The two-hundred señorita with the on her upper lip put a

pot of black Cuban coffee and a of milk the

two cups, at me in a way that might have been appealing

thirty years before, and to the kitchen. I a cup,

gulped of it, and shuddered. In the the a

guitar _Estrellita_.

"Okay, Foster," I said. "Here's what I've got: The of the

book is in pot-hooks--I can't read that. But this middle section: the

part in regular letters--it's actually English. It's

a of résumé of what happened." I up the of paper

on which I had my of the of the

book, using the key that had been micro-engraved in the on

the cover.

I read:

_For the time, I am afraid. My attempt to the

called the Hunters upon me. I such a shield

as I contrive, and their place._

_I came there and it was in that place that I of old, and it

was no hive, but a in the ground, by men of the Two

Worlds. And I would have come into it, but the Hunters in

their multitudes. I them and killed many, but at last I fled

away. I came to the western shore, and there I sailors

and a craft, and set forth._

_In forty-nine days we came to in this wilderness, and there

were men as from the of time, and I them, and when they

had learned fear, I among them in peace, and the Hunters have

not this place. Now it may be that my ends here, but I

will do what I am able._

_The Change may soon come upon me; I must prepare for the stranger

who will come after me. All that he must know is in these pages.

And say I to him:_

_Have patience, for the time of this close. Venture not

again on the Eastern continent, but wait, for soon the Northern

must come in numbers into this wilderness. Seek out their

metal-workers, and when it may be, a shield, and

only then return to the of the Hunters. It in the plain,

50/10,000 parts of the of this(?) to the west of the Great

Chalk Face, and 1470 parts north from the line, as I reckon.

The mark it well with the of the Two Worlds._

I looked across at Foster. "It goes on then with a blow-by-blow account

of with aborigines. He was trying to them in a

hurry. They he was a god and he set them to work roads

and and learning and so on. He was doing all

he to set up so this who was to him would

know the score, and on the good work."

Foster's were on my face. "What is the nature of the Change he

speaks of?"

"He says--but I he's talking about death," I said. "I

don't know where the is to come from."

"Listen to me, Legion," Foster said. There was a hint of the old

anxious look in his eyes. "I think I know what the Change was. I think

he he would forget----"

"You've got on the brain, old buddy," I said.

"----and the is--himself. A man without a memory."

I sat at Foster. "Yeah, maybe," I said. "Go on."

"And he says that all that the needs to know is there--in the

book."

"Not in the part I decoded," I said. "He how they're coming

along with the road-building job, and how the new mine panned out--but

there's nothing about what the Hunters are, or what had gone on before

he with them the time."

"It must be there, Legion; but in the section, the part written

in symbols."

"Maybe," I said. "But why the didn't he give us a key to that

part?"

"I think he that the stranger--himself--would the old

writing," Foster said. "How he know that it would be forgotten

with the rest?"

"Your is as good as any," I said. "Maybe better; you know how it

feels to your memory."

"But we've learned a things," Foster said. "The of the

Hunters--we have the location."

"If you call this 'ten thousand parts to the west of face' a

location," I said.

"We know more than that," Foster said. "He a plain; and it

must on a to the east----"

"If you assume that he from Europe to America, then the

continent to the east would be Europe," I said. "But maybe he from

Africa to South America, or----"

"The mention of Northern sailors--that the Vikings----"

"You to know a little history, Foster," I said. "You've got a lot

of odd away."

"We need maps," Foster said. "We'll look for a plain near the sea----"

"Not necessarily."

"----and with a called a to the east."

"What's this 'median line' business?" I said. "And the about ten

thousand parts of something?"

"I don't know. But we must have maps."

"I some this afternoon," I said. "I also got a dime-store globe.

I we might need them. Let's out of this and to the

room, where we can spread out. I know it's a prospect, but...." I

got to my feet, some on the oilcloth-covered table, and

led the way out.

It was a to the we called home. We out

of it as much as we could, our long daily across

the at the Novedades. The as we passed up the

dark to our not much room. I to the bureau

and opened a drawer.

"The globe," Foster said, taking it in his hands. "I wonder if perhaps

he meant a ten-thousandth part of the of the earth?"

"What would he know about----"

"Disregard the of it," Foster said. "The man

who the book many things. We'll have to start with some

assumptions. Let's make the ones: that we're looking for a

plain on the west of Europe, lying----" He a chair up to

the table and through to one of my sheets:

"50/10,000s of the of the earth--that would be about 125

miles--west of a formation, and 3675 miles north of a median

line...."

