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

the Kro-lu there is no word
which corresponds with our word _mother_. They speak of _ata_ and
_cor sva jo_, meaning _reproduction_ and _from the beginning_, and
point toward the south; but no one has a mother.

After considerable difficulty we gained what we thought was our
cave, only to find that it was not, and then we realized that we
were lost in the labyrinthine mazes of the great cavern. We retraced
our steps and sought the point from which we had started, but only
succeeded in losing ourselves the more. Ajor was aghast--not so
much from fear of our predicament; but that she should have failed
in the functioning of that wonderful sense she possessed in common
with most other creatures Caspakian, which makes it possible for
them to move unerringly from place to place without compass or
guide.

Hand in hand we crept along, searching for an opening into the outer
world, yet realizing that at each step we might be burrowing more
deeply into the heart of the great cliff, or circling futilely in
the vague wandering that could end only in death. And the darkness!
It was almost palpable, and utterly depressing. I had matches, and
in some of the more difficult places I struck one; but we couldn't
afford to waste them, and so we groped our way slowly along, doing
the best we could to keep to one general direction in the hope that
it would eventually lead us to an opening into the outer world.
When I struck matches, I noticed that the walls bore no paintings;
nor was there other sign that man had penetrated this far within
the cliff, nor any spoor of animals of other kinds.

It would be difficult to guess at the time we spent wandering
through those black corridors, climbing steep ascents, feeling
our way along the edges of bottomless pits, never knowing at what
moment we might be plunged into some abyss and always haunted
by the ever-present terror of death by starvation and thirst. As
difficult as it was, I still realized that it might have been
infinitely worse had I had another companion than Ajor--courageous,
uncomplaining, loyal little Ajor! She was tired and hungry and
thirsty, and she must have been discouraged; but she never faltered
in her cheerfulness. I asked her if she was afraid, and she replied
that here the Wieroo could not get her, and that if she died of
hunger, she would at least die with me and she was quite content
that such should be her end. At the time I attributed her attitude
to something akin to a doglike devotion to a new master who had been
kind to her. I can take oath to the fact that I did not think it
was anything more.

Whether we had been imprisoned in the cliff for a day or a week I
could not say; nor even now do I know. We became very tired and
hungry; the hours dragged; we slept at least twice, and then we
rose and stumbled on, always weaker and weaker. There were ages
during which the trend of the corridors was always upward. It was
heartbreaking work for people in the state of exhaustion in which
we then were, but we clung tenaciously to it. We stumbled and
fell; we sank through pure physical inability to retain our feet;
but always we managed to rise at last and go on. At first, wherever
it had been possible, we had walked hand in hand lest we become
separated, and later, when I saw that Ajor was weakening rapidly,
we went side by side, I supporting her with an arm about her waist.
I still retained the heavy burden of my armament; but with the
rifle slung to my back, my hands were free. When I too showed
indisputable evidences of exhaustion, Ajor suggested that I lay
aside my arms and ammunition; but I told her that as it would mean
certain death for me to traverse Caspak without them, I might as
well take the chance of dying here in the cave with them, for there
was the other chance that we might find our way to liberty.

There came a time when Ajor could no longer walk, and then it was
that I picked her up in my arms and carried her. She begged me
to leave her, saying that after I found an exit, I could come back
and get her; but she knew, and she knew that I knew, that if ever
I did leave her, I could never find her again. Yet she insisted.
Barely had I sufficient strength to take a score of steps at a time;
then I would have to sink down and rest for five to ten minutes.
I don't know what force urged me on and kept me going in the face
of an absolute conviction that my efforts were utterly futile. I
counted us already as good as dead; but still I dragged myself
along until the time came that I could no longer rise, but could
only crawl along a few inches at a time, dragging Ajor beside me.
Her sweet voice, now almost inaudible from weakness, implored me
to abandon her and save myself--she seemed to think only of me. Of
course I couldn't have left her there alone, no matter how much I
might have desired to do so; but the fact of the matter was that
I didn't desire to leave her. What I said to her then came very
simply and naturally to my lips. It couldn't very well have been
otherwise, I imagine, for with death so close, I doubt if people
are much inclined to heroics. "I would rather not get out at
all, Ajor," I said to her, "than to get out without you." We were
resting against a rocky wall, and Ajor was leaning against me, her
head on my breast. I could feel her press closer to me, and one
hand stroked my arm in a weak caress; but she didn't say anything,
nor were words necessary.

