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It began to look as though I had assumed a contract much too large for me about seven sizes, in fact. "Had Jubal any cousins?" I asked. It was just as well to know the worst at once. "Yes," replied Dian, "but they don't count they all have mates. Jubal's brothers have no mates because Jubal could get none for himself.
I could just see Dian in the darkness, but I knew that she could not see my features or recognize me; and I enjoyed in anticipation, even while I was fighting for her life and mine, her dear joy when she should discover that it was I who was her deliverer. My opponent was large, but he also was active and no mean knife-man.
Next came shields; but these I found it easier to steal from the walls of the outer guardroom of the building. We had completed these arrangements for our protection after leaving Phutra when the Sagoths who had been sent to recapture the escaped prisoners returned with four of them, of whom Hooja was one. Dian and two others had eluded them.
In that instance it was just as well that I am not, for my very slowness of foot played into my hands; while had I been fleeter, I might have lost Dian that time forever. The lidi, with the hounds running close on either side, had almost disappeared in the darkness that enveloped the surrounding landscape, when I noted that it was bearing toward the right.
Finally they fell upon us, beating us with their spear shafts, and hatchets. They had already killed two near the head of the line, and were like to have finished the balance of us when their leader finally put a stop to the brutal slaughter. Never in all my life had I witnessed a more horrible exhibition of bestial rage I thanked God that Dian had not been one of those left to endure it.
It so happened that Hooja was confined in the same building with us. He told Ghak that he had not seen Dian or the others after releasing them within the dark grotto. What had become of them he had not the faintest conception they might be wandering yet, lost within the labyrinthine tunnel, if not dead from starvation.
Your heart has spoken to me. I know now that you meant no affront to Dian the Beautiful. She is not of my tribe; but her mother is my sister. She does not know it her mother was stolen by Dian's father who came with many others of the tribe of Amoz to battle with us for our women the most beautiful women of Pellucidar.
Over the great fireplace, after the great oak panels had been torn down, I found that there was let into the masonry a scrollwork of stone, with on it an old inscription, in ancient Celtic, that here in this room was burned Dian Tiansay, Jester of King Alzof, who made the Song of Foolishness upon King Ernore of the Seventh Castle. "When I got the translation clear, I gave it to Tassoc.
She told me that she was called Dian the Beautiful, and that she belonged to the tribe of Amoz, which dwells in the cliffs above the Darel Az, or shallow sea. "How came you here?" I asked her. "I was running away from Jubal the Ugly One," she answered, as though that was explanation quite sufficient. "Who is Jubal the Ugly One?" I asked. "And why did you run away from him?"
Again my aim was true, and with a hiss of pain and rage the reptile wheeled once more and soared away. Quickly I fitted an arrow now that I might be ready at the next attack, and as I did so I looked down at the girl, so that I surprised her in a surreptitious glance which she was stealing at me; but immediately, she again covered her face with her hands. "Look at me, Dian," I pleaded.
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