. The only plan had suddenly come to him like
• 3:06:33
  an inspiration. The weirus came closer and halted at his command. Bradley turned
• 3:06:39
  to the girl. There is a rope in the shelter, he said,
• 3:06:41
  fetch it. She did as he bid, and then he directed her to
• 3:06:46
  fasten one end of a fifty foot length to the ankle of one of the
• 3:06:48
  weirus, and the opposite end to the second. The creatures gave evidence of
• 3:06:54
  great fear, but they dared not attempt to prevent the act. Now go
• 3:06:58
  out into the cleary, said Bradley, and remember that I am walking close
• 3:07:03
  behind, and that I will shoot the nearer one should either attempt to escape.
• 3:07:07
  That will hold the other until I can kill him as well. In
• 3:07:11
  the open, he halted them. The girl will get upon the back of
• 3:07:15
  the one in front, announced the Englishman. I will mount the other.
• 3:07:20
  She carries a sharp blade, and I carry this weapon that you now kills
• 3:07:24
  easily at a distance. If you disobey in the slightest the instructions that I
• 3:07:28
  am about to give you, you shall both die. That we must die
• 3:07:33
  with you will not deter us. If you obey, I promise to set
• 3:07:37
  you free without harming you. You will carry us due west, depositing us
• 3:07:41
  upon the shore of the mainland. That is all. It is the price
• 3:07:46
  of your lives. Do you agree? Sullenly? The weirus acquiesced. Bradley
• 3:07:52
  examined the knots that held the rope to their ankles, and, feeling them
• 3:07:56
  secure, directed the girl to mount the back of the leading whiru, himself
• 3:08:01
  upon the other. Then he gave the signal for the two to rise.
• 3:08:05
  Together with loud flapping of the powerful wings, the creatures took to the air,
• 3:08:11
  circling once before they topped the trees upon the hill, and then taking
• 3:08:16
  a course due west out over the waters of the sea. Nowhere about them
• 3:08:20
  could Bradley see signs of other whirus, nor of those other menaces which he
• 3:08:24
  had feared might bring disaster to his plans for escape. The huge winged reptilia
• 3:08:31
  that are so numerous above the southern areas of Caspack, and which are often
• 3:08:35
  seen, though in lesser numbers, farther north, nearer and nearer, loomed
• 3:08:39
  the mainland. A broad part like expanse, stretching inland to the foot of
• 3:08:45
  a low plateau spread out before them. The little dots in the foreground became
• 3:08:50
  grazing herds of deer and antelope, and boss. A huge wooly rhinoceros wallowed
• 3:08:56
  in a mud hole. To the right, and beyond a mighty mammoth culled
• 3:09:00
  the tender shoots from a tall tree. The roars and screams and growls of
• 3:09:05
  giant carnivora came faintly to their ears. Ah, this was cast back,
• 3:09:09
  with all its dangers and its primal savagery. It brought a fullness to the
• 3:09:15
  throat of the Englishman, as to one who sees and hears the familiar sights
• 3:09:18
  and sounds of home after a long absence. Then the wearoos dropped swiftly downward
• 3:09:24
  to the flower starred turf that grew almost to the water's edge. The fugitives
• 3:09:30
  slipped from their backs, and Bradley told the red robe creatures they were free
• 3:09:35
  to go. When he had cut the ropes from their ankles, they rose
• 3:09:37
  with that uncanny wailing upon their lips that always brought a shudder to the Englishman,
• 3:09:43
  and upon dismal wings they flapped away toward frightful ou. Oh. When
• 3:09:48
  the creatures had gone, the girl turned toward Bradley. Why did you have
• 3:09:52
  them bring us here? She asked? Now we are far from my country.
