Chapter 4

The farther the group progressed, the more barbaric and the more

sumptuous became the decorations. Hides of leopard and tiger

predominated, apparently because of their more beautiful markings, and

decorative skulls became more and more numerous. Many of the latter

were mounted in precious metals and set with colored stones and

priceless gems, while thick upon the hides that covered the walls were

golden ornaments similar to those worn by the girl and those which had

filled the chests he had examined in the storeroom of Fosh-bal-soj,

leading the Englishman to the conviction that all such were spoils of

war or theft, since each piece seemed made for personal adornment,

while in so far as he had seen, no Wieroo wore ornaments of any sort.

And also as they advanced the more numerous became the Wieroos moving

hither and thither within the temple. Many now were the solid red

robes and those that were slashed with blue--a veritable hive of

murderers.

At last the party halted in a room in which were many Wieroos who

gathered about Bradley questioning his captors and examining him and

his apparel. One of the party accompanying the Englishman spoke to a

Wieroo that stood beside a door leading from the room. "Tell Him Who

Speaks for Luata," he said, "that Fosh-bal-soj we could not find; but

that in returning we found this creature within the temple, hiding. It

must be the same that Fosh-bal-soj captured in the Sto-lu country

during the last darkness. Doubtless He Who Speaks for Luata would wish

to see and question this strange thing."

The creature addressed turned and slipped through the doorway, closing

the door after it, but first depositing its curved blade upon the floor

without. Its post was immediately taken by another and Bradley now saw

that at least twenty such guards loitered in the immediate vicinity.

The doorkeeper was gone but for a moment, and when he returned, he

signified that Bradley's party was to enter the next chamber; but first

each of the Wieroos removed his curved weapon and laid it upon the

floor. The door was swung open, and the party, now reduced to Bradley

and five Wieroos, was ushered across the threshold into a large,

irregularly shaped room in which a single, giant Wieroo whose robe was

solid blue sat upon a raised dais.

The creature's face was white with the whiteness of a corpse, its dead

eyes entirely expressionless, its cruel, thin lips tight-drawn against

yellow teeth in a perpetual grimace. Upon either side of it lay an

enormous, curved sword, similar to those with which some of the other

Wieroos had been armed, but larger and heavier. Constantly its

clawlike fingers played with one or the other of these weapons.

The walls of the chamber as well as the floor were entirely hidden by

skins and woven fabrics. Blue predominated in all the colorations.

Fastened against the hides were many pairs of Wieroo wings, mounted so

that they resembled long, black shields. Upon the ceiling were painted

in blue characters a bewildering series of hieroglyphics and upon

pedestals set against the walls or standing out well within the room

were many human skulls.

As the Wieroos approached the figure upon the dais, they leaned far

forward, raising their wings above their heads and stretching their

necks as though offering them to the sharp swords of the grim and

hideous creature.

"O Thou Who Speakest for Luata!" exclaimed one of the party. "We bring

you the strange creature that Fosh-bal-soj captured and brought thither

at thy command."

So this then was the godlike figure that spoke for divinity! This

arch-murderer was the Caspakian representative of God on Earth! His

blue robe announced him the one and the seeming humility of his minions

the other. For a long minute he glared at Bradley. Then he began to

question him--from whence he came and how, the name and description of

his native country, and a hundred other queries.

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

Bradley replied that he was and that all his kind were, as well as

every living thing in his part of the world.

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

Bradley hesitated and then, thinking to gain time, replied in the

affirmative.

"What is it?" demanded the Wieroo, leaning far forward and exhibiting

every evidence of excited interest.

Bradley leaned forward and whispered: "It is for your ears alone; I

will not divulge it to others, and then only on condition that you

carry me and the girl I saw in the place of the yellow door near to

that of Fosh-bal-soj back to her own country."

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

"Who are you to make terms for Him Who Speaks for Luata?" it shrilled.

"Tell me the secret or die where you stand!"

"And if I die now, the secret goes with me," Bradley reminded him.

"Never again will you get the opportunity to question another of my

kind who knows the secret." Anything to gain time, to get the rest of

the Wieroos from the room, that he might plan some scheme for escape

and put it into effect.

