KIDNAPED!
I about the spot carefully. At last I was by the of her javelin, a yards from the that had us from the thag—her and the of a by the and the of a woman and a man. Filled with and dismay, I these to where they a hundred yards from where the had occurred. There I saw the of a lidi's feet.
The of the was all too plain. A Thurian had either been us, or had Dian and taken a to her. While Juag and I had been with the thag, he had her. I ran to where Juag was over the kill. As I approached him I saw that something was in this as well, for the was upon the of the thag, his for a throw.
When I had come nearer I saw the of his attitude. Just him two large jaloks, or wolf-dogs, him intently—a male and a female. Their was peculiar, for they did not preparing to him. Rather, they were him in an of questioning.
Juag me and toward me with a grin. These love excitement. I see by his that he was in the that imminent. But he his javelin. A of from me stopped him, for I had the of a rope from the of the male jalok.
Juag again toward me, but this time in surprise. I was him in a moment and, him, walked toward the two beasts. As I did so the female with fangs. The male, however, to meet me, not in charge, but with every of and which the animal exhibit.
It was Raja—the life I had saved, and I then had tamed! There was no that he was to see me. I now think that his of me had been but to a to search out his and her, too, to live with me.
When Juag saw me the great he was with consternation, but I did not have much time to to Raja while my mind was with the of my new loss. I was to see the brute, and I no time in taking him to Juag and making him that Juag, too, was to be Raja's friend. With the female the was more difficult, but Raja helped us out by at her she her against us.
I told Juag of the of Dian, and of my as to the of the catastrophe. He wanted to start right out after her, but I that with Raja to help me it might be as well were he to and skin the thag, remove its bladder, and then return to where we had the on the beach. And so it was that he was to do this and me there for a time. I pointed to a great upon the surface of the world above us, telling him that if after this had appeared four times I had not returned to go either by water or land to Sari and Ghak with an army. Then, calling Raja after me, I set out after Dian and her abductor. First I took the dog to the spot where the man had with Dian. A us Raja's mate. I pointed to the ground where the of the were and where the must have been to Raja's nostrils.
Then I the of that about his and him upon the trail. He to understand. With nose to ground he set out upon his task. Dragging me after him, he out upon the Lidi Plains, his steps in the direction of the Thurian village. I have as much!
Behind us the female. After a while she closed upon us, until she ran close to me and at Raja's side. It was not long she as easy in my company as did her lord and master.
We must have at a very pace, for we had the great shadow, when we saw a ahead of us, moving across the level plain. Upon its were two figures. If I have that the would not Dian I might have them upon the and its master; but I not know, and so take no chances.
However, the was taken out of my hands presently when Raja his and of his quarry. With a that me and the from my hand, he was gone with the speed of the wind after the and its riders. At his his mate, only a smaller than he and no less savage.
They did not give until the itself them and into a lumbering, awkward, but none the less gallop. Then the two hound-beasts to bay, starting with a low, note that rose, and hideous, to in a series of short, yelps. I that it might be the hunting-call of the pack; and if this were true, there would be for either Dian or her abductor—or myself, either, as as that was concerned. So I my to keep with the hunt; but I might as well have to the bird upon the wing; as I have often you, I am no runner. In that it was just as well that I am not, for my very slowness of played into my hands; while had I been fleeter, I might have Dian that time forever.
The lidi, with the close on either side, had almost in the that the landscape, when I noted that it was toward the right. This was for by the that Raja ran upon his left side, and his mate, for the great beast's shoulder. The man on the lidi's was at the with his long spear, but still Raja up and snapping.
The of this was to turn the toward the right, and the longer I the the more I that Raja and his were together with some end in view, for the she-dog at the lidi's right about op-posite his rump.
I had in packs, and I now what for the time I had not of—the that ran ahead and the toward the main body. This was what Raja and his were doing—they were the toward me, or at least Raja was. Just why the female was out of it I did not understand, unless it was that she was not clear in her own mind as to what her was attempting.
