to the north, clinging to the
ochreous rock up and up until it vanished around a far distant shoulder.

It was a wide and bulwarked road, a road that spoke as clearly as though
it had tongue of human hands which had cut it there in the mountain's
breast. An ancient road weary beyond belief beneath the tread of
uncounted years.

From the hollow the blind soul of loneliness groped out to greet us!

Never had I felt such loneliness as that which lapped the lip of the
verdant bowl. It was tangible--as though it had been poured from some
reservoir of misery. A pool of despair--

Half the width of the valley away the ruins began. Weirdly were they its
visible expression. They huddled in two bent rows to the bottom. They
crouched in a wide cluster against the cliffs. From the cluster a
curving row of them ran along the southern crest of the hollow.

A flight of shattered, cyclopean steps lifted to a ledge and here a
crumbling fortress stood.

Irresistibly did the ruins seem a colossal hag, flung prone, lying
listlessly, helplessly, against the barrier's base. The huddled lower
ranks were the legs, the cluster the body, the upper row an outflung
arm and above the neck of the stairway the ancient fortress, rounded
and with two huge ragged apertures in its northern front was an aged,
bleached and withered head staring, watching.

I looked at Drake--the spell of the bowl was heavy upon him, his face
drawn. The Chinaman and Tibetan were murmuring, terror written large
upon them.

"A hell of a joint!" Drake turned to me, a shadow of a grin lightening
the distress on his face. "But I'd rather chance it than go back. What
d'you say?"

I nodded, curiosity mastering my oppression. We stepped over the rim,
rifles on the alert. Close behind us crowded the two servants and the
ponies.

The vale was shallow, as I have said. We trod the fragments of an olden
approach to the green tunnel so the descent was not difficult. Here and
there beside the path upreared huge broken blocks. On them I thought
I could see faint tracings as of carvings--now a suggestion of gaping,
arrow-fanged dragon jaws, now the outline of a scaled body, a hint of
enormous, batlike wings.

Now we had reached the first of the crumbling piles that stretched down
into the valley's center.

Half fainting, I fell against Drake, clutching to him for support.

A stream of utter hopelessness was racing upon us, swirling and eddying
around us, reaching to our