• 3:09:58
  We may never live to reach it. We are among enemies who,
• 3:10:01
  while not so horrible, will kill us just as surely as with the weirrous
• 3:10:05
  should they capture us, and we have before us many marches through lands filled
• 3:10:09
  with savage beasts. There were two reasons, replied Bradley. You told me
• 3:10:16
  that there are two Weiru cities at the eastern end of the island. To
• 3:10:20
  have passed near either of them might have been to have brought about our heads
• 3:10:24
  hundreds of the creatures from whom we could not possibly have escaped. Again,
• 3:10:28
  my friends must be near this spot. It cannot be over two marches to
• 3:10:33
  the fort of which I have told you. It is my duty to return
• 3:10:37
  to them. If they still live. We shall find a way to return
• 3:10:41
  you to your people. And you asked the girl, I escape from ou,
• 3:10:46
  oh, replied Bradley. I have accomplished the impossible once, and so
• 3:10:50
  I shall accomplish it again. I shall escape from cast back. He was
• 3:10:56
  not looking at her face as he answered her, and so he did not
• 3:11:01
  see the shadow of sorrow that crossed her countenance. When he raised his eyes
• 3:11:05
  again, she was smiling. What you wish, I wish, said the
• 3:11:09
  girl. Southward along the coast, they made their way, following the beach
• 3:11:15
  where the walking was best, but always keeping close enough to trees to insure
• 3:11:20
  sanctuary from the beasts and reptiles that so often menaced them. It was late
• 3:11:26
  in the afternoon when the girl suddenly seized Bradley's arm and pointed straight ahead along
• 3:11:31
  the shore. What is that, she whispered, What strange reptile is it?
• 3:11:35
  Bradley looked in the direction her slim forefinger indicated. He rubbed his eyes
• 3:11:41
  and looked again, and then he seized her wrist and drew her quickly behind
• 3:11:46
  a clump of bushes. What is it, she asked. It is the
• 3:11:50
  most frightful reptile that the waters of the world have ever known. He replied,
• 3:11:54
  It is a German u boat. An expression of amazement and understanding lighted
• 3:12:01
  her features. It is the thing of which you told me, she exclaimed,
• 3:12:05
  The thing that swims under the water and carries men in its belly.
• 3:12:09
  It is, replied Bradley. Then why do you hide from it, asked
• 3:12:13
  the girl. You said that now it belonged to your friends. Many months
• 3:12:18
  have passed since I knew what was going on among my friends, he replied,
• 3:12:24
  I cannot know what has befallen them. They should have been gone from
• 3:12:28
  here in this vessel long since, and so I cannot understand why it is
• 3:12:33
  still here. I am going to investigate first before I show myself. When
• 3:12:37
  I left, there were more Germans on the U thirty three than there were
• 3:12:41
  men of my own party at the fort, and I have had sufficient experience
• 3:12:46
  of Germans to know that they will bear watching if they have not been properly
• 3:12:50
  watched since I left. Making their way through a fringe of wood that grew
• 3:12:54
  a few yards inland, the two crept unseen toward the U boat, which
• 3:13:00
  lay moored to the shore at a point which Bradley now recognized as being near
• 3:13:03
  the oil pool north of Dinosaur. As close as possible to the vessel,
• 3:13:09
  they halted, crouching low among the dense vegetation, and watched the boat for
• 3:13:15
  signs of human life about it. The hatches were closed, no one could
• 3:13:20
  be seen or heard for five minutes. Bradley watched, and then he determined
• 3:13:24
  to board the submarine and investigate. He had risen to carry his decision into
• 3:13:30
  effect when there suddenly broke upon his ear. Uttered in loud and menacing tones,
• 3:13:35
  a volley of German oaths and expletives, among which he heard English A
• 3:13:41
  swine hunda repeated several times. The voice did not come from the direction of
• 3:13:46
  the eu Bolt, but from inland. Creeping forward, Bradley reached a spot
• 3:13:52
  where through the creepers hanging from the trees, he could see a party of
• 3:13:56
  men coming down toward the shore. He saw Baron fried Greak, Bonchuenborts and
• 3:14:01
  six of his men, all armed, while marching in a little knot among
• 3:14:05
  them were Oltsen, Brady, Sinclair, Wilson and Whiteley. Bradley knew nothing
• 3:14:11
  of the disappearance of Bowen, Tyler and Miss LaRue, nor of the perfidy
• 3:14:16
  of the Germans in shelling the fort and attempting to escape in the U thirty
• 3:14:20
  three, but he was in no way surprised at what he saw before him.
• 3:14:26
  The little party came slowly onward, the prisoners staggering beneath heavy cans of
• 3:14:31
  oil, while Schwartz, one of the German non commissioned officers, cursed and
• 3:14:35
  beat them with a stick of wood, impartially. Bon Schuenbords walked in the
• 3:14:41
  rear of the column, encouraging Schwartz and laughing at the discomfiture of the Britishers.
