lade sang and stung, its needle point darting in like the
fangs of a snake's head, and as Jlomec's clumsy blade sought
desperately to parry, Retoc's blood lust rose to the fore. The joy of
dealing death to the helpless was upon him and with a swift thrust he
allowed his blade to enter Jlomec's unprotected back just above the
kidney, to streak upward through his body and pierce his heart.

Frightened at what he had done he jerked the blade free. Its entwined
force whirled Jlomec in a complete circle from which he fell limply,
dead before he hit the ground.

Retoc stood scowling at the fallen Nadian, his dripping blade rising
and falling gently in the breeze as he held it extended. The Abarian's
eyes darted to the group of brown-skinned folk, his anger centering
upon them as he nimbly switched the blame for this foul murder from
his own shoulders to theirs. If they had not been at the well--

He was ready to extend his slaughter in their direction, to wipe out
the lot of them, when he paused, his scowl deepening. There was fear
and awe upon their faces but they were not regarding either Retoc or
his fallen adversary.

Their eyes were turned in another direction and Retoc sent his own
glance after theirs. His eyes held upon what he saw. A naked man. But
such a man as he had never before seen on all the planet Tarth.

CHAPTER VII

_The White God_

Bram Forest returned to consciousness and realized the black nausea of
his previous moments had vanished. All traces of the sickness were
gone as he opened his eyes, his mind intent upon the small flat
package that had dropped from the box in which he had found the
strange disc-like instrument. But the package was not within reach.

This caused only a small part of his bewilderment however. His
attention was riveted mainly upon the tableaux being enacted before
him. A group of people, almost as naked as himself, deeply browned of
skin, stood huddled nearby.

Almost as though for the entertainment of these, two grim and
uniformed warriors were facing each other on the level turf before the
strange circular ground-entrance beside which Bram Forest found
himself.

The two warriors possessed strange supple swords which they
manipulated with much skill. At least, one of the warriors did. The
other seemed clumsy in comparison but there was no hint of cowardice
in his manner.

Upon closer inspection the two warriors who had seemed of a cut at
first glance were quit