Climbing back over the hills, they now without further ceremony began their march across the desert.

They walked side by side.  Joiwind directed their course straight toward Poolingdred.  From the position of the sun, Maskull judged their way to lie due north.  The sand was soft and powdery, very tiring to his naked feet.  The red glare dazed his eyes, and made him semi-blind.  He was hot, parched, and tormented with the craving to drink; his undertone of pain emerged into full consciousness.

“I see my friends nowhere, and it is very queer.”

“Yes, it is queer—­if it is accidental,” said Joiwind, with a peculiar intonation.

“Exactly!” agreed Maskull.  “If they had met with a mishap, their bodies would still be there.  It begins to look like a piece of bad work to me.  They must have gone on, and left me....  Well, I am here, and I must make the best of it, I will trouble no more about them.”

“I don’t wish to speak ill of anyone,” said Joiwind, “but my instinct tells me that you are better away from those men.  They did not come here for your sake, but for their own.”

They walked on for a long time.  Maskull was beginning to feel faint.  She twined her magn lovingly around his waist, and a strong current of confidence and well-being instantly coursed through his veins.

“Thanks, Joiwind!  But am I not weakening you?”

“Yes,” she replied, with a quick, thrilling glance.  “But not much—­ and it gives me great happiness.”

Presently they met a fantastic little creature, the size of a new-born lamb, waltzing along on three legs.  Each leg in turn moved to the front, and so the little monstrosity proceeded by means of a series of complete rotations.  It was vividly coloured, as though it had been dipped into pots of bright blue and yellow paint.  It looked up with small, shining eyes, as they passed.

Joiwind nodded and smiled to it.  “That’s a personal friend of mine, Maskull.  Whenever I come this way, I see it.  It’s always waltzing, and always in a hurry, but it never seems to get anywhere.”

“It seems to me that life is so self-sufficient here that there is no need for anyone to get anywhere.  What I don’t quite understand is how you manage to pass your days without ennui.”

“That’s a strange word.  It means, does it not, craving for excitement?”

“Something of the kind,” said Maskull.

“That must be a disease brought on by rich food.”

“But are you never dull?”

“How could we be?  Our blood is quick and light and free, our flesh is clean and unclogged, inside and out....  Before long I hope you will understand what sort of question you have asked.”

Farther on they encountered a strange phenomenon.  In the heart of the desert a fountain rose perpendicularly fifty feet into the air, with a cool and pleasant hissing sound.  It differed, however, from a fountain in this respect—­that the water of which it was composed did not return to the ground but was absorbed by the atmosphere at the summit.  It was in fact a tall, graceful column of dark green fluid, with a capital of coiling and twisting vapours.