Out of Time's Abyss
"I want you to be happy," she said quite simply; "but I should be very
lonely if you went away and left me here."
He put his hand on her shoulder. "I would not do that, little girl,"
he said gently. "If you cannot go with me, I shall not go. If either
of us must go alone, it will be you."
Her face lighted to a wondrous smile. "Then we shall not be
separated," she said, "for I shall never leave you as long as we both
live."
He looked down into her face for a moment and then: "Who was An-Tak?"
he asked.
"My brother," she replied. "Why?"
And then, even less than before, could he tell her. It was then that
he did something he had never done before--he put his arms about her
and stooping, kissed her forehead. "Until you find An-Tak," he said,
"I will be your brother."
She drew away. "I already have a brother," she said, "and I do not
want another."
Chapter 5
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
heard the melancholy flapping of giant wings far above them.
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 swim--she 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 shaved--this he never
neglected. At first it was a source of wonderment to the girl, for the
Galu men are beardless.
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
English--anything that would keep them both occupied. He still sought
new plans for escape, but with ever-lessening 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
white-robed 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 the city.
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 red-robed
creatures dropping slowly in ever-lessening 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 self-confidence 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 pistol--three 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 close-set boles, the
spreading of their wings proved their undoing--it 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 hope of life lies in
obedience. Quick, or I kill!"
The Wieroos stopped and faced him. "What do you want of us?" asked one.
"Throw aside your weapons," Bradley commanded. After a moment's
hesitation they obeyed.
"Now approach!" A great plan--the only plan--had 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 shelter," he said. "Fetch it!"
She did as he bid, and then he directed her to fasten one end of a
fifty-foot 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 attempt to prevent the act.
"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 escape--that 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
mainland--that is all. It is the price of your lives. Do you agree?"
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 of the sea.
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 escape--the 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 mainland--a 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 flower-starred turf that grew almost to the water's
edge, the fugitives slipped from their backs, and Bradley told the
red-robed creatures they were free to go.
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
Oo-oh.
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 before us many marches through
lands filled with savage beasts."
"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 live we shall find a way to return you to your people."
"And you?" asked the girl.
"I escaped from Oo-oh," replied Bradley. "I have accomplished the
impossible once, and so I shall accomplish it again--I shall escape
from Caspak."
He was not looking at her face as he answered her, and so he did not
see the shadow of sorrow that crossed her countenance. When he raised
his eyes again, she was smiling.
"What you wish, I wish," said the girl.
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 shore. "What is
that?" she whispered. "What strange reptile is it?"
Bradley looked in the direction her slim forefinger indicated. He
rubbed his eyes and looked again, and then he seized her wrist and drew
her quickly behind a clump of bushes.
"What is it?" she asked.
"It is the most frightful reptile that the waters of the world have
ever known," he replied. "It is a German U-boat!"
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!"
"It is," replied Bradley.
"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 U-33 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
watching--if they have not been properly watched since I left."
Making their way through a fringe of wood that grew a few yards inland
the two crept unseen toward the U-boat which lay moored to the shore at
a point which Bradley now recognized as being near the oil-pool 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 closed--no one could be seen or heard.
For five minutes Bradley watched, and then he determined to board the