arapet as if
they could exert enough pressure to crumble the hard stone. "I want you
to see whether there is trickery in this. Trickery I can fight, for
that there are weapons. But if Lumbrilo truly controls forces for which
there is no name, then perhaps we must patch up an uneasy peace--or go
down in defeat. And, off-worlder, I come from a line of warriors--we do
not drink defeat easily!"

"That I also believe," Tau returned quietly. "Be sure, sir, if there is
trickery in this man's magic and I can detect it, the secret shall be
yours."

"Let us hope that so it shall be."

Subconsciously, Dane had always associated the practice of magic with
darkness and the night. But the next morning the sun was high and hot
when he made one of the party coming down to a second and larger walled
terrace where the Hunters, Trackers, Guards and other followers of the
Chief Ranger were assembled in irregular rows.

There was a low sound which was more a throb in the clear air about
them, getting into a man's blood and pumping in rhythm there. Dane
tracked the sound to its source: four large drums standing waist high
before the men who tapped them delicately with the tips of all ten
fingers.

The necklaces of claws and teeth about those dusky throats, the kilts of
fringed hide, the crossed belts of brilliantly spotted or striped fur
were in contrast to the very efficient and modern side arms each man
wore, to the rest of the equipment sheathed and strapped at their belts.

There was a carved stool for the Chief Ranger, another for Captain
Jellico. Dane and Tau settled themselves on the less comfortable seats
of the terrace steps. Those tapping fingers increased their rate of
beat, and the notes of the drums rose from the low murmur of hived bees
to the mutter of mountain thunder still half a range away. A bird called
from those inner courts of the palace from which the women never
ventured.

Da--da--da--da.... Voices took up the thud-thud of the drums, the heads
of the squatting men moved in a slow swing from side to side. Tau's hand
closed about Dane's wrist and the younger man looked around, startled,
to see that the medic's eyes were alight, that he was watching the
assembly with the alertness of Sindbad approaching prey.

"Calculate the stowage space in Number One hold!"

That amazing order, delivered in a whisper, shocked Dane into obeying
it. Number One hold ... there were three divisions now and the stowage
was--He be