THE TEST I awoke, I knew not how much later, into a world which at first had a certain warm comfort and languid luxury about it.

Then I felt a sharp wrenching and a great pain in my neck, to which it seemed my departed head had, after all, returned.

Stimulated by this pain, I turned and looked up into the face of Auberry.

He stood frowning, holding in his hand a feathered arrow shaft of willow, grooved along its sides to let the blood run free, sinew-wrapped to hold its feathers tight--a typical arrow of the buffalo tribes.

But, as I joined Auberry's gaze, I saw the arrow was headless! Dully I argued that, therefore, this head must be somewhere in my neck.