Out of Time's Abyss
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 room--a 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 ceiling--a 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 toward her, talking
as he came.
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 life and food and none
shall harm you."
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 past--it was like a
scream of pain smothered to a groan--and 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 floor.
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 feet and faced the
other.
"I heard," screamed he who had just entered the room. "I heard, and
when He Who Speaks for young, reproduction and kindred subjects 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 red-robed
figure. The latter dodged the first charge, drew a wicked-looking
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 white-robed one being unarmed
sought to grasp the other by the wrist of its knife-hand 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 face.
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 white-robed 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 beneath.
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 scream as he rushed upon the girl.
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 wide-eyed girl.
"Luata!" she exclaimed. "How came you here?"
Bradley shrugged. "Here I am," he said; "but the thing now is to get
out of here--both of us."
The girl shook her head. "It cannot be," she stated sadly.
"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 as he carried it toward the well;
"smile!"
"But how can he smile?" questioned the girl, a half-puzzled,
half-frightened look upon her face. "He is dead."
"That's so," admitted Bradley, "and I suppose he does feel a bit cut up
about it."
The girl shook her head and edged away from the man--toward the door.
"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 the river then."
The girl still eyed him askance. "But how could he smile when he was
dead?"
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 countenance--something 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 sighed--"alas, how can it be done?"
"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 ascending.
Bradley tiptoed to the door and peered cautiously into the well; then
he stepped back beside the girl. "There are half a dozen of them
coming up; but possibly they will pass this room."
"No," she said, "they will pass directly through this room--they are on
their way to Him Who Speaks for Luata. We may be able to hide in the
next room--there 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
time--the other room is blue."
"What's that go to do with it?" demanded the Englishman.
"They fear blue," she replied. "In every room where murder has been
done you will find blue--a certain amount for each murder. When the
room is all blue, they shun it. This room has much blue; but evidently
they kill mostly in the next room, which is now all blue."
"But there is blue on the outside of every house I have seen," said
Bradley.
"Yes," assented the girl, "and there are blue rooms in each of those
houses--when 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
here."
"And the skulls with blue upon them?" inquired Bradley. "Did they
belong to murderers?"
"They were murdered--some of them; those with only a small amount of
blue were murderers--known 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, I
suppose, an all blue robe. I have never seen such a one."
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 approach.
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 desired to see this strange
creature.
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