n his loping gait turned a
snarling, bestial countenance toward her. At the sight, Alurna felt her
senses reel and she closed her eyes with a shudder of loathing.

Mog, satisfied his captive would remain passive, transferred his
attention to the path underfoot. The hairy one was beginning to regret
the decision that had cost him the companionship of his fellows. To
cross, safely, the miles of jungle and forest between his present
position and the caves of his tribe, would require all his strength and
cunning.

Alone, armed only with club and spear, he could prove fairly easy prey
to any one of many enemies. Jalok, the panther, agile and fearless and
wantonly cruel; Conta, the cave bear, who fought on his hind legs;
Tarlok, the leopard, beneath whose spotted hide lay such strength that
by comparison Mog's stalwart thews were as nothing. And then there was
Sleeza, the giant snake, whose slimy coils held the strength of ten
Mogs.

Most fearsome of all, however, was Sadu, the lion, tawny of coat and
shaggy of mane, whose absolute fearlessness, speed of attack and
irascible temper, backed by steel sinews and mighty fangs, caused the
balance of jungle folk to give him a wide berth.

Above and about the lumbering monstrosity and its still, white burden,
scampered, flew, slunk and crawled the superabundant life of this green
world, their voices and movements adding to the vast ocean of sound
rising and falling about the ill-assorted pair.

While far behind them came Urb and the others; but the distance between
was growing rapidly greater so swiftly was Mog covering the ground.

And then, with almost frightening suddenness, Dyta, the sun,
disappeared from the heavens and darkness fell upon the jungle. The
Neanderthal mouthed a few disapproving grunts, peered about nervously,
then swung sharply to his left and forced his way through foliage to the
base of a great tree.

Alurna clung fearfully to the shaggy neck as the great brute pulled
himself into the lower branches. With the coming of night her fear was
intensified a thousandfold; but even more than she feared Mog was her
dread of the brooding jungle and its savage inhabitants. She reproached
herself silently for venturing from the security of Sephar's walls.
Woman-like, she blamed Jotan for everything--had he not fallen in love
with the cave-girl nothing like this would have happened.

Mog paused upon a broad bough well above the ground. Placing Alurna in a
sitting