• 3:14:46
  Deets, Hintz and Clots also seemed to enjoy the entertainment immensely, but
• 3:14:52
  two of the men, Plesser and Hindel, marched with eyes straight to the
• 3:14:56
  front and with scowling faces. Bradley felt his blood boil at sight of the
• 3:15:01
  cowardly indignities being heaped upon his men, and in the brief span of time
• 3:15:07
  occupied by the column to come abreast of where he lay hidden, he made
• 3:15:11
  his plans foolhardy though he knew them. Then he drew the girl close to
• 3:15:16
  him. Stay here, he whispered, I am going out to fight those
• 3:15:20
  beasts, but I shall be killed. Do not let them see you.
• 3:15:24
  Do not let them take you alive. They are more cruel, more cowardly,
• 3:15:30
  more beast ill than the wearer's. The girl pressed close to him,
• 3:15:33
  her face very white. Go if that is right, she whispered. But
• 3:15:39
  if you die, I shall die, for I cannot live without you.
• 3:15:43
  He looked sharply into her eyes. Oh, he ejaculated, What an idiot
• 3:15:50
  I bet, Nor could I live without you, little girl, And he
• 3:15:54
  drew her very close and kissed her lips good bye. He disengaged him from
• 3:16:00
  her arms and looked again in time to see that the rear of the column
• 3:16:03
  had just passed him. Then he rose and leaped quickly and silently from the
• 3:16:09
  jungle. Suddenly Bonchuenbords felt an arm thrown about his neck, and his pistol
• 3:16:15
  jerked from its holster. He gave a cry of fright and warning, and
• 3:16:18
  his men turned to see a half naked white man holding their leaders securely from
• 3:16:22
  behind and aiming a pistol at them over his shoulder. Drop those guns came
• 3:16:28
  in short, sharp syllables and perfect German from the lips of the newcomer.
• 3:16:33
  Drop them, or I'll put a bullet through the back of Bonschuenbort's head.
• 3:16:37
  The Germans hesitated for a moment, looking first toward Bonchuenborts and then to Schwartz,
• 3:16:43
  who was evidently second in command for orders. It's the English pig,
• 3:16:48
  Bradley, shouted the latter, and he's alone. Go and get him.
• 3:16:52
  Go yourself, growled Plesser. Hindle moved close to the side of Blesser and
• 3:16:56
  whispered something to him. The latter nodded. Suddenly Von Schoenvortz wheeled about and
• 3:17:03
  seized Bradley's pistol arm with both hands. Now he shouted, come and take
• 3:17:07
  him quick. Schwartz and three others leaped forward, but Plesser and Hindel held
• 3:17:13
  back, looking questioningly toward the English prisoners. Then Plesser spoke nolly sur chance
• 3:17:20
  Englander. He called in lotons, seize Hindle and me and take our guns
• 3:17:24
  from us. Be e will not fight hard. Oltson and Brady were not
• 3:17:28
  long in acting upon the suggestion they had seen enough of the brutal treatment von
• 3:17:33
  Schoenbortz accorded his men and the especially venomous attentions he had taken great enjoyment in,
• 3:17:39
  according Plesser and Hindel to understand that these two might be sincere in a
• 3:17:45
  desire for revenge. In another moment, the two Germans were unarmed, and
• 3:17:50
  Olson and Brady were running to the support of Bradley. But already it seemed
• 3:17:54
  too late. Von Schoenvorts had managed to drag the Englishmen around so that his
• 3:18:00
  back was toward Schwartz and the other advancing Germans. Schwartz was almost upon Bradley,
• 3:18:05
  with gun clubbed and ready to smash down upon the englishman's skull. Brady
• 3:18:11
  and Olson were charging the Germans in the rear, with Wilson, Whitely and
• 3:18:16
  Sinclair supporting them with bare fists. It seemed that Bradley was doomed when apparently
• 3:18:20
  out of space, an arrow whizzed, striking Schwartz in the side, passing
• 3:18:26
  half way through his body to crumple him to the earth with a shriek.
