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the ashes of Vonda," laughed another. As I accidentally brushed against a woman of Vonda she trembled, and put down her head, and knelt swiftly. I continued past her. "It is dangerous for merchant caravans," a man was saying. "Many have been attacked," said another. "It is rumored the river pirates are the worst," said another. "They grow bold with the withdrawal of troops from Lara. They have struck even into Lara herself, then withdrawing to their galleys" "Perhaps this will cause the troops of Lara to return," said another, "to protect their own holdings." "No," said another, "they are committed." "They are to be sold in the river markets," said someone, as I went past. I did not understand the meaning of his remark. It did not, I gathered, pertain to the women of Vonda. It would be difficult to get them to the river markets, which lay beyond Lara, down the Vosk, and higher prices, presumably, could be obtained for them in the markets of the south. Most of them, I assumed, women of the enemy, would be sold from the slave blocks of Ar herself.
    As I went through the opening of the tent I was jostled by a large man. He wore a mask. "Watch where you are going!" he said, angrily. I stepped back, but did not respond to him. I was angry. It had been he, it seemed to me, who had struck against me. Suddenly, for a moment, he stopped and looked at me, closely. It seemed as though he might have thought he knew me. Too, it seemed to me that I might, in spite of the mask, somehow have found him familiar. Then, saying nothing more, he brushed past me and entered the tent. He was alone. I could not place him. Then I left the food tent and went to the tarn cots. I hoped to be able to arrange for transportation to the vicinity of Lara. I retained five silver tarsks. This is a considerable sum. I felt reasonably certain I could find some tarnsman, perhaps from a neutral city, who might, by a suitably circuitous route, get me into the neighborhood of Lara.
    Some taros had apparently recently arrived from the west. Some of them had apparently been carrying refugees. I saw some wounded men. Here and there small groups of men huddled about, dismally. I saw no women in these groups, even slaves. Some of them wore the white and gold of merchants. Some of them wore masks. They crouched about fires.
    "Who are these people?" I asked one of the fellows near the cots.
    "Mostly merchants," said he. “These are the victims of the predations of river pirates in Lara."
    "Some wear masks," I said
    "Yet most are known to us," said the man, "Even masked. There, not masked, is Splenius, and Zarto. You know Zarto, the iron merchant?"
    "No," I said.
    "He lost his wagons of ingots," said the man. “Beside him, masked, is Horemius. Eight stone of perfumes ware taken from him. There, farther to the left, in the brown mask, is Zadron, the dealer in silver. He lost almost everything. In the red mask is Publius, also of the silver merchants. He retains only the belt of silver on his shoulder."
    "I see no women with them, no slaves," I said.
    "They were embattled," said the man. "For their lives they bartered their goods and slaves."
    "These were all from Lara or her vicinity?" I asked.
    "Yes," said he. "They had not realized that the troops of Lara would be moving east, or that the brigands and pirates would move so boldly."
    "Are these all of them?" I asked, apprehensively.
    "No," said the fellow. "Some of them have gone to the food tent."
    "Was one called Oneander, a salt and leather merchant, among them?" I asked.
    "Yes," said the fellow.
     
     
    4
    THE CITY OF LARA;
    I RENEW AN ACQUAINTANCE
     
     
    The girl stirred uneasy. Her legs were drawn up. She wore the Ta-Teera, the slave rag, and a collar. She lay in the corner of the main room of the inn. She lay on a slave mat. I had put her there.
    I sat, cross-legged, behind one of the low tables in the room. I chewed on a crust of bread. The inn, now, was deserted. It had been evacuated early this morning.
    That