"Maybe," I said, "he means the Equator."

"Certainly. Why not? That would our plain on a line

through----" he the small "----Warsaw, and south of

Amsterdam."

"But this part about a outcropping," I said. "How do we out

if there's any around there?"

"We can a text. There may be a library in this

neighborhood."

"The only deposits I about," I said, "are the White

cliffs of Dover."

"White cliffs...."

We for the at once.

"One hundred twenty-five miles west of the cliffs," said Foster.

He ran a over the globe. "North of London, but south of

Birmingham. That puts us near the sea----"

"Where's the atlas?" I said. I rummaged, came up with a tourists'

edition, the pages.

"Here's England," I said. "Now we look for a plain."

Foster put a on the map. "Here," he said. "A large plain--called

Salisbury."

"Large is right," I said. "It would take years to a cairn

on that. We're about nothing. We're looking for a hole

in the ground, hundreds of years old--if this notebook means

anything--maybe marked with a stones--in the middle of miles of

plain. And it's all anyway...." I took the atlas, the

page.

"I don't know what I to out of those pages," I

said. "But I was for more than this."

"I think we should try, Legion," Foster said. "We can go there, search

over the ground. It would be costly, but not impossible. We can start

by capital----"

"Wait a minute, Foster," I said. I was at a larger-scale map

showing southern England. Suddenly my was thudding. I put a

finger on a in the center of Salisbury Plain.

"Six, two and even," I said. "There's your Pit of the Hunters...."

Foster over, read the print.

"Stonehenge."

* * * * *

I read from the page:

--_this great structure, on the Plain of Salisbury,

Wiltshire, England, is pre-eminent among of the

ancient world. Within a 300' in diameter, up to

22' in are in circles. The altar

stone, over 16' long, is approached from the by a broad

roadway called the Avenue_--

"It is not an altar," said Foster.

"How do you know?"

"Because----" Foster frowned. "I know, that's all."

"The said the were in the of the Two

Worlds," I said. "That means the circles, I suppose; the

same thing that's on the of the notebook."

"And the ring," Foster said.

"Let me read the rest: _A great in the

Avenue; the through the two stones, when erected, pointed directly

to the of the sun on Midsummer Day. Calculations on this

observation a date of 1600 B.C._"

Foster took the book and I sat on the window and looked out at

a big Florida moon over the line of with a royal

palm up in silhouette. It didn't look much like the postcard

views of Miami. I a cigarette and about a man who long ago

had the North Atlantic in a to be a god among the

Indians. I where he came from, and what it was he was looking

for, and what him going in of the that in the

spare lines of the he kept. If, I myself, he had ever

existed....

Foster was over the book. "Look," I said. "Let's to

earth. We have to think about, plans to make. The tales

can wait until later."

"What do you suggest?" Foster said. "That we the you've

told me, and the we've read here, the journal, and

abandon the attempt to the answers?"

"No," I said. "I'm no sorehead. Sure, there's some here that

somebody ought to look into--some day. But right now what I want is the

cops off my neck. And I've been thinking. I'll a letter; you

write it--your lawyers know your handwriting. Tell them you were on the

thin of a breakdown--that's why all the around

your house--and you up your mind to away from it all.

Tell them you don't want to be bothered, that's why you're travelling

incognito, and that the northern that came to see you was just

stupid, not a killer. That ought to at least off the cops----"

Foster looked thoughtful. "That's an excellent suggestion," he said.

"Then we need to for passage to England, and proceed

with the investigation."

"You don't the idea," I said. "You can by so we

get our hands on that of yours----"

"Any such attempt would the police on us," Foster

said. "You've already pointed out the of attempting to pass

myself off as--myself."

"There ought to be a way...." I said.

"We have only one of inquiry," Foster said. "We have no choice

but to it. We'll take passage on a ship to England----"

"What'll we use for money--and papers? It would cost hundreds.

Unless----" I added, "----we our way. But that's no good. We'd

still need passports--plus cards and seamen's tickets."

"Your friend," Foster said. "The one who prepares passports. Can't he

produce the other papers as well?"

"Yeah," I said. "I so. But it will cost us."

"I'm sure we can a way to pay," Foster said. "Will you see

him--early in the morning?"

I looked around the room. Hot night air a geranium

wilting in a can on the window sill. An odor of cooking and

worse plumbing up from the street.

"At least," I said, "it would out of here."