assist was beyond my capability.

"I do not fear you," screamed the creature. "You were close to Tsa;
but I am far above you. You cannot harm me as you harmed Tsa. Go away!"

I placed a foot upon the lowest ledge and clambered upward, reaching
down and pulling Lys to my side. Already I felt safer. Soon we would
be out of danger of the beasts again closing in upon us. The man above
us raised his stone hatchet above his head and leaped lightly down to
meet us. His position above me gave him a great advantage, or at least
so he probably thought, for he came with every show of confidence. I
hated to do it, but there seemed no other way, and so I shot him down
as I had shot down Tsa.

"You see," I cried to his fellows, "that I can kill you wherever you
may be. A long way off I can kill you as well as I can kill you near
by. Let us come among you in peace. I will not harm you if you do not
harm us. We will take a cave high up. Speak!"

"Come, then," said one. "If you will not harm us, you may come. Take
Tsa's hole, which lies above you."

The creature showed us the mouth of a black cave, but he kept at a
distance while he did it, and Lys followed me as I crawled in to
explore. I had matches with me, and in the light of one I found a
small cavern with a flat roof and floor which followed the cleavage of
the strata. Pieces of the roof had fallen at some long-distant date,
as was evidenced by the depth of the filth and rubble in which they
were embedded. Even a superficial examination revealed the fact that
nothing had ever been attempted that might have improved the livability
of the cavern; nor, should I judge, had it ever been cleaned out. With
considerable difficulty I loosened some of the larger pieces of broken
rock which littered the floor and placed them as a barrier before the
doorway. It was too dark to do more than this. I then gave Lys a piece
of dried meat, and sitting inside the entrance, we dined as must have
some of our ancient forbears at the dawning of the age of man, while
far below the open diapason of the savage night rose weird and
horrifying to our ears. In the light of the great fire still burning
we could see huge, skulking forms, and in the blacker background
countless flaming eyes.

Lys shuddered, and I put my arm around her and drew her to me; and thus
we sat throughout the hot night. She told me of her abduction and of
the fright she had undergone, and together we thanked God