When Goork and his people saw that I had no tokenthey commenced to taunt me.

"You do not come from Kolk, but from the Sly One!"they cried. "He has sent you from the island to spy uponus. Go away, or we will set upon you and kill you."

I explained that all my belongings had been stolenfrom me, and that the robber must have taken the tokentoo; but they didn't believe me. As proof that I wasone of Hooja's people, they pointed to my weapons,which they said were ornamented like those of the island clan. Further, they said that no good man went incompany with a jalok--and that by this line of reasoning I certainly was a bad man.

I saw that they were not naturally a war-like tribe,for they preferred that I leave in peace rather thanforce them to attack me, whereas the Sarians wouldhave killed a suspicious stranger first and inquired intohis purposes later.

I think Raja sensed their antagonism, for he kept tugging at his leash and growling ominously. They were abit in awe of him, and kept at a safe distance. It wasevident that they could not comprehend why it wasthat this savage brute did not turn upon me and rendme.

I wasted a long time there trying to persuade Goorkto accept me at my own valuation, but he was toocanny. The best he would do was to give us food, whichhe did, and direct me as to the safest portion of the island upon which to attempt a landing, though even ashe told me I am sure that he thought my request forinformation but a blind to deceive him as to my trueknowledge of the insular stronghold.

At last I turned away from them--rather disheartened, for I had hoped to be able to enlist a considerableforce of them in an attempt to rush Hooja's horde andrescue Dian. Back along the beach toward the hiddencanoe we made our way.

By the time we came to the cairn I was dog-tired. Throwing myself upon the sand I soon slept, andwith Raja stretched out beside me I felt a far greatersecurity than I had enjoyed for a long time.

I awoke much refreshed to find Raja's eyes gluedupon me. The moment I opened mine he rose, stretchedhimself, and without a backward glance plunged intothe jungle. For several minutes I could hear him crashing through the brush. Then all was silent.

I wondered if he had left me to return to his fiercepack. A feeling of loneliness overwhelmed me. With asigh I turned to the work of dragging the canoe down tothe sea. As I entered the jungle where the dugout lay ahare darted from beneath the boat's side, and a wellaimed cast of my javelin brought it down. I was hungry--I had not realized it before--so I sat upon the edgeof the canoe and devoured my repast. The last remnantsgone, I again busied myself with preparations for myexpedition to the island.

I did not know for certain that Dian was there; butI surmised as much. Nor could I guess what obstaclesmight confront me in an effort to rescue her. For a timeI loitered about after I had the canoe at the water'sedge, hoping against hope that Raja would return; butbe did not, so I shoved the awkward craft through thesurf and leaped into it.

I was still a little downcast by the desertion of mynew-found friend, though I tried to assure myself that itwas nothing but what I might have expected.

The savage brute had served me well in the shorttime that we had been together, and had repaid his debtof gratitude to me, since he had saved my life, or atleast my liberty, no less certainly than I had saved hislife when he was injured and drowning.

The trip across the water to the island was uneventful. I was mighty glad to be in the sunshine again whenI passed out of the shadow of the dead world abouthalf-way between the mainland and the island. The hotrays of the noonday sun did a great deal toward raisingmy spirits, and dispelling the mental gloom in which Ihad been shrouded almost continually since enteringthe Land of Awful Shadow. There is nothing more dispiriting to me than absence of sunshine.

I had paddled to the southwestern point, whichGoork said he believed to be the least frequented portion of the island, as he had never seen boats put offfrom there. I found a shallow reef running far out intothe sea and rather precipitous cliffs running almost tothe surf. It was a nasty place to land, and I realized nowwhy it was not used by the natives; but at last I managed, after a good wetting, to beach my canoe andscale the cliffs.

The country beyond them appeared more open andpark-like than I had anticipated, since from the mainland the entire coast that is visible seems denselyclothed with tropical jungle. This jungle, as I couldsee from the vantage-point of the cliff-top, formedbut a relatively narrow strip between the sea and themore open forest and meadow of the interior. Fartherback there was a range of low but apparently very rockyhills, and here and there all about were visible flat-topped masses of rock--small mountains, in fact--whichreminded me of pictures I had seen of landscapes inNew Mexico. Altogether, the country was very muchbroken and very beautiful. From where I stood I countedno less than a dozen streams winding down from amongthe table-buttes and emptying into a pretty river whichflowed away in a northeasterly direction toward the opposite end of the island.

As I let my eyes roam over the scene I suddenly became aware of figures moving upon the flat top of afar-distant butte. Whether they were beast or human,though, I could not make out; but at least they werealive, so I determined to prosecute my search for Hooja'sstronghold in the general direction of this butte.

