n. Tharn expected no different
attitude; it was the way of his own people when they came across
fighting-men of other tribes. Consequently he gave such groups a wide
berth, fighting against them only when given no other choice.

Long periods of silence, however, were no hardship to Tharn. Since
boyhood he was accustomed to spending most of his days and many nights
alone in the jungles and on the broad plains of this savage, untamed
world, finding his greatest pleasure in matching his courage, cunning
and strength against the denizens of forest and prairie. And because
none of the other young men of his father's tribe was so highly
developed mentally or physically, he made no intimates among them.

It was the kind of life which tends to develop a reticent nature in any
man; and while Tharn was in no way morose or antisocial he was given to
saying little beyond what must, of necessity, be put into words.

* * * * *

Under the warmth of Trakor's awed respect and undisguised admiration,
however, Tharn's customary reserve began to thaw and he spoke at greater
length than he intended.

"Two moons ago," he began, while they moved steadily along the twisting
elephant path, "the girl I wanted as my mate was taken by a group of men
who called themselves Ammadians. These men came from a great territory
that lies south of your own caves. Ages ago many hundreds of the
Ammadians left their country and traveled into the north, stopping
finally in a high valley only a few marches from where the caves of my
people now are."

"Here they built many strange caves on level ground by piling heavy
slabs of rock together, surrounding them all by a great wall of stone.
They named this place Sephar and spoke of themselves as Sepharians."

"From time to time bands of Ammadians cross the plains and mountains and
jungles between Ammad and Sephar. The leader of one of those bands, an
Ammadian named Jotan, saw Dylara and wanted her for himself. Not long
before this, Dylara had been taken from me by a hunting party of
Sepharians, and she was held captive by Sephar's chief until he gave her
to Jotan."

"Soon thereafter Jotan's party set out on the return journey to Ammad.
Because of a wound, it was an entire moon before I was able to set out
in pursuit of those who hold Dylara."

So engrossed was Trakor in the other's story that he quite forgot his
uneasiness regarding the night-cloaked jungle about him. His ima