he bent to reaching Dian and me first,
leaving the rest of the work to his other boats. I thought that there
could be little doubt that he would be successful in so far as we were
concerned, and I feared for the revenge that he might take upon us
should the battle go against his force, as I was sure it would; for I
knew that Perry and his Mezops must have brought with them all the arms
and ammunition that had been contained in the prospector. But I was
not prepared for what happened next.

As Hooja's canoe reached a point some twenty yards from us a great puff
of smoke broke from the bow of the leading felucca, followed almost
simultaneously by a terrific explosion, and a solid shot screamed close
over the heads of the men in Hooja's craft, raising a great splash
where it clove the water just beyond them.

Perry had perfected gunpowder and built cannon! It was marvelous!
Dian and Juag, as much surprised as Hooja, turned wondering eyes toward
me. Again the cannon spoke. I suppose that by comparison with the
great guns of modern naval vessels of the outer world it was a
pitifully small and inadequate thing; but here in Pellucidar, where it
was the first of its kind, it was about as awe-inspiring as anything
you might imagine.

With the report an iron cannonball about five inches in diameter struck
Hooja's dugout just above the water-line, tore a great splintering hole
in its side, turned it over, and dumped its occupants into the sea.

The four dugouts that had been abreast of Hooja had turned to intercept
the leading felucca. Even now, in the face of what must have been a
withering catastrophe to them, they kept bravely on toward the strange
and terrible craft.

In them were fully two hundred men, while but fifty lined the gunwale
of the felucca to repel them. The commander of the felucca, who proved
to be Ja, let them come quite close and then turned loose upon them a
volley of shots from small-arms.

The cave men and Sagoths in the dugouts seemed to wither before that
blast of death like dry grass before a prairie fire. Those who were
not hit dropped their bows and javelins and, seizing upon paddles,
attempted to escape. But the felucca pursued them relentlessly, her
crew firing at will.

At last I heard Ja shouting to the survivors in the dugouts--they were
all quite close to us now--offer-ing them their lives if they would
surrender. Perry was standing close behind Ja, and I knew that this
mercifu