ightful roar, and with open mouth
charged full upon them. With a cry of terror the foremost gorilla-man
turned to escape, but behind him he ran full upon his on-rushing
companions.

The horror of the following seconds is indescribable. The Sagoth
nearest the cave bear, finding his escape blocked, turned and leaped
deliberately to an awful death upon the jagged rocks three hundred feet
below. Then those giant jaws reached out and gathered in the
next--there was a sickening sound of crushing bones, and the mangled
corpse was dropped over the cliff's edge. Nor did the mighty beast
even pause in his steady advance along the ledge.

Shrieking Sagoths were now leaping madly over the precipice to escape
him, and the last I saw he rounded the turn still pursuing the
demoralized remnant of the man hunters. For a long time I could hear
the horrid roaring of the brute intermingled with the screams and
shrieks of his victims, until finally the awful sounds dwindled and
disappeared in the distance.

Later I learned from Ghak, who had finally come to his tribesmen and
returned with a party to rescue me, that the ryth, as it is called,
pursued the Sagoths until it had exterminated the entire band. Ghak
was, of course, positive that I had fallen prey to the terrible
creature, which, within Pellucidar, is truly the king of beasts.

Not caring to venture back into the canyon, where I might fall prey
either to the cave bear or the Sagoths I continued on along the ledge,
believing that by following around the mountain I could reach the land
of Sari from another direction. But I evidently became confused by the
twisting and turning of the canyons and gullies, for I did not come to
the land of Sari then, nor for a long time thereafter.

XIV

THE GARDEN OF EDEN

With no heavenly guide, it is little wonder that I became confused and
lost in the labyrinthine maze of those mighty hills. What, in reality,
I did was to pass entirely through them and come out above the valley
upon the farther side. I know that I wandered for a long time, until
tired and hungry I came upon a small cave in the face of the limestone
formation which had taken the place of the granite farther back.

The cave which took my fancy lay halfway up the precipitous side of a
lofty cliff. The way to it was such that I knew no extremely
formidable beast could frequent it, nor was it large enough to make a
comfortable habitat for any but the smaller ma