plank in his guest-room-dungeon door gave way. He struck
again. The running raiders poured past a corner some yards away. He
battered and swore, swore and battered as the tumult moved, and he
suddenly heard a scurrying thunder of horses' hoofs outside the castle
altogether. There were yells of derisive triumph and the pounding,
rumbling sound of horses headed away in the night until it was lost.

Still raging inarticulately, Hoddan crashed his small log at the door.
He was not consciously concerned about the distress Don Loris might feel
over the abduction of his daughter. But there is an instinct in most men
against the forcing of a girl to marriage against her will. Hoddan
battered at his door. Around him the castle began to hum like a hive of
bees. Women cried out or exclaimed, and men shouted furiously to one
another, and off-duty fighting men came belatedly looking for somebody
to fight, dragging weapons behind them and not knowing where to find
enemies.

Bron Hoddan probably made as much noise as any four of them. Somebody
brought a light somewhere near. It shone through the cracks in the
splintered planks. He could see to aim. He smote savagely and the door
came apart. It fell outward and he found himself in the corridor
outside, being stared at by complete strangers.

"It's the engineer," someone explained to someone else. "I saw him when
he rode in with Thal."

"I want Thal," said Hoddan coldly. "I want a dozen horses. I want men to
ride them with me." He pushed his way forward. "Which way to the
stables?"

But then he went back and picked up his bag of stun-pistols. His air was
purposeful and his manner furious. The retainers of Don Loris were in an
extremely apologetic frame of mind. The Lady Fani had been carried off
into the night by a raiding party undoubtedly led by Lord Ghek. The
defenders of the castle hadn't prevented it. So there was no special
reason to obey Hoddan, but there was every reason to seem to be doing
something useful.

He found himself almost swept along by agitated retainers trying to look
as if they were about a purposeful affair. They went down a long ramp,
calling uneasily to each other. They eddied around a place where two men
lay quite still on the floor. Then there were shouts of, "Thal! This
way, Thal!" and Hoddan found himself in a small stone-walled courtyard
doubtless inside a sally-port. It was filled with milling figures and
many waving torches. And there was Thal, de