When bradley went on guard at midnight, September 14th, histhoughts were largely occupied with rejoicing that the nightwas almost spent without serious mishap and that the morrowwould doubtless see them all safely returned to Fort Dinosaur. The hopefulness of his mood was tinged with sorrow by recollectionof the two members of his party who lay back there in the savagewilderness and for whom there would never again be a homecoming.

No premonition of impending ill cast gloom over his anticipationsfor the coming day, for Bradley was a man who, while taking everyprecaution against possible danger, permitted no gloomyforebodings to weigh down his spirit. When danger threatened, hewas prepared; but he was not forever courting disaster, and so itwas that when about one o'clock in the morning of the fifteenth,he heard the dismal flapping of giant wings overhead, he wasneither surprised nor frightened but idly prepared for an attackhe had known might reasonably be expected.

The sound seemed to come from the south, and presently, low abovethe trees in that direction, the man made out a dim, shadowy formcircling slowly about. Bradley was a brave man, yet so keen wasthe feeling of revulsion engendered by the sight and sound ofthat grim, uncanny shape that he distinctly felt the goosefleshrise over the surface of his body, and it was with difficultythat he refrained from following an instinctive urge to fire uponthe nocturnal intruder. Better, far better would it have beenhad he given in to the insistent demand of his subconsciousmentor; but his almost fanatical obsession to save ammunitionproved now his undoing, for while his attention was riveted uponthe thing circling before him and while his ears were filled withthe beating of its wings, there swooped silently out of the blacknight behind him another weird and ghostly shape. With its hugewings partly closed for the dive and its white robe fluttering inits wake, the apparition swooped down upon the Englishman.

So great was the force of the impact when the thing struckBradley between the shoulders that the man was half stunned. His rifle flew from his grasp; he felt clawlike talons of greatstrength seize him beneath his arms and sweep him off his feet;and then the thing rose swiftly with him, so swiftly that his capwas blown from his head by the rush of air as he was bornerapidly upward into the inky sky and the cry of warning to hiscompanions was forced back into his lungs.

The creature wheeled immediately toward the east and was at oncejoined by its fellow, who circled them once and then fell inbehind them. Bradley now realized the strategy that the pairhad used to capture him and at once concluded that he was in thepower of reasoning beings closely related to the human race ifnot actually of it.

Past experience suggested that the great wings were a part ofsome ingenious mechanical device, for the limitations of thehuman mind, which is always loath to accept aught beyond its ownlittle experience, would not permit him to entertain the ideathat the creatures might be naturally winged and at the same timeof human origin. From his position Bradley could not see thewings of his captor, nor in the darkness had he been able toexamine those of the second creature closely when it circledbefore him. He listened for the puff of a motor or some othertelltale sound that would prove the correctness of his theory. However, he was rewarded with nothing more than the constantflap-flap.

Presently, far below and ahead, he saw the waters of the inlandsea, and a moment later he was borne over them. Then his captordid that which proved beyond doubt to Bradley that he was in thehands of human beings who had devised an almost perfect scheme ofduplicating, mechanically, the wings of a bird--the thing spoketo its companion and in a language that Bradley partiallyunderstood, since he recognized words that he had learned fromthe savage races of Caspak. From this he judged that they werehuman, and being human, he knew that they could have no naturalwings--for who had ever seen a human being so adorned! Therefore their wings must be mechanical. Thus Bradley reasoned--thus most of us reason; not by what might be possible; but by whathas fallen within the range of our experience.

What he heard them say was to the effect that having coveredhalf the distance the burden would now be transferred from oneto the other. Bradley wondered how the exchange was tobe accomplished. He knew that those giant wings would notpermit the creatures to approach one another closely enoughto effect the transfer in this manner; but he was soon todiscover that they had other means of doing it.

He felt the thing that carried him rise to a greater altitude,and below he glimpsed momentarily the second white-robed figure;then the creature above sounded a low call, it was answered frombelow, and instantly Bradley felt the clutching talons releasehim; gasping for breath, he hurtled downward through space.

For a terrifying instant, pregnant with horror, Bradley fell;then something swooped for him from behind, another pair oftalons clutched him beneath the arms, his downward rush waschecked, within another hundred feet, and close to the surfaceof the sea he was again borne upward. As a hawk dives for asongbird on the wing, so this great, human bird dived for Bradley. It was a harrowing experience, but soon over, and once againthe captive was being carried swiftly toward the east and whatfate he could not even guess.

