Chapter 31 Chapter Thirty-One

After a few days of walking in the mountains, they came to a coastline that stretched diagonally from southwest to northeast before them.This coastline is magnificent: the deep F Grand Canyon, the towering snow peaks.Fjord terrain. They spent two days climbing rocks and glaciers in awe of the majestic beauty. "Arthur!" cried Ford suddenly. This is the afternoon of the second day.Arthur was sitting on a high rock, looking at the roaring sea against the steep headland. "Arthur!" cried Ford again. Ford's voice came in the wind, very faintly.Arthur looked in his direction.

Ford went over to inspect a glacier, and Arthur saw him squatting beside a solid wall of pure ice, tense with excitement.He raised his eyes and looked at Arthur. "Look," he said, "Look!" Arthur looked, and saw only the solid wall of pure ice. "Yes," he said, "a glacier. I see it." "No," said Ford, "you looked and didn't see. Look n" Ford pointed deep into the core of the ice. Arthur stared carefully.He saw nothing but vague shadows. "Go behind it," insisted Ford, "and take another look." Arthur turned to the back and looked again.

"Nothing." He shrugged. "What the hell do you want me to see?" Sudden.He saw it. "you saw it?" He saw it. His mouth started to speak, but his brain thought he hadn't figured out what to say, so it closed again.The brain then begins to struggle with the information the eyes are providing, but in doing so it looses its hold on the mouth, which opens swiftly again.The brain gave the command to retract the jaw, but in doing so it lost control of the left hand, which began to dawdle aimlessly in the air.After a second, the brain tries to grab the left hand without letting go of the mouth, while trying to figure out what it is that's buried in the ice - so it looses its hold on the legs, and Arthur flops down on the ground.

The thing that caused all this nervous disorder was a web of shadows in the ice, about eighteen inches from the surface.Viewed at the right angle, their silhouettes become alien letters, each = three feet tall.But some people, such as Arthur, who do not recognize the Manglath script, will notice that there is a silhouette of a face above the letters, in the ice wall. It was an old face, thin, noble, troubled but kind. This is the face of the man who once won an award for designing a coastline.Ford and Arthur knew now that they were standing on this coastline, the Norwegian coastline.