I have thought since that they must have timed their appearance, intending to give such information to the Dwellers as would win favour to themselves, and bring destruction on others. Whether they knew of our hiding-place I could not tell, nor whether they were aware of the confinement of the Leader who had escaped--but of what use is conjecture?--all I know is what I saw from my hiding-place. There were long seconds of silence, which seemed minutes as I watched, and then one of the Dwellers stepped forward and put his foot firmly down upon the spot of bright yellow malignity. When he lifted it the colour was gone, and there was nothing left that showed at that distance. He stepped back, and the protagonists remained facing one another in a continued silence. Then, at last, the Dwellers stepped wide of the path on either hand, and the Amphibians moved quietly forward between them, filing through till the last had passed. I noticed that three of the Leaders had remained aside, and supposed that they might be retained as hostages or culprits, by surrendering whom the rest had won to safety, but as the last file passed I saw them fall in behind it, and the Dwellers made no motion till they had disappeared into the narrow trench which we had traversed on the night before. Then they also turned, and departed. The dusk was already falling over the valley, as my companion’s mind laughed its relief, and the tension ended. “I think,” she said, “that this is the beginning of the next adventure.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Book II THE WORLD BELOW ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER I COUNSEL The night had fallen to blackness while we still lay in the rock-cleft. The ashes of the central buildings glowed with a pale blue light, and an occasional flame would rise up and lick across them like a ghostly tongue. The long curve of the living-wall had fallen in from end to end, but the ashes were burning still, with a paler flame, so that it showed like a white bow in the darkness. There were no stars; the night had clouded while we slept,--for I lay long in a sleep of utter weariness and exhaustion, both of mind and body; and so, I think, in her own way, did my companion. But I waked at length, with a dim sense of peril ended, and the short pause of security which is so precious to those who walk in dangerous ways, but conscious also of thirst and hunger, and of the shadow of great events, of which the significance was beyond my knowing.