heat from their bodies. Past a stack of
spears piled against a side wall, avoiding a block of stone on which
were piled several baked clay pots and dishes, skirting a heap of furs
where an old woman slept, mouth open and the breath whistling between
toothless gums ... these were danger points along the way.

At last he reached the rear wall of the cave--and there he found the
object of his search. A lanky length of tanned human lay face up on a
pile of skins, breathing heavily, arms thrown wide. A few feet away,
near a side wall, lay the stocky form and hairless pate that belonged to
Gerdak, the chief.

The time had come for the high point of danger in Tharn's plan.
Crouching beside the sleeping form of Roban, Tharn tightened his hold on
the hilt of his knife, swung his arm in a short savage arc and brought
the butt of the knife hard against the young man's skull!

There was a single violent upheaval of limbs which Tharn smothered
instantly beneath his own weight, a sobbing cry which died unborn as a
mighty hand pressed against the parted lips ... and Roban lay senseless.

Swinging the unconscious youth to his shoulders, Tharn turned to make
his way back to the cave entrance. Three cautious steps he took ... and
then a muscular hand closed about his ankle!

CHAPTER III

SADU ATTACKS

Sadu, the lion, pacing slowly and majestically through the velvet
blackness of a jungle night, came to a sudden halt as Siha, the wind,
brought to his sensitive nostrils the acrid scent of burning wood.

For several long minutes the great cat stood as though turned to stone,
his broad nostrils twitching nervously under the biting fumes. Sadu was
unpleasantly familiar with the red teeth that ate everything in their
path, for it had been scarcely a moon ago that he barely escaped the
fangs of a forest fire.

Had it been smoke alone which Sadu smelled, he would have turned away
and sought his night's food elsewhere. But commingled with the scent of
fire was another smell, and it was the latter that finally sent him
slinking ahead.

After the lion progressed another several hundred yards in this manner,
the winding game trail debouched abruptly into a large natural clearing
bordering the reed-covered banks of a wide shallow river.

Standing amid the impenetrable shadows cast by a great tree at the
clearing's edge, Sadu surveyed with slitted eyes the bustle of activity
about the open ground. There were at least fifty men th