he knowledge he might never again see his father and
mother that was hard for him to bear. As he was still hardly more than
boy quick tears stung his eyes and he was thankful the darkness
prevented his companion from seeing these signs of weakness.

The turn events had taken within the clearing had hurt Tharn, too. Lost
was his opportunity of questioning Roban, son of Gerdak, about the party
of Ammadians Trakor had mentioned. He broke the momentary silence to
say:

"Have you any idea where the Ammadians scaled the cliffs you mentioned?"

Not until now did Trakor recall the reason his new friend had sought out
the caves of Gerdak. The realization that his own unthinking anger was
largely responsible for Tharn's failure to get the information was
galling and he said so at length.

Tharn halted the flow of self recrimination. "Gerdak," he pointed out,
"would not have allowed his son to tell me anything. I hardly expected
any other reception so we have lost nothing.... Do the Ammadian
travelers who pass this way scale the cliffs at the same place each
time?"

"No," Trakor replied sadly. "There are many places that afford a way
over them."

"And you recall nothing Roban said which would indicate the place this
last party used?"

"No, Tharn. It could be any one of ten." When the man beside him made no
reply, he added: "What do we do now?"

* * * * *

Trakor's use of the word "we" brought the realization to Tharn that he
was now faced with two problems. The first, of course, was to locate the
trail of Dylara's abductors--and already his keen mind had hit on a
short cut to that end. The second problem showed every indication of
being a great deal harder to solve: What was he going to do with Trakor?

To permit the boy to return to the caves of Gerdak was unthinkable. The
chief would be sure to blame him for what had happened; and while he
might not actually kill Trakor he would certainly make his life
unbearable. Nor could he leave this inexperienced youngster to face the
jungle alone. Sadu or Jalok would be feeding on his soft flesh before
two suns were gone!

The only alternative was to take the boy with him on his search for
Dylara. It would mean slowing his pursuit of the Ammadians to a relative
crawl--a thought galling to the cave lord....

"What do we do now?" Trakor said again.

Tharn shrugged lightly, his decision made. "We wait awhile. Now we shall
sleep for an hour or tw