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"You cannot go back," she said. "It is forbidden. They would kill you. Thus far

have you come--there is no returning."

But I must return," I insisted. "My people are there. I must return and lead

them in this direction."

She insisted, and I insisted; but at last we compromised. I was to escort her as

far as the country of the Kro-lu and then I was to go back after my own people

and lead them north into a land where the dangers were fewer and the people less

murderous. She brought me all my belongings that had been filched from me--

rifle, ammunition, knife, and thermos bottle, and then hand in hand we

descended the cliff and set off toward the north.

For three days we continued upon our way, until we arrived outside a village of

thatched huts just at dusk. So-ta said that she would enter alone; I must not be

seen if I did not intend to remain, as it was forbidden that one should return and

live after having advanced this far. So she left me. She was a dear girl and a

stanch and true comrade--more like a man than a woman. In her simple

barbaric way she was both refined and chaste. She had been the wife of To-jo.

Among the Kro-lu she would find another mate after the manner of the strange

Caspakian world; but she told me very frankly that whenever I returned, she

would leave her mate and come to me, as she preferred me above all others. I

was becoming a ladies' man after a lifetime of bashfulness!

At the outskirts of the village I left her without even seeing the sort of people who

inhabited it, and set off through the growing darkness toward the south. On the

third day I made a detour westward to avoid the country of the Band-lu, as I did

not care to be detained by a meeting with To-jo. On the sixth day I came to the

cliffs of the Sto-lu, and my heart beat fast as I approached them, for here was

Lys. Soon I would hold her tight in my arms again; soon her warm lips would

merge with mine. I felt sure that she was still safe among the hatchet people, and

I was already picturing the joy and the love-light in her eyes when she should see

me once more as I emerged from the last clump of trees and almost ran toward

the cliffs.

It was late in the morning. The women must have returned from the pool; yet as I

drew near, I saw no sign of life whatever. "They have remained longer," I thought;

but when I was quite close to the base of the cliffs, I saw that which dashed my

hopes and my happiness to earth. Strewn along the ground were a score of mute

and horrible suggestions of what had taken place during my absence--bones

picked clean of flesh, the bones of manlike creatures, the bones of many of the

tribe of Sto-lu; nor in any cave was there sign of life.

The Land That Time Forgot