t
as something streaked past his nose with a vicious hiss. With the nimble
alacrity of his kind he rocketed thirty feet upward, where, from a
swaying vine, he hurled a torrent of verbal abuse at the grinning youth
in the trail below.

The hours sped by, but Tharn never noticed. At first he lost almost
every arrow he shot, but little by little his skill was increasing. He
attempted drawing the bow with either hand; he sought to release a
second arrow before the first had struck; he shot at birds on the wing.

Darkness came upon him without warning. Then it was he remembered he had
not eaten since morning. An inventory of his supply of arrows revealed
only eight remained of the full two dozen he had brought from Sephar.

He would sleep now. In the morning he would find food and water. And he
would make his kill with an arrow--of that he was determined. The bow
had proved a wonderful toy; when Dyta came Tharn would prove its
practical worth....

* * * * *

With the first rays of the morning sun Tharn slid from his arboreal
couch and set out at a rapid trot along the trail into the west. An hour
later he was crossing the narrow belt of grasses bordering the precipice
overlooking a forest-filled valley.

Here he found where Mog and Alurna had started their tortuous descent.
Here, too, were signs of the passage of other Neanderthals, and those of
Vulcar's searching party.

Before descending the cliff, Tharn turned back to the plain in search of
food. Not long after, he had completed a successful stalk of Narjok, the
horned deer, and brought it down with a single arrow. After devouring a
generous quantity of raw flank-meat, he drank deep of the waters of a
small spring and came back to the brink of the precipice.

Tharn went down that vertical cliffside as though it were a broad
staircase. At the base he found a tangle of overlapping footsteps
leading straight toward a game trail leading into the nearby jungle.
Toward its mouth moved the young giant; and so confident was he that
Alurna had been carried along this path that only by chance did he keep
from losing valuable time.

As the Cro-Magnard neared the trees, the undergrowth parted with a
slight rustle, and Gubo, the hyena, slunk deeper into the forest.

At the first sound of disturbed brush, Tharn had pivoted about and with
unthinkable quickness unslung his bow and fitted an arrow into place. At
sight of cowardly Gubo he smiled a