Chapter 3
Half-stunned, Bradley lay for a minute as he had fallen and then slowlyand painfully wriggled into a less uncomfortable position. He couldsee nothing of his surroundings in the gloom about him until after afew minutes his eyes became accustomed to the dark interior when herolled them from side to side in survey of his prison.
He discovered himself to be in a bare room which was windowless, norcould he see any other opening than that through which he had beenlowered. In one corner was a huddled mass that might have been almostanything from a bundle of rags to a dead body.
Almost immediately after he had taken his bearings Bradley commencedworking with his bonds. He was a man of powerful physique, and as fromthe first he had been imbued with a belief that the fiber ropes weretoo weak to hold him, he worked on with a firm conviction that sooneror later they would part to his strainings. After a matter of fiveminutes he was positive that the strands about his wrists werebeginning to give; but he was compelled to rest then from exhaustion.
As he lay, his eyes rested upon the bundle in the corner, and presentlyhe could have sworn that the thing moved. With eyes straining throughthe gloom the man lay watching the grim and sinister thing in thecorner. Perhaps his overwrought nerves were playing a sorry joke uponhim. He thought of this and also that his condition of utterhelplessness might still further have stimulated his imagination. Heclosed his eyes and sought to relax his muscles and his nerves; butwhen he looked again, he knew that he had not been mistaken--the thinghad moved; now it lay in a slightly altered form and farther from thewall. It was nearer him.
With renewed strength Bradley strained at his bonds, his fascinatedgaze still glued upon the shapeless bundle. No longer was there anydoubt that it moved--he saw it rise in the center several inches andthen creep closer to him. It sank and arose again--a headless,hideous, monstrous thing of menace. Its very silence rendered it themore terrible.
Bradley was a brave man; ordinarily his nerves were of steel; but to beat the mercy of some unknown and nameless horror, to be unable todefend himself--it was these things that almost unstrung him, for atbest he was only human. To stand in the open, even with the odds allagainst him; to be able to use his fists, to put up some sort ofdefense, to inflict punishment upon his adversary--then he could facedeath with a smile. It was not death that he feared now--it was thathorror of the unknown that is part of the fiber of every son of woman.
Closer and closer came the shapeless mass. Bradley lay motionless andlistened. What was that he heard! Breathing? He could not bemistaken--and then from out of the bundle of rags issued a hollowgroan. Bradley felt his hair rise upon his head. He struggled withthe slowly parting strands that held him. The thing beside him rose uphigher than before and the Englishman could have sworn that he saw asingle eye peering at him from among the tumbled cloth. For a momentthe bundle remained motionless--only the sound of breathing issued fromit, then there broke from it a maniacal laugh.
Cold sweat stood upon Bradley's brow as he tugged for liberation. Hesaw the rags rise higher and higher above him until at last theytumbled upon the floor from the body of a naked man--a thin, a bony, ahideous caricature of man, that mouthed and mummed and, wabbling uponits weak and shaking legs, crumpled to the floor again, stilllaughing--laughing horribly.
It crawled toward Bradley. "Food! Food!" it screamed. "There is away out! There is a way out!"
Dragging itself to his side the creature slumped upon the Englishman'sbreast. "Food!" it shrilled as with its bony fingers and its teeth, itsought the man's bare throat.
"Food! There is a way out!" Bradley felt teeth upon his jugular. Heturned and twisted, shaking himself free for an instant; but once morewith hideous persistence the thing fastened itself upon him. The weakjaws were unable to send the dull teeth through the victim's flesh; butBradley felt it pawing, pawing, pawing, like a monstrous rat, seekinghis life's blood.
The skinny arms now embraced his neck, holding the teeth to his throatagainst all his efforts to dislodge the thing. Weak as it was it hadstrength enough for this in its mad efforts to eat. Mumbling as itworked, it repeated again and again, "Food! Food! There is a wayout!" until Bradley thought those two expressions alone would drive himmad.
