who could cast his spear entirely through the armored carcass of the sadok at fifty paces.  It was he who had crushed the skull of a charging dyryth with a single blow of his war club.  No, I was not pining to meet the Ugly One-and it was quite certain that I should not go out and hunt for him; but the matter was taken out of my hands very quickly, as is often the way, and I did meet Jubal the Ugly One face to face.

This is how it happened.  I had led Dian back along the ledge the way she had come, searching for a path that would lead us to the top of the cliff, for I knew that we could then cross over to the edge of my own little valley, where I felt certain we should find a means of ingress from the cliff top.  As we proceeded along the ledge I gave Dian minute directions for finding my cave against the chance of something happening to me.  I knew that she would be quite safely hidden away from pursuit once she gained the shelter of my lair, and the valley would afford her ample means of sustenance.

Also, I was very much piqued by her treatment of me.  My heart was sad and heavy, and I wanted to make her feel badly by suggesting that something terrible might happen to me—­that I might, in fact, be killed.  But it didn’t work worth a cent, at least as far as I could perceive.  Dian simply shrugged those magnificent shoulders of hers, and murmured something to the effect that one was not rid of trouble so easily as that.

For a while I kept still.  I was utterly squelched.  And to think that I had twice protected her from attack—­the last time risking my life to save hers.  It was incredible that even a daughter of the Stone Age could be so ungrateful—­so heartless; but maybe her heart partook of the qualities of her epoch.

Presently we found a rift in the cliff which had been widened and extended by the action of the water draining through it from the plateau above.  It gave us a rather rough climb to the summit, but finally we stood upon the level mesa which stretched back for several miles to the mountain range.  Behind us lay the broad inland sea, curving upward in the horizonless distance to merge into the blue of the sky, so that for all the world it looked as though the sea lapped back to arch completely over us and disappear beyond the distant mountains at our backs—­the weird and uncanny aspect of the seascapes of Pellucidar balk description.

At our right lay a dense forest, but to the left the country was open and clear to the plateau’s farther verge.  It was in this direction that our way led, and we had turned to resume our journey when Dian touched my arm.  I turned to her, thinking that she was about to make peace overtures; but I was mistaken.

“Jubal,” she said, and nodded toward the forest.

I looked, and there, emerging from the dense wood, came a perfect whale of a man.  He must have been seven feet tall, and proportioned accordingly.  He still was too far off to distinguish his features.