At this moment A-ya glanced about her. She saw two bodies of the Bow-legs closing in upon them from either side--the nearest not much more than a couple of hundred yards distant. Her lord had plainly ordered her to stand aside from this combat, but this was no time for obedience. She snatched up the sharpened fragment of the broken spear. Gripping it with both hands she drove it with all her force into the side of the Black Chief's throat, and left it there. With a hideous cough his grip relaxed. His limbs straightened out stiffly, and he lay quivering. Covered with blood, Grom sprang to his feet, and turned angrily upon A-ya. "_I_ would have killed him," he said, coldly. "There was no time," answered the girl, and pointed to the advancing hordes. Without a word Grom snatched up his club, wrenched the broken spear from his dead rival's neck, thrust it into the girl's hands, and darted for the narrowing space of open between the two converging mobs. With their greatly superior speed it was obvious that the two fugitives might reasonably expect to win through. They were surprised, therefore, at the note of triumph in the furious cries of the Bow-legs. A few hundred yards ahead the comparatively open country came to an end, and its place was taken by a belt of splendid crimson bloom, extending to right and left as far as the eye could see. It was a jungle of shrubs some twenty feet high, with scanty, pale-green leaves almost hidden by their exuberance of blossom. But jungle though it was, Grom's sagacious eyes decided that it was by no means dense enough to seriously hinder their flight. When they reached it, the jabbering hordes were almost upon them. But, with mocking laughter, they slipped through, and plunged in among the gray stems, beneath the overshadowed rosy glow. Their pursuers yelled wildly--it seemed to Grom a yell of exultation--but they halted abruptly at the edge of the rosy barrier and made no attempt to follow. "They know they can't catch us," said Grom, slackening his pace. But the girl, puzzled by this sudden stopping of the pursuit, felt uneasy and made no reply.