his fingers closed around
Kepta's throat. In spite of the Black One's struggles he held on until a
limp body rolled beneath him.

Panting, the American pulled himself up from the blood-stained floor and
grabbed the arm of the Jade Throne for support.

"Garin!" Thrala's arms were about him, her pitying fingers on his
wounds. And in that moment he forgot Dandtan, forgot everything he had
steeled himself to remember. She was in his arms and his mouth sought
hers possessively. Nor was she unresponsive, but yielded, as a flower
yields to the wind.

"Garin!" she whispered softly. Then, almost shyly, she broke from his
hold.

Beyond her stood Dandtan, his face white, his mouth tight. Garin
remembered. And, a little mad with pain and longing, he dropped his
eyes, trying not to see the loveliness which was Thrala.

"So, Outlander, Thrala flies to your arms--"

Garin whirled about. Kepta was hunched on the broad seat of the jet
throne.

"No, I am not dead, Outlander--nor shall you kill me, as you think to
do. I go now, but I shall return. We have met and hated, fought and died
before--you and I. You were a certain Garan, Marshall of the air fleet
of Yu-Lac on a vanished world, and I was Lord of Koom. That was in the
days before the Ancient Ones pioneered space. You and I and Thrala, we
are bound together and even fate can not break those bonds. Farewell,
Garin. And do you, Thrala, remember the ending of that other Garan. It
was not an easy one."

With a last malicious chuckle, he leaned back in the throne. His
battered body slumped. Then the sharp lines of the throne blurred; it
shimmered in the light. Abruptly then both it and its occupant were
gone. They were staring at empty space, above which loomed the rose
throne of the Ancient Ones.

"He spoke true," murmured Thrala. "We have had other lives, other
meetings--so will we meet again. But for the present he returns to the
darkness which sent him forth. It is finished."

Without warning, a low rumbling filled the Cavern; the walls rocked and
swayed. Lizard and human, they huddled together until the swaying
stopped. Finally a runner appeared with news that one of the Gibi had
ventured forth and discovered that the Caves of Darkness had been sealed
by an underground quake. The menace of the Black Ones was definitely at
an end.

_CHAPTER ELEVEN_

_Thrala's Mate_

Although there were falls of rock within the Caverns and some of the
passages were closed, f