The Land That Time Forgot

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  Chapter 8

  It was a sad leave-taking as in silence I shook hands with each of thethree remaining men. Even poor Nobs appeared dejected as we quit thecompound and set out upon the well-marked spoor of the abductor. Notonce did I turn my eyes backward toward Fort Dinosaur. I have notlooked upon it since--nor in all likelihood shall I ever look upon itagain. The trail led northwest until it reached the western end of thesandstone cliffs to the north of the fort; there it ran into awell-defined path which wound northward into a country we had not asyet explored. It was a beautiful, gently rolling country, broken byoccasional outcroppings of sandstone and by patches of dense forestrelieved by open, park-like stretches and broad meadows whereon grazedcountless herbivorous animals--red deer, aurochs, and infinite varietyof antelope and at least three distinct species of horse, the latterranging in size from a creature about as large as Nobs to a magnificentanimal fourteen to sixteen hands high. These creatures fed together inperfect amity; nor did they show any great indications of terror whenNobs and I approached. They moved out of our way and kept their eyesupon us until we had passed; then they resumed their feeding.

  The path led straight across the clearing into another forest, lyingupon the verge of which I saw a bit of white. It appeared to stand outin marked contrast and incongruity to all its surroundings, and when Istopped to examine it, I found that it was a small strip ofmuslin--part of the hem of a garment. At once I was all excitement, forI knew that it was a sign left by Lys that she had been carried thisway; it was a tiny bit torn from the hem of the undergarment that shewore in lieu of the night-robes she had lost with the sinking of theliner. Crushing the bit of fabric to my lips, I pressed on even morerapidly than before, because I now knew that I was upon the right trailand that up to this point at least, Lys still had lived.

  I made over twenty miles that day, for I was now hardened to fatigueand accustomed to long hikes, having spent considerable time huntingand exploring in the immediate vicinity of camp. A dozen times that daywas my life threatened by fearsome creatures of the earth or sky,though I could not but note that the farther north I traveled, thefewer were the great dinosaurs, though they still persisted in lessernumbers. On the other hand the quantity of ruminants and the varietyand frequency of carnivorous animals increased. Each square mile ofCaspak harbored its terrors.

  At intervals along the way I found bits of muslin, and often theyreassured me when otherwise I should have been doubtful of the trail totake where two crossed or where there were forks, as occurred atseveral points. And so, as night was drawing on, I came to thesouthern end of a line of cliffs loftier than any I had seen before,and as I approached them, there was wafted to my nostrils the pungentaroma of woodsmoke. What could it mean? There could, to my mind, bebut a single solution: man abided close by, a higher order of man thanwe had as yet seen, other than Ahm, the Neanderthal man. I wonderedagain as I had so many times that day if it had not been Ahm who stoleLys.

  Cautiously I approached the flank of the cliffs, where they terminatedin an abrupt escarpment as though some all powerful hand had broken offa great section of rock and set it upon the surface of the earth. Itwas now quite dark, and as I crept around the edge of the cliff, I sawat a little distance a great fire around which were manyfigures--apparently human figures. Cautioning Nobs to silence, and hehad learned many lessons in the value of obedience since we had enteredCaspak, I slunk forward, taking advantage of whatever cover I couldfind, until from behind a bush I could distinctly see the creaturesassembled by the fire. They were human and yet not human. I shouldsay that they were a little higher in the scale of evolution than Ahm,possibly occupying a place of evolution between that of the Neanderthalman and what is known as the Grimaldi race. Their features weredistinctly negroid, though their skins were white. A considerableportion of both torso and limbs were covered with short hair, and theirphysical proportions were in many aspects apelike, though not so muchso as were Ahm's. They carried themselves in a more erect position,although their arms were considerably longer than those of theNeanderthal man. As I watched them, I saw that they possessed alanguage, that they had knowledge of fire and that they carried besidesthe wooden club of Ahm, a thing which resembled a crude stone hatchet.Evidently they were very low in the scale of humanity, but they were astep upward from those I had previously seen in Caspak.

