short while she floated upon the surface.

Finally she spread her giant wings, flapped them vigorously a score

of times and rose above the blue sea. A single time she circled

far aloft--and then straight as an arrow she sped away.

I watched her until the distant haze enveloped her and she had

disappeared. I was alone.

My first concern was to discover where within Pel-lucidar I might

be--and in what direction lay the land of the Sarians where Ghak

the Hairy One ruled.

But how was I to guess in which direction lay Sari?

And if I set out to search--what then?

Could I find my way back to the prospector with its priceless

freight of books, firearms, ammunition, scien-tific instruments,

and still more books--its great library of reference works upon

every conceivable branch of ap-plied sciences?

And if I could not, of what value was all this vast storehouse

of potential civilization and progress to be to the world of my

adoption?

Upon the other hand, if I remained here alone with it, what could

I accomplish single-handed?

Nothing.

But where there was no east, no west, no north, no south, no stars,

no moon, and only a stationary mid-day sun, how was I to find my

way back to this spot should ever I get out of sight of it?

I didn't know.

For a long time I stood buried in deep thought, when it occurred

to me to try out one of the compasses I had brought and ascertain

if it remained steadily fixed upon an unvarying pole. I reentered

the prospector and fetched a compass without.

Moving a considerable distance from the prospector that the needle

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