Each day Nu realized that he was gaining rapidly upon those with whom
Nat-ul traveled. The experiences of his other life assured him that
she must be a prisoner, yet at the same time he realized that such
might not be the case at all, for had he not thought her a prisoner
among the others who had held him prisoner, only to learn that one of
them claimed her as a sister. It all seemed very strange to Nu. It
was quite beyond him. Nat-ul could not be the sister of Custer, and
yet he had seen her apparently happy and contented in the society of
these strangers, and Custer unquestionably appeared to feel for her the
solicitude of a brother. Curtiss, it was evident, loved Nat-ul--that
much he had gleaned from conversations he had overheard between him and
Custer. How the man could have become so well acquainted with Nat-ul
between the two days that had elapsed since Nu had set forth from the
caves beside the Restless Sea to hunt down Oo and the morning that he
had awakened following the mighty shaking of the world was quite as
much a mystery as was the remarkable changes that had taken place in
the aspect of the world during the same brief period. Nu had given much
thought to those miraculous happenings, with the result that he had
about convinced himself that he must have slept much longer than he had
believed; but that a hundred thousand years had rolled their slow and
weary progress above his unconscious head could not, of course, have
occurred to him even as the remotest of possibilities.
He had also weighed the sneering words of Curtiss and with them the
attitude of the strangers with whom he had been thrown. He had quickly
appreciated the fact that their manners and customs were as far removed
from his as they were from those of the beasts of the jungle. He had
seen that his own ways were more in accordance with the ways of the
black and half-naked natives whom the whites looked upon as so much
their inferiors that they would not even eat at the same table with
them.
He had noted the fact that the blacks treated the other whites with a
marked respect which they did not extend to Nu, and being no fool Nu
had come to the conclusion that the whites themselves looked upon him
as an inferior, even before Curtiss's words convinced him of the truth
of his suspicions. Evidently, though his skin was white, he was in some
subtle way different from the other whites. Possibly it was in the
matter of raiment. He had tried to wear the strange body coverings they
had given him, but they were cumbersome and uncomfortable and though
he was seldom warm enough now he had nevertheless been glad when the
opportunity came to discard the hampering and unaccustomed clothing.
These thoughts suggested the possibility that if Nat-ul had found
recognition among the strangers upon an equal footing with them
that she, too, might have those attributes of superiority which the
strangers claimed, and if such was the fact it became evident that she
would consider Nu from the viewpoint of her new friends--as an inferior.
Such reveries made Nu very sad, for he loved Nat-ul just as you or I
would love--just as normal white men have always loved--with a devotion
that placed the object of his affection upon a pedestal before which
he was happy to bow down and worship. His passion was not of the brute
type of the inferior races which oftentimes solemnizes the marriage
ceremony with a cudgel and ever places the woman in the position of an
inferior and a chattel.
Even as Nu pondered the puzzling questions which confronted him his
eyes and ears were alert as he sped along the now fresh trail of the
caravan. Every indication pointed the recent passing of many men, and
the troglodyte was positive that he could be but a few hours behind his
quarry.
A few miles east of him the rescue party from the Greystoke ranch were
pushing rapidly ahead upon a different trail with a view to heading
off the Arabs. Ibn Aswad had taken a circuitous route in order that he
might pass around the country of the Waziri, and with his slow moving
slave caravan he had now reached a point but a few days' journey in
a direct line from the ranch. The lightly equipped pursuers having
knowledge of the route taken by the Arabs from the messenger who had
come to seek their assistance had not been compelled to follow the
spoor of their quarry but instead had marched straight across country
in a direct line for a point which they believed would bring them ahead
of the caravan.
Thus it was that Nu and Terkoz, and the party of whites and Waziri
from the ranch were closing in upon Ibn Aswad from opposite directions
simultaneously; but Nu was not destined to follow the trail of the
raiders to where they were still engaged in repelling the savage
attacks of the fierce Wamboli, for as he trotted along with the dog
at his side his quick eyes detected that which the hound, with all his
wondrous instinctive powers, would have passed by, unnoticing--the
well-marked prints of the hoofs of two donkeys that had come back along
the trail since the caravan had passed.
That they were donkeys belonging to the Arabs was evident to Nu through
his familiarity with the distinctive hoof prints of each, which during
the past three days had become as well known to him as his mother's
face had been. But what were they doing retracing the way they had
but just covered! Nu halted and raised his head to sniff the air and
listen intently for the faintest sound from the direction in which the
beasts had gone when they left the old trail at the point where he had
discovered their spoor.
