And think my Heart is buried here.

sudden She brought her hands together. I think I must have been drugged for a long time. When I finally regained consciousness, I was on this island, from which your son fortuitously rescued me only this morning! Killashandra turned, fluttering her eyelashes at Lars in a parody of gratitude. I find that absolutely fascinating, Killashandra Ree, said a totally unexpected newcomer. Lars half crouched as he whirled toward the doorway framing Corish von Mittelstern. Evidently your credentials were far more impressive than you led me to expect. So youre the crystal singer who was dispatched? Oh, and have you found your dear uncle? Actually, I have. Corish, his lips twitching with the first real amusement she had seen him exhibit, gestured toward Olav Dahl. Lars was not the only one who stared at his father. Nahia gave a silvery laugh. It was too amusing, the confrontation, Lars, Nahia said, chuckling. They were circling the truth like two hemlin cocks. It was all I could do to retain my composure, for, of course, Hauness and I have known Olavs history. It didnt take me very long to perceive that Corish was not looking for the man in the hologram. I could hardly brandish Dahls real likeness in case I jeopardized him. Id memorized his facial characteristics so I thought Id recognize him once I did see him. Then Corish turned to Killashandra. He hadnt altered as much as you had. I didnt recognize you at all, with your hair and eyebrows bleached and a good few kilos lighter. If it matters, and Corish gestured at the matched garlands, this is an improvement over the mawkish music student. So are you Council or Evaluation? Killashandra shot a triumphant glance at Lars. Olavs no more your uncle than I am. That inheritance business was very thin. For you, perhaps, and Corish inclined his body toward her, and his manner turned starchy at her criticism, but youd be surprised at how effective it was. Especially with Optherian officials who might get their percentage out of it. Corish made an age-old gesture with his thumb and forefinger. Since all off-planet mail is censored, and not always delivered to the addressee, such a problem is peculiarly applicable to Optheria. I withdraw my comment. Killashandra nodded graciously and then seated herself in the nearest chair. Do I also assume that Olav has been a misplaced agent? Inadvertently detained, Olav replied on his own behalf, with a nod to Corish. My briefing was at fault, on a point no one had digital camera online store considered at headquarters. To whit, the mineral residue, which is what trapped me here. And which provides the Optherians with such simple means of preventing unauthorized departure from this planet. The exile has not been without profit to me, and he smiled warmly at his son, though my time was not spent in activities of which the Council wholeheartedly approve. If you cant lick em, join em is useful advice. He winked at Killashandra, who gave a crow of laughter. However, you appear to be remarkably tolerant of the abuse you have suffered at my sons hands. Killashandra laughed. Oh, yes, since it has afforded me the chance to investigate a complaint. Oh? Olav exchanged glances with Corish. Lodged by a Stellar of the Federated Artists Association. Really? Nahia clapped her hands together in delight, grinning at Lars with triumph. I told you they were a good choice. Corish had straightened up in his chair. You were also told to investigate? Oh, yes, but the organ repair should have been the priority! And she gave Lars a stern glance. We can discuss this at a later time, Olav said, raising his hand for silence. We have a much more immediate problem in the imminent arrival of an official search party. Ive outlined the way to deal with that, havent I? said Killashandra. To what purpose? Olav asked. Not that I am grateful for you forgiving my rascally son I think that would be my preeminent task, Olav Dahl, Killashandra replied with a grim smile. I dont know which Elder supervises Security on this planet, but from what I have seen, your son is probably first on their list of suspects whether or not theyve any evidence at all. Oh, I agree, Olav, Nahia said. Will Security believe your explanation? Corish asked skeptically. What? Killashandra rose in a flowing movement, drawing herself up to her full height, in a pose of haughty self-confidence. Refute the statement of a crystal singer, a member of the Heptite Guild, a craftsman whose services are vital to the all-important tourist season? You must be joking! How, under which ever name you hold sacred, can they challenge what I say? Besides, she said, relaxing and flashing a friendly smile, I have every

