Chapter 2

People Out of Time

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER 2, PEOPLE OUT OF TIME by Edgar R. Burroughs
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I'll never forget my first impressions of Caspak as I circled
in, high over the surrounding cliffs. From the plane I looked
down through a mist upon the blurred landscape beneath me.
The hot, humid atmosphere of Caspak condenses as it is fanned
by the cold Antarctic air-currents which sweep across the
crater's top, sending a tenuous ribbon of vapor far out across
the Pacific. Through this the picture gave one the suggestion
of a colossal impressionistic canvas in greens and browns and
scarlets and yellows surrounding the deep blue of the inland
sea--just blobs of color taking form through the tumbling mist.

I dived close to the cliffs and skirted them for several miles
without finding the least indication of a suitable landing-place;
and then I swung back at a lower level, looking for a clearing
close to the bottom of the mighty escarpment; but I could find
none of sufficient area to insure safety. I was flying pretty
low by this time, not only looking for landing places but watching
the myriad life beneath me. I was down pretty well toward the
south end of the island, where an arm of the lake reaches far
inland, and I could see the surface of the water literally
black with creatures of some sort. I was too far up to recognize
individuals, but the general impression was of a vast army of
amphibious monsters. The land was almost equally alive with
crawling, leaping, running, flying things. It was one of the
latter which nearly did for me while my attention was fixed
upon the weird scene below.

The first intimation I had of it was the sudden blotting out of
the sunlight from above, and as I glanced quickly up, I saw a
most terrific creature swooping down upon me. It must have
been fully eighty feet long from the end of its long, hideous
beak to the tip of its thick, short tail, with an equal spread
of wings. It was coming straight for me and hissing frightfully--
I could hear it above the whir of the propeller. It was coming
straight down toward the muzzle of the machine-gun and I let it
have it right in the breast; but still it came for me, so that
I had to dive and turn, though I was dangerously close to earth.

The thing didn't miss me by a dozen feet, and when I rose, it
wheeled and followed me, but only to the cooler air close to
the level of the cliff-tops; there it turned again and dropped.
Something--man's natural love of battle and the chase, I presume--
impelled me to pursue it, and so I too circled and dived.
The moment I came down into the warm atmosphere of Caspak, the
creature came for me again, rising above me so that it might
swoop down upon me. Nothing could better have suited my armament,
since my machine-gun was pointed upward at an angle of about degrees
and could not be either depressed or elevated by the pilot.
If I had brought someone along with me, we could have raked the
great reptile from almost any position, but as the creature's
mode of attack was always from above, he always found me ready
with a hail of bullets. The battle must have lasted a minute
or more before the thing suddenly turned completely over in the
air and fell to the ground.

Bowen and I roomed together at college, and I learned a lot
from him outside my regular course. He was a pretty good
scholar despite his love of fun, and his particular hobby
was paleontology. He used to tell me about the various forms
of animal and vegetable life which had covered the globe during
former eras, and so I was pretty well acquainted with the
fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals of paleolithic times.
I knew that the thing that had attacked me was some sort of
pterodactyl which should have been extinct millions of years ago.
It was all that I needed to realize that Bowen had exaggerated
nothing in his manuscript.

Having disposed of my first foe, I set myself once more to
search for a landing-place near to the base of the cliffs
beyond which my party awaited me. I knew how anxious they
would be for word from me, and I was equally anxious to relieve
their minds and also to get them and our supplies well within
Caspak, so that we might set off about our business of finding
and rescuing Bowen Tyler; but the pterodactyl's carcass had
scarcely fallen before I was surrounded by at least a dozen of
the hideous things, some large, some small, but all bent upon
my destruction. I could not cope with them all, and so I rose
rapidly from among them to the cooler strata wherein they dared
not follow; and then I recalled that Bowen's narrative
distinctly indicated that the farther north one traveled in
Caspak, the fewer were the terrible reptiles which rendered
human life impossible at the southern end of the island.

There seemed nothing now but to search out a more northerly
landing-place and then return to the Toreador and transport
my companions, two by two, over the cliffs and deposit them at
the rendezvous. As I flew north, the temptation to explore
overcame me. I knew that I could easily cover Caspak and
return to the beach with less petrol than I had in my tanks;
and there was the hope, too, that I might find Bowen or some of
his party. The broad expanse of the inland sea lured me out
over its waters, and as I crossed, I saw at either extremity of
the great body of water an island--one to the south and one to
the north; but I did not alter my course to examine either
closely, leaving that to a later time.