But the wind was blowing from the opposite direction, so there was
no chance that Nu could scent them. He was in doubt as to whether
he should leave the trail of the main body and follow these two, or
continue on his way. From the manner of their passing--side by side--he
was convinced that each carried a rider, since otherwise they would
have gone in single file after the manner of beasts moving along a none
too wide trail; but there was nothing to indicate that either rider was
Nat-ul.
For an instant he hesitated, and then his judgment told him to keep on
after the main body, for if Nat-ul was a prisoner she would be with the
larger force--not riding in the opposite direction with a single guard.
Even as he turned to take up the pursuit again there came faintly to
his ears from the jungle at his left the sound of a human voice--it was
a woman's, raised in frightened protest.
Like a deer Nu turned and leaped in the direction of that familiar
voice. The fleet wolfhound was put to it to keep pace with the agile
caveman, for Nu had left the earth and taken to the branches of the
trees where no underbrush retarded his swift flight. From tree to tree
he leaped or swung, sometimes hurling his body twenty feet through
the air from one jungle giant to another. Below him raced the panting
Terkoz, red tongue lolling from his foam flecked mouth; but with all
their speed the two moved with the noiselessness of shadowy ghosts.
At the edge of the jungle Nu came upon a park-like forest, and well
into this he saw a white robed Arab forcing a woman slowly backward
across his knee. One sinewy, brown hand clutched her throat, the other
was raised to strike her in the face.
Nu saw that he could not reach the man in time to prevent the blow, but
he might distract his attention for the moment that would be required
for him to reach his side. From his throat there rose the savage war
cry of his long dead people--a cry that brought a hundred jungle
creatures to their feet trembling in fear or in rage according to their
kind. And it brought Abul Mukarram upstanding too, for in all his life
he had never heard the like of that blood-freezing challenge.
At the sight which met his eyes he dropped the girl and darted toward
his donkey where hung his long barreled rifle in its boot. Victoria
Custer looked, too, and what she saw brought unutterable relief and
happiness to her. Then the Arab had turned with levelled gun just as
the caveman leaped upon him. There was the report of the firearm ere
it was wrenched from Abul Mukarram's grasp and hurled to one side, but
the bullet went wide of its mark and the next instant the girl saw the
two men locked in what she knew was a death struggle. The Arab struck
mighty blows at the head and face of his antagonist, while the caveman,
the great muscles rolling beneath his smooth hide, sought for a hold
upon the other's throat.
About the two the vicious wolfhound slunk growling with bristling hair,
waiting for an opportunity to rush in upon the white robed antagonist
of his master. Victoria Custer, her clenched fists tight pressed
against her bosom, watched the two men who battled for her. She saw
the handsome black head of her savage man bend lower and lower toward
the throat of his foeman, and when the strong, white teeth buried
themselves in the jugular of the other it was with no sickening qualm
of nausea that the girl witnessed the bestial act.
She heard the half wolfish growl of Nu as he tasted the hot, red blood
of his enemy. She saw the strong jaws tear and rend the soft flesh of
the Arab's throat. She saw the powerful hands bend back the head of the
doomed Abul Mukarram. She saw her ferocious mate shake the man as a
terrier shakes a rat, and her heart swelled in fierce primitive pride
at the prowess of her man.
No longer did Victoria Custer exist. It was Nat-ul, the Savage maiden
of the Niocene who, as Nu threw the lifeless corpse of his kill to
one side, and opened his arms, flung herself into his embrace. It was
Nat-ul, daughter of Tha--Nat-ul of the tribe of Nu that dwelt beyond
the Barren Cliffs beside the Restless Sea who threw her arms about her
lord and master's neck and drew his mouth down to her hot lips.
It was Nat-ul of the first born who watched Nu and the fierce wolfhound
circle about the corpse of the dead Arab. The caveman, moving in the
graceful, savage steps of the death dance of his tribe, now bent half
over, now leaping high in air, throwing his stone-tipped spear aloft,
chanting the weird victory song of a dead and buried age, and beside
him his equally savage mate squatted upon her haunches beating time
with her slim, white hands.