And all but mad he was as with a final effort backed by almost maniacalstrength he tore his wrists from the confining bonds and grasping therepulsive thing upon his breast hurled it halfway across the room.Panting like a spent hound Bradley worked at the thongs about hisankles while the maniac lay quivering and mumbling where it had fallen.Presently the Englishman leaped to his feet--freer than he had everbefore felt in all his life, though he was still hopelessly a prisonerin the Blue Place of Seven Skulls.
With his back against the wall for support, so weak the reaction lefthim, Bradley stood watching the creature upon the floor. He saw itmove and slowly raise itself to its hands and knees, where it swayed toand fro as its eyes roved about in search of him; and when at last theyfound him, there broke from the drawn lips the mumbled words: "Food!Food! There is a way out!" The pitiful supplication in the tonestouched 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 ofsolitary confinement with this hideous result that might in time be hisfate, also.
And then, too, there was the suggestion of hope held out by theconstant reiteration of the phrase, "There is a way out." Was there away out? What did this poor thing know?
"Who are you and how long have you been here?" Bradley suddenlydemanded.
For a moment the man upon the floor made no response, then mumblinglycame the words: "Food! Food!"
"Stop!" commanded the Englishman--the injunction might have been barkedfrom 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 appearedto be startled into an attempt to master his faculties of concentrationand thought.
Bradley repeated his questions sharply.
"I am An-Tak, the Galu," replied the man. "Luata alone knows how longI have been here--maybe ten moons, maybe ten moons three times"--it wasthe Caspakian equivalent of thirty. "I was young and strong when theybrought me here. Now I am old and very weak. I am cos-ata-lu--that iswhy they have not killed me. If I tell them the secret of becomingcos-ata-lu they will take me out; but how can I tell them that whichLuata alone knows?
"What is cos-ata-lu?" demanded Bradley.
"Food! Food! There is a way out!" mumbled the Galu.
Bradley strode across the floor, seized the man by his shoulders andshook him.
"Tell me," he cried, "what is cos-ata-lu?"
"Food!" whimpered An-Tak.
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 asmall quantity of dried meat. He tossed a small strip of the latter tothe starving Galu. An-Tak seized upon it and devoured it ravenously.It instilled new life in the man.
"What is cos-ata-lu?" insisted Bradley again.
An-Tak tried to explain. His narrative was often broken by lapses ofconcentration during which he reverted to his plaintive mumbling forfood and recurrence to the statement that there was a way out; but byfirmness and patience the Englishman drew out piece-meal a more or lesslucid exposition of the remarkable scheme of evolution that rules inCaspak. In it he found explanations of the hitherto inexplicable. Hediscovered why he had seen no babes or children among the Caspakiantribes with which he had come in contact; why each more northerly tribeevinced a higher state of development than those south of them; whyeach tribe included individuals ranging in physical and mentalcharacteristics from the highest of the next lower race to the lowestof the next higher, and why the women of each tribe immersed themselveseach morning for an hour or more in the warm pools near which thehabitations of their people always were located; and, too, hediscovered why those pools were almost immune from the attacks ofcarnivorous animals and rep
tiles.
He learned that all but those who were cos-ata-lu came up cor-sva-jo,or from the beginning. The egg from which they first developed intotadpole form was deposited, with millions of others, in one of the warmpools and with it a poisonous serum that the carnivora instinctivelyshunned. Down the warm stream from the pool floated the countlessbillions of eggs and tadpoles, developing as they drifted slowly towardthe sea. Some became tadpoles in the pool, some in the sluggish streamand some not until they reached the great inland sea. In the nextstage they became fishes or reptiles, An-Tak 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 intoamphibians. Always there were those whose development stopped at thefirst stage, others whose development ceased when they became reptiles,while by far the greater proportion formed the food supply of theravenous creatures of the deep.
Few indeed were those that eventually developed into baboons and thenapes, which was considered by Caspakians the real beginning ofevolution. From the egg, then, the individual developed slowly into ahigher form, just as the frog's egg develops through various stagesfrom a fish with gills to a frog with lungs. With that thought in mindBradley discovered that it was not difficult to believe in thepossibility of such a scheme--there was nothing new in it.
