nd afterward, we did stare again at the Flame, and soon
turned, and lookt all ways, and did marvel to see the great throw of the
light go blue and spreading and strange unto great distances.

And a while we did be watching the way that the far-off side of the
Gorge did come plain to sight, when that the Flame did leap; and, truly,
that did seem a far and lonesome Place, as that a lost and forgot world
of desolate mountains did be there.

And lo! we now to look that we should see somewhat of the way that our
journey to go; and surely naught to be clear shown save when the Flame
did rise oddwhiles to a monstrous height; and this to be because of the
huge rocks that did stand about the Flame. Yet something I was abled to
show the Maid of the bottom part of the Mighty and Utter Monster Slope
that did be the last way of our journey, ere we were come to the Night
Land.

And we then to go onward for about a good mile, that we be not so
deafened by the noise of the Gas Fountain; and it did be now beyond the
seventeenth hour; so that we eat and drunk, and made our rest in a
secure place among the great boulders.

And lo! when that we waked, we eat and drunk again, and did be something
silent, as we to gaze at the Flame dancing monstrous, and lonesome and
all set about with the stark and mighty Rocks, which did be like unto
giants of silence that did watch forever. And presently, we had our gear
upon us, and we went forward toward the utter dark of the Mighty Slope;
and we began that huge climb, that should last through days in an
eternity of night.

And oft in the first hours did we turn about from our blind stumblings,
and gaze downward out of the long height, unto the loom of the Flame,
that did shudder far below in the night, and made a quaking light in
that far darkness. And so did we leave it to dance forever through
Eternity in that deep and lost place of the world; and we bent all our
will and our strength unto the climb.

And this way went we stumbling for sixteen great hours; and by that time
had come to a pace proper for that task, and to be something numbed, and
seeming grown unreal, because of the affecting of the Darkness.

And lo! for eight days then did we go upward forever through that most
dreadful night. And after the first day, we crept alway upon our hands
and our knees, and I to go in the front, and had the Diskos ready upon
my hip. And I took two of the straps from the pouch and the scrip, and
so ha