• 3:18:30
  The man fell, and at the same time Oltson and Brady saw the slim
• 3:18:33
  figure of a young girl standing at the edge of the jungle, coolly fitting
• 3:18:39
  another arrow to her bull. Bradley had now succeeded in wrestling his arm free
• 3:18:43
  from von Schwenwert's grip and in dropping the ladder with a blow from the butt
• 3:18:48
  of his pistol. The rest of the English and Germans were engaged in a
• 3:18:52
  hand to hand encounter, Plesser and Hindel, standing aside from the melee and
• 3:18:58
  urging their comrade to surrender and join with the English against the tyranny of von
• 3:19:03
  Schuenworts, Hints and Clots, possibly influenced by their exhortation, were putting up
• 3:19:09
  but a half hearted resistance. But Deets, a huge bearded booneck Prussian,
• 3:19:15
  yelling like a maniac, sought to exterminate the English fine hind with his bayonet,
• 3:19:20
  fearing to fire his peace lest he kill some of his comrades. It
• 3:19:26
  was Oltsen who engaged him, and though unused to the long German rifle and
• 3:19:30
  bayonet, he met the bulrush of the hun with the cold, cruel precision
• 3:19:35
  and science of English bayonet fighting. There was no fainting, no retiring,
• 3:19:39
  and no parrying that was not also an attack. Bayonet fighting to day is
• 3:19:45
  not a pretty thing to see. It is not an artistic fencing match in
• 3:19:48
  which men give and take. It is slaughter, inevitable and quickly over deets.
• 3:19:56
  Lunged once madly at Oltson's throat, a short point, with just a
• 3:20:00
  twist of the bayonet to the left, sent the sharp blade over the Englishman's
• 3:20:03
  left shoulder. Instantly, he stepped close in, dropped his rifle through his
• 3:20:09
  hands and grasped it with both hands close below the muzzle, and with a
• 3:20:13
  short, sharp jab, sent his blade up beneath each chin to the brain.
• 3:20:18
  So quickly was a thing done, and so quick the withdrawal that Olson
• 3:20:22
  had wheeled to take on another adversary before the German's corpse had toppled to the
• 3:20:26
  ground. But there were no more adversaries to take on. Hindes and clots
• 3:20:31
  had thrown down their rifles, and with hands above their heads were crying,
• 3:20:37
  Comrade, comrade, at the tops of their voices. Bon Schuenborg still lay
• 3:20:41
  where he had fallen. Klesser and Hindle were explaining to Bradley that they were
• 3:20:46
  glad of the outcome of the fight, as they could no longer endure the
• 3:20:50
  brutality of the U boat commander. The remainder of the men were looking at
• 3:20:54
  the girl, who now advanced slowly, her bow ready. When they turned
• 3:21:00
  toward her and held out his hand, Kotan, he said, unstring your
• 3:21:05
  bow. These are my friends and yours. And to the Englishman, this
• 3:21:09
  is Kotan. You who saw her save me from Schwartz, know a part
• 3:21:15
  of what I owe her. The rough men gathered about the girl, and
• 3:21:18
  when she spoke to the men broken English, with a smile upon her lips,
• 3:21:24
  enhancing the charm of her irresistible accent, each and every one of them
• 3:21:28
  promptly fell in love with her, and constituted himself henceforth her guardian and her
• 3:21:33
  slave. A moment later, the attention of each was called to Plesser by
• 3:21:39
  a volley of invective. They turned in time to see the man running toward
• 3:21:43
  Bonchuenborts, who was just rising from the ground. Plesser carried a rifle with
• 3:21:48
  bayonet fixed that he had snatched from the side of Deet's corps. Bonchuenbort's face
• 3:21:54
  was livid with fear, his jaws working as though he would call for help,
• 3:21:58
  but no sound came from his blue lips. You struck me, shrieked
• 3:22:03
  Blesser. Once twice, three times. You struck me pig. You murdered
• 3:22:11
  Ferk. You drove him insane by your cruelty until he took his own life.
• 3:22:16
  You are only one of your kind. They are all like you,
• 3:22:20
  from the Kaiser down. I wish that you were the Kaiser. That's what
• 3:22:24
  I do. And he lunged his bayonet through von Schuenberg's chest. Then he
• 3:22:30
  let his rifle fall with the dying man and wheeled toward Bradley. Here I
• 3:22:35
  am, he said, do with me as you like. All my life
• 3:22:39
  I have been kick'd and cuffed by such as that, and yet alvis I
• 3:22:45
  have gone out when they commanded, singing to give up my life if need
• 3:22:48
  be, to keep them in pava. Only lately have I come to know
• 3:22:54
  what a fool I have been, But now I am no longer a fool.
