he had found in Sephar, but there were more people
on them.

* * * * *

For nearly an hour Tharn sat high among the concealing foliage of his
tree and watched the scene below and before him. Hunting parties well
laden with trophies of the hunt entered the clearing from the trail
beneath him and the great gates of wood, guarded by Ammadian warriors,
swung open to let them through the massive wall. It was a wall much
higher and stronger than Sephar had boasted and getting past it was
going to take some doing.

Tharn shrugged and turned back to pick up those who were holding Dylara
and Trakor. Perhaps, he thought as he moved swiftly along the aerial
highway, it would not be necessary for him to pass those walls. Even if
those fifty Ammadians did not make camp for tonight, he might still find
a way to rob them of their captives. Let them lower their guard for even
a moment, let them become only a little careless--and their hands would
be empty before their minds had caught up with their eyes!

He arrived at the prairie's edge only a few moments before Ekbar and his
men reached the game trail's mouth. Tharn, narrow-eyed and alert,
watched them halt and gather gumwood torches, saw these latter ignited
and the march resumed. It was as he had feared: they intended to press
on until Ammad's walls hemmed them safely in.

Even Tharn's iron-willed reserve broke a little at this last blow.
Through the velvety darkness of a semi-tropical night he moved
stealthily above them, his fangs bared slightly, his hand hovering often
near his blackwood bow and the quiver of arrows.

Several times he saw Trakor's upturned face as the youth sought to
pierce the wavering shadows cast by the flaming shadows. He knew well
what was passing through Trakor's mind and, despite his own
disappointment, he smiled a little. Let the headstrong cave youth worry
a little; it would be small payment indeed for the trouble he had
caused!

But most often Tharn's eyes went to Dylara. He saw her stagger now and
then from sheer physical exhaustion and his heart went out to her. How
he would have loved to wrest her from that spear-bristling line of
warriors! There was no way to do that, however. A barrage of arrows
could have cleared away those men directly around her, but a rope about
her wrist had its other end bound about the arm of the man beside her;
and even had Tharn leaped down on the heels of his arrows to slash away
t