I am rather the other way, so they call me a cynic and an alarmist." "But what do you fear ?" said George.

"The place is well garrisoned." "I fear four inches in that map of unknown country," said Gribton shortly.

"The people up there call it a 'God-given rock-wall,' and of course there is no force to speak of just near it.

But a tribe of devils incarnate, who call themselves the Bada-Mawidi, live on its skirts, and there must be a road through it.

It isn't the caravan route, which goes much farther east and is plain enough.