We made camp there beside the peaceful river. TherePerry told me all that had befallen him since I haddeparted for the outer crust.

It seemed that Hooja had made it appear that Ihad intentionally left Dian behind, and that I did notpurpose ever returning to Pellucidar. He told themthat I was of another world and that I had tired ofthis and of its inhabitants.

To Dian he had explained that I had a mate in theworld to which I was returning; that I had neverintended taking Dian the Beautiful back with me; andthat she had seen the last of me.

Shortly afterward Dian had disappeared from thecamp, nor had Perry seen or heard aught of her since.

He had no conception of the time that had elapsedsince I had departed, but guessed that many years haddragged their slow way into the past.

Hooja, too, had disappeared very soon after Dianhad left. The Sarians, under Ghak the Hairy One, andthe Amozites under Dacor the Strong One, Dian'sbrother, had fallen out over my supposed defection,for Ghak would not believe that I had thus treacherously deceived and deserted them.

The result had been that these two powerful tribeshad fallen upon one another with the new weaponsthat Perry and I had taught them to make and to use. Other tribes of the new federation took sides with theoriginal disputants or set up petty revolutions of theirown.

The result was the total demolition of the work wehad so well started.

Taking advantage of the tribal war, the Mahars hadgathered their Sagoths in force and fallen upon onetribe after another in rapid succession, wreaking awfulhavoc among them and reducing them for the mostpart to as pitiable a state of terror as that from whichwe had raised them.

Alone of all the once-mighty federation the Sariansand the Amozites with a few other tribes continuedto maintain their defiance of the Mahars; but thesetribes were still divided among themselves, nor had itseemed at all probable to Perry when he had last beenamong them that any attempt at re-amalgamationwould be made.

"And thus, your majesty," he concluded, "has fadedback into the oblivion of the Stone Age our wondrousdream and with it has gone the First Empire of Pellucidar."

We both had to smile at the use of my royal title,yet I was indeed still "Emperor of Pellucidar," andsome day I meant to rebuild what the vile act of thetreacherous Hooja had torn down.

But first I would find my empress. To me she wasworth forty empires.

"Have you no clue as to the whereabouts of Dian?"I asked.

"None whatever," replied Perry. "It was in search ofher that I came to the pretty pass in which you discovered me, and from which, David, you saved me.

"I knew perfectly well that you had not intentionallydeserted either Dian or Pellucidar. I guessed that insome way Hooja the Sly One was at the bottom ofthe matter, and I determined to go to Amoz, whereI guessed that Dian might come to the protection ofher brother, and do my utmost to convince her, andthrough her Dacor the Strong One, that we had allbeen victims of a treacherous plot to which you wereno party.

"I came to Amoz after a most trying and terriblejourney, only to find that Dian was not among herbrother's people and that they knew naught of herwhereabouts.

"Dacor, I am sure, wanted to be fair and just, butso great were his grief and anger over the disappearance of his sister that he could not listen to reason,but kept repeating time and again that only your returnto Pellucidar could prove the honesty of your intentions.

"Then came a stranger from another tribe, sent I amsure at the instigation of Hooja. He so turned theAmozites against me that I was forced to flee theircountry to escape assassination.

"In attempting to return to Sari I became lost, andthen the Sagoths discovered me. For a long time Ieluded them, hiding in caves and wading in rivers tothrow them off my trail.

"I lived on nuts and fruits and the edible roots thatchance threw in my way.

"I traveled on and on, in what directions I could noteven guess; and at last I could elude them no longerand the end came as I had long foreseen that it wouldcome, except that I had not foreseen that you wouldbe there to save me."

We rested in our camp until Perry had regainedsufficient strength to travel again. We planned much,rebuilding all our shattered air-castles; but above all weplanned most to find Dian.

I could not believe that she was dead, yet whereshe might be in this savage world, and under whatfrightful conditions she might be living, I could notguess.

When Perry was rested we returned to the prospector,where he fitted himself out fully like a civilized humanbeing--under-clothing, socks, shoes, khaki jacket andbreeches and good, substantial puttees.