It was immediately following his transfer in mid-air that Bradleymade out the shadowy form of a large island far ahead, and notlong after, he realized that this must be the intendeddestination of his captors. Nor was he mistaken. Three quartersof an hour from the time of his seizure his captors droppedgently to earth in the strangest city that human eye had everrested upon. Just a brief glimpse of his immediate surroundingsvouchsafed Bradley before he was whisked into the interior of oneof the buildings; but in that momentary glance he saw strangepiles of stone and wood and mud fashioned into buildings of allconceivable sizes and shapes, sometimes piled high on top of oneanother, sometimes standing alone in an open court-way, butusually crowded and jammed together, so that there were nostreets or alleys between them other than a few which endedalmost as soon as they began. The principal doorways appeared tobe in the roofs, and it was through one of these that Bradley wasinducted into the dark interior of a low-ceiled room. Here hewas pushed roughly into a corner where he tripped over a thickmat, and there his captors left him. He heard them moving aboutin the darkness for a moment, and several times he saw theirlarge luminous eyes glowing in the dark. Finally, thesedisappeared and silence reigned, broken only by the breathing ofthe creature which indicated to the Englishman that they weresleeping somewhere in the same apartment.

It was now evident that the mat upon the floor was intended forsleeping purposes and that the rough shove that had sent him toit had been a rude invitation to repose. After taking stock ofhimself and finding that he still had his pistol and ammunition,some matches, a little tobacco, a canteen full of water and arazor, Bradley made himself comfortable upon the mat and was soonasleep, knowing that an attempted escape in the darkness withoutknowledge of his surroundings would be predoomed to failure.

When he awoke, it was broad daylight, and the sight that met hiseyes made him rub them again and again to assure himself thatthey were really open and that he was not dreaming. A broadshaft of morning light poured through the open doorway in theceiling of the room which was about thirty feet square, orroughly square, being irregular in shape, one side curvingoutward, another being indented by what might have been thecorner of another building jutting into it, another alcoved bythree sides of an octagon, while the fourth was serpentinein contour. Two windows let in more daylight, while two doorsevidently gave ingress to other rooms. The walls were partiallyceiled with thin strips of wood, nicely fitted and finished,partially plastered and the rest covered with a fine, woven cloth. Figures of reptiles and beasts were painted without regard toany uniform scheme here and there upon the walls. A strikingfeature of the decorations consisted of several engaged columnsset into the walls at no regular intervals, the capitals ofeach supporting a human skull the cranium of which touched theceiling, as though the latter was supported by these grimreminders either of departed relatives or of some hideous tribalrite--Bradley could not but wonder which.

Yet it was none of these things that filled him with greatestwonder--no, it was the figures of the two creatures that hadcaptured him and brought him hither. At one end of the room astout pole about two inches in diameter ran horizontally fromwall to wall some six or seven feet from the floor, its endssecurely set in two of the columns. Hanging by their knees fromthis perch, their heads downward and their bodies wrapped intheir huge wings, slept the creatures of the night before--liketwo great, horrid bats they hung, asleep.

As Bradley gazed upon them in wide-eyed astonishment, he sawplainly that all his intelligence, all his acquired knowledgethrough years of observation and experience were set at naught bythe simple evidence of the fact that stood out glaringly beforehis eyes--the creatures' wings were not mechanical devices but asnatural appendages, growing from their shoulderblades, as weretheir arms and legs. He saw, too, that except for their wingsthe pair bore a strong resemblance to human beings, thoughfashioned in a most grotesque mold.

As he sat gazing at them, one of the two awoke, separated hiswings to release his arms that had been folded across his breast,placed his hands upon the floor, dropped his feet and stood erect. For a moment he stretched his great wings slowly, solemnlyblinking his large round eyes. Then his gaze fell upon Bradley. The thin lips drew back tightly against yellow teeth in a grimacethat was nothing but hideous. It could not have been termed asmile, and what emotion it registered the Englishman was at aloss to guess. No expression whatever altered the steady gazeof those large, round eyes; there was no color upon the pasty,sunken cheeks. A death's head grimaced as though a man longdead raised his parchment-covered skull from an old grave.

