n front of her, so close
he could reach out and wrap his arms about her. But this wasn't the
time, he told himself. Later ... later ...

"All right," Robin said at last, her eyes looking troubled. "I'll take
you to the land of Cyclopes."

They began to walk, in silence. Half an hour later, the barren terrain
of rocks gave way to a verdant jungle in which the trees were quite the
biggest Glaudot had ever seen and in which even the grass and the
fragrant wild flowers grew over their heads. Glaudot had never felt so
small.

* * * * *

"Wait a minute, Chandler," Captain Purcell said. "I listened in silence
to what you said. All of it, as incredible as it sounded. But you don't
expect me to believe--"

"Look at the horse. Where did I get the horse, sir?"

"So there are horses on this world. So what?"

"But I saw the girl create it out of thin air!"

"Really, Chandler."

"And I saw the corpse. My corpse, Captain. Mine!"

"But hell, man. Glaudot would have come back here with the girl. He
knows his obligation to civilization. He--"

"Glaudot, sir? Does he?"

Purcell scowled and said finally: "Chandler, either you and Glaudot have
made the most astonishing discovery since man first domesticated his
environment and so became more than a reasonably clever animal, or
you're the biggest liar that ever crossed deep space."

Chandler offered his captain a pale smile. "Why don't you find out
which, sir?"

"By God," said Purcell, "I will. McCreedy!" he bawled over the intercom.
"Smith! Wong! I want an armed expedition of twenty-five men ready to
leave the ship in half an hour."

And, exactly half an hour later, the expedition set out with Captain
Purcell and Chandler leading it. Chandler went astride the roan
stallion.

* * * * *

When Charlie and his small Indian band learned that the action had taken
place to the south, where Robin had gone, they set out quickly in that
direction. The further they went, the more worried Charlie became. If
Robin had met with any kind of success, if she had called off the war
party and established some kind of peaceful relations with the spacemen,
a runner would have been sent to tell them. But the desolate rock-strewn
terrain stretched out before them as devoid of life as the Paleozoic
Earth.

Charlie urged his men on relentlessly. He was a tireless hiker and since
the braves lived by hunting they could match almost