occupation that I had gained the safety of the cliff top before he
was ready to take up the pursuit. When he did not discover me in sight
within the valley he dashed, hissing into the rank vegetation of the
swamp and that was the last I saw of him.

X

PHUTRA AGAIN

I HASTENED TO THE CLIFF EDGE ABOVE JA AND helped him to a secure
footing. He would not listen to any thanks for his attempt to save me,
which had come so near miscarrying.

"I had given you up for lost when you tumbled into the Mahar temple,"
he said, "for not even I could save you from their clutches, and you
may imagine my surprise when on seeing a canoe dragged up upon the
beach of the mainland I discovered your own footprints in the sand
beside it.

"I immediately set out in search of you, knowing as I did that you must
be entirely unarmed and defenseless against the many dangers which lurk
upon the mainland both in the form of savage beasts and reptiles, and
men as well. I had no difficulty in tracking you to this point. It is
well that I arrived when I did."

"But why did you do it?" I asked, puzzled at this show of friendship on
the part of a man of another world and a different race and color.

"You saved my life," he replied; "from that moment it became my duty to
protect and befriend you. I would have been no true Mezop had I evaded
my plain duty; but it was a pleasure in this instance for I like you.
I wish that you would come and live with me. You shall become a member
of my tribe. Among us there is the best of hunting and fishing, and
you shall have, to choose a mate from, the most beautiful girls of
Pellucidar. Will you come?"

I told him about Perry then, and Dian the Beautiful, and how my duty
was to them first. Afterward I should return and visit him--if I could
ever find his island.

"Oh, that is easy, my friend," he said. "You need merely to come to
the foot of the highest peak of the Mountains of the Clouds. There you
will find a river which flows into the Lural Az. Directly opposite the
mouth of the river you will see three large islands far out, so far
that they are barely discernible, the one to the extreme left as you
face them from the mouth of the river is Anoroc, where I rule the tribe
of Anoroc."

"But how am I to find the Mountains of the Clouds?" I asked. "Men say
that they are visible from half Pellucidar," he replied.

"How large is Pellucidar?" I asked, wondering what sort of theory these
pri