The creature turned upon the leader of the party that had brought

Bradley.

"Is the thing with weapons?" it asked.

"No," was the response.

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

one.

The Wieroos salaamed and withdrew, closing the door behind them. He

Who Speaks for Luata grasped a sword nervously in his right hand. At

his left side lay the second weapon. It was evident that he lived in

constant dread of being assassinated. The fact that he permitted none

with weapons within his presence and that he always kept two swords at

his side pointed to this.

Bradley was racking his brain to find some suggestion of a plan whereby

he might turn the situation to his own account. His eyes wandered past

the weird figure before him; they played about the walls of the

apartment as though hoping to draw inspiration from the dead skulls and

the hides and the wings, and then they came back to the face of the

Wieroo god, now working in anger.

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

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

For an instant the thing hesitated, and then it grumbled "Yes." At the

same instant Bradley saw two hides upon the wall directly back of the

dais separate and a face appear in the opening. No change of

expression upon the Englishman's countenance betrayed that he had seen

aught to surprise him, though surprised he was for the face in the

aperture was that of the girl he had but just left hidden beneath the

hides in another chamber. A white and shapely arm now pushed past the

face into the room, and in the hand, tightly clutched, was the curved

blade, smeared with blood, that Bradley had dropped beneath the hides

at the moment he had been discovered and drawn from his concealment.

"Listen, then," said Bradley in a low voice to the Wieroo. "You shall

know the secret of cos-ata-lu as well as do I; but none other may hear

it. Lean close--I will whisper it into your ear."

He moved forward and stepped upon the dais. The creature raised its

sword ready to strike at the first indication of treachery, and Bradley

stooped beneath the blade and put his ear close to the gruesome face.

As he did so, he rested his weight upon his hands, one upon either side

of the Wieroo's body, his right hand upon the hilt of the spare sword

lying at the left of Him Who Speaks for Luata.

"This then is the secret of both life and death," he whispered, and at

the same instant he grasped the Wieroo by the right wrist and with his

own right hand swung the extra blade in a sudden vicious blow against

the creature's neck before the thing could give even a single cry of

alarm; then without waiting an instant Bradley leaped past the dead god

and vanished behind the hides that had hidden the girl.

Wide-eyed and panting the girl seized his arm. "Oh, what have you

done?" she cried. "He Who Speaks for Luata will be avenged by Luata.

Now indeed must you die. There is no escape, for even though we

reached my own country Luata can find you out."

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

yourself."

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

Bradley scratched his head. "Neither of us is going to die," he said;

"at least not at the hands of any god. If we don't get out of here

though, we'll die right enough. Can you find your way back to the room

where I first came upon you in the temple?"

"I know the way," replied the girl; "but I doubt if we can go back

without being seen. I came hither because I only met Wieroos who knew

that I am supposed now to be in the temple; but you could go elsewhere

without being discovered."

Bradley's ingenuity had come up against a stone wall. There seemed no

possibility of escape. He looked about him. They were in a small room

where lay a litter of rubbish--torn bits of cloth, old hides, pieces of

fiber rope. In the center of the room was a cylindrical shaft with an

opening in its face. Bradley knew it for what it was. Here the

arch-fiend dragged his victims and cast their bodies into the river of

death far below. The floor about the opening in the shaft and the

sides of the shaft were clotted thick with a dried, dark brown

substance that the Englishman knew had once been blood. The place had

the appearance of having been a veritable shambles. An odor of

decaying flesh permeated the air.

The Englishman crossed to the shaft and peered into the opening. All

below was dark as pitch; but at the bottom he knew was the river.

Suddenly an inspiration and a bold scheme leaped to his mind. Turning

quickly he hunted about the room until he found what he sought--a

quantity of the rope that lay strewn here and there. With rapid

fingers he unsnarled the different lengths, the girl helping him, and

then he tied the ends together until he had three ropes about

seventy-five feet in length. He fastened these together at each end

and without a word secured one of the ends about the girl's body

beneath her arms.