The creature stood about the height of an average man butappeared much taller from the fact that the joints of his longwings rose fully a foot above his hairless head. The bare armswere long and sinewy, ending in strong, bony hands with clawlikefingers--almost talonlike in their suggestiveness. The whiterobe was separated in front, revealing skinny legs and thefurther fact that the thing wore but the single garment, whichwas of fine, woven cloth. From crown to sole the portions ofthe body exposed were entirely hairless, and as he noted this,Bradley also noted for the first time the cause of much of theseeming expressionlessness of the creature's countenance--it hadneither eye-brows or lashes. The ears were small and rested flatagainst the skull, which was noticeably round, though the facewas quite flat. The creature had small feet, beautifully archedand plump, but so out of keeping with every other physicalattribute it possessed as to appear ridiculous.

After eyeing Bradley for a moment the thing approached him. "Where from?" it asked.

"England," replied Bradley, as briefly.

"Where is England and what?" pursued the questioner.

"It is a country far from here," answered the Englishman.

"Are your people cor-sva-jo or cos-ata-lu?"

"I do not understand you," said Bradley; "and now suppose youanswer a few questions. Who are you? What country is this? Why did you bring me here?"

Again the sepulchral grimace. "We are Wieroos--Luata is our father. Caspak is ours. This, our country, is called Oo-oh. We broughtyou here for (literally) Him Who Speaks for Luata to gaze uponand question. He would know from whence you came and why; butprincipally if you be cos-ata-lu."

"And if I am not cos--whatever you call the bloomin' beast--what of it?"

The Wieroo raised his wings in a very human shrug and waved hisbony claws toward the human skulls supporting the ceiling. His gesture was eloquent; but he embellished it by remarking,"And possibly if you are."

"I'm hungry," snapped Bradley.

The Wieroo motioned him to one of the doors which he threw open,permitting Bradley to pass out onto another roof on a level lowerthan that upon which they had landed earlier in the morning. By daylight the city appeared even more remarkable than in themoonlight, though less weird and unreal. The houses of allshapes and sizes were piled about as a child might pile blocks ofvarious forms and colors. He saw now that there were what mightbe called streets or alleys, but they ran in baffling turns andtwists, nor ever reached a destination, always ending in a deadwall where some Wieroo had built a house across them.

Upon each house was a slender column supporting a human skull. Sometimes the columns were at one corner of the roof, sometimesat another, or again they rose from the center or near thecenter, and the columns were of varying heights, from that ofa man to those which rose twenty feet above their roofs. The skulls were, as a rule, painted--blue or white, or incombinations of both colors. The most effective were paintedblue with the teeth white and the eye-sockets rimmed with white.

There were other skulls--thousands of them--tens, hundredsof thousands. They rimmed the eaves of every house, they wereset in the plaster of the outer walls and at no great distancefrom where Bradley stood rose a round tower built entirely ofhuman skulls. And the city extended in every direction as faras the Englishman could see.

All about him Wieroos were moving across the roofs or wingingthrough the air. The sad sound of their flapping wings rose andfell like a solemn dirge. Most of them were appareled all inwhite, like his captors; but others had markings of red or blueor yellow slashed across the front of their robes.

His guide pointed toward a doorway in an alley below them. "Go there and eat," he commanded, "and then come back. You cannot escape. If any question you, say that you belongto Fosh-bal-soj. There is the way." And this time he pointedto the top of a ladder which protruded above the eaves of theroof near-by. Then he turned and reentered the house.

Bradley looked about him. No, he could not escape--thatseemed evident. The city appeared interminable, and beyond thecity, if not a savage wilderness filled with wild beasts, therewas the broad inland sea infested with horrid monsters. No wonderhis captor felt safe in turning him loose in Oo-oh--he wondered ifthat was the name of the country or the city and if there wereother cities like this upon the island.

Slowly he descended the ladder to the seemingly deserted alleywhich was paved with what appeared to be large, round cobblestones. He looked again at the smooth, worn pavement, and a rueful grincrossed his features--the alley was paved with skulls. "The Cityof Human Skulls," mused Bradley. "They must have been collectin''em since Adam," he thought, and then he crossed and entered thebuilding through the doorway that had been pointed out to him.

Inside he found a large room in which were many Wieroos seatedbefore pedestals the tops of which were hollowed out so thatthey resembled the ordinary bird drinking- and bathing-fonts socommonly seen on suburban lawns. A seat protruded from each ofthe four sides of the pedestals--just a flat board with a supportrunning from its outer end diagonally to the base of the pedestal.

As Bradley entered, some of the Wieroos espied him, and a dismalwail arose. Whether it was a greeting or a threat, Bradley didnot know. Suddenly from a dark alcove another Wieroo rushed outtoward him. "Who are you?" he cried. "What do you want?"

"Fosh-bal-soj sent me here to eat," replied Bradley.

