pletely away by the rushing stream. Both cliff faces were of
the harder rock, and were sheer and as smooth aa if they had
been polished by hand. Here and there a network of tough
vines had begun to climb them, but nowhere did such a
network even come close to reaching the top.
Honath turned and looked once more at the great arc of
water and spray. If there were only some way to prevent their
being forced to retrace their steps
Abruptly, over the riot of the falls, there was a piercing,
hissing shriek. Echoes picked it up and sounded it again and
again, all the way up the battlements of the cliffs. Honath
sprang straight up in the air and came down trembling, fac-
ing away from the pool.
At first he could see nothing. “Then, down at the open end
of the turn, there was a huge flurry of motion.
A second later, a two-legged, blue-green reptile half as tall
as the gorge itself came around the turn in a single huge
bound and lunged violently into the far wall of the valley. It
stopped as if momentarily stunned, and the great head turned
toward them a face of sinister and furious idiocy.
The shriek set the air to boiling again. Balancing itself
with its heavy tail, the beast lowered its head and looked
redly toward the falls.
The owner of the robbed nest had come homeand they
had met a demon of Hell at last.
Honath’s mind at that instant went as white and blank as
the underbark of a poplar. He acted without thinking, without
even knowing what he did. When thought began to creep back
into his head again, the three of them were standing shiv-