"What are we going to do?" asked Conrad.
"Go in by the entrance revealed to us . . . . Take the ladder, Conrad, and feel with your hand in that heap of leaves. The tree is hollow and we shall soon see . . ."
"A tree can be as hollow as you please," said Otto, "but there are always roots to it; and I can hardly believe in a passage through the roots."
"I repeat, we shall see. Move the leaves, Conrad, clear them away."
"No, I won't," said Conrad, bluntly.
"What do you mean, you won't? Why not?"
"Have you forgotten Maguennoc? Have you forgotten that he tried to touch the God-Stone and had to cut his hand off?"
"But this isn't the God-Stone!" Vorski snarled.
"How do you know? Maguennoc was always speaking of the gate of hell. Isn't this what he meant when he talked like that?"
Vorski shrugged his shoulders: