To run up the inclined surface of the palisade and drop to theground outside was the work of but a moment, or would have beenbut for Nobs. I had to put my rope about him after we reachedthe top, lift him over the sharpened stakes and lower him uponthe outside. To find Ajor in the unknown country to the northseemed rather hopeless; yet I could do no less than try,praying in the meanwhile that she would come through unscathedand in safety to her father.

As Nobs and I swung along in the growing light of the comingday, I was impressed by the lessening numbers of savage beaststhe farther north I traveled. With the decrease among thecarnivora, the herbivora increased in quantity, though anywherein Caspak they are sufficiently plentiful to furnish ample foodfor the meateaters of each locality. The wild cattle,antelope, deer, and horses I passed showed changes in evolutionfrom their cousins farther south. The kine were smaller andless shaggy, the horses larger. North of the Kro-lu village Isaw a small band of the latter of about the size of those ofour old Western plains--such as the Indians bred in former daysand to a lesser extent even now. They were fat and sleek, andI looked upon them with covetous eyes and with thoughts thatany old cow-puncher may well imagine I might entertain afterhaving hoofed it for weeks; but they were wary, scarcepermitting me to approach within bow-and-arrow range, much lesswithin roping-distance; yet I still had hopes which I never discarded.

Twice before noon we were stalked and charged by man-eaters;but even though I was without firearms, I still had ampleprotection in Nobs, who evidently had learned something ofCaspakian hunt rules under the tutelage of Du-seen or someother Galu, and of course a great deal more by experience. He always was on the alert for dangerous foes, invariably warningme by low growls of the approach of a large carnivorous animallong before I could either see or hear it, and then when thething appeared, he would run snapping at its heels, drawing thecharge away from me until I found safety in some tree; yetnever did the wily Nobs take an unnecessary chance of a mauling. He would dart in and away so quickly that not even thelightning-like movements of the great cats could reach him. I have seen him tantalize them thus until they fairly screamedin rage.

The greatest inconvenience the hunters caused me was the delay,for they have a nasty habit of keeping one treed for an hour ormore if balked in their designs; but at last we came in sightof a line of cliffs running east and west across our path asfar as the eye could see in either direction, and I knew thatwe reached the natural boundary which marks the line betweenthe Kro-lu and Galu countries. The southern face of thesecliffs loomed high and forbidding, rising to an altitude ofsome two hundred feet, sheer and precipitous, without a breakthat the eye could perceive. How I was to find a crossing Icould not guess. Whether to search to the east toward thestill loftier barrier-cliffs fronting upon the ocean, orwestward in the direction of the inland sea was a questionwhich baffled me. Were there many passes or only one? I hadno way of knowing. I could but trust to chance. It neveroccurred to me that Nobs had made the crossing at least once,possibly a greater number of times, and that he might lead meto the pass; and so it was with no idea of assistance that Iappealed to him as a man alone with a dumb brute so often does.

"Nobs," I said, "how the devil are we going to cross those cliffs?"

I do not say that he understood me, even though I realize thatan Airedale is a mighty intelligent dog; but I do swear that heseemed to understand me, for he wheeled about, barking joyouslyand trotted off toward the west; and when I didn't follow him,he ran back to me barking furiously, and at last taking hold ofthe calf of my leg in an effort to pull me along in thedirection he wished me to go. Now, as my legs were naked andNobs' jaws are much more powerful than he realizes, I gave inand followed him, for I knew that I might as well go west aseast, as far as any knowledge I had of the correct direction went.

We followed the base of the cliffs for a considerable distance. The ground was rolling and tree-dotted and covered with grazinganimals, alone, in pairs and in herds--a motley aggregation ofthe modern and extinct herbivore of the world. A huge woollymastodon stood swaying to and fro in the shade of a giantfern--a mighty bull with enormous upcurving tusks. Near himgrazed an aurochs bull with a cow and a calf, close beside alone rhinoceros asleep in a dust-hole. Deer, antelope, bison,horses, sheep, and goats were all in sight at the same time,and at a little distance a great megatherium reared up on itshuge tail and massive hind feet to tear the leaves from atall tree. The forgotten past rubbed flanks with the present--while Tom Billings, modern of the moderns, passed in the garb ofpre-Glacial man, and before him trotted a creature of a breedscarce sixty years old. Nobs was a parvenu; but it failed toworry him.