"Don't be frightened," he said at length, as he led her toward the

opening in the shaft. "I'm going to lower you to the river, and then

I'm coming down after you. When you are safe below, give two quick

jerks upon the rope. If there is danger there and you want me to draw

you up into the shaft, jerk once. Don't be afraid--it is the only way."

"I am not afraid," replied the girl, rather haughtily Bradley thought,

and herself climbed through the aperture and hung by her hands waiting

for Bradley to lower her.

As rapidly as was consistent with safety, the man paid out the rope.

When it was about half out, he heard loud cries and wails suddenly

arise within the room they had just quitted. The slaying of their god

had been discovered by the Wieroos. A search for the slayer would

begin at once.

Lord! Would the girl never reach the river? At last, just as he was

positive that searchers were already entering the room behind him,

there came two quick tugs at the rope. Instantly Bradley made the rest

of the strands fast about the shaft, slipped into the black tube and

began a hurried descent toward the river. An instant later he stood

waist deep in water beside the girl. Impulsively she reached toward

him and grasped his arm. A strange thrill ran through him at the

contact; but he only cut the rope from about her body and lifted her to

the little shelf at the river's side.

"How can we leave here?" she asked.

"By the river," he replied; "but first I must go back to the Blue Place

of Seven Skulls and get the poor devil I left there. I'll have to wait

until after dark, though, as I cannot pass through the open stretch of

river in the temple gardens by day."

"There is another way," said the girl. "I have never seen it; but

often I have heard them speak of it--a corridor that runs beside the

river from one end of the city to the other. Through the gardens it is

below ground. If we could find an entrance to it, we could leave here

at once. It is not safe here, for they will search every inch of the

temple and the grounds."

"Come," said Bradley. "We'll have a look for it, anyway." And so

saying he approached one of the doors that opened onto the skull-paved

shelf.

They found the corridor easily, for it paralleled the river, separated

from it only by a single wall. It took them beneath the gardens and

the city, always through inky darkness. After they had reached the

other side of the gardens, Bradley counted his steps until he had

retraced as many as he had taken coming down the stream; but though

they had to grope their way along, it was a much more rapid trip than

the former.

When he thought he was about opposite the point at which he had

descended from the Blue Place of Seven Skulls, he sought and found a

doorway leading out onto the river; and then, still in the blackest

darkness, he lowered himself into the stream and felt up and down upon

the opposite side for the little shelf and the ladder. Ten yards from

where he had emerged he found them, while the girl waited upon the

opposite side.

To ascend to the secret panel was the work of but a minute. Here he

paused and listened lest a Wieroo might be visiting the prison in

search of him or the other inmate; but no sound came from the gloomy

interior. Bradley could not but muse upon the joy of the man on the

opposite side when he should drop down to him with food and a new hope

for escape. Then he opened the panel and looked into the room. The

faint light from the grating above revealed the pile of rags in one

corner; but the man lay beneath them, he made no response to Bradley's

low greeting.

The Englishman lowered himself to the floor of the room and approached

the rags. Stooping he lifted a corner of them. Yes, there was the man

asleep. Bradley shook him--there was no response. He stooped lower

and in the dim light examined An-Tak; then he stood up with a sigh. A

rat leaped from beneath the coverings and scurried away. "Poor devil!"

muttered Bradley.

He crossed the room to swing himself to the perch preparatory to

quitting the Blue Place of Seven Skulls forever. Beneath the perch he

paused. "I'll not give them the satisfaction," he growled. "Let them

believe that he escaped."

Returning to the pile of rags he gathered the man into his arms. It

was difficult work raising him to the high perch and dragging him

through the small opening and thus down the ladder; but presently it

was done, and Bradley had lowered the body into the river and cast it

off. "Good-bye, old top!" he whispered.

A moment later he had rejoined the girl and hand in hand they were

following the dark corridor upstream toward the farther end of the

city. She told him that the Wieroos seldom frequented these lower

passages, as the air here was too chill for them; but occasionally they

came, and as they could see quite as well by night as by day, they

would be sure to discover Bradley and the girl.

