ABSTRACT
The readers drive to Alpha one Saturday morning, turning seaward at the point where the Kappa River crosses the coast road. They thread our way through the low, forested hills so characteristic of this part of the Arcadian coast. The communities of Alpha and Beta confront each other across the turgid waters of the river. At this final stage of its journey from the interior, it is less than two hundred feet wide. It is spanned by a narrow bridge standing on uncertain piles, stained by the rise and fall of the tide. The readers thread our way toward Alpha through what seems to be a single enormous backyard of vegetable plots and garbage heaps. The gravity of the question affects them, and the readers are led in solemn procession through the streets to the back of the town, to the house of the shrewd octogenarian who is the father of this ramifying family.