• 3:22:58
  And beside as, I am avenged and Swarek is avenged. So you
• 3:23:03
  can kill me if you wish. Here I am. If I bays after
• 3:23:07
  beIN the king, said Olson, I'd pin the thee sea on your noble
• 3:23:11
  chist, But beIN only an eye Richmond of his a freed name for which
• 3:23:16
  God forgive me. The beast I can do is shake your hand. You
• 3:23:22
  will not be punished, said Bradley. There are four of you left.
• 3:23:26
  If you four want to come along and work with us, we will take
• 3:23:28
  you, but you will come as prisoners. It suits me, said Plessure.
• 3:23:35
  Now that to Captain dew Tended is dead, you need not fear us.
• 3:23:39
  All our lives we have known nothing but to obey his class. If
• 3:23:43
  I had not killed him, I suppose I would be fool enough to obey
• 3:23:48
  him again. But he is dead. Now ye will obey you. We
• 3:23:52
  must obey some one and you. Bradley turned to the other survivors of the
• 3:23:58
  original crew of the You thirty three each promised obedience. The two dead Germans
• 3:24:03
  were buried in a single grave, and then the party boarded the submarine and
• 3:24:07
  stowed away the oil. Here Bradley told the men what had befallen him since
• 3:24:13
  the night of September fourteenth, when he had disappeared so mysteriously from the camp
• 3:24:18
  upon the plateau. Now he learned for the first time that Bowen J.
• 3:24:24
  Tyler Junior and Miss LaRue had been missing even longer than he, and that
• 3:24:28
  no faintest trace of them had been discovered. Olsen told him of how the
• 3:24:33
  Germans had returned and waited in ambush for them outside the fort, capturing them
• 3:24:39
  that they might be used to assist in the work of refining the oil and
• 3:24:43
  later in manning the U thirty three. And Plesser told briefly of the experiences
• 3:24:48
  of the German crew under Bonchuenvortz since they had escaped from cast back months before,
• 3:24:54
  of how they lost their bearings after having been shelled by ships they had
• 3:25:00
  attempted to sneak farther north, and how it last, with provisions gone and
• 3:25:05
  fuel almost exhausted, they had sought and at last found, more by accident
• 3:25:09
  than design, the mysterious island they had once been so glad to leave behind.
• 3:25:16
  Now announced Bradley, we'll plan for the future. The boat has fuel,
• 3:25:20
  provisions and water for a month. I believe you said, bless her,
• 3:25:24
  there are ten of us to man it. We have a last sad
• 3:25:26
  duty here. We must search for miss LaRue and mister Tyler, I say
• 3:25:31
  a sad duty because we know that we shall not find them. But it
• 3:25:35
  is none the less our duty to comb the shoreline, firing signal shells at
• 3:25:39
  intervals, that we at least may leave at last with full knowledge that we
• 3:25:45
  have done all that men might do to locate them. None dissented from this
• 3:25:48
  conviction, nor was there a voice raised in protest against the plan to at
• 3:25:54
  least make assurance doubly sure before quitting cast back forever. And so they started
• 3:26:00
  cruising slowly up the coast and firing an occasional shot from the gun. Often
• 3:26:05
  the vessel was brought to a stop, and always there were anxious eyes scanning
• 3:26:09
  the shore for an answering signal. Late in the afternoon they caught sight of
• 3:26:15
  a number of Bandloo warriors. But when the vessel approached the shore and the
• 3:26:20
  natives realized that human beings stood upon the back of the strange monster of the
• 3:26:24
  sea, they fled in terror before Bradley could come with inhaling distance. That
• 3:26:31
  night, they dropped anchor at the mouth of a sluggish stream whose warm waters
• 3:26:35
  swarmed with millions of tiny tadpole like organisms, minute human spawn, starting on
• 3:26:41
  their precarious journey from some inland pool toward the beginning, a journey which one
• 3:26:48
  in millions might perhaps survive to complete. Already almost at the inception of life,
• 3:26:54
  they were being greeted by thousands of voracious mouths, as fish and reptiles
• 3:27:00
  of many kinds fought to devour them, the while other and larger creatures pursued
• 3:27:05
  the devours, to be in turn preyed upon by some other of the countless
• 3:27:09
  forms that inhabit the deeps of Caprona's frightful Sea. The second day was practically
• 3:27:16
  a repetition of the first. They moved very slowly, with frequent stops,
• 3:27:22
  and once they landed in the crolew country to hunt. Here they were attacked
• 3:27:26
  by the bow and arrow men, whom they could not persuade to pulav with
• 3:27:30
  them. So belligerent were the natives that it became necessary to fire into them
• 3:27:35
  in order to escape their persistent and ferocious attentions. What chance asked Bradley,
• 3:27:41
  as they were returning to the boat with their game. Could Tyler and Miss
• 3:27:46
  LaRue have had among such as these? But they continued on their fruitless quest,
