Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 2 — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

190 “Not yet, Swift Runner. First must I go to my cave for my weapons; we cannot start with empty hands—there are beasts to bar the way, and food we must have on the journey. You must spend this night in your father’s cave, and to-morrow we will slip away to the Land of the Dying Sun— and I cannot leave the Star-Marked One; she will bring us good fortune on the jour- ney and in our new home.” ‘But En-ro, my love, if they take me to-night? You know the victim must pass seven days and seven nights in the Cave of Purification, and the altar waits!” “T think they will not take you to-night. The priests are weary from their labors, and they will sleep and rest; none will wish to guard the cave, and I think they will wait until to-morrow night—and we shall be gone.” “T am afraid! Could I not wait here till you return with ax and throwing-stick and darts?” “The Fear That Walks the Night is abroad.” ‘“T could sleep in the tree; there are many wide branches.” “The Devils of the Air are abroad; I have heard the flutter of their wings.” The girl shuddered and clung to her lover. “Oh!” she cried, “‘ not that! Not that! Better the altar on the mountain-top and by body to the wild beasts. I will return to my father’s cave. But—but—oh, Carver of Tusks, kiss me once again. And if I am not at the tree to-morrow at dusk—if I am guarded in the Cave of Purification; if my soul goes to the gods from the great altar— En-ro, you will not forget Va-m’rai?” The young man kissed and soothed the frightened, trembling girl. ; ‘“Va-m’rai, by the Greatest One, Great Father of the tribe of the Ta-an, I swear no harm shall come nigh you,” he said. “ I will take you from the very altar, from the hands -of the priests, if need be, and if I cannot—if I should fail—then by the Star- Marked One, the friend of lovers, | swear that my soul shall follow your into the Long Dark!” And he kissed her again, while she clung to him, weeping, like a child who wakes in the night. THE ARGOSY. ‘* Now come,” said En-ro at length. “ We must return. Be at this spot when again the sun sinks behind the hills, and we will either make our way to the Land of the Dying Sun or else, perhaps, live by our- selves in the forest, as did Snorr, your father, when first he took A-ai from the Forest People.” So hand in hand the young man and the girl took their way down the path and through the ravine. Once they stopped while En-ro turned over the body of the negro he had crushed with the rock, to make sure that the man was dead, and they passed on, turning as they left the ravine and walking along the side of the hill to- ward the homes of the Ta-an, the Mountain Cave People. Presently they stepped from the forest to the open space about the caves, and as they did so a voice cried: “Found! Found! Here is the victim!” and there came a rush of feet, and shouts arose: ‘To the Cave! To the Cave of Purifica- tion! The victim to the Cave! Let her not escape!” And the two were assailed on all sides by scoresof tribesmen and priests, who tore Va-m’rai from her lover’s grasp and hurried her away up the slope of the mountain, struggling with all her might, screaming, biting, striking—useless. Again and again En-ro was flung back, fighting savagely, and the crowd swept over him; he was unarmed. Cut, , stabbed, braised, beaten with clubs, torn and breath- less, he lay on the ground, and the crowd trampled him as he lay, and even as his senses left him the last thing he heard was Va’m’'rai’s despairing cry: “ En-ro! © Save me! Save—” crash as the huge rock rolled into place, closing against all hope the mouth of the terrible, the fatal Cave of Purification. CHAPTER II. FLIGHT AND PURSUIT. HEN the Carver of Tusks came to himself again the big, round, yellow moon was setting, and he knew that the dawn was near. The chill of the night had COPMICLOOOKS Cut short by the splintering. (C@