THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, MAY 28, 1916.
w back over Nat-ul's shoulder, cleaving raced Tur. but the girl knew that once she she might to await what the Immediate aealed Nat-ul's eyes again only in time to
the air downward toward the man's head.
Tur, realizing his danger, leaped back,
but the point Of the blade struck his fore
head a glancing blow. The man reeled
drunkenly for a second, stumbled forward,
and fell full upon his face on the wet sand.
The instant that the blade touched her
tormentor Nat-ul dropped the paddle.
dodged past the man, and scurried like a
reached the tangled vegetation of the for
est it would take a better man than Tur
to catch her.
Straight into the mazes of the wood
she plunged, sometimes keeping to the
ground and again running through the
lower branches of the trees.
All day she fled, scarce halting for food
or drink, for several times from the eleva-
future might hold for her. show the distracted girl a momentary
She heard the beast growl angrily as it glance of her lover disappearing into Gion's
frightened deer toward the black shadows tions of the foothills and the mountains
of the jungle above the beach. that she traversed after leaving the jungle
The next great roller washed in across she saw the man sticking to her trail. It
the nrostrate form of Tur. It rolled htm was dark when she came at last to a pre-
paced along the brow of the cliff above
her, now stopping occasionally to lower
its nose over the edge and sniff at her, and
again reaching down a mighty paw whose
great talons clawed desperately to seize
her, sweeping but a few inches above her
head.
For an hour or more this lasted until
the hungry cat, baffled and disgruntled,
wandered away into the jungle in search
of other prey, voicing his anger as he
Nat-ul felt along the ledge to right and
over, and as it raced back toward the sea cipitous gulf, dropping how far she could went in deep-throated roars.
it dragged him with it; but the water re- not guess.
rived him. and he came coughing and Below and as far as her eyes could
struggling to his hands and knees, cling- reach all was impenetrable darkness,
ing desperately to life until the waters re- About her beasts wandered restlessly in
ceded, leaving him in momentary safety, search of prey. She caught their scent
Slowly he staggered to his feet and and heard their dismal moaning or the
made his way up the beach beyond the thunder of their titanic roaring,
reach of the greedy seas. Could he have 4-
laid his hands upon Nat-ul then she would That the cliff upon the verge of which
have died beneath his choking fingers, she' had halted just in time to avert a
Tint h did not lav hands upon her. for plunge into its unknown depths was a
cave with an arm about the woman's
w aist.
Nat-ul sprang to her feet.
Tears of rage, jealousy, and mortifica
tion blinded her eyes. She seized the krtife
that lay hi her girdle. Murder flamed hot
in her wild, young heart as she stepped
boldly out upon the ledge.
She took a few hurried steps in the di
rection of the cave which held Nu and
Gron. To the very threshold she went,
and then, of a sudden, she paused.
Some new emotion seized her. A flood
left with her fingers. The surface of the 0f hot tears welled once more to her eyes
rock was weather-worn, but not polished tears of anguish and hurt love this
as would have been true were the ledge time.
the accustomed pathway of padded feet. she tried to force herself within the
The girl felt a sense of relief in this cave, but pride held her back. Then sor.
discovery at least she was not upon the rowfully she turned away and descended
well-beaten trail leading to the lair of the cliff face. As she went her speed in-
some wild beast, or connecting the cliff
top with the valley below.
Slowly and cautiously she wormed her
Nat-ul was already safely ensconced in a high one she was sure from the volume of way along the ledge, searching for a
tree just within the shadows of the jungle.
Until daylight she was as safe there
from Tur as though a thousand miles sep
arated them. A half hour later Nu and
Gron. a mile farther inland, were clamber
ing into another tree. Ah, if Nat-ul could
have but known it, what doubt, despair
and suffering she might have been spared!
Tur ran down the beach in the direc
the night noises that came up to her from
below, mellowed by distance.
Wat should she do? The summit of
the escarpment was nude of trees In so far
uo sue could judge in the darkness at
least she had not recently passed through
any sort of forest.
To sleep in the open would be danger
ous in the extreme, probably fatal. To
wider and more comfortable projection,
but the ledge only narrowed as she pro
ceeded. Having ventured thus far the girl de
cided to prosecute her search until she
discovered a spot where she might sleep
in comparative safety and comfort. As
no place seemed to exist at the level at
which she was, she determined to de-
in which he thought that he heard risk the descent of an unknown precipice 8cend a way
tous.
