"Albargan find out soon," and then he laughed again.
I tried to think of some way to bribe him into letting us go; but inasmuch as he had thrown away as useless the only things of value that we possessed, it seemed rather hopeless.
"Tell me what you want most," I suggested, "and perhaps I can get it for you if you will take us to the coast."
"We have what we want," he replied, and that answer made them all laugh.
I was walking close to Duare now, and she looked up at me with a hopeless expression. "I am afraid we are in for it," she said.
"It is all my fault. If I had had brains enough to find the ocean this would never have happened."
"Don't blame yourself. No one could have done more to protect and save me than you have. Please do not think that I do not appreciate it."
That was a lot for Duare to say, and it was like a ray of sunshine in the gloom of my despondency. That is a simile entirely earthly, for there is no sunshine upon Venus. The relative proximity of the sun lights up the inner cloud envelope brilliantly, but it is a diffused light that casts no well defined shadows nor produces contrasting highlights. There is an all pervading glow from above that blends with the perpetual light emanations from the soil, and the resultant scene is that of a soft and beautiful pastel.
Our captors conducted us into the forest for a considerable distance; we marched practically all day. They spoke but seldom and then usually in monosyllables. They did not laugh again, and for that I was thankful. One can scarcely imagine a more disagreeable sound.
We had an opportunity to study them during this long march, and there is a question if either of us was quite sure in his own mind as to whether they were beast-like men or man-like beasts. Their bodies were entirely covered with hair; their feet were large and flat, and their toes were armed, like the fingers, with thick, heavy, pointed nails that resembled talons. They were large and heavy, with tremendous shoulders and necks.