ter
without anyone to row it, made her a little afraid of the fairy craft.
But Inga picked up the oars and began to row and at once the boat shot
swiftly in the direction of Regos. They rounded the point of that
island where the city was built and noticed that the shore was lined
with warriors who had discovered their boat but seemed undecided
whether to pursue it or not. This was probably because they had
received no commands what to do, or perhaps they had learned to fear
the magic powers of these adventurers from Pingaree and were unwilling
to attack them unless their King ordered them to.

The coast on the western side of the Island of Regos was very uneven
and Zella, who knew fairly well the location of the mines from the
inland forest path, was puzzled to decide which mountain they now
viewed from the sea was the one where the entrance to the underground
caverns was located. First she thought it was this peak, and then she
guessed it was that; so considerable time was lost through her
uncertainty.

They finally decided to land and explore the country, to see where they
were, so Inga ran the boat into a little rocky cove where they all
disembarked. For an hour they searched for the path without finding any
trace of it and now Zella believed they had gone too far to the north
and must return to another mountain that was nearer to the city.

Once again they entered the boat and followed the winding coast south
until they thought they had reached the right place. By this time,
however, it was growing dark, for the entire day had been spent in the
search for the entrance to the mines, and Zella warned them that it
would be safer to spend the night in the boat than on the land, where
wild beasts were sure to disturb them. None of them realized at this
time how fatal this day of search had been to their plans and perhaps
if Inga had realized what was going on he would have landed and fought
all the wild beasts in the forest rather than quietly remain in the
boat until morning.

However, knowing nothing of the cunning plans of Queen Cor and King
Gos, they anchored their boat in a little bay and cheerfully ate their
dinner, finding plenty of food and drink in the boat's lockers. In the
evening the stars came out in the sky and tipped the waves around their
boat with silver. All around them was delightfully still save for the
occasional snarl of a beast on the neighboring shore.

They talked together quietly of their