she mocked. "_I'm_ not afraid of you!
I'm goin' to turn the Big Rock. _Then_ you'll see!" And she made
straight toward the square tower in the distance.

"_Oh!_" It was the little old gentleman, beard blown sidewise by the
wind. "We musn't let her!"

The Piper, in his excitement, jounced the pig so hard that it squealed.
"We ought to be able," he panted, "to manage a top."

"Jane!" bellowed the Policeman, galloping hard. "You must _not_ injure
that shaft!"

Then Gwendolyn realized that the square _tower_ toward which the nurse
was spinning was the Big Rock. And she recognized it as a certain great
pillar of pink granite, up and down the sides of which, deep cut by
chisels, were written strange words.

It rose just ahead. Answering the Officer with a shrill, scoffing laugh,
Jane bore down upon it. Aided by the wind, she made top speed.

There was not a moment to lose. Her pursuers fairly tore after her. And
the Piper, who made the fastest progress, gained--until he was at her
very heels. Then with a final leap, he passed her, and circled, dragging
the rope.

It made a loop about the buttonless shoes--a loop that tightened as the
little old gentleman came short, as the Piper halted. Each gave a pull--

With disastrous result! For as the line came taut, up Jane went!--caught
bodily from the ground. And still spinning, whizzed forward in that
high wind and struck the granite squarely.

She fell to the ground, toppling sidewise, and bulking large.

But the shaft! It began to move--slowly at first--to tip forward,
farther and farther. When, gaining velocity, with a great grinding
noise, down from off the massive cube upon which it stood it came
crashing!

Instantly a chorus of cries arose: "Oh, she's bumped over the obelisk!
She's bumped over the obelisk!"

With the cries, and sounding from beneath the tapered end of the Big
Rock, mingled ferocious growls--"_Rar! Rar! Rar! Rar!_"

And in that same moment, the four who were holding the rope felt it
begin to writhe and twist in their grasp!--_like a live thing_. And its
black length took on a scaly look, glittering in that pink glow as if
it were covered with small ebon _paillettes_. It grew cold and clammy.
At its thicker end Gwendolyn saw that the Piper was supporting a head--a
head with small, fiery eyes and a tongue flame-like in its color and
swift darting. Next, "_Hiss-s-s-s-s!_" And with one hideous contortion,
the huge black body wrung itself free and c