Out of Time's Abyss ............................................................................................................................................1

Edgar Rice Burroughs ..............................................................................................................................1

This is the tale of Bradley after he left Fort Dinosaur upon the west coast of the great lake that is in the center

Upon the fourth day of September, 1916, he set out with four companions, Sinclair, Brady, James, and

Tippet, to search along the base of the barrier cliffs for a point at which they might be scaled.

Through the heavy Caspakian air, beneath the swollen sun, the five men marched northwest from Fort

Dinosaur, now waistdeep in lush, jungle grasses starred with myriad gorgeous blooms, now across open

meadowland and parklike expanses and again plunging into dense forests of eucalyptus and acacia and giant

arboreous ferns with feathered fronds waving gently a hundred feet above their heads.

About them upon the ground, among the trees and in the air over them moved and swung and soared the

countless forms of Caspak's teeming life. Always were they menaced by some frightful thing and seldom

were their rifles cool, yet even in the brief time they had dwelt upon Caprona they had become callous to

danger, so that they swung along laughing and chatting like soldiers on a summer hike.

"This reminds me of South Clark Street," remarked Brady, who had once served on the traffic squad in

Chicago; and as no one asked him why, he volunteered that it was "because it's no place for an Irishman."

"South Clark Street and heaven have something in common, then," suggested Sinclair. James and Tippet

laughed, and then a hideous growl broke from a dense thicket ahead and diverted their attention to other

"One of them behemoths of 'Oly Writ," muttered Tippet as they came to a halt and with guns ready awaited

"Hungry lot o' beggars, these," said Bradley; "always trying to eat everything they see."

For a moment no further sound came from the thicket. "He may be feeding now," suggested Bradley. "We'll

try to go around him. Can't waste ammunition. Won't last forever. Follow me." And he set off at right angles

to their former course, hoping to avert a charge. They had taken a dozen steps, perhaps, when the thicket

moved to the advance of the thing within it, the leafy branches parted, and the hideous head of a gigantic bear

The men looked about them. The bear took a couple of steps forward, still growling menacingly. He was

exposed to the shoulders now. Tippet took one look at the monster and bolted for the nearest tree; and then

the bear charged. He charged straight for Tippet. The other men scattered for the various trees they had

selectedall except Bradley. He stood watching Tippet and the bear. The man had a good start and the tree

was not far away; but the speed of the enormous creature behind him was something to marvel at, yet Tippet

was in a fair way to make his sanctuary when his foot caught in a tangle of roots and down he went, his rifle

flying from his hand and falling several yards away. Instantly Bradley's piece was at his shoulder, there was a

sharp report answered by a roar of mingled rage and pain from the carnivore. Tippet attempted to scramble to

The bear halted in its tracks, wheeled toward Bradley and then back again toward Tippet. Again the former's

rifle spit angrily, and the bear turned again in his direction. Bradley shouted loudly. "Come on, you behemoth

of Holy Writ!" he cried. "Come on, you duffer! Can't waste ammunition." And as he saw the bear apparently

upon the verge of deciding to charge him, he encouraged the idea by backing rapidly away, knowing that an

And the bear did charge. Like a bolt of lightning he flashed down upon the Englishman. "Now run!" Bradley

called to Tippet and himself turned in flight toward a nearby tree. The other men, now safely ensconced upon

various branches, watched the race with breathless interest. Would Bradley make it? It seemed scarce

possible. And if he didn't! James gasped at the thought. Six feet at the shoulder stood the frightful mountain

of bloodmad flesh and bone and sinew that was bearing down with the speed of an express train upon the

It all happened in a few seconds; but they were seconds that seemed like hours to the men who watched. They

saw Tippet leap to his feet at Bradley's shouted warning. They saw him run, stooping to recover his rifle as he

passed the spot where it had fallen. They saw him glance back toward Bradley, and then they saw him stop

short of the tree that might have given him safety and turn back in the direction of the bear. Firing as he ran,

Tippet raced after the great cave bearthe monstrous thing that should have been extinct ages beforeran

for it and fired even as the beast was almost upon Bradley. The men in the trees scarcely breathed. It seemed

to them such a futile thing for Tippet to do, and Tippet of all men! They had never looked upon Tippet as a

cowardthere seemed to be no cowards among that strangely assorted company that Fate had gathered

together from the four corners of the earthbut Tippet was considered a cautious man. Overcautious, some

thought him. How futile he and his little popgun appeared as he dashed after that living engine of

destruction! But, oh, how glorious! It was some such thought as this that ran through Brady's mind, though

Just then it occurred to Brady to fire and he, too, opened upon the bear, but at the same instant the animal

stumbled and fell forward, though still growling most fearsomely. Tippet never stopped running or firing

until he stood within a foot of the brute, which lay almost touching Bradley and was already struggling to

regain its feet. Placing the muzzle of his gun against the bear's ear, Tippet pulled the trigger. The creature

"Good work, Tippet," he said. "Mightily obliged to youawful waste of ammunition, really."

And then they resumed the march and in fifteen minutes the encounter had ceased even to be a topic of

For two days they continued upon their perilous way. Already the cliffs loomed high and forbidding close

ahead without sign of break to encourage hope that somewhere they might be scaled. Late in the afternoon

the party crossed a small stream of warm water upon the sluggishly moving surface of which floated

countless millions of tiny green eggs surrounded by a light scum of the same color, though of a darker shade.

Their past experience of Caspak had taught them that they might expect to come upon a stagnant pool of

warm water if they followed the stream to its source; but there they were almost certain to find some of

Caspak's grotesque, manlike creatures. Already since they had disembarked from the U33 after its perilous

trip through the subterranean channel beneath the barrier cliffs had brought them into the inland sea of

Caspak, had they encountered what had appeared to be three distinct types of these creatures. There had been

the pure apeshuge, gorillalike beastsand those who walked, a trifle more erect and had features with just

a shade more of the human cast about them. Then there were men like Ahm, whom they had captured and

confined at the fortAhm, the clubman. "Wellknown clubman," Tyler had called him. Ahm and his

people had knowledge of a speech. They had a language, in which they were unlike the race just inferior to

them, and they walked much more erect and were less hairy: but it was principally the fact that they

possessed a spoken language and carried a weapon that differentiated them from the others.

All of these peoples had proven belligerent in the extreme. In common with the rest of the fauna of Caprona

the first law of nature as they seemed to understand it was to killkillkill. And so it was that Bradley had

no desire to follow up the little stream toward the pool near which were sure to be the caves of some savage

tribe, but fortune played him an unkind trick, for the pool was much closer than he imagined, its southern end

reaching fully a mile south of the point at which they crossed the stream, and so it was that after forcing their

way through a tangle of jungle vegetation they came out upon the edge of the pool which they had wished to

Almost simultaneously there appeared south of them a party of naked men armed with clubs and hatchets.

Both parties halted as they caught sight of one another. The men from the fort saw before them a hunting

party evidently returning to its caves or village laden with meat. They were large men with features closely

resembling those of the African Negro though their skins were white. Short hair grew upon a large portion of

their limbs and bodies, which still retained a considerable trace of apish progenitors. They were, however, a

Bradley would have been glad to have averted a meeting; but as he desired to lead his party south around the

end of the pool, and as it was hemmed in by the jungle on one side and the water on the other, there seemed

On the chance that he might avoid a clash, Bradley stepped forward with upraised hand. "We are friends, " he

called in the tongue of Ahm, the Bolu, who had been held a prisoner at the fort; "permit us to pass in peace.

At this the hatchetmen set up a great jabbering with much laughter, loud and boisterous. "No," shouted one,

"you will not harm us, for we shall kill you. Come! We kill! We kill!" And with hideous shouts they charged

"Sinclair, you may fire," said Bradley quietly." Pick off the leader. Can't waste ammunition."

The Englishman raised his piece to his shoulder and took quick aim at the breast of the yelling savage leaping

toward them. Directly behind the leader came another hatchetman, and with the report of Sinclair's rifle both

warriors lunged forward in the tall grass, pierced by the same bullet. The effect upon the rest of the band was

electrical. As one man they came to a sudden halt, wheeled to the east and dashed into the jungle, where the

men could hear them forcing their way in an effort to put as much distance as possible between themselves

and the authors of this new and frightful noise that killed warriors at a great distance.

Both the savages were dead when Bradley approached to examine them, and as the Europeans gathered

around, other eyes were bent upon them with greater curiosity than they displayed for the victim of Sinclair's

bullet. When the party again took up the march around the southern end of the pool the owner of the eyes

followed themlarge, round eyes, almost expressionless except for a certain cold cruelty which glinted

All unconscious of the stalker, the men came, late in the afternoon, to a spot which seemed favorable as a

campsite. A cold spring bubbled from the base of a rocky formation which overhung and partially encircled a

small inclosure. At Bradley's command, the men took up the duties assigned themgathering wood, building

a cookfire and preparing the evening meal. It was while they were thus engaged that Brady's attention was

attracted by the dismal flapping of huge wings. He glanced up, expecting to see one of the great flying

reptiles of a bygone age, his rifle ready in his hand. Brady was a brave man. He had groped his way up

narrow tenement stairs and taken an armed maniac from a dark room without turning a hair; but now as he

Attracted by Brady's cry the others seized their rifles as they followed his wideeyed, frozen gaze, nor was

there one of them that was not moved by some species of terror or awe. Then Brady spoke again in an almost

Bradley, always cool almost to indifference in the face of danger, felt a strange, creeping sensation run over

his flesh, as slowly, not a hundred feet above them, the thing flapped itself across the sky, its huge, round

eyes glaring down upon them. And until it disappeared over the tops of the trees of a nearby wood the five

men stood as though paralyzed, their eyes never leaving the weird shape; nor never one of them appearing to

With the passing of the thing, came the reaction. Tippet sank to the ground and buried his face in his hands.

"Oh, Gord," he moaned. "Tyke me awy from this orful plice." Brady, recovered from the first shock, swore

loud and luridly. He called upon all the saints to witness that he was unafraid and that anybody with half an

eye could have seen that the creature was nothing more than "one av thim flyin' alligators" that they all were

"Yes," said Sinclair with fine sarcasm, "we've saw so many of them with white shrouds on 'em."

"Shut up, you fool!" growled Brady. "If you know so much, tell us what it was after bein' then."

Bradley shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "It looked like a winged human being clothed in a flowing

white robe. Its face was more human than otherwise. That is the way it looked to me; but what it really was I

can't even guess, for such a creature is as far beyond my experience or knowledge as it is beyond yours. All

that I am sure of is that whatever else it may have been, it was quite materialit was no ghost; rather just

another of the strange forms of life which we have met here and with which we should be accustomed by this

Tippet looked up. His face was still ashy. "Yer cawn't tell me," he cried. "Hi seen hit. Blime, Hi seen hit. Hit

was ha dead man flyin' through the hair. Didn't Hi see 'is heyes? Oh, Gord! Didn't Hi see 'em?"

"It didn't look like any beast or reptile to me," spoke up Sinclair. "It was lookin' right down at me when I

looked up and I saw its face plain as I see yours. It had big round eyes that looked all cold and dead, and its

cheeks were sunken in deep, and I could see its yellow teeth behind thin, tightdrawn lipslike a man who

"Yes!" James had not spoken since the apparition had passed over them, and now it was scarce speech which

he utteredrather a series of articulate gasps. "Yesdeadalongwhile. Itmeans something.

Itcomefor someone. For oneof us. Oneof us is goin' to die. I'm goin' to die!" he ended in a

"Come! Come!" snapped Bradley. "Won't do. Won't do at all. Get to work, all of you. Waste of time. Can't

His authoritative tones brought them all up standing, and presently each was occupied with his own duties;

but each worked in silence and there was no singing and no bantering such as had marked the making of

previous camps. Not until they had eaten and to each had been issued the little ration of smoking tobacco

allowed after each evening meal did any sign of a relaxation of taut nerves appear. It was Brady who showed

the first signs of returning good spirits. He commenced humming "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" and

presently to voice the words, but he was well into his third song before anyone joined him, and even then

A huge fire blazed in the opening of their rocky shelter that the prowling carnivora might be kept at bay; and

always one man stood on guard, watchfully alert against a sudden rush by some maddened beast of the

jungle. Beyond the fire, yellowgreen spots of flame appeared, moved restlessly about, disappeared and

reappeared, accompanied by a hideous chorus of screams and growls and roars as the hungry meateaters

hunting through the night were attracted by the light or the scent of possible prey.

But to such sights and sounds as these the five men had become callous. They sang or talked as

unconcernedly as they might have done in the barroom of some publichouse at home.

Sinclair was standing guard. The others were listening to Brady's description of traffic congestion at the Rush

bridge during the rush hour at night. The fire crackled cheerily. The owners of the yellowgreen eyes raised

their frightful chorus to the heavens. Conditions seemed again to have returned to normal. And then, as

though the hand of Death had reached out and touched them all, the five men tensed into sudden rigidity.

Above the nocturnal diapason of the teeming jungle sounded a dismal flapping of wings and over head,

through the thick night, a shadowy form passed across the diffused light of the flaring campfire. Sinclair

raised his rifle and fired. An eerie wail floated down from above and the apparition, whatever it might have

been, was swallowed by the darkness. For several seconds the listening men heard the sound of those

dismally flapping wings lessening in the distance until they could no longer be heard.

Bradley was the first to speak. "Shouldn't have fired, Sinclair," he said; "can't waste ammunition." But there

was no note of censure in his tone. It was as though he understood the nervous reaction that had compelled

"I couldn't help it, sir," said Sinclair. "Lord, it would take an iron man to keep from shootin' at that awful

"I don't know about that," said Brady. "There was a woman murdered over on the prairie near Brightonher

"My grandaddy used to live down Coppington wy," said Tippet. "They were a hold ruined castle on a 'ill near

by, hand at midnight they used to see pale blue lights through the windows an 'ear"

"Will you close your hatch!" demanded Bradley. "You fools will have yourselves scared to death in a minute.

But there was little sleep in camp that night until utter exhaustion overtook the harassed men toward

morning; nor was there any return of the weird creature that had set the nerves of each of them on edge.

The following forenoon the party reached the base of the barrier cliffs and for two days marched northward in

an effort to discover a break in the frowning abutment that raised its rocky face almost perpendicularly above

them, yet nowhere was there the slightest indication that the cliffs were scalable.

Disheartened, Bradley determined to turn back toward the fort, as he already had exceeded the time decided

upon by Bowen Tyler and himself for the expedition. The cliffs for many miles had been trending in a

northeasterly direction, indicating to Bradley that they were approaching the northern extremity of the island.

According to the best of his calculations they had made sufficient easting during the past two days to have

brought them to a point almost directly north of Fort Dinosaur and as nothing could be gained by retracing

their steps along the base of the cliffs he decided to strike due south through the unexplored country between

That night (September 9, 1916), they made camp a short distance from the cliffs beside one of the numerous

cool springs that are to be found within Caspak, oftentimes close beside the still more numerous warm and

hot springs which feed the many pools. After supper the men lay smoking and chatting among themselves.

