FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67  
68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   >>   >|  
d," remarked the man, a trace of excitement in his voice. "It will do them no good, for the lion will wait until they come out and take as many as he can carry away; and there is one there," he added, a trace of sadness in his tone, "whom I hoped would soon follow me to the Kro-lu. Together have we come up from the beginning." He raised his spear above his head and poised it ready to hurl downward at the lion. "She is nearest to him," he muttered. "He will get her and she will never come to me among the Kro-lu, or ever thereafter. It is useless! No warrior lives who could hurl a weapon so great a distance." But even as he spoke, I was leveling my rifle upon the great brute below; and as he ceased speaking, I squeezed the trigger. My bullet must have struck to a hair the point at which I had aimed, for it smashed the brute's spine back of his shoulders and tore on through his heart, dropping him dead in his tracks. For a moment the women were as terrified by the report of the rifle as they had been by the menace of the lion; but when they saw that the loud noise had evidently destroyed their enemy, they came creeping cautiously back to examine the carcass. The man, toward whom I had immediately turned after firing, lest he should pursue his threatened attack, stood staring at me in amazement and admiration. "Why," he asked, "if you could do that, did you not kill me long before?" "I told you," I replied, "that I had no quarrel with you. I do not care to kill men with whom I have no quarrel." But he could not seem to get the idea through his head. "I can believe now that you are not of Caspak," he admitted, "for no Caspakian would have permitted such an opportunity to escape him." This, however, I found later to be an exaggeration, as the tribes of the west coast and even the Kro-lu of the east coast are far less bloodthirsty than he would have had me believe. "And your weapon!" he continued. "You spoke true words when I thought you spoke lies." And then, suddenly: "Let us be friends!" I turned to Ajor. "Can I trust him?" I asked. "Yes," she replied. "Why not? Has he not asked to be friends?" I was not at the time well enough acquainted with Caspakian ways to know that truthfulness and loyalty are two of the strongest characteristics of these primitive people. They are not sufficiently cultured to have become adept in hypocrisy, treason and dissimulation. There are, of course, a few exc
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67  
68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

replied

 

quarrel

 
turned
 
weapon
 
friends
 

Caspakian

 

permitted

 

opportunity

 

escape

 

attack


staring

 

amazement

 

threatened

 

pursue

 

firing

 
admiration
 

Caspak

 
admitted
 

characteristics

 
strongest

primitive

 

people

 
loyalty
 

acquainted

 

truthfulness

 

sufficiently

 

dissimulation

 

treason

 

cultured

 

hypocrisy


continued

 
bloodthirsty
 

tribes

 

thought

 

suddenly

 

exaggeration

 

downward

 

nearest

 

muttered

 

poised


beginning

 

raised

 

distance

 

warrior

 

useless

 

remarked

 
excitement
 
follow
 
Together
 

sadness