When I awoke, it was daylight,
and I found Ajor squatting before
a fine bed of coals roasting
a large piece of antelope-meat.
Believe me, the sight of the
new day and the delicious odor
of the cooking meat filled me
with renewed happiness and hope
that had been all but expunged
by the experience of the previous
night; and perhaps the slender
figure of the bright-faced girl
proved also a potent restorative.
She looked up and smiled at me,
showing those perfect teeth,
and dimpling with evident happiness--the
most adorable picture that I
had ever seen. I recall that
it was then I first regretted
that she was only a little untutored
savage and so far beneath me
in the scale of evolution.
Her first act was to beckon
me to follow her outside, and
there she pointed to the explanation
of our rescue from the bear--a
huge saber-tooth tiger, its fine
coat and its flesh torn to ribbons,
lying dead a few paces from our
cave, and beside it, equally
mangled, and disemboweled, was
the carcass of a huge cave-bear.
To have had one's life saved
by a saber-tooth tiger, and in
the twentieth century into the
bargain, was an experience that
was to say the least unique;
but it had happened--I had the
proof of it before my eyes.
So enormous are the great carnivora
of Caspak that they must feed
perpetually to support their
giant thews, and the result is
that they will eat the meat of
any other creature and will attack
anything that comes within their
ken, no matter how formidable
the quarry. From later observation--I
mention this as worthy the attention
of paleontologists and naturalists--I
came to the conclusion that such
creatures as the cave-bear, the
cave-lion and the saber-tooth
tiger, as well as the larger
carnivorous reptiles make, ordinarily,
two kills a day--one in the morning
and one after night. They immediately
devour the entire carcass, after
which they lie up and sleep for
a few hours. Fortunately their
numbers are comparatively few;
otherwise there would be no other
life within Caspak. It is their
very voracity that keeps their
numbers down to a point which
permits other forms of life to
persist, for even in the season
of love the great males often
turn upon their own mates and
devour them, while both males
and females occasionally devour
their young. How the human and
semihuman races have managed
to survive during all the countless
ages that these conditions must
have existed here is quite beyond
me.
After breakfast Ajor and I
set out once more upon our northward
journey. We had gone but a little
distance when we were attacked
by a number of apelike creatures
armed with clubs. They seemed
a little higher in the scale
than the Alus. Ajor told me they
were Bo-lu, or clubmen. A revolver-shot
killed one and scattered the
others; but several times later
during the day we were menaced
by them, until we had left their
country and entered that of the
Sto-lu, or hatchet-men. These
people were less hairy and more
man-like; nor did they appear
so anxious to destroy us. Rather
they were curious, and followed
us for some distance examining
us most closely. They called
out to us, and Ajor answered
them; but her replies did not
seem to satisfy them, for they
gradually became threatening,
and I think they were preparing
to attack us when a small deer
that had been hiding in some
low brush suddenly broke cover
and dashed across our front.
We needed meat, for it was near
one o'clock and I was getting
hungry; so I drew my pistol and
with a single shot dropped the
creature in its tracks. The effect
upon the Bo-lu was electrical.
Immediately they abandoned all
thoughts of war, and turning,
scampered for the forest which
fringed our path.
That night we spent beside
a little stream in the Sto-lu
country. We found a tiny cave
in the rock bank, so hidden away
that only chance could direct
a beast of prey to it, and after
we had eaten of the deer-meat
and some fruit which Ajor gathered,
we crawled into the little hole,
and with sticks and stones which
I had gathered for the purpose
I erected a strong barricade
inside the entrance. Nothing
could reach us without swimming
and wading through the stream,
and I felt quite secure from
attack. Our quarters were rather
cramped. The ceiling was so low
that we could not stand up, and
the floor so narrow that it was
with difficulty that we both
wedged into it together; but
we were very tired, and so we
made the most of it; and so great
was the feeling of security that
I am sure I fell asleep as soon
as I had stretched myself beside
Ajor.
During the three days which
followed, our progress was exasperatingly
slow. I doubt if we made ten
miles in the entire three days.