From the ape the individual, if it survived, slowly developed into thelowest order of man--the Alu--and then by degrees to Bo-lu, Sto-lu,Band-lu, Kro-lu and finally Galu. And in each stage countless millionsof other eggs were deposited in the warm pools of the various races andfloated down to the great sea to go through a similar process ofevolution outside the womb as develops our own young within; but inCaspak the scheme is much more inclusive, for it combines not onlyindividual development but the evolution of species and genera. If anegg survives it goes through all the stages of development that man haspassed through during the unthinkable eons since life first moved uponthe earth's face.
The final stage--that which the Galus have almost attained and forwhich all hope--is cos-ata-lu, which literally, means no-egg-man, orone who is born directly as are the young of the outer world ofmammals. Some of the Galus produce cos-ata-lu and cos-ata-lo both; theWieroos only cos-ata-lu--in other words all Wieroos are born male, andso they prey upon the Galus for their women and sometimes capture andtorture the Galu men who are cos-ata-lu in an endeavor to learn thesecret which they believe will give them unlimited power over all otherdenizens of Caspak.
No Wieroos come up from the beginning--all are born of the Wieroofathers and Galu mothers who are cos-ata-lo, and there are very few ofthe latter owing to the long and precarious stages of development.Seven generations of the same ancestor must come up from the beginningbefore a cos-ata-lu child may be born; and when one considers thefrightful dangers that surround the vital spark from the moment itleaves the warm pool where it has been deposited to float down to thesea amid the voracious creatures that swarm the surface and the deepsand the almost equally unthinkable trials of its effort to surviveafter it once becomes a land animal and starts northward through thehorrors of the Caspakian jungles and forests, it is plainly a wonderthat even a single babe has ever been born to a Galu woman.
Seven cycles it requires before the seventh Galu can complete theseventh danger-infested circle since its first Galu ancestor achievedthe state of Galu. For ages before, the ancestors of this first Galumay have developed from a Band-lu or Bo-lu egg without ever oncecompleting the whole circle--that is from a Galu egg, back to a fullydeveloped Galu.
Bradley's head was whirling before he even commenced to grasp thecomplexities of Caspakian evolution; but as the truth slowly filteredinto his understanding--as gradually it became possible for him tovisualize the scheme, it appeared simpler. In fact, it seemed evenless difficult of comprehension than that with which he was familiar.
For several minutes after An-Tak ceased speaking, his voice havingtrailed off weakly into silence, neither spoke again. Then the Galurecommenced his, "Food! Food! There is a way out!" Bradley tossed himanother bit of dried meat, waiting patiently until he had eaten it,this time more slowly.
"What do you mean by saying there is a way out?" he asked.
"He who died here just after I came, told me," replied An-Tak. "Hesaid there was a way out, that he had discovered it but was too weak touse his knowledge. He was trying to tell me how to find it when hedied. Oh, Luata, if he had lived but a moment more!"
"They do not feed you here?" asked Bradley.
"No, they give me water once a day--that is all."
"But how have you lived, then?"
"The lizards and the rats," replied An-Tak. "The lizards are not sobad; but the rats are foul to taste. However, I must eat them or theywould eat me, and they are better than nothing; but of late they do notcome so often, and I have not had a lizard for a long time. I shalleat though," he mumbled. "I shall eat now, for you cannot remain awakeforever." He laughed, a cackling, dry laugh. "When you sleep, An-Takwill eat."
It was horrible. Bradley shuddered. For a long time each sat insilence. The Englishman could guess why the other made no sound--heawaited the moment that sleep should overcome his victim. In the longsilence there was born upon Bradley's ears a faint, monotonous sound asof running water. He listened intently. It seemed to come from farbeneath the floor.
"What is that noise?" he asked. "That sounds like water runningthrough a narrow channel."
"It is the river," replied An-Tak. "Why do you not go to sleep? Itpasses directly beneath the Blue Place of Seven Skulls. It runsthrough the temple grounds, beneath the temple and under the city.When we die, they will cut off our heads and throw our bodies into theriver. At the mouth of the river await many large reptiles. Thus dothey feed. The Wieroos do likewise with their own dead, keeping onlythe skulls and the wings. Come, let us sleep."
