not do so. Instead he explored the
burrows. He followed them into many subterranean chambers of the city
of Manator, and upward through walls to rooms above the ground. He
found many ingeniously devised traps, and he found poisoned food and
other signs of the constant battle that the inhabitants of Manator
waged against these repulsive creatures that dwelt beneath their homes
and public buildings.

His exploration revealed not only the vast proportions of the network
of runways that apparently traversed every portion of the city, but the
great antiquity of the majority of them. Tons upon tons of dirt must
have been removed, and for a long time he wondered where it had been
deposited, until in following downward a tunnel of great size and
length he sensed before him the thunderous rush of subterranean waters,
and presently came to the bank of a great, underground river, tumbling
onward, no doubt, the length of a world to the buried sea of Omean.
Into this torrential sewer had unthinkable generations of ulsios pushed
their few handsful of dirt in the excavating of their vast labyrinth.

For only a moment did Ghek tarry by the river, for his seemingly
aimless wanderings were in reality prompted by a definite purpose, and
this he pursued with vigor and singleness of design. He followed such
runways as appeared to terminate in the pits or other chambers of the
inhabitants of the city, and these he explored, usually from the safety
of a burrow's mouth, until satisfied that what he sought was not there.
He moved swiftly upon his spider legs and covered remarkable distances
in short periods of time.

His search not being rewarded with immediate success, he decided to
return to the pit where his rykor lay chained and look to its wants. As
he approached the end of the burrow that terminated in the pit he
slackened his pace, stopping just within the entrance of the runway
that he might scan the interior of the chamber before entering it. As
he did so he saw the figure of a warrior appear suddenly in an opposite
doorway. The rykor sprawled upon the table, his hands groping blindly
for more food. Ghek saw the warrior pause and gaze in sudden
astonishment at the rykor; he saw the fellow's eyes go wide and an
ashen hue replace the copper bronze of his cheek. He stepped back as
though someone had struck him in the face. For an instant only he stood
thus as in a paralysis of fear, then he uttered a smothered shriek and
turned and fl