ll upon it often as I
made my lonely way through this virgin world. Then, quite suddenly,
one day I stepped out of the peace of manless primality into the
presence of man--and peace was gone.

It happened thus:

I had been following a ravine downward out of a chain of lofty hills
and had paused at its mouth to view the lovely little valley that lay
before me. At one side was tangled wood, while straight ahead a river
wound peacefully along parallel to the cliffs in which the hills
terminated at the valley's edge.

Presently, as I stood enjoying the lovely scene, as insatiate for
Nature's wonders as if I had not looked upon similar landscapes
countless times, a sound of shouting broke from the direction of the
woods. That the harsh, discordant notes rose from the throats of men I
could not doubt.

I slipped behind a large boulder near the mouth of the ravine and
waited. I could hear the crashing of underbrush in the forest, and I
guessed that whoever came came quickly--pursued and pursuers, doubtless.

In a short time some hunted animal would break into view, and a moment
later a score of half-naked savages would come leaping after with
spears or club or great stone-knives.

I had seen the thing so many times during my life within Pellucidar
that I felt that I could anticipate to a nicety precisely what I was
about to witness. I hoped that the hunters would prove friendly and be
able to direct me toward Sari.

Even as I was thinking these thoughts the quarry emerged from the
forest. But it was no terrified four-footed beast. Instead, what I
saw was an old man--a terrified old man!

Staggering feebly and hopelessly from what must have been some very
terrible fate, if one could judge from the horrified expressions he
continually cast behind him toward the wood, he came stumbling on in my
direction.

He had covered but a short distance from the forest when I beheld the
first of his pursuers--a Sagoth, one of those grim and terrible
gorilla-men who guard the mighty Mahars in their buried cities, faring
forth from time to time upon slave-raiding or punitive expeditions
against the human race of Pellucidar, of whom the dominant race of the
inner world think as we think of the bison or the wild sheep of our own
world.

Close behind the foremost Sagoth came others until a full dozen raced,
shouting after the terror-stricken old man. They would be upon him
shortly, that was plain.

One of them was rapidly