mistake.â
It looked that way to me too. I couldnât think why he was so much alive. âYouâre not a Homeward Bounder, are you?â I asked doubtfully.
âNo,â he said.
I went on staring at him, trying to keep from looking at that wound of his, and watching him shiver. I was cold myself, but then I could move about to keep warm. He was chained so that he could hardly move a foot in any direction. And all the while I stared, that water ran and poured, away to one side, with a long hollow poppling which had me licking my lips. And he was chained so he could hear it and not get to it.
âAre you thirsty?â I said. âLike me to get you a drink?â
âYes,â he said. âIâd welcome a drink.â
âIâll have to get it in my hands,â I said. âI wish Iâd got something to hold it in.â
I went edging and shuffling round him, keeping well away from the chains. I could see the stream by then, pouring down a groove in the rock, just beyond the reddish spiked thing that all the chains were hooked into. The ledge got narrower there. I was thinking that it was going to be difficult to climb over that spike on the slippery rock without touching a chain, when I realized what the spike was. I went close and leaned over it to make sure. Yes it was. An anchor. One spike was buried deep in the granite and all of it was orange wet rust, but there was no mistaking it. And all the chains led through the ring on the end of the shank.
I spun round so fast then that I never knew how I missed the chains. â They did this to you!â I said to him. âHow did They do it? Why?â
He was turned to look at me. I could see he was thinking about water more than anything. I went climbing over the anchor to show him I hadnât forgotten. âYes, it was They ,â he said.
I put my hands under the little pouring waterfall and filled them as full as I could with water. But I was so furious for him that my hands shook, and most of the water had trickled away by the time Iâd climbed back over the anchor. Even more had gone by the time I managed to stretch my hands up to him among the chains, without touching one. He was so tall and chained so close that it was quite a struggle for him to get his mouth down. I donât think he got more than a taste the first time. But I went back and forwards, back and forwards, to the stream. I got quite nimble after a while. I even took a drink myself, after his sixth handful. He was so thirsty it was awful, and I kept thinking how he would feel if I happened to touch a chain and got twitched away just as heâd got his mouth down to the water.
âYou should have asked me straight off,â I said. âWhy didnât you? Have They forbidden you to, or something?â
âNo,â he said. â They donât have that kind of power over me. But I could see how thirsty you were, and Iâm more used to it than you.â
âHow long have you been here like this?â I said. We were talking this way as I went to and fro. âAs long as the Flying Dutchman? Do you know him?â
He smiled. He was getting more cheerful as he drank, in spite of his situation. I just wished Iâd had some food I could have given him too. âFrom long before the Dutchman,â he said. âLong before Ahasuerus too. Almost from the beginning of the worlds.â
I nearly said âI donât know how you stand it!â but there was no point in saying that. He had to. âHow did They get you?â I said. âWhy?â
âIt was my own fault,â he said. âIn a way. I thought They were friends of mine. I discovered about the Bounds, and all the ways of the worlds, and I made the bad mistake of telling Them . Iâd no idea what use They would make of the discovery. When it was too late, I saw the only safeguard was to tell mankind too, but They caught up with me before
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