was eloquent enough. Along the back wall of the falls, cen-
tunes of erosion had failed to wear away completely-the orig-
inal soft limestone; there was still a sort of serrated chimney
there, open toward the gorge, which looked as though it could
be climbed. At the top of the falls, the water shot out from
between the basalt pillars in a smooth, almost solid-looking
tube, arching at least six feet before beginning to break into
the fan of spray and rainbows which poured down into the
gorge. Once the chimney had been climbed, it should be pos-
sible to climb out from under the falls without passing
through the water again.
And after that?
Abruptly, Honath grinned. He felt weak all through with
reaction, and the face of the demon would probably be leer-
ing in his dreams for a long time to comebut at the same
time he could not repress a surge of irrational confidence. He
gestured upward jauntily, shook himself, and loped forward
into the throat of the chimney.
Hardly more than an hour later they were all standing on a
ledge overlooking the gorge, with the waterfall creaming over
the brink next to them, only a few yards away. From here, it
was evident that the gorge itself was only the bottom of a far
larger cleft, a split in the pink-and-gray cliffs as sharp as
though it had been driven in the rock by a bolt of sheet light-
ning. Beyond the basalt pillars from which the fall issued.
however, the stream foamed over a long ladder of rock
shelves which seemed to lead straight up into the sky. On this
side of the pillars the ledge broadened into a sort of truncated