Maskull smiled, but his eyes were grave. "Then we are looking at the
gateway of Arcturus, and Krag is now travelling north to unlock it."

"You no longer think it impossible, I fancy," mumbled Nightspore.

After a mile or two, the road parted from the sea coast and swerved
sharply inland, across the hills. With Nightspore as guide, they
left it and took to the grass. A faint sheep path marked the way
along the cliff edge for some distance, but at the end of another
mile it vanished. The two men then had some rough walking up and
down hillsides and across deep gullies. The sun disappeared behind
the hills, and twilight imperceptibly came on. They soon reached a
spot where further progress appeared impossible. The buttress of a
mountain descended at a steep angle to the very edge of the cliff,
forming an impassable slope of slippery grass. Maskull halted,
stroked his beard, and wondered what the next step was to be.

"There's a little scrambling here," said Nightspore. "We are both
used to climbing, and there is not much in it."

He indicated a narrow ledge, winding along the face of the precipice
a few yards beneath where they were standing. It averaged from
fifteen to thirty inches in width. Without waiting for Maskull's
consent to the undertaking, he instantly swung himself down and
started walking along this ledge at a rapid pace. Maskull, seeing
that there was no help for it, followed him. The shelf did not
extend for above a quarter of a mile, but its passage was somewhat
unnerving; there was a sheer drop to the sea, four hundred feet
below. In a few places they had to sidle along without placing one