"Stop chattering," said Kandid. "Run away now to the village and wait for me. And don't talk to anybody there."
"What about you?"
"I'm a man," said Kandid, "nobody's going to do anything to me."
"Oh yes they will," objected Nava. "I'm telling you: what if they're freaks? It's all the same to them, you know, man, woman, or deadling, they'll make you into one of their own kind, you'll walk here, horrible, and grow onto a tree at night. How can I go on my own, when they could be back there?"
"There's no such thing as freaks," said Kandid, without much confidence. "That's all travelers' tales..."
He looked back. There was a bend in the road and what lay beyond that he could not guess either. Nava was saying something to him copiously, fast and whispering, which made it speciaHy unnerving. He took a better grip on his club.
"All right. Come with me. Just stick close to me and if I order you to do something, do it straight away. And keep quiet, close your mouth, and say nothing till we get to New Village. Let's go."
Keep quiet, of course she couldn't. She did stick close by his side, no more running ahead or lagging behind, but kept up a continuous muttering to herself:
at first it was something about freaks then about the cellar, then about Hopalong and how she had walked these parts with him and made a flute... They negotiated the dangerous bend, then another and Kandid had relaxed somewhat, when right out of the tall grass in the swamp came people who halted silently before them.
So it goes, thought Kandid wearily. Just my luck. Always just my luck. He glanced sideways at Nava. Nava was shaking her head and wrinkling up her face.
"Don't you give me up to them, Dummy," she was muttering. "I don't want to go with them. I want to go with you, don't give me up..."
He looked at the people. There were seven of them, all men, all overgrown with hair to the eyes and all with huge knobbly clubs. They weren't local people, they weren't clothed after the local fashion, quite different plants. These were robbers.
"Well. why've you stopped?" said their leader in a deep rolling voice. "Come here, now. We mean you no harm... If you were deadlings, then of course, we'd have a different sort of talk, that is no talk at all, we'd take you to little bits, and that's all the talk there'd be... Where are you heading for? To New Village, I'd guess. That's all right, you can do that. You, pop, you get along. The little daughter, of course, you leave with us. Don't you fret, she'll be better off with us..."
"No," said Nava, "I don't want to go with them. You hear that, Dummy, I don't want to go with them, they're robbers.. "
The robbers began laughing, not gloating, just from habit.
"Maybe, you'd let us both through?" asked Kandid. "No," said the leader, "both is out. Just now there are deadlings around here, your little daughter would be a goner, she'll get to be a splendid Maiden or some such rubbish, and we get nothing out of that, nor do you, pop, think it out for yourself if you're a man and not a deadling, and you don't look much like one of them, though you've an odd look about you for a man."
"She's still a girl, you know," said Kandid. "Why hurt her?"
The leader was astonished.
"Why do we have to harm her? She won't be a girl forever, when the time comes she'll be a woman, not one of your what d'you call 'em splendid Maidens, but a woman..."
"It's all lies," said Nava, "don't you believe him, Dummy, do something quick as you've brought me here, or they'll cart me off this minute like they did Hopalong's daughter, since then nobody's set eyes on her, I don't want to go with them, better if I become one of them splendid Maidens... Look how wild they are and skinny, they've got nothing to eat by them either, very like..."
Kandid looked about him helplessly, then an idea occurred to him, one that seemed good to him. "Listen, people," he pleaded, "take us both." The robbers approached without haste. Their leader inspected Kandid carefully from head to foot.
"No," he said. "What do we need somebody like you for? You village lot are not fit for anything, you've got no desperation in you, why you're alive I don't know, we could come in and take the lot of you with our bare hands. We don't need you, pop, you talk a bit queer, no knowing what sort of a man you are, you get yourself to New Village and leave the little daughter with us."
Kandid sighed deeply, took a grip on his club with both hands and said softly to Nava:
"Now, Nava, run! Run, don't look back, I'll hold them back."
Stupid, he thought. Of course it would turn out stupid. He remembered the deadling lying with its head in the dark water, like jelly, and lifted his club above his head.
"Ey-ey!" cried the leader.