To descend to the valley required no great effort. AsI swung along through the lush grass and the fragrantflowers, my cudgel swinging in my hand and my javelinlooped across my shoulders with its aurochs-hide strap, Ifelt equal to any emergency, ready for any danger.

I had covered quite a little distance, and I was passing through a strip of wood which lay at the foot of oneof the flat-topped hills, when I became conscious of thesensation of being watched. My life within Pellucidarhas rather quickened my senses of sight, hearing, andsmell, and, too, certain primitive intuitive or instinctivequalities that seem blunted in civilized man. But, thoughI was positive that eyes were upon me, I could see nosign of any living thing within the wood other than themany, gay-plumaged birds and little monkeys whichfilled the trees with life, color, and action.

To you it may seem that my conviction was the result of an overwrought imagination, or to the actualreality of the prying eyes of the little monkeys or thecurious ones of the birds; but there is a differencewhich I cannot explain between the sensation of casualobservation and studied espionage. A sheep might gazeat you without transmitting a warning through your subjective mind, because you are in no danger from asheep. But let a tiger gaze fixedly at you from ambush,and unless your primitive instincts are completely calloused you will presently commence to glance furtivelyabout and be filled with vague, unreasoning terror.

Thus was it with me then. I grasped my cudgel morefirmly and unslung my javelin, carrying it in my lefthand. I peered to left and right, but I saw nothing.Then, all quite suddenly, there fell about my neck andshoulders, around my arms and body, a number ofpliant fiber ropes.

In a jiffy I was trussed up as neatly as you mightwish. One of the nooses dropped to my ankles and wasjerked up with a suddenness that brought me to myface upon the ground. Then something heavy and hairysprang upon my back. I fought to draw my knife, buthairy hands grasped my wrists and, dragging them behind my back, bound them securely.

Next my feet were bound. Then I was turned overupon my back to look up into the faces of my captors.

And what faces! Imagine if you can a cross betweena sheep and a gorilla, and you will have some conception of the physiognomy of the creature that bentclose above me, and of those of the half-dozen othersthat clustered about. There was the facial length andgreat eyes of the sheep, and the bull-neck and hideousfangs of the gorilla. The bodies and limbs were bothman and gorilla-like.

As they bent over me they conversed in a monosyllabic tongue that was perfectly intelligible to me. Itwas something of a simplified language that had noneed for aught but nouns and verbs, but such words asit included were the same as those of the human beingsof Pellucidar. It was amplified by many gestures whichfilled in the speech-gaps.

I asked them what they intended doing with me; but,like our own North American Indians when questionedby a white man, they pretended not to understand me. One of them swung me to his shoulder as lightly as if Ihad been a shoat. He was a huge creature, as were hisfellows, standing fully seven feet upon his short legs andweighing considerably more than a quarter of a ton.

Two went ahead of my bearer and three behind. Inthis order we cut to the right through the forest to thefoot of the hill where precipitous cliffs appeared to barour farther progress in this direction. But my escortnever paused. Like ants upon a wall, they scaled thatseemingly unscalable barrier, clinging, Heaven knowshow, to its ragged perpendicular face. During most ofthe short journey to the summit I must admit that myhair stood on end. Presently, however, we topped thething and stood upon the level mesa which crowned it.

Immediately from all about, out of burrows andrough, rocky lairs, poured a perfect torrent of beastssimilar to my captors. They clustered about, jabbering at my guards and attempting to get their handsupon me, whether from curiosity or a desire to do mebodily harm I did not know, since my escort withbared fangs and heavy blows kept them off.

Across the mesa we went, to stop at last before a largepile of rocks in which an opening appeared. Here myguards set me upon my feet and called out a wordwhich sounded like "Gr-gr-gr!" and which I laterlearned was the name of their king.

Presently there emerged from the cavernous depthsof the lair a monstrous creature, scarred from a hundredbattles, almost hairless and with an empty socket whereone eye had been. The other eye, sheeplike in itsmildness, gave the most startling appearance to thebeast, which but for that single timid orb was the mostfearsome thing that one could imagine.

I had encountered the black, hairless, long-tailed ape--things of the mainland--the creatures which Perrythought might constitute the link between the higherorders of apes and man--but these brute-men of Gr-gr-gr seemed to set that theory back to zero, for there wasless similarity between the black ape-men and thesecreatures than there was between the latter and man,while both had many human attributes, some of whichwere better developed in one species and some in theother.

The black apes were hairless and built thatchedhuts in their arboreal retreats; they kept domesticateddogs and ruminants, in which respect they were fartheradvanced than the human beings of Pellucidar; but theyappeared to have only a meager language, and sportedlong, apelike tails.