There 's three squires in Nottingham town

It was Jackstraw who heard it firstit was always Jackstraw, whose hearing was an even match for his phenomenal eyesight, who heard things first. Tired of having my exposed hands alternately frozen, I had dropped my book, zipped my sleeping-bag up to the chin and was drowsily watching him carving figurines from a length of inferior narwhal tusk when his hands suddenly fell still and he sat quite motionless. Then, unhurriedly as always, he dropped the piece of bone into the coffee-pan that simmered gently by the side of our oil-burner stovecurio collectors paid fancy prices for what they To-day is condemned to die. imagined to be the dark ivory of fossilised elephant tusksrose and put his ear to the ventilation shaft, his eyes remote in the unseeing gaze of a man lost in listening. A couple of seconds were enough. "Aeroplane," he announced casually. "Aeroplane!" I propped myself up on an elbow and stared at him. "Jackstraw, you've been hitting the methylated spirits again." "Indeed, no, Dr Mason." The blue eyes, so incongruously at

"What news? what news, thou silly old woman?

The Council does not interfere with planetary politics when no other planet or system is affected. Optheria could not be approached on an official basis, you know. The FSP had ratified their Charter. With you to explain all about the lack of popular acceptance of the restriction, surely My dear Killashandra Ree, the situation on Optheria cannot be altered by one mans testimony, especially a man who could by planetary laws to which he is now subject under intergalactic regulations, be tried and convicted of treasonous acts. Oh! Killashandras elation drained away quickly. Dont concern yourself with this problem now, my friend for I count you one, Olav said, gripping her on the shoulder. I am grateful for what you have already achieved. He took Larss shoulder in his other hand, smiling with great affection at his son. Ever since we saw the cruiser jet on the screen, Id been wracking my brains on how to protect Lars from interrogation by Torkes. You have scuttled that plan, but do not deceive yourself that all will be fair sailing. It was a superb performance, Killa! When I tell the others Softly, Lars, softly. Olav said, Torkes has had enough to swallow. Give him no more on your peril. Now, Killashandra, we must do the courteous for you, and lavish you with suitable gifts and personal services Teradia, of course, Father. And Ill advise her about our visitors and their preferences. Lars grimaced with distaste. Yes, Ill warn her youre coming up and then Ill organize appropriate festivities. Why waste a barbecue on Torkes? He doesnt eat! Killashandra said in disgust. But you do, Killashandra, and its your return to civilization that were celebrating! Lars squeezed her about the waist. One point, Lars, and Olav laid a restraining, hand on his sons arm as he reached and removed the garland from his neck. I am sorry, but these would bring unwelcome questions. He reached for Killashandras and she hesitated before giving it to him. Not half as sorry as I am. She walked out of the building, Lars following quietly behind her. Chapter 16 Teradias house was situated on one of the upper levels facing North Harbor, and as they hurried up the steep, zigzag stairs that linked the terraces, Killashandra saw that much of the debris occasioned by the hurricane had already been removed. Groups of young people were unhurriedly samsung nv digital camera tracker staking polly trees upright and replanting those young pollys which had been entirely uprooted. Others were pruning bushes or restoring bedding plants. Are there any snakes in this paradise? Killashandra asked when they paused at the first level to let her catch her breath. Snakes? What are those? Lars asked, humoring her. Normally, a long, slender, legless reptile only I meant humans with unpleasant characteristics. She made a weaving, sinuous gesture with her hand, and grimaced with distaste. Surely the Elders make use of informers and spies. Oh, they do. Most of whom report themselves to us and pass back such information as we want the Elders to have. Lars grinned as his fingers caressed her arm. Its not naive of us; islanders stick together. The Elders can give us little that we lack except the freedom to leave the planet. To be sure, not many of us would leave: its having the option to do so. And my father has a small detector so that people posing as tourists can be quickly identified. Father has a theory that only a certain type of personality is attracted to such an infamous occupation, and they often give themselves away. Strangely enough, by not singing! He gave her a mischievous grin. I was relieved to hear you singing lustily at the barbecue. I nearly didnt because, if I could recognize your tenor, you might have spotted me as that midnight soprano. So I sang alto. But, Lars, isnt Nahia in jeopardy for being here? Someone might just slip up and mention her presence? Lars took her by the elbows and pulled her against him, unconcernedly stroking her hair. Beloved Sunny, Nahia would be protected under any circumstances but, as it happens, only my father, you, and the people she came with, know she was on this island during the hurricane. Her partys ocean jet has been secreted in another of the Back caves, unseen by anyone. Its still there and wont emerge until weve had a chance to jam the cruisers surveillance systems. Nahia and Hauness will use the islands to screen them from any possibility of detection when the cruiser takes you all right, and me back to the Mainland. Satisfied? I told you my father is efficient. He is. There will also be no one here tonight from Wing Harbor who might inadvertently remember the girl Lars Dahl had as his partner. But No one in Wing will feel slighted: theyre all too busy with storm

