But she was not to reach Kor-ul-ja this day, nor the next, nor for
many days after though the danger that threatened her was neither
Waz-don enemy nor savage beast.
She came without misadventure to the Kor-ul-lul and after descending
its rocky southern wall without catching the slightest glimpse of
the hereditary enemies of her people, she experienced a renewal of
confidence that was little short of practical assurance that she
would successfully terminate her venture and be restored once more
to her own people and the lover she had not seen for so many long
and weary moons.
She was almost across the gorge now and moving with an extreme caution
abated no wit by her confidence, for wariness is an instinctive
trait of the primitive, something which cannot be laid aside even
momentarily if one would survive. And so she came to the trail that
follows the windings of Kor-ul-lul from its uppermost reaches down
into the broad and fertile Valley of Jad-ben-Otho.
And as she stepped into the trail there arose on either side of her
from out of the bushes that border the path, as though materialized
from thin air, a score of tall, white warriors of the Ho-don. Like
a frightened deer Pan-at-lee cast a single startled look at these
menacers of her freedom and leaped quickly toward the bushes in
an effort to escape; but the warriors were too close at hand.
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