for a moment
vehemently to his great breast.

"But why," he went on, "did you follow me so secretly all day?"

"I was afraid you would be angry, and send me back," she answered,
with a sigh of content.

"I could not have sent you back," said Grom, his indifference quite
forgotten. "But come, we must find a place for the night."

And hand in hand they ran to a great tree which Grom had already
marked for his retreat. As they climbed to the upper branches, dusk
fell quickly about them, some great beast roared thunderously from the
depths of the forest, and from a near-by jungle came sudden crashings
of the undergrowth.

III

For three weeks Grom and the girl pressed on eagerly, swinging north
to avoid a vast lake, whose rank and marshy shores were trodden by
monsters such as they had never before set eyes upon. Of nights, no
matter how high or how well hidden their tree-top refuge might be,
they found it necessary to keep vigil turn and turn about, so numerous
and so enterprising were the enemies who sought to investigate the
strange human trail.

Had Grom been alone he would soon have been worn out for want of
sleep. The girl, however, her eyes ever bright with happiness, seemed
utterly untiring, and Grom watched her with daily growing delight. He
had never heard or dreamed of a man regarding a woman as he regarded
the lithe, fierce creature who ran beside him. But he had never been
afraid of new things or new ideas, and he was not ashamed of this
sweet ache of tenderness at his astonished heart.

Beyond the lake and the morasses they came to a strange, broken
land, a land of fertile valleys, deep-verdured and teeming with life,
but sown with abrupt, conelike, naked hills. Along the near horizon
ran a chain of those sharp, low summits, irregularly jagged against
the pale blue. From several of the summits rose streamers of murky
vapor; and one of these, darker and more abundant than the others,
spread abroad at the top on the windless air till it took the shape
of a colossal pine-tree. To the girl the sight was portentous. It
filled her with apprehension, and she would have liked to avoid
this unfamiliar-looking region. But, seeing that Grom was filled
with interest at the novel phenomena before them, she thrust aside
her fears and assumed a like eagerness on the subject.

In the heat of the day they came to a pair of trees, lofty and
spreading, which stood a little apart from the rest of the forest
growth