larger creatures
pursued the devourers, to be, in turn, preyed upon by some other of the
countless forms that inhabit the deeps of Caprona's frightful sea.
The second day was practically a repetition of the first. They moved
very slowly with frequent stops and once they landed in the Kro-lu
country to hunt. Here they were attacked by the bow-and-arrow men,
whom they could not persuade to palaver with them. So belligerent were
the natives that it became necessary to fire into them in order to
escape their persistent and ferocious attentions.
"What chance," asked Bradley, as they were returning to the boat with
their game, "could Tyler and Miss La Rue have had among such as these?"
But they continued on their fruitless quest, and the third day, after
cruising along the shore of a deep inlet, they passed a line of lofty
cliffs that formed the southern shore of the inlet and rounded a sharp
promontory about noon. Co-Tan and Bradley were on deck alone, and as
the new shoreline appeared beyond the point, the girl gave an
exclamation of joy and seized the man's hand in hers.
"Oh, look!" she cried. "The Galu country! The Galu country! It is my
country that I never thought to see again."
"You are glad to come again, Co-Tan?" asked Bradley.
"Oh, so glad!" she cried. "And you will come with me to my people? We
may live here among them, and you will be a great warrior--oh, when Jor
dies you may even be chief, for there is none so mighty as my warrior.
You will come?"
Bradley shook his head. "I cannot, little Co-Tan," he answered. "My
country needs me, and I must go back. Maybe someday I shall return.
You will not forget me, Co-Tan?"
She looked at him in wide-eyed wonder. "You are going away from me?"
she asked in a very small voice. "You are going away from Co-Tan?"
Bradley looked down upon the little bowed head. He felt the soft cheek
against his bare arm; and he felt something else there too--hot drops
of moisture that ran down to his very finger-tips and splashed, but
each one wrung from a woman's heart.
He bent low and raised the tear-stained face to his own. "No, Co-Tan,"
he said, "I am not going away from you--for you are going with me. You
are going back to my own country to be my wife. Tell me that you will,
Co-Tan." And he bent still lower yet from his height and kissed her
lips. Nor did he need more than the wonderful new light in her eyes to
tell him that she would go to the end
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