savage indignation against the
cruel gentry and the bright, all-mighty globes. It was said that they
formed an organization in Dolfya and other cities, these rebels, and
that to them could be laid the sabotaging of the coal and diamond mines,
the gentry slain in accidents that looked too pat, and the constant aura
of uneasy discontent that pervaded the shebeens and all such illegal
gathering places of the ruck.

The rebels were highly romantic figures, but Revel had always considered
them mythical, for who could think of resisting the condition of Things
As They Are? Songs were sung about them over the turf fires, in the
squat little huts of the people, and by vagabonds who roamed the
countryside by night. The rebels went by fanciful names, as rebels of
the people always do; and the one most sung of, most whispered about, in
Dolfya at least, was the Mink, who seemed to be a kind of promised
savior who would come (soon, always soon) with punishments for the
gentry and liberation for the ruck.

* * * * *

So Revel stared at Jerran, mouth agape, and repeated stupidly, "The
rebels?"

"Aye, lad! Didn't you ever guess?"

"Orbs, no!"

"Why'd you think I kept stopping your fights in the shebeen?"

"Because you were a pacifist."

The small man shook with laughter. "One, there's nothing I love so much
as a good brawl. Two, a brawl might bring the orbs or the gentry to our
hidden drink-house, and that'd be bad. Three, a man who's a rebel must
appear _not_ to be one, even to men he believes he can trust. Four, I've
had my eye on you ever since I came from Hakes Town, and didn't want you
murdered in a drunken scrimmage. So five, though I hated to do it, I had
to preserve you from raging and quarreling until all that brute force
and honest fury could be turned to real account for us."

"I can't take it in," Revel said helplessly. "It's as though the heroes
of the Ancient Kingdom that we sing about, Rob-'em-Good and Jonenry and
Lynka, had met me here. I never believed in rebels, truly, Jerran."

"Why should you? We haven't done anything big yet. We've been searching
and waiting for a leader."

Revel snapped his fingers. "The Mink!"

"Yes, the Mink." Jerran looked at him oddly, head cocked like a small
yellow bird. "He hasn't come yet, but he will."

Revel looked around him. The amphitheater was dim, lit only by the
sunlight that managed to creep in from the forest around it; for no
illum