It was clear to Alvin that this machine must be the source of the light, and he began to trace the cable. It was not too easy to follow the slender wire, which had a habit of diving into crevasses and reappearing at unexpected places. Finally he lost it altogether and shouted to Theon to come and help him.

             He was crawling under an overhanging rock when a shadow suddenly blotted out the light. Thinking it was his friend, Alvin emerged from the cave and turned to speak. But the words died abruptly on his lips.

             Hanging in the air before him was a great dark eye surrounded by a satellite system of smaller eyes. That, at least, was Alvin's first impression: then he realized that he was looking at a complex machine—and it was looking at him.

             Alvin broke the painful silence. All his life he had given orders to machines, and although he had never seen anything quite like this creature, he decided that it was probably intelligent.

             "Reverse," he ordered experimentally.

             Nothing happened.

             "Go. Come. Rise. Fall. Advance."

             None of the conventional control thought produced any effect. The machine remained contemptuously inactive.

             Alvin took a step forward, and the eyes retreated in some haste. Unfortunately their angle of vision seemed somewhat limited, for the machine came to a sudden halt against Theon, who for the last minute had been an interested spectator. With a perfectly human ejaculation, the whole apparatus shot twenty feet into the air, revealing a set of tentacles and jointed limbs clustering round a stubby cylindrical body.

             "Come down—we won't hurt you!" called Theon, rubbing a bruise on his chest.

             Something spoke: not the passionless, crystal-clear voice of a machine, but the quavering speech of a very old and very tired man.

             "Who are you? What are you doing in Shalmirane?"

             "My name is Theon, and this is my friend, Alvin of Loronei. We're exploring Southern Lys."

             There was a brief pause. When the machine spoke again its voice held an unmistakable note of petulance and annoyance.

             "Why can't you leave me in peace? You know how often I've asked to be left alone!"

             Theon, usually good-natured, bristled visibly.

             "We're from Airlee, and we don't know anything about Shalmirane."

             "Besides," Alvin added reproachfully, "we saw your light and thought you might be signaling for help."

             It was strange to hear so human a sigh from the coldly impersonal machine.

             "A million times I must have signaled now, and all I have ever done is to draw the inquisitive from Lys. But I see you meant no harm. Follow me."

             The machine floated slowly away over the broken stones, coming to rest before a dark opening in the ruined wall of the amphitheater. In the shadow of the cave something moved, and a human figure stepped into the sunlight. He was the first physically old man Alvin had ever seen. His head was completely bald, but a thick growth of pure white hair covered all the lower part of his face. A cloak of woven glass was thrown carelessly over his shoulders, and on either side of him floated two more of the strange, many-eyed machines.

8

             There was a brief silence while each side regarded the other. Then the old man spoke—and the three machines echoed his voice for a moment until something switched them off.

             "So you are from the North, and your people have already forgotten Shalmirane."

             "Oh, no!" said Theon quickly. "We've not forgotten. But we weren't sure that anyone still lived here, and we certainly didn't know that you wished to be left alone."

             The old man did not reply. Moving with a slowness that was painful to watch, he hobbled through the doorway and disappeared, the three machines floating silently after him. Alvin and Theon looked at each other in surprise: they did not like to follow, but their dismissal—if dismissal it was—had certainly been brusque. They were starting to argue the matter when one of the machines suddenly reappeared.

             "What are you waiting for? Come along!" it ordered. Then it vanished again.

             Alvin shrugged his shoulders.

             "We appear to be invited. I think our host's a little eccentric, but he seems friendly."

             From the opening in the wall a wide spiral stairway led downward for a score of feet. It ended in a small circular room from which several corridors radiated. However, there was no possibility of confusion, for all the passages save one were blocked with debris.

             Alvin and Theon had walked only a few yards when they found themselves in a large and incredibly untidy room cluttered up with a bewildering variety of objects. One end of the chamber was occupied by domestic machines—synthesizers, destructors, cleaning equipment and the like—which one normally expected to be concealed from sight in the walls and floors. Around these were piled cases of thought records and transcribers, forming pyramids that reached almost to the ceiling. The whole room was uncomfortably hot owing to the presence of a dozen perpetual fires scattered about the floor. Attracted by the radiation, Krif flew toward the nearest of the metal spheres, stretched his wings luxuriously before it, and fell instantly asleep.

             It was a little while before the boys noticed the old man and his three machines waiting for them in a small open space which reminded Alvin of a clearing in the jungle. There was a certain amount of furniture here—a table and three comfortable couches. One of these was old and shabby, but the others were so conspicuously new that Alvin was certain they had been created in the last few minutes. Even as he watched, the familiar warning glow of the synthesizer field flickered over the table and their host waved silently toward it. They thanked him formally and began to sample the food and drink that had suddenly appeared. Alvin realized that he had grown a little tired of the unvarying output from Theon's portable synthesizer and the change was very welcome.

             They ate in silence for a while, stealing a glance now and then at the old man. He seemed sunk in his own thoughts and appeared to have forgotten them completely—but as soon as they had finished he looked up and began to question them. When Alvin explained that he was a native not of Lys but of Diaspar, the old fellow showed no particular surprise. Theon did his best to deal with the queries: for one who disliked visitors, their host seemed very anxious to have news of the outer world. Alvin quickly decided that his earlier attitude must have been a pose.

             Presently he fell silent again. The two boys waited with what patience they could: he had told them nothing of himself or what he was doing in Shalmirane. The light-signal that had drawn them there was still as great a mystery as ever, yet they did not care to ask outright for an explanation. So they sat in an uncomfortable silence, their eyes wandering round that amazing room, finding something new and unexpected at every moment. At last Alvin broke into the old man's reverie.

             "We must leave soon," he remarked.

             It was not a statement so much as a hint. The wrinkled face turned toward him but the eyes were still very far away. Then the tired, infinitely ancient voice began to speak. It was so quiet and low that at first they could scarcely hear: after a while the old man must have noticed their difficulty, for of a sudden the three machines began once more to echo his words.