an already lurid reputation for fighting, but whose
weapons would be useless unless frequently recharged--and who couldn't
count on that as a steady thing.

As a practical matter, his best bet was probably to investigate the nine
inexplicable ships overhead. They hadn't co-operated with the
Waldenians. It could be inferred that no confidential relationship
existed up there. It was possible that the nine ships and the Waldenians
didn't even know of each other's presence. There is a lot of room in
space. If both called on ship-frequency and listened on ground-frequency,
they would not have picked up each others' summons to the ground.

"You've got to do something!" insisted Fani. "I saw Father talking to
them! He looked happy, and he never looks happy unless he's planning
some skulduggery!"

"I think," said Hoddan, "that I'll have some breakfast, if I may. As
soon as I fasten up my ship bag."

Thal said mournfully:

"If anything happens to you, something will happen to me too, because I
helped you."

"Breakfast first," said Hoddan. "That, as I understand it, should make
it disgraceful for your father to have my throat cut. But beyond that--"
He said gloomily. "Thal, get a couple of horses outside the wall. We may
need to ride somewhere. I'm very much afraid we will. But first I'd like
to have some breakfast."

Fani said disappointedly:

"But aren't you going to face them? The men from Walden? You could shoot
them!"

Hoddan shook his head.

"It wouldn't solve anything. Anyhow a practical man like your father
won't sell me out before he's sure I can't pay off better. I'll bet on a
conference with me before he makes a deal."

Fani stamped her foot.

"Outrageous! Think what you saved me from!"

But she did not question the possibility. Hoddan observed:

"A practical man can always make what he wants to do look like a noble
sacrifice of personal inclinations to the welfare of the community. I've
decided that I've got to be practical myself, and that's one of the
rules. How about breakfast?"

He strapped the ship bag shut on the stun-pistols his pockets would not
hold. He made a minor adjustment to the space communicator. It was not
ruined, but nobody else could use it without much labor finding out what
he'd done. This was the sort of thing his grandfather on Zan would have
advised. His grandfather's views were explicit.

"Helping one's neighbor," he'd said frequently in Hoddan's hearing while
Hoddan was