Writings

CHAPTER I

THRAG, the cave man, wandered disconsolately through the lush verdure of his prehistoric forest, completely oblivious to the menacing beasts which prowled constantly around him in their ever active quest for materials with which to appease the cry of their hungry stomachs. A bloated, flaming sun shone down upon the humid jungle and plain which teemed with the myriad life of all species. Huge, shadowy forms crept through the luxuriant riot of vegetation, evidencing their presence by occasional thundering bellows. They strode across the ground which was to see two hundred thousand years later the tramping of Rome’s legionaires setting forth to conquer the world for the Eternal City. The lesser beasts warily evaded the gigantic reptiles in their predatory forages, slinking discreetly from the paths of these colossal engines of destruction. Even the shaggy cave-bear was reluctantly forced to admit their superiority, and ambled away from the paths of the great beasts, grumbling.

Above the teeming jungle, swarming with its numerous carnivora, large, bulky, forms flapped dismally on broad wings, circling, soaring and frequently darting downward to seize some luckless animal in serrated jaws to be borne screaming aloft.

BEHIND Thrag, a pair of yellow, fiery eyes gleamed wickedly, and a long, red tongue licked out hungrily across cruel saber teeth, as they froze in palatable anticipation upon the back of the caveman whose sorrow was of such depth as to render him reckless in his disregard for the possible consequences involved in his unguarded progress through the terrible forest. Great padded feet lifted themselves cautiously as the big tiger with tail lashing nervously, stalked this prospective feast. Of all meat, the saber-toothed progenitor of our modern tiger preferred the choice tidbit offered by the appetizing carcass of man.

There was, however, a nameless dread connected with this puny, defenceless animal which walked erect, a dread that always held the great striped cat from an immediate seizure of its prey, inducing the animal to stalk it for a considerable distance before charging. Perhaps an inferiority complex subconsciously stimulated in the unreasoning brain of the great cat by the bipeds’ more advanced intelligence had something to do with it. Anyway, it was true that the gigantic feline held off longer in seizing the man than if he had been a wild buck or other prey. The cave man proceeded carelessly through the jungle; the great cat softly followed.

THRAG brooded in vengeful, gloomy rumination upon the wicked injustice that had been done him three days previous by the tribe in which he had been born. Nrok who had succeeded the deceased Gwri to chieftainship of the Cliff Dwellers, following the latter’s death, had been intensely desirous of Tua, Thrag’s mate. In their youth, Tua had chosen Thrag for her lover and had repulsed the advances of the ardent, unwanted Nrok, and since then Nrok’s ardor for the unattainable Tua had increased rather than lessened, and there had arisen within his evil mind an intense hatred for Thrag. Nrok had been next in line of succession to the tribal chieftainship, and with the death of Gwri, who had been gored by the tusk of an enraged, hairy mammoth, Nrok had assumed the robes of regal authority, and had lost no time in venting his hate upon the luckless head of Thrag, incidentally placing within his reach the coveted feminine prize, Tua.

THE craft of the villainous Nrok had cunningly devised a plot whereby Thrag was proved disloyal to the tribe with the subsequent result that Thrag was exiled from the Cliff Dwellers, and all his property, including his mate, was confiscated to the general welfare of the tribe. As was to have been expected, Nrok had immediately claimed Tua, increasing his marital retinue to three.

There had been nothing else for Thrag to do but to leave the vicinity of the Cliff Dwellers where his beloved Tua remained under the power of the dominant Nrok. But Thrag had not wandered far.

For the past three days and nights he had courted death amid the innumerable perils of the jungle and plain as he thought to devise some means by which he might possibly recover his Tua and wreak a revenge upon Nrok, his unprincipled arch-enemy. He used but little caution in his traversing of the forest, and his fine senses of sight, hearing and smell were dulled by the morbid retrospection of his mind obsessed with its vital problem. A merciful fate had saved him from danger, guiding his feet from the haunts of the fearsome beasts which roamed both forest and plain, and had protected him from harm.

His reckless bravery, which had characterized his combats with those denizens of the wood, which he had come upon too late to avoid a meeting, had stood him in good stead, and he had yet to succumb beneath the attack of the fearsome creatures. Several long, red, newly healing gashes upon various portions of his body attested to the fact that he had not emerged from the melees unscathed.

Once a great snake had encircled his body and the tree crotch in which he slept one night, and he had been forced to literally hack the reptile’s head from the body in a reek of blood, before the twisting, squirming, folds of the disgusting animal let loose their hold to fall to the ground. Later that night, Thrag had heard from out of the darkness below his tree, the noise of great jaws crunching the dead body of the snake. There was little, if any, flesh ever left to rot in the steaming jungles of this prehistoric age. Food was the greatest problem among the thriving animal life which roved in superabundant profusion through the plains and forests of this primeval era in the earth’s progress, and the larger animals ate the smaller animals who subsisted on the riot of vegetation, the former in turn being preyed upon by still larger meat-eaters. It was a survival of the fittest where nimble feet, quick wits and sharp senses were the greatest assets if longevity were to be cherished.

Thrag had also fallen beneath the rush of a large cave bear, his stone knife drinking deep from the vitals of the furry monster as it pinioned him beneath its great body after he had checked its first advance by a well directed throw of his- stone hatchet. Pinned beneath the dying beast from whose terrible claws fate had destined him to be saved, Thrag had found it necessary to cut his way out from under the great body whose massive bulk he had been unable to shove from off him, even though his mighty thews and muscles were of the strongest among the ranks of the Cliff Dwellers. Then later, a mad dash for a protecting tree had seen him elude by only a hair’s breadth the infuriated charge of one of the nearly extinct saurians, a few of which still existed in gradually diminishing numbers. Had Thrag been fully on the alert and unburdened by his sorrow and remorse, he would have heard, seen or smelled these terrifying creatures, and could have discreetly avoided them as was his usual habit.

AND so it was, lost in deep thought and reckless abandon for the life which now held but little for him, he remained unconscious of the fact that through the forest behind him there crept death in the form of a saber-toothed tiger, the undulating muscles rippling gently beneath the beautiful skin of the cat.

Suddenly, the great feline chose to spring, sneaking out into the opening, with belly to the ground, its yellow-green eyes blazing. It prepared to gather its hind feet for the impetus which would hurl it upon its unsuspecting victim, expanding its lungs for the terrifying scream intended to freeze its quarry into a split second of immobility. But the cave man was not to be taken wholly unawares, and the snapping of a fallen tree-branch beneath the feet of the approaching cat warned him of the impending danger. As the cat sprang with a horrid mouthing, Thrag leaped aside like lightning, aiming a vicious blow at the sabre-toothed monster, which rushed by him in the air with outspread claws, converting the terrible animal into a raging ball of fury incarnate, as it threshed about upon the ground for a moment, tearing at the stone knife which protruded from its side. Angry screams and howls set the air to ringing with the terrible cries of the enraged cat.

To live was to act, and Thrag had leaped close in to the infuriated animal at the moment it landed, crashing his stone axe down upon the head of the striped terror with all the force of his powerful arm. He would have been instantaneously snuffed out of existence by a chance sweep of the creature’s mighty paws. As the body of the cat stiffened from the effects of the numbing, crushing blow, the cave man leaped in and made death doubly assured for the great feline, who had sought his life. Pulling forth his stone knife from the body of the dying animal he plunged it again and again through the sleek fur which covered the heart of his sabre-toothed adversary.

Thrag continued onward, and now took notice that the sun was beginning to sink as a dull red ball down beneath the horizon. To travel by day was fully hazardous enough, but to wander among the numerous prowling horrors by night was a wanton invitation of suicide. The cave man, for the past three nights, had slept in tree crotches, but such a repose was not only uncomfortable but dangerous as well, and his encounter with the snake had not increased his preference for such an aerial bed-chamber. Only that morning, he had perceived a lonely cave far up on the cliff-side, and upon investigation had found it uninhabited and suitable to his needs. So with the approach of evening tide, the shadow of dusk’s twilight mantle enshrouding the landscape, Thrag turned his steps in the direction of the cliff to seek rest until on the morrow the sun’s flaming, incandescent mass should rise once more above the horizon, throwing into elongated relief the early morning shadows.

As the cave-man reached the foot of the towering declivity and began his nimble ascent of the nearly sheer face of the precipice towards a dark cave’s mouth just below the summit, the dying glow of sunset spread its golden effulgence across the western sky. The evening star appeared from out a blue, twilight sky to look down upon the wild, untamed life of the prehistoric forest. Up, ever upward, Thrag, the cave man, quickly ascended, scaling the high cliff in almost no time, his well proportioned body disappearing within the cave’s mouth.

Night passed, and Thrag slept soundly while a gibbous moon sailed majestically across the night sky, its silver surface suffusing the earth with a pale, ghostly, ethereal light. Up from the jungle arose roars, screams, coughs and a variety of other unclassified noises as the great beasts roamed in search of food. Fierce conflicts took place, and while the victor hungrily devoured the still warm remains of his late adversary, he was likely to be attacked and slain by a more fearsome creature who would then greedily bolt both carcasses. Life was cheap, and death a common occurrence.

