was some sort of engine of
destruction, for he too came to a halt, simultaneously swinging his
hatchet for a throw. It is one of the many methods in which they
employ this weapon, and the accuracy of aim which they achieve, even
under the most unfavorable circumstances, is little short of miraculous.

My shaft was drawn back its full length--my eye had centered its sharp
point upon the left breast of my adversary; and then he launched his
hatchet and I released my arrow. At the instant that our missiles flew
I leaped to one side, but the Sagoth sprang forward to follow up his
attack with a spear thrust. I felt the swish of the hatchet at it
grazed my head, and at the same instant my shaft pierced the Sagoth's
savage heart, and with a single groan he lunged almost at my
feet--stone dead. Close behind him were two more--fifty yards
perhaps--but the distance gave me time to snatch up the dead
guardsman's shield, for the close call his hatchet had just given me
had borne in upon me the urgent need I had for one. Those which I had
purloined at Phutra we had not been able to bring along because their
size precluded our concealing them within the skins of the Mahars which
had brought us safely from the city.

With the shield slipped well up on my left arm I let fly with another
arrow, which brought down a second Sagoth, and then as his fellow's
hatchet sped toward me I caught it upon the shield, and fitted another
shaft for him; but he did not wait to receive it. Instead, he turned
and retreated toward the main body of gorilla-men. Evidently he had
seen enough of me for the moment.

Once more I took up my flight, nor were the Sagoths apparently
overanxious to press their pursuit so closely as before. Unmolested I
reached the top of the canyon where I found a sheer drop of two or
three hundred feet to the bottom of a rocky chasm; but on the left a
narrow ledge rounded the shoulder of the overhanging cliff. Along this
I advanced, and at a sudden turning, a few yards beyond the canyon's
end, the path widened, and at my left I saw the opening to a large
cave. Before, the ledge continued until it passed from sight about
another projecting buttress of the mountain.

Here, I felt, I could defy an army, for but a single foeman could
advance upon me at a time, nor could he know that I was awaiting him
until he came full upon me around the corner of the turn. About me lay
scattered stones crumbled from the cliff above.