I am endowed with an excellent sense of direction, which has been
greatly perfected by the years I have spent in the mountains and
upon the plains and deserts of my native state, so that it was
with little or no difficulty that I found my way back to the hut
in which I had left Ajor. As I entered the doorway, I called her
name aloud. There was no response. I drew a box of matches from
my pocket and struck a light and as the flame flared up, a half-dozen
brawny warriors leaped upon me from as many directions; but even
in the brief instant that the flare lasted, I saw that Ajor was
not within the hut, and that my arms and ammunition had been removed.
As the six men leaped upon me, an angry growl burst from behind
them. I had forgotten Nobs. Like a demon of hate he sprang among
those Kro-lu fighting-men, tearing, rending, ripping with his long
tusks and his mighty jaws. They had me down in an instant, and it
goes without saying that the six of them could have kept me there
had it not been for Nobs; but while I was struggling to throw them
off, Nobs was springing first upon one and then upon another of
them until they were so put to it to preserve their hides and their
lives from him that they could give me only a small part of their
attention. One of them was assiduously attempting to strike me on
the head with his stone hatchet; but I caught his arm and at the
same time turned over upon my belly, after which it took but an
instant to get my feet under me and rise suddenly.
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