Tippet was on guard. Fewer night prowlers threatened them, and the men were commenting upon the fact that

the farther north they had traveled the smaller the number of all species of animals became, though it was still

present in what would have seemed appalling plenitude in any other part of the world. The diminution in

reptilian life was the most noticeable change in the fauna of northern Caspak. Here, however, were forms

According to their custom all, with the exception of the man on guard, sought sleep early, nor, once disposed

upon the ground for slumber, were they long in finding it. It seemed to Bradley that he had scarcely closed

his eyes when he was brought to his feet, wide awake, by a piercing scream which was punctuated by the

sharp report of a rifle from the direction of the fire where Tippet stood guard. As he ran toward the man,

Bradley heard above him the same uncanny wail that had set every nerve on edge several nights before, and

the dismal flapping of huge wings. He did not need to look up at the whiteshrouded figure winging slowly

The muscles of his arm, reacting to the sight and sound of the menacing form, carried his hand to the butt of

his pistol; but after he had drawn the weapon, he immediately returned it to its holster with a shrug.

"What for?" he muttered. "Can't waste ammunition." Then he walked quickly to where Tippet lay sprawled

upon his face. By this time James, Brady and Sinclair were at his heels, each with his rifle in readiness.

"Is he dead, sir?" whispered James as Bradley kneeled beside the prostrate form.

Bradley turned Tippet over on his back and pressed an ear close to the other's heart. In a moment he raised his

head. "Fainted," he announced. "Get water. Hurry!" Then he loosened Tippet's shirt at the throat and when

the water was brought, threw a cupful in the man's face. Slowly Tippet regained consciousness and sat up. At

first he looked curiously into the faces of the men about him; then an expression of terror overspread his

features. He shot a startled glance up into the black void above and then burying his face in his arms began to

"What's wrong, man?" demanded Bradley. "Buck up! Can't play crybaby. Waste of energy. What

"Wot 'appened, sir!" wailed Tippet. "Oh, Gord, sir! Hit came back. Hit came for me, sir. Right hit did, sir;

strite hat me, sir; hand with long w'ite 'ands it clawed for me. Oh, Gord! Hit almost caught me, sir. Hi'm has

good as dead; Hi'm a marked man; that's wot Hi ham. Hit was agoin' for to carry me horf, sir."

Tippet said that he dida much better look than he wanted. The thing had almost clutched him, and he had

looked straight into its eyes"dead heyes in a dead face," he had described them.

"Hit was Death," moaned Tippet, shuddering, and again a pall of gloom fell upon the little party.

The following day Tippet walked as one in a trance. He never spoke except in reply to a direct question,

which more often than not had to be repeated before it could attract his attention. He insisted that he was

already a dead man, for if the thing didn't come for him during the day he would never live through another

night of agonized apprehension, waiting for the frightful end that he was positive was in store for him. "I'll

see to that," he said, and they all knew that Tippet meant to take his own life before darkness set in.

Bradley tried to reason with him, in his short, crisp way, but soon saw the futility of it; nor could he take the

man's weapons from him without subjecting him to almost certain death from any of the numberless dangers

The entire party was moody and glum. There was none of the bantering that had marked their intercourse

before, even in the face of blighting hardships and hideous danger. This was a new menace that threatened

them, something that they couldn't explain; and so, naturally, it aroused within them superstitious fear which

Tippet's attitude only tended to augment. To add further to their gloom, their way led through a dense forest,

where, on account of the underbrush, it was difficult to make even a mile an hour. Constant watchfulness was

required to avoid the many snakes of various degrees of repulsiveness and enormity that infested the wood;

and the only ray of hope they had to cling to was that the forest would, like the majority of Caspakian forests,

Bradley was in the lead when he came suddenly upon a grotesque creature of Titanic proportions. Crouching

among the trees, which here commenced to thin out slightly, Bradley saw what appeared to be an enormous

dragon devouring the carcass of a mammoth. From frightful jaws to the tip of its long tail it was fully forty

feet in length. Its body was covered with plates of thick skin which bore a striking resemblance to

armorplate. The creature saw Bradley almost at the same instant that he saw it and reared up on its

enormous hind legs until its head towered a full twentyfive feet above the ground. From the cavernous jaws

issued a hissing sound of a volume equal to the escaping steam from the safetyvalves of half a dozen

"Scatter!" shouted Bradley to those behind him; and all but Tippet heeded the warning. The man stood as

though dazed, and when Bradley saw the other's danger, he too stopped and wheeling about sent a bullet into

the massive body forcing its way through the trees toward him. The shot struck the creature in the belly

where there was no protecting armor, eliciting a new note which rose in a shrill whistle and ended in a wail. It

was then that Tippet appeared to come out of his trance, for with a cry of terror he turned and fled to the left.

Bradley, seeing that he had as good an opportunity as the others to escape, now turned his attention to

extricating himself; and as the woods seemed dense on the right, he ran in that direction, hoping that the

closeset boles would prevent pursuit on the part of the great reptile. The dragon paid no further attention to

him, however, for Tippet's sudden break for liberty had attracted its attention; and after Tippet it went,

bowling over small trees, uprooting underbrush and leaving a wake behind it like that of a small tornado.

Bradley, the moment he had discovered the thing was pursuing Tippet, had followed it. He was afraid to fire

for fear of hitting the man, and so it was that he came upon them at the very moment that the monster lunged

its great weight forward upon the doomed man. The sharp, threetoed talons of the forelimbs seized poor

Tippet, and Bradley saw the unfortunate fellow lifted high above the ground as the creature again reared up

on its hind legs, immediately transferring Tippet's body to its gaping jaws, which closed with a sickening,

Bradley half raised his rifle to fire again and then lowered it with a shake of his head. Tippet was beyond

succorwhy waste a bullet that Caspak could never replace? If he could now escape the further notice of the

monster it would be a wiser act than to throw his life away in futile revenge. He saw that the reptile was not

looking in his direction, and so he slipped noiselessly behind the bole of a large tree and thence quietly faded

away in the direction he believed the others to have taken. At what he considered a safe distance he halted

and looked back. Half hidden by the intervening trees he still could see the huge head and the massive jaws

from which protrude the limp legs of the dead man. Then, as though struck by the hammer of Thor, the

creature collapsed and crumpled to the ground. Bradley's single bullet, penetrating the body through the soft

A few minutes later, Bradley found the others of the party. The four returned cautiously to the spot where the

creature lay and after convincing themselves that it was quite dead, came close to it. It was an arduous and

gruesome job extricating Tippet's mangled remains from the powerful jaws, the men working for the most

"It was the work of the banshee all right," muttered Brady. "It warned poor Tippet, it did."

"Hit killed him, that's wot hit did, hand hit'll kill some more of us," said James, his lower lip trembling.

"If it was a ghost," interjected Sinclair, "and I don't say as it was; but if it was, why, it could take on any form

it wanted to. It might have turned itself into this thing, which ain't no natural thing at all, just to get poor

Tippet. If it had of been a lion or something else humanlike it wouldn't look so strange; but this here thing

"Bullets don't kill ghosts," said Bradley, "so this couldn't have been a ghost. Furthermore, there are no such

things. I've been trying to place this creature. Just succeeded. It's a tyrannosaurus. Saw picture of skeleton in

magazine. There's one in New York Natural History Museum. Seems to me it said it was found in place

called Hell Creek somewhere in western North America. Supposed to have lived about six million years ago."

"Hell Creek's in Montana," said Sinclair. "I used to punch cows in Wyoming, an' I've heard of Hell Creek. Do

"No," replied Bradley; "But it would indicate that the island of Caprona has stood almost without change for

The conversation and Bradley's assurance that the creature was not of supernatural origin helped to raise a

trifle the spirits of the men; and then came another diversion in the form of ravenous meateaters attracted to

the spot by the uncanny sense of smell which had apprised them of the presence of flesh, killed and ready for

It was a constant battle while they dug a grave and consigned all that was mortal of John Tippet to his last,

lonely restingplace. Nor would they leave then; but remained to fashion a rude head stone from a

crumbling outcropping of sandstone and to gather a mass of the gorgeous flowers growing in such great

profusion around them and heap the newmade grave with bright blooms. Upon the headstone Sinclair

For three days the party marched due south through forests and meadowland and great parklike areas

where countless herbivorous animals grazeddeer and antelope and bos and the little ecca, the smallest

species of Caspakian horse, about the size of a rabbit. There were other horses too; but all were small, the

largest being not above eight hands in height. Preying continually upon the herbivora were the meateaters,

large and smallwolves, hyaenadons, panthers, lions, tigers, and bear as well as several large and ferocious

On September twelfth the party scaled a line of sandstone cliffs which crossed their route toward the south;

but they crossed them only after an encounter with the tribe that inhabited the numerous caves which pitted

the face of the escarpment. That night they camped upon a rocky plateau which was sparsely wooded with

jarrah, and here once again they were visited by the weird, nocturnal apparition that had already filled them

As on the night of September ninth the first warning came from the sentinel standing guard over his sleeping

companions. A terrorstricken cry punctuated by the crack of a rifle brought Bradley, Sinclair and Brady to

their feet in time to see James, with clubbed rifle, battling with a whiterobed figure that hovered on

widespread wings on a level with the Englishman's head. As they ran, shouting, forward, it was obvious to

them that the weird and terrible apparition was attempting to seize James; but when it saw the others coming

to his rescue, it desisted, flapping rapidly upward and away, its long, ragged wings giving forth the peculiarly

Bradley fired at the vanishing menacer of their peace and safety; but whether he scored a hit or not, none

could tell, though, following the shot, there was wafted back to them the same piercing wail that had on other

Then they turned toward James, who lay face downward upon the ground, trembling as with ague. For a time

he could not even speak, but at last regained sufficient composure to tell them how the thing must have

swooped silently upon him from above and behind as the first premonition of danger he had received was

when the long, clawlike fingers had clutched him beneath either arm. In the melee his rifle had been

discharged and he had broken away at the same instant and turned to defend himself with the butt. The rest

From that instant James was an absolutely broken man. He maintained with shaking lips that his doom was

sealed, that the thing had marked him for its own, and that he was as good as dead, nor could any amount of

argument or raillery convince him to the contrary. He had seen Tippet marked and claimed and now he had

been marked. Nor were his constant reiterations of this belief without effect upon the rest of the party. Even

Bradley felt depressed, though for the sake of the others he managed to hide it beneath a show of confidence

And on the following day William James was killed by a sabertooth tigerSeptember 13, 1916. Beneath a

jarrah tree on the stony plateau on the northern edge of the Stolu country in the land that Time forgot, he lies

Southward from his grave marched three grim and silent men. To the best of Bradley's reckoning they were

some twentyfive miles north of Fort Dinosaur, and that they might reach the fort on the following day, they

plodded on until darkness overtook them. With comparative safety fifteen miles away, they made camp at

last; but there was no singing now and no joking. In the bottom of his heart each prayed that they might come

safely through just this night, for they knew that during the morrow they would make the final stretch, yet the

nerves of each were taut with strained anticipation of what gruesome thing might flap down upon them from

As was their custom, they took turns at guard, each man doing two hours and then arousing the next. Brady

had gone on from eight to ten, followed by Sinclair from ten to twelve, then Bradley had been awakened.

Brady would stand the last guard from two to four, as they had determined to start the moment that it became

The snapping of a twig aroused Brady out of a dead sleep, and as he opened his eyes, he saw that it was broad

daylight and that at twenty paces from him stood a huge lion. As the man sprang to his feet, his rifle ready in

his hand, Sinclair awoke and took in the scene in a single swift glance. The fire was out and Bradley was

nowhere in sight. For a long moment the lion and the men eyed one another. The latter had no mind to fire if

the beast minded its own affairsthey were only too glad to let it go its way if it would; but the lion was of a

Suddenly the long tail snapped stiffly erect, and as though it had been attached to two trigger fingers the two

rifles spoke in unison, for both men knew this signal only too wellthe immediate forerunner of a deadly

charge. As the brute's head had been raised, his spine had not been visible; and so they did what they had

learned by long experience was best to do. Each covered a front leg, and as the tail snapped aloft, fired. With

a hideous roar the mighty flesheater lurched forward to the ground with both front legs broken. It was an

easy accomplishment in the instant before the beast chargedafter, it would have been wellnigh an

impossible feat. Brady stepped close in and finished him with a shot in the base of the brain lest his terrific

Then the two men turned and looked at one another. "Where is Lieutenant Bradley?" asked Sinclair. They

walked to the fire. Only a few smoking embers remained. A few feet away lay Bradley's rifle. There was no

evidence of a struggle. The two men circled about the camp twice and on the last lap Brady stooped and

picked up an object which had lain about ten yards beyond the fireit was Bradley's cap. Again the two

looked questioningly at one another, and then, simultaneously, both pairs of eyes swung upward and searched

the sky. A moment later Brady was examining the ground about the spot where Bradley's cap had lain. It was

one of those little barren, sandy stretches that they had found only upon this stony plateau. Brady's own

footsteps showed as plainly as black ink upon white paper; but his was the only foot that had marred the

smooth, windswept surfacethere was no sign that Bradley had crossed the spot upon the surface of the

Breakfastless and with shaken nerves the two survivors plunged madly into the long day's march. Both were

strong, courageous, resourceful men; but each had reached the limit of human nerve endurance and each felt

that he would rather die than spend another night in the hideous open of that frightful land. Vivid in the mind

of each was a picture of Bradley's end, for though neither had witnessed the tragedy, both could imagine

almost precisely what had occurred. They did not discuss itthey did not even mention ityet all day long

the thing was uppermost in the mind of each and mingled with it a similar picture with himself as victim

And so they plunged forward at reckless speed, their clothes, their hands, their faces torn by the retarding

underbrush that reached forth to hinder them. Again and again they fell; but be it to their credit that the one

always waited and helped the other and that into the mind of neither entered the thought or the temptation to

desert his companionthey would reach the fort together if both survived, or neither would reach it.

They encountered the usual number of savage beasts and reptiles; but they met them with a courageous

recklessness born of desperation, and by virtue of the very madness of the chances they took, they came

Shortly after noon they reached the end of the plateau. Before them was a drop of two hundred feet to the

valley beneath. To the left, in the distance, they could see the waters of the great inland sea that covers a

considerable portion of the area of the crater island of Caprona and at a little lesser distance to the south of

The landscape was familiareach recognized it immediately and knew that that smoky column marked the

spot where Dinosaur had stood. Was the fort still there, or did the smoke arise from the smoldering embers of

the building they had helped to fashion for the housing of their party? Who could say!

Thirty precious minutes that seemed as many hours to the impatient men were consumed in locating a

precarious way from the summit to the base of the cliffs that bounded the plateau upon the south, and then

once again they struck off upon level ground toward their goal. The closer they approached the fort the

greater became their apprehension that all would not be well. They pictured the barracks deserted or the small

company massacred and the buildings in ashes. It was almost in a frenzy of fear that they broke through the

final fringe of jungle and stood at last upon the verge of the open meadow a halfmile from Fort Dinosaur.

"Lord!" ejaculated Sinclair. "They are still there!" And he fell to his knees, sobbing.

Brady trembled like a leaf as he crossed himself and gave silent thanks, for there before them stood the sturdy

ramparts of Dinosaur and from inside the inclosure rose a thin spiral of smoke that marked the location of the

cookhouse. All was well, then, and their comrades were preparing the evening meal!