CHAPTER II

WHEN Thrag awoke, the morning sun cast a rosy glow within the interior of his cave. He stretched and yawned, flexing his long-cramped muscles in the revelry of early morning exuberance. He yawned again, and then arose to his feet and walked to the mouth of his cave. From this eminence, he could gaze far away into the blue haze of distance. Below him, the tangled mass of the jungle crept up to the foot of the cliff, while far away beyond it, the dotted plain dwindled away into the horizon. Just within his limits of vision, merging into the sky, there lay the distant sea whose waters teemed, literally alive with the superabundance of marine life which flourished beneath the hot, swollen sun. The remote waters of the sea reflected the early morning sunshine, the burnished surface of the water throwing back a dazzling flicker as the warm breeze excited into movement the rippling waves and white caps.

Thrag was hungry. Very good, then he would eat. But first he must hunt. He gathered up his two weapons, the stone knife and stone axe, without which he would have felt comparatively helpless, the latter weapon being bound to its handle by raw hide throngs. Rapidly, he began his descent of the cliff face, and, when but halfway down, he discovered a ledge which ran out of sight around a bend of the rocky wall. Being of a curious, exploring nature, Thrag wondered where it led. Perhaps he should find a cave at the other end, a much better one than that in which he had spent the night. Anyway his curiosity was piqued, and he would investigate, so he hopped nimbly down upon the ledge from where he was clinging to a jutting outcrop of rock, and proceeded to follow it along the cliff’s face.

It led onward for a considerable distance, and as he continued, Thrag noticed that the cliff was becoming more nearly perpendicular, and its sheerness entirely devoid of irregularities, and he observed that if he were to climb either up or down, it would be necessary to return to the spot where he had gained access to the ledge. Finally the ledge ended abruptly, narrowing off to join the smooth face of the cliff.

THERE was no cave, and having satisfied his curiosity Thrag turned and retraced his steps. He halted suddenly as a terrifying roar shook the air with its vibrations. Ahead of him, barring him from further progress, stood a great, shaggy cave-bear which glared at him menacingly, with the ugly, yellow fangs showing, and snarling at the puny man who stood before his towering bulk. The bear was hunting his breakfast, and was exceedingly hungry in view of the fact that it had been nearly twenty-four hours since food had passed his ravenous maw. He was in ill humor. Then Thrag had dropped down upon the ledge, the animal had been just around the bend in the direction opposite to that taken by the man, and hearing the troglodyte, had stalked him, the man unaware of the beast’s presence until he had turned to go back.

THE cave bear roared angrily once more and, rearing upon his hind legs with massive paws upraised to rush down upon the man, prepared to make his kill and fill his stomach. Behind Thrag, the ledge ended against the cliff’s face; above and below him there extended the smooth surfaces of the declivity; while before him stood a hungry, infuriated engine of destruction, bent on annihilating him without further delay. Resolutely, the cave man gripped his axe securely, while he loosed the long stone knife from his girdle, awaiting the charge of the cave bear. With a series of frightful roars, the animal charged down upon the primitive man, who with all his might hurled the heavy stone axe at the head of the approaching monster, who roared horribly in pain as the weapon struck his shoulder a glancing blow, the hatchet ricocheting across the side of the cliff, bounding over the ledge to the forest below.

As the troglodyte struck a savage blow at the huge animal with his stone knife, a terrible sweep of the creature’s paw sent it spinning from the hand of the cave man completely disarming him and leaving him to the mercy of the beast. The man leaped briskly out of the way, and ran to the termination of the narrow ledge, the bear, after his first rush, advancing more slowly but none the less surely. Desperately, the man sought a handhold or foothold which would allow him an escape from the dreadful beast, but the bare walls of the precipice extending both upward and downward mocked him. He was trapped!

Should he leap to death from the ledge in preference to the crushing jaws and tearing talons of the cave bear, or should he die at the attack of the great animal and be devoured? In the last few seconds remaining to his earthly existence the brave troglodyte wondered vaguely which was the more terrible death. A huge, shadowy form drifted down through the air toward the ledge, Thrag catching an elusive glimpse of it out of the tail of his eye, as his gaze rested in rapt fascination upon the cave bear who was preparing for the final charge. One of the flying reptiles, mused Thrag. Doubtless the great pterodactyl and the shaggy cave bear would battle over his carcass. As the bear raised himself for the last rush, the cave man froze up close to the face of the cliff at the very end of the ledge.

IN the depths of space between the earth and its contemporary planet, known to present day man as Mars, a small space ship sped at an inconceivable speed across the millions of miles of space towards the earth. It was now very close, having been upon its journey through the stellar void for the period of time in which it had taken the great globe it was approaching to turn upon its axis forty times. Forty times the topographical features of the planet earth had swung lazily before the eager eyes of the two space navigators within their interstellar craft as day by day, according to the rotation of the cosmic sphere, the planet grew larger in proportion as they drew near.

THE two Martians were six feet in height with large heads, and six limbs, two of the latter being used for locomotion while the other four ranged midway of the body were used as arms and hands. Lidless eyes and a pair of holes for nostrils set between the eyes and circular mouth marked the creatures’ brown faces, while instead of a growth of hair, there arose from their heads some eight of ten short, waving tentacles which possessed the faculty of distinguishing sound, the heads of inhabitants of the red planet being entirely devoid of ears.

“We are nearly there, Sendalk!” spoke one of them, looking dramatically through the transparent side of the space ship towards the huge world which lay before them. “Our great adventure is before us!”

“It has already been a great adventure, Drigab,” replied the other. “For countless years, our people have dreamed of flying through space, and now you and I, the first space navigators, have realized that ambition.”

“I wonder what we shall find? Will there be men like us?”

“Possibly.”

“But not probably.”

“We shall find all kinds of queer life upon the planet Wroaad, for our scientists claim that conditions there are such as would facilitate and encourage life to a large extent. It is nearer the sun, and has a dense atmosphere.”

“Which is much unlike our own planet Nime,” remarked Drigab.

“We shall have to be prepared to fight fearsome beasts I feel sure,” prophesied Sendalk.

“There is no worry on that score. We are prepared.”

“Yes.”

“What have you decided to do in regard to Dracom, the revolving moon of Wroaad?” queried Drigab, a moment later. “Shall we land on that first, or wait until we have visited Wroaad?”

“We were to land upon the one nearest Nime for convenience of time if you remember our intentions when we embarked. Dracom is now nearer for the time of our arrival and we shall visit that first.”

“Its diameter is but half of that of Nime.”

“While Nime’s diameter is but half of that of Wroaad.”

“Which means that we shall be much lighter upon the satellite than upon our planet Nime, and much heavier upon the planet Wroaad.”

“Our gravity nullifiers will take care of us while we walk on Wroaad, and the intensifiers will be used on its moon.”

“I hope we make a good landing,” observed Drigab, a worried look creasing his brow.

“There is nothing to fear,” assured Sendalk. “Didn’t our three trial expeditions to the two moons of our own planet prove our craft’s spaceworthiness?”

“Yes,” admitted Drigab. “But Wroaad is so much larger.”

“That matters nothing,” replied Sendalk. “If this expedition is a success, we shall fly across space to the little worlds clustered together the other side of Nime, and then on to the giant planet of Vuge.”

“We are not yet back from our trip to Wroaad,” reminded Drigab. “I should like to visit the next planet nearer the sun rather than risk being drawn down by the gigantic world of Vuge.”

“You mean Stlea?” asked Sendalk.

“Yes.”

“We shall visit that too, but not on this trip. It is continually covered by clouds, even more so than Wroaad.”

“Then there is the tiny inner planet next the sun.”

“Which is too hot to approach.”

“And then too, we might be drawn into the sun.”

CHAPTER III

THE ship of the cosmic void kept on through the eternal blackness of space studied with its galaxy of scintillating stars, and headed for the huge moon whose shining crescent loomed up before them. Several hours later they carefully lowered their interplanetary flyer upon the surface of Wroaad’s satellite.

“It has a very thin atmosphere,” remarked Sendalk.

“Which in the course of thousands of years from now will waste completely away,” added Drigab, “leaving it a cold, dead, lifeless moon.”

“I wonder if it is not lifeless now,” ruminated Sendalk. “There appears to be scarcely enough air for any living animal to breathe.”

“A very low type of vegetation seems to flourish, and it is a universal axiom generally accepted by our scientists that plant life and animal life do not thrive separately,” reminded Drigab. “Shall we emerge from our flyer?”

“Yes, we may as well,” answered Sendalk, “but we shall don our space suits, for this air is much too rare for our lungs.”

Eager to explore the satellite’s dismal surface, the two Martians put on their space suits and helmets, and after adjusting their gravity intensifiers, left the cosmic flyer by means of the air lock, stepping forth upon the lonesome appearing Dracom.

HOW weird it is,” observed Sendalk in awe, waving his four arms at the sky. “You can see the sun and a few of the stars both at the same time.”

“Somehow or other, it all looks sadly beautiful,” said Drigab. “But I certainly wouldn’t want to live here. It is rather depressing.”

Together, the two climbed a rise toward a crater hole whose outer slope loomed above them.

“We must not go very far away from the space ship,” warned Drigab. “I feel as if there were many eyes watching us from hidden places.”

“We’ll not go out of sight of it,” said Sendalk.

“LOOK!” ejaculated Drigab excitedly as the two topped the rise which marked the rim of the moon crater.

From out of the moon pit there arose four thin, fuzzy animals on wings. They were the strangest creatures the Martians had ever seen, representing a cross between a bird and a land animal, the long, scraggly, blue-furred body being equipped with a set of long wings for flight as well as four appendages for walking. The four moon birds arose above the crater, their wings flapping dismally as they viewed these intruders from out of space. The Martians stared in surprise at these inhabitants of the satellite they oknew as Dracom. The winged creatures emitted long, shrieking wails as they circled over the place, watching the two Martians who stood silent upon the lip of the lunar crater.

