After they had joined the other party the entire band set forth
into the valley and presently, from the conversation of her captors,
Pan-at-lee knew that she was headed for A-lur, the City of Light;
while in the cave of his ancestors, Om-at, chief of the Kor-ul-ja,
bemoaned the loss of both his friend and she that was to have been
his mate.
8
A-lur
As the hissing reptile bore down upon the stranger swimming in
the open water near the center of the morass on the frontier of
Pal-ul-don it seemed to the man that this indeed must be the futile
termination of an arduous and danger-filled journey. It seemed,
too, equally futile to pit his puny knife against this frightful
creature. Had he been attacked on land it is possible that he might
as a last resort have used his Enfield, though he had come thus
far through all these weary, danger-ridden miles without recourse
to it, though again and again had his life hung in the balance in
the face of the savage denizens of forest, jungle, and steppe. For
whatever it may have been for which he was preserving his precious
ammunition he evidently held it more sacred even than his life,
for as yet he had not used a single round and now the decision was
not required of him, since it would have been impossible for him
to have unslung his Enfield, loaded and fired with the necessary
celerity while swimming.
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