ave measured a hundred
feet. He found a few rocky steps where the little precipice met the wall
and clambered down, but it was rough going, and he had to make a jump for
it at the last.

* * * * *

Picking himself up and dusting the sand from his clothes he thought he saw
a white gleam over against the wall. His light found a squat skeleton
sitting there grimacing at him. He touched the skull and it fell to powder.
Here was one of the dwarfs--a Neebling--but the bones did not belong to
this age; the poor fellow must have lain there for centuries.

Doctor Jack Odin was never able to get all of his medical training out of
his mind. Examining the skeleton he found that both legs had been broken.
Apparently, the little man had been climbing up or down the precipice Odin
had just negotiated and had slipped and fallen. His legs shattered, and
infection setting in, the Neebling had crawled against the wall to die.
Odin could imagine him doing that last task silently. They were akin to the
animals that they loved, the Neeblings. They did not complain.

* * * * *

Hours and hours later, as Odin toiled his way downward, he became aware of
a growing stench in the stale air. Even this was welcome, for he was
becoming obsessed with the idea that the cavern had not changed since the
long-ago river had died, and that nothing in it could change. It was an
odor of rottenness. Where there was decay, life had also been.

By the time he reached the next pool the putrescence which hung on the
stale air was almost sickening. There he made his second discovery. A
saurian of some sort, with squat legs and long, fanged mouth, had died
there. Half-decayed, it made a little phosphor glowing in the dark and its
long teeth flashed as he played a beam of light over it.

Noisome as it was, the sight of it made his heart quicken, for here was one
of the things of Opal. It must have crawled up here from that silent sea.
Then a feeling of gloom and dread swept over him. What had happened down
there to make this thing leave its home and crawl here to die!

Odin went on and on, and the smell of the thing behind him slowly faded
from the air.

Then, as he rounded a corner, Odin blinked his eyes. Far ahead of him was a
red glow. Taking a deep breath, he thought he smelled smoke. Or was it
sulphur? He had never been able to get one grim possibility out of his
mind. What if some of the fir