What are the hopes of man? Old Egypt's King

suspidons, none at all: in the circumstancesthe near darkness, the pouring rain, the German-clad soldier speaking perfect German, the obvious truth that there was a gunbattle being fought near-handit would have been remarkable had he shown any signs of doubt "Idiot!" Mallory screamed at him. "Dummkopf! What is there to guard against here? The English swine are in the Street of Steps. They must be destroyed! For God's sake, hurry!" he shouted desperately. "If they escape again it'll be the Russian Front for all of us!" Mallory had his hand on the man's shoulder now, ready to push him on his way, but his hand fell to his side unneeded. The two men were already gone, running pell-mell across the square, had vanished into the rain and the darkness already. Seconds later Mallory and Miller were deep inside the fortress of Navarone. Everywhere there was complete confusiona bustling purposeful confusion as one would expect with the seasoned troops of the Alpenkorps, but confusion nevertheless, with much shouting of orders, blowing of whistles, starting of truck engines, sergeants running to and fro chivvying their men into marching order or into the waiting transports. Mallory and Miller ran too, once or twice through groups of men milling round the tailboard of a truck. Not that they were in any desperate hurry for themselves, but nothing could have been more conspicuousand suspiciousthan the sight of a couple of men walking calmly along in the middle of all that urgent activity. And so they ran, heads down or averted whenever they passed through a pool of light, Miller cursing feelingly and often at the unaccustomed exercise. They skirted two barrack blocks on their right, then the powerhouse on their left, then an ordnance depot on their right and then the Abteilung garage on their left. They were climbing, now, almost in darkness, but Mallory knew where he was to the inch: he had so thoroughly memorised the closely tallying descriptions given him by Vlachos and Panayis that' he would have been confident of finding his way with complete accuracy even if the darkness had been absolute. "What's that, boss?" Miller had caught Mallory by the arm, was pointing to a large, uncompromisingly rectangular building that loomed gauntly against the horizon. "The local hoosegow?" "Water storage tank," Mallory said briefly. "Panayis estimates there's half a million gallons in theremagazine flooding in an emergency. The magazines are directly below." He pointed to a squat, box-like, concrete structure a vivitar 5105s digital camera little farther on. "The only entrance to the magazine. Locked and guarded." They were approaching the senior officers' quarters nowthe commandant had his own flat on the second story, directly overlooking the massive, reinforced ferro-concrete control tower that controlled the two great guns below. Mallory suddenly stopped, picked up a handful of dirt, rubbed it on his face and told Miller to do the same. "Disguise," he explained. "The experts would consider it a bit on the elementary side, but it'll have to do. The lighting's apt to be a bit brighter inside this place." He went up the steps to the officers' quarters at a dead run, crashed through the swing doors with a force that almost took them off their hinges. The sentry at the keyboard looked at him in astonishment, the barrel of his sub-machine-gun lining up on the New Zealander's chest. "Put that thing down, you damned idiot!" Mallory snapped furiously. "Where's the commandant? Quickly, you oaf! It's life or death!" "HerrHerr Kominandant?" the sentry stuttered. "He's leftthey are all gone, just a minute ago." "What? All gone?" Mallory was staring at him with narrowed, dangerous eyes. "Did you say 'all gone'?" he asked softly. "Yes. II'm sure they're . . ." He broke off abruptly as Mallory's eyes shifted to a point behind his shoulder. "Then who the hell is that?" Mallory demanded savagely. The sentry would have been less than human not to fall for it. Even as he was swinging round to look, the vicious judo cut took him just below the ear. Mallory had smashed open the glass of the keyboard before the unfortunate guard bad bit the floor, swept all the keysabout a dozen in alloff their rings and into his pocket. It took them another twenty seconds to tape the man's mouth and hands and lock him in a convenient cupboard; then they were on their way again, still running. One more obstacle to overcome, Mallory thought as they pounded along in the darkness, the last of the triple defences. He did not know how many men would be guarding the locked door to the magazine, and in that moment of fierce exaltation he didn't particularly care. Neither, he felt sure, did Miller. There were no worries now, no taut-nerved tensions or nameless anxieties. Mallory would have been the last man in the world to admit it, or even believe it, but this was what men like Miller and himself had been born for. They had their

