"They-Pas-doesn't want anyone to go back. You probably know it. So unless a lander's disabled before it unloads, it goes back to the Whorl Whorl so it can bring more people here." so it can bring more people here."

"A good one at Mura they got," Wijzer remarked pensively. "This I hear. Only nobody near they will allow."

"If I had succeeded," Marrow told him, "I wouldn't have let anyone near ours either."

"Dorp, too. Our judges there, but none they got." Wijzer refolded the letter and handed it back to me. "Pajarocu to go, a sharp watch you must keep, young fellow. The legend already you know? About the pajarocu bird?"

I smiled; no one had called me young in a long time. "I'll try, and if you know the legend, I'd like to hear it."

He cleared his throat and poured himself another glass of wine. "The Maker everything he made. Like a man a boat builds it was. All the animals, the grass, trees, Pas and his old wife, everything. About the Maker you know?"

I nodded and said that we called him the Outsider.

"A good name for him that is. Outside him we keep, into our hearts we don't let him come.

"When everything he's got made, he got to paint. First the water. Easy it is. Then the ground, all the rocks. A little harder it gets. Then sky and trees. Grass harder than you think it is, the little brush he had got to use, and paint so when the wind blows the color changes, and different colors for different kinds. Then dogs and greenbucks, all the different animals. Birds and flowers going to be tough they are. This he knows. So for the last them he leaves."

I nodded. Marrow was yawning.

"While the other stuff painting he is, the pajarocu with the big owl up north they got makes friends. Well, that big owl the first bird the Maker paints he is, because so quick it he can do. White for feathers, eyes, legs, and everything. But that owl not much fun he is, so the snake-eater bird next he calls. At the owl the pajarocu bird looks, and all over white he is. Does it hurt the pajarocu wants to know. That big owl, he never laughs. To have a game he wants, so he says yes. A lot it hurts, he says, but over quick it is.

So the pajarocu, over to look he goes. The Maker the snake-killer bird painting is, and two dozen colors using he is. Red for the tail, brown for wings, blue and white in front, yellow around the mouth and the chin, everything he's got using he is. So the pajarocu hides. When the Maker finished is, the pajarocu nobody can find. Because he has never been painted and nobody him can see, it is."

Marrow chuckled.

"So the Maker for the owl and the snake-eater bird calls, and them for the pajarocu to look he tells. The owl at night can look, and the snake-eater bird when light it gets. But him they never see, so him they never find. All the time the owl around the night he flies, and cu, cu he says. Never the snake-eater bird talks, till somewhere where the pajarocu might be he comes. Then Pajarocu?"

I said, "That's a good story, but if I understand you, you're telling me that even with your directions I may have a lot of trouble finding Pajarocu."

Wijzer nodded solemnly. "Not a place that wants to be found it is. Traders to steal will come back, they think. If close you get, wrong their friends to you will tell."

Marrow, who had eaten nearly as much as Wijzer, said, "They have invited us to send someone, one man or one woman to fly back to the Long Sun Whorl and return to this one. You've seen their letter, and that's an accurate copy. How do you explain it?"

"They it maybe can explain. Them ask. Everything this young fellow to tell I want, so that careful he will be. Afraid you are that so much I will tell that not he will go?"

Marrow said, "No," and I reaffirmed that I was going.

"You a question I ask." Wijzer swirled what little wine remained in his glass, staring into it as though he could read the future in its spiral. "One man back can go, your letter says. This fellow Silk to bring here you want. Two you will be."

I nodded. "Marrow and our other leaders and I talked about that. A great many people know about Patera Silk now. When he identifies himself, we believe they'll let him come aboard their lander."

When Wijzer only stared at me, I added, "We hope that they will, at least."

"You hope." Wijzer snorted.

Marrow said, "We do. Our own lander held more than five hundred. I doubt that they'll get two hundred from other towns with their invitation, but suppose they do. Or let's say they get a hundred, and to that they add four hundred of their own people. The lander reaches the Long Sun Whorl safely, and the hundred scatter, every man looking for his own city."

Wijzer frowned. "It you must finish."

"When the time to return comes, do you think a hundred will reassemble at the lander?"

Wijzer shook his head. "No. Not a hundred there will be."

Marrow made a little sound expressive of satisfaction. "Then why not let Silk take one of the empty seats?"

"Because none there may be. Not a hundred I said. Two hundred, maybe. When about this town that you got I ask, what they say it is? You know? The first it was. The first lander from the Whorl came, and here landed. True it is?"

"No," I told him. "Another lander left some time before ours, with a group led by a man called Auk. They were also from Viron. Have you ever heard of them?"

Wijzer shook his head. "Someplace else they landed, maybe."

"On Green," I said, "or so I've been told. There was also another lander that left at the same time ours did. One lander wouldn't hold all of us, and we had cards enough to restore two, so we took two. It came here with us, but we've never learned what became of Auk's."