The further shore of the sea revealed a much narrower strip of
land between the cliffs and the water than upon the western
side; but it was a hillier and more open country. There were
splendid landing-places, and in the distance, toward the north,
I thought I descried a village; but of that I was not positive.
However, as I approached the land, I saw a number of human figures
apparently pursuing one who fled across a broad expanse of meadow.
As I dropped lower to have a better look at these people, they
caught the whirring of my propellers and looked aloft. They paused
an instant--pursuers and pursued; and then they broke and raced
for the shelter of the nearest wood. Almost instantaneously a
huge bulk swooped down upon me, and as I looked up, I realized
that there were flying reptiles even in this part of Caspak.
The creature dived for my right wing so quickly that nothing but
a sheer drop could have saved me. I was already close to the
ground, so that my maneuver was extremely dangerous; but I was
in a fair way of making it successfully when I saw that I was
too closely approaching a large tree. My effort to dodge the
tree and the pterodactyl at the same time resulted disastrously.
One wing touched an upper branch; the plane tipped and swung
around, and then, out of control, dashed into the branches of
the tree, where it came to rest, battered and torn, forty feet
above the ground.

Hissing loudly, the huge reptile swept close above the tree in
which my plane had lodged, circled twice over me and then
flapped away toward the south. As I guessed then and was to
learn later, forests are the surest sanctuary from these
hideous creatures, which, with their enormous spread of wing
and their great weight, are as much out of place among trees
as is a seaplane.

For a minute or so I clung there to my battered flyer, now
useless beyond redemption, my brain numbed by the frightful
catastrophe that had befallen me. All my plans for the succor
of Bowen and Miss La Rue had depended upon this craft, and in a
few brief minutes my own selfish love of adventure had wrecked
their hopes and mine. And what effect it might have upon the
future of the balance of the rescuing expedition I could not
even guess. Their lives, too, might be sacrificed to my
suicidal foolishness. That I was doomed seemed inevitable; but
I can honestly say that the fate of my friends concerned me
more greatly than did my own.

Beyond the barrier cliffs my party was even now nervously
awaiting my return. Presently apprehension and fear would
claim them--and they would never know! They would attempt to
scale the cliffs--of that I was sure; but I was not so positive
that they would succeed; and after a while they would turn
back, what there were left of them, and go sadly and mournfully
upon their return journey to home. Home! I set my jaws and
tried to forget the word, for I knew that I should never again
see home.

And what of Bowen and his girl? I had doomed them too. They would
never even know that an attempt had been made to rescue them.
If they still lived, they might some day come upon the ruined
remnants of this great plane hanging in its lofty sepulcher and
hazard vain guesses and be filled with wonder; but they would
never know; and I could not but be glad that they would not
know that Tom Billings had sealed their death-warrants by his
criminal selfishness.

All these useless regrets were getting me in a bad way; but at
last I shook myself and tried to put such things out of my mind
and take hold of conditions as they existed and do my level
best to wrest victory from defeat. I was badly shaken up and
bruised, but considered myself mighty lucky to escape with my life.
The plane hung at a precarious angle, so that it was with
difficulty and considerable danger that I climbed from it into
the tree and then to the ground.

My predicament was grave. Between me and my friends lay an
inland sea fully sixty miles wide at this point and an
estimated land-distance of some three hundred miles around the
northern end of the sea, through such hideous dangers as I am
perfectly free to admit had me pretty well buffaloed. I had
seen quite enough of Caspak this day to assure me that Bowen
had in no way exaggerated its perils. As a matter of fact, I
am inclined to believe that he had become so accustomed to them
before he started upon his manuscript that he rather slighted them.
As I stood there beneath that tree--a tree which should have been
part of a coal-bed countless ages since--and looked out across
a sea teeming with frightful life--life which should have been
fossil before God conceived of Adam--I would not have given a
minim of stale beer for my chances of ever seeing my friends or
the outside world again; yet then and there I swore to fight my
way as far through this hideous land as circumstances would permit.
I had plenty of ammunition, an automatic pistol and a heavy rifle--
the latter one of twenty added to our equipment on the strength of
Bowen's description of the huge beasts of prey which ravaged Caspak.
My greatest danger lay in the hideous reptilia whose low nervous
organizations permitted their carnivorous instincts to function
for several minutes after they had ceased to live.

