Books: People Out Of Time
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Edgar Rice Burroughs >> People Out Of Time
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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.
Chapter 5
We were sitting before a little fire inside a safe grotto one
night shortly after we had quit the cliff-dwellings of the Band-lu,
when So-al raised a question which it had never occurred to me to
propound to Ajor. She asked her why she had left her own people
and how she had come so far south as the country of the Alus, where
I had found her.
At first Ajor hesitated to explain; but at last she consented,
and for the first time I heard the complete story of her origin
and experiences. For my benefit she entered into greater detail
of explanation than would have been necessary had I been a native
Caspakian.
"I am a cos-ata-lo," commenced Ajor, and then she turned toward
me. "A cos-ata-lo, my Tom, is a woman" (lo) "who did not come from
an egg and thus on up from the beginning." (Cor sva jo.) "I was
a babe at my mother's breast. Only among the Galus are such, and
then but infrequently. The Wieroo get most of us; but my mother
hid me until I had attained such size that the Wieroo could not
readily distinguish me from one who had come up from the beginning.
I knew both my mother and my father, as only such as I may. My
father is high chief among the Galus. His name is Jor, and both he
and my mother came up from the beginning; but one of them, probably
my mother, had completed the seven cycles" (approximately seven
hundred years), "with the result that their offspring might be
cos-ata-lo, or born as are all the children of your race, my Tom,
as you tell me is the fact. I was therefore apart from my fellows
in that my children would probably be as I, of a higher state of
evolution, and so I was sought by the men of my people; but none
of them appealed to me. I cared for none. The most persistent
was Du-seen, a huge warrior of whom my father stood in considerable
fear, since it was quite possible that Du-seen could wrest from
him his chieftainship of the Galus. He has a large following of
the newer Galus, those most recently come up from the Kro-lu, and
as this class is usually much more powerful numerically than the
older Galus, and as Du-seen's ambition knows no bounds, we have
for a long time been expecting him to find some excuse for a break
with Jor the High Chief, my father.
"A further complication lay in the fact that Duseen wanted me, while
I would have none of him, and then came evidence to my father's
ears that he was in league with the Wieroo; a hunter, returning
late at night, came trembling to my father, saying that he had
seen Du-seen talking with a Wieroo in a lonely spot far from the
village, and that plainly he had heard the words: `If you will help
me, I will help you--I will deliver into your hands all cos-ata-lo
among the Galus, now and hereafter; but for that service you must
slay Jor the High Chief and bring terror and confusion to his
followers.'
"Now, when my father heard this, he was angry; but he was also
afraid--afraid for me, who am cosata-lo. He called me to him and
told me what he had heard, pointing out two ways in which we might
frustrate Du-seen. The first was that I go to Du-seen as his
mate, after which he would be loath to give me into the hands of
the Wieroo or to further abide by the wicked compact he had made--a
compact which would doom his own offspring, who would doubtless be
as am I, their mother. The alternative was flight until Du-seen
should have been overcome and punished. I chose the latter and
fled toward the south. Beyond the confines of the Galu country is
little danger from the Wieroo, who seek ordinarily only Galus of
the highest orders. There are two excellent reasons for this: One
is that from the beginning of time jealousy had existed between
the Wieroo and the Galus as to which would eventually dominate
the world. It seems generally conceded that that race which first
reaches a point of evolution which permits them to produce young
of their own species and of both sexes must dominate all other
creatures. The Wieroo first began to produce their own kind--after
which evolution from Galu to Wieroo ceased gradually until now it
is unknown; but the Wieroo produce only males--which is why they
steal our female young, and by stealing cos-ata-lo they increase
their own chances of eventually reproducing both sexes and at the
same time lessen ours. Already the Galus produce both male and
female; but so carefully do the Wieroo watch us that few of the
males ever grow to manhood, while even fewer are the females that
are not stolen away. It is indeed a strange condition, for while
our greatest enemies hate and fear us, they dare not exterminate
us, knowing that they too would become extinct but for us.
"Ah, but could we once get a start, I am sure that when all were
true cos-ata-lo there would have been evolved at last the true
dominant race before which all the world would be forced to bow."
Ajor always spoke of the world as though nothing existed beyond
Caspak. She could not seem to grasp the truth of my origin or
the fact that there were countless other peoples outside her stern
barrier-cliffs. She apparently felt that I came from an entirely
different world. Where it was and how I came to Caspak from it
were matters quite beyond her with which she refused to trouble
her pretty head.
