"Mm?" Zen said. He started to add another word, "Alone?" but managed to catch the question before it was out of his mouth. He examined her thoughtfully. "You look very contented," he said, without adding that in his experience women who looked so contented had only one reason for it. "Why shouldn't I look contented? After spending so much time in the wilderness, I'm back on the stairway to heaven." "What's the wilderness?" "The world down below." She swept her hand in a gesture that included the unseen ranges and the plains below. "Ah, yes," he yawned himself to wakefulness. "I was reading the most fascinating book before I dropped off to sleep. Here. I'll show you." The book was not on his blanket. It was not in the wall niche. Nor was it behind the bed. "Hey, it's gone," he said. His eyes went around the room. He discovered other things that were missing. "The lieutenant's gun! And my pack!" "Perhaps you just dreamed you had been reading a book." "I didn't dream the gun and the pack. I carried both of them in here." "I can explain about them. They were taken." "Hunh? Why?" "Weapons are not permitted here. Your gun and your pack were both taken for this reason." "Hunh?" A growl came unbidden into his voice. He put these items out of his mind with the resolve to speak to someone about them at a later time. Something more important had happened. What was it? A memory of his dream flicked through his mind but was gone before he could grasp it. A frown on his face, he said, "I know--" As he tried to speak, what he had intended to say slid out of his mind. "You know what?" Nedra asked. "Everything." Her face showed surprise. "This is a great deal for one man to know. Are you sure?" "Yes." "Positive?" "Hell, yes!" An emotion that was like a curtain opening and closing slipped across her face. "Well, in that case, tell me things." "I would, except I can't remember 'em." Doubt came into the violet eyes. "What you need is some breakfast. Your blood sugar levels are too low. Breakfast will take care of that." Her voice was firm and sure. "That's one thing I need," Zen said, his voice equally firm. "But there is one thing I don't need--an examination by a head shrinker." "A what?" "A psycho," he explained. "I call 'em head shrinkers because that is what they do. Oh, maybe I need such an examination but I have no intention of submitting to it." Breakfast consisted of cornmeal mush, fried to a golden brown, and served with butter and honey. There was no coffee but he had long since learned to do without it. He ate ravenously. "I'm hungry right down to the marrow of my bones," he said. "Where does all this grub come from?" "We get it," Nedra answered evasively. "What do you do, raid the low country for supplies, like Cuso's men?" "No, colonel, hardly that. We are not thieves." Her face showed displeasure.