"Do the reptiles come up the river into the city?" asked Bradley.
"The water is too cold--they never leave the warm water of the greatpool," replied An-Tak.
"Let us search for the way out," suggested Bradley.
An-Tak shook his head. "I have searched for it all these moons," hesaid. "If I could not find it, how would you?"
Bradley made no reply but commenced a diligent examination of the wallsand floor of the room, pressing over each square foot and tapping withhis knuckles. About six feet from the floor he discovered asleeping-perch near one end of the apartment. He asked An-Tak aboutit, but the Galu said that no Weiroo had occupied the place since hehad been incarcerated there. Again and again Bradley went over thefloor and walls as high up as he could reach. Finally he swung himselfto the perch, that he might examine at least one end of the room allthe way to the ceiling.
In the center of the wall close to the top, an area about three feetsquare gave forth a hollow sound when he rapped upon it. Bradley feltover every square inch of that area with the tips of his fingers. Nearthe top he found a small round hole a trifle larger in diameter thanhis forefinger, which he immediately stuck into it. The panel, if suchit was, seemed about an inch thick, and beyond it his fingerencountered nothing. Bradley crooked his finger upon the opposite sideof the panel and pulled toward him, steadily but with considerableforce. Suddenly the panel flew inward, nearly precipitating the man tothe floor. It was hinged at the bottom, and when lowered the outeredge rested upon the perch, making a little platform parallel with thefloor of the room.
Beyond the opening was an utterly dark void. The Englishman leanedthrough it and reached his arm as far as possible into the blacknessbut touched nothing. Then he fumbled in his haversack for a match, afew of which remained to him. When he struck it, An-Tak gave a cry ofterror. Bradley held the light far into the opening before him and inits flickering rays saw the top of a ladder descending into a blackabyss below. How far down it extended he could not guess; but that heshould soon know definitely he was positive.
"You have found it! You have found the way out!
" screamed An-Tak."Oh, Luata! And now I am too weak to go. Take me with you! Take mewith you!"
"Shut up!" admonished Bradley. "You will have the whole flock of birdsaround 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 promise not to try to eat me up again."
"I promise," cried An-Tak. "Oh, Luata! How could you blame me? I amhalf crazed of hunger and long confinement and the horror of thelizards and the rats and the constant waiting for death."
"I know," said Bradley simply. "I'm sorry for you, old top. Keep astiff upper lip." And he slipped through the opening, found the ladderwith his feet, closed the panel behind him, and started downward intothe 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 surroundingsand felt nothing but the smooth, worn sides and rungs of the ladderdown which he felt his way cautiously lest a broken rung or a misstepshould hurl him downward.
As he descended thus slowly, the ladder seemed interminable and the pitbottomless, yet he realized when at last he reached the bottom that hecould not have descended more than fifty feet. The bottom of theladder rested on a narrow ledge paved with what felt like large roundstones, but what he knew from experience to be human skulls. He couldnot but marvel as to where so many countless thousands of the thingshad come from, until he paused to consider that the infancy of Caspakdated doubtlessly back into remote ages, far beyond what the outerworld considered the beginning of earthly time. For all these eons theWieroos might have been collecting human skulls from their enemies andtheir own dead--enough to have built an entire city of them.
Feeling his way along the narrow ledge, Bradley came presently to ablank wall that stretched out over the water swirling beneath him, asfar as he could reach. Stooping, he groped about with one hand,reaching down toward the surface of the water, and discovered that thebottom of the wall arched above the stream. How much space there wasbetween the water and the arch he could not tell, nor how deep theformer. 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 hehesitated weighing his chances. Behind him lay almost certainly thehorrid fate of An-Tak; before him nothing worse than a comparativelypainless death by drowning. Holding his haversack above his head withone hand he lowered his feet slowly over the edge of the narrowplatform. Almost immediately he felt the swirling of cold water abouthis ankles, and then with a silent prayer he let himself drop gentlyinto the stream.
Great was Bradley's relief when he found the water no more than waistdeep and beneath his feet a firm, gravel bottom. Feeling his waycautiously he moved downward with the current, which was not so strongas he had imagined from the noise of the running water.