The country was hideously savage,
so that we were forced to spend
hours at a time in hiding from
one or another of the great beasts
which menaced us continually.
There were fewer reptiles; but
the quantity of carnivora seemed
to have increased, and the reptiles
that we did see were perfectly
gigantic. I shall never forget
one enormous specimen which we
came upon browsing upon water-reeds
at the edge of the great sea.
It stood well over twelve feet
high at the rump, its highest
point, and with its enormously
long tail and neck it was somewhere
between seventy-five and a hundred
feet in length. Its head was
ridiculously small; its body
was unarmored, but its great
bulk gave it a most formidable
appearance. My experience of
Caspakian life led me to believe
that the gigantic creature would
but have to see us to attack
us, and so I raised my rifle
and at the same time drew away
toward some brush which offered
concealment; but Ajor only laughed,
and picking up a stick, ran toward
the great thing, shouting. The
little head was raised high upon
the long neck as the animal stupidly
looked here and there in search
of the author of the disturbance.
At last its eyes discovered tiny
little Ajor, and then she hurled
the stick at the diminutive head.
With a cry that sounded not unlike
the bleat of a sheep, the colossal
creature shuffled into the water
and was soon submerged.
As I slowly recalled my collegiate
studies and paleontological readings
in Bowen's textbooks, I realized
that I had looked upon nothing
less than a diplodocus of the
Upper Jurassic; but how infinitely
different was the true, live
thing from the crude restorations
of Hatcher and Holland! I had
had the idea that the diplodocus
was a land-animal, but evidently
it is partially amphibious. I
have seen several since my first
encounter, and in each case the
creature took to the sea for
concealment as soon as it was
disturbed. With the exception
of its gigantic tail, it has
no weapon of defense; but with
this appendage it can lash so
terrific a blow as to lay low
even a giant cave-bear, stunned
and broken. It is a stupid, simple,
gentle beast--one of the few
within Caspak which such a description
might even remotely fit.
For three nights we slept in
trees, finding no caves or other
places of concealment. Here we
were free from the attacks of
the large land carnivora; but
the smaller flying reptiles,
the snakes, leopards, and panthers
were a constant menace, though
by no means as much to be feared
as the huge beasts that roamed
the surface of the earth.
At the close of the third day
Ajor and I were able to converse
with considerable fluency, and
it was a great relief to both
of us, especially to Ajor. She
now did nothing but ask questions
whenever I would let her, which
could not be all the time, as
our preservation depended largely
upon the rapidity with which
I could gain knowledge of the
geography and customs of Caspak,
and accordingly I had to ask
numerous questions myself.
I enjoyed immensely hearing
and answering her, so naive were
many of her queries and so filled
with wonder was she at the things
I told her of the world beyond
the lofty barriers of Caspak;
not once did she seem to doubt
me, however marvelous my statements
must have seemed; and doubtless
they were the cause of marvel
to Ajor, who before had never
dreamed that any life existed
beyond Caspak and the life she
knew.
Artless though
many of her questions were,
they evidenced
a keen intellect and a shrewdness
which seemed far beyond her years
of her experience. Altogether
I was finding my little savage
a mighty interesting and companionable
person, and I often thanked the
kind fate that directed the crossing
of our paths. From her I learned
much of Caspak, but there still
remained the mystery that had
proved so baffling to Bowen Tyler--the
total absence of young among
the ape, the semihuman and the
human races with which both he
and I had come in contact upon
opposite shores of the inland
sea. Ajor tried to explain the
matter to me, though it was apparent
that she could not conceive how
so natural a condition should
demand explanation. She told
me that among the Galus there
were a few babies, that she had
once been a baby but that most
of her people "came up," as he
put it, "cor sva jo," or literally, "from
the beginning"; and as they all
did when they used that phrase,
she would wave a broad gesture
toward the south.
