He laughed so hard he had to close his eyes to save his water, but he heard the departing voice of Abiad saying, "Well, Usul, and well again. Looks can deceive, and you are a ram, though misfortunately a captive. If you be free someday, call me, and I will not forget that you have bested me." Usul opened his eyes then, and found himself once again at the bottom of the pit. But it was now evening, and worn out with learning, he put down his head and rested himself in sleep. When Usul woke, he found himself in a position he had not enjoyed at first and which had become no more welcome since- hauled from the pit by the hair of his head. He was brought face to maw with the Mand Alhen for the third time. "Usul," the demon said, "my donkeys have shied away from thee, so mayhap thou art worth more than the nosebag thou seem'st. Wouldst thou perform a task for thy freedom?" And Usul answered him, "In the pit or on the bled, I am always free in the place inside me where none can trespass," for Usul would ask no favor of this or of the greatest demon. "A young shoot but a tough one," said the demon. "Here is what I offer thee, nonetheless. I have a taste for some portyguls from a garden across the sands from here. Do thou get me some-a trifle for a lion such as thou-and I will release thee. But know this, that I have laid a spell on thee: step aside from the task but one pace, and thou shall find thyself in a pit from which not even thy mighty arm can toss a .mouse." "I will do it,'' said Usul, "but oniy because it pleases me to get some portyguls myself." He would not let the demon know that his heart beat fast at this talk of his release. So the demon threw him again, far into the desert. And Usul set off then with every bone singing for the joy of being his own master again, tempered only a little by the thought of the Marid's spell and the task ahead, which would be no easy one. And he thought as he walked along, "Forever I will call this day just past my al-awwal nahar, for in wonders and adventures it has surely been 'the first day'-for me, at any rate." And in spite of all that had befallen, his spirit was high as he thought of all that he had learned and the foes he had overcome. So with these things in his mind he crossed the sands, not as a child fresh from the sietch but as one who knows the ways of the desert. By and by, his hajra ended as all journeys will, and he saw in the distance a garden, and in it many an imp and djinni gathering the dew from the plants with scythes (for he had walked through the night, and it was now near sunrise). "Khala, folk of the air," he said to the djinn, "I have come in off the erg, a messenger of the Marid Alhen, who has sent me to fetch him some portyguls. Show me the tree ATRBIDES, PAUL ATREIDES