"Do you belong to Fosh-bal-soj?" asked the other.

"That appears to be what he thinks," answered the Englishman.

"Are you cos-ata-lu?" demanded the Wieroo.

"Give me something to eat or I'll be all of that," replied Bradley.

The Wieroo looked puzzled. "Sit here, jaal-lu," he snapped,and Bradley sat down unconscious of the fact that he had beeninsulted by being called a hyena-man, an appellation of contemptin Caspak.

The Wieroo had seated him at a pedestal by himself, and as he satwaiting for what was next to transpire, he looked about him atthe Wieroo in his immediate vicinity. He saw that in each fontwas a quantity of food, and that each Wieroo was armed with awooden skewer, sharpened at one end; with which they carriedsolid portions of food to their mouths. At the other end of theskewer was fastened a small clam-shell. This was used to scoopup the smaller and softer portions of the repast into which allfour of the occupants of each table dipped impartially. The Wierooleaned far over their food, scooping it up rapidly and with muchnoise, and so great was their haste that a part of each mouthfulalways fell back into the common dish; and when they choked, byreason of the rapidity with which they attempted to bolt theirfood, they often lost it all. Bradley was glad that he had apedestal all to himself.

Soon the keeper of the place returned with a wooden bowl filledwith food. This he dumped into Bradley's "trough," as he alreadythought of it. The Englishman was glad that he could not seeinto the dark alcove or know what were all the ingredients thatconstituted the mess before him, for he was very hungry.

After the first mouthful he cared even less to investigate theantecedents of the dish, for he found it peculiarly palatable. It seemed to consist of a combination of meat, fruits,vegetables, small fish and other undistinguishable articles offood all seasoned to produce a gastronomic effect that was atonce baffling and delicious.

When he had finished, his trough was empty, and then he commencedto wonder who was to settle for his meal. As he waited for theproprietor to return, he fell to examining the dish from which hehad eaten and the pedestal upon which it rested. The font was ofstone worn smooth by long-continued use, the four outer edgeshollowed and polished by the contact of the countless Wieroobodies that had leaned against them for how long a period of timeBradley could not even guess. Everything about the place carriedthe impression of hoary age. The carved pedestals were blackwith use, the wooden seats were worn hollow, the floor of stoneslabs was polished by the contact of possibly millions of nakedfeet and worn away in the aisles between the pedestals so thatthe latter rested upon little mounds of stone several inchesabove the general level of the floor.

Finally, seeing that no one came to collect, Bradley arose andstarted for the doorway. He had covered half the distance whenhe heard the voice of mine host calling to him: "Come back,jaal-lu," screamed the Wieroo; and Bradley did as he was bid. As he approached the creature which stood now behind a large,flat-topped pedestal beside the alcove, he saw lying upon thesmooth surface something that almost elicited a gasp ofastonishment from him--a simple, common thing it was, or wouldhave been almost anywhere in the world but Caspak--a square bitof paper!

And on it, in a fine hand, written compactly, were many strangehieroglyphics! These remarkable creatures, then, had a written aswell as a spoken language and besides the art of weaving clothpossessed that of paper-making. Could it be that such grotesquebeings represented the high culture of the human race within theboundaries of Caspak? Had natural selection produced during thecountless ages of Caspakian life a winged monstrosity thatrepresented the earthly pinnacle of man's evolution?

Bradley had noted something of the obvious indications of agradual evolution from ape to spearman as exemplified by theseveral overlapping races of Alalus, club-men and hatchet-menthat formed the connecting links between the two extremes withwhich he, had come in contact. He had heard of the Krolus andthe Galus--reputed to be still higher in the plane of evolution--and now he had indisputable evidence of a race possessingrefinements of civilization eons in advance of the spear-men. The conjectures awakened by even a momentary consideration of thepossibilities involved became at once as wildly bizarre as theinsane imagings of a drug addict.

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, the Wieroo held outa pen of bone fixed to a wooden holder and at the same time madea sign that Bradley was to write upon the paper. It wasdifficult to judge from the expressionless features of the Wieroowhat was passing in the creature's mind, but Bradley could notbut feel that the thing cast a supercilious glance upon him asmuch as to say, "Of course you do not know how to write, youpoor, low creature; but you can make your mark."

Bradley seized the pen and in a clear, bold hand wrote: "JohnBradley, England." The Wieroo showed evidences of consternationas it seized the piece of paper and examined the writing withevery mark of incredulity and surprise. Of course it could makenothing of the strange characters; but it evidently accepted themas proof that Bradley possessed knowledge of a written languageof his own, for following the Englishman's entry it made a fewcharacters of its own.

