st as fleet as deer; because I am not is one
reason that I am always chosen for the close-in work of the thag-hunt.
I could not keep in front of a charging thag long enough to give the
killer time to do his work. I learned that the first--and last--time I
tried it.

Once astride the bull's neck, I drew my long stone knife and, setting
the point carefully over the brute's spine, drove it home with both
hands. At the same instant I leaped clear of the stumbling animal.
Now, no vertebrate can progress far with a knife through his spine, and
the thag is no exception to the rule.

The fellow was down instantly. As he wallowed Juag returned, and the
two of us leaped in when an opening afforded the opportunity and
snatched our javelins from his side. Then we danced about him, more
like two savages than anything else, until we got the opening we were
looking for, when simultaneously, our javelins pierced his wild heart,
stilling it forever.

The thag had covered considerable ground from the point at which I had
leaped upon him. When, after despatching him, I looked back for Dian,
I could see nothing of her. I called aloud, but receiving no reply,
set out at a brisk trot to where I had left her. I had no difficulty
in finding the self-same bush behind which we had hidden, but Dian was
not there. Again and again I called, to be rewarded only by silence.
Where could she be? What could have become of her in the brief interval
since I had seen her standing just behind me?

CHAPTER XII

KIDNAPED!

I searched about the spot carefully. At last I was rewarded by the
discovery of her javelin, a few yards from the bush that had concealed
us from the charging thag--her javelin and the indications of a
struggle revealed by the trampled vegetation and the overlapping
footprints of a woman and a man. Filled with consternation and dismay,
I followed these latter to where they suddenly disappeared a hundred
yards from where the struggle had occurred. There I saw the huge
imprints of a lidi's feet.

The story of the tragedy was all too plain. A Thurian had either been
following us, or had accidentally espied Dian and taken a fancy to her.
While Juag and I had been engaged with the thag, he had abducted her.
I ran swiftly back to where Juag was working over the kill. As I
approached him I saw that some-thing was wrong in this quarter as well,
for the islander was standing upon the carcass of the thag, his javelin
poised