h worlds from
the sun and set them upon their orbits. The existence of the
mythological legend indicated too, that civilization on Tarth was not
backward or at least had not been in ages gone.

In the more exact realm, Bram Forest learned that Tarth was far less
watery than its invisible sister, scarcely half its surface consisting
of ocean. It had two ice caps at the poles, known as the Outer Reaches
and an equator termed the Inner Belt.

* * * * *

There were no isolated continents according to Ylia's map, all the dry
surfaces being connected by wide passages of land through the
continuous ocean.

Ylia's description of the people interested Bram Forest most
intensely. On Tarth, he learned, there was no association of nations,
each mistrusting the others in a world where a state of continuous war
at some point of the globe was an accepted state of affairs which no
one sought to ameliorate.

Ylia herself was hazy upon the description and number of the nations.
She thought some two hundred existed but only the most important could
she describe.

* * * * *

The Abarians were the most successfully warlike, fearing only the
Nadians to the south. This because though the Nadians were not
aggressive and even treated other lesser nations in a kindly fashion,
they possessed an inherent fighting skill and a power potential that
had not been tested in recallable history. Though they had not fought
for centuries, their potential had not lessened because such a folly
would have been considered tantamount to national suicide on Tarth.

There were also the Utalians that Bram Forest visualized as some sort
of lizard men for the reason that they possessed the defensive
characteristics of the chameleon. There was also another intriguing
race, no member of which Ylia had ever seen. She referred to them as
the Twin People of Coom, an area near the north Outer Reach. Bram
Forest speculated upon what manner of people they would be and it came
to him that the evolutionary processes on Tarth had not corresponded
to those of Earth, where all members of the human race evolved into
practically the same form.

Then a name came into Bram Forest's mind; a name that rose out of that
mysterious well of knowledge in his subconscious; a well he could not
explain but had been forced to accept. He no longer questioned it.

"Tell me of the Ofridians."

Ylia started as though he ha