“Shall I bring one of them down?” asked Drigab, raising the weapon he held.

“No,” replied Sendalk. “We have come in peace, and our destroying light-thrower is to be used only as defense.”

“I don’t like the way they watch us so closely and screech at us,” said Drigab disgustedly.

“Come,” said Sendalk. “We shall pay them no attention and continue upon our exploration.”

The two Martians spent a full day upon Dracom, exploring the satellite of Wroaad which careened nearly a quarter of a million miles off in space. The two visitors from another world visited various sections of the satellite in the space ship, and everywhere they went there grew the sparse vegetation of the dying satellite, and they were greeted by the weird shriekings of the bird folk. One type of animal, and one type of plant life was all that existed upon the moon which thousands of years ago had seen a better life.

“All worlds come to this sooner or later,” remarked Sendalk cryptically. “They must all die, even Nime.”

“The larger the world, the longer they last, because a small world cools faster,” said Drigab. “That is why this moon shall die out long before its mother planet begins to lose its heat to any great extent.”

“Dracom cannot last much longer,” said Sendalk as the two entered the space craft to bid the moon farewell and continue to the planet around which it swung. “It has very little water left—and that can be found only in the deepest craters.”

ACROSS the far flung boundaries of space the two Martians flew in their cosmic flyer, from the moon to the earth. Soon they were hovering above the envelope of atmosphere surrounding the globe, ready for the descent to the surface of the great planet, Wroaad.

“Its color characteristic appears to be green,” said Drigab.

“The vegetation,” remarked Sendalk.

“Shall we find intelligent creatures?”

“I doubt it.”

“Why?”

“Because Wroaad is larger than Nime and took longer to cool after being hurled out of the sun. We are a couple of hundred thousand years in advance of them.”

Down through the atmosphere towards the rapidly approaching planet, which rose up to meet them, the two Martians skilfully guided their space ship.

“What strange trees!” ejaculated Sendalk in surprise.

“And animals!” added Drigab, pointing excitedly to the tiny moving dots below them.

The two Martians were all eyes, for the wonders of their neighboring world riveted their attention, attracting them like a magnet. Nearer and nearer to the surface they dropped, and now they could perceive the details of the landscape and view more closely the teeming life of the world.

“Shall we land here?” asked Drigab.

“This place looks as good as any, though we shall have to be on our guard against the beasts. Some of them appear very formidable. The ray will keep them off”

“Just the same we must not leave the space ship too long while we are exploring. Some of those ponderous creatures are as large as the ship itself, and can damage the outer equipment of our craft.”

AS the flyer of space settled towards the ground, Sendalk pointed with excited gesticulations towards a nearby cliff. Drigab followed his pointing arm.

“A creature like us!”

"No!”

"Yes!”

“He walks erect on two legs, but he has only two arms instead of four!”

“But his head somewhat resembles ours!”

“A beast is after him! See him run!”

“He is caught; he can go no farther!”

"We must save him!” exclaimed Drigab. "Quick! Shoot the ray upon the beast before it is too late!”

As the gigantic cave bear rushed down upon Thrag, its hideous roar rattling in his ear drums, there shot forth from the flying monster of the air a blinding ray of white light full upon the fearsome beast which, unable to halt its mad rush, plunged against the rocky wall beside the cave man, dead. The bird had killed the bear, thought Thrag, and now it was to carry him off. How he wished he still had his stone axe and knife. Approaching the inert mass of the cave bear, he watched the great bird.

How queer it behaved; never had he seen such a bird which could remain stationary so long in one spot. The flying colossus had no wings, and its body glinted strangely, reflecting the dazzling beams of sunlight. Where was the head with the grinning jaws and cavernous mouth ready to seize him? He had never seen such a strange animal, and was sorely puzzled. Why didn’t it attack him instead of halting motionless in the air to regard him so steadily?

FROM the space flyer, the two Martians looked the troglodyte over carefully, examining his strange body which bore such a distinct similarity to their own.

Seeing that the great bird made no move to attack him, apparently being no longer in the mood for battle after having so easily disposed of the cave bear, and without weapons, Thrag decided to attempt an escape. Slowly and warily he climbed over the carcass of his late adversary, keeping one eye upon the bird who continued to remain passive at this initial maneuver on the man’s part. He crept along the ledge away from the creature of the air, and hastily beat a retreat. Thrag did not stop running until he was out of sight around the bend in the cliff where he had first gained access to the ledge, and from here he speedily descended to the foot of the towering precipice.

It was now that a human characteristic laid hold of Thrag. He was suddenly consumed with a curiosity to see what the strange bird would do. Never before had he seen such a wingless, headless denizen of the atmosphere which instantly killed its foes at a distance with a long, white arm, which shot out like lightning and then disappeared. Thrag did not consider for a moment that the thing had purposely saved his life. All creatures killed either for food, for sport, or for self defense. The creature had not eaten him or the bear, nor had it killed the bear because it feared the animal. Then it must have killed the shaggy beast for sport. If so, why had it not killed him?

THESE were some of the thoughts which raced through the mind of the primitive man as he gained the protection of the forest. Rapidly, he proceeded back along the foot of the cliff to a position relative to the one where above on the ledge the cave bear had nearly terminated his wild life. Eagerly he sought a glimpse of the queer bird. It had flown. But no, there it drifted a short distance away from the spot where he had last seen it. The creature dropped slowly toward the ground in vertical descent.

Thrag, the cave man, now hunted for his weapons, and though he found the knife, the hatchet was irrevocably lost, and he wasted little time seeking it. He wanted to watch the bird. Stealing softly in the direction of the Martian space ship, he saw where it had come down in a clearing. Climbing a tree so that he might give his undivided attention to the great thing, instead of warily avoiding the carnivora of the jungle, he glued his eyes upon the gigantic bird which flew without moving wings.

His eyes opened widely, and he nearly fell off the tree limb in amazement as he saw a part of the great bird open outward. The mouth, he surmised. If he had been surprised at the appearance of the opening, he was more astounded by what now took place.

FROM the mouth of the bird projected the head and shoulders of a man. But was it a man? Thrag gazed in awe at the brown countenanced Martian with his short tentacles growing upon the head where hair should have been. As the entire body of the space wanderer emerged from the cosmic flyer, Thrag’s eyes went wide in amazement at the weird appearance of the physique of Sendalk with his four arms. How formidable those men must be, thought Thrag, for they could wield two stone axes and two knives at the same time. That he was some kind of a man Thrag felt certain, but never in all the annals of the tribe had anyone ever heard of, or seen, such a strange race as this man represented. Of course, there were the hairy ape people who lived in the trees, but they bore no resemblance to this individual.

Did this queer man live in the stomach of the great bird? Where had it come from? Some subconscious intuition told the cave man that the bird was not of the flesh and blood variety with which he was familiar, but was a wonderful contrivance owned by the man who had stepped from out of it. A second head now appeared from the space ship and uttered a few sounds to the first who answered, and then the second head disappeared back within the interstellar craft.

CHAPTER IV

SENDALK the Martian, in view of the fact that the earth’s dense atmosphere did not threaten him with asphyxiation like that of the moon, had emerged from the space flyer without the surface suit he had worn on the satellite of the planet. He now walked several hundred feet from the space ship, where he stopped and performed, what was to the eyes of the watching cave man, queer antics. He commenced staggering and weaving with a sickening lurch, and then he was down upon his knees, apparently unable to rise, clawing at the greensward with a despairing yell. He arose to his feet, and then toppled over, just as the second Martian emerged from the space flyer and started in the direction of his companion. The second Martian was no more than halfway there before he too lurched forward and stumbled. Instead of keeping on in the direction of Sendalk, Drigab discreetly turned back toward the cosmic flyer from Mars, and half stumbling and running, his four arms swinging ludicrously, he made his uncertain way back to the aerial monster which had so piqued Thrag’s curiosity. The last few feet saw Drigab crawling upon his hands and knees, and it was with a great effort that he gained the interior of the interplanetary craft, slamming the door behind him.

The inert body of Sendalk still lay face up on the ground. What had happened, wondered Thrag? Why had the two strange creatures behaved so queerly?

Why didn’t the first one arise?

The truth of the matter was this: the Martians had been overcome by barometic pressure and oxygen intoxication, the envelope of earth’s atmosphere being thicker and denser than that of Mars to which the two explorers from another planet had been accustomed. Sendalk, upon leaving the flyer, had not noticed the difference at first until he was so far away from the space craft that it was impossible to get back, and his senses had reeled. He had yelled to Drigab just before consciousness left him, and Drigab, realizing his plight, had made a desperate effort to rescue him. When halfway to his stricken companion, Drigab experienced the first dangerous sensations which had overcome Sendalk, making him dizzy and uncertain of his footing.

The Martian knew that he would never make it to his fallen comrade and back to the space flyer, let alone considering the added burden of Sendalk’s helpless body. He knew that if they were both overcome, death would claim them in this strange world, and he had run back to the space flyer just as fast as he could go, planning to maneuver the craft alongside of Sendalk and rescue him. He had arrived at the space flyer not one moment too soon, for as the door clanged shut behind him, he fell unconscious to the floor of the craft where he lay for nearly ten minutes before he came to his senses.