Wijzer leaned toward me, his elbows on the table and his big, square face ruddy with sun, wind, and wine. "You listen. Here twenty years now you been. For me, nine it is. Back up there," he pointed to the ceiling, "where the Long Sun they got, what like it is, not you know. What like it was when away I went. Everybody out Pas wants. Storms, and a week all nights he gives. Even me, out he drives. Everybody! The landers up there that they got? No good! No good! You the cards had, this you said. Enough back you put, and it flies. Right that is?"

I nodded.

Wijzer directed his attention to Marrow. "Landers here you got, you say. But the wires pulled out are, seats, too. Cards, pipes glass, all that. Again to fly, not you can them make. Those landers up there? How it goes with them, you think? First of all you went so the best ones you took. The one I ride, like what it is, you thinly Forty-eight seats for us left. Forty-eight for six hundred and thirty-four. That I never forget. Up we fly, and fifteen dead we got. No food but what we bring. No water. Pipes, taps, what you sit on every day, all gone they are. When here we get, how our lander smells you think? Babies all sick. Everybody sick or dead they are. Terrible it is. Terrible! So why go? Because we got to."

He looked back to me and pointed a short, thick finger. "Not everybody comes back, you think. So more seats there are. Maybe not everybody comes. But the ones... Family up there you got?"

"My father, if he's still alive. An uncle and two aunts, and some cousins. They may have left by this time."

"Or not, maybe. Friends?"

"Yes. A few."

"Father. Uncle. Aunt. Friend. Cousin. Care I don't. Father we say. On his knees he gets. He cries. What then will you do? About that you got to think. Ever of you they beg? Your father, to you down on his knees before he has got? Crying? Of you begging?"

"No," I said. "He never did."

"Twenty years. A very young man then you are. Maybe a boy when you go, yes?"

I nodded again.

"At your father you looked, your father you saw. A man not like you he was. The same for me it is when a boy I am. No more! This time your own face you see, but old you are. Not strong like twenty years ago. Weak now he is. Crying, begging. Tears down his cheeks running. Horn, Horn! Me you got to take! My own flesh you are!"

Wijzer was silent for a moment, watching my face. "No extra seats there will be. No. Not one even."

Marrow grunted again, and I said, "I understand what you mean. It could be very difficult."

Wijzer leaned back and drank what remained of his wine. "To Pajarocu you go? Still?"

"Yes."

"Stubborn like me you are. For you a good voyage I wish. Something to draw on you got, Marrow?"

Marrow called his clerk, and had him bring paper, a quill, and a bottle of ink.

"Look. Main this is." Carefully, Wijzer drew a wavering line down the paper. "We on Main here. Islands we got." He sketched in several. "North the Lizard it is." He began to draw it, a tiny blot of ink upon the vastness of the sea. "The Lizard you know?"

I told him I lived there.

"Good that is. Home for another good dinner you can stop." Wijzer looked at me slyly, and I realized with something of a start that he had bright blue eyes like Silk's.

"No," I said, and found it not as hard to say as I expected. "I doubt that I'll stop there at all, unless I find that I need something I neglected to bring."

Marrow grunted his approval.

"Better you don't. Rocks there is. But those you must know." Wijzer added towns up the coast. "Too many islands to draw, but there these rocks and the big sandbar you I must show. Both very bad they are. Maybe them you see, maybe nothing." He gave me another sly glance. "Nothing you see, me anyhow you believe. Yes?"

"Yes," I said. "I know how easy it is to stave a boat on a rock that can't be seen."

Wijzer nodded to himself. "Coming Green is. The sea to go up and down it makes. The tide in Dorp we say. About the tide you know?"

"Yes," I repeated.

"How more water Green makes, then not so much, I will not tell. Not till someone to me it explains. But so it is. About this tide you must think always, because bigger and bigger it gets while you go. Never it you forget. A safe anchorage you got, but in an hour, two hours, not safe it is."

I nodded.

"Also all these towns that to you I show. At all these towns even Wijzer would not put in. But maybe something there is you need. Which ones crazy is, I will not show. All crazy they are. Me you understand? Crazy like this one you got they are. Only all different, too."

"Differing laws and customs. I know what you mean."

"So if nothing you need, past best to go it is. Now these two up here..." He drew circles around them and blew on the ink. "Where you cross they are. Because over here..." Another wavering line, receding to the south and showing much less detail. "Another Main you got. Maybe a name it's got. I don't know."

"Shadelow, the western continent," I proposed.

"Maybe. Or maybe just a big island it is. Wijzer, not smart enough you to tell he is. An island, maybe, but big it is. This coast? Better well out you stand."

"I'm sure you're right."