Across the clearing they raced as though they had not already covered in a single day a trackless, primeval

country that might easily have required two days by fresh and untired men. Within hailing distance they set

up such a loud shouting that presently heads appeared above the top of the parapet and soon answering shouts

were rising from within Fort Dinosaur. A moment later three men issued from the inclosure and came

forward to meet the survivors and listen to the hurried story of the eleven eventful days since they had set out

upon their expedition to the barrier cliffs. They heard of the deaths of Tippet and James and of the

Olson, the Irish engineer, with Whitely and Wilson constituted the remnants of Dinosaur's defenders, and to

Brady and Sinclair they narrated the salient events that had transpired since Bradley and his party had

marched away on September 4th. They told them of the infamous act of Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts and

his German crew who had stolen the U33, breaking their parole, and steaming away toward the subterranean

opening through the barrier cliffs that carried the waters of the inland sea into the open Pacific beyond; and of

They told of the disappearance of Miss La Rue in the night of September 11th, and of the departure of Bowen

Tyler in search of her, accompanied only by his Airedale, Nobs. Thus of the original party of eleven Allies

and nine Germans that had constituted the company of the U33 when she left English waters after her

capture by the crew of the English tug there were but five now to be accounted for at Fort Dinosaur. Benson,

Tippet, James, and one of the Germans were known to be dead. It was assumed that Bradley, Tyler and the

girl had already succumbed to some of the savage denizens of Caspak, while the fate of the Germans was

equally unknown, though it might readily be believed that they had made good their escape. They had had

ample time to provision the ship and the refining of the crude oil they had discovered north of the fort could

When bradley went on guard at midnight, September 14th, his thoughts were largely occupied with rejoicing

that the night was almost spent without serious mishap and that the morrow would doubtless see them all

safely returned to Fort Dinosaur. The hopefulness of his mood was tinged with sorrow by recollection of the

two members of his party who lay back there in the savage wilderness and for whom there would never again

No premonition of impending ill cast gloom over his anticipations for the coming day, for Bradley was a man

who, while taking every precaution against possible danger, permitted no gloomy forebodings to weigh down

his spirit. When danger threatened, he was prepared; but he was not forever courting disaster, and so it was

that when about one o'clock in the morning of the fifteenth, he heard the dismal flapping of giant wings

overhead, he was neither surprised nor frightened but idly prepared for an attack he had known might

The sound seemed to come from the south, and presently, low above the trees in that direction, the man made

out a dim, shadowy form circling slowly about. Bradley was a brave man, yet so keen was the feeling of

revulsion engendered by the sight and sound of that grim, uncanny shape that he distinctly felt the gooseflesh

rise over the surface of his body, and it was with difficulty that he refrained from following an instinctive

urge to fire upon the nocturnal intruder. Better, far better would it have been had he given in to the insistent

demand of his subconscious mentor; but his almost fanatical obsession to save ammunition proved now his

undoing, for while his attention was riveted upon the thing circling before him and while his ears were filled

with the beating of its wings, there swooped silently out of the black night behind him another weird and

ghostly shape. With its huge wings partly closed for the dive and its white robe fluttering in its wake, the

So great was the force of the impact when the thing struck Bradley between the shoulders that the man was

half stunned. His rifle flew from his grasp; he felt clawlike talons of great strength seize him beneath his arms

and sweep him off his feet; and then the thing rose swiftly with him, so swiftly that his cap was blown from

his head by the rush of air as he was borne rapidly upward into the inky sky and the cry of warning to his

The creature wheeled immediately toward the east and was at once joined by its fellow, who circled them

once and then fell in behind them. Bradley now realized the strategy that the pair had used to capture him and

at once concluded that he was in the power of reasoning beings closely related to the human race if not

Past experience suggested that the great wings were a part of some ingenious mechanical device, for the

limitations of the human mind, which is always loath to accept aught beyond its own little experience, would

not permit him to entertain the idea that the creatures might be naturally winged and at the same time of

human origin. From his position Bradley could not see the wings of his captor, nor in the darkness had he

been able to examine those of the second creature closely when it circled before him. He listened for the puff

of a motor or some other telltale sound that would prove the correctness of his theory. However, he was

Presently, far below and ahead, he saw the waters of the inland sea, and a moment later he was borne over

them. Then his captor did that which proved beyond doubt to Bradley that he was in the hands of human

beings who had devised an almost perfect scheme of duplicating, mechanically, the wings of a birdthe

thing spoke to its companion and in a language that Bradley partially understood, since he recognized words

that he had learned from the savage races of Caspak. From this he judged that they were human, and being

human, he knew that they could have no natural wingsfor who had ever seen a human being so adorned!

Therefore their wings must be mechanical. Thus Bradley reasoned thus most of us reason; not by what

What he heard them say was to the effect that having covered half the distance the burden would now be

transferred from one to the other. Bradley wondered how the exchange was to be accomplished. He knew that

those giant wings would not permit the creatures to approach one another closely enough to effect the transfer

in this manner; but he was soon to discover that they had other means of doing it.

He felt the thing that carried him rise to a greater altitude, and below he glimpsed momentarily the second

whiterobed figure; then the creature above sounded a low call, it was answered from below, and instantly

Bradley felt the clutching talons release him; gasping for breath, he hurtled downward through space.

For a terrifying instant, pregnant with horror, Bradley fell; then something swooped for him from behind,

another pair of talons clutched him beneath the arms, his downward rush was checked, within another

hundred feet, and close to the surface of the sea he was again borne upward. As a hawk dives for a songbird

on the wing, so this great, human bird dived for Bradley. It was a harrowing experience, but soon over, and

once again the captive was being carried swiftly toward the east and what fate he could not even guess.

It was immediately following his transfer in midair that Bradley made out the shadowy form of a large

island far ahead, and not long after, he realized that this must be the intended destination of his captors. Nor

was he mistaken. Three quarters of an hour from the time of his seizure his captors dropped gently to earth in

the strangest city that human eye had ever rested upon. Just a brief glimpse of his immediate surroundings

vouchsafed Bradley before he was whisked into the interior of one of the buildings; but in that momentary

glance he saw strange piles of stone and wood and mud fashioned into buildings of all conceivable sizes and

shapes, sometimes piled high on top of one another, sometimes standing alone in an open courtway, but

usually crowded and jammed together, so that there were no streets or alleys between them other than a few

which ended almost as soon as they began. The principal doorways appeared to be in the roofs, and it was

through one of these that Bradley was inducted into the dark interior of a lowceiled room. Here he was

pushed roughly into a corner where he tripped over a thick mat, and there his captors left him. He heard them

moving about in the darkness for a moment, and several times he saw their large luminous eyes glowing in

the dark. Finally, these disappeared and silence reigned, broken only by the breathing of the creature which

indicated to the Englishman that they were sleeping somewhere in the same apartment.

It was now evident that the mat upon the floor was intended for sleeping purposes and that the rough shove

that had sent him to it had been a rude invitation to repose. After taking stock of himself and finding that he

still had his pistol and ammunition, some matches, a little tobacco, a canteen full of water and a razor,

Bradley made himself comfortable upon the mat and was soon asleep, knowing that an attempted escape in

the darkness without knowledge of his surroundings would be predoomed to failure.

When he awoke, it was broad daylight, and the sight that met his eyes made him rub them again and again to

assure himself that they were really open and that he was not dreaming. A broad shaft of morning light

poured through the open doorway in the ceiling of the room which was about thirty feet square, or roughly

square, being irregular in shape, one side curving outward, another being indented by what might have been

the corner of another building jutting into it, another alcoved by three sides of an octagon, while the fourth

was serpentine in contour. Two windows let in more daylight, while two doors evidently gave ingress to

other rooms. The walls were partially ceiled with thin strips of wood, nicely fitted and finished, partially

plastered and the rest covered with a fine, woven cloth. Figures of reptiles and beasts were painted without

regard to any uniform scheme here and there upon the walls. A striking feature of the decorations consisted of

several engaged columns set into the walls at no regular intervals, the capitals of each supporting a human

skull the cranium of which touched the ceiling, as though the latter was supported by these grim reminders

either of departed relatives or of some hideous tribal riteBradley could not but wonder which.

Yet it was none of these things that filled him with greatest wonderno, it was the figures of the two

creatures that had captured him and brought him hither. At one end of the room a stout pole about two inches

in diameter ran horizontally from wall to wall some six or seven feet from the floor, its ends securely set in

two of the columns. Hanging by their knees from this perch, their heads downward and their bodies wrapped

in their huge wings, slept the creatures of the night beforelike two great, horrid bats they hung, asleep.

As Bradley gazed upon them in wideeyed astonishment, he saw plainly that all his intelligence, all his

acquired knowledge through years of observation and experience were set at naught by the simple evidence

of the fact that stood out glaringly before his eyesthe creatures' wings were not mechanical devices but as

natural appendages, growing from their shoulderblades, as were their arms and legs. He saw, too, that except

for their wings the pair bore a strong resemblance to human beings, though fashioned in a most grotesque

As he sat gazing at them, one of the two awoke, separated his wings to release his arms that had been folded

across his breast, placed his hands upon the floor, dropped his feet and stood erect. For a moment he stretched

his great wings slowly, solemnly blinking his large round eyes. Then his gaze fell upon Bradley. The thin lips

drew back tightly against yellow teeth in a grimace that was nothing but hideous. It could not have been

termed a smile, and what emotion it registered the Englishman was at a loss to guess. No expression whatever

altered the steady gaze of those large, round eyes; there was no color upon the pasty, sunken cheeks. A

death's head grimaced as though a man long dead raised his parchmentcovered skull from an old grave.

The creature stood about the height of an average man but appeared much taller from the fact that the joints

of his long wings rose fully a foot above his hairless head. The bare arms were long and sinewy, ending in

strong, bony hands with clawlike fingersalmost talonlike in their suggestiveness. The white robe was

separated in front, revealing skinny legs and the further fact that the thing wore but the single garment, which

was of fine, woven cloth. From crown to sole the portions of the body exposed were entirely hairless, and as

he noted this, Bradley also noted for the first time the cause of much of the seeming expressionlessness of the

creature's countenanceit had neither eyebrows or lashes. The ears were small and rested flat against the

skull, which was noticeably round, though the face was quite flat. The creature had small feet, beautifully

arched and plump, but so out of keeping with every other physical attribute it possessed as to appear

After eyeing Bradley for a moment the thing approached him. "Where from?" it asked.

"I do not understand you," said Bradley; "and now suppose you answer a few questions. Who are you? What

Again the sepulchral grimace. "We are WieroosLuata is our father. Caspak is ours. This, our country, is

called Oooh. We brought you here for (literally) Him Who Speaks for Luata to gaze upon and question. He

The Wieroo raised his wings in a very human shrug and waved his bony claws toward the human skulls

supporting the ceiling. His gesture was eloquent; but he embellished it by remarking, "And possibly if you

The Wieroo motioned him to one of the doors which he threw open, permitting Bradley to pass out onto

another roof on a level lower than that upon which they had landed earlier in the morning. By daylight the

city appeared even more remarkable than in the moonlight, though less weird and unreal. The houses of all

shapes and sizes were piled about as a child might pile blocks of various forms and colors. He saw now that

there were what might be called streets or alleys, but they ran in baffling turns and twists, nor ever reached a

destination, always ending in a dead wall where some Wieroo had built a house across them.

Upon each house was a slender column supporting a human skull. Sometimes the columns were at one corner

of the roof, sometimes at another, or again they rose from the center or near the center, and the columns were

of varying heights, from that of a man to those which rose twenty feet above their roofs. The skulls were, as a

rule, paintedblue or white, or in combinations of both colors. The most effective were painted blue with

There were other skullsthousands of themtens, hundreds of thousands. They rimmed the eaves of every

house, they were set in the plaster of the outer walls and at no great distance from where Bradley stood rose a

round tower built entirely of human skulls. And the city extended in every direction as far as the Englishman

All about him Wieroos were moving across the roofs or winging through the air. The sad sound of their

flapping wings rose and fell like a solemn dirge. Most of them were appareled all in white, like his captors;

but others had markings of red or blue or yellow slashed across the front of their robes.

His guide pointed toward a doorway in an alley below them. "Go there and eat," he commanded, "and then

come back. You cannot escape. If any question you, say that you belong to Foshbalsoj. There is the way."

And this time he pointed to the top of a ladder which protruded above the eaves of the roof nearby. Then he

Bradley looked about him. No, he could not escapethat seemed evident. The city appeared interminable,

and beyond the city, if not a savage wilderness filled with wild beasts, there was the broad inland sea infested

with horrid monsters. No wonder his captor felt safe in turning him loose in Ooohhe wondered if that was

the name of the country or the city and if there were other cities like this upon the island.

Slowly he descended the ladder to the seemingly deserted alley which was paved with what appeared to be

large, round cobblestones. He looked again at the smooth, worn pavement, and a rueful grin crossed his

featuresthe alley was paved with skulls. "The City of Human Skulls," mused Bradley. "They must have

been collectin' 'em since Adam," he thought, and then he crossed and entered the building through the

Inside he found a large room in which were many Wieroos seated before pedestals the tops of which were

hollowed out so that they resembled the ordinary bird drinking and bathingfonts so commonly seen on

suburban lawns. A seat protruded from each of the four sides of the pedestalsjust a flat board with a

As Bradley entered, some of the Wieroos espied him, and a dismal wail arose. Whether it was a greeting or a

threat, Bradley did not know. Suddenly from a dark alcove another Wieroo rushed out toward him. "Who are

The Wieroo looked puzzled. "Sit here, jaallu," he snapped, and Bradley sat down unconscious of the fact

that he had been insulted by being called a hyenaman, an appellation of contempt in Caspak.

The Wieroo had seated him at a pedestal by himself, and as he sat waiting for what was next to transpire, he

looked about him at the Wieroo in his immediate vicinity. He saw that in each font was a quantity of food,

and that each Wieroo was armed with a wooden skewer, sharpened at one end; with which they carried solid

portions of food to their mouths. At the other end of the skewer was fastened a small clamshell. This was

used to scoop up the smaller and softer portions of the repast into which all four of the occupants of each

table dipped impartially. The Wieroo leaned far over their food, scooping it up rapidly and with much noise,

and so great was their haste that a part of each mouthful always fell back into the common dish; and when

they choked, by reason of the rapidity with which they attempted to bolt their food, they often lost it all.

Soon the keeper of the place returned with a wooden bowl filled with food. This he dumped into Bradley's

"trough," as he already thought of it. The Englishman was glad that he could not see into the dark alcove or

know what were all the ingredients that constituted the mess before him, for he was very hungry.