After a few minutes' more rest, we started on again upon our utterly
hopeless way; but I soon realized that I was weakening rapidly,
and presently I was forced to admit that I was through. "It's no
use, Ajor," I said, "I've come as far as I can. It may be that
if I sleep, I can go on again after," but I knew that that was not
true, and that the end was near. "Yes, sleep," said Ajor. "We
will sleep together--forever."

She crept close to me as I lay on the hard floor and pillowed
her head upon my arm. With the little strength which remained to
me, I drew her up until our lips touched, and, then I whispered:
"Good-bye!" I must have lost consciousness almost immediately,
for I recall nothing more until I suddenly awoke out of a troubled
sleep, during which I dreamed that I was drowning, to find the
cave lighted by what appeared to be diffused daylight, and a tiny
trickle of water running down the corridor and forming a puddle in
the little depression in which it chanced that Ajor and I lay. I
turned my eyes quickly upon Ajor, fearful for what the light might
disclose; but she still breathed, though very faintly. Then I
searched about for an explanation of the light, and soon discovered
that it came from about a bend in the corridor just ahead of us and
at the top of a steep incline; and instantly I realized that Ajor
and I had stumbled by night almost to the portal of salvation. Had
chance taken us a few yards further, up either of the corridors
which diverged from ours just ahead of us, we might have been
irrevocably lost; we might still be lost; but at least we could die
in the light of day, out of the horrid blackness of this terrible
cave.

I tried to rise, and found that sleep had given me back a portion of
my strength; and then I tasted the water and was further refreshed.
I shook Ajor gently by the shoulder; but she did not open her eyes,
and then I gathered a few drops of water in my cupped palm and let
them trickle between her lips. This revived her so that she raised
her lids, and when she saw me, she smiled.

"What happened?" she asked. "Where are we?"

"We are at the end of the corridor," I replied, "and daylight is
coming in from the outside world just ahead. We are saved, Ajor!"

She sat up then and looked about, and then, quite womanlike, she
burst into tears. It was the reaction, of course; and then too,
she was very weak. I took her in my arms and quieted her as best
I could, and finally, with my help, she got to her feet; for she,
as well as I, had found some slight recuperation in sleep. Together
we staggered upward toward the light, and at the first turn we
saw an opening a few yards ahead of us and a leaden sky beyond--a
leaden sky from which was falling a drizzling rain, the author of
our little, trickling stream which had given us drink when we were
most in need of it.

The cave had been damp and cold; but as we crawled through the aperture,
the muggy warmth of the Caspakian air caressed and confronted us;
even the rain was warmer than the atmosphere of those dark corridors.
We had water now, and warmth, and I was sure that Caspak would
soon offer us meat or fruit; but as we came to where we could look
about, we saw that we were upon the summit of the cliffs, where
there seemed little reason to expect game. However, there were
trees, and among them we soon descried edible fruits with which we
broke our long fast.


Chapter 4


We spent two days upon the cliff-top, resting and recuperating.
There was some small game which gave us meat, and the little pools
of rainwater were sufficient to quench our thirst. The sun came
out a few hours after we emerged from the cave, and in its warmth
we soon cast off the gloom which our recent experiences had saddled
upon us.

Upon the morning of the third day we set out to search for a path
down to the valley. Below us, to the north, we saw a large pool
lying at the foot of the cliffs, and in it we could discern the
women of the Band-lu lying in the shallow waters, while beyond and
close to the base of the mighty barrier-cliffs there was a large
party of Band-lu warriors going north to hunt. We had a splendid
view from our lofty cliff-top. Dimly, to the west, we could see the
farther shore of the inland sea, and southwest the large southern
island loomed distinctly before us. A little east of north was the
northern island, which Ajor, shuddering, whispered was the home of
the Wieroo--the land of Oo-oh. It lay at the far end of the lake
and was barely visible to us, being fully sixty miles away.

From our elevation, and in a clearer atmosphere, it would have stood
out distinctly; but the air of Caspak is heavy with moisture, with
the result that distant objects are blurred and indistinct. Ajor
also told me that the mainland east of Oo-oh was her land--the