  But what interested me most was the slender figure of a dainty girl,clad only in a thin bit of muslin which scarce covered her knees--a bitof muslin torn and ragged about the lower hem. It was Lys, and she wasalive and so far as I could see, unharmed. A huge brute with thicklips and prognathous jaw stood at her shoulder. He was talking loudlyand gesticulating wildly. I was close enough to hear his words, whichwere similar to the language of Ahm, though much fuller, for there weremany words I could not understand. However I caught the gist of what hewas saying--which in effect was that he had found and captured thisGalu, that she was his and that he defied anyone to question his rightof possession. It appeared to me, as I afterward learned was the fact,that I was witnessing the most primitive of marriage ceremonies. Theassembled members of the tribe looked on and listened in a sort of dulland perfunctory apathy, for the speaker was by far the mightiest of theclan.

  There seemed no one to dispute his claims when he said, or rathershouted, in stentorian tones: "I am Tsa. This is my she. Who wishesher more than Tsa?"

  "I do," I said in the language of Ahm, and I stepped out into thefirelight before them. Lys gave a little cry of joy and started towardme, but Tsa grasped her arm and dragged her back.

  "Who are you?" shrieked Tsa. "I kill! I kill! I kill!"

  "The she is mine," I replied, "and I have come to claim her. I kill ifyou do not let her come to me." And I raised my pistol to a level withhis heart. Of course the creature had no conception of the purpose ofthe strange little implement which I was poking toward him. With asound that was half human and half the growl of a wild beast, he sprangtoward me. I aimed at his heart and fired, and as he sprawled headlongto the ground, the others of his tribe, overcome by fright at thereport of the pistol, scattered toward the cliffs--while Lys, withoutstretched arms, ran toward me.

  As I crushed her to me, there rose from the black night behind us andthen to our right and to our left a series of frightful screams andshrieks, bellowings, roars and growls. It was the night-life of thisjungle world coming into its own--the huge, carnivorous nocturnalbeasts which make the nights of Caspak hideous. A shuddering sob ranthrough Lys' figure. "O God," she cried, "give me the strength toendure, for his sake!" I saw that she was upon the verge of abreakdown, after all that she must have passed through of fear andhorror that day, and I tried to quiet and reassure her as best I might;but even to me the future looked most unpromising, for what chance oflife had we against the frightful hunters of the night who even nowwere prowling closer to us?

  Now I turned to see what had become of the tribe, and in the fitfulglare of the fire I perceived that the face of the cliff was pittedwith large holes into which the man-things were clambering. "Come," Isaid to Lys, "we must follow them. We cannot last a half-hour out here.We must find a cave." Already we could see the blazing green eyes ofthe hungry carnivora. I seized a brand from the fire and hurled it outinto the night, and there came back an answering chorus of savage andrageful protest; but the eyes vanished for a short time. Selecting aburning branch for each of us, we advanced toward the cliffs, where wewere met by angry threats.

  "They will kill us," said Lys. "We may as well keep on in search ofanother refuge."

  "They will not kill us so surely as will those others out there," Ireplied. "I am going to seek shelter in one of these caves; nor willthe man-things prevent." And I kept on in the direction of the cliff'sbase. A huge creature stood upon a ledge and brandished his stonehatchet. "Come and I will kill you and take the she," he boasted.

  "You saw how Tsa fared when he would have kept my she," I replied inhis own tongue. "Thus will you fare and al
l your fellows if you do notpermit us to come in peace among you out of the dangers of the night."

  "Go north," he screamed. "Go north among the Galus, and we will notharm you. Some day will we be Galus; but now we are not. You do notbelong among us. Go away or we will kill you. The she may remain ifshe is afraid, and we will keep her; but the he must depart."

  "The he won't depart," I replied, and approached still nearer. Roughand narrow ledges formed by nature gave access to the upper caves. Aman might scale them if unhampered and unhindered, but to clamberupward in the face of a belligerent tribe of half-men and with a girlto assist was beyond my capability.

  "I do not fear you," screamed the creature. "You were close to Tsa;but I am far above you. You cannot harm me as you harmed Tsa. Go away!"

  I placed a foot upon the lowest ledge and clambered upward, reachingdown and pulling Lys to my side. Already I felt safer. Soon we wouldbe out of danger of the beasts again closing in upon us. The man aboveus raised his stone hatchet above his head and leaped lightly down tomeet us. His position above me gave him a great advantage, or at leastso he probably thought, for he came with every show of confidence. Ihated to do it, but there seemed no other way, and so I shot him downas I had shot down Tsa.

