of five hundred yards, from the edge of
the cliffs to the lower slopes of the chain of hills inland. The
hills varied in height. The cup-shaped Poolingdred was approximately a
thousand feet above them. The upper part of it was covered with a kind
of glittering vegetation which he could not comprehend.

Joiwind put her hand on Maskull's shoulder, and pointed upward. "Here
you have the highest peak in the whole land--that is, until you come to
the Ifdawn Marest."

On hearing that strange name, he experienced a momentary unaccountable
sensation of wild vigour and restlessness--but it passed away.

Without losing time, Panawe led the way up the mountainside. The lower
half was of bare rock, not difficult to climb. Halfway up, however, it
grew steeper, and they began to meet bushes and small trees. The growth
became thicker as they continued to ascend, and when they neared the
summit, tall forest trees appeared.

These bushes and trees had pale, glassy trunks and branches, but the
small twigs and the leaves were translucent and crystal. They cast
no shadows from above, but still the shade was cool. Both leaves and
branches were fantastically shaped. What surprised Maskull the most,
however, was the fact that, as far as he could see, scarcely any two
plants belonged to the same species.

"Won't you help Maskull out of his difficulty?" said Joiwind, pulling
her husband's arm.

He smiled. "If he'll forgive me for again trespassing in his brain. But
the difficulty is small. Life on a new planet, Maskull, is necessarily
energetic and lawless, and not sedate and imitative. Nature is still
fluid--not yet rigid--and matter is plastic. The will forks and sports
incessantly, and thus no two creatures are alike."

"Well, I understand all that," replied Maskull, after listening
attentively. "But what I don't grasp is this--if living creatures here
sport so energetically, how does it come about that human beings wear
much the same shape as in my world?"

"I'll explain that too," said Panawe. "All creatures that resemble
Shaping must of necessity resemble one another."

"Then sporting is the blind will to become like Shaping?"

"Exactly."

"It is most wonderful," said Maskull. "Then the brotherhood of man is
not a fable invented by idealists, but a solid fact."

Joiwind looked at him, and changed colour. Panawe relapsed into
sternness.

Maskull became interested in a new phenomenon. The jale-coloured
blossoms of a crysta