And so they had crossed the great thorny, waterless steppe and
come at last to the edge of the morass before Pal-ul-don. They had
reached this point just before the rainy season when the waters of
the morass were at their lowest ebb. At this time a hard crust is
baked upon the dried surface of the marsh and there is only the
open water at the center to materially impede progress. It is a
condition that exists perhaps not more than a few weeks, or even
days at the termination of long periods of drought, and so the two
crossed the otherwise almost impassable barrier without realizing
its latent terrors. Even the open water in the center chanced to
be deserted at the time by its frightful denizens which the drought
and the receding waters had driven southward toward the mouth
of Pal-ul-don's largest river which carries the waters out of the
Valley of Jad-ben-Otho.
Their wanderings carried them across the mountains and into the
Valley of Jad-ben-Otho at the source of one of the larger streams
which bears the mountain waters down into the valley to empty them
into the main river just below The Great Lake on whose northern
shore lies A-lur. As they had come down out of the mountains they
had been surprised by a party of Ho-don hunters. Obergatz had
escaped while Jane had been taken prisoner and brought to A-lur.
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