I searched about the spot carefully. At last I was rewarded by the discovery of her javelin, a few yardsfrom the bush that had concealed us from the chargingthag--her javelin and the indications of a strugglerevealed by the trampled vegetation and the overlapping footprints of a woman and a man. Filled withconsternation and dismay, I followed these latter towhere they suddenly disappeared a hundred yardsfrom where the struggle had occurred. There I sawthe huge imprints of a lidi's feet.

The story of the tragedy was all too plain. A Thurianhad either been following us, or had accidentally espiedDian and taken a fancy to her. While Juag and Ihad been engaged with the thag, he had abductedher. I ran swiftly back to where Juag was workingover the kill. As I approached him I saw that something was wrong in this quarter as well, for the islanderwas standing upon the carcass of the thag, his javelinpoised for a throw.

When I had come nearer I saw the cause of hisbelligerent attitude. Just beyond him stood two largejaloks, or wolf-dogs, regarding him intently--a maleand a female. Their behavior was rather peculiar, forthey did not seem preparing to charge him. Rather,they were contemplating him in an attitude of questioning.

Juag heard me coming and turned toward me witha grin. These fellows love excitement. I could see byhis expression that he was enjoying in anticipation thebattle that seemed imminent. But he never hurled hisjavelin. A shout of warning from me stopped him, forI had seen the remnants of a rope dangling from theneck of the male jalok.

Juag again turned toward me, but this time in surprise. I was abreast him in a moment and, passinghim, walked straight toward the two beasts. As I didso the female crouched with bared fangs. The male,however, leaped forward to meet me, not in deadlycharge, but with every expression of delight and joywhich the poor animal could exhibit.

It was Raja--the jalok whose life I had saved, andwhom I then had tamed! There was no doubt that hewas glad to see me. I now think that his seemingdesertion of me had been but due to a desire to searchout his ferocious mate and bring her, too, to live withme.

When Juag saw me fondling the great beast he wasfilled with consternation, but I did not have muchtime to spare to Raja while my mind was filled withthe grief of my new loss. I was glad to see the brute,and I lost no time in taking him to Juag and makinghim understand that Juag, too, was to be Raja's friend. With the female the matter was more difficult, but Rajahelped us out by growling savagely at her whenevershe bared her fangs against us.

I told Juag of the disappearance of Dian, and ofmy suspicions as to the explanation of the catastrophe. He wanted to start right out after her, but I suggestedthat with Raja to help me it might be as well werehe to remain and skin the thag, remove its bladder, andthen return to where we had hidden the canoe on thebeach. And so it was arranged that he was to do thisand await me there for a reasonable time. I pointedto a great lake upon the surface of the pendent worldabove us, telling him that if after this lake had appeared four times I had not returned to go either bywater or land to Sari and fetch Ghak with an army. Then, calling Raja after me, I set out after Dian andher abductor. First I took the wolf dog to the spotwhere the man had fought with Dian. A few pacesbehind us followed Raja's fierce mate. I pointed tothe ground where the evidences of the struggle wereplainest and where the scent must have been strongto Raja's nostrils.

Then I grasped the remnant of leash that hung abouthis neck and urged him forward upon the trail. Heseemed to understand. With nose to ground he set outupon his task. Dragging me after him, he trotted straightout upon the Lidi Plains, turning his steps in the direction of the Thurian village. I could have guessed asmuch!

Behind us trailed the female. After a while sheclosed upon us, until she ran quite close to me andat Raja's side. It was not long before she seemed aseasy in my company as did her lord and master.

We must have covered considerable distance at avery rapid pace, for we had re-entered the greatshadow, when we saw a huge lidi ahead of us, movingleisurely across the level plain. Upon its back were twohuman figures. If I could have known that the jalokswould not harm Dian I might have turned them looseupon the lidi and its master; but I could not know,and so dared take no chances.

However, the matter was taken out of my handspresently when Raja raised his head and caught sightof his quarry. With a lunge that hurled me flat andjerked the leash from my hand, he was gone with thespeed of the wind after the giant lidi and its riders. At his side raced his shaggy mate, only a trifle smallerthan he and no whit less savage.

