experiment, choosing the heaviest rock that
he could move. This messenger also leaped into the air at the narrowest
portion of the bridge, then passed on in safety to the slope of snow
beyond.

"A strange place," thought Otter; "and I pray that it may never be my
lot to ride one of those stone horses."

Then he turned down the mountain again, for the afternoon was advancing.
When he reached the entrance to the river-bed sunset was at hand. For a
while he sat watching the fading light and eating some more roots which
he had gathered. Now he crawled into the passage and commenced his
darksome journey towards the home of the dead Water Dweller, though what
he was to do when he got there he did not know. No accident befell him,
and in due course he arrived safely in the den, his journey being much
facilitated by the staff he bore, which enabled him to feel his way like
a blind man.

Creeping to the edge of the pool he listened to its turmoil, for the
shadows were gathering so fast that, with some ghostlike shapes of foam
excepted, he could not even see the surface of the water.

"If I go in there how can I get out again?" Otter thought sadly. "After
all, perhaps I should have done better to return while it was still
light, for then, by the help of my staff and the rope, I might have made
shift to climb the overhanging ledge of rock, but to try this now were
madness. I will go back and sit in the cave with the ghosts of the god
and his dead till the morning comes again, though I do not crave their
company."

So he retreated a few paces and sat in silence near the tail of the dead
Crocodile. After a while loneliness took hold of him; he tried to sleep
and could not, for it seemed to Otter that he saw eyes staring at him
from the depths of the cave, and heard dead men whispering to each other
tales of their dreadful ends. Moment by moment his fears grew upon
him, for Otter was very superstitious. Now he fancied that he could
distinguish the head of the reptile limned in fire and resting on the
edge of the rock as he had seen it that morning.

"Doubtless," he thought, "this monster is a devil and has come to life
again to be revenged upon me. _Wow!_ I liked him better when he was in
the flesh than now that he has turned himself to fire." Then to comfort
himself he began to talk aloud saying:

"Otter, unlucky that you are, why did you not die at once instead of
living on to be tormented by ghosts? Perhaps your master, t