THE MAGIC LABYRINTH

They went out in two parties, each going in opposite directions along the base of the cliff. Their electric lamps were beamed ahead of them, and they traced their fingers along the stone. But each returned without finding the rope.

"Thon of a bitch! Vhat happened?"

"I'd say that the other Ethicals found it and removed it," Burton said.

After some talk, they decided to spend the night at the base of the cliff. They ate vegetables which the grails had provided and dried fish and bread. They were already sick of their diet, but they didn't complain. At least, the liquor warmed them up. But that would be gone in a few days.

"I brought along a few bottleth of beer," Joe said. "Ve can have one last party vith them."

Burton grimaced. He disliked beer.

In the morning the two groups went out along the base again. Burton was with the one that went eastward or what he thought was that way. It was difficult to tell direction in this misty twilight. They came to the bottom of the huge cataract. There was no way for them to, get across to the other side.

When they got back, Burton spoke to Joe.

"Was the rope on the left or right side of The River?"

Joe, illumined in the beam of a lamp, said, "Thith thide."

"It seems to me that X might have left another rope on the right side. After all, he wouldn't know if his henchmen would come up the right or left side."

"Veil, it theemth to me that ve came up the left thide. But it'th been tho many yearth. Hell, I can't be thyure!"

The little big-nosed dark Moor, Nur el-Nlusafir, said, "Unless we can get to the other side—and it doesn't seem possible—the question is irrelevant. I went westward, and I think that I may be able to get up to the plateau."

After breakfast, the entire group walked five miles or so to the corner of the mountain and the cliff walls. These met at an approximately 36-degree angle as if they were the walls of a very badly built room. Nur tied a very slender rope around his waist.

"Joe says that it's about a thousand feet up to the plateau. That's his estimate based on his memory of its height, and at that time Joe didn't know the English system of measurement. It might be less than he remembers. Let's hope so."

"If you get too tired, come back down," Joe said. "I don't vant you to fall."

"Then stand back so I won't strike you," Nur said, smiling. "It would hurt my conscience if I hit you and both of us died. Though I think that you wouldn't be injured any more than if an eagle defecated on you."

"It vould hurt me a lot," Joe said. "Eagleth and their crap vere taboo to my people."

"Think of me as a sparrow."

Nur went to the angle and braced himself, his back against one wall and his feet against the other. He slowly worked his way up the angle, holding his feet against one wall, the left foot extended a few inches more than the right. When his footing was secure, he slid his back upward as far as he could before losing his bracing. Then he would slide one foot up until his knee was almost to his chin. Keeping the one foot against the wall, he would slowly work the other up. Then he would slide his back up, and repeat the same maneuvers.

It wasn't long before he disappeared into the fog. Those below could tell his progress by the rate at which the slim rope was pulled up. It was very slow.

Alice said, "He'll have to have tremendous endurance to get to the top. And if he doesn't find a place to tie his rope to so he can haul up another, he might as well come back down."

"Let's hope the cliff isn't that high," Aphra Behn said.

"Or that the corner doesn't widen out," Ah Qaaq said.

When Burton's wristwatch indicated that Nur had been up for twenty-eight minutes, they heard him shout.

"Good luck! There's a ledge here! Large enough for two people to stand on, if you don't count Joe! And there's a projection I can tie the rope to!"

Burton looked at the titanthrop.

"Evidently the cliff isn't glass smooth."

"Yeah. Veil, I mutht have gone up on the right thide of The River, Dick. That'th thmooth all the way up. At leatht, the part I vent up on vath ath thlick ath a cat'th athth."

The Ethicals hadn't bothered to make the cliff unscalable all the way. They'd made the lower part smooth but had left the upper part, invisible in the fog, in its original state.

Had X been responsible for that decision?

Had he also arranged it so that the corner here, and perhaps the corner across The River, was angled so that a small light person could use his back and legs to get up the angles?

It was very probable.

If he had done so, then he'd pla

Nur called down for them to fasten a heavier rope to the end of the light one. They did so, and presently he called down that the second rope was secured.

Burton hauled himself up on it, bracing his feet against the cliff, his body extended almost at right angles to it. He was panting and his arms hurt by the time he reached the ledge. Nur, surprisingly strong for such a ski

Then they hauled up the backpacks.

Nur looked up through the fog.

"The face is rough," he said. "It looks like I could climb up on the projections if I used the pitons."

He removed a hammer and some pitons from the pack. The latter were steel wedges which he would drive into the surface of the rock wall. Some of them contained holes through which a rope could be passed.

Nur disappeared into the mists. Burton heard his hammer now and then. After a while, the Moor called down for Burton to come on up. Nur was on another ledge.

"Actually, the surface is so irregular that we might be able to climb just using our hands. But we won't!"

By then Alice had climbed the rope up to the projection on which Burton stood. Burton kissed her and went on up after Nur.

Ten hours later, the entire group sat on top of the cliff. After they'd recovered, they walked on looking for a place to shelter them from the wind. They found none until they had traversed at least three miles. Here they came, as Joe said they would, to the base of another cliff. To their left The River, some miles away now, roared as it hurtled over the lip of the falls.

Joe played the beam of his lamp along the rock. ‘

"Damme! If I did go up along the right side of The River, then ve're thcrewed. The tu

"If the Ethicals found X's rope and removed it, then they must have found the tu

They were too tired to search for the fissure which would be the gate to the tu

In the morning, while they were eating dried fish, pemmican, and bread, Nur said, "As Dick's pointed out, X wouldn't know which side his recruits would come up. So he must have left two ropes. Therefore, he must have made two tu

Burton opened his mouth to say that that tu

"Yes, I know. But if the plug is thin, we can locate it, and we have the tools to dig through it."

One search party hadn't gone more than twenty feet from the camp when it found the plug. It was a few feet inside a fissure broad enough for even Joe to enter.

Great heat had been applied to melt the round plug into the surrounding quartz.

"Hot dog!" Joe said. "Thimmety tham! Maybe ve got a chanthe after all!"