Were patchd from knee to wrist;

location of her island on the planets surface. In her first days, she had prowled the islands perimeter ceaselessly, for there were neighboring ones tantalizingly visible even though they were also small. Hers at least boasted a bubbling spring that flowed from its rocky source mid-island into the lagoon. And, if she could trust her judgment, hers was the largest in the cluster. Before she immersed herself in polly tree studies, she had swum to the nearest of the group. Plenty of polly trees but no water. And beyond that islet more were scattered in careless abundance across the clear aquamarine sea some large enough to support only a single tuft of polly trees so she had returned to her island, the best of a bad lot. Working with her hands and for a varied diet did not prevent Killashandra from endless speculations about her situation. She had been kidnapped for a purpose to force an investigation of Optherian restrictions. The FSP, much less her own Guild, would not tolerate such an outrage. If and here her brief knowledge of the Optherians let her down the Optherians admitted to FSP and the Heptite Guild that she had been abducted. Still, the Elders needed an operative organ by the time of the Summer Festival, and to do that they needed a crystal singer to make the installation. The crystal they had, but surely they wouldnt attempt such a delicate job. Well, it wasnt that delicate, Killashandra knew, but the crystal would prove difficult if not handled properly. So, grant that the Optherians would be searching for her, would they think to search on the islands? Would the islanders be in contact with the Ruling Elders about the terms of her ransom? If so, would the extortion be successful? Probably not, Killashandra thought, until the Ruling Elders had abandoned any hope of finding her within the next two months. Of course, that could throw their timetable off. It would take nearly three months for a replacement Guild Member to reach Optheria, even if the Optherians admitted the loss of the one already dispatched to them. On her own part, shed be stark raving lunatic if she was left on this island for several months. And if the Optherians acquired another singer to install their wretched white crystal, that didnt mean that theyd continue their efforts to find her! After much deliberation, silent as well as vocal, Killashandra decided that the smart thing to do was rescue herself. Her kidnapper had overlooked a few small points, the most important of which was that she happened to be a very strong swimmer with jvc digital video camera gr-d270u manual lungs well developed from singing opera and crystal. Physically, too, she was immensely fit. She could swim from island to island until she found one that was inhabited, one from which she could be rescued. Unless all the islanders were in on this insidious kidnap scheme. The hazards that she must overcome were only two: lack of water was one, but she felt that she could refresh herself sufficiently from the polly fruit the tree flourished on all the islands she could see. Too, the larger denizens of the sea constituted a real problem. Some of them, cruising beyond her lagoons, looked deadly dangerous, with their pointed, toothy snouts, or their many wire-fine tentacles which seemed to have an affinity for the same yellowback fish she favored. She had spent enough time watching them to know that they generally fed at dawn and dusk. So, if she made her crossings at midday, when they were dormant, she thought she had a fairly good chance to avoid adding herself to their diet. Three weeks on the island was long enough! She had a few of the emergency food packets left and they would be unharmed by a long immersion. Following the directions in her useful little pamphlet, she had made several sturdy lengths of rope from the coarse fiber of the polly tree, with which she could secure the hatchet to her body. Her original clothing was down to shreds which she sewed with lengths of the tough stem into a halter and a loin cloth. By then she had become as tan as her abductor and was forced to use some of the oilier fishes to grease her hide for protection. She would coat herself thoroughly before each leg of her swim to freedom. Having made her decision, Killashandra implemented it the next day at noon, swimming to her first destination in less than an hours time. She rested while she made up her mind which island of the seven visible would be next. She found herself constantly returning to the one farthest north. Well, once there, none were far away if she decided shed overshot the right line to take. She made that island by mid-afternoon, dragging herself up onto the narrow shore, exhausted. Then she discovered some of the weak points in her plans: there werent many ripe polly fruits on the island; and fish wouldnt bite on her hook that evening. Because she found too few fruits, she was exceedingly thirsty by morning and chose her next point of call by the polly population. The channel between was dark blue, deep water, and twice she

