Amazing Stories, Vol. 2, No. 1 — page 93: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

are Fre nee ee Siete ae meres ite: a - t ‘ wey \ *. by 3 ? 92 ’ foot of the hill on which they stood, nor was there a tree or any other form of shelter between them and the water as far up and down the coast as they could see. Among other plans Bradley had thought of constructing a covered raft upon which they might drift to the mainland; but as such a contriv- ance would necessarily be of considerable weight, it must be built in the water of the sea, since they could not hope to move it even a short distance over- land. “If this wood was only at the edge of the water,” he sighed. “But it is not,” the girl reminded him, and then: “Tet us make the best of it. We have escaped from death for a time at least. We have food and good water and peace and each other. What more could we have upon the mainland?” “But I thought you wanted to get back to your own country!” he exclaimed. She cast her eyes upon the ground and half turned away. “I do,” she said, “yet I am happy here. I could be little happier there.” Bradley stood in silent thought. ‘‘We have food and good water and peace and each other!” he re- ' peated to himself. He turned then and looked at the girl, and it was as though in the days that they had been together this was the first time that he had really seen her. The circumstances that had thrown them together, the danger through which they had passed, all the weird and horrible surroundings that had formed the background of his knowledge of her had had their effect—she had been but the com- panion of an adventure; her self-reliance, her en- durance, her loyalty, had been only what one man might expect of another, and he saw that he had unconsciously assumed an attitude toward her that he might have assumed toward a man. Yet there had been a difference—he recalled now the strange sensation of elation that had thrilled him upon the occasions when the girl had pressed his hand in hers, and the depression that had followed her an- nouncement of her love for An-tak. He took a step toward her. A fierce yearning to seize her and crush her in his arms, swept over him, and then there flashed upon the screen of recollec- tion the picture of a stately hall set amidst broad gardens and ancient trees and of a proud old man with beetling brows—an old man who held his head very high—and Bradley shook his head and turned away again. They went back then to their little acre, and the days came and went, and the man fashioned spear and bow and arrows and hunted with them that they might have meat, and he made hooks of fish-bone and caught fishes with wondrous flies of his own in- vention: and the girl gathered fruits and cooked the flesh and the fish and made beds of branches and soft grasses. She cured the hides of the animals he killed and made them soft by much pounding. She made sandals for herself and for the man and fashioned a hide after the manner of those worn by the warriors of her tribe and made the man wear it, for his own garments were in rags. She was always the same—sweet and kind and helpful—but always there was about her manner and her expression just a trace of wistfulness, and often she sat and looked at the man when he did not oe aarti es aa eI . Re iat AMAZING STORIES know it, her brows puckered in thought as though She were trying to fathom and to understand him. In the face of the cliff, Bradley scooped a cave from the rotted granite of which the hill was com- posed, making a shelter for them against the rains. He brought wood for their cook-fire which they used only in the middle of the day—a time when there was little likelihood of Wieroos being in the Eee een See I ay EE Be te eat ade. ee: MS ~< air so far from their city—and then he learned to . _ bank it with earth in such a way that the embers held until the following noon without giving off smoke. Always he was planning on reaching the main- land, and never a day passed that he did not go to the top of the hill and look out across the sea to- ward the dark, distant line that ineant for him com- parative freedom and possibly reunion with his comrades. The girl always went with him, stand- ing at his side and watching the stern expression on his face with just a tinge of sadness on her own. ' “You are not happy,” she said once. “T should be over there with my men,” he replied. “I do not know what may have happened to them.” “T want you to be happy,” she said quite simply; “but I should be very lonely if you went away and left me here.” He put his hand on her shoulder. do that, little girl,” he said gently. go with me, I shall not go. go alone, it will be you.” Her face lighted to a wondrous smile. “Then we shall not be separated,” she said, “for I shall never leave you as long as we both live.” He looked down into her face for a moment and then: “Who was An-Tak?” he asked. “My brother,” she replied. “Why?” And then, even less than before, could. he tell her. It was then that he did something he had never done before—he put his arms about her and stoop- ing, kissed her forehead. ‘Until you find An-Tak,” he said, “I will be your brother.” She drew away. “I already have a brother,” she said, “and I do not want another.” CHAPTER V AYS became weeks, and weeks became months, and the months followed one an- other in a lazy procession of hot, humid days and warm, humid nights. The fugitives saw never a Wieroo by day though often at night they heard the melancholy flapping of giant wings far above them. Each day was much like its predecessor. Brad- ley splashed about for a few minutes in the cold pool early each morning and after a time the girl tried it and liked it. Toward the center it was deep enough for swimming, and so he taught her to swim—she was probably the first human being in all Caspak’s long ages who had done this thing. And then while she prepared breakfast, the man shaved—this he never neglected. At first it was a source of wonderment to the girl, for the Galu men are beardless. When they needed meat, he hunted, otherwise he “T would not “Tf you cannot If either of us must busied himself in improving their shelter, making — new and better weapons, perfecting his knowledge of the girl’s language and teaching her to speak and GOMIEDOOKS.co