.

The unknown builders were obviously a mighty people, a people who had
perfected their peculiar form of organization on a gigantic scale. And a
people who acted and thought strangely; for their behavior, as Dworn had
observed it, suggested a chilly-blooded and fanatic discipline, a
regimentation which he found monstrous and repellent.

Dworn turned questioning eyes on Qanya.

"I don't know what they are," she answered his unspoken query in a voice
that faltered. "I remember this valley. But a few months ago it was
uninhabited. All this has been built since then."

* * * * *

Dworn hesitated. He was seeing very clearly now just how hopeless this
mad expedition was. Nevertheless, he had sworn vengeance, and he could
at least perish with honor.

But--Seeing the fear in Qanya's face, it came to him sharply that, after
all, she had no part in his blood feud. She had served him well by
bringing him this far. The vague plans he had had, of using the
spider-machine for an attack on the enemy, stood revealed as rankest
folly. Big and powerful as the spider was by ordinary standards, against
such as those it could accomplish little more than a man with his bare
hands.

Which was what Dworn would be--He stifled further reflection, said
crisply: "You can go now. I'll remain here; I have a duty to perform.
But you can return--go make your peace with your people, or whatever you
like."

Qanya's black eyes met his squarely. "I won't," she said.

"Now see here--" Dworn began, and broke off, thunderstruck.

"B-but," he gulped, "you _can't_ disobey me. The drug, the spider
poison--"

"Doesn't work on a born spider. I must have neglected to mention that,
naturally, _we're_ all immunized against it." She smiled with a flash of
those sharp white teeth.

"Then--then--" Dworn stumbled, feeling his preconceptions tossed
helter-skelter. "Then you must have come with me--of your own free
will!"

"At first," murmured Qanya, "I knew you'd never trust me unless I
pretended ... and I was curious, too, to see how it was to be the one
that obeyed. And then ... well, you'd have known, if you'd ever seen how
the drug really works. You should have realized, anyway, when I laughed
at you.... But you do so love to be masterful don't you?"

For a moment, Dworn's chief emotion was one of quick rage at the
revelation of how thoroughly she'd deceived him. Then the anger subsided
and left him feeling merely fo