am surprised--" he began; but an instant later he was infinitely more
surprised when the impact of a naked shoulder into his stomach flung him
against the far corner of the room.

Tharn's jungle-trained ears had caught the sound of a bar being lifted,
and so swiftly had he acted that the door was slammed shut and the bar
replaced before Jotan, first to recover, could send his weight crashing
against the planks.

The moonlight filtering through the latticed windows revealed an open
doorway in the opposite wall, and Tharn passed into an inner room. There
were no windows here, and he stumbled over various furnishings before he
came upon a rude staircase.

Taking three at a time, he bounded up the steps to the chamber above.
Below he could hear the impact of bodies against the lattice-work of the
windows. His enemies were getting no aid from the dazed Lukor; he had
not yet regained his breath or his courage.

Without hesitation, Tharn crossed the room to its single large window
and looked down. He was just in time to see the curtain of branches at
the window beneath give way and man after man clamber through.

They did not all go in, however; five armed guards took up positions in
the street. The Cro-Magnon had hoped to drop to the street as soon as
the coast was clear, but now that avenue of escape was closed.

* * * * *

Something must be done, and quickly, Tharn realized, were he to outwit
those whose feet were even now pounding on the stairs. Thrusting head
and shoulders out the window, he looked up and saw, a few feet away, the
roof's edge.

Quickly Tharn balanced himself on the narrow sill, his back to the
street. Raising to his tip-toes he reached gingerly up. His finger tips
were a full six inches short of the roof's edge!

A lone chance remained: he must jump for it. To fail would plummet him
to the street below--to certain capture and possible injury. The sinews
of his legs tensed; then he rose upward in a cat-like leap.

There was a second of breathless uncertainty; then his fingers closed on
a flat stone surface.

Barely had the dangling feet cleared the upper edge of the aperture when
the horde burst through the doorway. Finding no occupant, they dashed to
the window and called to the watchers below, only to learn the
forest-man had not re-entered the street. A thorough search of the room
convinced them the man they sought had left the building, and they
blamed the m