Quickly we passed on; drew away from the _coria_ path.

The mosses began to thin; less and less they grew, giving way to low clumps that barely offered us shelter.

Unexpectedly another screen of fern moss stretched before us.
Slowly Rador made his way through it and stood hesitating.
The scene in front of us was oddly weird and depressing; in some indefinable way--dreadful.

Why, I could not tell, but the impression was plain; I shrank from it.

Then, self-analyzing, I wondered whether it could be the uncanny resemblance the heaps of curious mossy fungi scattered about had to beast and bird--yes, and to man--that was the cause of it.