After the dinner, Jayn called upon some of her girls to sing. Since the procedure had been much the same on previous nights, Yorgh deliberately showed little enthusiasm until he found an opportunity to beg Jayn herself to sing for them. The Raydower with the neatly curled brown mustache who had paid her this compliment on preceding evenings, as Yorgh had carefully noted, glared and muttered something about "nomad upstarts." Jayn smiled at Yorgh more warmly than he liked, but he had to admit to himself that she sang well. The next morning, returning from the small lake in which the men swam, he asked Ueln for permission to walk about the village. "Jayn didn't act as if she would mind my seeing something of it," he jabbed the Raydower. The latter grunted. "I heard her whispering to you last night, after the singing, thank you," he growled. "She can be nice when she likes. Oh, all right! But don't let one of my riders catch you on the trail to the pass!" Yorgh grinned and parted from the group to stroll through the narrow paths between the stone houses and their small gardens. After half an hour, by which time the heat of The Star was beginning to lend the alleys the least touch of fragrance, he had the outline of the village well in mind. He strolled on casually, until he succeeded in coming up behind the shrubbery bordering the space in back of Jayn's big house. There he loitered for some time, until he saw a trio of kitchen maids carry out wooden buckets of dirty water. One of them wore a soiled and bedraggled blue dress. Yorgh rustled the bushes hiding him. Vaneen looked sharply about, and he parted the branches an instant. The girl said something to the other wenches, and they went inside, leaving her to empty the buckets. She carried one pair over toward Yorgh as if to water the shrubbery. When these were empty, she brought the next pair closer, and stepped around the bush behind which he stood. "How are you?" asked Yorgh, thinking that she looked like a fish-cleaning woman among the Sea People. She stared hard at his fine new clothes, and scowled. "Some people know how to wheedle the best side of the tent for themselves!" she said bitterly. "What did you do to get that pretty tunic from her?" "Not what you would be jealous to think about," retorted Yorgh. "_Yet_," he added to tease her. "You look funny in that fur collar," snapped Vaneen. "Does it have a copper ring under the fur--with a place to fasten on the chain?" "Ueln gave it to me," said Yorgh, deciding that it was time to smooth things over. "Listen--it may soon be time to get out of here. Do they lock you in at night?" "No," said Vaneen. "They just told me what would happen to me if I went out on the streets at night, so I don't." "Could you sneak out here tonight ... say about the time Kloto sets?" Vaneen peered hopefully at his expression, and nodded. "I have thought of a place to run to," said Yorgh. "It might work."