handicap upon me that my pursuer was steadily gaining upon me.

Suddenly from behind I heard a tumult of howls, and sharp, piercing
barks--much the sound that a pack of wolves raises when in full
cry. Involuntarily I glanced backward to discover the origin of
this new and menacing note with the result that I missed my footing
and went sprawling once more upon my face in the deep muck.

My mammoth enemy was so close by this time that I knew I must feel
the weight of one of his terrible paws before I could rise, but to
my surprise the blow did not fall upon me. The howling and snapping
and barking of the new element which had been infused into the
melee now seemed centered quite close behind me, and as I raised
myself upon my hands and glanced around I saw what it was that had
distracted the DYRYTH, as I afterward learned the thing is called,
from my trail.

It was surrounded by a pack of some hundred wolf-like creatures--wild
dogs they seemed--that rushed growling and snapping in upon it
from all sides, so that they sank their white fangs into the slow
brute and were away again before it could reach them with its huge
paws or sweeping tail.

But these were not all that my startled eyes perceived. Chattering
and gibbering through the lower branches of the trees came a company
of manlike creatures evidently urging on the dog pack. They were
to all appearances strikingly similar in aspect to the Negro of
Africa. Their skins were very black, and their features much like
those of the more pronounced Negroid type except that the head
receded more rapidly above the eyes, leaving little or no forehead.