"But Jubal," I insisted. "Tell me about him, and why you ran away
to be chained by the neck and scourged across the face of a world."
"Jubal the Ugly One placed his trophy before my father's house. It
was the head of a mighty tandor. It remained there and no greater
trophy was placed beside it. So I knew that Jubal the Ugly One
would come and take me as his mate. None other so powerful wished
me, or they would have slain a mightier beast and thus have won me
from Jubal. My father is not a mighty hunter. Once he was, but a
sadok tossed him, and never again had he the full use of his right
arm. My brother, Dacor the Strong One, had gone to the land of
Sari to steal a mate for himself. Thus there was none, father,
brother, or lover, to save me from Jubal the Ugly One, and I ran
away and hid among the hills that skirt the land of Amoz. And
there these Sagoths found me and made me captive."
"What will they do with you?" I asked. "Where are they taking us?"
Again she looked her incredulity.
"I can almost believe that you are of another world," she said,
"for otherwise such ignorance were inexplicable. Do you really
mean that you do not know that the Sagoths are the creatures of
the Mahars--the mighty Mahars who think they own Pellucidar and all
that walks or grows upon its surface, or creeps or burrows beneath,
or swims within its lakes and oceans, or flies through its air? Next
you will be telling me that you never before heard of the Mahars!"
I was loath to do it, and further incur her scorn; but there was
no alternative if I were to absorb knowledge, so I made a clean
breast of my pitiful ignorance as to the mighty Mahars.
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