I have never been much of a runner; I hate running. But if ever a sprinter broke into smithereens all world'srecords it was I that day when I fled before those hideous beasts along the narrow spit of rocky cliff betweentwo narrow fiords toward the Sojar Az. Just as I reachedthe verge of the cliff the foremost of the brutes was uponme. He leaped and closed his massive jaws upon myshoulder.

The momentum of his flying body, added to that ofmy own, carried the two of us over the cliff. It was ahideous fall. The cliff was almost perpendicular. At itsfoot broke the sea against a solid wall of rock.

We struck the cliff-face once in our descent and thenplunged into the salt sea. With the impact with the waterthe hyaenodon released his hold upon my shoulder.

As I came sputtering to the surface I looked about forsome tiny foot- or hand-hold where I might cling for amoment of rest and recuperation. The cliff itself offeredme nothing, so I swam toward the mouth of the fiord.

At the far end I could see that erosion from above hadwashed down sufficient rubble to form a narrow ribbonof beach. Toward this I swam with all my strength. Notonce did I look behind me, since every unnecessarymovement in swimming detracts so much from one'sendurance speed. Not until I had drawn myself safelyout upon the beach did I turn my eyes back toward thesea for the hyaenodon. He was swimming slowly andapparently painfully toward the beach upon where Istood.

I watched him for a long time, wondering, why it wasthat such a doglike animal was not a better swimmer. As he neared me I realized that he was weakeningrapidly. I had gathered a handful of stones to beready for his assault when he landed, but in a momentI let them fall from my hands. It was evident that thebrute either was no swimmer or else was severely injured, for by now he was making practically no headway. Indeed, it was with quite apparent difficulty thathe kept his nose above the surface of the sea.

He was not more than fifty yards from shore when hewent under. I watched the spot where he had disappeared, and in a moment I saw his head reappear. The look of dumb misery in his eyes struck a chord inmy breast, for I love dogs. I forgot that he was a vicious,primordial wolf-thing--a man-eater, a scourge, and aterror. I saw only the sad eyes that looked like the eyesof Raja, my dead collie of the outer world.

I did not stop to weigh and consider. In other words,I did not stop to think, which I believe must be theway of men who do things--in contradistinction tothose who think much and do nothing. Instead, I leapedback into the water and swam out toward the drowningbeast. At first he showed his teeth at my approach, butjust before I reached him he went under for the secondtime, so that I had to dive to get him.

I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and thoughhe weighed as much as a Shetland pony, I managed todrag him to shore and well up upon the beach. HereI found that one of his forelegs was broken--the crashagainst the cliff-face must have done it.

By this time all the fight was out of him, so that whenI had gathered a few tiny branches from some of thestunted trees that grew in the crevices of the cliff, andreturned to him he permitted me to set his brokenleg and bind it in splints. I had to tear part of my shirtinto bits to obtain a bandage, but at last the job wasdone. Then I sat stroking the savage head and talking tothe beast in the man-dog talk with which you arefamiliar, if you ever owned and loved a dog.

When he is well, I thought, he probably will turn uponme and attempt to devour me, and against that eventuality I gathered together a pile of rocks and set towork to fashion a stone-knife. We were bottled up at thehead of the fiord as completely as if we had been behindprison bars. Before us spread the Sojar Az, and elsewhere about us rose unscalable cliffs.

Fortunately a little rivulet trickled down the side ofthe rocky wall, giving us ample supply of fresh water--some of which I kept constantly beside the hyaenodonin a huge, bowl-shaped shell, of which there were countless numbers among the rubble of the beach.

For food we subsisted upon shellfish and an occasional bird that I succeeded in knocking over with arock, for long practice as a pitcher on prep-school andvarsity nines had made me an excellent shot with ahand-thrown missile.

It was not long before the hyaenodon's leg was sufficiently mended to permit him to rise and hobble abouton three legs. I shall never forget with what intent interest I watched his first attempt. Close at my hand laymy pile of rocks. Slowly the beast came to his three goodfeet. He stretched himself, lowered his head, and lappedwater from the drinking-shell at his side, turned andlooked at me, and then hobbled off toward the cliffs.

Thrice he traversed the entire extent of our prison,seeking, I imagine, a loop-hole for escape, but findingnone he returned in my direction. Slowly he came quiteclose to me, sniffed at my shoes, my puttees, my hands,and then limped off a few feet and lay down again.

Now that he was able to get around, I was a little uncertain as to the wisdom of my impulsive mercy.

