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It was a magnificent animal a great bay stallion with a white-blazed face and white forelegs to the knees, its barrel encircled by a broad surcingle of white; and as it came to a sudden stop beside Tan, the Englishman saw that it bore a man and a girl a tall man and a girl as beautiful as Co-Tan.
The nose of the U-boat was run close in to the steep bank; but when Co-Tan would have run forward alone, Bradley seized her hand and held her back. "I will go with you, Co-Tan," he said; and together they advanced to meet the oncoming party. There were about twenty warriors moving forward in a thin line, as our infantry advance as skirmishers.
"You are going away from me?" she asked in a very small voice. "You are going away from Co-Tan?" Bradley looked down upon the little bowed head. He felt the soft cheek against his bare arm; and he felt something else there too hot drops of moisture that ran down to his very finger-tips and splashed, but each one wrung from a woman's heart. He bent low and raised the tear-stained face to his own.
"No, Co-Tan," he said, "I am not going away from you for you are going with me. You are going back to my own country to be my wife. Tell me that you will, Co-Tan." And he bent still lower yet from his height and kissed her lips. Nor did he need more than the wonderful new light in her eyes to tell him that she would go to the end of the world with him if he would but take her.
Bradley noticed that she spoke in English broken English like Co-Tan's but equally appealing. They can neither harm nor detain us, nor will we have to fire a shot at them." And so it was done, Bradley and Co-Tan taking Ajor and Billings aboard to "show" them the vessel, which almost immediately raised anchor and moved slowly out into the sea. "I hate to do it," said Billings.
"You are going back with him to his country?" she asked. Co-Tan admitted it. "You dare?" asked Ajor. "But your father will not permit it Jor, my father, High Chief of the Galus, will not permit it, for like me you are cos-ata-lo. Oh, Co-Tan, if we but could! How I would love to see all the strange and wonderful things of which my Tom tells me!" Bradley bent and whispered in her ear.
"Who is this man?" he demanded in cold tones. Co-Tan turned a surprised face toward the Englishman and then of a sudden broke forth into a merry peal of laughter. "This is my father, Brad-lee," she cried. "And who is Brad-lee?" demanded the warrior. "He is my man," replied Co-Tan simply. "By what right?" insisted Tan.
"Ajor," he said, "permit me to introduce Lieutenant Bradley; Lieutenant, Mrs. Billings my jailer!" The Englishman laughed as he shook hands with the girl. "You are not as good a soldier as I," he said to Billings. "Instead of being taken prisoner myself I have taken one Mrs. Bradley, this is Mr. Billings." Ajor, quick to understand, turned toward Co-Tan.
Bradley could not but notice the marked difference between this formation and the moblike methods of the lower tribes he had come in contact with, and he commented upon it to Co-Tan. "Galu warriors always advance into battle thus," she said.
We may live here among them, and you will be a great warrior oh, when Jor dies you may even be chief, for there is none so mighty as my warrior. You will come?" Bradley shook his head. "I cannot, little Co-Tan," he answered. "My country needs me, and I must go back. Maybe someday I shall return. You will not forget me, Co-Tan?" She looked at him in wide-eyed wonder.
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