As we neared the inland sea we saw more flying reptiles andseveral great amphibians, but none of them attacked us. As wewere topping a rise in the middle of the afternoon, I sawsomething that brought me to a sudden stop. Calling Nobs in awhisper, I cautioned him to silence and kept him at heel whileI threw myself flat and watched, from behind a shelteringshrub, a body of warriors approaching the cliff from the south. I could see that they were Galus, and I guessed that Du-seenled them. They had taken a shorter route to the pass and sohad overhauled me. I could see them plainly, for they were nogreat distance away, and saw with relief that Ajor was not with them.

The cliffs before them were broken and ragged, those comingfrom the east overlapping the cliffs from the west. Into thedefile formed by this overlapping the party filed. I could seethem climbing upward for a few minutes, and then theydisappeared from view. When the last of them had passed fromsight, I rose and bent my steps in the direction of thepass--the same pass toward which Nobs had evidently beenleading me. I went warily as I approached it, for fear theparty might have halted to rest. If they hadn't halted, I hadno fear of being discovered, for I had seen that the Galusmarched without point, flankers or rear guard; and when Ireached the pass and saw a narrow, one-man trail leading upwardat a stiff angle, I wished that I were chief of the Galus for afew weeks. A dozen men could hold off forever in that narrowpass all the hordes which might be brought up from the south;yet there it lay entirely unguarded.

The Galus might be a great people in Caspak; but they werepitifully inefficient in even the simpler forms of military tactics. I was surprised that even a man of the Stone Age should be solacking in military perspicacity. Du-seen dropped far belowpar in my estimation as I saw the slovenly formation of histroop as it passed through an enemy country and entered thedomain of the chief against whom he had risen in revolt; butDu-seen must have known Jor the chief and known that Jor wouldnot be waiting for him at the pass. Nevertheless he tookunwarranted chances. With one squad of a home-guard company Icould have conquered Caspak.

Nobs and I followed to the summit of the pass, and there we sawthe party defiling into the Galu country, the level of whichwas not, on an average, over fifty feet below the summit of thecliffs and about a hundred and fifty feet above the adjacentKro-lu domain. Immediately the landscape changed. The trees,the flowers and the shrubs were of a hardier type, and Irealized that at night the Galu blanket might be almosta 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 peopledby enormous trees. From the summit of the cliff I could seeforests rising hundreds of feet above the level upon which Istood, and even at the distance they were from me I realizedthat the boles were of gigantic size.

At last I had come to the Galu country. Though not conceivedin Caspak, I had indeed come up cor-sva jo--from thebeginning I had come up through the hideous horrors of thelower Caspakian spheres of evolution, and I could not but feelsomething of the elation and pride which had filled To-mar andSo-al when they realized that the call had come to them andthey were about to rise from the estate of Band-lus to that ofKro-lus. I was glad that I was not batu.

But where was Ajor? Though my eyes searched the wide landscapebefore me, I saw nothing other than the warriors of Du-seen andthe beasts of the fields and the forests. Surrounded byforests, I could see wide plains dotting the country as far asthe eye could reach; but nowhere was a sign of a small Galushe--the beloved she whom I would have given my right hand to see.

Nobs and I were hungry; we had not eaten since the precedingnight, and below us was game-deer, sheep, anything that ahungry hunter might crave; so down the steep trail we made ourway, and then upon my belly with Nobs crouching low behind me,I crawled toward a small herd of red deer feeding at the edgeof a plain close beside a forest. There was ample cover, whatwith solitary trees and dotting bushes so that I found nodifficulty in stalking up wind to within fifty feet of myquarry--a large, sleek doe unaccompanied by a fawn. Greatly thendid I regret my rifle. Never in my life had I shot an arrow,but I knew how it was done, and fitting the shaft to my string,I aimed carefully and let drive. At the same instant I calledto Nobs and leaped to me feet.

