compass? If so, why did Barto have to rely on the pointing figure's hand
for directions? If he didn't get that figure from the place we were
heading, where did he get it? How did he know there was anything of
value in the place we were headed for?

These questions tormented me, for I could not ask them without revealing
to Jake that I knew he was lying. And that meant a showdown. I might
have to kill him. Still, I had to get the truth out of him, or let a
madman lead us on and on into an untracked wilderness, if that is what
he was.

For several days we did not see a sign of life, after that deer.

The forest became denser at every mile, with more and more swamps and
surface water. Time after time our ponies mired and had to be lifted out
of the mud. Lush ferns and rank grass made walking dangerous. The trees
were interlaced with draping festoons of gray "Spanish moss," forming a
canopy overhead which let through only a gloomy half-light. No sounds
broke the stillness except the half-awed calls of the men. No birds, not
even a squirrel. Then it began to rain.

That drizzle continued for a week! The men became frightened at the
gloomy stillness and exhausted by the strenuous work of keeping the
ponies moving.

Then in the night my four Koreans deserted. They didn't take any ponies,
just what grub they could pack. We all felt better off without them, but
I often wonder if they ever found their way out of that morass.

The next day there came a break. We sighted a majestic mountain about
two days' march ahead. It looked like a gloomy cloud that had settled to
earth for a moment's rest. But no cloud ever managed to look so rocky,
so windswept, or so welcome. And no patch of blue sky ever looked so
good as that sky above the mountain, swept clean of the rain curtain by
the updraft.

Jake seemed to recognize that mountain, gave an audible sigh of relief
when we sighted it. My suspicions quieted.

We went hunting that day. It was the first dry camp in a long time, the
first signs of game; we needed a rest. As usual, Barto stayed at camp to
guard the ponies and camp equipment.

We were on the trail of a bear when we saw a strange object in the sky.
It looked like a doughnut or a saucer, and it settled to the earth on
the far side of the great white mountain at whose foot we had made camp.
It seemed only an hour's walk to a point where we could overlook the
landing place of the strange object, and Hank and Frans pu