nd that fiends hung out in empty
caves and castles; but she could never be convinced that a "knight" of
the qualities she imputed to Mallory could perform a dishonorable act.

And there it was, laid right on the line. For all the good the Grail
was going to do Mallory, it might just as well have been at the bottom
of the Mindanao Deep.

He sighed. His gamble hadn't paid off any more than Perfidion's had.
The real Sir Galahad was the one who had inherited the Grail after
all--not the false one. The false one grinned ruefully. "Well," he
told the damosel Rowena, "it's been nice knowing you." He swallowed;
for some reason his throat felt tight. "I ... I imagine you'll be all
right now."

To his amazement she broke into tears. "Oh, Sir Thomas!" she cried.
"In my great haste to return the Sangraal to the chamber and to right
the grievous wrong committed by the untrue knight Sir Jason, I did
bewray my trust again. For when I espied ye and me and Easy Money in
the passage I did suffer a great discomfit, and it so happed that when
my steed did enter into a cave that the Sangraal came free from my
hands and ... and--"

Mallory was staring at her. "You _dropped_ it?"

Stepping over to the silver table, she lifted a corner of the red
samite. The dent was not a deep one, but just the same you didn't have
to look twice to see it. "I ... I nyst not what to do," she said.

Suddenly Mallory remembered the first sound he had heard in the
passage when he and Rowena were leaving the castle of Carbonek. "Well
how do you like that!" he said. He grinned. "I take it that this puts
your hands in jeopardy all over again--right?"

"Yea, Sir Thomas, but I would lever die than beseech thee again to--"

"Which," Mallory continued happily, "makes it out of the question for
a knight such as myself to leave you behind." He took her arm. "Come
on," he said. "I don't know how I'm going to fit a sixth-century
damosel into twenty-second century society, but believe me, I'm going
to try!"

"And ... and will ye take Easy Money to this land whereof ye speak,
Sir Thomas?"

"Sir Thomas" grinned. "Wit ye well," he said, "and his buddy, too.
Come on."

* * * * *

In the _Yore_, he tossed his helmet and gauntlets into a corner of the
rec-hall and proceeded straight to the control room. There, with
Rowena standing at his elbow, he set the time-dial for June 21, 2178
and the space-dial for the Kansas City Time-Tourist