the steep of the mountain, and
so lower and lower till they were come to ground nigh level; and then
at last it was but thus, that without any great rock-wall or girdle of
marvellous and strange land, there was an end of earth, with its grass
and trees and streams, and a beginning of the ocean, which stretched
away changeless, and it might be for ever. Where the land ended there
was but a cliff of less than an hundred feet above the eddying of the
sea; and on the very point of the ness was a low green toft with a
square stone set atop of it, whereon as they drew nigh they saw the
token graven, yea on each face thereof.

Then they went along the edge of the cliff a mile on each side of the
said toft, and then finding naught else to note, naught save the grass
and the sea, they came back to that place of the token, and sat down on
the grass of the toft.

It was now evening, and the sun was setting beyond them, but they could
behold a kind of stair cut in the side of the cliff, and on the first
step whereof was the token done; wherefore they knew that they were
bidden to go down by the said stair; but it seemed to lead no whither,
save straight into the sea. And whiles it came into Ralph's mind that
this was naught but a mock, as if to bid the hapless seekers cast
themselves down from the earth, and be done with it for ever. But in
any case they might not try the adventure of that stair by the failing
light, and with the night long before them. So when they had hoppled
their horses, and left them to graze at their will on the sweet grass
of the meadow, they laid them down behind the green toft, and, being
forwearied, it was no long time ere they twain slept fast at the
uttermost end of the world.

CHAPTER 21

Now They Drink of the Well at the World's End

Ralph awoke from some foolish morning dream of Upmeads, wondering where
he was, or what familiar voice had cried out his name: then he raised
himself on his elbow, and saw Ursula standing before him with flushed
face and sparkling eyes, and she was looking out seaward, while she
called on his name. So he sprang up and strove with the slumber that
still hung about him, and as his eyes cleared he looked down, and saw
that the sea, which last night had washed the face of the cliff, had
now ebbed far out, and left bare betwixt the billows and the cliff some
half mile of black sand, with rocks of the like hue rising out of it
here and there. But just below