The People the Time forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs (best free ereader .TXT) 📖

best she
could that this was the form of the Caspakian oath of allegiance.
"You need never fear him after this," she concluded.

"What should I do?" I asked.

"Take his hands down from before his eyes and return his spear to
him," she explained.

I did as she bade, and the man seemed very pleased. I then asked
what I should have done had I not wished to accept his friendship.
They told me that had I walked away, the moment that I was out
of sight of the warrior we would have become deadly enemies again.
"But I could so easily have killed him as he stood there defenseless!"
I exclaimed.

"Yes," replied the warrior, "but no man with good sense blinds his
eyes before one whom he does not trust."

It was rather a decent compliment, and it taught me just how much
I might rely on the loyalty of my new friend. I was glad to have
him with us, for he knew the country and was evidently a fearless
warrior. I wished that I might have recruited a battalion like
him.

As the women were now approaching the cliffs, To-mar the warrior
suggested that we make our way to the valley before they could
intercept us, as they might attempt to detain us and were almost
certain to set upon Ajor. So we hastened down the narrow path,
reaching the foot of the cliffs but a short distance ahead of the
women. They called after us to stop; but we kept on at a rapid
walk, not wishing to have any trouble with them, which could only
result in the death of some of them.

We had proceeded about a mile when we heard some one behind us
calling To-mar by name, and when we stopped and looked around, we
saw a woman running rapidly toward us. As she approached nearer
I could see that she was a very comely creature, and like all her
sex that I had seen in Caspak, apparently young.

"It is So-al!" exclaimed To-mar. "Is she mad that she follows me
thus?"

In another moment the young woman stopped, panting, before us.
She paid not the slightest attention to Ajor or me; but devouring
To-mar with her sparkling eyes, she cried: "I have risen! I have
risen!"

"So-al!" was all that the man could say.

"Yes," she went on, "the call came to me just before I quit the
pool; but I did not know that it had come to you. I can see it in
your eyes, To-mar, my To-mar! We shall go on together!" And she
threw herself into his arms.

It was a very affecting sight, for it was evident that these two
had been mates for a long time and that they had each thought that
they were about to be separated by that strange law of evolution
which holds good in Caspak and which was slowly unfolding before
my incredulous mind. I did not then comprehend even a tithe of
the wondrous process, which goes on eternally within the confines
of Caprona's barrier cliffs nor am I any too sure that I do even
now.

To-mar explained to So-al that it was I who had killed the cave-lion
and saved her life, and that Ajor was my woman and thus entitled
to the same loyalty which was my due.

At first Ajor and So-al were like a couple of stranger cats on a
back fence but soon they began to accept each other under something
of an armed truce, and later became fast friends. So-al was a
mighty fine-looking girl, built like a tigress as to strength and
sinuosity, but withal sweet and womanly. Ajor and I came to be
very fond of her, and she was, I think, equally fond of us. To-mar
was very much of a man--a savage, if you will, but none the less
a man.

Finding that traveling in company with To-mar made our journey
both easier and safer, Ajor and I did not continue on our way alone
while the novitiates delayed their approach to the Kro-lu country
in order that they might properly fit themselves in the matter
of arms and apparel, but remained with them. Thus we became well
acquainted--to such an extent that we looked forward with regret
to the day when they took their places among their new comrades
and we should be forced to continue upon our way alone. It was a
matter of much concern to To-mar that the Kro-lu would undoubtedly
not receive Ajor and me in a friendly manner, and that consequently
we should have to avoid these people.

It would have been very helpful to us could we have made friends
with them, as their country abutted directly upon that of the
Galus. Their friendship would have meant that Ajor's dangers were
practically passed, and that I had accomplished fully one-half of
my long journey. In view of what I had passed through, I often
wondered what chance I had to complete that journey in search of
my friends. The further south I should travel on the west side of
the island, the more frightful would the dangers become as I neared
the stamping-grounds of the more hideous reptilia and the haunts
of the Alus and the Ho-lu, all of which were at the southern half
of the island; and then if I should not find the members of my
party, what was to become of me? I could not live for long in any
portion of Caspak with which I was familiar; the moment my ammunition
was exhausted, I should be as good as dead.