THRAG was an interested spectator to the scene, his sharp eyes taking in every detail of the strange drama enacted before him. And as he watched, so watched other eyes, evil eyes which glared hungrily at the helpless body of Sendalk. With grinning jaws, a long, slim body on short legs wriggled along the ground towards the unconscious Martian. The reptile would make short work of this strange creature that came out of the great bird, soliloquized Thrag as he watched with interest from his tree branch.

The disgusting monster, its glassy eyes staring in gluttonous anticipation at the prospective feast before it, continued an ominous approach, the cavernous throat revealed as the great jaws flexed themselves in preparation. Something stabbed at Thrag’s heart suddenly, and he felt that he must not let the terrible reptile eat the strange creature. Why should he feel so? Was not the unconscious man from the space ship just as much his enemy as another member of a neighboring tribe, or another animal? Didn’t he always gloat over the destruction of an enemy? As the reptile crept slowly upon the helpless man, Thrag’s mind became more and more troubled, and his conscience screamed at his adverse nature and instincts to save the Martian from death.

As the cave man impulsively obeyed the overwhelming urgings of his conscience, descending quickly to the ground across which he raced in an attempt to beat the horny skinned reptile to his prospective meal he realized what had prompted his desire to save the weird creature from the air monster. It had occurred to him that the two queer men in the great bird had but recently saved him from the cave bear.

THE eyes of the reptile gleamed wickedly as he viewed the approaching interruption in the form of the primitive man who rushed down upon him with gleaming knife held aloft. The morning rays of the sun gleamed from the polished cavities where the stone blade had been chipped. The reptile, now standing above the unconscious Sendalk, aimed a vicious snap at the caveman who eluded the terrible jaws numbly and buried his stone knife in a low, upward swing against the belly of the animal which leaped and threshed about as the life blood gushed forth from the ragged puncture inflicted upon him by the indomitable Thrag. Fortune favored the cave man.

Again and again the primeval man leaped in and struck at the horrid creature whose snapping jaws were always a bit too late to close upon some portion of the cave man’s anatomy. The reptile finally became too weak to fight and keeled over dead, though its tail still switched to and fro. Picking up the still form of Sendalk, Thrag bore it in the direction of the huge bird into which the other weird, man-like creature had disappeared.

The noise of conflict had attracted other animals of the jungle and they had watched curiously from hidden vantage points the fight between the cave man and the reptile, remaining silent observers with the exception of the little monkeys who danced, chattered, scolded and clapped their hands gleefully from nearby trees. And now from the surrounding foilage of the clearing, there broke into view a towering colossus whose wicked eyes were directed upon the comparatively tiny cave man with his burden which he was transporting to the space flyer.

With a crashing of trees and brush foliage, a great dinosaur, a creature of an earlier age whose ranks were becoming fewer and fewer, strode out of the forest and ambled awkwardly, though swiftly, down upon the troglodyte. Thrag, glancing over his shoulder at the sound of the din and commotion of the creature’s sudden break through the jungle, perceived the huge saurian in pursuit of him, and in his heart he felt a sinking sensation, and he broke into a run, for behind him was the most terrible animal in all the world, a creature which had never yet been slain in combat by a human individual!

THRAG sprinted on toward the huge bird which loomed up closer, while behind him, shaking the ground with its rapid advance, the gigantic saurian, a fearful engine of destructive forces, was speedily closing up the distance between them. The serrated jaws at the extremity of the long neck were spread wide in advance of the rest of the body, ready to seize him. The caveman neared the spaceship, and the dinosaur was scarcely ten feet from the pursued, when from the Martian space flyer there burst forth a long shaft of intense light full upon the great saurian. Without a sound, the hitherto invincible giant of an earlier age crashed to the earth a few feet behind the fleeing cave man. Once again the terrible weapon of the Martians had sent death instantaneously to one of the fearsome beasts of earth’s prehistoric era. Drigab had come to his senses just in time to witness the termination of Thrag’s fight with the reptile in defense of Sendalk. He had prepared to move the space flyer to a position beside the cave man and Sendalk when the troglodyte had picked up the senseless Martian and had borne him in the direction of the space craft. Then the dinosaur had pursued them, and Drigab had turned the destroying ray full upon the terrible monster.

NOW, Drigab opened the door in the space craft and took from the arms of the cave man the unconscious Sendalk. He motioned for Thrag to follow, and beckoned the cave man to enter the huge bird. Fearfully the troglodyte gazed into the hollow interior of the craft at the maze of machinery and intricate apparatus, and it was with hesitance and trepidation that he finally entered. But he clutched his bloody stone knife tightly, and slid inside with suspicious mien, gazing in awe at the fittings of the craft while his heart beat at a wild excited pace never before precedented in his combats with the carnivora of the prehistoric jungle and plain.

Drigab motioned him kindly to a seat, while he propped Sendalk in another. The Martian and troglodyte each examined one another carefully, Drigab noticing the varying perculiarities of the cave man’s body, while Thrag regarded the Martian with a superstitious reverence.

Sendalk began to revive presently, and sat up straight, rubbing a hand across his forehead. To Thrag’s ears there came a rapid jargon of unintelligible talk as Drigab explained to Sendalk how Thrag had saved the former’s life.

The cave man began to pant and breathe forcibly as if after a long, exhausting run, and a weakness assailed him. Drigab gazed in sudden alarm at the cave man’s actions and with sudden understanding reached for a lever.

“He can’t stand our thin atmosphere any more than we can breathe his dense air,” said Sendalk as Drigab pulled a lever which increased the air within the space craft to a quantity which would average between that of the earth and Mars, creating an atmosphere which could be breathed for a limited time by both Martian and troglodyte without either suffering from any ill effects.

“He is the one we saw upon the face of the cliff,” said Dragab. “The creature is built much like us.”

“He is a bit lower in the scale of evolution, however,” replied Sendalk, “but time will remedy that just as it did for our ancient forebears on the planet Nime.

“He is a brave man,” remarked Drigab. “You should have seen him defeat the terrible animal who was about to devour you.”

“We must repay him,” replied Sendalk. “I wonder if he is speechless.”

“Try him out,” suggested Drigab.

AFTER a few words in his own language with the supplement of various gesticulations, Sendalk pointed to himself, saying his name after which he pointed to Drigab and pronounced his name. He then pointed to the cave man in query, and the troglodyte, understanding, spoke his own name.

“Thrag!” he ejaculated, pointing to himself.

“He can talk!” exclaimed Sendalk, pleased with his efforts.

THE cave man, enthused with the efforts of the two Martians to make him talk, followed up this initial speech with a guttural jabbering of sound, pointing to the ceiling of the craft as well as to the various controls, and then at the dead saurian which lay outside the space craft.

‘‘Don’t leave him in here too long,” warned Drigab. “The atmosphere isn’t of enough density for him, and is too dense for us.”

“Let him out, and we’ll go out with him.”

“With our suits and helmets this time.”

“Yes, I didn’t realize the effects too much atmosphere would have upon us, and thought only of putting on our gravity nullifiers.”

CHAPTER V

IT took the Martians but little time to don their protective suits, and emerge with the caveman into the open. They went to where the enormous carcass of the saurian lay. Each of the Martians carried a long stick in his hand. They were examining the huge beast when a cry from the cave man aroused them.

THRAG pointed to a snarling sabre-toothed tiger which, attracted by the odor of fresh killed meat had just arrived upon the scene. The cave man gripped his stone knife closely and gesticulated to the Martians to seek safety in their ship of space. On came the terrible creature, snarling and screaming at the three who stood their ground. Only the day before Thrag had killed one of the beasts, and now as he started forward to meet the huge cat in mortal combat, realizing they had tarried too long to run in safety from the feline, Drigab laid a restraining hand upon his arm.

Sendalk raised the long rod he held and levelled it at the approaching sabre-tooth. From the magic rod, Thrag witnessed the same shaft of white light which had previously killed the cave bear and then the mammoth saurian. The effects upon the great striped cat was remarkable. A puzzled look appeared on the cat’s face, replacing the wrinkled visage designed to strike terror to all observers, and without a cry the sabre-toothed terror fell dead. How wonderful it was, thought Thrag, to kill so easily. For several hours, the two Martians roamed among the terrible dangers of the forest with the troglodyte, and whenever any animal menaced their safety, he fell dead before the terrible rays of the two explorers from another world. They even taught Thrag how to operate the long sticks, and it was with immeasurable pride that Thrag brought down both a hairy mammoth and a prehistoric ox.

From the latter, Thrag cut a generous portion, offering the food to the Martians who were puzzled at this procedure, until seeing that the cave man ate it, knew it to be food. They declined to eat the raw flesh, however, leaving Thrag to wonder whether or not these two ever found it necessary to feed their stomachs.

After several hours of wandering in the near by vicinity of the space flyer, the Martians tired of the sport and with the cave-man, who had spent an interesting period of time in their company, turned to the cosmic penetrator of the void between worlds.

Here, they offered to Thrag many wonderful articles and trinkets, but the cave man, though regarding them as marvelous, had different ideas, and had a particular motive in mind as he pointed at one of the “kill sticks,”

the name with which he had come to dub the ray ejectors.

“He wants one of the weapons,” said Drigab to Sendalk. “Shall we give him one?”

“Yes, if you think it is safe to do so,” replied Sendalk. “We have several more of them with us.”

So it happened that the two Martians made a gift of one of the ray ejectors to Thrag, the cave man, the representative precursor of modern civilization by two hundred thousand years.