How could I sleep with that ferocious thing prowlingabout the narrow confines of our prison?

Should I close my eyes it might be to open themagain to the feel of those mighty jaws at my throat. Tosay the least, I was uncomfortable.

I have had too much experience with dumb animalsto bank very strongly on any sense of gratitude whichmay be attributed to them by inexperienced sentimentalists. I believe that some animals love their masters,but I doubt very much if their affection is the outcomeof gratitude--a characteristic that is so rare as to be onlyoccasionally traceable in the seemingly unselfish acts ofman himself.

But finally I was forced to sleep. Tired nature wouldbe put off no longer. I simply fell asleep, willy nilly, as Isat looking out to sea. I had been very uncomfortablesince my ducking in the ocean, for though I could seethe sunlight on the water half-way toward the islandand upon the island itself, no ray of it fell upon us. Wewere well within the Land of Awful Shadow. A perpetual half-warmth pervaded the atmosphere, butclothing was slow in drying, and so from loss of sleepand great physical discomfort, I at last gave way tonature's demands and sank into profound slumber.

When I awoke it was with a start, for a heavy bodywas upon me. My first thought was that the hyaenodonhad at last attacked me, but as my eyes opened andI struggled to rise, I saw that a man was astride me andthree others bending close above him.

I am no weakling--and never have been. My experience in the hard life of the inner world has turnedmy thews to steel. Even such giants as Ghak the HairyOne have praised my strength; but to it is addedanother quality which they lack--science.

The man upon me held me down awkwardly, leavingme many openings--one of which I was not slow intaking advantage of, so that almost before the fellowknew that I was awake I was upon my feet with myarms over his shoulders and about his waist and hadhurled him heavily over my head to the hard rubble ofthe beach, where he lay quite still.

In the instant that I arose I had seen the hyaenodonlying asleep beside a boulder a few yards away. Sonearly was he the color of the rock that he was scarcelydiscernible. Evidently the newcomers had not seenhim.

I had not more than freed myself from one of myantagonists before the other three were upon me. Theydid not work silently now, but charged me with savagecries--a mistake upon their part. The fact that they didnot draw their weapons against me convinced me thatthey desired to take me alive; but I fought as desperately as if death loomed immediate and sure.

The battle was short, for scarce had their first wildwhoop reverberated through the rocky fiord, and theyhad closed upon me, than a hairy mass of demoniacalrage hurtled among us.

It was the hyaenodon!

In an instant he had pulled down one of the men, andwith a single shake, terrier-like, had broken his neck. Then he was upon another. In their efforts to vanquishthe wolf-dog the savages forgot all about me, thus giving me an instant in which to snatch a knife from theloin-string of him who had first fallen and account foranother of them. Almost simultaneously the hyaenodonpulled down the remaining enemy, crushing his skullwith a single bite of those fearsome jaws.

The battle was over--unless the beast considered mefair prey, too. I waited, ready for him with knife andbludgeon--also filched from a dead foeman; but he paidno attention to me, falling to work instead to devour oneof the corpses.

The beast bad been handicapped but little by hissplinted leg; but having eaten he lay down and commenced to gnaw at the bandage. I was sitting some littledistance away devouring shellfish, of which, by the way,I was becoming exceedingly tired.

Presently, the hyaenodon arose and came towardme. I did not move. He stopped in front of me anddeliberately raised his bandaged leg and pawed myknee. His act was as intelligible as words--he wishedthe bandage removed.

I took the great paw in one hand and with the otherhand untied and unwound the bandage, removed thesplints and felt of the injured member. As far as I couldjudge the bone was completely knit. The joint was stiff;when I bent it a little the brute winced--but he neithergrowled nor tried to pull away. Very slowly and gentlyI rubbed the joint and applied pressure to it for a fewmoments.

Then I set it down upon the ground. The hyaenodonwalked around me a few times, and then lay down atmy side, his body touching mine. I laid my hand uponhis head. He did not move. Slowly, I scratched abouthis ears and neck and down beneath the fierce jaws. The only sign he gave was to raise his chin a trifle thatI might better caress him.

That was enough! From that moment I have neveragain felt suspicion of Raja, as I immediately namedhim. Somehow all sense of loneliness vanished, too--Ihad a dog! I had never guessed precisely what it wasthat was lacking to life in Pellucidar, but now I knew itwas the total absence of domestic animals.