When I had come upon him he was clothed in roughsadak sandals, a gee-string and a tunic fashioned fromthe shaggy hide of a thag. Now he wore real clothingagain for the first time since the ape-folk had strippedus of our apparel that long-gone day that had witnessedour advent within Pellucidar.

With a bandoleer of cartridges across his shoulder,two six-shooters at his hips, and a rifle in his handhe was a much rejuvenated Perry.

Indeed he was quite a different person altogetherfrom the rather shaky old man who had entered theprospector with me ten or eleven years before, for thetrial trip that had plunged us into such wondrous adventures and into such a strange and hitherto undreamed-of-world.

Now he was straight and active. His muscles, almostatrophied from disuse in his former life, had filled out.

He was still an old man of course, but instead ofappearing ten years older than he really was, as hehad when we left the outer world, he now appearedabout ten years younger. The wild, free life of Pellucidar had worked wonders for him.

Well, it must need have done so or killed him, fora man of Perry's former physical condition could notlong have survived the dangers and rigors of the primitive life of the inner world.

Perry had been greatly interested in my map andin the "royal observatory" at Greenwich. By use of thepedometers we had retraced our way to the prospectorwith ease and accuracy.

Now that we were ready to set out again we decidedto follow a different route on the chance that it mightlead us into more familiar territory.

I shall not weary you with a repetition of the countless adventures of our long search. Encounters withwild beasts of gigantic size were of almost daily occurrence; but with our deadly express rifles we ran comparatively little risk when one recalls that previouslywe had both traversed this world of frightful dangersinadequately armed with crude, primitive weapons andall but naked.

We ate and slept many times--so many that welost count--and so I do not know how long weroamed, though our map shows the distances and directions quite accurately. We must have covered a greatmany thousand square miles of territory, and yet wehad seen nothing in the way of a familiar landmark,when from the heights of a mountain-range we werecrossing I descried far in the distance great masses ofbillowing clouds.

Now clouds are practically unknown in the skies ofPellucidar. The moment that my eyes rested uponthem my heart leaped. I seized Perry's arm and, pointing toward the horizonless distance, shouted:

"The Mountains of the Clouds!"

"They lie close to Phutra, and the country of ourworst enemies, the Mahars," Perry remonstrated.

"I know it," I replied, "but they give us a starting-pointfrom which to prosecute our search intelligently. Theyare at least a familiar landmark.

"They tell us that we are upon the right trail and notwandering far in the wrong direction.

"Furthermore, close to the Mountains of the Cloudsdwells a good friend, Ja the Mezop. You did not knowhim, but you know all that he did for me and all that hewill gladly do to aid me.

"At least he can direct us upon the right directiontoward Sari."

"The Mountains of the Clouds constitute a mightyrange," replied Perry. "They must cover an enormousterritory. How are you to find your friend in all the greatcountry that is visible from their rugged flanks?"

"Easily," I answered him, "for Ja gave me minute directions. I recall almost his exact words:

"'You need merely come to the foot of the highestpeak of the Mountains of the Clouds. There you will finda river that flows into the Lural Az.

"'Directly opposite the mouth of the river you will seethree large islands far out--so far that they are barelydiscernible. The one to the extreme left as you face themfrom the mouth of the river is Anoroc, where I rule thetribe of Anoroc.'"

And so we hastened onward toward the great cloudmass that was to be our guide for several weary marches. At last we came close to the towering crags, Alp-like intheir grandeur.

Rising nobly among its noble fellows, one stupendouspeak reared its giant head thousands of feet above theothers. It was he whom we sought; but at its foot noriver wound down toward any sea.

"It must rise from the opposite side," suggested Perry,casting a rueful glance at the forbidding heights thatbarred our further progress. "We cannot endure thearctic cold of those high flung passes, and to traverse theendless miles about this interminable range might require a year or more. The land we seek must lie uponthe opposite side of the mountains."

"Then we must cross them," I insisted.

Perry shrugged.

"We can't do it, David," he repeated, "We are dressedfor the tropics. We should freeze to death among thesnows and glaciers long before we had discovered a passto the opposite side."

"We must cross them," I reiterated. "We will crossthem."

I had a plan, and that plan we carried out. It tooksome time.

