ny did you
kill?"

"None," said Hoddan curtly. "I shot them with stun-pistols I'd just
charged in the control room of the landing grid."

Don Loris sat up straight.

"Stun-pistols?" he demanded sharply. "You used stun-pistols on Darth?"

"Naturally on Darth," said Hoddan with some tartness. "I was here! But
nobody was killed. One or two may be slightly blistered. All of them had
their pockets picked by Thal. I understand that is a local custom.
There's nothing to worry about."

But Don Loris stared at him, aghast.

"But this is deplorable!" he protested. "Stun-pistols used here? It is
the one thing I would have given strict orders to avoid! My neighbors
will talk about it. Some of them may even think about it! You could have
used any other weapon, but of all things why did you have to use a
stun-pistol?"

"Because I had one," said Hoddan briefly.

"Horrible!" said Don Loris peevishly. "The worst thing you could
possibly have done! I have to disown you. Unmistakably! You'll have to
disappear at once. We'll blame it on Ghek's retainers."

Hoddan said:

"Disappear? Me?"

"Vanish," said Don Loris. "I suppose there's no real necessity to cut
your throat, but you plainly have to disappear, though it would have
been much more discreet if you'd simply gotten killed."

"I was indiscreet to survive?" demanded Hoddan bristling.

"Extremely so!" snapped Don Loris. "Here I had you come all the way from
Walden to help arrange a delicate matter, and before you'd traveled even
the few miles to my castle--within minutes of landing on Darth!--you
spoiled everything! I am a reasonable man, but there are the facts! You
used stun-pistols, so you have to disappear. I think it generous for me
to say only until people on Darth forget that such things exist. But the
two of you ... oh, for a year or so ... there are some fairly cozy
dungeons--"

Hoddan seethed suddenly. He'd tried to do something brilliant on Walden,
and had been framed for jail for life. He'd defended his life and
property on Darth, and nearly the same thing popped up as a prospect.
Hoddan angrily suspected fate and chance of plain conspiracy against
him.

* * * * *

But there was an interruption. A clanking of arms sounded somewhere
nearby. Men with long, gruesome, glittering spears came through a
doorway. They stood aside. A girl entered the great hall. More spearmen
followed her. They stopped by the door. The girl came acr