Three days riding brought the party to the great barrier which the Children of Ad had built far back in the dim centuries to separate them from their hated enemies. As the riders approached the wall, they found the land narrowed to an isthmus, which Oleric told them was nearly eighty miles in extent, by something less than sixty across. The Kimbrian Wall crossed the neck of land nearly midway to its length, but if anything, a few miles nearer to the mainland of Maeronica than it was to Ruthar. On the hither side of the barrier stretched thick forests of oak and pine. Along the isthmus and near its western sea-border lay the course of an ancient road, which once had connected the two countries. To this old highway Everson gave careful attention. In some places it was broken up and overgrown with timber, but the lieutenant thought that little work would be required to put it in shape for travel. From a pine-clad knoll in the forest they had their first glimpse of the wall, and a mighty work it was. Built of gray stone, now moss-grown and weather-aged, it stretched away to the right and left as far as they could see and ended sheer with the precipitous cliffs above the sea. So enormous were the stones of which it was constructed that it reminded Everson of remnants of the cyclopean masonry, which are to be found in the old countries and which tradition used to tell were built by a race of giants. Probably this work was as old as they. The wall was nearly fifty feet high, and so broad as its top that two chariots might pass thereon. At intervals of a mile all along its length were watchtowers, garrisoned by the border-soldiers of Bel-Ar. In addition to all those points of strength, the wall had been so constructed that near its top there was an overhang of a number of feet, making it exceedingly difficult for scaling. Still, Oleric said, it had been scaled, and many times, by small parties of raiders from both sides--and some of them had never returned. "Look!" the captain exclaimed. "Here comes one of the patrols." From the nearest tower to the east three men on horseback came riding along the top of the wall, clearly outlined against the pale sky. As they came nearer the forest-watchers could see that the riders were muffled in cloaks. A sharp wind was sweeping down from the south, and it must have been bitter indeed on the unprotected eminence of the wall. "Ha! 'Tis Atlo himself--the captain whom I replaced at the port," said Oleric as the patrol came opposite him. "See, the foremost of the riders." Sight of his enemies riding by so close proved too much of a temptation to one of the Rutharian fighting men who had ridden down with the party to the wall. He was a master bowman. While the eyes of his companions were fixed on the three riders, he dismounted and slipped away among the trees to the left. In the shadow of a pine he paused and set an arrow to the string.