'Weren't you afraid they'd be stolen?' she said.

'There are two stout fellows hidden in the grass near the river,' he said. Hewaved towards it, and she saw two men come from it. They waved back and startedto walk back to the city.

There was a rough road along the White Foal River, sometimes coming near thestream, sometimes bending far away. They rode over it for three hours, and thenSmhee said, 'There's an old adobe building a quarter-mile inland. We'll sleepthere for a while. I don't know about you, but I'm weary.'

She was glad to rest. After hobbling the horses near a stand of the tall browndesert grass, they lay down in the midst of the ruins. Smhee went to sleep atonce. She worried about her family for a while, and suddenly she was beingshaken by Smhee. Dawn was coming up.

They ate some dried meat and bread and fruit and then mounted again. Afterwatering the horses and themselves at the river, they rode at a canter for threemore hours. And then Smhee pulled up on the reins. He pointed at the trees aquarter-mile inland. Beyond, rearing high, were the towering cliffs on the otherside of the river. The trees on this side, however, prevented them from seeingthe White Foal.

'The boat's hidden in there,' he said. 'Unless someone's stolen it. That's notlikely, though. Very few people have the courage to go near the Isle ofShugthee.' . .

'What about the hunters who bring down the furs from the north?'

'They hug the eastern shore, and they only go by in daylight. Fast.'

They crossed the rocky ground, passing some low-growing purplish bushes and someirontrees with grotesquely twisted branches. A rabbit with long ears dashed bythem, causing her horse to rear up. She controlled it, though she had not beenon a horse since she was eleven. Smhee said that he was glad that it hadn't been