in the face of death, I laughed. Death, I may remark here, had,

however, lost much of his terror for me. I had become a disciple

of Lys' fleeting philosophy of the valuelessness of human life.

I realized that she was quite right--that we were but comic figures

hopping from the cradle to the grave, of interest to practically

no other created thing than ourselves and our few intimates.

Behind To-jo stood So-ta. She raised one hand with the palm

toward me--the Caspakian equivalent of a negative shake of the head.

"Let me think about it," I parried, and To-jo said that he would

wait until night. He would give me a day to think it over; then

he left, and the women left--the men for the hunt, and the women,

as I later learned from So-ta, for the warm pool where they immersed

their bodies as did the shes of the Sto-lu. "Ata," explained So-ta,

when I questioned her as to the purpose of this matutinal rite;

but that was later.

I must have lain there bound and uncomfortable for two or three

hours when at last So-ta entered the cave. She carried a sharp

knife--mine, in fact, and with it she cut my bonds.

"Come!" she said. "So-ta will go with you back to the Galus.

It is time that So-ta left the Band-lu. Together we will go to

the Kro-lu, and after that the Galus. To-jo will kill you tonight.

He will kill So-ta if he knows that So-ta aided you. We will

go together."

"I will go with you to the Kro-lu," I replied, "but then I must

return to my own people `toward the beginning.'"

"You cannot go back," she said. "It is forbidden. They would

kill you. Thus far have you come--there is no returning."

"But I must return," I insisted. "My people are there. I must

return and lead them in this direction."

She insisted, and I insisted; but at last we compromised. I was

to escort her as far as the country of the Kro-lu and then I was

to go back after my own people and lead them north into a land

where the dangers were fewer and the people less murderous.

She brought me all my belongings that had been filched from

me--rifle, ammunition, knife, and thermos bottle, and then hand

in hand we descended the cliff and set off toward the north.