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Later there will be time for talk. But now we cannot tell it all!" "Ye speak truth, Rigvin!" he exclaimed. "I, too, have many things to tell. It cannot be this day. We will lead ye to the colony. We, too, need rest. My men are in sore straits, as ye see!" He gestured at the groups gathered along the edge of the ravine.
A great noise of talking rose against the heated air; and food and water, too, were being given to the Settlement men by the newcomers. Stern knew the day was saved. Deep gratitude upwelled in his heart. "Nothing that I can ever do will repay men like these!" thought he. Then, all at once, a sudden hope thrilled him, and he cried: "Oh, Rigvin, one thing more!
"There, near that mountain, lies the wreck of the vlyn b'hotu, the flying boat, Rigvin! Lead us thither! We must find it. And then Settlement Cliffs!" Through all his exhaustion and his pain he knew that now the goal was close at hand. And beyond toil, suffering and hardship once more beckoned prosperity and peace and love.
Tell me, in your long journey from the brink, have ye chanced to see a cleft mountain with two peaks on either hand?" "You mean, master " "A mountain; a high jut of land, with two tops, side by side like two grave-mounds?" Rigvin stood a moment in thought, his soot-smeared brows wrinkled with the effort of trying to remember. Then all at once he looked up quickly with a smile.
"Yea, master!" he cried. "We saw such!" "Where, where? For God's sake, where was it?" ejaculated Stern, gripping him by the arm with a hand that shook with sudden keen emotion. "Where was it, master? Thus one day's marching." Rigvin wheeled and pointed to northwestward. "And ye can find it again?" "Truly, yes. Why, master?"
"We waited, Kromno, but you came not. Did you forget your people in the darkness?" "No, Rigvin. There has been great distress in Settlement Cliffs. The flying boat is lost. Even now we seek it. Enemies attacked. We destroyed them, but had to sweep the world with fire, as ye see. Many things have happened to keep me from my people. But how came ye here?
He laid a compelling hand on the shoulder of one, Rigvin, whom he remembered as a mighty caster of the nets on the Great Sunken Sea. "Oh, Rigvin!" he commanded. "Come aside with me. I must have speech at once!" "I come, O Kromno. Speak, and I make answer!" "How came ye here without the flying boat? How did ye escape from the Abyss? Whither went ye? Tell me all!"
Then on the fourth day we reached the great cleft, even as our traditions said. And here we camped, and sang again, and once more swore to find you. Then the boats all returned, and we pushed forward, upward, through the cleft." "And then?" Rigvin shook his head and sighed. "O Kromno," he answered, "the story is too long! We be weary, and would reach the place whereof ye have told us.
"But they said it might mean death to try to pass the Vortex. They forced none to go. Only such as would need try." "A volunteer expedition, eh?" thought Allan. "And look at the size of it, will you? These people are without even the slightest understanding of fear!" "Thus it was arranged, master," continued Rigvin. "Eight score and more of us offered to go.