"

The Ssassaror giant put his hand on his friend's shoulder. Clenched,
it was almost as big as Rastignac's head. He spoke with a voice like a
lion coughing at the bottom of a deep well.

"It is good to see you again, my friend."

"What are you doing here?" said Rastignac, tears running down his face
as he stroked the great fingers on his shoulder.

Mapfarity's huge ears quivered like the wings of a bat tied to a rock
and unable to fly off. The tufts of feathers at their ends grew stiff
and suddenly crackled with tiny sparks.

The electrical display was his equivalent of the human's weeping. Both
creatures discharged emotion; their bodies chose different avenues and
manifestations. Nevertheless, the sight of the other's joy affected
each deeply.

"I have come to rescue you," said Mapfarity. "I caught Archambaud
here,"--he indicated the other man--"stealing eggs from my golden
goose. And...."

Raoul Archambaud--pronounced Wawl Shebvo--interrupted excitedly, "I
showed him my license to steal eggs from Giants who were raising
counterfeit geese, but he was going to lock me up anyway. He was going
to take my Skin off and feed me on meat...."

"Meat!" said Rastignac, astonished and revolted despite himself.
"Mapfarity, what have you been doing in that castle of yours?"

Mapfarity lowered his voice to match the distant roar of a cataract.
"I haven't been very active these last few years," he said, "because I
am so big that it hurts my feet if I walk very much. So I've had much
time to think. And I, being logical, decided that the next step after
eating fish was eating meat. It couldn't make me any larger. So, I ate
meat. And while doing so, I came to the same conclusion that you,
apparently, have done independently. That is, the Philosophy of...."

"Of Violence," interrupted Archambaud. "Ah, Jean-Jacques, there must
be some mystic bond that brings two Humans of such different
backgrounds as yours and the Ssassaror together, giving you both the
same philosophy. When I explained what you had been doing and that you
were in jail because you had advocated getting rid of the Skins,
Mapfarity petitioned...."

"The King to make an official jail-break," said Mapfarity with an
impatient glance at the rolypoly egg-stealer. "And...."

"The King agreed," broke in Archambaud, "provided Mapfarity would turn
in his counterfeit goose and provided you would agree to say no more
about abandoning Skins, but...."

The Giant's bas