The arrow caught the doe full in the side, and in the samemoment Nobs was after her. She turned to flee with the two ofus pursuing her, Nobs with his great fangs bared and I with myshort spear poised for a cast. The balance of the herd sprangquickly away; but the hurt doe lagged, and in a moment Nobs wasbeside her and had leaped at her throat. He had her down whenI came up, and I finished her with my spear. It didn't take melong to have a fire going and a steak broiling, and while Iwas preparing for my own feast, Nobs was filling himself withraw venison. Never have I enjoyed a meal so heartily.

For two days I searched fruitlessly back and forth from theinland sea almost to the barrier cliffs for some trace of Ajor,and always I trended northward; but I saw no sign of any humanbeing, not even the band of Galu warriors under Du-seen; andthen I commenced to have misgivings. Had Chal-az spoken thetruth to me when he said that Ajor had quit the village ofthe Kro-lu? Might he not have been acting upon the orders ofAl-tan, in whose savage bosom might have lurked some smallspark of shame that he had attempted to do to death one who hadbefriended a Kro-lu warrior--a guest who had brought no harmupon the Kro-lu race--and thus have sent me out upon afruitless mission in the hope that the wild beasts would dowhat Al-tan hesitated to do? I did not know; but the more Ithought upon it, the more convinced I became that Ajor hadnot quitted the Kro-lu village; but if not, what had broughtDu-seen forth without her? There was a puzzler, and once againI was all at sea.

On the second day of my experience of the Galu country I cameupon a bunch of as magnificent horses as it has ever been mylot to see. They were dark bays with blazed faces and perfectsurcingles of white about their barrels. Their forelegs werewhite to the knees. In height they stood almost sixteen hands,the mares being a trifle smaller than the stallions, of whichthere were three or four in this band of a hundred, whichcomprised many colts and half-grown horses. Their markingswere almost identical, indicating a purity of strain that mighthave persisted since long ages ago. If I had coveted one ofthe little ponies of the Kro-lu country, imagine my state ofmind when I came upon these magnificent creatures! No soonerhad I espied them than I determined to possess one of them; nordid it take me long to select a beautiful young stallion--afour-year-old, I guessed him.

The horses were grazing close to the edge of the forest inwhich Nobs and I were concealed, while the ground between usand them was dotted with clumps of flowering brush whichoffered perfect concealment. The stallion of my choice grazedwith a filly and two yearlings a little apart from the balanceof the herd and nearest to the forest and to me. At mywhispered "Charge!" Nobs flattened himself to the ground, and Iknew that he would not again move until I called him, unlessdanger threatened me from the rear. Carefully I crept forwardtoward my unsuspecting quarry, coming undetected to theconcealment of a bush not more than twenty feet from him. Here I quietly arranged my noose, spreading it flat and openupon the ground.

To step to one side of the bush and throw directly from theground, which is the style I am best in, would take but aninstant, and in that instant the stallion would doubtless beunder way at top speed in the opposite direction. Then hewould have to wheel about when I surprised him, and in doingso, he would most certainly rise slightly upon his hind feetand throw up his head, presenting a perfect target for my nooseas he pivoted.

Yes, I had it beautifully worked out, and I waited until heshould turn in my direction. At last it became evident that hewas doing so, when apparently without cause, the filly raisedher head, neighed and started off at a trot in the oppositedirection, immediately followed, of course, by the colts andmy stallion. It looked for a moment as though my last hope wasblasted; but presently their fright, if fright it was, passed,and they resumed grazing again a hundred yards farther on. This time there was no bush within fifty feet of them, and Iwas at a loss as to how to get within safe roping-distance. Anywhere under forty feet I am an excellent roper, at fiftyfeet I am fair; but over that I knew it would be a matter ofluck if I succeeded in getting my noose about that beautifularched neck.

As I stood debating the question in my mind, I was almost uponthe point of making the attempt at the long throw. I hadplenty of rope, this Galu weapon being fully sixty feet long. How I wished for the collies from the ranch! At a word theywould have circled this little bunch and driven it straightdown to me; and then it flashed into my mind that Nobs had runwith those collies all one summer, that he had gone down to thepasture with them after the cows every evening and done hispart in driving them back to the milking-barn, and had done itintelligently; but Nobs had never done the thing alone, and ithad been a year since he had done it at all. However, thechances were more in favor of my foozling the long throw thanthat Nobs would fall down in his part if I gave him the chance.

