ng boat. The
huge wave that followed the settling of thousands of tons of stone into the
water swiftly picked them up and hurled them through one of the gaps in the
sea-wall.

Long after, while Odin was bailing water from the boat, and Gunnar was
fiddling with the motor that had conked out again, the dwarf looked back at
the cliff. It was shadowy now. Dust was still rising as it shook loose an
occasional, crumbling ledge.

"Eh, Nors-King, we fight again," the squat man laughed. "You saved Gunnar's
life once more--and you almost killed him, too." He paused to wipe sweat
from his dripping face.

Odin grinned back at him. Then, without another word, he took up the
expensive rifle and let it slip overboard. The ammunition that cost him so
much trouble and pain as he lugged it all the way to Opal followed after.
He watched the copper shells as they gleamed like a school of minnows and
plunged out of sight.

"There, Gunnar. I have nothing left to fight with but my hands."

"Good-riddance to that thing," Gunnar smiled. "I will make you a blade that
will slice through an anvil."

The motor coughed, sputtered--and began to purr.

The boat churned a wide arc in the water as Gunnar turned it and headed
toward the Tower, which now loomed far ahead like a beacon.

CHAPTER 5

As the boat sped over the water, leaving a churning wake behind it, Jack
Odin remembered that first sea-voyage he had made on the seas of Opal. It
was June-time then, and Maya had been with him. Perhaps they had thought
that June would last forever. Perhaps they had thought that all of life
would go by at five miles per hour. Remembering that slow, wonderful
trip--almost like a voyage in a dream--he sighed as he held on to the
skipping boat. They were now going well over sixty.

Gunnar seemed to sense his thoughts. "Wolden has ordered speed and more
speed, my friend," he called over the roar of the motor. "The governors are
all gone from the old machines. The smiths are turning out newer and faster
ones all the time. Sometimes I think even the hands of the clocks are going
faster."

Odin muttered a curse. What he had loved about this world was its leisure.
What he had hated about his own world above was its constantly increasing
speed. Like a squirrel caught in a cage, his world had gone faster and
faster until reality had vanished into a mad blur of turning wheels and
running feet. Oh, well, he thought, a man is like a pup. Contented enough