ation to a date with the police?"

"I'm not sure," said Hoddan. "I think I'd better bite. If I have any
illusions left after this morning, I'd better find it out. I thought
Nedda liked me quite a lot."

"I make no comment," observed the ambassador. "Can I help you in any
way?"

"I have to leave the Embassy," said Hoddan, "and there's a practically
solid line of police outside the walls. Could I borrow some old clothes,
a few pillows, and a length of rope?"

Half an hour later a rope uncoiled itself at the very darkest outside
corner of the Embassy wall. It dangled down to the ground. This was at
the rear of the Embassy enclosure. The night was bright with stars, and
the city's towers glittered with many lights. But here there was almost
complete blackness and that silence of a city which is sometimes so
companionable.

The rope remained hanging from the wall. No light reached the ground
there. The tiny crescent of Walden's farthest moon cast an insufficient
glow. Nothing could be seen by it.

The rope went up, as if it had been lowered merely to make sure that it
was long enough for its purpose. Then it descended again. This time a
figure dangled at its end. It came down, swaying a little. It reached
the blackest part of the shadow at the wall's base. It stayed there.

Nothing happened. The figure rose swiftly, hauled up in rapid pullings
of the rope. Then the line came down again and again a figure descended.
But this figure moved. The rope swayed and oscillated. The figure came
down a good halfway to the ground. It paused, and then descended with
much movement to two-thirds of the way from the top.

There something seemed to alarm it. It began to rise with violent
writhings of the rope. It climbed--

There was a crackling noise. A stun-pistol. The figure seemed to climb
more frantically. More cracklings. Half a dozen--a dozen sharp, snapping
noises. They were stun-pistol charges and there were tiny sparks where
they hit. The dangling figure seemed convulsed. It went limp, but it did
not fall. More charges poured into it. It hung motionless halfway up the
wall of the Embassy.

Movements began in the darkness. Men appeared, talking in low tones and
straining their eyes toward the now motionless figure. They gathered
underneath it. One went off at a run, carrying a message. Someone of
authority arrived, panting. There was more low-toned argument. More and
still more men appeared. There were forty or fifty fig