warfare. For the first time he
had seen a bow and arrows, never before that duel had he beheld a
sword, and now he learned what a man who knows may do with his bare
fists.
As he came for me, like a great bear, I ducked again beneath his
outstretched arm, and as I came up planted as clean a blow upon his jaw
as ever you have seen. Down went that great mountain of flesh
sprawling upon the ground. He was so surprised and dazed that he lay
there for several seconds before he made any attempt to rise, and I
stood over him with another dose ready when he should gain his knees.
Up he came at last, almost roaring in his rage and mortification; but
he didn't stay up--I let him have a left fair on the point of the jaw
that sent him tumbling over on his back. By this time I think Jubal
had gone mad with hate, for no sane man would have come back for more
as many times as he did. Time after time I bowled him over as fast as
he could stagger up, until toward the last he lay longer on the ground
between blows, and each time came up weaker than before.
He was bleeding very profusely now from the wound in his lungs, and
presently a terrific blow over the heart sent him reeling heavily to
the ground, where he lay very still, and somehow I knew at once that
Jubal the Ugly One would never get up again. But even as I looked upon
that massive body lying there so grim and terrible in death, I could
not believe that I, single-handed, had bested this slayer of fearful
beasts--this gigantic ogre of the Stone Age.
Picking up my sword I leaned upon it, looking down on the dead body of
my foeman, and as I thought of the battle I had just fought and won a
great idea was born in my brain--the outcome of this and the suggestion
that Perry had made within the city of Phutra. If skill and science
could render a comparative pygmy the master of this mighty brute, what
could not the brute's fellows accomplish with the same skill and
science. Why all Pellucidar would be at their feet--and I would be
their king and Dian their queen.
Dian! A little wave of doubt swept over me. It was quite within the
possibilities of Dian to look down upon me even were I king. She was
quite the most superior person I ever had met--with the most convincing
way of letting you know that she was superior. Well, I could go to the
cave, and tell her that I had killed Jubal, and then she might feel
more kindly toward me, since I had freed her of her tormentor.
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