about Crystalman."

Joiwind shook her hair. "In that grove of trees over there stands a
desert shrine of his. Let us go and pray there, and then we'll go on
our way to Poolingdred. That is my home. It's a long way off, and
we must get there before Blodsombre."

"Now, what is Blodsombre?"

"For about four hours in the middle of the day Branchspell's rays are
so hot that no one can endure them. We call it Blodsombre."

"Is Branchspell another name for Arcturus?"

Joiwind threw off her seriousness and laughed. "Naturally we don't
take our names from you, Maskull. I don't think our names are very
poetic, but they follow nature."

She took his arm affectionately, and directed their walk towards the
tree-covered hills. As they went along, the sun broke through the
upper mists and a terrible gust of scorching heat, like a blast from
a furnace, struck Maskull's head. He involuntarily looked up, but
lowered his eyes again like lightning. All that he saw in that
instant was a glaring ball of electric white, three times the
apparent diameter of the sun. For a few minutes he was quite blind.

"My God!" he exclaimed. "If it's like this in early morning you must
be right enough about Blodsombre." When he had somewhat recovered
himself he asked, "How long are the days here, Joiwind?"