each morning. When the yellow sun
rose the chasm became a blazing furnace around the edge of which they
crept like ants in some gigantic oven.

There was no life in any form to be seen; no animal or bush or blade of
grass. There was only the barren floor of the chasm, made a harsh green
shade by the two suns and writhing and undulating with heat waves like a
nightmare sea, while above them the towering cliffs shimmered, too, and
sometimes seemed to be leaning far out over their heads and already
falling down upon them.

They found no more minerals of any kind and they came at last to the
place where they had seen the smoke or vapor.

* * * * *

There the walls of the chasm drew back to form a little valley a mile
long by half a mile wide. The walls did not drop vertically to the floor
there but sloped out at the base into a fantastic formation of natural
roofs and arches that reached almost to the center of the valley from
each side. Green things grew in the shade under the arches and sparkling
waterfalls cascaded down over many of them. A small creek carried the
water out of the valley, going out into the chasm a little way before
the hot sands absorbed it.

They stood and watched for some time, but there was no movement in the
valley other than the waving of the green plants as a breeze stirred
them. Once the breeze shifted to bring them the fresh, sweet scent of
growing things and urge them to come closer.

"A place like that doesn't belong here," Barber said in a low voice.
"But it's there. I wonder what else is there?"

"Shade and cool water," Humbolt said. "And maybe things that don't like
strangers. Let's go find out."

They watched warily as they walked, their crossbows in their hands. At
the closer range they saw that the roofs and arches were the outer
remains of a system of natural caves that went back into the valley's
walls. The green vegetation grew wherever the roofs gave part-time
shade, consisting mainly of a holly-leafed bush with purple flowers and
a tall plant resembling corn.

Under some of the roofs the corn was mature, the orange colored grains
visible. Under others it was no more than half grown. He saw the reason
and said to Barber:

"There are both warm and cold springs here. The plants watered by the
warm springs would grow almost the year around; the ones watered by the
cold springs only in the summer. And what we saw from the mountain top
would hav