"If they come close enough," she said, "we can see their eyes shining

in the dark--they resemble dull splotches of light. They glow, but do

not blaze like the eyes of the tiger or the lion."

The man could not but note the very evident horror with which she

mentioned the creatures. To him they were uncanny; but she had been

used to them for a year almost, and probably all her life she had

either seen or heard of them constantly.

"Why do you fear them so?" he asked. "It seems more than any ordinary

fear of the harm they can do you."

She tried to explain; but the nearest he could gather was that she

looked upon the Wieroo almost as supernatural beings. "There is a

legend current among my people that once the Wieroo were unlike us only

in that they possessed rudimentary wings. They lived in villages in

the Galu country, and while the two peoples often warred, they held no

hatred for one another. In those days each race came up from the

beginning and there was great rivalry as to which was the higher in the

scale of evolution. The Wieroo developed the first cos-ata-lu but they

were always male--never could they reproduce woman. Slowly they

commenced to develop certain attributes of the mind which, they

considered, placed them upon a still higher level and which gave them

many advantages over us, seeing which they thought only of mental

development--their minds became like stars and the rivers, moving

always in the same manner, never varying. They called this tas-ad,

which means doing everything the right way, or, in other words, the

Wieroo way. If foe or friend, right or wrong, stood in the way of

tas-ad, then it must be crushed.

"Soon the Galus and the lesser races of men came to hate and fear them.

It was then that the Wieroos decided to carry tas-ad into every part of

the world. They were very warlike and very numerous, although they had

long since adopted the policy of slaying all those among them whose

wings did not show advanced development.

"It took ages for all this to happen--very slowly came the different

changes; but at last the Wieroos had wings they could use. But by

reason of always making war upon their neighbors they were hated by

every creature of Caspak, for no one wanted their tas-ad, and so they

used their wings to fly to this island when the other races turned

against them and threatened to kill them all. So cruel had they become

and so bloodthirsty that they no longer had hearts that beat with love

or sympathy; but their very cruelty and wickedness kept them from

conquering the other races, since they were also cruel and wicked to

one another, so that no Wieroo trusted another.

"Always were they slaying those above them that they might rise in

power and possessions, until at last came the more powerful than the

others with a tas-ad all his own. He gathered about him a few of the

most terrible Wieroos, and among them they made laws which took from

all but these few Wieroos every weapon they possessed.

"Now their tas-ad has reached a high plane among them. They make many

wonderful things that we cannot make. They think great thoughts, no

doubt, and still dream of greatness to come, but their thoughts and

their acts are regulated by ages of custom--they are all alike--and

they are most unhappy."

As the girl talked, the two moved steadily along the dark passageway

beside the river. They had advanced a considerable distance when there

sounded faintly from far ahead the muffled roar of falling water, which

increased in volume as they moved forward until at last it filled the

corridor with a deafening sound. Then the corridor ended in a blank

wall; but in a niche to the right was a ladder leading aloft, and to

the left was a door opening onto the river. Bradley tried the latter

first and as he opened it, felt a heavy spray against his face. The

little shelf outside the doorway was wet and slippery, the roaring of

the water tremendous. There could be but one explanation--they had

reached a waterfall in the river, and if the corridor actually

terminated here, their escape was effectually cut off, since it was

quite evidently impossible to follow the bed of the river and ascend

the falls.

As the ladder was the only alternative, the two turned toward it and,

the man first, began the ascent, which was through a well similar to

that which had led him to the upper floors of the temple. As he

climbed, Bradley felt for openings in the sides of the shaft; but he

discovered none below fifty feet. The first he came to was ajar,

letting a faint light into the well. As he paused, the girl climbed to

his side, and together they looked through the crack into a low-ceiled

chamber in which were several Galu women and an equal number of hideous

little replicas of the full-grown Wieroos with which Bradley was not

quite familiar.

He could feel the body of the girl pressed close to his tremble as her

eyes rested upon the inmates of the room, and involuntarily his arm

encircled her shoulders as though to protect her from some danger which

he sensed without recognizing.