They did not give tongue until the lidi itself discovered them and broke into a lumbering, awkward,but none the less rapid gallop. Then the two hound-beasts commenced to bay, starting with a low, plaintivenote that rose, weird and hideous, to terminate in aseries of short, sharp yelps. I feared that it might bethe hunting-call of the pack; and if this were true, therewould be slight chance for either Dian or her abductor--or myself, either, as far as that was concerned. SoI redoubled my efforts to keep pace with the hunt;but I might as well have attempted to distance thebird upon the wing; as I have often reminded you,I am no runner. In that instance it was just as wellthat I am not, for my very slowness of foot playedinto my hands; while had I been fleeter, I might havelost Dian that time forever.

The lidi, with the hounds running close on eitherside, had almost disappeared in the darkness that enveloped the surrounding landscape, when I noted thatit was bearing toward the right. This was accountedfor by the fact that Raja ran upon his left side, andunlike his mate, kept leaping for the great beast's shoulder. The man on the lidi's back was prodding at thehyaenodon with his long spear, but still Raja keptspringing up and snapping.

The effect of this was to turn the lidi toward theright, and the longer I watched the procedure the moreconvinced I became that Raja and his mate were working together with some end in view, for the she-dogmerely galloped steadily at the lidi's right about opposite his rump.

I had seen jaloks hunting in packs, and I recallednow what for the time I had not thought of--theseveral that ran ahead and turned the quarry backtoward the main body. This was precisely what Rajaand his mate were doing--they were turning the lidiback toward me, or at least Raja was. Just why thefemale was keeping out of it I did not understand,unless it was that she was not entirely clear in herown mind as to precisely what her mate was attempting.

At any rate, I was sufficiently convinced to stopwhere I was and await developments, for I couldreadily realize two things. One was that I could neveroverhaul them before the damage was done if theyshould pull the lidi down now. The other thing wasthat if they did not pull it down for a few minutesit would have completed its circle and returned closeto where I stood.

And this is just what happened. The lot of themwere almost, swallowed up in the twilight for a moment. Then they reappeared again, but this time farto the right and circling back in my general direction. I waited until I could get some clear idea of the rightspot to gain that I might intercept the lidi; but evenas I waited I saw the beast attempt to turn still moreto the right--a move that would have carried himfar to my left in a much more circumscribed circlethan the hyaenodons had mapped out for him. Then Isaw the female leap forward and head him; and whenhe would have gone too far to the left, Raja sprang,snapping at his shoulder and held him straight.

Straight for me the two savage beasts were drivingtheir quarry! It was wonderful.

It was something else, too, as I realized while themonstrous beast neared me. It was like standing inthe middle of the tracks in front of an approachingexpress-train. But I didn't dare waver; too much depended upon my meeting that hurtling mass of terrifiedflesh with a well-placed javelin. So I stood there, waiting to be run down and crushed by those giganticfeet, but determined to drive home my weapon inthe broad breast before I fell.

The lidi was only about a hundred yards from mewhen Raja gave a few barks in a tone that differedmaterially from his hunting-cry. Instantly both he andhis mate leaped for the long neck of the ruminant.

Neither missed. Swinging in mid-air, they hung tenaciously, their weight dragging down the creature'shead and so retarding its speed that before it hadreached me it was almost stopped and devoting allits energies to attempting to scrape off its attackerswith its forefeet.

Dian had seen and recognized me, and was tryingto extricate herself from the grasp of her captor, who,handicapped by his strong and agile prisoner, was unable to wield his lance effectively upon the two jaloks. At the same time I was running swiftly toward them.

When the man discovered me he released his holdupon Dian and sprang to the ground, ready with hislance to meet me. My javelin was no match for hislonger weapon, which was used more for stabbing thanas a missile. Should I miss him at my first cast, as wasquite probable, since he was prepared for me, I wouldhave to face his formidable lance with nothing morethan a stone knife. The outlook was scarcely entrancing. Evidently I was soon to be absolutely at his mercy.

Seeing my predicament, he ran toward me to getrid of one antagonist before he had to deal with theother two. He could not guess, of course, that the twojaloks were hunting with me; but he doubtless thoughtthat after they had finished the lidi they would makeafter the human prey--the beasts are notorious killers,often slaying wantonly.

But as the Thurian came Raja loosened his holdupon the lidi and dashed for him, with the femaleclose after. When the man saw them he yelled to meto help him, protesting that we should both be killedif we did not fight together. But I only laughed athim and ran toward Dian.

Both the fierce beasts were upon the Thurian simultaneously--he must have died almost before his bodytumbled to the ground. Then the female wheeled toward Dian. I was standing by her side as the thingcharged her, my javelin ready to receive her.