  "You see," I cried to his fellows, "that I can kill you wherever youmay be. A long way off I can kill you as well as I can kill you nearby. Let us come among you in peace. I will not harm you if you do notharm us. We will take a cave high up. Speak!"

  "Come, then," said one. "If you will not harm us, you may come. TakeTsa's hole, which lies above you."

  The creature showed us the mouth of a black cave, but he kept at adistance while he did it, and Lys followed me as I crawled in toexplore. I had matches with me, and in the light of one I found asmall cavern with a flat roof and floor which followed the cleavage ofthe strata. Pieces of the roof had fallen at some long-distant date,as was evidenced by the depth of the filth and rubble in which theywere embedded. Even a superficial examination revealed the fact thatnothing had ever been attempted that might have improved the livabilityof the cavern; nor, should I judge, had it ever been cleaned out. Withconsiderable difficulty I loosened some of the larger pieces of brokenrock which littered the floor and placed them as a barrier before thedoorway. It was too dark to do more than this. I then gave Lys a pieceof dried meat, and sitting inside the entrance, we dined as must havesome of our ancient forbears at the dawning of the age of man, whilefar below the open diapason of the savage night rose weird andhorrifying to our ears. In the light of the great fire still burningwe could see huge, skulking forms, and in the blacker backgroundcountless flaming eyes.

  Lys shuddered, and I put my arm around her and drew her to me; and thuswe sat throughout the hot night. She told me of her abduction and ofthe fright she had undergone, and together we thanked God that she hadcome through unharmed, because the great brute had dared not pausealong the danger-infested way. She said that they had but just reachedthe cliffs when I arrived, for on several occasions her captor had beenforced to take to the trees with her to escape the clutches of somehungry cave-lion or saber-toothed tiger, and that twice they had beenobliged to remain for considerable periods before the beasts hadretired.

  Nobs, by dint of much scrambling and one or two narrow escapes fromdeath, had managed to follow us up the cliff and was now curled betweenme and the doorway, having devoured a piece of the dried meat, which heseemed to relish immensely. He was the first to fall asleep; but Iimagine we must have followed suit soon, for we were both tired. I hadlaid aside my ammunition-belt and rifle, though both were close besideme; but my pistol I kept in my lap beneath my hand. However, we werenot disturbed during the night, and when I awoke, the sun was shiningon the tree-tops in the distance. Lys' head had drooped to my breast,and my arm was still about her.

  Shortly afterward Lys awoke, and for a moment she could not seem tocomprehend her situation. She looked at me and then turned and glancedat my arm about her, and then she seemed quite suddenly to realize thescantiness of her apparel and drew away, covering her face with herpalms and blushing furiously. I drew her back toward me and kissedher, and then she threw her arms about my neck and wept softly in mutesurrender to the inevitable.

  It was an hour later before the tribe began to stir about. We watchedthem from our "apartment," as Lys called it. Neither men nor women woreany sort of clothing or ornaments, and they all seemed to be about ofan age; nor were there any babies or children among them. This was, tous, the strangest and most inexplicable of facts, but it recalled to usthat though we had seen many of the lesser developed wild people ofCaspak, we had never yet seen a child or an old man or woman.

  After a while they became less suspicious of us and then quite friendlyin their brutish way. They picked at the fabric of our clothing, whichseemed to interest them, and examined my rifle and pistol and theammunition in the belt around my waist. I showed them thethermos-bottle, and when I poured a little water from it, they weredelighted, thinking that it was a spring which I carried about withme--a never-failing source of water supply.

  One thing we both noticed among their other characteristics: they neverlaughed nor smiled; and then we remembered that Ahm had never done so,either. I asked them if they knew Ahm; but they said they did not.

  One of them said: "Back there we may have known him." And he jerkedhis head to the south.

  "You came from back there?" I asked. He looked at me in surprise.

  "We all come from there," he said. "After a while we go there." Andthis time he jerked his head toward the north. "Be Galus," heconcluded.

  Many times now had we heard this reference to becoming Galus. Ahm hadspoken of it many times. Lys and I decided that it was a sort oforiginal religious conviction, as much a part of them as their instinctfor self-preservation--a primal acceptance of a hereafter and a holierstate. It was a brilliant theory, but it was all wrong. I know itnow, and how far we were from guessing the wonderful, the miraculous,the gigantic truth which even yet I may only guess at--the thing thatsets Caspak apart from all the rest of the world far more definitelythan her isolated geographical position or her impregnable barrier ofgiant cliffs. If I could live to return to civilization, I should havemeat for the clergy and the layman to chew upon for years--and for theevolutionists, too.

