"Over there," he said, pointing in a direction opposite from the Tower, "is where I was raised. Ah, it was good in those days, Odin. Very good. We of the Neeblings do not care for cities, but our farms and pastures were so arranged that there were several houses close together. And what fun the boys had hunting and fishing. Then I would straggle home for supper--and my mother, who wasn't old then, would be at the back door with a laugh and a joke to see that her Gunnar had come home whole, and to make him wash his hands properly. And the supper table, Odin! You ought to have seen it. It groaned. There was no end to our food in those days. And after supper, the younguns of the neighborhood would play outside until dark. One of our games was like one of yours. Some lad shut his eyes and counted while all of us hid. And then, after the counting was done, he came hunting us. And toward the last he would sing out for those who were still hiding: 'Bee, bee, bumblebee, all's out's in free.' It was a great game, and then the night would fall and we would hurry home. One had no trouble sleeping in those days." Gunnar paused to sigh a great sigh. "But it didn't work out. No one got in free. The homes, the pastures, the players, most of them are gone--and time took a heavy price. And only Gunnar is left to toss the last coin upon the counter. Well, I am ready to pay, so long as I get my hands on Grim Hagen." Jack Odin gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, for Gunnar's thoughts seemed to be growing more dismal by the minute. "Well, little man, it was all a bright dream that went too fast. And are we to stay here on this ledge 'til doomsday while you try to re-spin the broken threads of the past?" So Gunnar's thoughts came back to the present and his big shoulders heaved when he laughed. "Eh! Spoken like a Nors-King, Odin. I must be getting old. Well, there's a way from here to the sea. If we were cliff-swallows we could make it easily. But being men we had better trudge--" * * * * * He led the way along the ledge which did not appear to have much of a descent until they came to a place where a rocky slide had taken trail and all into the sea. The avalanche that had made it must have been a granddaddy of avalanches, for there was a steep slope of rocks and rubble from here to the water below. There, the stones had spilled out in all directions and the waves moiled over and about them for several hundred yards. Far out, the rocks had piled up into a little sea-wall, with gaps here and there where the breakers foamed through. "We go down here now," Gunnar instructed. "But don't start anything rolling. The stones are loose, and we might end up in the water with a hundred feet of granite over us for a tombstone."