"For long," she explained,
leaning very close to me and
whispering the words into my
ear while she cast apprehensive
glances about and mostly skyward, "for
long my mother kept me hidden
lest the Wieroo, passing through
the air by night, should come
and take me away to Oo-oh." And
the child shuddered as she voiced
the word. I tried to get her
to tell me more; but her terror
was so real when she spoke of
the Wieroo and the land of Oo-oh
where they dwell that I at last
desisted, though I did learn
that the Wieroo carried off only
female babes and occasionally
women of the Galus who had "come
up from the beginning." It was
all very mysterious and unfathomable,
but I got the idea that the Wieroo
were creatures of imagination--the
demons or gods of her race, omniscient
and omnipresent. This led me
to assume that the Galus had
a religious sense, and further
questioning brought out the fact
that such was the case. Ajor
spoke in tones of reverence of
Luata, the god of heat and life.
The word is derived from two
others: Lua, meaning sun, and
ata, meaning variously eggs,
life, young, and reproduction.
She told me that they worshiped
Luata in several forms, as fire,
the sun, eggs and other material
objects which suggested heat
and reproduction.
I had noticed that whenever
I built a fire, Ajor outlined
in the air before her with a
forefinger an isosceles triangle,
and that she did the same in
the morning when she first viewed
the sun. At first I had not connected
her act with anything in particular,
but after we learned to converse
and she had explained a little
of her religious superstitions,
I realized that she was making
the sign of the triangle as a
Roman Catholic makes the sign
of the cross. Always the short
side of the triangle was uppermost.
As she explained all this to
me, she pointed to the decorations
on her golden armlets, upon the
knob of her dagger-hilt and upon
the band which encircled her
right leg above the knee--always
was the design partly made up
of isosceles triangles, and when
she explained the significance
of this particular geometric
figure, I at once grasped its
appropriateness.
We were now in the country
of the Band-lu, the spearmen
of Caspak. Bowen had remarked
in his narrative that these people
were analogous to the so-called
Cro-Magnon race of the Upper
Paleolithic, and I was therefore
very anxious to see them. Nor
was I to be disappointed; I saw
them, all right! We had left
the Sto-lu country and literally
fought our way through cordons
of wild beasts for two days when
we decided to make camp a little
earlier than usual, owing to
the fact that we had reached
a line of cliffs running east
and west in which were numerous
likely cave-lodgings. We were
both very tired, and the sight
of these caverns, several of
which could be easily barricaded,
decided us to halt until the
following morning. It took but
a few minutes' exploration to
discover one particular cavern
high up the face of the cliff
which seemed ideal for our purpose.
It opened upon a narrow ledge
where we could build our cook-fire;
the opening was so small that
we had to lie flat and wriggle
through it to gain ingress, while
the interior was high-ceiled
and spacious. I lighted a faggot
and looked about; but as far
as I could see, the chamber ran
back into the cliff.
Laying aside my rifle, pistol
and heavy ammunition-belt, I
left Ajor in the cave while I
went down to gather firewood.
We already had meat and fruits
which we had gathered just before
reaching the cliffs, and my canteen
was filled with fresh water.
Therefore, all we required was
fuel, and as I always saved Ajor's
strength when I could, I would
not permit her to accompany me.
The poor girl was very tired;
but she would have gone with
me until she dropped, I know,
so loyal was she. She was the
best comrade in the world, and
sometimes I regretted and sometimes
I was glad that she was not of
my own caste, for had she been,
I should unquestionably have
fallen in love with her. As it
was, we traveled together like
two boys, with huge respect for
each other but no softer sentiment.
There was little timber close
to the base of the cliffs, and
so I was forced to enter the
wood some two hundred yards distant.
I realize now how foolhardy was
my act in such a land as Caspak,
teeming with danger and with
death; but there is a certain
amount of fool in every man;
and whatever proportion of it
I own must have been in the ascendant
that day, for the truth of the
matter is that I went down into
those woods absolutely defenseless;
and I paid the price, as people
usually do for their indiscretions.
As I searched around in the brush
for likely pieces of firewood,
my head bowed and my eyes upon
the ground, I suddenly felt a
great weight hurl itself upon
me. I struggled to my knees and
seized my assailant, a huge,
naked man--naked except for a
breechcloth of snakeskin, the
head hanging down to the knees.
The fellow was armed with a stone-shod
spear, a stone knife and a hatchet.
