Miela smiled at me quizzically as I said this: "You have forgotten our women and their help, my husband?"
I had, in very truth, for the moment.
"We'll need them, too," I said. "Tell these girls who carry us to‑night to call all those who went with us to the mountains—a meeting to‑morrow at this time—here on the castle roof."
"To the Water City we must go," Miela said. "There Tao's men are very strong, our girls report. And to‑day there was a fight among the people, and several were killed."
"But we must go armed, Miela, with more than one light‑ray. I shall see this Fuero to‑morrow. After all, he's the key‑note to the whole thing."
We started from the castle roof, Miela sitting with me this time on the platform. Flying low, we passed over the maze of bayous, and in what seemed an incredibly short time we were out over the sea. I had now no idea what we might be called upon to do, or how long we would be gone, for all my specific plans for the next day; so we started as well prepared as possible.
The precious light‑ray cylinder I held in my hand. We had a number of blankets, enough food for us all for two days of careful rationing, a knife or two, and a heavy, sharp‑edged metal implement like an ax.
It seemed hardly more than half an hour before a great black cloud had spread over the whole sky, and we ran into the worst storm I have ever encountered. The wind came up suddenly, and we fought our way directly into it. Lightning flashed about us, and then came the rain, slanting down in great sheets.
We were still flying low. The mirror surface of the sea was now lashed with waves, extraordinarily high, whose white tops blew away in long streaks of scud. The girls fought sturdily against the wind and rain, carrying us steadily up until after a while I could not see the water below.
We were in the storm perhaps an hour altogether. Then we passed up and beyond it; and emerged again into that gray vacancy, with a waste of storm‑lashed water far beneath us.