tray the fact that they were
not Wieroos. Bradley wished that their wings were attached to their
bodies by sinew and muscle rather than by ropes of fiber. A Wieroo was
flapping far overhead. Two more stood near a door a few yards distant.
Standing between these and one of the outer pedestals that supported
one of the numerous skulls Bradley made one end of a piece of rope fast
about the pedestal and dropped the other end to the ground outside the
city. Then they waited.

It was an hour before the coast was entirely clear and then a moment
came when no Wieroo was in sight. "Now!" whispered Bradley; and the
girl grasped the rope and slid over the edge of the roof into the
darkness below. A moment later Bradley felt two quick pulls upon the
rope and immediately followed to the girl's side.

Across a narrow clearing they made their way and into a wood beyond.
All night they walked, following the river upward toward its source,
and at dawn they took shelter in a thicket beside the stream. At no
time did they hear the cry of a carnivore, and though many startled
animals fled as they approached, they were not once menaced by a wild
beast. When Bradley expressed surprise at the absence of the fiercest
beasts that are so numerous upon the mainland of Caprona, the girl
explained the reason that is contained in one of their ancient legends.

"When the Wieroos first developed wings upon which they could fly, they
found this island devoid of any life other than a few reptiles that
live either upon land or in the water and these only close to the
coast. Requiring meat for food the Wieroos carried to the island such
animals as they wished for that purpose. They still occasionally bring
them, and this with the natural increase keeps them provided with
flesh."

"As it will us," suggested Bradley.

The first day they remained in hiding, eating only the dried food that
Bradley had brought with him from the temple storeroom, and the next
night they set out again up the river, continuing steadily on until
almost dawn, when they came to low hills where the river wound through
a gorge--it was little more than rivulet now, the water clear and cold
and filled with fish similar to brook trout though much larger. Not
wishing to leave the stream the two waded along its bed to a spot where
the gorge widened between perpendicular bluffs to a wooded acre of
level land. Here they stopped, for here also the stream ended. They
had rea