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fled.
    Three hours and ten miles later, Quietly walked the timberline tiredly, wondering whether to keep to the woods and kill something for her supper, or to go on until she found some suitable crevice between the scales of civilization into which she might crawl. She was hungry and she had come a long way. She skirted cornfields now, and buckwheat, and for a while she followed a fence which enclosed grazing land, though she saw no cattle. She judged that she had another two hours of light and an hour of dusk. If she were going to a make a snare, she would have to do it very soon.
    Suddenly she stopped, head up, nostrils dilating. From the woods to the right she heard faint sounds of splashing and calling. A pleasant vision of cool water crossed her mind. She had found a spring about noon, and had been able to wet her face and arms in it and drink, but that had been hours ago. She turned toward the sounds.
    She reached a creek about a quarter of a mile north, and followed it upstream a few hundred yards to its source, a small spring-fed lake surrounded by trees. Across the water was a shelving bank, on which were scattered towels and robes and clothing. Splashing about in the water were five girls, screaming and giggling and quite as naked as she. She sat down in the shadows between the trees to watch them.She noticed with some surprise that their bodies were tanned except for patches of white around their breasts and hips. She nodded to herself. She had learned of the clothing convention, and was quite aware that it was of major importance among people “outside.” This piebald tanning was a strong reminder to her of the fact that she must circumscribe her own behavior to this and many another taboo if she were to win acceptance among people.
    She tried to remember if this taboo applied in a group of the same sex, and could not remember immediately. It obviously did not apply to the girls in the lake. Yet if she, an outsider, appeared among them, it might be regarded as a violation.
    There was a violent spasm of coughing from the water. One of the girls was floundering near the middle of the pond, her breath coming raggedly. Immediately there was a commotion among the others.
    “Bee! Bee-
triss!
Clara—look! Bee’s drownding!”
    There was a chorus of frightened exclamations. One of the girls said, “I’m going after her!”
    “No!” cried another. “You can’t swim well enough! You’ll drown too!” and she laid restraining hands on the would-be rescuer, who half-heartedly fought her off. The other two climbed out of the water as if it were suddenly hot, and stood on the bank, where they could see better, wringing their hands.
    “Oh-h!” moaned the one called Clara. “Miss O’Laughlin will kill us for this. We’re not allowed to swim without suits!”
    “She’ll never know if we don’t tell her,” chattered one of the girls on the bank.
    “She will too when they find Bee’s body,” said the other ghoulishly.
    “We could say that only Bee—”
    “Help! Help!” screamed the would-be savior.
    “Help!” all the girls screamed, including the one who was drowning.
    There are certain zones of indecency, Quietly was thinking, peculiar to certain lands and certain times. In certain tribes in Africa virgins must go naked until they marry, when custom demands thatthey don a narrow belt. In the Far East it has long been the custom to cover the faces of the women. In Bali the only woman who covers her breasts is the courtesan. The question is, would the effect of my saving this girl be cancelled by my indecency in their eyes?
    It was a very complicated matter. She wished—Complicated? Unimportant, then. What was important? That she, Quietly, be accepted sooner or later. Was there anything more important here?
    Yes, there was. A life was being lost uselessly. If saving it meant the disapproval of these people, she could get away from them and try again.
    She slipped into the water, took a deep breath, found