bird. Wheeling about, it discovered the two rash creatures who dared to interfere with its attack upon its quarry and with a loud screech and wide distended beak it charged them.
The instant that the Dyal had turned and discovered them, Tar-gash had commenced whirling his club about his head and as the bird charged he launched it at one of those mighty legs, and on the instant Tarzan understood the purpose of the Sagoth's method of attack. The heavy club, launched by the mighty muscles of the beast man would snap the leg bone that it struck, and then the enormous fowl would be at the mercy of the Sagoth. But if it did not strike the leg, what then? Almost certain death for Tar-gash.
Tarzan had long since had reason to appreciate his companion's savage disregard of life in the pursuit of flesh, but this seemed the highest pinnacle to which rashness might ascend and still remain within the realm of sanity.
And, indeed, there happened that which Tarzan had feared—the club missed its mark. Tarzan's bow sang and an arrow sank deep into the breast of the Dyal. Tar-gash leaped swiftly to one side, eluding the charge, and another arrow pierced the bird's feathers and hide. And then the ape-man sprang quickly to his right as the avalanche of destruction bore down upon him, its speed un-diminished by the force of the two arrows buried so deeply within it.
Before the Dyal could turn to pursue either of them, Tar-gash hurled a rock, many of which were scattered upon the ground about them. It struck the Dyal upon the side of the head, momentarily dazing him, and Tarzan drove home two more arrows. As he did so, the Dyal wheeled drunkenly toward him and as he faced about a great spear drove past Tarzan's shoulder and plunged deep into the breast of the maddened creature, and to the impact of this last missile it went down, falling almost at the feet of the ape-man.
Ignorant though he was of the strange bird, Tarzan nevertheless hesitated not an instant and as the Dyal fell he was upon it with drawn hunting knife.
So quickly was he in and out that he had severed its windpipe and was away again before he could become entangled in its death struggle, and then it was that for the first time he saw the man who had cast the spear.
Standing erect, a puzzled expression upon his face, was a tall, stalwart warrior, his slightly bronzed skin gleaming in the sunlight, his shaggy head of hair bound back by a deerskin band.
For weapons, in addition to his spear, he carried a stone knife, thrust into the girdle that supported his G- string. His eyes were well set and intelligent. His features were regular and well cut. Altogether he was as splendid a specimen of manhood as Tarzan had ever beheld.
Tar-gash, who had recovered his club, was advancing toward the stranger. 'I am Tar-gash,' he said. 'I kill.'
The stranger drew his stone knife and waited, looking first at Tar-gash and then at Tarzan.
The ape-man stepped in front of Tar-gash. 'Wait,' he commanded. 'Why do you kill?'
'He is a gilak,' replied the Sagoth.
'He saved you from the Dyal,' Tarzan reminded Tar-gash. 'My arrows would not stop the bird. Had it not been for his spear, one or both of us must have died.'
The Sagoth appeared puzzled. He scratched his head in perplexity. 'But if I do not kill him, he will kill me,' he said finally.
Tarzan turned toward the stranger. 'I am Tarzan,' he said. 'This is Tar-gash,' and he pointed at the Sagoth and waited.
'I am Thoar,' said the stranger.
'Let us be friends,' said Tarzan. 'We have no quarrel with you.'
Again the stranger looked puzzled.
'Do you understand the language of the Sagoths?' asked Tarzan, thinking that possibly the man might not have understood him.
Thoar nodded. 'A little,' he said; 'but why should we be friends?'
'Why should we be enemies?' countered the ape-man.
Thoar shook his head. 'I do not know,' he said. 'It is always thus.'
'Together we have slain the Dyal,' said Tarzan. 'Had we not come it would have killed you. Had you not cast your spear it would have killed us. Therefore, we should be friends, not enemies. Where are you going?'
'Back to my own country,' replied Thoar, nodding in the direction that Tarzan and Tar-gash had been travelling.
'We, too, are going in that direction,' said Tarzan 'Let us go together. Six hands are better than four.'
Thoar glanced at the Sagoth.
'Shall we all go together as friends, Tar-gash?' demanded Tarzan.
'It is not done,' said the Sagoth, precisely as though he had behind him thousands of years of civilization and culture.
Tarzan smiled one of his rare smiles. 'We shall do it, then,' he said. 'Come!'
As though taking it for granted that the others would obey his command, the ape-man turned to the body of the Dyal and, drawing his hunting knife, fell to work cutting off portions of the meat. For a moment Thoar and Tar- gash hesitated, eyeing each other suspiciously, and then the bronzed warrior walked over to assist Tarzan and presently Tar-gash joined them.
Thoar exhibited keen interest in Tarzan's steel knife, which slid so easily through the flesh while he hacked and hewed laboriously with his stone implement; while Par-gash seemed not particularly to notice either of the implements as he sunk his strong fangs into the breast of the Dyal and tore away a large hunk of the meat, which be devoured raw, Tarzan was about to do the same, having been raised exclusively upon a diet of raw meat, when he saw Thoar preparing to make fire, which he accomplished by the primitive expedient of friction. The three ate in silence, the Sagoth carrying his meat to a little distance from the others, perhaps because in him the instinct of the wild beast was stronger.
When they had finished they followed the trail upward toward the pass through which it led across the hills, and as they went Tarzan sought to question Thoar concerning his country and its people but so limited is the primitive vocabulary of the Sagoths and so meager Thoar's knowledge of this language that they found communication difficult and Tarzan determined to master Thoar's tongue.
Considerable experience in learning new dialects and languages rendered the task far from difficult and as the ape-man never for a moment relinquished a purpose he intended to achieve, nor ever abandoned a task that he had set himself until it had been successfully concluded, he made rapid progress which was greatly facilitated by the interest which Thoar took in instructing him.
As they reached the summit of the low hills, they saw, hazily in the far distance, what appeared to be a range of lofty mountains.
'There,' said Thoar, pointing, 'lies Zoram.'
'What is Zoram?' asked Tarzan.
'It is my country,' replied the warrior. 'It lies in the Mountains of the Thipdars.'
This was the second time that Tarzan had heard a reference to thipdars. Tar-gash had said the aeroplane was a thipdar and now Thoar spoke of the Mountains of the Thipdars. 'What is a thipdar?' he asked.
Thoar looked at him in astonishment. 'From what country do you come,' he demanded, 'that you do not know what a thipdar is and do not speak the language of the gilaks?'
'I am not of Pellucidar,' said Tarzan.
'I could believe that,' said Thoar, 'if there were any other place from which you could be, but there is not, except Molop Az , the flaming sea upon which Pellucidar floats. But the only inhabitants of the Molop Az are the little demons, who carry the dead who are buried in the ground, piece by piece, down to Molop Az , and while I have never seen one of these little demons I am sure that they are not like you.'
'No,' said Tarzan, 'I am not from Molop Az , yet sometimes I have thought that the world from which I come is inhabited by demons, both large and small.'
As they hunted and ate and slept and marched together, these three creatures found their confidence in one another increasing so that even Tar-gash looked no longer with suspicion upon Thoar, and though they represented three distinct periods in the ascent of man, each separated from the other by countless thousands of years, yet they had so much in common that the advance which man had made from Tar-gash to Tarzan seemed scarcely a fair recompense for the time and effort which Nature must have expended.
Tarzan could not even conjecture the length of time he had been absent from the O-220, but he was