"You will come here again just before Lua hides his face behindthe great cliff," announced the creature, "unless before that youare summoned by Him Who Speaks for Luata, in which case you willnot have to eat any more."

"Reassuring cuss," thought Bradley as he turned and leftthe building.

Outside were several Wieroos that had been eating at thepedestals within. They immediately surrounded him, asking allsorts of questions, plucking at his garments, his ammunition-beltand his pistol. Their demeanor was entirely different from whatit had been within the eating-place and Bradley was to learn thata house of food was sanctuary for him, since the stern laws ofthe Wieroos forbade altercations within such walls. Now theywere rough and threatening, as with wings half spread theyhovered about him in menacing attitudes, barring his way to theladder leading to the roof from whence he had descended; but theEnglishman was not one to brook interference for long. He attemptedat first to push his way past them, and then when one seized hisarm and jerked him roughly back, Bradley swung upon the creatureand with a heavy blow to the jaw felled it.

Instantly pandemonium reigned. Loud wails arose, great wingsopened and closed with a loud, beating noise and many clawlikehands reached forth to clutch him. Bradley struck to rightand left. He dared not use his pistol for fear that once theydiscovered its power he would be overcome by weight of numbersand relieved of possession of what he considered his trump card,to be reserved until the last moment that it might be used to aidin his escape, for already the Englishman was planning, thoughalmost hopelessly, such an attempt.

A few blows convinced Bradley that the Wieroos were arrantcowards and that they bore no weapons, for after two or three hadfallen beneath his fists the others formed a circle about him,but at a safe distance and contented themselves with threateningand blustering, while those whom he had felled lay upon thepavement without trying to arise, the while they moaned andwailed in lugubrious chorus.

Again Bradley strode toward the ladder, and this time the circleparted before him; but no sooner had he ascended a few rungs thanhe was seized by one foot and an effort made to drag him down. With a quick backward glance the Englishman, clinging firmly tothe ladder with both hands, drew up his free foot and with allthe strength of a powerful leg, planted a heavy shoe squarely inthe flat face of the Wieroo that held him. Shrieking horribly,the creature clapped both hands to its face and sank to theground while Bradley clambered quickly the remaining distance tothe roof, though no sooner did he reach the top of the ladderthan a great flapping of wings beneath him warned him that theWieroos were rising after him. A moment later they swarmed abouthis head as he ran for the apartment in which he had spent theearly hours of the morning after his arrival.

It was but a short distance from the top of the ladder to thedoorway, and Bradley had almost reached his goal when the doorflew open and Fosh-bal-soj stepped out. Immediately the pursuingWieroos demanded punishment of the jaal-lu who had sogrievously maltreated them. Fosh-bal-soj listened to theircomplaints and then with a sudden sweep of his right hand seizedBradley by the scruff of the neck and hurled him sprawlingthrough the doorway upon the floor of the chamber.

So sudden was the assault and so surprising the strength of theWieroo that the Englishman was taken completely off his guard. When he arose, the door was closed, and Fosh-bal-soj was standingover him, his hideous face contorted into an expression of rageand hatred.

"Hyena, snake, lizard!" he screamed. "You would dare lay yourlow, vile, profaning hands upon even the lowliest of the Wieroos--the sacred chosen of Luata!"

Bradley was mad, and so he spoke in a very low, calm voice whilea half-smile played across his lips but his cold, gray eyeswere unsmiling.

"What you did to me just now," he said, "--I am going to killyou for that," and even as he spoke, he launched himself at thethroat of Fosh-bal-soj. The other Wieroo that had been asleepwhen Bradley left the chamber had departed, and the two were alone. Fosh-bal-soj displayed little of the cowardice of those that hadattacked Bradley in the alleyway, but that may have been becausehe had so slight opportunity, for Bradley had him by the throatbefore he could utter a cry and with his right hand struck himheavily and repeatedly upon his face and over his heart--ugly,smashing, short-arm jabs of the sort that take the fight out ofa man in quick time.

But Fosh-bal-soj was of no mind to die passively. He clawed andstruck at Bradley while with his great wings he attempted toshield himself from the merciless rain of blows, at the same timesearching for a hold upon his antagonist's throat. Presently hesucceeded in tripping the Englishman, and together the two fellheavily to the floor, Bradley underneath, and at the same instantthe Wieroo fastened his long talons about the other's windpipe.

