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Narasan shook his head "No, Sorgan, our job is getting up to the head of the ravine before the enemy sends people here to replace all the ones that were drowned in the flood If we can hold our ground at the head of the ravine, no enean conceded, "but Longbow says that the enemies are very sneaky, and I don’t like surprises I think we’ll all sleep a lot better if we know that we’ve got a safe place to hole up if things go to pot"

"Would it be all right if I suggested a compromise, sirs?" Keselo asked thereed

"Red-Beard’s ap at the very head of the ravine If ere to send a sizeable advance force up there at a fast ap within three or four days In thea temporary barricade across the ravine about a mile upstream from these ot people co doard Lattash Of course, if that’s the case, our advance force won’t have ap anyway, and the barricade would give the fellow spoils a lot of good arguested "You and I could have yelled at each other for quite a while, Narasan, and now Keselo just took all the fun out of it"

"Ah, well," Couess"

"I’ll peel off a fair nus aren’t quite as solid as boulders, but they’ll probably keep the snake-men back--particularly if we line the front with sharp stakes dipped in poison I noticed down at Lattash that the snake- any shoes or boots, and walking barefoot across a field of poisoned stakes wouldn’t be a good way to get any older, would it?"

"I’ll an," Coht face

Aboutday, Keselo and Rabbit were a short distance in front of the e over there on the other side of the river?" he asked

"Where?" Keselo asked his little friend

"Up near the top of the ravine, under that rock overhang" Rabbit pointed

Keselo peered across the river There appeared to be structures of so rock "Ah," he said "It’s abandoned We come across ancient ruins all the time down in the Empire They’re places where people used to live, but nobody’s ever been able to come up with a reason for just exactly why everybody who lived there just packed up and left"

"Maybe they didn’t, Keselo There ht have been a war or a pestilence that killed them all off"

"That’s possible, I suppose Those ruins across the river appear to be quite a bit more sophisticated than the houses down in Lattash If eren’t so busy, itto explore that place"

"It doesn’t interest et there," Rabbit said flatly