IT WAS Gordon who first heard the footsteps in the corridor. He had been walking along behind Robaire, thinking of the wolf and wondering if the wolf pack were driven by sand storms to take refuge in such a place as the caverns under Balashan, when he grasped Lanahan’s arm and whispered to the merchant to stand still and put out the light.
In the dark the other men heard the sound that had attracted the hunter’s attention, a light pad, pad, coming from the rear. For a moment it paused, then it came on, and Gordon saw that the sides and roof of the cavern were tinged with a red glow.
pad, padFrom around the last bend in the corridor, the glow neared them, until they could see each other’s faces, tense and watchful. The pad, pad, did not sound like the step of a man. It shuffled along mono