"Poor things," she whispered. "This is their horrible fate--to be

imprisoned here beneath the surface of the city with their hideous

offspring whom they hate as they hate their fathers. A Wieroo keeps

his children thus hidden until they are full-grown lest they be

murdered by their fellows. The lower rooms of the city are filled with

many such as these."

Several feet above was a second door beyond which they found a small

room stored with food in wooden vessels. A grated window in one wall

opened above an alley, and through it they could see that they were

just below the roof of the building. Darkness was coming, and at

Bradley's suggestion they decided to remain hidden here until after

dark and then to ascend to the roof and reconnoiter.

Shortly after they had settled themselves they heard something

descending the ladder from above. They hoped that it would continue on

down the well and fairly held their breath as the sound approached the

door to the storeroom. Their hearts sank as they heard the door open

and from between cracks in the vessels behind which they hid saw a

yellow-slashed Wieroo enter the room. Each recognized him immediately,

the girl indicating the fact of her own recognition by a sudden

pressure of her fingers on Bradley's arm. It was the Wieroo of the

yellow slashing whose abode was the place of the yellow door in which

Bradley had first seen the girl.

The creature carried a wooden bowl which it filled with dried food from

several of the vessels; then it turned and quit the room. Bradley

could see through the partially open doorway that it descended the

ladder. The girl told him that it was taking the food to the women and

the young below, and that while it might return immediately, the

chances were that it would remain for some time.

"We are just below the place of the yellow door," she said. "It is far

from the edge of the city; so far that we may not hope to escape if we

ascend to the roofs here."

"I think," replied the man, "that of all the places in Oo-oh this will

be the easiest to escape from. Anyway, I want to return to the place

of the yellow door and get my pistol if it is there."

"It is still there," replied, the girl. "I saw it placed in a chest

where he keeps the things he takes from his prisoners and victims."

"Good!" exclaimed Bradley. "Now come, quickly." And the two crossed

the room to the well and ascended the ladder a short distance to its

top where they found another door that opened into a vacant room--the

same in which Bradley had first met the girl. To find the pistol was a

matter of but a moment's search on the part of Bradley's companion; and

then, at the Englishman's signal, she followed him to the yellow door.

It was quite dark without as the two entered the narrow passage between

two buildings. A few steps brought them undiscovered to the doorway of

the storeroom where lay the body of Fosh-bal-soj. In the distance,

toward the temple, they could hear sounds as of a great gathering of

Wieroos--the peculiar, uncanny wailing rising above the dismal flapping

of countless wings.

"They have heard of the killing of Him Who Speaks for Luata," whispered

the girl. "Soon they will spread in all directions searching for us."

"And will they find us?"

"As surely as Lua gives light by day," she replied; "and when they find

us, they will tear us to pieces, for only the Wieroos may murder--only

they may practice tas-ad."

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

"It will make no difference," she insisted. "If they find us together

they will slay us both."

"Then they won't find us together," announced Bradley decisively. "You

stay right here--you won't be any worse off than before I came--and

I'll get as far as I can and account for as many of the beggars as

possible before they get me. Good-bye! You're a mighty decent little

girl. I wish that I might have helped you."

"No," she cried. "Do not leave me. I would rather die. I had hoped

and hoped to find some way to return to my own country. I wanted to go

back to An-Tak, who must be very lonely without me; but I know that it

can never be. It is difficult to kill hope, though mine is nearly

dead. Do not leave me."

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

"Yes," replied the girl. "An-Tak was away, hunting, when the Wieroo

caught me. How he must have grieved for me! He also was cos-ata-lu,

twelve moons older than I, and all our lives we have been together."

Bradley remained silent. So she loved An-Tak. He hadn't the heart to

tell her that An-Tak had died, or how.

At the door of Fosh-bal-soj's storeroom they halted to listen. No

sound came from within, and gently Bradley pushed open the door. All

was inky darkness as they entered; but presently their eyes became

accustomed to the gloom that was partially relieved by the soft

starlight without. The Englishman searched and found those things for

which he had come--two robes, two pairs of dead wings and several

lengths of fiber rope. One pair of the wings he adjusted to the girl's

shoulders by means of the rope. Then he draped the robe about her,

carrying the cowl over her head.