Man here had not yet reached the point where hemight take the time from slaughter and escaping slaughter to make friends with any of the brute creation. Imust qualify this statement a trifle and say that thiswas true of those tribes with which I was most familiar. The Thurians do domesticate the colossal lidi, traversingthe great Lidi Plains upon the backs of these grotesque and stupendous monsters, and possibly there mayalso be other, far-distant peoples within the great world,who have tamed others of the wild things of jungle,plain or mountain.

The Thurians practice agriculture in a crude sort ofway. It is my opinion that this is one of the earliest stepsfrom savagery to civilization. The taming of wild beastsand their domestication follows.

Perry argues that wild dogs were first domesticatedfor hunting purposes; but I do not agree with him. Ibelieve that if their domestication were not purely theresult of an accident, as, for example, my taming of thehyaenodon, it came about through the desire of tribeswho had previously domesticated flocks and herds tohave some strong, ferocious beast to guard their roaming property. However, I lean rather more strongly tothe theory of accident.

As I sat there upon the beach of the little fiord eatingmy unpalatable shell-fish, I commenced to wonder howit had been that the four savages had been able to reachme, though I had been unable to escape from my natural prison. I glanced about in all directions, searching foran explanation. At last my eyes fell upon the bow of asmall dugout protruding scarce a foot from behind alarge boulder lying half in the water at the edge ofthe beach.

At my discovery I leaped to my feet so suddenly thatit brought Raja, growling and bristling, upon all fours inan instant. For the moment I had forgotten him. But hissavage rumbling did not cause me any uneasiness. Heglanced quickly about in all directions as if searchingfor the cause of my excitement. Then, as I walkedrapidly down toward the dugout, he slunk silently afterme.

The dugout was similar in many respects to thosewhich I had seen in use by the Mezops. In it were fourpaddles. I was much delighted, as it promptly offeredme the escape I had been craving.

I pushed it out into water that would float it, steppedin and called to Raja to enter. At first he did not seemto understand what I wished of him, but after I hadpaddled out a few yards he plunged through the surfand swam after me. When he had come alongside Igrasped the scruff of his neck, and after a considerablestruggle, in which I several times came near to overturning the canoe, I managed to drag him aboard,where he shook himself vigorously and squatted downbefore me.

After emerging from the fiord, I paddled southwardalong the coast, where presently the lofty cliffs gaveway to lower and more level country. It was here somewhere that I should come upon the principal village ofthe Thurians. When, after a time, I saw in the distancewhat I took to be huts in a clearing near the shore, Idrew quickly into land, for though I had been furnishedcredentials by Kolk, I was not sufficiently familiar withthe tribal characteristics of these people to knowwhether I should receive a friendly welcome or not; andin case I should not, I wanted to be sure of having acanoe hidden safely away so that I might undertakethe trip to the island, in any event--provided, of course,that I escaped the Thurians should they prove belligerent.

At the point where I landed the shore was quitelow. A forest of pale, scrubby ferns ran down almost tothe beach. Here I dragged up the dugout, hiding it wellwithin the vegetation, and with some loose rocks built acairn upon the beach to mark my cache. Then I turnedmy steps toward the Thurian village.

As I proceeded I began to speculate upon the possibleactions of Raja when we should enter the presence ofother men than myself. The brute was padding softly atmy side, his sensitive nose constantly atwitch and hisfierce eyes moving restlessly from side to side--nothingwould ever take Raja unawares!

The more I thought upon the matter the greater became my perturbation. I did not want Raja to attackany of the people upon whose friendship I so greatlydepended, nor did I want him injured or slain by them.

I wondered if Raja would stand for a leash. His headas he paced beside me was level with my hip. I laidmy hand upon it caressingly. As I did so he turned andlooked up into my face, his jaws parting and his redtongue lolling as you have seen your own dog's beneatha love pat.

"Just been waiting all your life to be tamed and loved,haven't you, old man?" I asked. "You're nothing but agood pup, and the man who put the hyaeno in yourname ought to be sued for libel."

Raja bared his mighty fangs with upcurled, snarlinglips and licked my hand.

"You're grinning, you old fraud, you!" I cried. "Ifyou're not, I'll eat you. I'll bet a doughnut you're nothingbut some kid's poor old Fido, masquerading around asa real, live man-eater."

