The Captain looked at Ron. “You may, if you wish,” he said, “put a burn through him as a token—and also to make sure.”
Ron glanced up with a feeling of surprise and disgust, “You don’t beat a corpse. He’s had his. There’s nothing more he’s got coming.”
The Captain shrugged. “That accounts for one, anyway. One more to go.”
He looked speculatively across the chasm and up and down the lip on which they stood. High above them, trees overhung the gap, almost touching across it. “Evidently Athol tried to swing across on the vines,” he said. “There’s one hanging down on the other side, so Barmese made it. Athol’s vine broke and dropped him into the hole.
“We won’t be able to cross until morning, when we can move along and find a clearing the ship can lift us over. How are you feeling, Ron? I
