. It was the night-life of this
jungle world coming into its own--the huge, carnivorous nocturnal
beasts which make the nights of Caspak hideous. A shuddering sob ran
through Lys' figure. "O God," she cried, "give me the strength to
endure, for his sake!" I saw that she was upon the verge of a
breakdown, after all that she must have passed through of fear and
horror that day, and I tried to quiet and reassure her as best I might;
but even to me the future looked most unpromising, for what chance of
life had we against the frightful hunters of the night who even now
were prowling closer to us?

Now I turned to see what had become of the tribe, and in the fitful
glare of the fire I perceived that the face of the cliff was pitted
with large holes into which the man-things were clambering. "Come," I
said to Lys, "we must follow them. We cannot last a half-hour out here.
We must find a cave." Already we could see the blazing green eyes of
the hungry carnivora. I seized a brand from the fire and hurled it out
into the night, and there came back an answering chorus of savage and
rageful protest; but the eyes vanished for a short time. Selecting a
burning branch for each of us, we advanced toward the cliffs, where we
were met by angry threats.

"They will kill us," said Lys. "We may as well keep on in search of
another refuge."

"They will not kill us so surely as will those others out there," I
replied. "I am going to seek shelter in one of these caves; nor will
the man-things prevent." And I kept on in the direction of the cliff's
base. A huge creature stood upon a ledge and brandished his stone
hatchet. "Come and I will kill you and take the she," he boasted.

"You saw how Tsa fared when he would have kept my she," I replied in
his own tongue. "Thus will you fare and all your fellows if you do not
permit us to come in peace among you out of the dangers of the night."

"Go north," he screamed. "Go north among the Galus, and we will not
harm you. Some day will we be Galus; but now we are not. You do not
belong among us. Go away or we will kill you. The she may remain if
she is afraid, and we will keep her; but the he must depart."

"The he won't depart," I replied, and approached still nearer. Rough
and narrow ledges formed by nature gave access to the upper caves. A
man might scale them if unhampered and unhindered, but to clamber
upward in the face of a belligerent tribe of half-men and with a girl
to