m he promised to wait for us. At the
same instant Dian caught my arm and pointed toward the village. My
shot had brought a crowd of natives on the run toward us.

The fellow whom I had stunned with my javelin had regained
consciousness and scrambled to his feet. He was now racing as fast as
he could go back toward his people. It looked mighty dark for Dian and
me with that ghastly descent between us and even the beginnings of
liberty, and a horde of savage enemies advancing at a rapid run.

There was but one hope. That was to get Dian started for the bottom
without delay. I took her in my arms just for an instant--I felt,
somehow, that it might be for the last time. For the life of me I
couldn't see how both of us could escape.

I asked her if she could make the descent alone--if she were not
afraid. She smiled up at me bravely and shrugged her shoulders. She
afraid! So beautiful is she that I am always having difficulty in
remembering that she is a primitive, half-savage cave girl of the stone
age, and often find myself mentally limiting her capacities to those of
the effete and overcivilized beauties of the outer crust.

"And you?" she asked as she swung over the edge of the cliff.

"I shall follow you after I take a shot or two at our friends," I
replied. "I just want to give them a taste of this new medicine which
is going to cure Pellucidar of all its ills. That will stop them long
enough for me to join you. Now hurry, and tell Juag to be ready to
shove off the moment I reach the boat, or the instant that it becomes
apparent that I cannot reach it.

"You, Dian, must return to Sari if anything happens to me, that you may
devote your life to carrying out with Perry the hopes and plans for
Pellucidar that are so dear to my heart. Promise me, dear."

She hated to promise to desert me, nor would she; only shaking her head
and making no move to descend. The tribesmen were nearing us. Juag
was shouting up to us from below. It was evident that he realized from
my actions that I was attempting to persuade Dian to descend, and that
grave danger threatened us from above.

"Dive!" he cried. "Dive!"

I looked at Dian and then down at the abyss below us. The cove appeared
no larger than a saucer. How Juag ever had hit it I could not guess.

"Dive!" cried Juag. "It is the only way--there is no time to climb
down."

CHAPTER XI

ESCAPE

Dian glanced downward and shuddered. Her tribe were hill