And neither of them would give way;

knew, also, that Stevens had eyes for him alone. "Criminal, unforgiveable folly," he went on quietly, "and I'm the man in the dock. I'd suspected you'd lost a lot of blood on the boat, but I didn't know you had these big gashes on your forehead. I should have made it my business to find out." He smiled wryly. "You should have heard what these two insubordinate characters had to say to me about it when they got to the top. . . . And they were right. You should never have been asked to bring up the rear in the state you were in. It was madness." He grinned again. "You should have been hauled up like a sack of coals like the intrepid mountaineering team of Miller and Brown. . . . God knows how you ever made itI'm sure you'll never know." He leaned forward, touched Stevens's sound knee. "Forgive me, Andy. I honestly didn't realise how far through you were." Stevens stirred uncomfortably, but the dead pallor of the high-boned cheeks was stained with embarrassed pleasure. "Please, sir," he pleaded. "Don't talk like that. It was just one of these things." He paused, eyes screwed shut and indrawn breath hissing sharply through his teeth as a wave of pain washed up from his shattered leg. Then he looked at Mallory again. "And there's no credit due to me for the climb," he went on quietly. "I hardly remember a thing about it." Mallory looked at him without speaking, eyebrows arched in mild interrogation. "I was scared to death every step of the way up," Stevens said simply. He was conscious of no surprise, no wonder that he was saying the thing he would have died rather than say. "I've never been so scared in all my life." Mallory shook his head slowly from side to side, stubbled chin rasping in his cupped palm. He seemed genninely puzzled. Then he looked down at Stevens and smiled quizzically. "Now I know you are new to this game, Andy." He smiled again. "Maybe you think I was laughing and singing all the way up that cliff? Maybe you think I wasn't scared?" He lit a cigarette and gazed at Stevens through a cloud of drifting smoke. "Well, I wasn't. 'Scared' isn't the wordI was bloody well terrified. So was Andrea here. We know too much not to be scared." "Andrea!" Stevens laughed, then cried out as the movement triggered off a crepitant agony in his boneshattered leg. For a moment Mallory thought he had lost consciousness, but almost at once he spoke again, his voice husky with pain. "Andrea!" he whispered. "Scared! I don't believe it!" "Andrea was afraid." The big Greek's voice was very gentle. "Andrea is digital camera quick flash afraid. Andrea is always afraid. That is why I have lived so long." He stared down at his great hands. "And why so many have died. They were not so afraid as L They were not afraid of everything a man could be afraid of, there was always something they forgot to fear, to guard against. But Andrea was afraid of everythingand he forgot nothing. It is as simple as that." He looked across at Stevens and smiled. "There are no brave men and cowardly men in the world, my son. There are only brave men. To be born, to live, to diethat takes courage enough in itself, and more than enough. We are all brave men and we are all afraid, and what the world calls a brave man, he, too, is brave and afraid like all the rest of us. Only he is brave for five minutes longer. Or sometimes ten minutes, or twenty minutesor the time it takes a man sick and bleeding and afraid to climb a cliff." Stevens said nothing. His head was sunk on his chest, and his face was hidden. He had seldom felt so happy, seldom so at peace with himself, He had known that he could not hide things from men like Andrea and Mallory, but he had not known that it would not matter. He felt he should say something, but he could not think what and he was deathly tired. He knew, deep down, that Andrea was speaking the truth, but not the whole truth; but he was too tired to care, to try to work things out. Miller cleared his throat noisily. "No more talkin', Lieutenant," he said firmly. "You gotta lie down, get yourself some sleep." Stevens looked at him, then at Mallory in puzzled inquiry. "Better do what you're told, Andy," Mallory smiled. "Your surgeon and medical adviser talking. He fixed your leg." "Oh! I didn't know. Thanks, Dusty. Was it verydifficult?" Miller waved a deprecatory hand. "Not for a man of my experience. Just a simple break," he lied easily. "Almost let one of the others do it. . . . Give him a hand to lie down, will you, Andrea?" He jerked his head towards Mallory. "Boss?" The two men moved outside, turning their backs to the icy wind. "We gotta get a fire, dry clothing, for that kid," Miller said urgently. "His pulse is about 140, temperature 103. He's rnnnin' a fever, and he's