In his black hair were several
gay-colored feathers. As we struggled
to and fro, I was slowly gaining
advantage of him, when a score
of his fellows came running up
and overpowered me.
They bound my hands behind
me with long rawhide thongs and
then surveyed me critically.
I found them fine-looking specimens
of manhood, for the most part.
There were some among them who
bore a resemblance to the Sto-lu
and were hairy; but the majority
had massive heads and not unlovely
features. There was little about
them to suggest the ape, as in
the Sto-lu, Bo-lu and Alus. I
expected them to kill me at once,
but they did not. Instead they
questioned me; but it was evident
that they did not believe my
story, for they scoffed and laughed.
"The Galus have turned you
out," they cried. "If you go
back to them, you will die. If
you remain here, you will die.
We shall kill you; but first
we shall have a dance and you
shall dance with us--the dance
of death."
It sounded quite reassuring!
But I knew that I was not to
be killed immediately, and so
I took heart. They led me toward
the cliffs, and as we approached
them, I glanced up and was sure
that I saw Ajor's bright eyes
peering down upon us from our
lofty cave; but she gave no sign
if she saw me; and we passed
on, rounded the end of the cliffs
and proceeded along the opposite
face of them until we came to
a section literally honeycombed
with caves. All about, upon the
ground and swarming the ledges
before the entrances, were hundreds
of members of the tribe. There
were many women but no babes
or children, though I noticed
that the females had better developed
breasts than any that I had seen
among the hatchet-men, the club-men,
the Alus or the apes. In fact,
among the lower orders of Caspakian
man the female breast is but
a rudimentary organ, barely suggested
in the apes and Alus, and only
a little more defined in the
Bo-lu and Sto-lu, though always
increasingly so until it is found
about half developed in the females
of the spear-men; yet never was
there an indication that the
females had suckled young; nor
were there any young among them.
Some of the Band-lu women were
quite comely. The figures of
all, both men and women, were
symmetrical though heavy, and
though there were some who verged
strongly upon the Sto-lu type,
there were others who were positively
handsome and whose bodies were
quite hairless. The Alus are
all bearded, but among the Bo-lu
the beard disappears in the women.
The Sto-lu men show a sparse
beard, the Band-lu none; and
there is little hair upon the
bodies of their women.
The members of the tribe showed
great interest in me, especially
in my clothing, the like of which,
of course, they never had seen.
They pulled and hauled upon me,
and some of them struck me; but
for the most part they were not
inclined to brutality. It was
only the hairier ones, who most
closely resembled the Sto-lu,
who maltreated me. At last my
captors led me into a great cave
in the mouth of which a fire
was burning. The floor was littered
with filth, including the bones
of many animals, and the atmosphere
reeked with the stench of human
bodies and putrefying flesh.
Here they fed me, releasing my
arms, and I ate of half-cooked
aurochs steak and a stew which
may have been made of snakes,
for many of the long, round pieces
of meat suggested them most nauseatingly.
The meal completed, they led
me well within the cavern, which
they lighted with torches stuck
in various crevices in the light
of which I saw, to my astonishment,
that the walls were covered with
paintings and etchings. There
were aurochs, red deer, saber-tooth
tiger, cave-bear, hyaenadon and
many other examples of the fauna
of Caspak done in colors, usually
of four shades of brown, or scratched
upon the surface of the rock.
Often they were super-imposed
upon each other until it required
careful examination to trace
out the various outlines. But
they all showed a rather remarkable
aptitude for delineation which
further fortified Bowen's comparisons
between these people and the
extinct Cro-Magnons whose ancient
art is still preserved in the
caverns of Niaux and Le Portel.
The Band-lu, however, did not
have the bow and arrow, and in
this respect they differ from
their extinct progenitors, or
descendants, of Western Europe.
Should any of my friends chance
to read the story of my adventures
upon Caprona, I hope they will
not be bored by these diversions,
and if they are, I can only say
that I am writing my memoirs
for my own edification and therefore
setting down those things which
interested me particularly at
the time. I have no desire that
the general public should ever
have access to these pages; but
it is possible that my friends
may, and also certain savants
who are interested; and to them,
while I do not apologize for
my philosophizing, I humbly explain
that they are witnessing the
groupings of a finite mind after
the infinite, the search for
explanations of the inexplicable.
