t_? and _Who's that_? all night, Martin did
not know. He was fast asleep until the morning sun shone on his face
and woke him, and as he had no clothes and shoes to put on he was
soon up and out. First he took a drink of water, then, feeling very
hungry he went back to the place where he had found the ripe fruit
and made a very good breakfast. After that he set out once more
through the wood towards sunrise, still following the stream. Before
long the wood became still more open, and at last to his great joy
he found that he had got clear of it, and was once more on the great
open plain. And now the hills were once more in sight--those great
blue hills where he wished to be, looking nearer and larger than
before, but they still looked blue like great banks of cloud and
were a long distance away. But he was determined to get to them, to
climb up their steep sides, and by and by when he found the stream
bent away to the south, he left it so as to go on straight as he
could to the hills. Away from the water-side the ground was higher,
and very flat and covered with dry yellow grass. Over this yellow
plain he walked for hours, resting at times, but finding no water
and no sweet roots to quench his thirst, until he was too tired to
walk any further, and so he sat down on the dry grass under that
wide blue sky. There was not a cloud on it--nothing but the great
globe of the sun above him; and there was no wind and no motion in
the yellow grass blades, and no sight or sound of any living creature.

Martin lying on his back gazed up at the blue sky, keeping his eyes
from the sun, which was too bright for them, and after a time he did
see something moving--a small black spot no bigger than a fly moving
in a circle. But he knew it was something big, but at so great a
height from the earth as to look like a fly. And then he caught
sight of a second black speck, then another and another, until he
could make out a dozen or twenty, or more, all moving in wide
circles at that vast height.

Martin thought they must be the black people of the sky; he wondered
why they were black and not white, like white birds, or blue, and of
other brilliant colours like the people of the Mirage.

Now it was impossible for Martin to lie like that, following those
small black spots on the hot blue sky as they wheeled round and
round continuously, without giving his eyes a little rest by
shutting them at intervals. By-and-by he kept them shut a little