Tad was there barely an hour. With inactivity came thoughts of Arturo and me. He was increasingly worried--anxious to return. He sat with Nereid. She, too, was frightened over us. She still could not communicate with Arturo. The Middge meeting proceeded. Fen took no part in it, but Tad noticed that many of the leaders conferred with him frequently. There were speeches made to the assembled youth. Plans were told, immediately to be put into execution. The plans of men! How easy to make them, earnestly looking ahead to their fulfillment! How easy to look back, too late, and see the causes of their frustration! There was one cause, here at Tad’s elbow--Bhool, eagerly listening. Even then, it seemed to Tad strange that Bhool, a Gian, should be here. The Gians were never curious over the Middge industrial activity. No Gian ever came here. They bought or confiscated the Middge products, content to have them, incurious of their manufacture. Apathetic, ineffectual were the Gian men; and the ruling Gian women were unconcerned over industrial details. But Bhool now was admitted--Fen’s personal servant, nothing was thought of him. Plans. There was, in all the chaos, some good news. The exploring party had returned. It had found a new tunnel-passage and followed it for nearly three hundred miles, coming at last to rushing water in a chasm, barring the way. But the scientists in the party had estimated their position: above the floor of the ocean--within what we call a submerged mountain, perhaps. This subterranean river would recede. It was of different quality from ocean water. Its volume lessened while for a day they waited. With the ocean draining, this river would empty. A way of escape for the Middge people was here. A hundred couriers were now dispatched everywhere throughout the abyss. Most of them were these active young girls, more expert riders of the _arras_ than were the men. The Middge people, nearly a million of them, would be started presently, most of them on foot. A march of a few hundred miles--a migration upward to safety. * * * * * The leaders needed Entt at once. He was to go to the tunnel entrance--two hours’ ride from here on his _arras_. He would stay there for a time, helping to erect the light-beacons which were to guide the Middge people in finding the entrance. He did not want to go; he had hoped to stay with Nereid. He faced her, pathetically. At her gentle smile he turned away, spoke to Tad, and left. A bustling group of Middge leaders swallowed him up. Within a few days, it was believed, all the Middge public would have departed. But the gates might break at any time. An attack now was to be made upon them. It was hoped that perhaps the departing Gians had already abandoned them.