along the shore,
either east or west. The nearest creek lay to the east, cutting the
sands about a mile away. He walked toward it.

The forest face was forbidding and enormously high. It was so squarely
turned to the sea that it looked as though it had been planed by tools.
Maskull strode along in the shade of the trees, but kept his head
constantly turned away from them, toward the sea--there it was more
cheerful. The creek, when he reached it, proved to be broad and
flat-banked. It was not a river, but an arm of the sea. Its still, dark
green water curved around a bend out of sight, into the forest. The
trees on both banks overhung the water, so that it was completely in
shadow.

He went as far as the bend, beyond which another short reach appeared.
A man was sitting on a narrow shelf of bank, with his feet in the water.
He was clothed in a coarse, rough hide, which left his limbs bare. He
was short, thick, and sturdy, with short legs and a long, powerful arms,
terminating in hands of an extraordinary size. He was oldish. His face
was plain, slablike, and expressionless; it was full of wrinkles, and
walnut-coloured. Both face and head were bald, and his skin was tough
and leathery. He seemed to be some sort of peasant, or fisherman; there
was no trace in his face of thought for others, or delicacy of feeling.
He possessed three eyes, of different colors--jade-green, blue, and
ulfire.

In front of him, riding on the water, moored to the bank, was an
elementary raft, consisting of the branches of trees, clumsily corded
together.

Maskull addressed him. "Are you another of the wise men of the Wombflash
Forest?"

The man answered him in a gruff, husky voice, looking up as he did so.
"I'm a fisherman. I know nothing about wisdom."

"What name do you go by?"

"Polecrab. What's yours?"

"Maskull. If you're a fisherman, you ought to have fish. I'm famishing."

Polecrab grunted, and paused a minute before answering.

"There's fish enough. My dinner is cooking in the sands now. It's easy
enough to get you some more."

Maskull found this a pleasant speech.

"But how long will it take?" he asked.

The man slid the palms of his hands together, producing a shrill,
screeching noise. He lifted his feet from the water, and clambered onto
the bank. In a minute or two a curious little beast came crawling up to
his feet, turning its face and eyes up affectionately, like a dog. It
was about two feet long, and somewhat r