st of you into the ground!" retorted Trakor. "But when
night comes you usually stop and huddle behind fires lest the great cats
get you."

The Ammadian scowled. "We are afraid of nothing! But only animals and
uncivilized barbarians wander about the jungle at night. We are but a
little way from Ammad; it would be senseless to spend a night in the
open when the city is so close."

Trakor's heart sank. "Only a little way from Ammad!" The words beat
against his mind like the voice of doom. Dylara and he were lost; Tharn
could not save them now!

Yet hope did not leave him entirely. His boundless faith and admiration
where the cave lord was concerned would not let it die. He caught
himself glancing time and again at the low-swaying boughs overhead.
Every flickering shadow from the torches was transformed into the
lurking figure of his giant friend.

But as the hours passed and nothing happened those last faint
glimmerings of hope began to fade and his spirits sank lower and lower.

Ahead of him, Dylara was going through much the same travail. She
staggered often now from weariness; for she had been on her feet, except
for that brief period at noon, since early morning and she lacked the
strength and stamina of the others. She wondered, too, if Tharn would
make an attempt at rescuing Trakor and her before Ammad was reached; but
the memory of his fearless entrance into Sephar in search of her
brought the thought that he might do the same thing this time.

* * * * *

Abruptly the forest and jungle ended at open ground. Beyond a mile of
open ground, flooded by Uda's silver rays, stood the towering stone
walls of Ammad.

To the dazed, unbelieving eyes of Trakor it was like a scene from
another and wonderful world. In either direction, as far as he could
see, rose that sheer, massive man-made wall of gray stone, broken at
wide, regular intervals by massive gates of wood. Far beyond the wall he
could see mammoth structures of stone at the crest of five small hills.
The sides of those hills were lined with other, and smaller buildings of
the same material. Lights twinkled from breaks in their walls, an
indication that, unlike the cave men, Ammadians did not spend most of
the night hours asleep.

Dylara, accustomed to city walls and buildings of stone from her long
stay in Sephar, was not so overcome by the scene. Still Ammad's size,
even from the small part visible at this point, brought a g