There was a chance that the Galus would receive me; but even Ajor
could not say definitely whether they would or not, and even provided
that they would, could I retrace my steps from _the beginning_, after
failing to find my own people, and return to the far northern land
of Galus? I doubted it. However, I was learning from Ajor, who
was more or less of a fatalist, a philosophy which was as necessary
in Caspak to peace of mind as is faith to the devout Christian of
the outer world.


Chapter 5


We were sitting before a little fire inside a safe grotto one
night shortly after we had quit the cliff-dwellings of the Band-lu,
when So-al raised a question which it had never occurred to me to
propound to Ajor. She asked her why she had left her own people
and how she had come so far south as the country of the Alus, where
I had found her.

At first Ajor hesitated to explain; but at last she consented,
and for the first time I heard the complete story of her origin
and experiences. For my benefit she entered into greater detail
of explanation than would have been necessary had I been a native
Caspakian.

"I am a _cos-ata-lo_," commenced Ajor, and then she turned toward
me. "A _cos-ata-lo_, my Tom, is a woman" (_lo_) "who did not come from
an egg and thus on up _from the beginning_." (_cor sva jo_.) "I was
a babe at my mother's breast. Only among the Galus are such, and
then but infrequently. The Wieroo get most of us; but my mother
hid me until I had attained such size that the Wieroo could not
readily distinguish me from one who had come up from the beginning.
I knew both my mother and my father, as only such as I may. My
father is high chief among the Galus. His name is Jor, and both he
and my mother came up from the beginning; but one of them, probably
my mother, had completed the seven cycles" (approximately seven
hundred years), "with the result that their offspring might be
_cos-ata-lo_, or born as are all the children of your race, my Tom,
as you tell me is the fact. I was therefore apart from my fellows
in that my children would probably be as I, of a higher state of
evolution, and so I was sought by the men of my people; but none
of them appealed to me. I cared for none. The most persistent
was Du-seen, a huge warrior of whom my father stood in considerable
fear, since it was quite possible that Du-seen could wrest from
him his chieftainship of the Galus. He has a large following of
the newer Galus, those most recently come up from the Kro-lu, and
as this class is usually much more powerful numerically than the
older Galus, and as Du-seen's ambition knows no bounds, we have
for a long time been expecting him to find some excuse for a break
with Jor the High Chief, my father.

"A further complication lay in the fact that Du-seen wanted me, while
I would have none of him, and then came evidence to my father's
ears that he was in league with the Wieroo; a hunter, returning
late at night, came trembling to my father, saying that he had
seen Du-seen talking with a Wieroo in a lonely spot far from the
village, and that plainly he had heard the words: 'If you will help
me, I will help you--I will deliver into your hands all _cos-ata-lo_
among the Galus, now and hereafter; but for that service you must
slay Jor the High Chief and bring terror and confusion to his
followers.'

"Now, when my father heard this, he was angry; but he was also
afraid--afraid for me, who am _cos-ata-lo_. He called me to him and
told me what he had heard, pointing out two ways in which we might
frustrate Du-seen. The first was that I go to Du-seen as his mate,
after which he would be loath to give me into the hands of the
Wieroo or to further abide by the wicked compact he had made--a
compact which would doom his own offspring, who would doubtless be
as am I, their mother. The alternative was flight until Du-seen
should have been overcome and punished. I chose the latter and
fled toward the south. Beyond the confines of the Galu country is
little danger from the Wieroo, who seek ordinarily only Galus of
the highest orders. There are two excellent reasons for this: One
is that from the beginning of time jealousy had existed between
the Wieroo and the Galus as to which would eventually dominate
the world. It seems generally conceded that that race which first
reaches a point of evolution which permits them to produce young
of their own species and of both sexes must dominate all other
creatures. The Wieroo first began to produce their own kind--after
which evolution from Galu to Wieroo ceased gradually until now it
is unknown; but the Wieroo produce only males--which is why they
steal our female young, and by stealing _cos-ata-lo_ they increase
their own chances of eventually reproducing both sexes and at the
same time lessen ours. Already the Galus produce both male and
female; but so carefully do the Wieroo watch us that few of the
males ever grow to manhood, while even fewer are the females that
are not stolen away. It is indeed a strange condition, for while
our greatest enemies hate and fear us, they dare not exterminate
us, knowing that they too would become extinct but for us.

"Ah, but could we once get a start, I am sure that when all were
true _cos-ata-lo_ there would have been evolved at last the true
dominant