"And now that they have
challenged the Silent Ones I think he _will_ dare. Also, he will find
our tracks--and it may be that he knows this hidden way."
"Well, for God's sake!" O'Keefe's appalled bewilderment was almost
ludicrous. "If _he_ knows all that, and _you_ knew all that, why
didn't you let me click him when I had the chance?"
"_Larree_," the green dwarf was oddly humble. "It seemed good to me,
too--at first. And then I heard a command, heard it clearly, to stop
you--that Lugur die not now, lest a greater vengeance fail!"
"Command? From whom?" The Irishman's voice distilled out of the
blackness the very essence of bewilderment.
"I thought," Rador was whispering--"I thought it came from the Silent
Ones!"
"Superstition!" groaned O'Keefe in utter exasperation. "Always
superstition! What can you do against it!
"Never mind, Rador." His sense of humour came to his aid. "It's too
late now, anyway. Where do we go from here, old dear?" he laughed.
"We tread the path of one I am not fain to meet," answered Rador.
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