Raja whined. And so we walked on together towardThuria--I talking to the beast at my side, and he seeming to enjoy my company no less than I enjoyed his. Ifyou don't think it's lonesome wandering all by yourselfthrough savage, unknown Pellucidar, why, just try it,and you will not wonder that I was glad of the companyof this first dog--this living replica of the fierce and nowextinct hyaenodon of the outer crust that hunted insavage packs the great elk across the snows of southernFrance, in the days when the mastodon roamed at willover the broad continent of which the British Isles werethen a part, and perchance left his footprints and hisbones in the sands of Atlantis as well.

Thus I dreamed as we moved on toward Thuria. My dreaming was rudely shattered by a savage growlfrom Raja. I looked down at him. He had stopped in histracks as one turned to stone. A thin ridge of stiff hairbristled along the entire length of his spine. His yellow green eyes were fastened upon the scrubby jungleat our right.

I fastened my fingers in the bristles at his neck andturned my eyes in the direction that his pointed. At firstI saw nothing. Then a slight movement of the bushesriveted my attention. I thought it must be some wildbeast, and was glad of the primitive weapons I hadtaken from the bodies of the warriors who had attackedme.

Presently I distinguished two eyes peering at us fromthe vegetation. I took a step in their direction, and asI did so a youth arose and fled precipitately in thedirection we had been going. Raja struggled to be afterhim, but I held tightly to his neck, an act which he didnot seem to relish, for he turned on me with baredfangs.

I determined that now was as good a time as any todiscover just how deep was Raja's affection for me. Oneof us could be master, and logically I was the one. Hegrowled at me. I cuffed him sharply across the nose. Helooked it me for a moment in surprised bewilderment,and then he growled again. I made another feint at him,expecting that it would bring him at my throat; but instead he winced and crouched down.

Raja was subdued!

I stooped and patted him. Then I took a piece ofthe rope that constituted a part of my equipment andmade a leash for him.

Thus we resumed our journey toward Thuria. Theyouth who had seen us was evidently of the Thurians. That he had lost no time in racing homeward andspreading the word of my coming was evidenced whenwe had come within sight of the clearing, and the village--the first real village, by the way, that I had ever seenconstructed by human Pellucidarians. There was a ruderectangle walled with logs and boulders, in whichwere a hundred or more thatched huts of similar construction. There was no gate. Ladders that could be removed by night led over the palisade.

Before the village were assembled a great concourseof warriors. Inside I could see the heads of women andchildren peering over the top of the wall; and also,farther back, the long necks of lidi, topped by their tinyheads. Lidi, by the way, is both the singular and pluralform of the noun that describes the huge beasts of burden of the Thurians. They are enormous quadrupeds,eighty or a hundred feet long, with very small headsperched at the top of very long, slender necks. Theirheads are quite forty feet from the ground. Their gait isslow and deliberate, but so enormous are their stridesthat, as a matter of fact, they cover the ground quiterapidly.

Perry has told me that they are almost identical withthe fossilized remains of the diplodocus of the outercrust's Jurassic age. I have to take his word for it--and Iguess you will, unless you know more of such mattersthan I.

As we came in sight of the warriors the men set up agreat jabbering. Their eyes were wide in astonishment--only, I presume, because of my strange garmenture,but as well from the fact that I came in company with ajalok, which is the Pellucidarian name of the hyaenodon.

Raja tugged at his leash, growling and showing hislong white fangs. He would have liked nothing betterthan to be at the throats of the whole aggregation; but Iheld him in with the leash, though it took all mystrength to do it. My free hand I held above myhead, palm out, in token of the peacefulness of mymission.

In the foreground I saw the youth who had discovered us, and I could tell from the way he carried himself that he was quite overcome by his own importance. The warriors about him were all fine looking fellows,though shorter and squatter than the Sarians or theAmozites. Their color, too, was a bit lighter, owing, nodoubt, to the fact that much of their lives is spent withinthe shadow of the world that hangs forever above theircountry.

A little in advance of the others was a bearded fellow tricked out in many ornaments. I didn't need toask to know that he was the chieftain--doubtless Goork,father of Kolk. Now to him I addressed myself.

"I am David," I said, "Emperor of the FederatedKingdoms of Pellucidar. Doubtless you have heard ofme?"

He nodded his head affirmatively.

"I come from Sari," I continued, 'where I just metKolk, the son of Goork. I bear a token from Kolk to hisfather, which will prove that I am a friend."

Again the warrior nodded. "I am Goork," he said. "Where is the token?"

"Here," I replied, and fished into the game-bagwhere I had placed it.

Goork and his people waited in silence. My handsearched the inside of the bag.

It was empty!

The token had been stolen with my arms!