ship--They will take off without me!" He could not help but voice
that plaint, as he had so many times before during that foggy,
nightmare journey.

"They have not done so yet."

He struggled up, flung off that calming hand, turned angrily toward
where he thought the other was. "How can you be sure?"

"Word has come. The ship is still there, though the small flyer has
returned to it."

This assurance was something new. Raf's suspicions could not stand up
against the note of certainty in the other's voice. He got awkwardly
to his feet. If the ship was still here, then they must still think
him alive--They might come back! He had a chance--a real chance!

"Then they are waiting for me--They'll come!"

He could not see the soberness with which Dalgard listened to that.
The star ship had not lifted, that message had found its way south,
passed along by hopper and merman. But the scout doubted if the
explorers were waiting for the return of Raf. He believed that they
would not have left the city had they not thought the pilot already
dead.

As to going north now--His picture of the land ahead had been built up
from reports gained from the sea people. It could be done, but with
Raf to be nursed and guided, lacking even the outrigger Dalgard had
used in home waters, it would take days--weeks, probably--to cover
the territory which lay between them and the plains where the star
ship had planeted.

But he owed Raf a great deal, and it was summer, the season of warm
calms. So far he had not been able to work out any plan for a return
to his own land. It might be that they were both doomed to exile. But
it was not necessary to face that drear future yet, not until they had
expended every possible effort. So now he said willingly enough, "We
are going north."

Raf sat down again in the sand. He wanted to run, to push on until his
feet were too tired to carry him any farther. But now he fought that
impulse, lay down once more. Though he doubted if he could sleep.

Dalgard watched the stars, sketched out a map of action for the
morning. They must follow the shore line where they could keep in
touch with the mermen, though along this coast the sea people did not
come to land with the freedom their fellows showed on the eastern
continent--they had lived too long in fear of Those Others.

But since the war party had reached the coast, there had been no sign
of any retaliation, and as several days passed, Dalgard had begun