A sudden sickness came over me. I seized the Targa's arm as he was
starting to intone his refrain for the third time.

"When will we reach this cave with the inscriptions?" I asked
brusquely.

He looked at me and replied with his usual calm:

"We are there."

"We are there? Then why don't you show it to us?"

"You did not ask me," he replied, not without a touch of insolence.

Morhange had jumped to his feet.

"The cave is here?"

"It is here," Eg-Anteouen replied slowly, rising to his feet.

"Take us to it."

"Morhange," I said, suddenly anxious, "night is falling. We will see
nothing. And perhaps it is still some way off."

"It is hardly five hundred paces," Eg-Anteouen replied. "The cave is
full of dead underbrush. We will set it on fire and the Captain will
see as in full daylight."

"Come," my comrade repeated.