They could plainly hear the reverberations of the falling fragments as they struck the rocks at the foot of the fissure and, keen-eyed, they could see many of the larger pieces that von Harben and Gabula tossed downward.
“The great wall is falling,” said the black warrior.
“A few pebbles,” said another. “It is nothing.”
“Such things do not happen except after rains,” said the first speaker. “It is thus that it is prophesied that the great wall will fall.”
“Perhaps it is a demon who lives in the great rift in the wall,” said another. “Let us hasten and tell the masters.”
“Let us wait and watch,” said the first speaker, “until we have something to tell them. If we went and told them that a few rocks had fallen from the great wall they would only laugh at us.”
Von Harben and Gabula had
