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jaw. Fear? Certainly not! His talisman protected him from so unmanly an
emotion. What then? Rage, evidently, that Arbogast the ogre should so
persecute human children.
Dhrun set out after the ogre. There was not far to go. The road rose over a
little hill, then dipped down into a meadow. At the center stood Arbogast's
hall, a great grim structure of gray stone, with a roof of green copper
plates.
Before the hall the ground had been tilled and planted with cabbage, leeks,
turnips, and onions, with currant bushes growing to the side. A dozen
children, aged from six to twelve, worked in the garden under the vigilant eye
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of an overseer boy, perhaps fourteen years old. He was black-haired and
thick-bodied, with an odd face: heavy and square above, then slanting in to a
foxy mouth and a small sharp chin. He carried a rude whip, fashioned from a
willow switch, with a cord tied to the end. From time to time he cracked the
whip to urge greater zeal upon his charges. As he stalked around the garden,
he issued orders and threats: "Now then, Arvil, get your hands dirty; don't be
shy! Every weed must be pulled today. Bertrude, do you have problems? Do the
weeds evade you? Quick now! The task must be done!... Not so hard on that
cabbage, Pode! Cultivate the soil, don't destroy the plant!"
He pretended to notice Arbogast, and saluted. "Good day, your honor; all goes
well here, no fear as to that when Nerulf is on the job."
Arbogast turned up the basket, to tumble a pair of girls out on the turf. One
was blonde, the other dark; and each about twelve years old.
Arbogast pinched an iron ring around each girl's neck. He spoke in a rumbling
bellow: "Now! Run away as you like, and learn what the others learned!"
"Quite right, sir, quite right!" called Nerulf from the garden. "No one dares
to leave you, sir! And if they did, trust me to catch them!"
Arbogast paid him no heed. "To work!" he bellowed at the girls. "I like fine
cabbages; see to it!" He lumbered across the meadow to his hall. The great
portal opened; he entered and the portal remained open behind him.
The sun sank low; the children worked more slowly; even Nerulf's threats and
whip-snappings took on a listless quality. Presently the children stopped work
altogether and stood in a huddle, darting furtive looks toward the hall.
Nerulf raised his whip on high. "Formation now, neat and orderly! March!"
The children formed themselves into a straggling double line and marched into
the hall. The portal closed behind them with a fateful clang! that ech6ed
across the meadow.
Twilight blurred the landscape. From windows high at the side of the hall came
the yellow light of lamps.
Dhrun cautiously approached the hall, and, after touching his talisman,
climbed the rough stone wall to one of the windows, using cracks and crevices
as a ladder. He drew himself up to the broad stone sill. The shutters stood
ajar; inching forward, Dhrun looked across the entire main hall, which was
illuminated by six lamps in wall brackets and flames in the great fireplace.
Arbogast sat at a table, drinking wine from a pewter stoup. At the far end of
the room the children sat against the wall, watching Arbogast with horrified
fascination. At the hearth the carcass of a child, stuffed with onions,
trussed and spitted, roasted over the fire. Nerulf turned the spit and from
time to time basted " the meat with oil and drippings. Cabbages and turnips
boiled in a great black cauldron.
Arbogast drank wine and belched. Then, taking up a diabolo, he spread his
massive legs, and rolled the spindle back and forth, chortling at the motion.
The children sat huddled, watching with wide eyes and lax mouths. One of the
small boys began to whimper. Arbogast turned him a cold glance. Nerulf called
out in a voice pointedly soft and melodious: "Silence, Daffin!"
In due course Arbogast made his meal, throwing bones into the fire, while the
children dined on cabbage soup.
For a few minutes Arbogast drank wine, dozed and belched. Then he swung around
in his chair and regarded the children, who at once pressed closer together.
Again Daffin whimpered and again he was chided by Nerulf, who nevertheless
seemed as uneasy as any of the others.
Arbogast reached into a high cabinet and brought two bottles down to the
table, the first tall and green, the second squat and black-purple. Next, he
set out two mugs, one green, the other purple, and into each he poured a
dollop of wine. To the green mug he carefully added a drop from the green
bottle, and into the purple mug, a drop from the black-purple bottle.
Arbogast now rose to his feet; wheezing and grunting he hunched across the
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