r row and then,
alternately hanging by her tail, her feet, or her hands, she moved the
pegs upward to new holes, thus carrying her stairway with her as she
ascended.

At the summit of the cliff a gnarled tree exposed its time-worn roots
above the topmost holes forming the last step from the sheer face of
the precipice to level footing. This was the last avenue of escape for
members of the tribe hard pressed by enemies from below. There were
three such emergency exits from the village and it were death to use
them in other than an emergency. This Pan-at-lee well knew; but she
knew, too, that it were worse than death to remain where the angered
Es-sat might lay hands upon her.

When she had gained the summit, the girl moved quickly through the
darkness in the direction of the next gorge which cut the mountain-side
a mile beyond Kor-ul-ja. It was the Gorge-of-water, Kor-ul-lul, to
which her father and two brothers had been sent by Es-sat ostensibly to
spy upon the neighboring tribe. There was a chance, a slender chance,
that she might find them; if not there was the deserted Kor-ul-gryf
several miles beyond, where she might hide indefinitely from man if she
could elude the frightful monster from which the gorge derived its name
and whose presence there had rendered its caves uninhabitable for
generations.

Pan-at-lee crept stealthily along the rim of the Kor-ul-lul. Just where
her father and brothers would watch she did not know. Sometimes their
spies remained upon the rim, sometimes they watched from the gorge's
bottom. Pan-at-lee was at a loss to know what to do or where to go. She
felt very small and helpless alone in the vast darkness of the night.
Strange noises fell upon her ears. They came from the lonely reaches of
the towering mountains above her, from far away in the invisible valley
and from the nearer foothills and once, in the distance, she heard what
she thought was the bellow of a bull gryf. It came from the direction
of the Kor-ul-gryf. She shuddered.

Presently there came to her keen ears another sound. Something
approached her along the rim of the gorge. It was coming from above.
She halted, listening. Perhaps it was her father, or a brother. It was
coming closer. She strained her eyes through the darkness. She did not
move--she scarcely breathed. And then, of a sudden, quite close it
seemed, there blazed through the black night two yellow-green spots of
fire.

Pan-at-lee was brave, but as always