Shortly after they had settled themselves they heard something
descending the ladder from above. They hoped that it would continue on
down the well and fairly held their breath as the sound approached the
door to the storeroom. Their hearts sank as they heard the door open
and from between cracks in the vessels behind which they hid saw a
yellow-slashed Wieroo enter the room. Each recognized him immediately,
the girl indicating the fact of her own recognition by a sudden
pressure of her fingers on Bradley's arm. It was the Wieroo of the
yellow slashing whose abode was the place of the yellow door in which
Bradley had first seen the girl.
The creature carried a wooden bowl which it filled with dried food from
several of the vessels; then it turned and quit the room. Bradley
could see through the partially open doorway that it descended the
ladder. The girl told him that it was taking the food to the women and
the young below, and that while it might return immediately, the
chances were that it would remain for some time.
"We are just below the place of the yellow door," she said. "It is far
from the edge of the city; so far that we may not hope to escape if we
ascend to the roofs here."
"I think," replied the man, "that of all the places in Oo-oh this will
be the easiest to escape from. Anyway, I want to return to the place
of the yellow door and get my pistol if it is there."
"It is still there," replied, the girl. "I saw it placed in a chest
where he keeps the things he takes from his prisoners and victims."
"Good!" exclaimed Bradley. "Now come, quickly." And the two crossed
the room to the well and ascended the ladder a short distance to its
top where they found another door that opened into a vacant room--the
same in which Bradley had first met the girl. To find the pistol was a
matter of but a moment's search on the part of Bradley's companion; and
then, at the Englishman's signal, she followed him to the yellow door.
It was quite dark without as the two entered the narrow passage between
two buildings. A few steps brought them undiscovered to the doorway of
the storeroom where lay the body of Fosh-bal-soj. In the distance,
toward the temple, they could hear sounds as of a great gathering of
Wieroos--the peculiar, uncanny wailing rising above the dismal flapping
of countless wings.
"They have heard of the killing of Him Who Speaks for Luata," whispered
the girl. "Soon they will spread in all directions searching for us."
"And will they find us?"
"As surely as Lua gives light by day," she replied; "and when they find
us, they will tear us to pieces, for only the Wieroos may murder--only
they may practice tas-ad."
"But they will not kill you," said Bradley. "You did not slay him."
"It will make no difference," she insisted. "If they find us together
they will slay us both."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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