First we made a permanent camp part way up theslopes where there was good water. Then we set out insearch of the great, shaggy cave bear of the higheraltitudes.

He is a mighty animal--a terrible animal. He is butlittle larger than his cousin of the lesser, lower hills; buthe makes up for it in the awfulness of his ferocity andin the length and thickness of his shaggy coat. It was hiscoat that we were after.

We came upon him quite unexpectedly. I was trudging in advance along a rocky trail worn smooth by thepadded feet of countless ages of wild beasts. At a shoulder of the mountain around which the path ran I cameface to face with the Titan.

I was going up for a fur coat. He was coming downfor breakfast. Each realized that here was the very thinghe sought.

With a horrid roar the beast charged me.

At my right the cliff rose straight upward for thousands of feet.

At my left it dropped into a dim, abysmal canon.

In front of me was the bear.

Behind me was Perry.

I shouted to him in warning, and then I raised myrifle and fired into the broad breast of the creature. There was no time to take aim; the thing was too closeupon me.

But that my bullet took effect was evident from thehowl of rage and pain that broke from the frothingjowls. It didn't stop him, though.

I fired again, and then he was upon me. Down I wentbeneath his ton of maddened, clawing flesh and boneand sinew.

I thought my time had come. I remember feelingsorry for poor old Perry, left all alone in this inhospitable, savage world.

And then of a sudden I realized that the bear wasgone and that I was quite unharmed. I leaped to myfeet, my rifle still clutched in my hand, and lookedabout for my antagonist.

I thought that I should find him farther down the trail,probably finishing Perry, and so I leaped in the directionI supposed him to be, to find Perry perched upon a projecting rock several feet above the trail. My cry of warning had given him time to reach this point of safety.

There he squatted, his eyes wide and his mouth ajar,the picture of abject terror and consternation.

"Where is he?" he cried when he saw me. "Where ishe?"

"Didn't he come this way?" I asked,

"Nothing came this way," replied the old man. "But Iheard his roars--he must have been as large as anelephant."

"He was," I admitted; "but where in the world do yousuppose he disappeared to?"

Then came a possible explanation to my mind. I returned to the point at which the bear had hurled medown and peered over the edge of the cliff into theabyss below.

Far, far down I saw a small brown blotch near thebottom of the canon. It was the bear.

My second shot must have killed him, and so hisdead body, after hurling me to the path, had toppledover into the abyss. I shivered at the thought of howclose I, too, must have been to going over with him.

It took us a long time to reach the carcass, and arduouslabor to remove the great pelt. But at last the thing wasaccomplished, and we returned to camp dragging theheavy trophy behind us.

Here we devoted another considerable period toscraping and curing it. When this was done to oursatisfaction we made heavy boots, trousers, and coatsof the shaggy skin, turning the fur in.

From the scraps we fashioned caps that came downaround our ears, with flaps that fell about our shouldersand breasts. We were now fairly well equipped for oursearch for a pass to the opposite side of the Mountainsof the Clouds.

Our first step now was to move our camp upward tothe very edge of the perpetual snows which cap thislofty range. Here we built a snug, secure little hut,which we provisioned and stored with fuel for its diminutive fireplace.

With our hut as a base we sallied forth in search of apass across the range.

Our every move was carefully noted upon our mapswhich we now kept in duplicate. By this means we weresaved tedious and unnecessary retracing of ways alreadyexplored.

Systematically we worked upward in both directionsfrom our base, and when we had at last discovered whatseemed might prove a feasible pass we moved our belongings to a new hut farther up.

It was hard work--cold, bitter, cruel work. Not a stepdid we take in advance but the grim reaper strodesilently in our tracks.

There were the great cave bears in the timber, andgaunt, lean wolves--huge creatures twice the size ofour Canadian timber-wolves. Farther up we were assailed by enormous white bears--hungry, devilishfellows, who came roaring across the rough glacier topsat the first glimpse of us, or stalked us stealthily by scentwhen they had not yet seen us.

It is one of the peculiarities of life within Pellucidarthat man is more often the hunted than the hunter.Myriad are the huge-bellied carnivora of this primitiveworld. Never, from birth to death, are those great belliessufficiently filled, so always are their mighty ownersprowling about in search of meat.