• 3:27:50
  and the third day, after cruising along the shore of a deep inlet,
• 3:27:54
  they passed a line of lofty cliffs that formed the southern shore of the
• 3:27:58
  inlet and rounded a sharp promontory. About noon. Kotan and Bradley were on
• 3:28:05
  deck alone, and as the new shore line appeared beyond the point, the
• 3:28:09
  girl gave an exclamation of joy and seized the man's hand in hers. Oh
• 3:28:15
  look, she cried, the Gallous country, the Galu country. It is
• 3:28:20
  my country that I never thought to see again. You are glad to come
• 3:28:24
  again, Kotan asked Bradley. Oh so glad, she cried. And you
• 3:28:31
  will come with me to my people. We may live here among them,
• 3:28:35
  and you will be a great warrior. Oh when your dies, you may
• 3:28:39
  even be chief, For there is none so mighty as my warrior. You
• 3:28:43
  will come. Bradley shook his head. I cannot, little Kotan, he
• 3:28:48
  answered, My country needs me, and I must go back. Maybe some
• 3:28:54
  day I shall return. You will not forget me Kotan. She looked at
• 3:28:58
  him and wide eyed. Wonder you are going away from me? She asked,
• 3:29:03
  in a very small voice. You are going away from Kotan. Bradley
• 3:29:09
  looked down upon the little bowed head. He felt the soft cheek against his
• 3:29:13
  bare arm, and he felt something else there too, hot drops of moisture
• 3:29:18
  that ran down to his very finger tips and splashed, but each one wrung
• 3:29:22
  from a woman's heart. He bent low and raised the tear stained face to
• 3:29:28
  his own. No, Kotan, he said, I am not going away
• 3:29:31
  from you, for you are going with me. You are going back to
• 3:29:35
  my own country to be my wife. Tell me that you will Kotan.
• 3:29:41
  And he bent still lower yet from his height, and kissed her lips.
• 3:29:46
  Nor did he need more than the wonderful new light in her eyes to tell
• 3:29:50
  him that she would go to the end of the world with him if he
• 3:29:54
  would but take her. And then the gun crew came up from below again
• 3:29:58
  to fire a signal shot, and the two were brought down from the high
• 3:30:01
  heaven of their new happiness to the scarred and weather beaten deck of the U
• 3:30:07
  thirty three. An hour later, the vessel was running close in by a
• 3:30:11
  shore of wondrous beauty, beside a part like meadow that stretched back a mile
• 3:30:16
  inland to the foot of a plateau. When Whiteley called attention to a score
• 3:30:22
  of figures clambering downward from the elevation to the lowland below, the engines were
• 3:30:28
  reversed and the boat brought to a stop, while all hands gathered on deck
• 3:30:31
  to watch the little party coming toward them across the meadow. They are gallows,
• 3:30:37
  cried Kotan. They are my own people. Let me speak to them,
• 3:30:41
  lest they think we come to fight them. Put me ashore, my
• 3:30:45
  man, and I will go meet them. The nose of the U boat
• 3:30:48
  was run close in to the steep bank, But when Kotan would have run
• 3:30:52
  forward alone, Bradley seized her hand and held her back. I will go
• 3:30:56
  with you, Kotan, he said, and together they advanced to meet the
• 3:31:01
  oncoming party. There were about twenty warriors moving forward in a thin line as
• 3:31:07
  our infantry advance as skirmishers. Bradley could not but notice the marked difference between
• 3:31:13
  this formation and the moblike methods of the lower tribes he had come in contact
• 3:31:18
  with, and he commented upon it to Kotan. Galou warriors always advance into
• 3:31:22
  battle. Thus, she said, the lesser people remain in a huddled group
• 3:31:28
  where they can scarce use their weapons. The while they present so big a
• 3:31:33
  mark to us that our spears and arrows cannot miss them. But when they
• 3:31:37
  hurl theirs at our warriors, if they miss the first man, there is
• 3:31:41
  no chance that they will kill some one behind him. Stand still now,
• 3:31:46
  she cautioned, and fold your arms. They will not harmss them. Bradley
• 3:31:52
  did as he was bid, and the two stood with arms folded as the
• 3:31:56
  line of warriors approached. When they had come within some fifty yards, they
• 3:32:01
  halted, and one spoke, Who are you? And from whence do you
• 3:32:05
  come? He asked? And then Kotan gave a little glad cry and sprang
• 3:32:11
  forward with outstretched arms outain, She exclaimed, Do you not know your little
• 3:32:16
  Kotan. The warrior stared incredulous for a moment, and then he too ran
• 3:32:22
  forward, and when they met, took the girl in his arms. It
• 3:32:26
  was then that Bradley experienced to the full a sensation that was new to him,
• 3:32:33
  a sudden hatred for the strained warrior before him, and a desire to
• 3:32:37
  kill without knowing why he would kill, he moved quickly to the girl's side
• 3:32:41
  and grasped her wrist. Who is this man, he demanded in cold tones.