Having come to a decision, I had to creep back to Nobs and gethim, and then with him at my heels return to a large bush nearthe four horses. Here we could see directly through the bush, andpointing the animals out to Nobs I whispered: "Fetch 'em, boy!"

In an instant he was gone, circling wide toward the rear ofthe quarry. They caught sight of him almost immediately andbroke into a trot away from him; but when they saw that he wasapparently giving them a wide berth they stopped again,though they stood watching him, with high-held heads andquivering nostrils. It was a beautiful sight. And then Nobsturned in behind them and trotted slowly back toward me. He didnot bark, nor come rushing down upon them, and when he had comecloser to them, he proceeded at a walk. The splendid creaturesseemed more curious than fearful, making no effort to escapeuntil Nobs was quite close to them; then they trotted slowlyaway, but at right angles.

And now the fun and trouble commenced. Nobs, of course,attempted to turn them, and he seemed to have selected thestallion to work upon, for he paid no attention to the others,having intelligence enough to know that a lone dog could runhis legs off before he could round up four horses that didn'twish to be rounded up. The stallion, however, had notions ofhis own about being headed, and the result was as pretty a raceas one would care to see. Gad, how that horse could run! He seemedto flatten out and shoot through the air with the very minimumof exertion, and at his forefoot ran Nobs, doing his best toturn him. He was barking now, and twice he leaped high againstthe stallion's flank; but this cost too much effort and alwayslost him ground, as each time he was hurled heels over head bythe impact; yet before they disappeared over a rise in the groundI was sure that Nob's persistence was bearing fruit; it seemedto me that the horse was giving way a trifle to the right. Nobs was between him and the main herd, to which the yearlingand filly had already fled.

As I stood waiting for Nobs' return, I could not but speculateupon my chances should I be attacked by some formidable beast. I was some distance from the forest and armed with weapons inthe use of which I was quite untrained, though I had practicedsome with the spear since leaving the Kro-lu country. I mustadmit that my thoughts were not pleasant ones, verging almostupon cowardice, until I chanced to think of little Ajor alonein this same land and armed only with a knife! I wasimmediately filled with shame; but in thinking the matter oversince, I have come to the conclusion that my state of mind wasinfluenced largely by my approximate nakedness. If you havenever wandered about in broad daylight garbed in a bit ofred-deer skin in inadequate length, you can have no conceptionof the sensation of futility that overwhelms one. Clothes, toa man accustomed to wearing clothes, impart a certainself-confidence; lack of them induces panic.

But no beast attacked me, though I saw several menacing formspassing through the dark aisles of the forest. At last Icommenced to worry over Nobs' protracted absence and to fearthat something had befallen him. I was coiling my rope tostart out in search of him, when I saw the stallion leap intoview at almost the same spot behind which he had disappeared,and at his heels ran Nobs. Neither was running so fast orfuriously as when last I had seen them.

The horse, as he approached me, I could see was laboring hard;yet he kept gamely to his task, and Nobs, too. The splendidfellow was driving the quarry straight toward me. I crouchedbehind my bush and laid my noose in readiness to throw. As thetwo approached my hiding-place, Nobs reduced his speed, and thestallion, evidently only too glad of the respite, dropped intoa trot. It was at this gait that he passed me; my rope-handflew forward; the honda, well down, held the noose open,and the beautiful bay fairly ran his head into it.

Instantly he wheeled to dash off at right angles. I bracedmyself with the rope around my hip and brought him to asudden stand. Rearing and struggling, he fought for his libertywhile Nobs, panting and with lolling tongue, came and threwhimself down near me. He seemed to know that his work was doneand that he had earned his rest. The stallion was pretty wellspent, and after a few minutes of struggling he stood with feetfar spread, nostrils dilated and eyes wide, watching me as Iedged toward him, taking in the slack of the rope as I advanced. A dozen times he reared and tried to break away; but always Ispoke soothingly to him and after an hour of effort I succeededin reaching his head and stroking his muzzle. Then I gathereda handful of grass and offered it to him, and always I talkedto him in a quiet and reassuring voice.

