e long, strong, densely matted hair seemed to
have served as an effective armor. The bones were not pulled about, or
crushed for their marrow, as they would have been if the victim had
been the prey of any of the great carnivorous beasts. And there were
no tracks about it save those of a few small rat-like creatures. It
was clear that the Mystery, whatever it might be, had wings.

"A bird!" whispered A-ya, with a gleam of triumph in her eyes, at the
same time glancing up into the tree-tops apprehensively. But Grom did
not think so. There were no marks of mighty claws on the turf around
the skeleton.

Grom cast about him an eager but anxious eye. The country was not
densely wooded at this point, but studded with low thickets, and set
here and there with scattered trees. From a little way ahead came a
gleam of calm water through the greenery. It was a scene of peace, and
security, and summer loveliness. Its very beauty seemed to Grom an
added menace, as if some peculiar treachery must lurk behind it.

In the center of an open glade, not far from the skeleton, Grom set
his party to building a circle of fires, as likely to afford the
surest kind of a refuge. A supply of fuel having been gathered, he
directed A-ya and Mo to remain and tend the fires and not to leave the
circle unless he should summon them. Loob, the cunning scout, he sent
off to the left through the underbrush. He himself followed the trail
of the fugitive--now doubled by that of the other fugitive whose
skeleton lay there in the sun--down toward that gleam of water through
the trees. A-ya gazed after him anxiously as he vanished, half minded
to dare his displeasure and follow him.

Grom was presently able to make out that the water was a wide, reedy
lake or the arm of a shallow river. There was no wind, and the surface
shone like clear glass. But once and again his eyes were dazzled by a
dart of intense radiance, a great flash of rose or violet or
blue-green flame, shooting over the surface of the water. A memory of
what A-ya had professed to gather from the stranger woman rushed into
his mind. Perhaps the Destroying Thing was like a bird, and
nevertheless, at the same time, something like fire. He felt himself
confronted by a mystery which made even his tried nerves creep; and he
hid himself in the densest undergrowth as he stole forward toward the
water. He had forgotten, and forsaken, the trail he was following, in
his haste to solve the problem of t