We spent two days upon the cliff-top,
resting and recuperating. There
was some small game which gave
us meat, and the little pools
of rainwater were sufficient
to quench our thirst. The sun
came out a few hours after we
emerged from the cave, and in
its warmth we soon cast off the
gloom which our recent experiences
had saddled upon us.
Upon the morning of the third
day we set out to search for
a path down to the valley. Below
us, to the north, we saw a large
pool lying at the foot of the
cliffs, and in it we could discern
the women of the Band-lu lying
in the shallow waters, while
beyond and close to the base
of the mighty barrier-cliffs
there was a large party of Band-lu
warriors going north to hunt.
We had a splendid view from our
lofty cliff-top. Dimly, to the
west, we could see the farther
shore of the inland sea, and
southwest the large southern
island loomed distinctly before
us. A little east of north was
the northern island, which Ajor,
shuddering, whispered was the
home of the Wieroo--the land
of Oo-oh. It lay at the far end
of the lake and was barely visible
to us, being fully sixty miles
away.
From our elevation, and in
a clearer atmosphere, it would
have stood out distinctly; but
the air of Caspak is heavy with
moisture, with the result that
distant objects are blurred and
indistinct. Ajor also told me
that the mainland east of Oo-oh
was her land--the land of the
Galu. She pointed out the cliffs
at its southern boundary, which
mark the frontier, south of which
lies the country of Kro-lu--the
archers. We now had but to pass
through the balance of the Band-lu
territory and that of the Kro-lu
to be within the confines of
her own land; but that meant
traversing thirty-five miles
of hostile country filled with
every imaginable terror, and
possibly many beyond the powers
of imagination. I would certainly
have given a lot for my plane
at that moment, for with it,
twenty minutes would have landed
us within the confines of Ajor's
country.
We finally found a place where
we could slip over the edge of
the cliff onto a narrow ledge
which seemed to give evidence
of being something of a game-path
to the valley, though it apparently
had not been used for some time.
I lowered Ajor at the end of
my rifle and then slid over myself,
and I am free to admit that my
hair stood on end during the
process, for the drop was considerable
and the ledge appallingly narrow,
with a frightful drop sheer below
down to the rocks at the base
of the cliff; but with Ajor there
to catch and steady me, I made
it all right, and then we set
off down the trail toward the
valley. There were two or three
more bad places, but for the
most part it was an easy descent,
and we came to the highest of
the Band-lu caves without further
trouble. Here we went more slowly,
lest we should be set upon by
some member of the tribe.
We must have passed about half
the Band-lu cave-levels before
we were accosted, and then a
huge fellow stepped out in front
of me, barring our further progress.
"Who are you?" he
asked; and he recognized me
and I him, for
he had been one of those who
had led me back into the cave
and bound me the night that I
had been captured. From me his
gaze went to Ajor. He was a fine-looking
man with clear, intelligent eyes,
a good forehead and superb physique--by
far the highest type of Caspakian
I had yet seen, barring Ajor,
of course.
"You are a true Galu," he said
to Ajor, "but this man is of
a different mold. He has the
face of a Galu, but his weapons
and the strange skins he wears
upon his body are not of the
Galus nor of Caspak. Who is he?"
"He is Tom," replied
Ajor succinctly.
"There is no such people," asserted
the Band-lu quite truthfully,
toying with his spear in a most
suggestive manner.
"My name is Tom," I explained, "and
I am from a country beyond Caspak." I
thought it best to propitiate
him if possible, because of the
necessity of conserving ammunition
as well as to avoid the loud
alarm of a shot which might bring
other Band-lu warriors upon us. "I
am from America, a land of which
you never heard, and I am seeking
others of my countrymen who are
in Caspak and from whom I am
lost. I have no quarrel with
you or your people. Let us go
our way in peace."
"You are going there?" he
asked, and pointed toward the
north.
"I am," I replied.
He was silent
for several minutes, apparently
weighing some thought
in his mind. At last he spoke. "What
is that?" he asked. "And what
is that?" He pointed first at
my rifle and then to my pistol.
"They are weapons," I replied, "weapons
which kill at a great distance." I
pointed to the women in the pool
beneath us. "With this," I said,
tapping my pistol, "I could kill
as many of those women as I cared
to, without moving a step from
where we now stand."
He looked his
incredulity, but I went on. "And with this"--I
weighed my rifle at the balance
in the palm of my right hand--"I
could slay one of those distant
warriors." And I waved my left
hand toward the tiny figures
of the hunters far to the north.
The fellow
laughed. "Do it," he
cried derisively, "and then it
may be that I shall believe the
balance of your strange story."
"But I do not wish to kill
any of them," I replied. "Why
should I?"
"Why not?" he insisted. "They
would have killed you when they
had you prisoner. They would
kill you now if they could get
their hands on you, and they
would eat you into the bargain.
But I know why you do not try
it--it is because you have spoken
lies; your weapon will not kill
at a great distance. It is only
a queerly wrought club. For all
I know, you are nothing more
than a lowly Bo-lu."
