er see Larue again.

He took the path that led toward town. Part of the Whirlpool star
cluster was still above the horizon, a white blaze of a thousand suns,
and the eastern sky was lightening with the first rays of dawn. A
dozen girls were ahead of him, their voices a low murmur as they
hurried back toward town. There was an undertone of tension, all of
the former gaiety gone. The brief week of make-believe was over and
the next Vogarians to come would truly be their enemy.

He came to the hilltop where he had met the mountain girl, thought of
her with irrational longing, and suddenly she was there before him.

The pistol was again in her belt.

"You came with all the stealth of a plains ox," she said. "I could
have shot you a dozen times over."

"Are we already at war?" he asked.

"We Saints have to let you Vogarians kill some of us, first--our
penalty for being ethical."

"Listen to me," he said. "We tried to fight the inevitable in the Lost
Islands. When the sun went down that day, half of us were dead and the
rest prisoners."

"And you rose from prisoner to officer because you were too selfish to
keep fighting for what was right."

"I saw them bury the ones who insisted on doing that."

"And you want us to meekly bow down, here?"

"I have no interest of any kind in this world--I'll never see it
again--but I know from experience what will happen to you and your
people if you try to fight. I don't want that to happen. Do you think
that because a man isn't a blind chauvinist, he has to be a soulless
monster?"

"No," she said in a suddenly small voice. "But I had hoped ... we were
talking that day of the mountains beyond the Emerald Plain and a
frontier to last for centuries ... it was just idle talk but I thought
maybe that when the showdown came you would be on our side, after
all."

She drew a deep breath that came a little raggedly and said with a
lightness that was too forced:

"You don't mind if I have a silly sentimental fondness for my world,
do you? It's the only world I have. Maybe you would understand if you
could see the Azure Mountains in the spring ... but you never will,
will you? Because you lied when you said you weren't my enemy and now
I know you are and I"--the lightness faltered and broke--"am yours ...
and the next time we meet one will have to kill the other."

She turned away, and vanished among the trees like a shadow.

He was unaware of the passage of time as he stood ther