Beneath the first arch he made his way, following the windingcurvatures of the right-hand wall. After a few yards of progress hishand came suddenly in contact with a slimy thing clinging to thewall--a thing that hissed and scuttled out of reach. What it was, theman could not know; but almost instantly there was a splash in thewater just ahead of him and then another.
On he went, passing beneath other arches at varying distances, andalways in utter darkness. Unseen denizens of this great sewer,disturbed by the intruder, splashed into the water ahead of him andwriggled away. Time and again his hand touched them and never for aninstant could he be sure that at the next step some gruesome thingmight not attack him. He had strapped his haversack about his neck,well above the surface of the water, and in his left hand he carriedhis knife. Other precautions there were none to take.
The monotony of the blind trail was increased by the fact that from themoment he had started from the foot of the ladder he had counted hisevery step. He had promised to return for An-Tak if it proved humanlypossible to do so, and he knew that in the blackness of the tunnel hecould locate the foot of the ladder in no other way.
He had taken two hundred and sixty-nine steps--afterward he knew thathe should never forget that number--when something bumped gentlyagainst him from behind. Instantly he wheeled about and with knifeready to defend himself stretched forth his right hand to push away theobject that now had lodged against his body. His fingers feelingthrough the darkness came in contact with something cold andclammy--they passed to and fro over the thing until Bradley knew thatit was the face of a dead man floating upon the surface of the stream.With an oath he pushed his gruesome companion out into mid-stream tofloat on down toward the great pool and the awaiting scavengers of thedeep.
At his four hundred and thirteenth step another corpse bumped againsthim--how many had passed him without touching he could not guess; butsuddenly he experienced the sensation of being surrounded by dead facesfloating along with him, all set in hideous grimaces, their dead eyesglaring at this profaning alien who dared intrude upon the waters ofthis river of the dead--a horrid escort, pregnant with dire forebodingsand with menace.
Though he advanced very slowly, he tried always to take steps of aboutthe same length; so that he knew that though considerable time hadelapsed, yet he had really advanced no more than four hundred yardswhen ahead he saw a lessening of the pitch-darkness, and at the nextturn of the stream his surroundings became vaguely discernible. Abovehim was an arched roof and on either hand walls pierced at intervals byapertures covered with wooden doors. Just ahead of him in the roof ofthe aqueduct was a round, black hole about thirty inches in diameter.His eyes still rested upon the opening when there shot downward from itto the water below the naked body of a human being which almostimmediately 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 thewings and head had been removed. A moment later another headless bodyfloated past, recalling what An-Tak had told him of theskull-collecting customs of the Wieroo. Bradley wondered how ithappened that the first corpse he had encountered in the stream had notbeen similarly mutilated.
The farther he advanced now, the lighter it became. The number ofcorpses was much smaller than he had imagined, only two more passinghim before, at six hundred steps, or about five hundred yards, from thepoint he had taken to the stream, he came to the end of the tunnel andlooked out upon sunlit water, running between grassy banks.
One of the last corpses to pass him was still clothed in the white robeof a Wieroo, blood-stained over the headless neck that it concealed.
Drawing closer to the opening leading into the bright daylight, Bradleysurveyed what lay beyond. A short distance before him a large buildingstood in the center of several acres of grass and tree-covered ground,spanning the stream which disappeared through an opening in itsfoundation wall. From the large saucer-shaped roof and the vividcolorings of the various heterogeneous parts of the structure herecognized it as the temple past which he had been borne to the BluePlace of Seven Skulls.
To and fro flew Wieroos, going to and from the temple. Others passedon foot across the open grounds, assisting themselves with their greatwings, so that they barely skimmed the earth. To leave the mouth ofthe tunnel would have been to court instant discovery and capture; butby what other avenue he might escape, Bradley could not guess, unlesshe retraced his steps up the stream and sought egress from the otherend of the city. The thought of traversing that dark and horror-riddentunnel for perhaps miles he could not entertain--there must be someother way. Perhaps after dark he could steal through the templegrounds and continue on downstream until he had come beyond the city;and so he stood and waited until his limbs became almost paralyzed withcold, and he knew that he must find some other plan for escape.
