while the cold sweat stood upon my brow as I glimpsed the
depths beneath, into which a single misstep on the part of either
of my bearers would hurl me. As they bore me along, my mind was
occupied with a thousand bewildering thoughts. What had become of
Perry? Would I ever see him again? What were the intentions of
these half-human things into whose hands I had fallen? Were they
inhabitants of the same world into which I had been born? No! It
could not be. But yet where else? I had not left that earth--of
that I was sure. Still neither could I reconcile the things which
I had seen to a belief that I was still in the world of my birth.
With a sigh I gave it up.




III

A CHANGE OF MASTERS


We must have traveled several miles through the dark and dismal
wood when we came suddenly upon a dense village built high among
the branches of the trees. As we approached it my escort broke
into wild shouting which was immediately answered from within, and
a moment later a swarm of creatures of the same strange race as
those who had captured me poured out to meet us. Again I was the
center of a wildly chattering horde. I was pulled this way and
that. Pinched, pounded, and thumped until I was black and blue,
yet I do not think that their treatment was dictated by either
cruelty or malice--I was a curiosity, a freak, a new plaything,