Morning came more quickly than I could have wished. I rose and
breakfasted, but saw nothing of Ajor. It was best, I thought, that
I go thus without the harrowing pangs of a last farewell. The
party formed for the march, an escort of Galu warriors ready to
accompany us. I could not even bear to go to Ace's corral and bid
him farewell. The night before, I had given him to Ajor, and now
in my mind the two seemed inseparable.
And so we marched away, down the street flanked with its stone
houses and out through the wide gateway in the stone wall which
surrounds the city and on across the clearing toward the forest
through which we must pass to reach the northern boundary of Galu,
beyond which we would turn south. At the edge of the forest I cast
a backward glance at the city which held my heart, and beside the
massive gateway I saw that which brought me to a sudden halt. It
was a little figure leaning against one of the great upright posts
upon which the gates swing--a crumpled little figure; and even
at this distance I could see its shoulders heave to the sobs that
racked it. It was the last straw.
Bowen was near me. "Good-bye old man," I said. "I'm going back."
He looked at me in surprise. "Good-bye, old man," he said, and
grasped my hand. "I thought you'd do it in the end."
And then I went back and took Ajor in my arms and kissed the tears
from her eyes and a smile to her lips while together we watched
the last of the Americans disappear into the forest.
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