But to these things I gave less thought than to the sudden
frustration of all our plans. With the bitterest of thoughts I
condemned myself for the foolish weakness that had permitted me
to be drawn from the main object of my flight into premature
and useless exploration. It seemed to me then that I must be
totally eliminated from further search for Bowen, since, as I
estimated it, the three hundred miles of Caspakian territory I
must traverse to reach the base of the cliffs beyond which my
party awaited me were practically impassable for a single
individual unaccustomed to Caspakian life and ignorant of all
that lay before him. Yet I could not give up hope entirely.
My duty lay clear before me; I must follow it while life
remained to me, and so I set forth toward the north.

The country through which I took my way was as lovely as it was
unusual--I had almost said unearthly, for the plants, the
trees, the blooms were not of the earth that I knew. They were
larger, the colors more brilliant and the shapes startling,
some almost to grotesqueness, though even such added to the
charm and romance of the landscape as the giant cacti render
weirdly beautiful the waste spots of the sad Mohave. And over
all the sun shone huge and round and red, a monster sun above a
monstrous world, its light dispersed by the humid air of
Caspak--the warm, moist air which lies sluggish upon the breast
of this great mother of life, Nature's mightiest incubator.

All about me, in every direction, was life. It moved through
the tree-tops and among the boles; it displayed itself in
widening and intermingling circles upon the bosom of the sea;
it leaped from the depths; I could hear it in a dense wood at
my right, the murmur of it rising and falling in ceaseless
volumes of sound, riven at intervals by a horrid scream or a
thunderous roar which shook the earth; and always I was haunted
by that inexplicable sensation that unseen eyes were watching
me, that soundless feet dogged my trail. I am neither nervous
nor highstrung; but the burden of responsibility upon me
weighed heavily, so that I was more cautious than is my wont.
I turned often to right and left and rear lest I be surprised,
and I carried my rifle at the ready in my hand. Once I could
have sworn that among the many creatures dimly perceived amidst
the shadows of the wood I saw a human figure dart from one
cover to another, but I could not be sure.

For the most part I skirted the wood, making occasional detours
rather than enter those forbidding depths of gloom, though many
times I was forced to pass through arms of the forest which
extended to the very shore of the inland sea. There was so
sinister a suggestion in the uncouth sounds and the vague
glimpses of moving things within the forest, of the menace of
strange beasts and possibly still stranger men, that I always
breathed more freely when I had passed once more into open country.

I had traveled northward for perhaps an hour, still haunted by
the conviction that I was being stalked by some creature which
kept always hidden among the trees and shrubbery to my right
and a little to my rear, when for the hundredth time I was
attracted by a sound from that direction, and turning, saw some
animal running rapidly through the forest toward me. There was
no longer any effort on its part at concealment; it came on
through the underbrush swiftly, and I was confident that
whatever it was, it had finally gathered the courage to charge
me boldly. Before it finally broke into plain view, I became
aware that it was not alone, for a few yards in its rear a
second thing thrashed through the leafy jungle. Evidently I
was to be attacked in force by a pair of hunting beasts or men.

And then through the last clump of waving ferns broke the
figure of the foremost creature, which came leaping toward me
on light feet as I stood with my rifle to my shoulder covering
the point at which I had expected it would emerge. I must have
looked foolish indeed if my surprise and consternation were in
any way reflected upon my countenance as I lowered my rifle and
gazed incredulous at the lithe figure of the girl speeding
swiftly in my direction. But I did not have long to stand thus
with lowered weapon, for as she came, I saw her cast an
affrighted glance over her shoulder, and at the same moment
there broke from the jungle at the same spot at which I had
seen her, the hugest cat I had ever looked upon.

