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At last I was forced to rise for air, and as I cast a terrified glance in the direction of the Mahars and the thipdars I was almost stunned to see that not a single one remained upon the rocks where I had last seen them, nor as I searched the temple with my eyes could I discern any within it.
"Ghak," I said, "we are determined to escape from this bondage. Will you accompany us?" "They will set the thipdars upon us," he said, "and then we shall be killed; but " he hesitated "I would take the chance if I thought that I might possibly escape and return to my own people." "Could you find your way back to your own land?" asked Perry. "And could you aid David in his search for Dian?" "Yes."
The fellow lay looking up at me with the surprise still deeply writ-ten on his countenance. At last, all of a sudden, a look of recognition entered his eyes. "I have seen you before," he said. "I saw you in the arena at the Mahars' city of Phutra when the thipdars dragged the tarag from you and your mate. I never understood that. Afterward they put me in the arena with two warriors from Gombul."
She described the Mahars largely by comparisons. In this way they were like unto thipdars, in that to the hairless lidi. About all I gleaned of them was that they were quite hideous, had wings, and webbed feet; lived in cities built beneath the ground; could swim under water for great distances, and were very, very wise.
"Is there no escape?" I asked. "Hooja the Sly One escaped and took the others with him," replied Ghak. "But there are no more dark places on the way to Phutra, and once there it is not so easy the Mahars are very wise. Even if one escaped from Phutra there are the thipdars they would find you, and then " the Hairy One shuddered. "No, you will never escape the Mahars." It was a cheerful prospect.
"Ghak," I said, "we are determined to escape from this bondage. Will you accompany us?" "They will set the thipdars upon us," he said, "and then we shall be killed; but " he hesitated "I would take the chance if I thought that I might possibly escape and return to my own people." "Could you find your way back to your own land?" asked Perry. "And could you aid David in his search for Dian?" "Yes."
I heard a great hissing from the stands occupied by the Mahars, and as I glanced toward them I saw three mighty thipdars the winged dragons that guard the queen, or, as Perry calls them, pterodactyls rise swiftly from their rocks and dart lightning-like, toward the center of the arena. They are huge, powerful reptiles.
By the time the thipdars had disposed of the last of the slaves the Mahars were all asleep upon their rocks, and a moment later the great pterodactyls swung back to their posts beside the queen, and themselves dropped into slumber. "I thought the Mahars seldom, if ever, slept," I said to Ja. "They do many things in this temple which they do not do elsewhere," he replied.
At last I was forced to rise for air, and as I cast a terrified glance in the direction of the Mahars and the thipdars I was almost stunned to see that not a single one remained upon the rocks where I had last seen them, nor as I searched the temple with my eyes could I discern any within it.
Only the women and children fell prey to the Mahars they being the weakest and most tender and when they had satisfied their appetite for human flesh, some of them devouring two and three of the slaves, there were only a score of full-grown men left, and I thought that for some reason these were to be spared, but such was far from the case, for as the last Mahar crawled to her rock the queen's thipdars darted into the air, circled the temple once and then, hissing like steam engines, swooped down upon the remaining slaves.
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