Rising at the east end of the Mountains of the Thipdars, a river flows in a southeasterly direction entering upon its course the gloomy forest of the Horibs, through which it runs down to the Rela Am, or River of Darkness. It was near the confluence of these two rivers that the Korsars had been attacked by the Horibs and it was along the upper reaches of the same river that Tarzan and Jana were being conducted down stream toward the village of the lizard-men.
The lake of the Horibs lies at a considerable distance from the eastern end of the Mountains of the Thipdars, perhaps five hundred miles, and where there is no time and distances are measured by food and sleep it makes little difference whether places are separated by five miles or five hundred. One man might travel a thousand miles without mishap, while another, in attempting to go one mile, might be killed, in which event the one mile would be much further than the thousand miles, for, in fact, it would have proved an interminable distance to him who had essayed it in this instance.
As Tarzan and Jana rode through the dismal forest, hundreds of miles away Jason Gridley drew himself to a sitting position in such utter darkness that he could almost feel it. "God!" he exclaimed.
"Who spoke?" asked a voice out of the darkness, and Jason recognized the voice as Thoar's.
"It is I, Jason," replied Gridley.
"Where are we?" demanded another voice. It was Lajo.
"It is dark. I wish they had killed us," said a fourth voice.
"Don't worry," said a fifth, "we shall be killed soon enough."
"We are all here," said Jason. "I thought we were all done for when I saw them drag you into the water one by one."
"Where are we?" demanded one of the Korsars. "What sort of hole is this into which they have put us?"