Telis touched her arm to attract her attention. "We've been together almost all day and I don't even know your name," he said. "I am Telis of Lars...."
The girl smiled back at him. "My name is Leslie Karr," she returned.
Leslie. Telis turned the name on his tongue. It had a foreign flavor. As exotic and lovely as the girl herself. And two names. Leslie and Karr. Telis found the last hard to pronounce. Now, he wondered, why two names? She must be a person of consequence in her home land.
Telis thought of the cube. Perhaps a signalling device. A thought struck him. The Temple? No, it was not likely. A nagging doubt remained. He recalled uneasily how simple the escape had been. Too simple. Was this girl an agent of the Temple? Or had his first suspicion—that she was a Tellurian—been right?
"Telis," Gorla broke the silence, "can you tell me where we are?"
Telis shook his head.
"Why are we climbing?" Leslie asked. She looked afraid. "Please—I—I asked you to—"
Telis cut her off almost sharply. "I know what you asked me. But we must get high enough to have a look around us. To be lost out here would mean the end for all of us; an unpleasant end, too. It will only be for a short time."
Leslie dropped into an uneasy silence. Higher and higher the air-sled climbed until at last Telis levelled the aircraft off and began a systematic search of the horizon to the east. There was no sign of the greenery that edged the great water-way.
"Telis!" Gorla's shout cut across the roaring of the wind. "Leslie! Look at her!"