It would have been pointless to hide the recovery of his body, but the concealment of his true mental condition--that the experiences he had undergone had not left him a mind-blasted dunce and that he was not even under the influence of Margaret's drugs--was of supreme importance. One incautious moment and he would die speedily, for the leaders of the Faith feared one thing only, El-ve-don, and if they suspected-- By a stroke of good fortune the room in which he was kept in luxurious captivity adjoined the larger one in which Margaret and her companion held most of their conversations. Eldon overheard everything, from endless plotting to love-making. Wor boasted endlessly, egged on by Margaret's open adulation and flattery, of the deepening plight of the Rebels. The slave pits below the Fortress were filling rapidly. In fact so many Rebels were being captured that no more Puva slaves were being processed. Eldon clenched his fist in helpless anger, and a nagging worry began to haunt him. One thing puzzled Margaret. Several of the Luvans had dropped out of sight. "But they are not really of this plane at all," Wor dismissed the matter. "They are a law unto themselves." Eldon guessed what was happening. He had seen the first two Luvans sent into nothingness by a bleeding, dying girl who had paid a great price in discovering their secret. Several score of Wor's mutant Puva soldiers had been killed in running battles with Rebel bands, but Wor was not disturbed. He had ample fighting men at his disposal and the troops had been indoctrinated to believe that if killed in battle they went straight to Sasso. Margaret patterned her attitude upon his. Eldon felt a surge of admiration for the scattered remnants of the Forest People who still fought against such overwhelming odds, even though their sullenly suspicious minds had condemned Krasna's unborn child--her child and his--to death. He could not blame them too much for being overcautious. One night he overheard the critical conversation which meant this forced inaction would soon end. Wor was singing as he entered Margaret's rooms, and despite the mutation which had increased his intelligence his savage Puva ancestry betrayed itself in the roaring vocal antics he considered music. Margaret asked a sharp question. "The next Observance of Sasso," Wor announced ponderously, "will be The Night!" Eldon heard Margaret gasp. "Are you sure?" "As sure as anyone can be. Those Rebels had the effrontery to gather again, to actually plan an attack against our Fortress. But we found their meeting place. It was a most effective raid." Eldon felt a stab of fear, not for himself but for Krasna. Killed? Captured? Escaped? "The attack is broken up?" Margaret asked. "Yes. And there will be little more mental resistance either." "Why?" Margaret asked as she was expected to.