After the first mouthful he cared even less to investigate the antecedents of the dish, for he found it peculiarly

palatable. It seemed to consist of a combination of meat, fruits, vegetables, small fish and other

undistinguishable articles of food all seasoned to produce a gastronomic effect that was at once baffling and

When he had finished, his trough was empty, and then he commenced to wonder who was to settle for his

meal. As he waited for the proprietor to return, he fell to examining the dish from which he had eaten and the

pedestal upon which it rested. The font was of stone worn smooth by longcontinued use, the four outer

edges hollowed and polished by the contact of the countless Wieroo bodies that had leaned against them for

how long a period of time Bradley could not even guess. Everything about the place carried the impression of

hoary age. The carved pedestals were black with use, the wooden seats were worn hollow, the floor of stone

slabs was polished by the contact of possibly millions of naked feet and worn away in the aisles between the

pedestals so that the latter rested upon little mounds of stone several inches above the general level of the

Finally, seeing that no one came to collect, Bradley arose and started for the doorway. He had covered half

the distance when he heard the voice of mine host calling to him: "Come back, jaallu," screamed the

Wieroo; and Bradley did as he was bid. As he approached the creature which stood now behind a large,

flattopped pedestal beside the alcove, he saw lying upon the smooth surface something that almost elicited a

gasp of astonishment from hima simple, common thing it was, or would have been almost anywhere in the

And on it, in a fine hand, written compactly, were many strange hieroglyphics! These remarkable creatures,

then, had a written as well as a spoken language and besides the art of weaving cloth possessed that of

papermaking. Could it be that such grotesque beings represented the high culture of the human race within

the boundaries of Caspak? Had natural selection produced during the countless ages of Caspakian life a

Bradley had noted something of the obvious indications of a gradual evolution from ape to spearman as

exemplified by the several overlapping races of Alalus, clubmen and hatchetmen that formed the

connecting links between the two extremes with which he, had come in contact. He had heard of the Krolus

and the Galusreputed to be still higher in the plane of evolution and now he had indisputable evidence

of a race possessing refinements of civilization eons in advance of the spearmen. The conjectures awakened

by even a momentary consideration of the possibilities involved became at once as wildly bizarre as the

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, the Wieroo held out a pen of bone fixed to a wooden holder and

at the same time made a sign that Bradley was to write upon the paper. It was difficult to judge from the

expressionless features of the Wieroo what was passing in the creature's mind, but Bradley could not but feel

that the thing cast a supercilious glance upon him as much as to say, "Of course you do not know how to

Bradley seized the pen and in a clear, bold hand wrote: "John Bradley, England." The Wieroo showed

evidences of consternation as it seized the piece of paper and examined the writing with every mark of

incredulity and surprise. Of course it could make nothing of the strange characters; but it evidently accepted

them as proof that Bradley possessed knowledge of a written language of his own, for following the

"You will come here again just before Lua hides his face behind the great cliff," announced the creature,

"unless before that you are summoned by Him Who Speaks for Luata, in which case you will not have to eat

Outside were several Wieroos that had been eating at the pedestals within. They immediately surrounded

him, asking all sorts of questions, plucking at his garments, his ammunitionbelt and his pistol. Their

demeanor was entirely different from what it had been within the eatingplace and Bradley was to learn that

a house of food was sanctuary for him, since the stern laws of the Wieroos forbade altercations within such

walls. Now they were rough and threatening, as with wings half spread they hovered about him in menacing

attitudes, barring his way to the ladder leading to the roof from whence he had descended; but the

Englishman was not one to brook interference for long. He attempted at first to push his way past them, and

then when one seized his arm and jerked him roughly back, Bradley swung upon the creature and with a

Instantly pandemonium reigned. Loud wails arose, great wings opened and closed with a loud, beating noise

and many clawlike hands reached forth to clutch him. Bradley struck to right and left. He dared not use his

pistol for fear that once they discovered its power he would be overcome by weight of numbers and relieved

of possession of what he considered his trump card, to be reserved until the last moment that it might be used

to aid in his escape, for already the Englishman was planning, though almost hopelessly, such an attempt.

A few blows convinced Bradley that the Wieroos were arrant cowards and that they bore no weapons, for

after two or three had fallen beneath his fists the others formed a circle about him, but at a safe distance and

contented themselves with threatening and blustering, while those whom he had felled lay upon the pavement

Again Bradley strode toward the ladder, and this time the circle parted before him; but no sooner had he

ascended a few rungs than he was seized by one foot and an effort made to drag him down. With a quick

backward glance the Englishman, clinging firmly to the ladder with both hands, drew up his free foot and

with all the strength of a powerful leg, planted a heavy shoe squarely in the flat face of the Wieroo that held

him. Shrieking horribly, the creature clapped both hands to its face and sank to the ground while Bradley

clambered quickly the remaining distance to the roof, though no sooner did he reach the top of the ladder than

a great flapping of wings beneath him warned him that the Wieroos were rising after him. A moment later

they swarmed about his head as he ran for the apartment in which he had spent the early hours of the morning

It was but a short distance from the top of the ladder to the doorway, and Bradley had almost reached his goal

when the door flew open and Foshbalsoj stepped out. Immediately the pursuing Wieroos demanded

punishment of the jaallu who had so grievously maltreated them. Foshbalsoj listened to their complaints

and then with a sudden sweep of his right hand seized Bradley by the scruff of the neck and hurled him

So sudden was the assault and so surprising the strength of the Wieroo that the Englishman was taken

completely off his guard. When he arose, the door was closed, and Foshbalsoj was standing over him, his

"Hyena, snake, lizard!" he screamed. "You would dare lay your low, vile, profaning hands upon even the

Bradley was mad, and so he spoke in a very low, calm voice while a halfsmile played across his lips but his

"What you did to me just now," he said, "I am going to kill you for that," and even as he spoke, he

launched himself at the throat of Foshbalsoj. The other Wieroo that had been asleep when Bradley left the

chamber had departed, and the two were alone. Foshbalsoj displayed little of the cowardice of those that

had attacked Bradley in the alleyway, but that may have been because he had so slight opportunity, for

Bradley had him by the throat before he could utter a cry and with his right hand struck him heavily and

repeatedly upon his face and over his heartugly, smashing, shortarm jabs of the sort that take the fight out

But Foshbalsoj was of no mind to die passively. He clawed and struck at Bradley while with his great

wings he attempted to shield himself from the merciless rain of blows, at the same time searching for a hold

upon his antagonist's throat. Presently he succeeded in tripping the Englishman, and together the two fell

heavily to the floor, Bradley underneath, and at the same instant the Wieroo fastened his long talons about the

Foshbalsoj was possessed of enormous strength and he was fighting for his life. The Englishman soon

realized that the battle was going against him. Already his lungs were pounding painfully for air as he

reached for his pistol. It was with difficulty that he drew it from its holster, and even then, with death staring

him in the face, he thought of his precious ammunition. "Can't waste it," he thought; and slipping his fingers

to the barrel he raised the weapon and struck Foshbalsoj a terrific blow between the eyes. Instantly the

clawlike fingers released their hold, and the creature sank limply to the floor beside Bradley, who lay for

When he was able, he rose, and leaned close over the Wieroo, lying silent and motionless, his wings dropping

limply and his great, round eyes staring blankly toward the ceiling. A brief examination convinced Bradley

that the thing was dead, and with the conviction came an overwhelming sense of the dangers which must now

His first thought was to find some means for concealing the evidence of his deed and then to make a bold

effort to escape. Stepping to the second door he pushed it gently open and peered in upon what seemed to be

a store room. In it was a litter of cloth such as the Wieroos' robes were fashioned from, a number of chests

painted blue and white, with white hieroglyphics painted in bold strokes upon the blue and blue hieroglyphics

upon the white. In one corner was a pile of human skulls reaching almost to the ceiling and in another a stack

of dried Wieroo wings. The chamber was as irregularly shaped as the other and had but a single window and

a second door at the further end, but was without the exit through the roof and, most important of all, there

As quickly as possible Bradley dragged the dead Wieroo through the doorway and closed the door; then he

looked about for a place to conceal the corpse. One of the chests was large enough to hold the body if the

knees were bent well up, and with this idea in view Bradley approached the chest to open it. The lid was

made in two pieces, each being hinged at an opposite end of the chest and joining nicely where they met in

the center of the chest, making a snug, wellfitting joint. There was no lock. Bradley raised one half the

cover and looked in. With a smothered "By Jove!" he bent closer to examine the contentsthe chest was

about half filled with an assortment of golden trinkets. There were what appeared to be bracelets, anklets and

Realizing that there was no room in the chest for the body of the Wieroo, Bradley turned to seek another

means of concealing the evidence of his crime. There was a space between the chests and the wall, and into

this he forced the corpse, piling the discarded robes upon it until it was entirely hidden from sight; but now

how was he to make good his escape in the bright glare of that early Spring day?

He walked to the door at the far end of the apartment and cautiously opened it an inch. Before him and about

two feet away was the blank wall of another building. Bradley opened the door a little farther and looked in

both directions. There was no one in sight to the left over a considerable expanse of rooftop, and to the right

another building shut off his line of vision at about twenty feet. Slipping out, he turned to the right and in a

few steps found a narrow passageway between two buildings. Turning into this he passed about half its length

when he saw a Wieroo appear at the opposite end and halt. The creature was not looking down the

passageway; but at any moment it might turn its eyes toward him, when he would be immediately discovered.

To Bradley's left was a triangular niche in the wall of one of the houses and into this he dodged, thus

concealing himself from the sight of the Wieroo. Beside him was a door painted a vivid yellow and

constructed after the same fashion as the other Wieroo doors he had seen, being made up of countless narrow

strips of wood from four to six inches in length laid on in patches of about the same width, the strips in

adjacent patches never running in the same direction. The result bore some resemblance to a crazy patchwork

quilt, which was heightened when, as in one of the doors he had seen, contiguous patches were painted

different colors. The strips appeared to have been bound together and to the underlying framework of the

door with gut or fiber and also glued, after which a thick coating of paint had been applied. One edge of the

door was formed of a straight, round pole about two inches in diameter that protruded at top and bottom, the

projections setting in round holes in both lintel and sill forming the axis upon which the door swung. An

eccentric disk upon the inside face of the door engaged a slot in the frame when it was desired to secure the

As Bradley stood flattened against the wall waiting for the Wieroo to move on, he heard the creature's wings

brushing against the sides of the buildings as it made its way down the narrow passage in his direction. As the

yellow door offered the only means of escape without detection, the Englishman decided to risk whatever

might lie beyond it, and so, boldly pushing it in, he crossed the threshold and entered a small apartment.

As he did so, he heard a muffled ejaculation of surprise, and turning his eyes in the direction from whence the

sound had come, he beheld a wideeyed girl standing flattened against the opposite wall, an expression of

incredulity upon her face. At a glance he saw that she was of no race of humans that he had come in contact

with since his arrival upon Capronathere was no trace about her form or features of any relationship to

those low orders of men, nor was she appareled as theyor, rather, she did not entirely lack apparel as did

A soft hide fell from her left shoulder to just below her left hip on one side and almost to her right knee on

the other, a loose girdle was about her waist, and golden ornaments such as he had seen in the

blueandwhite chest encircled her arms and legs, while a golden fillet with a triangular diadem bound her

heavy hair above her brows. Her skin was white as from long confinement within doors; but it was clear and

fine. Her figure, but partially concealed by the soft deerskin, was all curves of symmetry and youthful grace,

while her features might easily have been the envy of the most feted of Continental beauties.

If the girl was surprised by the sudden appearance of Bradley, the latter was absolutely astounded to discover

so wondrous a creature among the hideous inhabitants of the City of Human Skulls. For a moment the two

looked at one another in unconcealed consternation, and then Bradley spoke, using to the best of his poor

"Who are you," he asked, "and from where do you come? Do not tell me that you are a Wieroo."

"No," she replied, "I am no Wieroo." And she shuddered slightly as she pronounced the word. "I am a Galu;

but who and what are you? I am sure that you are no Galu, from your garments; but you are like the Galus in

other respects. I know that you are not of this frightful city, for I have been here for almost ten moons, and

never have I seen a male Galu brought hither before, nor are there such as you and I, other than prisoners in

He told her briefly who and what he was, though he doubted if she understood, and from her he learned that

she had been a prisoner there for many months; but for what purpose he did not then learn, as in the midst of

their conversation the yellow door swung open and a Wieroo with a robe slashed with yellow entered.

At sight of Bradley the creature became furious. "Whence came this reptile?" it demanded of the girl. "How

The Wieroo looked relieved. "It is well for the girl that this is so," it said, "for now only you will have to die."

And stepping to the door the creature raised its voice in one of those uncanny, depressing wails.

The Englishman looked toward the girl. "Shall I kill it?" he asked, half drawing his pistol. "What is best to

The Wieroo backed toward the door. "Defiler!" it screamed. "You dare to threaten one of the sacred chosen

"Do not kill him," cried the girl, "for then there could be no hope for you. That you are here, alive, shows that

they may not intend to kill you at all, and so there is a chance for you if you do not anger them; but touch him

"Cosatalo! cosatalu!" What did these phrases mean that they were so oft repeated by the denizens of

Oooh? Lu and lo, Bradley knew to mean man and woman; ata; was employed variously to indicate life,

eggs, young, reproduction and kindred subject; cos was a negative; but in combination they were meaningless

"I but wish that they would," replied the girl. "My fate is to be worse than deathin just a few nights more,

"Poor shesnake!" snapped the Wieroo. "You are to become sacred above all other shes. He Who Speaks for

Luata has chosen you for himself. Today you go to his temple"the Wieroo used a phrase meaning literally

The girl shuddered and cast a sorrowful glance toward Bradley. "Ah," she sighed, "if I could but see my

The man stepped suddenly close to her side before the Wieroo could interpose and in a low voice asked her if

there was no way by which he might encompass her escape. She shook her head sorrowfully. "Even if we

escaped the city," she replied, "there is the big water between the island of Oooh and the Galu shore."

"I may only guess from what I have heard since I was brought here," she answered; "but by reports and

chance remarks I take it to be a beautiful land in which there are but few wild beasts and no men, for only the

Wieroos live upon this island and they dwell always in cities of which there are three, this being the largest.

The others are at the far end of the island, which is about three marches from end to end and at its widest

From his own experience and from what the natives on the mainland had told him, Bradley knew that ten

miles was a good day's march in Caspak, owing to the fact that at most points it was a trackless wilderness

and at all times travelers were beset by hideous beasts and reptiles that greatly impeded rapid progress.

The two had spoken rapidly but were now interrupted by the advent through the opening in the roof of several

Wieroos who had come in answer to the alarm it of the yellow slashing had uttered.

"This jaallu," cried the offended one, "has threatened me. Take its hatchet from it and make it fast where it

can do no harm until He Who Speaks for Luata has said what shall be done with it. It is one of those strange

creatures that Foshbalsoj discovered first above the Bandlu country and followed back toward the

beginning. He Who Speaks for Luata sent Foshbalsoj to fetch him one of the creatures, and here it is. It is

The Wieroos approached boldly to take Bradley's "hatchet" from him, their leader having indicated the pistol

hanging in its holster at the Englishman's hip, but the first one went reeling backward against his fellows

from the blow to the chin which Bradley followed up with a rush and the intention to clean up the room in

record time; but he had reckoned without the opening in the roof. Two were down and a great wailing and

moaning was arising when reinforcements appeared from above. Bradley did not see them; but the girl did,

and though she cried out a warning, it came too late for him to avoid a large Wieroo who dived headforemost

for him, striking him between the shoulders and bearing him to the floor. Instantly a dozen more were piling

on top of him. His pistol was wrenched from its holster and he was securely pinioned down by the weight of

At a word from the Wieroo of the yellow slashing who evidently was a person of authority, one left and

"Now bear him to the Blue Place of Seven Skulls," directed the chief Wieroo, "and one take the word of all

Each of the creatures raised a hand, the back against its face, as though in salute. One seized Bradley and

carried him through the yellow doorway to the roof from whence it rose upon its widespread wings and

flapped off across the rooftops of Oooh with its heavy burden clutched in its long talons.

