swiftly, getting its bearings, the shadowed something began moving forward, gaining purpose, gaining massiveness, gaining speed. There was almost an anxious eagerness in its progress, as though it were an appetite sensing a free meal. At the same time there was something obscene in its haste, as though it anticipated more than mere food.

High on the south wall of the valley, atop the ramparts of the City, stood a figure in a red cloak, staring out over the valley's dark depths. He was tall, saturnine, and his face, though darkly handsome, was somehow malevolent, menacing, revolting. He was leering now, in ghastly anticipation of something that was to occur at the base of the cliffs at his feet. Behind him the keening of the Call still emanated from the lips of the gory idol enthroned in the Temple. He shook a fist at the darkness below.

"Feel now the dire might of the anger of Bra Naan!" he mouthed. "Die, Dahnjen Saan, despoiler of the Temple!" He turned to an acolyte.

"Control the Beast, when he comes. Let him kill, but save the Priestess. Her punishment shall be mine alone." He licked his lips.

"Yes, Oh High One. The Beast shall move only as the Hypno-ray dictates." The acolyte hurried off into the Temple and in a moment, lancing down from above, came the beam of the ray, searching into the depths of the valley.

The Priestess Marima Saan no longer struggled in Dahnjen Saan's grasp, as he carried her amid the gloomy ramparts of the weird stone formations on the valley floor. Instead she wept, and clung to him.

"Why do you weep?" he asked harshly.

"Because now we both will die," she said. "Oh Dahnjen, why did you do it?"

"Because I do not propose that Bra Naan will remain forever as a barrier to our love," he said. "Beyond the Valley his power does not exist. We are going there to live our lives as they should be lived."

"Alone, in the Wild Land?"

He laughed. "It's not so wild as you think. I've been there. And nothing so fearsome exists that we cannot overcome it. Nor will anyone ever find us. The natives are friendly--I know them well."

Once more she began to weep. "But we'll never get there. We cannot escape from the Valley. It is guarded at the exit by the Beast. None have ever escaped him."

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