"I never told her that in the first place."

"You weren't upset and outraged by my erotic hints and proposals?"

"Of course not! I never noticed any, in the first place."

"Why should Zaa assure me that I had disgraced myself?"

Lilo considered.

"Perhaps she misunderstood. Maybe she was, well"--Lilo breathed a word in Glawen's ear--"jealous."

"She seems to have overcome her emotion."

"From necessity. I am first because she wants to make sure that you function properly."

"Does she plan to lock me into the tomb again?"

"I don't think so--so long as you perform well. If not, Mutis will strangle you with a rope."

"In that case--shall we try again?"

"If you like."

Lilo at last left the chamber. Glawen waited five minutes, then crossed the room and tried the door. It was locked.

The time had come. He dressed himself in his own clothes, and went to lie on the cot.

An hour passed. Glawen went to press his ear against the door. He heard nothing and instantly went to work, with a feverish intensity of purpose.

The cot was a construction of wood, designed for easy erection and dismantling, with meshes of rope to support the mattress. Glawen removed the ropes. The strong wooden side timbers were now at his disposal.

Glawen loosely rearranged the cot, so that if anyone chanced to look into his room, nothing would seem disarranged. One at a time he took the spare sheets into the bathroom, ripped them into six-inch ribbons, tied them to make up a rope a hundred and twenty feet long, which he thought adequate to his needs.

Again he listened at the door. Silence.

With a timber from the cot and rope, also from the cot, he climbed on the table and opened wide the two casements. He examined the center post which barred his passage. There were several ways to remove it; the simplest method was to break the weld at the bottom.

He tied the end of the timber to the bottom of the post, with many turns and loops of the rope, so that the timber functioned as a lever for the exertion of torque. Cautiously he swung the end of the timber

out into the room, applying torque to the post. The rope, as he had expected, tightened and stretched; he readjusted the bindings, and once more applied leverage. With a wrench and a sharp snap the welds broke.

Glawen sighed in satisfaction. He bent the post back and forth until it broke; the entire window was open for his passage.

In a fury of haste, Glawen made his rope of torn sheets fast to the timber, which he now used as a toggle across the window opening. He threw the rope out the window, clambered through into the darkness and let himself slide down the rope.

His feet touched the rocky slope.

"Goodbye, seminary," said Glawen, almost choking on his exultation.

"Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye!"

Glawen turned and picked his way down the hill, in glorious freedom. In due course he crossed the square into the village.

The depot was closed and dark; an omnibus stood nearby, with the entry door ajar. Glawen looked within, to discover the driver asleep across the back seat. Glawen prodded him awake.

"Do you want to earn fifty sols?"

"Naturally. That's all I am paid each month."

"Here you are," said Glawen.

"Drive me to Fexelburg."

"Now? You can ride for the price of a ticket in the morning."

"I have urgent business in town," said Glawen.

"In fact, I even have a ticket."

"You're a tourist, I take it."

"Correct."

"Did you go up to the seminary? You'll find nothing there but surly treatment."

"That's how it seemed to me," said Glawen.

"I see no reason not to oblige you. Urgent business, you say?"

"Yes. A telephone call I forgot to make. "I "A pity. But perhaps it will all come right. And meanwhile I profit by your mistake."

"Unfortunately that is the way the world goes."

The omnibus moved through the night, under a sky spread with constellations strange to Glawen. Tonight the wind blew in gusts, sighing around the bus and bending the lonely frooks, where they could be seen in the starlight.

The driver was Bant, a large young Fcxel of good disposition and a tendency toward garrulity. Glawen responded to his remarks in monosyllables, and Bant presently fell silent.

After two hours of travel, Glawen asked: "What of the early morning transport from Pogan's Point? How will that be arranged?"

"I have been wondering along the same lines," said Bant.

"I

foresee no real problem. In the simplest case, there will be no transport whatever, and the problem becomes moot. But I have arrived at a plan which should please everyone. In an hour or two we will arrive at Flicken, where I will telephone Esmer, the relief driver. I will offer him five sols to bring out the old green Deluxus Special to service the morning trade. Esmer will be happy to earn an increment;

the customers will be content; I cannot see where a single tear of anguish need be shed--certainly not by me."

"That is an ingenious solution. How long before we arrive at Flicken? I also want to make a telephone call."