hands reached out of the
night's impenetrable curtain and tore her roughly from where she sat.
Instinctively she attempted to struggle free, only to receive a buffet
alongside the head that left her limp and only half conscious.

Her first impression was that one of the great apes, occasionally
glimpsed among the more impenetrable reaches of jungle, had seized her;
for she could feel coarse long hair matting its chest and arms. Even as
the thought sent her heart sinking with fear and loathing, she knew she
was mistaken, since the creature's body was much too slender, its arms
too thin and frail to belong to one of the bulky anthropoids.

That she was in deadly peril Dylara did not doubt, but not to know the
form such peril took was inconceivably worse. It was this, fear of the
unknown that crystallized her determination to break from this stifling
embrace or die in the attempt; and she was gathering her strength for
the effort when her captor suddenly whirled about on the narrow branch
and, with her across his back, dived headlong into space!

The shock was too much for human nerves. Dylara voiced a single scream
and her senses fled under the lash of pure panic.

She came back to reality to find she was being borne through the trees
with incredible speed. Now and then a vine flicked against her shivering
body or leaves brushed against her face, and several times the thing
carrying her leaped outward through space that seemed boundless, only to
land lightly upon a swaying branch in another tree.

Even Tharn, she realized, could not have matched the creature's amazing
agility, for it was using both hand and feet with equal dexterity after
the manner of little Nobar, the monkey.

Gradually, as the likelihood of being dashed to earth seemed more and
more remote, Dylara began to think once more of escape. The time was not
now, of course; she could only cling desperately to her captor's thin
shoulders and wait for this breathless journey to end. Eventually those
wiry muscles must tire and the creature stop--then she would make her
bid for freedom.

Abruptly and without slackening its pace the hairy thing uttered a
piercing shriek like nothing Dylara had ever heard before. Twice more
the awful sound rang out; and then, far ahead, came an answering cry
faint and wavering.

Instantly the creature put on an added burst of speed, rocketing through
the branches in dizzying bounds that threatened to tear away Dylara's
none