"Don't laugh," Marta wailed. "It's a horrible feeling. This emptiness is killing me. Sing, shout, do something! But let's not have such silence!" Stella, the shy girl with the mouse-colored hair, began crying again. Karl gently pulled her head over on his shoulder. * * * * * They left at dark, winding up through the canyon and back into the hills where the scrub trees began. All night they traveled, tearing their flesh on the jagged limbs and rocks in the darkness. Only, the occasional muffled sob of the women broke the stillness. In the morning they rested in a small valley where a trickle of water coarsed through its head. They rested under a pinion tree, the women receiving some solace from the flimsy natural roof over their heads. Sten slept three hours, then rose without waking the others and scouted ahead. He consulted his map and climbed a tall hill to search for the mountain range they were seeking. When he returned, Johnathon and Marta were gone. "He said he had to go," Karl explained. "Marta couldn't take this, and he wouldn't go on without her. He said he knew he couldn't make you understand. And asked you to take care of your father's books. He hoped that someday he could join us in the valley." "Can he stand living there?" Sten asked glumly. "Franz said once that it had been done before. I guess they don't bother you much if you obey." Sten squatted on his heels and stared out over the desert where Johnathon and Marta had disappeared, sending them a silent God-speed. When they started out that afternoon, Stella was still sobbing. Karl tried to console her, but at every new turn they took, there was fresh terror in her eyes. Kathryn walked along with her, helping her over the rough places and trying to cheer her, but she couldn't conceal her own terror as she stared ahead at the vast distances. They rested at sundown. While the men were bringing water, Stella rose and started back down the hillside. Kathryn was thrown aside when she tried to stop her, and soon the girl was running madly down the hill, shrieking and sobbing wildly. Karl dropped his pack and ran after her, begging her to stop. But she ran on, heedless of obstacles. There was a sudden sharp wail of terror as she ran blindly off the edge of a cliff. Sten met Karl carrying her crushed body back up the hill. Karl hugged the dead girl close to him and did not look at the other man. That night, for the first time, they built a fire. Karl sat grief-stricken through most of the night staring into the flames. Kathryn sat leaning against Sten during the evening, fascinated by the flickering of the fire--the first she had ever seen. At dawn Sten awoke and nudged Kathryn. A grey squirrel was scolding them from a limb above. He laughed at Kathryn's wide-eyed surprise at the antics of the little animal.