"Well," she continued, "and so I ran away to hide, intending to pass
the cliffs to the south of Galu and find a retreat in the Kro-lu
country. It would be dangerous, but there seemed no other way.
"The third night I took refuge in a large cave in the cliffs at the
edge of my own country; upon the following day I would cross over
into the Kro-lu country, where I felt that I should be reasonably
safe from the Wieroo, though menaced by countless other dangers.
However, to a cos-ata-lo any fate is preferable to that of falling
into the clutches of the frightful Wieroo, from whose land none
returns.
"I had been sleeping peacefully for several hours when I was
awakened by a slight noise within the cavern. The moon was shining
brightly, illumining the entrance, against which I saw silhouetted
the dread figure of a Wieroo. There was no escape. The cave was
shallow, the entrance narrow. I lay very still, hoping against
hope, that the creature had but paused here to rest and might soon
depart without discovering me; yet all the while I knew that he
came seeking me.
"I waited, scarce breathing, watching the thing creep stealthily
toward me, its great eyes luminous in the darkness of the cave's
interior, and at last I knew that those eyes were directed upon me,
for the Wieroo can see in the darkness better than even the lion
or the tiger. But a few feet separated us when I sprang to my feet
and dashed madly toward my menacer in a vain effort to dodge past
him and reach the outside world. It was madness of course, for
even had I succeeded temporarily, the Wieroo would have but followed
and swooped down upon me from above. As it was, he reached forth
and seized me, and though I struggled, he overpowered me. In the
duel his long, white robe was nearly torn from him, and he became
very angry, so that he trembled and beat his wings together in his
rage.
"He asked me my name; but I would not answer him, and that angered
him still more. At last he dragged me to the entrance of the cave,
lifted me in his arms, spread his great wings and leaping into
the air, flapped dismally through the night. I saw the moonlit
landscape sliding away beneath me, and then we were out above the
sea and on our way to Oo-oh, the country of the Wieroo.
"The dim outlines of Oo-oh were unfolding below us when there
came from above a loud whirring of giant wings. The Wieroo and I
glanced up simultaneously, to see a pair of huge jo-oos" (flying
reptiles--pterodactyls) "swooping down upon us. The Wieroo
wheeled and dropped almost to sea-level, and then raced southward
in an effort to outdistance our pursuers. The great creatures,
notwithstanding their enormous weight, are swift on their wings;
but the Wieroo are swifter. Even with my added weight, the creature
that bore me maintained his lead, though he could not increase it.
Faster than the fastest wind we raced through the night, southward
along the coast. Sometimes we rose to great heights, where the
air was chill and the world below but a blur of dim outlines; but
always the jo-oos stuck behind us.
"I knew that we had covered a great distance, for the rush of
the wind by my face attested the speed of our progress, but I had
no idea where we were when at last I realized that the Wieroo was
weakening. One of the jo-oos gained on us and succeeded in heading
us, so that my captor had to turn in toward the coast. Further
and further they forced him to the left; lower and lower he sank.
More labored was his breathing, and weaker the stroke of his once
powerful wings. We were not ten feet above the ground when they
overtook us, and at the edge of a forest. One of them seized the
Wieroo by his right wing, and in an effort to free himself, he
loosed his grasp upon me, dropping me to earth. Like a frightened
ecca I leaped to my feet and raced for the sheltering sanctuary of
the forest, where I knew neither could follow or seize me. Then I
turned and looked back to see two great reptiles tear my abductor
asunder and devour him on the spot.
"I was saved; yet I felt that I was lost. How far I was from the
country of the Galus I could not guess; nor did it seem probable
that I ever could make my way in safety to my native land.
"Day was breaking; soon the carnivora would stalk forth for their
first kill; I was armed only with my knife. About me was a strange
landscape--the flowers, the trees, the grasses, even, were different
from those of my northern world, and presently there appeared before
me a creature fully as hideous as the Wieroo--a hairy manthing
that barely walked erect. I shuddered, and then I fled. Through
the hideous dangers that my forebears had endured in the earlier
stages of their human evolution I fled; and always pursuing was
the hairy monster that had discovered me. Later he was joined by
others of his kind. They were the speechless men, the Alus, from
whom you rescued me, my Tom. From then on, you know the story of
my adventures, and from the first, I would endure them all again
because they led me to you!"
