“I suppose it would,” said Jude, “but that is precisely what I have been expecting.” “You, I presume, would derive some satisfaction from disappointment,” said Tanar. “Yes,” said Jude, “I suppose I would. It is my nature.” “Then prepare to be unhappy,” cried Tanar, suddenly, “for here indeed is the mouth of the tunnel.” He had spoken just as he had rounded a turn in the corridor, and when Jude came to his side the latter saw daylight creeping into the corridor through an opening just in front of them—an opening beyond which he saw the foliage of growing things and the blue sky of Pellucidar. Emerging again to the light of the sun after their long incarceration in the bowels of the earth, the two men were compelled to cover their eyes with their hands, while they slowly accustomed themselves again to the brilliant light of the noonday sun of Pellucidar. When he was able to uncover his eyes and look about him, Tanar saw that the mouth of the tunnel was high upon the precipitous side of a lofty mountain. Below them wooded ravines ran down to a mighty forest, just beyond which lay the sparkling waters of a great ocean that, curving upward, merged in the haze of the distance. Faintly discernible in the mid-distance an island raised its bulk out of the waters of the ocean. “That,” said Jude, pointing, “is the island of Hime.” “Ah, if I, too, could but see my home from here,” sighed Tanar, “my happiness would be almost complete. I envy you, Jude.” “It gives me no happiness to see Hime,” said Jude. “I hate the place.” “Then you are not going to try to go back to it?” demanded Tanar. “Certainly, I shall,” said Jude. “But, why?” asked Tanar. “There is no other place where I may go,” grumbled Jude. “At least in Hime they will not kill me for no reason at all as strangers would do if I went elsewhere.” Jude’s attention was suddenly attracted by something below them in a little glade that lay at the upper end of the ravine, which started a little distance below the mouth of the tunnel. “Look,” he cried, “there are people.” Tanar looked in the direction in which Jude was pointing, and when his eyes found the figures far below they first went wide with incredulity and then narrowed with rage. “God!” he exclaimed, and as he voiced that single exclamation he leaped swiftly downward in the direction of the figures in the glade. IX LOVE AND TREACHERY