But again Raja was too quick for me. I imagined hethought she was making for me, for he couldn't haveknown anything of my relations toward Dian. At anyrate he leaped full upon her back and dragged herdown. There ensued forthwith as terrible a battle asone would wish to see if battles were gaged by volumeof noise and riotousness of action. I thought that boththe beasts would be torn to shreds.

When finally the female ceased to struggle and rolledover on her back, her forepaws limply folded, I wassure that she was dead. Raja stood over her, growling,his jaws close to her throat. Then I saw that neitherof them bore a scratch. The male had simply administered a severe drubbing to his mate. It was his wayof teaching her that I was sacred.

After a moment he moved away and let her rise,when she set about smoothing down her rumpled coat,while he came stalking toward Dian and me. I hadan arm about Dian now. As Raja came close I caughthim by the neck and pulled him up to me. ThereI stroked him and talked to him, bidding Dian do thesame, until I think he pretty well understood that ifI was his friend, so was Dian.

For a long time he was inclined to be shy of her,often baring his teeth at her approach, and it was amuch longer time before the female made friends withus. But by careful kindness, by never eating withoutsharing our meat with them, and by feeding themfrom our hands, we finally won the confidence of bothanimals. However, that was a long time after.

With the two beasts trotting after us, we returnedto where we had left Juag. Here I had the dickens'own time keeping the female from Juag's throat. Ofall the venomous, wicked, cruel-hearted beasts on twoworlds, I think a female hyaenodon takes the palm.

But eventually she tolerated Juag as she had Dianand me, and the five of us set out toward the coast, forJuag had just completed his labors on the thag whenwe arrived. We ate some of the meat before starting,and gave the hounds some. All that we could we carried upon our backs.

On the way to the canoe we met with no mishaps. Dian told me that the fellow who had stolen her hadcome upon her from behind while the roaring of thethag had drowned all other noises, and that the firstshe had known he had disarmed her and thrown herto the back of his lidi, which had been lying downclose by waiting for him. By the time the thag hadceased bellowing the fellow had got well away uponhis swift mount. By holding one palm over her mouthhe had prevented her calling for help.

"I thought," she concluded, "that I should have touse the viper's tooth, after all."

We reached the beach at last and unearthed thecanoe. Then we busied ourselves stepping a mast andrigging a small sail--Juag and I, that is--while Diancut the thag meat into long strips for drying when weshould be out in the sunlight once more.

At last all was done. We were ready to embark. Ihad no difficulty in getting Raja aboard the dugout;but Ranee--as we christened her after I had explained to Dian the meaning of Raja and its feminineequivalent--positively refused for a time to follow hermate aboard. In fact, we had to shove off without her. After a moment, however, she plunged into the waterand swam after us.

I let her come alongside, and then Juag and I pulledher in, she snapping and snarling at us as we did so;but, strange to relate, she didn't offer to attack us afterwe had ensconced her safely in the bottom alongsideRaja.

The canoe behaved much better under sail than Ihad hoped--infinitely better than the battle-ship Sarihad--and we made good progress almost due westacross the gulf, upon the opposite side of which Ihoped to find the mouth of the river of which Juaghad told me.

The islander was much interested and impressed bythe sail and its results. He had not been able to understand exactly what I hoped to accomplish with it whilewe were fitting up the boat; but when he saw theclumsy dugout move steadily through the water without paddles, he was as delighted as a child. We madesplendid headway on the trip, coming into sight ofland at last.

Juag had been terror-stricken when he had learnedthat I intended crossing the ocean, and when we passedout of sight of land be was in a blue funk. He said thathe had never heard of such a thing before in his life,and that always he had understood that those whoventured far from land never returned; for how couldthey find their way when they could see no land tosteer for?

I tried to explain the compass to him; and thoughhe never really grasped the scientific explanation of it,yet he did learn to steer by it quite as well as I. Wepassed several islands on the journey--islands whichJuag told me were entirely unknown to his own islandfolk. Indeed, our eyes may have been the first ever torest upon them. I should have liked to stop off andexplore them, but the business of empire would brookno unnecessary delays.

