For a week she wandered hither and thither only to find most of the caves she had known in the past demolished as had been those of her people. At last she stumbled upon the very cliff which Thandar had chosen as the permanent home of his people. Here the wrath of the earthquake seemed to have been less severe, and Nadara found, high in the cliff's face, a safe and comfortable cavern. The last span to it required the use of a slender sapling, which she could draw up after her, effectually barring the approach of Nagoola and his people. To further protect herself against the chance of wandering men the girl carried a quantity of small bits of rock to the ledge beside the entrance to her cave. Fruit and nuts and vegetables she took there too, and a great gourd of water from the spring below. As she completed her last trip, and sat resting upon the ledge, her eyes wandering over the landscape and out across the distant ocean, she thought she saw something move in the shadow of the trees across the open plain beneath her. Could it have been a man? Nadara drew her sapling ladder to the ledge beside her. Thurg, fleeing from the wrath of The Great Nagoola, had come at daybreak to the spot where his people had been camped, but there he found no sign of them, only the ragged edges of a great fissure, half-closed, that might have swallowed his entire tribe as he had seen the fissures in the forest swallow many, many trees at a single bite. For some time he sought for signs of his tribesmen, but without success. Then, his fear of the earthquake allayed, he started back into the forest to find the girl. For days he sought her. He came to the ruins of the cliff that had housed her people, and there he discovered signs that the girl had been there since the demolition of the cliff. He saw the print of her dainty feet in the soft earth at the base of the rocks--he saw how she had searched the debris for Thandar--he saw her bed of grasses in the crevice between the two boulders, and then, after diligent search, he found her spoor leading away to the east. For many days he followed her until, at last, close by the sea, he come to a level plain at the edge of a forest. Across the narrow plain rose lofty cliffs--and what was that clambering aloft toward the dark mouth of a cave? Could it be a woman? Thurg's eyes narrowed as he peered intently toward the cliff. Yes, it was a woman--it was _the_ woman--it was she he sought, and, she was alone. With a whoop of exultation Thurg broke from the forest into the plain, running swiftly toward the cliff where Nadara crouched beside her little pile of jagged missiles, prepared to once more battle with this hideous monster for more than life. CHAPTER VI THE SEARCH