like twisted, golden wires, whose loins were girded in the pelt of a lynx, and who carried a hardwood staff a weaker man could not have lifted. He thundered: "Who're you and who d'ye take me for?"

Around the fire men sprang to their feet, gripping weapons and raising bows. Their leader held his sword at guard and eyed the stranger coldly. "I mistook you for a missing member of our party," he said. "Name yourself, stranger." There was an angry growl from the men around the fire; they advanced, their weapons twitching.

"Are you Fotchy?" spoke up a man in the background.

"Not Hibron nor Fotchy nor any of your people," answered the stranger, surveying them. "I'm Clark Stevens, wildman and sworn enemy of the city people. Who are you?"

The bearded man lowered his sword. "Come by the fire, enemy of the Fotchy, for their enemies are our friends. Are you alone?"

Stevens beckoned into a brush and a slim, firm-muscled woman dressed briefly in patched remnants of cloth came forth. "Markett, my wife," he explained. Then to her: "These men are our friends, but who they are, I do not know. They are honest people, I think. Let us sit by their fire."

He and the woman crossed their legs before the blaze, and one of the band piled wood on top. As the flames rose, the forest shadows were driven back, and every pebble in the little clearing cast its long shadow on the ground. The black-bearded man seated himself before the two strangers and his people arranged themselves in council behind him.

"Selim, Stevens," began the leader. "I am Isral, one of the judges of the clan of Hebers, expelled and hunted down by the accursed Fotchy these seven generations and more. Are you, too, hounded by the murderous, invading swine?" The firelight gleamed on his nose and played about his curly beard and hair."These Fotchy," said Stevens slowly. "I have never heard of them. But I am hounded by another kind, perhaps. I have forsworn the cities of gleaming metal and glass, with their tasteless water and pulpy food. This I have left to live in the wilderness with my wife, and for that reason, they seek to kill me. These Fotchy--who were they?"

Isral spat. "They came from over the ocean and conquered all things. They imprisoned women and tortured men. Their leaders grew fat and luxurious while the common people were ground into the earth. The Hebers (those who we are) were singled out for destruction, though no one seems to know why. All this have I 

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