I had expected a battle royal; but on the contrary I found histaming a matter of comparative ease. Though wild, he wasgentle to a degree, and of such remarkable intelligence thathe soon discovered that I had no intention of harming him. After that, all was easy. Before that day was done, I had taughthim to lead and to stand while I stroked his head and flanks, andto eat from my hand, and had the satisfaction of seeing the lightof fear die in his large, intelligent eyes.

The following day I fashioned a hackamore from a piece which Icut from the end of my long Galu rope, and then I mounted himfully prepared for a struggle of titanic proportions in which Iwas none too sure that he would not come off victor; but henever made the slightest effort to unseat me, and from then onhis education was rapid. No horse ever learned more quicklythe meaning of the rein and the pressure of the knees. I thinkhe soon learned to love me, and I know that I loved him; whilehe and Nobs were the best of pals. I called him Ace. I had afriend who was once in the French flying-corps, and when Acelet himself out, he certainly flew.

I cannot explain to you, nor can you understand, unless you tooare a horseman, the exhilarating feeling of well-being whichpervaded me from the moment that I commenced riding Ace. I wasa new man, imbued with a sense of superiority that led me tofeel that I could go forth and conquer all Caspak single-handed. Now, when I needed meat, I ran it down on Ace and roped it, andwhen some great beast with which we could not cope threatened us,we galloped away to safety; but for the most part the creatureswe met looked upon us in terror, for Ace and I in combinationpresented a new and unusual beast beyond their experience and ken.

For five days I rode back and forth across the southern end ofthe Galu country without seeing a human being; yet all the timeI was working slowly toward the north, for I had determined tocomb the territory thoroughly in search of Ajor; but on thefifth day as I emerged from a forest, I saw some distance aheadof me a single small figure pursued by many others. Instantly Irecognized the quarry as Ajor. The entire party was fully amile away from me, and they were crossing my path at right angles. Ajor a few hundred yards in advance of those who followed her. One of her pursuers was far in advance of the others, and wasgaining upon her rapidly. With a word and a pressure of theknees I sent Ace leaping out into the open, and with Nobsrunning close alongside, we raced toward her.

At first none of them saw us; but as we neared Ajor, the packbehind the foremost pursuer discovered us and set up such ahowl as I never before have heard. They were all Galus, and Isoon recognized the foremost as Du-seen. He was almost uponAjor now, and with a sense of terror such as I had never beforeexperienced, I saw that he ran with his knife in his hand, andthat his intention was to slay rather than capture. I couldnot understand it, but I could only urge Ace to greater speed,and most nobly did the wondrous creature respond to my demands. If ever a four-footed creature approximated flying, it was Acethat day.

Du-seen, intent upon his brutal design, had as yet not noticed us. He was within a pace of Ajor when Ace and I dashed between them,and I, leaning down to the left, swept my little barbarian intothe hollow of an arm and up on the withers of my glorious Ace. We had snatched her from the very clutches of Du-seen, who halted,mystified and raging. Ajor, too, was mystified, as we had comeup from diagonally behind her so that she had no idea that wewere near until she was swung to Ace's back. The little savageturned with drawn knife to stab me, thinking that I was somenew enemy, when her eyes found my face and she recognized me. With a little sob she threw her arms about my neck, gasping: "My Tom! My Tom!"

And then Ace sank suddenly into thick mud to his belly, andAjor and I were thrown far over his head. He had run into oneof those numerous springs which cover Caspak. Sometimes theyare little lakes, again but tiny pools, and often merequagmires of mud, as was this one overgrown with lush grasseswhich effectually hid its treacherous identity. It is a wonderthat Ace did not break a leg, so fast he was going when hefell; but he didn't, though with four good legs he was unableto wallow from the mire. Ajor and I had sprawled face down inthe covering grasses and so had not sunk deeply; but when wetried to rise, we found that there was not footing, andpresently we saw that Du-seen and his followers were comingdown upon us. There was no escape. It was evident that wewere doomed.

