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Far out behind us in a long line that curved upward in the distance, to be lost in the haze, strung Hooja's two hundred boats. But one would have been enough to have taken us could it have come alongside. We had drawn some fifty yards ahead of Hooja there had been times when we were scarce ten yards in advance-and were feeling considerably safer from capture.
And all my captors were in the village at the op-posite edge of the mesa repelling an attack of Hooja's horde! It seemed from the messenger's tale that two of Gr-gr-gr's great males had been set upon by a half-dozen of Hooja's cutthroats while the former were peaceably returning from the thag hunt.
When the leader was a hundred yards from us Dian called our attention to the fact that several of her crew were Sagoths. That convinced us that the flotilla was indeed Hooja's. I told Juag to hail them and get what information he could, while I remained in the bottom of our canoe as much out of sight as possible.
Since we had entered the canyon we had had no glimpse of our pursuers, and I was commencing to hope that they had lost our trail and that we would reach the now rapidly nearing cliffs in time to scale them before we should be overtaken. Ahead we neither saw nor heard any sign which might betoken the success of Hooja's mission.
In short, we had demonstrated our rights to empire, and very rapidly were we being recognized and heralded abroad when my departure for the outer world and Hooja's treachery had set us back. But now I had returned.
I explained to him that I was Hooja's enemy, and asked, when they were ready to go, that I be allowed to go with them, or, better still, that they let me go ahead and learn all that I could about the village where Hooja dwelt so that they might attack it with the best chance of success. Gr-gr-gr's son seemed much impressed by my suggestion.
So when I learned that Dian the Beautiful One was Hooja's prisoner, I told him that I would not aid him if he harmed her. "Recently one of Hooja's warriors overheard me talking with another prisoner. We were planning to combine all the prisoners, seize weapons, and when most of Hooja's warriors were away, slay the rest and retake our hilltop.
With the report an iron cannonball about five inches in diameter struck Hooja's dugout just above the water-line, tore a great splintering hole in its side, turned it over, and dumped its occupants into the sea. The four dugouts that had been abreast of Hooja had turned to intercept the leading felucca.
We had now gained sufficient headway to hold our own on about even terms with Hooja's paddlers. We did not seem to be gaining, though; and neither did they. How long this nerve-racking experience lasted I cannot guess, though we had pretty nearly finished our meager supply of provisions when the wind picked up a bit and we commenced to draw away.
No sound reached our ears to indicate that any had seen us, and we moved cautiously onward along the way by which I had come. As we went Dian told me that her captors had informed her how close I had come in search of her even to the Land of Awful Shadow and how one of Hooja's men who knew me had discovered me asleep and robbed me of all my possessions.
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