erence that a king
once held to decide upon another conference which would decide what the
next conference would be about. Bah!"

"Quit worrying. One of us will kill Grim Hagen, sooner or later."

But Gunnar went on with his complaining. "You had better stay close to
me, you understand, or you will be hanging from one of Grim Hagen's
meat-hooks."

So they went to the conference. All of Ato's men and at least fifty of Grim
Hagen's were there. Contrary to Gunnar's prediction, Grim Hagen got to the
point at once.

"Kinsmen," he began mockingly. "You may have wondered why I called a truce
when I could just as well have destroyed you--"

"That I doubt," Ato answered him. "We have defensive weapons. Even now the
guns from our ship are trained upon the city."

Grim Hagen shrugged. "Let us not quibble, Ato. Your father was a quibbler
before you."

Ato flushed in anger.

Grim Hagen continued with an apologetic smile. "I'm only joking. But I do
know certain things. Your father, Wolden, is a brilliant man, Ato." He
bowed slightly as he admitted this. "From time to time, as you hurtled
through the star spaces, I picked up scraps of conversation with my
instruments. Also, I knew something of what Wolden has been working on all
these years."

"Now, you're quibbling," Gunnar jeered. "Get on with your speech, Grim
Hagen."

Grim Hagen bowed to the broad-shouldered little man. "Some day, Gunnar, I
may have to kill you--"

"Now. Now." Gunnar urged, fairly jumping in rage. "Just the two of us, Grim
Hagen. Just the two of us with bare hands--"

"Not yet." Grim Hagen sneered. "Now, I will continue. From what I have
learned, it appears that Wolden's work has been a success. It is possible
for men to master both time and space. I have mastered space, but time is
turning everything to dust and ashes. What good is it to be an old emperor?
No better than to be an old herdsman." Again he tossed a sneer in Gunnar's
direction--

"That's easy," Gunnar retorted. "The old herdsman sleeps well at night."

"Bah. Who wants to sleep? Please quit interrupting, Gunnar."

"Even before we came to Aldebaran," Hagen went on, "I was in contact with a
dying world out there at the edge of space. Those people are desperate. And
they are weary of life, having seen too much of it. They have agreed to go
with me. Why, this sun and these worlds are piddling trifles. With that
invention we could go from sun to sun. Space would be ours to play with--"