"'M a damn fool," said Ben agreeably, and swayed back from the quicksand, grinning at Reuben's light. "Fact 'm drunk." Reuben laughed. "That I know. Don't move your feet. Stay as you are till I come to you." Laughing still, he picked his way along the edge of the water and the foulness, to the narrow strip of solid ground that Ben's luck had found for him in the dark. "Pee-yew!" said Reuben, and clutched a handful of Ben's shirt. "With such a breath why walk? Why not float, friend?" * * * * * "Was trying to. Was trying to find Polaris. Too dark. Besides I'm in a 'culiar condition." "Lean on me. Firm ground here." "Wherever thou art." "I shall remember that, and thou wilt forget it." "I forget nothing, Reuben. I _was_ trying to find Polaris." "Well, a'n't it the nature of the children of Adam to hunt for the North Star on a cloudy night?" "Very sound. One of thine evenings. Yaphoo!" "All evenings are mine. But don't weep." "I'm laughing, boy. A'n't I? Oh, Ru, I was so confused. I thought--I certainly thought----" "What, Ben?" "I thought it was wilderness." "That wouldn't make thee afeared. That wouldn't make thee weep." "I thought everything was wilderness." "Well, what if it is?" _Chapter Five_ In the sunlight on Reuben's bed sat two male images, the smaller one all orange-gold, the larger cross-legged and brighter than rippling gold and ivory, with brown hair, and a heartless voice saying: "This I was waiting to observe. Note, Mr. Eccles, the motions of the creature's head, how they creak. Are these actual sounds of pain, or only noises of some mechanism which creates an illusion of animation?" "Alas!" said Ben. "I am not fit to rise and murder you--yet." "It speaks. Note that, Eccles. Note the bleared eyes, how obscene! Will you go to the kitchen and fetch a pot of coffee for it?" Mr. Eccles yawned and filed his yellow paws. "Unfeeling animal! Have you no pity? Must _I_ wait on the needs of this moaning monster?" "Some day when _you_ feel like dawn on the battlefield, I'll stand on your stomach and read aloud every word of _Magnalia Christi Americana_." "You heard that, Eccles?--how it appeals to my humanity and in the same breath threatens my life? I must act." Ben watched the golden image rise, slip on a dressing-gown, and stand over him in the enormous light. "Puh, what a breath even now!" said Reuben, and stooped suddenly to kiss his forehead, and vanished out of the room.