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night, and even by daylight they would hesitate to venture into it on this side
of the river. Tomorrow he will know that it will be useless to send after us,
for tomorrow we shall be dead."
"What makes you say that?" I demanded.
"The beasts," she said, "the beasts that hunt through the forest by night; we
cannot escape them."
"Yet you came here willingly."
"Ul Vas would have tortured us," she replied; "the beasts will be more merciful.
Listen! You can hear them now."
In the distance, I heard strange grunts and then a fearsome roar.
"They are not near us," I said.
"They will come," she replied.
"Then I had better get a fire started; that will keep them away."
"Do you think so?" she asked.
"I hope so."
I knew that in any forest there must be deadwood; and so, although it was pitch
dark, I commenced to search for fallen branches; and soon I had collected a
little pile of these and some dry leaves.
The Tarids had not taken away my pocket pouch, and in it I still had the common
Martian appliance for making fire.
"You said that the Tarids would hesitate to enter the forest on this side of the
river even by day," I remarked, as I sought to ignite the dry leaves with which
I hoped to start my fire. "Why is that?"
"The Masenas," she replied. "They often come up the river in great numbers,
hunting the Tarids; and unfortunate is he whom they find outside the castle
walls. It is seldom, however, that they cross to the other side of the river."
"Why do they hunt the Tarids?" I asked. "What do they want of them?"
"Food," she replied.
"You don't mean to say that the Masenas eat human flesh?" I demanded.
She nodded. "Yes, they are very fond of it."
I had succeeded in igniting the leaves, and now I busied myself placing small
twigs upon my newborn fire and building it up into the semblance of something
worth while.
"But I was imprisoned for a long time with one of the Masenas," I reminded her.
"He seemed very friendly."
"Under those circumstances, of course," she said, "he might not try to eat you.
He might even become very friendly; but if you should meet him here in the
forest with his own people, you would find him very different. They are hunting
beasts, like all of the other creatures, that inhabit the forest."
My fire grew to quite a respectable size. It illuminated the forest and the
surface of the river and the castle beyond.
When it blazed up and revealed us, the Tarids, called across to us, prophesying
our early death.
The warmth of the fire was pleasant after our emersion from the cold water and
our exposure to the chill of the forest night. Ozara came close to it,
stretching her lithe, young body before it. The yellow flames illuminated her
fair skin, imparted a greenish tinge to her blue hair, awakened slumberous fires
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in her languorous eyes.
Suddenly she tensed, her eyes widened in fright. "Look!" she whispered, and
pointed.
I turned in the direction that she indicated. From the dense shadows just beyond
the firelight, two blazing eyes were flaming.
"They have come for us," said Ozara.
I picked a blazing brand from the fire and hurled it at the intruder. There was
a hideous, bloodcurdling scream as the eyes disappeared.
The girl was trembling again. She cast affrighted glances in all directions.
"There is another," she exclaimed presently, "and there, and there, and there."
I caught a glimpse of a great body slinking in the shadows; and all about us, as
I turned, I saw blazing eyes. I threw a few more brands, but the eyes
disappeared for only a moment to return again almost immediately, and each
time
they seemed to come closer; and now, since I had cast the first brand, the
beasts were roaring and growling and screaming continuously a veritable
diapason of horror.
I realized that my fire would not last long if I kept throwing it at the beasts,
as I had not sufficient wood to keep it replenished.
Something must be done. I cast about me rather hopelessly in search of some
avenue of escape and discovered a nearby tree that looked as though it might be
easily scaled. Only such a tree would be of any advantage to us, as I had no
doubt that the creatures would charge the moment that we started to climb.
I took two brands from the fire and handed them to Ozara, and then selected two
for myself.
"What are we going to do?" she asked.
"We are going to try to climb that tree," I replied. "Perhaps some of these
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