amed to lift her eyes to look at them,
he would have to be grim and stern as he told her how she had been
trusted and how she had betrayed that trust. But now, as he watched her
go down the hill, he could smile with his pride in her and know that his
question was answered; that the younger generation had lost neither
courage nor loyalty.

* * * * *

Julia saved a child's life that spring and almost lost her own. The
child was playing under a half-completed canopy when a sudden, violent
wind struck it and transformed it into a death-trap of cracking, falling
timbers. She reached him in time to fling him to safety but the
collapsing roof caught her before she could make her own escape.

Her chest and throat were torn by the jagged ends of the broken poles
and for a day and a night her life was a feebly flickering spark. She
began to rally on the second night and on the third morning she was able
to speak for the first time, her eyes dark and tortured with her fear:

"My baby--what did it do to him?"

She convalesced slowly, haunted by the fear. Her son was born five
weeks later and her fears proved to have been groundless. He was
perfectly normal and healthy.

And hungry--and her slowly healing breasts would be dry for weeks to
come.

By a coincidence that had never happened before and could never happen
again there was not a single feeding-time foster-mother available for
the baby. There were many expectant mothers but only three women had
young babies--and each of the three had twins to feed.

But there was a small supply of frozen goat milk in the ice house,
enough to see young Johnny through until it was time for the goat herd
to give milk. He would have to live on short rations until then but it
could not be helped.

* * * * *

Johnny was a month old when the opportunity came for the men of Ragnarok
to have their ultimate ally.

The last of the unicorns were going north and the prowlers had long
since gone. The blue star was lighting the night like a small sun when
the breeze coming through Schroeder's window brought the distant
squealing of unicorns.

He listened, wondering. It was a sound that did not belong. Everyone was
safely in the town, most of them in bed, and there should be nothing
outside the stockade for the unicorns to fight.

He armed himself with spear and crossbow and went outside. He let
himself out through the east gate a