The conference lengthened into the morning. Sometimes it seemed to Paul that his teacher's stubbornness degenerated into the obsession of a man who won't leave a blazing house until the rugs are saved. Wright longed for the island, which he had seen only in photographs. There had always been some compelling reason why he must stay by the fortress, if only to hoe voracious weeds out of the gardens. Yet to Wright it was unthinkable that the island community should start without the pygmies: he returned to it with haggard insistence. "I know--I can't actually like Pakriaa--she's got a mind like a greased eel; but we've made a beginning. They speak our tongue--well. A people intelligent as they are--" Paul thought: _It's not Lucifer that's aged him--it's us. We are not big enough_. Aloud he suggested: "Doc, can't we make a start without them and just keep the door open? Bring them in when we're stronger ourselves?" "Oh, son, if we desert Pak now, she's finished. Over-confidence. Lantis will go over her like a tide. We might just turn that tide. If not, we _must_ be ready to help her escape with--whatever's left.... Well, at least we agree on this: Helen and the women must go to the island, at once." "Tomorrow." Dorothy choked. "If the boats haven't started yet--" "All right, dear. Tomorrow. And one man should go with them." "You," Paul said. "You." Wright said inexorably, "No." His stare groped at Sears Oliphant. Sears was nakedly desperate. "Chris, I beg of you--you must not ask me to go away from this battle." He was sweating, white. "I am--in a sense--a religious man. The--Armageddon within, your own phrase--please understand without my saying any more. Don't ask me to go." "Ed won't go.... Paul?" _Leave him, with Sears' inner torments and Ed's arrogance?_ "No, Doc." Ann Bryan said, "I'm staying for the show." Dorothy lowered her cheek to the brown fuzz of Helen's head; the baby's absurd square of palm found Paul's finger. Helen was almost eight months old--Lucifer months. The new life in Dorothy had been conceived in the last month of the rains. Dorothy said, "I'm going, Nancy, with Helen. As a valuable brood mare, I can't afford heroism. Neither can you." The giant women crossed the bridge; they had lingered outside, knowing the Charins needed to talk alone. Ann said, "I've heard the argument. I'm not pregnant yet. I've learned to shoot damn' well." Wright asked, "Will you abide by a vote when Ed gets back?" Ann pushed her fingers into black hair, cut short as a man's. "I suppose I must.... If no men get to the island, how do two women and a girl child increase and multiply, or shouldn't I ask?" Wright mumbled inadequately, "We'll reach the island." Ann said, "Then you already see it as a retreat?"