fe he slew Sadu--leaping upon him as though Sadu
were no more than Bana, the deer. He comes among us as my friend--treat
him as such!"

As he spoke Trakor, beside himself with the hot anger of the young, had
advanced until he was standing directly before the burly chieftain. With
his last words the boy so forgot himself as to shake a fist in the
other's face.

With a lightning sweep of one knotted fist Gerdak struck the infuriated
boy squarely in the face. So terrible the force of the blow that
Trakor's feet completely left the ground and he fell, unconscious, a
full ten feet from where he had been standing.

* * * * *

Even as the boy's body was falling Tharn acted. With a catlike bound he
reached the chief, fastened a hand about the man's bull neck and lifted
him into the air. Holding the dazed Gerdak in a grip of steel he began
to shake him until bones creaked in protest and his senses fled and he
hung, limp and lifeless, in the circle of those mighty fingers.

As Gerdak crumbled to the ground, his spellbound warriors came to life.
With shouts of rage they leaped forward to close upon the stranger who
had dared to lay hands on their chief. But the agility and muscles that
had brought their owner through countless jungle battles were more than
Gerdak's warriors had reckoned with.

With a panther-like leap Tharn reached Trakor's prone figure. Snatching
it from the ground to a place across his shoulder the cave lord turned
and raced for the safety of the forest. Behind him came a shouting,
cursing mob of raging fighting-men, brandishing spears and knives of
flint. Had they thrown those spears within the first few seconds, the
outcome would have been certain and Gerdak avenged. But they did not,
and seconds later Tharn and his burden were lost among the shadows of
overhanging trees.

For more than an hour Gerdak's warriors ranged the vicinity in search of
the pair, thrusting their spears among the tangled undergrowth and
racing along the game trail on the chance their quarry was following it.
Finally they reluctantly abandoned the hunt and returned to where the
body of their chief still lay on the clearing floor. Discovering a spark
of life yet remaining, they bore him to his cave and after a while
succeeded in bringing him back to consciousness.

It would be many suns before Gerdak fully recovered from his experience,
but deeply planted in his dull-witted mind were the seeds of fe