At first I took the beast for a saber-tooth tiger, as it was
quite the most fearsome-appearing beast one could imagine; but
it was not that dread monster of the past, though quite
formidable enough to satisfy the most fastidious thrill-hunter.
On it came, grim and terrible, its baleful eyes glaring above
its distended jaws, its lips curled in a frightful snarl which
exposed a whole mouthful of formidable teeth. At sight of me
it had abandoned its impetuous rush and was now sneaking slowly
toward us; while the girl, a long knife in her hand, took her
stand bravely at my left and a little to my rear. She had
called something to me in a strange tongue as she raced toward
me, and now she spoke again; but what she said I could not
then, of course, know--only that her tones were sweet, well
modulated and free from any suggestion of panic.

Facing the huge cat, which I now saw was an enormous panther, I
waited until I could place a shot where I felt it would do the
most good, for at best a frontal shot at any of the large
carnivora is a ticklish matter. I had some advantage in that
the beast was not charging; its head was held low and its back
exposed; and so at forty yards I took careful aim at its spine
at the junction of neck and shoulders. But at the same
instant, as though sensing my intention, the great creature
lifted its head and leaped forward in full charge. To fire at
that sloping forehead I knew would be worse than useless, and
so I quickly shifted my aim and pulled the trigger, hoping
against hope that the soft-nosed bullet and the heavy charge of
powder would have sufficient stopping effect to give me time to
place a second shot.

In answer to the report of the rifle I had the satisfaction of
seeing the brute spring into the air, turning a complete
somersault; but it was up again almost instantly, though in the
brief second that it took it to scramble to its feet and get
its bearings, it exposed its left side fully toward me, and a
second bullet went crashing through its heart. Down it went
for the second time--and then up and at me. The vitality of
these creatures of Caspak is one of the marvelous features of
this strange world and bespeaks the low nervous organization of
the old paleolithic life which has been so long extinct in
other portions of the world.

I put a third bullet into the beast at three paces, and then I
thought that I was done for; but it rolled over and stopped at
my feet, stone dead. I found that my second bullet had torn
its heart almost completely away, and yet it had lived to
charge ferociously upon me, and but for my third shot would
doubtless have slain me before it finally expired--or as Bowen
Tyler so quaintly puts it, before it knew that it was dead.

With the panther quite evidently conscious of the fact that
dissolution had overtaken it, I turned toward the girl, who was
regarding me with evident admiration and not a little awe,
though I must admit that my rifle claimed quite as much of her
attention as did I. She was quite the most wonderful animal
that I have ever looked upon, and what few of her charms her
apparel hid, it quite effectively succeeded in accentuating.
A bit of soft, undressed leather was caught over her left
shoulder and beneath her right breast, falling upon her left
side to her hip and upon the right to a metal band which
encircled her leg above the knee and to which the lowest point
of the hide was attached. About her waist was a loose leather
belt, to the center of which was attached the scabbard
belonging to her knife. There was a single armlet between her
right shoulder and elbow, and a series of them covered her left
forearm from elbow to wrist. These, I learned later, answered
the purpose of a shield against knife attack when the left arm
is raised in guard across the breast or face.

Her masses of heavy hair were held in place by a broad metal
band which bore a large triangular ornament directly in the
center of her forehead. This ornament appeared to be a huge
turquoise, while the metal of all her ornaments was beaten,
virgin gold, inlaid in intricate design with bits of
mother-of-pearl and tiny pieces of stone of various colors.
From the left shoulder depended a leopard's tail, while her
feet were shod with sturdy little sandals. The knife was her
only weapon. Its blade was of iron, the grip was wound with
hide and protected by a guard of three out-bowing strips of
flat iron, and upon the top of the hilt was a knob of gold.

I took in much of this in the few seconds during which we stood
facing each other, and I also observed another salient feature
of her appearance: she was frightfully dirty! Her face and
limbs and garment were streaked with mud and perspiration, and
yet even so, I felt that I had never looked upon so perfect and
beautiful a creature as she. Her figure beggars description,
and equally so, her face. Were I one of these writer-fellows,
I should probably say that her features were Grecian, but being
neither a writer nor a poet I can do her greater justice by
saying that she combined all of the finest lines that one sees
in the typical American girl's face rather than the pronounced
sheeplike physiognomy of the Greek goddess. No, even the dirt
couldn't hide that fact; she was beautiful beyond compare.

As we stood looking at each other, a slow smile came to her
face, parting her symmetrical lips and disclosing a row of
strong white teeth.

"Galu?" she asked with rising inflection.

