“That is the result of a hunter’s life, friend Dy-lee,” I said, grinning. “If you stalked with a bow and a hatchet, rather than a pack of dogwolves, you would be as strong as I.”
Pointing down into the black well exposed by the raising of the stone, he indicated the torch in my hand. I thrust it down into the mouth of the well. There was a kind of sputtering sound from the brand, which I could not attribute to anything in particular, except perhaps that the fire was afraid to go down into that jetty darkness. Peering past it, I saw a line of the graduated stones that abounded in these ruined places, going down like a curious tilted rock ladder into the depths of the earth. Dy-lee made urgent motions to me, that I should go down. I shook my head. “Not for an extra year of life, friend,” I
