e quest he had
undertaken alone. His savage, untamed mind had dwelt so steadily upon
the outrageous attack, that it finally brought an emotion so powerful as
to be almost tangible: Hate, and for a companion, Revenge.

Never would he rest until this unknown tribe had felt the weight of his
own personal wrath. For what they had done they must pay a thousandfold
in lives and misery.

* * * * *

Without warning, the forest ended; and the cave lord dropped to the
ground at the edge of a great plain, its bounds hidden in the ghostly
moonlight.

A line of broken grasses began where the game path ended. So fresh was
the trail, now, that Tharn knew he had best wait for sunrise before
continuing the chase. He had no wish to dash headlong among the ranks of
the very enemy he pursued.

A few moments later Tharn was sleeping soundly in a crotch of a high
tree, his slumber undisturbed by the long familiar noises of a jungle
night.

The sun was an hour high when he awakened. His first act was to climb to
the highest pinnacle of the tree, and from that point attempt to pick
out, if possible, the goal of those he sought.

He was immediately successful. Due west, far in the distance, he saw
hills rising steeply amidst another forest. His sharp eyes followed a
wide line of broken grasses, noting that it pointed unerringly toward
those same heights.

Tharn smiled grimly to himself. Soon the first member of that war-party
would make the initial payment on the blood-debt. Making certain his
weapons were in place, the broad-shouldered young man slid to the ground
and took up a circuitous route, avoiding the open plain, which brought
him finally to the forest's edge at a considerable distance away from
the others' point of entry at the far side of the plain. If he had
crossed the plain, sharp eyes might have noted his pursuit from just
within the forest edge.

Once the trail was picked up again, he took to the comparative safety of
the middle terraces. Soon he was moving in absolute silence above a
narrow pathway winding into the gloomy interior, the imprints of many
naked feet clear in the thick dust. But he no longer needed such
evidence; the humid breeze was bringing the assorted smells of a
Cro-Magnon settlement close ahead.

So close were the hills by this time that he was momentarily expecting
the trees to thin out, when he caught the sound of a faint movement from
below. Warily he slipped dow