rescue Maya, but he had gone
over those same plans many times before. The Taj Mahal was well-guarded.
There was an unshaded road that went from the city to it. Also, the road
was usually crowded with pilgrims. He never knew whether they went out
there in some strong belief that here was a goddess from outer space, or
whether they were forced to go. After all, Grim Hagen was clever--

* * * * *

He took a bath and changed clothes. Then Jack Odin read one of those books
that Grim Hagen had stolen. It was a first edition of the Rubaiyat, the one
with the jeweled peacock cover, and it would have been worth a fortune back
home. But here it was just another of Grim Hagen's treasures--it was dusty
and neglected, and Odin wondered if he were not the first to take a look at
it since Hagen had brought it here.

The windows were dark when Gunnar returned. Jack Odin sat by a single tiny
light, and greeted his old friend in a glum and sour fashion. But Gunnar
was in a gay mood.

"Look, I told you that my magic would do great tricks. See, the bag is
nearly empty." He held the buckskin bag high and it was much thinner than
before. "You waited, did you? Good, Nors-King. I had to make sure that no
one came here while I was gone."

"Just myself," Odin replied. "Now what--"

"Oh, I told you I had great magic in that bag. You shall see." Gunnar
returned to the door, opened it, and led a tall white-skinned slave into
the room. A man of about thirty dressed in white uniform with some sort of
insignia upon his shoulders. Odin had never bothered to learn the different
gradations in Grim Hagen's slave-world.

"This man goes by the name of Piper," Gunnar announced simply.

The man bowed and smiled nervously.

"And he is a Bro-Stoka among the slaves," Gunnar continued.

Odin was about to reply that he didn't give a damn if the man were a
colonel or a two star general. But Gunnar hurried on to explain. "A Stoka
is a captain of a hundred. But a Bro-Stoka is a captain over ten Stokas
and all their men. Not often does one advance so at an early age--"

Gunnar seemed to be buttering up the man for some reason or other so Jack
Odin decided to go along. "I have never seen a Bro-Stoka so young," he
admitted. This was true, Odin thought, since this was the first Bro-Stoka
who had ever been identified to him. And he wondered if maybe Bro-Stoka
were not a local term for "Ninety Day Wonder." God knows he had seen too