"Slay me!" begged Ajor. "Let me die at thy loved hands ratherthan beneath the knife of this hateful thing, for he will kill me. He has sworn to kill me. Last night he captured me, and whenlater he would have his way with me, I struck him with myfists and with my knife I stabbed him, and then I escaped,leaving him raging in pain and thwarted desire. Today theysearched for me and found me; and as I fled, Du-seen ran afterme crying that he would slay me. Kill me, my Tom, and then fallupon thine own spear, for they will kill you horribly if theytake you alive."

I couldn't kill her--not at least until the last moment; and Itold her so, and that I loved her, and that until death came, Iwould live and fight for her.

Nobs had followed us into the bog and had done fairly well atfirst, but when he neared us he too sank to his belly and couldonly flounder about. We were in this predicament when Du-seenand his followers approached the edge of the horrible swamp. I saw that Al-tan was with him and many other Kro-lu warriors. The alliance against Jor the chief had, therefore, beenconsummated, and this horde was already marching upon theGalu city. I sighed as I thought how close I had been to savingnot only Ajor but her father and his people from defeat and death.

Beyond the swamp was a dense wood. Could we have reached this,we would have been safe; but it might as well have been ahundred miles away as a hundred yards across that hidden lakeof sticky mud. Upon the edge of the swamp Du-seen and hishorde halted to revile us. They could not reach us with theirhands; but at a command from Du-seen they fitted arrows totheir bows, and I saw that the end had come. Ajor huddledclose to me, and I took her in my arms. "I love you, Tom," shesaid, "only you." Tears came to my eyes then, not tears ofself-pity for my predicament, but tears from a heart filledwith a great love--a heart that sees the sun of its life andits love setting even as it rises.

The renegade Galus and their Kro-lu allies stood waiting forthe word from Du-seen that would launch that barbed avalancheof death upon us, when there broke from the wood beyond theswamp the sweetest music that ever fell upon the ears ofman--the sharp staccato of at least two score rifles firedrapidly at will. Down went the Galu and Kro-lu warriors liketenpins before that deadly fusillade.

What could it mean? To me it meant but one thing, and that wasthat Hollis and Short and the others had scaled the cliffs andmade their way north to the Galu country upon the opposite sideof the island in time to save Ajor and me from almost certain death. I didn't have to have an introduction to them to know that themen who held those rifles were the men of my own party; and when,a few minutes later, they came forth from their concealment,my eyes verified my hopes. There they were, every man-jack ofthem; and with them were a thousand straight, sleek warriors ofthe Galu race; and ahead of the others came two men in the garbof Galus. Each was tall and straight and wonderfully muscled;yet they differed as Ace might differ from a perfect specimenof another species. As they approached the mire, Ajor held forthher arms and cried, "Jor, my chief! My father!" and the elderof the two rushed in knee-deep to rescue her, and then the othercame close and looked into my face, and his eyes went wide, andmine too, and I cried: "Bowen! For heaven's sake, Bowen Tyler!"

It was he. My search was ended. Around me were all my companyand the man we had searched a new world to find. They cutsaplings from the forest and laid a road into the swamp beforethey could get us all out, and then we marched back to the cityof Jor the Galu chief, and there was great rejoicing when Ajorcame home again mounted upon the glossy back of the stallion Ace.

Tyler and Hollis and Short and all the rest of us Americansnearly worked our jaws loose on the march back to the village,and for days afterward we kept it up. They told me how they hadcrossed the barrier cliffs in five days, working twenty-fourhours a day in three eight-hour shifts with two reliefs to eachshift alternating half-hourly. Two men with electric drillsdriven from the dynamos aboard the Toreador drilled twoholes four feet apart in the face of the cliff and in the samehorizontal planes. The holes slanted slightly downward. Into theseholes the iron rods brought as a part of our equipment and forjust this purpose were inserted, extending about a foot beyondthe face of the rock, across these two rods a plank was laid,and then the next shift, mounting to the new level, bored twomore holes five feet above the new platform, and so on.