Below him Bradley could see the city stretching away to a distance on every hand. It was not as large as he

had imagined, though he judged that it was at least three miles square. The houses were piled in indescribable

heaps, sometimes to a height of a hundred feet. The streets and alleys were short and crooked and there were

many areas where buildings had been wedged in so closely that no light could possibly reach the lowest tiers,

The colors were varied and startling, the architecture amazing. Many roofs were cup or saucershaped with a

small hole in the center of each, as though they had been constructed to catch rainwater and conduct it to a

reservoir beneath; but nearly all the others had the large opening in the top that Bradley had seen used by

these flying men in lieu of doorways. At all levels were the myriad poles surmounted by grinning skulls; but

the two most prominent features of the city were the round tower of human skulls that Bradley had noted

earlier in the day and another and much larger edifice near the center of the city. As they approached it,

Bradley saw that it was a huge building rising a hundred feet in height from the ground and that it stood alone

in the center of what might have been called a plaza in some other part of the world. Its various parts,

however, were set together with the same strange irregularity that marked the architecture of the city as a

whole; and it was capped by an enormous saucershaped roof which projected far beyond the eaves, having

The Wieroo bearing Bradley passed over one corner of the open space about the large building, revealing to

the Englishman grass and trees and running water beneath. They passed the building and about five hundred

yards beyond the creature alighted on the roof of a square, blue building surmounted by seven poles bearing

Over the opening in the roof was a grated covering, and this the Wieroo removed. The thing then tied a piece

of fiber rope to one of Bradley's ankles and rolled him over the edge of the opening. All was dark below and

for an instant the Englishman came as near to experiencing real terror as he had ever come in his life before.

As he rolled off into the black abyss he felt the rope tighten about his ankle and an instant later he was

stopped with a sudden jerk to swing pendulumlike, head downward. Then the creature lowered away until

Bradley's head came in sudden and painful contact with the floor below, after which the Wieroo let loose of

the rope entirely and the Englishman's body crashed to the wooden planking. He felt the free end of the rope

Halfstunned, Bradley lay for a minute as he had fallen and then slowly and painfully wriggled into a less

uncomfortable position. He could see nothing of his surroundings in the gloom about him until after a few

minutes his eyes became accustomed to the dark interior when he rolled them from side to side in survey of

He discovered himself to be in a bare room which was windowless, nor could he see any other opening than

that through which he had been lowered. In one corner was a huddled mass that might have been almost

Almost immediately after he had taken his bearings Bradley commenced working with his bonds. He was a

man of powerful physique, and as from the first he had been imbued with a belief that the fiber ropes were

too weak to hold him, he worked on with a firm conviction that sooner or later they would part to his

strainings. After a matter of five minutes he was positive that the strands about his wrists were beginning to

As he lay, his eyes rested upon the bundle in the corner, and presently he could have sworn that the thing

moved. With eyes straining through the gloom the man lay watching the grim and sinister thing in the corner.

Perhaps his overwrought nerves were playing a sorry joke upon him. He thought of this and also that his

condition of utter helplessness might still further have stimulated his imagination. He closed his eyes and

sought to relax his muscles and his nerves; but when he looked again, he knew that he had not been

mistakenthe thing had moved; now it lay in a slightly altered form and farther from the wall. It was nearer

With renewed strength Bradley strained at his bonds, his fascinated gaze still glued upon the shapeless

bundle. No longer was there any doubt that it movedhe saw it rise in the center several inches and then

creep closer to him. It sank and arose againa headless, hideous, monstrous thing of menace. Its very

Bradley was a brave man; ordinarily his nerves were of steel; but to be at the mercy of some unknown and

nameless horror, to be unable to defend himselfit was these things that almost unstrung him, for at best he

was only human. To stand in the open, even with the odds all against him; to be able to use his fists, to put up

some sort of defense, to inflict punishment upon his adversarythen he could face death with a smile. It was

not death that he feared nowit was that horror of the unknown that is part of the fiber of every son of

Closer and closer came the shapeless mass. Bradley lay motionless and listened. What was that he heard!

Breathing? He could not be mistakenand then from out of the bundle of rags issued a hollow groan.

Bradley felt his hair rise upon his head. He struggled with the slowly parting strands that held him. The thing

beside him rose up higher than before and the Englishman could have sworn that he saw a single eye peering

at him from among the tumbled cloth. For a moment the bundle remained motionlessonly the sound of

Cold sweat stood upon Bradley's brow as he tugged for liberation. He saw the rags rise higher and higher

above him until at last they tumbled upon the floor from the body of a naked mana thin, a bony, a hideous

caricature of man, that mouthed and mummed and, wabbling upon its weak and shaking legs, crumpled to the

It crawled toward Bradley. "Food! Food!" it screamed. "There is a way out! There is a way out!"

Dragging itself to his side the creature slumped upon the Englishman's breast. "Food!" it shrilled as with its

"Food! There is a way out!" Bradley felt teeth upon his jugular. He turned and twisted, shaking himself free

for an instant; but once more with hideous persistence the thing fastened itself upon him. The weak jaws were

unable to send the dull teeth through the victim's flesh; but Bradley felt it pawing, pawing, pawing, like a

The skinny arms now embraced his neck, holding the teeth to his throat against all his efforts to dislodge the

thing. Weak as it was it had strength enough for this in its mad efforts to eat. Mumbling as it worked, it

repeated again and again, "Food! Food! There is a way out!" until Bradley thought those two expressions

And all but mad he was as with a final effort backed by almost maniacal strength he tore his wrists from the

confining bonds and grasping the repulsive thing upon his breast hurled it halfway across the room. Panting

like a spent hound Bradley worked at the thongs about his ankles while the maniac lay quivering and

mumbling where it had fallen. Presently the Englishman leaped to his feetfreer than he had ever before felt

in all his life, though he was still hopelessly a prisoner in the Blue Place of Seven Skulls.

With his back against the wall for support, so weak the reaction left him, Bradley stood watching the creature

upon the floor. He saw it move and slowly raise itself to its hands and knees, where it swayed to and fro as its

eyes roved about in search of him; and when at last they found him, there broke from the drawn lips the

mumbled words: "Food! Food! There is a way out!" The pitiful supplication in the tones touched the

Englishman's heart. He knew that this could be no Wieroo, but possibly once a man like himself who had

been cast into this pit of solitary confinement with this hideous result that might in time be his fate, also.

And then, too, there was the suggestion of hope held out by the constant reiteration of the phrase, "There is a

For a moment the man upon the floor made no response, then mumblingly came the words: "Food! Food!"

"Stop!" commanded the Englishmanthe injunction might have been barked from the muzzle of a pistol. It

brought the man to a sitting posture, his hands off the ground. He stopped swaying to and fro and appeared to

be startled into an attempt to master his faculties of concentration and thought.

"I am AnTak, the Galu," replied the man. "Luata alone knows how long I have been heremaybe ten

moons, maybe ten moons three times"it was the Caspakian equivalent of thirty. "I was young and strong

when they brought me here. Now I am old and very weak. I am cosataluthat is why they have not killed

me. If I tell them the secret of becoming cosatalu they will take me out; but how can I tell them that which

Bradley bethought himself. His haversack had not been taken from him. In it besides his razor and knife were

odds and ends of equipment and a small quantity of dried meat. He tossed a small strip of the latter to the

starving Galu. AnTak seized upon it and devoured it ravenously. It instilled new life in the man.

AnTak tried to explain. His narrative was often broken by lapses of concentration during which he reverted

to his plaintive mumbling for food and recurrence to the statement that there was a way out; but by firmness

and patience the Englishman drew out piecemeal a more or less lucid exposition of the remarkable scheme

of evolution that rules in Caspak. In it he found explanations of the hitherto inexplicable. He discovered why

he had seen no babes or children among the Caspakian tribes with which he had come in contact; why each

more northerly tribe evinced a higher state of development than those south of them; why each tribe included

individuals ranging in physical and mental characteristics from the highest of the next lower race to the

lowest of the next higher, and why the women of each tribe immersed themselves morning for an hour or

more in the warm pools near which the habitations of their people always were located; and, too, he

discovered why those pools were almost immune from the attacks of carnivorous animals and reptiles.

He learned that all but those who were cosatalu came up corsvajo, or from the beginning. The egg from

which they first developed into tadpole form was deposited, with millions of others, in one of the warm pools

and with it a poisonous serum that the carnivora instinctively shunned. Down the warm stream from the pool

floated the countless billions of eggs and tadpoles, developing as they drifted slowly toward the sea. Some

became tadpoles in the pool, some in the sluggish stream and some not until they reached the great inland sea.

In the next stage they became fishes or reptiles, AnTak was not positive which, and in this form, always

developing, they swam far to the south, where, amid the rank and teeming jungles, some of them evolved into

amphibians. Always there were those whose development stopped at the first stage, others whose

development ceased when they became reptiles, while by far the greater proportion formed the food supply of

Few indeed were those that eventually developed into baboons and then apes, which was considered by

Caspakians the real beginning of evolution. From the egg, then, the individual developed slowly into a higher

form, just as the frog's egg develops through various stages from a fish with gills to a frog with lungs. With

that thought in mind Bradley discovered that it was not difficult to believe in the possibility of such a

From the ape the individual, if it survived, slowly developed into the lowest order of manthe Aluand

then by degrees to Bolu, Stolu, Bandlu, Krolu and finally Galu. And in each stage countless millions of

other eggs were deposited in the warm pools of the various races and floated down to the great sea to go

through a similar process of evolution outside the womb as develops our own young within; but in Caspak

the scheme is much more inclusive, for it combines not only individual development but the evolution of

species and genera. If an egg survives it goes through all the stages of development that man has passed

through during the unthinkable eons since life first moved upon the earth's face.

The final stagethat which the Galus have almost attained and for which all hopeis cosatalu, which

literally, means noeggman, or one who is born directly as are the young of the outer world of mammals.

Some of the Galus produce cosatalu and cosatalo both; the Weiroos only cosataluin other words

all Wieroos are born male, and so they prey upon the Galus for their women and sometimes capture and

torture the Galu men who are cosatalu in an endeavor to learn the secret which they believe will give them

No Wieroos come up from the beginningall are born of the Wieroo fathers and Galu mothers who are

cosatalo, and there are very few of the latter owing to the long and precarious stages of development.

Seven generations of the same ancestor must come up from the beginning before a cosatalu child may be

born; and when one considers the frightful dangers that surround the vital spark from the moment it leaves

the warm pool where it has been deposited to float down to the sea amid the voracious creatures that swarm

the surface and the deeps and the almost equally unthinkable trials of its effort to survive after it once

becomes a land animal and starts northward through the horrors of the Caspakian jungles and forests, it is

Seven cycles it requires before the seventh Galu can complete the seventh dangerinfested circle since its

first Galu ancestor achieved the state of Galu. For ages before, the ancestors of this first Galu may have

developed from a Bandlu or Bolu egg without ever once completing the whole circlethat is from a Galu

Bradley's head was whirling before he even commenced to grasp the complexities of Caspakian evolution;

but as the truth slowly filtered into his understandingas gradually it became possible for him to visualize

the scheme, it appeared simpler. In fact, it seemed even less difficult of comprehension than that with which

For several minutes after AnTak ceased speaking, his voice having trailed off weakly into silence, neither

spoke again. Then the Galu recommenced his, "Food! Food! There is a way out!" Bradley tossed him another

bit of dried meat, waiting patiently until he had eaten it, this time more slowly.

"He who died here just after I came, told me," replied AnTak. "He said there was a way out, that he had

discovered it but was too weak to use his knowledge. He was trying to tell me how to find it when he died.

"The lizards and the rats," replied AnTak. "The lizards are not so bad; but the rats are foul to taste.

However, I must eat them or they would eat me, and they are better than nothing; but of late they do not come

so often, and I have not had a lizard for a long time. I shall eat though," he mumbled. "I shall eat now, for you

cannot remain awake forever." He laughed, a cackling, dry laugh. "When you sleep, AnTak will eat."

It was horrible. Bradley shuddered. For a long time each sat in silence. The Englishman could guess why the

other made no soundhe awaited the moment that sleep should overcome his victim. In the long silence

there was born upon Bradley's ears a faint, monotonous sound as of running water. He listened intently. It

"What is that noise?" he asked. "That sounds like water running through a narrow channel."

"It is the river," replied AnTak. "Why do you not go to sleep? It passes directly beneath the Blue Place of

Seven Skulls. It runs through the temple grounds, beneath the temple and under the city. When we die, they

will cut off our heads and throw our bodies into the river. At the mouth of the river await many large reptiles.

Thus do they feed. The Wieroos do likewise with their own dead, keeping only the skulls and the wings.

"The water is too coldthey never leave the warm water of the great pool," replied AnTak.

AnTak shook his head. "I have searched for it all these moons," he said. "If I could not find it, how would

Bradley made no reply but commenced a diligent examination of the walls and floor of the room, pressing

over each square foot and tapping with his knuckles. About six feet from the floor he discovered a

sleepingperch near one end of the apartment. He asked AnTak about it, but the Galu said that no Weiroo

had occupied the place since he had been incarcerated there. Again and again Bradley went over the floor and

walls as high up as he could reach. Finally he swung himself to the perch, that he might examine at least one

In the center of the wall close to the top, an area about three feet square gave forth a hollow sound when he

rapped upon it. Bradley felt over every square inch of that area with the tips of his fingers. Near the top he

found a small round hole a trifle larger in diameter than his forefinger, which he immediately stuck into it.

The panel, if such it was, seemed about an inch thick, and beyond it his finger encountered nothing. Bradley

crooked his finger upon the opposite side of the panel and pulled toward him, steadily but with considerable

force. Suddenly the panel flew inward, nearly precipitating the man to the floor. It was hinged at the bottom,

and when lowered the outer edge rested upon the perch, making a little platform parallel with the floor of the

Beyond the opening was an utterly dark void. The Englishman leaned through it and reached his arm as far as

possible into the blackness but touched nothing. Then he fumbled in his haversack for a match, a few of

which remained to him. When he struck it, AnTak gave a cry of terror. Bradley held the light far into the

opening before him and in its flickering rays saw the top of a ladder descending into a black abyss below.

How far down it extended he could not guess; but that he should soon know definitely he was positive.

"You have found it! You have found the way out!" screamed AnTak. "Oh, Luata! And now I am too weak

"Shut up!" admonished Bradley. "You will have the whole flock of birds around our heads in a minute, and

neither of us will escape. Be quiet, and I'll go ahead. If I find a way out, I'll come back and help you, if you'll

"I promise," cried AnTak. "Oh, Luata! How could you blame me? I am half crazed of hunger and long

confinement and the horror of the lizards and the rats and the constant waiting for death."

"I know," said Bradley simply. "I'm sorry for you, old top. Keep a stiff upper lip." And he slipped through the

opening, found the ladder with his feet, closed the panel behind him, and started downward into the darkness.

Below him rose more and more distinctly the sound of running water. The air felt damp and cool. He could

see nothing of his surroundings and felt nothing but the smooth, worn sides and rungs of the ladder down

which he felt his way cautiously lest a broken rung or a misstep should hurl him downward.

As he descended thus slowly, the ladder seemed interminable and the pit bottomless, yet he realized when at

last he reached the bottom that he could not have descended more than fifty feet. The bottom of the ladder

rested on a narrow ledge paved with what felt like large round stones, but what he knew from experience to

be human skulls. He could not but marvel as to where so many countless thousands of the things had come

from, until he paused to consider that the infancy of Caspak dated doubtlessly back into remote ages, far

beyond what the outer world considered the beginning of earthly time. For all these eons the Wieroos might

have been collecting human skulls from their enemies and their own deadenough to have built an entire

Feeling his way along the narrow ledge, Bradley came presently to a blank wall that stretched out over the

water swirling beneath him, as far as he could reach. Stooping, he groped about with one hand, reaching

down toward the surface of the water, and discovered that the bottom of the wall arched above the stream.

