ns. Thin, small crosses, cut in the
stone of the walls, began to lead upward from the last liftings cut
straight up the Rockface of False Ridge itself. It seemed, to look at
the dim traces, that no living thing without wings could scale that
steep and forbidding cliff, but when they tried to climb, they found
that each step had been set with artful cunning. The set of steps
followed the form of a "switchback," working from right to left, and
always rising a little. False Ridge itself, a towering, mighty spine,
came down in a swiftly dropping ridge from somewhere in the high upper
country at the west of all the canyons. It was known to lead
deceptively down among the cuts and passes, as if it went straight
down to the lower levels, and to end abruptly in a precipice that none
could descend or climb. On all its rugged sides there were treacherous
slopes which looked hard enough to support a man, but which, once
stepped on, gave sickeningly away to slide and slither for a hundred
feet straight down to some abrupt edge, where they fell in dusty
cataracts to blind basins and walled cups below.

In these blind cups were many skeletons of deer and other animals that
had ventured down from the upper world, never to return. Somewhere up
here must be the bones of Canon Jim.

But the Secret Way was safe. Under every carefully worked out step
there was solid stone, for every handhold there was a firm stake set.
These stakes were old for the most part, but here and there had been
set in a new one--Courtrey's work, they made no doubt, for Courtrey
was said to know the Canons. It took Tharon and Billy two hours to
make the climb, stopping from time to time to rest. At such times the
boy stood close and took her hand. It was grim work looking down the
sheer face, and one might well be excused for holding a hand for
steadiness. And it would soon be the time for no more touches of this
girl's fair self for Billy.

And so, climbing steadily and in comparative silence, these two, whose
hearts were strong, came at last to the top of False Ridge--a thin
knife-blade of stone--and looked abruptly and suddenly down on the
other side.

With a little gasp Tharon put a hand to her throat, for there, an
unbelievably short distance down, lay the Cup o' God, without a doubt.
A small, round glade of living green, watered by a whispering stream
that lost itself the Lord knew where, it lay like a tiny gem in the
pink stone setting. Trees stood in u