Hultax stared, saying nothing. He did not know what to say. He lacked
the imagination to make something up. Somehow, he knew it was terribly
important. He knew without knowing how he knew that his life might
depend on his answer.

"Well?" the Golden Ape asked gently.

"I ... that is...."

The Ape's eyes narrowed as he looked down at Hultax. "You _are_ from
Portox?"

"Yes, yes. Of course."

"I see you have the bracelet."

"Yes, here is the bracelet."

"And the cloak of Portox?" demanded the Ape. "The cloak Portox
foretold you would wear?"

"I--I lost the cloak in my journey," lied Hultax, not knowing about
any cloak. There, he thought, that ought to satisfy him.

But the Ape said: "There was no cloak."

"No cloak? No cloak!"

"I made that up, to test you. You're not from Portox."

The stallion pawed the ground and looked up and then down at Hultax,
snorting. Hultax, trembling, wished he could melt into the ground.

* * * * *

"Still," Hultax said, shaking, "I am from Portox. You tried to trick
me. You...."

"We shall see," the Ape said, still pleasantly. "Come."

The ground rolled, or so it seemed to Hultax. The forest loomed ahead
of him, then trees were all around him, then they stood on a rolling
plain again.

"Where--did you take me?"

The Ape smiled. He seemed quite human despite his size, despite his
fur. The stallion pawed the ground impatiently.

"Behold," said the Ape.

Something on the fringe of the forest screamed. It was an awful sound
and it made the hackles stand upright on Hultax's bull-neck. He drew
his whip-sword and faced the forest.

"Well, man," chided the Golden Ape, "and do you need a weapon? Portox
told us we would know his man because his man, unarmed, would be able
to conquer the wild boar of the Kranuian Wood. And you?"

The screaming came again. Terrified, Hultax did not fling his weapon
aside. Wild boar? What wild boar ... time enough later ... to convince
the Ape....

The boar emerged. It was almost as big as a man and covered with dirty
gray hair. Its tusks were two feet long. The stallion whinnied but
remained perfectly still. The Golden Ape waited and watched. The boar
charged.

Hultax's right arm blurred and the mobile blade of the whip-sword
whizzed through air and struck the boar's meaty shoulder. The boar
screamed, and came on.

It was, Hultax realized in despair, only a superficial wound. The boar
came on, bleeding,