The ranks wavered and suddenly broke, then the horrible monstrosities were fleeing, chattering their hate as they went scrambling away over the boulders. Now and again one would pause and turn to hurl his spear at Gene in a last venomous attempt to do him in. Then all had disappeared in the far distance. * * * * * Gene breathed a sigh of relief and wiped sweat from his forehead in spite of the chill air. "What a reception!" He grinned wryly. "Saturn's Rings! The tracer surely developed a bug and took me off course. These people are nothing more than savages. I can't believe them capable of constructing an intricate ray and directing it on Earth. The whole thing is crazy, just plain, crazy!" His rescuers hurried up, waving their spears and shouting in a strange tongue. Gene could not understand the words, but he guessed at their meaning from the triumphal air in which they were spoken. A crude tongue, at best, but then these wild tribesmen needed no elaborate language to express their simple minds. Now the tribesmen, clad in shaggy furs, clustered about him, feeling wonderingly of his clothes, muttering exclamations of surprise as they noted the five digits on each of his hands. Their own gnarled, hairy paws boasted but four fingers to each. A towering, rawboned fellow pushed his way through the mob and stopped before Gene. The man--for men these people were, in spite of their crudity and animal traits--swept his eyes over the explorer in a cool glance of appraisal. Gene did a bit of sizing-up of his own. The giant's high forehead suggested intelligence of a sort; the clear gray eyes told of courage and loyalty. Plainly, the man was a leader among his people. Abruptly, the fellow turned and uttered a command to the foremost tribesmen. Two stepped forward and took up positions to each side of Gene. They prodded him gently in the ribs and pointed to the horizon. He took this to be a signal to start moving, and he obliged with reluctance, for his overpowering need of sleep now threatened to drop him at each step. How long they walked, the biologist did not know. His guides were practically dragging him by the time the party came into a city of caves, hewn in the jagged wall of a desolate valley. He was led to one of these caverns, mid the shouted questions of the quick-gathered townsfolk and the catcalls of unkempt children. Blessed sleep rushed up to meet him as the two tribesmen deposited him on a pallet of dirty furs and withdrew from the chamber. The world could wait; the body must rest. * * * * * Gene learned much of this strange planet in the next few days. A wizened, white-bearded old man came daily to instruct him in the tribe's language--a simple speech which Gene, a student of ancient tongues, found easy to master.