Battle of the Wood of Ephraim Absalom." The two armies met in a forest of Ephraim. It was a great and terrible battle. The rebel forces were unable to maneuver because the thickness of trees, and their numbers were reduced by the underbrush of the forest. The forces of Absalom were thus routed by the royal forces of David. Absalom himself fled. As he was riding through the woods on his mule, he was caught by the long locks of his hair under the spreading branches of a large tree. Unable to free himself, he remained suspended, his mule had escaped. One of David's servants brought
Son of the Tree Joe Smith has to contend with the machinations of various alien societies in search of the Earthman who ran off with his girl. "Son of the Tree" begins with the arrival of Joe Smith on the planet Kyril, so distant that Earth is but a myth. Kyril is dominated by a religious aristocracy called "Druids", who rule over the five billion commoner "Laity", and who control worship of the "Tree of Life", a huge tree with a trunk five miles in diameter and twelve miles high. The Druids are xenophobic, and consider Joe to be a spy. For unknown reasons,