How much space there was between the water and the arch he could not tell, nor how deep the former. There

was only one way in which he might learn these things, and that was to lower himself into the stream. For

only an instant he hesitated weighing his chances. Behind him lay almost certainly the horrid fate of AnTak;

before him nothing worse than a comparatively painless death by drowning. Holding his haversack above his

head with one hand he lowered his feet slowly over the edge of the narrow platform. Almost immediately he

felt the swirling of cold water about his ankles, and then with a silent prayer he let himself drop gently into

Great was Bradley's relief when he found the water no more than waist deep and beneath his feet a firm,

gravel bottom. Feeling his way cautiously he moved downward with the current, which was not so strong as

Beneath the first arch he made his way, following the winding curvatures of the righthand wall. After a few

yards of progress his hand came suddenly in contact with a slimy thing clinging to the walla thing that

hissed and scuttled out of reach. What it was, the man could not know; but almost instantly there was a splash

On he went, passing beneath other arches at varying distances, and always in utter darkness. Unseen denizens

of this great sewer, disturbed by the intruder, splashed into the water ahead of him and wriggled away. Time

and again his hand touched them and never for an instant could he be sure that at the next step some

gruesome thing might not attack him. He had strapped his haversack about his neck, well above the surface of

the water, and in his left hand he carried his knife. Other precautions there were none to take.

The monotony of the blind trail was increased by the fact that from the moment he had started from the foot

of the ladder he had counted his every step. He had promised to return for AnTak if it proved humanly

possible to do so, and he knew that in the blackness of the tunnel he could locate the foot of the ladder in no

He had taken two hundred and sixtynine stepsafterward he knew that he should never forget that

numberwhen something bumped gently against him from behind. Instantly he wheeled about and with

knife ready to defend himself stretched forth his right hand to push away the object that now had lodged

against his body. His fingers feeling through the darkness came in contact with something cold and

clammythey passed to and fro over the thing until Bradley knew that it was the face of a dead man floating

upon the surface of the stream. With an oath he pushed his gruesome companion out into midstream to float

At his four hundred and thirteenth step another corpse bumped against himhow many had passed him

without touching he could not guess; but suddenly he experienced the sensation of being surrounded by dead

faces floating along with him, all set in hideous grimaces, their dead eyes glaring at this profaning alien who

dared intrude upon the waters of this river of the deada horrid escort, pregnant with dire forebodings and

Though he advanced very slowly, he tried always to take steps of about the same length; so that he knew that

though considerable time had elapsed, yet he had really advanced no more than four hundred yards when

ahead he saw a lessening of the pitchdarkness, and at the next turn of the stream his surroundings became

vaguelydiscernible. Above him was an arched roof and on either hand walls pierced at intervals by apertures

covered with wooden doors. Just ahead of him in the roof of the aqueduct was a round, black hole about

thirty inches in diameter. His eyes still rested upon the opening when there shot downward from it to the

water below the naked body of a human being which almost immediately rose to the surface again and

floated off down the stream. In the dim light Bradley saw that it was a dead Wieroo from which the wings

and head had been removed. A moment later another headless body floated past, recalling what AnTak had

told him of the skullcollecting customs of the Wieroo. Bradley wondered how it happened that the first

The farther he advanced now, the lighter it became. The number of corpses was much smaller than he had

imagined, only two more passing him before, at six hundred steps, or about five hundred yards, from the

point he had taken to the stream, he came to the end of the tunnel and looked out upon sunlit water, running

One of the last corpses to pass him was still clothed in the white robe of a Wieroo, bloodstained over the

Drawing closer to the opening leading into the bright daylight, Bradley surveyed what lay beyond. A short

distance before him a large building stood in the center of several acres of grass and treecovered ground,

spanning the stream which disappeared through an opening in its foundation wall. From the large

saucershaped roof and the vivid colorings of the various heterogeneous parts of the structure he recognized

it as the temple past which he had been borne to the Blue Place of Seven Skulls.

To and fro flew Wieroos, going to and from the temple. Others passed on foot across the open grounds,

assisting themselves with their great wings, so that they barely skimmed the earth. To leave the mouth of the

tunnel would have been to court instant discovery and capture; but by what other avenue he might escape,

Bradley could not guess, unless he retraced his steps up the stream and sought egress from the other end of

the city. The thought of traversing that dark and horrorridden tunnel for perhaps miles he could not

entertainthere must be some other way. Perhaps after dark he could steal through the temple grounds and

continue on downstream until he had come beyond the city; and so he stood and waited until his limbs

became almost paralyzed with cold, and he knew that he must find some other plan for escape.

A halfformed decision to risk an attempt to swim under water to the temple was crystallizing in spite of the

fact that any chance Wieroo flying above the stream might easily see him, when again a floating object

bumped against him from behind and lodged across his back. Turning quickly he saw that the thing was what

he had immediately guessed it to bea headless and wingless Wieroo corpse. With a grunt of disgust he was

about to push it from him when the white garment enshrouding it suggested a bold plan to his resourceful

brain. Grasping the corpse by an arm he tore the garment from it and then let the body float downward toward

the temple. With great care he draped the robe about him; the bloody blotch that had covered the severed

neck he arranged about his own head. His haversack he rolled as tightly as possible and stuffed beneath his

coat over his breast. Then he fell gently to the surface of the stream and lying upon his back floated

Through the weave of the cloth he could distinguish large objects. He saw a Wieroo flap dismally above him;

he saw the banks of the stream float slowly past; he heard a sudden wail upon the right hand shore, and his

heart stood still lest his ruse had been discovered; but never by a move of a muscle did he betray that aught

but a cold lump of clay floated there upon the bosom of the water, and soon, though it seemed an eternity to

him, the direct sunlight was blotted out, and he knew that he had entered beneath the temple.

Quickly he felt for bottom with his feet and as quickly stood erect, snatching the bloody, clammy cloth from

his face. On both sides were blank walls and before him the river turned a sharp corner and disappeared.

Feeling his way cautiously forward he approached the turn and looked around the corner. To his left was a

low platform about a foot above the level of the stream, and onto this he lost no time in climbing, for he was

As he lay resting on the skullpaved shelf, he saw in the center of the vault above the river another of those

sinister round holes through which he momentarily expected to see a headless corpse shoot downward in its

last plunge to a watery grave. A few feet along the platform a closed door broke the blankness of the wall. As

he lay looking at it and wondering what lay behind, his mind filled with fragments of many wild schemes of

escape, it opened and a white robed Wieroo stepped out upon the platform. The creature carried a large

wooden basin filled with rubbish. Its eyes were not upon Bradley, who drew himself to a squatting position

and crouched as far back in the corner of the niche in which the platform was set as he could force himself.

The Wieroo stepped to the edge of the platform and dumped the rubbish into the stream. If it turned away

from him as it started to retrace its steps to the doorway, there was a small chance that it might not see him;

The Wieroo paused a moment, gazing down into the water, then it straightened up and turned toward the

Englishman. Bradley did not move. The Wieroo stopped and stared intently at him. It approached him

questioningly. Still Bradley remained as though carved of stone. The creature was directly in front of him. It

With the quickness of a cat, Bradley sprang to his feet and with all his great strength, backed by his heavy

weight, struck the Wieroo upon the point of the chin. Without a sound the thing crumpled to the platform,

while Bradley, acting almost instinctively to the urge of the first law of nature, rolled the inanimate body over

Then he looked at the open doorway, crossed the platform and peered within the apartment beyond. What he

saw was a large room, dimly lighted, and about the side rows of wooden vessels stacked one upon another.

There was no Wieroo in sight, so the Englishman entered. At the far end of the room was another door, and

as he crossed toward it, he glanced into some of the vessels, which he found were filled with dried fruits,

vegetables and fish. Without more ado he stuffed his pockets and his haversack full, thinking of the poor

When night came, he would return and fetch AnTak this far at least; but in the meantime it was his intention

to reconnoiter in the hope that he might discover some easier way out of the city than that offered by the chill,

Beyond the farther door stretched a long passageway from which closed doorways led into other parts of the

cellars of the temple. A few yards from the storeroom a ladder rose from the corridor through an aperture in

the ceiling. Bradley paused at the foot of it, debating the wisdom of further investigation against a return to

the river; but strong within him was the spirit of exploration that has scattered his race to the four corners of

the earth. What new mysteries lay hidden in the chambers above? The urge to know was strong upon him

though his better judgment warned him that the safer course lay in retreat. For a moment he stood thus,

running his fingers through his hair; then he cast discretion to the winds and began the ascent.

In conformity with such Wieroo architecture as he had already observed, the well through which the ladder

rose continually canted at an angle from the perpendicular. At more or less regular stages it was pierced by

apertures closed by doors, none of which he could open until he had climbed fully fifty feet from the river

level. Here he discovered a door already ajar opening into a large, circular chamber, the walls and floors of

which were covered with the skins of wild beasts and with rugs of many colors; but what interested him most

was the occupants of the rooma Wieroo, and a girl of human proportions. She was standing with her back

against a column which rose from the center of the apartment from floor to ceilinga hollow column about

forty inches in diameter in which he could see an opening some thirty inches across. The girl's side was

toward Bradley, and her face averted, for she was watching the Wieroo, who was now advancing slowly

Bradley could distinctly hear the words of the creature, who was urging the girl to accompany him to another

Wieroo city. "Come with me," he said, "and you shall have your life; remain here and He Who Speaks for

Luata will claim you for his own; and when he is done with you, your skull will bleach at the top of a tall

staff while your body feeds the reptiles at the mouth of the River of Death. Even though you bring into the

world a female Wieroo, your fate will be the same if you do not escape him, while with me you shall have

He was quite close to the girl when she replied by striking him in the face with all her strength. "Until I am

slain," she cried, "I shall fight against you all." From the throat of the Wieroo issued that dismal wail that

Bradley had heard so often in the pastit was like a scream of pain smothered to a groanand then the

thing leaped upon the girl, its face working in hideous grimaces as it clawed and beat at her to force her to the

The Englishman was upon the point of entering to defend her when a door at the opposite side of the chamber

opened to admit a huge Wieroo clothed entirely in red. At sight of the two struggling upon the floor the

newcomer raised his voice in a shriek of rage. Instantly the Wieroo who was attacking the girl leaped to his

"I heard," screamed he who had just entered the room. "I heard, and when He Who Speaks for Luata shall

have heard" He paused and made a suggestive movement of a finger across his throat.

"He shall not hear," returned the first Wieroo as, with a powerful motion of his great wings, he launched

himself upon the redrobed figure. The latter dodged the first charge, drew a wickedlooking curved blade

from beneath its red robe, spread its wings and dived for its antagonist. Beating their wings, wailing and

groaning, the two hideous things sparred for position. The whiterobed one being unarmed sought to grasp

the other by the wrist of its knifehand and by the throat, while the latter hopped around on its dainty white

feet, seeking an opening for a mortal blow. Once it struck and missed, and then the other rushed in and

clinched, at the same time securing both the holds it sought. Immediately the two commenced beating at each

other's heads with the joints of their wings, kicking with their soft, puny feet and biting, each at the other's

In the meantime the girl moved about the room, keeping out of the way of the duelists, and as she did so,

Bradley caught a glimpse of her full face and immediately recognized her as the girl of the place of the

yellow door. He did not dare intervene now until one of the Wieroo had overcome the other, lest the two

should turn upon him at once, when the chances were fair that he would be defeated in so unequal a battle as

the curved blade of the red Wieroo would render it, and so he waited, watching the whiterobed figure slowly

choking the life from him of the red robe. The protruding tongue and the popping eyes proclaimed that the

end was near and a moment later the red robe sank to the floor of the room, the curved blade slipping from

nerveless fingers. For an instant longer the victor clung to the throat of his defeated antagonist and then he

rose, dragging the body after him, and approached the central column. Here he raised the body and thrust it

into the aperture where Bradley saw it drop suddenly from sight. Instantly there flashed into his memory the

circular openings in the roof of the river vault and the corpses he had seen drop from them to the water

As the body disappeared, the Wieroo turned and cast about the room for the girl. For a moment he stood

eying her. "You saw," he muttered, "and if you tell them, He Who Speaks for Luata will have my wings

severed while still I live and my head will be severed and I shall be cast into the River of Death, for thus it

happens even to the highest who slay one of the red robe. You saw, and you must die!" he ended with a

Bradley waited no longer. Leaping into the room he ran for the Wieroo, who had already seized the girl, and

as he ran, he stooped and picked up the curved blade. The creature's back was toward him as, with his left

hand, he seized it by the neck. Like a flash the great wings beat backward as the creature turned, and Bradley

was swept from his feet, though he still retained his hold upon the blade. Instantly the Wieroo was upon him.

Bradley lay slightly raised upon his left elbow, his right arm free, and as the thing came close, he cut at the

hideous face with all the strength that lay within him. The blade struck at the junction of the neck and torso

and with such force as to completely decapitate the Wieroo, the hideous head dropping to the floor and the

body falling forward upon the Englishman. Pushing it from him he rose to his feet and faced the wideeyed

Bradley shrugged. "Here I am," he said; "but the thing now is to get out of hereboth of us."

"That is what I thought when they dropped me into the Blue Place of Seven Skulls," replied Bradley. "Can't

be done. I did it. Here! You're mussing up the floor something awful, you." This last to the dead Wieroo as

he stooped and dragged the corpse to the central shaft, where he raised it to the aperture and let it slip into the

tube. Then he picked up the head and tossed it after the body. "Don't be so glum," he admonished the former

"But how can he smile?" questioned the girl, a halfpuzzled, halffrightened look upon her face. "He is

"That's so," admitted Bradley, "and I suppose he does feel a bit cut up about it."

"Come!" said the Englishman. "We've got to get out of here. If you don't know a better way than the river, it's

Bradley laughed aloud. "I thought we English were supposed to have the least sense of humor of any people

in the world," he cried; "but now I've found one human being who hasn't any. Of course you don't know half

I'm saying; but don't worry, little girl; I'm not going to hurt you, and if I can get you out of here, I'll do it.

Even if she did not understand all he said, she at least read something in his smiling,

countenancesomething which reassured her. "I do not fear you," she said; "though I do not understand all

that you say even though you speak my own tongue and use words that I know. But as for escaping"she

"I escaped from the Blue Place of Seven Skulls," Bradley reminded her. "Come!" And he turned toward the

shaft and the ladder that he had ascended from the river. "We cannot waste time here."

The girl followed him; but at the doorway both drew back, for from below came the sound of some one

Bradley tiptoed to the door and peered cautiously into the well; then he stepped back beside the girl. "There

"No," she said, "they will pass directly through this roomthey are on their way to Him Who Speaks for

Luata. We may be able to hide in the next roomthere are skins there beneath which we may crawl. They

will not stop in that room; but they may stop in this one for a short timethe other room is blue."

"They fear blue," she replied. "In every room where murder has been done you will find bluea certain

amount for each murder. When the room is all blue, they shun it. This room has much blue; but evidently

"Yes, " assented the girl, "and there are blue rooms in each of those houseswhen all the rooms are blue

then the whole outside of the house will be blue as is the Blue Place of Seven Skulls. There are many such

"And the skulls with blue upon them?" inquired Bradley. "Did they belong to murderers?"

