st today
and tomorrow we will set out toward the north. It is a savage country,
but we have crossed it once and we can cross it again."

And so, upon the following morning, the Tarmangani and his mate went
forth upon their journey across the Valley of Jad-ben-Otho, and ahead
of them were fierce men and savage beasts, and the lofty mountains of
Pal-ul-don; and beyond the mountains the reptiles and the morass, and
beyond that the arid, thorn-covered steppe, and other savage beasts and
men and weary, hostile miles of untracked wilderness between them and
the charred ruins of their home.

Lieutenant Erich Obergatz crawled through the grass upon all fours,
leaving a trail of blood behind him after Jane's spear had sent him
crashing to the ground beneath her tree. He made no sound after the one
piercing scream that had acknowledged the severity of his wound. He was
quiet because of a great fear that had crept into his warped brain that
the devil woman would pursue and slay him. And so he crawled away like
some filthy beast of prey, seeking a thicket where he might lie down
and hide.

He thought that he was going to die, but he did not, and with the
coming of the new day he discovered that his wound was superficial. The
rough obsidian-shod spear had entered the muscles of his side beneath
his right arm inflicting a painful, but not a fatal wound. With the
realization of this fact came a renewed desire to put as much distance
as possible between himself and Jane Clayton. And so he moved on, still
going upon all fours because of a persistent hallucination that in this
way he might escape observation. Yet though he fled his mind still
revolved muddily about a central desire--while he fled from her he
still planned to pursue her, and to his lust of possession was added a
desire for revenge. She should pay for the suffering she had inflicted
upon him. She should pay for rebuffing him, but for some reason which
he did not try to explain to himself he would crawl away and hide. He
would come back though. He would come back and when he had finished
with her, he would take that smooth throat in his two hands and crush
the life from her.

He kept repeating this over and over to himself and then he fell to
laughing out loud, the cackling, hideous laughter that had terrified
Jane. Presently he realized his knees were bleeding and that they hurt
him. He looked cautiously behind. No one was in sight. He listened. He
could hear no indic