In a far recess of the cavern
my captors bade me halt. Again
my hands were secured, and this
time my feet as well. During
the operation they questioned
me, and I was mighty glad that
the marked similarity between
the various tribal tongues of
Caspak enabled us to understand
each other perfectly, even though
they were unable to believe or
even to comprehend the truth
of my origin and the circumstances
of my advent in Caspak; and finally
they left me saying that they
would come for me before the
dance of death upon the morrow.
Before they departed with their
torches, I saw that I had not
been conducted to the farthest
extremity of the cavern, for
a dark and gloomy corridor led
beyond my prison room into the
heart of the cliff.
I could not but marvel at the
immensity of this great underground
grotto. Already I had traversed
several hundred yards of it,
from many points of which other
corridors diverged. The whole
cliff must be honeycombed with
apartments and passages of which
this community occupied but a
comparatively small part, so
that the possibility of the more
remote passages being the lair
of savage beasts that have other
means of ingress and egress than
that used by the Band-lu filled
me with dire forebodings.
I believe that I am not ordinarily
hysterically apprehensive; yet
I must confess that under the
conditions with which I was confronted,
I felt my nerves to be somewhat
shaken. On the morrow I was to
die some sort of nameless death
for the diversion of a savage
horde, but the morrow held fewer
terrors for me than the present,
and I submit to any fair-minded
man if it is not a terrifying
thing to lie bound hand and foot
in the Stygian blackness of an
immense cave peopled by unknown
dangers in a land overrun by
hideous beasts and reptiles of
the greatest ferocity. At any
moment, perhaps at this very
moment, some silent-footed beast
of prey might catch my scent
where it laired in some contiguous
passage, and might creep stealthily
upon me. I craned my neck about,
and stared through the inky darkness
for the twin spots of blazing
hate which I knew would herald
the coming of my executioner.
So real were the imaginings of
my overwrought brain that I broke
into a cold sweat in absolute
conviction that some beast was
close before me; yet the hours
dragged, and no sound broke the
grave-like stillness of the cavern.
During that period of eternity
many events of my life passed
before my mental vision, a vast
parade of friends and occurrences
which would be blotted out forever
on the morrow. I cursed myself
for the foolish act which had
taken me from the search-party
that so depended upon me, and
I wondered what progress, if
any, they had made. Were they
still beyond the barrier cliffs,
awaiting my return? Or had they
found a way into Caspak? I felt
that the latter would be the
truth, for the party was not
made up of men easily turned
from a purpose. Quite probable
it was that they were already
searching for me; but that they
would ever find a trace of me
I doubted. Long since, had I
come to the conclusion that it
was beyond human prowess to circle
the shores of the inland sea
of Caspak in the face of the
myriad menaces which lurked in
every shadow by day and by night.
Long since, had I given up any
hope of reaching the point where
I had made my entry into the
country, and so I was now equally
convinced that our entire expedition
had been worse than futile before
ever it was conceived, since
Bowen J. Tyler and his wife could
not by any possibility have survived
during all these long months;
no more could Bradley and his
party of seamen be yet in existence.
If the superior force and equipment
of my party enabled them to circle
the north end of the sea, they
might some day come upon the
broken wreck of my plane hanging
in the great tree to the south;
but long before that, my bones
would be added to the litter
upon the floor of this mighty
cavern.
And through all my thoughts,
real and fanciful, moved the
image of a perfect girl, clear-eyed
and strong and straight and beautiful,
with the carriage of a queen
and the supple, undulating grace
of a leopard. Though I loved
my friends, their fate seemed
of less importance to me than
the fate of this little barbarian
stranger for whom, I had convinced
myself many a time, I felt no
greater sentiment than passing
friendship for a fellow-wayfarer
in this land of horrors. Yet
I so worried and fretted about
her and her future that at last
I quite forgot my own predicament,
though I still struggled intermittently
with bonds in vain endeavor to
free myself; as much, however,
that I might hasten to her protection
as that I might escape the fate
which had been planned for me.
