n till now.

"You triple-damn fool," she said, making her voice husky so it wouldn't
squeak, "the globes are watching."

"They always are." What a strong voice the beast had.

"They see you going into the mine. D'you think you're safe here?"

"Where I'm going, there's a chance," he said. His body moved lithely
beneath her. She clutched him around the ribs as they began to descend a
ladder. Blackness, tinged with blue, lay below. She felt her scalp
prickle with terror.

The little man, Jerran, said from somewhere above, "Kill all the gods we
meet, lad; I'll hide or bring the bodies. And keep your emotions
controlled, or they'll follow our scent like zanphs on the trail of a
runaway."

"Did the globes follow us?" asked the big man, whose name was Rebel or
something like it.

"They were coming down again as I ducked in. Hurry it up."

The swift plunge into the mine speeded. She deliberately worked herself
up to silent panic, giving the gods a spoor to chase.

Now they were traveling on the level, and from the reflection of yellow,
the brisk jerk of his arm, and the pulpy squish, she knew he had met and
slain another globe. Was he inhuman, a visitor from beyond the world,
such as were told of in the ancient ballads? Certainly no man was ever
this bold!

"Here's the end," said Jerran. "Set the wench down, she can't get away.
Hurry!"

She was rudely plumped onto a pile of coal. She looked at her silver
gown and shuddered. Her flailing legs had ripped it from hem to
midthigh; the coal was staining it irrevocably.

"When I catch that horse," she thought, half aloud, "I'll beat him.
Tossing me into all this!"

* * * * *

They were pulling down rocks from the wall; now a black hole appeared.
The small man jumped up to a boulder and snatched down a blue mine
lantern. "Take this, Revel." That was it, Revel. An odd name, a rather
nice one. The ruck ordinarily had such awful names, Jark and Dack and
Orp. Revel. Not bad. It fitted the big lusty-looking brute.

He came over. "Never mind picking me up," she said icily. "I can walk."
She peered into the hole, winced, and clambering over the rocks, losing
a heel from one of her slippers, she entered their secret cavern.

Revel climbed in after her. Jerran was already piling rocks back into
the breach. The lantern looked faint and incapable of lighting a chimney
corner, but its blue radiance was deceptive, for the farthest reaches of
the