and Ray put a handkerchief to his face.

"What is your name? Who are you?" Ray spoke kindly.

"I am Mildred. Mildred Meriden."

"Meriden!" Ray turned to me. "I bet this is a daughter of the major
and his wife!"

"Father was the major," the girl said slowly. "He and mother came in a
machine that flew, from a far land. The Things burned the machine with
the red fire. They came here and the Things kept them. They made
mother sing over the water. They killed father. I never saw him."

"I know," Ray, said gently. "We came from the same land. We saw your
father's machine above."

"You came from outside! And you are going back? Oh, take me with you!
Take me!" Piteous pleading was in her voice. "It is so--lonely since
the Things took Mother away. Mother told me that sometime men would
come, and take me away to see the people and the outside that she told
me of. Oh, please take me!"

"Don't worry! You go along whenever we leave--if we can get out."

"Oh, I am so glad! You are very good!"

Impulsively, she threw her arms around Ray's neck. Gently, he
disengaged himself, flushing a little. I noticed, however, that he did
not seem particularly displeased.

"But can we get out?"

"Mother and I tried. We could never get out. The Things watch. They
make me come to the water to sing, when the great bell rings."

"Are these things goods to eat?" I motioned to the brilliant fungal
forest. I had begun to fear that Ray would never get to this very
important topic.

Blue eyes regarded me. "Eat? Oh, you are hungry! Come! I have food."

* * * * *

Like a child, she grasped Ray's hand, pulled him toward the mushroom
jungle. I followed, and we slipped in between the brilliantly golden,
fleshy stalks. They rose to the tangle of bright feathery fringes
above, huge and substantial as the trunks of trees.

In a few minutes we came to a wide, shallow canal, metal-walled,
through which a slow current of the opalescent, luminous liquid was
flowing. We crossed this on a narrow metal foot-bridge, and went on
through the brilliant forest.

Suddenly we emerged into a little clearing, with the black waters of
the great lake visible beyond it, across a quarter-mile of rocky
beach. In the middle of the open space, rose three straight cylinders
of azure crystal, side by side. Each must have been twenty feet in
diameter, and forty high. They shone with a clear blue light, like the
cylindrical buildings we ha