THE cave-man had a particular reason for desiring the weapon. The sight of all the wild beasts falling before the invincible ray of light made to shine by merely squeezing a button had stimulated in his mind the vision of Nrok and his followers dropping to their death before that same ray, while undaunted he continued on to claim his beloved Tua. What a sweeping conquest, revenge and recovery of a lost love, he could bring within his power with the possession of the “kill stick!”

And so it was a delighted Thrag who hurried away from the space ship with his newly acquired toy and weapon to consummate the highest ideal of his ambitions, the winning back of Tua who sorrowfully bemoaned her fate in the cave of Nrok.

“I wonder if we shall ever see him again,” mused Drigab as they watched Thrag disappear into the forest, waving a farewell to them.

“Probably, if we remain in this vicinity very long,” said Sendalk.

“There must be a village of them somewhere around here.”

“Doubtless.”

“We shall visit it before we leave the vicinity.”

“I’m afraid we cannot stay on Wrooad for more than three or four days,” said Sendalk. “We have little more supplies than it will take to consume during our trip back through space to Nime, and we must not tarry too long here if we should ever see our own world again.”

“We shall return at a later time?” queried Drigab.

“Most assuredly, bringing a larger number of supplies for a longer stay of exploration.”

“What is our program for the next few days we stay here?”

“Nothing definite as yet. I believe we shall do a bit of exploring in this region, and then, prepare for our return to Nime.”

TOGETHER, the two Martians entered their space craft, removed their suits designed to protect them from the greater atmospheric pressure of the earth as well as the density of the respiratory medium, and composed themselves to rest after the long hours of tramping through the jungle with Thrag, the troglodyte.

And Thrag was joyously on his way to the village of Nrok from which he had been barred through the clever trickery of the new chief, and in his hands he clutched the “kill stick” with which he would send into oblivion all and everything opposed to the rescue of Tua, his mate. Frequently, he tested the qualities of the ray upon the various animals he encountered to assure himself that it was not a dream from which he would presently awaken once more into the grim reality of disappointment.

A hairy mammoth which suddenly interrupted him in his bee-line march towards the cliff dwellings fell before his onslaught, and from afar up in the top of a tree a brilliant plumed bird fell dead. He even turned it upon a hill of ants, everyone of the tiny, industrious workers falling dead. Satisfied that the “kill stick” was no myth and still retained its annihilating qualities, Thrag strode on boldly until late that afternoon he came to the white cliff where dwelt his native tribe.

GRUN was the first to see him, and warned him away, reminding him that he was exiled from the tribe for his recent perfidy, and that he could expect only death if he returned. Grun waved his stone hatchet menacingly. Thrag hesitated. Previously Grun and he had been staunch friends the two of them having hunted together as youths. The cave man had little desire to slay his friend with the “kill stick.”

“I come not to harm Grun,” remonstrated Thrag. “No one will die but Nrok. I have come for my Tua.”

“Go away!” motioned Grun.

“Nrok will have you killed if he finds you here. Tua is Nrok’s.”

“Stand aside!” cried Thrag, waxing angry at Grun’s stubborn attitude, when it was within Thrag’s power to instantly kill his fellow cave-man. “I can kill you, if you don’t!”

“I shall call the tribe, and we shall hunt you down and kill you like we would a bothersome animal if you don’t go!” threatened Grun.

“I can kill them all with this,” parried Thrag pointing triumphantly at the ray ejector he carried.

“What, with a stick?” queried the dubious Grun openly amused.

“Look!” exclaimed Thrag as he directed the rod in the direction of a small rodent a short distance away.

He pressed the button, and a white glare of light beamed forth upon the little animal which immediately fell dead. The eyes of Grun stared excitedly from his head as he gazed in awe and mystification at the startling scene enacted before his eyes. With a muttering of syllables to the effect that Thrag had connived with the evil spirits of the wood, Grun ran up the side of the cliff and with a loud shouting, which brought heads projecting from nearly every cave in the cliff side, disappeared within his own cave, convinced that Thrag was in league with sorcerers.

Up to the very foot of the cliff, Thrag boldly advanced underneath the surprised assemblage of heads which looked down upon him from the various cave entrances.

“I WANT my woman!” he cried. “I must fight Nrok who has wronged me, and then I shall be gone with my mate from your tribe forever! We too shall dwell together far away!”

“Go away!” shouted Zerg, Nrok’s underchief. “Nrok is on a hunt with others of the tribe. I guard his women and none shall have Tua. We shall kill you!”

With these last wards, Zerg sprang forth from the cave and began the descent, fully a dozen or more of the troglodytes following him from the other caves, all bent upon killing the audacious Thrag. The cave man waited for them patiently at the foot of the declivity, and Zerg was the first to reach the ground before Thrag.

It was not Zerg’s intentions, however, to engage Thrag alone, for the latter’s prowess was too well known among the tribe for Zerg to risk his rascally neck in fair combat. Zerg awaited reinforcements which soon joined him, all the while threatening the cave-man, but making no motions to carry out his great boasts. With the arrival of the dozen or more troglodytes down the face of the cliff, Zerg urged them forward with fierce cries, joining them, though careful not to place himself too ostentatiously in the lead.

THRAG had the treacherous Zerg singled out and though the sub-chief had attempted to render himself inconspicuous in the rear, the avenging troglodyte had his eye upon him. As the cave men advanced, waving their stone hatchets and knives in accompaniment with weird cries, Thrag brought the weapon of the Martians into action. He pressed the button at the base, and from the end of the rod the bright ray sprang forth full upon the countenance of Zerg and two of his companions who toppled over dead.

At this terrible manifestation of the stick in Thrag’s hands the others fell back in surprise before the weapon they had expected Thrag to wield like a club, perhaps clouting a few of them before the rest overpowered him. But the awful results attained by the mysterious light which burnt a hole in the daylight so astounded and terrorized them that they fled from the indomitable cave man as if he had been a plague.

“Go back!” urged Thrag, stepping across the three bodies of his fallen foes. “Go back, and I’ll not kill you! I come to take Tua and depart in peace! Stand in my way and I shall kill you with this! I am the mightiest fighter in all the world now. Every living creature falls before me, even Owrd!”

THE cave man referred to the great dinosaur as he patted the “kill stick” proudly. He had no desire to slay any more of his former companions than self defense called for, because with the exceptions of the deceitful Nrok and such equally unprincipled underlings as Zerg, he bore them no enmity, realizing that it had been the schemings of the two afore mentioned individuals which had brought about his downfall. As they all fell back to a respectful distance from his ray ejector, he rapidly scaled the cliff face to the opening where Zerg had emerged.

Zerg’s insinuation that he was guarding Nrok’s women until the chief returned had led Thrag to the conclusion that where he had found Zerg he would also find Tua with Nrok’s two women. As he burst into the cave and examined the huddled form of a frightened female in one corner, he gave an exclamation of disgust. She was Zerg’s woman.

“Where is Tua?” he demanded of the shivering woman whose fear stricken eyes bulged at sight of the awful weapon with which Thrag had just killed her mate and two others of the cliff village.

“In the cave of Nrok—beneath the overhanging ledge,” she replied in fear. “Nrok no longer lives in this cave—he gave it to Zerg!”

Thrag knew the cave to which she referred, and quickly he made his way across the face of the cliff to the other cave designated by the widow of Zerg. There he was greeted in open arms by his beloved Tua who embraced him and pressed her tear stained face against his.

“I knew you’d come!” she sobbed.

“Tua!” was all he could utter.

In the darker recesses of the cave, the other women of Nrok looked on, and now that Thrag and his woman were intent upon each other, the two mates of Nrok sneaked stealthily from the cave, fearing that the wrath of Thrag might fall upon their luckless heads.

“Come!” he said. “We must go!”

“Where?’ she queried.

“By the shore of the far-off sea where we shall be alone. We shall find a cave, and there we’ll dwell in seclusion for the rest of our lives, and I’ll hunt for you, dearest. No one will be there to disturb our happiness or set others against us by lying words.”

The cave man lifted his mate in his arms.

“We shall be happy,” she murmured.

“I’ll fight for you with the ‘kill stick,’ ” said Thrag, pointing to the destructive weapon which lay at his feet.

“Where did you get it?” asked the cave man’s mate. “It killed Zerg and the others like the great fire which strikes from the sky when it rains.”

“Some queer men with four arms who flew inside a great bird gave it to me,” he replied.

Tua gazed into his face questioningly, wondering if the great sickness of the mind had overcome Thrag. Yet, there was the “kill stick,” and had she not already seen its effect upon the cave men when they had sought to overwhelm her lover? The incredible story Thrag had told was no more unbelievable than the weapon itself, whose action she had seen with her very own eyes.

“Let us begone,” she said. “Nrok will soon return.”

“I do not fear him!” growled Thrag, his brow darkening. “I do not fear anyone—or anything!”

Tua embraced her mate in a tight squeeze.

“I want to kill him! I want to see him die!” hissed Thrag, his blood running hot.

A yell arose from below.

“What’s that?” queried Tua in sudden fright.

THRAG stood his woman upon her feet once more and advanced to the cave entrance to discover the cause of the new commotion. As he looked down from the cave entrance, he saw fully two dozen of the cave men assembled below him, all pointing and gesticulating excitedly at the cave entrance where he stood. With them was Nrok. The hunting party had returned and the details concerning Thrag’s sensational return was being graphically described to the chieftain.

NROK!” shouted Thrag gleefully over his shoulder to his mate. “Now I shall have my revenge upon him!”

The cave man picked up the ray ejector and walked back to the cave entrance where he could look down upon the gathering of the cliff dwellers. His savage heart beat exultantly as he methodically directed the weapon upon Nrok some fifty feet below him at the foot of the precipice.