At any rate, I was to stop where I was and developments, for I two things. One was that I them the was done if they should the now. The other thing was that if they did not it for a minutes it would have its circle and returned close to where I stood.
And this is just what happened. The of them were almost up in the for a moment. Then they again, but this time to the right and in my direction. I waited until I some clear idea of the right spot to that I might the lidi; but as I waited I saw the attempt to turn still more to the right—a move that would have him to my left in a much more circle than the had out for him. Then I saw the female and him; and when he would have gone too to the left, Raja sprang, at his and him straight.
Straight for me the two were their quarry! It was wonderful.
It was something else, too, as I while the me. It was like in the middle of the in of an express-train. But I didn't waver; too much upon my meeting that of with a well-placed javelin. So I there, waiting to be and by those feet, but to drive home my in the I fell.
The was only about a hundred yards from me when Raja gave a in a that from his hunting-cry. Instantly he and his for the long of the ruminant.
Neither missed. Swinging in mid-air, they tenaciously, their weight the creature's and so its speed that it had me it was almost stopped and all its to attempting to off its with its forefeet.
Dian had and me, and was trying to herself from the of her captor, who, by his and prisoner, was unable to his upon the two jaloks. At the same time I was toward them.
When the man me he his upon Dian and to the ground, with his to meet me. My was no match for his longer weapon, which was used more for than as a missile. Should I miss him at my cast, as was probable, since he was prepared for me, I would have to his with nothing more than a knife. The was entrancing. Evidently I was soon to be at his mercy.
Seeing my predicament, he ran toward me to of one he had to with the other two. He not guess, of course, that the two were with me; but he that after they had the they would make after the prey—the are killers, often wantonly.
But as the Thurian came Raja his upon the and for him, with the female close after. When the man saw them he to me to help him, that we should be killed if we did not together. But I only laughed at him and ran toward Dian.
Both the were upon the Thurian simu-taneously—he must have died almost his to the ground. Then the female toward Dian. I was by her as the thing her, my to her.
But again Raja was too quick for me. I he she was making for me, for he couldn't have anything of my relations toward Dian. At any he full upon her and her down. There as terrible a as one would wish to see if were by of noise and of action. I that the would be to shreds.
When the female to and rolled over on her back, her folded, I was sure that she was dead. Raja over her, growling, his close to her throat. Then I saw that neither of them a scratch. The male had a to his mate. It was his way of teaching her that I was sacred.
After a moment he moved away and let her rise, when she set about her coat, while he came toward Dian and me. I had an arm about Dian now. As Raja came close I him by the and him up to me. There I him and talked to him, Dian do the same, until I think he well that if I was his friend, so was Dian.
For a long time he was to be of her, often his teeth at her approach, and it was a much longer time the female friends with us. But by kindness, by without our meat with them, and by them from our hands, we the of animals. However, that was a long time after.
With the two after us, we returned to where we had left Juag. Here I had the dickens' own time the female from Juag's throat. Of all the venomous, wicked, cruel-hearted on two worlds, I think a female takes the palm.
But she Juag as she had Dian and me, and the five of us set out toward the coast, for Juag had just his labors on the when we arrived. We ate some of the meat starting, and gave the some. All that we we upon our backs.
On the way to the we met with no mishaps. Dian told me that the who had her had come upon her from while the of the had all other noises, and that the she had he had her and her to the of his lidi, which had been close by waiting for him. By the time the had the had got well away upon his mount. By one over her mouth he had her calling for help.
"I thought," she concluded, "that I should have to use the viper's tooth, after all."
We the beach at last and the canoe. Then we ourselves a and a small sail—Juag and I, that is—while Dian cut the meat into long for when we should be out in the once more.
At last all was done. We were to embark. I had no in Raja the dugout; but Ranee—as we her after I had to Dian the meaning of Raja and its equivalent—positively for a time to her aboard. In fact, we had to off without her. After a moment, however, she into the water and after us.