Fosh-bal-soj was possessed of enormous strength and he wasfighting for his life. The Englishman soon realized that thebattle was going against him. Already his lungs were poundingpainfully for air as he reached for his pistol. It was withdifficulty that he drew it from its holster, and even then, withdeath staring him in the face, he thought of his precious ammunition. "Can't waste it," he thought; and slipping his fingers to thebarrel he raised the weapon and struck Fosh-bal-soj a terrificblow between the eyes. Instantly the clawlike fingers releasedtheir hold, and the creature sank limply to the floor besideBradley, who lay for several minutes gasping painfully in aneffort to regain his breath.

When he was able, he rose, and leaned close over the Wieroo,lying silent and motionless, his wings dropping limply and hisgreat, round eyes staring blankly toward the ceiling. A briefexamination convinced Bradley that the thing was dead, and withthe conviction came an overwhelming sense of the dangers whichmust now confront him; but how was he to escape?

His first thought was to find some means for concealing theevidence of his deed and then to make a bold effort to escape. Stepping to the second door he pushed it gently open and peeredin upon what seemed to be a store room. In it was a litter ofcloth such as the Wieroos' robes were fashioned from, a numberof chests painted blue and white, with white hieroglyphicspainted in bold strokes upon the blue and blue hieroglyphics uponthe white. In one corner was a pile of human skulls reachingalmost to the ceiling and in another a stack of dried Wieroo wings. The chamber was as irregularly shaped as the other and had but asingle window and a second door at the further end, but waswithout the exit through the roof and, most important of all,there was no creature of any sort in it.

As quickly as possible Bradley dragged the dead Wieroo throughthe doorway and closed the door; then he looked about for a placeto conceal the corpse. One of the chests was large enough tohold the body if the knees were bent well up, and with this ideain view Bradley approached the chest to open it. The lid wasmade in two pieces, each being hinged at an opposite end of thechest and joining nicely where they met in the center of thechest, making a snug, well-fitting joint. There was no lock. Bradley raised one half the cover and looked in. With a smothered"By Jove!" he bent closer to examine the contents--the chestwas about half filled with an assortment of golden trinkets. There were what appeared to be bracelets, anklets and broochesof virgin gold.

Realizing that there was no room in the chest for the body of theWieroo, Bradley turned to seek another means of concealing theevidence of his crime. There was a space between the chests andthe wall, and into this he forced the corpse, piling thediscarded robes upon it until it was entirely hidden from sight;but now how was he to make good his escape in the bright glare ofthat early Spring day?

He walked to the door at the far end of the apartment andcautiously opened it an inch. Before him and about two feet awaywas the blank wall of another building. Bradley opened the doora little farther and looked in both directions. There was no onein sight to the left over a considerable expanse of roof-top, andto the right another building shut off his line of vision atabout twenty feet. Slipping out, he turned to the right and ina few steps found a narrow passageway between two buildings. Turning into this he passed about half its length when he saw aWieroo appear at the opposite end and halt. The creature was notlooking down the passageway; but at any moment it might turn itseyes toward him, when he would be immediately discovered.

To Bradley's left was a triangular niche in the wall of one ofthe houses and into this he dodged, thus concealing himself fromthe sight of the Wieroo. Beside him was a door painted a vividyellow and constructed after the same fashion as the other Wieroodoors he had seen, being made up of countless narrow strips ofwood from four to six inches in length laid on in patches ofabout the same width, the strips in adjacent patches neverrunning in the same direction. The result bore some resemblanceto a crazy patchwork quilt, which was heightened when, as in oneof the doors he had seen, contiguous patches were painteddifferent colors. The strips appeared to have been boundtogether and to the underlying framework of the door with gut orfiber and also glued, after which a thick coating of paint hadbeen applied. One edge of the door was formed of a straight,round pole about two inches in diameter that protruded at top andbottom, the projections setting in round holes in both lintel andsill forming the axis upon which the door swung. An eccentricdisk upon the inside face of the door engaged a slot in the framewhen it was desired to secure the door against intruders.

As Bradley stood flattened against the wall waiting for theWieroo to move on, he heard the creature's wings brushing againstthe sides of the buildings as it made its way down the narrowpassage in his direction. As the yellow door offered the onlymeans of escape without detection, the Englishman decided to riskwhatever might lie beyond it, and so, boldly pushing it in, hecrossed the threshold and entered a small apartment.