Some of those who had been present when Zerg and the others had met their fate shouted warningly to the group of newly returned hunters to get out of sight of the death dealing weapon, but experience is the greatest teacher of all, and some people never learn until their fingers are burnt. An incident of fate was to save Nrok, however, in spite of his foolhardy disregard of the warnings of those who had witnessed Thrag’s newly acquired powers.

The hand of Thrag closed upon the knob of the ray ejector. No light flashed forth this time. What was the matter? Again he depressed the button, and still the killing flash did not manifest itself. Thrag gazed in surprise at the weapon he had been given by the Martians, examining it closely. Something had happened to it, and now upon inspection, the cave man saw that the blunt point of the weapon was missing. Evidently it had become knocked off against the rock in his hurried ascent of the cliff.

THRAG experienced a sinking sensation. They were trapped! He would sell his life dearly, however, and before he died he would see that Tua should go with him instead of falling once more into the clutches of Nrok.

He must not allow them to realize that the weapon had been rendered useless and perhaps he might bluff their way to safety. He yelled and shouted from the cave ledge, expounding the terrible, destructive qualities of the ray ejector, pointing to the inert bodies of the three cave men he had killed with it.

“Kill us with the magic stick, then!” retorted the incredulous Nrok, who not for a moment entertained belief in the ray ejector’s power to slay. “You can’t do it; you lie!”

“Stand back!” cried Thrag, employing a last minute bluff. “I shall kill your whole tribe, if you don’t!”

But his attempt at terrorizing Nrok and those who had not witnessed the death of the three trogoldytes was in vain. They did not place belief in the wild assertions of those who had been present; evidently their eyes had been playing them tricks. Had Nrok and the rest of the hunting party been a witness to the peculiar deaths of Zerg and his two companions, Thrag’s words might have reached their ears laden with portent, but they would not believe it, even though the corpses of three of their number attested to a strange death which had overcome them, Thrag’s failure to exercise the boasted powers of the weapon not only confirmed their scepticism but shook the credulity of those who had actually seen Thrag’s effective use of the “kill stick.”

“His words are false!” howled Nrok. “Seize him, and we shall kill him!”

The cave men, emboldened by the failure of Thrag’s “kill stick” to function and by Nrok’s bellowing command, leaped up the side of the cliff to drag the outlawed troglodyte from his cave and put him to death, according to the edicts of the Cliff Dwellers who meted out such a fate to those who were exiled and then returned. Up the face of the declivity they nimbly ascended while at the cave’s entrance, Thrag stood, his mate behind him.

“Do not harm Tua!” bawled Nrok to his men.

WHEN the troglodytes were halfway to the cave’s mouth before which Thrag stood on a narrow ledge, the cave man took a large rock and heaved it down upon them. It hit the hand of the foremost attacker just as the fingers clutched a polished knob of rock in the cliff face, crushing the fingers of the troglodyte who with a howl of pain released his hold and fell back upon his fellows. They all tumbled ungainly down the steep slope which characterized the lower half of the declivity in which the tribe had made its home for countless generations of innumerable ancestry. Nrok fumed and raged at this act, and wrathfully urged on his followers with all kinds of threats and promises.

“They will kill us!” shuddered Tua, hovering close beside her mate who stood ready with a heavy rock balanced on the palms of his hands outstretched above his head. “I shall die with you rather than belong to Nrok!”

“I shall fight to the last!” swore Thrag.

“Can we escape?” she asked.

Thrag shook his head sadly as he saw below him the menacing cave dwellers headed by Nrok, while above their cave lay twenty feet of smooth, insurmountable cliff’s face to the summit of the precipice. Theirs was the only cave upon this level.

“Come down, or we shall kill you!” ordered Nrok, imperatively. “Come down!”

“And be killed at once!” remarked Thrag.

“Perhaps not, if you give up the woman and leave forever,” argued Nrok.

“I’d give her to the sabre-tooth first,” replied Thrag. “Rather would she have one of the hairy tree men for a mate than you!”

This last epithet enraged Nrok so greatly that he stamped up and down, shrieking commands to his men to capture the dauntless two. Warily, the troglodytes approached the cliff’s base, but immediately scrambled out of harm’s way, as Thrag lifted the heavy rock in a menacing attitude.

“Let Thrag and Tua leave your tribe peacefully,” suggested Thrag. “We shall find a new home.”

“Never!” howled Nrok.” The woman is mine!”

“She’ll die first!” spoke Thrag with vehemence.

“Not if I have your heart cut out!” yelled Nrok in a rage.

“I’LL meet you in fair combat upon this ledge,” offered Thrag. “And to the winner goes the woman.”

“We’ll fight down here,” insisted Nrok. “Come down.”

“No,” replied Thrag, distrusting the unscrupulous tribal chief, “we shall fight up here—with the rest of the men standing at a distance.”

“Why should I fight for that which I can take,” boasted Nrok. “To the top of the cliff; throw rocks down upon him just as he did to you!”

WITH alacrity, the members of the tribe obeyed, reaching by circuitous route a point above the cave in which Thrag and his mate were trapped.

“Inside!” ordered Thrag. “Quick!”

They had no more than disappeared within the opening of the cliff’s face before great rocks hurtled down from above, pulverizing small pieces of the declivity where they struck. This was kept up for only a short time, and then there came an ominous cessation in which Nrok and his followers waited for Thrag to project his head from the opening. The troglodyte, warning Tua to remain in the safety of the cave’s depth, proceeded cautiously to the opening where he could look down, but still be within the cave out of range of those above.

As he peered forth, a heavy stone axe came hurtling up from below, smashing against the interior of the cave a short distance from his head. He must be careful. At least, he now had a weapon.

For the next half hour comparatively silence reigned, but Thrag knew that on the summit above the cave several of the troglodytes had heavy stones poised on the edge of the cliff ready to crush him to death should he emerge upon the ledge before the cave. Suddenly, a shadow blotted the entrance, and Thrag, who had retreated to the back of the cave with his mate to be out of reach from what objects the cave men might hurl into the opening, jumped up nervously to investigate.

THERE upon the ledge stood two cliff dwellers who had sneaked noiselessly up the face of the precipice while it had been guarded from above against Thrag’s hurling more stones down upon them. Their eyes, unaccustomed to the gloom of the cave’s interior, did not see the furious rush of the cave man until he was upon them. As Thrag grappled with one of them, a vicious swing of the other’s axe laid open a wicked gash upon his head, and then he was down upon the floor of the cave rolling over and over with his adversary. The remaining troglodyte sought an opening whereby he might crash his weapon down upon the head of Thrag without danger of injury to his comrade. The two combatants moved about with such rapidity that, being so closely locked in one another’s embrace, the other cave man had little opportunity to get in the death dealing blow, or at least one which would stun the troglodyte, they were fighting.

Presently, the two became wrapped in a deadlock upon the floor of the cave, and the invader, with the stone axe raised menacingly, prepared to crash it down upon Thrag’s head. Just as the bulky weapon ascended over the head of the exiled cave man, something clung to the up-raised arm from behind. The terrible blow did not descend, for Tua, creeping up from the rear, had seized the arm of the troglodyte at the precise moment, blocking the consummation of the man’s intentions.

He attempted to shake her off, but like a leech she clung desperately to him, while on the floor her mate battled with the other cave-dweller. Hope died in the girl’s heart as she saw other shadows darken the threshold of the cave. She heard the voice of Nrok.

“Grab him—hold him fast! Don’t kill him—we have something better for Thrag . . .!” ordered Nrok as he and several more joined their two comrades in the cave. “Don’t let the woman get away!”

CHAPTER VII

THRAG was overcome by superior numbers. His attempt to rescue Tua had failed, and now death stared him in the face, and an existence worse than death confronted Tua. He was bound with strong, thongs cut from the hides of animals. The helpless troglodyte was carried down the cliff face by several of the Cliff Dwellers who secured him to a thick post driven deep into the ground. Tua was placed in a cave under a strong guard.

Nrok came to taunt the man, outlining his fate, and graphically describing what was to happen to Tua, his mate. Thrag’s tactiturn expression underwent no change, and so Nrok, tiring of the sport gave the helpless man a few savage kicks and left him.

All night he stood bound to the stake, being watched by a sleepy guard who kept the ring of watch fires burning, protecting them from the prowling beasts, who feared the flame and smoke.

Through the long hours of the prehistoric night, Thrag stood awake, gazing up at the brilliant, twinkling lights studding the black sky as they moved across the nocturnal heavens from the pursuing dawn whose gray, misty fingers proclaimed early morning. Then would the flaming sun arise from its cave in the east. Thrag saw the ghostly flush of the drab and melancholy suffusion of light assume a brighter aspect as the world

arose from its slumbers and the sun peeped over the horizon.

Before the dying embers of the fires reclined the slumped form of the guard and tender of the fires who had yielded to the arms of Morpheus. Thrag strained at his bonds; it was no use, for they held like iron. As the sun spread its beautiful reflection into the caves of the precipice which faced eastward, the cliff colony arose to its morning duties. They were up early this day, for had not Nrok promised them a rare spectacle in the manner of Thrag’s passing?

And so Nrok and the other members of the tribe had arisen one and all to view the manner of death Nrok had in mind for the captive.

“What are we going to do with him?” asked one troglodyte curiously.

“Wait and see,” replied Nrok mysteriously.

“Stone him to death!” came the suggestion.

