"They set free Tao's men as we planned. They were on their way back when the earth‑man suddenly bid Anina return. Something was wrong, he said. This girl does not understand what. But they went back. And Anina and Ollie they left there, standing on the shore together. We are to go over to the same place to‑night, if we can, and get them. That is all the girl knows."
The girl withdrew after a moment.
Mercer and Anina left in the Twilight Country! Miela and I stared at each other blankly.
[ CHAPTER XX.
IN THE TWILIGHT COUNTRY.]
Mercer sat on the rear end of the platform and waved good‑by vigorously as he was carried swiftly up and out over the water. Under him was a pile of blankets and a coat, and beside him a box of baked dough‑like bread—the food he was to turn over to Tao's emissaries when he set them free.
Anina flew at his side, at intervals smiling up at him reassuringly. Before him on the platform his captives huddled. Although all of them were trussed up securely, he menacingly kept his little wooden revolver pointed at them from the level of his knee.
He chuckled as he thought of the fight at the bayou. Everything was working out all right; it was surprising what one could do with his physical strength here on Mercury.
The girls had carried the platform up some five hundred feet above the sea. Mercer turned and looked back. The shore had already dropped almost to the rim of the close‑encircling horizon. He leaned over toward Anina, resting one hand on the bamboo handle she was holding. "How long will it take us to get there, Anina?"
He knew the girl would understand his words, but he did not realize she had little basis for comparing time in his language.