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"Go on quickly!"

"Yea, I speak We waited for you ain Days on days aited, as you erly, but no sign of you was seen Then uneasiness and fear and sorrow fell upon us all"

"What then?"

"We held a great charweg there at the Place of Bones, near the Blazing Well, to take thought as best to do For you were our chief; and our very ancient law commands that if any chief be in distress, or dee him once more to his own

"For many hours our wisest men spoke Some declared you had deserted us, but the vat We agreed soo to rescue you!"

"Ye did?" exclaimed Stern, et out of the Abyss? How find your way so straight toward Settle, O Kroht of what ye had told us so often, and they made a picture of the way We fashioned protections for the eyes and skin, as ye had said

"Then the wisedeeraven in the rock beyond the walls, past the place of burial They decided the waycleft, whereby our distant fathers caht o Only such as would need try"

"A volunteer expedition, eh?" thought Allan "And look at the size of it, will you? These people are without even the slightest understanding of fear!"

"Thus it was arranged, ht score and s were quickly made ready, andcanoes we started, after a great singing Men went in each canoe to bring back the boats--"

"They didn't even wait for you? But if ye had been lost, and sought to return, what then?"

"There was to be no return, master All swore either to find you or die!"

"Go on!" exclaimed Allan, deeply moved

"We sailed across the Sunken Sea, O Kromno, and reached the islands of the Lanskaarn There we had to fight and thirty were killed But we kept on, and in two days, watching for the quiet tireat tempests, entered the Vortex"