“My plan is better,” said Nrok.

“Are you going to tie him up and hang him by the heels at the forest’s edge for some wild beast to breakfast on?” queried another.

“Your idea is a good one,” replied Nrok appreciatively. “But I have a still better one.”

“Burn him?”

“No.”

“Feed him the bitter weed which tortures one in the stomach before he curls up and dies?”

“No,” repeated Nrok, enjoying the mystery of the situation immensely as the Cliff Dwellers crowded around him, questioning his intentions concerning the disposition of the prisoner on whom Nrok had vented his vengeful spite.

“I’d give him to the hairy men of the forest to tear apart,” suggested one.

“You are all poor guessers,” announced Nrok, grinning at the bound man in evil anticipation. “Besides other wrongs perpetrated against us, he has killed three of our number. For that he must die a horrible, lingering death. What do you say?”

A loud, enthusiastic roar of approval arose from the ranks of the primitive men.

“Pull the stake to which he is bound from the ground,” directed Nrok to four or five of the Cliff Dwellers, “and follow me.”

They did as they were directed, the combined efforts of the cave men pulling from the earth the stake to which Thrag was bound. They carried the pole with the victim on their shoulders. Behind Nrok they walked, followed by the rest of the tribe who crowded around them, chattering excitedly. Whatever way he felt inwardly—Thrag did not betray, but put on an impassive front, even though he knew a terrible fate lay in store for him.

THEY walked but a short distance from the cliff and stopped near the edge of the dark jungle into which many of the troglodyte peered fearfully. No one was ever in the habit of venturing into it alone. When they entered the jungle, it was in the company of many, such as the hunting party Nrok and his men had comprised at the time of Thrag’s return to the tribe.

“Stop here!” commanded Nrok.

The cavalcade halted at the chief’s order, wondering interestedly what next he would bid them do.

He pointed to the largest of several green mounds of earth.

“Shove the stake in there,” he directed.

“The ants!” yelled the tribal members in exultant unison.

SO this was the selected fate Nrok had in mind for Thrag, one of the most hellish tortures conceived by man, the process of being slowly bitten and eaten up by the horde of hungry avengers, who would pour out angrily from their huge nest at the intrusion of the long stake. From head to foot they would cover the luckless trogodyte until he was a black, swarming mass.

The intrepid caveman, though he much preferred death at the hands of a sabre tooth or some other equally ferocious creature, never qualmed a bit as the horrible realization of his quickly impending doom smote his mind as he heard the cries of the tribe.

“The ants!”

Two of the cave dwellers drove the stake upright into the spongy interior of the ant hill while the rest stood by to watch the annihilation of the outlawed troglodyte. Cries and jeers were directed upon him, the mob impulse of civilized man overcoming their other instincts. He paid them no attention, denying them the delight of seeing him suffer.

FOR a time nothing occurred, and then from the ragged hole torn by the stake, a single, black ant scampered out over the protruding stake until he came in contact with the man. Here he stopped and investigated a moment, and then hurrying down the stake he disappeared within the hill once more. It seemed that the tiny creature had hardly ducked out of sight beforce once more he returned, this time with several companions who crawled inquisitively over the body of Thrag, the cave man, bound helplessly to the stake. The muscles of his leg twitched involuntarily as one of the tiny insects sank his mandibles into the yielding flesh of his limb.

A yell of derision greeted this movement, and a howl of laughter arose as a tiny trickle of blood oozed from the small wound. The insects increased in number as more emerged from the hill, ran up the pole and upon the doomed man.

Jabs of pain shot through his lower limbs, feeling like points of fire as the ravenous ants bit him in numerous spots upon the lower sections of his anatomy. More of them were coming to join those already there, and soon the ant hill’s immense population would swarm over him and he would be devoured in a surprisingly short time, his clean picked bones attesting to the fact that a human being had fallen prey to the ants. Those now upon him were but the vanguard of the destroying horde which was to come.

He glanced downward. His feet and legs were spotted with the tiny, black devils, and now from the many entrance ways to the ant city there poured forth several dark, orderly streams of the insects. He was glad they were coming so soon in such large numbers—it would be over quicker.

SHARP, excruciating prickings all over his legs made them feel as if they were afire, and it was with great will power that he refrained from wildly threshing his body about within his bonds. Such a procedure would in no whit alleviate the pain of suffering or shake off the clinging, biting ants, and would only provoke to greater laughter and delight the watching trogodytes, who exulted in the morbid pleasure of seeing a fellow man die in such a horrible manner.

His thoughts were not of himself, but of Tua. What would happen to her? How he would like to get his hands around Nrok’s villainous neck. His fingers tightened. Tua would doubtless seek the first opportunity of eluding Nrok by the only method of escape left open to her—death! He now commenced feeling the fiery bites around his hips. He looked down. His feet were nearly covered with the terrible insects which were piling over one another in their eagerness to be at him. He shut his eyes.

A loud cry arose from the ranks of the Cliff Dwellers who were the interested spectators of the scene. Doubtless one of the carnivorous beasts of the dense forest had sought the opportunity to spring among the troglodytes for its early morning meal. Thrag wished that it would spring upon him and end his misery. No, on second thought he would be glad to endure the pain if it would seize Nrock. He opened his eyes.

THRAG gasped in astonishment at the unexpected sight which greeted his eyes! There above him floated the great bird in which dwelt the two weird men who had given him the “kill stick!” Had they come to save him again?

The troglodytes were pointing at the bird and gesticulating in alarm as with wild cries they ran from the path of the huge monster which dropped in their midst. His strange friends would have to hurry, thought Thrag, if they were to save him, for already the hungry insects were waist high, and creeping up around his armpits. The pain was intense, Thrag gritted his teeth. The cavemen had all disappeared in terror when the Martian space ship had landed among them, scattering to their cliff retreats from which they peered fearfully back upon the great wingless bird.

CRUISING over the cliff, seeking new sights of the strange world they had come to visit, Sendalk and Drigab had perceived the assemblage of troglodytes from the cliff colony and had dropped lower to investigate. Through the telescope, Drigab had recognized Thrag, and immediately they had perceived his plight, and they were dropping among the bulging ant hills to rescue the cave man the second time from the jaws of death.

The door of the space ship opened, and the two Martians sprang forth. Drigab cut his bonds with some sharp instrument he held in his hand, while Sendalk slapped and brushed off the insects from the cave man as best he could. They clung, and two of the ants appeared to take the place of every one brushed off. The cave man’s muscles were now so cramped and inactive that he could hardly stand upon his feet. Sendalk spoke something to Drigab and then disappeared within the space craft, the latter now brushing the hungry horde of insects from the suffering Thrag. Sendalk appeared with a bulky instrument he carried in his hands which he held up before Thrag. A blue light sprang forth to envelope the cave man’s body in a misty haze, producing a startling effect. Every one of the myriad of tiny black ants dropped off from his body and scampered madly into their hill to escape the blue light.

As the light of the Martians struck him, Thrag was conscious of a burning feeling, but it was not an unpleasant sensation. Looking down, he saw with surprise that the thousands of biting ants were rapidly dropping from his body under the glare of the blue light. When the last one had disappeared, Sendalk motioned for Thrag to enter the space craft. The two Martians followed the troglodyte within, and immediately donned their protective suits and helmets, for already they were becoming dizzy from the temporary exposure to the earth’s denser atmosphere.

Drigab took a jar of some liquid from a receptacle in the space craft and bathed the tortured lower limbs of the cave man. The liquid had a soothing effect upon the bitten flesh, which was covered with a welter of blood, and eventually, the cave man was conscious of no pain at all, so great were the healing qualities of the liquid.

As the circulation of his arms and legs returned to normal once more, after having been released from the bonds which had held him a prisoner to the post since the previous evening following his capture, the cave man arose from his seat within the space flyer, and by gesticulation made it known to the two Martians that he was in a hurry to leave the craft.

They opened the door in compliance with his pantomimic request, and he stepped forth, running in the direction of the cliff where the rest of the troglodytes had taken refuge. Curiously, they left the space craft too, and followed. Thrag ran unhesitatingly to the cliff face up which he scrambled to the cave of Nrok. The Martians stopped at the base of the precipice. Thrag found the cave of Nrok empty.

“Where is Nrok?” demanded the troglodyte of one of his fellow cave men he found in a cave below that of Nrok’s.

“He fled that way—into the wood!” exclaimed the frightened man, viewing Thrag in awe after he had seen with his very eyes the troglodyte hobnobbing with these strange creatures who flew in a weird-looking, wingless bird.

“Where is Tua?” asked Thrag.

“Nrok took her with him to escape the terrible bird from the sky!” came the frightened answer.

A multitude of conflicting thoughts ran through the mind of the cave man. Nrok had disappeared in the forest to the north with Tua! He must follow at once! But would he find them? He clenched his fist as he realized that he would comb the entire forest for his mate, and for the added tidbit of pleasure to be derived from killing Nrok! Then in a flash a magnificent plan struck him!

CHAPTER VIII

HE hurried back down to where the two Martians awaited him at the foot of the cliff, after having appropriated a stone axe and knife from the cave man he had questioned. Eagerly, he chattered and motioned to the perplexed visitors from another planet. They shook their heads in puzzlement.

“What does he want, I wonder?” mused Sendalk.

“I don’t know,” replied Drigab, “but it is evident he is very excited over something.”