I let her come alongside, and then Juag and I her in, she and at us as we did so; but, to relate, she didn't offer to attack us after we had her safely in the alongside Raja.
The much under sail than I had hoped—infinitely than the battle-ship Sari had—and we good progress almost west across the gulf, upon the opposite of which I to the mouth of the river of which Juag had told me.
The was much and by the sail and its results. He had not been able to what I to with it while we were up the boat; but when he saw the move through the water without paddles, he was as as a child. We on the trip, into of land at last.
Juag had been terror-stricken when he had learned that I the ocean, and when we passed out of of land he was in a funk. He said that he had of such a thing in his life, and that always he had that those who from land returned; for how they their way when they see no land to for?
I to the to him; and though he the scientific of it, yet he did learn to by it as well as I. We passed on the journey—islands which Juag told me were unknown to his own folk. Indeed, our may have been the to upon them. I should have liked to stop off and them, but the of would no delays.
I asked Juag how Hooja to the mouth of the river which we were in search of if he didn't the gulf, and the that Hooja would the around. For some time we up the for the river, and at last we it. So great was it that I it must be a until the of that came out upon the me that it was the mouth of a river. There were the of trees by the of the river banks, creepers, flowers, grasses, and now and then the of some land animal or bird.
I was all to our when there that which I had Pellucidar—a wind-storm. It the river upon us with a and that took our away, and we a to make the it too late. The best that we do was to the scud-ding the wind and along in a of white spume. Juag was terrified. If Dian was, she it; for was she not the of a once great chief, the sister of a king, and the of an emperor?
Raja and Ranee were frightened. The close to my and his nose against me. Finally Ranee was moved to from a being. She to Dian, pressing close against her and whimpering, while Dian her and talked to her as I talked to Raja.
There was nothing for us to do but try to keep the right up and the wind. For what an the neither abated. I that we must have a hundred miles the wind and out into an unknown sea!
As as the wind rose it died again, and when it died it to at right to its in a breeze. I asked Juag then what our was, for he had had the last. It had been on a leather about his neck. When he for it, the that came into his told me as as what had happened—the was lost! The was lost!
And we were out of of land without a single to us! Even the world was not visible from our position!
Our to me, but I not let Dian and Juag how I was; though, as I soon discovered, there was nothing to be by trying to keep the from Juag—he it as well as I. He had always known, from the of his people, the of the open sea the of land. The compass, since he had learned its from me, had been all that he had to his of from the deep. He had how it had me across the water to the very that I to reach, and so he had in it. Now that it was gone, his had departed, also.
There but one thing to do; that was to keep on the wind—since we travel most along that course—until we land of some description. If it to be the mainland, well and good; if an island—well, we might live upon an island. We not live long in this little boat, with only a of and a of water left.
Quite a to me. I was that it had not come as a to our problem. I toward Juag.
"You Pellucidarians are with a instinct," I him, "an that points the way to your homes, no in what land you may yourself. Now all we have to do is let Dian us toward Amoz, and we shall come in a time to the same we just were blown."
As I spoke I looked at them with a of hope; but there was no in their eyes. It was Dian who me.
"We do all this upon land," she said. "But upon the water that power is us. I do not know why; but I have always that this is true—that only upon the water may a Pellucidarian be lost. This is, I think, why we all the great so—even those who go upon its surface in canoes. Juag has told us that they go the of land."
We had the sail after the while we were the best to pursue. Our little had been idly, and with the great that were now diminishing. Sometimes we were upon the crest—again in the hollow. As Dian speaking she let her range across the of waters. We rose to a great upon the of a wave. As we it Dian gave an and pointed astern.
"Boats!" she cried. "Boats! Many, many boats!"
Juag and I to our feet; but our little had now to the trough, and we see nothing but of water close upon either hand. We waited for the next to us, and when it did we our in the direction that Dian had indicated. Sure enough, a mile away were boats, and and wide us as as we see were many others! We not make them out in the or in the that we of them we were again into the next canon; but they were boats.
And in them must be beings like ourselves.
