bring them back with the pony. Then we'll make a start. A
few minutes more probably won't make much difference
--but hurry."

He turned back to his watch. Ordering Chiu-Ming to
stay with him I followed Ruth and Drake down the
ruined stairway. At the bottom she came to me, laid little
hands on my shoulders.

"Walter," she breathed, "I'm frightened. I'm so frightened
I'm afraid to tell even Mart. He doesn't like them,
either, these little things you're going to see. He likes
them so little that he's afraid to let me know how little he
does like them."

"But what are they? What's to fear about them?" asked
Drake.

"See what you think!" She led us slowly, almost
reluctantly toward the rear of the fortress. "They lay in a
little heap at the mouth of the cleft where we heard the
noises. Martin picked them up and dropped them in a sack
before we ran through the hollow.

"They're grotesque and they're almost CUTE, and they
make me feel as though they were the tiniest tippy-tip of
the claw of some incredibly large cat just stealing around
the corner, a terrible cat, a cat as big as a mountain,"
she ended breathlessly.