Charlie shook his head. "For fun, Robin and I made the Cyclopes invulnerable to any kind of attack except the kind mentioned in the encyclopedia--putting out their single eye with a stake. To protect all the other people we created, we made the Cyclopes so they'd never want to leave their homeland. So if we can get Robin and your man Glaudot free, they'll be safe. Now, who's the volunteer?" "I'm already on horseback," Chandler said. Charlie nodded and mounted the second roan stallion. "My men will be coming as fast as they can march," Captain Purcell said. Charlie nodded. He did not bother to tell the captain that a Cyclops could cover in a few minutes ground a marching party could not hope to cover in as many hours. He set off at a swift gallop with Chandler. * * * * * "Will he eat us now?" said Glaudot. Strangely, he was not afraid. The unexpected nature of their impending demise he almost found amusing. Robin shook her head. "I don't think so. He'll probably drink himself to sleep. We made the Cyclopes great drunkards." The Cyclops, his tree-trunk sized walking stick leaning against the wall, was reclining and drinking from a huge bowl of wine. The cave was torchlit. Seventy or eighty sheep milled about, settling for the night after three of their number had supplied a meal for the giant, who had eaten them raw. "Isn't there anything we can do?" demanded Glaudot, whose dreams of galactic conquest were fading before the spectre of being eaten alive. "Reserve your strength until he sleeps," Robin said. "Of course there's something we can do." "Yes? What?" "His walking stick. You see the end comes almost to a point? We harden it in the fire--and put his eye out. Then, in the morning, when he unrolls the stone from the cave-entrance and blindly leads his flock out, we hide among the sheep and make our escape. At least that's how it happens in the encyclopedia." Glaudot swallowed hard. He had never had a great deal of physical courage.... Just then they heard a great fluttering, groaning sound. Robin said: "You see, he's asleep. He's snoring." "I--I don't think I could possibly--" "He's liable to want us for breakfast. Come on." They got up swiftly and silently, and crept to the walking stick. It was the size of a young tree. It would be heavy, perhaps too heavy for them to handle. "Easy now," Robin said. She nimbly climbed the ledges on the cave-wall and tipped the great walking stick, then leaped down and grabbed the front end as Glaudot got a grip on the rear of the big pole. "Heavy," Glaudot said. "But not too heavy, I--I think." "Try to lift it," said Glaudot. They tried. Together they could barely get it overhead. "Try to poke it at something," Glaudot said. They could not. Robin sighed. They put it down slowly, quietly. It would take more than the two of them. It would take them and two or three more men to do the job. "We wait," Glaudot said bleakly.