dangers of the gryf.

Moving cautiously she reached the foot of the cliff at the far side of
Kor-ul-lul and here, toward noon, she found a comparatively easy
ascent. Crossing the ridge she stood at last upon the brink of
Kor-ul-gryf--the horror place of the folklore of her race. Dank and
mysterious grew the vegetation below; giant trees waved their plumed
tops almost level with the summit of the cliff; and over all brooded an
ominous silence.

Pan-at-lee lay upon her belly and stretching over the edge scanned the
cliff face below her. She could see caves there and the stone pegs
which the ancients had fashioned so laboriously by hand. She had heard
of these in the firelight tales of her childhood and of how the gryfs
had come from the morasses across the mountains and of how at last the
people had fled after many had been seized and devoured by the hideous
creatures, leaving their caves untenanted for no man living knew how
long. Some said that Jad-ben-Otho, who has lived forever, was still a
little boy. Pan-at-lee shuddered; but there were caves and in them she
would be safe even from the gryfs.

She found a place where the stone pegs reached to the very summit of
the cliff, left there no doubt in the final exodus of the tribe when
there was no longer need of safeguarding the deserted caves against
invasion. Pan-at-lee clambered slowly down toward the uppermost cave.
She found the recess in front of the doorway almost identical with
those of her own tribe. The floor of it, though, was littered with
twigs and old nests and the droppings of birds, until it was half
choked. She moved along to another recess and still another, but all
were alike in the accumulated filth. Evidently there was no need in
looking further. This one seemed large and commodious. With her knife
she fell to work cleaning away the debris by the simple expedient of
pushing it over the edge, and always her eyes turned constantly toward
the silent gorge where lurked the fearsome creatures of Pal-ul-don. And
other eyes there were, eyes she did not see, but that saw her and
watched her every move--fierce eyes, greedy eyes, cunning and cruel.
They watched her, and a red tongue licked flabby, pendulous lips. They
watched her, and a half-human brain laboriously evolved a brutish
design.

As in her own Kor-ul-ja, the natural springs in the cliff had been
developed by the long-dead builders of the caves so that fresh, pure
water trickled now, as it had