It was very nice of her to say that, and I appreciated it. I felt
that she was a mighty nice little girl whose friendship anyone
might be glad to have; but I wished that when she touched me, those
peculiar thrills would not run through me. It was most discomforting,
because it reminded me of love; and I knew that I never could love
this half-baked little barbarian. I was very much interested in
her account of the Wieroo, which up to this time I had considered
a purely mythological creature; but Ajor shuddered so at even the
veriest mention of the name that I was loath to press the subject
upon her, and so the Wieroo still remained a mystery to me.
While the Wieroo interested me greatly, I had little time to think
about them, as our waking hours were filled with the necessities
of existence--the constant battle for survival which is the chief
occupation of Caspakians. To-mar and So-al were now about fitted
for their advent into Kro-lu society and must therefore leave
us, as we could not accompany them without incurring great danger
ourselves and running the chance of endangering them; but each
swore to be always our friend and assured us that should we need
their aid at any time we had but to ask it; nor could I doubt their
sincerity, since we had been so instrumental in bringing them safely
upon their journey toward the Kro-lu village.
This was our last day together. In the afternoon we should separate,
To-mar and So-al going directly to the Kro-lu village, while Ajor
and I made a detour to avoid a conflict with the archers. The
former both showed evidence of nervous apprehension as the time
approached for them to make their entry into the village of their
new people, and yet both were very proud and happy. They told us
that they would be well received as additions to a tribe always
are welcomed, and the more so as the distance from the beginning
increased, the higher tribes or races being far weaker numerically
than the lower. The southern end of the island fairly swarms with
the Ho-lu, or apes; next above these are the Alus, who are slightly
fewer in number than the Ho-lu; and again there are fewer Bolu than
Alus, and fewer Sto-lu than Bo-lu. Thus it goes until the Kro-lu
are fewer in number than any of the others; and here the law reverses,
for the Galus outnumber the Kro-lu. As Ajor explained it to me,
the reason for this is that as evolution practically ceases with
the Galus, there is no less among them on this score, for even the
cos-ata-lo are still considered Galus and remain with them. And
Galus come up both from the west and east coasts. There are, too,
fewer carnivorous reptiles at the north end of the island, and not
so many of the great and ferocious members of the cat family as
take their hideous toll of life among the races further south.
By now I was obtaining some idea of the Caspakian scheme of
evolution, which partly accounted for the lack of young among the
races I had so far seen. Coming up from the beginning, the Caspakian
passes, during a single existence, through the various stages of
evolution, or at least many of them, through which the human race
has passed during the countless ages since life first stirred upon
a new world; but the question which continued to puzzle me was:
What creates life at the beginning, cor sva jo?
I had noticed that as we traveled northward from the Alus' country
the land had gradually risen until we were now several hundred feet
above the level of the inland sea. Ajor told me that the Galus
country was still higher and considerably colder, which accounted
for the scarcity of reptiles. The change in form and kinds of the
lower animals was even more marked than the evolutionary stages
of man. The diminutive ecca, or small horse, became a rough-coated
and sturdy little pony in the Kro-lu country. I saw a greater
number of small lions and tigers, though many of the huge ones still
persisted, while the woolly mammoth was more in evidence, as were
several varieties of the Labyrinthadonta. These creatures, from
which God save me, I should have expected to find further south;
but for some unaccountable reason they gain their greatest bulk in
the Kro-lu and Galu countries, though fortunately they are rare.
I rather imagine that they are a very early life which is rapidly
nearing extinction in Caspak, though wherever they are found, they
constitute a menace to all forms of life.
It was mid-afternoon when To-mar and So-al bade us good-bye. We
were not far from Kro-lu village; in fact, we had approached it
much closer than we had intended, and now Ajor and I were to make
a detour toward the sea while our companions went directly in search
of the Kro-lu chief.
Ajor and I had gone perhaps a mile or two and were just about to
emerge from a dense wood when I saw that ahead of us which caused
me to draw back into concealment, at the same time pushing Ajor
behind me. What I saw was a party of Band-lu warriors--large,
fierce-appearing men. From the direction of their march I saw that
they were returning to their caves, and that if we remained where
we were, they would pass without discovering us.
Presently Ajor nudged me. "They have a prisoner," she whispered.
"He is a Kro-lu."
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