"I know the way to Khinjan. That is not it. Get down there and
find out what that light was. Shout back what you find!"

The man obeyed instantly and sprang down into darkness. But King
had hardly given the order when shame told him he had sent a native
on an errand he had no liking for himself.

"Come back!" he shouted. "I'll go."

But the man had gone, slipping noiselessly in the dark from rock
to rock.

So King drove both spurs home, and set his unwilling horse to
scrambling downward at an angle he could not guess, into blackness
he could feel, trusting the animal to find a footing where his own
eyes could make out nothing.

To his disgust he heard the Rangar follow immediately. To his
even greater disgust the black mare overtook him. And even then,
with his own mount stumbling and nearly pitching him headforemost
at each lurch, he was forced to admire the mare's goatlike agility,
for she descended into the gorge in running leaps, never setting
a wrong foot. When he and his horse reached the bottom at last
he found the Rangar waiting for him.

"This way, sahib!"

The next he knew sparks from the black mare's heels were kicking
up in front of him, and a wild ride had begun such as he had never