He heard her gasp of astonishment when she realized the ingenuity and

boldness of his plan; then he directed her to adjust the other pair of

wings and the robe upon him. Working with strong, deft fingers she

soon had the work completed, and the two stepped out upon the roof, to

all intent and purpose genuine Wieroos. Besides his pistol Bradley

carried the sword of the slain Wieroo prophet, while the girl was armed

with the small blade of the red Wieroo.

Side by side they walked slowly across the roofs toward the north edge

of the city. Wieroos flapped above them and several times they passed

others walking or sitting upon the roofs. From the temple still rose

the sounds of commotion, now pierced by occasional shrill screams.

"The murderers are abroad," whispered the girl. "Thus will another

become the tongue of Luata. It is well for us, since it keeps them too

busy to give the time for searching for us. They think that we cannot

escape the city, and they know that we cannot leave the island--and so

do I."

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

said.

"There is no way," replied the girl.

Bradley made no response, and in silence they continued until the outer

edge of roofs was visible before them. "We are almost there," he

whispered.

The girl felt for his fingers and pressed them. He could feel hers

trembling as he returned the pressure, nor did he relinquish her hand;

and thus they came to the edge of the last roof.

Here they halted and looked about them. To be seen attempting to

descend to the ground below would be to betray the fact that they were

not Wieroos. Bradley wished that their wings were attached to their

bodies by sinew and muscle rather than by ropes of fiber. A Wieroo was

flapping far overhead. Two more stood near a door a few yards distant.

Standing between these and one of the outer pedestals that supported

one of the numerous skulls Bradley made one end of a piece of rope fast

about the pedestal and dropped the other end to the ground outside the

city. Then they waited.

It was an hour before the coast was entirely clear and then a moment

came when no Wieroo was in sight. "Now!" whispered Bradley; and the

girl grasped the rope and slid over the edge of the roof into the

darkness below. A moment later Bradley felt two quick pulls upon the

rope and immediately followed to the girl's side.

Across a narrow clearing they made their way and into a wood beyond.

All night they walked, following the river upward toward its source,

and at dawn they took shelter in a thicket beside the stream. At no

time did they hear the cry of a carnivore, and though many startled

animals fled as they approached, they were not once menaced by a wild

beast. When Bradley expressed surprise at the absence of the fiercest

beasts that are so numerous upon the mainland of Caprona, the girl

explained the reason that is contained in one of their ancient legends.

"When the Wieroos first developed wings upon which they could fly, they

found this island devoid of any life other than a few reptiles that

live either upon land or in the water and these only close to the

coast. Requiring meat for food the Wieroos carried to the island such

animals as they wished for that purpose. They still occasionally bring

them, and this with the natural increase keeps them provided with

flesh."

"As it will us," suggested Bradley.

The first day they remained in hiding, eating only the dried food that

Bradley had brought with him from the temple storeroom, and the next

night they set out again up the river, continuing steadily on until

almost dawn, when they came to low hills where the river wound through

a gorge--it was little more than rivulet now, the water clear and cold

and filled with fish similar to brook trout though much larger. Not

wishing to leave the stream the two waded along its bed to a spot where

the gorge widened between perpendicular bluffs to a wooded acre of

level land. Here they stopped, for here also the stream ended. They

had reached its source--many cold springs bubbling up from the center

of a little natural amphitheater in the hills and forming a clear and

beautiful pool overshadowed by trees upon one side and bounded by a

little clearing upon the other.

With the coming of the sun they saw they had stumbled upon a place

where they might remain hidden from the Wieroos for a long time and

also one that they could defend against these winged creatures, since

the trees would shield them from an attack from above and also hamper

the movements of the creatures should they attempt to follow them into

the wood.

For three days they rested here before trying to explore the

neighboring country. On the fourth, Bradley stated that he was going

to scale the bluffs and learn what lay beyond. He told the girl that

she should remain in hiding; but she refused to be left, saying that

whatever fate was to be his, she intended to share it, so that he was

at last forced to permit her to come with him. Through woods at the

summit of the bluff they made their way toward the north and had gone

but a short distance when the wood ended and before them they saw the

waters of the inland sea and dimly in the distance the coveted shore.

