"Look at me, Dian," I pleaded. "Are you not glad to see me?"

She looked straight into my eyes.

"I hate you," she said, and then, as I always was about to beg for a fairhearing she pointed over my shoulder. "The thipdar comes," shesaid, and I turned again to meet the reptile.

So this was a thipdar. I might have known it. The cruel bloodhoundof the Mahars. The long-extinct pterodactyl of the outer world.But this time I met it with a weapon it never had faced before. Ihad selected my longest arrow, and with all my strength had bentthe bow until the fairly tip of the shaft rested upon the thumb ofmy left arm, and then as the great creature darted toward us Ilet drive straight for that tough breast.