Terribly armed for battle as they are, man presentsto them in his primal state an easy prey, slow of foot,puny of strength, ill-equipped by nature with naturalweapons of defense.

The bears looked upon us as easy meat. Only ourheavy rifles saved us from prompt extinction. Poor Perrynever was a raging lion at heart, and I am convincedthat the terrors of that awful period must have causedhim poignant mental anguish.

When we were abroad pushing our trail farther andfarther toward the distant break which, we assumed,marked a feasible way across the range, we never knewat what second some great engine of clawed and fangeddestruction might rush upon us from behind, or lie inwait for us beyond an ice-hummock or a jutting shoulderof the craggy steeps.

The roar of our rifles was constantly shattering theworld-old silence of stupendous canons upon which theeye of man had never before gazed. And when in thecomparative safety of our hut we lay down to sleep thegreat beasts roared and fought without the walls, clawedand battered at the door, or rushed their colossal framesheadlong against the hut's sides until it rocked andtrembled to the impact.

Yes, it was a gay life.

Perry had got to taking stock of our ammunition eachtime we returned to the hut. It became something of anobsession with him.

He'd count our cartridges one by one and then try tofigure how long it would be before the last was expended and we must either remain in the hut until westarved to death or venture forth, empty, to fill the bellyof some hungry bear.

I must admit that I, too, felt worried, for our progresswas indeed snail-like, and our ammunition could notlast forever. In discussing the problem, finally we cameto the decision to burn our bridges behind us and makeone last supreme effort to cross the divide.

It would mean that we must go without sleep for along period, and with the further chance that when thetime came that sleep could no longer be denied wemight still be high in the frozen regions of perpetualsnow and ice, where sleep would mean certain death,exposed as we would be to the attacks of wild beastsand without shelter from the hideous cold.

But we decided that we must take these chances andso at last we set forth from our hut for the last time,carrying such necessities as we felt we could least affordto do without. The bears seemed unusually troublesomeand determined that time, and as we clambered slowlyupward beyond the highest point to which we hadpreviously attained, the cold became infinitely moreintense.

Presently, with two great bears dogging our footstepswe entered a dense fog,

We had reached the heights that are so often cloud-wrapped for long periods. We could see nothing a fewpaces beyond our noses.

We dared not turn back into the teeth of the bearswhich we could hear grunting behind us. To meet themin this bewildering fog would have been to court instantdeath.

Perry was almost overcome by the hopelessness ofour situation. He flopped down on his knees and beganto pray.

It was the first time I had heard him at his old habitsince my return to Pellucidar, and I had thought thathe had given up his little idiosyncrasy; but he hadn't. Far from it.

I let him pray for a short time undisturbed, and thenas I was about to suggest that we had better be pushingalong one of the bears in our rear let out a roar thatmade the earth fairly tremble beneath our feet.

It brought Perry to his feet as if he had been stung bya wasp, and sent him racing ahead through the blinding fog at a gait that I knew must soon end in disasterwere it not checked.

Crevasses in the glacier-ice were far too frequent topermit of reckless speed even in a clear atmosphere,and then there were hideous precipices along theedges of which our way often led us. I shivered as Ithought of the poor old fellow's peril.

At the top of my lungs I called to him to stop, but hedid not answer me. And then I hurried on in the direction he had gone, faster by far than safety dictated.

For a while I thought I heard him ahead of me, butat last, though I paused often to listen and to call tohim, I heard nothing more, not even the grunting ofthe bears that had been behind us. All was deathlysilence--the silence of the tomb. About me lay the thick,impenetrable fog.

I was alone. Perry was gone--gone forever, I had notthe slightest doubt.

Somewhere near by lay the mouth of a treacherousfissure, and far down at its icy bottom lay all that wasmortal of my old friend, Abner Perry. There would hisbody he preserved in its icy sepulcher for countless ages,until on some far distant day the slow-moving river ofice had wound its snail-like way down to the warmerlevel, there to disgorge its grisly evidence of grimtragedy, and what in that far future age, might meanbaffling mystery.