Hanging by these new holds she now took one of the three
remaining pegs in each of her feet, leaving the fifth grasped securely
in her tail. Reaching above her with this member she inserted the
fifth peg in one of the holes of the center row and then, alternately
hanging by her tail, her feet, or her hands, she moved the pegs
upward to new holes, thus carrying her stairway with her as she
ascended.
At the summit of the cliff a gnarled tree exposed its time-worn
roots above the topmost holes forming the last step from the sheer
face of the precipice to level footing. This was the last avenue
of escape for members of the tribe hard pressed by enemies from
below. There were three such emergency exits from the village and it
were death to use them in other than an emergency. This Pan-at-lee
well knew; but she knew, too, that it were worse than death to
remain where the angered Es-sat might lay hands upon her.
When she had gained the summit, the girl moved quickly through
the darkness in the direction of the next gorge which cut the
mountain-side a mile beyond Kor-ul-ja. It was the Gorge-of-water,
Kor-ul-lul, to which her father and two brothers had been sent by
Es-sat ostensibly to spy upon the neighboring tribe. There was a
chance, a slender chance, that she might find them; if not there
was the deserted Kor-ul-gryf several miles beyond, where she might
hide indefinitely from man if she could elude the frightful monster
from which the gorge derived its name and whose presence there had
rendered its caves uninhabitable for generations.
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