besides the wooden club of Ahm, a thing which resembled a crude

stone hatchet. Evidently they were very low in the scale of

humanity, but they were a step upward from those I had previously

seen in Caspak.

But what interested me most was the slender figure of a dainty

girl, clad only in a thin bit of muslin which scarce covered her

knees--a bit of muslin torn and ragged about the lower hem. It was

Lys, and she was alive and so far as I could see, unharmed. A huge

brute with thick lips and prognathous jaw stood at her shoulder.

He was talking loudly and gesticulating wildly. I was close enough

to hear his words, which were similar to the language of Ahm, though

much fuller, for there were many words I could not understand.

However I caught the gist of what he was saying--which in effect

was that he had found and captured this Galu, that she was his

and that he defied anyone to question his right of possession.

It appeared to me, as I afterward learned was the fact, that I was

witnessing the most primitive of marriage ceremonies. The assembled

members of the tribe looked on and listened in a sort of dull and

perfunctory apathy, for the speaker was by far the mightiest of the

clan.

There seemed no one to dispute his claims when he said, or rather

shouted, in stentorian tones: "I am Tsa. This is my she.

Who wishes her more than Tsa?"

"I do," I said in the language of Ahm, and I stepped out into the

firelight before them. Lys gave a little cry of joy and started

toward me, but Tsa grasped her arm and dragged her back.

"Who are you?" shrieked Tsa. "I kill! I kill! I kill!"

"The she is mine," I replied, "and I have come to claim her.

I kill if you do not let her come to me." And I raised my pistol

to a level with his heart. Of course the creature had no conception

of the purpose of the strange little implement which I was poking

toward him. With a sound that was half human and half the growl

of a wild beast, he sprang toward me. I aimed at his heart and

fired, and as he sprawled headlong to the ground, the others of

his tribe, overcome by fright at the report of the pistol,

scattered toward the cliffs--while Lys, with outstretched arms,

ran toward me.

As I crushed her to me, there rose from the black night behind us