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a different matter. While most of the group waited a short distance from the shore, Crusoe and Josh set out to buy or borrow a boat.
    After several failures, they met a fisherman named Dedron who said that he would sell them one of his old boats.
    â€œNot good for fishing much,” Dedron said in some sort of mixed dialect.
    After looking at the boat, Crusoe said it would suffice for one voyage. “We’ll take it,” he told Dedron and handed him several gold coins as payment.
    Dedron, a large and homely man with a fisherman’s scarred hands and weathered skin, looked curiously at the coins, then said, “First money I see in two years.” He held up three dirty fingers to clarify his speech.
    â€œWhy is that?” Josh asked. “Can’t you sell your fish?”
    Dedron held out a muscular forearm for them to see. “No have mark,” he said. “Cannot buy or sell.” He shot a question at them. “Do you have mark to buy and sell?”
    Josh looked at Crusoe, who said, “No. Neither of us.”
    The fisherman looked at them as if weighing them in a careful balance. “I put my life in your hands—are you in the House?”
    â€œIn the house?” Josh asked. “What does that mean?”
    Dedron rumbled, “You not know song? I sing it for you.”
    In a voice completely off-key, he sang a song that shocked Josh to the bone—the same words that Josh’s father had sung in another world, in another time.
    â€œâ€˜ The House of Goél will be filled,The earth itself will quake!The Beast will be forever stilledWhen Seven Sleepers wake!’”
    â€œBut what does it mean?” Josh asked. “Who is Goél, and who is the Beast—and who are the Seven Sleepers?”
    â€œI am only fisherman,” Dedron said, shrugging his shoulders. “But I think it mean that one day—soon—bad men will all be killed and good man will come. And then all the world be happy.”
    â€œBut who sings this song? And how did you learn it?” Crusoe asked.
    â€œI know it all my life.” Dedron shrugged again. “But now, lots of people sing it. Not when Sanhedrin is near, but at night in secret places.”
    Crusoe breathed quickly. “Do you hear that, Josh? That’s the Uprising the Sanhedrin is trying to stamp out. And it sounds like it’s spreading faster than they can get rid of it.”
    Crusoe turned once more to Dedron and asked, “When will all this happen?”
    Dedron looked at him impatiently. “Listen to song— ‘ When Seven Sleepers wake.’ Maybe soon. Then House of Goél be filled!”
    He shoved the coins back into Crusoe’s hand. “No pay—we brothers. Anyway, I no can spend.”
    They heard him laughing as they hurried back to camp.
    When the two reached camp, Josh was at first so filled with their news that he noticed nothing unusual. Nosooner had they got in voice range than he cried out, “We’ve found out about the Uprising and about the Seven Sleepers!”
    Just as he was about to launch into his story, Josh saw Mat gesturing with his head toward a clump of trees. Josh realized then that Mat’s hands and feet were tied! Everyone was tied up!
    A scarlet-clad figure stepped from behind a giant elm. It was Elmas, the Chief Interrogator, who had met them in the forest.
    Josh tried to run, but a single “Stop!” from Elmas froze him in his tracks.
    â€œBind them, Onar. I will take these two in the chariot to the Temple for the Questioning,” he said, indicating Tam and Jake. “An armed escort will be sent for you and the rest. You will guard them well. On your life, Onar.”
    There was a clear threat in Elmas’s muffled voice.
    Onar answered at once, “Yes, Master.”
    Onar threw Tam and Jake into the chariot, cuffing them into silence when they tried to speak to the others. Then Elmas got in and, without a word,