If you ever get back to the
outer world you will find that the geologists and paleontologists
will be the first to set you down a liar, for they know that no
such creatures as they restore ever existed. It is all right to
IMAGINE them as existing in an equally imaginary epoch--but now?
poof!"
At the next halt Hooja the Sly One managed to find enough slack
chain to permit him to worm himself back quite close to Dian. We
were all standing, and as he edged near the girl she turned her
back upon him in such a truly earthly feminine manner that I could
scarce repress a smile; but it was a short-lived smile for on the
instant the Sly One's hand fell upon the girl's bare arm, jerking
her roughly toward him.
I was not then familiar with the customs or social ethics
which prevailed within Pellucidar; but even so I did not need the
appealing look which the girl shot to me from her magnificent eyes
to influence my subsequent act. What the Sly One's intention was
I paused not to inquire; but instead, before he could lay hold of
her with his other hand, I placed a right to the point of his jaw
that felled him in his tracks.
A roar of approval went up from those of the other prisoners and
the Sagoths who had witnessed the brief drama; not, as I later
learned, because I had championed the girl, but for the neat and,
to them, astounding method by which I had bested Hooja.
And the girl? At first she looked at me with wide, wondering
eyes, and then she dropped her head, her face half averted, and a
delicate flush suffused her cheek.
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