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It o days before Gahan had crossed the plain and reached the summit of the hills from which he hoped to see his own country, only to meet at last with disappointreater proportions than that he had but just crossed, and beyond this other hills In one material respect this plain differed from that behind him in that it was dotted with occasional isolated hills Convinced, however, that Gathol lay somewhere in the direction of his search he descended into the valley and bent his steps toward the northwest

For weeks Gahan of Gathol crossed valleys and hills in search of soht point his way toward his native land, but the sue revealed but another unfamiliar view He sa animals and no men, until he finally came to the belief that he had fallen upon that fabled area of ancient Barsooods-the once rich and fertile country whose people in their pride and arrogance had denied the deities, and whose punishment had been extermination

And then, one day, he scaled low hills and looked into an inhabited valley-a valley of trees and cultivated fields and plots of ground enclosed by stone walls surrounding strange towers He saw people working in the fields, but he did not rush down to greet theht be assu shrubbery he crawled to a vantage point upon a hill that projected further into the valley, and here he lay upon his belly watching the workers closest to him They were still quite a distance from him and he could not be quite sure of the upon the unnatural about them Their heads see ti them and ever more forcibly it was borne in upon his consciousness that they were not as he, and that it would be rash to trust hi them Presently he saw a couple appear from the nearest enclosure and slowly approach those orking nearest to the hill where he lay in hiding Immediately he are that one of these differed froreater distance he noted that the head was smaller and as they approached, he was confident that the harness of one of them was not as the harness of its companion or of that of any of those who tilled the fields