ible agility that had
brought their owner through encounters with savage dwellers of jungle
and plain were not to be so easily subdued as Sephar's warriors had
supposed.

Tharn sprang to meet them, charging full into their midst. Catching the
nearest foeman about the waist, the cave-man swung him bodily from the
floor and hurled him, a screaming projectile of fear, into the faces of
his companions.

[Illustration: Tharn swung the nearest warrior bodily into the air]

Four went down beneath the terrific impact; but before Tharn could
follow up this momentary advantage, a swiftly descending club caught him
a glancing blow behind one ear.

With a roar of fury the cave-youth wheeled and plunged his knife into
the breast of the club-wielder; then seizing that weapon from the
fingers of the dying man, swung it in a savage arc, splitting the skulls
of three foes and transforming the weighty bludgeon into a handful of
splinters.

Upon witnessing this superhuman feat, the balance of the Sepharians drew
back in awe. Tharn, ringed about by a full score of enemies, their faces
drawn and tense, stopped suddenly, caught up a stray club and once more
charged.

For a moment it appeared the thin line of men would give way before that
impetuous attack. The one directly in Tharn's path sought to dodge
aside; but mighty fingers caught him about the neck, squeezed with
irresistible force, and the man dropped, his vertebrae splintered.

Suddenly Tharn's legs were buckled by the combined thrust of three pairs
of arms. As he fell backward, a club dealt his head a frightful blow; a
great burst of fire seemed to sear his eyes--then blackness came as
consciousness left him.

* * * * *

The sounds of struggling bodies, punctuated with screams of rage and
anguish, awakened Dylara with a start. For a second she was uncertain
from whence the bedlam came; then she leaped from the bed and ran to the
closed door.

From the noise that reached her, she judged some wild beast had been
trapped in the corridor outside; surely no human throat could have
formed the fearsome snarls and growls coming to her ears.

Soon she caught the sound of a blow, heavier than the others, followed
by deep silence, broken only by labored breathing of many men.

What could it have meant? Had a slave--perhaps one of her own
race--attempted an escape? Or had some great animal invaded this lair of
man while searching for food?

The