The larger beasts arrived slowly--the moose, the elk, the mountain lion and the grizzly bear, the wolves and coyotes. Raphael, as he saw the animals crowding about him, some frightened and impatient, others bold and curious, realized that much more than Cassandra’s liberty was wrapped in the defeat of the Sorcerer. The Earth people had come to help him at the bidding of Gæa, their mother. With the Sorcerer destroyed they would be saved from extermination, perhaps forever. When the meeting had been called together by Empyrean, Raphael spoke: ‘Brothers,’ he said and pointed down the valley, ‘your home is being destroyed by the same Sorcerer who has stolen my sister. You know what his terrible engines have done to your forests and your rivers and your children. While he lives, you cannot hope to inherit the Earth, for his people multiply and spread all over the world. The time has come for us to attack him, attack to save the places we live in and in which our ancestors lived.’ The animals made assent each in his own tongue and pressed closer, the deer timid and trembling, the moose shoulder to shoulder with the elk, the great bears and the mountain lions, the wolves and the coyotes, brothers in one common purpose. Then Raphael called for scouts to discover if possible where the Sorcerer lived and where Cassandra was. All the animals volunteered to go with one voice. ‘Let me go,’ said a mouse. ‘I’m small. No one would pay much attention to a mouse.’ ‘Of what use would a mouse be?’ hissed a snake scornfully. The rest of the animals said nothing. ‘I think,’ said Raphael, after a pause, ‘that a mouse might be able to find out more than any of the rest of us. He is small and his eyes are sharp. Go quickly, Mouse, and return to us.’ The little mouse, quite excited over the honor done him, scurried off. Meanwhile the animals lay in a circle about the clearing, the larger ones crowding among the firs at the edge, the smaller ones finding shelter in the grass and bushes. Raphael sat on the council rock and looked out over the city. In an hour or two the mouse returned, hurried and out of breath. The animals, who were the first to hear him, rose and pressed about Raphael to hear what was said. ‘Master,’ squeaked the mouse, ‘the way was long and I have hurried. I went down through the fields to a desert of stone with high cliffs on all sides. Great boxes on wheels and many silent walking things passed me. And so I came away. Truly what could live in such a place?’ [Illustration: ‘A MOUSE MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIND OUT MORE THAN ANY OF THE REST OF US’] ‘What sort of silent walking things?’ asked Raphael. ‘Creatures like yourself but bigger. They smelt of oil and frightened me.’ ‘What else did you discover?’ ‘No more, Master. What is there to learn from such a waste of stone, and creatures that do not talk?’