The beach lay some two hundred yards from the foot of the hill on which

they stood, nor was there a tree nor any other form of shelter between

them and the water as far up and down the coast as they could see.

Among other plans Bradley had thought of constructing a covered raft

upon which they might drift to the mainland; but as such a contrivance

would necessarily be of considerable weight, it must be built in the

water of the sea, since they could not hope to move it even a short

distance overland.

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

"But it is not," the girl reminded him, and then: "Let us make the

best of it. We have escaped from death for a time at least. We have

food and good water and peace and each other. What more could we have

upon the mainland?"

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

exclaimed.

She cast her eyes upon the ground and half turned away. "I do," she

said, "yet I am happy here. I could be little happier there."

Bradley stood in silent thought. "`We have food and good water and

peace and each other!'" he repeated to himself. He turned then and

looked at the girl, and it was as though in the days that they had been

together this was the first time that he had really seen her. The

circumstances that had thrown them together, the dangers through which

they had passed, all the weird and horrible surroundings that had

formed the background of his knowledge of her had had their effect--she

had been but the companion of an adventure; her self-reliance, her

endurance, her loyalty, had been only what one man might expect of

another, and he saw that he had unconsciously assumed an attitude

toward her that he might have assumed toward a man. Yet there had been

a difference--he recalled now the strange sensation of elation that had

thrilled him upon the occasions when the girl had pressed his hand in

hers, and the depression that had followed her announcement of her love

for An-Tak.

He took a step toward her. A fierce yearning to seize her and crush

her in his arms, swept over him, and then there flashed upon the screen

of recollection the picture of a stately hall set amidst broad gardens

and ancient trees and of a proud old man with beetling brows--an old

man who held his head very high--and Bradley shook his head and turned

away again.

They went back then to their little acre, and the days came and went,

and the man fashioned spear and bow and arrows and hunted with them

that they might have meat, and he made hooks of fishbone and caught

fishes with wondrous flies of his own invention; and the girl gathered

fruits and cooked the flesh and the fish and made beds of branches and

soft grasses. She cured the hides of the animals he killed and made

them soft by much pounding. She made sandals for herself and for the

man and fashioned a hide after the manner of those worn by the warriors

of her tribe and made the man wear it, for his own garments were in

rags.

She was always the same--sweet and kind and helpful--but always there

was about her manner and her expression just a trace of wistfulness,

and often she sat and looked at the man when he did not know it, her

brows puckered in thought as though she were trying to fathom and to

understand him.

In the face of the cliff, Bradley scooped a cave from the rotted

granite of which the hill was composed, making a shelter for them

against the rains. He brought wood for their cook-fire which they used

only in the middle of the day--a time when there was little likelihood

of Wieroos being in the air so far from their city--and then he learned

to bank it with earth in such a way that the embers held until the

following noon without giving off smoke.

Always he was planning on reaching the mainland, and never a day passed

that he did not go to the top of the hill and look out across the sea

toward the dark, distant line that meant for him comparative freedom

and possibly reunion with his comrades. The girl always went with him,

standing at his side and watching the stern expression on his face with

just a tinge of sadness on her own.

"You are not happy," she said once.

"I should be over there with my men," he replied. "I do not know what

may have happened to them."

"I want you to be happy," she said quite simply; "but I should be very

lonely if you went away and left me here."

He put his hand on her shoulder. "I would not do that, little girl,"

he said gently. "If you cannot go with me, I shall not go. If either

of us must go alone, it will be you."

Her face lighted to a wondrous smile. "Then we shall not be

separated," she said, "for I shall never leave you as long as we both

live."

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

he asked.

"My brother," she replied. "Why?"

And then, even less than before, could he tell her. It was then that

he did something he had never done before--he put his arms about her

and stooping, kissed her forehead. "Until you find An-Tak," he said,

"I will be your brother."

She drew away. "I already have a brother," she said, "and I do not

want another."