w, however, knowing that she could not see the fallacy, he
did not try to argue the point. The Amphibs were, in their way, as
hidebound--no pun intended--as the Land-walkers.

"Look, Lusine," he said, "there are only three places where a Man may
take off his Skin. One is in his own home, when he may hang it upon
the halltree. Two is when he is, like us, in jail and therefore may
not harm anybody. The third is when a man is King. Now you and I have
been without our Skins for a week. We have gone longer without them
than anybody, except the King. Tell me true, don't you feel free for
the first time in your life?

"Don't you feel as if you belong to nobody but yourself, that you are
accountable to no one but yourself, and that you love that feeling?
And don't you dread the day we will be let out of prison and made to
wear our Skins again? That day which, curiously enough, will be the
very day that we will lose our freedom."

Lusine looked as if she didn't know what he was talking about.

"You'll see what I mean when we are freed and the Skins are put back
upon us," he said. Immediately after, he was embarrassed. He
remembered that she would go to the Chalice where one of the heavy and
powerful Skins used for unnaturals would be fastened to her
shoulders.

Lusine did not notice. She was considering the last but most telling
point in her argument "You cannot win against us," she said, watching
him narrowly for the effect of her words. "We have a weapon that is
irresistible. We have immortality."

His face did not lose its imperturbability.

She continued, "And what is more, we can give immortality to anyone
who casts off his Skin and adopts ours. Don't think that your people
don't know this. For instance, during the last year more than two
thousand Humans living along the beaches deserted and went over to us,
the Amphibs."

He was a little shocked to hear this, but he did not doubt her. He
remembered the mysterious case of the schooner _Le Pauvre Pierre_
which had been found drifting and crewless, and he remembered a
conversation he had had with a fisherman in his home port of Marrec.

He put his hands behind his back and began pacing. Lusine continued
staring at him through the bars. Despite the fact that her face was in
the shadows, he could see--or feel--her smile. He had humiliated her,
but she had won in the end.

Rastignac quit his limited roving and called up to the guard.

"_Shoo l'footyay, kal u ay tee