Simultaneously we sprang to the window; peered through.
We were a little above the level of the bridge, and its full length was plain before us.

Thousands upon thousands of the _Akka_ were crowding upon it, and far away other hordes filled like a glittering thicket both sides of the cavern ledge's crescent strand.

On black scale and orange scale the crimson light fell, picking them off in little flickering points.
Upon the platform from which sprang the smaller span over the abyss were Lakla, Olaf, and Rador; the handmaiden clearly acting as interpreter between them and the giant she had called Nak, the Frog King.
"Come on!" shouted Larry.
Out of the open portal we ran; over the World Heart Bridge--and straight into the group.
"Oh!" cried Lakla, "I didn't want you to wake up so soon, Larry--darlin'!" "See here, _mavourneen_!" Indignation thrilled in the Irishman's voice.

"I'm not going to be done up with baby-ribbons and laid away in a cradle for safe-keeping while a fight is on; don't think it.

Why didn't you call me ?" "You needed rest!" There was indomitable determination in the handmaiden's tones, the eternal maternal shining defiant from her eyes.