Nat-ul crouched upon the brink of the
tion
the sound of the fleeing Nat-ul. Yes, there at night might prove equally as calami-
she was. Tur redoubled his speed.
His quarry was just beneath a tree at
the edge of the jungle. The man leaped
forward with an exclamation of savage
satisfaction-that died upon his lips,
frozen by the horrid roar of a lion.
Tur turned and fled. The thing he had
thought was Nat-ul proved to be a hugB
cave lion standing over the corpse of its
kill.
Fortunate for Tur was It that the beast
already had its supper before it. It did not
pursue the frightened man. and so Tur
reached the safety of a near-by tree, where and slept. She would risk it.
She lowered her feet over the ledge,
groping with her sandaled toes along the
rough surface below her. Finally she
abyss, at a loss as to her future steps. She found a Baf e projection to w hich she de
was alone, a woman, practically unarmed,
in a strange and savage land. Hope that
she might ever return to her own people
seemed futile.
How, indeed, could she accomplish it,
followed by enemies and surrounded by
unknown dangers?
She was very hungry and thirsty and
sleepy. She would have given almost her
last chance for succor to have lain down
creased until by the time she reached the
level before the forest she was flying like
a deer from the scene of her greatest
sorrow.
On through the woods she ran, heed
less of every menace that might lurlc
within its wild shadows.
Beyond the wood she came upon a lit
tle plain that seemed te end at the edge
of a declivity some distance ahead of her.
Beyond, in the far distance, she could see
the tops of mountains rising through a
mist that floated over an intervening val
ley. She would keep on.
She cared not what lay ahead, only that
at each step she was putting a greater
distance between" herself and the faith
less Nu. the hateful Gron. That was all
that counted to get away where none
For half an hour Nat-ul searched
through the pitch black night upon the
steep cliff-face until accident led her grop
ing feet to the mouth of a cave a darker m,nt ever find her- to court death, to
he crouched, shaking and trembling,
throughout the balance of the night.
Tur was a Boat Builder and a fisher
manhe was not of the stock of Nu and
Nat-ul, the hunters of "savage beasts, the
vrecursors of warrior nations yet unborn.
CHAPTER XV.
The Other Woman.
IT WAS late in the morning when Nat
ul awoke. She peered through the
Drawing her shaggy robe about her,
Nat-ul stretched herself upon the hard
earth at the top of the precipice. She
closed her eyes, and sleep would have in
stantly claimed her had not a stealthy
noise a short distance away caused her to
come to startled wakefulness.
Something was creeping upon her
death in some form, she was positive.
Even now she heard the heavy breathing
of a large animal,' and although the wind
blot upon the darkness of the cliff. For a
moment she listened attentively at the
somber opening.
No sound of breathing within came to
her keen ears.
Satisfied that the cave was untenanted,
Nat-ul crawled boldly in and lay down
to sleep, exhausted by her day of flight.
A scraping sound upon the cliff-face
awakened Nat-ul. She raised herself upon
an elbow and listened attentively.
What was it that could make that par
ticular noise?
It required but an instant for her to
recognize it a sound familiar since in
fancy to the Cliff Dwellers. It was the
trailing of the butt of a spear as it dan
welcome the end that one need never seek
for long in that savage, primeval world.
She had crossed half the clearing, per
haps, when the head of a bull aurochs
appeared topping the crest of the gulf
ahead.
The brute paused to look at the woman.
He lowered his head and bellowed. Di
rectly behind him appeared auother and
another.
Ordinarily the aurochs was a harmless
beast, fighting only when forced to it in
self-defense; but an occasional bull there
was that developed bellicose tendencies
that made discretion upon the side of an
unarmed human the better part of valor.
Nat-ul paused, measuring the distance
foliage in every direction, but could see no was blowing between them she caught the ged from it3 rawhide thong down tne between herself and the bull and herself
. i., j.onHoi tn nunerent odor of a erreat cat.
sign oi iur. i.iiuuuuoij ctiid ucvnuu .
the ground, fpon the beach, not far sep- There was but a single alternative to
arated, she saw two boats. remaining and surrendering herself to the
m li . nftH th other belong? claws and fangs of the carnivore, nor did
Naturally to some of the Boat Builders
Then there were other enemies upon the
island besides Tur. She looked up and
down the beach.
There was no sign of man or beast.
If she could but reach the boats she
could push them both through the surf,
Nat-ul hesitate in accepting it.
