ches, for why should they?

* * * * *

It was at the market place, near the fish stalls, that she met her
mother.

The mother tugged at Juba's robe as she went by. "It is not easy for
you, is it?" she asked, low, so that no one could hear.

"No," the girl said. "It is not easy." Was it not written all over
her? Was it not on her breath and shaken out of her hair?

The mother looked closely at Juba and felt at her forehead. "Perhaps
it is forcing you too soon," she said with a hesitant frown which for
a moment made her look like someone else. "It is not too late, Juba,
to get someone else. Even now...."

"It is too late," Juba said, and pulled away, afraid to talk more. But
although the mother's face, Juba knew, was set, and her mind winding
unhappily through surmises, she would not follow the girl, out of
pride.

Pride.

* * * * *

The machine was alone. Juba cut it off and pulled the handle of the
switch out. She then opened up the face plate and jerked out all the
wires in sight. She reached in and broke off all the fine points of
the compass settings and pulled out everything loose she could reach.

Then she walked back quickly through the market place, so as not to
seem to be skulking.

"Juba ..." the mother said, standing in her path.

"Later," Juba said. "It will soon be done. Mother ... I love you. All
of you." And she went around the mother, quickly.

* * * * *

"It is done," Juba said, giving him the switch key as though it meant
something all by itself. "You have at least several hours, even if
they find out at this moment. And they won't. There will be no real
suspicion until your ... our ship takes off."

* * * * *

After he had made love to Juba, she could see the sun was wheeling
high, and in the temple they would begin to wonder a little. "We must
hurry," she said, and she broke a budded branch off a laesa bush, so
that later, when everything was strange, this bit of what she had been
would be with her to surprise her. In strange places, but with this
man.

She turned to smile at him, for her heart was full of love, and she
felt that he was as much within her as he was within himself.

It was then that he grabbed her hands and tied them, and he tied her
feet, and he lit a cigarette and stood for a moment, looking at her
and laughing a little with his eyes.