Gamay gazed over the ocean of green. “Sure is beautiful.”

“Not as beautiful as three eggs over easy and bacon with home fries.”

She handed him another granola bar. “Use your imagination.”

“I am. I'm trying to imagine how they got this airship into the forest. They could have flown it in, but that's doubtful be cause this isn't big enough to carry all the supplies and spare fuel it would need. My guess is they launched it from the ground not far from where we found it.”

“Since there are no roads,” Gamay said, picking up the thread of logic, “they probably came in by water. If we found the river or tributary we could retrace our way back to Dr. Ramirez's camp. Perhaps if we went higher, we'd see more of the forest.”

“Brilliant,” he said, and goosed the throttle with his foot.

The burners responded with a throaty whisper, and after a pause the aircraft began to rise. As they ascended, the heat of the sun was beginning to burn off the mist. The tree canopy began to appear as ragged patches of green. Reddish flowers grew in patches on the treetops like coral reefs.

At three thousand feet Gamay squinted through the haze. “I see something over there.”

Paul started the power plant and turned the steering wheel that controlled the cables running to the rudder until the airship came slowly about. With the water-cooled engine purring quietly, the airship gained speed slowly as it overcame its inertia, and before long the propeller was kicking them along at ten miles per hour. Gamay had found a pair of binoculars and was using them to scope out where they were going.

“Incredible,” she said as the mists cleared.

“What do you see?”

Gamay was silent for a second. “The Hand of God,” she said with quiet awe.

Paul hesitated. He hadn't slept much and was slow on the uptake. “The Great Falls the Dutchman talked about?”

Gamay nodded. “Even at this distance it's magnificent.”

Paul tried to increase their speed. He sensed something peculiar about the controls. The airship seemed to be dragging. He peered down and saw a red triangular object dangling from lines attached to the gondola.

“Hello,” he said. “We've got company.”

Gamay lowered the binoculars and followed Paul's gaze. “It looks vaguely like a life raft. Made out of rubber tubing and mesh in the middle. They probably used it to drop people and supplies off on the tree canopy.”

“Sounds like a reasonable explanation. We'll have to be careful it doesn't catch in the treetops.” He lifted his head to check on their course. What he saw sent chills up his spine.

They were approaching a high headland that rose from the forest in the shape of a giant step. A river coursed from the forest toward the precipice of the plateau where rocky formations broke the flow into five waterfalls. With the sunlight sparkling off the white water the streams looked like gems being run through the fingers of a diamond merchant. The falls had the deceptive slow-motion look that water has when it plunges from a great height. A thick cloud of foglike condensation rose from the explosive force of thousands of gallons of water cascading into a lake directly below the steep-sided bluff.