And remembering that I read in Bowen's manuscript that Galu
seemed to indicate a higher type of man, I answered by pointing
to myself and repeating the word. Then she started off on a
regular catechism, if I could judge by her inflection, for I
certainly understood no word of what she said. All the time
the girl kept glancing toward the forest, and at last she
touched my arm and pointed in that direction.

Turning, I saw a hairy figure of a manlike thing standing
watching us, and presently another and another emerged from the
jungle and joined the leader until there must have been at
least twenty of them. They were entirely naked. Their bodies
were covered with hair, and though they stood upon their feet
without touching their hands to the ground, they had a very
ape-like appearance, since they stooped forward and had very
long arms and quite apish features. They were not pretty to
look upon with their close-set eyes, flat noses, long upper
lips and protruding yellow fangs.

"Alus!" said the girl.

I had reread Bowen's adventures so often that I knew them
almost by heart, and so now I knew that I was looking upon the
last remnant of that ancient man-race--the Alus of a forgotten
period--the speechless man of antiquity.

"Kazor!" cried the girl, and at the same moment the Alus
came jabbering toward us. They made strange growling, barking
noises, as with much baring of fangs they advanced upon us.
They were armed only with nature's weapons--powerful muscles
and giant fangs; yet I knew that these were quite sufficient to
overcome us had we nothing better to offer in defense, and so I
drew my pistol and fired at the leader. He dropped like a
stone, and the others turned and fled. Once again the girl
smiled her slow smile and stepping closer, caressed the barrel
of my automatic. As she did so, her fingers came in contact
with mine, and a sudden thrill ran through me, which I
attributed to the fact that it had been so long since I had
seen a woman of any sort or kind.

She said something to me in her low, liquid tones; but I could
not understand her, and then she pointed toward the north and
started away. I followed her, for my way was north too; but
had it been south I still should have followed, so hungry was I
for human companionship in this world of beasts and reptiles
and half-men.

We walked along, the girl talking a great deal and seeming
mystified that I could not understand her. Her silvery laugh
rang merrily when I in turn essayed to speak to her, as though
my language was the quaintest thing she ever had heard.
Often after fruitless attempts to make me understand she would
hold her palm toward me, saying, "Galu!" and then touch my
breast or arm and cry, "Alu, alu!" I knew what she meant,
for I had learned from Bowen's narrative the negative gesture
and the two words which she repeated. She meant that I was no
Galu, as I claimed, but an Alu, or speechless one. Yet every
time she said this she laughed again, and so infectious were
her tones that I could only join her. It was only natural,
too, that she should be mystified by my inability to comprehend
her or to make her comprehend me, for from the club-men, the
lowest human type in Caspak to have speech, to the golden race
of Galus, the tongues of the various tribes are identical--except
for amplifications in the rising scale of evolution. She, who
is a Galu, can understand one of the Bo-lu and make herself
understood to him, or to a hatchet-man, a spear-man or an archer.
The Ho-lus, or apes, the Alus and myself were the only creatures
of human semblance with which she could hold no converse; yet it
was evident that her intelligence told her that I was neither
Ho-lu nor Alu, neither anthropoid ape nor speechless man.

Yet she did not despair, but set out to teach me her language;
and had it not been that I worried so greatly over the fate of
Bowen and my companions of the Toreador, I could have wished
the period of instruction prolonged.

I never have been what one might call a ladies' man, though I
like their company immensely, and during my college days and
since have made various friends among the sex. I think that I
rather appeal to a certain type of girl for the reason that I
never make love to them; I leave that to the numerous others
who do it infinitely better than I could hope to, and take my
pleasure out of girls' society in what seem to be more rational
ways--dancing, golfing, boating, riding, tennis, and the like.
Yet in the company of this half-naked little savage I found a
new pleasure that was entirely distinct from any that I ever
had experienced. When she touched me, I thrilled as I had
never before thrilled in contact with another woman. I could
not quite understand it, for I am sufficiently sophisticated
to know that this is a symptom of love and I certainly did not
love this filthy little barbarian with her broken, unkempt
nails and her skin so besmeared with mud and the green of
crushed foliage that it was difficult to say what color it
originally had been. But if she was outwardly uncouth, her
clear eyes and strong white, even teeth, her silvery laugh and
her queenly carriage, bespoke an innate fineness which dirt
could not quite successfully conceal.

