r upper
ends supporting the longer pieces a trifle above their centers of
equilibrium. Along the top of the palisade sharpened stakes had been
driven at all sorts of angles.

The only opening into the inclosure was through a small aperture three
feet wide and three feet high, which was closed from the inside by logs
about six feet long laid horizontally, one upon another, between the
inside face of the palisade and two other braced logs which paralleled
the face of the wall upon the inside.

As we entered the village, we were greeted by a not unfriendly crowd of
curious warriors and women, to whom Chal-az generously explained the
service we had rendered him, whereupon they showered us with the most
well-meant attentions, for Chal-az, it seemed, was a most popular
member of the tribe. Necklaces of lion and tiger-teeth, bits of dried
meat, finely tanned hides and earthen pots, beautifully decorated, they
thrust upon us until we were loaded down, and all the while Al-tan
glared balefully upon us, seemingly jealous of the attentions heaped
upon us because we had served Chal-az.

At last we reached a hut that they set apart for us, and there we
cooked our meat and some vegetables the women brought us, and had milk
from cows--the first I had had in Caspak--and cheese from the milk of
wild goats, with honey and thin bread made from wheat flour of their
own grinding, and grapes and the fermented juice of grapes. It was
quite the most wonderful meal I had eaten since I quit the Toreador and
Bowen J. Tyler's colored chef, who could make pork-chops taste like
chicken, and chicken taste like heaven.

Chapter 6

After dinner I rolled a cigaret and stretched myself at ease upon a
pile of furs before the doorway, with Ajor's head pillowed in my lap
and a feeling of great content pervading me. It was the first time
since my plane had topped the barrier-cliffs of Caspak that I had felt
any sense of peace or security. My hand wandered to the velvet cheek
of the girl I had claimed as mine, and to her luxuriant hair and the
golden fillet which bound it close to her shapely head. Her slender
fingers groping upward sought mine and drew them to her lips, and then
I gathered her in my arms and crushed her to me, smothering her mouth
with a long, long kiss. It was the first time that passion had tinged
my intercourse with Ajor. We were alone, and the hut was ours until
morning.

But now from beyond the palisade in the direc