| 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 |
| 1 | 20 | 40 | 59 | 79 |
|
www.freeclassicebooks.com
Friendless and alone, hunted through the dark labyrinths of this savage
community, I seldom have felt more helpless than at that moment; yet far
transcending any fear which I may have felt for my own safety was my concern
for that of Ajor. What fate had befallen her? Where was she, and in whose
power? That I should live to learn the answers to these queries I doubted; but
that I should face death gladly in the attempt--of that I was certain. And why?
With all my concern for the welfare of my friends who had accompanied me to
Caprona, and of my best friend of all, Bowen J. Tyler, Jr., I never yet had
experienced the almost paralyzing fear for the safety of any other creature which
now threw me alternately into a fever of despair and into a cold sweat of
apprehension as my mind dwelt upon the fate on one bit of half-savage femininity
of whose very existence even I had not dreamed a few short weeks before.
What was this hold she had upon me? Was I bewitched, that my mind refused to
function sanely, and that judgment and reason were dethroned by some mad
sentiment which I steadfastly refused to believe was love? I had never been in
love. I was not in love now--the very thought was preposterous. How could I,
Thomas Billings, the right-hand man of the late Bowen J. Tyler, Sr., one of
America's foremost captains of industry and the greatest man in California, be in
love with a--a--the word stuck in my throat; yet by my own American standards
Ajor could be nothing else; at home, for all her beauty, for all her delicately tinted
skin, little Ajor by her apparel, by the habits and customs and manners of her
people, by her life, would have been classed a squaw. Tom Billings in love with a
squaw! I shuddered at the thought.
And then there came to my mind, in a sudden, brilliant flash upon the screen of
recollection the picture of Ajor as I had last seen her, and I lived again the
delicious moment in which we had clung to one another, lips smothering lips, as I
left her to go to the council hall of Al-tan; and I could have kicked myself for the
snob and the cad that my thoughts had proven me--me, who had always prided
myself that I was neither the one nor the other!
These things ran through my mind as Nobs and I made our way through the dark
village, the voices and footsteps of those who sought us still in our ears. These
and many other things, nor could I escape the incontrovertible fact that the little
figure round which my recollections and my hopes entwined themselves was that
of Ajor--beloved barbarian! My reveries were broken in upon by a hoarse whisper
from the black interior of a hut past which we were making our way. My name
was called in a low voice, and a man stepped out beside me as I halted with
raised knife. It was Chal-az.
"Quick!" he warned. "In here! It is my hut, and they will not search it."
6
3
Page
Quick Jump
|