Twice before noon we were stalked and charged by man-eaters; but
even though I was without firearms, I still had ample protection in
Nobs, who evidently had learned something of Caspakian hunt rules
under the tutelage of Du-seen or some other Galu, and of course
a great deal more by experience. He always was on the alert for
dangerous foes, invariably warning me by low growls of the approach
of a large carnivorous animal long before I could either see or
hear it, and then when the thing appeared, he would run snapping
at its heels, drawing the charge away from me until I found safety
in some tree; yet never did the wily Nobs take an unnecessary chance
of a mauling. He would dart in and away so quickly that not even
the lightning-like movements of the great cats could reach him.
I have seen him tantalize them thus until they fairly screamed in
rage.
The greatest inconvenience the hunters caused me was the delay,
for they have a nasty habit of keeping one treed for an hour or
more if balked in their designs; but at last we came in sight of
a line of cliffs running east and west across our path as far as
the eye could see in either direction, and I knew that we reached
the natural boundary which marks the line between the Kro-lu and
Galu countries. The southern face of these cliffs loomed high and
forbidding, rising to an altitude of some two hundred feet, sheer
and precipitous, without a break that the eye could perceive.
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