I could carry her much faster than she could
walk. I did gather her into my arms once, and ran forward briskly, while
she laughed and struggled with me to be put down. She seemed no more than
a little child in my arms; but, as before, the heavy air so oppressed me
that in a few moments I was glad enough to set her again upon her feet.

The valley broadened steadily as we advanced. For several miles the look
of the ground remained unchanged. I wondered what curious sort of metal
this might be--so like copper in appearance. I doubted if it were copper,
since even in this hot, moist air it seemed to have no property of
oxidation.

I asked Miela about it, and she gave me its Mercutian name at once; but of
course that helped me not a bit. She added that outcroppings of it, almost
in the pure state, like the great deposits of native copper I had seen on
earth, occurred in many parts of Mercury.

I remembered then Bob Trevor's mention of it as the metal of the apparatus
used by the invaders of Wyoming.

We went on three or four miles without encountering a single sign of life.
No insects stirred underfoot; no birds flew overhead. We might have
been--by the look of it--alone on a dead planet.

"Is none of your mountain country inhabited, Miela?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"Only on the plains do people live. There is very little of good land in
the Light Country, and so many people. That it is which has caused much
trouble in the past. It is for that, many times, the Twilight People have
made war upon us."

I found myself constantly able to breathe more easily. Our progress down
the valley seemed now irritatingly slow, for I felt I could walk or run
three times faster than Miela. Finally I suggested to her that she fly,
keeping near me; and that I would make the best speed forward I could. She
stared at me quizzically. Then, seeing I was quite sincere, she flung her
little arms up about my neck and pulled me down to kiss her.

"Oh, Alan--the very best husband in all the universe, you are. None other
could there be--like you."

She had just taken off her scarf again when suddenly I noticed a little
speck in the sky ahead. It might have been a tiny bird, flying toward us
from the plains below.

"Miela--look!"

She followed the direction of my hand. The speck grew rapidly larger.

"A girl, Alan," she said after a moment. "Let us wait."

We stood silent, watching. It was indeed a girl, flying over the valley
som