nmindful of the tumult about him, Katon knelt beside Tharn and the now
weakly struggling Vulcar. Grasping the Cro-Magnon's steel-thewed wrists,
he tugged with all his more than ordinary strength to loosen the awful
grip.

"Stop it, Tharn!" he panted. "Let go! If he dies they will kill you!"

Slowly the red mist of anger faded as Katon's words reached the savage
brain; and slowly, almost regretfully, Tharn obeyed.

As he rose from the floor and stepped back, a large group of guards
broke into the room and joined the fight between attendants and
prisoners. With lusty swings of spear shafts the newcomers beat the
battling captives into a semblance of order against one wall.

* * * * *

As for Vulcar--he lay where Tharn had left him, tortured lungs sucking
air in great gulps as the livid hue of his face gradually faded. Vulcar
had been very near to death.

Finally he got shakily to his feet, assisted by two of his men. For a
full minute he could not speak as he swayed there, rubbing at the angry
red welts where Tharn's merciless fingers had closed.

"Seize that madman!" he croaked at last; "seize and tie him! A few
touches of the whip will teach him how to act!"

Before the hesitant warriors could act, Katon had stepped into the
breach.

"Wait, Vulcar," he pleaded. "Do not have him whipped. The man is a
barbarian; he believed you had attacked him, and acted so. Had he
stopped to think, he would not have dared raise a hand against the
mightiest fighter in all Sephar."

Vulcar was shrewd enough to see that Katon had made it possible for him
to save face before the others without chancing another battle. He
realized the cave-man would resist an attempt to punish him, and such
resistance might inflame the prisoners anew.

"Perhaps you are right, Katon," he admitted reluctantly. "But I shall
not be so lenient if it happens again."

Tharn, listening, shrugged indifferently. The incident was closed as far
as he was concerned, and Vulcar's thinly veiled threat did not impress
him.

"I was about to tell your wild friend," the captain continued, "that
Urim has sent word he is to be brought before him at once. Perhaps you
had better come along, Katon; you seem to be the only one able to
control him."

The three men crossed the huge cell, passed through the guarded doorway
and went up a long ramp to the first floor of the palace. There they
turned left and moved along a narrow corridor u