Abruptly the Maagog girl yielded. They had been tumbling over and over in the water—wound and entangled with sea-weed; and save for that one scream, fighting silently. Nona pulled her captured antagonist to a tree-stalk, and in one of its branches, held her there firmly. And not until then did she realize that this was Maaret, the girl who loved Og—the girl who had helped us escape from the Water of Wild Things. “You!” But Maaret now was crying. “What do you want of me? You go away. I hate you. You tried to take my Og. You let me alone.” Women are strange creatures! My Nona put her arms tenderly about the vehement girl. “You must not hate me, Maaret. What are you doing here?” “Og—he is down there. Fighting. For you, he fights—_you_, the woman who stole his heart. And he may be killed, and I love him.” What could Nona say? This girl had followed Og to battle—followed, hoping to keep him out of danger, because she loved him. And at the last, frightened, she had crawled away to the treetops—crying with fear and misery when Nona set upon her. “Maaret, listen. You tell me where the black fishes are. Where is your Og?” “There—in the forest.” It was a vague answer—a gesture, not down, but off to one side, toward Rax. “Still in the forest?” “Yes. I think so—I don’t know. But he was going out to fight.” “The black fishes were with him?” “Yes.” “How many of them, Maaret?” But the girl had become suspicious. “I don’t know,” she said sullenly. “He is on the sea-bottom with them? Maaret, listen. How many Maagogs are there in the forest?” But the girl understood Nona’s purpose and set her lips tight. “Tell me, Maaret.” “No!” burst out the girl. “You would do my Og harm. I want to help him, not you.” She tried to pull away, but Nona held her. Nona’s anger was rising. “I’ll take you with me,” she told the girl. “My Nemo will make you talk.” But Maaret resisted, and suddenly her tears came afresh. “You let me go. I should be with Og—fighting beside him because I love him. I was a coward to come up here.” The words appealed as none others could to Nona. Her anger vanished; sympathy flooded over her. “You want to fight for Og, Maaret?” “Yes! I want to fight—I belong there—beside him. Let me go.” Nona stared into the girl’s pathetic little face. “Go,” she said. “You speak truth, Maaret. You belong there with the man you love, no matter for what cause he fights. Go!” Her gaze followed as Maaret dropped away, down into the recesses of the forest. * * * * * It was a terrible moment as we saw those black fishes, with Og in their midst, dashing at us. Atar and I shouted to our men—shouted encouragement. We could not avoid this new enemy; and so we had to plunge at it with a will. A hundred electric men, no more, and all of them were exhausted by the combat they had left but a moment before.