e show of success.

"But first must you lure him to the mainland, for who among you knows
how to construct the strange things that carry Hooja and his band back
and forth across the water?

"We are not island people. We do not go upon the water. We know
nothing of such things."

I couldn't persuade him to do more than direct me upon the way. I
showed him my map, which now included a great area of country extending
from Anoroc upon the east to Sari upon the west, and from the river
south of the Mountains of the Clouds north to Amoz. As soon as I had
explained it to him he drew a line with his finger, showing a sea-coast
far to the west and south of Sari, and a great circle which he said
marked the extent of the Land of Awful Shadow in which lay Thuria.

The shadow extended southeast of the coast out into the sea half-way to
a large island, which he said was the seat of Hooja's traitorous
government. The island itself lay in the light of the noonday sun.
Northwest of the coast and embracing a part of Thuria lay the Lidi
Plains, upon the northwestern verge of which was situ-ated the Mahar
city which took such heavy toll of the Thurians.

Thus were the unhappy people now between two fires, with Hooja upon one
side and the Mahars upon the other. I did not wonder that they sent
out an appeal for succor.

Though Ghak and Kolk both attempted to dissuade me, I was determined to
set out at once, nor did I delay longer than to make a copy of my map
to be given to Perry that he might add to his that which I had set down
since we parted. I left a letter for him as well, in which among other
things I advanced the theory that the Sojar Az, or Great Sea, which
Kolk mentioned as stretching eastward from Thuria, might indeed be the
same mighty ocean as that which, swinging around the southern end of a
continent ran northward along the shore opposite Phutra, mingling its
waters with the huge gulf upon which lay Sari, Amoz, and Greenwich.

Against this possibility I urged him to hasten the building of a fleet
of small sailing-vessels, which we might utilize should I find it
impossible to entice Hooja's horde to the mainland.

I told Ghak what I had written, and suggested that as soon as he could
he should make new treaties with the various kingdoms of the empire,
collect an army and march toward Thuria--this of course against the
possibility of my detention through some cause or other.

Kolk gave me a sign to his father--a