"You are feeling better, Captain?" Vauna said to me as she watched me pace the floor. "You find that you can walk, so you keep walking?" "I need to walk so I can think." "If you wish to think, you should sit out on the hillside at the time of sunset. You understand my words?" "I understand," I smiled. Then, rashly, I added, "I understand your words. I don't always understand you." "And you wish to understand me?" "Yes." "Why?" I could think of more answers than my vocabulary could handle. I said simply, "When I go back to my own world I should be able to say that I understand the people of this world." "But you _do_ understand us. You see how we live. You hear how we talk. There." She pressed my hand. "That is all you need to understand, isn't it? I am the one who does not understand you." "How do you mean?" "I do not see how you live. I do not hear how you talk." She gave a little laugh. "Only see how you walk when you think, but I do not know what you think." "I think about you," I said. "That is very nice. I think about you, too, Jim. Since the night you saved us from the savage ones, I have thought about you." I stopped walking in circles and looked at her. The soft light from the luminous rock walls gave an ivory tint to her bare shoulders. She wore a dress of soft woven material, designed with a diagonal line of little hand-painted sponge-trees. From the curve of her breasts to the lithe gracefulness of her thighs, the close-fitting garment accentuated her beauty. She was backing away from me, smiling as if wondering if I would follow her. Her arms were bare except for the ornaments of fur around her elbows. These were evidently an insignia of Benzendella womanhood, for no woman of this realm was to be seen without them. "Come," Vauna said, beckoning me. "Put your ear against the wall. What do you hear?" She pressed her head against the wall and I did the same. Finally I made out the faint vibrations of some distant rumbling. I asked, "What is it?" "Kao-Wagwattl." "The round river that moves like a serpent?" "It is an endless rope," she said. "It is life." "Life?" "It gathers water and food within itself. It gives life to those who seek life. It gives life--" She stopped, and her pretty poetic expression vanished. My hands touched her hands, my fingers moved gently along her wrists, her forearms--then as my touch neared her fur-covered elbows, a look of shock came into her eyes. "Jim!" "Yes, Vauna?" "I was trying to tell you--" "_What?_" For a moment she only looked at me, searching my eyes. "We _don't_ understand each other, do we?" Finally I said, "Then why don't we ask each other questions?" "Yes.... Yes, ask me questions." "All right." I had an impulse to start pacing again. I walked about for a moment. "Tell me, Vauna. When your friend Gravgak demanded that you come and talk with him alone, what would have happened if your father hadn't called you back?"