A half-formed decision to risk an attempt to swim under water to thetemple was crystallizing in spite of the fact that any chance Wierooflying above the stream might easily see him, when again a floatingobject bumped against him from behind and lodged across his back.Turning quickly he saw that the thing was what he had immediatelyguessed it to be--a headless and wingl
ess Wieroo corpse. With a gruntof disgust he was about to push it from him when the white garmentenshrouding it suggested a bold plan to his resourceful brain.Grasping the corpse by an arm he tore the garment from it and then letthe body float downward toward the temple. With great care he drapedthe robe about him; the bloody blotch that had covered the severed neckhe arranged about his own head. His haversack he rolled as tightly aspossible and stuffed beneath his coat over his breast. Then he fellgently to the surface of the stream and lying upon his back floateddownward with the current and out into the open sunlight.
Through the weave of the cloth he could distinguish large objects. Hesaw a Wieroo flap dismally above him; he saw the banks of the streamfloat slowly past; he heard a sudden wail upon the right-hand shore,and his heart stood still lest his ruse had been discovered; but neverby a move of a muscle did he betray that aught but a cold lump of clayfloated there upon the bosom of the water, and soon, though it seemedan eternity to him, the direct sunlight was blotted out, and he knewthat 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 wereblank walls and before him the river turned a sharp corner anddisappeared. Feeling his way cautiously forward he approached the turnand looked around the corner. To his left was a low platform about afoot above the level of the stream, and onto this he lost no time inclimbing, for he was soaked from head to foot, cold and almostexhausted.
As he lay resting on the skull-paved shelf, he saw in the center of thevault above the river another of those sinister round holes throughwhich he momentarily expected to see a headless corpse shoot downwardin its last plunge to a watery grave. A few feet along the platform aclosed door broke the blankness of the wall. As he lay looking at itand wondering what lay behind, his mind filled with fragments of manywild schemes of escape, it opened and a white robed Wieroo stepped outupon the platform. The creature carried a large wooden basin filledwith rubbish. Its eyes were not upon Bradley, who drew himself to asquatting position and crouched as far back in the corner of the nichein which the platform was set as he could force himself. The Wieroostepped to the edge of the platform and dumped the rubbish into thestream. If it turned away from him as it started to retrace its stepsto the doorway, there was a small chance that it might not see him; butif it turned toward him there was none at all. Bradley held his breath.
The Wieroo paused a moment, gazing down into the water, then itstraightened up and turned toward the Englishman. Bradley did notmove. The Wieroo stopped and stared intently at him. It approachedhim questioningly. Still Bradley remained as though carved of stone.The creature was directly in front of him. It stopped. There was nochance on earth that it would not discover what he was.
With the quickness of a cat, Bradley sprang to his feet and with allhis great strength, backed by his heavy weight, struck the Wieroo uponthe point of the chin. Without a sound the thing crumpled to theplatform, while Bradley, acting almost instinctively to the urge of thefirst law of nature, rolled the inanimate body over the edge into theriver.
Then he looked at the open doorway, crossed the platform and peeredwithin the apartment beyond. What he saw was a large room, dimlylighted, and about the side rows of wooden vessels stacked one uponanother. There was no Wieroo in sight, so the Englishman entered. Atthe 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 withdried fruits, vegetables and fish. Without more ado he stuffed hispockets and his haversack full, thinking of the poor creature awaitinghis return in the gloom of the Place of Seven Skulls.
When night came, he would return and fetch An-Tak this far at least;but in the meantime it was his intention to reconnoiter in the hopethat he might discover some easier way out of the city than thatoffered by the chill, black channel of the ghastly river of corpses.
