-royal; and my people must lead
me.... What of the morning, Nizza-neela?"

"It is bright as hoarfrost on the slopes and tops there," said Nod,
pointing. "It dazzles Ummanodda's eyes to look. But the sun is behind
this huge black wall of ours, so here we sit cold in the shadow."

"Then we will wait," said Ghibba, "till he come walking a little higher
to melt the frost and drive away the last of the wolves."

"Man of the Mountains," said Nod presently, "would you hold me if I
crept close and put my head over the edge? I would like to see how many
Mulgars-deep we walk."

Ghibba laughed. "This path is but as other Mulgar-paths, Mulla-mulgar;
no traveller need stumble twice. But I will do as you ask me."

So Nod lay down flat on his stomach, while two of the Mountain-mulgars
clutched each a leg. He wriggled forward till head and shoulders hung
beyond the margent of the rock. He shut his eyes a moment against that
terrific steep of air, and the huge shadow of the mountain upon the deep
blue forest. All far beneath was still dark with night; only the frozen
waters of the swirling torrent palely reflected the daybreak sky. But
suddenly he shot out a lean brown paw. "Ahoh, ahoh! I say!"

The Men of the Mountains dragged him back so roughly that his broad snub
nose was scraped on the stone. "Why do you do that?" he said angrily.

"You called 'O, O!' Mulla-mulgar, and we thought you were afraid."

"Afraid! Nod? No!" said Nod. "What is there to be afraid of?"

Ghibba twitched his long grey eyebrow. "The little Mulgar asks us
riddles," he said.

"I called," said Nod, "because I spy something jutting there with a
fluff of hair in the wind that leaps the chasm, and with thin ends that
look to me like the arms and legs of a Man of the Mountains lying caught
in a bush of Tummusc."

At the sound of Nod's "Ahoh!" Thumb had come scrambling along from the
other fire, and many of the Mountain-mulgars fell flat on their faces,
and leaned peering over the precipice. But their eyes were too dim to
pierce far. They broke into shrill, eager whisperings.

"It is, perhaps, a wisp of snow, an eagle's feather, or maybe a nosegay
of frost-flowers."

"What was the name of him who fell fighting?" said Nod eagerly.

"His name was Ubbookeera," said Ghibba.

"Then," said Nod, "there he hangs."

"So be it, Eyes-of-an-Eagle," said Ghibba; "we will go down before he
melts and fetch him up." So they drove two of their long staves into a
crev