me. I have no words wherewith to describe it. There was not time to
talk then--scarce for a greeting. I thrust the full, loaded revolver
into his hand, fired the last shot in my own, and reloaded. There were
but six Sagoths left then.

They started toward us once more, though I could see that they were
terrified probably as much by the noise of the guns as by their
effects. They never reached us. Half-way the three that remained
turned and fled, and we let them go.

The last we saw of them they were disappearing into the tangled
undergrowth of the forest. And then Perry turned and threw his arms
about my neck and, burying his old face upon my shoulder, wept like a
child.

CHAPTER II

TRAVELING WITH TERROR

We made camp there beside the peaceful river. There Perry told me all
that had befallen him since I had departed for the outer crust.

It seemed that Hooja had made it appear that I had intentionally left
Dian behind, and that I did not purpose ever returning to Pellucidar.
He told them that I was of another world and that I had tired of this
and of its inhabitants.

To Dian he had explained that I had a mate in the world to which I was
returning; that I had never intended taking Dian the Beautiful back
with me; and that she had seen the last of me.

Shortly afterward Dian had disappeared from the camp, nor had Perry
seen or heard aught of her since.

He had no conception of the time that had elapsed since I had departed,
but guessed that many years had dragged their slow way into the past.

Hooja, too, had disappeared very soon after Dian had left. The
Sarians, under Ghak the Hairy One, and the Amozites under Dacor the
Strong One, Dian's brother, had fallen out over my supposed defection,
for Ghak would not believe that I had thus treacherously deceived and
deserted them.

The result had been that these two powerful tribes had fallen upon one
another with the new weapons that Perry and I had taught them to make
and to use. Other tribes of the new federation took sides with the
original disputants or set up petty revolutions of their own.

The result was the total demolition of the work we had so well started.

Taking advantage of the tribal war, the Mahars had gathered their
Sagoths in force and fallen upon one tribe after another in rapid
succession, wreaking awful havoc among them and reducing them for the
most part to as pitiable a state of terror as that from which we had
raised th