tains
as well, if they weren't just clouds, since a line of gray peaks could
just be made out on the distant horizon.

"Where do we find the D'zertanoj?" he asked the nearest slave who
merely scowled and looked away. Jason was having a problem with
discipline. The slaves would not do a thing he asked unless he kicked
them. Their conditioning had been so thorough that an order
unaccompanied by a kick just wasn't an order and his continued
reluctance to impose the physical coercion with the spoken command was
just being taken as a sign of weakness. Already some of the burlier
slaves were licking their lips and sizing him up. His efforts to
improve the life of the slaves were being blocked completely by the
slaves themselves. With a mumbled curse at the continued obduracy of
the human race Jason sank the toe of his boot into the man.

[Illustration: Edipon]

"Find them there by big rock," was the immediate response.

There was a dark spot at the desert's edge in the indicated direction
and when they approached Jason saw that it was an outcropping of rock
that had been built up with a wall of bricks or boulders to a uniform
height. A good number of men could be concealed behind that wall and
he was not going to risk his precious slaves or even more precious
skin anywhere near it. At his shout the line halted and settled to the
sand while he stalked a few meters in front, settling his club in his
hand and suspiciously examined the structure.

That there were unseen watchers was proven when a man appeared from
around the corner and walked slowly towards Jason. He was dressed in
loose-fitting robes and carried a basket on one arm, and when he had
reached a point roughly halfway between Jason and the rock he had just
quitted he halted and sat crosslegged in the sand, the basket at his
side. Jason looked carefully in all directions and decided the
position was safe enough. There were no places of concealment where
armed men might have hidden and he had no fear of the single man. Club
ready he walked out and stopped a full three paces from the other.

* * * * *

"Welcome, Ch'aka," the man said. "I was afraid we wouldn't be seeing
you again after that little ... difficulty we had."

He remained seated while he talked, stroking the few strands of his
scraggly beard. His head was shaven smooth and as sunburned and
leathery brown as the rest of his face, the most prominent feature of
which was