  After breakfast the men set out to hunt, while the women went to alarge pool of warm water covered with a green scum and filled withbillions of tadpoles. They waded in to where the water was about afoot deep and lay down in the mud. They remained there from one to twohours and then returned to the cliff. While we were with them, we sawthis same thing repeated every morning; but though we asked them whythey did it we could get no reply which was intelligible to us. Allthey vouchsafed in way of explanation was the single word Ata. Theytried to get Lys to go in with them and could not understand why sherefused. After the first day I went hunting with the men, leaving mypistol and Nobs with Lys, but she never had to use them, for no reptileor beast ever approached the pool while the women were there--nor, sofar as we know, at other times. There was no spoor of wild beast inthe soft mud along the banks, and the water certainly didn't look fitto drink.

  This tribe lived largely upon the smaller animals which they bowledover with their stone hatchets after making a wide circle about theirquarry and driving it so that it had to pass close to one of theirnumber. The little horses and the smaller antelope they secured insufficient numbers to support life, and they also ate numerousvarieties of fruits and vegetables. They never brought in more thansufficient food for their immediate needs; but why bother? The foodproblem of Caspak is not one to cause worry to her inhabitants.

  The fourth day Lys told me that she thought she felt equal toattempting the return journey on the morrow, and so I set out for thehunt in high spirits, for I was anxious to return to the fort and learnif Bradley and his party had returned and what had been the result ofhis expedition. I also wanted to relieve their minds
as to Lys andmyself, as I knew that they must have already given us up for dead. Itwas a cloudy day, though warm, as it always is in Caspak. It seemedodd to realize that just a few miles away winter lay upon thestorm-tossed ocean, and that snow might be falling all about Caprona;but no snow could ever penetrate the damp, hot atmosphere of the greatcrater.

  We had to go quite a bit farther than usual before we could surround alittle bunch of antelope, and as I was helping drive them, I saw a finered deer a couple of hundred yards behind me. He must have been asleepin the long grass, for I saw him rise and look about him in abewildered way, and then I raised my gun and let him have it. Hedropped, and I ran forward to finish him with the long thin knife,which one of the men had given me; but just as I reached him, hestaggered to his feet and ran on for another two hundred yards--when Idropped him again. Once more was this repeated before I was able toreach him and cut his throat; then I looked around for my companions,as I wanted them to come and carry the meat home; but I could seenothing of them. I called a few times and waited, but there was noresponse and no one came. At last I became disgusted, and cutting offall the meat that I could conveniently carry, I set off in thedirection of the cliffs. I must have gone about a mile before thetruth dawned upon me--I was lost, hopelessly lost.

  The entire sky was still completely blotted out by dense clouds; norwas there any landmark visible by which I might have taken my bearings.I went on in the direction I thought was south but which I now imaginemust have been about due north, without detecting a single familiarobject. In a dense wood I suddenly stumbled upon a thing which atfirst filled me with hope and later with the most utter despair anddejection. It was a little mound of new-turned earth sprinkled withflowers long since withered, and at one end was a flat slab ofsandstone stuck in the ground. It was a grave, and it meant for me thatI had at last stumbled into a country inhabited by human beings. Iwould find them; they would direct me to the cliffs; perhaps they wouldaccompany me and take us back with them to their abodes--to the abodesof men and women like ourselves. My hopes and my imagination ran riotin the few yards I had to cover to reach that lonely grave and stoopthat I might read the rude characters scratched upon the simpleheadstone. This is what I read:

  HERE LIES JOHN TIPPET ENGLISHMAN KILLED BY TYRANNOSAURUS 10 SEPT., A.D. 1916 R. I. P.

  Tippet! It seemed incredible. Tippet lying here in this gloomy wood!Tippet dead! He had been a good man, but the personal loss was notwhat affected me. It was the fact that this silent grave gave evidencethat Bradley had come this far upon his expedition and that he tooprobably was lost, for it was not our intention that he should be longgone. If I had stumbled upon the grave of one of the party, was it notwithin reason to believe that the bones of the others lay scatteredsomewhere near?