heights the fleecy clouds were idle, yet the wind was stirring
mournfully in the abyss and moaning as it stirred, unhappily at first
and full of sorrow; but as day turned away from that awful path a very
definite menace entered its voice which fast grew louder and louder,
and night came on with a long howl. Shadows repeatedly passed over the
stars, and then a mist fell swiftly, as though there were something
suddenly to be done and utterly to be hidden, as in very truth there
was.

And in the chill of that mist the four tall men prayed to their
totems, the whimsical wooden figures that stood so far away, watching
the pleasant wigwams; the firelight even now would be dancing over
their faces, while there would come to their ears delectable tales of
war. They halted upon the pass and prayed, and waited for any sign.
For a man's totem may be in the likeness perhaps of an otter, and a
man may pray, and if his totem be placable and watching over his man a
noise may be heard at once like the noise that the otter makes, though
it be but a stone that falls on another stone; and the noise is a
sign. The four men's totems that stood so far away were in the
likeness of the coney, the bear, the heron, and the lizard. They
waited, and no sign came. With all the noises of the wind in the
abyss, no noise was like the thump that the coney makes, nor the
bear's growl, nor the heron's screech, nor the rustle of the lizard in
the reeds.

It seemed that the wind was saying something over and over again, and
that that thing was evil. They prayed again to their totems, and no
sign came. And then they knew that there was some power that night
that was prevailing against the pleasant carvings on painted poles of
wood with the firelight on their faces so far away. Now it was clear