e real ridge rose ahead, thickly forested on the
lower slopes, then strewn with rock and granite like the landscape of an
airless, deserted moon. And above the rock, there were straight walls
capped with blinding snow and ice. Down one peak a glacier flowed, a
waterfall, a cascade shockingly arrested in motion. I murmured the
trailman's name for the mountain, aloud, and translated it for the
others:

"The Wall Around the World."

"Good name for it," Lerrys murmured, coming with his mug in his hand to
look at the mountain. "Jason, the big peak there has never been climbed,
has it?"

"I can't remember." My teeth were chattering and I went back toward the
fire. Regis surveyed the distant glacier and murmured, "It doesn't look
too bad. There could be a route along that western _arete_--Hjalmar,
weren't you with the expedition that climbed and mapped High Kimbi?"

The giant nodded, rather proudly. "We got within a hundred feet of the
top, then a snowstorm came up and we had to turn back. Some day we'll
tackle the Wall Around the World--it's been tried, but no one ever
climbed the peak."

"No one ever will," Lerrys stated positively, "There's two hundred feet
of sheer rock cliff, Prince Regis, you'd need wings to get up. And
there's the avalanche ledge they call Hell's Alley--"

Kendricks broke in irritably, "I don't care whether it's ever been
climbed or ever will be climbed, we're not going to climb it now!" He
stared at me and added, "I hope!"

"We're not." I was glad of the interruption. If the youngsters and
amateurs wanted to amuse themselves plotting hypothetical attacks on
unclimbable sierras, that was all very well, but it was, if nothing
worse, a great waste of time. I showed Kendricks a notch in the ridge,
thousands of feet lower than the peaks, and well-sheltered from the
icefalls on either side.

"That's Dammerung; we're going through there. We won't be on the
mountain at all, and it's less than 22,000 feet high in the
pass--although there are some bad ledges and washes. We'll keep clear of
the main tree-roads if we can, and all the mapped trailmen's villages,
but we may run into wandering bands--" abruptly I made my decision and
gestured them around me.

"From this point," I broke the news, "we're liable to be attacked. Kyla,
tell them what you saw."

* * * * *

She put down her mug. Her face was serious again, as she related what
she had seen on the bridge. "We're o