'You do not have to take a step,' said Tanar. 'Put your arms around my neck and hold on tightly,' and then he stooped and lifted her with his left arm while she clung tightly to him, her soft white arms encircling his neck.
'How easily you lifted me!' she said; 'how strong you are; but no man living could carry my weight through these trees and not fall.'
Tanar did not reply, but instead he moved off among the branches seeking sure footing and secure handholds as he went. The girl's soft body was pressed close to his and in his nostrils was the delicate sachet that he had sensed in his first contact with Stellara aboard the Korsar ship and which now seemed a part of her.
As Tanar swung through the forest, the girl marveled at the strength of the man. She had always considered him a weakling by comparison with the beefy Korsars, but now she realized that in those smoothly rolling muscles was concealed the power of a superman.
She found a fascination in watching him. He moved so easily and he did not seem to tire. Once she let her lips fall until they touched his thick, black hair and then, just a little, almost imperceptibly, she tightened her arms about his neck.
Stellara was very happy and then, of a sudden, she recalled Letari and she straightened up and relaxed her hold. 'The vile wanton,' she said.
'Who?' demanded Tanar. 'What are you talking about?'
'That creature, Letari,' said Stellara.
'Why she is not vile,' said Tanar. 'I thought she was very nice and she is certainly beautiful.'
'I believe you are in love with her,' snapped Stellara.
'That would not be difficult,' said Tanar. 'She seemed very lovable.'
'Do you love her?' demanded Stellara.
'Why shouldn't I?' asked Tanar.
'Do you?' insisted the girl.
'Would you care if I did?' asked Tanar, softly.
'Most certainly not,' said Stellara.
'Then why do you ask?'
'I didn't ask,' said Stellara. 'I do not care.'
'Oh,' said Tanar. 'I misunderstood,' and he moved on in silence, for the men of Sari are not talkative, and Stellara did not know what was in his mind for his face did not reflect the fact that he was laughing inwardly, and, anyway, Stellara could not see his face.
Tanar moved always in one direction and his homing instinct assured him that the direction lay toward Sari. As far as the land went he could move unerringly toward the spot in Pellucidar where he was born. Every Pellucidarian can do that, but put them on the water, out of sight of land, and that instinct leaves them and they have no more conception of direction than would you or I if we were transported suddenly to a land where there are no points of compass since the sun hangs perpetually at zenith and there is no moon and no stars. Tanar's only wish at present was to put them as far as possible from the village of Lar . He would travel until they reached the coast for, knowing that Amiocap was an island, he knew that eventually they must come to the ocean. What they should do then was rather vague in his mind. He had visions of building a boat and embarking upon the sea, although he knew perfectly well that this would be madness on the part of a hill dweller such as he.
Presently he felt hungry and he knew that they must have traveled a considerable distance.
Sometimes Tanar kept track of distance by computing the number of steps that he took, for by much practice he had learned to count them almost mechanically, leaving his mind free for other perceptions and thoughts, but here among the branches of the trees, where his steps were not of uniform length, he had thought it not worth the effort to count them and so he could only tell by the recurrence of hunger that they must have covered considerable distance since they left the village of Lar.
During their flight through the forest they had seen birds and monkeys and other animals and, on several occasions, they had paralleled or crossed game trails, but as the Amiocapians had stripped him of his weapons he had no means of obtaining meat until he could stop long enough to fashion a bow and some arrows and a spear.
How he missed his spear! From childhood it had been his constant companion and for a long time he had felt almost helpless without it. He had never become entirely accustomed or reconciled to carrying firearms, feeling in the bottom of his primitive and savage heart that there was nothing more dependable than a sturdy, stone-shod spear.
He had rather liked the bow and arrows that Innes and Perry had taught him to make and use, as the arrows had seemed like little spears. At least one could see them, whereas with the strange and noisy weapons, which belched forth smoke and flame, one could not see the projectile at all. It was most unnatural and uncanny.
But Tanar's mind was not occupied with such thoughts at this time. Food was dominant.
Presently they came to a small, natural clearing beside a crystal brook and Tanar swung lightly to the ground.
'We shall stop here,' he said, 'until I can make weapons and get meat for us.'
With the feel of the ground beneath her feet again Stellara felt more independent. 'I am not hungry,' she said.
'I am,' said Tanar.
'There are berries and fruits and nuts in plenty,' she insisted. 'We should not wait here to be overtaken by the warriors from Lar.'
'We shall wait here until I have made weapons,' said Tanar, with finality, 'and then I shall not only be in a position to make a kill for meat, but I shall be able better to defend you against Zural's warriors.'
'I wish to go on,' said Stellara. 'I do not wish to stay here,' and she stamped her little foot.
Tanar looked at her in surprise. 'What is the matter with you, Stellara? You were never like this before.'
'I do not know what is the matter with me,' said the girl. 'I only know that I wish I were back in Korsar, in the house of The Cid. There, at least, I should be among friends. Here I am surrounded only by enemies.'
'Then you would have Bohar the Bloody One as a mate, if he survived the storm, or if not he another like him,' Tanar reminded her.
'At least he loved me,' said Stellara.
'And you loved him?' asked Tanar.
'Perhaps,' said Stellara.
There was a peculiar look on Tanar's face as his eyes rested upon the girl. He did not understand her, but he seemed to be trying to. She was looking past him, a strange expression upon her face when suddenly she voiced an exclamation of dismay and pointed past him.
'Look!' she cried. 'Oh, God, look!'
V THE TANDOR HUNTER
SO FILLED with fear was Stellara's tone that Tanar felt the hair rise upon his scalp as he wheeled about to face the thing that had so filled the girl with horror, but even had he had time to conjure in his imagination a picture worthy of her fright, he could not have imagined a more fearsome or repulsive thing than that which was advancing upon them.
In conformation it was primarily human, but there the similarity ended. It had arms and legs and it walked erect upon two feet; but such feet! They were huge, flat things with nailless toes—short, stubby toes with webs between them. Its arms were short and in lieu of fingers its hands were armed with three heavy claws. It stood somewhere in the neighborhood of five feet in height and there was not a vestige of hair upon its entire naked body, the skin of which was of the sickly pallor of a corpse.
But these attributes lent to it but a fraction of its repulsiveness—it was its head and face that were appalling.
It had no external ears, there being only two small orifices on either side of its head where these organs are ordinarily located. Its mouth was large with loose, flabby lips that were drawn back now into a snarl that exposed