"They were murderedsome of them; those with only a small amount of blue were murderersknown

murderers. All Wieroos are murderers. When they have committed a certain number of murders without

being caught at it, they confess to Him Who Speaks for Luata and are advanced, after which they wear robes

with a slash of some color I think yellow comes first. When they reach a point where the entire robe is of

yellow, they discard it for a white robe with a red slash; and when one wins a complete red robe, he carries

such a long, curved knife as you have in your hand; after that comes the blue slash on a white robe, and then,

As they talked in low tones they had moved from the room of the death shaft into an all blue room adjoining,

where they sat down together in a corner with their backs against a wall and drew a pile of hides over

themselves. A moment later they heard a number of Wieroos enter the chamber. They were talking together

as they crossed the floor, or the two could not have heard them. Halfway across the chamber they halted as

the door toward which they were advancing opened and a dozen others of their kind entered the apartment.

Bradley could guess all this by the increased volume of sound and the dismal greetings; but the sudden

silence that almost immediately ensued he could not fathom, for he could not know that from beneath one of

the hides that covered him protruded one of his heavy army shoes, or that some eighteen large Wieroos with

robes either solid red or slashed with red or blue were standing gazing at it. Nor could he hear their stealthy

The first intimation he had that he had been discovered was when his foot was suddenly seized, and he was

yanked violently from beneath the hides to find himself surrounded by menacing blades. They would have

slain him on the spot had not one clothed all in red held them back, saying that He Who Speaks for Luata

As they led Bradley away, he caught an opportunity to glance back toward the hides to see what had become

of the girl, and, to his gratification, he discovered that she still lay concealed beneath the hides. He wondered

if she would have the nerve to attempt the river trip alone and regretted that now he could not accompany her.

He felt rather all in, himself, more so than he had at any time since he had been captured by the Wieroo, for

there appeared not the slightest cause for hope in his present predicament. He had dropped the curved blade

beneath the hides when he had been jerked so violently from their fancied security. It was almost in a spirit of

resigned hopelessness that he quietly accompanied his captors through various chambers and corridors

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

Foshbalsoj, 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

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 bluea veritable hive of

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

could not find; but that in returning we found this creature within the temple, hiding. It must be the same that

Foshbalsoj captured in the Stolu country during the last darkness. Doubtless He Who Speaks for Luata

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 tightdrawn 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.

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

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

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

So this then was the godlike figure that spoke for divinity! This archmurderer 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 himfrom whence he

came and how, the name and description of his native country, and a hundred other queries.

Bradley replied that he was and that all his kind were, as well as every living thing in his part of the world.

"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 Foshbalsoj

"Who are you to make terms for Him Who Speaks for Luata?" it shrilled. "Tell me the secret or die where

"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 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

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

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

"Listen, then," said Bradley in a low voice to the Wieroo. "You shall know the secret of cosatalu as well as

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

"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.

Wideeyed 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

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

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

"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

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 rubbishtorn 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 archfiend 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

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 soughta 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 seventyfive feet in length. He fastened these together at each end and

"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 afraidit is

"I am not afraid," replied the girl, rather haughtily Bradley thought, and herself climbed through the aperture

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

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

"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

"There is another way," said the girl. "I have never seen it; but often I have heard them speak of ita

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

"Come," said Bradley. "We'll have a look for it, anyway." And so saying he approached one of the doors that

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

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 himthere was no response. He stooped lower and in

the dim light examined AnTak; then he stood up with a sigh. A rat leaped from beneath the coverings and

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

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. "Goodbye, 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

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

"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

cosatalu 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 developmenttheir minds

became like stars and the rivers, moving always in the same manner, never varying. They called this tasad,

which means doing everything the right way, or, in other words, the Wieroo way. If foe or friend, right or

"Soon the Galus and the lesser races of men came to hate and fear them. It was then that the Wieroos decided

to carry tasad 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

"It took ages for all this to happenvery 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 tasad, 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

"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 tasad 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

"Now their tasad 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 customthey are all alikeand 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 explanationthey 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

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 lowceiled chamber in which were several Galu women and an equal number

of hideous little replicas of the fullgrown 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

"Poor things," she whispered. "This is their horrible fateto 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 fullgrown lest they be murdered by their fellows. The lower rooms of the city are filled

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

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 yellowslashed 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 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

"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

"I think," replied the man, "that of all the places in Oooh 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

"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 roomthe

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 Foshbalsoj. In the distance,

toward the temple, they could hear sounds as of a great gathering of Wieroosthe peculiar, uncanny wailing

"They have heard of the killing of Him Who Speaks for Luata," whispered the girl. "Soon they will spread in

"As surely as Lua gives light by day," she replied; "and when they find us, they will tear us to pieces, for only

"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 hereyou won't be any

worse off than before I cameand I'll get as far as I can and account for as many of the beggars as possible

before they get me. Goodbye! 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 AnTak, 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."

"Yes," replied the girl. "AnTak was away, hunting, when the Wieroo caught me. How he must have grieved

for me! He also was cosatalu, twelve moons older than I, and all our lives we have been together.

Bradley remained silent. So she loved AnTak. He hadn't the heart to tell her that AnTak had died, or how.

At the door of Foshbalsoj'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 cometwo 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

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

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

"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

Bradley made no response, and in silence they continued until the outer edge of roofs was visible before

The girl felt for his fingers and pressed them. He could feel hers trembling as he returned the pressure, nor

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

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

"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."

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 gorgeit 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

sourcemany 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

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

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

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,

"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

She cast her eyes upon the ground and half turned away. "I do," she said, "yet I am happy here. I could be

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 effectshe had been but the companion of an adventure;

her selfreliance, 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 differencehe 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

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 browsan old man who held his head very highand Bradley

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 samesweet and kind and helpfulbut 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 cookfire which they used only in the

middle of the daya time when there was little likelihood of Wieroos being in the air so far from their

cityand then he learned to bank it with earth in such a way that the embers held until the following noon

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

"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

He put his hand on her shoulder. "I would not do that, little girl," he said gently. "If you cannot go with me, I

Her face lighted to a wondrous smile. "Then we shall not be separated," she said, "for I shall never leave you

And then, even less than before, could he tell her. It was then that he did something he had never done

beforehe put his arms about her and stooping, kissed her forehead. "Until you find AnTak, he said, "I will

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

Days became weeks, and weeks became months, and the months followed one another in a lazy procession of

hot, humid days and warm, humid nights. The fugitives saw never a Wieroo by day though often at night they

Each day was much like its predecessor. Bradley splashed about for a few minutes in the cold pool early each

morning and after a time the girl tried it and liked it. Toward the center it was deep enough for swimming,

and so he taught her to swimshe was probably the first human being in all Caspak's long ages who had

done this thing. And then while she prepared breakfast, the man shavedthis he never neglected. At first it

When they needed meat, he hunted, otherwise he busied himself in improving their shelter, making new and

better weapons, perfecting his knowledge of the girl's language and teaching her to speak and to write

Englishanything that would keep them both occupied. He still sought new plans for escape, but with

everlessening enthusiasm, since each new scheme presented some insurmountable obstacle.

And then one day as a bolt out of a clear sky came that which blasted the peace and security of their

sanctuary forever. Bradley was just emerging from the water after his morning plunge when from overhead

came the sound of flapping wings. Glancing quickly up the man saw a whiterobed Wieroo circling slowly

above him. That he had been discovered he could not doubt since the creature even dropped to a lower

altitude as though to assure itself that what it saw was a man. Then it rose rapidly and winged away toward

For two days Bradley and the girl lived in a constant state of apprehension, awaiting the moment when the

hunters would come for them; but nothing happened until just after dawn of the third day, when the flapping

of wings apprised them of the approach of Wieroos. Together they went to the edge of the wood and looked

up to see five redrobed creatures dropping slowly in everlessening spirals toward their little amphitheater.

With no attempt at concealment they came, sure of their ability to overwhelm these two fugitives, and with

the fullest measure of selfconfidence they landed in the clearing but a few yards from the man and the girl.

Following a plan already discussed Bradley and the girl retreated slowly into the woods. The Wieroos

advanced, calling upon them to give themselves up; but the quarry made no reply. Farther and farther into the

little wood Bradley led the hunters, permitting them to approach ever closer; then he circled back again

toward the clearing, evidently to the great delight of the Wieroos, who now followed more leisurely, awaiting

the moment when they should be beyond the trees and able to use their wings. They had opened into

semicircular formation now with the evident intention of cutting the two off from returning into the wood.

Each Wieroo advanced with his curved blade ready in his hand, each hideous face blank and expressionless.

It was then that Bradley opened fire with his pistolthree shots, aimed with careful deliberation, for it had

been long since he had used the weapon, and he could not afford to chance wasting ammunition on misses. At

each shot a Wieroo dropped; and then the remaining two sought escape by flight, screaming and wailing after

the manner of their kind. When a Wieroo runs, his wings spread almost without any volition upon his part,

since from time immemorial he has always used them to balance himself and accelerate his running speed so

that in the open they appear to skim the surface of the ground when in the act of running. But here in the

woods, among the closeset boles, the spreading of their wings proved their undoingit hindered and

stopped them and threw them to the ground, and then Bradley was upon them threatening them with instant

death if they did not surrender promising them their freedom if they did his bidding.

"As you have seen," he cried, "I can kill you when I wish and at a distance. You cannot escape me. Your only

"Throw aside your weapons," Bradley commanded. After a moment's hesitation they obeyed.

"Now approach!" A great planthe only planhad suddenly come to him like an inspiration.

The Wieroos came closer and halted at his command. Bradley turned to the girl. "There is rope in the

She did as he bid, and then he directed her to fasten one end of a fiftyfoot length to the ankle of one of the

Wieroos and the opposite end to the second. The creatures gave evidence of great fear, but they dared not

"Now go out into the clearing," said Bradley, "and remember that I am walking close behind and that I will

shoot the nearer one should either attempt to escapethat will hold the other until I can kill him as well."

In the open he halted them. "The girl will get upon the back of the one in front," announced the Englishman.

"I will mount the other. She carries a sharp blade, and I carry this weapon that you know kills easily at a

distance. If you disobey in the slightest, the instructions that I am about to give you, you shall both die. That

we must die with you, will not deter us. If you obey, I promise to set you free without harming you.

"You will carry us due west, depositing us upon the shore of the mainlandthat is all. It is the price of your

Sullenly the Wieroos acquiesced. Bradley examined the knots that held the rope to their ankles, and feeling

them secure directed the girl to mount the back of the leading Wieroo, himself upon the other. Then he gave

the signal for the two to rise together. With loud flapping of the powerful wings the creatures took to the air,

circling once before they topped the trees upon the hill and then taking a course due west out over the waters

Nowhere about them could Bradley see signs of other Wieroos, nor of those other menaces which he had

feared might bring disaster to his plans for escapethe huge, winged reptilia that are so numerous above the

southern areas of Caspak and which are often seen, though in lesser numbers, farther north.

Nearer and nearer loomed the mainlanda broad, parklike expanse stretching inland to the foot of a low

plateau spread out before them. The little dots in the foreground became grazing herds of deer and antelope

and bos; a huge woolly rhinoceros wallowed in a mudhole to the right, and beyond, a mighty mammoth

culled the tender shoots from a tall tree. The roars and screams and growls of giant carnivora came faintly to

their ears. Ah, this was Caspak. With all of its dangers and its primal savagery it brought a fullness to the

throat of the Englishman as to one who sees and hears the familiar sights and sounds of home after a long

absence. Then the Wieroos dropped swiftly downward to the flowerstarred turf that grew almost to the

water's edge, the fugitives slipped from their backs, and Bradley told the redrobed creatures they were free

When he had cut the ropes from their ankles they rose with that uncanny wailing upon their lips that always

brought a shudder to the Englishman, and upon dismal wings they flapped away toward frightful Oooh.

When the creatures had gone, the girl turned toward Bradley. "Why did you have them bring us here?" she

asked. "Now we are far from my country. We may never live to reach it, as we are among enemies who,

while not so horrible will kill us just as surely as would the Wieroos should they capture us, and we have

"There were two reasons," replied Bradley. "You told me that there are two Wieroo cities at the eastern end

of the island. To have passed near either of them might have been to have brought about our heads hundreds

of the creatures from whom we could not possibly have escaped. Again, my friends must be near this spot

it cannot be over two marches to the fort of which I have told you. It is my duty to return to them. If they still

"I escaped from Oooh," replied Bradley. "I have accomplished the impossible once, and so I shall

He was not looking at her face as he answered her, and so he did not see the shadow of sorrow that crossed

Southward along the coast they made their way following the beach, where the walking was best, but always

keeping close enough to trees to insure sanctuary from the beasts and reptiles that so often menaced them. It

was late in the afternoon when the girl suddenly seized Bradley's arm and pointed straight ahead along the

Bradley looked in the direction her slim forefinger indicated. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, and then

"It is the most frightful reptile that the waters of the world have ever known," he replied. "It is a German

An expression of amazement and understanding lighted her features. "It is the thing of which you told me,"

she exclaimed, "the thing that swims under the water and carries men in its belly!"

"Then why do you hide from it?" asked the girl. "You said that now it belonged to your friends."

"Many months have passed since I knew what was going on among my friends," he replied. "I cannot know

what has befallen them. They should have been gone from here in this vessel long since, and so I cannot

understand why it is still here. I am going to investigate first before I show myself. When I left, there were

more Germans on the U33 than there were men of my own party at the fort, and I have had sufficient

experience of Germans to know that they will bear watchingif they have not been properly watched since I

Making their way through a fringe of wood that grew a few yards inland the two crept unseen toward the

Uboat which lay moored to the shore at a point which Bradley now recognized as being near the oilpool

north of Dinosaur. As close as possible to the vessel they halted, crouching low among the dense vegetation,

and watched the boat for signs of human life about it. The hatches were closedno one could be seen or

heard. For five minutes Bradley watched, and then he determined to board the submarine and investigate. He

had risen to carry his decision into effect when there suddenly broke upon his ear, uttered in loud and

menacing tones, a volley of German oaths and expletives among which he heard Englische schweinhunde

repeated several times. The voice did not come from the direction of the Uboat; but from inland. Creeping

forward Bradley reached a spot where, through the creepers hanging from the trees, he could see a party of

He saw Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts and six of his menall armedwhile marching in a little knot

Bradley knew nothing of the disappearance of Bowen Tyler and Miss La Rue, nor of the perfidy of the

Germans in shelling the fort and attempting to escape in the U33; but he was in no way surprised at what he

The little party came slowly onward, the prisoners staggering beneath heavy cans of oil, while Schwartz, one

of the German noncommissioned officers cursed and beat them with a stick of wood, impartially. Von

Schoenvorts walked in the rear of the column, encouraging Schwartz and laughing at the discomfiture of the

Britishers. Dietz, Heinz, and Klatz also seemed to enjoy the entertainment immensely; but two of the

menPlesser and Hindle marched with eyes straight to the front and with scowling faces.

Bradley felt his blood boil at sight of the cowardly indignities being heaped upon his men, and in the brief

span of time occupied by the column to come abreast of where he lay hidden he made his plans, foolhardy

though he knew them. Then he drew the girl close to him. "Stay here," he whispered. "I am going out to fight

those beasts; but I shall be killed. Do not let them see you. Do not let them take you alive. They are more

The girl pressed close to him, her face very white. "Go, if that is right," she whispered; "but if you die, I shall

die, for I cannot live without you." He looked sharply into her eyes. "Oh!" he ejaculated. "What an idiot I

have been! Nor could I live without you, little girl." And he drew her very close and kissed her lips.

