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"You have plans that I do not know about," I said.

But he did not answer me. He said to me, instead: "You know--my descent to the earth . . . Tomorrow will be its anniversary."

Then, after a silence, he went on: "I came down very near here." And he flushed.

And once again, without understanding why, I had a queer sense of sorrow.

One question, however, occurred to me:

"Then it was not by chance that on the morning when I first met you--a week ago--you were strolling along like that, all alone, a thousand miles from any inhabited region? You were on the your back to the place where you landed?"

The little prince flushed again.

And I added, with some hesitancy: "Perhaps it was because of the anniversary?"

The little prince flushed once more. He never answered questions--but when one flushes does that not mean "Yes"?

"Ah," I said to him, "I am a little frightened--"

But he interrupted me.

"Now you must work. You must return to your engine. I will be waiting for you here. Come back tomorrow evening . . ."

But I was not reassured. I remembered the fox.

One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one lets himself be tamed . . .

Beside the well there was the ruin of an old stone wall.

When I came back from my work, the next evening, I saw from some distance away my little price sitting on top of a wall, with his feet dangling.

And I heard him say: "Then you don't remember. This is not the exact spot."

Another voice must have answered him, for he replied to it: "Yes, yes! It is the right day, but this is not the place."

I continued my walk toward the wall.

At no time did I see or hear anyone.

The little prince, however, replied once again: "--Exactly. You will see where my track begins, in the sand. You have nothing to do but wait for me there. I shall be there tonight."

I was only twenty meters from the wall, and I still saw nothing.

After a silence the little prince spoke again: "You have good poison? You are sure that it will not make me suffer too long?"

I stopped in my tracks, my heart torn asunder; but still I did not understand.

Chapter 26

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