ll, the
stars to shine faintly, darkness to sally out of the forest upon the
mountain-side, and Ghibba had not returned. The travellers heaped on
more wood, of which there was abundance, and lit a fire so fiery bright
that to the Rock-folk looking down--wolf, and fox, and eagle, and
mountain-leopard--it seemed like a great "palaver" of Oomgar-nuggas, who
had had their villages in this valley many years before the
Witzaweelw[=u]lla.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXI

When they could no longer see the hilltop for cloud and mist, Thumb lit
a second fire on the isle of rock upon the verge of the cataract, where
the water could not scatter on it. But no sign came of Ghibba and his
five Moona-men, and Nod began to fret, and could eat no supper, for fear
that some evil had overtaken them. But he said nothing, because he knew
well enough by now that Thumb had much the same stomach for distrust as
himself, though he kept a still tongue in his head, and that it only
angered him to be pestered with questions no Mulgar-wit could answer. He
sat by the watch-fire in his draggled sheep's-jacket, his hands on his
knees, and wished he had lent Ghibba his Wonderstone. "But no," he
thought, "Mutta-matutta bade me 'to no one.' Ghibba is cunning and
brave; he will come back."

The Men of the Mountains coiled themselves up by the fire. They fear
neither for themselves nor for one another. "We die because we must,"
they say. Yet none the less they raise, as I have said, long ululatory
lamentations over their dead, and N[=o][=o]manossi is their enemy as
much as any Mulgar's. Thimble, still a little weak and hazy in his head
after his sickness, fell quickly asleep; and soon even Thumb, with head
wagging from side to side, though he sat bolt upright on his heels in
front of the fire, was dozing.

Nod alone could not close his eyes. He watched his brother's great face;
lower, lower would drop his chin, wheel round, and start up again with a
jerk. "Good dreams, old Thumb," he whispered; "dreams of Salem that
bring him near!"

And all the while that these thoughts were stirring in his head he heard
the endless echoing and answering voices of the cataract. Now they
seemed the voices of Mulgars quarrelling, shouting, and fighting near
and far; and now it seemed as if a thousand thousand birds were singing
sweet and shrill beneath the leaves of a great forest. The shadows of
the fire danced high. But the night was clear. H