The sun was low in the heavens when we came upon a little river
which emptied into a large bay at the foot of low cliffs.
Our journey so far had been beset with constant danger, as is
every journey in this frightful land. I have not bored you with
a recital of the wearying successions of attacks by the multitude
of creatures which were constantly crossing our path or
deliberately stalking us. We were always upon the alert; for
here, to paraphrase, eternal vigilance is indeed the price of life.

I had managed to progress a little in the acquisition of a
knowledge of her tongue, so that I knew many of the animals and
reptiles by their Caspakian names, and trees and ferns and grasses.
I knew the words for sea and river and cliff, for sky
and sun and cloud. Yes, I was getting along finely, and then
it occurred to me that I didn't know my companion's name; so I
pointed to myself and said, "Tom," and to her and raised my
eyebrows in interrogation. The girl ran her fingers into that mass
of hair and looked puzzled. I repeated the action a dozen times.

"Tom," she said finally in that clear, sweet, liquid voice. "Tom!"

I had never thought much of my name before; but when she spoke
it, it sounded to me for the first time in my life like a
mighty nice name, and then she brightened suddenly and tapped
her own breast and said: "Ajor!"

"Ajor!" I repeated, and she laughed and struck her palms together.

Well, we knew each other's names now, and that was some satisfaction.
I rather liked hers--Ajor! And she seemed to like mine, for she
repeated it.

We came to the cliffs beside the little river where it empties
into the bay with the great inland sea beyond. The cliffs were
weather-worn and rotted, and in one place a deep hollow ran
back beneath the overhanging stone for several feet, suggesting
shelter for the night. There were loose rocks strewn all about
with which I might build a barricade across the entrance to the
cave, and so I halted there and pointed out the place to Ajor,
trying to make her understand that we would spend the night there.

As soon as she grasped my meaning, she assented with the
Caspakian equivalent of an affirmative nod, and then touching
my rifle, motioned me to follow her to the river. At the bank
she paused, removed her belt and dagger, dropping them to the
ground at her side; then unfastening the lower edge of her
garment from the metal leg-band to which it was attached,
slipped it off her left shoulder and let it drop to the ground
around her feet. It was done so naturally, so simply and so
quickly that it left me gasping like a fish out of water.
Turning, she flashed a smile at me and then dived into the
river, and there she bathed while I stood guard over her.
For five or ten minutes she splashed about, and when she
emerged her glistening skin was smooth and white and beautiful.
Without means of drying herself, she simply ignored what to me
would have seemed a necessity, and in a moment was arrayed in
her simple though effective costume.

It was now within an hour of darkness, and as I was nearly
famished, I led the way back about a quarter of a mile to a
low meadow where we had seen antelope and small horses a short
time before. Here I brought down a young buck, the report of my
rifle sending the balance of the herd scampering for the woods,
where they were met by a chorus of hideous roars as the
carnivora took advantage of their panic and leaped among them.

With my hunting-knife I removed a hind-quarter, and then we
returned to camp. Here I gathered a great quantity of wood
from fallen trees, Ajor helping me; but before I built a fire,
I also gathered sufficient loose rock to build my barricade
against the frightful terrors of the night to come.

I shall never forget the expression upon Ajor's face as she saw
me strike a match and light the kindling beneath our camp-fire.
It was such an expression as might transform a mortal face with
awe as its owner beheld the mysterious workings of divinity.
It was evident that Ajor was quite unfamiliar with modern
methods of fire-making. She had thought my rifle and pistol
wonderful; but these tiny slivers of wood which from a magic
rub brought flame to the camp hearth were indeed miracles to her.

As the meat roasted above the fire, Ajor and I tried once again
to talk; but though copiously filled with incentive, gestures
and sounds, the conversation did not flourish notably. And then
Ajor took up in earnest the task of teaching me her language.
She commenced, as I later learned, with the simplest form of
speech known to Caspak or for that matter to the world--that
employed by the Bo-lu. I found it far from difficult, and even
though it was a great handicap upon my instructor that she could
not speak my language, she did remarkably well and demonstrated
that she possessed ingenuity and intelligence of a high order.

