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might escape the fate which had been planned for me. And while I was thus
engaged and had for the moment forgotten my apprehensions concerning
prowling beasts, I was startled into tense silence by a distinct and unmistakable
sound coming from the dark corridor farther toward the heart of the cliff--the
sound of padded feet moving stealthily in my direction.
I believe that never before in all my life, even amidst the terrors of childhood
nights, have I suffered such a sensation of extreme horror as I did that moment
in which I realized that I must lie bound and helpless while some horrid beast of
prey crept upon me to devour me in that utter darkness of the Bandlu pits of
Caspak. I reeked with cold sweat, and my flesh crawled--I could feel it crawl. If
ever I came nearer to abject cowardice, I do not recall the instance; and yet it was
not that I was afraid to die, for I had long since given myself up as lost--a few
days of Caspak must impress anyone with the utter nothingness of life. The
waters, the land, the air teem with it, and always it is being devoured by some
other form of life. Life is the cheapest thing in Caspak, as it is the cheapest thing
on earth and, doubtless, the cheapest cosmic production. No, I was not afraid to
die; in fact, I prayed for death, that I might be relieved of the frightfulness of the
interval of life which remained to me--the waiting, the awful waiting, for that
fearsome beast to reach me and to strike.
Presently it was so close that I could hear its breathing, and then it touched me
and leaped quickly back as though it had come upon me unexpectedly. For long
moments no sound broke the sepulchral silence of the cave. Then I heard a
movement on the part of the creature near me, and again it touched me, and I felt
something like a hairless hand pass over my face and down until it touched the
collar of my flannel shirt. And then, subdued, but filled with pent emotion, a
voice cried: "Tom!"
I think I nearly fainted, so great was the reaction. "Ajor!" I managed to say.
"
Ajor, my girl, can it be you?"
"Oh, Tom!" she cried again in a trembly little voice and flung herself upon me,
sobbing softly. I had not known that Ajor could cry.
As she cut away my bonds, she told me that from the entrance to our cave she
had seen the Band-lu coming out of the forest with me, and she had followed
until they took me into the cave, which she had seen was upon the opposite side
of the cliff in which ours was located; and then, knowing that she could do
nothing for me until after the Band-lu slept, she had hastened to return to our
cave. With difficulty she had reached it, after having been stalked by a cave-lion
and almost seized. I trembled at the risk she had run.
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