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"Is that right?" said the clown, and then walked over to Caul and spat right in his face "Well, you’ve got a twisted way of going at it"

Caul wiped the spit aith the back of his hand "I kneould be pointless to reason with you The yanda for a hundred years Better, I think, to take your souls and start again fresh"

Miss Wren returned "He speaks the truth," she said "There must be fifty soldiers out there All of them armed"

"Oh, oh, oh," moaned Bronwyn, "what are we to do?"

"Give up," said Caul "Go quietly"

"It doesn’t matter how many of theet through all otten We were inside a fortress of ice!

"That’s right!" Caul said brightly "She’s absolutely right, they can’t get in So there’s a quick and painless way to do this, where you , stubborn, slow, boring, sad hich is called a siege, where for weeks and uard outside while we stay in here, quietly starving to death Maybe you’ll give up when you’re desperate and hungry enough Orone another Either way, if , they’ll torture every last one of you to death when they get in, which inevitably they will And if we , sad route, then please, for the sake of the children, bring me some trousers"

"Althea, fetch the man some damned trousers!" said Miss Wren "But do not, under any circumstances, melt this ice!"

"Yes, ma’am," replied Althea, and she went out

"Now," said Miss Wren, turning to Caul "Here’s e’ll do You tell your e out of here, or we’ll kill you If we have to do it, I assure you ill, and we’ll du corpse out a hole in the ice a piece at a time While I’ tied and said, "Oh, all right"

"Really?" Miss Wren said