"Hss-ss-ss! Touch not the dancers-go not near them-speak not to them! Strange things be abroad and stranger things be done in the white moonlight of Ulithia! Hss-ss-ss! Go not near!"
"And who and what may you be?" demanded Trenmore, bending down; but the sparklike eyes had vanished. An instant later they reappeared, gleaming dimly through a white cobweb between two tall tufts of grass.
"Hss-ss-ss!" Again that snakelike hissing. "Beware! You have escaped the everlasting dance-beware the Weaver and her song!"
"But who-what are you?" demanded Trenmore again rather wildly.
The red sparks flashed and faded from behind the silver web.
Only a dim voice trailed back to them:
"I am the Voice of Warning in a land of Illusion-beware!"
Drayton, somewhat recovered from his own queer experience, moved as if to follow. Again Trenmore checked him.
"We'd best not traffic with that thing either," he recommended gruffly. "We've no place in this world we've got into-no place at all! And the very best we can do is to keep our own company till we find a way out of it."
"What was it the thing said?" queried Drayton as he fell into step again beside the other two. "Ulithia? That sounds some way familiar-"