Karlov moodily touched the shoulder of the man on the cot.

Stefani Gregor puzzled him.

He came to this room more often than was wise, driven by a curiosity born of a cynical philosophy to discover what it was that reenforced this fragile body against threats and thirst and hunger.

He knew what he wanted of Gregor--the fiddler on his knees begging for mercy.

And always Gregor faced him with that silent calm which reminded him of the sea, aloof, impervious, exasperating.