Part 28 (1/2)

The strength of the great cat's scent faded as the creature ht Tharn's scent did not interest the cave-er ceased to be of interest

For a few minutes Tharn carefully went over the floor of the trail at the point where the abduction had taken place, as well as the neighboring undergrowth Soon he found the several hiding places of the Hairy Ones; and a bit later he came upon the delicate footmarks of Alurna within the trail itself One of these prints was alreat naked foot; it was here Mog's initial leap had ended beside the girl

Dropping to hands and knees, Tharn placed sensitive nostrils close to the an was borne the individual scent spoor of Alurna, as well as that of Mog, the sullen Iraved on Tharn'sa hundred others for a long ti's footprints, all leading along the path and away fro his pace when they showed no indication of swerving fro Alurna's captor was only athe path underfoot, Tharn went on

He felt no inclination to hurry Too long had he been denied freedoirl, the sooner he h he and Dylara were to be freed the , he was re at his back--these and a stone knife and a grass rope were the weapons he had chosen when preparing to leave Sephar

The bow, he found, was fashi+oned from a hard black wood Its inner surface was nearly flat; the outer quite round Both ends were gracefully tapered, each notched to hold a string of catgut

The arroere made from the saly shaped into the likeness of a sly into a deep groove, packed about with a clay-like substance and hardened by fire until nearly impossible to loosen Near the butt of each arrow a thin rounded bit of wood had been inserted to guide its flight

Bordering the trail so soed streak in its bole, close to the ground, leaving a strip of white wood gleah accident and partly by clear reasoning, Tharn drew the boith the finished technique of a veteran archer His left arht at the selected , caht ear

There sounded a singing ”twang” and a polished bolt flashed in the sunlight, passed the tree's bole by a good foot and disappeared into the foliage

Tharn ruefully rubbed an angry welt on his left wrist where the bowstring had stung him He understood, nohy many of Sephar's warriors ristbands

With his knife he hacked off a strip of his loin cloth This he bound about his left wrist, then took up the bow, his chin set in determined lines

On his third atte an arrowhead deep into the center of the white patch

The cave-ly he ran his palms over the black wood No matter what he had suffered at Sepharian hands, they had repaidbranch Now in truth was he lord of the jungle! He pictured Sadu dead, a feell-placed arrows in his carcass And shaggy-coated Conta, the cave-bear; of what protection his tough hide against such keen-tipped shafts?

Clearly, Tharn had forgotten theceased to exist for him except the bow in his hands and the quiver of arrows at his back Although he continued on toward the west, his progress was slow and uncertain; for the cave-man was determined to become an expert boithout delay

At first he was content to use nothing ets; but as he increased in skill his ambition led him to seek more difficult marks

nobar, thethe hairs on his belly for dried bits of dead skin, al streaked past his nose with a vicious hiss With the nimble alacrity of his kind he rocketed thirty feet upward, where, frorinning youth in the trail below

The hours sped by, but Tharn never noticed At first he lost almost every arrow he shot, but little by little his skill was increasing He atteht to release a second arrow before the first had struck; he shot at birds on the wing

Darkness ca Then it was he re An inventory of his supply of arrows revealed only eight reht fro he would find food and water And he would make his kill with an arrow--of that he was determined The bow had proved a wonderful toy; when Dyta came Tharn would prove its practical worth

With the first rays of thesun Tharn slid fro the trail into the west An hour later he was crossing the narrow belt of grasses bordering the precipice overlooking a forest-filled valley