Chapter 4
We spent two days upon the cliff-top, resting and recuperating. Therewas some small game which gave us meat, and the little pools ofrainwater were sufficient to quench our thirst. The sun came out a fewhours after we emerged from the cave, and in its warmth we soon castoff 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 downto the valley. Below us, to the north, we saw a large pool lying atthe foot of the cliffs, and in it we could discern the women of theBand-lu lying in the shallow waters, while beyond and close to the baseof the mighty barrier-cliffs there was a large party of Band-luwarriors going north to hunt. We had a splendid view from our loftycliff-top. Dimly, to the west, we could see the farther shore of theinland sea, and southwest the large southern island loomed distinctlybefore 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, beingfully sixty miles away.
From our elevation, and in a clearer atmosphere, it would have stoodout distinctly; but the air of Caspak is heavy with moisture, with theresult that distant objects are blurred and indistinct. Ajor also toldme 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 thefrontier, south of which lies the country of Kro-lu--the archers. Wenow had but to pass through the balance of the Band-lu territory andthat of the Kro-lu to be within the confines of her own land; but thatmeant traversing thirty-five miles of hostile country filled with everyimaginable terror, and possibly many beyond the powers of imagination.I would certainly have given a lot for my plane at that moment, forwith it, twenty minutes would have landed us within the confines ofAjor's country.
We finally found a place where we could slip over the edge of the cliffonto a narrow ledge which seemed to give evidence of being something ofa game-path to the valley, though it apparently had not been used forsome time. I lowered Ajor at the end of my rifle and then slid overmyself, and I am free to admit that my hair stood on end during theprocess, for the drop was considerable and the ledge appallinglynarrow, with a frightful drop sheer below down to the rocks at the baseof the cliff; but with Ajor there to catch and steady me, I made it allright, and then we set off down the trail toward the valley. Therewere two or three more bad places, but for the most part it was an easydescent, and we came to the highest of the Band-lu caves withoutfurther trouble. Here we went more slowly, lest we should be set uponby some member of the tribe.
We must have passed about half the Band-lu cave-levels before we wereaccosted, and then a huge fellow stepped out in front of me, barringour further progress.
"Who are you?" he asked; and he recognized me and I him, for he hadbeen one of those who had led me back into the cave and bound me thenight that I had been captured. From me his gaze went to Ajor. He wasa fine-looking man with clear, intelligent eyes, a good forehead andsuperb 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 differentmold. He has the face of a Galu, but his weapons and the strange skinshe 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 thenecessity of conserving ammunition as well as to avoid the loud alarmof a shot which might bring other Band-lu warriors upon us. "I am fromAmerica, a land of which you never heard, and I am seeking others of mycountrymen who are in Caspak and from whom I am lost. I have no quarrelwith 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 inhis mind. At last he spoke. "What is that?" he asked. "And what isthat?" He pointed first at my rifle and then to my pistol.
"They are weapons," I replied, "weapons which kill at a greatdistance." 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 Icared to, without moving a step from where we now stand."
He looked his incredulity, but I went on. "And with this"--I weighedmy rifle at the balance in the palm of my right hand--"I could slay oneof those distant warriors." And I waved my left hand toward the tinyfigures of the hunters far to the north.
The fellow laughed. "Do it," he cried derisively, "and then it may bethat 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 youprisoner. They would kill you now if they could get their hands onyou, and they would eat you into the bargain. But I know why you donot try it--it is because you have spoken lies; your weapon will notkill at a great distance. It is only a queerly wrought club. For allI 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, inthe very middle of the night, the call came to me. Like that it cameinto my head"--and he struck his hands together smartly once--"that Ihad risen. I have been waiting for it and expecting it for a longtime; today I am a Kro-lu. Today I go into the coslupak" (unpeopledcountry, or literally, no man's land) "between the Band-lu and theKro-lu, and there I fashion my bow and my arrows and my shield; there Ihunt the red deer for the leathern jerkin which is the badge of my newestate. When these things are done, I can go to the chief of theKro-lu, and he dare not refuse me. That is why you may kill those lowBand-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," headmitted. "It is the way in Caspak. If we do not kill, we shall bekilled, therefore it is wise to kill first whomever does not belong toone's own people. This morning I hid in my cave till the others weregone upon the hunt, for I knew that they would know at once that I hadbecome a Kro-lu and would kill me. They will kill me if they find mein the coslupak; so will the Kro-lu if they come upon me before I havewon my Kro-lu weapons and jerkin. You would kill me if you could, andthat is the reason I know that you speak lies when you say that yourweapons will kill at a great distance. Would they, you would longsince have killed me. Come! I have no more time to waste in words. Iwill spare the woman and take her with me to the Kro-lu, for she iscomely." 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 notneed to raise it to my shoulder, having but to pull the trigger to sendhim into Kingdom Come whenever I chose; but yet I hesitated. It wasdifficult to bring myself to take a human life. I could feel no enmitytoward this savage barbarian who acted almost as wholly upon instinctas might a wild beast, and to the last moment I was determined to seeksome way to avoid what now seemed inevitable. Ajor stood at myshoulder, her knife ready in her hand and a sneer on her lips at hissuggestion that he would take her with him.
