Free Quest for the King by John White Page A

the top of the rock face
for several yards so that they looked down at the rushing water below.
Then Kurt led them sharply away from the river along a more level
area so that they could ride again among the trees.

    Alleophaz was immediately behind him and watching him keenly.
The trail seemed hardly a trail, but Kurt was looking everywhere about
him, not at the trail, but as though he were searching for something.
Sometimes he looked back, a puzzled expression on his face. Then
he would pause, look forward and, "Ah-there it is!" they would hear
him mutter, as he started ahead once more.
    "He obviously knows what he is looking for," Alleophaz murmured.
    It was very interesting to watch Kurt. Even when the trail was clear
and easy to follow, Kurt's eyes were everywhere. Mostly he looked
ahead, but sometimes he would stop suddenly, look around, say,
"Hm," nod his head, and almost double back, turning around a tree
and following an almost invisible trail for a little while. The trail would
join a wider one going in the same direction, and for a few minutes
it would be plain sailing.
    Once he stopped, looking very puzzled. "I think we may have to go
back a bit. Just a second, I'll dismount and walk back." Then, after a
few yards, he nodded. "No, I was right. We'll just have to go on a bit."
Then fifteen yards later-"Oh, there it is! I see it now."
    "There what is?" Wesley asked wonderingly.
    "I think he must mean the column of smoke," Lisa replied.
    "No. You could be right, but I don't think so. If you watch him
carefully he seems to be examining the larger, older trees, and also
the rocks that jut out of the ground all over the place. It's like he's
reading clues-but I can't see what it is he's seeing."
    After a few moments Lisa said, "Gerachti doesn't seem to share our
confidence. I can't tell what he's saying to Belak back there, but he
doesn't sound very pleased."
    "Gerachti's a pain in the neck!" Wesley was indignant. "I don't like
the guy, and I don't see why Alleophaz is so taken with him."
    A moment later Gerachti crowded past Wesley and Lisa and made
his way to Alleophaz. "My lord," they heard him say, "the child does
not have any idea what he is doing! He is following a haphazard
series of animal trails, purely according to his own fancies."
    "Not at all, Gerachti!" said Alleophaz. "You have been too busy grumbling when you should have been observing. One can learn
things from a child, you know. He is actually taking a great deal of
care, and knows exactly what he is after. I notice that he focuses most
on rocks and older trees. It could be the moss on the trees, but I doubt
it because he keeps doubling back."

    "Yes, that is just the point. We are probably going in circles."
    "Not in the least. On the whole we are following a consistent
course. In spite of the dips we are progressively gaining altitude. In
spite of the twists and turns our general heading remains the same.
It is toward Bamah and may well be by way of the upper road. Have
you been keeping your eye on the sun?"
    "I know nothing about celestial navigation."
    Alleophaz laughed. "Then do not presume to criticize someone
who is navigating expertly-though I wish I knew how he did it."
    Just then a large rock forced the trail to skirt its sides. Kurt stopped
and looked at the rock, smiled broadly, then nodded, and after a
moment turned round a large tree and looked back almost in the
direction that he had just been pursuing. "Yes, that's it," he breathed.
"I think we may have to dismount."
    By now Gerachti was back with Belak. They heard him say, "This
is the height of absurdity."
    As they followed Kurt round the tree, they saw what he was doing.
A steeply sloping hill, which for the previous hundred yards had risen
precipitously on their right-hand side, was now on their left. An almost invisible trail led upward. The going would be far from easy,
partly because of the steepness of the ascent, and partly because of