"Please try to understand," whispered the Officer. "I had to do it." The Officer, the bloody wall, the stars and the cold grey gullies all went away. There was nothing but darkness, and wind, a long way off. Kirk thought of Pa coming up under the wall, close to safety, close enough to touch it, and no way through. Pa and Frank and Russ, standing under the wall, looking up, and no way through. Looking up, calling to the men they knew, asking for help and getting a spear through the heart. After that, even the wind was gone, and the darkness had turned red. * * * * * There was a voice, a long way off. It said, "God, he's strong!" Over and over. It got louder. There were weights on his arms and legs, and he couldn't throw them off. He was pressed against something. It was the wall. He saw that after a while. The wall where the Officer had been standing. There were six men holding him, three on each side. The Officer was gone. Kirk relaxed. He was shivering and covered with rime from body sweat. Somebody whistled. "Six men! Didn't know the kid had it in him." The Officer's voice said dully, "No discipline. Better take him home." Kirk tried to turn. The six men swung with him. Kirk said, "You better discipline me. You better kill me, because, if you don't, I'll kill you." "I don't blame you, boy. Go and rest. You'll understand." "I'll understand, all right." Kirk's voice was a hoarse, harsh whisper that came out by itself and wouldn't be stopped. "I'll understand about Pa, and the Ship with the heat-stones in it, and the Captain's yellow daughter getting fat and warm while my sisters freeze and go hungry. I'll understand, and I'll make everybody else understand, too!" The Officer's eyes held a quick fire. "Boy! Do you know what you're saying?" "You bet I know!" "That's mutiny. For God's sake, don't make things worse!" "Worse for us, or for you?" Kirk was shouting, holding his head up in the wind. "Listen, you men! Do you know what the Officers are doing up there in the Ship they won't let us touch?" There was an uneasy stirring among the Hans, a slipping aside of luminous black eyes. The Officer shut his jaw tight. He stepped in close to Kirk. "Shut up," he said urgently. "Don't make me punish you, not now. You're talking rot, but it's dangerous." Kirk's eyes were hot and not quite sane. He couldn't have stopped if he'd wanted to. "Rot, is it? Jakk Randl knew. He saw with his own eyes and he told me while he was dying. The Captain's yellow daughter, sneaking heat-stones into...." The Officer hit him on the jaw, carefully and without heat. Kirk sagged down. The Officer stepped back, looking as though he had a pain in him that he didn't want to show. He said quietly, but so that everyone could hear him, "Discipline, for not longer than it takes to clear the rock below."