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warriors." And I waved my left hand toward the tiny figures of the hunters far to
the north.
The fellow laughed. "Do it," he cried derisively, "and then it may be that I shall
believe the balance of your strange story."
"But I do not wish to kill any of them," I replied. "Why should I?"
"Why not?" he insisted. "They would have killed you when they had you prisoner.
They would kill you now if they could get their hands on you, and they would eat
you into the bargain. But I know why you do not try it--it is because you have
spoken lies; your weapon will not kill at a great distance. It is only a queerly
wrought club. For all I know, you are nothing more than a lowly Bo-lu."
"Why should you wish me to kill your own people?" I asked.
"
They are no longer my people," he replied proudly. "Last night, in the very
middle of the night, the call came to me. Like that it came into my head"--and he
struck his hands together smartly once--"that I had risen. I have been waiting for
it and expecting it for a long time; today I am a Krolu. Today I go into the
coslupak" (unpeopled country, or literally, no man's land) "between the Band-lu
and the Kro-lu, and there I fashion my bow and my arrows and my shield; there I
hunt the red deer for the leathern jerkin which is the badge of my new estate.
When these things are done, I can go to the chief of the Kro-lu, and he dare not
refuse me. That is why you may kill those low Band-lu if you wish to live, for I
am in a hurry.
"
But why do you wish to kill me?" I asked.
He looked puzzled and finally gave it up. "I do not know," he admitted. "It is the
way in Caspak. If we do not kill, we shall be killed, therefore it is wise to kill first
whomever does not belong to one's own people. This morning I hid in my cave till
the others were gone upon the hunt, for I knew that they would know at once
that I had become a Kro-lu and would kill me. They will kill me if they find me in
the coslupak; so will the Kro-lu if they come upon me before I have won my Kro-
lu weapons and jerkin. You would kill me if you could, and
that is the reason I know that you speak lies when you say that your weapons
will kill at a great distance. Would they, you would long since have killed me.
Come! I have no more time to waste in words. I will spare the woman and take
her with me to the Kro-lu, for she is comely." And with that he advanced upon
me with raised spear.
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