g to the saddle of the lead horse.
He unfastened the lead rope. He'd noticed that Thal pulled in the
leather reins to stop the horse. He'd seen that he kicked it furiously
to urge it on. He deduced that one steered the animal by pulling on one
strap or the other. He climbed clumsily to a seat.

There was a howl from the racing, mounted men. They waved their knives
and yelled in zestful anticipation of murder.

Hoddan pulled on a rein. His horse turned obediently. He kicked it. The
animal broke into a run toward the rushing mob. The jolting motion
amazed Hoddan. One could not shoot straight while being shaken up like
this! He dragged back on the reins. The horse stopped.

"Come!" yelled Thal despairingly. "This way! Quick!"

Hoddan got out a stun-pistol. Sitting erect, frowning a little in his
concentration, he began to take pot-shots at the charging small horde.

Three of them got close enough to be blistered when stun-pistol bolts
hit them. Others toppled from their saddles at distances ranging from
one hundred yards to twenty. A good dozen, however, saw what was
happening in time to swerve their mounts and hightail it away. But there
were eighteen luridly-tinted heaps of garments on the ground inside the
landing grid. Two or three of them squirmed and swore. Hoddan had partly
missed, on them. He heard the chemical weapon booming thunderously. Now
that victory was won, Thal was shooting valorously. Hoddan held up his
hand for cease fire. Thal rode up beside him, not quite believing what
he'd seen.

"Wonderful!" he said shakily. "Wonderful! Don Loris will be pleased! He
will give me gifts for my help to you! This is a great fight! We will be
great men, after this!"

"Then let's go and brag," said Hoddan.

Thal was shocked.

"You need me," he said commiseratingly. "It is fortunate that Don Loris
chose me to fight beside you!"

He sent his horse trotting toward the mostly unconscious men on the
ground. He alighted. Hoddan saw him happily and publicly pick the
packets of the stun-gun's victims. He came back, beaming and now
swaggering in his saddle.

"We will be famous!" he said zestfully. "Two against thirty, and some
ran away!" He gloated. "And it was a good haul! We share, of course,
because we are companions."

"Is it the custom," asked Hoddan mildly, "to loot defenseless men?"

"But of course!" said Thal. "How else can a gentleman live, if he has no
chieftain to give him presents? You defeated them, so