I asked Juag how Hooja expected to reach the mouthof the river which we were in search of if he didn'tcross the gulf, and the islander explained that Hoojawould undoubtedly follow the coast around. For sometime we sailed up the coast searching for the river,and at last we found it. So great was it that I thoughtit must be a mighty gulf until the mass of driftwoodthat came out upon the first ebb tide convinced methat it was the mouth of a river. There were thetrunks of trees uprooted by the undermining of theriver banks, giant creepers, flowers, grasses, and nowand then the body of some land animal or bird.

I was all excitement to commence our upward journey when there occurred that which I had never beforeseen within Pellucidar--a really terrific wind-storm. Itblew down the river upon us with a ferocity and suddenness that took our breaths away, and before wecould get a chance to make the shore it became toolate. The best that we could do was to hold the scudding craft before the wind and race along in a smotherof white spume. Juag was terrified. If Dian was, shehid it; for was she not the daughter of a once greatchief, the sister of a king, and the mate of an emperor?

Raja and Ranee were frightened. The former crawledclose to my side and buried his nose against me. Finallyeven fierce Ranee was moved to seek sympathy froma human being. She slunk to Dian, pressing close againsther and whimpering, while Dian stroked her shaggyneck and talked to her as I talked to Raja.

There was nothing for us to do but try to keep thecanoe right side up and straight before the wind. Forwhat seemed an eternity the tempest neither increasednor abated. I judged that we must have blown a hundred miles before the wind and straight out into anunknown sea!

As suddenly as the wind rose it died again, andwhen it died it veered to blow at right angles to itsformer course in a gentle breeze. I asked Juag thenwhat our course was, for he had had the compass last. It had been on a leather thong about his neck. Whenhe felt for it, the expression that came into his eyestold me as plainly as words what had happened--the compass was lost! The compass was lost!

And we were out of sight of land without a singlecelestial body to guide us! Even the pendent worldwas not visible from our position!

Our plight seemed hopeless to me, but I dared notlet Dian and Juag guess how utterly dismayed I was;though, as I soon discovered, there was nothing to begained by trying to keep the worst from Juag--he knewit quite as well as I. He had always known, from thelegends of his people, the dangers of the open seabeyond the sight of land. The compass, since he hadlearned its uses from me, had been all that he had tobuoy his hope of eventual salvation from the waterydeep. He had seen how it had guided me across thewater to the very coast that I desired to reach, and sohe had implicit confidence in it. Now that it was gone,his confidence had departed, also.

There seemed but one thing to do; that was to keepon sailing straight before the wind--since we couldtravel most rapidly along that course--until we sightedland of some description. If it chanced to be themainland, well and good; if an island--well, we mightlive upon an island. We certainly could not live longin this little boat, with only a few strips of dried thagand a few quarts of water left.

Quite suddenly a thought occurred to me. I wassurprised that it had not come before as a solutionto our problem. I turned toward Juag.

"You Pellucidarians are endowed with a wonderfulinstinct," I reminded him, "an instinct that points theway straight to your homes, no matter in what strangeland you may find yourself. Now all we have to dois let Dian guide us toward Amoz, and we shall comein a short time to the same coast whence we just wereblown."

As I spoke I looked at them with a smile of renewed hope; but there was no answering smile in theireyes. It was Dian who enlightened me.

"We could do all this upon land," she said. "But uponthe water that power is denied us. I do not know why;but I have always heard that this is true--that onlyupon the water may a Pellucidarian be lost. This is,I think, why we all fear the great ocean so--eventhose who go upon its surface in canoes. Juag hastold us that they never go beyond the sight of land."

We had lowered the sail after the blow while wewere discussing the best course to pursue. Our littlecraft had been drifting idly, rising and falling with thegreat waves that were now diminishing. Sometimes wewere upon the crest--again in the hollow. As Dianceased speaking she let her eyes range across thelimitless expanse of billowing waters. We rose to agreat height upon the crest of a mighty wave. As wetopped it Dian gave an exclamation and pointed astern.

"Boats!" she cried. "Boats! Many, many boats!"

Juag and I leaped to our feet; but our little crafthad now dropped to the trough, and we could seenothing but walls of water close upon either hand. We waited for the next wave to lift us, and when it didwe strained our eyes in the direction that Dian hadindicated. Sure enough, scarce half a mile away wereseveral boats, and scattered far and wide behind usas far as we could see were many others! We couldnot make them out in the distance or in the briefglimpse that we caught of them before we were plungedagain into the next wave canon; but they were boats.

And in them must be human beings like ourselves.