first I felt no sorrow. Later, after days and days of search in and
about the basin, I came to grieve most terribly over my loss. When I
came home to the palace, I was well-nigh ill.

In vain did I make the most generous of rewards. The whole empire turned
out to search for the missing ones, but nothing came of it all. Yet I
never ceased to hope, especially after my talk with Maka.

"Aye," he said, when I questioned him, "it were barely possible that
they have left this world for all time. I have calculated the speed
which their craft might have attained, had it the right proportions,
and, in truth, it might have left the spillway at such a speed that it
entirely overcame the draw of the ground.

"But I think it were a slim chance. It is more than likely, Strokor,
that Ave shall return to thee."

Was I not the fitter man? Surely Edam's purpose could not succeed; Jon
would not have it so. The woman was mine, because I had chosen her; and
she must come back to me, and in safety, or I should tear Edam into
bits.

But as time went on and naught transpired, I became more and more
melancholy. Life became an empty thing; it had been empty enough before
I had craved the girl, but now it was empty with hopelessness.

After a while I got to thinking of some of the things Maka had told me.
The more I thought of the future, the blacker it seemed. True, there
were many other women; but there had been only one Ave. No such beauty
had ever graced this world before. And I knew I could be happy with no