Part 2 (2/2)
Night had fallen upon unchartered Pal-ul-don A slender moon, low in the west, bathed the white faces of the chalk cliffs presented to her, in a low Black were the shadows in Kor-ul-JA, Gorge-of-lions, where dwelt the tribe of the same name under Es-sat, their chief From an aperture near the sued-the head and shoulders first-and fierce eyes scanned the cliff side in every direction
It was Es-sat, the chief To right and left and below he looked as though to assure hiure moved upon the cliff face, nor did another hairy body protrude fro abode of the chief to the habitations of the more lowly members of the tribe nearer the cliff's base Then he moved outward upon the sheer face of the white chalk wall In the half-light of the baby ure moved across the face of the perpendicular wall in some miraculous s, as large around as afrom holes in the cliff into which they were driven Es-sat's four handlike , sinuous tail perantic rat upon a ressed upon his way he avoided the caveeither above or below those that lay in his path
The outward appearance of these caves was si by eight high and four to six feet deep was cut into the chalklike rock of the cliff, in the back of this large opening, which forht be described as the front veranda of the hoh, evidently for the doorway to the interior apartment or aparts which it were easy to assuht find their way to the inhabitants Similar ere also dotted over the cliff face between the entrance porches, suggesting that the entire face of the cliff was honeycombed with apartments From many of these smaller apertures small streams of water trickled down the escarpment, and the walls above others was blackened as by smoke Where the water ran the as eroded to a depth of fro that soreen carpet of vegetation below for ages
In this pri discord for he was as rew upon the su the dank ferns in the bottoe
Now he paused before an entrance-way and listened and then, noiselessly as the ed with the shadows of the outer porch At the doorway leading into the interior he paused again, listening, and then quietly pushi+ng aside the heavy skin that covered the aperture he passed within a large chah another doorway, shone a light, dimly Toward this he crept with ut forth no sound The knotted club that had been hanging at his back fro about his neck he now removed and carried in his left hand
Beyond the second dooras a corridor running parallel with the cliff face In this corridor were three more doorways, one at each end and a third al from an apart flame rose and fell in a small stone receptacle that stood upon a table or bench of the same material, a monolithic bench fashi+oned at the ti massively from the floor, of which it was a part
In one corner of the room beyond the table had been left a dais of stone about four feet wide and eight feet long Upon this were piled a foot or so of softly tanned pelts froe of this dais sat a young female Waz-don In one hand she held a thin piece of es, and in the other a short, stiff brush With these she was occupied in going over her slossy coat which bore a remarkable resemblance to plucked sealskin Her loin cloth of yellow and black striped JATO-skin lay on the couch beside her with the circular breastplates of beaten gold, revealing the syure in all its beauty and harh the creature was jet black and entirely covered with hair yet she was undeniably beautiful
That she was beautiful in the eyes of Es-sat, the chief, was evidenced by the gloating expression upon his fierce countenance and the increased rapidity of his breathing Moving quickly forward he entered the roo she looked up Instantly her eyes filled with terror and as quickly she seized the loin cloth and with a few deft athered up her breastplates Es-sat rounded the table and moved quickly toward her
”What do you want?” she whispered, though she knew full well
”Pan-at-lee,” he said, ”your chief has come for you”
”It was for this that you sent away my father and my brothers to spy upon the Kor-ul-lul? I will not have you Leave the cave of my ancestors!”
Es-sat s and wicked man who knows his power-not a pleasant smile at all ”I will leave, Pan-at-lee,” he said; ”but you shall go with me-to the cave of Es-sat, the chief, to be the envied of the shes of Kor-ul-JA Come!”
”Never!” cried Pan-at-lee ”I hate you Sooner would I mate with a Ho-don than with you, beater of wohtful scowl distorted the features of the chief ”She-JATO!” he cried ”I will tame you! I will break you! Es-sat, the chief, takes what he will and who dares question his right, or combat his least purpose, will first serve that purpose and then be broken as I break this,” and he picked a stone platter froht have been first and most favored in the cave of the ancestors of Es-sat; but now shall you be last and least and when I a to all of the men of Es-sat's cave Thus for those who spurn the love of their chief!”
He advanced quickly to seize her and as he laid a rough hand upon her she struck hiolden breastplates Without a sound Es-sat, the chief, sank to the floor of the apartment For a moment Pan-at-lee bent over hiain should he show signs of returning consciousness, her glossy breasts rising and falling with her quickened breathing Suddenly she stooped and removed Es-sat's knife with its scabbard and shoulder belt Slipping it over her own shoulder she quickly adjusted her breastplates and keeping a watchful glance upon the figure of the fallen chief, backed from the room
In a niche in the outer roo to the balcony, were neatly piled a nuth Selecting five of these she made them into a little bundle about which she twined the lower extre the herself that there was none about to see, or hinder her, she took quickly to the pegs already set in the face of the cliff and with the celerity of a s which she followed in the direction of the lower end of the gorge for a matter of some hundred yards Here, above her head, were a series of small round holes placed one above another in three parallel rows Clinging only with her toes she res fro one in either hand she inserted them in two opposite holes of the outer rows as far above her as she could reach Hanging by these new holds she now took one of the three rerasped securely in her tail Reaching above her with thisin one of the holes of the center row and then, alternately hanging by her tail, her feet, or her hands, sheher stairith her as she ascended
At the sunarled tree exposed its ti the last step fro This was the last avenue of escape for members of the tribe hard pressed by eneency exits froe and it were death to use theency This Pan-at-lee well knew; but she knew, too, that it orse than death to reht lay hands upon her
When she had gained the suh the darkness in the direction of the next gorge which cut the e-of-water, Kor-ul-lul, to which her father and two brothers had been sent by Es-sat ostensibly to spy upon the neighboring tribe There was a chance, a slender chance, that she ht find them; if not there was the deserted Kor-ul-GRYF several ht hide indefinitely frohtful e derived its name and whose presence there had rendered its caves uninhabitable for generations
Pan-at-lee crept stealthily along the rim of the Kor-ul-lul Just where her father and brothers would watch she did not know Sometimes their spies ree's bottoo She felt very sht Strange noises fell upon her ears They ca mountains above her, from far away in the invisible valley and from the nearer foothills and once, in the distance, she heard what she thought was the bellow of a bull GRYF It came from the direction of the Kor-ul-GRYF She shuddered
Presently there ca approached her along the ri fro Perhaps it was her father, or a brother It was coh the darkness She did not move-she scarcely breathed And then, of a sudden, quite close it seereen spots of fire
Pan-at-lee was brave, but as alith the primitive, the darkness held infinite terrors for her Not alone the terrors of the known but htful ones as well-those of the unknown She had passed through hest pitch-raw, taut nerves, they were, ready to react in an exaggerated forht shock To hope for a father and a brother and to see death instead glaring out of the darkness! Yes, Pan-at-lee was brave, but she was not of iron With a shriek that reverberated a the rim of Kor-ul-lul and behind her, swiftly, came the devil-eyed lion of the mountains of Pal-ul-don