Page:The Cave Girl - Edgar Rice Burroughs.pdf/222

 Dawn was breaking in the east. The rumblings were diminishing, the tremors at greater intervals and of lessening violence.

Nadara started to retrace her steps toward the village. Momentarily she looked to see Thandar coming in search of her, but she came to the edge of the forest and no sign of Thandar or another of her tribesmen had come to cheer her.

At last she stepped into the open. Before her was the cliff. A cry of anguish broke from her lips at the sight that met her eyes. Torn, tortured and crumpled were the lofty crags that had been her home—the home of the tribe of Thandar.

The overhanging cliff top had broken away and lay piled in a jagged heap at the foot of the cliff. The caves had disappeared. The ledges had crumbled before the titanic struggles of The Great Nagoola. All was desolation and ruin.

She approached more closely. Here and there in the awful jumble of shattered rock were wedged the crushed and mangled forms of men, women and children.

Tears coursed down Nadara’s cheeks. Sobs wracked her slender figure. And Thandar! Where was he?

With utmost difficulty the girl picked her way aloft over the tumbled debris. She could only guess at the former location of Thandar’s cave, but now