Cave Girl | Page 4

which obtain in
Boston--was beyond belief. As he walked he strained his eyes in every
direction for some indication of human habitation--a fence, a
chimney--anything that would be man-built; but his efforts were
unrewarded.
At the verge of the forest he halted, fearing to enter; but at last, when he
saw that the wood was more open than that near the ocean, and that
there was but little underbrush, he mustered sufficient courage to step
timidly within. On careful tiptoe he threaded his way through the
parklike grove, stopping every few minutes to listen, and ready at the
first note of danger to fly screaming toward the open plain.
Notwithstanding his fears, he reached the opposite boundary of the
forest without seeing or hearing anything to arouse suspicion, and,
emerging from the cool shade, found himself a little distance from a
perpendicular white cliff, the face of which was honeycombed with the
mouths of many caves. There was no living creature in sight, nor did
the very apparent artificiality of the caves suggest to the impractical
Waldo that they might be the habitations of perhaps savage human
beings.
With the spell of discovery still upon him, he crossed the open toward
the cliffs; but he had by no means forgotten his chronic state of abject
fear. Ears and eyes were alert for hidden dangers; every few steps were
punctuated by a timid halt and a searching survey of his surroundings.
It was during one of these halts, when he had crossed half the distance
between the forest and the cliff, that he discerned a slight movement in
the wood behind him. For an instant he stood staring and frozen, unable
to determine whether he had been mistaken or really had seen a
creature moving in the forest.
He had about decided that he had but imagined a presence when a great,
hairy brute of a man stepped suddenly from behind the bole of a tree.

CHAPTER II
THE WILD PEOPLE
THE creature was naked except for a bit of hide that hung from a
leathern waist thong.
If Waldo viewed the newcomer with wonder, it was no less than the
wonder which the sight of him inspired in the breast of the hairy one,
for what he saw was as truly remarkable to his eyes as was his
appearance to those of the cultured Bostonian. And Waldo did indeed
present a most startling exterior. His six-feet-two was accentuated by
his extreme skinniness; his gray eyes looked weak and watery within
the inflamed circles which rimmed them, and which had been produced
by loss of sleep and much weeping.
His yellow hair was tangled and matted, and streaked with dirt and
blood. Blood stained his soiled and tattered ducks. His shirt was but a
mass of frayed ribbons held to him at all only by the neck-band.
As he stood helplessly staring with bulging eyes at the awful figure
glowering at him from the forest his jaw dropped, his knees trembled,
and he seemed about to collapse from sheer terror.
Then the hideous man crouched and came creeping warily toward him.
With an agonized scream Waldo turned and fled toward the cliff. A
quick glance over his shoulder brought another series of shrieks from
the frightened fugitive, for it revealed not alone the fact that the awful
man was pursuing him, but that behind him raced at least a dozen more
equally frightful.
Waldo ran toward the cliffs only because that direction lay straight
away from his pursuers. He had no idea what he should do when he
reached the rocky barrier--he was far too frightened to think.

His pursuers were gaining upon him, their savage yells mingling with
his piercing cries and spurring him on to undreamed-of pinnacles of
speed. As he ran, his knees came nearly to his shoulders at each frantic
bound; his left hand was extended far ahead, clutching wildly at the air
as though he were endeavoring to pull himself ahead, while his right
hand, still grasping the cudgel, described a rapid circle, like the arm of
a windmill gone mad. In action Waldo was an inspiring spectacle.
At the foot of the cliff he came to a momentary halt, while he glanced
hurriedly about for a means of escape; but now he saw that the enemy
had spread out toward the right and left, leaving no means of escape
except up the precipitous side of the cliff. Up this narrow trails led
steeply from ledge to ledge.
In places crude ladders scaled perpendicular heights from one tier of
caves to the next above; but to Waldo the thing which confronted him
seemed absolutely unscalable, and then another backward glance
showed him the rapidly nearing enemy; and he launched himself at the
face of that seemingly impregnable barrier,