inside the cave and hope that because it's taboo nobody will explore it to look for us.""It seems to me that's the first place they'd look into," said Aga. "Not if we don't wake the old woman. Then if the savages come along later and ask her if anybody's come by they'll get no for an answer." "What about the cats?" Green shrugged his shoulders. "We'll have to take that chance. Perhaps, if once we get by them and into the cave, they may quiet down." He was referring to their caterwauling, which was beginning to sound dreadful. "No," said Aga, "that noise will be a signal to the islanders. They'll know something's up." "Well," replied Green, "I don't know what you intend doing, but I'm going into that cave. I'm too tired to run any further." "So are we," affirmed the other women. "We've reached the end of our strength." There was a silence, and into that silence came a voice, a man's. It whispered, "Please do not be startled. Be quiet. It is I...." Miran stepped out of the shadows behind them, holding his finger to his lips, his one eye round and pale in the moonlight. He was a ragged captain, not at all the elegantly uniformed commander of the _Bird of Fortune_ and the wealthy-appearing patriarch of the Clan Effenycan. But he carried in his other hand a canvas bag. Green, seeing it, knew that Miran had managed somehow not only to escape with his skin but had also carried off a treasure in jewels. "Behold," he announced, waving the bag, "all is not lost." Green thought that he was referring to the jewels. However, Miran had turned and beckoned to someone in the darkness behind him. Out of it slipped Grizquetr. Tears shone in his eyes as he ran to his mother and fell into her arms. Amra began weeping softly. Until now she had repressed her grief over the children she thought forever lost to her. All thought had been directed to saving her own life and the lives of the two girls who had survived with her. Now, seeing her eldest son emerge from the shadows as if from the grave had thawed the frozen well of sorrow. She sobbed, "I thank the gods that they have given me back my son." "If the gods are so wonderful why did they kill your other two children?" asked Miran sourly. "And why did they kill my Clansmen, and why did they smash my _Bird_? Why...?" "Shut up!" said Green. "This is no time to cry about anything. We have to get out with whole hides. The philosophizing and tears can come later." "Mennirox is an ungrateful god," muttered Miran. "After all I did for him, too." Amra dried her tears and said, "How did you escape? I thought all the males who hadn't been killed in the wreck were speared?" "Almost everybody was," replied Grizquetr. "But I crawled down into the hold and slipped through to a hiding place beneath one of the fish tanks, which had 

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