Beyond the farther door stretched a long passageway from which closeddoorways led into other parts of the cellars of the temple. A fewyards from the storeroom a ladder rose from the corridor through anaperture in the ceiling. Bradley paused at the foot of it, debatingthe wisdom of further investigation against a return to the river; butstrong within him was the spirit of exploration that has scattered hisrace to the four corners of the earth. What new mysteries lay hiddenin the chambers above? The urge to know was strong upon him though hisbetter judgment warned him that the safer course lay in retreat. For amoment he stood thus, running his fingers through his hair; then hecast 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 anglefrom the perpendicular. At more or less regular stages it was piercedby apertures closed by doors, none of which he could open until he hadclimbed fully fifty feet from the river level. Here he discovered adoor already ajar opening into a large, circular chamber, the walls andfloors of which were covered with the skins of wild beasts and withrugs of many colors; but what interested him most was the occupants ofthe room--a Wieroo, and a girl of human proportions. She was standingwith her back against a column which rose from the center of theapartment from floor to ceiling--a hollow column about forty inches indiameter in which he could see an opening some thirty inches across.The girl's side was toward Bradley, and her face averted, for she waswatching the Wieroo, who was now advancing slowly toward her, talkingas he came.
Bradley could distinctly hear the words of the creature, who was urgingthe girl to accompany him to another Wieroo city. "Come with me," hesaid, "and you shall have your life; remain here and He Who Speaks forLuata will claim you for his own; and when he is done with you, yourskull will bleach at the top of a tall staff while your body feeds thereptiles at the mouth of the River of Death. Even though you bringinto the world a female Wieroo, your fate will be the same if you donot escape him, while with me you shall have life and food and noneshall harm you."
He was quite close to the girl when she replied by striking him in theface with all her strength. "Until I am slain," she cried, "I shallfight against you all." From the throat of the Wieroo issued thatdismal wail that Bradley had heard so often in the past--it was like ascream of pain smothered to a groan--and then the thing leaped upon thegirl, its face working in hideous grimaces as it clawed and beat at herto force her to the floor.
The Englishman was upon the point of entering to defend her when a doorat the opposite side of the chamber opened to admit a huge Wierooclothed entirely in red. At sight of the two struggling upon the floorthe newcomer raised his voice in a shriek of rage. Instantly theWieroo who was attacking the girl leaped to his feet and faced theother.
"I heard," screamed he who had just entered the room. "I heard, andwhen He Who Speaks for young, reproduction and kindred subjects shall have heard--" He paused and made asuggestive movement of a finger across his throat.
"He shall not hear," returned the first Wieroo as, with a powerfulmotion of his great wings, he launched himself upon the red-robedfigure. The latter dodged the first charge, drew a wicked-lookingcurved blade from beneath its red robe, spread its wings and dived forits antagonist. Beating their wings, wailing and groaning, the twohideous things sparred for position. The white-robed one being unarmedsought to grasp the other by the wrist of its knife-hand and by thethroat, while the latter hopped around on its dainty white feet,seeking an opening for a mortal blow. Once it struck and missed, andthen the other rushed in and clinched, at the same time securing boththe holds it sought. Immediately the two commenced beating at eachother'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 wayof the duelists, and as she did so, Bradley caught a glimpse of herfull face and immediately recognized her as the girl of the place ofthe yellow door. He did not dare intervene now until one of the Wieroohad
overcome the other, lest the two should turn upon him at once, whenthe chances were fair that he would be defeated in so unequal a battleas the curved blade of the red Wieroo would render it, and so hewaited, watching the white-robed figure slowly choking the life fromhim of the red robe. The protruding tongue and the popping eyesproclaimed that the end was near and a moment later the red robe sankto the floor of the room, the curved blade slipping from nervelessfingers. For an instant longer the victor clung to the throat of hisdefeated antagonist and then he rose, dragging the body after him, andapproached the central column. Here he raised the body and thrust itinto the aperture where Bradley saw it drop suddenly from sight.Instantly there flashed into his memory the circular openings in theroof of the river vault and the corpses he had seen drop from them tothe water beneath.
