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Chapter 15: What the Cave Revealed · The Eternal Savage

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Section twenty eight of The Eternal Savage by Edgar Rice Burrows. This liber ofvox
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recording is in the public domain. Chapter fifteen. What the Cave revealed?
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When Victoria Custer opened her eyes, the first face that she saw was that
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of her brother, Barney, bent above her. She looked at him in
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puzzled bewilderment for a moment. Presently, she reached her hands toward him.
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Where am I? She asked? What has happened? You're all right,
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Vic, replied the young man. You're safe and sound in Lord Greystoke's bungalow.
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For another moment, the girl knit her brows in perplexity. But the
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earthquake, she asked, wasn't there an earthquake? A little one, Vic,
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But it didn't amount to anything. There wasn't any damage done. How
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long have I been this way, she continued, You about three minutes ago,
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replied her brother. I just put you down here and sent Esmerelda for
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some brandy. When you opened your eyes, three minutes, murmured the girl.
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Three minutes that night, after the others had retired, Barney Custer sat
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beside his sister's bed, and long into the early morning, she told him
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in simple words and without sign of hysteria. The story that I have told
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here of Naudoul and Nu, the son of Nu. I think, she
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said, when she had finished the strange tale, that I shall be happier
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for this vision, or whatever one may call it. I have met my
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dream man and lived again the life that he and I lived countless ages ago.
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Even if he comes to me in my dreams again, it will not
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disturb me. I am glad that it was but a dream, and that
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mister Curtis was not killed by Turkose, and that all those terrible things were
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not real. Now, said Barney, with a smile, you may be
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able to listen to what Curtis has been trying to tell you. It was
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a half question. Victoria Custer shook her head. No, she said,
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I could never love him. Now I cannot tell you why. But it
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may be that what I have lived through in those three minutes revealed more than
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the dim and distant past. Turcose has never liked him, you know.
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Barney did not pursue the subject. He kissed the girl good night, and
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as the east commenced to lighten to the coming dawn, he sought his own
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room and a few hours sleep. The next day, it was decided that
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Victoria and Barney should start for the coast as soon as porters could be procured,
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which would require but a few days at most. Lieutenant Butzow, Curtis
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and I decided to accompany them. It was the last day of their stay
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at the Greystoke Ranch. The others were hunting. Barney and Victoria had remained
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to put the finishing touches upon the packing, but that was done now,
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and the girl begged for a last ride over the broad game dotted valley of
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Uziri. Before they had covered a mile, Barney saw that his sister had
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some particular object in mind, for she wrote straight as an arrow, and
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rapidly, with scarce a word, straight south, toward the foot of the
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rugged mountains that bound the Wazirri's country upon that side, in the very direction
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that she had previously shunned. After a couple of hours of stiff riding,
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they came to the foot of the lofty cliff that had formerly so filled Victoria
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with terror and misgivings. What's the idea, Vic asked the man. I
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thought you were through with all this? I am Barney, she replied,
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or will be after today. But I just couldn't go away without satisfying my
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curiosity. I want to know that there is no cave here in which a
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man might be buried. She dismounted and started to climb the rugged escarpment.
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Barney was amazed at the agility and strength of the slender girl. It kept
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him puffing to remain near her in her rapid ascent. At last, she
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stopped suddenly upon a narrow ledge. When Barney reached her side, he saw
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that she was very white, and he paled himself when he saw what her
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eyes rested upon. The earthquake had disliked a great boulder that, for ages
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evidently had formed a part of the face of the cliff. Now it had
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tilted outward a half dozen feet, revealing behind it the mouth of a gloomy
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cavern. Barney took Victoria's hand. It was very cold and trembled a little.
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Come. He said, this has gone far enough, Vic, you'll
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be sick again if you keep it up. Come back to the horses.
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We've seen all we want to see. She shook her head. Not until
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I have searched that cave, she said, almost defiantly, and Barney knew
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that she would have her way. Together, they entered the forbidding grotto,
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Barney in advance, striking matches with one hand while he clung to his cocked
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rifle with the other. But there was nothing there that longer had the power
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to injure. In a far corner, the feeble rays of the match lighted
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something that brought Barney to a sudden halt. He tried to turn the girl
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back, as though there was nothing more to be seen, but she had
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seen too, and pressed forward. She made her brother light another match,
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and there before them lay the crumbling skeleton of a large man. By its
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side rested a broken stone tipped spear, and there was a stone knife and
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a stone axe as well. Look, whispered the girl, pointing to something
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that lay just beyond the skeleton. Barney raised the match. He held until
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his feeble flame carried to that other object, the grinning skull of a great
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cat, its upper jaw armed with two mighty eighteen inch curved fangs. Oh,
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the killer of men and of mammals, whispered Victoria Custer in an awed
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voice, and knew the son of Nu who killed him for his natule for
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me end of section twenty eight The End of The Eternal Savage by Edgar Rice Burroughs