And while I was thus engaged
and had for the moment forgotten
my apprehensions concerning prowling
beasts, I was startled into tense
silence by a distinct and unmistakable
sound coming from the dark corridor
farther toward the heart of the
cliff--the sound of padded feet
moving stealthily in my direction.
I believe that never before
in all my life, even amidst the
terrors of childhood nights,
have I suffered such a sensation
of extreme horror as I did that
moment in which I realized that
I must lie bound and helpless
while some horrid beast of prey
crept upon me to devour me in
that utter darkness of the Bandlu
pits of Caspak. I reeked with
cold sweat, and my flesh crawled--I
could feel it crawl. If ever
I came nearer to abject cowardice,
I do not recall the instance;
and yet it was not that I was
afraid to die, for I had long
since given myself up as lost--a
few days of Caspak must impress
anyone with the utter nothingness
of life. The waters, the land,
the air teem with it, and always
it is being devoured by some
other form of life. Life is the
cheapest thing in Caspak, as
it is the cheapest thing on earth
and, doubtless, the cheapest
cosmic production. No, I was
not afraid to die; in fact, I
prayed for death, that I might
be relieved of the frightfulness
of the interval of life which
remained to me--the waiting,
the awful waiting, for that fearsome
beast to reach me and to strike.
Presently it
was so close that I could hear
its breathing, and
then it touched me and leaped
quickly back as though it had
come upon me unexpectedly. For
long moments no sound broke the
sepulchral silence of the cave.
Then I heard a movement on the
part of the creature near me,
and again it touched me, and
I felt something like a hairless
hand pass over my face and down
until it touched the collar of
my flannel shirt. And then, subdued,
but filled with pent emotion,
a voice cried: "Tom!"
I think I nearly
fainted, so great was the reaction. "Ajor!" I
managed to say. "Ajor, my girl,
can it be you?"
"Oh, Tom!" she
cried again in a trembly little
voice and
flung herself upon me, sobbing
softly. I had not known that
Ajor could cry.
As she cut away my bonds, she
told me that from the entrance
to our cave she had seen the
Band-lu coming out of the forest
with me, and she had followed
until they took me into the cave,
which she had seen was upon the
opposite side of the cliff in
which ours was located; and then,
knowing that she could do nothing
for me until after the Band-lu
slept, she had hastened to return
to our cave. With difficulty
she had reached it, after having
been stalked by a cave-lion and
almost seized. I trembled at
the risk she had run.
It had been her intention to
wait until after midnight, when
most of the carnivora would have
made their kills, and then attempt
to reach the cave in which I
was imprisoned and rescue me.
She explained that with my rifle
and pistol--both of which she
assured me she could use, having
watched me so many times--she
planned upon frightening the
Band-lu and forcing them to give
me up. Brave little girl! She
would have risked her life willingly
to save me. But some time after
she reached our cave she heard
voices from the far recesses
within, and immediately concluded
that we had but found another
entrance to the caves which the
Band-lu occupied upon the other
face of the cliff. Then she had
set out through those winding
passages and in total darkness
had groped her way, guided solely
by a marvelous sense of direction,
to where I lay. She had had to
proceed with utmost caution lest
she fall into some abyss in the
darkness and in truth she had
thrice come upon sheer drops
and had been forced to take the
most frightful risks to pass
them. I shudder even now as I
contemplate what this girl passed
through for my sake and how she
enhanced her peril in loading
herself down with the weight
of my arms and ammunition and
the awkwardness of the long rifle
which she was unaccustomed to
bearing.
I could have knelt and kissed
her hand in reverence and gratitude;
nor am I ashamed to say that
that is precisely what I did
after I had been freed from my
bonds and heard the story of
her trials. Brave little Ajor!
Wonder-girl out of the dim, unthinkable
past! Never before had she been
kissed; but she seemed to sense
something of the meaning of the
new caress, for she leaned forward
in the dark and pressed her own
lips to my forehead. A sudden
urge surged through me to seize
her and strain her to my bosom
and cover her hot young lips
with the kisses of a real love,
but I did not do so, for I knew
that I did not love her; and
to have kissed her thus, with
passion, would have been to inflict
a great wrong upon her who had
offered her life for mine.
