CHAPTER XV
IN THE GRIP OF TERROR

As the three pursuers steadily advanced, the thing roared once more, and again they heard the hammering, drumming boom. Zangamon whispered some unintelligible phrase.

Allan projected the light forward again, and at sight of a moving mass, vague and intangible, among the gigantic fronds, leveled his automatic.

But on the instant Bremilu seized his arm.

“O master! Do not throw the fire of death!” he warned. “You cannot see, but we can! Do not throw the fire!”

“Why not? What is that thing?”

“It seems a man, yet it is different, master. It is all hair, and very thick and strong, and hideous! Do not shoot, O Kromno!”

“Why not?”

“Behold! That strange man-thing holds the woman, Beatrice, in his left arm. Of a truth, you may kill her, and not the enemy.”

Allan steadied himself against a palm. His brain seemed whirling, and for a moment all grew vague and like a dream.