The next loud blast that he did give,

of boiling was a heartbreakingly slow job, and the Sno-Cat gobbled up in a minute all the pure fuel they could distil in thirty times that. Beyond that, there was no news: Uplavnik, which they had contacted less than an hour previously, had still nothing fresh to report. Without a word, Jackstraw and I packed up the equipment and made our way back to the cabin of the tractor. Jackstraw's almost invariable Eskimo cheerfulness was at the lowest ebb I had ever seen, he seldom spoke now and even more rarely smiled. As for me, I felt our last hope was gone. We started up the tractor again at eleven o'clock and headed straight into the pass, myself at the wheel. I was the only person left in either the driving compartment or the cabin behind: Mahler and Marie LeGarde, vanished under a great mound of clothing, rode on the dog-sled while the others walked. The tractor was wide, the trail narrow and sometimes sloping outwards and downwards, and with a sideslip into the gaping crevasse that bordered our path nobody inside the cabin would have had any chance of escape. The first part was easy. The trail, sometimes not more than eight or nine feet broad, more often than not opened out into a shelf wide enough, almost, to be called the flat floor of a valley, and we made rapid progress. At noonI'd warned Hillcrest that we would be traversing the Vindeby Nunataks then and would have to miss our regular radio schedulewe were more than half-way through and had just entered the narrowest and most forbidding defile in the entire crossing when Corazzini came running up alongside the tractor and waved me down to a stop. I suppose he must have been shouting but I'd heard nothing above the steady roar of the engine: and, of course, I'd seen nothing, because they had all been behind me and the width of the tractor cabin made my driving mirror useless. Trouble, Doc," he said swiftly, just as the engine died. "Someone's gone over the edge. Come on. Quick!" "Who?" I jumped out of the seat, forgetting all about the gun I habitually carried in the door compartment as an insurance against surprise attack when I was driving. "How did it happen?" "The German girl." We were running side by side round a corner in the track towards the little knot of people forty yards back, clustering round a spot on the edge of the crevasse. "Slipped, fell, I dunno. Your friend's gone over after her." "Gone after her!" I knew that crevasse was virtually bottomless. "Good God!" I pushed Brewster and Levin to one side, peered sony pink digital cameras gingerly over the edge into the blue-green depths below, then drew in my breath sharply. To the right, as I looked, the gleaming walls of the crevasse, their top ten feet glittering with a beaded crystalline substance like icing sugar, and here not more than seven or eight feet apart, stretched down into the illimitable darkness, curving away from one another to form an immense cavern the size of which I couldn't even begin to guess at. To the left, more directly below, at a depth of perhaps twenty feet, the two walls were joined by a snow and ice bridge, maybe fifteen feet long, one of the many that dotted the crevasse through its entire length. Jackstraw was standing on this pressed closely into one edge, holding an obviously dazed Helene in the crook of his right arm. It wasn't hard to work out Jackstraw's presence there. Normally, he was far too careful a man to venture near a crevasse without a rope, and certainly far too experienced to trust himself to the treachery of a snow-bridge. But, when Helene had stumbled over the edge, she must have fallen heavilyalmost certainly in an effort to protect her broken collar-boneand when she had risen to her feet had been so dazed that Jackstraw, to prevent her staggering over the edge of the snow-bridge to her death, had taken the near-suicidal gamble of jumping after her to stop her. Even in that moment I wondered if I would have had the courage to do the same myself. I didn't think so. "Are you all right?" I shouted. "I think my left arm is broken," Jackstraw said conversationally. "Would you please hurry, Dr Mason? This bridge is rotten, and I can feel it going." His arm broken and the bridge goingand, indeed, I could see chunks of ice and snow falling off from the underside of the arch on which he was standing! The matter-of-fact lack of emotion of his voice was more compelling than the most urgent cry could possibly have been. But for the moment I was in the grip of a blind panic that inhibited all feeling, all thought except the purely destructive. Ropesbut Jackstraw couldn't tie a rope round himself, not with an arm gone, the girl couldn't help herself either, both of them were helpless, somebody would have to go down to them, and go at once. Even as I stared into the crevasse, held in this strange motionless thrall, a large chunk of niv6 broke off from the side of the bridge and plummeted slowly down into the depths,