As he did so, he heard a muffled ejaculation of surprise, andturning his eyes in the direction from whence the sound had come,he beheld a wide-eyed girl standing flattened against theopposite wall, an expression of incredulity upon her face. At aglance he saw that she was of no race of humans that he had comein contact with since his arrival upon Caprona--there was notrace about her form or features of any relationship to those loworders of men, nor was she appareled as they--or, rather, she didnot entirely lack apparel as did most of them.

A soft hide fell from her left shoulder to just below her lefthip on one side and almost to her right knee on the other, aloose girdle was about her waist, and golden ornaments such as hehad seen in the blue-and-white chest encircled her arms and legs,while a golden fillet with a triangular diadem bound her heavyhair above her brows. Her skin was white as from long confinementwithin doors; but it was clear and fine. Her figure, but partiallyconcealed by the soft deerskin, was all curves of symmetry andyouthful grace, while her features might easily have been the envyof the most feted of Continental beauties.

If the girl was surprised by the sudden appearance of Bradley,the latter was absolutely astounded to discover so wondrousa creature among the hideous inhabitants of the City ofHuman Skulls. For a moment the two looked at one another inunconcealed consternation, and then Bradley spoke, using tothe best of his poor ability, the common tongue of Caspak.

"Who are you," he asked, "and from where do you come? Do not tellme that you are a Wieroo."

"No," she replied, "I am no Wieroo." And she shuddered slightly asshe pronounced the word. "I am a Galu; but who and what are you? I am sure that you are no Galu, from your garments; but you arelike the Galus in other respects. I know that you are not ofthis frightful city, for I have been here for almost ten moons,and never have I seen a male Galu brought hither before, nor arethere such as you and I, other than prisoners in the land ofOo-oh, and these are all females. Are you a prisoner, then?"

He told her briefly who and what he was, though he doubted if sheunderstood, and from her he learned that she had been a prisonerthere for many months; but for what purpose he did not thenlearn, as in the midst of their conversation the yellow doorswung open and a Wieroo with a robe slashed with yellow entered.

At sight of Bradley the creature became furious. "Whence camethis reptile?" it demanded of the girl. "How long has it beenhere with you?"

"It came through the doorway just ahead of you," Bradley answeredfor the girl.

The Wieroo looked relieved. "It is well for the girl thatthis is so," it said, "for now only you will have to die." And stepping to the door the creature raised its voice inone of those uncanny, depressing wails.

The Englishman looked toward the girl. "Shall I kill it?" heasked, half drawing his pistol. "What is best to do?--I do notwish to endanger you."

The Wieroo backed toward the door. "Defiler!" it screamed. "You dare to threaten one of the sacred chosen of Luata!"

"Do not kill him," cried the girl, "for then there could be nohope for you. That you are here, alive, shows that they may notintend to kill you at all, and so there is a chance for you ifyou do not anger them; but touch him in violence and yourbleached skull will top the loftiest pedestal of Oo-oh."

"And what of you?" asked Bradley.

"I am already doomed," replied the girl; "I am cos-ata-lo."

"Cos-ata-lo! cos-ata-lu!" What did these phrases mean thatthey were so oft repeated by the denizens of Oo-oh? Lu andlo, Bradley knew to mean man and woman; ata; wasemployed variously to indicate life, eggs, young, reproductionand kindred subject; cos was a negative; but in combinationthey were meaningless to the European.

"Do you mean they will kill you?" asked Bradley.

"I but wish that they would," replied the girl. "My fate is tobe worse than death--in just a few nights more, with the comingof the new moon."

"Poor she-snake!" snapped the Wieroo. "You are to become sacredabove all other shes. He Who Speaks for Luata has chosen youfor himself. Today you go to his temple--"the Wieroo used aphrase meaning literally High Place--"where you will receivethe sacred commands."

The girl shuddered and cast a sorrowful glance toward Bradley. "Ah," she sighed, "if I could but see my beloved country once again!"

The man stepped suddenly close to her side before the Wieroocould interpose and in a low voice asked her if there was noway by which he might encompass her escape. She shook herhead sorrowfully. "Even if we escaped the city," she replied,"there is the big water between the island of Oo-oh and theGalu shore."

"And what is beyond the city, if we could leave it?" pursued Bradley.

"I may only guess from what I have heard since I was broughthere," she answered; "but by reports and chance remarks I take itto be a beautiful land in which there are but few wild beasts andno men, for only the Wieroos live upon this island and they dwellalways in cities of which there are three, this being the largest. The others are at the far end of the island, which is about threemarches from end to end and at its widest point about one march."

