are not for such as Edam."

"No?" quoth the young man, speaking up for the chit. "Ye are wrong,
Strokor. We defy thee to do thy worst; we are prepared to flee from ye
at all costs!"

I had twisted one of the bars out of my way without their seeing it. I
strove at the next as I answered, still controlling my voice: "'Twill do
ye no good to flee, Edam; ye know that. And as for Ave--she shall wish
she had never been born!"

"So I should," she replied with spirit, "if I were to become thy woman.
But know you, Strokor, that Ave, the daughter of Durok, would rather die
than take the name of one who had spurned her, as ye did me!"

So I had; it had slipped my mind. "But I want thee now, Ave," said I
softly, preparing to slip through the opening I had made. "Surely ye
would not take thine own life?"

"Nay," she answered, with a laugh in her voice. "Rather I would go with
Edam here. I would go," she finished, her voice rising in her
excitement, "away from this horrible man's world; away from it all,
Strokor, and to Jeos! Hear ye? To Jeos! And--"

But at that instant I burst through the grating. Without a sound I
charged straight for the pair of them. And without a sound they slipped
away from before my grasp. Next second I was gazing stupidly at the
rushing, swirling water of the flume.

And I saw that they had been sitting in the cabin of a tiny boat, and