shook his head as one waking. Why had he spoken so,
using words and phrases which were not part of any modern speech?

He moved on, around the base of the first tower, to find no door, no
break in its surface below the second-story windows--to the next
structure and the next, until he had encircled all three. If he were to
enter any, he must find a way of reaching the lowest windows.

On he went to the other opening of the valley, the one which gave upon
the territory of the Tatar camp. But he did not sight any of the Mongols
as he hacked down a sapling, trimmed, and smoothed it into a
blunt-pointed lance. His sash-belt, torn into even strips and knotted
together, gave him a rope which he judged would be barely long enough
for his purpose.

Then Travis made a chancy cast for the lower window of the nearest
tower. On the second try the lance slipped in, and he gave a quick jerk,
jamming the lance as a bar across the opening. It was a frail ladder but
the best he could improvise. He climbed until the sill of the window was
within reach and he could pull himself up and over.

The sill was a wide one, at least a twenty-four-inch span between the
inner and outer surface of the tower. Travis sat there for a minute,
reluctant to enter. Near the end of his dangling scarf-rope the two
coyotes lay on the pavement, their heads up, their tongues lolling from
their mouths, their expressions ones of detached interest.

Perhaps it was the width of the outer wall that subdued the amount of
light in the room. The chamber was circular, and directly opposite him
was a second window, the lowest of the matching diamond pattern. He took
the four-foot drop from the sill to the floor but lingered in the light
as he surveyed every inch of the room. There were no furnishings at all,
but in the very center sank a well of darkness. A smooth pillar, glowing
faintly, rose from its core. Travis' adjusting eyes noted how the light
came in small ripples--green and purple, over a foundation shade of dark
blue.

The pillar seemed rooted below and it extended up through a similar
opening in the ceiling, providing the only possible exit up or down,
save for climbing from window to window outside. Travis moved slowly to
the well. Underfoot was a smooth surface overlaid with a velvet carpet
of dust which arose in languid puffs as he walked. Here and there he
sighted prints in the dust, strange triangular wedges which he thought
might possibly have bee