her own veins the blood of a strange man from a strange planet. If I
had not been so dazed and weak I would never have allowed it."

"But I would have insisted. Are we not all brothers and sisters?
Why did you come here, Maskull?"

He was conscious of a slight degree of embarrassment. "Will you
think it foolish if I say I hardly know?--I came with those two men.
Perhaps I was attracted by curiosity, or perhaps it was the love of
adventure."

"Perhaps," said Joiwind. "I wonder... These friends of yours must
be terrible men. Why did they come?"

"That I can tell you. They came to follow Surtur."

Her face grew troubled. "I don't understand it. One of them at
least must be a bad man, and yet if he is following Surtur--or
Shaping, as he is called here--he can't be really bad."

"What do you know of Surtur?" asked Maskull in astonishment.

Joiwind remained silent for a time, studying his face. His brain
moved restlessly, as though it were being probed from outside. "I
see.... and yet I don't see," she said at last. "It is very
difficult.... Your God is a dreadful Being--bodyless, unfriendly,
invisible. Here we don't worship a God like that. Tell me, has any
man set eyes on your God?"

"What does all this mean, Joiwind? Why speak of God?"