On the other hand, Gr-gr-gr's people were, for themost part, quite hairy, but they were tailless and had alanguage similar to that of the human race of Pellucidar;nor were they arboreal. Their skins, where skin showed,were white.

From the foregoing facts and others that I havenoted during my long life within Pellucidar, which isnow passing through an age analogous to some preglacial age of the outer crust, I am constrained to thebelief that evolution is not so much a gradual transitionfrom one form to another as it is an accident of breeding,either by crossing or the hazards of birth. In otherwords, it is my belief that the first man was a freak ofnature--nor would one have to draw over-stronglyupon his credulity to be convinced that Gr-gr-gr and histribe were also freaks.

The great man-brute seated himself upon a flat rock--his throne, I imagine--just before the entrance to hislair. With elbows on knees and chin in palms he regarded me intently through his lone sheep-eye whileone of my captors told of my taking.

When all had been related Gr-gr-gr questioned me. Ishall not attempt to quote these people in their own abbreviated tongue--you would have even greater difficulty in interpreting them than did I. Instead, I shallput the words into their mouths which will carry to youthe ideas which they intended to convey.

"You are an enemy," was Gr-gr-gr's initial declaration. "You belong to the tribe of Hooja."

Ah! So they knew Hooja and he was their enemy!Good!

"I am an enemy of Hooja," I replied. "He has stolenmy mate and I have come here to take her away fromhim and punish Hooja."

"How could you do that alone?"

"I do not know," I answered, "but I should have triedhad you not captured me. What do you intend to dowith me?"

"You shall work for us."

"You will not kill me?" I asked.

"We do not kill except in self-defense," he replied;"self-defense and punishment. Those who would kill usand those who do wrong we kill. If we knew you wereone of Hooja's people we might kill you, for all Hooja'speople are bad people; but you say you are an enemy ofHooja. You may not speak the truth, but until we learnthat you have lied we shall not kill you. You shall work."

"If you hate Hooja," I suggested, "why not let me,who hate him, too, go and punish him?"

For some time Gr-gr-gr sat in thought. Then he raisedhis head and addressed my guard.

"Take him to his work," he ordered.

His tone was final. As if to emphasize it he turnedand entered his burrow. My guard conducted me farther into the mesa, where we came presently to a tinydepression or valley, at one end of which gushed awarm spring.

The view that opened before me was the most surprising that I have ever seen. In the hollow, which musthave covered several hundred acres, were numerousfields of growing things, and working all about withcrude implements or with no implements at all otherthan their bare hands were many of the brute-men engaged in the first agriculture that I had seen withinPellucidar.

They put me to work cultivating in a patch of melons.

I never was a farmer nor particularly keen for this sortof work, and I am free to confess that time never haddragged so heavily as it did during the hour or the yearI spent there at that work. How long it really was I donot know, of course; but it was all too long.

The creatures that worked about me were quite simple and friendly. One of them proved to be a son ofGr-gr-gr. He had broken some minor tribal law, and wasworking out his sentence in the fields. He told me thathis tribe had lived upon this hilltop always, and thatthere were other tribes like them dwelling upon otherhilltops. They had no wars and had always lived inpeace and harmony, menaced only by the larger carnivora of the island, until my kind had come under a creature called Hooja, and attacked and killed them whenthey chanced to descend from their natural fortressesto visit their fellows upon other lofty mesas.

Now they were afraid; but some day they would goin a body and fall upon Hooja and his people and slaythem all. I explained to him that I was Hooja's enemy,and asked, when they were ready to go, that I be allowed to go with them, or, better still, that they letme go ahead and learn all that I could about the villagewhere Hooja dwelt so that they might attack it withthe best chance of success.

Gr-gr-gr's son seemed much impressed by my suggestion. He said that when he was through in thefields he would speak to his father about the matter.

Some time after this Gr-gr-gr came through the fieldswhere we were, and his son spoke to him upon the subject, but the old gentleman was evidently in anythingbut a good humor, for he cuffed the youngster and,turning upon me, informed me that he was convincedthat I had lied to him, and that I was one of Hooja's people.

"Wherefore," he concluded, "we shall slay you as soonas the melons are cultivated. Hasten, therefore."

And hasten I did. I hastened to cultivate the weedswhich grew among the melon-vines. Where there hadbeen one sickly weed before, I nourished two healthyones. When I found a particularly promising variety ofweed growing elsewhere than among my melons,I forthwith dug it up and transplanted it among mycharges.

My masters did not seem to realize my perfidy. Theysaw me always laboring diligently in the melon-patch,and as time enters not into the reckoning of Pellucidarians--even of human beings and much less of brutesand half brutes--I might have lived on indefinitelythrough this subterfuge had not that occurred whichtook me out of the melon-patch for good and all.