"Why should you wish me to
kill your own people?" I asked.
"They are no longer my people," he
replied proudly. "Last night,
in the very middle of the night,
the call came to me. Like that
it came into my head"--and he
struck his hands together smartly
once--"that I had risen. I have
been waiting for it and expecting
it for a long time; today I am
a Krolu. Today I go into the
coslupak" (unpeopled country,
or literally, no man's land) "between
the Band-lu and the Kro-lu, and
there I fashion my bow and my
arrows and my shield; there I
hunt the red deer for the leathern
jerkin which is the badge of
my new estate. When these things
are done, I can go to the chief
of the Kro-lu, and he dare not
refuse me. That is why you may
kill those low Band-lu if you
wish to live, for I am in a hurry.
"But why do you wish to kill
me?" I asked.
He looked puzzled
and finally gave it up. "I do not know," he
admitted. "It is the way in Caspak.
If we do not kill, we shall be
killed, therefore it is wise
to kill first whomever does not
belong to one's own people. This
morning I hid in my cave till
the others were gone upon the
hunt, for I knew that they would
know at once that I had become
a Kro-lu and would kill me. They
will kill me if they find me
in the coslupak; so will the
Kro-lu if they come upon me before
I have won my Kro-lu weapons
and jerkin. You would kill me
if you could, and that is the
reason I know that you speak
lies when you say that your weapons
will kill at a great distance.
Would they, you would long since
have killed me. Come! I have
no more time to waste in words.
I will spare the woman and take
her with me to the Kro-lu, for
she is comely." And with that
he advanced upon me with raised
spear.
My rifle was at my hip at the
ready. He was so close that I
did not need to raise it to my
shoulder, having but to pull
the trigger to send him into
Kingdom Come whenever I chose;
but yet I hesitated. It was difficult
to bring myself to take a human
life. I could feel no enmity
toward this savage barbarian
who acted almost as wholly upon
instinct as might a wild beast,
and to the last moment I was
determined to seek some way to
avoid what now seemed inevitable.
Ajor stood at my shoulder, her
knife ready in her hand and a
sneer on her lips at his suggestion
that he would take her with him.
Just as I thought I should
have to fire, a chorus of screams
broke from the women beneath
us. I saw the man halt and glance
downward, and following his example
my eyes took in the panic and
its cause. The women had, evidently,
been quitting the pool and slowly
returning toward the caves, when
they were confronted by a monstrous
cave-lion which stood directly
between them and their cliffs
in the center of the narrow path
that led down to the pool among
the tumbled rocks. Screaming,
the women were rushing madly
back to the pool.
"It will do them no good," remarked
the man, a trace of excitement
in his voice. "It will do them
no good, for the lion will wait
until they come out and take
as many as he can carry away;
and there is one there," he added,
a trace of sadness in his tone, "whom
I hoped would soon follow me
to the Kro-lu. Together have
we come up from the beginning." He
raised his spear above his head
and poised it ready to hurl downward
at the lion. "She is nearest
to him," he muttered. "He will
get her and she will never come
to me among the Kro-lu, or ever
thereafter. It is useless! No
warrior lives who could hurl
a weapon so great a distance."
But even as he spoke, I was
leveling my rifle upon the great
brute below; and as he ceased
speaking, I squeezed the trigger.
My bullet must have struck to
a hair the point at which I had
aimed, for it smashed the brute's
spine back of his shoulders and
tore on through his heart, dropping
him dead in his tracks. For a
moment the women were as terrified
by the report of the rifle as
they had been by the menace of
the lion; but when they saw that
the loud noise had evidently
destroyed their enemy, they came
creeping cautiously back to examine
the carcass.
The man, toward whom I had
immediately turned after firing,
lest he should pursue his threatened
attack, stood staring at me in
amazement and admiration.
"Why," he asked, "if
you could do that, did you
not kill me
long before?"
"I told you," I replied, "that
I had no quarrel with you. I
do not care to kill men with
whom I have no quarrel."
But he could
not seem to get the idea through
his head. "I
can believe now that you are
not of Caspak," he admitted, "for
no Caspakian would have permitted
such an opportunity to escape
him." This, however, I found
later to be an exaggeration,
as the tribes of the west coast
and even the Kro-lu of the east
coast are far less bloodthirsty
than he would have had me believe. "And
your weapon!" he continued. "You
spoke true words when I thought
you spoke lies." And then, suddenly: "Let
us be friends!"
I turned to
Ajor. "Can I trust
him?" I asked.
"Yes," she replied. "Why
not? Has he not asked to be
friends?"
I was not at the time well
enough acquainted with Caspakian
ways to know that truthfulness
and loyalty are two of the strongest
characteristics of these primitive
people. They are not sufficiently
cultured to have become adept
in hypocrisy, treason and dissimulation.
There are, of course, a few exceptions.
"We can go north together," continued
the warrior. "I will fight for
you, and you can fight for me.
