n has spoken. It
will come to pass!"

Ceaselessly his thoughts revolved about the hopelessness of his
situation. He was alone. Whatever was to be done he must do
single-handed--and there was nothing he could do! But he would not
admit to himself that the aching loneliness came to a focus in the
memory of a girl's smiling eyes, the touch of her soft hand.

"They're fighting up there," he argued, "fighting for their lives, and
I can't help. What right have I to think of Loah or myself?" In spite
of which he sprang abruptly to his feet, left the mountain and the
voice of the mountain behind him, and went in search of the girl.

"I've got to make her understand," he exclaimed. "I've got to have
someone to talk to. But I can't make her out. She's so confoundedly
respectful--acts as if I were a little tin god. And yet--she wasn't
always that way!"

* * * * *

At the home of Gor he found Loah, slim and beautiful as always. She
had just come from the bath. The creamy texture of her skin had
flushed to rosiness in the cold fountain. Her jeweled breast-plates
sparkled. A cloth that shone like silk enwrapped her hips in soft
folds of pale rose and hung in an absurd little skirt. She might have
been the spirit of youth itself, a vision of loveliness; yet Rawson
felt an almost uncontrollable desire to take her in his two hands and
shake her when she bowed humbly and treated his request as if it were
a royal command.

"To walk with Dean-Rah-Sun! But certainly, if that is his wish!"

In silence they left the village and walked toward the island's end
where Rawson had emerged from the under-world.

The island was not large. On either side were low hills, mere knolls,
of white crystal, where, in every hollow, men and women were
harvesting strange grain. Between the two ranges of hills were flat
fields of green, reaching out toward the point some three miles
distant.

Rawson made no attempt to talk as he led Loah along the roadway that
cleft the green expanse in half. Other workers were there, and Dean
acknowledged their smiling, worshipful salutations. He did not want to
talk now; he wanted to find some place where he and Loah could be by
themselves. There was so much he must tell her. He must try to make
her understand. And after that, perhaps, with her help, he could find
some way to be of aid to his own beleaguered people--something he
could do even single-handed.

* * *