"Goodbye." He disengaged himself from her arms and looked again in time to see that the rear of the

column had just passed him. Then he rose and leaped quickly and silently from the jungle.

Suddenly von Schoenvorts felt an arm thrown about his neck and his pistol jerked from its holster. He gave a

cry of fright and warning, and his men turned to see a halfnaked white man holding their leader securely

"Drop those guns!" came in short, sharp syllables and perfect German from the lips of the newcomer. "Drop

The Germans hesitated for a moment, looking first toward von Schoenvorts and then to Schwartz, who was

"It's the English pig, Bradley," shouted the latter, "and he's alonego and get him!"

"Go yourself," growled Plesser. Hindle moved close to the side of Plesser and whispered something to him.

The latter nodded. Suddenly von Schoenvorts wheeled about and seized Bradley's pistol arm with both hands,

Schwartz and three others leaped forward; but Plesser and Hindle held back, looking questioningly toward

the English prisoners. Then Plesser spoke. "Now is your chance, Englander," he called in low tones. "Seize

Olson and Brady were not long in acting upon the suggestion. They had seen enough of the brutal treatment

von Schoenvorts accorded his men and the especially venomous attentions he had taken great enjoyment in

according Plesser and Hindle to understand that these two might be sincere in a desire for revenge. In another

moment the two Germans were unarmed and Olson and Brady were running to the support of Bradley; but

Von Schoenvorts had managed to drag the Englishman around so that his back was toward Schwartz and the

other advancing Germans. Schwartz was almost upon Bradley with gun clubbed and ready to smash down

upon the Englishman's skull. Brady and Olson were charging the Germans in the rear with Wilson, Whitely,

and Sinclair supporting them with bare fists. It seemed that Bradley was doomed when, apparently out of

space, an arrow whizzed, striking Schwartz in the side, passing halfway through his body to crumple him to

earth. With a shriek the man fell, and at the same time Olson and Brady saw the slim figure of a young girl

Bradley had now succeeded in wrestling his arm free from von Schoenvorts' grip and in dropping the latter

with a blow from the butt of his pistol. The rest of the English and Germans were engaged in a handtohand

encounter. Plesser and Hindle standing aside from the melee and urging their comrades to surrender and join

with the English against the tyranny of von Schoenvorts. Heinz and Klatz, possibly influenced by their

exhortation, were putting up but a halfhearted resistance; but Dietz, a huge, bearded, bullnecked Prussian,

yelling like a maniac, sought to exterminate the Englische schweinhunde with his bayonet, fearing to fire his

It was Olson who engaged him, and though unused to the long German rifle and bayonet, he met the

bullrush of the Hun with the cold, cruel precision and science of English bayonetfighting. There was no

feinting, no retiring and no parrying that was not also an attack. Bayonetfighting today is not a pretty thing

to seeit is not an artistic fencingmatch in which men give and takeit is slaughter inevitable and quickly

Dietz lunged once madly at Olson's throat. A short point, with just a twist of the bayonet to the left sent the

sharp blade over the Englishman's left shoulder. Instantly he stepped close in, dropped his rifle through his

hands and grasped it with both hands close below the muzzle and with a short, sharp jab sent his blade up

beneath Dietz's chin to the brain. So quickly was the thing done and so quick the withdrawal that Olson had

wheeled to take on another adversary before the German's corpse had toppled to the ground.

But there were no more adversaries to take on. Heinz and Klatz had thrown down their rifles and with hands

above their heads were crying "Kamerad! Kamerad!" at the tops of their voices. Von Schoenvorts still lay

where he had fallen. Plesser and Hindle were explaining to Bradley that they were glad of the outcome of the

The remainder of the men were looking at the girl who now advanced slowly, her bow ready, when Bradley

"CoTan," he said, "unstring your bowthese are my friends, and yours." And to the Englishmen: "This is

The rough men gathered about the girl, and when she spoke to them in broken English, with a smile upon her

lips enhancing the charm of her irresistible accent, each and every one of them promptly fell in love with her

A moment later the attention of each was called to Plesser by a volley of invective. They turned in time to see

the man running toward von Schoenvorts who was just rising from the ground. Plesser carried a rifle with

bayonet fixed, that he had snatched from the side of Dietz's corpse. Von Schoenvorts' face was livid with

fear, his jaws working as though he would call for help; but no sound came from his blue lips.

"You struck me," shrieked Plesser. "Once, twice, three times, you struck me, pig. You murdered

Schwerkeyou drove him insane by your cruelty until he took his own life. You are only one of your

kindthey are all like you from the Kaiser down. I wish that you were the Kaiser. Thus would I do!" And he

lunged his bayonet through von Schoenvorts' chest. Then he let his rifle fall with the dying man and wheeled

toward Bradley. "Here I am," he said. "Do with me as you like. All my life I have been kicked and cuffed by

such as that, and yet always have I gone out when they commanded, singing, to give up my life if need be to

keep them in power. Only lately have I come to know what a fool I have been. But now I am no longer a fool,

and besides, I am avenged and Schwerke is avenged, so you can kill me if you wish. Here I am."

"If I was after bein' the king," said Olson, "I'd pin the V.C. on your noble chist; but bein' only an Irishman

with a Swede name, for which God forgive me, the bist I can do is shake your hand."

"You will not be punished," said Bradley. "There are four of you leftif you four want to come along and

"It suits me," said Plesser. "Now that the captainlieutenant is dead you need not fear us. All our lives we

have known nothing but to obey his class. If I had not killed him, I suppose I would be fool enough to obey

"And you?" Bradley turned to the other survivors of the original crew of the U33. Each promised obedience.

The two dead Germans were buried in a single grave, and then the party boarded the submarine and stowed

Here Bradley told the men what had befallen him since the night of September 14th when he had disappeared

so mysteriously from the camp upon the plateau. Now he learned for the first time that Bowen J. Tyler, Jr.,

and Miss La Rue had been missing even longer than he and that no faintest trace of them had been

Olson told him of how the Germans had returned and waited in ambush for them outside the fort, capturing

them that they might be used to assist in the work of refining the oil and later in manning the U33, and

Plesser told briefly of the experiences of the German crew under von Schoenvorts since they had escaped

from Caspak months beforeof how they lost their bearings after having been shelled by ships they had

attempted to sneak farther north and how at last with provisions gone and fuel almost exhausted they had

sought and at last found, more by accident than design, the mysterious island they had once been so glad to

"Now," announced Bradley, "we'll plan for the future. The boat has fuel, provisions and water for a month, I

believe you said, Plesser; there are ten of us to man it. We have a last sad duty herewe must search for

Miss La Rue and Mr. Tyler. I say a sad duty because we know that we shall not find them; but it is none the

less our duty to comb the shoreline, firing signal shells at intervals, that we at least may leave at last with full

None dissented from this conviction, nor was there a voice raised in protest against the plan to at least make

And so they started, cruising slowly up the coast and firing an occasional shot from the gun. Often the vessel

was brought to a stop, and always there were anxious eyes scanning the shore for an answering signal. Late in

the afternoon they caught sight of a number of Bandlu warriors; but when the vessel approached the shore

and the natives realized that human beings stood upon the back of the strange monster of the sea, they fled in

That night they dropped anchor at the mouth of a sluggish stream whose warm waters swarmed with millions

of tiny tadpolelike organismsminute human spawn starting on their precarious journey from some inland

pool toward "the beginning"a journey which one in millions, perhaps, might survive to complete. Already

almost at the inception of life they were being greeted by thousands of voracious mouths as fish and reptiles

of many kinds fought to devour them, the while other and larger creatures pursued the devourers, to be, in

turn, preyed upon by some other of the countless forms that inhabit the deeps of Caprona's frightful sea.

The second day was practically a repetition of the first. They moved very slowly with frequent stops and once

they landed in the Krolu country to hunt. Here they were attacked by the bowandarrow men, whom they

could not persuade to palaver with them. So belligerent were the natives that it became necessary to fire into

"What chance," asked Bradley, as they were returning to the boat with their game, "could Tyler and Miss La

But they continued on their fruitless quest, and the third day, after cruising along the shore of a deep inlet,

they passed a line of lofty cliffs that formed the southern shore of the inlet and rounded a sharp promontory

about noon. CoTan and Bradley were on deck alone, and as the new shoreline appeared beyond the point,

"Oh, look!" she cried. "The Galu country! The Galu country! It is my country that I never thought to see

"Oh, so glad!" she cried. "And you will come with me to my people? We may live here among them, and you

will be a great warrioroh, when Jor dies you may even be chief, for there is none so mighty as my warrior.

Bradley shook his head. "I cannot, little CoTan," he answered. "My country needs me, and I must go back.

She looked at him in wideeyed wonder. "You are going away from me?" she asked in a very small voice.

Bradley looked down upon the little bowed head. He felt the soft cheek against his bare arm; and he felt

something else there too hot drops of moisture that ran down to his very fingertips and splashed, but each

He bent low and raised the tearstained face to his own. "No, CoTan," he said, "I am not going away from

youfor you are going with me. You are going back to my own country to be my wife. Tell me that you

will, CoTan." And he bent still lower yet from his height and kissed her lips. Nor did he need more than the

wonderful new light in her eyes to tell him that she would go to the end of the world with him if he would but

take her. And then the guncrew came up from below again to fire a signal shot, and the two were brought

down from the high heaven of their new happiness to the scarred and weatherbeaten deck of the U33.

An hour later the vessel was running close in by a shore of wondrous beauty beside a parklike meadow that

stretched back a mile inland to the foot of a plateau when Whitely called attention to a score of figures

clambering downward from the elevation to the lowland below. The engines were reversed and the boat

brought to a stop while all hands gathered on deck to watch the little party coming toward them across the

"They are Galus," cried CoTan; "they are my own people. Let me speak to them lest they think we come to

The nose of the Uboat was run close in to the steep bank; but when CoTan would have run forward alone,

Bradley seized her hand and held her back. "I will go with you, CoTan," he said; and together they

There were about twenty warriors moving forward in a thin line, as our infantry advance as skirmishers.

Bradley could not but notice the marked difference between this formation and the moblike methods of the

"Galu warriors always advance into battle thus," she said. "The lesser people remain in a huddled group

where they can scarce use their weapons the while they present so big a mark to us that our spears and arrows

cannot miss them; but when they hurl theirs at our warriors, if they miss the first man, there is no chance that

"Stand still now," she cautioned, "and fold your arms. They will not harm us then."

Bradley did as he was bid, and the two stood with arms folded as the line of warriors approached. When they

had come within some fifty yards, they halted and one spoke. "Who are you and from whence do you come?"

he asked; and then CoTan gave a little, glad cry and sprang forward with outstretched arms.

The warrior stared, incredulous, for a moment, and then he, too, ran forward and when they met, took the girl

in his arms. It was then that Bradley experienced to the full a sensation that was new to hima sudden

hatred for the strange warrior before him and a desire to kill without knowing why he would kill. He moved

CoTan turned a surprised face toward the Englishman and then of a sudden broke forth into a merry peal of

And then she told him briefly of all that she had passed through since the Wieroos had stolen her and of how

It was then that Bradley's attention was attracted to the edge of the plateau by a movement there, and looking

closely he saw a horse bearing two figures sliding down the steep declivity. Once at the bottom, the animal

came charging across the meadowland at a rapid run. It was a magnificent animala great bay stallion with

a whiteblazed face and white forelegs to the knees, its barrel encircled by a broad surcingle of white; and as

it came to a sudden stop beside Tan, the Englishman saw that it bore a man and a girla tall man and a girl

as beautiful as CoTan. When the girl espied the latter, she slid from the horse and ran toward her, fairly

The man dismounted and stood beside Tan. Like Bradley he was garbed after the fashion of the surrounding

warriors; but there was a subtle difference between him and his companion. Possibly he detected a similar

difference in Bradley, for his first question was, "From what country?" and though he spoke in Galu Bradley

A broad smile lighted the newcomer's face as he held out his hand. "I am Tom Billings of Santa Monica,

California," he said. "I know all about you, and I'm mighty glad to find you alive."

"How did you get here?" asked Bradley. "I thought ours was the only party of men from the outer world ever

"It was, until we came in search of Bowen J. Tyler, Jr.," replied Billings. "We found him and sent him home

Bradley's face darkenedthen they were not among friends after all. "There are ten of us down there on a

German sub with smallarms and a gun," he said quickly in English. "It will be no trick to get away from

"You don't know my jailer," replied Billings, "or you'd not be so sure. Wait, I'll introduce you." And then

turning to the girl who had accompanied him he called her by name. "Ajor," he said, "permit me to introduce

The Englishman laughed as he shook hands with the girl. "You are not as good a soldier as I," he said to

Billings. "Instead of being taken prisoner myself I have taken oneMrs. Bradley, this is Mr. Billings."

Ajor, quick to understand, turned toward CoTan. "You are going back with him to his country?" she asked.

"You dare?" asked Ajor. "But your father will not permit it Jor, my father, High Chief of the Galus, will

not permit it, for like me you are cosatalo. Oh, CoTan, if we but could! How I would love to see all the

Bradley bent and whispered in her ear. "Say the word and you may both go with us."

"Yes," she answered, "If you wish it; but you know, my Tom, that if Jor captures us, both you and CoTan's

man will pay the penalty with your livesnot even his love for me nor his admiration for you can save you."

Bradley noticed that she spoke in Englishbroken English like CoTan's but equally appealing. "We can

easily get you aboard the ship," he said, "on some pretext or other, and then we can steam away. They can

And so it was done, Bradley and CoTan taking Ajor and Billings aboard to "show" them the vessel, which

"I hate to do it," said Billings. "They have been fine to me. Jor and Tan are splendid men and they will think

me an ingrate; but I can't waste my life here when there is so much to be done in the outer world."

As they steamed down the inland sea past the island of Oooh, the stories of their adventures were retold, and

Bradley learned that Bowen Tyler and his bride had left the Galu country but a fortnight before and that there

was every reason to believe that the Toreador might still be lying in the Pacific not far off the subterranean

Late in the second day, after running through swarms of hideous reptiles, they submerged at the point where

the river entered beneath the cliffs and shortly after rose to the sunlit surface of the Pacific; but nowhere as

far as they could see was sign of another craft. Down the coast they steamed toward the beach where Billings

had made his crossing in the hydroaeroplane and just at dusk the lookout announced a light dead ahead. It

proved to be aboard the Toreador, and a halfhour later there was such a reunion on the deck of the trig little

yacht as no one there had ever dreamed might be possible. Of the Allies there were only Tippet and James to

be mourned, and no one mourned any of the Germans dead nor Benson, the traitor, whose ugly story was first

Tyler and the rescue party had but just reached the yacht that afternoon. They had heard, faintly, the signal

shots fired by the U33 but had been unable to locate their direction and so had assumed that they had come

It was a happy party that sailed north toward sunny, southern California, the old U33 trailing in the wake of

the Toreador and flying with the latter the glorious Stars and Stripes beneath which she had been born in the

shipyard at Santa Monica. Three newly married couples, their bonds now duly solemnized by the master of

the ship, joyed in the peace and security of the untracked waters of the south Pacific and the unique

honeymoon which, had it not been for stern duty ahead, they could have wished protracted till the end of

And so they came one day to dock at the shipyard which Bowen Tyler now controlled, and here the U33

still lies while those who passed so many eventful days within and because of her, have gone their various