“Can’t we go around it?” I asked.
Kamlot looked puzzled. “Why should we go around it?” he demanded, a little shortly I thought.
“To get the tarel,” I replied.
“What do you suppose this is?” he demanded.
“A spider’s web.”
“It is tarel.”
I subsided. I had thought that the tarel he pointed at was beyond the web, although I had seen nothing; but then of course I had not known what tarel was or what it looked like. We had been cutting away for a few minutes when I heard a noise in a tree near us. Kamlot heard it at the same time.
“He is coming,” he said. “Be ready!” He slipped his dagger into his sheath and grasped his spear. I followed his example.
The sound stopped, but I could see nothing through the foliage. Presently there was a rustling among the foliage, and a face appeared some fifteen yards from us. It was a hideous face—the face of a spider tremendously enlarged. When the thing saw that we had discovered it, it emitted the most frightful scream I had ever heard save once before. Then I recognized them—the voice and the face. It had been a creature such as this that had pursued my pursuer the night that I had dropped to the causeway in front of the house of Duran.
“Be ready,” cautioned Kamlot; “he will charge.”