After we had eaten, I added to the pile of firewood so that I
could replenish the fire before the entrance to our barricade,
believing this as good a protection against the carnivora as we
could have; and then Ajor and I sat down before it, and the
lesson proceeded, while from all about us came the weird and
awesome noises of the Caspakian night--the moaning and the
coughing and roaring of the tigers, the panthers and the lions,
the barking and the dismal howling of a wolf, jackal and
hyaenadon, the shrill shrieks of stricken prey and the hissing
of the great reptiles; the voice of man alone was silent.

But though the voice of this choir-terrible rose and fell from
far and near in all directions, reaching at time such a
tremendous volume of sound that the earth shook to it, yet so
engrossed was I in my lesson and in my teacher that often I was
deaf to what at another time would have filled me with awe.
The face and voice of the beautiful girl who leaned so eagerly
toward me as she tried to explain the meaning of some word or
correct my pronunciation of another quite entirely occupied my
every faculty of perception. The firelight shone upon her
animated features and sparkling eyes; it accentuated the
graceful motions of her gesturing arms and hands; it sparkled
from her white teeth and from her golden ornaments, and
glistened on the smooth firmness of her perfect skin. I am
afraid that often I was more occupied with admiration of this
beautiful animal than with a desire for knowledge; but be that
as it may, I nevertheless learned much that evening, though
part of what I learned had naught to do with any new language.

Ajor seemed determined that I should speak Caspakian as quickly
as possible, and I thought I saw in her desire a little of that
all-feminine trait which has come down through all the ages
from the first lady of the world--curiosity. Ajor desired that
I should speak her tongue in order that she might satisfy a
curiosity concerning me that was filling her to a point where
she was in danger of bursting; of that I was positive. She was
a regular little animated question-mark. She bubbled over
with interrogations which were never to be satisfied unless
I learned to speak her tongue. Her eyes sparkled with
excitement; her hand flew in expressive gestures; her little
tongue raced with time; yet all to no avail. I could say man
and tree and cliff and lion and a number of
other words in perfect Caspakian; but such a vocabulary was
only tantalizing; it did not lend itself well to a very general
conversation, and the result was that Ajor would wax so wroth
that she would clench her little fists and beat me on the
breast as hard as ever she could, and then she would sink back
laughing as the humor of the situation captured her.

She was trying to teach me some verbs by going through the
actions herself as she repeated the proper word. We were very
much engrossed--so much so that we were giving no heed to what
went on beyond our cave--when Ajor stopped very suddenly,
crying: "Kazor!" Now she had been trying to teach me that
ju meant stop; so when she cried kazor and at the same
time stopped, I thought for a moment that this was part of my
lesson--for the moment I forgot that kazor means beware.
I therefore repeated the word after her; but when I saw the
expression in her eyes as they were directed past me and saw
her point toward the entrance to the cave, I turned quickly--
to see a hideous face at the small aperture leading out into
the night. It was the fierce and snarling countenance of a
gigantic bear. I have hunted silvertips in the White
Mountains of Arizona and thought them quite the largest and
most formidable of big game; but from the appearance of the
head of this awful creature I judged that the largest grizzly I
had ever seen would shrink by comparison to the dimensions of a
Newfoundland dog.

Our fire was just within the cave, the smoke rising through the
apertures between the rocks that I had piled in such a way that
they arched inward toward the cliff at the top. The opening by
means of which we were to reach the outside was barricaded with
a few large fragments which did not by any means close it
entirely; but through the apertures thus left no large animal
could gain ingress. I had depended most, however, upon our
fire, feeling that none of the dangerous nocturnal beasts of
prey would venture close to the flames. In this, however, I
was quite evidently in error, for the great bear stood with his
nose not a foot from the blaze, which was now low, owing to the
fact that I had been so occupied with my lesson and my teacher
that I had neglected to replenish it.

Ajor whipped out her futile little knife and pointed to my rifle.
At the same time she spoke in a quite level voice entirely devoid
of nervousness or any evidence of fear or panic. I knew she was
exhorting me to fire upon the beast; but this I did not wish to
do other than as a last resort, for I was quite sure that even
my heavy bullets would not more than further enrage him--in which
case he might easily force an entrance to our cave.

