sion was slight, but the sound of the bursting cartridge
when its grain of detonite struck the rocks made a thunderous noise as
it echoed between the narrow walls.

"That will check the pursuit," Harkness exulted; "that will make them
stop and think it over."

* * * * *

It was another hour before Towahg slackened his pace. He had led them
through jungle that to them seemed impassable; had shown them the hidden
trails and warned them against spiked plants whose darts were needle
sharp. At last he led them to a splashing stream where they followed him
through the trackless water for a mile or more.

The mountain with the white scar was their beacon. Harkness pointed it
out to their guide and made him understand that that was where they
would go.

And, when night was gone, and the first rays of the rising sun made a
quickly changing kaleidoscope of the colorful east, they came at last to
a barren height. Behind them was a maze of valleys and rolling hills;
beyond these was a place of smoke, where red fires shone pale in the
early light, and set off at one side was a shape whose cylindrical
outline could be plainly seen. It caught the first light of the sun to
reflect it in sparkling lines and glittering points, and every
reflection came back to them tinged with pale green, by which they knew
that the gas was still there.

Chet turned from a prospect that could only be depressing. His muscles
were heavy with the poisons of utter fatigue; the others must be the
same, but for the present they were safe, and they could find some
position that they could defend. Towahg would be a valuable ally. And
now their lives were ahead of them--lives of loneliness, of exile.

* * * * *

Harkness, too, had been staring back toward that ship that was their
only link with their lost world; his eyes met Chet's in an exchange of
glances that showed how similar were their thoughts. And then, at sound
of a glad laugh from Diane, their looks of despair gave place to
something more like shame, and Chet shifted his own eyes quickly away.

"It is beautiful, Walter," Diane was saying: "the lovely valley, the
lake, the three mountain peaks like sentinels. It is marvelous. And we
will be happy there, all of us, I know it.... Happy Valley. There--I've
named it! Do you like the name, Walter?"

And Chet saw Harkness' reply in a quick pressure of his hand on one of
Diane's. And he k