gination
was fired by Tharn's adventures, and his ready sympathy went out to the
cave lord in his romantic quest.

"Then you must enter the land called Ammad and take Dylara from those
who have her?" he asked.

Tharn nodded. "At first," he said, "I hoped to overtake Jotan and his
men before they could reach Ammad. But several times I lost their trail
for days on end. Once a raging fire swept over a great stretch of
grasslands I was crossing and I was forced to spend many days circling
the burned section before I was able to pick up the signs of their
passage. Then, ten suns ago, I lost the trail completely; since then I
have been guided only by the directions given me when I left Sephar."

For a little while Trakor did not speak. Then: "Are these men you call
Ammadians not so large as the people of our tribes? Do they cover their
bodies with a strange kind of skin that comes from no animal? And do
they wear strange coverings on their feet? And do they carry a strange
length of branch with a tight length of gut tied to each end and many
small spears such as you are carrying?"

Tharn, his pulses suddenly beginning to pound, seized the boy by one
arm, bringing him to an involuntary halt. "Such are the Ammadians," he
said tensely. "What do you know about them?"

"I have heard the warriors of my tribe speak of them," Trakor said.
"There have been times in the past when we fought them. But they are
brave and good fighters and we do not have the gut-strung branches which
throw the small spears so straight and so far. So now we seek no quarrel
with them unless they come too near our caves."

"Why, it was no more than five suns ago that Roban, son of Gerdak
himself, watched a large party of them as they made their way up the
great cliffs not far to the east of our caves. I heard him tell about it
at the cooking fires that same night."

"Did he speak of women being among them?" Tharn demanded.

Trakor scratched his head. "I do not think so. As I remember it now, I
did not hear the whole story; for Lanoa walked away from the fires and I
followed her before Roban had finished."

Tharn's hand dropped from the boy's arm. "Come," he said, and once more
they set out along the path.

CHAPTER II

CRO-MAGNON HOSPITALITY

As the two Cro-Magnon men rounded an abrupt bend in the elephant path,
the jungle and forest ended sharply at the edge of a wide clearing
before a sheer cliff, its surface dotted with many cave entr