During the nights the searchlights from the Toreador werekept playing upon the cliff at the point where the drills wereworking, and at the rate of ten feet an hour the summit wasreached upon the fifth day. Ropes were lowered, blocks lashedto trees at the top, and crude elevators rigged, so that by thenight of the fifth day the entire party, with the exception ofthe few men needed to man the Toreador, were within Caspakwith an abundance of arms, ammunition and equipment.

From then on, they fought their way north in search of me,after a vain and perilous effort to enter the hideousreptile-infested country to the south. Owing to the number ofguns among them, they had not lost a man; but their path wasstrewn with the dead creatures they had been forced to slay towin their way to the north end of the island, where they hadfound Bowen and his bride among the Galus of Jor.

The reunion between Bowen and Nobs was marked by a franticdisplay upon Nobs' part, which almost stripped Bowen of thescanty attire that the Galu custom had vouchsafed him. When wearrived at the Galu city, Lys La Rue was waiting to welcome us. She was Mrs. Tyler now, as the master of the Toreador hadmarried them the very day that the search-party had found them,though neither Lys nor Bowen would admit that any civil orreligious ceremony could have rendered more sacred the bondswith which God had united them.

Neither Bowen nor the party from the Toreador had seen anysign of Bradley and his party. They had been so long lost nowthat any hopes for them must be definitely abandoned. The Galushad heard rumors of them, as had the Western Kro-lu and Band-lu;but none had seen aught of them since they had left Fort Dinosaurmonths since.

We rested in Jor's village for a fortnight while we preparedfor the southward journey to the point where the Toreadorwas to lie off shore in wait for us. During these two weeksChal-az came up from the Krolu country, now a full-fledged Galu. He told us that the remnants of Al-tan's party had been slainwhen they attempted to re-enter Kro-lu. Chal-az had been madechief, and when he rose, had left the tribe under a new leaderwhom all respected.

Nobs stuck close to Bowen; but Ace and Ajor and I went out uponmany long rides through the beautiful north Galu country. Chal-az had brought my arms and ammunition up from Kro-lu withhim; but my clothes were gone; nor did I miss them once Ibecame accustomed to the free attire of the Galu.

At last came the time for our departure; upon the followingmorning we were to set out toward the south and the Toreadorand dear old California. I had asked Ajor to go with us; butJor her father had refused to listen to the suggestion. No pleascould swerve him from his decision: Ajor, the cos-ata-lo,from whom might spring a new and greater Caspakian race, couldnot be spared. I might have any other she among the Galus;but Ajor--no!

The poor child was heartbroken; and as for me, I was slowlyrealizing the hold that Ajor had upon my heart and wondered howI should get along without her. As I held her in my arms thatlast night, I tried to imagine what life would be like withouther, for at last there had come to me the realization that Iloved her--loved my little barbarian; and as I finally toremyself away and went to my own hut to snatch a few hours' sleepbefore we set off upon our long journey on the morrow, Iconsoled myself with the thought that time would heal the woundand that back in my native land I should find a mate who wouldbe all and more to me than little Ajor could ever be--a womanof my own race and my own culture.

Morning came more quickly than I could have wished. I rose andbreakfasted, 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 warriorsready to accompany us. I could not even bear to go to Ace'scorral and bid him farewell. The night before, I had given himto Ajor, and now in my mind the two seemed inseparable.

And so we marched away, down the street flanked with its stonehouses and out through the wide gateway in the stone wall whichsurrounds the city and on across the clearing toward the forestthrough which we must pass to reach the northern boundary ofGalu, beyond which we would turn south. At the edge of theforest I cast a backward glance at the city which held myheart, and beside the massive gateway I saw that which broughtme to a sudden halt. It was a little figure leaning againstone of the great upright posts upon which the gates swing--acrumpled little figure; and even at this distance I could seeits shoulders heave to the sobs that racked it. It was thelast 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, andgrasped my hand. "I thought you'd do it in the end."

And then I went back and took Ajor in my arms and kissed thetears from her eyes and a smile to her lips while together wewatched the last of the Americans disappear into the forest.