.[3]

[3] "Warrior of the Dawn," December, 1942-January, 1943, _Amazing
Stories_.--Ed.

True, when Sadu sank lifeless to the ground between them, she had thrown
herself into his arms, and the warm promise of her lips had crystallized
forever within him his love for her. But that impulsive act might have
been born of gratitude alone; he had been given no opportunity to find
out one way or the other; for Jotan and seven of his men had arrived at
that moment to take her from him.

Love, Tharn had long before decided, was a wonderful and annoying thing,
bringing, as it did, both pleasure and torture, peace and unrest. All
his wondering, all his doubts were for nothing until he could come face
to face again with Dylara. And even then he might not know her answer;
she would welcome him, of course, for in him alone was her sole hope of
returning to her people.

But he did not want her to return to her own caves! She must go with him
to his tribe--and go she must, with or without her own consent!

The winding trail below ended suddenly at the edge of an extensive
clearing, through which ran a wide shallow sluggish river. From deep
among a thick growth of reeds on the latter's opposite shore came a
spine-tingling chorus of snarls and growls and the sounds of jaws
grinding against bones.

Tharn seemed literally to fall the fifty or sixty feet between his
elevated position and the ground below. The density of that growth of
reeds kept him from seeing what animals were feeding there and the wind
at his back left his nose useless in obtaining that information. Yet he
charged in that direction with all the silent ferocity of Sadu himself,
a swelling fear within him that it was Dylara's soft flesh which was
furnishing those unseen beasts with their dinner.

* * * * *

Knife in hand, lips curled back in a savage snarl, the cave lord tore
his way through the tangled growth. With the first sounds of his
passage, that chorus of growls ceased, and Tharn knew those unseen
jungle dwellers were prepared to defend their kill.

Without slackening his pace he burst full upon a pack of hyenas
surrounding the half-devoured carcass of Sadu, the lion. Snarling and
spitting their rage they held ground, evil teeth bared, the hair
standing stiff along their spines, ready to give battle; for, in
numbers, cowardly Gubo was a force to be reckoned with.

An instant later three of them lay dead and the rest fleeing