He stood quivering, shaken, searching the dregs of his mind for a fitting torment. Meg, waiting, saw from the corner of her eye a faint movement to her right. The Warrior Chieftain, Lora, had stolen close to one of the stunted invaders; her hand was even now reaching for his sword. Meg knew the meaning of that trial. Lora well knew she had no chance to fight or escape; her sole purpose was to clutch that sword and plunge it through Meg's heart to spare the priestess worse horrors. Then, though both of them died, their deaths would be clean and welcome.... Meg wrenched her eyes away; tensed her body for the moment of cold fire. And then-- There came a shout from the portal. The voice of a Japcan guard crying amusedly, "By the Serpent, O Grensu--we are attacked by a band of naked apes! Come you and view this wonder!" All wheeled. And a swift hope flamed in Meg as she saw that the new besiegers were--a host of the Wild Ones! Lora, at Meg's side in one swift bound, cried out hoarsely, "What other marvels shall the Gods send us this day, my priestess? Behold, even the skulking rats of the forest have this day turned against us! Are we, then, accursed?" But Meg, forgetting her pain as for the moment she had been forgotten, gasped as the full import of this raid broke upon her. "It is not _us_ they attack, Lora! See who commands the Wild Ones!" The leader was not hard to discern. His supple, hairless body stood out like a living white flame against the background of gnarled, hairy ones. His chestnut mane towered a full head above the tallest of the Wild Ones, and he bore a great, rusted, two-handed sword in one hand, waving it as a child a shaking-gourd. It was Daiv! * * * * * Then Grensu's hand was upon Meg's shoulder, spinning her about. To a brace of yellow warriors he was howling, "To the _hoams_ with this prisoner. We will attend to her when we have broken these foolish Man-things from the forests. Come!" He moved away with his lieutenants as Meg was taken to the _hoam_ wherein her sisters had been confined. Brutally she was shoved inside; the two guards took their posts at the doorway. Meg pushed her way to a window to better watch the battle. There was little--pitifully little--to watch. By the time she reached her vantage point, the horde of Wild Ones had deployed in a great circle about the Jinnia village; now, at a signal from Daiv, they rose like a great, swarthy tide and rushed down upon their enemy. With their advance, a groan of despair rose from the imprisoned women. Daiv had made his escape too soon. He had not seen, had not suspected, the existence of a weapon such as the Japcans' force-wall. At one moment a throng of roaring Wild Ones was racing upon the village; at the next, scores were piled, shaken and bruised, before that invisible barrier, unharmed, but--futile!