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Korth! He had killed the redoubtable Korth with his bare hands Korth, who could crush the skull of
a full-grown man with a single blow from his open palm.
Clearly he recollected the very words in which Nadara had described this horrible brute that time she
had harrowed his poor, coward nerves, as they approached the village of Flatfoot. And now he, Waldo
Emerson Smith-Jones, had met and killed the creature from whom he had so fearfully fled a few months
ago!
And, wonder of wonders, he had not even thought to use the weapons upon which he had spent so
many hours of handicraft and months of practise in preparation for just this occasion. Of a sudden he
recalled the old man s statement that Nadara was not there.
Where is she Nadara? he cried, turning so suddenly upon the ancient one that the old fellow drew
back in alarm.
I have done nothing to harm her, he cried. I followed and would have brought her back, but I am old
and could not find her.
Once, when I was young, there was no better trailer or mighty warrior among my people than I, but
Yes, yes, exclaimed Waldo impatiently; but Nadara!
Where is she? I do not know, replied the old man. She has gone, and I could not find her. Well do I
remember how, years ago, when the trail of an enemy was faint or the signs of game hard to find, men
would come to ask me to help them, but now Of course, interrupted Waldo; but Nadara. Do
you not even know in what direction she has gone? No; but since Flatfoot has set forth upon her trail it
should be easy to track the two of them. Flatfoot set out after Nadara! cried Waldo. Why? For
many moons he has craved her for his mate, as has Korth, explained Nadara s father; but I think that
each feared the other, and because of that fact Nadara was saved from both; but at last Korth came
upon us alone and away from the village, and then he grasped Nadara and would have taken her away,
for Flatfoot was not about to prevent.
You came then, and the rest you know. If I had been younger neither Flatfoot nor Korth would have
dared menace Nadara, for when I was a young man I was very terrible and the record of my kills was a
How long since did Flatfoot set out after Nadara? Waldo broke in.
But a few hours since, replied the old man. It would be an easy thing for me to overtake him by night
had I the speed of my youth, for I well remember From where did Flatfoot start upon the trail?
cried the young man. Lead me to the place. This way then, Thandar, said the other, starting off
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toward the forest. I will show you if you will save Nadara from Flatfoot. I love her. She has been very
kind and good to me. She is unlike the rest of our people.
I should die happy if I knew that you have saved her from Flatfoot, but I am an old man and may not
live until Nadara returns. Ah, that reminds me; there is that in my cave which belongs to Nadara, and
were I to die there would be none to protect it for her.
Will you wait for the moment that it will take me to run and fetch it, that you may carry it to her, for I
am sure that you will find her; though I am not as sure that you will overcome Flatfoot if you meet him.
He is a very terrible man. Waldo hated to waste a minute of the precious time that was allowing Flatfoot
to win nearer and nearer Nadara; but if it were in a service for the girl who had been so kind to him and
for the happiness of her old father he could not refuse, so he waited impatiently while the old fellow
tottered off toward the caves.
Those who had come half-way to meet Waldo had hovered at a safe distance while he had been
speaking to Nadara s father, and when the two turned toward the forest all had returned to their work in
evident relief; for the old man had told them that the stranger was the mighty warrior who had killed the
terrible Korth with his bare hands, nor had the story lost anything in the telling.
After what seemed hours to the waiting Waldo the old man returned with a little package carefully
wrapped in the skin of a small rodent, the seams laboriously sewed in a manner of lacing with pieces of
gut.
This is Nadara s, he said as they continued their way toward the forest. It contains many strange
things of which I know not the meaning or purpose. They all were taken from the body of her mother
when the woman died. You will give them to her? Yes, said Waldo. I will give them to Nadara, or
die in the trying of it.
CHAPTER X
THE TRAIL S END
SOON they came upon the trail of Flatfoot in the glade by the three great trees; they had not searched
for it sooner, for the old man knew that it would start from that point upon its quest for the girl.
The tracks circled the glade a dozen times in widening laps until at last, at the point where Flatfoot must
have picked up the spoor of Nadara, they broke suddenly away into the underbrush.
Once the way was plain Waldo bid the old man be of good heart, for he would surely bring his daughter
back to him unharmed if the thing lay in the power of man.
Then he hurried off upon the new-made trail that lay as plain and readable before him as had the printed
page of his former life; but never had he bent with such keen interest to the reading of his favorite author
as he did to this absorbing drama written in the turned leaves, the scattered twigs, and the soft mud of a
primeval forest by the feet of a savage man and a savage maid.
Toward mid-afternoon Waldo became aware that he was much weaker from the effects of his battle
with Korth than he had supposed. He had lost much blood from his wounds, and the exertion of
following the trail at a swift pace had reopened some of the worse ones, so that now, as he ran, he was
leaving a little trail of blood behind him.
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The discovery made him almost frantic, for it seemed to presage failure. His condition would handicap
him in the race after the two along whose track he pursued so that it would be a miracle were he to reach
Flatfoot before the brute overtook Nadara.
And if he did overtake him in time what then? Would he be physically able to cope with the brawny
monster? He feared that he would not, but that he kept doggedly to the grueling chase augured well for
the new manhood that had been so recently born within him.
On and on he stumbled, until at dusk he slipped and fell exhausted to the earth. Twice he struggled to his
feet in an attempt to go on, but he was forced to give in, lying where he was until morning.
Slightly refreshed, he ate of the roots and fruit which abounded in the forest, taking up the chase again,
but this time more slowly.
He was now convinced that the way led back along the same trail which he had followed into the
country, and when he reached the point at which he had first met Korth on the previous day he cut
across the little space which intervened between the cave man s tracks and the point at which he had
stood before he went down over the divide into the jungle toward the river and the ford.
A moment later he was rewarded by the sight of Nadara s dainty footprints as well as those of Flatfoot
leading away along his old trail. The act had saved him several miles of needless tracking.
All that day he followed as rapidly as his weakened condition weald permit, but his best efforts seemed
dismally snail-like.
Along the way he bowled over a couple of large rodents, which he ate raw, for he had long since
learned the desirability of a meat diet for one undergoing severe physical exertion, and had conquered his
natural aversion for the uncooked flesh. He even had come to relish it, though often as he dined thus upon
meat a broad grin illumined his countenance at the thought of the horror with which his mother and his
Boston friends would view such a hideous performance.
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