No, Ajor should be as safe
with me as with her own mother,
if she had one, which I was inclined
to doubt, even though she told
me that she had once been a babe
and hidden by her mother. I had
come to doubt if there was such
a thing as a mother in Caspak,
a mother such as we know. From
the Bo-lu to the Kro-lu there
is no word which corresponds
with our word mother. They speak
of ata and cor sva jo, meaning
reproduction and from the beginning,
and point toward the south; but
no one has a mother.
After considerable difficulty
we gained what we thought was
our cave, only to find that it
was not, and then we realized
that we were lost in the labyrinthine
mazes of the great cavern. We
retraced our steps and sought
the point from which we had started,
but only succeeded in losing
ourselves the more. Ajor was
aghast--not so much from fear
of our predicament; but that
she should have failed in the
functioning of that wonderful
sense she possessed in common
with most other creatures Caspakian,
which makes it possible for them
to move unerringly from place
to place without compass or guide.
Hand in hand we crept along,
searching for an opening into
the outer world, yet realizing
that at each step we might be
burrowing more deeply into the
heart of the great cliff, or
circling futilely in the vague
wandering that could end only
in death. And the darkness! It
was almost palpable, and utterly
depressing. I had matches, and
in some of the more difficult
places I struck one; but we couldn't
afford to waste them, and so
we groped our way slowly along,
doing the best we could to keep
to one general direction in the
hope that it would eventually
lead us to an opening into the
outer world. When I struck matches,
I noticed that the walls bore
no paintings; nor was there other
sign that man had penetrated
this far within the cliff, nor
any spoor of animals of other
kinds.
It would be difficult to guess
at the time we spent wandering
through those black corridors,
climbing steep ascents, feeling
our way along the edges of bottomless
pits, never knowing at what moment
we might be plunged into some
abyss and always haunted by the
ever-present terror of death
by starvation and thirst. As
difficult as it was, I still
realized that it might have been
infinitely worse had I had another
companion than Ajor--courageous,
uncomplaining, loyal little Ajor!
She was tired and hungry and
thirsty, and she must have been
discouraged; but she never faltered
in her cheerfulness. I asked
her if she was afraid, and she
replied that here the Wieroo
could not get her, and that if
she died of hunger, she would
at least die with me and she
was quite content that such should
be her end. At the time I attributed
her attitude to something akin
to a doglike devotion to a new
master who had been kind to her.
I can take oath to the fact that
I did not think it was anything
more.
Whether we had been imprisoned
in the cliff for a day or a week
I could not say; nor even now
do I know. We became very tired
and hungry; the hours dragged;
we slept at least twice, and
then we rose and stumbled on,
always weaker and weaker. There
were ages during which the trend
of the corridors was always upward.
It was heartbreaking work for
people in the state of exhaustion
in which we then were, but we
clung tenaciously to it. We stumbled
and fell; we sank through pure
physical inability to retain
our feet; but always we managed
to rise at last and go on. At
first, wherever it had been possible,
we had walked hand in hand lest
we become separated, and later,
when I saw that Ajor was weakening
rapidly, we went side by side,
I supporting her with an arm
about her waist. I still retained
the heavy burden of my armament;
but with the rifle slung to my
back, my hands were free. When
I too showed indisputable evidences
of exhaustion, Ajor suggested
that I lay aside my arms and
ammunition; but I told her that
as it would mean certain death
for me to traverse Caspak without
them, I might as well take the
chance of dying here in the cave
with them, for there was the
other chance that we might find
our wayto liberty.
There came
a time when Ajor could no longer
walk, and then
it was that I picked her up in
my arms and carried her. She
begged me to leave her, saying
that after I found an exit, I
could come back and get her;
but she knew, and she knew that
I knew, that if ever I did leave
her, I could never find her again.
Yet she insisted. Barely had
I sufficient strength to take
a score of steps at a time; then
I would have to sink down and
rest for five to ten minutes.
