The bear stirred restlessly. ‘Well, perhaps as you say, some day we may go. It is quite true that life is growing harder for us. But then we do not expect to live forever.’ Here the little cub broke in with a whimper, ‘Mamma, I’m hungry. You promised me a log with fat slugs in it.’ ‘I’m sorry I can’t help you,’ the bear said to Raphael, ‘but a mother’s life is a hard one. Yes, Lawrence, I’ll be right with you.’ Raphael watched them out of sight, and then ran on down the road. Down through the valley it wound until it reached the river, where it followed the river-bank. Having been granted the powers of an antelope, Raphael stopped every now and then to nibble at the green buds and tender shoots of late spring. In this way the day passed. Toward evening he came suddenly upon a clearing hewn out of the forest. In the evening light the white-topped stumps of freshly cut trees looked like the gravestones of a bleak cemetery. Raphael moved forward very slowly. The road left the river and climbed a steep hill, and, as the boy reached the top, he saw the city itself below him. ‘There you are,’ said a familiar voice as a shadow passed over his head, and Empyrean lit on the ground beside him. ‘I have been following you for the last hour. What do you think of it?’ Raphael stood and said nothing. [Illustration] CHAPTER IX THE COUNCIL OF THE ANIMALS The hill on which they stood dropped sharply away into a plain surrounded by high hills. To the south the river ran under pine bluffs. But what amazed Raphael was the strange city that lay before him. A thousand white skyscrapers towered up from the plain in square masses of marble and concrete, a city of giant cubes one rising above the other. Overhead three aeroplanes droned like black bees sharply outlined against the evening sky. As the twilight deepened, lights appeared in the windows of the massive buildings. Raphael could hear the roar of swiftly moving machinery like the murmur of a far-off waterfall. Somewhere in a huge skyscraper among those canyons of concrete, Cassandra and the Sorcerer were hidden. ‘How shall I ever find her in that great city?’ thought Raphael, awed. ‘What shall we do?’ he asked Empyrean. ‘First of all we must prevent the Sorcerer from escaping us,’ answered the eagle. ‘But how can we?’ ‘Set a guard about the city.’ ‘If we called a council of the animals, they would help us,’ suggested Raphael. The eagle gave the order to his lieutenants, and then turned to Raphael. ‘My boy, to-morrow we shall test the power of this Sorcerer. In the meantime you had better sleep. The animals should arrive at dawn. Good-night.’ And Empyrean flew up into the branches of a tall dead tree. Raphael hunted for a dry spot to sleep. When he had found an overhanging rock with pine needles at the base, he curled up and lay down.