From his own experience and from what the natives on the mainlandhad told him, Bradley knew that ten miles was a good day's marchin Caspak, owing to the fact that at most points it was atrackless wilderness and at all times travelers were beset byhideous beasts and reptiles that greatly impeded rapid progress.

The two had spoken rapidly but were now interrupted by the adventthrough the opening in the roof of several Wieroos who had comein answer to the alarm it of the yellow slashing had uttered.

"This jaal-lu," cried the offended one, "has threatened me. Take its hatchet from it and make it fast where it can do noharm until He Who Speaks for Luata has said what shall be donewith it. It is one of those strange creatures that Fosh-bal-sojdiscovered first above the Band-lu country and followed back towardthe beginning. He Who Speaks for Luata sent Fosh-bal-soj to fetchhim one of the creatures, and here it is. It is hoped that it maybe from another world and hold the secret of the cos-ata-lus."

The Wieroos approached boldly to take Bradley's "hatchet" fromhim, their leader having indicated the pistol hanging in itsholster at the Englishman's hip, but the first one went reelingbackward against his fellows from the blow to the chin whichBradley followed up with a rush and the intention to clean up theroom in record time; but he had reckoned without the opening inthe roof. Two were down and a great wailing and moaning wasarising when reinforcements appeared from above. Bradley did notsee them; but the girl did, and though she cried out a warning,it came too late for him to avoid a large Wieroo who divedheadforemost for him, striking him between the shoulders andbearing him to the floor. Instantly a dozen more were piling ontop of him. His pistol was wrenched from its holster and he wassecurely pinioned down by the weight of numbers.

At a word from the Wieroo of the yellow slashing who evidentlywas a person of authority, one left and presently returned withfiber ropes with which Bradley was tightly bound.

"Now bear him to the Blue Place of Seven Skulls," directed thechief Wieroo, "and one take the word of all that has passed toHim Who Speaks for Luata."

Each of the creatures raised a hand, the back against its face,as though in salute. One seized Bradley and carried him throughthe yellow doorway to the roof from whence it rose upon itswide-spread wings and flapped off across the roof-tops of Oo-ohwith its heavy burden clutched in its long talons.

Below him Bradley could see the city stretching away to adistance on every hand. It was not as large as he had imagined,though he judged that it was at least three miles square. The houses were piled in indescribable heaps, sometimes to aheight of a hundred feet. The streets and alleys were shortand crooked and there were many areas where buildings had beenwedged in so closely that no light could possibly reach thelowest tiers, the entire surface of the ground being packedsolidly with them.

The colors were varied and startling, the architecture amazing. Many roofs were cup or saucer-shaped with a small hole in thecenter of each, as though they had been constructed to catchrain-water and conduct it to a reservoir beneath; but nearly allthe others had the large opening in the top that Bradley had seenused by these flying men in lieu of doorways. At all levels werethe myriad poles surmounted by grinning skulls; but the two mostprominent features of the city were the round tower of humanskulls that Bradley had noted earlier in the day and another andmuch larger edifice near the center of the city. As theyapproached it, Bradley saw that it was a huge building rising ahundred feet in height from the ground and that it stood alone inthe center of what might have been called a plaza in some otherpart of the world. Its various parts, however, were set togetherwith the same strange irregularity that marked the architectureof the city as a whole; and it was capped by an enormoussaucer-shaped roof which projected far beyond the eaves, havingthe appearance of a colossal Chinese coolie hat, inverted.

The Wieroo bearing Bradley passed over one corner of the openspace about the large building, revealing to the Englishman grassand trees and running water beneath. They passed the buildingand about five hundred yards beyond the creature alighted on theroof of a square, blue building surmounted by seven poles bearingseven skulls. This then, thought Bradley, is the Blue Place ofSeven Skulls.

Over the opening in the roof was a grated covering, and this theWieroo removed. The thing then tied a piece of fiber rope to oneof Bradley's ankles and rolled him over the edge of the opening. All was dark below and for an instant the Englishman came as nearto experiencing real terror as he had ever come in his life before. As he rolled off into the black abyss he felt the rope tightenabout his ankle and an instant later he was stopped with a suddenjerk to swing pendulumlike, head downward. Then the creaturelowered away until Bradley's head came in sudden and painfulcontact with the floor below, after which the Wieroo let looseof the rope entirely and the Englishman's body crashed to thewooden planking. He felt the free end of the rope droppedupon him and heard the grating being slid into place above him.