"Just what forces can we muster against them when they come, darlin'?" said Larry.
"Darlin'?"—the Golden Girl had caught the caress of the word—"what's that?"
"It's a little word that means Lakla," he answered. "It does—that is, when I say it; when you say it, then it means Larry."
"I like that word," mused Lakla.
"You can even say Larry darlin'!" suggested O'Keefe.
"Larry darlin'!" said Lakla. "When they come we shall have first of all my Akka—"
"Can they fight, mavourneen?" interrupted Larry.
"Can they fight! My Akka!" Again her eyes flashed. "They will fight to the last of them—with the spears that give the swift rotting, covered, as they are, with the jelly of those Saddu there—" She pointed through a rift in the foliage across which, on the surface of the sea, was floating one of the moon globes—and now I know why Rador had warned Larry against a plunge there. "With spears and clubs and with teeth and nails and spurs—they are a strong and brave people, Larry—darlin', and though they hurl the Keth at them, it is slow to work upon them, and they slay even while they are passing into the nothingness!"
"And have we none of the Keth?" he asked.
"No"—she shook her head—"none of their weapons have we here, although it was—it was the Ancient Ones who shaped them."