Instead of firing, I piled some more wood upon the fire, and as
the smoke and blaze arose in the beast's face, it backed away,
growling most frightfully; but I still could see two ugly
points of light blazing in the outer darkness and hear its
growls rumbling terrifically without. For some time the
creature stood there watching the entrance to our frail
sanctuary while I racked my brains in futile endeavor to plan
some method of defense or escape. I knew full well that should
the bear make a determined effort to get at us, the rocks I had
piled as a barrier would come tumbling down about his giant
shoulders like a house of cards, and that he would walk
directly in upon us.

Ajor, having less knowledge of the effectiveness of firearms
than I, and therefore greater confidence in them, entreated me
to shoot the beast; but I knew that the chance that I could
stop it with a single shot was most remote, while that I should
but infuriate it was real and present; and so I waited for what
seemed an eternity, watching those devilish points of fire
glaring balefully at us, and listening to the ever-increasing
volume of those seismic growls which seemed to rumble upward
from the bowels of the earth, shaking the very cliffs beneath
which we cowered, until at last I saw that the brute was again
approaching the aperture. It availed me nothing that I piled
the blaze high with firewood, until Ajor and I were near to
roasting; on came that mighty engine of destruction until once
again the hideous face yawned its fanged yawn directly within
the barrier's opening. It stood thus a moment, and then the
head was withdrawn. I breathed a sigh of relief, the thing had
altered its intention and was going on in search of other and
more easily procurable prey; the fire had been too much for it.

But my joy was short-lived, and my heart sank once again as a
moment later I saw a mighty paw insinuated into the opening--a
paw as large around as a large dishpan. Very gently the paw
toyed with the great rock that partly closed the entrance,
pushed and pulled upon it and then very deliberately drew it
outward and to one side. Again came the head, and this time
much farther into the cavern; but still the great shoulders
would not pass through the opening. Ajor moved closer to me
until her shoulder touched my side, and I thought I felt a
slight tremor run through her body, but otherwise she gave no
indication of fear. Involuntarily I threw my left arm about
her and drew her to me for an instant. It was an act of
reassurance rather than a caress, though I must admit that
again and even in the face of death I thrilled at the contact
with her; and then I released her and threw my rifle to my
shoulder, for at last I had reached the conclusion that nothing
more could be gained by waiting. My only hope was to get as
many shots into the creature as I could before it was upon me.
Already it had torn away a second rock and was in the very act
of forcing its huge bulk through the opening it had now made.

So now I took careful aim between its eyes; my right fingers
closed firmly and evenly upon the small of the stock, drawing
back my trigger-finger by the muscular action of the hand.
The bullet could not fail to hit its mark! I held my breath lest
I swerve the muzzle a hair by my breathing. I was as steady and
cool as I ever had been upon a target-range, and I had the full
consciousness of a perfect hit in anticipation; I knew that I
could not miss. And then, as the bear surged forward toward
me, the hammer fell--futilely, upon an imperfect cartridge.

Almost simultaneously I heard from without a perfectly hellish
roar; the bear gave voice to a series of growls far
transcending in volume and ferocity anything that he had yet
essayed and at the same time backed quickly from the cave.
For an instant I couldn't understand what had happened to
cause this sudden retreat when his prey was practically within
his clutches. The idea that the harmless clicking of the
hammer had frightened him was too ridiculous to entertain.
However, we had not long to wait before we could at least guess
at the cause of the diversion, for from without came mingled
growls and roars and the sound of great bodies thrashing about
until the earth shook. The bear had been attacked in the rear
by some other mighty beast, and the two were now locked in a
titanic struggle for supremacy. With brief respites, during
which we could hear the labored breathing of the contestants,
the battle continued for the better part of an hour until the
sounds of combat grew gradually less and finally ceased entirely.

At Ajor's suggestion, made by signs and a few of the words we
knew in common, I moved the fire directly to the entrance to
the cave so that a beast would have to pass directly through
the flames to reach us, and then we sat and waited for the
victor of the battle to come and claim his reward; but though
we sat for a long time with our eyes glued to the opening, we
saw no sign of any beast.

At last I signed to Ajor to lie down, for I knew that she must
have sleep, and I sat on guard until nearly morning, when the
girl awoke and insisted that I take some rest; nor would she be
denied, but dragged me down as she laughingly menaced me with
her knife.