Out of Time's Abyss
Fosh-bal-soj 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 several minutes gasping painfully in an
effort to regain his breath.
When he was able, he rose, and leaned close over the Wieroo, lying
silent and motionless, his wings drooping 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 confront him; but how
was he to escape?
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 was no
creature of any sort in it.
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, well-fitting 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 contents--the
chest was about half filled with an assortment of golden trinkets.
There were what appeared to be bracelets, anklets and brooches of
virgin gold.
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 roof-top, 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 door
against intruders.
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
wide-eyed 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 Caprona--there was no trace about her form or features of
any relationship to those low orders of men, nor was she appareled as
they--or, rather, she did not entirely lack apparel as did most of them.
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
blue-and-white 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 ability, the common
tongue of Caspak.
"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 the land of Oo-oh, and these are all females.
Are you a prisoner, then?"
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 long has it been here with
you?"
"It came through the doorway just ahead of you," Bradley answered for
the girl.
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 do?--I do not wish to
endanger you."
The Wieroo backed toward the door. "Defiler!" it screamed. "You dare
to threaten one of the sacred chosen of Luata!"
"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 in violence and your bleached skull will top the loftiest
pedestal of Oo-oh."
"And what of you?" asked Bradley.
"I am already doomed," replied the girl; "I am cos-ata-lo."
"Cos-ata-lo! cos-ata-lu!" What did these phrases mean that they were
so oft repeated by the denizens of Oo-oh? Lu and lo, Bradley knew to
mean man and woman; ata; was employed variously to indicate life, eggs,
young, reproduction and kindred subjects; cos was a negative; but in
combination they were meaningless to the European.
"Do you mean they will kill you?" asked Bradley.
"I but wish that they would," replied the girl. "My fate is to be
worse than death--in just a few nights more, with the coming of the new
moon."
"Poor she-snake!" 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 High Place--"where you will receive the sacred commands."
The girl shuddered and cast a sorrowful glance toward Bradley. "Ah,"
she sighed, "if I could but see my beloved country once again!"
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 Oo-oh and the Galu shore."
"And what is beyond the city, if we could leave it?" pursued Bradley.
"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 point about one march."
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 jaal-lu," 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 Fosh-bal-soj discovered first above the
Band-lu country and followed back toward the beginning. He Who Speaks
for Luata sent Fosh-bal-soj to fetch him one of the creatures, and here
it is. It is hoped that it may be from another world and hold the
secret of the cos-ata-lus."
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