Thrag ran into a nearby cave and came back leading a protesting woman. He pointed to her, and then to himself, and then to the forest several times, finally allowing the frightened woman to return to her cave once more. He continued to point and make motions in the direction of the forest, and now he urged the puzzled Martians back to the space ship. Presently it dawned upon their minds what the troglodyte was trying to impress upon them.

“He has lost his mate!” exclaimed Sendalk.

“She is in the forest!” added Drigab, piecing together the information Thrag had attempted to convey them by pantomime.

“He wants us to help him find her!” said Sendalk, as Thrag led them back to the space craft.

The two Martians made it evident that they understood him, and the three entered the space craft, Drigab closing the door behind them. Thrag was to experience the greatest thrill ever to be accorded a cave dweller as the space ship arose above the trees, slowly rising past the cliff in whose caves huddled the frightened troglodytes. A wave of exultation and exuberance swept over Thrag, the caveman, as he gazed down at the cliff top from the interior of the metal bird. But he had more serious business at hand than the first joyful sensations of riding through the air, and as the space ship swung far above the jungle, he joined the two Martians in an eager exploration of the expanse of vegetation below them.

THRAG knew that Nrok would not remain in the terrible jungle for long, but would seek the broad clearing in the great forest which existed a short distance of some half mile north of the rugged cliff. And as they neared the great clearing, Thrag’s eagle eyes examined closely every moving animal below him. Presently he gave a cry of discovery as he pointed down upon two tiny figures.

Drigab followed the pointing finger with the lens of a double barreled telescope, and then handed the instrument to the cave-man. As Thrag gazed through the optical medium he experienced the greatest shock in his career. Nrok and Tua stood right before him! Nrok was dragging Tua by the hair as she strove to escape his grasp, hanging back, reluctant to continue. They were so close that Thrag could see the beads of sweat standing out on Nrok’s hateful countenance.

Thrag pulled the glass from his eyes to make a grab for Nrok, but all he clutched was the empty air of the space ship as the craft flew far above the jungle. Below them, in the clearing were the two tiny, human dots. Thrag was at a loss to explain the phenomenon, realizing that by some mysterious means he had been transported for the short time he looked through the glass to the clearing below.

But he had little thoughts concerning the mystery of the telescope. He wanted to be down in the clearing where he might be at the throat of the man who had wronged both him and his mate, and rescue from the rascally Nrok’s hands his beloved Tua. He excitedly urged them to descend.

“That male down there has stolen his mate,” said Sendalk significantly.

“I wonder why they had him bound for the ants to eat up?” queried Drigab.

“We shall probably never know,” replied Sendalk.

They shot down swiftly into the clearing, for as Nrok perceived the dreadful bird above him he ran swiftly with the reluctant Tua to the jungle. But the Martians’ skillful control of the craft beat him to it, and they landed between him and the jungle.

Before they opened the door of the craft to emerge, Sendalk offered Thrag one of the ray ejectors the cave man had recently coveted. The troglodyte looked upon it dubiously and then clutched his stone axe and keen knife more tightly as he waved away the proffered “kill stick.” His own primitive weapons were far more dependable, thought he.

IF Nrok had been stricken with terror at the descent of the terrible bird he expected to devour him at any moment he was astounded to the nth power by seeing Thrag emerge from it. But a few moments ago, he had seen the troglodyte bound fast to the stake in the ant hill, the tiny insects swarming over the lower part of his body. Tua also gazed in amazement at the scene which surpassed by far the most radical illusions of her wildest dreams.

Behind Thrag came the two Martians, but now Nrok was not to be surprised at anything he saw, even if twenty forest monsters should emerge from the small door of the craft.

“I have got you, Nrok!” exclaimed Thrag, “You must fight with me!”

THE cowardly chief of the troglodytes backed away, and attempted to elude his chosen nemesis, but one of the Martians intercepted him, and in abject fear, Nrok turned back in the direction of Thrag to escape the weird devil whose four arms swung at him menacingly.

“Fight!” cried Thrag.

Nrok was of the opinion that he would have to, for Thrag stood between him and the comparative safety of the jungle. He aimed a vicious swing with his stone axe at Thrag’s head—and missed, as the nimble troglodyte whom he had recently consigned to the torture of the ants sprang beneath the blow and plunged his knife to the very hilt into the black heart of Nrok. Choking and gasping, the life blood welled from the dying cave man, who having fought underhanded all his life had a last fallen in fair combat.

Thrag sprang to the side of Tua who sank weeping into his arms, and tenderly he lifted his beloved mate and bore her to the safety of the space ship. She shuddered in wide-eyed alarm as they approached the two weird creatures standing beside the monster bird.

“Do not fear them,” consoled Thrag. “They are our friends, and have saved us from Nrok and the Cliff Dwellers.”

The inimitable Tua became less afraid after her mate’s assurance, and with the kindly manner in which the Martians treated them. Tua was all surprise and alarm as they arose in the space craft far above the jungle, but her fear changed to delight as they swung away over the plain and forest, and she saw that they were not going to fall.

Thrag gained the attention of his friends from another world. He pointed to Tua and then to himself; then he pointed away to where a far off sea rested upon the horizon, lazily lapping the prehistoric shores of a world whose scientific progress was yet to be realized.

“He means that he wishes to be taken there!” explained Drigab. “They will be far from the people who sought to kill him!”

“We can do better than that,” replied Sendalk. “I’ll transport them to the antipode of Wroaad where they may live in peace to the end of their days.”

“It would be interesting to take them back to Nime with us,” suggested Drigab.

“But we can’t,” replied Sendalk, “for several reasons: the atmosphere of Nime is too rare to keep them alive, and we would have to keep them in hermetically sealed rooms containing an atmosphere as dense as that of Wroaad. The living conditions and food would be unlike theirs, and they could not subsist upon our methods of living. Then too, even if they were able to live on Nime, we haven’t enough supplies for four of us on the return journey.”

“You are heading for the other side of Wroaad?” queried Drigab.

“Yes,” answered Sendalk. “I should like to see what it is like before we return to Nime. Then too, we can leave Thrag and his mate there. It will be like a new world to them.”

“We shall rise above the atmosphere, then,” said Drigab, his four hands on the various controls of the interplanetary flyer.

FAR above the earth they soared, until the curved contour of the planet was visible to the astounded Thrag and Tua. Higher and higher they cruised until starlight replaced daylight, the craft entering space where a flaming sun, a silver moon, and irridescent stars reigned eternally in the blackness of the ether void.

It is impossible to describe the emotions, thoughts and sensations of the troglodyte and his mate as they viewed the awesome wonders of the vast cosmos. With amazement they stared back at the crescent-like surface of their planet which loomed so large before their eyes,

“It will be a long time,” remarked Drigab, “before these people reach a stage where they can visit our planet in space craft similar to ours.”

“But it will come, affirmed Sendalk, “if in the meantime their race does not die out. It is the law of evolution. Our forebears went through a similar ascent from the lower animal life.”

“By the time the peoples of this world visit us, our race of beings may be dead and gone, and our planet nearly as lifeless as Dracom.”

“Or else we shall move to another world of some other solar system which is similar to Nime,” added Sendalk.

The shroud of night lay heavy over the opposite side of the earth where the two Martians finally brought the craft to rest. Here, the four spent the night within the space ship around which the prowling night life of the prehistoric world roared, coughed, sighed, screamed and moaned, their concert of sounds lulling to sleep the two troglodytes. In such strange surroundings, unaccustomed to the noises of the carnivore, Drigab and Sendalk rested but did not sleep.

WITH the break of dawn, the four ventured forth, Thrag and Tua to find a cave in which to live, the two Martian explorers to find to what sort of a land they had come. The two latter found it to be similar to that which they had just left upon the other side of the planet, but to Thrag and Tua it was truly a new world, and they were not long in finding an ideal, primitive residence.

UPON a tree-covered promontory whose waving fronds threw a checkered shade about the entranceway to the cool cavern beyond, they found their home. A short distance away, a bubbling spring gurgled happily, its crystal waters dancing away with noisy abandon down the moss coverlet carpeting the slope which led to the forest beneath. The beauty of the spot impressed itself even upon the more practical minds of the Martians.

“How primitive, wild and lovely!” exclaimed Sendalk.

“We shall return, some day,” promised Drigab, ignorant of the great war upon the planet Nime which had sprung into flame following their departure. At that very moment it was shaking down the bulwarks of their civilization, destroying the scientific advances of the little red planet, and reducing its remnant of survivors back into a state of savage barbarism.

They little knew that upon their return they should be thrown into a chaos of disorderly conflict which would see no more interplanetary flights for several thousand centuries to come.

But perhaps we shall hear more about that at a future time. Right now, we are more concerned with Thrag, the cave man, and his mate, Tua, for whom he so nobly and often fought, ready to lay down his life for hers if the occasion arose.

The Martians, reluctant to leave this earthly paradise, lingered with the two reunited troglodytes until the sun reached its zenith, and then they boarded their space ship for the return trip across solar space to their neighboring world.

Together, Thrag and Tua stood upon their lofty citadel and watched the ascent of the space ship. Through the transparent section of the cosmic flyer, the two Martians waved their farewell, and the cave man and his mate whom they had so nobly served responded as the space craft rose higher. It gained altitude slowly, and then, increasing its speed, it shot off up into the sky, quickly dwindling to a small dot which disappeared.

“Was it all a dream?’ whispered Tua, gazing into the strong features of her mate adoringly.

“No,” replied Thrag, holding his savage little woman close to him, and addressing her in their primitive language, “but from now on I hope it will be a dream— such as I have always dreamed.”