And while Tharn fretted at thus being forced to slow his pace, he kept
his impatience from showing by expression or word. Paradoxically he had
spent almost a moon in teaching his companion the ways of the forest and
its inhabitants without progressing along the trail to Ammad, but Dylara
was a comparatively long way ahead at that time. Now that she was
within a few hours of him, even an instant's delay galled him.

Night came with the abruptness peculiar to this part of the world, and
still the winding elephant trail below showed no signs of the Ammadians.
Lack of light slowed Trakor to a comparative crawl, and while from time
to time he urged Tharn to go on without waiting for him, the cave lord
only shook his head.

And then, two hours after Dyta had sought his lair for the night, a
faint glow against the southern sky marked the location of fire. This
could have meant the most dread of all jungle perils--a forest fire; but
the glow seemed too small and much too localized for that.

"The Ammadian night fires," Tharn said in reply to his friend's
question. "Doubtless they have camped in some clearing along the way and
have made a circle of fire to keep Sadu and Jalok at bay."

Not long thereafter the two Cro-Magnon men came to a halt high in the
branches of a great tree. Below and before them was a wide clearing, in
the center of which a host of white-tunicked men squatted about small
cooking fires. The savory odors of freshly grilled meat rose on the air
and Trakor felt his mouth water. Food had not passed his lips since that
morning and traveling, he realized, made for large appetites.

The entire encampment was girded by windrows of blazing branches and
thorn bushes under constant attendance by several of the Ammadian
warriors. Spears, knives, bows and arrows were much in evidence, and
there was that atmosphere of relaxed competence about the entire scene
that indicated beyond doubt these were seasoned veterans who knew the
jungle and its ways.

But of it all nothing existed for Tharn beyond a slenderly rounded
white-tunicked figure seated in the company of several warriors about a
cooking fire almost exactly in the center of the camp. At sight of that
wealth of reddish gold hair and the sweet curve of a tanned cheek, he
knew his search was over, that the girl he loved was almost within his
reach. A burning impulse bade him throw caution to the winds and charge
among those hated Ammadians and wrest her from the