I don't know what force urged
me on and kept me going in the
face of an absolute conviction
that my efforts were utterly
futile. I counted us already
as good as dead; but still I
dragged myself along until the
time came that I could no longer
rise, but could only crawl along
a few inches at a time, dragging
Ajor beside me. Her sweet voice,
now almost inaudible from weakness,
implored me to abandon her and
save myself--she seemed to think
only of me. Of course I couldn't
have left her there alone, no
matter how much I might have
desired to do so; but the fact
of the matter was that I didn't
desire to leave her. What I said
to her then came very simply
and naturally to my lips. It
couldn't very well have been
otherwise, I imagine, for with
death so close, I doubt if people
are much inclined to heroics. "I
would rather not get out at all,
Ajor," I said to her, "than to
get out without you." We were
resting against a rocky wall,
and Ajor was leaning against
me, her head on my breast. I
could feel her press closer to
me, and one hand stroked my arm
in a weak caress; but she didn't
say anything, nor were words
necessary.
After a few
minutes' more rest, we started
on again upon our
utterly hopeless way; but I soon
realized that I was weakening
rapidly, and presently I was
forced to admit that I was through. "It's
no use, Ajor," I said, "I've
come as far as I can. It may
be that if I sleep, I can go
on again after," but I knew that
that was not true, and that the
end was near. "Yes, sleep," said
Ajor. "We will sleep together--forever."
She crept close
to me as I lay on the hard
floor and pillowed
her head upon my arm. With the
little strength which remained
to me, I drew her up until our
lips touched, and, then I whispered: "Good-bye!" I
must have lost consciousness
almost immediately, for I recall
nothing more until I suddenly
awoke out of a troubled sleep,
during which I dreamed that I
was drowning, to find the cave
lighted by what appeared to be
diffused daylight, and a tiny
trickle of water running down
the corridor and forming a puddle
in the little depression in which
it chanced that Ajor and I lay.
I turned my eyes quickly upon
Ajor, fearful for what the light
might disclose; but she still
breathed, though very faintly.
Then I searched about for an
explanation of the light, and
soon discovered that it came
from about a bend in the corridor
just ahead of us and at the top
of a steep incline; and instantly
I realized that Ajor and I had
stumbled by night almost to the
portal of salvation. Had chance
taken us a few yards further,
up either of the corridors which
diverged from ours just ahead
of us, we might have been irrevocably
lost; we might still be lost;
but at least we could die in
the light of day, out of the
horrid blackness of this terrible
cave.
I tried to rise, and found
that sleep had given me back
a portion of my strength; and
then I tasted the water and was
further refreshed. I shook Ajor
gently by the shoulder; but she
did not open her eyes, and then
I gathered a few drops of water
in my cupped palm and let them
trickle between her lips. This
revived her so that she raised
her lids, and when she saw me,
she smiled.
"What happened?" she asked. "Where
are we?"
"We are at the end of the corridor," I
replied, and daylight is coming
in from the outside world just
ahead. We are saved, Ajor!"
She sat up then and looked
about, and then, quite womanlike,
she burst into tears. It was
the reaction, of course; and
then too, she was very weak.
I took her in my arms and quieted
her as best I could, and finally,
with my help, she got to her
feet; for she, as well as I,
had found some slight recuperation
in sleep. Together we staggered
upward toward the light, and
at the first turn we saw an opening
a few yards ahead of us and a
leaden sky beyond--a leaden sky
from which was falling a drizzling
rain, the author of our little,
trickling stream which had given
us drink when we were most in
need of it.
The cave had been damp and
cold; but as we crawled through
the aperture, the muggy warmth
of the Caspakian air caressed
and confronted us; even the rain
was warmer than the atmosphere
of those dark corridors. We had
water now, and warmth, and I
was sure that Caspak would soon
offer us meat or fruit; but as
we came to where we could look
about, we saw that we were upon
the summit of the cliffs, where
there seemed little reason to
expect game. However, there were
trees, and among them we soon
descried edible fruits with which
we broke our long fast.
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