patent hostility. Only that angry accusation vanished in a blink
of those gray eyes. Then there was a warmer recognition in Thorvald's
expression.

"Lantee!" The younger man might just have come into sight. "What are you
doing here?"

Shann tightened his belt. "Just about what you are." He was still aloof,
giving no acknowledgment of difference in rank now. "Running around in
this fog hunting the way out."

Thorvald sat up, surveying the billowing walls of the hole which
contained them. Then he reached out a hand to draw fingers down Shann's
forearm.

"You _are_ real," he observed simply, and his voice was warm, welcoming.

"Don't bet on it," Shann snapped. "The unreal can be mighty real--here."
His hand went up to the smarting brand on his shoulder.

Thorvald nodded. "Masters of illusion," he murmured.

"Mistresses," Shann corrected. "This place is run by a gang of pretty
smart witches."

"Witches? You've seen them? Where? And what--who are they?" Thorvald
pounced with a return of his old-time sharpness.

"They're females right enough, and they can make the impossible happen.
I'd say that classifies them as witches. One of them tried to take me
over back on the island. I set a trap and caught her; then somehow she
transported me----" Swiftly he outlined the chain of events leading from
his sudden awakening in the river tunnel to his present penetration of
this fog-world.

Thorvald listened eagerly. When the story was finished, he rubbed his
hands across his drawn face, smearing away the last of the sand. "At
least you have some idea of who they are and a suggestion of how you got
here. I don't remember that much about my own arrival. As far as I can
remember I went to sleep on the Island and woke up here!"

Shann studied him and knew that Thorvald was telling the truth. He could
remember nothing of his departure in the outrigger, the way he had
fought Shann in the lagoon. The Survey officer must have been under the
control of the Warlockians then. Quickly he gave the older man his
version of the other's actions in the outer world and Thorvald was
clearly astounded, though he did not question the facts Shann presented.

"They just _took_ me!" Thorvald said in a husky half whisper. "But why?
And why are we here? Is this a prison?"

Shann shook his head. "I think all this"--a wave of his hand encompassed
the green wall, what lay beyond it, and in it--"is a test of some kind.
This dream business.... A littl