"Running away? But how—where—"
"I know. But I had panicked, you see. I was already dreadfully homesick, and then came this horrid festival. I couldn't bear seeing us make such—such fools of ourselves. The women—well, it was as if we had reverted to animals. One of the men—I think he was a conjectural physicist by the name of Hesson—made advances to me. I'm no formalist, but I ran. Can you understand that?"
"I also disapprove of debauchery," Stephen said.
"I ran and ran until I came, at last, to this beach. I saw the lights of a city across the water. I am a strong swimmer and I struck out without stopping to reconsider. It was a horrible experience."
"You found nothing."
"Nothing—and worse than nothing. There is a place out there where heaven and hell, as well as the earth and the sky, are suspended. I suddenly found myself in a halfworld where all directions seemed to lead straight down. I felt myself slipping, sliding, flowing downward. And once I thought I saw a face—an impossible face. Then I was expelled and found myself back in normal waters. I started to swim back here."
"You were very brave to survive such an ordeal," he said. "Would that I had been half so courageous when I first set eyes upon that devil, Turpan! I might have spared all of you this humiliation."
"Then—you are the technician who came with Turpan?"
He nodded. "I was—and am—his prisoner. I have more cause to hate him than any of you."
"In that case I shall tell you a secret. The capitulation of our camps to Turpan's tyranny was planned. If you had counted us, you would have found that many of the men stayed away from the festival tonight. They are preparing a surprise attack upon Turpan from behind the village when the celebration reaches its height and he will expect it least. I heard them making plans for a coup this afternoon."