kill that man, for he
means mischief," he said.

He spoke in English, but Rassen must have caught the ring of his
voice and guessed its meaning with the cunning of the mad. At least he
shouted--"Too late, fools," and with a last laugh turned, ran so
swiftly up the quay that his cloak flew out upon the air behind him, and
vanished into the shadows at its head.

"Row on," I said, and Leo bent himself to the oars.

But the ferry-boat was cumbersome and the current swift, so that we were
swept down a long way before we could cross it. At length we reached
still water near the further shore, and seeing a landing-place, managed
to beach the punt and to drag our horses to the bank. Then leaving the
craft to drift, for we had no time to scuttle her, we looked to our
girths and bridles, and mounted, heading towards the far column of
glowing smoke which showed like a beacon above the summit of the House
of Fire.

At first our progress was very slow, for here there seemed to be no
path, and we were obliged to pick our way across the fields, and to
search for bridges that spanned such of the water-ditches as were too
wide for us to jump. More than an hour was spent in this work, till we
came to a village wherein none were stirring, and here struck a
road which seemed to run towards the mountain, though, as we learned
afterwards, it took us very many miles out of our true path. Now for the
first time we were able to canter, and pushed on at some speed, though
not too fast, for we wished to spare our horses and feared lest they
might fall in the uncertain light.

A while before dawn the moon sank behind the Mountain, and the gloom
grew so dense that we were forced to stop, which we did, holding the
horses by their bridles and allowing them to graze a little on some
young corn. Then the sky turned grey, the light faded from the column
of smoke that was our guide, the dawn came, blushing red upon the vast
snows of the distant peak, and shooting its arrows through the loop
above the pillar. We let the horses drink from a channel that watered
the corn, and, mounting them, rode onward slowly.

Now with the shadows of the night a weight of fear seemed to be lifted
off our hearts and we grew hopeful, aye, almost joyous. That hated city
was behind us. Behind us were the Khania with her surging, doom-driven
passions and her stormy loveliness, the wizardries of her horny-eyed
mentor, so old in years and secret sin, and the madness of th