Part 3 (1/2)

I peered about It was so Except for the n of the unusual, the abnor up a notch or two and getting into the gorge before dark,” he was voicinghuman--but I'm not keen to be pressed into a rock like a flower in a ht we drew out of the valley into the pass We traveled a full e was narrow The far walls but a hundred feet away; but we had no quarrel with thehborliness, no! Their solidity, their immutability, breathed confidence back into us

And after we had found a deep niche capable of holding the entire caravan we filed within, ponies and all, I for one perfectly willing thus to spend the night, let the air at dawn be what it would We dined within on bread and tea, and then, tired to the bone, sought each his place upon the rocky floor I slept well, waking only once or twice by Chiu-Ming's groanings; his dreams evidently were none of the pleasantest If there was an aurora I neither knew nor cared My slumber was dreamless

CHAPTER III RUTH VENTNOR

The dawn, streaes venturing too close yielded three to our guns We breakfasted well, and a little later were pushi+ng on down the cleft

Its descent, though gradual, was continuous, and therefore I was not surprised when soon we began to coetation Giant rhododendrons and tree ferns gave way to occasional clumps of stately kopek and clumps of the hardier bah they were out of their habitat, flying down into the gorge from their peaks and table-lands for some choice tidbit

All that day we ht weAn hour after daere on our way

A brief stop we made for lunch; pressed forward

It was close to te caught the first sight of the ruins

The soaring, verdure-clad walls of the canyon had long been steadilycloser Above, between their rims the wide ribbon of sky was like a fantastically shored river, shi+ed with an opalescent glih ere sinking in that sky strea i veils of pellucid aqualaucous chrysolite

Fainter,its crystalline quality Now the high overhead river was but a brook; became a thread Abruptly it vanished

We passed into a tunnel, fern walled, fern roofed, garlanded with tawny orchids, gay with carolden ht

Before us lay a wide green bowl held in the hands of the clustered hills; shallow, circular, as though, while plastic still, the thu it Around it the peaks crowded, craning their lofty heads to peer within

It was about a aze then s--one that lay like a crack in the northeast slope; another, the tunnel h which we had co up the precipitous bare scarp of the western barrier straight to the north, clinging to the ochreous rock up and up until it vanished around a far distant shoulder

It was a wide and bulwarked road, a road that spoke as clearly as though it had tongue of human hands which had cut it there in the mountain's breast An ancient road weary beyond belief beneath the tread of uncounted years

Froreet us!

Never had I felt such loneliness as that which lapped the lip of the verdant bowl It was tangible--as though it had been poured from some reservoir of misery A pool of despair--

Half the width of the valley away the ruins began Weirdly were they its visible expression They huddled in two bent rows to the bottoainst the cliffs Fro the southern crest of the hollow

A flight of shattered, cyclopean steps lifted to a ledge and here a cru fortress stood

Irresistibly did the ruins see listlessly, helplessly, against the barrier's base The huddled lower ranks were the legs, the cluster the body, the upper row an outflung arm and above the neck of the stairway the ancient fortress, rounded and with two huge ragged apertures in its northern front was an aged, bleached and withered head staring, watching