With the speed of a swift she lowered
herself over the edge of the cliff, her feet
dangling in space, liapidly, and yet with
out panic, she groped with her feet for a
hold upon the rocky surface below her.
There seemed nothing, not the slightest
back of a climbing warrior. Now it scraped
along a comparatively smooth surface,
now it bumped and pounded over a series
of projections.
What new menace did it spell?
Nat-ul crawled cautiously to the open
ing of the cave. Here she could obtain
and the nearest tree.
While Nat-ul, torn by anguish, fled the
cliff that sheltered Nu, the man, within
the cave with Gron. again disengaged the
fingers of the woman from about his neck.
' Cease thy love-making, Gron," he said.
"There may be no love between us. In
view of the cliff to the right, but the the tribe of Nu. my father, a man takes
and, some way, dragging one, paddle the protuberance that would give her a chance
This would lo lower nerseir rrom tne ciutcnes oi tne
other away from the island.
leave no means of pursuit to her enemies.
That she could reach the. mainland she
had not the slightest doubt, so self-reliant
had heredity and environment made her.
Again she glanced up and down the
beach. Then she raced swiftly toward the
nearest boat. She tugged and pushed upon
the heavy thing until at last, after what
seemed to her anxious mind many min
utes, she felt it .slipping loose from its
moorings of sand.
Slowly, inch by inch, she was forcing it
toward the point where the rollers would
at last reach and float it.
She had almost gained success with this
first boat when something impelled her to
glance up.
Instantly her dream of escape faded,
for from up the beach she saw Tur run-
beast that she knew must be sneaking
cautiously toward her from above.
A sudden chill of horror swept over her
climber she could not see he was below
the projecting ledge that ran before the
threshold of her cavern.
.
As she looked, Nat-ul was startled to
see a woman emerge from a cave a trifle
but one mate. I would take Nat-ul, the
daughter of Tha. You are already mated
to Tur. You have told me this, and I have
seen his child sucking your breast. I love
only Nat-ul you should love only Tur."
"I hate him," she cried. "I hate him.
as she felt hot breath and the drip of riht- Tne etcher drew back lest she be
saliva upon her hands where they clung discovered.
to the edge of the clifT above. Sne heard tne stranger's cry of delight
A low growl came from above. aS she sighted the climber below. She
Evidently the beast was puzzled by the saw her clamber down to meet the new
strange position of its quarry, but in an- comer. She saw the man an instant later
other moment it would seize her wrists, or, 33 he clambered to the level of her ledge.
above her. and fifty feet, perhaps, to her 1 love only Nu, the son of Nu."
The man shok his head, and when he
spoke it was still in a kindly voice, for he
reaching down", bury its talons in her head
or back. And just then her fingers slipped
from their hold and Nat-ul dropped into
the darkness.
That she fell but a couple of feet did
not detract an iota from the fright she en
dured in the instant that her hand hold
gave way, but the relief of feeling a nar
row ledge beneath her feet quickly over-
ning swiftly toward her. Even could she came her terror.
have managed to launch this one boat and
enter it, Tur easily could overtake her in
the other.
Abandoning her efforts with the boat,
she turned and fled back toward the jun
gle. A couple of hundred yards behind her
That the beast might follow her she had
little fear. There might be a ledge run
ning down to this point, and then again
Her heart gave a throb of- happiness
her lips formed a beloved name; but her ua'
happiness was short-lived, the name died
ere it was uttered.
The man was Nu, the son of Nu. and the
woman who met him and threw her arms
about his neck and covered his Ups with
kisses, was Gron. Nat-ul recognized her
now. Then she shrank back from the
sight, covering her eyes with her hands,
while hot tears trickled between her slim,
brown fingers.
. She did not see Nu's easy and indiffer-
there might not. All she could do was ent laugh as he slipped Gron's arms from
stav where she was and hope for the best, about his neck.
felt only sorrow1 for the unhappy woman.
"It is useless, Gron," he said, "for us to
speak further upon this matter. Together
we must remain until we have come back
to our own countries. But there must be
no love, nor more words of love between
Do you understand?"
The woman looked at him for a mo
ment. What the emotion that stirred her heart
her face did not betray. It might have
been the anger of a woman scorned, or the
sorrow of a breaking heart.
She took a step toward him, paused,
and then throwing her arras before her
face, turned and sank to the floor of the
cave stfbbing.
Nu turned away and stepped out upon
the ledge before the cave.
and so she settled herself as securely as
In a single glance his quick eyes
Fate was unkind. She hid this, and un- scanned the panorama spread out before