ad out for miles below him. Mapfarity's
castle--a tall rose-colored tower of flying buttresses--flashed in the
rising sun. It stood on another hill by the sea shore. The country
around was a madman's dream of color. Yet to Rastignac every hue
sickened the eye. That bright green, for instance, was poisonous; that
flaming scarlet was bloody; that pale yellow, rheumy; that velvet
black, funeral; that pure white, maggotty.

"Rastignac!" It was Mapfarity's bass, strumming irritation deep in his
chest.

"What?"

"What do we do now?"

Jean-Jacques was silent. Archambaud spoke plaintively.

"I'm not used to going without my Skin. There are things I miss. For
one thing, I don't know what you're thinking, Jean-Jacques. I don't
know whether you're angry at me or love me or are indifferent to me. I
don't know where other people _are_. I don't feel the joy of the
little animals playing, the freedom of the flight of birds, the
ghostly plucking of the growing grass, the sweet stab of the mating
lust of the wild-horned apigator, the humming of bees working to build
a hive, and the sleepy stupid arrogance of the giant cabbage-eating
_deuxnez_. I can feel nothing without the Skin I have worn so long. I
feel alone."

Rastignac replied, "You are not alone. I am with you."

Lusine spoke in a low voice, her large brown eyes upon his.

"I, too, feel alone. My Skin is gone, the Skin by which I knew how to
act according to the wisdom of my father, the Amphib King. Now that it
is gone and I cannot hear his voice through the vibrating tympanum, I
do not know what to do."

"At present," replied Rastignac, "you will do as I tell you."

Mapfarity repeated, "What now?"

Rastignac became brisk. He said, "We go to your castle, Giant. We use
your smithy to put sharp points on our swords, points to slide through
a man's body from front to back. Don't pale! That is what we must do.
And then we pick up your goose that lays the golden eggs, for we must
have money if we are to act efficiently. After that, we buy--or
steal--a boat and we go to wherever the Earthman is held captive. And
we rescue him."

"And then?" said Lusine, her eyes shining with emotion.

"What you do then will be up to you. But I am going to leave this
planet and voyage with the Earthman to other worlds."

Silence. Then Mapfarity said, "Why leave here?"

"Because there is no hope for this land. Nobody will give up his Skin.
_Le Beau Pays_ is doomed to a lotus-life. And