One thing about this adventure: it was taking his mind off his problem of his two Betrothees. But he knew that as soon as this was done, he would have to buckle down and make his decision. He was still no closer to it than he had been six years ago.

An ogre loomed before him. Dolph kept moving. Ogres were big, but grown sphinxes were bigger. He hoped to avoid trouble with the ogres here, but if it came, it came, and he would just plow through.

The ogre fell back, a stunned look on his stupid face. What had happened? Dolph hadn't done anything.

"That did it, Nada!" Electra exclaimed.

Oh. Nada had stood up in the ogre's sight and inhaled. That explained it. Ogres weren't smart, but no brain was necessary to appreciate Nada's human qualities. That ogre would be out for the duration, smiling.

Then a female ogre showed up. Oops—she would be less impressed by Nada's inhalation, because ogresses were justifiably proud of their ugliness. The perfect ogre was stronger, uglier, and stupider than any other creature of the jungle. The males could be stunned by beauty because it was totally foreign to their experience, but the females did have a glimmer of its nature and labored hard to eradicate it.

Then the ogress sailed into the air. Godiva's wand was in action again! The ogress made an ugly somersault and landed on a rock on her face. The rock cracked apart, and the fragments shied away, horrified, but her face was unchanged. It still looked like sat-on cornmeal mush.

The ogress began to realize that something was up. Thoughts traveled slowly through an ogre brain, but in time some of them did get where they were going. Her skull heated, and the fleas jumped off as their feet were scorched. She was trying to think! But in a moment she gave up on that futile effort and simply charged in.

The wand lofted her again, higher and farther. This time it dumped her headfirst in a mud puddle. The mud petrified in the vicinity of her face, and merely curdled farther out. That made it difficult for her to get out. She bellowed, and the petrified mud exploded, sending rocklike chunks far, wide, and deep. The ogress got back to her feet and charged again. Once a thought got into an ogre's head, little short of an earthquake could dislodge it. Nobody in his right mind tangled with an ogre—except another ogre.

Fortunately, she was charging in the wrong direction.

Dolph plodded on, trying to lessen the impacts of his great feet so that the ogress would not catch on to his location. That wasn't hard, because the impacts were more like squishes, as he slogged through the slough.