Until death will I serve you,
for you have saved So-al, whom
I had given up as dead." He threw
down his spear and covered both
his eyes with the palms of his
two hands. I looked inquiringly
toward Ajor, who explained as
best she could that this was
the form of the Caspakian oath
of allegiance. "You need never
fear him after this," she concluded.
"What should I do?" I
asked.
"Take his hands down from before
his eyes and return his spear
to him," she explained.
I did as she
bade, and the man seemed very
pleased. I then
asked what I should have done
had I not wished to accept his
friendship. They told me that
had I walked away, the moment
that I was out of sight of the
warrior we would have become
deadly enemies again. "But I
could so easily have killed him
as he stood there defenseless!" I
exclaimed.
"Yes," replied the warrior, "but
no man with good sense blinds
his eyes before one whom he does
not trust."
It was rather a decent compliment,
and it taught me just how much
I might rely on the loyalty of
my new friend. I was glad to
have him with us, for he knew
the country and was evidently
a fearless warrior. I wished
that I might have recruited a
battalion like him.
As the women were now approaching
the cliffs, Tomar the warrior
suggested that we make our way
to the valley before they could
intercept us, as they might attempt
to detain us and were almost
certain to set upon Ajor. So
we hastened down the narrow path,
reaching the foot of the cliffs
but a short distance ahead of
the women. They called after
us to stop; but we kept on at
a rapid walk, not wishing to
have any trouble with them, which
could only result in the death
of some of them.
We had proceeded about a mile
when we heard some one behind
us calling To-mar by name, and
when we stopped and looked around,
we saw a woman running rapidly
toward us. As she approached
nearer I could see that she was
a very comely creature, and like
all her sex that I had seen in
Caspak, apparently young.
"It is So-al!" exclaimed To-mar. "Is
she mad that she follows me thus?"
In another
moment the young woman stopped,
panting, before
us. She paid not the slightest
attention to Ajor or me; but
devouring To-mar with her sparkling
eyes, she cried: "I have risen!
I have risen!"
"So-al!" was
all that the man could say.
"Yes," she went on, "the call
came to me just before I quit
the pool; but I did not know
that it had come to you. I can
see it in your eyes, To-mar,
my To-mar! We shall go on together!" And
she threw herself into his arms.
It was a very affecting sight,
for it was evident that these
two had been mates for a long
time and that they had each thought
that they were about to be separated
by that strange law of evolution
which holds good in Caspak and
which was slowly unfolding before
my incredulous mind. I did not
then comprehend even a tithe
of the wondrous process, which
goes on eternally within the
confines of Caprona's barrier
cliffs nor am I any too sure
that I do even now.
To-mar explained to So-al that
it was I who had killed the cave-lion
and saved her life, and that
Ajor was my woman and thus entitled
to the same loyalty which was
my due.
At first Ajor and So-al were
like a couple of stranger cats
on a back fence but soon they
began to accept each other under
something of an armed truce,
and later became fast friends.
So-al was a mighty fine-looking
girl, built like a tigress as
to strength and sinuosity, but
withal sweet and womanly. Ajor
and I came to be very fond of
her, and she was, I think, equally
fond of us. To-mar was very much
of a man--a savage, if you will,
but none the less a man.
Finding that traveling in company
with To-mar made our journey
both easier and safer, Ajor and
I did not continue on our way
alone while the novitiates delayed
their approach to the Kro-lu
country in order that they might
properly fit themselves in the
matter of arms and apparel, but
remained with them. Thus we became
well acquainted--to such an extent
that we looked forward with regret
to the day when they took their
places among their new comrades
and we should be forced to continue
upon our way alone. It was a
matter of much concern to To-mar
that the Krolu would undoubtedly
not receive Ajor and me in a
friendly manner, and that consequently
we should have to avoid these
people.
It would have been very helpful
to us could we have made friends
with them, as their country abutted
directly upon that of the Galus.
Their friendship would have meant
that Ajor's dangers were practically
passed, and that I had accomplished
fully one-half of my long journey.
In view of what I had passed
through, I often wondered what
chance I had to complete that
journey in search of my friends.
The further south I should travel
on the west side of the island,
the more frightful would the
dangers become as I neared the
stamping- grounds of the more
hideous reptilia and the haunts
of the Alus and the Ho-lu, all
of which were at the southern
half of the island; and then
if I should not find the members
of my party, what was to become
of me? I could not live for long
in any portion of Caspak with
which I was familiar; the moment
my ammunition was exhausted,
I should be as good as dead.
There was a chance that the
Galus would receive me; but even
Ajor could not say definitely
whether they would or not, and
even provided that they would,
could I retrace my steps from
the beginning, after failing
to find my own people, and return
to the far northern land of Galus?
I doubted it. However, I was
learning from Ajor, who was more
or less of a fatalist, a philosophy
which was as necessary in Caspak
to peace of mind as is faith
to the devout Christian of the
outer world.
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