Glyneth ignored the request. She looked to the side, gauging the passing landscape. "At this pace we are surely travelling four or five leagues each hour. Will the wole tire?"
"It wants to rest and eat grass for the same time that it runs."
"Then in fifty hours it will take us a hundred leagues. That is my reckoning."
"The reckoning is fair and equable, but accounts neither for dangers nor delays."
Glyneth looked up at the circling suns. "I am so tired now that I could sleep standing on my feet."
"I too am tired," said Visbhume. "Let us stop so that we may refresh ourselves. Tired as I am, I will keep the first watch, so that you and the beast may sleep."
" ‘Beast'? Kul?"
"Just so."
Glyneth went forward to Kul. "Are you tired?" Kul considered the state of his being. "Yes, I am tired."
"Should we stop to sleep?"
Kul surveyed the landscape. "I see no urgent threat."
"Visbhume has kindly offered to take the first watch, so that you and I might sleep in comfort."
"Ah! Visbhume shows a rare magnanimity!"
"He also knows some dreadful tricks."
"Just so. Our sleep might be sound and deep and long. Still, in the harness box I have discovered a fine length of rope, and Visbhume perhaps will oblige us after all."
Arriving at a spot where two trees grew fifty feet apart, Kul brought the wole to a halt and dropped its anchor. With eager interest Visbhume inquired: "What now? Do we rest? Shall I keep the first watch? If so, remove this leash, so that I may look right and left with all possible facility."
"In good time," said Kul. From the harness box at the back of the pergola he brought a coil of strong rope. He tied one end to one of the trees, then signaled to Visbhume, "Stand exactly here, halfway between the trees."
With a wincing scowl Visbhume obeyed. Kul removed leash, knotted the rope around Visbhume's neck, then, going to the other tree, drew the rope tight so that Visbhume was; fixed between the two trees, unable to move in either direction far enough to free himself, even though his arms and hands were free.
Glyneth watched with approval. "Now you must search him well! There are pockets in his sleeves and his trousers and perhaps even his shoes."
Visbhume cried out in fury: "Am I to be allowed no I privacy of person? This sort of search is contrary to every known rule of gentility."
Kul carefully searched Visbhume's garments, and it became clear that Glyneth, through diffidence, had failed to search Visbhume with sufficient care. Kul discovered a short tube of unknown employment, a brown box containing what seemed to be a miniature cottage, and in the seams of Visbhume's pantaloons, two lengths of stiff if resilient steel wire. The inside of Visbhume's belt yielded a dagger. The boots, the cravat and the gathering of the pantaloons at Visbhume's bony ankles seemed innocent of contraband. Glyneth examined the miniature cottage. "This would seem a magic cottage. How is it made large?"
"That is a most valuable property," said Visbhume. "I do I not allow its general use."
Kul said: "Visbhume, so far your skin is largely whole. You have eaten well and you have ridden on the wole. If these conditions agree with you, answer each question directly and with truth; otherwise you shall come upon a great sadness."
Visbhume blurted angrily: "Put the miniature house on the ground land cry out: ‘House, grow big!' When you wish it to reduce, cry out: ‘House, grow small!'"
Glyneth put the miniature house on the ground and cried out: "House, grow big!" Immediately she was yielded a cottage of comfortable aspect, with smoke already rising from the chimney.
Kul said: "Visbhume, you shall keep first watch, as you so kindly offered. If any tricks are left to you, which I do not doubt, try none of them, since I will be alert."
Entering the house, Glyneth found a comfortable couch and throwing herself down, fell instantly asleep.
She awakened after an unknown period to find Visbhume sleeping on the ground beside the cottage while Kul sat drowzing in the doorway. Glyneth went across the room and stroked the black fur covering his scalp. Kul looked up. "You are awake."
"I will keep watch. Now you sleep." Kul rose from the chair and looked around the room. For a moment Glyneth thought that he might stretch out on the floor, but he lay down on the couch and was at once asleep.
Visbhume presently awoke. Glyneth pretended not to notice. Visbhume studied the situation through eyelids barely slitted open, through which his eyes glinted like the yellow eyes of a fox.
Visbhume studied Glyneth a moment or two. He whispered: "Glyneth!" Glyneth looked toward him. Visbhume asked: "Is the creature asleep?" Glyneth nodded.
Visbhume spoke in the most cajoling of voices: "You know truly that your interests lie with me, the powerful and mighty Visbhume! So then: will you join with me in sacred and absolute cabal? We will defeat the monster beast, with his slavering threats and objectionable attitudes!"
"Indeed? And then?"
"You know the love I bear for you! Can you feel the quiver of a like feeling for me?"
"What then?"
"Then: away to Asphrodiske, and back to Earth at the, coming of the quaver."
"And that will be when?"
"A short time, shorter than you might think!"
"Visbhume! You alarm me! Have we enough time?"
"If all goes well and I am in command."
"But how do we know how long or short is our time?"
"By the black moon! When the radius swings to the diameter exactly opposite the gate by which we entered, that is the time! Now, will you join me in deep and unassailable cabal?"
"Kul is terrible and strong."
"So am I! Does he think all my power is gone?"
"I hope so!"
Then you are with me?"
"Of course not."
"What! You prefer the beast to me, Visbhume who lives and dances to the thrilling musics?"
"Visbhume, sleep while you have the chance. Your foolishness is keeping Kul awake."
Visbhume spoke in a low and almost sibilant tone: "For the last time you have flouted me, and how you shall regret it!"
Glyneth made no response.
Kul awoke; the three made breakfast upon milk, bread, butter, cheese, onions and ham from the pantry, then Glyneth called: "House, grow small!"
The cottage shrank quickly to miniature size, and Glyneth carefully returned it to its box. They climbed aboard the wole and once again set off across the plain.
Today Visbhume wished to share the comforts of the pergola with Glyneth. "From this vantage I command a wide view! In a flash I can apprehend danger at a great distance!"
"You are the rearguard," said Kul. "You must spy out dangers overtaking us from behind; that is your duty, and your best vantage is over the hindquarters, exactly as yesterday. Quick now! The black moon rolls around the sky, and we must arrive at Asphrodiske in good time."
Across the plain of blue grass ran the wole, the splayed legs coursing forward and back so that the tassels of the rug jerked to the motion. Kul knelt at the base of the pergola, leaning forward so that his massive shoulders almost filled the space between the wole's ocular horns. Glyneth reclined at her ease across the pergola's cushioned bench, one slim leg idly dangling, while Visbhume hunched at the far end of the rug, glumly looking back the way they had come.
To the north appeared a deep forest of dark blue and purple trees. Drawing near they saw a tall manse of dark timber, built to a style elegant and stately, with many narrow glass windows, turrets and cupolas, as well as a dozen elaborate follies and crotchets included apparently for the sheer relief of boredom. To Glyneth's taste, the style verged upon the eccentric, though out here, overlooking this changeless plain, anyone's taste would seem as sound as any one else's, and Glyneth straightened in her seat, so as not to present a careless or untidy image to possible observation through the tall narrow windows.