Just as I thought I should have to fire, a chorus of screams broke fromthe women beneath us. I saw the man halt and glance downward, andfollowing his example my eyes took in the panic and its cause. Thewomen had, evidently, been quitting the pool and slowly returningtoward the caves, when they were confronted by a monstrous cave-lionwhich stood directly between them and their cliffs in the center of thenarrow 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 inhis voice. "It will do them no goo
d, for the lion will wait until theycome out and take as many as he can carry away; and there is onethere," he added, a trace of sadness in his tone, "whom I hoped wouldsoon follow me to the Kro-lu. Together have we come up from thebeginning." He raised his spear above his head and poised it ready tohurl downward at the lion. "She is nearest to him," he muttered. "Hewill get her and she will never come to me among the Kro-lu, or everthereafter. It is useless! No warrior lives who could hurl a weaponso great a distance."
But even as he spoke, I was leveling my rifle upon the great brutebelow; and as he ceased speaking, I squeezed the trigger. My bulletmust have struck to a hair the point at which I had aimed, for itsmashed the brute's spine back of his shoulders and tore on through hisheart, dropping him dead in his tracks. For a moment the women were asterrified by the report of the rifle as they had been by the menace ofthe lion; but when they saw that the loud noise had evidently destroyedtheir enemy, they came creeping cautiously back to examine the carcass.
The man, toward whom I had immediately turned after firing, lest heshould pursue his threatened attack, stood staring at me in amazementand admiration.
"Why," he asked, "if you could do that, did you not kill me longbefore?"
"I told you," I replied, "that I had no quarrel with you. I do notcare to kill men with whom I have no quarrel."
But he could not seem to get the idea through his head. "I can believenow that you are not of Caspak," he admitted, "for no Caspakian wouldhave permitted such an opportunity to escape him." This, however, Ifound later to be an exaggeration, as the tribes of the west coast andeven the Kro-lu of the east coast are far less bloodthirsty than hewould have had me believe. "And your weapon!" he continued. "Youspoke 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 toknow that truthfulness and loyalty are two of the strongestcharacteristics of these primitive people. They are not sufficientlycultured 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 foryou, and you can fight for me. Until death will I serve you, for youhave saved So-al, whom I had given up as dead." He threw down hisspear and covered both his eyes with the palms of his two hands. Ilooked inquiringly toward Ajor, who explained as best she could thatthis was the form of the Caspakian oath of allegiance. "You need neverfear 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 whatI should have done had I not wished to accept his friendship. Theytold me that had I walked away, the moment that I was out of sight ofthe warrior we would have become deadly enemies again. "But I could soeasily have killed him as he stood there defenseless!" I exclaimed.
"Yes," replied the warrior, "but no man with good sense blinds his eyesbefore one whom he does not trust."
It was rather a decent compliment, and it taught me just how much Imight rely on the loyalty of my new friend. I was glad to have himwith 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, To-mar the warriorsuggested that we make our way to the valley before they couldintercept us, as they might attempt to detain us and were almostcertain to set upon Ajor. So we hastened down the narrow path,reaching the foot of the cliffs but a short distance ahead of thewomen. 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 inthe death of some of them.
We had proceeded about a mile when we heard some one behind us callingTo-mar by name, and when we stopped and looked around, we saw a womanrunning rapidly toward us. As she approached nearer I could see thatshe was a very comely creature, and like all her sex that I had seen inCaspak, 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. Shepaid not the slightest attention to Ajor or me; but devouring To-marwith 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 herselfinto his arms.
It was a very affecting sight, for it was evident that these two hadbeen mates for a long time and that they had each thought that theywere about to be separated by that strange law of evolution which holdsgood in Caspak and which was slowly unfolding before my incredulousmind. I did not then comprehend even a tithe of the wondrous process,which goes on eternally within the confines of Caprona's barrier cliffsnor 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-lionand saved her life, and that Ajor was my woman and thus entitled to thesame loyalty which was my due.
At first Ajor and So-al were like a couple of stranger cats on a backfence but soon they began to accept each other under something of anarmed truce, and later became fast friends. So-al was a mightyfine-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 aman--a savage, if you will, but none the less a man.
Finding that traveling in company with To-mar made our journey botheasier and safer, Ajor and I did not continue on our way alone whilethe novitiates delayed their approach to the Kro-lu country in orderthat they might properly fit themselves in the matter of arms andapparel, but remained with them. Thus we became well acquainted--tosuch an extent that we looked forward with regret to the day when theytook their places among their new comrades and we should be forced tocontinue upon our way alone. It was a matter of much concern to To-marthat the Kro-lu would undoubtedly not receive Ajor and me in a friendlymanner, and that consequently we should have to avoid these people.
It would have been very helpful to us could we have made friends withthem, as their country abutted directly upon that of the Galus. Theirfriendship would have meant that Ajor's dangers were practicallypassed, 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 Ihad to complete that journey in search of my friends. The furthersouth I should travel on the west side of the island, the morefrightful would the dangers become as I neared the stamping-grounds ofthe more hideous reptilia and the haunts of the Alus and the Ho-lu, allof which were at the southern half of the island; and then if I shouldnot find the members of my party, what was to become of me? I couldnot 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 couldnot say definitely whether they would or not, and even provided thatthey would, could I retrace my steps from the beginning, after failingto find my own people, and return to the far northern land of Galus? Idoubted it. However, I was learning from Ajor, who was more or less ofa fatalist, a philosophy which was as necessary in Caspak to peace ofmind as is faith to the devout Christian of the outer world.
The People That Time Forgot Page 4