• 3:32:48
  Kotan turned a surprised face toward the Englishman, and then of a sudden
• 3:32:52
  broke forth into a merry peal of laughter. This is my father, Bradley,
• 3:32:56
  she cried. And who is Bradley, demanded the warrior. He is
• 3:33:01
  my man, replied Cotan. Simply by what right, insisted Tad, And
• 3:33:09
  then she told him briefly of all that she had passed through since the weirus
• 3:33:13
  had stolen her, and of how Bradley had rescued her and sought to rescue
• 3:33:16
  Antac, her brother. You are satisfied with him, asked Tad, Yes,
• 3:33:22
  replied the girl proudly. It was then that Bradley's attention was attracted to
• 3:33:28
  the edge of the plateau by a movement there, and looking closely, he
• 3:33:33
  saw a horse bearing two figures sliding down the steep declivity. Once at the
• 3:33:39
  bottom, the animal came charging across the meadow land at a rapid run.
• 3:33:43
  It was a magnificent animal, a great bay stallion with a white blazed face
• 3:33:50
  and white fore legs. To the knees, its barrel encircled by a broad
• 3:33:54
  surcingle of white, and as it came to a sudden stop beside Tan,
• 3:33:58
  the English and saw that it bore a man and a girl, a tall
• 3:34:03
  man and a girl as beautiful as Kotan. When the girl espied the latter,
• 3:34:07
  she slid from the horse and ran toward her, fairly, screaming for
• 3:34:11
  joy. The man dismounted and stood beside Tan. Like Bradley, he was
• 3:34:16
  garbed after the fashion of the surrounding warriors, but there was a subtle difference
• 3:34:22
  between him and his companion. Possibly he detected a similar difference in Bradley,
• 3:34:28
  for his first question was from what country, and though he spoke in Galoo,
• 3:34:33
  Bradley thought he detected an accent England, replied Bradley. A broad smile
• 3:34:39
  lighted the newcomer's face as he held out his hand. I am Tom Billings
• 3:34:45
  of Santa Monica, California, he said, I know all about you,
• 3:34:48
  and I'm mighty glad to find you alive. How did you get here,
• 3:34:52
  asked Bradley. I thought ours was the only party of men from the outer
• 3:34:56
  world ever to enter Kaprona. It was until we came in search of Bowen.
• 3:35:01
  J Tyler Junior, replied, Billings. We found him and sent him
• 3:35:05
  home with his bride, but I was kept a prisoner here. Bradley's face
• 3:35:11
  darkened. Then they were not among friends, after all. There are ten
• 3:35:16
  of us down there on a German sub with small arms and a gun.
• 3:35:20
  He said quickly in English. It will be no trick to get away from
• 3:35:22
  these people. You don't know, my jailor, replied Billings, Or you'd
• 3:35:26
  not be so sure. Wait, I'll introduce you, And then, turning
• 3:35:31
  to the girl who had accompanied him, he called her by name Ajoor,
• 3:35:35
  he said, permit me to introduce Lieutenant Bradley, Lieutenant Missus Billings, my
• 3:35:41
  jailor. The Englishman laughed as he shook hands with the girl. You are
• 3:35:46
  not as good a soldier as I, he said to Billings. Instead of
• 3:35:50
  being taken prisoner myself, I have taken one. Missus Bradley. This is
• 3:35:54
  mister Billings. Ajor, quick to understand, turned toward Kotan. You are
• 3:36:00
  going back with him to his country, she asked. Kotan admitted it.