"Two or three towns." He sketched them in, adding their names in a careful script. "What down for you I put, what I them call it is. Maybe something else you say. Maybe something else they do. Here the big river runs." Meticulously he blacked it in. "It you got to see, so sharp you got to look. What too big not to see is, what nobody sees it is."

I told him that I had been thinking the same thing not long before.

"A wise saying it is. Everyplace wise fellows the same things say. This you know?"

"I suppose that they must, although I'd never thought about it."

"Wise always the same it is. About men, women, children. About boats, food, horses, dogs, everything. Always the same. No birds in the old nest, wise fellows say, and the good cock out of the old bag. A thief, the thief s tracks sees. The meat from the gods it is, the cooks from devils. All those things in towns all over they say. You young fellows laugh, but us old fellows know. The look-out, the little thing always he sees. Almost always, because to see it sharp he must look. The big thing, too big to look out sharp for it is, and nobody it sees.

Dipping his quill for what might have been the tenth time, he divided the river. "The big stream to starboard it is. Yes? Little to port. The little one fast it runs. Hard to sail up. Yes? Just the same, the way you go it is." He drew an arrow upon the unknown land beside it, and began to sketch in trees beside it.

After a moment I nodded and said, "Yes. I will."

Wijzer stopped drawing trees and divided the smaller stream. "Same here, the little one you take. A little boat you got?"

"Much smaller than yours," I told him. "It's small enough for me to handle alone easily."

"That's good. Good! For a good, strong blow you must wait. You see? Then up here you can sail. Close to the shore, you got to stay. Careful always you must be, and the legend not forget. A good watch keep. Here sometimes Pajarocu is." He added a dot of ink and began lettering the word beside it: PAJAROCU PAJAROCU.

"Did you say it was there only sometimes?" I asked.

Wijzer shrugged. "Not a town like this town of yours it is. You will see, if there you get. Sometimes here it is, sometimes over there. If I tell, you would not me believe. That you coming are they know, maybe it they move. Or another reason. Or no reason. Not like my Dorp, Pajarocu is." He pointed to Dorp, a cluster of tiny houses on his map. "Not like any other town Pajarocu is."

Marrow was leaning far over the table to look at it. "That river is practically due west of here."

Wijzer's face lost all expression, and he laid aside his quill.

"Couldn't Horn save time by sailing west from here?"

"That some fellows do, maybe," Wijzer told him. "Sometimes all right they go. Sometimes not. What here I draw, what Wijzer does it is."

"But you want to trade from town to town," Marrow objected. "Horn won't be doing that."

I said, "If I were to do as you suggest, sailing due west from here) I would eventually strike the coast of this big island or second continent that Wijzer has very kindly mapped for us. But when I did, I wouldn't know whether to turn south or north, unless the river mouth was in view."

Reluctantly, Marrow nodded.

"With the greatest respect to Captain Wijzer, a map like this one, drawn freehand, could easily be in error by, oh, fifty leagues or more. Suppose that I decided it was accurate, and sailed north. It might easily take me a week to sail fifty leagues, tacking up the coast. Suppose that at the end of that week I turned back to search south. And that the river mouth was five leagues beyond the point at which I turned back. How long would it take me to locate it?"

Wijzer smiled; and Marrow said reluctantly, "I see what you mean. It's just that they're going to leave as soon as their lander's ready, and it's nearly ready now. You read that letter. Anybody who hasn't arrived before they go will be left behind."

"I realize that there's no time to waste," I told him, "but sometimes it's best to make haste slowly." Privately I reflected that I might have the best of both plans by sailing north for a hundred leagues or so, then turning west well south of the place where Wijzer had advised me to.

And I resolved to do it.

-5-

THE THING ON THE GREEN PLAIN.

How long ago it seems! So much has happened since then, although at times I almost feel that it happened to someone else.

Yet I remember Wijzer clearly. What if he were to walk into court tomorrow? He would ask whether I ever reached Pajarocu, and what could I say? "Yes, but..."

Let me make one thing clear before I go further. I did not trust Wijzer completely. He seemed a trader not greatly different from dozens of others who sail up and down our coast, having begun, perhaps, with a cargo of iron kitchenware and exchanged it for copper ingots, and exchanged the ingots for paper and timber in New Viron, always in search of a cargo that will bring immense profit when it is sold in their home port. I was afraid that Wijzer might be lying to make himself seem more widely traveled than he was, or even that he might not want Silk brought here for reasons of his own. In all this I wronged him, as I now know. He had been to Pajarocu, and he advised me to the best of his ability.

Some people have accused Nettle and me of penning a work of fiction; and even though that is a slander, we did present certain imagined conversations when we knew roughly what had been said and what had been decided-that among Generalissimo Oosik, General Mint, Councilor Potto, and Generalissimo Siyuf, for example. We knew how each of the four talked, and what the upshot of their talk had been, and ventured to supply details to show each at his or her most characteristic.