nder
into the secret valley? What have you to beguile Cherkis beyond this
woman flesh? Much, I think. Go then to him--unafraid."

Cherkis? There was a familiar sound to that. Cherkis? Of course--it
was the name of Xerxes, the Persian Conqueror, corrupted by time into
this--Cherkis. And Iskander? Equally, of course--Alexander. Ventnor had
been right.

"Yuruk," I demanded directly, "is she whom you call goddess--Norhala--of
the people of Cherkis?"

"Long ago," he answered; "long, long ago there was trouble in their
city, even in the great dwelling place of Cherkis. I fled with her who
was the mother of the goddess. There were twenty of us; and we fled
here--by the way which I will show you--"

He leered cunningly; I gave no sign of interest.

"She who was the mother of the goddess found favor in the sight of the
ruler here," he went on. "But after a time she grew old and ugly and
withered. So he slew her--like a little mound of dust she danced and
blew away after he had slain her; and also he slew others who had grown
displeasing to him. He blasted me--as he was blasted--" He pointed to
Ventnor.

"Then it was that, recovering, I found my crooked shoulder. The goddess
was born here. She is kin to Him Who Rules! How else could she shed the
lightnings? Was not the father of Iskander the god Zeus Ammon, who came
to Iskander's mother in the form of a great snake? Well? At any rate the
goddess was born--shedder of the lightnings even from her birth. And she
is as you see her.

"Cleave to your kind! Cleave to your kind!" Suddenly he shrilled.
"Better is it to be whipped by your brother than to be eaten by the
tiger. Cleave to your kind. Look--I will show you the way to them."

He sprang to his feet, clasped my wrist in one of his long hands, led
me through the curtained oval into the cylindrical hall, parted the
curtainings of Norhala's bedroom and pushed me within. Over the floor he
slid, still holding fast to me, and pressed against the farther wall.

An ovoid slice of the gemlike material slid aside, revealing a doorway.
I glimpsed a path, a trail, leading into a forest pallid green beneath
the wan light. This way thrust itself like a black tongue into the
boskage and vanished in the depths.

"Follow it." He pointed. "Take those who came with you and follow it."

The wrinkles upon his face writhed with his eagerness.

"You will go?" panted Yuruk. "You will take them and go by that path?"

"Not yet," I answer