• 3:36:05
  You dare, asked Ajor, but your father will not permit it. Jor
• 3:36:09
  my father high Chief of the Galows, will not permit it, for like
• 3:36:13
  me, you are cosantlo Oh, Kotan. If we but could, how
• 3:36:18
  I would love to see all the strange and wonderful things of which my Tom
• 3:36:22
  tells me. Bradley bent and whispered in her ear, say the word,
• 3:36:28
  and you may both go with us. Bellings heard and speaking in English,
• 3:36:33
  asked Ajor if she would go. Yes, she answered, if you wish
• 3:36:37
  it. But you know my Tom that if Georg captured us, both you
• 3:36:41
  and Kotan's man will pay the penalty with your lives. Not even his love
• 3:36:46
  for me nor his admiration for you can save you. Bradley noticed that she
• 3:36:52
  spoke in English, broken English like Kotan's, but equally appealing. We can
• 3:36:58
  easily get you aboard the ship, he said, on some pretext or other,
• 3:37:01
  and then we can steam away. They can neither harm nor detain us,
• 3:37:05
  nor will we have to fire a shot at them. And so it
• 3:37:09
  was done, Bradley and Kotan, taking Ajor and Billings aboard to show them
• 3:37:15
  the vessel, which almost immediately raised anchor and moved slowly out into the sea.
• 3:37:20
  I hate to do it, said Billings. They have been fine to
• 3:37:24
  me. Joor and Tan are splendid men, and they will think me an
• 3:37:28
  ingrate. But I can't waste my life here when there is much to be
• 3:37:31
  done in the outer world. As they steamed down the inland Sea past the
• 3:37:37
  island of u O, the stories of their adventures were retold, and Bradley
• 3:37:43
  learned that Bowen Tyler and his bride had left the Galou country but a fortnight
• 3:37:48
  before, and that there was every reason to believe that the Torriodor might still
• 3:37:52
  be lying in the Pacific, not far off the subterranean mouth of the river
• 3:37:58
  which omitted Caprona's heated waters into the ocean. Late in the second day,
• 3:38:03
  after running through swarms of hideous reptiles, they submerged at the point where the
• 3:38:09
  river entered beneath the cliffs, and shortly after rose to the sunlit surface of
• 3:38:13
  the Pacific. But nowhere, as far as they could see, was sign
• 3:38:18
  of another craft down the coast. They steamed toward the beach where Billings had
• 3:38:22
  made his crossing in the hydro aeroplane, and just at dusk the lookout announced
• 3:38:28
  a light dead ahead. It proved to be aboard the Torreador and a half
• 3:38:33
  hour later, there was such a reunion on the deck of the trigged little
• 3:38:37
  yacht as no one there had ever dreamed might be possible. Of the allies,
• 3:38:41
  there were only Tippett and James to be mourned, and no one mourned
• 3:38:46
  any of the Germans dead, nor Benson, the trader, whose ugly story
• 3:38:50
  was first told in Bowen Tyler's manuscript. Tyler and the rescue party had but
• 3:38:56
  just reached the yacht that afternoon. They had heard faintly the signal shots fired
• 3:39:01
  by the You thirty three, but had been unable to locate their direction,
• 3:39:05
  and so had assumed that they had come from the guns of the Torriodor.
• 3:39:09
  It was a happy party that sailed north towards sunny southern California, the old
• 3:39:15
  You thirty three trailing in the wake of the Toryodor, and flying with the
• 3:39:18
  latter the glorious stars and stripes beneath which she had been borne in the shipyard
• 3:39:24
  at Santa Monica. Three newly married couples, their bonds now duly solemnized by
• 3:39:30
  the master of the ship, joyed in the peace and security of the untracked
• 3:39:35
  waters of the South Pacific, and the unique honeymoon, which, had it
• 3:39:39
  not been for stern duty ahead, they could have wished protracted till the end
• 3:39:43
  of time. And so they came one day to dock at the shipyard which
• 3:39:48
  borne Tider now controlled. And here the You thirty three still lies, while
• 3:39:52
  those who pass so many eventful days within and because of her, have gone
• 3:39:58
  their various ways. End of Chapter five, end of Out of Time's Abyss