among toreets, no squares, and no open spaces except ood above t, tico o its columns. Betone buildings, a mazy clutter of sies  toget of lengtimber, beaten-out petrol cans or biscuit tins, torn plastic sing,

    scraps of plywood or hardboard.

    ts oion came more of t t trickle tos raigo toly o follo topped.

    A figure stepped out of a patc;ait, .quot;

    A dim lig  easy to make out ures; but t a g. attered business suit, and ogetepped out of oms post on a rarely visited frontier.

    quot; is t; said ill, quot;And ;

    quot;Youre not dead,quot; said t;You o  in to t and give to t te.quot;

    quot;But excuse me, sir,quot; said Lyra, quot;I  mind me asking, but  dead? Because t it?quot;

    quot;Its a suburb of times take, but to  in t;

    quot;ait for ;

    quot;Until t;

    ill felt  to argue, and before s;Can you just explain o;

    quot;No, no,quot; said t;t a port of transit. t.quot;

    quot;o?quot; said ill.

    quot;ts not sometell you,quot; said tter smile pulled  t;You must move along, please. You must go to t;

    ill took t, and then held Lyras arm and urged her away.

    tialys explained t to rest; so t t on alaimon, leopard-s t rack, skirting tcies and tcream of gs arriving and passing  o toself.

    quot;eve got to get over ter, like t of t; said ill. quot;And maybe tell us  seem to be angry anys strange. And t;

    torn from a notebook, . It ing to see  all looked so real.

    It ting darker a