Presently I reached the pool from which the sound had come. Peering through the bushes I saw, seated in a dejected attitude by the edge of the pool, a very beautiful woman. In spite of the fact that she had been swimming, and her long dark hair hung dankly about her brown shoulders--wet hair is ever unbecoming to a woman--her beauty was amazing. The brown shoulders peeped from the heavy folds of the garment which she had thrown round her after her swim. It was of the colour prescribed for beings of the second class. The women of that class wear but one garment--a long piece of stuff like a plaid, that they drape about them. As I came into view she started up and gave a scream of terror. "Do not be afraid," I called. "I mean you no harm. I will not hurt you." As she looked at me further she seemed reassured. "I thought," she said, "at first that one of the gods had come to take me." "What gods?" I asked. "The gods that walk on four legs and against whom no man can do anything. Your dress is of the same colour that they wear." "I am no god, but an ordinary man enough--a shipwrecked mariner cast up on this island a few weeks ago, and now planning to escape from it again." "There is no escape," she said mournfully. "The gods know everything." "Let me come down and speak with you." "Come," she said. "I am not afraid any more." "What do you do here?" I asked, as I sat beside her. "I have fled from death. It was ordained by the gods that I should die at sundown seven days ago. I escaped and hid myself here. But there is no escape really. Sooner or later they will find me. They never fail. In their coming and going they are unseen. Suddenly before you stands one of the gods, and he points his rod at you and you are dead. It is not possible to hide from those whom one cannot see in their approach." "Has no one ever escaped?" "Years ago a girl like myself fled to the forest, and for three months in the summer she lived there. It was I myself who found her lying dead. Her garment over her breast was scorched by the lightning of the gods, and her heart was burned within her. It was all one; for in the winter she would have perished of cold and starvation. I love life. I want every day and hour that I can get. But I have no hopes." "Tell me, what is your name?" "To the gods I have no name. When I am at work a number is put upon me; it may be a different number every day. Among my own people I am called Dream." "And why was it that seven days ago you incurred the anger of your masters and were to die?"