Du-seen dropped far below par in my
estimation as I saw the slovenly formation of his troop as it passed
through an enemy country and entered the domain of the chief against
whom he had risen in revolt; but Du-seen must have known Jor the
chief and known that Jor would not be waiting for him at the pass.
Nevertheless he took unwarranted chances. With one squad of a
home-guard company I could have conquered Caspak.
Nobs and I followed to the summit of the pass, and there we saw the
party defiling into the Galu country, the level of which was not,
on an average, over fifty feet below the summit of the cliffs and
about a hundred and fifty feet above the adjacent Kro-lu domain.
Immediately the landscape changed. The trees, the flowers and the
shrubs were of a hardier type, and I realized that at night the
Galu blanket might be almost a necessity. Acacia and eucalyptus
predominated among the trees; yet there were ash and oak and even
pine and fir and hemlock. The tree-life was riotous. The forests
were dense and peopled by enormous trees. From the summit of the
cliff I could see forests rising hundreds of feet above the level
upon which I stood, and even at the distance they were from me I
realized that the boles were of gigantic size.
At last I had come to the Galu country. Though not conceived in
Caspak, I had indeed come up cor-sva jo--from the beginning I had
come up through the hideous horrors of the lower Caspakian spheres
of evolution, and I could not but feel something of the elation and
pride which had filled To-mar and So-al when they realized that the
call had come to them and they were about to rise from the estate
of Band-lus to that of Kro-lus.
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