As the body disappeared, the Wieroo turned and cast about the room forthe 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 wingssevered while still I live and my head will be severed and I shall becast into the River of Death, for thus it happens even to the highestwho slay one of the red robe. You saw, and you must die!" he endedwith 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 pickedup the curved blade. The creature's back was toward him as, with hisleft hand, he seized it by the neck. Like a flash the great wings beatbackward as the creature turned, and Bradley was swept from his feet,though he still retained his hold upon the blade. Instantly the Wieroowas upon him. Bradley lay slightly raised upon his left elbow, hisright arm free, and as the thing came close, he cut at the hideous facewith all the strength that lay within him. The blade struck at thejunction of the neck and torso and with such force as to completelydecapitate the Wieroo, the hideous head dropping to the floor and thebody falling forward upon the Englishman. Pushing it from him he roseto 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 getout 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 ofSeven Skulls," replied Bradley. "Can't be done. I did it.--Here!You're mussing up the floor something awful, you." This last to thedead 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. Thenhe picked up the head and tossed it after the body. "Don't be soglum," 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 upabout 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 youdon'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 wasdead?"
Bradley laughed aloud. "I thought we English were supposed to have theleast sense of humor of any people in the world," he cried; "but nowI've found one human being who hasn't any. Of course you don't knowhalf I'm saying; but don't worry, little girl; I'm not going to hurtyou, 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 somethingin his smiling countenance--something which reassured her. "I do notfear you," she said; "though I do not understand all that you say eventhough you speak my own tongue and use words that I know. But as forescaping"--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 hadascended from the river. "We cannot waste time here."
The girl followed him; but at the doorway both drew back, for frombelow came the sound of some one ascending.
Bradley tiptoed to the door and peered cautiously into the well; thenhe stepped back beside the girl. "There are half a dozen of themcoming up; but possibly they will pass this room."
"No," she said, "they will pass directly through this room--they are ontheir way to Him Who Speaks for Luata. We may be able to hide in thenext room--there are skins there beneath which we may crawl. They willnot stop in that room; but they may stop in this one for a shorttime--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 beendone you will find blue--a certain amount for each murder. When theroom is all blue, they shun it. This room has much blue; but evidentlythey kill mostly in the next room, which is now all blue."
"But there is blue on the outside of every house I have seen," saidBradley.
"Yes," assented the girl, "and there are blue rooms in each of thosehouses--when all the rooms are blue then the whole outside of the housewill be blue as is the Blue Place of Seven Skulls. There are many suchhere."
"And the skulls with blue upon them?" inquired Bradley. "Did theybelong to murderers?"
"They were murdered--some of them; those with only a small amount ofblue were murderers--known murderers. All Wieroos are murderers. Whenthey have committed a certain number of murders without being caught atit, they confess to Him Who Speaks for Luata and are advanced, afterwhich they wear robes with a slash of some color--I think yellow comesfirst. 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 acomplete red robe, he carries such a long, curved knife as you have inyour hand; after that comes the blue slash on a white robe, and then, Isuppose, 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 deathshaft into an all blue room adjoining, where they sat down together ina corner with their backs against a wall and drew a pile of hides overthemselves. A moment later they heard a number of Wieroos enter thechamber. They were talking together as they crossed the floor, or thetwo could not have heard them. Halfway across the chamber they haltedas the door toward which they were advancing opened and a dozen othersof their kind entered the apartment.
Bradley could guess all this by the increased volume of sound and thedismal greetings; but the sudden silence that almost immediately ensuedhe could not fathom, for he could not know that from beneath one of thehides that covered him protruded one of his heavy army shoes, or thatsome eighteen large Wieroos with robes either solid red or slashed withred or blue were standing gazing at it. Nor could he hear theirstealthy approach.
The first intimation he had that he had been discovered was when hisfoot was suddenly seized, and he was yanked violently from beneath thehides to find himself surrounded by menacing blades. They would haveslain 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 strangecreature.
As they led Bradley away, he caught an opportunity to glance backtoward the hides to see what had become of the girl, and, to hisgratification, he discovered that she still lay concealed beneath thehides. He wondered if she would have the nerve to attempt the rivertrip alone and regretted that now he could not accompany her. He feltrather all in, himself, more so than he had at any time since he hadbeen captured by the Wieroo, for there appeared not the slightest causefor hope in his present predicament. He had dropped the curved bladebeneath the hides when he had been jerked so violently from theirfancied security. It was almost in a spirit of resigned hopelessnessthat he quietly accompanied his captors through various chambers andcorridors toward the heart of the temple.