The last book of wonder . mule, the bag that held the cursethey knew nothing of, and so pushed oninto the menacing night. Till midnightthey plodded on and would not sleep;grimmer and grimmer grew the look of thenight, and the wind more full of meaning,and the mule knew and trembled, and itseemed that the wind knew, too, as did theinstincts of those four tall men, thoughthey could not reason it out, try how theywould. And though the squaws waited longwhere the pass winds out of the mountains,near where the wigwams are upon theplains, the wigwams and the totems and thefire, and though they watch
The last book of wonder . mule, the bag that held the cursethey knew nothing of, and so pushed oninto the menacing night. Till midnightthey plodded on and would not sleep;grimmer and grimmer grew the look of thenight, and the wind more full of meaning,and the mule knew and trembled, and itseemed that the wind knew, too, as did theinstincts of those four tall men, thoughthey could not reason it out, try how theywould. And though the squaws waited longwhere the pass winds out of the mountains,near where the wigwams are upon theplains, the wigwams and the totems and thefire, and though they watched by day, andfor many nights uttered familiar calls, stilldid they never see those four tall menemerge out of the mountains any more, eventhough they prayed to their totems upontheir painted poles; but the curse in the 78 The Last Book of Wonder mystical writing that they had unknown intheir bag worked there on that lonely passsix leagues from the ruins of Loma, andnobody can tell us what it was. 79 The Secret of the Sea. In an ill-lit ancient tavern thatfl know, are many tales of the)sea; but not without the wine)of Gorgondy, that I had of aI private bargain from thegnomes, was the tale laid barefor which I had waited of an evening for thegreater part of a year. I knew my man and listened to his stories,sitting amid the bluster of his oaths; I pliedhim with rum and whiskey and mixed drinks,but there never came the tale for which Isought, and as a last resort I went to theHuthneth Mountains and bargained thereall night with the chiefs of the gnomes. When I came to the ancient tavern andentered the low-roofed room, bringing thehoard of the gnomes in a bottle of hammerediron, my man had not yet arrived. The 80 The Last Book of Wonder sailors laughed at my old iron bottle, but Isat down and waited; had I opened it thenthey would have wept and sung. I waswell content to wait, for I knew my man hadthe story, and it was such a one as had pro-foundly stirred the incredulity of the fa
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