When the dance was done Nu halted before Nat-ul. The girl rose, facing
him and for a long minute the two stood in silence looking at one
another. It was the first opportunity that either had had to study the
features of the other since the strange miracle that had separated
them. Nu found that some subtle change had taken place in his Nat-ul.
It was she--of that there could be no doubt; but yet there was that
about her which cast a spell of awe over him--she was infinitely finer
and more wonderful than he ever had realized.
With the passing of the excitement of the battle and the dance the
strange ecstasy which had held the girl in thrall passed slowly away.
The rhythm of the dancing of the savage, black-haired giant had touched
some chord within her which awoke the long dormant instinct of the
primordial. For the time she had been carried back a hundred thousand
years to the childhood of the human race--she had not known for those
brief instants Victoria Custer, or the twentieth century, or its
civilization, for they were yet a thousand centuries in the future.
But now she commenced once more to look through the eyes of generations
of culture and refinement. Before her she saw a savage, primitive man.
In his eyes was the fire of a great love that would not for long be
denied. About her she saw the wild, fierce forest and the cruel jungle,
and behind all this, and beyond, her vision wandered to the world she
had always known--the world of cities and homes and gentle-folk. She
saw her father and her mother and her friends. What would they say?
Again she let her eyes rest upon the man. It was with difficulty that
she restrained a mad desire to throw herself upon his broad breast
and weep out her doubts and fears close to the beating of his great
heart and in the safety of those mighty, protecting arms. But with the
wish there arose again the question--what would they say?--held her
trembling and frightened from him.
The man saw something of the girl's trouble in her eyes, but he
partially misinterpreted it, for he read fear of himself where there
was principally self-fear, and because of what he had heard Curtiss
say he thought that he saw contempt too, for primitive people are
infinitely more sensitive than their more sophisticated brothers.
"You do not love me, Nat-ul?" he asked. "Have the strangers turned you
against me? What one of them could have fetched you the head of Oo, the
man hunter? See!" He tapped the two great tusks that hung from his loin
cloth. "Nu slew the mightiest of beasts for his Nat-ul--the head is
buried in the cave of Oo--yet now that I come to take you as my mate I
see fear in your eyes and something else which never was there before.
What is it, Nat-ul--have the strangers stolen your love from Nu?"
The man spoke in a tongue so ancient that in all the world there lived
no man who spoke or knew a word of it, yet to Victoria Custer it was
as intelligible as her own English, nor did it seem strange to her that
she answered Nu in his own language.
"My heart tells me that I am yours, Nu," she said, "but my judgment
and my training warn me against the step that my heart prompts. I love
you; but I could not be happy to wander, half naked, through the jungle
for the balance of my life, and if I go with you now, even for a day,
I may never return to my people. Nor would you be happy in the life
that I lead--it would stifle and kill you. I think I see now something
of the miracle that has overwhelmed us. To you it has been but a few
days since you left your Nat-ul to hunt down the ferocious Oo; but in
reality countless ages have rolled by. By some strange freak of fate
you have remained unchanged during all these ages until now you step
forth from your long sleep an unspoiled cave man of the stone age into
the midst of the twentieth century, while I, doubtless, have been born
and reborn a thousand times, merging from one incarnation to another
until in this we are again united. Had you, too, died and been born
again during all these weary years no gap of ages would intervene
between us now and we should meet again upon a common footing as do
other souls, and mate and die to be born again to a new mating and a
new life with its inevitable death. But you have defied the laws of
life and death--you have refused to die and now that we meet again at
last a hundred thousand years lie between us--an unbridgeable gulf
across which I may not return and over which you may not come other
than by the same route which I have followed--through death and a new
life thereafter."
Much that the girl said was beyond Nu's comprehension, and the most of
it without the scope of his primitive language so that she had been
forced to draw liberally upon her twentieth century English to fill in
the gaps, yet Nu had caught the idea in a vague sort of way--at least
that his Nat-ul was far removed from him because of a great lapse of
time that had occurred while he slept in the cave of Oo, and that
through his own death alone could he span the gulf between them and
claim her as his mate.
He placed the butt of his spear upon the ground, resting the stone tip
against his heart. "I go, Nat-ul," he said simply, "that I may return
again as you would have me--no longer the 'white nigger' that Curtiss
says I am."
The girl and the man were so occupied and engrossed with their own
tragedy that they did not note the restless pacing of Terkoz, the
wolfhound, or hear the ominous growls that rumbled from his savage
throat as he looked toward the jungle behind them.